setup-go/README.md

# setup-go

[![Basic validation](https://github.com/actions/setup-go/actions/workflows/basic-validation.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/actions/setup-go/actions/workflows/basic-validation.yml)
[![Validate 'setup-go'](https://github.com/actions/setup-go/actions/workflows/versions.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/actions/setup-go/actions/workflows/versions.yml)

This action sets up a go environment for use in actions by:

- Optionally downloading and caching a version of Go by version and adding to `PATH`.
- Registering problem matchers for error output.

# Breaking changes in V6

- Improve toolchain handling to ensure more reliable and consistent toolchain selection and management.
- Upgraded from node20 to node24.
  > Make sure your runner is on version v2.327.1 or later to ensure compatibility with this release. [See Release Notes](https://github.com/actions/runner/releases/tag/v2.327.1)

For more details,  see the full release notes on the [releases page](https://github.com/actions/setup-go/releases/tag/v6.0.0)

# V5

The V5 edition of the action offers:

- Upgraded Node.js runtime from node16 to node20

See full release notes on the [releases page](https://github.com/actions/setup-go/releases).

The action will first check the local cache for a version match. If a version is not found locally, it will pull it from
the `main` branch of the [go-versions](https://github.com/actions/go-versions/blob/main/versions-manifest.json)
repository. On miss or failure, it will fall back to downloading directly
from [go dist](https://go.dev/dl). To change the default behavior, please use
the [check-latest input](#check-latest-version).

**Note:** The `setup-go` action uses executable binaries which are built by Golang side. The action does not build
golang from source code.

Matching by [semver spec](https://github.com/npm/node-semver):

```yaml
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v5
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '^1.13.1' # The Go version to download (if necessary) and use.
  - run: go version
```

```yaml
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v5
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '>=1.17.0'
  - run: go version
```

> **Note**: Due to the peculiarities of YAML parsing, it is recommended to wrap the version in single quotation marks:
>
> ```yaml
>   go-version: '1.20'
> ```
>
> The recommendation is based on the YAML parser's behavior, which interprets non-wrapped values as numbers and, in the case of version 1.20, trims it down to 1.2, which may not be very obvious.

Matching an unstable pre-release:

```yaml
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v5
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '1.18.0-rc.1' # The Go version to download (if necessary) and use.
  - run: go version
```

```yaml
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v5
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '1.16.0-beta.1' # The Go version to download (if necessary) and use.
  - run: go version
```

# Usage

See [action.yml](action.yml)

## Basic

```yaml
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v5
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '1.16.1' # The Go version to download (if necessary) and use.
  - run: go run hello.go
```

## Check latest version

The `check-latest` flag defaults to `false`. Use the default or set `check-latest` to `false` if you prefer stability
and if you want to ensure a specific Go version is always used.

If `check-latest` is set to `true`, the action first checks if the cached version is the latest one. If the locally
cached version is not the most up-to-date, a Go version will then be downloaded. Set `check-latest` to `true` if you
want the most up-to-date Go version to always be used.

> Setting `check-latest` to `true` has performance implications as downloading Go versions is slower than using cached
> versions.

```yaml
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v5
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '1.14'
      check-latest: true
  - run: go run hello.go
```

## Using stable/oldstable aliases

If `stable` is provided, action will get the latest stable version from
the [`go-versions`](https://github.com/actions/go-versions/blob/main/versions-manifest.json) repository manifest.

If `oldstable` is provided, when current release is 1.19.x, action will resolve version as 1.18.x, where x is the latest
patch release.

**Note:** using these aliases will result in same version as using corresponding minor release with `check-latest` input
set to `true`

```yaml
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v5
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: 'stable'
  - run: go run hello.go
```

```yaml
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v5
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: 'oldstable'
  - run: go run hello.go
```

## Caching dependency files and build outputs:

The action has a built-in functionality for caching and restoring go modules and build outputs. It
uses [toolkit/cache](https://github.com/actions/toolkit/tree/main/packages/cache) under the hood but requires less configuration settings.
The `cache` input is optional, and caching is turned on by default.

The action defaults to search for the dependency file - go.sum in the repository root, and uses its hash as a part of
the cache key. Use `cache-dependency-path` input for cases when multiple dependency files are used, or they are located
in different subdirectories. The input supports glob patterns.

If some problem that prevents success caching happens then the action issues the warning in the log and continues the execution of the pipeline.

