Introduction

Golang, or Go, is a modern and efficient programming language used for a variety of applications, including web development, system programming, and network programming. With its simple syntax and high-performance runtime, it's no wonder that it has become a popular choice for developers.

If you have a Raspberry Pi and want to start developing in Go, you'll need to install the latest version of the Golang runtime. In this article, we'll guide you through the installation process, step by step.

Instructions

The first step is to update your Raspberry Pi's package index and install the dependencies required for the Golang runtime:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y wget git build-essential

Next, download the latest version of Golang:

wget https://dl.google.com/go/go[version].linux-armv6l.tar.gz

Replace [version] with the latest version number of Golang. You can find that on their downloads page.

Then, extract the archive:

tar -xvf go[version].linux-armv6l.tar.gz

Move the extracted folder to /usr/local:

sudo mv go /usr/local

Set up the environment variables for Golang:

echo 'export GOROOT=/usr/local/go' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'export GOPATH=$HOME/go' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'export PATH=$GOPATH/bin:$GOROOT/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

If you are using bash or something else, use the rc file for the same (for example .bashrc). The above instructions are for zsh.

One Script for Everything

To summarise, we can put all of this into a single shell script to download and setup golang on armhf architecture.

#!/bin/bash

VERSION=1.20

# Download the latest version of Golang
wget https://dl.google.com/go/go$VERSION.linux-armv6l.tar.gz

# Extract the archive
tar -C /usr/local -xzf go$VERSION.linux-armv6l.tar.gz

# Set the environment variable for Golang
echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

# Verify the installation
go version

# Clean up
rm go$VERSION.linux-armv6l.tar.gz

Conclusion

By following these simple steps, you should now have the latest version of Golang installed on your Raspberry Pi. Whether you're a seasoned Go developer or just starting out, the Raspberry Pi is a great platform for developing in Golang.

With its low cost, small form factor, and powerful hardware, it provides a great way to learn and experiment with the Go programming language.