Cross-Compile Releases

Build release binaries for every major platform, embed version metadata, generate checksums, and produce a clean dist/ folder.

7 min readProgramming Foundations (Go)Code

Platform Matrix

GOOS	GOARCH	Typical users
linux	amd64	Most servers, Docker containers, CI runners
linux	arm64	AWS Graviton, Raspberry Pi, ARM servers
darwin	amd64	Intel Macs
darwin	arm64	Apple Silicon Macs (M1/M2/M3)
windows	amd64	Windows developers and servers

Release Makefile Target

Complete release Makefile


APP     := tasker
VERSION := $(shell git describe --tags --always --dirty 2>/dev/null || echo dev)
COMMIT  := $(shell git rev-parse --short HEAD 2>/dev/null || echo none)
DATE    := $(shell date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")
LDFLAGS := -ldflags "-X main.version=$(VERSION) -X main.commit=$(COMMIT) -X main.buildDate=$(DATE) -s -w"

TARGETS :=   linux/amd64   linux/arm64   darwin/amd64   darwin/arm64   windows/amd64

.PHONY: release clean

release: clean
	mkdir -p dist
	$(foreach target,$(TARGETS), 	  $(eval OS   := $(word 1,$(subst /, ,$(target)))) 	  $(eval ARCH := $(word 2,$(subst /, ,$(target)))) 	  $(eval EXT  := $(if $(filter windows,$(OS)),.exe,)) 	  GOOS=$(OS) GOARCH=$(ARCH) go build $(LDFLAGS) -o dist/$(APP)_$(OS)_$(ARCH)$(EXT) ./cmd/$(APP);)

clean:
	rm -rf dist/

Version Embedding

Goversion-variables-in-main.go.go

28 linesLn 1, Col 1Go

Checksums and Archives

Generate archives and checksums


#!/usr/bin/env bash
# scripts/package.sh
set -euo pipefail

APP=tasker
VERSION=${1:-dev}
DIST=dist

mkdir -p "$DIST"

for binary in "$DIST"/${APP}_*; do
  base=$(basename "$binary")
  if [[ "$base" == *windows* ]]; then
    zip -j "$DIST/${base%.exe}.zip" "$binary"
  else
    tar -czf "$DIST/${base}.tar.gz" -C "$DIST" "$(basename "$binary")"
  fi
done

# Generate checksums file
cd "$DIST"
sha256sum *.tar.gz *.zip 2>/dev/null > checksums.txt || sha256sum *.tar.gz > checksums.txt
cat checksums.txt

Stripping debug symbols for smaller binaries

The -s -w flags in ldflags strip the symbol table (-s) and DWARF debug info (-w). This reduces binary size by 20-30% with no impact on functionality. Only omit them if you need to attach Delve to a production binary.

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Stage 1 · Code

Capstone — Ship a Real Tool