<!--{
	"Title": "Go 1.16 Release Notes",
	"Path":  "/doc/go1.16"
}-->

<!--
NOTE: In this document and others in this directory, the convention is to
set fixed-width phrases with non-fixed-width spaces, as in
<code>hello</code> <code>world</code>.
Do not send CLs removing the interior tags from such phrases.
-->

<style>
  main ul li { margin: 0.5em 0; }
</style>

<h2 id="introduction">DRAFT RELEASE NOTES — Introduction to Go 1.16</h2>

<p>
  <strong>
    Go 1.16 is not yet released. These are work-in-progress
    release notes. Go 1.16 is expected to be released in February 2021.
  </strong>
</p>

<h2 id="language">Changes to the language</h2>

<p>
  TODO
</p>

<h2 id="ports">Ports</h2>

<p>
  TODO
</p>

<h2 id="tools">Tools</h2>

<p>
  TODO
</p>

<h3 id="go-command">Go command</h3>

<p><!-- golang.org/issue/24031 -->
  <code>retract</code> directives may now be used in a <code>go.mod</code> file
  to indicate that certain published versions of the module should not be used
  by other modules. A module author may retract a version after a severe problem
  is discovered or if the version was published unintentionally.<br>
  TODO: write and link to section in golang.org/ref/mod<br>
  TODO: write and link to tutorial or blog post
</p>

<p>
  TODO
</p>

<h2 id="runtime">Runtime</h2>

<p>
  TODO
</p>

<h2 id="compiler">Compiler</h2>

<p>
  TODO
</p>

<h2 id="linker">Linker</h2>

<p>
  This release includes additional improvements to the Go linker,
  reducing linker resource usage (both time and memory) and improving
  code robustness/maintainability. These changes form the second half
  of a two-release project to
  <a href="https://golang.org/s/better-linker">modernize the Go
  linker</a>.
</p>

<p>
  The linker changes in 1.16 extend the 1.15 improvements to all
  supported architecture/OS combinations (the 1.15 performance improvements
  were primarily focused on <code>ELF</code>-based OSes and
  <code>amd64</code> architectures).  For a representative set of
  large Go programs, linking is 20-35% faster than 1.15 and requires
  5-15% less memory on average for <code>linux/amd64</code>, with larger
  improvements for other architectures and OSes.
</p>

<p>
  TODO: update with final numbers later in the release.
</p>

<h2 id="library">Core library</h2>

<p>
  TODO
</p>

<h3 id="net"><a href="/pkg/net/">net</a></h3>

<p><!-- CL -->
  The case of I/O on a closed network connection, or I/O on a network
  connection that is closed before any of the I/O completes, can now
  be detected using the new <a href="/pkg/net/#ErrClosed">ErrClosed</a> error.
  A typical use would be <code>errors.Is(err, net.ErrClosed)</code>.
  In earlier releases the only way to reliably detect this case was to
  match the string returned by the <code>Error</code> method
  with <code>"use of closed network connection"</code>.
</p>

<h3 id="unicode"><a href="/pkg/unicode/">unicode</a></h3>

<p><!-- CL 248765 -->
  The <a href="/pkg/unicode/"><code>unicode</code></a> package and associated
  support throughout the system has been upgraded from Unicode 12.0.0 to
  <a href="https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode13.0.0/">Unicode 13.0.0</a>,
  which adds 5,930 new characters, including four new scripts, and 55 new emoji.
  Unicode 13.0.0 also designates plane 3 (U+30000-U+3FFFF) as the tertiary
  ideographic plane.
</p>

<h3 id="minor_library_changes">Minor changes to the library</h3>

<p>
  As always, there are various minor changes and updates to the library,
  made with the Go 1 <a href="/doc/go1compat">promise of compatibility</a>
  in mind.
</p>

<p>
  TODO
</p>

<p>
  In the <a href="/pkg/net/http/"><code>net/http</code></a> package, the
  behavior of <a href="/pkg/net/http/#StripPrefix"><code>StripPrefix</code></a>
  has been changed to strip the prefix from the request URL's
  <code>RawPath</code> field in addition to its <code>Path</code> field.
  In past releases, only the <code>Path</code> field was trimmed, and so if the
  request URL contained any escaped characters the URL would be modified to
  have mismatched <code>Path</code> and <code>RawPath</code> fields.
  In Go 1.16, <code>StripPrefix</code> trims both fields.
  If there are escaped characters in the prefix part of the request URL the
  handler serves a 404 instead of its previous behavior of invoking the
  underlying handler with a mismatched <code>Path</code>/<code>RawPath</code> pair.
</p>