Docker

You can use our Docker image to be able to run the TinyGo compiler on your computer without having to install all the dependencies. Read on to learn how.

Installing

docker pull tinygo/tinygo:0.35.0

Using

The paths used here are automatically resolved by tinygo relative to the installation directory. For your own code, you will probably want to use absolute paths.

A docker container exists for easy access to the TinyGo CLI. For example, to compile wasm.wasm for the WebAssembly export example:

docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/src tinygo/tinygo:0.35.0 tinygo build -o wasm.wasm -target=wasm examples/wasm/export

See the WebAssembly page for more information on executing the compiled WebAssembly.

To compile blinky1.hex targeting an ARM microcontroller, such as the PCA10040:

docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/src tinygo/tinygo:0.35.0 tinygo build -o /src/blinky1.hex -size=short -target=pca10040 examples/blinky1

To compile blinky1.hex targeting an AVR microcontroller such as the Arduino:

docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/src tinygo/tinygo:0.35.0 tinygo build -o /src/blinky1.hex -size=short -target=arduino examples/blinky1

For projects that have remote dependencies outside of the standard library and go code within your own project, you will need to map your entire $GOPATH into the docker image for those dependencies to be found:

docker run -v $GOPATH:/go -e "GOPATH=/go" tinygo/tinygo:0.35.0 tinygo build -o /go/src/github.com/myuser/myrepo/wasm.wasm -target wasm --no-debug /go/src/github.com/myuser/myrepo/wasm-main.go

note: At this time, tinygo does not resolve dependencies from the /vendor/ folder within your project.

For microcontroller development you must flash your hardware devices from your host environment, since you cannot run tinygo flash from inside the docker container.

So your workflow could be:

  • Compile TinyGo code using the Docker container into a HEX file.
  • Flash the HEX file from your host environment to the target microcontroller.

Development Builds

You can also use the Docker image with the latest builds from the TinyGo dev branch where active development takes place:

docker pull tinygo/tinygo-dev:latest