Go Environment Variables

For convenience in development, three environment variables often need to be set in the development environment:

1. $GOROOT: The installation directory of go, which remains unchanged after configuration;
2. $GOPATH: The project root path of the go project in the local development environment (for project compilation, go build, go install), this environment variable can differ for different projects during compilation;
3. $PATH (important): The bin directory of go needs to be added to the system $PATH to conveniently use related go commands, and it also remains unchanged after configuration;

There is also a detailed explanation of Go's environment variables in the official documentation, please refer to the link: https://golang.google.cn/doc/install/source

The $GOOS and $GOARCH environment variables are two very practical variables that can be used in cross-compilation for different platforms. You only need to set these two variables before go build, which is one of the advantages of the go language: it can compile and generate executable files that run across platforms. It feels more efficient and lightweight compared to QT, although the generated executable files are a bit larger, they are still within an acceptable range. For example, to compile an executable file for Windows x86 under the Linux amd64 architecture, you can use the following command:

CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=windows GOARCH=386 go build hello.go

Unfortunately, cross-compilation temporarily does not support the cgo method, so you need to set the environment variable $CGO_ENABLED to 0. This will generate a hello.exe executable file for the windows x86 architecture in the current directory after execution.

Environment Variable Settings

Other than the $PATH environment, other environment variables are optional.

Why is this step optional? Because future versions of Go are gradually beginning to remove support for $GOPATH/$GOROOT. In addition, there is a Terminal function integrated into the Goland IDE where the environment variables are already set.

Setting Environment Variables on *nix

On *nix systems (such as Linux/Unix/MacOS/*BSD, etc.), you need to add the following environment variable settings to /etc/profile and then execute the command #source /etc/profile to reload the profile configuration file (or log in again) to add the following variables to the user's environment variables:

export GOROOT=/usr/local/go
export GOPATH=/Users/john/Workspace/Go/GOPATH
export PATH=$GOPATH/bin:$GOROOT/bin:$PATH

Setting Environment Variables on Windows

For how to modify system environment variables and modify the PATH environment variable on Windows, please refer to online tutorials (Baidu or Google).

IDE Tool Configuration

This article uses the Goland development tool as a base to introduce the configuration of common tools in this IDE.

Commonly used tools include:

1. go fmt: A unified code formatting tool (mandatory).
2. golangci-lint: A static code quality inspection tool used for package quality analysis (recommended).
3. goimports: An automatic import dependency package tool (optional).
4. golint: A code convention inspection tool, which also detects the quality of single-file code and is used by the well-known Go quality assessment site Go Report (optional).

go fmt, goimports, golangci-lint

Since these three tools are built into Goland, the configuration is relatively simple. Refer to the following pictorial operation example:

1. In the Goland settings, select Tools - File Watchers, then choose to add

2. Add these 3 tools in turn by clicking, and use the default configuration

3. Subsequently, while writing code, these 3 tools will be automatically triggered for detection when you save the code files.

Installing and Configuring golint Tool (Optional)

Installing golint

Since Goland does not come with the golint tool, you need to download and install it yourself first.

If you have configured goproxy, you can directly use go install golang.org/x/lint/golint@latest to install, without needing the command below.

Use the following commands to install:

mkdir -p $GOPATH/src/golang.org/x/
cd $GOPATH/src/golang.org/x/
git clone https://github.com/golang/lint.git
git clone https://github.com/golang/tools.git
cd $GOPATH/src/golang.org/x/lint/golint
go install

After a successful installation, you will see the automatically generated golint binary tool file in the $GOPATH/bin directory.

Configuring golint

1. Then in the Tools - File Watchers configuration of Goland, by copying the configuration of go fmt

2. Modify the three settings Name, Program, and Arguments, where Arguments needs to add the -set_exit_status parameter, as shown in the figure:

3. Save, and the golint tool will be automatically triggered for detection when saving the code during writing.

Configuring golangci-lint (Optional)

1. Then in the Tools - File Watchers configuration of Goland, by copying the go fmt configuration
2. Modify the Name, Program, and Arguments settings, where Arguments needs to add the run $FileDir$ parameter. Note: The options in \Advanced Options`` can be deselected if the machine is relatively slow, as shown in the figure:
3. Save, and the golangci-lint tool will be automatically triggered for detection when saving the code during writing.
4. Manage the configuration of golangci-lint tools through the go Linter plugin. Below is the installation and configuration of go Linter.

IDE Code Style Configuration