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https://github.com/inconshreveable/gonative

Build Go Toolchains /w native libs for cross-compilation
https://github.com/inconshreveable/gonative

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Build Go Toolchains /w native libs for cross-compilation

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README 

        
# gonative



Cross compiled Go binaries are not suitable for production applications

because code in the standard library relies on Cgo for DNS resolution

with the native resolver, access to system certificate roots, and parts of os/user.



gonative is a simple tool which creates a build of Go that can cross compile

to all platforms while still using the Cgo-enabled versions of the stdlib

packages. It does this by downloading the binary distributions for each

platform and copying their libraries into the proper places. It sets

the correct mod time so they don't get rebuilt. It also copies

some auto-generated runtime files into the build as well. gonative does

not modify any Go that you have installed and builds a new installaion of 

Go in a separate directory (the current directory by default).



Once you have a toolchain for cross-compilation, you can use tools like

[gox](https://github.com/mitchellh/gox) to cross-compile native builds easily.



gonative will not help you if your own packages rely on Cgo



### Installation



    git clone https://github.com/inconshreveable/gonative

    cd gonative

    make



Alternatively, you can install gonative via `go get` but the dependencies are not

locked down.



    go get github.com/inconshreveable/gonative



### Running

The 'build' command will build a toolchain in a directory called 'go' in your working directory.



    gonative build



To build a particular version of Go (default is 1.4):



    gonative build -version=1.3.3



For options and help:



    gonative build -h



### How it works



gonative downloads the go source code and compiles it for your host platform.

It then bootstraps the toolchain for all target platforms (but does not compile the standard library).

Then, it fetches the official binary distributions for all target platforms and copies

each pkg/OS\_ARCH directory into the toolchain so that you will link with natively-compiled versions

of the standard library. It walks all of the copied standard library and sets their modtimes so that

they won't get rebuilt. It also copies some necessary auto-generated runtime source

files for each platform (z\*\_) into the source directory to make it all work.



### Example with gox:



Here's an example of how to cross-compile a project:



    $ go get github.com/mitchellh/gox

    $ go get github.com/inconshreveable/gonative

    $ cd /your/project

    $ gonative build

    $ PATH=$PWD/go/bin/:$PATH gox

    

This isn't the most optimal way of doing things though. You only ever need one gonative-built 

Go toolchain. And with the proper GOPATH set up, you don't need to be

in your project's working directory. I use it mostly like this:



#### One time only setup:



    $ go get github.com/mitchellh/gox

    $ go get github.com/inconshreveable/gonative

    $ mkdir -p /usr/local/gonative

    $ cd /usr/local/gonative

    $ gonative build

    

#### Building a project:



    $ PATH=/usr/local/gonative/go/bin/:$PATH gox github.com/your-name/application-name

    

### Open Issues



- gonative is untested on Windows



### Caveats

- no linux/arm support because there are no official builds of linux/arm

- linux\_386 binaries that use native libs depend on 32-bit libc/libpthread/elf loader. some 64-bit linux distributions might not have those installed by default