Go, also known as Golang or Go language, is an open-source programming language developed by Google. It is a high-level language used for developing web applications, cloud, and networking services. Compared to other programming languages, Golang runs faster, compiles quicker, is easy to maintain and support, and allows for shorter software development lifecycles.
In this post, we will show you how to install Golang on Arch Linux.
Step 1 – Configure Repository
By default, the default repository is outdated in Arch Linux, so you will need to modify the default mirror list. You can do it by editing the mirror list configuration file:
nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
Remove all lines and add the following lines:
## Score: 0.7, United States Server = http://mirror.us.leaseweb.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch ## Score: 0.8, United States Server = http://lug.mtu.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch Server = http://mirror.nl.leaseweb.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch ## Score: 0.9, United Kingdom Server = http://mirror.bytemark.co.uk/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch ## Score: 1.5, United Kingdom Server = http://mirrors.manchester.m247.com/arch-linux/$repo/os/$arch Server = http://archlinux.dcc.fc.up.pt/$repo/os/$arch ## Score: 6.6, United States Server = http://mirror.cs.pitt.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch ## Score: 6.7, United States Server = http://mirrors.acm.wpi.edu/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch ## Score: 6.8, United States Server = http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch ## Score: 7.1, India Server = http://mirror.cse.iitk.ac.in/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch ## Score: 10.1, United States Server = http://mirrors.xmission.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
Save and close the file then update all the package index with the following command:
pacman -Syu
Step 2 – Install Golang
First, visit the Golang official website, pick the latest version of Golang, and download it with the following command.
wget https://go.dev/dl/go1.20.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz
Once the download is completed, extract the downloaded file with the following command.
tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.20.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz
You can verify the content of the extracted file with the following command.
ls /usr/local/go
You should see the following output.
api bin CONTRIBUTING.md doc LICENSE PATENTS README.md src VERSION AUTHORS codereview.cfg CONTRIBUTORS lib misc pkg SECURITY.md test
Step 3 – Create Golang Environment Variable
Next, you will need to create or edit the .bashrc file and define your Golang installation path.
nano ~/.bashrc
Add the following line:
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin
Save and close the file, then activate the environment variable with the following command.
source ~/.bashrc
You can now verify the Go version with the following command.
go version
You should see the Go version in the following output.
go version go1.18.1 linux/amd64
Step 4 – Create a Project with Golang
First, create a project directory for Golang using the following command.
mkdir project
Next, navigate to the project directory and initialize the project with the following command.
cd project go mod init go.example.com/hello
Next, create a hello application file with the following command.
nano hello.go
Add the following code.
package main import "fmt" func main() { fmt.Println("Hello, Go is working") }
Save and close the file, then run the Go application using the following command.
go run hello.go
If everything is fine, you should see the following output.
Hello, Go is working
Conclusion
In this post, we showed you how to install Golang on Arch Linux. We also created a sample project with Golang. You can now start developing cloud and web applications using Golang. Deploy the Go application on a dedicated server hosting plan from Atlantic.Net!