cannot download, $GOPATH not set

Question

I want to install json2csv using go get github.com/jehiah/json2csv but I receive this error:

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

Any help on how to fix this on MacOS?

Answer 1

Just do export GOPATH="/whatever/you/like/your/GOPATH/to/be".

Answer 2

You can use the "export" solution just like what other guys have suggested. I'd like to provide you with another solution for permanent convenience: you can use any path as GOPATH when running Go commands.

Firstly, you need to download a small tool named gost : https://github.com/byte16/gost/releases . If you use ubuntu, you can download the linux version(https://github.com/byte16/gost/releases/download/v0.1.0/gost_linux_amd64.tar.gz).

Then you need to run the commands below to unpack it :

$ cd /path/to/your/download/directory 
$ tar -xvf gost_linux_amd64.tar.gz

You would get an executable gost. You can move it to /usr/local/bin for convenient use:

$ sudo mv gost /usr/local/bin

Run the command below to add the path you want to use as GOPATH into the pathspace gost maintains. It is required to give the path a name which you would use later.

$ gost add foo /home/foobar/bar     # 'foo' is the name and '/home/foobar/bar' is the path

Run any Go command you want in the format:

gost goCommand [-p {pathName}] -- [goFlags...] [goArgs...]

For example, you want to run go get github.com/go-sql-driver/mysql with /home/foobar/bar as the GOPATH, just do it as below:

$ gost get -p foo -- github.com/go-sql-driver/mysql  # 'foo' is the name you give to the path above.

It would help you to set the GOPATH and run the command. But remember that you have added the path into gost's pathspace. If you are under any level of subdirectories of /home/foobar/bar, you can even just run the command below which would do the same thing for short :

$ gost get -- github.com/go-sql-driver/mysql

gost is a Simple Tool of Go which can help you to manage GOPATHs and run Go commands. For more details about how to use it to run other Go commands, you can just run gost help goCmdName. For example you want to know more about install, just type words below in:

$ gost help install

You can also find more details in the README of the project: https://github.com/byte16/gost/blob/master/README.md