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Note: The master branch may still be under development and may not represent a stable version. Please download stable versions of the source code through tags or download compiled binary executables through release.

g is a command-line tool for Linux, macOS, and Windows that provides convenient management and switching of multiple versions of the Go environment.

• Support for listing available versions of Go for installation
• Support for listing installed versions of Go
• Support for installing multiple versions of Go locally
• Support for uninstalling installed versions of Go
• Support for freely switching between installed versions of Go
• Support for clearing package file cache
• Support for self-updating software (>= 1.5.0)
• Support for clean uninstallation of the software (>= 1.5.0)

• Linux/macOS (bash/zsh)

  # It is recommended to clear the `GOROOT`, `GOBIN`, and other environment variables before installation.
  $ curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/voidint/g/master/install.sh | bash
  $ cat << 'EOF' >> ~/.bashrc
  # Check if the alias 'g' exists before trying to unalias it
  if [[ -n $(alias g 2>/dev/null) ]]; then
      unalias g
  fi
  EOF 
  $ source "$HOME/.g/env"

• Windows (pwsh)

  $ iwr https://raw.githubusercontent.com/voidint/g/master/install.ps1 -useb | iex

• Create a directory for g (recommended: ~/.g)

• Download the binary compressed file from releases and unzip it into the bin subdirectory of the g directory (i.e. ~/.g/bin).

• Write necessary environment variables into ~/.g/env file.

  $ cat >~/.g/env <<'EOF'
  #!/bin/sh
  # g shell setup
  export GOROOT="${HOME}/.g/go"
  export PATH="${HOME}/.g/bin:${GOROOT}/bin:$PATH"
  export G_MIRROR=https://golang.google.cn/dl/
  EOF

• Import ~/.g/env into the shell environment configuration files (e.g. ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc...).

  $ cat >>~/.bashrc <<'EOF'
  # g shell setup
  if [ -f "${HOME}/.g/env" ]; then
      . "${HOME}/.g/env"
  fi
  EOF

• Enable environment variables.

  $ source ~/.bashrc # source ~/.zshrc

• Create a directory: mkdir ~/.g/bin

• Download the binary compressed file for Windows version from releases, and after unzipping it, put it in the ~/.g/bin directory.

• The default binary file name is g.exe, if you have already used g as an abbreviation for Git command, you can change g.exe to another name, such as gvm.exe.

• Run the command code $PROFILE, this command will open the default PowerShell configuration file using VSCode.

• Add the following content to the default PowerShell configuration file:

  $env:GOROOT="$HOME\.g\go"
  $env:Path=-join("$HOME\.g\bin;", "$env:GOROOT\bin;", "$env:Path")

• Open the PowerShell terminal again, and you can use the g or gvm command.

To query the currently available stable versions of Go for installation:

$ g ls-remote stable
  1.19.10
  1.20.5

To install a specific version of Go (e.g., 1.20.5):

$ g install 1.14.7
Downloading 100% [===============] (92/92 MB, 12 MB/s)               
Computing checksum with SHA256
Checksums matched
Now using go1.20.5

To query the list of installed Go versions:

$ g ls
  1.19.10
* 1.20.5

To list all available Go versions for installation:

$ g ls-remote
  1
  1.2.2
  1.3
  1.3.1
  ...    
  1.19.10
  1.20rc1
  1.20rc2
  1.20rc3
  1.20
  1.20.1
  1.20.2
  1.20.3
  1.20.4
* 1.20.5

To switch to another installed Go version:

$ g use 1.19.10
go version go1.19.10 darwin/arm64

To uninstall a specific installed Go version:

$ g uninstall 1.19.10
Uninstalled go1.19.10

To clear the package file cache for Go installations:

$ g clean 
Remove go1.18.10.darwin-arm64.tar.gz
Remove go1.19.10.darwin-arm64.tar.gz
Remove go1.20.5.darwin-arm64.tar.gz

To view the version information of g itself:

g version 1.5.0
build: 2023-01-01T21:01:52 08:00
branch: master
commit: cec84a3f4f927adb05018731a6f60063fd2fa216

To update g software itself:

$ g self update
You are up to date! g v1.5.0 is the latest version.

To uninstall the g software itself:

$ g self uninstall
Are you sure you want to uninstall g? (Y/n)
y
Remove /Users/voidint/.g/bin/g
Remove /Users/voidint/.g

• What is the purpose of the environment variable G_MIRROR?

  Due to the restricted access to the Golang official website in mainland China, it has become difficult to query and download go versions. Therefore, the environment variable G_MIRROR can be used to specify one or multiple mirror sites (separated by commas) from which g will query and download available go versions. The known available mirror sites are as follows:

  • Go official mirror site: https://golang.google.cn/dl/
  • Alibaba Cloud: https://mirrors.aliyun.com/golang/
  • Nanjing University: https://mirrors.nju.edu.cn/golang/
  • Huazhong University of Science and Technology: https://mirrors.hust.edu.cn/golang/
  • University of Science and Technology of China: https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/golang/

• What is the purpose of the environment variable G_EXPERIMENTAL?

  When the value of this environment variable is set to true, it enables all experimental features.

• What is the purpose of the environment variable G_HOME?

  By convention, g uses the ~/.g directory as its home directory. If you want to customize the home directory (especially for Windows users), you can use the G_HOME environment variable to switch to another directory. Since this feature is still experimental, it requires enabling the experimental feature switch G_EXPERIMENTAL=true to take effect. Please note that this solution is not perfect, which is why it is classified as an experimental feature. For more details, please refer to #18.

• On macOS, when installing a go version, g throws an error message saying [g] Installation package not found. What is the reason?

  The Go official support for ARM architecture on macOS was introduced in version 1.16. Therefore, go installation packages of version 1.15 and earlier cannot be installed on ARM-based macOS systems. If you attempt to install these versions, g will throw an error message [g] Installation package not found.

• Does g support network proxy?

  Yes, it supports network proxy. You can set the network proxy address in environment variables such as HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, http_proxy, and https_proxy.

• Which versions of Windows are supported?

  Since g relies on symbolic links, the operating system must be Windows Vista or above.

• Why doesn't g work after installing it on Windows?

  This may be because the downloaded and installed files are not added to the $Path. You need to manually add $Path to the user's environment variables. For convenience, you can run the path.ps1 PowerShell script provided in the project and then restart your computer.

• After installing a go version using g, when running the go version command, the output shows a different version than the one installed. Is this a bug?

  This is likely due to an incorrect setting of the PATH environment variable in the current shell environment (it is recommended to run which go to see the path of the go binary file). By default, the path to the go binary file should be ~/.g/go/bin/go. If it is not this path, it means that the PATH environment variable is set incorrectly.

• Does g support compiling and installing from source code?

  No, it does not support compiling and installing from source code.

Thanks to tools like nvm, n, rvm for providing valuable ideas.