summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/doc/go1.16.html
blob: 0beb62d160e0b98e9b0bcfd87168ce58966c931d (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
1001
1002
1003
1004
1005
1006
1007
1008
1009
1010
1011
1012
1013
1014
1015
1016
1017
1018
1019
1020
1021
1022
1023
1024
1025
1026
1027
1028
1029
1030
1031
1032
1033
1034
1035
1036
1037
1038
1039
1040
1041
1042
1043
1044
1045
1046
1047
1048
1049
1050
1051
1052
1053
1054
1055
1056
1057
1058
1059
1060
1061
1062
1063
1064
1065
1066
1067
1068
1069
1070
1071
1072
1073
1074
1075
1076
1077
1078
1079
1080
1081
1082
1083
1084
1085
1086
1087
1088
1089
1090
1091
1092
1093
1094
1095
1096
1097
1098
1099
1100
1101
1102
1103
1104
1105
1106
1107
1108
1109
1110
1111
1112
1113
1114
1115
1116
1117
1118
1119
1120
1121
1122
1123
1124
1125
1126
1127
1128
1129
1130
1131
1132
1133
1134
1135
1136
1137
1138
1139
1140
1141
1142
1143
1144
1145
1146
1147
1148
1149
1150
1151
1152
1153
1154
1155
1156
1157
1158
1159
1160
1161
1162
1163
1164
1165
1166
1167
1168
1169
1170
1171
1172
1173
1174
1175
1176
1177
1178
1179
1180
1181
1182
1183
1184
1185
1186
1187
1188
1189
1190
1191
1192
1193
1194
1195
1196
1197
1198
1199
1200
1201
1202
1203
1204
1205
1206
1207
1208
1209
1210
1211
1212
1213
1214
1215
1216
1217
1218
1219
1220
<!--{
	"Title": "Go 1.16 Release Notes",
	"Path":  "/doc/go1.16"
}-->

<!--
NOTE: In this document and others in this directory, the convention is to
set fixed-width phrases with non-fixed-width spaces, as in
<code>hello</code> <code>world</code>.
Do not send CLs removing the interior tags from such phrases.
-->

<style>
  main ul li { margin: 0.5em 0; }
</style>

<h2 id="introduction">Introduction to Go 1.16</h2>

<p>
  The latest Go release, version 1.16, arrives six months after <a href="/doc/go1.15">Go 1.15</a>.
  Most of its changes are in the implementation of the toolchain, runtime, and libraries.
  As always, the release maintains the Go 1 <a href="/doc/go1compat.html">promise of compatibility</a>.
  We expect almost all Go programs to continue to compile and run as before.
</p>

<h2 id="language">Changes to the language</h2>

<p>
  There are no changes to the language.
</p>

<h2 id="ports">Ports</h2>

<h3 id="darwin">Darwin and iOS</h3>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/38485, golang.org/issue/41385, CL 266373, more CLs -->
  Go 1.16 adds support of 64-bit ARM architecture on macOS (also known as
  Apple Silicon) with <code>GOOS=darwin</code>, <code>GOARCH=arm64</code>.
  Like the <code>darwin/amd64</code> port, the <code>darwin/arm64</code>
  port supports cgo, internal and external linking, <code>c-archive</code>,
  <code>c-shared</code>, and <code>pie</code> build modes, and the race
  detector.
</p>

<p><!-- CL 254740 -->
  The iOS port, which was previously <code>darwin/arm64</code>, has
  been renamed to <code>ios/arm64</code>. <code>GOOS=ios</code>
  implies the
  <code>darwin</code> build tag, just as <code>GOOS=android</code>
  implies the <code>linux</code> build tag. This change should be
  transparent to anyone using gomobile to build iOS apps.
</p>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/42100, CL 263798 -->
  Go 1.16 adds an <code>ios/amd64</code> port, which targets the iOS
  simulator running on AMD64-based macOS. Previously this was
  unofficially supported through <code>darwin/amd64</code> with
  the <code>ios</code> build tag set. See also
  <a href="/misc/ios/README"><code>misc/ios/README</code></a> for
  details about how to build programs for iOS and iOS simulator.
</p>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/23011 -->
  Go 1.16 is the last release that will run on macOS 10.12 Sierra.
  Go 1.17 will require macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later.
</p>

<h3 id="netbsd">NetBSD</h3>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/30824 -->
  Go now supports the 64-bit ARM architecture on NetBSD (the
  <code>netbsd/arm64</code> port).
</p>

<h3 id="openbsd">OpenBSD</h3>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/40995 -->
  Go now supports the MIPS64 architecture on OpenBSD
  (the <code>openbsd/mips64</code> port). This port does not yet
  support cgo.
</p>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/36435, many CLs -->
  On the 64-bit x86 and 64-bit ARM architectures on OpenBSD (the
  <code>openbsd/amd64</code> and <code>openbsd/arm64</code> ports), system
  calls are now made through <code>libc</code>, instead of directly using
  the <code>SYSCALL</code>/<code>SVC</code> instruction. This ensures
  forward-compatibility with future versions of OpenBSD. In particular,
  OpenBSD 6.9 onwards will require system calls to be made through
  <code>libc</code> for non-static Go binaries.
</p>

<h3 id="386">386</h3>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/40255, golang.org/issue/41848, CL 258957, and CL 260017 -->
  As <a href="go1.15#386">announced</a> in the Go 1.15 release notes,
  Go 1.16 drops support for x87 mode compilation (<code>GO386=387</code>).
  Support for non-SSE2 processors is now available using soft float
  mode (<code>GO386=softfloat</code>).
  Users running on non-SSE2 processors should replace <code>GO386=387</code>
  with <code>GO386=softfloat</code>.
</p>

<h3 id="riscv">RISC-V</h3>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/36641, CL 267317 -->
  The <code>linux/riscv64</code> port now supports cgo and
  <code>-buildmode=pie</code>. This release also includes performance
  optimizations and code generation improvements for RISC-V.
</p>

