github.com/rwg/golang-dl

This repository is a fork of the golang.org/dl Go package, which contains wrapper programs that download and run specific versions of Go. This allows multiple versions of the Go toolchain to be installed side-by-side and run using version-specific go<version> commands.

The upstream repository is available at:

• https://cs.opensource.google/go/dl
• https://github.com/golang/dl

Changes from upstream

• The default installation path for downloaded Go toolchains is now ~/go/sdk.
• The wrapper programs now support a GOLANG_DL_SDK_ROOT environment variable, which overrides the hard-coded ~/go/sdk path where Go toolchains are installed by default. (Note that this is not a Go environment variable, so go env cannot be used to change it.)
• Exit statuses from go commands that the wrapper programs run are now used as the wrapper programs' exit statuses. (The upstream version only used exit statuses 0 and 1.)
• The wrapper programs now delete the downloaded archive files after they are successfully unpacked.

Usage

Use go install to install the wrapper program from this repository for the version of Go you want to install and use. In this example, we'll install the wrapper for Go version 1.21.0:

go install github.com/rwg/golang-dl/go1.21.0@latest

This creates a go1.21.0 wrapper program in your $GOPATH/bin directory.

Now use the wrapper program to download the corresponding version of the Go toolchain:

go1.21.0 download

By default, the toolchain will be installed in ~/go/sdk. To specify a different path, you can set the GOLANG_DL_SDK_ROOT environment variable:

GOLANG_DL_SDK_ROOT=/home/username/go-versions go1.21.0 download

Important

If you use GOLANG_DL_SDK_ROOT to install a Go toolchain, then it's a very good idea to set that environment variable permanently. If you install a toolchain with it set and later run a wrapper program without it set, then the wrapper won't be able to find its Go toolchain.

Now that the Go 1.21.0 toolchain has been downloaded, the go1.21.0 wrapper program can be used anywhere you'd normally use the go command when you want to force the use of Go 1.21.0. For example, this command will print the path where the Go 1.21.0 toolchain installed by the wrapper was installed:

go1.21.0 env GOROOT

To remove a specific Go toolchain version, delete the directory returned by go<version> env GOROOT and the $GOPATH/bin/go<version> wrapper program.