goreleaser/docs/010-quick-start.md

title
Quick Start

In this example we will build, archive and release a Golang project. Create a GitHub repository and add a single main package:

// main.go
package main

func main() {
  println("Ba dum, tss!")
}

By default GoReleaser will build the current directory, but you can change the build package path in the GoReleaser configuration file.

# .goreleaser.yml
# Build customization
builds:
  - binary: drum-roll
    goos:
      - windows
      - darwin
      - linux
    goarch:
      - amd64

PS: Invalid GOOS/GOARCH combinations will automatically be skipped.

This configuration specifies the build operating systems to Windows, Linux and MacOS using 64bit architecture, the name of the binaries is drum-roll.

GoReleaser will then archive the result binaries of each Os/Arch into a separate file. The default format is {{.ProjectName}}_{{.Os}}_{{.Arch}}. You can change the archives name and format. You can also replace the OS and the Architecture with your own. Another useful feature is to add files to archives, this is very useful for integrating assets like resource files.

# .goreleaser.yml
# Build customization
builds:
  - main: main.go
    binary: drum-roll
    goos:
      - windows
      - darwin
      - linux
    goarch:
      - amd64
# Archive customization
archive:
  format: tar.gz
  replacements:
    amd64: 64-bit
    darwin: macOS
    linux: Tux
  files:
    - drum-roll.licence.txt

This configuration will generate tar archives, containing an additional file called drum-roll.licence.txt. The archives will be located in the `dist`` folder:

• ./dist/drum-roll_windows_64-bit.tar.gz
• ./dist/drum-roll_macOS_64-bit.tar.gz
• ./dist/drum-roll_Tux_64-bit.tar.gz

Next export a GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable with the repo scope selected. This will be used to deploy releases to your GitHub repository. Create yours here.

$ export GITHUB_TOKEN=`YOUR_TOKEN`

GoReleaser uses the latest Git tag of your repository. Create a tag and push it to GitHub:

$ git tag -a v0.1.0 -m "First release"
$ git push origin v0.1.0

Note: We recommend the use of semantic versioning. We are not enforcing it though. We do remove the v prefix and then enforce that the next character is a number. So, v0.1.0 and 0.1.0 are virtually the same and are both accepted, while version0.1.0 is not.

If you don't want to create a tag yet but instead simply create a package based on the latest commit, then you can also use the --snapshot flag.

Now you can run GoReleaser at the root of your repository:

$ goreleaser

That's it! Check your GitHub project's release page. The release should look like this: