How to Install Go on Debian 10 Linux

Go is a modern open-source programming language created by Google, used to build reliable, simple, fast, and efficient software. Many popular applications, such as Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, and Rancher, are written in Go.

In this tutorial, we’ll explain to download and install Go on a Debian 10, Buster.

Installing Go on Debian 10 Linux #

At the time of writing this article, the latest stable version of Go is version 1.13. Before downloading the Go archive, visit the official Go downloads page and check if there is a new version available.

Follow the steps below to install Go on Debian 10:

1. Download the Go tarball using the following wget command:

   wget https://dl.google.com/go/go1.13.linux-amd64.tar.gz

2. Verify the downloaded file using the sha256sum command:

   sha256sum go1.13.linux-amd64.tar.gz

   68a2297eb099d1a76097905a2ce334e3155004ec08cdea85f24527be3c48e856  go1.13.linux-amd64.tar.gz

   Make sure the hash matches the one from the Go downloads page .

3. Extract the tar archive to the /usr/local directory:

   sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.13.linux-amd64.tar.gz

4. Once the file is extracted, edit the $PATH environment variable so that the system knows where the Go executable binaries are located. You can do this either by appending the following line to the /etc/profile file (for a system-wide installation) or to the $HOME/.profile file (for a current user installation):

   ~/.profile

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

   Save the file, and apply the new PATH environment variable to the current shell session by typing:

   source ~/.profile

5. To verify that Go has been successfully installed run the following command which will print the Go version:

   go version

   go version go1.13 linux/amd64

Testing the Installation #

To test the Go installation, we will create a workspace and build a simple “Hello world” program.

1. By default the GOPATH variable, which specifies the location of the workspace is set to $HOME/go. To create the workspace directory type:

   mkdir ~/go

2. Inside the workspace create a new directory src/hello:

   mkdir -p ~/go/src/hello

   and in that directory create a file named hello.go:

   ~/go/src/hello/hello.go

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

   To learn more about Go workspace directory hierarchy, visit the Go Documentation page.

3. To build the file cd to the ~/go/src/hello directory and run go build:

   cd ~/go/src/hellogo build

   The command above will build an executable file named hello.

4. Run the executable using the command below:

   ./hello

   The output should look like this:

   Hello, World

Conclusion #

We have shown you how to download and install Go on Debian 10 Linux.

If you hit a problem or have feedback, leave a comment below.