goreleasing

Goreleasing is the practice of using the Goreleaser release automation tool to package and publish Go-based software releases. It aims to standardize release artifacts across multiple platforms, facilitate cross-compilation, and automate publishing to release hosting services, typically as part of a continuous integration and deployment workflow.

Goreleaser is an open source project maintained by the GoReleaser community. It operates through a configuration file, usually named .goreleaser.yaml, which describes builds, archives, checksums, and release artifacts. The tool supports building binaries for multiple operating systems and architectures, including Windows, macOS, and Linux on common CPU targets, and can also create archives or distribution formats such as tarballs and zip files.

In a typical workflow, a project maintainer pushes a tagged release or triggers a CI workflow. Goreleaser then performs the building, packaging, and release publishing steps, generating release assets and uploading them to hosting services such as GitHub Releases, GitLab Releases, or various object stores (e.g., S3, GCS). It can also generate release notes, create checksums, and optionally sign artifacts. Some configurations enable additional tasks such as creating Homebrew formulae or Docker images.

Usage generally involves installing Goreleaser, configuring the release file, and running a command such as goreleaser release. A snapshot mode may be used for non-tag builds, and a clean option can remove prior artifacts. Goreleasing is widely adopted in the Go ecosystem to streamline and standardize software distribution.