go install always attempts to use GOROOT and GOPATH is not listed under go env

Question

I'm having a quite frustrating problem with the `GOPATH`, which, despite being set in `.profile`, is not appearing when invoking `go env`, and does not appear to be affecting the `go install` target location. I'm attempting to use `go install` to install packages, and am getting this error, which clearly shows that it is attempting to install in `/usr/lib/go`, rather than the intended directory of `/home/me/dev/go`. ``` $ go install github.com/songgao/colorgo go install github.com/songgao/go.pipeline: mkdir /usr/lib/go/pkg/linux_386/github.com: permission denied ``` `go env` gives the following results. ``` $ go env GOROOT="/usr/lib/go" GOBIN="" GOARCH="386" GOCHAR="8" GOOS="linux" GOEXE="" GOHOSTARCH="386" GOHOSTOS="linux" GOTOOLDIR="/usr/lib/go/pkg/tool/linux_386" GOGCCFLAGS="-g -O2 -fPIC -m32 -pthread" CGO_ENABLED="1" ``` But it most certainly is set. ``` $ echo $GOPATH /home/me/dev/go ``` Update: I have exported GOPATH in `~/.profile` and sourced it, but I'm still having the same…

Accepted Answer

`GOPATH` and workspaces

```
$ mkdir -p $HOME/dev/go/src
$ mkdir -p $HOME/dev/go/bin
```

In `$HOME/.profile`:

```
export GOPATH=$HOME/dev/go:
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/dev/go/bin
```

Then reboot or log out and log in.

As soon as you have logged in, before anything else, run:

```
$ env | grep -i '^GO'
GOPATH=/home/me/dev/go
$ cat $HOME/.profile
```

What output do you get?

go install always attempts to use GOROOT and GOPATH is not listed under go env

Solution

Problem