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James is your butler and helps you to create, build, debug, test and run your Go projects.

When you often create new apps using Go, it quickly becomes annoying when you realize all the steps it takes to configure the basics. You need to manually create the source files, version info requires more steps to be injected into the executable, using Visual Studio Code requires you to manually setup the tasks you want to run…

Using the go-james tool, you can automate and streamline this process. The tool will take care of initializing your project, running your project, debugging it, building it and running the tests.

You should be using go-james if:

• you're tired of setting up your projects manually
• you don't want to have to specify the main package every time you want build or run your project
• you keep on forgetting how to setup debugging Visual Studio Code
• you don't want to setup your tasks file manually in Visual Studio Code
• you want to have the Git revision, branch name and version number automatically in your project
• you're tired of manually writing Makefiles to build, test and run your project
• you want a better way to do tasks before and after the build than writing non-portable shell scripts
• you want an easy way to cross-compile for all common GOOS/GOARCH combinations
• you want a way to build, run and test your project in a cross-platform manner

• Requirements
• Installation
  • Using go get
  • Homebrew
  • Manually
• Starting a new project
• Initializing an existing project
• Building a project
• Pre-build and post-build hooks
  • Parsing arguments in pre/post build scripts.
  • Using Bash scripts for pre/post build actions.
  • Using Batch files for pre/post build actions.
  • How go-james defines which pre/post build script to run
• Packaging a project
• Debugging a project
• Running a project
• Testing a project
• Installing the executable
• Uninstalling the executable
• Running a static analysis
  • Building a Docker image
• The config file go-james.json
  • Project Config
  • Build Config
  • Run Config
  • Package Config
  • Test Config
  • Staticcheck Config
  • Docker Image Config
• Bootstrapping go-james
• Roadmap
• Resources

• Go 1.14 or newer
• Go Modules (the de-facto standard)

You can run the following command to install go-james:

go install github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-james/cmd/go-james@latest

This will create the go-james command in your $GOPATH/bin folder.

The tool is self-contained and doesn't have any external dependencies.

To install via homebrew, run the following commands:

$ brew tap pieterclaerhout/go-james
==> Tapping pieterclaerhout/go-james
Cloning into '/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/pieterclaerhout/homebrew-go-james'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 4, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (4/4), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (4/4), done.
remote: Total 4 (delta 0), reused 4 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
Receiving objects: 100% (4/4), done.
Tapped 1 formula (27 files, 26.5KB).

$ brew install go-james
==> Installing go-james from pieterclaerhout/go-james
==> Downloading https://github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-james/releases/download/v1.6.0/go-james_darwin_amd64.tar.gz
######################################################################## 100.0%
🍺  /usr/local/Cellar/go-james/1.6.0: 4 files, 11.5MB, built in 3 seconds

To install it manually, download the go-james executable from the releases and place it in $GOPATH/bin.

To start a new project, you can use the new subcommand as follows:

go-james new --path=<target path> \
             --package=<package> \
             --name=<name of your project> \
             --description=<description of your project> \
             --copyright=<copyright of your project> \
             [--with-git] \
             [--with-docker] \
             [--with-github-action] \
             [--with-gitlab-ci] \
             [--overwrite]

When you run it, you'll get the following output:

➜ go-james new --path go-example --package github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-example
Creating package: github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-example
Project path: /Users/pclaerhout/Desktop/go-example
Writing: go-example
Writing: go-example/go-james.json
Writing: go-example/.vscode
Writing: go-example/.vscode/tasks.json
Writing: go-example/.vscode/settings.json
Writing: go-example/.vscode/launch.json
Writing: go-example/LICENSE
Writing: go-example/.gitignore
Writing: go-example/.dockerignore
Writing: go-example/Dockerfile
Writing: go-example/README.md
Writing: go-example/scripts/post_build
Writing: go-example/scripts/post_build/post_build.example.go
Writing: go-example/library.go
Writing: go-example/library_test.go
Writing: go-example/cmd/go-example
Writing: go-example/cmd/go-example/main.go
Writing: go-example/versioninfo
Writing: go-example/versioninfo/versioninfo.go
Writing: go-example/scripts/pre_build
Writing: go-example/scripts/pre_build/pre_build.example.go
Writing: go-example/go.mod

It will automatically create the following folder and file structure:

go-example
├── LICENSE
├── README.md
├── cmd
│   └── main
│       └── main.go
├── go-james.json
├── go.mod
├── library.go
├── library_test.go
├── scripts
│   ├── post_build
│   │   └── post_build.example.go
│   └── pre_build
│       └── pre_build.example.go
└── versioninfo
    └── versioninfo.go

An important file which is generated and can be used to further customize the project and it's settings is the go-james.json file which sits next to the go.mod file.

