2 "Title": "Go 1.21 Release Notes",
7 NOTE: In this document and others in this directory, the convention is to
8 set fixed-width phrases with non-fixed-width spaces, as in
9 <code>hello</code> <code>world</code>.
10 Do not send CLs removing the interior tags from such phrases.
14 main ul li { margin: 0.5em 0; }
17 <h2 id="introduction">DRAFT RELEASE NOTES — Introduction to Go 1.21</h2>
21 Go 1.21 is not yet released. These are work-in-progress
22 release notes. Go 1.21 is expected to be released in August 2023.
27 The latest Go release, version 1.21, arrives six months after <a href="/doc/go1.20">Go 1.20</a>.
28 Most of its changes are in the implementation of the toolchain, runtime, and libraries.
29 As always, the release maintains the Go 1 <a href="/doc/go1compat">promise of compatibility</a>;
30 in fact, Go 1.21 <a href="#godebug">improves upon that promise</a>.
31 We expect almost all Go programs to continue to compile and run as before.
35 Go 1.21 introduces a small change to the numbering of releases.
36 In the past, we used Go 1.<i>N</i> to refer to both the overall Go language version and release family
37 as well as the first release in that family.
38 Starting in Go 1.21, the first release is now Go 1.<i>N</i>.0.
39 Today we are releasing both the Go 1.21 language and its initial implementation, the Go 1.21.0 release.
40 These notes refer to “Go 1.21”; tools like <code>go</code> <code>version</code> will report “<code>go1.21.0</code>”
41 (until you upgrade to Go 1.21.1).
42 See “<a href="/doc/toolchain#versions">Go versions</a>” in the “Go Toolchains” documentation for details
43 about the new version numbering.
46 <h2 id="language">Changes to the language</h2>
49 Go 1.21 adds three new built-ins to the language.
52 <li><!-- https://go.dev/issue/59488 -->
53 The new functions <code>min</code> and <code>max</code> compute the
54 smallest (or largest, for <code>max</code>) value of a fixed number
56 See the language spec for
57 <a href="https://tip.golang.org/ref/spec#Min_and_max">details</a>.
59 <li><!-- https://go.dev/issue/56351 -->
60 The new function <code>clear</code> deletes all elements from a
61 map or zeroes all elements of a slice.
62 See the language spec for
63 <a href="https://tip.golang.org/ref/spec#Clear">details</a>.
68 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/57411 -->
69 Package initialization order is now specified more precisely. The
73 Sort all packages by import path.
75 <li>Repeat until the list of packages is empty:
78 Find the first package in the list for which all imports are
82 Initialize that package and remove it from the list.
87 This may change the behavior of some programs that rely on a
88 specific initialization ordering that was not expressed by explicit
89 imports. The behavior of such programs was not well defined by the
90 spec in past releases. The new rule provides an unambiguous definition.
94 Multiple improvements that increase the power and precision of type inference have been made.
97 <li><!-- https://go.dev/issue/59338 -->
98 A (possibly partially instantiated generic) function may now be called with arguments that are
99 themselves (possibly partially instantiated) generic functions.
100 The compiler will attempt to infer the missing type arguments of the callee (as before) and,
101 for each argument that is a generic function that is not fully instantiated,
102 its missing type arguments (new).
103 Typical use cases are calls to generic functions operating on containers
104 (such as <a href="/pkg/slices#IndexFunc">slices.IndexFunc</a>) where a function argument
105 may also be generic, and where the type argument of the called function and its arguments
106 are inferred from the container type.
107 More generally, a generic function may now be used without explicit instantiation when
108 it is assigned to a variable or returned as a result value if the type arguments can
109 be inferred from the assignment.
111 <li><!-- https://go.dev/issue/60353, https://go.dev/issue/57192, https://go.dev/issue/52397, https://go.dev/issue/41176 -->
112 Type inference now also considers methods when a value is assigned to an interface:
113 type arguments for type parameters used in method signatures may be inferred from
114 the corresponding parameter types of matching methods.
116 <li><!-- https://go.dev/issue/51593 https://go.dev/issue/39661 -->
117 Similarly, since a type argument must implement all the methods of its corresponding constraint,
118 the methods of the type argument and constraint are matched which may lead to the inference of
119 additional type arguments.
121 <li><!-- https://go.dev/issue/58671 -->
122 If multiple untyped constant arguments of different kinds (such as an untyped int and
123 an untyped floating-point constant) are passed to parameters with the same (not otherwise
124 specified) type parameter type, instead of an error, now type inference determines the
125 type using the same approach as an operator with untyped constant operands.
126 This change brings the types inferred from untyped constant arguments in line with the
127 types of constant expressions.
129 <li><!-- https://go.dev/issue/59750 -->
130 Type inference is now precise when matching corresponding types in assignments:
131 component types (such as the the elements of slices, or the parameter types in function signatures)
132 must be identical (given suitable type arguments) to match, otherwise inference fails.
133 This change produces more accurate error messages:
134 where in the past type inference may have succeeded incorrectly and lead to an invalid assignment,
135 the compiler now reports an inference error if two types can't possibly match.
139 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/58650 -->
140 More generally, the description of
141 <a href="https://tip.golang.org/ref/spec#Type_inference">type inference</a>
142 in the language spec has been clarified.
143 Together, all these changes make type inference more powerful and inference failures less surprising.
146 <!-- https://go.dev/issue/57969 -->
148 Go 1.21 includes a preview of a language change we are considering for a future version of Go:
149 making for loop variables per-iteration instead of per-loop, to avoid accidental sharing bugs.
150 For details about how to try that language change, see <a href="https://go.dev/wiki/LoopvarExperiment">the LoopvarExperiment wiki page</a>.
