Issue

I am trying to setup a go dev environment on Ubuntu, and having no luck. Following directions here https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install golang

Then I

mkdir $HOME/golang
export GOPATH=$HOME/golang

No dice. Even doing something simple like go version throws the following error:

go: cannot find GOROOT directory: /usr/local/opt/go/libexec

Everywhere I look online says simply not to set GOROOT. Please help, I don't understand where to go from here. This is a fresh install on a fresh VM.

GOARCH="amd64"
GOBIN=""
GOCHAR="6"
GOEXE=""
GOHOSTARCH="amd64"
GOHOSTOS="linux"
GOOS="linux"
GOPATH="/home/isaac/golang"
GORACE=""
GOROOT="/usr/local/opt/go/libexec"
GOTOOLDIR="/usr/local/opt/go/libexec/pkg/tool/linux_amd64"
TERM="dumb"
CC="gcc"
GOGCCFLAGS="-g -O2 -fPIC -m64 -pthread"
CXX="g++"
CGO_ENABLED="1"

Solution

So I eventually figured this out, and boy was it dumb on my part. I had a script that was effecting $GOROOT, and learned alot. Here are the big lessons:

Do NOT use sudo apt-get install golang it is out of date and doing so means you now have to revert the install. sudo apt-get install golang-go is also out of date. Just don't use apt-get.
sudo apt-get purge golang does not reset environment variables or delete all go related folders.
unset GOPATH GOHOME GOROOT is important cleanup before trying another install
ONLY install via tar.gz from the golang website
GOROOT means the folder where go's internal files live, so basically where ever the contents of the tar.gz lives on your system. Typically /usr/local/go
GOHOME does not need to be set. If you set it, use unset
GOPATH is the location of your workspace, you need to mkdir to create that folder as well as set the GOPATH environment variable.
Your path needs to included $GOROOT/bin:$GOPATH/bin for the setup to function.

Usage of custom scripts that effect .zshrc or bashrc or profile should not contain setting of $GOROOT!!

Answered By - Fresheyeball

Thursday, October 28, 2021

[SOLVED] Go setup on ubuntu

Issue

Solution