go/doc/go1.html

<!-- Go 1 Release Notes -->
<!--
  DO NOT EDIT: created by
    tmpltohtml go1.tmpl
-->


<h2 id="introduction">Introduction to Go 1</h2>

<p>
For a full explanation of the motivation and design of Go 1, see XXX.
Here follows a summary.
</p>

<p>
Go 1 is intended to be a stable language and core library set that
will form a reliable foundation for people and organizations that
want to make a long-term commitment to developing in the Go programming
language. Go will continue to develop, but in a way that guarantees
code written to the Go 1 specification will continue to work. For
instance, Go 1 will be a supported platform on Google App Engine
for the next few years. Incompatible changes to the environment,
should they arise, will be done in a distinct version.
</p>

<p>
This document describes the changes in the language and libraries
in Go 1, relative to the previous release, r60 (at the time of
writing, tagged as r60.3). It also explains how to update code at
r60 to compile and run under Go 1. Finally, it outlines the new
<code>go</code> command for building Go programs and the new binary
release process being introduced. Most of these topics have more
thorough presentations elsewhere; such documents are linked below.
</p>

<h2 id="language">Changes to the language</h2>

<h3 id="append">Append</h3>

<p>
The <code>append</code> built-in function is variadic, so one can
append to a byte slice using the <code>...</code> syntax in the
call.
</p>

<pre><!--{{code "progs/go1.go" `/greeting := ..byte/` `/append.*hello/`}}
-->    greeting := []byte{}
    greeting = append(greeting, []byte(&#34;hello &#34;)...)</pre>

<p>
By analogy with the similar property of <code>copy</code>, Go 1
permits a string to be appended (byte-wise) directly to a byte
slice; the conversion is no longer necessary:
</p>

<pre><!--{{code "progs/go1.go" `/append.*world/`}}
-->    greeting = append(greeting, &#34;world&#34;...)</pre>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
This is a new feature, so existing code needs no changes.
</p>

<h3 id="close">Close</h3>

<p>
The <code>close</code> built-in function lets a sender tell a receiver
that no more data will be transmitted on the channel.  In Go 1 the
type system enforces the directionality when possible: it is illegal
to call <code>close</code> on a receive-only channel:
</p>

<pre>
    var c chan int
    var csend chan<- int = c
    var crecv <-chan int = c
    close(c)     // legal
    close(csend) // legal
    close(crecv) // illegal
</pre>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Existing code that attempts to close a receive-only channel was
erroneous even before Go 1 and should be fixed.  The compiler will
now reject such code.
</p>

<h3 id="literals">Composite literals</h3>

<p>
In Go 1, a composite literal of array, slice, or map type can elide the
type specification for the elements' initializers if they are of pointer type.
All four of the initializations in this example are legal; the last one was illegal before Go 1.
</p>

<pre><!--{{code "progs/go1.go" `/type Date struct/` `/STOP/`}}
-->    type Date struct {
        month string
        day   int
    }
    // Struct values, fully qualified; always legal.
    holiday1 := []Date{
        Date{&#34;Feb&#34;, 14},
        Date{&#34;Nov&#34;, 11},
        Date{&#34;Dec&#34;, 25},
    }
    // Struct values, type name elided; always legal.
    holiday2 := []Date{
        {&#34;Feb&#34;, 14},
        {&#34;Nov&#34;, 11},
        {&#34;Dec&#34;, 25},
    }
    // Pointers, fully qualified, always legal.
    holiday3 := []*Date{
        &amp;Date{&#34;Feb&#34;, 14},
        &amp;Date{&#34;Nov&#34;, 11},
        &amp;Date{&#34;Dec&#34;, 25},
    }
    // Pointers, type name elided; legal in Go 1.
    holiday4 := []*Date{
        {&#34;Feb&#34;, 14},
        {&#34;Nov&#34;, 11},
        {&#34;Dec&#34;, 25},
    }</pre>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
This change has no effect on existing code, but the command
<code>gofmt</code> <code>-s</code> applied to existing source
will, among other things, elide explicit element types wherever permitted.
</p>


<h3 id="init">Goroutines during init</h3>

<p>
Go 1 allows goroutines to be created and run during initialization.
(They used to be created but were not run until after initialization
completed.) Code that uses goroutines can now be called from
<code>init</code> routines and global initialization expressions
without introducing a deadlock.
</p>