154 TODO: complete this section
157 <h2 id="tools">Tools</h2>
159 Go 1.21 adds improved support for backwards compatibility and forwards compatibility
163 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/56986 -->
164 To improve backwards compatibility, Go 1.21 formalizes
165 Go's use of the GODEBUG environment variable to control
166 the default behavior for changes that are non-breaking according to the
167 <a href="/doc/go1compat">compatibility policy</a>
168 but nonetheless may cause existing programs to break.
169 (For example, programs that depend on buggy behavior may break
170 when a bug is fixed, but bug fixes are not considered breaking changes.)
171 When Go must make this kind of behavior change,
172 it now chooses between the old and new behavior based on the
173 <code>go</code> line in the workspace's <code>go.work</code> file
174 or else the main module's <code>go.mod</code> file.
175 Upgrading to a new Go toolchain but leaving the <code>go</code> line
176 set to its original (older) Go version preserves the behavior of the older
178 With this compatibility support, the latest Go toolchain should always
179 be the best, most secure, implementation of an older version of Go.
180 See “<a href="/doc/godebug">Go, Backwards Compatibility, and GODEBUG</a>” for details.
183 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/57001 -->
184 To improve forwards compatibility, Go 1.21 now reads the <code>go</code> line
185 in a <code>go.work</code> or <code>go.mod</code> file as a strict
186 minimum requirement: <code>go</code> <code>1.21.0</code> means
187 that the workspace or module cannot be used with Go 1.20 or with Go 1.21rc1.
188 This allows projects that depend on fixes made in later versions of Go
189 to ensure that they are not used with earlier versions.
190 It also gives better error reporting for projects that make use of new Go features:
191 when the problem is that a newer Go version is needed,
192 that problem is reported clearly, instead of attempting to build the code
193 and instead printing errors about unresolved imports or syntax errors.
197 To make these new stricter version requirements easier to manage,
198 the <code>go</code> command can now invoke not just the toolchain
199 bundled in its own release but also other Go toolchain versions found in the PATH
200 or downloaded on demand.
201 If a <code>go.mod</code> or <code>go.work</code> <code>go</code> line
202 declares a minimum requirement on a newer version of Go, the <code>go</code>
203 command will find and run that version automatically.
204 The new <code>toolchain</code> directive sets a suggested minimum toolchain to use,
205 which may be newer than the strict <code>go</code> minimum.
206 See “<a href="/doc/toolchain">Go Toolchains</a>” for details.
209 <h3 id="go-command">Go command</h3>
211 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/58099, CL 474236 -->
212 The <code>-pgo</code> build flag now defaults to <code>-pgo=auto</code>,
213 and the restriction of specifying a single main package on the command
214 line is now removed. If a file named <code>default.pgo</code> is present
215 in the main package's directory, the <code>go</code> command will use
216 it to enable profile-guided optimization for building the corresponding
221 The <code>-C</code> <code>dir</code> flag must now be the first
222 flag on the command-line when used.
225 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/37708, CL 463837 -->
226 The new <code>go</code> <code>test</code> option
227 <code>-fullpath</code> prints full path names in test log messages,
228 rather than just base names.
231 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/15513, CL 466397 -->
232 The <code>go</code> <code>test</code> <code>-c</code> flag now
233 supports writing test binaries for multiple packages, each to
234 <code>pkg.test</code> where <code>pkg</code> is the package name.
235 It is an error if more than one test package being compiled has a given package name.]
238 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/15513, CL 466397 -->
239 The <code>go</code> <code>test</code> <code>-o</code> flag now
240 accepts a directory argument, in which case test binaries are written to that
241 directory instead of the current directory.
244 <h3 id="cgo">Cgo</h3>
246 <p><!-- CL 490819 -->
247 In files that <code>import "C"</code>, the Go toolchain now
248 correctly reports errors for attempts to declare Go methods on C types.
251 <h2 id="runtime-changes">Runtime</h2>
254 TODO: complete this section, or delete if not needed
257 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/7181 -->
258 When printing very deep stacks, the runtime now prints the first 50
259 (innermost) frames followed by the bottom 50 (outermost) frames,
260 rather than just printing the first 100 frames. This makes it easier
261 to see how deeply recursive stacks started, and is especially
262 valuable for debugging stack overflows.
265 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/59960 -->
266 On Linux platforms that support transparent huge pages, the Go runtime
267 now manages which parts of the heap may be backed by huge pages more
268 explicitly. This leads to better utilization of memory: small heaps
269 should see less memory used (up to 50% in pathological cases) while
270 large heaps should see fewer broken huge pages for dense parts of the
271 heap, improving CPU usage and latency by up to 1%.
274 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/57069, https://go.dev/issue/56966 -->
275 As a result of runtime-internal garbage collection tuning,
276 applications may see up to a 40% reduction in application tail latency
277 and a small decrease in memory use. Some applications may also observe
278 a small loss in throughput.
280 The memory use decrease should be proportional to the loss in
281 throughput, such that the previous release's throughput/memory
282 tradeoff may be recovered (with little change to latency) by
283 increasing <code>GOGC</code> and/or <code>GOMEMLIMIT</code> slightly.
286 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/51676 -->
287 Calls from C to Go on threads created in C require some setup to prepare for
288 Go execution. On Unix platforms, this setup is now preserved across multiple
289 calls from the same thread. This significantly reduces the overhead of
290 subsequent C to Go calls from ~1-3 microseconds per call to ~100-200
291 nanoseconds per call.
