Go's Built In Go Version Manager

Fri, 11 Oct 2019 18:39:35 -0700

Go has a built in Go version manager. Well, almost.

TL;DR: Any version of go you want can be installed with:

$ go get golang.org/dl/<go version string>

If you have a working go install run the following:

$ go get golang.org/dl/go1.12.7
$ go1.12.7
go1.12.7: not downloaded. Run 'go1.12.7 download' to install to /Users/freeformz/sdk/go1.12.7
$ go1.12.7 download
Downloaded   0.0% (    15152 / 127614387 bytes) ...
Downloaded  15.8% ( 20135936 / 127614387 bytes) ...
Downloaded  33.4% ( 42631168 / 127614387 bytes) ...
Downloaded  49.3% ( 62947328 / 127614387 bytes) ...
Downloaded  65.8% ( 83918848 / 127614387 bytes) ...
Downloaded  84.4% (107659264 / 127614387 bytes) ...
Downloaded 100.0% (127614387 / 127614387 bytes)
Unpacking /Users/freeformz/sdk/go1.12.7/go1.12.7.darwin-amd64.tar.gz ...
Success. You may now run 'go1.12.7'
$ go1.12.7 env
...
GOROOT="/Users/freeformz/sdk/go1.12.7"
GOTMPDIR=""
GOTOOLDIR="/Users/freeformz/sdk/go1.12.7/pkg/tool/darwin_amd64"
...

Versions installed this way are placed in $HOME/sdk and an executable named the same as the full go version string is placed in $GOPATH/bin. As long as that is in your $PATH, you can run any of the installed versions of go by using the full go version.

Shell on Edward Muller

Go's Built In Go Version Manager