go-mingw

Docker image for building Go binaries for Windows with MinGW-w64 toolchain based on official Go Docker image.

Image provides simple cross-compilation environment for windows 32 and 64bit builds.

Supports Windows on Arm!

Supported Architectures

Here is a list of supported host and target architectures:

Host Architecture	Win x86	Win x86-64	Win Arm
arm64 / aarch64	✅	✅	✅
amd64	✅	✅	✅

Usage

You can pull Docker image with desired Go version:

docker pull x1unix/go-mingw:latest # or "1.22" for specific Go version

# Or if you prefer to use GHCR:
docker pull ghcr.io/x1unix/docker-go-mingw/go-mingw:1.22

Tip

Please take a look at examples before starting to work.

Using on CI/CD

Examples for GitLab CI and GitHub Actions are available here

Building Go applications inside container

Mount directory with app source and build it:

docker run --rm -it -v /YourPackageSrc:/go/work \
    -w /go/work \
    x1unix/go-mingw go build .

You will get compiled Windows binary.

Windows On Arm

Set GOARCH=arm64 to build ARM Windows binary:

docker run --rm -it -e GOARCH=arm64 -v /YourPackageSrc:/go/work \
    -w /go/work \
    x1unix/go-mingw go build .

For 32-bit toolchain

To build a 32-bit executable, set GOARCH=386 variable:

docker run --rm -it -e GOARCH=386 -v /YourPackageSrc:/go/work \
    -w /go/work \
    x1unix/go-mingw go build .

Tip

See check project build examples here.

Go linker flags override

Go linker and compiler flags can be specified using container environment variables via -e option.

Example:

docker exec -it
    -e LDFLAGS="-linkmode external -extldflags '-static -s -w'"
    ...

Output files ownership

By default, Go container starts as a root user. It means, that all produced files will be owned by root:root user.

To set files to be owned by your current user by default, start the container with your current uid/gid.

Use -u flag to start container with different user/group id.

# Start container as other uid/gid
docker exec --rm -it -u "$UID:$GID" ...

Important

For non-root container user, it is recommended to mount your host GOPATH and GOCACHE.

Go Build Cache

In order to speed up build times and keep Go build cache, it is recommended to mount local Go build cache directory or create a separate Docker volume for it.

Mounting local GOPATH:

docker run --rm -it \
    -u $UID \
    -v /YourPackageSrc:/go/work \
    -v $(go env GOCACHE):/go/cache \
    -e GOCACHE=/go/cache \
    -w /go/work \
    x1unix/go-mingw go build .

Using Docker volume:

# Create Docker volume
docker volume create go-cache

# Run container with attached volume
docker run --rm -it \
    -v /YourPackageSrc:/go/work \
    -v go-cache:/go/cache \
    -e GOCACHE=/go/cache \
    -w /go/work \
    x1unix/go-mingw go build .

Tip

See Docker volumes docs for more info.

Go modules cache

In addition to Go build cache, you may also want to mount Go modules cache to avoid modules re-download on each build.

To do this, mount your GOPATH or Go modules directory ($GOPATH/pkg).

Building custom Docker image

Docker image can be rebuilt locally with a desired Go version:

make image GO_VERSION=1.20

Important

Replace 1.20 with desired Go version.

Credits

• llvm-mingw for Windows on Arm support.
• mingw-w64 - for Windows on x86 and amd64 support.
• The Go maintainers.