<h2 id="tools">Tools</h2>

<h3 id="go-command">Go command</h3>

<h4 id="modules">Modules</h4>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/41330 -->
  Module-aware mode is enabled by default, regardless of whether a
  <code>go.mod</code> file is present in the current working directory or a
  parent directory. More precisely, the <code>GO111MODULE</code> environment
  variable now defaults to <code>on</code>. To switch to the previous behavior,
  set <code>GO111MODULE</code> to <code>auto</code>.
</p>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/40728 -->
  Build commands like <code>go</code> <code>build</code> and <code>go</code>
  <code>test</code> no longer modify <code>go.mod</code> and <code>go.sum</code>
  by default. Instead, they report an error if a module requirement or checksum
  needs to be added or updated (as if the <code>-mod=readonly</code> flag were
  used). Module requirements and sums may be adjusted with <code>go</code>
  <code>mod</code> <code>tidy</code> or <code>go</code> <code>get</code>.
</p>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/40276 -->
  <code>go</code> <code>install</code> now accepts arguments with
  version suffixes (for example, <code>go</code> <code>install</code>
  <code>example.com/cmd@v1.0.0</code>). This causes <code>go</code>
  <code>install</code> to build and install packages in module-aware mode,
  ignoring the <code>go.mod</code> file in the current directory or any parent
  directory, if there is one. This is useful for installing executables without
  affecting the dependencies of the main module.
</p>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/40276 -->
  <code>go</code> <code>install</code>, with or without a version suffix (as
  described above), is now the recommended way to build and install packages in
  module mode. <code>go</code> <code>get</code> should be used with the
  <code>-d</code> flag to adjust the current module's dependencies without
  building packages, and use of <code>go</code> <code>get</code> to build and
  install packages is deprecated. In a future release, the <code>-d</code> flag
  will always be enabled.
</p>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/24031 -->
  <code>retract</code> directives may now be used in a <code>go.mod</code> file
  to indicate that certain published versions of the module should not be used
  by other modules. A module author may retract a version after a severe problem
  is discovered or if the version was published unintentionally.
</p>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/26603 -->
  The <code>go</code> <code>mod</code> <code>vendor</code>
  and <code>go</code> <code>mod</code> <code>tidy</code> subcommands now accept
  the <code>-e</code> flag, which instructs them to proceed despite errors in
  resolving missing packages.
</p>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/36465 -->
  The <code>go</code> command now ignores requirements on module versions
  excluded by <code>exclude</code> directives in the main module. Previously,
  the <code>go</code> command used the next version higher than an excluded
  version, but that version could change over time, resulting in
  non-reproducible builds.
</p>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/43052, golang.org/issue/43985 -->
  In module mode, the <code>go</code> command now disallows import paths that
  include non-ASCII characters or path elements with a leading dot character
  (<code>.</code>). Module paths with these characters were already disallowed
  (see <a href="/ref/mod#go-mod-file-ident">Module paths and versions</a>),
  so this change affects only paths within module subdirectories.
</p>

<h4 id="embed">Embedding Files</h4>

<p>
  The <code>go</code> command now supports including
  static files and file trees as part of the final executable,
  using the new <code>//go:embed</code> directive.
  See the documentation for the new
  <a href="/pkg/embed/"><code>embed</code></a>
  package for details.
</p>

<h4 id="go-test"><code>go</code> <code>test</code></h4>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/29062 -->
  When using <code>go</code> <code>test</code>, a test that
  calls <code>os.Exit(0)</code> during execution of a test function
  will now be considered to fail.
  This will help catch cases in which a test calls code that calls
  <code>os.Exit(0)</code> and thereby stops running all future tests.
  If a <code>TestMain</code> function calls <code>os.Exit(0)</code>
  that is still considered to be a passing test.
</p>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/39484 -->
  <code>go</code> <code>test</code> reports an error when the <code>-c</code>
  or <code>-i</code> flags are used together with unknown flags. Normally,
  unknown flags are passed to tests, but when <code>-c</code> or <code>-i</code>
  are used, tests are not run.
</p>

<h4 id="go-get"><code>go</code> <code>get</code></h4>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/37519 -->
  The <code>go</code> <code>get</code> <code>-insecure</code> flag is
  deprecated and will be removed in a future version. This flag permits
  fetching from repositories and resolving custom domains using insecure
  schemes such as HTTP, and also bypasses module sum validation using the
  checksum database. To permit the use of insecure schemes, use the
  <code>GOINSECURE</code> environment variable instead. To bypass module
  sum validation, use <code>GOPRIVATE</code> or <code>GONOSUMDB</code>.
  See <code>go</code> <code>help</code> <code>environment</code> for details.
</p>

<p><!-- golang.org/cl/263267 -->
  <code>go</code> <code>get</code> <code>example.com/mod@patch</code> now
  requires that some version of <code>example.com/mod</code> already be
  required by the main module.
  (However, <code>go</code> <code>get</code> <code>-u=patch</code> continues
  to patch even newly-added dependencies.)
</p>

<h4 id="govcs"><code>GOVCS</code> environment variable</h4>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/266420 -->
  <code>GOVCS</code> is a new environment variable that limits which version
  control tools the <code>go</code> command may use to download source code.
  This mitigates security issues with tools that are typically used in trusted,
  authenticated environments. By default, <code>git</code> and <code>hg</code>
  may be used to download code from any repository. <code>svn</code>,
  <code>bzr</code>, and <code>fossil</code> may only be used to download code
  from repositories with module paths or package paths matching patterns in
  the <code>GOPRIVATE</code> environment variable. See
  <a href="/cmd/go/#hdr-Controlling_version_control_with_GOVCS"><code>go</code>
  <code>help</code> <code>vcs</code></a> for details.
</p>

<h4 id="all-pattern">The <code>all</code> pattern</h4>

<p><!-- golang.org/cl/240623 -->
  When the main module's <code>go.mod</code> file
  declares <code>go</code> <code>1.16</code> or higher, the <code>all</code>
  package pattern now matches only those packages that are transitively imported
  by a package or test found in the main module. (Packages imported by <em>tests
  of</em> packages imported by the main module are no longer included.) This is
  the same set of packages retained
  by <code>go</code> <code>mod</code> <code>vendor</code> since Go 1.11.
</p>

<h4 id="toolexec">The <code>-toolexec</code> build flag</h4>

<p><!-- golang.org/cl/263357 -->
  When the <code>-toolexec</code> build flag is specified to use a program when
  invoking toolchain programs like compile or asm, the environment variable
  <code>TOOLEXEC_IMPORTPATH</code> is now set to the import path of the package
  being built.
</p>

<h4 id="i-flag">The <code>-i</code> build flag</h4>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/41696 -->
  The <code>-i</code> flag accepted by <code>go</code> <code>build</code>,
  <code>go</code> <code>install</code>, and <code>go</code> <code>test</code> is
  now deprecated. The <code>-i</code> flag instructs the <code>go</code> command
  to install packages imported by packages named on the command line. Since
  the build cache was introduced in Go 1.10, the <code>-i</code> flag no longer
  has a significant effect on build times, and it causes errors when the install
  directory is not writable.
</p>

