Building static binaries with Go on Linux

The article discusses the process of building static binaries with Go on Linux, highlighting that while Go can produce statically-linked binaries, it does not do so by default in all cases. The author conducts experiments with simple Go programs to determine whether the resulting binaries are statically or dynamically linked. For instance, a basic "hello, world" program is confirmed to be statically linked, while programs that utilize the Go standard library for DNS and user lookups are dynamically linked unless specific build tags or environment variables are set to enforce static linking.

The article explains that when C code is included in a Go program via cgo, the resulting binary will typically be dynamically linked due to dependencies on the C runtime library (libc). To create a statically linked binary in such cases, the author suggests using an alternative libc implementation, such as musl, or employing the Zig toolchain, which simplifies the process of static linking.

The author notes that achieving static linking requires additional effort and mentions a proposal for a `-static` flag in the Go build process to streamline this. The article concludes by stating that while building static binaries in Go on Linux can be complex, it is feasible with the right tools and configurations. The code for the experiments is available on GitHub for further exploration.