<pre><!--{{code "progs/go1.go" `/PackageGlobal/` `/^}/`}}
-->var PackageGlobal int

func init() {
    c := make(chan int)
    go initializationFunction(c)
    PackageGlobal = &lt;-c
}</pre>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
This is a new feature, so existing code needs no changes,
although it's possible that code that depends on goroutines not starting before <code>main</code> will break.
There was no such code in the standard repository.
</p>

<h3 id="rune">The rune type</h3>

<p>
Go 1 introduces a new basic type, <code>rune</code>, to be used to represent
individual Unicode code points.
It is an alias for <code>int32</code>, analogous to <code>byte</code>
as an alias for <code>uint8</code>.
</p>

<p>
Character literals such as <code>'a'</code>, <code>'語'</code>, and <code>'\u0345'</code>
now have default type <code>rune</code>,
analogous to <code>1.0</code> having default type <code>float64</code>.
A variable initialized to a character constant will therefore
have type <code>rune</code> unless otherwise specified.
</p>

<p>
Libraries have been updated to use <code>rune</code> rather than <code>int</code>
when appropriate. For instance, the functions <code>unicode.ToLower</code> and
relatives now take and return a <code>rune</code>.
</p>

<pre><!--{{code "progs/go1.go" `/STARTRUNE/` `/ENDRUNE/`}}
-->    delta := &#39;δ&#39; // delta has type rune.
    var DELTA rune
    DELTA = unicode.ToUpper(delta)
    epsilon := unicode.ToLower(DELTA + 1)
    if epsilon != &#39;δ&#39;+1 {
        log.Fatal(&#34;inconsistent casing for Greek&#34;)
    }</pre>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Most source code will be unaffected by this because the type inference from
<code>:=</code> initializers introduces the new type silently, and it propagates
from there.
Some code may get type errors that a trivial conversion will resolve.
</p>

<h3 id="error">The error type</h3>

<p>
Go 1 introduces a new built-in type, <code>error</code>, which has the following definition:
</p>

<pre>
    type error interface {
        Error() string
    }
</pre>

<p>
Since the consequences of this type are all in the package library,
it is discussed <a href="#errors">below</a>.
</p>

<h3 id="delete">Deleting from maps</h3>

<p>
The original syntax for deleting an element in a map was:
</p>

<pre>
    m[k] = ignored, false
</pre>

<p>
In Go 1, that syntax has gone; instead there is a new built-in
function, <code>delete</code>.  The call
</p>

<pre><!--{{code "progs/go1.go" `/delete\(m, k\)/`}}
-->    delete(m, k)</pre>

<p>
will delete the map entry retrieved by the expression <code>m[k]</code>.
There is no return value. Deleting a non-existent entry is a no-op.
</p>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Gofix will convert expressions of the form <code>m[k] = ignored,
false</code> into <code>delete(m, k)</code> when it is clear that
the ignored value can be safely discarded from the program and
<code>false</code> refers to the predefined boolean constant.  Gofix
will flag other uses of the syntax for inspection by the programmer.
</p>

<h3 id="iteration">Iterating in maps</h3>

<p>
In Go 1, the order in which elements are visited when iterating
over a map using a <code>for</code> <code>range</code> statement
is defined to be unpredictable, even if the same loop is run multiple
times with the same map.
Code should not assume that the elements are visited in any particular order.
</p>

<pre><!--{{code "progs/go1.go" `/Sunday/` `/^	}/`}}
-->    m := map[string]int{&#34;Sunday&#34;: 0, &#34;Monday&#34;: 1}
    for name, value := range m {
        // This loop should not assume Sunday will be visited first.
        f(name, value)
    }</pre>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
This is one change where tools cannot help.  Most existing code
will be unaffected, but some programs may break or misbehave; we
recommend manual checking of all range statements over maps to
verify they do not depend on iteration order. There were a few such
examples in the standard repository; they have been fixed.
Note that it was already incorrect to depend on the iteration order, which
was unspecified. This change codifies the unpredictability.
</p>

<h3 id="multiple_assignment">Multiple assignment</h3>

<p>
Go 1 fully specifies the evaluation order in multiple assignment
statements. In particular, if the left-hand side of the assignment
statement contains expressions that require evaluation, such as
function calls or array indexing operations, these will all be done
using the usual left-to-right rule before any variables are assigned
their value.  Once everything is evaluated, the actual assignments
proceed in left-to-right order.
</p>

