Install Go Toolchain

Download the Mac OS X package installer, open it, and follow the prompts to install the Go tools. The package installs the Go distribution to /usr/local/go.

Setup GOPATH Workspace

Create a new workspace directory.

mkdir ~/workspace/goapps

Inside the newly created goapps directory, create the three folders as follows:

  • src for source files whose suffix is .go, .c, .g, .s.
  • pkg for compiled files whose suffix is .a.
  • bin for executable files

If not already there, create .bash_profile in /Users/your_username. Note, the preceding period in the filename.

Add an entry like below so GOPATH points to the newly created goapps workspace.

#setup path for Golang
GOPATH=~/workspace/goapps
export GOPATH

Testing Installation

Lets create a simple hello Go application to test out the environment. Create a new hello directory under $GOPATH/src

mkdir $GOPATH/src/hello

Now create a new hello.go file with the following source so it looks like:

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    fmt.Printf("hello, world\n")
}

Build hello.go with the go tool:

cd $GOPATH/src/hello
go build

The command above builds an executable named hello in the directory alongside the source. Execute the application to see the greeting:

./hello