Install Go / Golang on OS X El Capitan (10.11.x) using Homebrew

12 May 2016

Do the following:

$ brew update
$ brew install go --with-cc-all

==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/go-1.6.2.el_capitan.bottle.tar.gz
Already downloaded: /Users/avi/Library/Caches/Homebrew/go-1.6.2.el_capitan.bottle.tar.gz
==> Pouring go-1.6.2.el_capitan.bottle.tar.gz
==> Caveats
As of go 1.2, a valid GOPATH is required to use the `go get` command:
  https://golang.org/doc/code.html#GOPATH

You may wish to add the GOROOT-based install location to your PATH:
  export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/opt/go/libexec/bin
==> Summary
🍺  /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.2: 5,778 files, 325.3M

As it says we need to set GOPATH and also GOROOT:

$ mkdir $HOME/.go

If then add this to your profile, .bash_profile or .zshrc:

# go things
export GOPATH=$HOME/.go
export GOROOT=/usr/local/opt/go/libexec
export PATH=$PATH:$GOROOT/bin:$GOPATH/bin

Updating to/Installation of Go 1.7.x

If you followed above methods and now want to update to 1.7.x, then do following:

$ brew update
$ brew upgrade go

If you are doing a fresh install, then do:

$ brew update
$ brew install go

And set GOPATH and GOROOT like earlier.

Updating to/Installation of Go 1.7.x

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