Managing Go installations

This topic describes how to install multiple versions of Go on the same machine, as well as how to uninstall Go.

For other content on installing, you might be interested in:

• Download and install -- The simplest way to get installed and running.
• Installing Go from source -- How to check out the sources, build them on your own machine, and run them.

Installing multiple Go versions

You can install multiple Go versions on the same machine. For example, you might want to test your code on multiple Go versions. For a list of versions you can install this way, see the download page.

Note: To install using the method described here, you'll need to have git installed.

To install additional Go versions, run the go install command, specifying the download location of the version you want to install. The following example illustrates with version 1.10.7:

$ go install golang.org/dl/go1.10.7@latest
$ go1.10.7 download

To run go commands with the newly-downloaded version, append the version number to the go command, as follows:

$ go1.10.7 version
go version go1.10.7 linux/amd64

When you have multiple versions installed, you can discover where each is installed, look at the version's GOROOT value. For example, run a command such as the following:

$ go1.10.7 env GOROOT

To uninstall a downloaded version, just remove the directory specified by its GOROOT environment variable and the goX.Y.Z binary.

Uninstalling Go

You can remove Go from your system using the steps described in this topic.

Linux / macOS / FreeBSD

1. Delete the go directory.

   This is usually /usr/local/go.

2. Remove the Go bin directory from your PATH environment variable.

   Under Linux and FreeBSD, edit /etc/profile or $HOME/.profile. If you installed Go with the macOS package, remove the /etc/paths.d/go file.

Windows

The simplest way to remove Go is via Add/Remove Programs in the Windows control panel:

1. In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.
2. In Add/Remove Programs, select Go Programming Language, click Uninstall, then follow the prompts.

For removing Go with tools, you can also use the command line:

• Uninstall using the command line by running the following command:

  msiexec /x go{{version}}.windows-{{cpu-arch}}.msi /q
  

  Note: Using this uninstall process for Windows will automatically remove Windows environment variables created by the original installation.