Go library based on IUP, a multi-platform toolkit for building graphical user interfaces. Library provides system native UI controls for Windows (Win32), macOS (Cocoa), and Linux (GTK, Qt, and Motif).
C source code is included and compiled together with bindings. Note that the first build can take a few minutes.
Go 1.21 is the minimum required version.
On Windows, you need a C compiler, like Mingw-w64 or TDM-GCC. You can also build a binary in MSYS2 shell.
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To remove a console window, i.e., compile a GUI app with WinMain entry-point, build with
-ldflags "-H=windowsgui". -
You can add an icon resource to an .exe file with the rsrc tool.
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Windows manifest is included in the build by default. See below how to disable the manifest if you want to include your own.
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For MSYS2, install
pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-go mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc mingw-w64-x86_64-pkg-config. -
You can build for Qt, with the
qtbuild tag. Install deps withpacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-qt6-base. -
You can build for GTK3, with the
gtkbuild tag. Install deps withpacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-gtk3. -
You can build for GTK4, with the
gtk4build tag. Install deps withpacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-gtk4.
On macOS, you need Command Line Tools for Xcode (if you have brew, you already have this).
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To create an
.appbundle or.dmgimage, check this gist. -
You can build for Qt, with the
qtbuild tag. Install deps withbrew install qt. -
You can build for GTK3, with the
gtkbuild tag. Install deps withbrew install gtk+3. -
You can build for GTK4, with the
gtk4build tag. Install deps withbrew install gtk4.
On Linux, you need a C compiler and development packages for GTK or Qt.
- Debian/Ubuntu:
apt-get install libgtk-3-dev - RedHat/Fedora:
dnf install gtk3-devel
- Debian/Ubuntu:
apt-get install libgtk-4-dev - RedHat/Fedora:
dnf install gtk4-devel
Note that you can also build for GTK2.
For the WebBrowser control, libraries are loaded at runtime. You do not need to install WebKitGTK development packages.
For the GLCanvas control, install libegl-dev libgl-dev or libglvnd-devel.
- Debian/Ubuntu:
apt-get install qt6-base-dev - RedHat/Fedora:
dnf install qt6-qtbase-devel
- Debian/Ubuntu:
apt-get install qt5base-dev - RedHat/Fedora:
dnf install qt5-qtbase-devel
For the WebBrowser control, install qt6-webengine-dev or qt6-qtwebengine-devel.
For the GLCanvas control, install libegl-dev libgl-dev or libglvnd-devel.
Qt6 also needs private headers for a Wayland EGL driver; install qt6-base-private-dev or qt6-qtbase-private-devel.
You must manually export the path to private header files.
For example, check pkg-config --modversion Qt6Core and pkg-config --cflags Qt6Core and then based on that use:
CGO_CXXFLAGS="-I/usr/include/qt6/QtCore/6.9.3 -I/usr/include/qt6/QtGui/6.9.3" go build -tags qt,gl
The library should work on other Unix-like systems, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFly, Solaris, Illumos, and AIX.
You can also compile for a time-tested Motif library if GTK or Qt are not available.
- Debian/Ubuntu:
apt-get install libmotif-dev libxmu-dev libxpm-dev - RedHat/Fedora:
dnf install motif-devel libXpm-devel
To compile with Xft support, install libxft-dev or libXft-devel.
For the GLCanvas control, install libgl-dev or libglvnd-devel.
gl- build with support forGLCanvascontrolweb- build with support forWebBrowsercontrolctl- build with support forMatrixandCellscontrolsgtk- use GTK in macOS or Windowsgtk4- build for GTK4, default is GTK3gtk2- build for GTK2 (Linux/Unix)qt- build for the Qt frameworkqt5- build for Qt5 version, default is Qt6 (used withqt)motif- build for X11/Motif 2.x environmentxft- build with Xft support (X FreeType interface) (used withmotif)xembed- use XEmbed tray protocol instead of SNI (GTK3/GTK2 and Motif)nomanifest- do not include manifest in Windows buildnopkgconfig- do not use pkg-config for compile and link flags
You can provide explicit compiler and linker flags instead of using the defaults provided by pkg-config. For example, if dependencies are in a non-standard location:
CGO_CFLAGS="-I<include path> ..." CGO_LDFLAGS="-L<dir> -llib ..." go build -tags nopkconfig
You can also point PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR to some local directory with custom modified .pc files.
IUP documentation is a must for now; every Go function in the doc reference there. Also check Go Reference and Examples.
User interfaces (and OpenGL) are usually not thread-safe, and IUP is not either. Some platforms enforce running UI on the main thread. Note that a goroutine can arbitrarily and randomly be scheduled or rescheduled on different running threads.
The secondary threads (goroutine) should not directly update the UI; instead, use PostMessage, which is expected to be thread-safe.
See example that sends data to an element, which will be received by a callback when the main loop regains control.
You can also use the IdleFunc and Timer.
To cross-compile for Windows, install MinGW toolchain.
$ CGO_ENABLED=1 CC=x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc GOOS=windows GOARCH=amd64 go build -ldflags "-s -w"
$ file alarm.exe
alarm.exe: PE32+ executable (console) x86-64, for MS Windows
$ CGO_ENABLED=1 CC=i686-w64-mingw32-gcc GOOS=windows GOARCH=386 go build -ldflags "-s -w"
$ file alarm.exe
alarm.exe: PE32 executable (console) Intel 80386, for MS Windows
To cross-compile for macOS, install OSXCross toolchain. Ready-made SDK tarballs are available here.
$ CGO_ENABLED=1 CC=x86_64-apple-darwin25-clang GOOS=darwin GOARCH=amd64 go build -ldflags "-s -w"
$ file alarm
alarm: Mach-O 64-bit x86_64 executable, flags:<NOUNDEFS|DYLDLINK|TWOLEVEL|WEAK_DEFINES|BINDS_TO_WEAK>
$ CGO_ENABLED=1 CC=aarch64-apple-darwin25-clang GOOS=darwin GOARCH=arm64 go build -ldflags "-s -w"
$ file alarm
alarm: Mach-O 64-bit arm64 executable, flags:<NOUNDEFS|DYLDLINK|TWOLEVEL|WEAK_DEFINES|BINDS_TO_WEAK|PIE>
See more screenshots.
iup-go is MIT licensed, same as IUP. View LICENSE.