Running sudo apt-get install golang-stable
, I get Go version go1.0.3
. Is there any way to install go1.1.1
?
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1In the end I had to install from source. Not all tests passed but it seems to be working ok. – scc Jul 05 '13 at 12:50
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1"Not all tests passed but it seems to be working ok." @sofia what version of Ubuntu are you using? I would not expect test failures unless you were running a very old version of Ubuntu or you accidentally installed "tip" vs. "stable". – voidlogic Jul 09 '13 at 02:41
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I'm using ubuntu precise. But installing the latest version from the repo duh/golang didn't report any problem, so not sure what the problem was. – scc Jul 10 '13 at 09:22
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I am also using precise. Did you run "hg update tip" or "hg update release". If you don't recall look back in your bash history file. Using tip might explain the test failures. – voidlogic Jul 10 '13 at 13:49
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1You can try this blog http://railskey.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/install-gogolang-on-ubuntu/ – Pravin Mishra May 31 '14 at 05:44
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As of July 2014, I used `apt-get install -f gccgo-go` – Leahcim Jul 27 '14 at 16:28
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It's precompiled for linux 32/64, just untar it: http://golang.org/doc/install#tarball and update your `PATH` – jpillora Aug 28 '14 at 01:35
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Related: [Updating golang on Ubuntu](https://askubuntu.com/q/720260/78223). – kenorb Jul 09 '18 at 16:01
19 Answers
[Updated (previous answer no longer applied)]
For fetching the latest version:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:longsleep/golang-backports
sudo apt update
sudo apt install golang-go
Also see the wiki

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44So as of 2014 July, this no longer has the latest version of Go. Current version is 1.3. After trying this on Ubuntu 12.04, I ended up with version 1.1.1. – 425nesp Jul 22 '14 at 23:29
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2As of October 2015, **sudo apt-get install golang** is still not uptodate. It installed version 1.2.1. – kemicofa ghost Oct 13 '15 at 22:00
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1I don't know if it's a good idea to add unknown community repos willy-nilly It's probably better to install directly from the go website. https://golang.org/dl/ https://golang.org/doc/install Be sure to uninstall the old version first. https://golang.org/doc/install#uninstall – jorfus Jan 07 '16 at 18:22
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This `export GOBIN=/usr/bin/go` seems like not what you want to do. `export GOBIN=$GOPATH/bin` or `export GOBIN=$HOME/workspace/go/bin` seems more likely. – a113nw Jan 26 '16 at 21:30
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@jorfus The problem with installing directly as recommended at golang.org is that there is no automatic update mechanism to fix security issues. See [software installation - How to install a recent, managed version of golang on Ubuntu 14.04? - Ask Ubuntu](http://askubuntu.com/questions/847867/how-to-install-a-recent-managed-version-of-golang-on-ubuntu-14-04) – nealmcb Nov 10 '16 at 15:45
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`Cannot add PPA: 'ppa:~duh/ubuntu/golang'. The user named '~duh' has no PPA named 'ubuntu/golang'.` – kenorb Jul 09 '18 at 15:56
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1As of August 2020, You need not add the ppa repo. Just use `sudo apt install golang-go` (For Ubuntu 20.04) – Trect Aug 01 '20 at 16:31
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I like to use GVM for managing my Go versions in my Ubuntu box. Pretty simple to use, and if you're familiar with RVM, it's a nobrainer. It allows you to have multiple versions of Go installed in your system and switch between whichever version you want at any point in time.
Install GVM with:
sudo apt-get install bison mercurial
bash < <(curl -LSs 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/moovweb/gvm/master/binscripts/gvm-installer')
. "$HOME/.gvm/scripts/gvm"
and then it's as easy as doing this:
gvm install go1.1.1
gvm use go1.1.1 --default
The default flag at the end of the second command will set go1.1.1 to be your default Go version whenever you start a new terminal session.
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1I like RVM and always enjoy a good tool in my kit. Glad to see as I get into Go that there's a tool like GVM :) – Brenden Oct 12 '13 at 03:49
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3I just tried using GVM under the fish shell, and a warning to those who don't use bash: GVM will be a pain to get up and running properly. A lot of its scripts don't have a shebang line for example. – Dennis Feb 13 '15 at 01:47
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the "GVM" web page referenced `https://github.com/moovweb/gvmt` is 404 not found. And I'm reluctant to install anything that doesn't seem to have its own security update procedure – nealmcb Nov 10 '16 at 15:49
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I do not agree that it's as easy as "gvm install" and "gvm use". – kemicofa ghost Dec 29 '16 at 10:01
I used following commands from GoLang official repository, it installed GoLang version 1.6 on my Ubuntu 14.04
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-lxc/lxd-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install golang
However, since this answer was created, the instructions have been updated to these, for Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04 or 22.04 (amd64, arm64 or armhf):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:longsleep/golang-backports
sudo apt update
sudo apt install golang-go
Reference official GoLang Repo https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/Ubuntu it seems this ppa will always be updated in future.

