How to install the current version of Go in Ubuntu Precise

I like to use GVM for managing my Go versions in my Ubuntu box. Pretty simple to use, and if you're familiar with RVM, it's a nobrainer. It allows you to have multiple versions of Go installed in your system and switch between whichever version you want at any point in time.

Install GVM with:

sudo apt-get install bison mercurial bash < <(curl -LSs 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/moovweb/gvm/master/binscripts/gvm-installer') . "$HOME/.gvm/scripts/gvm" 

and then it's as easy as doing this:

gvm install go1.1.1 gvm use go1.1.1 --default 

The default flag at the end of the second command will set go1.1.1 to be your default Go version whenever you start a new terminal session.

I used following commands from GoLang official repository, it installed GoLang version 1.6 on my Ubuntu 14.04

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-lxc/lxd-stable sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install golang 

However, since this answer was created, the instructions have been updated to these, for Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04 or 22.04 (amd64, arm64 or armhf):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:longsleep/golang-backports sudo apt update sudo apt install golang-go 

Reference official GoLang Repo https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/Ubuntu it seems this ppa will always be updated in future.

[October 2015] Answer because the current accepted answersudo apt-get install golang isn't uptodate and if you don't want to install GVM follow these steps.

Step by step installation:

1. Download the latest version here (OS: Linux).
2. Open your terminal and go to your Downloads directory
3. sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go$VERSION.$OS-$ARCH.tar.gz
4. Add go to your path export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin
5. go version to check the current version installed
6. Start programming.

Possible errors + fixes: (to be updated)

If you get a go version xgcc (Ubuntu 4.9.1-0ubuntu1) 4.9.1 linux/amd64 then you did something wrong, so check out this post: Go is printing xgcc version but not go installed version

i installed from source. there is a step-by-step tutorial here: http://golang.org/doc/install/source

I use this instruction to install the latest version of

1. Remove the existing Go version:

   sudo apt-get purge golang* 

2. Install the latest version of Go:

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:longsleep/golang-backports sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install golang-go 

3. Create the .profile file in the home path with this content:

   # ~/.profile: executed by the command interpreter for login shells. # This file is not read by bash(1), if ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bash_login # exists. # see /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/startup-files for examples. # the files are located in the bash-doc package. # the default umask is set in /etc/profile; for setting the umask # for ssh logins, install and configure the libpam-umask package. #umask 022 # if running bash if [ -n "$BASH_VERSION" ]; then # include .bashrc if it exists if [ -f "$HOME/.bashrc" ]; then . "$HOME/.bashrc" fi fi # set PATH so it includes user's private bin directories PATH="$HOME/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" 

4. Set Go workspace to the environment variable:

   GOPATH=~/.go 

5. Apply the .profile configuration:

   source ~/.profile 

Test:

$ go version go version go1.11.1 linux/amd64 

Ref: Go-GitHub-Installation

Here is the most straight forward and simple method I found to install go on Ubuntu 14.04 without any ppa or any other tool.

As of now, The version of GO is 1.7

Get the Go 1.7.tar.gz using wget

wget https://storage.googleapis.com/golang/go1.7.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Extract it and copy it to /usr/local/

sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzvf go1.7.linux-amd64.tar.gz

You have now successfully installed GO. Now You have to set Environment Variables so you can use the go command from anywhere.

To achieve this we need to add a line to .bashrc So,

sudo nano ~/.bashrc

and add the following line to the end of file.

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

Now, All the commands in go/bin will work.

Check if the install was successful by doing

go version

For offline Documentation you can do

godoc -http=:6060

Offline documentation will be available at http://localhost:6060

NOTE:

Some people here are suggesting to change the PATH variable.

It is not a good choice.

1. Changing that to /usr/local/go/bin is temporary and it'll reset once you close terminal.

2. go command will only work in terminal in which you changed the value of PATH.

3. You'll not be able to use any other command like ls, nano or just about everything because everything else is in /usr/bin or in other locations. All those things will stop working and it'll start giving you error.

However, this is permanent and does not disturbs anything else.

If someone is looking for installing Go 1.8 the follow this:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:longsleep/golang-backports sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install golang-go 

And then install go

sudo apt-get install golang-1.8-go 

For the current release of Go:

The Go Programming Language

Getting Started

Download the Go distribution

Downloads

Click the link above to visit the Go project's downloads page and select the binary distribution that matches your operating system and processor architecture.

Official binary distributions are available for the FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows operating systems and the 32-bit (386) and 64-bit (amd64) x86 processor architectures.