**Caching in monorepos**

```yaml
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v5
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '1.17'
      check-latest: true
      cache-dependency-path: |
             subdir/go.sum
             tools/go.sum
    # cache-dependency-path: "**/*.sum"

  - run: go run hello.go
  ```
**Restore-Only Cache**

```yaml
## In some workflows, you may want to restore a cache without saving it. This can help reduce cache writes and storage usage in workflows that only need to read from cache
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest]

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v5

      - name: Setup Go
        id: setup-go
        uses: actions/setup-go@v6
        with:
          go-version: '1.24'
          cache: false

      - name: Set Go cache variables (Linux/macOS)
        if: runner.os != 'Windows'
        run: |
          echo "GO_MOD_CACHE=$(go env GOMODCACHE)" >> $GITHUB_ENV
          echo "GO_BUILD_CACHE=$(go env GOCACHE)" >> $GITHUB_ENV
      - name: Set Go cache variables (Windows)
        if: runner.os == 'Windows'
        shell: pwsh
        run: |
          echo "GO_MOD_CACHE=$(go env GOMODCACHE)" | Out-File $env:GITHUB_ENV -Append
          echo "GO_BUILD_CACHE=$(go env GOCACHE)"   | Out-File $env:GITHUB_ENV -Append
      - name: Save lowercase arch (POSIX)
        if: runner.os != 'Windows'
        run: echo "ARCH=$(echo '${{ runner.arch }}' | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')" >> $GITHUB_ENV

      - name: Save lowercase arch (Windows)
        if: runner.os == 'Windows'
        shell: pwsh
        run: |
          $arch = "${{ runner.arch }}".ToLower()
          echo "ARCH=$arch" | Out-File $env:GITHUB_ENV -Append
      - name: Set cache OS suffix (Ubuntu only)
        if: runner.os == 'Linux'
        run: echo "CACHE_OS_SUFFIX=$ImageOS-" >> $GITHUB_ENV

      - name: Restore Go cache
        id: go-cache
        uses: actions/cache/restore@v4
        with:
          path: |
            ${{ env.GO_MOD_CACHE }}
            ${{ env.GO_BUILD_CACHE }}
          key: setup-go-${{ runner.os }}-${{ env.ARCH }}-${{ env.CACHE_OS_SUFFIX }}go-${{ steps.setup-go.outputs.go-version }}-${{ hashFiles('**/go.sum') }}

      - name: Download modules
        run: go mod download

      - name: Build
        run: go build ./...
```

> If there are several builds on the same repo it might make sense to create a cache in one build and use it in the
others. The action [actions/cache/restore](https://github.com/actions/cache/tree/main/restore#only-restore-cache)
should be used in this case.

## Getting go version from the go.mod file

The `go-version-file` input accepts a path to a `go.mod` file, `.tool-versions` file or a `go.work`
file that contains the version of Go to be used by a project. The version taken
from thils file will be:

  - The version from the `toolchain` directive, if there is one, otherwise
  - The version from the `go` directive

The version can specify a patch version or omit it altogether (e.g., `go 1.22.0` or `go 1.22`).

If a patch version is specified, that specific patch version will be used.  
If no patch version is specified, it will search for the latest available patch version in the cache,
[versions-manifest.json](https://github.com/actions/go-versions/blob/main/versions-manifest.json), and the
[official Go language website](https://golang.org/dl/?mode=json&include=all), in that order.

If both the `go-version` and the `go-version-file` inputs are provided then the `go-version` input is used.
> The action will search for the `go.mod` file relative to the repository root

```yaml
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v5
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version-file: 'path/to/go.mod'
  - run: go version
```
```yaml
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v5
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version-file: '.tool-versions'
  - run: go version
```
> The [.tool-versions file](https://asdf-vm.com/manage/configuration.html#tool-versions) supports version specifications in accordance with asdf standards, adhering to Semantic Versioning ([semver](https://semver.org)).

## Matrix testing

```yaml
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        go: [ '1.14', '1.13' ]
    name: Go ${{ matrix.go }} sample
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v5
      - name: Setup go
        uses: actions/setup-go@v6
        with:
          go-version: ${{ matrix.go }}
      - run: go run hello.go
```

### Supported version syntax

The `go-version` input supports the following syntax:

- Specific versions: `1.15`, `1.16.1`, `1.17.0-rc.2`, `1.16.0-beta.1`
- SemVer's version range syntax: `^1.13.1`, `>=1.18.0-rc.1`

For more information about semantic versioning, please refer to [semver](https://github.com/npm/node-semver)
documentation.

## Using `setup-go` on GHES

`setup-go` comes pre-installed on the appliance with GHES if Actions is enabled.
When dynamically downloading Go distributions, `setup-go` downloads distributions from [`actions/go-versions`](https://github.com/actions/go-versions) on github.com (outside of the appliance).

These calls to `actions/go-versions` are made via unauthenticated requests, which are limited to [60 requests per hour per IP](https://docs.github.com/en/rest/overview/resources-in-the-rest-api#rate-limiting).
If more requests are made within the time frame, then the action leverages the `raw API` to retrieve the version-manifest. This approach does not impose a rate limit and hence facilitates unrestricted consumption. This is particularly beneficial for GHES runners, which often share the same IP, to avoid the quick exhaustion of the unauthenticated rate limit.
If that fails as well the action will try to download versions directly from https://go.dev/dl.

If that fails as well you can get a higher rate limit with [generating a personal access token on github.com](https://github.com/settings/tokens/new) and passing it as the `token` input to the action:

```yaml
uses: actions/setup-go@v6
with:
  token: ${{ secrets.GH_DOTCOM_TOKEN }}
  go-version: '1.18'
```

If the runner is not able to access github.com, any Go versions requested during a workflow run must come from the runner's tool cache.
See "[Setting up the tool cache on self-hosted runners without internet access](https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.2/admin/github-actions/managing-access-to-actions-from-githubcom/setting-up-the-tool-cache-on-self-hosted-runners-without-internet-access)"
for more information.

## Recommended permissions

When using the `setup-go` action in your GitHub Actions workflow, it is recommended to set the following permissions to ensure proper functionality:

```yaml
permissions:
  contents: read # access to check out code and install dependencies
```

# License

The scripts and documentation in this project are released under the [MIT License](LICENSE)

# Contributions

Contributions are welcome! See [Contributor's Guide](docs/contributors.md)

## Code of Conduct

:wave: Be nice. See [our code of conduct](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md)