Go Wiki: InstallTroubleshooting
Introduction
There are many times in which you may install Go (either from source or from a binary distribution) and things don’t work quite right. This page is meant to collect some common wisdom about problems that are relatively common or difficult to diagnose and provide tips and solutions.
Contents
Tips
Environment variables
There are several environment variables that can be set to configure your Go installation: see https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/go#hdr-Environment_variables.
Normally none of them need to be set.
That said, the default for GOROOT is the root of your Go
installation.
The default for GOPATH is the directory named “go” in your home
directory.
The GOPATH directory should not be set to, or contain, the GOROOT
directory.
If you have installed Go in the “go” directory in your home directory,
running the go tool will print a warning.
You should either move the Go installation, or set the GOPATH
environment variable to some other directory.
For example, on a Unix system:
> go run hello.go
warning: GOPATH set to GOROOT (/home/username/go) has no effect
Hello, world
> GOPATH=/home/username/gopath
> export GOPATH
> go run hello.go
Hello, world
Troubleshooting
The go build command doesn’t do anything!
The go build command will only produce a binary; if you run go build in a package directory, it will build the package normally (and report any compile errors), but it will not install it. For that, you use go install. If you think you’re building a binary and none is produced, make sure you are in package main and that you do not have GOBIN set.
Why does go get report "Fetching https://runtime/cgo?go-get=1"?
If you have a source distribution, make sure that your packages are up-to-date. Also double check the environment above.
When cross compiling, I get "runtime/extern.go:135: undefined: theGoos"
Read WindowsCrossCompiling for some helpful scripts. You can also use the --no-clean argument when you’re building the cross-compile toolchain via make.bash.
Why does go get work for some packages and report permission denied in $GOROOT for some others (with GOPATH set properly)?
If you at any point installed the package in GOROOT (either by having no GOPATH set or by including GOROOT itself in GOPATH) then there might still be a directory in $GOROOT (which is always checked first) that is overriding your GOPATH. To verify, run go list -f {{.Dir}} importpath and if it reports a directory under $GOPATH try deleting that first.
Still need help?
Visit us on IRC or ask on the mailing list. You will want to provide the output of the following commands, in addition to any errors you are getting:
Linux/darwin
go version
go env
env | grep GO
Windows
go version
go env
set | findstr GO
This content is part of the Go Wiki.