Introduction:
Go is an open source and statically type language by Google. Go is a compiled language, that needs to compile source code that results in generating the executable file. The generated executable file is used to run the program. Many popular applications like Docker, Kubernetes, Prometheus, Grafana and Terraform are written in Go. In this article, we will learn on how to setup/install golang on Ubuntu, as I am using Ubuntu OS. You can choose the right binary for your system from the official Go Download Page.
Download the Go binary:
At the time of writing the article the latest stable version of Go was 1.13.4. Please check for latest version from the Go Download Page.
curl -O https://dl.google.com/go/go1.13.4.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sam@S:~$ curl -O https://dl.google.com/go/go1.13.4.linux-amd64.tar.gz % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 100 114M 100 114M 0 0 30.7M 0 0:00:03 0:00:03 --:--:-- 30.7M
Next extract using tar command as seen below:
sam@S:~$ sudo tar -xvf go1.13.4.linux-amd64.tar.gz
The above commmand will extract under your home directory. Then change the ownership and move go package under usr/local/
sam@S:~$ sudo chown -R root:root ./go
Setting GOPATH:
It’s important to setup the required environment variable correctly. Now edit the .profile file by executing the below command:
sam@S:~$ sudo nano ~/.profile
Add to the end of the .profile with the below commands:
export GOROOT=$HOME/go export GOPATH=$HOME/goLang export GOBIN=$GOPATH/bin export PATH=$PATH:$GOROOT/bin:$GOPATH:$GOBIN
To reflect the environment variable changes. Now refresh your profile by running:
sam@S:~$ source ~/.profile
Test your installation:
To test the installation is done correctly, we will create a folder under the GOPATH sam@S:~$ mkdir $HOME/goLang
In order to create a Hello file, execute the command replace github-username with your github-account-username:
sam@S:~$ mkdir -p goLang/src/github.com/github-username/hello
Now create and edit file “hello.go” by the following command:
sam@S:~$ nano ~/goLang/src/github.com/github-username/hello/hello.go
Insert the below content:
package main import "fmt" func main() { fmt.Printf("Hello World!!!\n") }
Now save and exit. Compile the file with Go install command:
sam@S:~$ go install github.com/github-username/hello
Once compiled successfully, you can run the generated file by just using filename “hello”:
sam@S:~$ hello Hello World!!!
If it prints hello, world, then your installation is successful. In this article, we have learned how to setup/install golang on Ubuntu, I hope it helps!
References:
Installing go tools: https://golang.org/doc/install
Next Tutorial:
If you are interested to learn about the basics of gRPC, please check out my articles on gRPC : Introduction to gRPC