Get Go Environment Information

When working with the Go programming language, inspecting environment settings can help clarify how the toolchain is configured. These values determine paths, architecture, and other important build-related parameters. This tutorial explains how to get Go environment information.

Get all environment variables

The go env command provides a straightforward way to retrieve environment information:

go env

Example output:

GOARCH='amd64'
GOPATH='/home/ubuntu/go'
GOROOT='/usr/local/go'
...

By default, the output is formatted similarly to a shell script, making it easy to reuse in scripts or debugging sessions.

JSON formatted output

To present the environment data in JSON format, use the -json option:

go env -json

Example output:

{
  "GOARCH": "amd64",
  "GOPATH": "/home/ubuntu/go",
  "GOROOT": "/usr/local/go",
...
}

This format is particularly useful for parsing programmatically or integrating with other tools.

Get only modified variables

The -changed option filters the output to display only those variables that differ from their default values:

go env -changed

This helps identify custom configurations that may affect builds or runtime behavior.

Get a specific variable

To retrieve the value of a single environment variable, provide its name as an argument:

go env GOROOT

This prints only the requested value, which is helpful in scripts or quick checks.