Blogs›Cloudflare›Go Linker Flags for Build Information
Cloudflare's DNS server (RRDNS) previously generated version information via a Makefile and sed. A new method using the Go linker's `-X` flag allows for direct embedding of version and build time information into binaries, simplifying the build process and improving maintainability. This technique is applicable to any string variable within a Go program, including those in different packages, and works with external linking scenarios.
7/1/2015
Introduced the use of the Go linker's `-X` flag (via `-ldflags`) as a more elegant and direct method for embedding build-time information (like version and build time) into Go binaries, replacing the previous Makefile-based generation of `version.go` files. Demonstrated its application with a simple `hello.go` example and confirmed its compatibility with external linking.