cmd/go: go build error. open C:\Users\...\a.out.exe: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

[jcuan]

What version of Go are you using (go version)?

$ go version
go version go1.11.2 windows/amd64

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release?

yes

What operating system and processor architecture are you using (go env)?

windows 10 1803
10.0.17134

go env Output

$ go env
go version go1.11.2 windows/amd64
PS D:\code\go> go env
set GOARCH=amd64
set GOBIN=D:\tools\gobin
set GOCACHE=C:\Users\SHEXIA~1\AppData\Local\go-build
set GOEXE=.exe
set GOFLAGS=
set GOHOSTARCH=amd64
set GOHOSTOS=windows
set GOOS=windows
set GOPATH=D:\code\go
set GOPROXY=
set GORACE=
set GOROOT=D:\tools\go11
set GOTMPDIR=
set GOTOOLDIR=D:\tools\go11\pkg\tool\windows_amd64
set GCCGO=gccgo
set CC=gcc
set CXX=g++
set CGO_ENABLED=1
set GOMOD=
set CGO_CFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_CPPFLAGS=
set CGO_CXXFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_FFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_LDFLAGS=-g -O2
set PKG_CONFIG=pkg-config
set GOGCCFLAGS=-m64 -mthreads -fno-caret-diagnostics -Qunused-arguments -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=C:\Users\SHEXIA~1\AppData\Local\Temp\go-build536614342=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches

What did you do?

#build successfully
PS D:\code\go\src> go build -o out.exe .\main.go
#update code, build failed
PS D:\code\go\src> go build -o out.exe .\main.go
open C:\Users\SHEXIA~1\AppData\Local\Temp\go-build047301674\b001\exe\a.out.exe: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
PS D:\code\go\src> go build -o out.exe .\main.go
open C:\Users\SHEXIA~1\AppData\Local\Temp\go-build838661906\b001\exe\a.out.exe: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
#wait a few minutes, build successfully again
PS D:\code\go\src> go build -o out.exe .\main.go

[ianlancetaylor]

Is this repeatable? What are the contents of main.go?

[jcuan]

@ianlancetaylor

This problem happens every time after I use go build .The Contents of main.go is simple and all my projects have this problem.

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    fmt.Println("jcuan")
}

[agnivade]

This problem happens every time after I use go build .

That does not seem to match this statement of yours.

#wait a few minutes, build successfully again

So it looks like some process is possibly using a.out.exe for some time. I don't know what is the lsof equivalent in Windows, but are you sure that no process is actually using a.out.exe ?

[jcuan]

@agnivade @ianlancetaylor

This problem happens every time after I use go build .

I mean I must wait a few minutes in order to build successfully again almost every time after using go build.

Now, I find that maybe it's caused by vscode/go extension in vscode. Yesterday, I turn off vscode and use notepad to edit code, which doesn't fix this problem. But today, I rebooted my computer and didn't open vscode before using go build and I didn't encounter this problem again after many tries. Then I opened vscode and this problem appeared again but the probability was very low.

Thank you both~ 😁

[ghost]

This solution helps for me. You can try it.
It seems that vscode is the cause of the problem.

[wusi1027]

it happens almost every time when using go version >=1.11(I've tried 1.11,1.12,1.13).
but it disappears when using go 1.9 or 1.10.
my env:
windows10, no IDE, just cmd/go build