diff --git a/docs/manual/adding-packages-golang.adoc b/docs/manual/adding-packages-golang.adoc
index 6de0916a83..21b6a122a9 100644
--- a/docs/manual/adding-packages-golang.adoc
+++ b/docs/manual/adding-packages-golang.adoc
@@ -94,20 +94,20 @@ therefore only use a few of them, or none.
   defaults to +.+. We then have two cases:
 
 ** +FOO_BUILD_TARGETS+ is +.+. In this case, we assume only one binary
-   will be produced, and that by default we name it after the package
-   name. If that is not appropriate, the name of the produced binary
-   can be overridden using +FOO_BIN_NAME+.
+   will be built and installed, and by default we name it after the
+   package name; if that is not appropriate, the name of the binary can
+   be overridden using +FOO_BIN_NAME+.
 
-** +FOO_BUILD_TARGETS+ is not +.+. In this case, we iterate over the
-   values to build each target, and for each produced a binary that is
-   the non-directory component of the target. For example if
-   +FOO_BUILD_TARGETS = cmd/docker cmd/dockerd+ the binaries produced
-   are +docker+ and +dockerd+.
-
-* +FOO_INSTALL_BINS+ can be used to pass the list of binaries that
-  should be installed in +/usr/bin+ on the target. If
-  +FOO_INSTALL_BINS+ is not specified, it defaults to the lower-case
-  name of package.
+** +FOO_BUILD_TARGETS+ is not +.+. In this case, it is interpreted as a
+   space-separated list, and we iterate over the targets to build and
+   install a binary named after the non-directory component of the
+   target. For example if +FOO_BUILD_TARGETS = cmd/docker cmd/dockerd+,
+   the binaries built and installed are +docker+ and +dockerd+. If
+   +FOO_BUILD_TARGETS+ contains only one target, then it is possible to
+   override the built and installed binary by setting +FOO_BIN_NAME+,
+   as above; if +FOO_BUILD_TARGETS+ contains two or more targets, then
+   it is not possible to override the names of the installed binaries
+   (use a post-install hook for that).
 
 With the Go infrastructure, all the steps required to build and
 install the packages are already defined, and they generally work well
diff --git a/package/pkg-golang.mk b/package/pkg-golang.mk
index a4e8bd30cc..ff8d28aa7e 100644
--- a/package/pkg-golang.mk
+++ b/package/pkg-golang.mk
@@ -61,9 +61,16 @@ $(2)_BUILD_TARGETS ?= .
 # after each build target building them (below in <pkg>_BUILD_CMDS).
 ifeq ($$($(2)_BUILD_TARGETS),.)
 $(2)_BIN_NAME ?= $$($(2)_RAWNAME)
+$(2)_INSTALL_BINS ?= $$($(2)_BIN_NAME)
+else ifeq ($$(words $$($(2)_BUILD_TARGETS)),1)
+$(2)_BIN_NAME ?= $$(notdir $$($(2)_BUILD_TARGETS))
+$(2)_INSTALL_BINS ?= $$($(2)_BIN_NAME)
+else
+ifneq ($$($(2)_BIN_NAME),)
+$$(error $(1) sets $(2)_BIN_NAME while there are multiple targets in $(2)_BUILD_TARGETS)
+endif
+$(2)_INSTALL_BINS ?= $$(notdir $$($(2)_BUILD_TARGETS))
 endif
-
-$(2)_INSTALL_BINS ?= $$($(2)_RAWNAME)
 
 # Source files in Go usually use an import path resolved around
 # domain/vendor/software. We infer domain/vendor/software from the upstream URL