Why Does `go get` Fail with 'cannot download, $GOPATH not set'?

Error Handling: "cannot download, $GOPATH not set"

When attempting to install a package using go get, such as github.com/jehiah/json2csv, you may encounter the error:

package github.com/jehiah/json2csv: cannot download, $GOPATH not set. For more details see: go help go path

This error indicates that the $GOPATH environment variable is not set. The purpose of $GOPATH is to define the location of your Go workspace, which includes source code, packages, and built binaries. Without it, Go cannot locate necessary resources for package installation.

Solution:

To resolve this issue, you need to set the $GOPATH environment variable. Here's how to do it on macOS:

Set $GOPATH in the Terminal:

export GOPATH="$HOME/your-workspace-dir/"

Replace your-workspace-dir with the path to the directory where you want to create your Go workspace. To make this change permanent, add it to your .bashrc file.

Example: ~/.bashrc`:

export GOPATH="$HOME/go-workspace/"
export PATH="$PATH:$GOPATH/bin"

Setting $PATH ensures that binaries installed under $GOPATH/bin are accessible in your terminal. Additionally, you can set CDPATH to quickly change directories to package directories in bash:

Example:

export CDPATH=.:$GOPATH/src/github.com:$GOPATH/src/golang.org/x

Alternative Method:

If you want to store your Go workspace directly under your home directory, you can set $GOPATH to $HOME. However, this approach may not be ideal if you use multiple workspaces or have specific requirements for locating Go resources.

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