<h4 id="list-buildid">The <code>list</code> command</h4>

<p><!-- golang.org/cl/263542 -->
  When the <code>-export</code> flag is specified, the <code>BuildID</code>
  field is now set to the build ID of the compiled package. This is equivalent
  to running <code>go</code> <code>tool</code> <code>buildid</code> on
  <code>go</code> <code>list</code> <code>-exported</code> <code>-f</code> <code>{{.Export}}</code>,
  but without the extra step.
</p>

<h4 id="overlay-flag">The <code>-overlay</code> flag</h4>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/39958 -->
  The <code>-overlay</code> flag specifies a JSON configuration file containing
  a set of file path replacements. The <code>-overlay</code> flag may be used
  with all build commands and <code>go</code> <code>mod</code> subcommands.
  It is primarily intended to be used by editor tooling such as gopls to
  understand the effects of unsaved changes to source files.  The config file
  maps actual file paths to replacement file paths and the <code>go</code>
  command and its builds will run as if the actual file paths exist with the
  contents given by the replacement file paths, or don't exist if the replacement
  file paths are empty.
</p>

<h3 id="cgo">Cgo</h3>

<p><!-- CL 252378 -->
  The <a href="/cmd/cgo">cgo</a> tool will no longer try to translate
  C struct bitfields into Go struct fields, even if their size can be
  represented in Go. The order in which C bitfields appear in memory
  is implementation dependent, so in some cases the cgo tool produced
  results that were silently incorrect.
</p>

<h3 id="vet">Vet</h3>

<h4 id="vet-testing-T">New warning for invalid testing.T use in
goroutines</h4>

<p><!-- CL 235677 -->
  The vet tool now warns about invalid calls to the <code>testing.T</code>
  method <code>Fatal</code> from within a goroutine created during the test.
  This also warns on calls to <code>Fatalf</code>, <code>FailNow</code>, and
  <code>Skip{,f,Now}</code> methods on <code>testing.T</code> tests or
  <code>testing.B</code> benchmarks.
</p>

<p>
  Calls to these methods stop the execution of the created goroutine and not
  the <code>Test*</code> or <code>Benchmark*</code> function. So these are
  <a href="/pkg/testing/#T.FailNow">required</a> to be called by the goroutine
  running the test or benchmark function. For example:
</p>

<pre>
func TestFoo(t *testing.T) {
    go func() {
        if condition() {
            t.Fatal("oops") // This exits the inner func instead of TestFoo.
        }
        ...
    }()
}
</pre>

<p>
  Code calling <code>t.Fatal</code> (or a similar method) from a created
  goroutine should be rewritten to signal the test failure using
  <code>t.Error</code> and exit the goroutine early using an alternative
  method, such as using a <code>return</code> statement. The previous example
  could be rewritten as:
</p>

<pre>
func TestFoo(t *testing.T) {
    go func() {
        if condition() {
            t.Error("oops")
            return
        }
        ...
    }()
}
</pre>

<h4 id="vet-frame-pointer">New warning for frame pointer</h4>

<p><!-- CL 248686, CL 276372 -->
  The vet tool now warns about amd64 assembly that clobbers the BP
  register (the frame pointer) without saving and restoring it,
  contrary to the calling convention. Code that doesn't preserve the
  BP register must be modified to either not use BP at all or preserve
  BP by saving and restoring it. An easy way to preserve BP is to set
  the frame size to a nonzero value, which causes the generated
  prologue and epilogue to preserve the BP register for you.
  See <a href="https://golang.org/cl/248260">CL 248260</a> for example
  fixes.
</p>

<h4 id="vet-asn1-unmarshal">New warning for asn1.Unmarshal</h4>

<p><!-- CL 243397 -->
  The vet tool now warns about incorrectly passing a non-pointer or nil argument to
  <a href="/pkg/encoding/asn1/#Unmarshal"><code>asn1.Unmarshal</code></a>.
  This is like the existing checks for
  <a href="/pkg/encoding/json/#Unmarshal"><code>encoding/json.Unmarshal</code></a>
  and <a href="/pkg/encoding/xml/#Unmarshal"><code>encoding/xml.Unmarshal</code></a>.
</p>

<h2 id="runtime">Runtime</h2>

<p>
  The new <a href="/pkg/runtime/metrics/"><code>runtime/metrics</code></a> package
  introduces a stable interface for reading
  implementation-defined metrics from the Go runtime.
  It supersedes existing functions like
  <a href="/pkg/runtime/#ReadMemStats"><code>runtime.ReadMemStats</code></a>
  and
  <a href="/pkg/runtime/debug/#GCStats"><code>debug.GCStats</code></a>
  and is significantly more general and efficient.
  See the package documentation for more details.
</p>

<p><!-- CL 254659 -->
  Setting the <code>GODEBUG</code> environment variable
  to <code>inittrace=1</code> now causes the runtime to emit a single
  line to standard error for each package <code>init</code>,
  summarizing its execution time and memory allocation. This trace can
  be used to find bottlenecks or regressions in Go startup
  performance.
  The <a href="/pkg/runtime/#hdr-Environment_Variables"><code>GODEBUG</code>
  documentation</a> describes the format.
</p>

<p><!-- CL 267100 -->
  On Linux, the runtime now defaults to releasing memory to the
  operating system promptly (using <code>MADV_DONTNEED</code>), rather
  than lazily when the operating system is under memory pressure
  (using <code>MADV_FREE</code>). This means process-level memory
  statistics like RSS will more accurately reflect the amount of
  physical memory being used by Go processes. Systems that are
  currently using <code>GODEBUG=madvdontneed=1</code> to improve
  memory monitoring behavior no longer need to set this environment
  variable.
</p>

<p><!-- CL 220419, CL 271987 -->
  Go 1.16 fixes a discrepancy between the race detector and
  the <a href="/ref/mem">Go memory model</a>. The race detector now
  more precisely follows the channel synchronization rules of the
  memory model. As a result, the detector may now report races it
  previously missed.
</p>

<h2 id="compiler">Compiler</h2>

<p><!-- CL 256459, CL 264837, CL 266203, CL 256460 -->
  The compiler can now inline functions with
  non-labeled <code>for</code> loops, method values, and type
  switches. The inliner can also detect more indirect calls where
  inlining is possible.
</p>