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1From referenced link: `sudo add-apt-repository ppa:longsleep/golang-backports` `sudo apt-get update` `sudo apt-get install golang-go` – Lee Richardson Dec 09 '19 at 23:43
[October 2015]
Answer because the current accepted answersudo apt-get install golang
isn't uptodate and if you don't want to install GVM
follow these steps.
Step by step installation:
- Download the latest version here (OS: Linux).
- Open your terminal and go to your Downloads directory
sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go$VERSION.$OS-$ARCH.tar.gz
- Add
go
to your pathexport PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin
go version
to check the current version installed- Start programming.
Possible errors + fixes: (to be updated)
If you get a go version xgcc (Ubuntu 4.9.1-0ubuntu1) 4.9.1 linux/amd64
then you did something wrong, so check out this post: Go is printing xgcc version but not go installed version

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i installed from source. there is a step-by-step tutorial here: http://golang.org/doc/install/source

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2yes. Installing Go from source is the best way to "Go". It is very easy to update that way as well. – voidlogic Jul 09 '13 at 02:34
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1I followed the instructions from here and it worked for me really nice http://golang.org/doc/install#tarball – Bogdan Mar 15 '14 at 03:43
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1Thank you so much. Still working on my Ubuntu 14.04 while the PPAs don't. :-) – Ionică Bizău May 02 '14 at 15:43
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1This is annoying now that you have to bootstrap 1.5+ with a 1.4+ build. – jocull Jan 02 '16 at 17:17
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.
Changing that to
/usr/local/go/bin
is temporary and it'll reset once you close terminal.go
command will only work in terminal in which you changed the value of PATH.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.

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you need to define env var GOPATH=/some/dir then define PATH=${GOPATH}/bin:${PATH} for your own project code – Scott Stensland Aug 21 '16 at 15:22
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Yes, I use VSCode so to add GOPATH I just need to edit gopath in user settings json. Thanks for the input. – Ishan Jain Aug 22 '16 at 19:48
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1sudo nano ~./bashrc -> sudo nano ~/.bashrc .. also should be vim :p – GameKyuubi Nov 06 '16 at 20:19
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remember to restart your terminal, otherwise the changes to bashrc are not applied. – Pfinnn Mar 03 '22 at 13:24
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@Pfinnn you don't need to restart terminal. You just need to reload bashrc. You can do that with, `source ~/.bashrc` – Ishan Jain Mar 04 '22 at 14:01
I use this instruction to install the latest version of 
Remove the existing Go version:
sudo apt-get purge golang*
Install the latest version of Go:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:longsleep/golang-backports sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install golang-go
Create the
.profile
file in the home path with this content:# ~/.profile: executed by the command interpreter for login shells. # This file is not read by bash(1), if ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bash_login # exists. # see /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/startup-files for examples. # the files are located in the bash-doc package. # the default umask is set in /etc/profile; for setting the umask # for ssh logins, install and configure the libpam-umask package. #umask 022 # if running bash if [ -n "$BASH_VERSION" ]; then # include .bashrc if it exists if [ -f "$HOME/.bashrc" ]; then . "$HOME/.bashrc" fi fi # set PATH so it includes user's private bin directories PATH="$HOME/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
Set Go workspace to the environment variable:
GOPATH=~/.go
Apply the
.profile
configuration:source ~/.profile
Test:
$ go version
go version go1.11.1 linux/amd64

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For the current release of Go:
Click the link above to visit the Go project's downloads page and select the binary distribution that matches your operating system and processor architecture.
Official binary distributions are available for the FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows operating systems and the 32-bit (386) and 64-bit (amd64) x86 processor architectures.
If a binary distribution is not available for your combination of operating system and architecture you may want to try installing from source or installing gccgo instead of gc.
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Installing from source is actually really fast. It compiles fast and the tests are optional if you choose to skip them. – Jeremy Wall Jul 05 '13 at 06:02
If someone is looking for installing Go 1.8 the follow this:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:longsleep/golang-backports
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install golang-go
And then install go
sudo apt-get install golang-1.8-go

