How to install Go 1.18 on Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

In this tutorial, we are going to explore how to install go on Rocky Linux 8.5

Golang is an open-source programming language that is easy to learn and use. It is built-in concurrency and has a robust standard library. It is reliable, builds fast, and efficient software that scales fast.

Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel-type systems enable flexible and modular program constructions.

Go compiles quickly to machine code and has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection.

In this guide, we are going to learn how to install golang 1.18 on Fedora 35.

Go is not yet released. There is so much work in progress with all the documentation.

Go new Changes introduced

• Go 1.18 includes an implementation of generic features. This include backward-compatibity changes to the language.
• The syntax for function and type declarations now accepts type parameters.
• Parameterized functions and types can be instatiated by following them with a list of type arguments in square brackets.
• the syntax for interface types now permits the embedding of arbitrary types as well as union.
• The new predeclared identifier any is an alias for the empty interface. It maybe used instaead of interface {}.
• The go 1.18 compiler now correctly reports declared but not used errors for variables that are set inside a function literal but are never used.
• The go 1.18 compiler now reports an overflow when passing a rune constant expression.
• Go 1.18 introduces the new GOAMD64 environment variable which selects a version of AMD64 architecture.
• Go get no longer builds or install packages in module-aware mod.
• gofmt now reads and formats input files concurrently with a memory limit proportional GOMAXPROCS.
• The vet tool is updated to support generic code.
• The garbage collector now includes non-hip sources of garbage colector work when determining how frequently to run.

Get more information on go 1.18 release notes.

Related Articles

• How to install go 1.18 on Ubuntu 20.04
• How to install Go 1.18 on Fedora 35
• How to install Go 1.17 on Ubuntu 20.04

Install Go on Rocky Linux

1. Run System Updates

To begin Go installation, we need to update our system repositories to make them up to date. This will always be your first thing to do if you don’t want to run into repo problems.

$ sudo dnf update -y

2. Installing Go

To install go we need to download it from go download page. we are going to download the beta release because it’s not yet out. We are going to use the curl command to download.

$ curl -LO https://go.dev/dl/go1.18beta1.linux-amd64.tar.gz

When the download is complete, extract the archive downloaded to your desired location. I will be using /usr/local directory.

$ sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.18beta1.linux-amd64.tar.gz

After extraction is complete move ahead and set up the go environment, but first list to see if the downloaded has been successfully extracted.

$ ls
go1.18beta1.linux-amd64.tar.gz

3. Set go Environment

To set up go environment we need to define the root of golang packages. We normally use GOROOT and GOPATH to define that environment. We need to set up the GOROOT location where the packages are installed.

$ export GOROOT=/usr/local/go

Next, we will need to set up the GOPATH. Let’s set up GOPATH in the $HOME/go directory.

$ export GOPATH=$HOME/go

Now we need to append the go binary PATH so that we can be able to access the program system-wide. Use the following command.

$ export PATH=$GOPATH/bin:$GOROOT/bin:$PATH

To apply the changes we have made above, run the following command:

$ source ~/.bashrc

Lastly, we can do the verification with the following;

$ go version
go version go1.18beta1 linux/amd64

Let’s create a program to check all our settings. We will create a simple one.

Create a file hello.go on the main directory. Input the following.

$ package main

import "fmt"

func main(){
        fmt.Println("Hello there")
}

To run the program use the following command;

$ go run hello.go
Hello there

Conclusion.

We have successfully installed go 1.18beta1 on our Rocky Linux 8 distro, go ahead and spin your programs. In case of any problem feel free to contact us, we will be happy to help.