How to Install Go on Ubuntu 18.04/20.04

May 29, 2016 · 165 words · 1 minute read

#16.04 #18.04 #20.04 #bash #install #local #path #profile #ubuntu #vim #wget

Ubuntu does come with a version of go (installable through apt install go) but it won’t be as up-to-date as downloading it directly. And I know many gophers like using the latest version.

To begin with we’ll start by downloading the latest version and, once downloaded, we extract it into a folder we can work with (you can find the latest version here).

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wget /go/go1.14.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz

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sudo tar -C /usr/local -xvf go1.14.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz

We then need to add some environment variables so Go knows where our work/code directory is located. GOPATH should point to the folder where you’ll be working in. This folder once setup should have your src, bin and pkg folders.

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vim ~/.profile

Add this to the bottom:

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export GOPATH=$HOME/go
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin:$GOPATH/bin

Press :wq to exit and run this to load your changes:

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source ~/.profile

As the final test, if we run this:

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go version

We should see: go version go1.14.2 linux/amd64

Finally, some clean-up

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rm go1.14.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz

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Author: Edd Turtle

Edd is the Lead Developer at Hoowla, a prop-tech startup, where he spends much of his time working on production-ready Go and PHP code. He loves coding, but also enjoys cycling and camping in his spare time.

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