The go run tool

The go run tool is similar to go build in that it compiles your Go code. However, the subtle difference is that go build will output a binary file that you can execute, whereas the go run tool doesn’t create a binary file that you need to execute. It compiles the code and runs it in a single step, with no binary file output in the end. This can be useful if you want to quickly check that your code does what you expect it to do, without the need to create and run a binary file. This would be commonly used when you’re testing your code so that you can run it quickly without needing to create a binary to execute.

Exercise 20.02 – using the go run tool

In this exercise, you will learn about the go run tool. This is used as a shortcut to compile and run your code in a single step, which is useful if you want to quickly check that your code works. To use it, run the go run tool on the command line in the following format:

go run source_file.go...