294 <h2 id="compiler">Compiler</h2>
297 Profile-guide optimization (PGO), added as a preview in Go 1.20, is now ready
298 for general use. PGO enables additional optimizations on code identified as
299 hot by profiles of production workloads. As mentioned in the
300 <a href="#go-command">Go command section</a>, PGO is enabled by default for
301 binaries that contain a <code>default.pgo</code> profile in the main
302 package directory. Performance improvements vary depending on application
303 behavior, with most programs from a representative set of Go programs seeing
304 between 2 and 7% improvement from enabling PGO. See the
305 <a href="/doc/pgo">PGO user guide</a> for detailed documentation.
308 <!-- https://go.dev/issue/59959 -->
310 PGO builds can now devirtualize some interface method calls, adding a
311 concrete call to the most common callee. This enables further optimization,
312 such as inlining the callee.
316 TODO: complete this section, or delete if not needed
319 <h2 id="assembler">Assembler</h2>
323 The verifier that checks for incorrect uses of <code>R15</code> when dynamic linking on amd64 has been improved.
326 <h2 id="linker">Linker</h2>
328 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/57302, CL 461749 -->
329 On Windows AMD64, the linker (with help from the compiler) now emits
330 SEH unwinding data by default, which improves the integration
331 of Go applications with Windows debuggers and other tools.
336 <!-- cmd/link: generate .xdata PE section -->
338 <!-- CL 463395, CL 461315 -->
340 In Go 1.21 the linker (with help from the compiler) is now capable of
341 deleting dead (unreferenced) global map variables, if the number of
342 entries in the variable initializer is sufficiently large, and if the
343 initializer expressions are side-effect free.
346 TODO: complete this section, or delete if not needed
349 <h2 id="library">Core library</h2>
351 <h3 id="slog">New log/slog package</h3>
353 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/59060, https://go.dev/issue/59141, https://go.dev/issue/59204, https://go.dev/issue/59280,
354 https://go.dev/issue/59282, https://go.dev/issue/59339, https://go.dev/issue/59345,
355 CL 477295, CL 484096, CL 486376, CL 486415, CL 487855 -->
356 The new <a href="/pkg/log/slog">log/slog</a> package provides structured logging with levels.
357 Structured logging emits key-value pairs
358 to enable fast, accurate processing of large amounts of log data.
359 The package supports integration with popular log analysis tools and services.
362 <h3 id="slogtest">New testing/slogtest package</h3>
364 <p><!-- CL 487895 -->
365 The new <a href="/pkg/testing/slogtest">testing/slogtest</a> package can help
366 to validate <a href="/pkg/log/slog#Handler">slog.Handler</a> implementations.
369 <h3 id="slices">New slices package</h3>
371 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/45955, https://go.dev/issue/54768, https://go.dev/issue/57348, https://go.dev/issue/57433, CL 467417, CL 483175 -->
372 The new <a href="/pkg/slices">slices</a> package provides many common
373 operations on slices, using generic functions that work with slices
377 <h3 id="maps">New maps package</h3>
379 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/57436, CL 464343 -->
380 The new <a href="/pkg/maps/">maps</a> package provides several
381 common operations on maps, using generic functions that work with
382 maps of any key or element type.
385 <h3 id="minor_library_changes">Minor changes to the library</h3>
388 As always, there are various minor changes and updates to the library,
389 made with the Go 1 <a href="/doc/go1compat">promise of compatibility</a>
391 There are also various performance improvements, not enumerated here.
395 TODO: complete this section
398 <dl id="archive/tar"><dt><a href="/pkg/archive/tar/">archive/tar</a></dt>
400 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/54451, CL 491175 -->
401 The implementation of the
402 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FileInfo"><code>io/fs.FileInfo</code></a>
403 interface returned by
404 <a href="/pkg/archive/tar/#Header.FileInfo"><code>Header.FileInfo</code></a>
405 now implements a <code>String</code> method that calls
406 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FormatFileInfo"><code>io/fs.FormatFileInfo</code></a>.
409 </dl><!-- archive/tar -->
411 <dl id="archive/zip"><dt><a href="/pkg/archive/zip/">archive/zip</a></dt>
413 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/54451, CL 491175 -->
414 The implementation of the
415 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FileInfo"><code>io/fs.FileInfo</code></a>
416 interface returned by
417 <a href="/pkg/archive/zip/#FileHeader.FileInfo"><code>FileHeader.FileInfo</code></a>
418 now implements a <code>String</code> method that calls
419 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FormatFileInfo"><code>io/fs.FormatFileInfo</code></a>.
422 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/54451, CL 491175 -->
423 The implementation of the
424 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#DirEntry"><code>io/fs.DirEntry</code></a>
425 interface returned by the
426 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#ReadDirFile.ReadDir"><code>io/fs.ReadDirFile.ReadDir</code></a>
428 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#File"><code>io/fs.File</code></a>
430 <a href="/pkg/archive/zip/#Reader.Open"><code>Reader.Open</code></a>
431 now implements a <code>String</code> method that calls
432 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FormatDirEntry"><code>io/fs.FormatDirEntry</code></a>.
435 </dl><!-- archive/zip -->
437 <dl id="bytes"><dt><a href="/pkg/bytes/">bytes</a></dt>
439 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/53685, CL 474635 -->
440 The <a href="/pkg/bytes/#Buffer"><code>Buffer</code></a> type
442 <a href="/pkg/bytes/#Buffer.Available"><code>Available</code></a>
443 and <a href="/pkg/bytes/#AvailableBuffer"><code>AvailableBuffer</code></a>.
444 These may be used along with the
445 <a href="/pkg/bytes/#Buffer.Write"><code>Write</code></a>
446 method to append directly to the <code>Buffer</code>.