<p>
These examples illustrate the behavior.
</p>

<pre><!--{{code "progs/go1.go" `/sa :=/` `/then sc.0. = 2/`}}
-->    sa := []int{1, 2, 3}
    i := 0
    i, sa[i] = 1, 2 // sets i = 1, sa[0] = 2

    sb := []int{1, 2, 3}
    j := 0
    sb[j], j = 2, 1 // sets sb[0] = 2, j = 1

    sc := []int{1, 2, 3}
    sc[0], sc[0] = 1, 2 // sets sc[0] = 1, then sc[0] = 2 (so sc[0] = 2 at end)</pre>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
This is one change where tools cannot help, but breakage is unlikely.
No code in the standard repository was broken by this change, and code
that depended on the previous unspecified behavior was already incorrect.
</p>

<h3 id="shadowing">Returns and shadowed variables</h3>

<p>
A shadowed variable is one that has the same name as another variable in an inner scope.
In functions with named return values,
the Go 1 compilers disallow return statements without arguments if any of the named return values is shadowed at the point of the return statement.
(It isn't part of the specification, because this is one area we are still exploring;
the situation is analogous to the compilers rejecting functions that do not end with an explicit return statement.)
</p>

<p>
This function implicitly returns a shadowed return value and will be rejected by the compiler:
</p>

<pre>
    func Bug() (i, j, k int) {
        for i = 0; i < 5; i++ {
            for j := 0; j < 5; j++ { // Redeclares j.
                k += i*j
                if k > 100 {
                    return // Rejected: j is shadowed here.
                }
            }
        }
        return // OK: j is not shadowed here.
    }
</pre>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Code that shadows return values in this way will be rejected by the compiler and will need to be fixed by hand.
The few cases that arose in the standard repository were mostly bugs.
</p>

<h3 id="unexported">Copying structs with unexported fields</h3>

<p>
Go 1 relaxes the rules about accessing structs with unexported (lower-case) fields,
permitting a client package to assign (and therefore copy) such a struct.
Of course, the client package still cannot access such fields individually.
</p>

<p>
As an example, if package <code>p</code> includes the definitions,
</p>

<pre>
    type Struct struct {
        Public int
        secret int
    }
    func NewStruct(a int) Struct {  // Note: not a pointer.
        return Struct{a, f(a)}
    }
    func (s Struct) String() string {
        return fmt.Sprintf("{%d (secret %d)}", s.Public, s.secret)
    }
</pre>

<p>
a package that imports <code>p</code> can assign and copy values of type
<code>p.Struct</code> at will.
Behind the scenes the unexported fields will be assigned and copied just
as if they were exported,
but the client code will never be aware of them. The code
</p>

<pre>
    import "p"

    myStruct := p.NewStruct(23)
    copyOfMyStruct := myStruct
    fmt.Println(myStruct, copyOfMyStruct)
</pre>

<p>
will show that the secret field of the struct has been copied to the new value.
</p>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
This is a new feature, so existing code needs no changes.
</p>

<h3 id="equality">Equality of structs and arrays</h3>

<p>
Go 1 defines equality and inequality (<code>==</code> and
<code>!=</code>) for struct and array values, respectively, provided
the elements of the data structures can themselves be compared.
That is, if equality is defined for all the fields of a struct (or
an array element), then it is defined for the struct (or array).
</p>

<p>
As a result, structs and arrays can now be used as map keys:
</p>

<pre><!--{{code "progs/go1.go" `/type Day struct/` `/Printf/`}}
-->    type Day struct {
        long  string
        short string
    }
    Christmas := Day{&#34;Christmas&#34;, &#34;XMas&#34;}
    Thanksgiving := Day{&#34;Thanksgiving&#34;, &#34;Turkey&#34;}
    holiday := map[Day]bool{
        Christmas:    true,
        Thanksgiving: true,
    }
    fmt.Printf(&#34;Christmas is a holiday: %t\n&#34;, holiday[Christmas])</pre>

<p>
Note that equality is still undefined for slices, for which the
calculation is in general infeasible.  Also note that the ordered
comparison operators (<code>&lt;</code> <code>&lt;=</code>
<code>&gt;</code> <code>&gt;=</code>) are still undefined for
structs and arrays.

