We have decided to bump the requirement to Go 1.7 because it enables
subtests and allows dropping backwards-compatibility code. This is in
line with Go's support policy. Go 1.6 and earlier no longer receive
security updates.
The new build script, ci.go, replaces some of the older shell scripts.
ci.go can compile go-ethereum, run the tests, create release archives
and debian source packages.
Many people need or want to build go-ethereum from the git repository,
mostly to stay up to date with recent changes. We cannot expect that
people without Go experience grok the Go workspace concept.
With the Makefile, building from github requires only
three steps (provided that a Go toolchain is installed):
- git clone https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum
- ... install C libraries (libgmp, etc.) ...
- make