451 <dl id="context"><dt><a href="/pkg/context/">context</a></dt>
453 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/40221, CL 479918 -->
454 The new <a href="/pkg/context/#WithoutCancel"><code>WithoutCancel</code></a>
455 function returns a copy of a context that is not canceled when the original
458 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/56661, CL 449318 -->
459 The new <a href="/pkg/context/#WithDeadlineCause"><code>WithDeadlineCause</code></a>
460 and <a href="/pkg/context/#WithTimeoutCause"><code>WithTimeoutCause</code></a>
461 functions provide a way to set a context cancellation cause when a deadline or
462 timer expires. The cause may be retrieved with the
463 <a href="/pkg/context/#Cause"><code>Cause</code></a> function.
465 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/57928, CL 482695 -->
466 The new <a href="/pkg/context/#AfterFunc"><code>AfterFunc</code></a>
467 function registers a function to run after a context has been cancelled.
472 <dl id="crypto/elliptic"><dt><a href="/pkg/crypto/elliptic/">crypto/elliptic</a></dt>
474 <p><!-- CL 459977 -->
475 All of the <a href="/pkg/crypto/elliptic/#Curve"><code>Curve</code></a> methods have been deprecated, along with <a href="/pkg/crypto/elliptic/#GenerateKey"><code>GenerateKey</code></a>, <a href="/pkg/crypto/elliptic/#Marshal"><code>Marshal</code></a>, and <a href="/pkg/crypto/elliptic/#Unmarshal"><code>Unmarshal</code></a>. For ECDH operations, the new <a href="/pkg/crypto/ecdh/"><code>crypto/ecdh</code></a> package should be used instead.
478 </dl><!-- crypto/elliptic -->
480 <dl id="crypto/rsa"><dt><a href="/pkg/crypto/rsa/">crypto/rsa</a></dt>
482 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/56921, CL 459976 -->
483 The <a href="/pkg/crypto/rsa/#GenerateMultiPrimeKey"><code>GenerateMultiPrimeKey</code></a> function and the <a href="/pkg/crypto/rsa/#PrecomputedValues.CRTValues"><code>PrecomputedValues.CRTValues</code></a> field have been deprecated. <a href="/pkg/crypto/rsa/#PrecomputedValues.CRTValues"><code>PrecomputedValues.CRTValues</code></a> will still be populated when <a href="/pkg/crypto/rsa/#PrivateKey.Precompute"><code>PrivateKey.Precompute</code></a> is called, but the values will not be used during decryption operations.
486 </dl><!-- crypto/rsa -->
488 <dl id="crypto/sha256"><dt><a href="/pkg/crypto/sha256/">crypto/sha256</a></dt>
490 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/50543, CL 408795 -->
491 SHA-224 and SHA-256 operations now use native instructions when available when <code>GOOS=amd64</code>, providing a performance improvement on the order of 3-4x.
494 </dl><!-- crypto/sha256 -->
496 <dl id="crypto/x509"><dt><a href="/pkg/crypto/x509/">crypto/x509</a></dt>
498 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/53573, CL 468875 -->
499 <a href="/pkg/crypto/x509/#RevocationList.RevokedCertificates"><code>RevocationList.RevokedCertificates</code></a> has been deprecated and replaced with the new <a href="/pkg/crypto/x509/#RevocationList.Entries"><code>RevocationList.Entries</code></a> field, which is a slice of <a href="/pkg/crypto/x509/#RevocationListEntry"><code>RevocationListEntry</code></a>. <a href="/pkg/crypto/x509/#RevocationListEntry"><code>RevocationListEntry</code></a> contains all of the fields in <a href="/pkg/crypto/x509/#pkix.RevokedCertificate"><code>pkix.RevokedCertificate</code></a>, as well as the revocation reason code.
502 </dl><!-- crypto/x509 -->
504 <dl id="debug/elf"><dt><a href="/pkg/debug/elf/">debug/elf</a></dt>
506 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/56892, CL 452617 -->
508 <a href="/pkg/debug/elf/#File.DynValue"><code>File.DynValue</code></a>
509 method may be used to retrieve the numeric values listed with a
513 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/56887, CL 452496 -->
514 The constant flags permitted in a <code>DT_FLAGS_1</code>
515 dynamic tag are now defined with type
516 <a href="/pkg/debug/elf/#DynFlag1"><code>DynFlag1</code></a>. These
517 tags have names starting with <code>DF_1</code>.
520 <p><!-- CL 473256 -->
521 The package now defines the constant
522 <a href="/pkg/debug/elf/#COMPRESS_ZSTD"><code>COMPRESS_ZSTD</code></a>.
525 </dl><!-- debug/elf -->
527 <dl id="debug/pe"><dt><a href="/pkg/debug/pe/">debug/pe</a></dt>
529 <p><!-- CL 488475 -->
530 Attempts to read from a section containing uninitialized data
532 <a href="/pkg/debug/pe/#Section.Data"><code>Section.Data</code></a>
533 or the reader returned by <a href="/pkg/debug/pe/#Section.Open"><code>Section.Open</code></a>
537 </dl><!-- debug/pe -->
539 <dl id="embed"><dt><a href="/pkg/embed/">embed</a></dt>
541 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/57803, CL 483235 -->
542 The <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#File"><code>io/fs.File</code></a>
544 <a href="/pkg/embed/#FS.Open"><code>FS.Open</code></a> now
545 has a <code>ReadAt</code> method that
546 implements <a href="/pkg/io/#ReaderAt"><code>io.ReaderAt</code></a>.
