"Subtitle": "Version of Oct 15, 2021",
	"Path": "/ref/spec"
}-->

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

<p>
This is the reference manual for the Go programming language as it was for
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>.

			case *ast.GenDecl:
				if isDeprecated(n.Doc) {
					for _, spec := range n.Specs {
						switch spec := spec.(type) {
						case *ast.ValueSpec:
							for _, id := range spec.Names {
								mark(id)
							}
						case *ast.TypeSpec:
							mark(spec.Name)
						}
					}
				}
				return true // look at specs
			case *ast.FuncDecl:
				if isDeprecated(n.Doc) {
					mark(n.Name)

    validations:
      required: true

  - type: textarea
    id: language-spec-changes
    attributes:
      label: "Language Spec Changes"
      description: "What would change in the language spec?"
    validations:
      required: false

  - type: textarea
    id: informal-change
    attributes:
      label: "Informal Change"

<!--{
	"Title": "The Go Programming Language Specification",
	"Subtitle": "Language version go1.22 (April 25, 2024)",
	"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>

	paxUid      = "uid"
	paxGid      = "gid"
	paxUname    = "uname"
	paxGname    = "gname"
	paxMtime    = "mtime"
	paxAtime    = "atime"
	paxCtime    = "ctime"   // Removed from later revision of PAX spec, but was valid
	paxCharset  = "charset" // Currently unused
	paxComment  = "comment" // Currently unused

	paxSchilyXattr = "SCHILY.xattr."

	// Keywords for GNU sparse files in a PAX extended header.

This behavior can be controlled by the
[`httpmuxgo121` setting](/pkg/net/http/#ServeMux).

Go 1.22 added the [Alias type](/pkg/go/types#Alias) to [go/types](/pkg/go/types)
for the explicit representation of [type aliases](/ref/spec#Type_declarations).
Whether the type checker produces `Alias` types or not is controlled by the
[`gotypesalias` setting](/pkg/go/types#Alias).
For Go 1.22 it defaults to `gotypesalias=0`.

That execution must be consistent with the <i>sequenced before</i> relation,
defined as the partial order requirements set out by the <a href="/ref/spec">Go language specification</a>
for Go's control flow constructs as well as the <a href="/ref/spec#Order_of_evaluation">order of evaluation for expressions</a>.
</p>

<p>
A Go <i>program execution</i> is modeled as a set of goroutine executions,