Go Release History
The release of Go version 1 (Go 1 short) is a major milestone in the development of the Go language. Go 1 was released in 2012 and was the most stable version of Go.
Go 1 defines two major things during the release.
- Specification of the language
- Specification of a set of Core APIs, the "standard packages" of the Go library
It also was shipped with two compiler suites (gc and gccgo) and the core libraries.
Compatibility
Go 1 guarantees compatibility for the specification of the language and the standard major parts of the standard library. It means the program written in Go version 1 will continue to compile and run correctly over the lifetime of that specification.
Go has maintained this promise up to the current Go version 1.19 release.
According to Go official docs, 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.).
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.
Go Versioning
Each major release of Go is supported until two major versions get released. The complete version details with release date and the maintenance end is shown in the below table.
| Release | Status | Release date | Maintenance end |
|---|---|---|---|
| go1.20 | Planned | Q1 2023 | Q1 2024 |
| go1.19 | Current | 2022-08-02 | Q3 2023 |
| go1.18 | Maintenance | 2021-08-16 | Q1 2023 |
| go1.17 | End-of-Life | 2021-08-16 | 2022-08-02 |
| go1.16 | End-of-Life | 2021-02-16 | 2022-03-15 |
| go1.15 | End-of-Life | 2020-08-11 | 2021-08-16 |
| go1.14 | End-of-Life | 2020-02-25 | 2021-02-16 |
| go1.13 | End-of-Life | 2019-09-03 | 2020-08-11 |
| go1.12 | End-of-Life | 2019-02-25 | 2020-02-25 |
| go1.11 | End-of-Life | 2018-08-24 | 2019-09-03 |
| go1.10 | End-of-Life | 2018-02-16 | 2019-02-25 |
| go1.9 | End-of-Life | 2017-08-24 | 2018-08-24 |
| go1.8 | End-of-Life | 2017-02-16 | 2018-02-16 |
| go1.7 | End-of-Life | 2016-08-15 | 2017-08-24 |
| go1.6 | End-of-Life | 2016-02-17 | 2017-02-16 |
| go1.5 | End-of-Life | 2015-08-19 | 2016-08-15 |
| go1.4 | End-of-Life | 2014-12-10 | 2016-02-17 |
| go1.3 | End-of-Life | 2014-06-18 | 2015-08-19 |
| go1.2 | End-of-Life | 2013-12-01 | 2014-12-10 |
| go1.1 | End-of-Life | 2013-05-13 | 2014-06-18 |
| go1 | End-of-Life | 2012-03-28 | 2013-12-01 |