Detailed introduction to the Golang compilation process and its principles

Golang is a new programming language that is developing very rapidly and has received more and more attention and use from developers. In addition to its own features such as concurrent programming, garbage collection, and strong typing, Golang also has the advantages of fast compilation and the ability to generate separate statically linked executable files. However, the compilation process of Golang is not simple. In this article, we will talk about the process and principles of Golang compilation.

1. The basic principles of the Golang compilation process

The process of the Golang compiler translating the written code into machine code can be divided into four main stages: lexical analysis, syntax analysis, and intermediate code Generation and code optimization.

Lexical analysis: The lexical analyzer divides the source code into tokens (marks). A legal token is the smallest valid code unit, which can be an identifier, keyword, operator, delimiter, etc.

Grammar analysis: The parser converts the token set into an abstract syntax tree according to Golang's grammar rules. Then, perform semantic analysis, remove useless syntax units (such as comments, spaces, etc.) and perform type checking.

Intermediate code generation: The syntax tree is then processed by the intermediate code generator to convert high-level language into low-level language. This step usually generates a relatively naive set of intermediate code that is not optimized.

Code optimization: Carry out code optimization on the generated set of relatively simple intermediate codes. Most current compilers have three optimization levels. The higher the optimization level, the more efficient the generated code is, but the more time-consuming it is.

Finally, the compiler will generate an executable program for the target machine based on the optimized intermediate code.

2. Implementation of the Golang compilation process

The Golang compiler adopts a bootstrap compiler implementation method, which can recompile itself in the existing Golang environment. This implementation method mainly has the following advantages:

1. It ensures the efficiency and stability of the Golang compiler.

2. Able to add new Golang features to the Golang compiler in a timely manner.

3. It can make the self-updating of the Golang compiler easier.

The implementation of the Golang compiler is based on LLVM. This open source compiler infrastructure project provides a cross-platform compilation framework that converts intermediate code into target pure assembly or target machine code. Not just the Golang compiler, many compilers are using LLVM as the compilation backend, such as Swift, Rust, etc.

Regarding the Golang compilation process, there are some details that need to be paid attention to in the implementation:

1. The Golang compiler can control the compiler optimization level through environment variables.

2. On Linux and Mac, the Golang compiler uses cgo to achieve interoperability between Go and C languages. On Windows, the Golang compiler provides a special system call to achieve this. an interoperability mechanism.

3. Applicable scenarios of Golang compiler

Golang compiler is suitable for some application scenarios that require high running speed and require rapid deployment. Compared with other dynamic languages, Golang can directly generate machine code after compilation, so it can maximize the use of computer hardware resources and improve application performance. At the same time, the Golang compiler is also suitable for scenarios that have smaller code size requirements.

In some Golang application scenarios, such as container technology, network programs, cloud computing, distributed systems and other fields, the Golang compiler has been widely used and promoted. For example, in Docker, many Go developers choose to use the Golang compiler to build their own Docker images.

To summarize, although the Golang compilation process is a bit cumbersome, it does a good job of converting high-level languages ​​into low-level machine code, maximizing the release of computer hardware resources, and helping us write efficient and reliable code.

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