Download Go Click here to visit the downloads page
Official binary
distributions are available for the FreeBSD (release 8-STABLE and above),
Linux, Mac OS X (10.8 and above), 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, try installing from source or installing gccgo instead of gc.
Go binary distributions are available for these supported operating systems and architectures. Please ensure your system meets these requirements before proceeding. If your OS or architecture is not on the list, you may be able to install from source or use gccgo instead.
| Operating system | Architectures | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| FreeBSD 8-STABLE or later | amd64 | Debian GNU/kFreeBSD not supported |
| Linux 2.6.23 or later with glibc | amd64, 386, arm | CentOS/RHEL 5.x not supported |
| Mac OS X 10.7 or later | amd64 | use the clang or gcc† that comes with Xcode‡ for cgo support |
| Windows XP or later | amd64, 386 | use MinGW gcc†. No need for cygwin or msys. |
†A C compiler is required only if you plan to use
cgo.
‡You only need to install the command line tools for
Xcode. If you have already
installed Xcode 4.3+, you can install it from the Components tab of the
Downloads preferences panel.
If you are upgrading from an older version of Go you must first remove the existing version.
Download the archive
and extract it into /usr/local, creating a Go tree in
/usr/local/go. For example:
tar -C /usr/local -xzf go$VERSION.$OS-$ARCH.tar.gz
Choose the archive file appropriate for your installation.
For instance, if you are installing Go version 1.2.1 for 64-bit x86 on Linux,
the archive you want is called go1.2.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz.
(Typically these commands must be run as root or through sudo.)
Add /usr/local/go/bin to the PATH environment
variable. You can do this by adding this line to your /etc/profile
(for a system-wide installation) or $HOME/.profile:
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin
The Go binary distributions assume they will be installed in
/usr/local/go (or c:\Go under Windows),
but it is possible to install the Go tools to a different location.
In this case you must set the GOROOT environment variable
to point to the directory in which it was installed.
For example, if you installed Go to your home directory you should add the
following commands to $HOME/.profile:
export GOROOT=$HOME/go export PATH=$PATH:$GOROOT/bin
Note: GOROOT must be set only when installing to a custom
location.
Download the package file,
open it, and follow the prompts to install the Go tools.
The package installs the Go distribution to /usr/local/go.
The package should put the /usr/local/go/bin directory in your
PATH environment variable. You may need to restart any open
Terminal sessions for the change to take effect.
The Go project provides two installation options for Windows users (besides installing from source): a zip archive that requires you to set some environment variables and an MSI installer that configures your installation automatically.
Open the MSI file
and follow the prompts to install the Go tools.
By default, the installer puts the Go distribution in c:\Go.
The installer should put the c:\Go\bin directory in your
PATH environment variable. You may need to restart any open
command prompts for the change to take effect.
Download the zip file and extract it into the directory of your choice (we suggest c:\Go).
If you chose a directory other than c:\Go,
you must set the GOROOT environment variable to your chosen path.
Add the bin subdirectory of your Go root (for example, c:\Go\bin) to your PATH environment variable.
Under Windows, you may set environment variables through the "Environment Variables" button on the "Advanced" tab of the "System" control panel. Some versions of Windows provide this control panel through the "Advanced System Settings" option inside the "System" control panel.
Check that Go is installed correctly by setting up a workspace and building a simple program, as follows.
Create a directory to contain your workspace,
$HOME/work
for example, and set the GOPATH environment
variable to point to that location.
$ export GOPATH=$HOME/work
You should put the above command in your shell startup script
($HOME/.profile for example).
On Windows, follow the instructions above to set the
GOPATH environment variable on your system.
Next, make the directories src/github.com/user/hello inside your
workspace (if you use GitHub, substitute your user name for user),
and inside the hello directory create a file named hello.go
with the following contents:
package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
fmt.Printf("hello, world\n")
}
Then compile it with the go tool:
$ go install github.com/user/hello
The command above will put an executable command named hello
(or hello.exe) inside the bin directory of your workspace.
Execute the command to see the greeting:
$ $GOPATH/bin/hello hello, world
If you see the "hello, world" message then your Go installation is working.
Before rushing off to write Go code please read the How to Write Go Code document, which describes some essential concepts about using the Go tools.
To remove an existing Go installation from your system delete the
go directory. This is usually /usr/local/go
under Linux, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD or c:\Go
under Windows.
You should also remove the Go bin directory from your
PATH environment variable.
Under Linux and FreeBSD you should edit /etc/profile or
$HOME/.profile.
If you installed Go with the Mac OS X package then you
should remove the /etc/paths.d/go file.
Windows users should read the section about setting
environment variables under Windows.
For real-time help, ask the helpful gophers in #go-nuts on the
Freenode IRC server.
The official mailing list for discussion of the Go language is Go Nuts.
Report bugs using the Go issue tracker.