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SettingGOPATH

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filmendless edited this page Jul 20, 2019 · 4 revisions

The `GOPATH` environment variable specifies the location of your workspace. If no `GOPATH` is set, it is assumed to be `$HOME/go` on Unix systems and `%USERPROFILE%\go` on Windows. If you want to use a custom location as your workspace, you can set the `GOPATH` environment variable. This page explains how to set this variable on various platforms.

  • [Unix systems](#unix-systems)
    • [Bash](#bash)
    • [Zsh](#zsh)
    • [fish](#fish)
  • [Windows](#windows)

`GOPATH` can be any directory on your system. In Unix examples, we will set it to `$HOME/go` (the default since Go 1.8). Note that `GOPATH` must not be the same path as your Go installation. Another common setup is to set `GOPATH=$HOME`.

## Bash

Edit your `~/.bash_profile` to add the following line: 

export GOPATH=$HOME/go

Save and exit your editor. Then, source your `~/.bash_profile`. 

source ~/.bash_profile

## Zsh

Edit your `~/.zshrc` file to add the following line:

export GOPATH=$HOME/go
Save and exit your editor. Then, source your `~/.zshrc`. 
source ~/.zshrc

## fish

set -x -U GOPATH $HOME/go

The `-x` is used to specify that this variable should be exported and the `-U` makes this a universal variable, available to all sessions and persistent.

Your workspace can be located wherever you like, but we’ll use `C:\go-work` in this example.

__NOTE:__ `GOPATH` must not be the same path as your Go installation.

Create folder at `C:\go-work`.

Right click on “Start” and click on “Control Panel”. Select “System and Security”, then click on “System”.

From the menu on the left, select the “Advanced systems settings”.

Click the “Environment Variables” button at the bottom.

Click “New” from the “User variables” section.

Type `GOPATH` into the “Variable name” field.

Type `C:\go-work` into the “Variable value” field.

Click OK.

## Windows 10 There is a faster way to edit `Environment Variables` via search:

Left click on “Search” and type `env` or `environment`.

Select “Edit environment variables for your account”.

… and follow steps above.

## Windows 10 (cli version)

Open a command prompt (windows-key + r then type “cmd”) or a powershell window (windows-key + i)

Type `setx GOPATH %USERPROFILE%\go` (this will set the `GOPATH` to your `[home folder]\go` e.g. `C:\Users\yourusername\go`

Close the command or powershell window (the environment variable is only available for new command or powershell windows, not for the current window).

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