cannot download, $GOPATH not set - macos

Question

I want to install json2csv using go get github.com/jehiah/json2csv but I receive this error:
package github.com/jehiah/json2csv: cannot download, $GOPATH not set. For more details see: go help go path
Any help on how to fix this on MacOS?

Answer 1

[Update: as of Go 1.8, GOPATH defaults to $HOME/go, but you may still find this useful if you want to understand the GOPATH layout, customize it, etc.]
The official Go site discusses GOPATH and how to lay out a workspace directory.
export GOPATH="$HOME/your-workspace-dir/" -- run it in your shell, then add it to ~/.bashrc or equivalent so it will be set for you in the future. Go will install packages under src/, bin/, and pkg/, subdirectories there. You'll want to put your own packages somewhere under $GOPATH/src, like $GOPATH/src/github.com/myusername/ if you want to publish to GitHub. You'll also probably want export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH/bin in your .bashrc so you can run compiled programs under $GOPATH.
Optionally, via Rob Pike, you can also set CDPATH so it's faster to cd to package dirs in bash: export CDPATH=.:$GOPATH/src/github.com:$GOPATH/src/golang.org/x means you can just type cd net/html instead of cd $GOPATH/src/golang.org/x/net/html.
Keith Rarick notes you can set GOPATH=$HOME to put Go's src/, pkg/ and bin/ directories right under your homedir. That can be nice (for instance, you might already have $HOME/bin in your path) but of course some folks use multiple workspaces, etc.

Answer 2

This one worked
Setting up Go development environment on Ubuntu, and how to fix $GOPATH / $GOROOT
Steps
mkdir ~/go
Set $GOPATH in .bashrc,
export GOPATH=~/go
export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH/bin

Answer 3

Using brew
I installed it using brew.
$ brew install go
When it was done if you run this brew command it'll show the following info:
$ brew info go
go: stable 1.4.2 (bottled), HEAD
Go programming environment
https://golang.org
/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.4.2 (4676 files, 158M) *
Poured from bottle
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/blob/master/Library/Formula/go.rb
==> Options
--with-cc-all
Build with cross-compilers and runtime support for all supported platforms
--with-cc-common
Build with cross-compilers and runtime support for darwin, linux and windows
--without-cgo
Build without cgo
--without-godoc
godoc will not be installed for you
--without-vet
vet will not be installed for you
--HEAD
Install HEAD version
==> 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=$PATH:/usr/local/opt/go/libexec/bin
The important pieces there are these lines:
/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.4.2 (4676 files, 158M) *
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/opt/go/libexec/bin
Setting up GO's environment
That shows where GO was installed. We need to do the following to setup GO's environment:
$ export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/opt/go/libexec/bin
$ export GOPATH=/usr/local/opt/go/bin
You can then check using GO to see if it's configured properly:
$ go env
GOARCH="amd64"
GOBIN=""
GOCHAR="6"
GOEXE=""
GOHOSTARCH="amd64"
GOHOSTOS="darwin"
GOOS="darwin"
GOPATH="/usr/local/opt/go/bin"
GORACE=""
GOROOT="/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.4.2/libexec"
GOTOOLDIR="/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.4.2/libexec/pkg/tool/darwin_amd64"
CC="clang"
GOGCCFLAGS="-fPIC -m64 -pthread -fno-caret-diagnostics -Qunused-arguments -fmessage-length=0 -fno-common"
CXX="clang++"
CGO_ENABLED="1"
Setting up json2csv
Looks good, so lets install json2csv:
$ go get github.com/jehiah/json2csv
$
What just happened? It installed it. You can check like this:
$ $ ls -l $GOPATH/bin
total 5248
-rwxr-xr-x 1 sammingolelli staff 2686320 Jun 9 12:28 json2csv
OK, so why can't I type json2csv in my shell? That's because the /bin directory under $GOPATH isn't on your $PATH.
$ type -f json2csv
-bash: type: json2csv: not found
So let's temporarily add it:
$ export PATH=$GOPATH/bin:$PATH
And re-check:
$ type -f json2csv
json2csv is hashed (/usr/local/opt/go/bin/bin/json2csv)
Now it's there:
$ json2csv --help
Usage of json2csv:
-d=",": delimiter used for output values
-i="": /path/to/input.json (optional; default is stdin)
-k=[]: fields to output
-o="": /path/to/output.json (optional; default is stdout)
-p=false: prints header to output
-v=false: verbose output (to stderr)
-version=false: print version string
Add the modifications we've made to $PATH and $GOPATH to your $HOME/.bash_profile to make them persist between reboots.