549 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/54451, CL 491175 -->
550 Calling <code><a href="/pkg/embed/FS.Open">FS.Open</a>.<a href="/pkg/io/fs/#File.Stat">Stat</a></code>
551 will return a type that now implements a <code>String</code>
553 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FormatFileInfo"><code>io/fs.FormatFileInfo</code></a>.
558 <dl id="errors"><dt><a href="/pkg/errors/">errors</a></dt>
560 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/41198, CL 473935 -->
562 <a href="/pkg/errors/#ErrUnsupported"><code>ErrUnsupported</code></a>
563 error provides a standardized way to indicate that a requested
564 operation may not be performed because it is unsupported.
565 For example, a call to
566 <a href="/pkg/os/#Link"><code>os.Link</code></a> when using a
567 file system that does not support hard links.
572 <dl id="flag"><dt><a href="/pkg/flag/">flag</a></dt>
574 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/53747, CL 476015 -->
575 The new <a href="/pkg/flag/#BoolFunc"><code>BoolFunc</code></a>
577 <a href="/pkg/flag/#FlagSet.BoolFunc"><code>FlagSet.BoolFunc</code></a>
578 method define a flag that does not require an argument and calls
579 a function when the flag is used. This is similar to
580 <a href="/pkg/flag/#Func"><code>Func</code></a> but for a
584 <p><!-- CL 480215 -->
586 (via <a href="/pkg/flag/#Bool"><code>Bool</code></a>,
587 <a href="/pkg/flag/#BoolVar"><code>BoolVar</code></a>,
588 <a href="/pkg/flag/#Int"><code>Int</code></a>,
589 <a href="/pkg/flag/#IntVar"><code>IntVar</code></a>, etc.)
590 will panic if <a href="/pkg/flag/#Set"><code>Set</code></a> has
591 already been called on a flag with the same name. This change is
592 intended to detect cases where <a href="#language">changes in
593 initialization order</a> cause flag operations to occur in a
594 different order than expected. In many cases the fix to this
595 problem is to introduce a explicit package dependence to
596 correctly order the definition before any
597 <a href="/pkg/flag/#Set"><code>Set</code></a> operations.
602 <dl id="go/ast"><dt><a href="/pkg/go/ast/">go/ast</a></dt>
604 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/28089, CL 487935 -->
605 The new <a href="/pkg/go/ast/#IsGenerated"><code>IsGenerated</code></a> predicate
606 reports whether a file syntax tree contains the
607 <a href="https://go.dev/s/generatedcode">special comment</a>
608 that conventionally indicates that the file was generated by a tool.
613 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/59033, CL 476276 -->
615 <a href="/pkg/go/ast/#File.GoVersion"><code>File.GoVersion</code></a>
616 field records the minimum Go version required by
617 any <code>//go:build</code> or <code>// +build</code>
623 <dl id="go/build"><dt><a href="/pkg/go/build/">go/build</a></dt>
625 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/56986, CL 453603 -->
626 The package now parses build directives (comments that start
627 with <code>//go:</code>) in file headers (before
628 the <code>package</code> declaration). These directives are
630 <a href="/pkg/go/build#Package"><code>Package</code></a> fields
631 <a href="/pkg/go/build#Package.Directives"><code>Directives</code></a>,
632 <a href="/pkg/go/build#Package.TestDirectives"><code>TestDirectives</code></a>,
634 <a href="/pkg/go/build#Package.XTestDirectives"><code>XTestDirectives</code></a>.
637 </dl><!-- go/build -->
639 <dl id="go/build/constraint"><dt><a href="/pkg/go/build/constraint/">go/build/constraint</a></dt>
641 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/59033, CL 476275 -->
643 <a href="/pkg/go/build/constraint/#GoVersion"><code>GoVersion</code></a>
644 function returns the minimum Go version implied by a build
648 </dl><!-- go/build/constraint -->
650 <dl id="go/token"><dt><a href="/pkg/go/token/">go/token</a></dt>
652 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/57708, CL 464515 -->
653 The new <a href="/pkg/go/token/#File.Lines"><code>File.Lines</code></a> method
654 returns the file's line-number table in the same form as accepted by
655 <code>File.SetLines</code>.
658 </dl><!-- go/token -->
660 <dl id="hash/maphash"><dt><a href="/pkg/hash/maphash/">hash/maphash</a></dt>
662 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/47342, CL 468795 -->
663 The <code>hash/maphash</code> package now has a pure Go implementation, selectable with the <code>purego</code> build tag.
666 </dl><!-- hash/maphash -->
668 <dl id="io/fs"><dt><a href="/pkg/io/fs/">io/fs</a></dt>
670 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/54451, CL 489555 -->
672 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FormatFileInfo"><code>FormatFileInfo</code></a>
673 function returns a formatted version of a
674 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FileInfo"><code>FileInfo</code></a>.
676 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FormatDirEntry"><code>FormatDirEntry</code></a>
677 function returns a formatted version of a
678 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FileInfo"><code>DirEntry</code></a>.
679 The implementation of
680 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#DirEntry"><code>DirEntry</code></a>
682 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#ReadDir"><code>ReadDir</code></a> now
683 implements a <code>String</code> method that calls
684 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FormatDirEntry"><code>FormatDirEntry</code></a>,
685 and the same is true for
686 the <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#DirEntry"><code>DirEntry</code></a>
688 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#WalkDirFunc"><code>WalkDirFunc</code></a>.
693 <!-- https://go.dev/issue/56491 rolled back -->
694 <!-- CL 459435 reverted -->
695 <!-- CL 467515 reverted -->
697 <dl id="math/big"><dt><a href="/pkg/math/big/">math/big</a></dt>
699 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/56984, CL 453115 -->
700 The new <a href="/pkg/math/big/#Int.Float64"><code>Int.Float64</code></a>
701 method returns the nearest floating-point value to a
702 multi-precision integer, along with an indication of any
703 rounding that occurred.