You can specify the following options:

• --path: the path where the new project should be created, e.g. /home/username/go-example (if not specified, it will create a directory with the name of the prject in the current path)
• --package: the main package for the new project, e.g. github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-example (defaults to the project name if specified)
• --name: the name of the project, if not specified, the last part of the path is used
• --description: the description of the project, used for the readme
• --copyright: the copyright of the project, used for the readme
• --with-git: if specified, a local Git repository will be created for the project and the source files will automatically be committed.
• --with-docker: if specified, a sample Dockerfile and .dockerignore file will be created.
• --with-github-action: if specified, a sample Github Actions file will be created.
• --with-gitlab-ci: if specified, a sample Gitlab-CI file will be created.
• --overwrite: if the destination path already exists, overwrite it (be careful, the original folder will be replaced)

When you already have an existing folder structure, you can run the init command to add the missing pieces.

go-james init

This command is supposed to run from the project's directory and doesn't take any arguments.

From within the project root, run the build command to build the executable:

go-james build [-v] [--output=<path>] [--goos=<os>] [--goarch=<arch>]

By default, the output is put in the build subdirectory but can be customized in the configuration file.

You can specify the following options:

• -v: the packages which are built will be listed.
• --output: you can override the default output path as specified in the configuration file.
• --goos: you can override the GOOS environment variable which indicates for which OS you are compiling.
• --goarch: you can override the GOARCH environment variable which indicates for which architecture you are compiling.

You can read more about the GOOS and GOARCH environment variables here.

As part of the build process, the versioninfo package will be filled with the following details:

• versioninfo.ProjectName: the name of the project from the configuration file
• versioninfo.ProjectDescription: the description of the project from the configuration file
• versioninfo.ProjectCopyright: the copyright of the project from the configuration file
• versioninfo.Version: the version of the project from the configuration file
• versioninfo.Revision: the current Git commit hash
• versioninfo.Branch: the current Git branch name

With every build, these variables are automatically updated.

Just before the build, if a file called <project_root>/scripts/pre_build/pre_build.go is present, it will be executed and will get a lot of info about the build injected. It's a plain Go file, so use whatever trick or tool you know. A sample pre-build script looks as follows:

package main

import (
	"github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-james"
	"github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-log"
)

func main() {

	args, err := james.ParseBuildArgs()
	log.CheckError(err)

	log.InfoDump(args, "pre_build arguments")

}

You can also execute a script after the build. To do so, create a file <project_root>/scripts/post_build/post_build.go with contents similar to:

package main

import (
	"github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-james"
	"github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-log"
)

func main() {

	args, err := james.ParseBuildArgs()
	log.CheckError(err)

	log.InfoDump(args, "post_build arguments")

}

To parse the arguments, you can use james.ParseBuildArgs().

The parameters it gets are are struct of the type james.BuildArgs:

james.BuildArgs{
  ProjectPath: "/home/user/go-james",
  OutputPath: "/home/user/go-james/build/go-james",
  GOOS: "darwin",
  GOARCH: "amd64",
  ProjectName: "go-james",
  ProjectDescription: "James is your butler and helps you to create, build, test and run your Go projects",
  ProjectCopyright: "© 2019-2020 Copyright Pieter Claerhout",
  Version: "0.7.0",
  Revision: "2065b13",
  Branch: "master",
  RawBuildCommand: []string{
    "go",
    "build",
    "-o",
    "build/go-james",
    "-ldflags",
    "-s -w -X github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-james/versioninfo.ProjectName=go-james -X 'github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-james/versioninfo.ProjectDescription=James is your butler and helps you to create, build, test and run your Go projects' -X 'github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-james/versioninfo.ProjectCopyright=© 2019 Copyright Pieter Claerhout' -X github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-james/versioninfo.Version=0.7.0 -X github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-james/versioninfo.Revision=2065b13 -X github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-james/versioninfo.Branch=master",
    "-trimpath",
    "github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-james/cmd/go-james",
  },
}

The same information is also available in the following environment variables:

GO_JAMES_BRANCH="master"
GO_JAMES_GOARCH="amd64"
GO_JAMES_GOOS="darwin"
GO_JAMES_OUTPUT_PATH="/home/user/go-james/build/go-james"
GO_JAMES_PROJECT_COPYRIGHT="© 2019-2020 Copyright Pieter Claerhout"
GO_JAMES_PROJECT_DESCRIPTION="James is your butler and helps you to create, build, test and run your Go projects"
GO_JAMES_PROJECT_NAME="go-james"
GO_JAMES_PROJECT_PATH="/home/user/go-james"
GO_JAMES_REVISION="2065b13"
GO_JAMES_VERSION="0.7.0"

If you prefer to use a bash script instead for the pre/post build actions, you can create a file called:

<project_root>/scripts/post_build/pre_build.sh

or

<project_root>/scripts/post_build/post_build.sh

It should be marked as executable.

If you prefer to use a batch file on Windows instead for the pre/post build actions, you can create a file called:

<project_root>/scripts/post_build/pre_build.bat

or

<project_root>/scripts/post_build/post_build.bat

go-james will search for pre/post build scripts in the following order:

• pre_build.go / post_build.go
• pre_build.sh / post_build.sh
• pre_build.bat / post_build.bat

From within the project root, run the package command to build the executable for windows / darwin / linux in the 386 and amd64 variants and compresses the result as a .zip (windows) or .tgz (linux / mac):

go-james package [-v] [--concurrency=4]

By default, the output is put in the build subdirectory but can be customized in the configuration file.