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
This is a new feature, so existing code needs no changes.
</p>

<h3 id="funcs">Function and map equality</h3>

<p>
Go 1 disallows checking for equality of functions and maps,
respectively, except to compare them directly to <code>nil</code>.
</p>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Existing code that depends on function or map equality will be
rejected by the compiler and will need to be fixed by hand.
Few programs will be affected, but the fix may require some
redesign.
</p>

<h2 id="library">Changes to the library</h2>

<h3 id="hierarchy">The package hierarchy</h3>

<p>
Go 1 has a rearranged package hierarchy that groups related items
into subdirectories. For instance, <code>utf8</code> and
<code>utf16</code> now occupy subdirectories of <code>unicode</code>.
Also, <a href="#subrepo">some packages</a> have moved into
subrepositories of
<a href="http://code.google.com/p/go"><code>code.google.com/p/go</code></a>
while <a href="#deleted">others</a> have been deleted outright.
</p>

<table class="codetable" frame="border" summary="Moved packages">
<colgroup align="left" width="60%"></colgroup>
<colgroup align="left" width="40%"></colgroup>
<tr>
<th align="left">Old path</th>
<th align="left">New path</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>asn1</td> <td>encoding/asn1</td></tr>
<tr><td>csv</td> <td>encoding/csv</td></tr>
<tr><td>gob</td> <td>encoding/gob</td></tr>
<tr><td>json</td> <td>encoding/json</td></tr>
<tr><td>xml</td> <td>encoding/xml</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>exp/template/html</td> <td>html/template</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>big</td> <td>math/big</td></tr>
<tr><td>cmath</td> <td>math/cmplx</td></tr>
<tr><td>rand</td> <td>math/rand</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>http</td> <td>net/http</td></tr>
<tr><td>http/cgi</td> <td>net/http/cgi</td></tr>
<tr><td>http/fcgi</td> <td>net/http/fcgi</td></tr>
<tr><td>http/httptest</td> <td>net/http/httptest</td></tr>
<tr><td>http/pprof</td> <td>net/http/pprof</td></tr>
<tr><td>mail</td> <td>net/mail</td></tr>
<tr><td>rpc</td> <td>net/rpc</td></tr>
<tr><td>rpc/jsonrpc</td> <td>net/rpc/jsonrpc</td></tr>
<tr><td>smtp</td> <td>net/smtp</td></tr>
<tr><td>url</td> <td>net/url</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>exec</td> <td>os/exec</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>scanner</td> <td>text/scanner</td></tr>
<tr><td>tabwriter</td> <td>text/tabwriter</td></tr>
<tr><td>template</td> <td>text/template</td></tr>
<tr><td>template/parse</td> <td>text/template/parse</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>utf8</td> <td>unicode/utf8</td></tr>
<tr><td>utf16</td> <td>unicode/utf16</td></tr>
</table>

<p>
Note that the package names for the old <code>cmath</code> and
<code>exp/template/html</code> packages have changed to <code>cmplx</code>
and <code>template</code>.
</p>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Gofix will update all imports and package renames for packages that
remain inside the standard repository.  Programs that import packages
that are no longer in the standard repository will need to be edited
by hand.
<br>
<font color="red">TODO: gofix should warn about deletions.</font>
<br>
<font color="red">TODO: gofix should also handle packages that move to subrepos.</font>
</p>

<h3 id="errors">The error type and errors package</h3>

<p>
As mentioned above, Go 1 introduces a new built-in interface type called <code>error</code>.
Its intent is to replace the old <code>os.Error</code> type with a more central concept.
So the widely-used <code>String</code> method does not cause accidental satisfaction
of the <code>error</code> interface, the <code>error</code> interface uses instead
the name <code>Error</code> for that method:
</p>

<pre>
    type error interface {
        Error() string
    }
</pre>

<p>
The <code>fmt</code> library automatically invokes <code>Error</code>, as it already
does for <code>String</code>, for easy printing of error values.
</p>

<pre><!--{{code "progs/go1.go" `/START ERROR EXAMPLE/` `/END ERROR EXAMPLE/`}}
-->type SyntaxError struct {
    File    string
    Line    int
    Message string
}

func (se *SyntaxError) Error() string {
    return fmt.Sprintf(&#34;%s:%d: %s&#34;, se.File, se.Line, se.Message)
}</pre>