Answer 4

Watch a Video
In general, I always recommend this official video from Go to get a quick overview on the matter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCsL89YtqCs
It's easier to be shown than to be told.
#jwfearn paraphrased the important part of the video:
export GOPATH="${HOME}/gocode"; export PATH="${PATH}:${GOPATH}/bin"; mkdir -p "${GOPATH}"

Answer 5

I found easier to do it like this:
export GOROOT=$HOME/go
export GOPATH=$GOROOT/bin
export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH

Answer 6

For MAC this worked well for me.
sudo nano /etc/bashrc
and add the below at the end of the file
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/opt/go/libexec/bin
export GOPATH=/usr/local/opt/go/bin
This should fix the problem. Try opening a new terminal and echo $GOPATH you should see the correct value.

Answer 7

(for MAC)
I tried all these answers and, for some still unknown reason, none of them worked.
I had to "force feed" the GOPATH by setting the environment variable per every command that required it. For example:
sudo env GOPATH=$HOME/goWorkDirectory go build ...
Even glide was giving me the GOPATH not set error. Resolved it, again, by "force feeding":
I tried all these answers and, for some still unknown reason, none of them worked.
I had to "force feed" the GOPATH by setting the environment variable per every command that required it.
sudo env GOPATH=$HOME/goWorkDirectory glide install
Hope this helps someone.

Answer 8

Your $GOROOT should not be set up.
You $GOPATH should be set to $HOME/go by typing export $GOPATH=$HOME/go
Please type export GOROOT="" to fix your problem.

Answer 9

Just do export GOPATH="/whatever/you/like/your/GOPATH/to/be".

Answer 10

If you run into this problem after having $GOPATH set up, it may be because you're running it with an unsupported shell. I was using fish and it did not work, launching it with bash worked fine.

Answer 11

You can use the "export" solution just like what other guys have suggested. I'd like to provide you with another solution for permanent convenience: you can use any path as GOPATH when running Go commands.
Firstly, you need to download a small tool named gost : https://github.com/byte16/gost/releases . If you use ubuntu, you can download the linux version(https://github.com/byte16/gost/releases/download/v0.1.0/gost_linux_amd64.tar.gz).
Then you need to run the commands below to unpack it :
$ cd /path/to/your/download/directory
$ tar -xvf gost_linux_amd64.tar.gz
You would get an executable gost. You can move it to /usr/local/bin for convenient use:
$ sudo mv gost /usr/local/bin
Run the command below to add the path you want to use as GOPATH into the pathspace gost maintains. It is required to give the path a name which you would use later.
$ gost add foo /home/foobar/bar # 'foo' is the name and '/home/foobar/bar' is the path
Run any Go command you want in the format:
gost goCommand [-p {pathName}] -- [goFlags...] [goArgs...]
For example, you want to run go get github.com/go-sql-driver/mysql with /home/foobar/bar as the GOPATH, just do it as below:
$ gost get -p foo -- github.com/go-sql-driver/mysql # 'foo' is the name you give to the path above.
It would help you to set the GOPATH and run the command. But remember that you have added the path into gost's pathspace. If you are under any level of subdirectories of /home/foobar/bar, you can even just run the command below which would do the same thing for short :
$ gost get -- github.com/go-sql-driver/mysql
gost is a Simple Tool of Go which can help you to manage GOPATHs and run Go commands. For more details about how to use it to run other Go commands, you can just run gost help goCmdName. For example you want to know more about install, just type words below in:
$ gost help install
You can also find more details in the README of the project: https://github.com/byte16/gost/blob/master/README.md

Answer 12

Run 'go env' and see where your GOPATH is currently pointing towards. If you change to that directory, your 'go get..etc' command should work.

Answer 13

This problem occured to me in raspberry pi. I had logged in through VNC client
The problem persisted despite setting and exporting the GOPATH.
Then Ran the "go get" command without sudo and it worked perfectly.

Answer 14

I am using vim to edit my .bashrc file but you code use a gui editor such as gedit.
Steps:
Kindly subsitute /path/to/golang/projects below with your actual path location where you will store your golang projects.
Open .bashrc file in vim that is vim ~/.bashrc. Then add below lines at the end of the file.
# Setup Golang Development Environment ::
export GOROOT=/usr/local/go
export PATH=$PATH:$GOROOT/bin
# Third party go libraries will live under "~/golib" directory
export GOPATH="$HOME/golib"
export PATH="$PATH:$GOPATH/bin"
# Where your golang project code lives
export GOPATH=$GOPATH:/path/to/golang/projects
Save the file and type source ~/.bashrc to refresh your terminal session.
Now try getting a package e.g. go get github.com/pilu/fresh and check your ~/golib/bin directory it should have fresh package in it.
Navigate to your /path/to/golang/projects and create three folders in there i.e. bin,src and pkg
Now place your project folder inside /path/to/golang/projects/src e.g. /path/to/golang/projects/src/myfancygolangprojectand you should be good to go. Put all your golang codebase in there mate.

Answer 15

I had to run an application as root (to open a webserver on port 80), this produced the error for me, because the sudo user has a different environment than the normal user, hence GOPATH was not set.
If someone else is having this problem, add -E to the command, this will preserve the user environment.
sudo -E go run main.go
For more infos see discussion here: Google Groups – GOPATH Problem