CODEWITHSUNDEEP
consolego
Bart Silverstrim
Bart Silverstrim

Reputation: 3625

How do I create an executable from Golang that doesn't open a console window when run?

I created an application that I want to run invisibly in the background (no console). How do I do this?

(This is for Windows, tested on Windows 7 Pro 64 bit)

Upvotes: 64

Views: 67315

Answers (3)

gonutz
gonutz

Reputation: 5582

If you don't want to type the long build instructions every time during debugging but still want the console window to disappear, you can add this code at the start of your main function:

package main

import "github.com/gonutz/w32/v2"

func main() {
    console := w32.GetConsoleWindow()
    if console != 0 {
        _, consoleProcID := w32.GetWindowThreadProcessId(console)
        if w32.GetCurrentProcessId() == consoleProcID {
            w32.ShowWindowAsync(console, w32.SW_HIDE)
        }
    }
}

Now you can compile with go build. Your program will show the console window for a short moment on start-up and then immediately hide it.

Upvotes: 13

Shannon Matthews
Shannon Matthews

Reputation: 10368

Using Go Version 1.4.2 

 go build -ldflags "-H windowsgui"

From the Go docs:

go build [-o output] [-i] [build flags] [packages]

-ldflags 'flag list' arguments to pass on each 5l, 6l, or 8l linker invocation.

Upvotes: 45

Bart Silverstrim
Bart Silverstrim

Reputation: 3625

The documentation found online says I can compile with something along the lines of,

go build -ldflags -Hwindowsgui filename.go

But this gives an error: unknown flag -Hwindowsgui

With more recent (1.1?) versions of the compiler, this should work:

go build -ldflags -H=windowsgui filename.go

When I continued searching around I found a note that the official documentation should be updated soon, but in the meantime there are a lot of older-style example answers out there that error.

Upvotes: 66

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