Installing Go from Source

It is instructive to download and compile the full source-code of Go yourself. Complete and up to date instructions for that process are available here. We’ll provide an overview of the different steps, providing additional info and references as needed. Because the Go toolchain is written in Go, you need a (previous) Go compiler installed to build it, as explained in the last lesson. Let’s get an overview of the basic steps.

Step 1: Install git if needed

To download the Go source code or to use the go get command, you need Git. Check by typing git on a command-line. If it is not installed, download git from this link.

Step 2: Install a compiler

It is only needed if your Go packages call C code. Use the standard installation methods for your system. Also, see this page for more details.

Step 3: Fetch the Go repository

Go will install its source code in a folder named go. Change to the directory that will be its parent and make sure go directory does not exist. Then, check out the repository with the command:

$ git clone https://go.googlesource.com/go
$ cd go
$ git checkout go1.11.5

Change the version number in the last line to the version you want to install. To play with the latest changes, you want to use the master branch:

git checkout master

Step 4: Build the source code

To build the source code (in Linux/Mac OS) type the following command:

cd go/src
./all.bash

But, for Windows the last line is:

./all.bat

The building and testing takes some time (in the order of minutes), and when successful, the following text appears on Linux/Mac OS:

ALL TESTS PASSED
---
Installed Go for linux/amd64 in /home/user/go.
Installed commands in /home/user/go/bin.
*** You need to add /home/user/go/bin to your $PATH. ***

On Windows, the following text appears:

ALL TESTS PASSED
---
Installed Go for windows/amd64 in c:\Go
Installed commands in c:\go\bin

Step 5: Get additional Go tools

First, define the GOPATH variable, as explained in the next lesson. Then, issue the following command:

go get golang.org/x/tools/cmd/...

Step 6: Verifying the release of installation

Issue the following command:

go version

This will result (in Linux/Mac os) for example in the output:

go version go1.11.5 linux/amd64

Or, on Windows:

go version go1.11.5 windows/amd64

From within Go-code, the current version can be obtained with the function Version from the package runtime.