If a binary distribution is not available for your combination of operating system and architecture you may want to try installing from source or installing gccgo instead of gc.

Installing Go from source

1. Download say, go1.6beta1.linux-amd64.tar.gz from https://golang.org/dl/ into /tmp

wget https://storage.googleapis.com/golang/go1.6beta1.linux-amd64.tar.gz -o /tmp/go1.6beta1.linux-amd64.tar.gz

2. un-tar into /usr/local/bin

sudo tar -zxvf go1.6beta1.linux-amd64.tar.gz -C /usr/local/bin/

3. Set GOROOT, GOPATH, [on ubuntu add following to ~/.bashrc]

mkdir ~/go export GOPATH=~/go export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH/bin export GOROOT=/usr/local/bin/go export PATH=$PATH:$GOROOT/bin

4. Verify

go version should show be

go version go1.6beta1 linux/amd64

go env should show be

GOARCH="amd64" GOBIN="" GOEXE="" GOHOSTARCH="amd64" GOHOSTOS="linux" GOOS="linux" GOPATH="/home/vats/go" GORACE="" GOROOT="/usr/local/bin/go" GOTOOLDIR="/usr/local/bin/go/pkg/tool/linux_amd64" GO15VENDOREXPERIMENT="1" CC="gcc" GOGCCFLAGS="-fPIC -m64 -pthread -fmessage-length=0" CXX="g++" CGO_ENABLED="1"

These days according to the golang github with for Ubuntu, it's possible to install the latest version of Go easily via a snap:

Using snaps also works quite well:

# This will give you the latest version of go $ sudo snap install --classic go 

Potentially preferable to fussing with outdated and/or 3rd party PPAs

On recent Ubuntu (20.10) sudo apt-get install golang works fine; it will install version 1.14.

This is an old question in 2022 it is almost more that 9 years. But I think it is important to automatize this installation.

Requirements:

• This was tested on Ubuntu 18 and 20.
• Sudoer user, you must be able to use sudo.

Installation:

1. Create a new file using this command:

touch ~/go-installer.sh 

2. Edit the file using any of editor available i.e., vi, vim, or nano.

nano ~/go-installer.sh 

3. Past this script:

#!/bin/bash ## Define version and build VERSION=1.19 BUILD=4 ## Define package name PKG_NAME='go' ## Define go official url GO_URL='https://golang.org/dl/' ## Define local path LOCAL_PATH='/usr/local' ## Define system library path LIB_PATH='/usr/lib' ## Define system binary path BIN_PATH='/usr/bin' ## Define EV script filename EV_FILE='/etc/profile.d/go-bin-path.sh' ## Defile export path command EXPORT_CMD='export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin' ## Define script content SCRIPT='#!/bin/sh\n'${EXPORT_CMD} ## Define user home dir USER_HOME_DIR=$(getent passwd ${SUDO_USER:-$USER} | cut -d: -f6) check_command() { [ -x "$(command -v $PKG_NAME)" ] && echo 0 || echo 1 } test_package() { echo code=$(check_command) [ $code -eq 0 ] && go version || echo "Error: $PKG_NAME is not installed." >&2 exit $code } is_sudoer() { ## Define error code E_NOTROOT=87 # Non-root exit error. ## check if is sudoer if ! $(sudo -l &>/dev/null); then echo 'Error: root privileges are needed to run this script' return $E_NOTROOT fi return 0 } if is_sudoer; then ## Remove previous package versions status="$(dpkg-query -W --showformat='${db:Status-Status}' ${PKG_NAME} 2>&1)" if [ $? = 0 ] || [ "${status}" = installed ]; then sudo apt remove --purge --auto-remove -y "${PKG_NAME}" fi pkg_path="${LOCAL_PATH}/go" pkg_lib_path="${LIB_PATH}/go" ## Download the latest version available. [ "$BUILD" -eq "0" ] && version_build="${VERSION}" || version_build="${VERSION}.${BUILD}" mkdir "${USER_HOME_DIR}/tmp" cd "${USER_HOME_DIR}/tmp" wget "${GO_URL}go${version_build}.linux-amd64.tar.gz" ## Extract and install the downloaded version if [ -f "go${version_build}.linux-amd64.tar.gz" ]; then sudo rm -rf "${pkg_path}" && sudo tar -xzvf "go${version_build}.linux-amd64.tar.gz" -C "${LOCAL_PATH}" ## Add symbolic link binary files to system binary and library directories if [ ! -h "${pkg_lib_path}" ]; then sudo ln -sv "${pkg_path}" "${pkg_lib_path}" fi binaries='go gofmt' for i in $binaries; do if [ ! -h "${BIN_PATH}/${i}" ]; then sudo ln -sv "${pkg_lib_path}/bin/${i}" "${BIN_PATH}/${i}" fi done ## Test your new version. test_package else echo "Error: tar file does not exits." >&2 exit 1 fi else exit $? fi 

