How to Install Golang on WSL/WSL2

One of the best feature that Windows 10 or 11 Pro support is WSL or WSL2, using this you can run any Linux OS like a windows application.

If you want to install GoLang on WSL/WSL2 and setup your development environment, please follow these steps

Check Latest Go Version

You can check latest Go Version for any OS like: Linux, macOS or Windows at https://go.dev/dl/

Install Go

At the time of writing this blog, the most recent LTS version of Go is 1.18.3.

wget https://dl.google.com/go/go1.18.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo tar -xvf go1.18.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo mv go /usr/local

Edit .bashrc file

You have to edit .bashrc file before making further changes, you can follow below steps to open .bashrc file

cd ~
explorer.exe .

Open .bashrc file and add following lines at the bottom and save the file.
export GOROOT=/usr/local/go
export GOPATH=$HOME/go
export PATH=$GOPATH/bin:$GOROOT/bin:$PATH

Refresh your terminal using **bash **command

Check Go Version

go version

Make sure it returns the same version that you installed.

Comments

[Jorgen Ordonez]

Thanks this helped. I had some minor differences in steps I took, which I will list below:

• I use zsh so I edited .zshrc instead
• Then after I reload the rc file using source ~/.zshrc instead of spawning a new shell.

[Luiz Henrique F Salmonson]

Thank you. Update for current version and zsh user commands:
wget https://dl.google.com/go/go1.21.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo tar -xvf go1.21.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo mv go /usr/local
echo "export GOROOT=/usr/local/go" >> ~/.zshrc
echo "export GOPATH=\$HOME/go" >> ~/.zshrc
echo "export PATH=\$GOPATH/bin:\$GOROOT/bin:\$PATH" >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

[D.aȠ]

The same for me!

[Olaleye Obidiya]

Thanks, this works for bashrc also.

wget https://dl.google.com/go/go1.23.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo tar -xvf go1.23.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo mv go /usr/local
echo "export GOROOT=/usr/local/go" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "export GOPATH=\$HOME/go" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "export PATH=\$GOPATH/bin:\$GOROOT/bin:\$PATH" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

[LouieMartin]

You can use nano .bashrc instead of File Explorer.

[Justin]

Thanks for this, worked perfectly 👌

You can also use $ code ~/.bashrc instead of explorer.exe .

[Parmar Ujjaval]

even simpler use neovim or vi or vim

[Nathan Kurz]

Hell yeah! Nice and easy, thanks!

[Chia Yong Kang]

workedp amazing

[Andrew Ross]

Perfect, thanks man

[FRicardi]

Just used it - worked great. Thanks!

[Nurudeen Rabiu Alabi]

very helpful, thanks

[Mogueno]

Be sure to always go to go.dev/dl/ to check the latest go version when downloading the .tar.gz!