Easy Go Programming Setup for Windows

Dec 23, 2014

I’ve had to do this more than once recently, so I figured I’d document the simple steps for setting up the Go programming language on Windows. Most of this is simple and straightforward. The only tricky part I found is setting up your GOPATH, which defines a convention for storing and building Go code you write and acquire from open source code repositories.

5 Simple Steps

Follow these five simple steps to install Go.

1. Make sure you have both Git download and Mercurial download installed. With Go programming you’ll make heavy use of open source repositories.
2. Download and install the latest 64-bit Go MSI distributable (which sets most of the environmental variables for you). https://golang.org/dl/

   

   To make things simple, use the default installation path at C:\Go

3. Ensure the Go binaries (found in C:\Go\bin) are in your Path system environment variables. To check click System, Advanced system settings, Environment Variables... and open Path under System variables:

   

   An easy way to confirm is to open the command line and type go version:

   

4. Setup your Go workspace. This consists of three folders at the root:

    bin/
    pkg/
    src/
   

   I create a C:\Projects\Go folder as my root Go workspace:

   

5. Create the GOPATH environment variable and reference your Go workspace path. To add, click System, Advanced system settings, Environment Variables... and click New... under System variables:

   

   Set the variable name to GOPATH and value to your Go workspace path (e.g. C:\Projects\Go):

   

   You can quickly check to ensure your path has been set by opening the command line and typing echo %GOPATH% and check the output:

   

And that’s all it takes! You’re ready to get started.

Verify

Want to quickly test and ensure this is all working as expected? Open the command line and type the following:

go get github.com/golang/example/hello
%GOPATH%/bin/hello

You should see the output as “Hello, Go examples!” (refreshingly, not your typical hello world):

I hope this helps!