<h2 id="linker">Linker</h2>

<p><!-- CL 248197 -->
  This release includes additional improvements to the Go linker,
  reducing linker resource usage (both time and memory) and improving
  code robustness/maintainability. These changes form the second half
  of a two-release project to
  <a href="https://golang.org/s/better-linker">modernize the Go
  linker</a>.
</p>

<p>
  The linker changes in 1.16 extend the 1.15 improvements to all
  supported architecture/OS combinations (the 1.15 performance improvements
  were primarily focused on <code>ELF</code>-based OSes and
  <code>amd64</code> architectures).  For a representative set of
  large Go programs, linking is 20-25% faster than 1.15 and requires
  5-15% less memory on average for <code>linux/amd64</code>, with larger
  improvements for other architectures and OSes. Most binaries are
  also smaller as a result of more aggressive symbol pruning.
</p>

<p><!-- CL 255259 -->
  On Windows, <code>go build -buildmode=c-shared</code> now generates Windows
  ASLR DLLs by default. ASLR can be disabled with <code>--ldflags=-aslr=false</code>.
</p>

<h2 id="library">Core library</h2>

<h3 id="library-embed">Embedded Files</h3>

<p>
  The new <a href="/pkg/embed/"><code>embed</code></a> package
  provides access to files embedded in the program during compilation
  using the new <a href="#embed"><code>//go:embed</code> directive</a>.
</p>

<h3 id="fs">File Systems</h3>

<p>
  The new <a href="/pkg/io/fs/"><code>io/fs</code></a> package
  defines the <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FS"><code>fs.FS</code></a> interface,
  an abstraction for read-only trees of files.
  The standard library packages have been adapted to make use
  of the interface as appropriate.
</p>

<p>
  On the producer side of the interface,
  the new <a href="/pkg/embed/#FS"><code>embed.FS</code></a> type
  implements <code>fs.FS</code>, as does
  <a href="/pkg/archive/zip/#Reader"><code>zip.Reader</code></a>.
  The new <a href="/pkg/os/#DirFS"><code>os.DirFS</code></a> function
  provides an implementation of <code>fs.FS</code> backed by a tree
  of operating system files.
</p>

<p>
  On the consumer side,
  the new <a href="/pkg/net/http/#FS"><code>http.FS</code></a>
  function converts an <code>fs.FS</code> to an
  <a href="/pkg/net/http/#FileSystem"><code>http.FileSystem</code></a>.
  Also, the <a href="/pkg/html/template/"><code>html/template</code></a>
  and <a href="/pkg/text/template/"><code>text/template</code></a>
  packages’ <a href="/pkg/html/template/#ParseFS"><code>ParseFS</code></a>
  functions and methods read templates from an <code>fs.FS</code>.
</p>

<p>
  For testing code that implements <code>fs.FS</code>,
  the new <a href="/pkg/testing/fstest/"><code>testing/fstest</code></a>
  package provides a <a href="/pkg/testing/fstest/#TestFS"><code>TestFS</code></a>
  function that checks for and reports common mistakes.
  It also provides a simple in-memory file system implementation,
  <a href="/pkg/testing/fstest/#MapFS"><code>MapFS</code></a>,
  which can be useful for testing code that accepts <code>fs.FS</code>
  implementations.
</p>

<h3 id="ioutil">Deprecation of io/ioutil</h3>

<p>
  The <a href="/pkg/io/ioutil/"><code>io/ioutil</code></a> package has
  turned out to be a poorly defined and hard to understand collection
  of things. All functionality provided by the package has been moved
  to other packages. The <code>io/ioutil</code> package remains and
  will continue to work as before, but we encourage new code to use
  the new definitions in the <a href="/pkg/io/"><code>io</code></a> and
  <a href="/pkg/os/"><code>os</code></a> packages.

  Here is a list of the new locations of the names exported
  by <code>io/ioutil</code>:
  <ul>
    <li><a href="/pkg/io/ioutil/#Discard"><code>Discard</code></a>
      => <a href="/pkg/io/#Discard"><code>io.Discard</code></a></li>
    <li><a href="/pkg/io/ioutil/#NopCloser"><code>NopCloser</code></a>
      => <a href="/pkg/io/#NopCloser"><code>io.NopCloser</code></a></li>
    <li><a href="/pkg/io/ioutil/#ReadAll"><code>ReadAll</code></a>
      => <a href="/pkg/io/#ReadAll"><code>io.ReadAll</code></a></li>
    <li><a href="/pkg/io/ioutil/#ReadDir"><code>ReadDir</code></a>
      => <a href="/pkg/os/#ReadDir"><code>os.ReadDir</code></a>
      (note: returns a slice of
      <a href="/pkg/os/#DirEntry"><code>os.DirEntry</code></a>
      rather than a slice of
      <a href="/pkg/fs/#FileInfo"><code>fs.FileInfo</code></a>)
    </li>
    <li><a href="/pkg/io/ioutil/#ReadFile"><code>ReadFile</code></a>
      => <a href="/pkg/os/#ReadFile"><code>os.ReadFile</code></a></li>
    <li><a href="/pkg/io/ioutil/#TempDir"><code>TempDir</code></a>
      => <a href="/pkg/os/#MkdirTemp"><code>os.MkdirTemp</code></a></li>
    <li><a href="/pkg/io/ioutil/#TempFile"><code>TempFile</code></a>
      => <a href="/pkg/os/#CreateTemp"><code>os.CreateTemp</code></a></li>
    <li><a href="/pkg/io/ioutil/#WriteFile"><code>WriteFile</code></a>
      => <a href="/pkg/os/#WriteFile"><code>os.WriteFile</code></a></li>
  </ul>
</p>

<!-- okay-after-beta1
  TODO: decide if any additional changes are worth factoring out from
  "Minor changes to the library" and highlighting in "Core library"
-->

<h3 id="minor_library_changes">Minor changes to the library</h3>

<p>
  As always, there are various minor changes and updates to the library,
  made with the Go 1 <a href="/doc/go1compat">promise of compatibility</a>
  in mind.
</p>

<dl id="archive/zip"><dt><a href="/pkg/archive/zip/">archive/zip</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 243937 -->
      The new <a href="/pkg/archive/zip/#Reader.Open"><code>Reader.Open</code></a>
      method implements the <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FS"><code>fs.FS</code></a>
      interface.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl>

<dl id="crypto/dsa"><dt><a href="/pkg/crypto/dsa/">crypto/dsa</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 257939 -->
      The <a href="/pkg/crypto/dsa/"><code>crypto/dsa</code></a> package is now deprecated.
      See <a href="https://golang.org/issue/40337">issue #40337</a>.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- crypto/dsa -->

