GVM provides an interface to manage Go versions.

Note: This is a fork of moovweb/gvm, which was abandoned in August 2023 (last commit: 2023-08-14). The upstream repository has had no maintenance, review activity, or response to pull requests since then. This fork is independently maintained by Chris Collins.

Originally created by Josh Bussdieker while working at Moovweb, and previously maintained by Benjamin Knigge.

Pull requests and other contributions are welcome.

• Install/Uninstall Go versions with gvm install [tag] where tag is "go1.22.5", "go1.23rc1", or "tip"
• List added/removed files in GOROOT with gvm diff
• Manage GOPATHs with gvm pkgset [create/use/delete] [name]. Use --local as name to manage repository under local path (/path/to/repo/.gvm_local).
• List latest release tags with gvm listall. Use --all to list weekly as well.
• Cache a clean copy of the latest Go source for multiple version installs.
• Link project directories into GOPATH

To install:

1. Install Bison (only needed if building Go from source):

   sudo apt-get install bison
   

2. Install gvm:

   SRC_REPO=https://github.com/clcollins/gvm.git bash < <(curl -s -S -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/clcollins/gvm/main/binscripts/gvm-installer) main
   

   Note: The SRC_REPO variable is needed until the installer is updated to default to this fork. The installer script requires bash regardless of your login shell.

The quickest way to install a Go version is with the --prefer-binary flag, which downloads a precompiled binary from go.dev and only falls back to source compilation if no binary is available for your platform:

gvm install go1.22.5 --prefer-binary
gvm use go1.22.5 [--default]

Once this is done Go will be in the path and ready to use. $GOROOT and $GOPATH are set automatically.

Additional options can be specified when installing Go:

Usage: gvm install [version] [options]
    -s,  --source=SOURCE      Install Go from specified source.
    -n,  --name=NAME          Override the default name for this version.
    -pb, --with-protobuf      Install Go protocol buffers.
    -b,  --with-build-tools   Install package build tools.
    -B,  --binary             Only install from binary.
         --prefer-binary      Attempt a binary install, falling back to source.
    -h,  --help               Display this message.

Go 1.5+ removed the C compilers from the toolchain and replaced them with one written in Go. This means you need an existing Go installation to compile from source. Each Go version requires a recent-enough bootstrap compiler (typically within the last two major releases).

The simplest bootstrap path:

gvm install go1.17.13 -B
gvm use go1.17.13
export GOROOT_BOOTSTRAP=$GOROOT
gvm install go1.22.5

Binary versions for ARMv6 architecture are available starting from Go 1.6. So, it is necessary to bootstrap with an existing binary version, then it will be possible compiling other versions. For instance, to bootstrap a setup, version 1.21.0 may be used:

gvm install go1.21.0 -B
gvm use go1.21.0

And then, compile any other version (including older ones):

gvm install go1.22.5

To list all installed Go versions (The current version is prefixed with "=>"):

gvm list

To list all Go versions available for download:

gvm listall

To completely remove gvm and all installed Go versions and packages:

gvm implode

If that doesn't work see the troubleshooting steps at the bottom of this page.

• Install Xcode Command Line Tools from the App Store.

xcode-select --install

sudo apt-get install curl git make binutils bison gcc build-essential

sudo dnf install curl git make bison gcc glibc-devel

sudo pkg_add -r bash
sudo pkg_add -r git

GVM supports vendoring package set-specific native code and related dependencies, which is useful if you need to qualify a new configuration or version of one of these dependencies against a last-known-good version in an isolated manner. Such behavior is critical to maintaining good release engineering and production environment hygiene.

As a convenience matter, GVM will furnish the following environment variables to aid in this manner if you want to decouple your work from what the operating system provides:

1. ${GVM_OVERLAY_PREFIX} functions in a manner akin to a root directory hierarchy suitable for auto{conf,make,tools} where it could be passed in to ./configure --prefix=${GVM_OVERLAY_PREFIX} and not conflict with any existing operating system artifacts and hermetically be used by your workspace. This is suitable to use with C{PP,XX}FLAGS and LDFLAGS, but you will have to manage these yourself, since each tool that uses them is different.

2. ${PATH} includes ${GVM_OVERLAY_PREFIX}/bin so that any tools you manually install will reside there, available for you.

3. ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH} includes ${GVM_OVERLAY_PREFIX}/lib so that any runtime library searching can be fulfilled there on FreeBSD and Linux.

4. ${DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH} includes ${GVM_OVERLAY_PREFIX}/lib so that any runtime library searching can be fulfilled there on Mac OS X.

5. ${PKG_CONFIG_PATH} includes ${GVM_OVERLAY_PREFIX}/lib/pkgconfig so that pkg-config can automatically resolve any vendored dependencies.

Recipe for success:

gvm use go1.22
gvm pkgset use current-known-good
# Let's assume that this includes some C headers and native libraries, which
# Go's CGO facility wraps for us.  Let's assume that these native
# dependencies are at version V.
gvm pkgset create trial-next-version
# Let's assume that V+1 has come along and you want to safely trial it in
# your workspace.
gvm pkgset use trial-next-version
# Do your work here replicating current-known-good from above, but install
# V+1 into ${GVM_OVERLAY_PREFIX}.

See examples/native for a working example.

Sometimes especially during upgrades the state of gvm's files can get mixed up. This is mostly true for upgrade from older version than 0.0.8. Changes are slowing down and a LTR is imminent. But for now rm -rf ~/.gvm will always remove gvm. Stay tuned!