Go .gitignore template

Go compiles to a single self contained binary, which is why this template is so short. There is no dependency directory to ignore by default and no intermediate object tree: the module cache lives outside the repository in the user's home directory, and the build cache lives there too.

The extension rules cover Windows and shared library output: exe, exe with a tilde from an interrupted write, dll, so and dylib. The blind spot is obvious once you see it. Running go build in a package on Linux or macOS produces a binary named after the directory with no extension at all, and none of these rules match it. A repository at github.com/you/myapp ends up offering to commit a fifteen megabyte file called myapp.

The fix is a rule for the binary you actually produce, or a convention of always building into a directory such as bin that you ignore wholesale. Naming the binary explicitly is the safer of the two, because it survives someone running a bare go build in the package directory out of habit.

*.test matches the compiled test binary that go test -c writes, and *.out covers coverage profiles and redirected output. go.work is the multi module workspace file, ignored here because it describes one developer's local arrangement of checkouts rather than anything the project asserts.

vendor is a judgement call rather than a rule. Vendoring copies your dependencies into the repository so builds need no network at all, which some organisations require and most projects do not want. If you vendor deliberately, delete this line, because otherwise the directory you are relying on is the one thing git will not carry.