<p>
All standard packages have been updated to use the new interface; the old <code>os.Error</code> is gone.
</p>

<p>
A new package, <a href="/pkg/errors/"><code>errors</code></a>, contains the function
</p>

<pre>
func New(text string) error
</pre>

<p>
to turn a string into an error. It replaces the old <code>os.NewError</code>.
</p>

<pre><!--{{code "progs/go1.go" `/ErrSyntax/`}}
-->    var ErrSyntax = errors.New(&#34;syntax error&#34;)</pre>
		
<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Gofix will update almost all code affected by the change.
Code that defines error types with a <code>String</code> method will need to be updated
by hand to rename the methods to <code>Error</code>.
</p>

<h3 id="errno">System call errors</h3>

<p>
In Go 1, the
<a href="/pkg/syscall/"><code>syscall</code></a>
package returns an <code>error</code> for system call errors,
rather than plain integer <code>errno</code> values.
On Unix, the implementation is done by a 
<a href="/pkg/syscall/#Errno"><code>syscall.Errno</code></a> type
that satisfies <code>error</code> and replaces the old <code>os.Errno</code>.
</p>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Gofix will update almost all code affected by the change.
Regardless, most code should use the <code>os</code> package
rather than <code>syscall</code> and so will be unaffected.
</p>

<h3 id="time">Time</h3>

<p>
One of the most sweeping changes in the Go 1 library is the
complete redesign of the 
<a href="/pkg/time/"><code>time</code></a> package.
Instead of an integer number of nanoseconds as an <code>int64</code>,
and a separate <code>*time.Time</code> type to deal with human
units such as hours and years,
there are now two fundamental types:
<a href="/pkg/time/#Time"><code>time.Time</code></a>
(a value, so the <code>*</code> is gone), which represents a moment in time;
and <a href="/pkg/time/#Duration"><code>time.Duration</code></a>,
which represents an interval.
Both have nanosecond resolution.
A <code>Time</code> can represent any time into the ancient
past and remote future, while a <code>Duration</code> can
span plus or minus only about 290 years.
There are methods on these types, plus a number of helpful
predefined constant durations such as <code>time.Second</code>.
</p>

<p>
Among the new methods are things like
<a href="/pkg/time/#Time.Add"><code>Time.Add</code></a>,
which adds a <code>Duration</code> to a <code>Time</code>, and
<a href="/pkg/time/#Time.Sub"><code>Time.Sub</code></a>,
which subtracts two <code>Times</code> to yield a <code>Duration</code>.
</p>

<p>
The most important semantic change is that the Unix epoch (Jan 1, 1970) is now
relevant only for those functions and methods that mention Unix:
<a href="/pkg/time/#Unix"><code>time.Unix</code></a>
and the <a href="/pkg/time/#Time.Unix"><code>Unix</code></a>
and <a href="/pkg/time/#Time.UnixNano"><code>UnixNano</code></a> methods
of the <code>Time</code> type.
In particular,
<a href="/pkg/time/#Now"><code>time.Now</code></a>
returns a <code>time.Time</code> value rather than, in the old
API, an integer nanosecond count since the Unix epoch.
</p>

<pre><!--{{code "progs/go1.go" `/sleepUntil/` `/^}/`}}
-->// sleepUntil sleeps until the specified time. It returns immediately if it&#39;s too late.
func sleepUntil(wakeup time.Time) {
    now := time.Now() // A Time.
    if !wakeup.After(now) {
        return
    }
    delta := wakeup.Sub(now) // A Duration.
    log.Printf(&#34;Sleeping for %.3fs&#34;, delta.Seconds())
    time.Sleep(delta)
}</pre>

<p>
The new types, methods, and constants have been propagated through
all the standard packages that use time, such as <code>os</code> and
its representation of file time stamps.
</p>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Gofix will update many uses of the old <code>time</code> package to use the new
types and methods, although it does not replace values such as <code>1e9</code>
representing nanoseconds per second.
Also, because of type changes in some of the values that arise,
some of the expressions rewritten by gofix may require
further hand editing; in such cases the rewrite will include
the correct function or method for the old functionality, but
may have the wrong type or require further analysis.
</p>

