- Package:
- Package serves as the fundamental organizational unit in Go. Each Go file belongs to a package, and all Go files within the same directory belong to the same package.
- Packages organize similar code and encapsulate data and functions to achieve modularity.
- Packages are referenced by other packages via the
importstatement, utilizing public interfaces defined within the package (such as functions, types, and variables).
- Module:
- Modules were introduced in Go 1.11 and later versions to support version control and dependency management.
- A module is a collection of one or more packages, defined in the
go.modfile, which lists the module's name and the versions of its dependencies. - Modules enable Go projects to better manage external dependencies, ensuring consistency and reproducibility of project dependencies.
- Modules also allow developers to publish their projects as libraries that can be depended upon by other projects.
In summary, packages represent the physical organization of code, while modules are logical and versioning concepts at the project level. Using modules effectively manages dependency issues in large projects.