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Posted by khazit 12/7/2025

Go is portable, until it isn't(simpleobservability.com)
155 points | 134 commentspage 4
thomashabets2 12/13/2025|
The portability story for Go is awful. I've blogged about this before: https://blog.habets.se/2022/02/Go-programs-are-not-portable....

It's yet another example of Go authors just implementing the least-effort without even a slight thought to what it would mean down the line, creating a huge liability/debt forever in the language.

hu3 12/15/2025|
You expect Go to magically make systemd journaling exist in macOS?

I can't even begin to comprehend the thought process here.

thomashabets2 12/15/2025||
I can't even begin to comprehend how you got from here to there.

I encourage you to elaborate on how you think that's connected, and not make a strawman argument. You may have not done so deliberately, but if you can't begin to comprehend that I would mean what you said, then you could give me the benefit of doubt and maybe entertain the idea that I did not.

Edit: In my blog post I give the example of getpwnam_r. One should not check for if the OS is Solaris in a given version range, but if getpwnam_r is one or the other type.

hu3 12/16/2025||
No language is going to do that for you. And I don't think Go promissed otherwise.

Perhaps it's about managing expectations.

thomashabets2 12/16/2025||
I mean… my whole blog post is about how autotools does that easily, and Go does not.

"Language", no. But Go's build comments are not really part of the language proper.

vb-8448 12/13/2025||
i wonder, for their use case, why not just submit journal in binary format to the server and let the serve do the parsing?
xmodem 12/13/2025|
It's crucial to be able to do some processing locally to filter out sensitive/noisey logging sources.
r_lee 12/13/2025||
more like C is portable, until it isn't
ifh-hn 12/13/2025||
This stuff is out of my frame of reference. I've never used Go before and have never had the need to go this low level (C APIs, etc); so please keep this in mind with my following questions, which are likely to sound stupid or ignorant.

Can this binary not include compiled dependacies along side it? I'm thinking like how on windows for portable apps they include the DLLs and other dependant exes in subfolders?

Out of interest, and in relation to a less well liked Google technology, could dart produce what they are after? My understanding is dart can produce static binaries, though I'm not sure if these are truly portable compile once run everywhere sense.

liampulles 12/13/2025||
Well now you've gone and linked to a fascinating tool which I'm going to have to dive into and learn: https://kaitai.io/

Thanks.

nicman23 12/13/2025|
so like every other language