<h3 id="hash">The hash package</h3>

<p>
In Go 1, the definition of <a href="/pkg/hash/#Hash"><code>hash.Hash</code></a> includes
a new method, <code>BlockSize</code>.  This new method is used primarily in the 
cryptographic libraries.
</p>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Existing implementations of <code>hash.Hash</code> will need to add a
<code>BlockSize</code> method.  Hashes that process the input one byte at
a time can implement <code>BlockSize</code> to return 1.
</p>

<h3 id="html">The html package</h3>

<p>
The <a href="/pkg/html/"><code>html</code></a> package in Go 1 provides
a full parser for HTML5.
</p>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Since the package's functionality is new, no updating is necessary.
</p>

<h3 id="http">The http package</h3>

<p>
In Go 1 the <a href="/pkg/net/http/"><code>http</code></a> package is refactored,
putting some of the utilities into a
<a href="/pkg/net/httputil/"><code>httputil</code></a> subdirectory.
These pieces are only rarely needed by HTTP clients.
The affected items are:
</p>

<ul>
<li>ClientConn</li>
<li>DumpRequest</li>
<li>DumpRequest</li>
<li>DumpRequestOut</li>
<li>DumpResponse</li>
<li>NewChunkedReader</li>
<li>NewChunkedWriter</li>
<li>NewClientConn</li>
<li>NewProxyClientConn</li>
<li>NewServerConn</li>
<li>NewSingleHostReverseProxy</li>
<li>ReverseProxy</li>
<li>ServerConn</li>
</ul>

<p>
Also, the <code>Request.RawURL</code> field has been removed; it was a
historical artifact.
</p>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Gofix will update the few programs that are affected except for
uses of <code>RawURL</code>, which must be fixed by hand.
</p>

<h3 id="net">The net package</h3>

<p>In Go 1, the various <code>SetTimeout</code>,
<code>SetReadTimeout</code>, and <code>SetWriteTimeout</code> methods
have been replaced with <code>SetDeadline</code>,
<code>SetReadDeadline</code>, and <code>SetWriteDeadline</code>,
respectively.  Rather than taking a timeout value in nanoseconds that
apply to any activity on the connection, the new methods set an
absolute deadline (as a <code>time.Time</code> value) after which
reads and writes will time out and no longer block.</p>

<h3 id="strconv">The strconv package</h3>

<p>
In Go 1, the
<a href="/pkg/strconv/"><code>strconv</code></a>
package has been significantly reworked to make it more Go-like and less C-like,
although <code>Atoi</code> lives on (it's similar to
<code>int(ParseInt(x, 10, 0))</code>, as does
<code>Itoa(x)</code> (<code>FormatInt(int64(x), 10)</code>).
There are also new variants of some of the functions that append to byte slices rather than
return strings, to allow control over allocation.
</p>

<p>
This table summarizes the renamings; see the
<a href="/pkg/strconv/">package documentation</a>
for full details.
</p>

<table class="codetable" frame="border" summary="strconv renames">
<colgroup align="left" width="50%"></colgroup>
<colgroup align="left" width="50%"></colgroup>
<tr>
<th align="left">Old call</th>
<th align="left">New call</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Atob(x)</td> <td>ParseBool(x)</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Atof32(x)</td> <td>ParseFloat(x, 32)§</td></tr>
<tr><td>Atof64(x)</td> <td>ParseFloat(x, 64)</td></tr>
<tr><td>AtofN(x, n)</td> <td>ParseFloat(x, n)</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Atoi(x)</td> <td>Atoi(x)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Atoi(x)</td> <td>ParseInt(x, 10, 0)§</td></tr>
<tr><td>Atoi64(x)</td> <td>ParseInt(x, 10, 64)</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Atoui(x)</td> <td>ParseUint(x, 10, 0)§</td></tr>
<tr><td>Atoi64(x)</td> <td>ParseInt(x, 10, 64)</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Btoi64(x, b)</td> <td>ParseInt(x, b, 64)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Btoui64(x, b)</td> <td>ParseUint(x, b, 64)</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Btoa(x)</td> <td>FormatBool(x)</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Ftoa32(x, f, p)</td> <td>FormatFloat(x, float64(f), p, 32)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ftoa64(x, f, p)</td> <td>FormatFloat(x, f, p, 64)</td></tr>
<tr><td>FtoaN(x, f, p, n)</td> <td>FormatFloat(x, f, p, n)</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Itoa(x)</td> <td>Itoa(x)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Itoa(x)</td> <td>FormatInt(int64(x), 10)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Itoa64(x)</td> <td>FormatInt(x, 10)</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Itob(x, b)</td> <td>FormatInt(int64(x), b)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Itob64(x, b)</td> <td>FormatInt(x, b)</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Uitoa(x)</td> <td>FormatUint(uint64(x), 10)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Uitoa64(x)</td> <td>FormatUint(x, 10)</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Uitob(x, b)</td> <td>FormatUint(uint64(x), b)</td></tr>
<tr><td>Uitob64(x, b)</td> <td>FormatUint(x, b)</td></tr>
</table>
		
