i want to place print debug messages in my code but i only want them to be compiled in if debug symbols are included at compile time, what is the best way to go about doing this?
tldr; compile debug bin print debug message, compile release bin compiler ignores debug messages.
The simplest way to achieve this in Go is by using build tags with two separate files in the same package directory.
1. Create a file named debug_on.go:
The first line must be the build tag:
//go:build debug
package main
import “log”
func DebugLog(format string, v …any) { log.Printf("[DEBUG] "+format, v…) }
2. Create a file named debug_off.go:
The first line must be:
//go:build !debug
package main
func DebugLog(format string, v …any) {}
3. Usage in code:
Just call DebugLog(“your message: %s”, value) in your main code.
4. How to compile or run:
For Debug mode (includes debug messages):
go run -tags debug .
go build -tags debug -o app-debug
For Release mode (debug function becomes an empty no-op and gets optimized away):
go run .
go build -o app-release