<dl id="crypto/hmac"><dt><a href="/pkg/crypto/hmac/">crypto/hmac</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 261960 -->
      <a href="/pkg/crypto/hmac/#New"><code>New</code></a> will now panic if
      separate calls to the hash generation function fail to return new values.
      Previously, the behavior was undefined and invalid outputs were sometimes
      generated.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- crypto/hmac -->

<dl id="crypto/tls"><dt><a href="/pkg/crypto/tls/">crypto/tls</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 256897 -->
      I/O operations on closing or closed TLS connections can now be detected
      using the new <a href="/pkg/net/#ErrClosed"><code>net.ErrClosed</code></a>
      error. A typical use would be <code>errors.Is(err, net.ErrClosed)</code>.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 266037 -->
      A default write deadline is now set in
      <a href="/pkg/crypto/tls/#Conn.Close"><code>Conn.Close</code></a>
      before sending the "close notify" alert, in order to prevent blocking
      indefinitely.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 239748 -->
      Clients now return a handshake error if the server selects
      <a href="/pkg/crypto/tls/#ConnectionState.NegotiatedProtocol">
      an ALPN protocol</a> that was not in
      <a href="/pkg/crypto/tls/#Config.NextProtos">
      the list advertised by the client</a>.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 262857 -->
      Servers will now prefer other available AEAD cipher suites (such as ChaCha20Poly1305)
      over AES-GCM cipher suites if either the client or server doesn't have AES hardware
      support, unless both <a href="/pkg/crypto/tls/#Config.PreferServerCipherSuites">
      <code>Config.PreferServerCipherSuites</code></a>
      and <a href="/pkg/crypto/tls/#Config.CipherSuites"><code>Config.CipherSuites</code></a>
      are set. The client is assumed not to have AES hardware support if it does
      not signal a preference for AES-GCM cipher suites.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 246637 -->
      <a href="/pkg/crypto/tls/#Config.Clone"><code>Config.Clone</code></a> now
      returns nil if the receiver is nil, rather than panicking.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- crypto/tls -->

<dl id="crypto/x509"><dt><a href="/pkg/crypto/x509/">crypto/x509</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p>
      The <code>GODEBUG=x509ignoreCN=0</code> flag will be removed in Go 1.17.
      It enables the legacy behavior of treating the <code>CommonName</code>
      field on X.509 certificates as a host name when no Subject Alternative
      Names are present.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 235078 -->
      <a href="/pkg/crypto/x509/#ParseCertificate"><code>ParseCertificate</code></a> and
      <a href="/pkg/crypto/x509/#CreateCertificate"><code>CreateCertificate</code></a>
      now enforce string encoding restrictions for the <code>DNSNames</code>,
      <code>EmailAddresses</code>, and <code>URIs</code> fields. These fields
      can only contain strings with characters within the ASCII range.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 259697 -->
      <a href="/pkg/crypto/x509/#CreateCertificate"><code>CreateCertificate</code></a>
      now verifies the generated certificate's signature using the signer's
      public key. If the signature is invalid, an error is returned, instead of
      a malformed certificate.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 257939 -->
      DSA signature verification is no longer supported. Note that DSA signature
      generation was never supported.
      See <a href="https://golang.org/issue/40337">issue #40337</a>.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 257257 -->
      On Windows, <a href="/pkg/crypto/x509/#Certificate.Verify"><code>Certificate.Verify</code></a>
      will now return all certificate chains that are built by the platform
      certificate verifier, instead of just the highest ranked chain.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 262343 -->
      The new <a href="/pkg/crypto/x509/#SystemRootsError.Unwrap"><code>SystemRootsError.Unwrap</code></a>
      method allows accessing the <a href="/pkg/crypto/x509/#SystemRootsError.Err"><code>Err</code></a>
      field through the <a href="/pkg/errors"><code>errors</code></a> package functions.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 230025 -->
      On Unix systems, the <code>crypto/x509</code> package is now more
      efficient in how it stores its copy of the system cert pool.
      Programs that use only a small number of roots will use around a
      half megabyte less memory.
    </p>

  </dd>
</dl><!-- crypto/x509 -->

<dl id="debug/elf"><dt><a href="/pkg/debug/elf/">debug/elf</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 255138 -->
      More <a href="/pkg/debug/elf/#DT_NULL"><code>DT</code></a>
      and <a href="/pkg/debug/elf/#PT_NULL"><code>PT</code></a>
      constants have been added.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- debug/elf -->

<dl id="encoding/asn1"><dt><a href="/pkg/encoding/asn1">encoding/asn1</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 255881 -->
      <a href="/pkg/encoding/asn1/#Unmarshal"><code>Unmarshal</code></a> and
      <a href="/pkg/encoding/asn1/#UnmarshalWithParams"><code>UnmarshalWithParams</code></a>
      now return an error instead of panicking when the argument is not
      a pointer or is nil. This change matches the behavior of other
      encoding packages such as <a href="/pkg/encoding/json"><code>encoding/json</code></a>.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl>

<dl id="encoding/json"><dt><a href="/pkg/encoding/json/">encoding/json</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 234818 -->
      The <code>json</code> struct field tags understood by
      <a href="/pkg/encoding/json/#Marshal"><code>Marshal</code></a>,
      <a href="/pkg/encoding/json/#Unmarshal"><code>Unmarshal</code></a>,
      and related functionality now permit semicolon characters within
      a JSON object name for a Go struct field.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- encoding/json -->

<dl id="encoding/xml"><dt><a href="/pkg/encoding/xml/">encoding/xml</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 264024 -->
      The encoder has always taken care to avoid using namespace prefixes
      beginning with <code>xml</code>, which are reserved by the XML
      specification.
      Now, following the specification more closely, that check is
      case-insensitive, so that prefixes beginning
      with <code>XML</code>, <code>XmL</code>, and so on are also
      avoided.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- encoding/xml -->

<dl id="flag"><dt><a href="/pkg/flag/">flag</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 240014 -->
      The new <a href="/pkg/flag/#Func"><code>Func</code></a> function
      allows registering a flag implemented by calling a function,
      as a lighter-weight alternative to implementing the
      <a href="/pkg/flag/#Value"><code>Value</code></a> interface.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- flag -->

