proposal: command line flag for go build to add icon for windows executable

[pjebs]

There should be a command line flag to go build to add an icon to the executable file.

[ianlancetaylor]

I would guess that you can do this by adding a file with a .syso extension with an appropriate resource section. That seems more convenient than a go build option, since it will work even if you forget to use the command line option.

[pjebs]

A syso file can be used to embed all sorts of different resources and not just an icon.
I assume adding an icon would be the overwhelming use-case. Generating a sysco file using an external application such as https://github.com/josephspurrier/goversioninfo would be overkill if one merely wants to add an icon and nothing else.

[ianlancetaylor]

I don't understand why generating a .syso file is overkill. Sure, it can do a lot more than add an icon. So what? If you want to add an icon, you have to have an icon file. It's one more command, run exactly once, to turn that icon file into a .syso file. Then you're done.

A .syso file has another advantage: it is always there, so you don't have to add a command line option when you run go build or go install. It just works.