Go (Golang) .gitignore Configuration

Go projects tend to have a simpler .gitignore than most languages because Go does not generate bytecode caches or require virtual environments. However, there are still important patterns to understand.

Essential Go ignore patterns:

# Compiled binaries
*.exe
*.exe~
*.dll
*.so
*.dylib

# Test binary and output
*.test
*.out
coverage.html
coverage.txt

# Build output
/bin/
/dist/

# Go workspace
go.work.sum

# Dependency directory
vendor/

Compiled binaries:

Go compiles to native machine code — there is no node_modules or __pycache__ equivalent. The output is a single binary file. If your project is named myapp, running go build produces a myapp (or myapp.exe on Windows) binary. Ignore these with explicit names or place build output in a bin/ directory.

The vendor/ directory decision:

Go modules (go.mod + go.sum) replaced the old GOPATH and vendoring approach. Today you have two legitimate choices:

1. Ignore vendor/ (modern default) — Dependencies are cached in $GOPATH/pkg/mod/ and downloaded via go mod download. The go.sum file ensures integrity. This is cleaner and recommended for most projects.
2. Commit vendor/ — Some organizations require vendoring for air-gapped environments or to ensure builds work even if a module is deleted from the internet. If vendoring, do NOT add vendor/ to .gitignore.

Test artifacts:

• *.test — Compiled test binaries created by go test -c.
• *.out — CPU and memory profiling output from go test -cpuprofile or go tool pprof.
• coverage.html — HTML coverage reports from go tool cover.

What to always commit:

• go.mod — Module definition and direct dependency declarations.
• go.sum — Cryptographic checksums of all dependencies (direct and transitive). This is your lockfile.

Pro tip: Go builds are hermetic by design. With go.mod and go.sum committed, anyone can reproduce your build exactly. The .gitignore mainly just keeps compiled binaries and test output out of the repo.