[Go](https://go.dev/) (a.k.a., Golang) is a statically-typed programming language, with syntax loosely derived from C. Go offers additional features such as garbage collection, type safety, certain dynamic-typing capabilities, additional built-in types (for example, variable-length arrays and key-value maps) as well as a large standard library.
## Usage
To compile and deploy an application, copy the sources, fetch dependencies (assuming go.mod is used for dependency management), and build the binary:
FROM registry.opensuse.org/opensuse/bci/golang:1.21 as build
WORKDIR /app
# pre-copy/cache go.mod for pre-downloading dependencies and only redownloading them in subsequent builds if they change
COPY go.mod go.sum ./
RUN go mod download && go mod verify
COPY . ./
# Make sure to build the application with CGO disabled.
# This will force Go to use some Go implementations of code
# rather than those normally supplied by the host operating system.
# You need this for scratch images as those supporting libraries
# are not available.
RUN CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o /hello
# Bundle the application into a scratch image
FROM scratch
COPY --from=build /hello /hello
CMD ["/hello"]
```
Build and run the container image:
```ShellSession
$ podman build -t my-golang-app .
$ podman run -it --rm my-golang-app
```
There are situations when you don't want to run an application inside a container.
To compile the application, without running it inside a container instance, use the following command:
```ShellSession
$ podman run --rm -v "$PWD":/app:Z -w /app registry.opensuse.org/opensuse/bci/golang:1.21 go build -v
```
To run the application tests inside a container, use the following command:
```ShellSession
$ podman run --rm -v "$PWD":/app:Z -w /app registry.opensuse.org/opensuse/bci/golang:1.21 go test -v
```
**Note:** The Golang image should be used as a build environment. For runtime, self-contained Go binaries should use a `scratch` image and for applications that require external dependencies use the `bci-base` image.
## Additional tools
The following additional tools are included in the image:
