goupdate

goupdate

goupdate is a cross-platform command-line tool for managing Go installations. It allows you to quickly install, update, or switch between different Go versions on Linux, macOS, and Windows. The tool downloads the specified version from the official Go releases, removes any existing installation, extracts the new version, and verifies it. It also automatically updates your PATH configuration if needed.

Installation

go install github.com/goozt/goupdate@latest

Install manually

If Go is not installed, download a binary from Releases. It can install Go even if no prior Go installation exists.

Usage

goupdate 1.26      # Installs the latest patch release of 1.26 (e.g. 1.26.1)
goupdate 1.25      # Installs the latest patch release of 1.25 (e.g. 1.25.8)
goupdate 1.25.1    # Installs the exact version 1.25.1

goupdate clean     # Remove all downloaded Go archives from cache
goupdate version   # Display the version of goupdate
goupdate uninstall # Uninstall the current Go installation

PATH management

After installation, goupdate checks whether the Go binary directory and $GOPATH/bin are in your PATH and adds them automatically if not:

• Linux / macOS — appends export PATH=... entries to ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, and/or ~/.profile (whichever exist). Restart your shell or source the config file to apply.
• Windows — updates the user-level Path environment variable via PowerShell. Open a new terminal to apply.

Privileges

Installing Go requires write access to the system install directory.

• Linux / macOS — run goupdate as a normal user; it will prompt for sudo access automatically. You can also run it as root directly.
• Windows — no elevated privileges are required; the tool writes to C:\go directly.

Troubleshooting

Linux / macOS: sudo goupdate reports command not found

sudo searches a restricted set of paths (/usr/local/sbin, /usr/local/bin, etc.) but go install places binaries in $GOPATH/bin. You do not need to call sudo goupdate directly — running goupdate as a normal user will prompt for sudo access automatically. If you still want to call it with sudo, create a symlink:

sudo ln -s $GOPATH/bin/goupdate /usr/local/bin/goupdate

License

MIT