GoLang: Tutorial – Install Go on MacOS, Ubuntu, CentOS

What is Go? Go or Golang is a programming language created by Google in 2009 by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson.

Go language is designed for building simple, fast and reliable software.

In this tutorial i’ll show how to install Go on MacOS, Ubuntu, CentOS and how to create a simple “Hello world!” program on Golang.

Install Go on MacOS, Ubuntu, CentOS

Download an archive with the latest version of Golang for your platform from the official download page (the current version of Go is 1.11.3).

$ curl -O https://dl.google.com/go/go1.11.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Extract the tar archive files into /usr/local (default Go installation directory):

$ sudo tar -C /usr/local -xvzf go1.11.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Configure GoLang Environment

For a system-wide installation of Go it needs to add the following line at the bottom of /etc/profile file:

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

To specify a workspace (location where you store your Go code) it needs to set Go environment variable GOPATH.

By default, GOPATH is $HOME/go, but you can change it to any location you want (except Go installation directory).

I also recommend to set GOBIN environment variable that specifies location where to install compiled Go programs and add it to PATH.

Set GOPATH, GOBIN and PATH environment variables by adding the following lines at the bottom of your $HOME/.profile file:

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

Refresh profile:

$ source $HOME/.profile

Verify Golang installation by checking the Go version and environment:

$ go version
$ go env

GoLang: Hello World! – Example

Create $GOPATH/src directory:

$ mkdir -p $GOPATH/src

Create $GOPATH/src/hello.go file with the following contents:

package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
    fmt.Printf("Hello World!\n")
}

Run go install to compile and install our “Hello World!” program on Go:

$ go install $GOPATH/src/hello.go

Execute hello to run the program:

$ hello
Hello World!

If the program returns “Hello World!”, then Go is successfully installed and functional.