Golang equivalent of npm install -g

Question

If I had a compiled Golang program that I wanted to install such that I could run it with a bash command from anywhere on my computer, how would I do that? For example, in nodejs

npm install -g express 

Installs express such that I can run the command

express myapp 

and express will generate a file directory for a node application called "myapp" in whatever my current directory is. Is there an equivalent command for go? I believe now with the "go install" command you have to be in the directory that contains the executable in order to run it

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Update: If you're using Go 1.16, this answer still works, but go install has changed and is now the recommended method for installing executable packages. See Karim's answer for an explanation: https://stackoverflow.com/a/68559728/10490740

Using Go >= 1.11, if your current directory is within a module-based project, or you've set GO111MODULE=on in your environment, go get will not install packages "globally". It will add them to your project's go.mod file instead.

As of Go 1.11.1, setting GO111MODULE=off works to circumvent this behavior:

GO111MODULE=off go get github.com/usr/repo 

Basically, by disabling the module feature for this single command, it will install to GOPATH as expected.

Projects not using modules can still go get normally to install binaries to $GOPATH/bin.

There's a lengthy conversation and multiple issues logged about this change in behavior branching from here: golang/go - cmd/go: go get should not add a dependency to go.mod #27643.