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Function main() in package "main" is the entry point for a Go application but it is not the first code that gets executed when you start a Go app. Each package can have an init() function which gets executed in the order of dependency (if pkg A imports pkg B then B.init() is executed before A.init()) before main.main() is executed.

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It's slightly more complicated than that: In addition to the init() function, variables on the package level can be initialized during initialization too.

For example: http://play.golang.org/p/tvlX7cqaaB

This is important for package level variables such as arrays. Since there are only a very limited number of types which can be constants in Go, everything else which you'd use like a constant needs to be initialized.

If we go in details, we can also add that goroutines created in init() or at init time are effectively started only after all init() functions finish.

I see. Thank you.

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