Preface

Whether you’re a system administrator, a network engineer, a DevOps specialist, or any other modern IT professional, you use command-line applications to automate your environment and increase your productivity. These tools play an increasingly critical role in your infrastructure and therefore require the same level of governance as other software components. In this book, you’ll use the Go programming language to develop command-line applications that are maintainable, cross-platform, fast, and reliable.

Go is a modern programming language that combines the reliability provided by the compilation process with the flexibility of dynamic typing. Go’s ease of use and flexibility in prototyping new ideas make it a great choice for writing command-line tools. At the same time, Go allows the implementation of more complex scenarios by providing features like type safety, cross-compilation, testing, and benchmarks.

Many popular command-line tools you use are developed with Go. These include Docker, Podman, Kubectl, Openshift CLI, Hugo, and Terraform. If you’ve ever wondered how you can make your own tools like these, this book will show you how.

You’ll apply your knowledge of Go’s basic syntax and also employ more advanced concepts to develop several command-line applications. You can use these applications to automate tasks, analyze data, parse logs, talk to network services, or address other system requirements. You’ll also employ different testing and benchmarking techniques to ensure your programs are fast and reliable.