The filenames which are constructed use the following convention:

build/<project.name>_<goos>-<goarch>_v<project.version>.[zip,tgz]

The executable will be compressed and, if present in the project, the project's README.md file as well.

You can specify the following options:

• -v: the packages which are built will be listed.
• --concurrency: how many package processes should run in parallel, defaults to the number of CPUs.

As part of the build process, the versioninfo package will be filled with the following details:

• versioninfo.ProjectName: the name of the project from the configuration file
• versioninfo.ProjectDescription: the description of the project from the configuration file
• versioninfo.Version: the version of the project from the configuration file
• versioninfo.Revision: the current Git commit hash
• versioninfo.Branch: the current Git branch name

With every build, these variables are automatically updated.

From within the project root, run:

go-james debug

This will build the project and run it's main target through the Delve debugger. If the dlv command is not yet present in your $GOPATH/bin folder, it will automaticall be installed the first time you run it.

When creating a new project or performing init on an existing project, it also configures debugging from within Visual Studio Code. It's a simple as setting one or more breakpoints and choose "Start" > "Debug" from the menu. It creates a launch configuration called Debug.

From within the project root, run:

go-james run <args>

This will build the project and run it's main target passing the <args> to the command.

From within the project root, run:

go-james test

This will run all the tests defined in the package.

To install the main executable of your project in $GOPATH/bin, simply run the install command.

This will build the project and install it in the $GOPATH/bin folder. The name of the executable is the basename of build output path (as specified in the configuration file.

go-james install

Similar to the install command, there is also an uninstall command which removes the executable from $GOPATH/bin.

go-james uninstall

You can use the staticcheck command to run the staticcheck static analyzer. The binary required to run staticcheck is automatically installed if needed.

go-james staticcheck

You can use the docker-image command to build a Docker image using the Dockerfile in the project folder. When you create a new project, a starter Dockerfile will be created automatically.

go-james docker-container

When you create a new project or init an existing one, a go-james.json file will be created in the root of your project. This file can be used to configure the project. The full config file is as follows:

{
    "project": {
        "name": "go-example",
        "version": "1.0.0",
        "description": "",
        "copyright": "",
        "package": "github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-example",
        "main_package": "github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-example/cmd/go-example"
    },
    "build": {
        "output_path": "build/go-example",
        "ld_flags": [
            "-s",
            "-w"
        ],
        "ld_flags_windows": [
            "-s",
            "-w",
            "-H",
            "windowsgui"
        ],
        "ld_flags_darwin": [],
        "ld_flags_linux": [],
        "extra_args": [
            "-trimpath"
        ],
        "use_gotip": false
    },
    "run": {
        "environ": {
            "var": "val"
        }
    },
    "package": {
        "include_readme": true
    },
    "test": {
        "extra_args": []
    },
    "staticcheck": {
        "checks": ["all", "-ST1005", "-ST1000"]
    },
    "docker-image": {
        "name": "go-james",
        "repository": "pieterclaerhout/go-james",
        "tag": "revision",
        "prune_images_after_build": false
    }
}

• name: the name of your project (will be availabme under <package>/versioninfo.ProjectName)
• version: the version of your project (will be availabme under <package>/versioninfo.Version)
• description: the description of your project (will be availabme under <package>/versioninfo.ProjectDescription)
• copyright: the description of your project (will be availabme under <package>/versioninfo.ProjectCopyright)
• package: the root package of your project
• main_package: the full path to the main package of your app, defaults to <package>/cmd/<project-name>

• output_path: the path where the built executable should be placed. Defaults to build/<project-name>
• ld_flags: the linker flags you want to use for building. You can find more info about these flags here. These are only used if you don't specify specific parameters for a specifc GOOS.
• ld_flags_darwin: the linker flags you want to use for building darwin. You can find more info about these flags here.
• ld_flags_linux: the linker flags you want to use for building for linux. You can find more info about these flags here.
• ld_flags_windows: the linker flags you want to use for building for windows. You can find more info about these flags here.
• extra_args: contains any extra command-line parameters you want to add to the go build command when you run go-james build.
• use_gotip: setting this to true uses gotip to compile instead of the regular gocommand. Make sure you have gotip installed.

• environ: the environment variables to use when running the app

• include_readme: boolean indicating if the README.md file should be included in the package or not

• extra_args: contains any extra command-line parameters you want to add to the go test command when you run go-james test.

• checks: the checks for staticcheck you want to run

• name: the name of the docker image you want to create. Defaults to the project name.
• repository: the repository to which you want to push the image. If left empty, the image will only be created locally.
• tag: can be either revision or version (the default) and indicates what value should be used for the tag.
• prune_images_after_build: if set to true, a docker image prune -f will be executed after the docker build step.

If you want to build go-james from scratch, you can use the following command (or use the "bootstrap" build task in Visual Studio Code):

go build -v -o build/go-james github.com/pieterclaerhout/go-james/cmd/go-james

If you have a version of go-james installed, you can use it to build itself.

To get an idea on what's coming, you can check the GitHub Milestones.

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