Install Go on Ubuntu 24.04

Go is a programming language developed by Google. It's an open-source, statically typed, compiled language which provides garbage collection, memory safety, and concurrency.

This tutorial explains how to install Go on Ubuntu 24.04.

Install Go

Download the latest version of Go from official website:

curl -o go.tar.gz "https://dl.google.com/go/$(curl -sS https://go.dev/VERSION?m=text | head -n1).linux-amd64.tar.gz"

Once the download is complete, extract the tar.gz file to the /usr/local directory:

sudo tar xf go.tar.gz -C /usr/local

The next step is to specify where Go binaries are located. Add the /usr/local/go/bin directory to the system's PATH environment variable. It can be set in /etc/profile file. In this case, Go will be available for all users as a system-wide command. To achieve this, run the following command:

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin' | sudo tee -a /etc/profile

To make changes to take effect, logout and login to the system. Or apply the changes immediately to the current session by using the following command:

source /etc/profile

Verify the installation by checking the Go version:

go version

The GOPATH environment variable specifies the location of the workspace. By default, GOPATH is set to $HOME/go directory. Create that directory:

mkdir ~/go

The tar.gz file is no longer needed, remove it:

rm -rf go.tar.gz

Testing Go

In the workspace, create a new project and navigate to it:

mkdir -p ~/go/src/hello && cd ~/go/src/hello

Create the main.go file:

nano main.go

Add the following code:

~/go/src/hello/main.go

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    fmt.Printf("Hello world\n")
}

To test the program, execute the go run command:

go run main.go

To build the program, use go build command:

go build main.go

The command builds an executable file main. Run it as follows:

./main

Uninstall Go

To completely remove Go, delete the installation directory:

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go

Remove entry from /etc/profile file:

sudo sed -i '/export PATH=\$PATH:\/usr\/local\/go\/bin/d' /etc/profile

We can also remove the workspace and cache directories:

rm -rf ~/go

rm -rf ~/.cache/go-build