How to install the current version of Go in Ubuntu Precise

Question

Running sudo apt-get install golang-stable, I get Go version go1.0.3. Is there any way to install go1.1.1?

Answer 1

Here is the most straight forward and simple method I found to install go on Ubuntu 14.04 without any ppa or any other tool.

As of now, The version of GO is 1.7

Get the Go 1.7.tar.gz using wget

wget https://storage.googleapis.com/golang/go1.7.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Extract it and copy it to /usr/local/

sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzvf go1.7.linux-amd64.tar.gz

You have now successfully installed GO. Now You have to set Environment Variables so you can use the go command from anywhere.

To achieve this we need to add a line to .bashrc So,

sudo nano ~/.bashrc

and add the following line to the end of file.

export PATH="/usr/local/go/bin:$PATH"

Now, All the commands in go/bin will work.

Check if the install was successful by doing

go version

For offline Documentation you can do

godoc -http=:6060

Offline documentation will be available at http://localhost:6060

NOTE:

Some people here are suggesting to change the PATH variable.

It is not a good choice.

1. Changing that to /usr/local/go/bin is temporary and it'll reset once you close terminal.

2. go command will only work in terminal in which you changed the value of PATH.

3. You'll not be able to use any other command like ls, nano or just about everything because everything else is in /usr/bin or in other locations. All those things will stop working and it'll start giving you error.

However, this is permanent and does not disturbs anything else.