Introduction
The release of Go version 1, Go 1 for short, is a major milestone
in the development of the language. Go 1 is a stable platform for
the growth of programs and projects written in Go.
Go 1 defines two things: first, the specification of the language;
and second, the specification of a set of core APIs, the “standard
packages” of the Go library. The Go 1 release includes their
implementation in the form of two compiler suites (gc and gccgo),
and the core libraries themselves.
It is intended that programs written to the Go 1 specification will
continue to compile and run correctly, unchanged, over the lifetime
of that specification. At some indefinite point, a Go 2 specification
may arise, but until that time, Go programs that work today should
continue to work even as future “point” releases of Go 1 arise (Go
1.1, Go 1.2, etc.).
Compatibility is at the source level. Binary compatibility for
compiled packages is not guaranteed between releases. After a point
release, Go source will need to be recompiled to link against the
new release.
The APIs may grow, acquiring new packages and features, but not in
a way that breaks existing Go 1 code.
Expectations
Although we expect that the vast majority of programs will maintain
this compatibility over time, it is impossible to guarantee that
no future change will break any program. This document is an attempt
to set expectations for the compatibility of Go 1 software in the
future. There are a number of ways in which a program that compiles
and runs today may fail to do so after a future point release. They
are all unlikely but worth recording.
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Security. A security issue in the specification or implementation
may come to light whose resolution r
