Installing Go

Windows

Download and run the installer found at http://golang.org/doc/install

OS X

Download an install the darwin binary from https://golang.org/dl/

Linux

Ubuntu 14.04

The apt-get repositories for 14.04 contain golang 1.2.1. Version 1.4.2 is required, so you can download directly (as above). Alternatively, you can add the ethereum apt repository, which hosts golang 1.4.2. Then you can use sudo apt-get install golang to install. You will still have to set the $GOPATH and $PATH variables as specified below.

If you are getting 'error 2' when building Geth or 'expected target' errors, it's because you compiled geth while using Go 1.3.x. Run 'make clean' in the go-ethereum folder then run 'make geth' again to solve the issue.

Other distros

Download the latest distribution

curl -O https://storage.googleapis.com/golang/go1.4.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Unpack it to the /usr/local (might require sudo)

tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.4.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Set GOPATH and PATH

For Go to work properly, you need to set the following two environment variables:

• Setup a go folder mkdir -p ~/go; echo "export GOPATH=$HOME/go" >> ~/.bashrc
• Update your path echo "export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/go/bin:/usr/local/go/bin" >> ~/.bashrc
• Read the environment variables into current session: source ~/.bashrc