GOPATH

The GOPATH environment variable is a fundamental part of writing Go code without Go modules. It specifies the location of your workspace, and it defaults to $HOME/go. A GOPATH directory contains src, bin, and pkg directories. Your code is typically located in the $GOPATH/src directory.

If you are not familiar with Go and GOPATH, please first read about writing Go code with GOPATH.

If you are just starting out with Go, we recommend using Go modules instead of GOPATH.

Overview

Check the value of GOPATH

First, it’s useful to quickly check that you are using the right GOPATH. Two commands report the GOPATH value used by the VS Code Go extension: (1) Go: Current GOPATH, or (2) Go: Locate Configured Go Tools. Use either of these commands to check which GOPATH the extension is using.

If the GOPATH value is incorrect, see the details below on how to configure it.

Setting GOPATH

If you have chosen not to use Go modules, you will need to configure your GOPATH.

Setting GOPATH is typically as simple as setting the environment variable once in your system’s configuration. Take a look at the Setting GOPATH Wiki if you’re unsure how to do this.

By default, the extension uses the value of the environment variable GOPATH. If no such environment variable is set, the extension runs go env and uses the GOPATH reported by the go command.

Note that, much like a PATH variable, GOPATH can contain multiple directory paths, separated by : or ;. This allows you to set different GOPATHs for different projects.

Still, there are a number of cases in which you might want a more complicated GOPATH set-up. Below, we explain more complex ways to configure and manage your GOPATH within the VS Code Go extension.

Different GOPATHs for different projects

Setting go.gopath in your user settings overrides the environment’s GOPATH value.

Workspace settings override user settings, so you can use the go.gopath setting to set different GOPATHs for different projects. A GOPATH can also contain multiple directories, so this setting is not necessary to achieve this behavior.

Automatically inferring your GOPATH

NOTE: This feature only works in GOPATH mode, not in module mode.

The go.inferGopath setting overrides the go.gopath setting. If you set go.inferGopath to true, the extension will try to infer your GOPATH based on the workspace opened in VS Code. This is done by searching for a src directory in your workspace. The parent of this src directory is then added to your global GOPATH (go env GOPATH).

For example, say your global GOPATH is $HOME/go, but you are working in a repository with the following structure.

  1. foo/
  2. └── bar
  3.     └── src
  4.         └── main.go

If you open the foo directory as your workspace root in VS Code, "go.inferGopath" will set your GOPATH to $HOME/go:/path/to/foo/bar.

This setting is useful because it allows you to avoid setting the GOPATH in the workspace settings of each of your projects.

Install tools to a separate GOBIN

If you switch frequently between GOPATHs, you may find that the extension prompts you to install tools for every GOPATH. You can resolve this by making sure your tool installations are on your PATH, or you can configure a separate directory for tool installation: GOBIN. This environment variable tells the go command where to install all binaries. Configure it by setting:

  1. "go.toolsEnvVars": {
  2.     "GOBIN": "path/to/gobin"
  3. }

Install tools to a separate GOPATH

NOTE: The following is only relevant if you are using a Go version that does not support Go modules, that is, any version of Go before 1.11.

Before Go 1.11, the go get command installed tools and their source code to your GOPATH. Because this extension uses a lot of different tools, this causes clutter in your GOPATH. If you wish to reduce this clutter, you can have the extension install tools to a different location. This also addresses the issue described above, when switching GOPATHs forces you to reinstall Go tools.

This can be done by setting "go.toolsGopath" to an alternate path, only for tool installations. After you configure this setting, be sure to run the Go: Install/Update Tools command so that the Go tools get installed to the provided location.

The extension will fall back to your existing GOPATH if tools are not found in the go.toolsGopath directory.