<dl id="go/build"><dt><a href="/pkg/go/build/">go/build</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 243941, CL 283636 -->
      The <a href="/pkg/go/build/#Package"><code>Package</code></a>
      struct has new fields that report information
      about <code>//go:embed</code> directives in the package:
      <a href="/pkg/go/build/#Package.EmbedPatterns"><code>EmbedPatterns</code></a>,
      <a href="/pkg/go/build/#Package.EmbedPatternPos"><code>EmbedPatternPos</code></a>,
      <a href="/pkg/go/build/#Package.TestEmbedPatterns"><code>TestEmbedPatterns</code></a>,
      <a href="/pkg/go/build/#Package.TestEmbedPatternPos"><code>TestEmbedPatternPos</code></a>,
      <a href="/pkg/go/build/#Package.XTestEmbedPatterns"><code>XTestEmbedPatterns</code></a>,
      <a href="/pkg/go/build/#Package.XTestEmbedPatternPos"><code>XTestEmbedPatternPos</code></a>.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 240551 -->
      The <a href="/pkg/go/build/#Package"><code>Package</code></a> field
      <a href="/pkg/go/build/#Package.IgnoredGoFiles"><code>IgnoredGoFiles</code></a>
      will no longer include files that start with "_" or ".",
      as those files are always ignored.
      <code>IgnoredGoFiles</code> is for files ignored because of
      build constraints.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 240551 -->
      The new <a href="/pkg/go/build/#Package"><code>Package</code></a>
      field <a href="/pkg/go/build/#Package.IgnoredOtherFiles"><code>IgnoredOtherFiles</code></a>
      has a list of non-Go files ignored because of build constraints.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- go/build -->

<dl id="go/build/constraint"><dt><a href="/pkg/go/build/constraint/">go/build/constraint</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 240604 -->
      The new
      <a href="/pkg/go/build/constraint/"><code>go/build/constraint</code></a>
      package parses build constraint lines, both the original
      <code>// +build</code> syntax and the <code>//go:build</code>
      syntax that will be introduced in Go 1.17.
      This package exists so that tools built with Go 1.16 will be able
      to process Go 1.17 source code.
      See <a href="https://golang.org/design/draft-gobuild">https://golang.org/design/draft-gobuild</a>
      for details about the build constraint syntaxes and the planned
      transition to the <code>//go:build</code> syntax.
      Note that <code>//go:build</code> lines are <b>not</b> supported
      in Go 1.16 and should not be introduced into Go programs yet.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- go/build/constraint -->

<dl id="html/template"><dt><a href="/pkg/html/template/">html/template</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 243938 -->
      The new <a href="/pkg/html/template/#ParseFS"><code>template.ParseFS</code></a>
      function and <a href="/pkg/html/template/#Template.ParseFS"><code>template.Template.ParseFS</code></a>
      method are like <a href="/pkg/html/template/#ParseGlob"><code>template.ParseGlob</code></a>
      and <a href="/pkg/html/template/#Template.ParseGlob"><code>template.Template.ParseGlob</code></a>,
      but read the templates from an <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FS"><code>fs.FS</code></a>.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- html/template -->

<dl id="io"><dt><a href="/pkg/io/">io</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 261577 -->
      The package now defines a
      <a href="/pkg/io/#ReadSeekCloser"><code>ReadSeekCloser</code></a> interface.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 263141 -->
      The package now defines
      <a href="/pkg/io/#Discard"><code>Discard</code></a>,
      <a href="/pkg/io/#NopCloser"><code>NopCloser</code></a>, and
      <a href="/pkg/io/#ReadAll"><code>ReadAll</code></a>,
      to be used instead of the same names in the
      <a href="/pkg/io/ioutil/"><code>io/ioutil</code></a> package.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- io -->

<dl id="log"><dt><a href="/pkg/log/">log</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 264460 -->
      The new <a href="/pkg/log/#Default"><code>Default</code></a> function
      provides access to the default <a href="/pkg/log/#Logger"><code>Logger</code></a>.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- log -->

<dl id="log/syslog"><dt><a href="/pkg/log/syslog/">log/syslog</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 264297 -->
      The <a href="/pkg/log/syslog/#Writer"><code>Writer</code></a>
      now uses the local message format
      (omitting the host name and using a shorter time stamp)
      when logging to custom Unix domain sockets,
      matching the format already used for the default log socket.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- log/syslog -->

<dl id="mime/multipart"><dt><a href="/pkg/mime/multipart/">mime/multipart</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 247477 -->
      The <a href="/pkg/mime/multipart/#Reader"><code>Reader</code></a>'s
      <a href="/pkg/mime/multipart/#Reader.ReadForm"><code>ReadForm</code></a>
      method no longer rejects form data
      when passed the maximum int64 value as a limit.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- mime/multipart -->

<dl id="net"><dt><a href="/pkg/net/">net</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 250357 -->
      The case of I/O on a closed network connection, or I/O on a network
      connection that is closed before any of the I/O completes, can now
      be detected using the new <a href="/pkg/net/#ErrClosed"><code>ErrClosed</code></a>
      error. A typical use would be <code>errors.Is(err, net.ErrClosed)</code>.
      In earlier releases the only way to reliably detect this case was to
      match the string returned by the <code>Error</code> method
      with <code>"use of closed network connection"</code>.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 255898 -->
      In previous Go releases the default TCP listener backlog size on Linux systems,
      set by <code>/proc/sys/net/core/somaxconn</code>, was limited to a maximum of <code>65535</code>.
      On Linux kernel version 4.1 and above, the maximum is now <code>4294967295</code>.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 238629 -->
      On Linux, host name lookups no longer use DNS before checking
      <code>/etc/hosts</code> when <code>/etc/nsswitch.conf</code>
      is missing; this is common on musl-based systems and makes
      Go programs match the behavior of C programs on those systems.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- net -->

