Embedding Files

A deployment copies one binary to a new server, and the first request fails because templates/receipt.html does not exist there. The program compiled, and its tests passed on a machine that had the file.

A Go program that reads a template or a SQL file at run time has this risk. The binary works only if a separate file is present at the right path on the machine that runs it, and a deployment can leave that file out. The Go build can instead place the file inside the binary, so the program and its data are one file.