<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Gofix will update almost all code affected by the change.
<br>
§ <code>Atoi</code> persists but <code>Atoui</code> and <code>Atof32</code> do not, so
they may require
a cast that must be added by hand; gofix will warn about it.
</p>

<h3 id="os_fileinfo">The os.FileInfo type</h3>

<p>
Go 1 redefines the <a href="/pkg/os/#FileInfo"><code>os.FileInfo</code></a> type,
changing it from a struct to an interface:
</p>

<pre>
    type FileInfo interface {
        Name() string       // base name of the file
        Size() int64        // length in bytes
        Mode() FileMode     // file mode bits
        ModTime() time.Time // modification time
        IsDir() bool        // abbreviation for Mode().IsDir()
    }
</pre>

<p>
The file mode information has been moved into a subtype called
<a href="/pkg/os/#FileMode"><code>os.FileMode</code></a>,
a simple integer type with <code>IsDir</code>, <code>Perm</code>, and <code>String</code>
methods.
</p>

<p>
The system-specific details of file modes and properties such as (on Unix)
i-number have been removed from <code>FileInfo</code> altogether.
Instead, each operating system's <code>os</code> package provides an
implementation of the <code>FileInfo</code> interface, <code>*os.FileStat</code>,
which in turn contains a <code>Sys</code> field that stores the
system-specific representation of file metadata.
For instance, to discover the i-number of a file on a Unix system, unpack
the <code>FileInfo</code> like this:
</p>

<pre>
    fi, err := os.Stat("hello.go")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    // Make sure it's an implementation known to package os.
    fileStat, ok := fi.(*os.FileStat)
    if !ok {
        log.Fatal("hello.go: not an os File")
    }
    // Now check that it's a Unix file.
    unixStat, ok := fileStat.Sys.(*syscall.Stat_t)
    if !ok {
        log.Fatal("hello.go: not a Unix file")
    }
    fmt.Printf("file i-number: %d\n", unixStat.Ino)
</pre>

<p>
Assuming (which is unwise) that <code>"hello.go"</code> is a Unix file,
the i-number expression could be contracted to
</p>

<pre>
    fi.(*os.FileStat).Sys.(*syscall.Stat_t).Ino
</pre>

<p>
The vast majority of uses of <code>FileInfo</code> need only the methods
of the standard interface.
</p>
	
<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Gofix will update code that uses the old equivalent of the current <code>os.FileInfo</code>
and <code>os.FileMode</code> API.
Code that needs system-specific file details will need to be updated by hand.
</p>

<h3 id="go">The package tree go</h3>

<p>
Several packages under <code>go</code> have slightly revised APIs.
</p>

<p>
The modes <code>AllowIllegalChars</code> and <code>InsertSemis</code> have been removed
from the <a href="/pkg/go/scanner/"><code>go/scanner</code></a> package. They were mostly
useful for scanning text other then Go source files. Instead, the
<a href="/pkg/text/scanner/"><code>text/scanner</code></a> package should be used
for that purpose.
</p>

<p>
The set of parse functions provided by the <a href="/pkg/go/parser/"><code>go/parser</code></a>
package has been reduced to the primary parse function
<a href="go/parser/#ParseFile"><code>ParseFile</code></a>, and a couple of
convenience functions <a href="go/parser/#ParseDir"><code>ParseDir</code></a>
and <a href="go/parser/#ParseExpr"><code>ParseExpr</code></a>.
</p>

