CODEWITHSUNDEEP
go
call-me-corgi
call-me-corgi

Reputation: 243

how to build go outside of source directory?

My go application directory structure is like this:

/app
  go.mod
  go.sum
  main.go

When I build the app I usually cd into that directory and build.

cd app
go build

I wonder if I can build without cd in to app directory. When I go go build /app, it prints go: go.mod file not found in current directory or any parent directory; see 'go help modules'.

Upvotes: 5

Views: 12377

Answers (3)

bolt
bolt

Reputation: 500

Go now can change directory before build with the help of flag -C:

go build -C app

"The go subcommands now accept -C to change directory to before performing the command" Source: https://tip.golang.org/doc/go1.20

(You don't need to run cd .. after this command. Shell stays in the same directory)

Upvotes: 17

LeGEC
LeGEC

Reputation: 52141

See https://golang.org/ref/mod#commands-outside :
go build needs to be run from a module directory.

The simplest way is to cd into your module directory (cd /app) to run your go build command.

(there probably is some way to create a phony local go.mod file, and reference your /app module from there, but I wasn't able to devise a hack to do this)

Upvotes: 3

AsocPro
AsocPro

Reputation: 60

I'm pretty sure to build you will need to be in the app directory.

As a workaround if you are just wanting to be on the command line in a different directory and want to run the build with one command you can just chain the cd and go build commands together like this:

cd app; go build ; cd ..

This is the same amount of typing but could be in your command history just a couple presses of the up arrow away.

Note this is for bash or similar UNIX style shell. If using Windows cmd then I think it would be something like this (Not tested as I don’t have readily available access to a Windows machine right now):

cd app & go build & cd ..

Upvotes: -1

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