genversioninfo

genversioninfo

genversioninfo is a Go module designed to be used with go generate to automatically gather build metadata (Git tags, hashes, Go version, etc.) and generate version information for your application.

Features

• Generates Go files with version constants (no runtime parsing)
• Supports Cobra CLI integration (cmd/version.go)
• Supports plain Go version file (version/version.go)
• Supports internal package version file (internal/version/version.go)
• Secure git command execution with safeexec
• HMAC-SHA256 build hash for unique build identification

Installation

go get github.com/inovacc/genversioninfo

Usage

Simple API

//go:build ignore

package main

import "github.com/inovacc/genversioninfo"

func main() {
    // Generate Cobra-integrated cmd/version.go
    genversioninfo.GenWithCobraCLI()

    // Generate plain version/version.go
    genversioninfo.GenWithRawVersion()

    // Generate internal/version/version.go
    genversioninfo.GenWithInternalVersion()
}

1. Create a generator script

Create scripts/genversion.go in your project:

//go:build ignore

package main

import "github.com/inovacc/genversioninfo"

func main() {
    if err := genversioninfo.GenWithCobraCLI(); err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
}

2. Add go:generate directive

Add to your main.go:

//go:generate go run scripts/genversion.go

3. Run the generator

go generate ./...

Generated Files

Generated Command

With GenWithCobraCLI(), use the version command:

yourapp version

Output:

Version:    v1.0.0
Git Hash:   a1b2c3d4e5f6...
Build Time: 2023-10-27T10:00:00Z
Build Hash: 8e1c858269c4...
Go Version: go1.21.3
OS/Arch:    linux/amd64

JSON output:

yourapp version --json

How it works

• Version: Reads from git tag (git describe --tags) or falls back to dev
• Git Hash: From git rev-parse HEAD
• Build Hash: HMAC-SHA256 hash of all metadata for unique build identification
• Constants: All version info is generated as Go constants at generation time

Examples

See the example/ directory:

• example/cobra/ - Cobra CLI integration (cmd/version.go)
• example/raw/ - Plain version file (version/version.go)
• example/internal/ - Internal package version (internal/version/version.go)

Roadmap

• Add support for custom output paths
• Add support for custom package names in generated files
• Add ldflags injection support as alternative to embed
• Add support for monorepo (multiple VERSION files)
• Add pre-commit hook integration
• Add GitHub Actions workflow template

License

MIT License - see LICENSE