706 </dl><!-- math/big -->
708 <dl id="net"><dt><a href="/pkg/net/">net</a></dt>
711 <!-- https://go.dev/issue/59166, https://go.dev/issue/56539 -->
712 <!-- CL 471136, CL 471137, CL 471140 -->
713 On Linux, the <a href="/pkg/net/">net</a> package can now use
714 Multipath TCP when the kernel supports it. It is not used by
715 default. To use Multipath TCP when available on a client, call
717 <a href="/pkg/net/#Dialer.SetMultipathTCP"><code>Dialer.SetMultipathTCP</code></a>
718 method before calling the
719 <a href="/pkg/net/#Dialer.Dial"><code>Dialer.Dial</code></a> or
720 <a href="/pkg/net/#Dialer.DialContext"><code>Dialer.DialContext</code></a>
721 methods. To use Multipath TCP when available on a server, call
723 <a href="/pkg/net/#ListenConfig.SetMultipathTCP"><code>ListenConfig.SetMultipathTCP</code></a>
724 method before calling the
725 <a href="/pkg/net/#ListenConfig.Listen"><code>ListenConfig.Listen</code></a>
726 method. Specify the network as <code>"tcp"</code> or
727 <code>"tcp4"</code> or <code>"tcp6"</code> as usual. If
728 Multipath TCP is not supported by the kernel or the remote host,
729 the connection will silently fall back to TCP. To test whether a
730 particular connection is using Multipath TCP, use the
731 <a href="/pkg/net/#TCPConn.MultipathTCP"><code>TCPConn.MultipathTCP</code></a>
735 In a future Go release we may enable Multipath TCP by default on
736 systems that support it.
741 <dl id="net/http"><dt><a href="/pkg/net/http/">net/http</a></dt>
743 <p><!-- CL 472636 -->
744 The new <a href="/pkg/net/http#ResponseController.EnableFullDuplex"><code>ResponseController.EnableFullDuplex</code></a>
745 method allows server handlers to concurrently read from an HTTP/1
746 request body while writing the response. Normally, the HTTP/1 server
747 automatically consumes any remaining request body before starting to
748 write the response, to avoid deadlocking clients which attempt to
749 write a complete request before reading the response. The
750 <code>EnableFullDuplex</code> method disables this behavior.
753 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/44855, CL 382117 -->
754 The new <a href="/pkg/net/http/#ErrSchemeMismatch"><code>ErrSchemeMismatch</code></a> error is returned by <a href="/pkg/net/http/#Client"><code>Client</code></a> and <a href="/pkg/net/http/#Transport"><code>Transport</code></a> when the server responds to an HTTPS request with an HTTP response.
757 <p><!-- CL 494122 -->
758 The <a href="/pkg/net/http/">net/http</a> package now supports
759 <a href="/pkg/errors/#ErrUnsupported"><code>errors.ErrUnsupported</code></a>,
760 in that the expression
761 <code>errors.Is(http.ErrNotSupported, errors.ErrUnsupported)</code>
765 </dl><!-- net/http -->
767 <dl id="os"><dt><a href="/pkg/os/">os</a></dt>
769 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/32558, CL 219638 -->
770 Programs may now pass an empty <code>time.Time</code> value to
771 the <a href="/pkg/os/#Chtimes"><code>Chtimes</code></a> function
772 to leave either the access time or the modification time unchanged.
775 <p><!-- CL 480135 -->
777 <a href="/pkg/os#File.Chdir"><code>File.Chdir</code></a> method
778 now changes the current directory to the file, rather than
779 always returning an error.
782 <p><!-- CL 477215 -->
784 <a href="/pkg/os/#Truncate"><code>Truncate</code></a> on a
785 non-existent file used to create an empty file. It now returns
786 an error indicating that the file does not exist.
789 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/56899, CL 463219 -->
791 <a href="/pkg/os/#TempDir"><code>TempDir</code></a> now uses
792 GetTempPath2W when available, instead of GetTempPathW. The
793 new behavior is a security hardening measure that prevents
794 temporary files created by processes running as SYSTEM to
795 be accessed by non-SYSTEM processes.
798 <p><!-- CL 493036 -->
799 On Windows the os package now supports working with files whose
800 names, stored as UTF-16, can't be represented as valid UTF-8.
803 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/54451, CL 491175 -->
804 The implementation of the
805 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#DirEntry"><code>io/fs.DirEntry</code></a>
806 interface returned by the
807 <a href="/pkg/os/#ReadDir"><code>ReadDir</code></a> function and
808 the <a href="/pkg/os/#File.ReadDir"><code>File.ReadDir</code></a>
809 method now implements a <code>String</code> method that calls
810 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FormatDirEntry"><code>io/fs.FormatDirEntry</code></a>.
813 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/53761, CL 416775, CL 498015-->
814 The implementation of the
815 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FS"><code>io/fs.FS</code></a> interface returned by
816 the <a href="/pkg/os/#DirFS"><code>DirFS</code></a> function now implements
817 the <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#ReadFileFS"><code>io/fs.ReadFileFS</code></a> and
818 the <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#ReadDirFS"><code>io/fs.ReadDirFS</code></a>
824 <dl id="path/filepath"><dt><a href="/pkg/path/filepath/">path/filepath</a></dt>
827 The implementation of the
828 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#DirEntry"><code>io/fs.DirEntry</code></a>
829 interface passed to the function argument of
830 <a href="/pkg/path/filepath/#WalkDir"><code>WalkDir</code></a>
831 now implements a <code>String</code> method that calls
832 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FormatDirEntry"><code>io/fs.FormatDirEntry</code></a>.