4. Give running permission to the file:

sudo chmod -v u+x ~/go-installer.sh 

5. Run the script:

./go-installer.sh 

It will return something like this:

... go/test/used.go go/test/utf.go go/test/varerr.go go/test/varinit.go go/test/winbatch.go go/test/writebarrier.go go/test/zerodivide.go '/usr/lib/go' -> '/usr/local/go' '/usr/bin/go' -> '/usr/lib/go/bin/go' '/usr/bin/gofmt' -> '/usr/lib/go/bin/gofmt' go version go1.19.4 linux/amd64 teocci@ubuntu:~$ 

6. Test your installation:

go version 

Now Go will be global and can run from anywhere.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:longsleep/golang-backports sudo apt update sudo apt install golang-go

After above commands and go environment setup You tried to run a go program it will show you go: no such tool "compile" if you are facing a same then follow below link https://stackoverflow.com/a/76550511/22128545

You can also use the update-golang script:

update-golang is a script to easily fetch and install new Golang releases with minimum system intrusion

git clone https://github.com/udhos/update-golang cd update-golang sudo ./update-golang.sh 

Or maybe you could use this script to install Go and LiteIDE?

If you are unhappy with the answer provided, please comment instead of blindly down voting. I have used this setup for the last 4 years without any issue.

Go to https://go.dev/doc/install site. Click on the “Download 1.21.3” (whatever the latest version you want to install) button. Download the version using go1.21.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz the link. Type sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go && sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.21.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz Set your environment variables

export GOROOT=/usr/local/go export GOPATH=${HOME%}/go export PATH=$PATH:$GOROOT/bin:$GOPATH/bin export PATH = $PATH:$HOME 

Now type go version you will get your go version

1. If you have ubuntu-mate, you can install latest go by:

   umake go

2. I have a script to download and install the last go from official website

    # Change these varialbe to where ever you feel comfortable DOWNLOAD_DIR=${HOME}/Downloads/GoLang INSTALL_DIR=${HOME}/App function install { mkdir -p ${DOWNLOAD_DIR} cd ${DOWNLOAD_DIR} echo "Fetching latest Go version..." typeset VER=`curl -s https://golang.org/dl/ | grep -m 1 -o 'go\([0-9]\)\+\(\.[0-9]\)\+'` if uname -m | grep 64 > /dev/null; then typeset ARCH=amd64 else typeset ARCH=386 fi typeset FILE=$VER.linux-$ARCH if [[ ! -e ${FILE}.tar.gz ]]; then echo "Downloading '$FILE' ..." wget https://storage.googleapis.com/golang/${FILE}.tar.gz fi echo "Installing ${FILE} ..." tar zxfC ${FILE}.tar.gz ${INSTALL_DIR} echo "Go is installed" } install 

Setup your GOROOT, GOPATH and PATH:

export GOROOT=${INSTALL_DIR}/go export GOPATH=<your go path> export PATH=${PATH}:${GOROOT}/bin:${GOPATH}/bin 

Best way to install Go on Ubuntu is to download required version from here. Here you could have all stable and releases, along with archived versions.

after downloading you selected version you can follow further steps, i will suggest you to download tar.gz format for ubuntu machine:

1. first of all fully remove the older version from your local by doing this

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go /usr/local/gocache

this will remove all the local go code base but wait something more we have to do to remove fully from local, i was missing this step and it took so much time until I understood what i am missing so here is the purge stuff to remove from list

sudo apt-get purge golang 

or

sudo apt remove golang-go 

2. Now install / extract your downloaded version of go inside /usr/local/go, by hitting terminal with this

tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.10.8.linux-amd64.tar.gz

3. after doing all above stuff , don't forget or check to GOROOT variable value you can check the value by go env if not set then export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go
4. Better to test a small go program to make sure. write this inside /home/yourusername/go/test.php if you haven't changed set GOPATH value:

package main import "fmt" func main() { fmt.Println("hello world") } 

5. run this by go run test.go

i hope it works for you!!

You can use a script from udhos/update-golang.

Here is a two-liner as example (run as root):

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/udhos/update-golang/master/update-golang.sh) ln -vs /usr/local/go/bin/go* /usr/local/bin/