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1No need to install `golang-1.8-go`, it's already installed when installing `golang-go`. Actually as of end April 2017, go **1.8.1** is installed, the latest version. https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/Ubuntu – firepol Apr 26 '17 at 11:10
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Reference for GOROOT and GOPATH setting right in other answers 1) https://stackoverflow.com/a/34384978/248616 2) https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17480044/how-to-install-the-current-version-of-go-in-ubuntu-precise#comment65480082_39052584 More official reference https://stackoverflow.com/a/10847122/248616 – Nam G VU Aug 08 '17 at 03:43
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For each of our Go project, set GOPATH=/some/dir, PATH=${GOPATH}/bin:${PATH} – Nam G VU Aug 08 '17 at 03:46
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- Download say,
go1.6beta1.linux-amd64.tar.gz
from https://golang.org/dl/ into/tmp
wget https://storage.googleapis.com/golang/go1.6beta1.linux-amd64.tar.gz -o /tmp/go1.6beta1.linux-amd64.tar.gz
- un-tar into
/usr/local/bin
sudo tar -zxvf go1.6beta1.linux-amd64.tar.gz -C /usr/local/bin/
- Set GOROOT, GOPATH, [on ubuntu add following to ~/.bashrc]
mkdir ~/go
export GOPATH=~/go
export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH/bin
export GOROOT=/usr/local/bin/go
export PATH=$PATH:$GOROOT/bin
- Verify
go version
should show be
go version go1.6beta1 linux/amd64
go env
should show be
GOARCH="amd64" GOBIN="" GOEXE="" GOHOSTARCH="amd64" GOHOSTOS="linux" GOOS="linux" GOPATH="/home/vats/go" GORACE="" GOROOT="/usr/local/bin/go" GOTOOLDIR="/usr/local/bin/go/pkg/tool/linux_amd64" GO15VENDOREXPERIMENT="1" CC="gcc" GOGCCFLAGS="-fPIC -m64 -pthread -fmessage-length=0" CXX="g++" CGO_ENABLED="1"

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Hi, thank you for answer, I am following all the steps but whenever I call "go version" instead of 1.7 it bring 1.4.2 . Is there any other actions that should be done ? – Anahit Serobyan Nov 18 '16 at 07:38
These days according to the golang github with for Ubuntu, it's possible to install the latest version of Go easily via a snap:
Using snaps also works quite well:
# This will give you the latest version of go
$ sudo snap install --classic go
Potentially preferable to fussing with outdated and/or 3rd party PPAs

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On recent Ubuntu (20.10) sudo apt-get install golang
works fine; it will install version 1.14.

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Or maybe you could use this script to install Go and LiteIDE?
If you are unhappy with the answer provided, please comment instead of blindly down voting. I have used this setup for the last 4 years without any issue.

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You can also use the update-golang script:
update-golang is a script to easily fetch and install new Golang releases with minimum system intrusion
git clone https://github.com/udhos/update-golang
cd update-golang
sudo ./update-golang.sh

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This is an old question in 2022 it is almost more that 9 years. But I think it is important to automatize this installation.
Requirements:
- This was tested on Ubuntu 18 and 20.
- Sudoer user, you must be able to use
sudo
.
Installation:
- Create a new file using this command:
touch ~/go-installer.sh
- Edit the file using any of editor available i.e., vi, vim, or nano.
nano ~/go-installer.sh
- Past this script:
#!/bin/bash
## Define version and build
VERSION=1.19
BUILD=4
## Define package name
PKG_NAME='go'
## Define go official url
GO_URL='https://golang.org/dl/'
## Define local path
LOCAL_PATH='/usr/local'
## Define system library path
LIB_PATH='/usr/lib'
## Define system binary path
BIN_PATH='/usr/bin'
## Define EV script filename
EV_FILE='/etc/profile.d/go-bin-path.sh'
## Defile export path command
EXPORT_CMD='export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin'
## Define script content
SCRIPT='#!/bin/sh\n'${EXPORT_CMD}
## Define user home dir
USER_HOME_DIR=$(getent passwd ${SUDO_USER:-$USER} | cut -d: -f6)
check_command() {
[ -x "$(command -v $PKG_NAME)" ] && echo 0 || echo 1
}
test_package() {
echo
code=$(check_command)
[ $code -eq 0 ] && go version || echo "Error: $PKG_NAME is not installed." >&2
exit $code
}
is_sudoer() {
## Define error code
E_NOTROOT=87 # Non-root exit error.
## check if is sudoer
if ! $(sudo -l &>/dev/null); then
echo 'Error: root privileges are needed to run this script'
return $E_NOTROOT
fi
return 0
}
if is_sudoer; then
## Remove previous package versions
status="$(dpkg-query -W --showformat='${db:Status-Status}' ${PKG_NAME} 2>&1)"
if [ $? = 0 ] || [ "${status}" = installed ]; then
sudo apt remove --purge --auto-remove -y "${PKG_NAME}"
fi
pkg_path="${LOCAL_PATH}/go"
pkg_lib_path="${LIB_PATH}/go"
## Download the latest version available.
[ "$BUILD" -eq "0" ] && version_build="${VERSION}" || version_build="${VERSION}.${BUILD}"
mkdir "${USER_HOME_DIR}/tmp"
cd "${USER_HOME_DIR}/tmp"
wget "${GO_URL}go${version_build}.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
## Extract and install the downloaded version
if [ -f "go${version_build}.linux-amd64.tar.gz" ]; then
sudo rm -rf "${pkg_path}" && sudo tar -xzvf "go${version_build}.linux-amd64.tar.gz" -C "${LOCAL_PATH}"
## Add symbolic link binary files to system binary and library directories
if [ ! -h "${pkg_lib_path}" ]; then
sudo ln -sv "${pkg_path}" "${pkg_lib_path}"
fi
binaries='go gofmt'
for i in $binaries; do
if [ ! -h "${BIN_PATH}/${i}" ]; then
sudo ln -sv "${pkg_lib_path}/bin/${i}" "${BIN_PATH}/${i}"
fi
done
## Test your new version.
test_package
else
echo "Error: tar file does not exits." >&2
exit 1
fi
else
exit $?
fi
- Give running permission to the file:
sudo chmod -v u+x ~/go-installer.sh
- Run the script:
./go-installer.sh
It will return something like this:
...
go/test/used.go
go/test/utf.go
go/test/varerr.go
go/test/varinit.go
go/test/winbatch.go
go/test/writebarrier.go
go/test/zerodivide.go
'/usr/lib/go' -> '/usr/local/go'
'/usr/bin/go' -> '/usr/lib/go/bin/go'
'/usr/bin/gofmt' -> '/usr/lib/go/bin/gofmt'
go version go1.19.4 linux/amd64
teocci@ubuntu:~$
- Test your installation:
go version
Now Go will be global and can run from anywhere.

