Gist: Multi-stage Go container build

Build your Go container properly with multi-stage builds.

Last updated on: 2025-01-07

Building the container image

Here's a sample Containerfile for building the container image:

# Build executable using official Go image.
# Doc: https://hub.docker.com/_/golang
FROM golang:1.23.4 as build
WORKDIR /build

# Pre-copy / cache "go.mod" file for pre-downloading dependencies
# and only redownloading them in subsequent builds if they change.
COPY go.mod go.sum ./
RUN go mod download && go mod verify

# Copy source code and build executable.
COPY . .
RUN GOOS=linux CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o main

# Run executable using official Linux Alpine image.
# Doc: https://hub.docker.com/_/alpine/
FROM alpine:3.21.1
WORKDIR /

COPY --from=build /build/main .
EXPOSE 8080
ENTRYPOINT [ "./main" ]

Containerfile

Build the image:

podman build -f containerfile -t myapp .

Running the image

To start the container, simply run:

podman run -it --rm myapp

Notes

Please note that:

We're using Podman here but you can use any other OCI-compatible alternative.
This is only boilerplate code to get you started.
Consider using a non-root user for security.