Install Golang and Set Go Workplace

Go or called GoLang is an open source programming language that makes it easy to build simple, reliable, and efficient software.

In this post, we'll talk about how to install Golang and set its workplace. Also, sub directories under the workplace are introduced.

Install Go

• For MacOS, using Homebrew

brew install go

Set Go Workplace

A workspace is Go’s way to facilitate project management.

A workspace in nutshell, is a directory on your system where Go looks for source code files, manages dependency packages and build distribution binary files. You can have as many workspaces as you want, as long as you keep GOPATH environment variable pointed to current working workspace directory.

Reference: Getting started with Go

Default Workplace

$HOME/go

Customize Your Go Workplace

Permanently

• bash
  • open file: open ~/.bash_profile
  • edit file: add export GOPATH=$HOME/<customized-path>/go to the file
  • reload: source ~/.bash_profile
• zsh
  • open file: open ~/.zshrc
  • edit file: add export GOPATH=$HOME/<customized-path>/go to the file
  • reload: source ~/.zshrc
• others
  • see SettingGOPATH

Temporarily

• For MacOS
  • see Setting up Environment Variables in MacOS Sierra

Sub Directories under a Go Workplace

src

• Containing packages (also packages installed by go get command)
• Whenever working with a new Go project, a new directory for the project should be created under $GOPATH/src.

pkg

• Containing Go package objects, which are compiled version of original package source code
• When a Go program hits import statement, Go looks for the followings in order.
  • pre-compiled package object
  • corresponded packages in $GOPATH/src
  • corresponded packages in $GOROOT/src

bin

• Containing binary executable files for executing Go programs, which are created by go install commands
• $GOBIN is an environment variable that Go uses to put binary files. By default, $GOBIN is $GOPATH/bin but you can change it, too.