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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:longsleep/golang-backports
sudo apt update
sudo apt install golang-go
After above commands and go environment setup
You tried to run a go program it will show you go: no such tool "compile"
if you are facing a same then follow below link
https://stackoverflow.com/a/76550511/22128545
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Please refrain from copying other answers since it doesn't add any value. – Aman Chourasiya Jun 30 '23 at 15:08
If you have ubuntu-mate, you can install latest go by:
umake go
I have a script to download and install the last go from official website
# Change these varialbe to where ever you feel comfortable DOWNLOAD_DIR=${HOME}/Downloads/GoLang INSTALL_DIR=${HOME}/App function install { mkdir -p ${DOWNLOAD_DIR} cd ${DOWNLOAD_DIR} echo "Fetching latest Go version..." typeset VER=`curl -s https://golang.org/dl/ | grep -m 1 -o 'go\([0-9]\)\+\(\.[0-9]\)\+'` if uname -m | grep 64 > /dev/null; then typeset ARCH=amd64 else typeset ARCH=386 fi typeset FILE=$VER.linux-$ARCH if [[ ! -e ${FILE}.tar.gz ]]; then echo "Downloading '$FILE' ..." wget https://storage.googleapis.com/golang/${FILE}.tar.gz fi echo "Installing ${FILE} ..." tar zxfC ${FILE}.tar.gz ${INSTALL_DIR} echo "Go is installed" } install
Setup your GOROOT, GOPATH and PATH:
export GOROOT=${INSTALL_DIR}/go
export GOPATH=<your go path>
export PATH=${PATH}:${GOROOT}/bin:${GOPATH}/bin

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You can use a script from udhos/update-golang
.
Here is a two-liner as example (run as root
):
bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/udhos/update-golang/master/update-golang.sh)
ln -vs /usr/local/go/bin/go* /usr/local/bin/

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Best way to install Go on Ubuntu is to download required version from here. Here you could have all stable and releases, along with archived versions.
after downloading you selected version you can follow further steps, i will suggest you to download tar.gz format for ubuntu machine:
- first of all fully remove the older version from your local by doing this
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go /usr/local/gocache
this will remove all the local go code base but wait something more we have to do to remove fully from local, i was missing this step and it took so much time until I understood what i am missing so here is the purge stuff to remove from list
sudo apt-get purge golang
or
sudo apt remove golang-go
- Now install / extract your downloaded version of go inside /usr/local/go, by hitting terminal with this
tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.10.8.linux-amd64.tar.gz
- after doing all above stuff , don't forget or check to
GOROOT
variable value you can check the value bygo env
if not set thenexport PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go
- Better to test a small go program to make sure. write this inside
/home/yourusername/go/test.php
if you haven't changed setGOPATH
value:
package main import "fmt" func main() { fmt.Println("hello world") }
- run this by
go run test.go
i hope it works for you!!

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