Multiple versions of go

Question

I am trying to learn go-lng following the official docs here: https://golang.org/doc/install

I am stuck on the step installing extra go versions. Apparently this line should install a different version of go and make the executable available in my $PATH but it's not happening:

go get golang.org/dl/go1.10.7

Instead what I see is:

c.craig$ go get golang.org/dl/go1.10.7
c.craig$ go1.10.7 download
-bash: go1.10.7: command not found

Where am I going wrong? I've tried it with a space assuming this was just a typo in the docs but even that doesn't work:

c.craig$ go get golang.org/dl/go1.10.7
c.craig$ go 1.10.7 download
go 1.10.7: unknown command

Answer 1

The binary is installed $HOME/go/bin (or more accurately the bin directory under the path you get from go env GOPATH). The go get command doesn't update your $PATH, so you need to add the install directory to your $PATH yourself.

Answer 2

After setting the following path variables in .bash_profile (do not forget to run: source ~/.bash_profile)

$ export GOPATH=$HOME/go
$ export GOBIN=$HOME/go/bin

Install go version in one terminal:

$ go get golang.org/dl/go1.13.15
$ go1.13.15 download

Now you also want to install another go version say go1.15.13 by executing the below commands (remember to set the path as told above)

$ go get golang.org/dl/go1.15.13
$ go1.15.13 download

Now you have two go versions installed; 1.13.15 and 1.15.13.

Say, in one terminal, you want to use version 1.13.15 so you can create an alias as below in that terminal window:

$ alias go="go1.13.15"
$ go version
go version go1.13.15 darwin/amd64

In another terminal you can switch to different version

$ alias go="go1.15.13"
$ go version
go version go1.15.13 darwin/amd64