<p>
The type names of the <a href="go/doc/"><code>go/doc</code></a> package have been
streamlined by removing the <code>Doc</code> suffix: <code>PackageDoc</code>
is now <code>Package</code>, <code>ValueDoc</code> is <code>Value</code>, etc.
Also, all types now consistently have a <code>Name</code> field (or <code>Names</code>,
in the case of type <code>Value</code>), <code>Type.Factories</code> has become
<code>Type.Funcs</code>, and there is a new type <code>Method</code> that describes
methods in more detail.
Instead of calling <code>doc.NewPackageDoc(pkg, importpath)</code>,
documentation for a package is created with:
</p>

<pre>
    doc.New(pkg, importpath, mode)
</pre>

<p>
where the new <code>mode</code> parameter specifies the operation mode:
if set to <a href="go/doc/#AllDecls"><code>AllDecls</code></a>, all declarations
(not just exported ones) are considered.
The function <code>NewFileDoc</code> was removed, and the function
<code>CommentText</code> has become the method
<a href="go/ast/#Text"><code>Text</code></a> of
<a href="go/ast/#CommentGroup"><code>ast.CommentGroup</code></a>.
</p>

<p>
In package <a href="go/token/"><code>go/token</code></a>, the
<a href="go/token/#FileSet"><code>token.FileSet</code></a> method <code>Files</code>
(which originally returned a channel of <code>*token.File</code>s) has been replaced
with the iterator <a href="go/token/#FileSet.Iterate"><code>Iterate</code></a> that
accepts a function argument instead.
</p>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Code that uses packages in <code>go</code> will have to be updated by hand; the
compiler will reject incorrect uses. Templates used in conjuction with any of the
<code>go/doc</code> types may need manual fixes; the renamed fields will lead
to run-time errors.
</p>

<h3 id="exp">The package tree exp</h3>

<p>
Because they are not standardized, the packages under the <code>exp</code> directory will not be available in the
standard Go 1 release distributions, although they will be available in source code form
in <a href="http://code.google.com/p/go/">the repository</a> for
developers who wish to use them.
</p>

<p>
Several packages have moved under <code>exp</code> at the time of Go 1's release:
</p>

<ul>
<li><code>ebnf</code></li>
<li><code>go/types</code></li>
<li><code>http/spdy</code></li>
</ul>

<p>
Also, the <code>utf8.String</code> type has been moved to its own package, <code>exp/utf8string</code>.
</p>

<p>
All these packages are available under the same names, with <code>exp/</code> prefixed: <code>exp/ebnf</code> etc.
</p>

<p>
Also, the <code>gotype</code> command now resides in <code>exp/gotype</code>, while
<code>ebnflint</code> is now in <code>exp/ebnflint</code>
</p>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Code that uses packages in <code>exp</code> will need to be updated by hand,
or else compiled from an installation that has <code>exp</code> available.
Gofix or the compiler will complain about such uses.
<br>
<font color="red">TODO: gofix should warn about such uses.</font>
</p>

<h3 id="old">The package tree old</h3>

<p>
Because they are deprecated, the packages under the <code>old</code> directory will not be available in the
standard Go 1 release distributions, although they will be available in source code form for
developers who wish to use them.
</p>

<p>
The packages in their new locations are:
</p>

<ul>
<li><code>old/netchan</code></li>
<li><code>old/regexp</code></li>
<li><code>old/template</code></li>
</ul>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Code that uses packages now in <code>old</code> will need to be updated by hand,
or else compiled from an installation that has <code>old</code> available.
Gofix will warn about such uses.
<br>
<font color="red">TODO: gofix should warn about such uses.</font>
</p>

<h3 id="deleted">Deleted packages</h3>

<p>
Go 1 deletes several packages outright:
</p>

<ul>
<li><code>container/vector</code></li>
<li><code>exp/datafmt</code></li>
<li><code>go/typechecker</code></li>
<li><code>try</code></li>
</ul>

<p>
and also the command <code>gotry</code>.
</p>

<p>
<em>Updating</em>:
Code that uses <code>container/vector</code> should be updated to use
slices directly.  See
<a href="http://code.google.com/p/go-wiki/wiki/SliceTricks">the Go
Language Community Wiki</a> for some suggestions.
Code that uses the other packages (there should be almost zero) will need to be rethought.
<br>
<font color="red">TODO: gofix should warn such uses.</font>
</p>

<h3 id="subrepo">Packages moving to subrepositories</h3>

<!-- 
crypto/openpgp to XXX
maybe exp/ssh?
-->

<h2 id="go_command">The go command</h2>

<h2 id="releases">Packaged releases</h2>