How to set the GOPATH environment variable on Ubuntu?

Before setting up GOPATH or GOROOT on your local environment, we must verify that Go is correctly installed on your system.

Type the following command in your terminal to check the Go installation −

go version

If it outputs nothing or displays "go: command not found", then you need to first download the Go binary and install it before setting up the GOPATH.

When Go is properly installed, the output will look something like this −

immukul@192 linux-questions-code % go version
go version go1.16.3 darwin/amd64

Understanding GOPATH

GOPATH is an environment variable that tells the Go tools where to find your workspace. It should point to a directory containing three subdirectories −

• src − Contains your Go source code files

• pkg − Contains compiled package objects

• bin − Contains executable binaries

Setting GOPATH on Ubuntu

To set the GOPATH environment variable, you need to edit your shell configuration file. On Ubuntu, this is typically ~/.bashrc.

Open the bashrc file using a text editor −

vi ~/.bashrc

Add the following lines at the end of the file −

export GOPATH=/home/$USER/go_projects
export GOROOT=/usr/local/go
export PATH=$PATH:$GOROOT/bin:$GOPATH/bin

Save the file and reload the configuration −

source ~/.bashrc

Creating GOPATH Directory Structure

Create the workspace directory and its subdirectories −

mkdir -p $GOPATH/src $GOPATH/pkg $GOPATH/bin

Environment Variables Explanation

Verification

Verify that your environment variables are set correctly −

echo $GOPATH
echo $GOROOT
go env GOPATH

Expected output −

/home/user/go_projects
/usr/local/go
/home/user/go_projects

Conclusion

Setting up GOPATH correctly is essential for Go development on Ubuntu. The GOPATH environment variable defines your workspace structure with src, pkg, and bin directories. Along with GOROOT and PATH updates, this provides a complete Go development environment ready for building applications.