Add version info in Go projects

08 Jan, 2021 Go offers a nice way to specify version information at compile time using the -ldflags flag in go build command.

How to use it effectively ?

Just declare a -v flag in your application using the flag package

// yourapp.go
import (
    "os"
    "flag"
)

var AppVersion string = "dev"

func main() {

    Version := flag.Bool("v", false, "Prints Current AreYouOk Version")
    if *Version {
      fmt.Println(AppVersion)
      os.Exit(0)
    }
}

Now compile this & provide the value for AppVersion variable at compile time

go build -ldflags="-X 'main.AppVersion=v1.0.0'"

Test if it works by running ./yourapp -v