When building command line tools for distribution, Golang is more suitable than Python. The reasons include: 1. Simple distribution, Go generates a single static binary file after compilation, without additional dependencies; 2. Fast startup speed, low resource usage, Go is a compiled language, high execution efficiency and small memory usage; 3. It supports cross-platform compilation, no additional packaging tools are required, and executable files of different platforms can be generated with only simple commands. In contrast, Python requires installation of runtime and dependency libraries, which are slow to start, complex packaging processes, and prone to compatibility and false positives, so they are not as good as Go in terms of deployment experience and maintenance costs.

If you plan to build a command line tool for distribution, Golang is usually more suitable than Python. It’s not that Python is bad, but from the perspective of deployment, performance and user experience, Go is better in many scenarios.

Simple distribution: Go compiles a single static binary file

This is one of Go's biggest advantages. After you write a command line program and compile it with go build , you get an executable file that can be run directly. This file contains all dependencies and does not require additional installation of the runtime environment.

Although Python scripts can run, to let users run it, they have to install the appropriate Python version first, as well as various third-party libraries for pip installation. For users who are not familiar with programming, this step may be stuck.

For example, if you want to make a CLI tool for designers or product managers, they may not have Python installed on their computers and do not know how to configure the virtual environment. At this time, you give a compiled executable file under .exe or Linux/Mac, and they can use it with double-click, which makes the experience much better.

Fast startup speed and low resource usage

The command line tool written by Go starts very quickly. Because it is a compiled language, it generates native code, unlike Python, which requires interpretation and execution every time it runs. For simple CLI commands, such as printing help information or executing a network request, Go is done in a few milliseconds.

Before executing Python scripts, interpreters and related modules need to be loaded. Even if it is a simple argparse program, the startup time is often more than tens of milliseconds. This may not be anything to the user, but if the tool is called frequently or integrated into other systems, this time will accumulate.

And Go has a lower memory footprint. The Python interpreter itself takes up a lot of memory. With the dependency library, a simple script may take up dozens of MB, while Go programs often only have a few MB.

Supports cross-platform compilation without additional packaging tools

Go comes with cross-compilation support, so you can easily compile corresponding executable files for different operating systems and architectures. For example:

• Want to publish to Windows users? GOOS=windows go build
• Want to get the ARM architecture device to run? GOARCH=arm go build

The whole process requires only one command, no additional dependencies or packaging tools (such as PyInstaller or cx_Freeze), which often brings compatibility issues and even deals with license issues.

Of course, Python can also be packaged into a single file, but the process is complex, large in size, and is easily falsely reported by antivirus software. By contrast, Go's approach is cleaner and more stable.

Basically that's it. If your goal is to make a command-line tool that is easy to distribute and out of the box, Golang is a more troublesome option. Python is not impossible to do, but from the perspective of user experience and maintenance costs, Go is more suitable for this type of task.

The above is the detailed content of Building Command-Line Tools: Advantages of Golang Over Python for Distribution. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!