835 </dl><!-- path/filepath -->
837 <!-- CL 459455 reverted -->
839 <dl id="reflect"><dt><a href="/pkg/reflect/">reflect</a></dt>
841 <p><!-- CL 408826, CL 413474 -->
842 In Go 1.21, <a href="/pkg/reflect/#ValueOf"><code>ValueOf</code></a>
843 no longer forces its argument to be allocated on the heap, allowing
844 a <code>Value</code>'s content to be allocated on the stack. Most
845 operations on a <code>Value</code> also allow the underlying value
846 to be stack allocated.
849 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/55002 -->
850 The new <a href="/pkg/reflect/#Value"><code>Value</code></a>
851 method <a href="/pkg/reflect/#Value.Clear"><code>Value.Clear</code></a>
852 clears the contents of a map or zeros the contents of a slice.
853 This corresponds to the new <code>clear</code> built-in
854 <a href="#language">added to the language</a>.
857 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/56906, CL 452762 -->
858 The <a href="/pkg/reflect/#SliceHeader"><code>SliceHeader</code></a>
859 and <a href="/pkg/reflect/#StringHeader"><code>StringHeader</code></a>
860 types are now deprecated. In new code
861 prefer <a href="/pkg/unsafe/#Slice"><code>unsafe.Slice</code></a>,
862 <a href="/pkg/unsafe/#SliceData"><code>unsafe.SliceData</code></a>,
863 <a href="/pkg/unsafe/#String"><code>unsafe.String</code></a>,
864 or <a href="/pkg/unsafe/#StringData"><code>unsafe.StringData</code></a>.
867 </dl><!-- reflect -->
869 <dl id="regexp"><dt><a href="/pkg/regexp/">regexp</a></dt>
871 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/46159, CL 479401 -->
872 <a href="/pkg/regexp#Regexp"><code>Regexp</code></a> now defines
873 <a href="/pkg/regexp#Regexp.MarshalText"><code>MarshalText</code></a>
874 and <a href="/pkg/regexp#Regexp.UnmarshalText"><code>UnmarshalText</code></a>
875 methods. These implement
876 <a href="/pkg/encoding#TextMarshaler"><code>encoding.TextMarshaler</code></a>
878 <a href="/pkg/encoding#TextUnmarshaler"><code>encoding.TextUnmarshaler</code></a>
879 and will be used by packages such as
880 <a href="/pkg/encoding/json">encoding/json</a>.
885 <dl id="runtime"><dt><a href="/pkg/runtime/">runtime</a></dt>
887 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/38651 -->
888 TODO: <a href="https://go.dev/issue/38651">https://go.dev/issue/38651</a>: add 'created by goroutine number' to stack traces
891 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/57441, CL 474915 -->
892 Crashing Go applications can now opt-in to Windows Error Reporting (WER) by setting the environment variable
893 <code>GOTRACEBACK=wer</code> or calling <a href="/pkg/runtime/debug/#SetTraceback"><code>debug.SetTraceback("wer")</code></a>
894 before the crash. Other than enabling WER, the runtime will behave as with <code>GOTRACEBACK=crash</code>.
895 On non-Windows systems, <code>GOTRACEBACK=wer</code> is ignored.
898 <p><!-- CL 447778 -->
899 <code>GODEBUG=cgocheck=2</code>, a thorough checker of cgo pointer passing rules,
900 is no longer available as a <a href="/pkg/runtime#hdr-Environment_Variables">debug option</a>.
901 Instead, it is available as an experiment using <code>GOEXPERIMENT=cgocheck2</code>.
902 In particular this means that this mode has to be selected at build time instead of startup time.
904 <code>GODEBUG=cgocheck=1</code> is still available (and is still the default).
907 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/46787 -->
908 A new type <code>Pinner</code> has been added to the runtime
909 package. <code>Pinner</code>s may be used to "pin" Go memory
910 such that it may be used more freely by non-Go code. For instance,
911 passing Go values that reference pinned Go memory to C code is
912 now allowed. Previously, passing any such nested reference was
914 <a href="https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/cgo#hdr-Passing_pointers">cgo pointer passing rules.</a>
916 See <a href="/pkg/runtime#Pinner">the docs</a> for more details.
919 </dl><!-- runtime -->
921 <dl id="runtime/trace"><dt><a href="/pkg/runtime/trace/">runtime/trace</a></dt>
923 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/16638 -->
924 Collecting traces on amd64 and arm64 now incurs a substantially
925 smaller CPU cost: up to a 10x improvement over the previous release.
928 <p><!-- CL 494495 -->
929 Traces now contain explicit stop-the-world events for every reason
930 the Go runtime might stop-the-world, not just garbage collection.
933 </dl><!-- runtime/trace -->
935 <dl id="runtime/metrics"><dt><a href="/pkg/runtime/metrics/">runtime/metrics</a></dt>
937 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/56857 -->
938 A few previously-internal GC metrics, such as live heap size, are
941 <code>GOGC</code> and <code>GOMEMLIMIT</code> are also now
942 available as metrics.
945 </dl><!-- runtime/metrics -->
947 <dl id="sync"><dt><a href="/pkg/sync/">sync</a></dt>
949 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/56102, CL 451356 -->
950 The new <a href="/pkg/sync/#OnceFunc"><code>OnceFunc</code></a>,
951 <a href="/pkg/sync/#OnceValue"><code>OnceValue</code></a>, and
952 <a href="/pkg/sync/#OnceValues"><code>OnceValues</code></a>
953 functions capture a common use of <a href="/pkg/sync/#Once">Once</a> to
954 lazily initialize a value on first use.
