goreleaser/www/docs/customization/archive.md

title
Archive

The binaries built will be archived together with the README and LICENSE files into a tar.gz file. In the archives section you can customize the archive name, additional files, and format.

Here is a commented archives section with all fields specified:

# .goreleaser.yml
archives:
  -
    # ID of this archive.
    # Defaults to `default`.
    id: my-archive

    # Builds reference which build instances should be archived in this archive.
    builds:
    - default

    # Archive format. Valid options are `tar.gz`, `tar.xz`, `gz`, `zip` and `binary`.
    # If format is `binary`, no archives are created and the binaries are instead
    # uploaded directly.
    # Default is `tar.gz`.
    format: zip

    # Archive name template.
    # Defaults:
    # - if format is `tar.gz`, `tar.xz`, `gz` or `zip`:
    #   - `{{ .ProjectName }}_{{ .Version }}_{{ .Os }}_{{ .Arch }}{{ if .Arm }}v{{ .Arm }}{{ end }}{{ if .Mips }}_{{ .Mips }}{{ end }}`
    # - if format is `binary`:
    #   - `{{ .Binary }}_{{ .Version }}_{{ .Os }}_{{ .Arch }}{{ if .Arm }}v{{ .Arm }}{{ end }}{{ if .Mips }}_{{ .Mips }}{{ end }}`
    name_template: "{{ .ProjectName }}_{{ .Version }}_{{ .Os }}_{{ .Arch }}"

    # Replacements for GOOS and GOARCH in the archive name.
    # Keys should be valid GOOSs or GOARCHs.
    # Values are the respective replacements.
    # Default is empty.
    replacements:
      amd64: 64-bit
      386: 32-bit
      darwin: macOS
      linux: Tux

    # Set to true, if you want all files in the archive to be in a single directory.
    # If set to true and you extract the archive 'goreleaser_Linux_arm64.tar.gz',
    # you get a folder 'goreleaser_Linux_arm64'.
    # If set to false, all files are extracted separately.
    # You can also set it to a custom folder name (templating is supported).
    # Default is false.
    wrap_in_directory: true

    # Can be used to change the archive formats for specific GOOSs.
    # Most common use case is to archive as zip on Windows.
    # Default is empty.
    format_overrides:
      - goos: windows
        format: zip

    # Additional files/template/globs you want to add to the archive.
    # Defaults are any files matching `LICENCE*`, `LICENSE*`,
    # `README*` and `CHANGELOG*` (case-insensitive).
    files:
      - LICENSE.txt
      - README_{{.Os}}.md
      - CHANGELOG.md
      - docs/*
      - design/*.png
      - templates/**/*

    # Disables the binary count check.
    # Default: false
    allow_different_binary_count: true

!!! tip Learn more about the name template engine.

!!! tip You can add entire folders, its subfolders and files by using the glob notation, for example: myfolder/**/*.

!!! warning The files and wrap_in_directory options are ignored if format is binary.

!!! warning The name_template option will not reflect the filenames under the dist folder if format is binary. The template will be applied only where the binaries are uploaded (e.g. GitHub releases).

Packaging only the binaries

Since GoReleaser will always add the README and LICENSE files to the archive if the file list is empty, you'll need to provide a filled files on the archive section.

A working hack is to use something like this:

# goreleaser.yml
archives:
- files:
  - none*

This would add all files matching the glob none*, provide that you don't have any files matching that glob, only the binary will be added to the archive.

For more information, check #602

A note about Gzip

Gzip is a compression-only format, therefore, it couldn't have more than one file inside.

Presumably, you'll want that file to be the binary, so, your archive section will probably look like this:

# goreleaser.yml
archives:
- format: gz
  files:
  - none*

This should create .gz files with the binaries only, which should be extracted with something like gzip -d file.gz.

!!! warning You won't be able to package multiple builds in a single archive either. The alternative is to declare multiple archives filtering by build ID.

Disable archiving

You can do that by setting format to binary:

# goreleaser.yml
archives:
- format: binary

Make sure to check the rest of the documentation above, as doing this has some implications.