As noted already, programmers are strongly encouraged to use appropriate synchronization
to avoid data races.
In the absence of data races, Go programs behave as if all the goroutines
were multiplexed onto a single processor.
This property is sometimes referred to as DRF-SC: data-race-free programs
execute in a sequentially consistent manner.
</p>

<p>

language version 1.17, in October 2021, before the introduction of generics.
It is provided for historical interest.
The current reference manual can be found <a href="/doc/go_spec.html">here</a>.
For more information and other documents, see <a href="/">go.dev</a>.
</p>

<p>
Go is a general-purpose language designed with systems programming
in mind. It is strongly typed and garbage-collected and has explicit

<a href="/pkg/runtime/"><code>runtime</code></a> and
<a href="/pkg/math/big/"><code>math/big</code></a>.
You can also examine what the compiler emits as assembly code
(the actual output may differ from what you see here):
</p>

<pre>
$ cat x.go
package main

func main() {
	println(3)
}
$ GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 go tool compile -S x.go        # or: go build -gcflags -S x.go
"".main STEXT size=74 args=0x0 locals=0x10

	"Path": "/ref/spec"
}-->

<h2 id="Introduction">Introduction</h2>

<p>
This is the reference manual for the Go programming language.
The pre-Go1.18 version, without generics, can be found
<a href="/doc/go1.17_spec.html">here</a>.
For more information and other documents, see <a href="/">go.dev</a>.
</p>

<p>
Go is a general-purpose language designed with systems programming
in mind. It is strongly typed and garbage-collected and has explicit