Mastering Makefiles for Go Projects: A Complete Backend Development Guide

1. Prerequisites

Familiar with Makefile

Familiar with Go projects

During development you often need to compile, run, test, format, and check code. While you can run go build, go run, etc., a Makefile can automate these tasks.

2. Makefile Syntax

PROJECT="example"

default:
    echo ${PROJECT}

install:
    @govendor sync -v

test: install
    @go test ./...

.PHONY: default install test

Running make, make install, or make test executes the corresponding commands.

The basic format is:

<target> : <prerequisites>
    <tab><commands>

target – the custom command name

prerequisites – commands run before the target

commands – the actual shell commands

.PHONY – declares phony targets

First target is the default

@ suppresses command echo

# starts a comment

${val} references a variable

Wildcards are allowed

3. Go Project Commands

Typical Go commands include:

go vet – static analysis

go test – unit testing

go fmt – formatting

go build – compilation

go run – execution

A Makefile for a Go project should provide targets such as:

make default – build

make fmt – format

make vet – static check

make test – run tests

make install – download dependencies

make clean – remove binaries

Example full Makefile:

BINARY="example"
VERSION=1.0.0
BUILD=`date +%FT%T%z`

PACKAGES=`go list ./... | grep -v /vendor/`
VETPACKAGES=`go list ./... | grep -v /vendor/ | grep -v /examples/`
GOFILES=`find . -name "*.go" -type f -not -path "./vendor/*"`

default:
    @go build -o ${BINARY} -tags=jsoniter

list:
    @echo ${PACKAGES}
    @echo ${VETPACKAGES}
    @echo ${GOFILES}

fmt:
    @gofmt -s -w ${GOFILES}

fmt-check:
    @diff=$(gofmt -s -d $(GOFILES)); \
    if [ -n "$diff" ]; then \
        echo "Please run 'make fmt' and commit the result:"; \
        echo "$diff"; \
        exit 1; \
    fi

install:
    @govendor sync -v

test:
    @go test -cpu=1,2,4 -v -tags integration ./...

vet:
    @go vet $(VETPACKAGES)

docker:
    @docker build -t wuxiaoxiaoshen/example:latest .

clean:
    @if [ -f ${BINARY} ]; then rm ${BINARY}; fi

.PHONY: default fmt fmt-check install test vet docker clean

4. Additional Notes

Makefiles simplify build automation and are often integrated with CI/CD pipelines, such as Travis CI, to run tests, static checks, and build Docker images automatically.

Source: https://juejin.cn/post/6844903806971412494