compile: version "go1.9" does not match go tool version "go1.9.1" - go

Question

I am getting this error when I tried to run an example helloworld code I got onlie.
compile: version "go1.9" does not match go tool version "go1.9.1"
My computer has go1.9.1. What does the error mean and how can I fix this?

Answer 1

If you are installing using OSX homebrew you may need to set the $GOROOT in your .bashrc, .zshrc, etc:
export GOROOT=/usr/local/opt/go/libexec
I had the same error this morning when I updated from 1.9 -> 1.9.1 though according to several post the $GOROOT shouldn't have to be set and I had not set it until today. This may be a bug?
Edit: not a bug, for more details see answer below.

Answer 2

This is a mismatch between the GOROOT environment variable and the default path to your go command. One or the other needs to be changed; the one that needs to be changed depends on the specific setup on your computer. You could determine this by updating your Go to the latest version using your preferred method, running either which go (on Linux/macOS/BSD) or where go (on Windows), and then checking which of the files listed has the newer timestamp.
Linux/macOS/BSD
To change the GOROOT to match the default path of your go command, run type go and strip off the /bin/go part at the end to yield the directory path containing your Go installation. Then, add it to your .bashrc or other appropriate init file like this:
export GOROOT=/path/to/go-installation
To instead change the go command path to match your GOROOT, add this to the bottom of your init file:
export PATH="${GOROOT}/bin:${PATH}"
Windows
To change the GOROOT to match the default path of your go command, run where go take the first line of output, and strip off the \bin\go.exe part at the end. Then, go to "Edit the system environment variables" in Settings, click "Environment Variables...", find the "GOROOT" variable and edit to read the path you created earlier.
To instead change the go command path to match your GOROOT, first save the output of echo %GOROOT%\bin. Then, go to "Edit the system environment variables" in Settings, click "Environment Variables...", and find the
find the "Path" row in the bottom pane, click New, put in the path you created earlier, and finally click Move Up until it's at the top.
All
You'll need to open up a new command prompt to see the effects.

Answer 3

in case you are using mac with homebrew, just run:
brew cleanup
to clean all the legacy package, this fixed my problem.

Answer 4

In mac OS , if you downloaded and installed go package without brew, running brew update commands will cause this problem to occur
for fix this problem you can do :
brew uninstall --ignore-dependencies go
uninstalling go from brew will fix problem

Answer 5

This error happens when you forgot to delete previous golang install ... just delete its directory ... so identify go install location ... on linux issue
type go
typical output is
go is hashed (/usr/local/go/bin/go)
so just remove its grandparent directory ( go install dir not just the go binary )
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go # NOTE this is not /usr/local/go/bin/go
now just install go and you'll be fine

Answer 6

For M1 Mac, the following steps helped me!
Check for which go from VSCode Terminal and check from system terminal.
from vscode terminal
user#mac % which go
/usr/local/go/bin/go
from my mac terminal
user#mac % which go
/opt/homebrew/bin/go
Whichever corresponds to the GOROOT shown go env, keep it and delete the other one
user#mac % go env GOROOT
/usr/local/go
in this case
rm -rf /opt/homebrew/bin/go
close and reload the vscode and terminal

Answer 7

For Windows delete the GOROOT System variables in the Enviroment Variables and restart the PC.

Answer 8

if you use VsCode, you just add this in setting.json.
"go.goroot": "/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.x.x/libexec",

Answer 9

For me, it's caused by GOROOT env, using gotip before, change to brew version.
# curret go env
cat "$(go env GOENV)"
# make sure this is correct
go env GOROOT
# unset GOROOT if setted before
go env -u GOROOT
you may also want to set a proper GOROOT to match the go version.

Answer 10

In my case, I had a scripts that look like this:
[[ -s "$HOME/.gvm/scripts/gvm" ]] && source "$HOME/.gvm/scripts/gvm"
Hanging around in my .bashrc/.zshrc file from a previous installation of go / trying to use gvm.
Removing this and restarting terminal solved it for me.

Answer 11

I had the same issue when I used getgo to update my Go version from 1.19 to 1.20. In my case, getgo created a .bash_profile and set its own export path w/c is not consistent with what's in my .bashrc.
#my .bash_profile;
export PATH=$PATH:/home/user/.go/bin
export PATH=$PATH:/home/user/go/bin
#my .bashrc;
export GOROOT=/usr/local/go/
export GOPATH=$HOME/go
export PATH=$PATH:$/home/user/go/bin:$GOROOT/bin:$PATH
SOLUTION:
I just replaced my export PATH in bashrc w/
export PATH=$PATH:$/home/user/.go/bin:$GOROOT/bin:$PATH
<Note the '.go' change w/c is now consistent to what's in my .bash_profile>.
So whether source is ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile, it will always point to the same path for Go. Hope this helps. I'm also new to Go and Ubuntu. I know how painful it is to get these variables right on your own.

Answer 12

Took a simple approach(Linux), I had different versions of Go installed in my system.
$ whereis go
helped me to find the available go runnables, removed all, installed a fresh one and ensured to create a link for this new Go runnable in one of the $PATH folder to ensure below gives the correct version of what installed now.
$ go version