<dl id="net/http"><dt><a href="/pkg/net/http/">net/http</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 233637 -->
      In the <a href="/pkg/net/http/"><code>net/http</code></a> package, the
      behavior of <a href="/pkg/net/http/#StripPrefix"><code>StripPrefix</code></a>
      has been changed to strip the prefix from the request URL's
      <code>RawPath</code> field in addition to its <code>Path</code> field.
      In past releases, only the <code>Path</code> field was trimmed, and so if the
      request URL contained any escaped characters the URL would be modified to
      have mismatched <code>Path</code> and <code>RawPath</code> fields.
      In Go 1.16, <code>StripPrefix</code> trims both fields.
      If there are escaped characters in the prefix part of the request URL the
      handler serves a 404 instead of its previous behavior of invoking the
      underlying handler with a mismatched <code>Path</code>/<code>RawPath</code> pair.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 252497 -->
      The <a href="/pkg/net/http/"><code>net/http</code></a> package now rejects HTTP range requests
      of the form <code>"Range": "bytes=--N"</code> where <code>"-N"</code> is a negative suffix length, for
      example <code>"Range": "bytes=--2"</code>. It now replies with a <code>416 "Range Not Satisfiable"</code> response.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 256498, golang.org/issue/36990 -->
      Cookies set with <a href="/pkg/net/http/#SameSiteDefaultMode"><code>SameSiteDefaultMode</code></a>
      now behave according to the current spec (no attribute is set) instead of
      generating a SameSite key without a value.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 250039 -->
      The <a href="/pkg/net/http/#Client"><code>Client</code></a> now sends
      an explicit <code>Content-Length:</code> <code>0</code>
      header in <code>PATCH</code> requests with empty bodies,
      matching the existing behavior of <code>POST</code> and <code>PUT</code>.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 249440 -->
      The <a href="/pkg/net/http/#ProxyFromEnvironment"><code>ProxyFromEnvironment</code></a>
      function no longer returns the setting of the <code>HTTP_PROXY</code>
      environment variable for <code>https://</code> URLs when
      <code>HTTPS_PROXY</code> is unset.
    </p>

    <p><!-- 259917 -->
      The <a href="/pkg/net/http/#Transport"><code>Transport</code></a>
      type has a new field
      <a href="/pkg/net/http/#Transport.GetProxyConnectHeader"><code>GetProxyConnectHeader</code></a>
      which may be set to a function that returns headers to send to a
      proxy during a <code>CONNECT</code> request.
      In effect <code>GetProxyConnectHeader</code> is a dynamic
      version of the existing field
      <a href="/pkg/net/http/#Transport.ProxyConnectHeader"><code>ProxyConnectHeader</code></a>;
      if <code>GetProxyConnectHeader</code> is not <code>nil</code>,
      then <code>ProxyConnectHeader</code> is ignored.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 243939 -->
      The new <a href="/pkg/net/http/#FS"><code>http.FS</code></a>
      function converts an <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FS"><code>fs.FS</code></a>
      to an <a href="/pkg/net/http/#FileSystem"><code>http.FileSystem</code></a>.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- net/http -->

<dl id="net/http/httputil"><dt><a href="/pkg/net/http/httputil/">net/http/httputil</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 260637 -->
      <a href="/pkg/net/http/httputil/#ReverseProxy"><code>ReverseProxy</code></a>
      now flushes buffered data more aggressively when proxying
      streamed responses with unknown body lengths.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- net/http/httputil -->

<dl id="net/smtp"><dt><a href="/pkg/net/smtp/">net/smtp</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 247257 -->
      The <a href="/pkg/net/smtp/#Client"><code>Client</code></a>'s
      <a href="/pkg/net/smtp/#Client.Mail"><code>Mail</code></a>
      method now sends the <code>SMTPUTF8</code> directive to
      servers that support it, signaling that addresses are encoded in UTF-8.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- net/smtp -->

<dl id="os"><dt><a href="/pkg/os/">os</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 242998 -->
      <a href="/pkg/os/#Process.Signal"><code>Process.Signal</code></a> now
      returns <a href="/pkg/os/#ErrProcessDone"><code>ErrProcessDone</code></a>
      instead of the unexported <code>errFinished</code> when the process has
      already finished.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 261540 -->
      The package defines a new type
      <a href="/pkg/os/#DirEntry"><code>DirEntry</code></a>
      as an alias for <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#DirEntry"><code>fs.DirEntry</code></a>.
      The new <a href="/pkg/os/#ReadDir"><code>ReadDir</code></a>
      function and the new
      <a href="/pkg/os/#File.ReadDir"><code>File.ReadDir</code></a>
      method can be used to read the contents of a directory into a
      slice of <a href="/pkg/os/#DirEntry"><code>DirEntry</code></a>.
      The <a href="/pkg/os/#File.Readdir"><code>File.Readdir</code></a>
      method (note the lower case <code>d</code> in <code>dir</code>)
      still exists, returning a slice of
      <a href="/pkg/os/#FileInfo"><code>FileInfo</code></a>, but for
      most programs it will be more efficient to switch to
      <a href="/pkg/os/#File.ReadDir"><code>File.ReadDir</code></a>.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 263141 -->
      The package now defines
      <a href="/pkg/os/#CreateTemp"><code>CreateTemp</code></a>,
      <a href="/pkg/os/#MkdirTemp"><code>MkdirTemp</code></a>,
      <a href="/pkg/os/#ReadFile"><code>ReadFile</code></a>, and
      <a href="/pkg/os/#WriteFile"><code>WriteFile</code></a>,
      to be used instead of functions defined in the
      <a href="/pkg/io/ioutil/"><code>io/ioutil</code></a> package.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 243906 -->
      The types <a href="/pkg/os/#FileInfo"><code>FileInfo</code></a>,
      <a href="/pkg/os/#FileMode"><code>FileMode</code></a>, and
      <a href="/pkg/os/#PathError"><code>PathError</code></a>
      are now aliases for types of the same name in the
      <a href="/pkg/io/fs/"><code>io/fs</code></a> package.
      Function signatures in the <a href="/pkg/os/"><code>os</code></a>
      package have been updated to refer to the names in the
      <a href="/pkg/io/fs/"><code>io/fs</code></a> package.
      This should not affect any existing code.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 243911 -->
      The new <a href="/pkg/os/#DirFS"><code>DirFS</code></a> function
      provides an implementation of
      <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FS"><code>fs.FS</code></a> backed by a tree
      of operating system files.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- os -->

<dl id="os/signal"><dt><a href="/pkg/os/signal/">os/signal</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 219640 -->
      The new
      <a href="/pkg/os/signal/#NotifyContext"><code>NotifyContext</code></a>
      function allows creating contexts that are canceled upon arrival of
      specific signals.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- os/signal -->

<dl id="path"><dt><a href="/pkg/path/">path</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 264397, golang.org/issues/28614 -->
      The <a href="/pkg/path/#Match"><code>Match</code></a> function now
      returns an error if the unmatched part of the pattern has a
      syntax error. Previously, the function returned early on a failed
      match, and thus did not report any later syntax error in the
      pattern.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- path -->

