Build Releases with GoReleaser

Intermediate15 minTrending

Automate Go binary releases across platforms with GoReleaser, including changelogs, checksums, and GitHub releases.

Prerequisites

-Go 1.21+ installed
-GoReleaser installed
-Git repository with tags

Steps

Install GoReleaser

Install GoReleaser using Go install or your package manager.

$ go install github.com/goreleaser/goreleaser/v2@latest

On macOS you can also use: brew install goreleaser

Initialize GoReleaser configuration

Generate a default .goreleaser.yaml configuration file.

$ goreleaser init

Customize the configuration

Edit .goreleaser.yaml to define build targets, archives, and changelog settings.

$ cat > .goreleaser.yaml << 'EOF' version: 2 builds: - main: ./cmd/myapp binary: myapp env: - CGO_ENABLED=0 goos: - linux - darwin - windows goarch: - amd64 - arm64 ldflags: - -s -w -X main.version={{.Version}} archives: - format: tar.gz name_template: "{{ .ProjectName }}_{{ .Os }}_{{ .Arch }}" format_overrides: - goos: windows format: zip checksum: name_template: checksums.txt changelog: sort: asc filters: exclude: - '^docs:' - '^chore:' EOF

Test the release locally

Run a snapshot build without publishing to verify everything works.

$ goreleaser release --snapshot --clean

Check the dist/ directory for the generated artifacts.

Create a tag and publish the release

Tag a version in Git and run GoReleaser to publish to GitHub.

$ git tag -a v1.0.0 -m 'Release v1.0.0' && git push origin v1.0.0 && goreleaser release --clean

Make sure your GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable is set with repo permissions.

Full Script

full-script.sh

#!/bin/bash
# GoReleaser Automation
set -euo pipefail

VERSION=${1:?"Usage: $0 <version> [--snapshot]"}
SNAPSHOT=${2:-""}

echo "=== GoReleaser Version ==="
goreleaser --version

if [ "$SNAPSHOT" = "--snapshot" ]; then
  echo ""
  echo "=== Snapshot Build (no publish) ==="
  goreleaser release --snapshot --clean
else
  echo ""
  echo "=== Creating Git Tag ==="
  git tag -a "$VERSION" -m "Release $VERSION"
  git push origin "$VERSION"

  echo ""
  echo "=== Publishing Release ==="
  goreleaser release --clean
fi

echo ""
echo "=== Build Artifacts ==="
ls -lh dist/ 2>/dev/null || echo "No dist/ directory found"

echo ""
echo "=== GoReleaser Commands ==="
echo "Init:     goreleaser init"
echo "Check:    goreleaser check"
echo "Snapshot: goreleaser release --snapshot --clean"
echo "Release:  goreleaser release --clean"

FAQ

Discussion

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#!/bin/bash # GoReleaser Automation set -euo pipefail VERSION=${1:?"Usage: $0 <version> [--snapshot]"} SNAPSHOT=${2:-""} echo "=== GoReleaser Version ===" goreleaser --version if [ "$SNAPSHOT" = "--snapshot" ]; then echo "" echo "=== Snapshot Build (no publish) ===" goreleaser release --snapshot --clean else echo "" echo "=== Creating Git Tag ===" git tag -a "$VERSION" -m "Release $VERSION" git push origin "$VERSION" echo "" echo "=== Publishing Release ===" goreleaser release --clean fi echo "" echo "=== Build Artifacts ===" ls -lh dist/ 2>/dev/null || echo "No dist/ directory found" echo "" echo "=== GoReleaser Commands ===" echo "Init: goreleaser init" echo "Check: goreleaser check" echo "Snapshot: goreleaser release --snapshot --clean" echo "Release: goreleaser release --clean"