Installing Go on Linux: A Step-by-Step Guide

Go, also known as Golang, is a powerful and efficient programming language developed by Google. With its simplicity and performance, Go has gained popularity among developers for building scalable and reliable applications. In this guide, we'll walk through the process of installing Go on a Linux system.

Step 1: Downloading the Go Binary Archive

The first step is to download the Go binary archive from the official Go website. You can do this using the wget command in your terminal:

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wget https://go.dev/dl/go1.22.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz

This command fetches the binary archive for the latest version of Go for the Linux AMD64 platform.

Step 2: Extracting the Archive

Once the download is complete, we need to extract the contents of the archive to a suitable location on our system. We'll extract it to /usr/local, which is a common location for installing software manually on Linux:

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sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.22.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz

This command extracts the contents of the archive to the /usr/local/go directory.

Step 3: Adding Go to the PATH Environment Variable

To use Go commands conveniently from any directory in the terminal, we need to add the Go binary directory to the PATH environment variable. This can be done by editing the ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc file:

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echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin' >> ~/.profile

This command appends the Go binary directory to the PATH variable in the ~/.profile file.

Step 4: Reloading the Profile

After making changes to the ~/.profile file, we need to reload it to apply the changes:

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source ~/.profile

This command reloads the user's profile, ensuring that the updated PATH variable is in effect.

Step 5: Verifying the Installation

Finally, we can verify that Go has been successfully installed on our system by checking its version:

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go version

If the installation was successful, this command will output the version of Go that was installed.

Conclusion:

In this guide, we've covered the process of installing Go on a Linux system step by step. By following these instructions, you should now have Go set up and ready to use on your machine. Whether you're a beginner exploring Go for the first time or an experienced developer looking to leverage its power, installing Go on Linux is a straightforward process that opens up a world of possibilities for building fast and reliable applications.