Go, Golang : Program, Package Structure for Command Line Interface

Question

This is newbie question... Let's say I have a Go code in a directory(repository initiated here as root) called "myprogram". And I write some packages divided in several sub-directories.

Then I have

repository, root directory

myprogram
----------- package1
----------- package2
----------- package3

Then in the myprogram directory, I will write the code with main package for main program and the main program will call all the packages that are defined in the sub-directories, like the following:

main.go

import "github.com/username/package1"
import "github.com/username/package2"
import "github.com/username/package3"

func main() {
    package1.Function1()
    ....
}

Then I can just run this code with

$ go run main.go

I have no problem so far. But what if this program has some features with flags?

$ go run main.go  flag1 flag2

This works, but I want to run something like

$ myprogram
$ flag1
....
$ flag2

Since all the programs and source code will be contained under the directory myprogram which is also the name of the project, repository

myprogram
----------- package1
----------- package2
----------- package3

We run Vim with the command, something like this...

$ vim

To summarize, how do I make my program run by command, not by go run main ?

Is there any open source repository that I can refer to? Or please let me know the package or documentation to read. I tried

go install

But can't make it work like I wanted.

Thanks a lot!

To expand on @FuZxxl's answer: `go run` should only ever be used for a quick, single-file check. Go isn't a scripting language, so you should be compiling it (go run effectively does that and discards the binary). When you have multiple files as part of the one package (either `package main` or `package mylibrary`) you'll need to use `go build`. — elithrar, Feb 21 '14 at 03:52

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 21 '14 at 03:20

2

Use go build. This will create an executable of the package in the current directory. You can also run go build <packagename>, which creates a binary in $GOPATH/bin.

answered Feb 21 '14 at 03:20

fuz

88,405
25
200
352

I was always confused by go build and go build packagename, so go build packagename, this is the one that creates the binary in GOPATH/bin right? not go build – Feb 21 '14 at 03:31

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 06 '20 at 12:11

Take a look at this one

it is an open source repository that people can refer to
it illustrates how to deal with the cases that the main program can have some sub features that need different flags
and for sure it shows how to make programs run by command, not by go run main
and most importantly, make the whole process as simple as possible by auto-generate all things that can be auto-generated

Go, Golang : Program, Package Structure for Command Line Interface

2 Answers2