959 <dl id="syscall"><dt><a href="/pkg/syscall/">syscall</a></dt>
961 <p><!-- CL 480135 -->
963 <a href="/pkg/syscall#Fchdir"><code>Fchdir</code></a> function
964 now changes the current directory to its argument, rather than
965 always returning an error.
968 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/46259, CL 458335 -->
970 <a href="/pkg/syscall#SysProcAttr"><code>SysProcAttr</code></a>
971 has a new field <code>Jail</code> that may be used to put the
972 newly created process in a jailed environment.
975 <p><!-- CL 493036 -->
976 On Windows the syscall package now supports working with files whose
977 names, stored as UTF-16, can't be represented as valid UTF-8.
978 The <a href="/pkg/syscall#UTF16ToString"><code>UTF16ToString</code></a>
979 and <a href="/pkg/syscall#UTF16FromString"><code>UTF16FromString</code></a>
980 functions now convert between UTF-16 data and
981 <a href="https://simonsapin.github.io/wtf-8/">WTF-8</a> strings.
982 This is backward compatible as WTF-8 is a superset of the UTF-8
983 format that was used in earlier releases.
986 <p><!-- CL 476578, CL 476875, CL 476916 -->
987 Several error values match the new
988 <a href="/pkg/errors/#ErrUnsupported"><code>errors.ErrUnsupported</code></a>,
989 such that <code>errors.Is(err, errors.ErrUnsupported)</code>
992 <li><code>ENOSYS</code></li>
993 <li><code>ENOTSUP</code></li>
994 <li><code>EOPNOTSUPP</code></li>
995 <li><code>EPLAN9</code> (Plan 9 only)</li>
996 <li><code>ERROR_CALL_NOT_IMPLEMENTED</code> (Windows only)</li>
997 <li><code>ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED</code> (Windows only)</li>
998 <li><code>EWINDOWS</code> (Windows only)</li>
1002 </dl><!-- syscall -->
1004 <dl id="testing"><dt><a href="/pkg/testing/">testing</a></dt>
1006 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/37708, CL 463837 -->
1007 The new <code>-test.fullpath</code> option will print full path
1008 names in test log messages, rather than just base names.
1011 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/52600, CL 475496 -->
1012 The new <a href="/pkg/testing/#Testing"><code>Testing</code></a> function reports whether the program is a test created by <code>go</code> <code>test</code>.
1015 </dl><!-- testing -->
1017 <dl id="testing/fstest"><dt><a href="/pkg/testing/fstest/">testing/fstest</a></dt>
1019 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/54451, CL 491175 -->
1020 Calling <code><a href="/pkg/testing/fstest/MapFS.Open">Open</a>.<a href="/pkg/io/fs/#File.Stat">Stat</a></code>
1021 will return a type that now implements a <code>String</code>
1023 <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FormatFileInfo"><code>io/fs.FormatFileInfo</code></a>.
1026 </dl><!-- testing/fstest -->
1028 <dl id="unicode"><dt><a href="/pkg/unicode/">unicode</a></dt>
1030 <p><!-- CL 456837 -->
1031 The <a href="/pkg/unicode/"><code>unicode</code></a> package and
1032 associated support throughout the system has been upgraded to
1033 <a href="https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode15.0.0/">Unicode 15.0.0</a>.
1035 </dl><!-- unicode -->
1037 <h2 id="ports">Ports</h2>
1039 <h3 id="darwin">Darwin</h3>
1041 <p><!-- go.dev/issue/57125 -->
1042 As <a href="go1.20#darwin">announced</a> in the Go 1.20 release notes,
1043 Go 1.21 requires macOS 10.15 Catalina or later;
1044 support for previous versions has been discontinued.
1047 <h3 id="windows">Windows</h3>
1049 <p><!-- go.dev/issue/57003, go.dev/issue/57004 -->
1050 As <a href="go1.20#windows">announced</a> in the Go 1.20 release notes,
1051 Go 1.21 requires at least Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016;
1052 support for previous versions has been discontinued.
1057 <!-- cmd/dist: default to GOARM=7 on all non-arm systems -->
1060 <h3 id="wasm">WebAssembly</h3>
1062 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/38248, https://go.dev/issue/59149, CL 489255 -->
1063 The new <code>go:wasmimport</code> directive can now be used in Go programs
1064 to import functions from the WebAssembly host.
1067 <!-- https://go.dev/issue/56100 -->
1069 The Go scheduler now interacts much more efficiently with the
1070 JavaScript event loop, especially in applications that block
1071 frequently on asynchronous events.
1075 <h3 id="wasip1">WebAssembly System Interface</h3>
1077 <p><!-- https://go.dev/issue/58141 -->
1078 Go 1.21 adds an experimental port to the <a href="https://wasi.dev/">
1079 WebAssembly System Interface (WASI)</a>, Preview 1
1080 (<code>GOOS=wasip1</code>, <code>GOARCH=wasm</code>).
1084 As a result of the addition of the new <code>GOOS</code> value
1085 "<code>wasip1</code>", Go files named <code>*_wasip1.go</code>
1086 will now be <a href="/pkg/go/build/#hdr-Build_Constraints">ignored
1087 by Go tools</a> except when that <code>GOOS</code> value is being
1089 If you have existing filenames matching that pattern, you will
1090 need to rename them.
1094 <!-- proposals for x repos that don't need to be mentioned here but
1095 are picked up by the relnote tool. -->
1096 <!-- https://go.dev/issue/54232 -->
1097 <!-- https://go.dev/issue/57906 -->
1098 <!-- https://go.dev/issue/58668 -->