How to install Go on Ubuntu 20.04

Go, often called golang, is a modern open source programming language created by Google that allows you to build real-time and efficient applications.

Many popular applications, such as Kubernetes, Docker, Prometheus and Terraform, are written in Go.

This tutorial explains how to download and install Go on Ubuntu 20.04.

1. Install Go on Ubuntu 20.04

Complete the following steps to install Go on Ubuntu 20.04

1.1 Download the Go zip package###

At the time of writing this article, the latest version of Go is 1.14.2. When we download the installation package, please browse Go official download page, and check if there is a new version available.

Run the following command as root or another sudo user to download and unzip the Go binary file to the /usr/local directory:

wget -c https://dl.google.com/go/go1.14.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz -O -| sudo tar -xz -C /usr/local

1.2 Adjust environment variables###

By adding the Go directory to the $PATH environment variable, the system will know where to find the Go executable.

This can be done by adding the following line to the /etc/profile file (installed system-wide) or $HOME/.profile file (installed by the current user):

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

Save the file and reload the new PATH environment variable into the current shell session:

source ~/.profile

1.3 Verify the Go installation process###

Verify the installation process by printing the Go version number.

go version

The output should look like this:

go version go1.14.2 linux/amd64

Two, Go language quick start##

To test the Go installation process, we will create a workspace and build a simple program to print the classic "Hello World" message.

By default, the GOPATH variable, specified as the location of the workspace, is set to $HOME/go. To create a workspace directory, enter:

mkdir ~/go

In the workspace, create a new directory src/hello:

mkdir -p ~/go/src/hello

In that directory, create a new file with the name hello.go:

package main

import"fmt"

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

To learn more about the Go workspace directory, browse Go Documentation Page.

Browse to the ~/go/src/hello directory, and run go build to build the program:

cd ~/go/src/hello
go build

The above command will build an executable file called hello.

You can run this executable file by simply executing the following command:

. /hello

The output should look like this:

Hello, World

Three, summary##

Now that you have downloaded and installed Go on your Ubuntu system, you can start developing your Go project.