Getting Started with Go in Ubuntu 16.04

Golang (or simply Go) setup and getting started

Following instructions are verified setup of Go on Ubuntu 16.04 version

Install Go

• Get the OS specific installer from here
• Run the command as root user or sudo
• Extract go executable in /usr/local directory
• Execute the below commands (Go version 1.14.1 used in this example)

cd /usr/local/
wget https://dl.google.com/go/go1.14.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz
tar -xvzf go1.14.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz 
rm go1.14.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz 

Setup Go development environment

• Create directories for development

mkdir -p $HOME/go/{bin,src,pkg}

Where,
bin - directory to hold the go source executable
src - source directory in which all the source modules will be coded
pkg - directory to hold the dependency import packages

• Add path to environment permanently by adding in .profile

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

• Execute .profile file to make effect of Environment variable updates

source ~/.profile

Verify the installation

go help
go env

Go to src path and start development

cd $HOME/go/src
mkdir <new_go_module_name>

Bibliography

https://www.tecmint.com/install-go-in-linux/

https://golang.org/doc/install

https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/SettingGOPATH