There is a suite of programs to build and process Go source code. Instead of being run directly, programs in the suite are usually invoked by the go program.
The most common way to run these programs is as a subcommand of the go program, for instance as "go fmt". Run like this, the command operates on complete packages of Go source code, with the go program invoking the underlying binary with arguments appropriate to package-level processing.
The programs can also be run as stand-alone binaries, with unmodified arguments, using the go tool subcommand, such as "go tool vet". This style of invocation allows, for instance, checking a single source file rather than an entire package: "go tool vet myprogram.go" as compared to "go vet mypackage". Some of the commands, such as prof and yacc, are accessible only through the go tool subcommand.
Finally, two of the commands, fmt and doc, are also installed as regular binaries called gofmt and godoc because they are so often referenced.
Click on the links for more documentation, invocation methods, and usage details.
| Name | Synopsis | |
|---|---|---|
| go |
The go program manages Go source code and runs the other
commands listed here.
See the command docs for usage
details.
|
|
| cgo | Cgo enables the creation of Go packages that call C code. | |
| cov | Cov is a rudimentary code coverage tool. | |
| fix | Fix finds Go programs that use old features of the language and libraries and rewrites them to use newer ones. | |
| doc | Doc extracts and generates documentation for Go packages, it is also available as an independent godoc command with more general options. | |
| fmt | Fmt formats Go packages, it is also available as an independent gofmt command with more general options. | |
| prof | Prof is a rudimentary real-time profiler. | |
| vet | Vet examines Go source code and reports suspicious constructs, such as Printf calls whose arguments do not align with the format string. | |
| yacc | Yacc is a version of yacc that generates parsers implemented in Go. |
This is an abridged list. See the full command reference for documentation of the compilers and more.