<dl id="path/filepath"><dt><a href="/pkg/path/filepath/">path/filepath</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 267887 -->
      The new function
      <a href="/pkg/path/filepath/#WalkDir"><code>WalkDir</code></a>
      is similar to
      <a href="/pkg/path/filepath/#Walk"><code>Walk</code></a>,
      but is typically more efficient.
      The function passed to <code>WalkDir</code> receives a
      <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#DirEntry"><code>fs.DirEntry</code></a>
      instead of a
      <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FileInfo"><code>fs.FileInfo</code></a>.
      (To clarify for those who recall the <code>Walk</code> function
      as taking an <a href="/pkg/os/#FileInfo"><code>os.FileInfo</code></a>,
      <code>os.FileInfo</code> is now an alias for <code>fs.FileInfo</code>.)
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 264397, golang.org/issues/28614 -->
      The <a href="/pkg/path/filepath#Match"><code>Match</code></a> and
      <a href="/pkg/path/filepath#Glob"><code>Glob</code></a> functions now
      return an error if the unmatched part of the pattern has a
      syntax error. Previously, the functions returned early on a failed
      match, and thus did not report any later syntax error in the
      pattern.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- path/filepath -->

<dl id="runtime/debug"><dt><a href="/pkg/runtime/debug/">runtime/debug</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 249677 -->
      The <a href="/pkg/runtime#Error"><code>runtime.Error</code></a> values
      used when <code>SetPanicOnFault</code> is enabled may now have an
      <code>Addr</code> method. If that method exists, it returns the memory
      address that triggered the fault.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- runtime/debug -->

<dl id="strconv"><dt><a href="/pkg/strconv/">strconv</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 260858 -->
      <a href="/pkg/strconv/#ParseFloat"><code>ParseFloat</code></a> now uses
      the <a
      href="https://nigeltao.github.io/blog/2020/eisel-lemire.html">Eisel-Lemire
      algorithm</a>, improving performance by up to a factor of 2. This can
      also speed up decoding textual formats like <a
      href="/pkg/encoding/json/"><code>encoding/json</code></a>.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- strconv -->

<dl id="syscall"><dt><a href="/pkg/syscall/">syscall</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 263271 -->
      <a href="/pkg/syscall/?GOOS=windows#NewCallback"><code>NewCallback</code></a>
      and
      <a href="/pkg/syscall/?GOOS=windows#NewCallbackCDecl"><code>NewCallbackCDecl</code></a>
      now correctly support callback functions with multiple
      sub-<code>uintptr</code>-sized arguments in a row. This may
      require changing uses of these functions to eliminate manual
      padding between small arguments.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 261917 -->
      <a href="/pkg/syscall/?GOOS=windows#SysProcAttr"><code>SysProcAttr</code></a> on Windows has a new <code>NoInheritHandles</code> field that disables inheriting handles when creating a new process.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 269761, golang.org/issue/42584 -->
      <a href="/pkg/syscall/?GOOS=windows#DLLError"><code>DLLError</code></a> on Windows now has an <code>Unwrap</code> method for unwrapping its underlying error.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 210639 -->
      On Linux,
      <a href="/pkg/syscall/#Setgid"><code>Setgid</code></a>,
      <a href="/pkg/syscall/#Setuid"><code>Setuid</code></a>,
      and related calls are now implemented.
      Previously, they returned an <code>syscall.EOPNOTSUPP</code> error.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 210639 -->
      On Linux, the new functions
      <a href="/pkg/syscall/#AllThreadsSyscall"><code>AllThreadsSyscall</code></a>
      and <a href="/pkg/syscall/#AllThreadsSyscall6"><code>AllThreadsSyscall6</code></a>
      may be used to make a system call on all Go threads in the process.
      These functions may only be used by programs that do not use cgo;
      if a program uses cgo, they will always return
      <a href="/pkg/syscall/#ENOTSUP"><code>syscall.ENOTSUP</code></a>.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- syscall -->

<dl id="testing/iotest"><dt><a href="/pkg/testing/iotest/">testing/iotest</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 199501 -->
      The new
      <a href="/pkg/testing/iotest/#ErrReader"><code>ErrReader</code></a>
      function returns an
      <a href="/pkg/io/#Reader"><code>io.Reader</code></a> that always
      returns an error.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 243909 -->
      The new
      <a href="/pkg/testing/iotest/#TestReader"><code>TestReader</code></a>
      function tests that an <a href="/pkg/io/#Reader"><code>io.Reader</code></a>
      behaves correctly.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- testing/iotest -->

<dl id="text/template"><dt><a href="/pkg/text/template/">text/template</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 254257, golang.org/issue/29770 -->
      Newlines characters are now allowed inside action delimiters,
      permitting actions to span multiple lines.
    </p>

    <p><!-- CL 243938 -->
      The new <a href="/pkg/text/template/#ParseFS"><code>template.ParseFS</code></a>
      function and <a href="/pkg/text/template/#Template.ParseFS"><code>template.Template.ParseFS</code></a>
      method are like <a href="/pkg/text/template/#ParseGlob"><code>template.ParseGlob</code></a>
      and <a href="/pkg/text/template/#Template.ParseGlob"><code>template.Template.ParseGlob</code></a>,
      but read the templates from an <a href="/pkg/io/fs/#FS"><code>fs.FS</code></a>.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- text/template -->

<dl id="text/template/parse"><dt><a href="/pkg/text/template/parse/">text/template/parse</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 229398, golang.org/issue/34652 -->
      A new <a href="/pkg/text/template/parse/#CommentNode"><code>CommentNode</code></a>
      was added to the parse tree. The <a href="/pkg/text/template/parse/#Mode"><code>Mode</code></a>
      field in the <code>parse.Tree</code> enables access to it.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- text/template/parse -->

<dl id="time/tzdata"><dt><a href="/pkg/time/tzdata/">time/tzdata</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 261877 -->
      The slim timezone data format is now used for the timezone database in
      <code>$GOROOT/lib/time/zoneinfo.zip</code> and the embedded copy in this
      package. This reduces the size of the timezone database by about 350 KB.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- time/tzdata -->

<dl id="unicode"><dt><a href="/pkg/unicode/">unicode</a></dt>
  <dd>
    <p><!-- CL 248765 -->
      The <a href="/pkg/unicode/"><code>unicode</code></a> package and associated
      support throughout the system has been upgraded from Unicode 12.0.0 to
      <a href="https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode13.0.0/">Unicode 13.0.0</a>,
      which adds 5,930 new characters, including four new scripts, and 55 new emoji.
      Unicode 13.0.0 also designates plane 3 (U+30000-U+3FFFF) as the tertiary
      ideographic plane.
    </p>
  </dd>
</dl><!-- unicode -->