gv

gv is a simple Go version manager implemented as a standalone shell script.

gv is designed to be used as a Go wrapper. When used this way gv will automatically resolve, install, and delegate to the correct version of Go when invoked as go or gofmt. This allows gv to seamlessly integrate with existing tools which call out to go.

gv supports three symbolic versions: "system", "stable", and "unstable". The system version acts as the default version for all commands. It itself defaults to "stable", but can be configured otherwise via gv -S <version>. The stable and unstable releases correspond to the releases found on https://golang.org/dl/ and can be updated via gv -u and gv -U respectively.

Other features,

Project / directory specific versions via .goversion files.
Version override via the $GOVERSION environment variable.
Install and upgrade stable, unstable, and development (gotip) versions of Go.

Installation

Download gv, mark it executable, and place it somewhere in $PATH,

# Replace ~/bin with your bin directory of choice
curl -fsLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/c2nes/gv/master/gv && chmod +x gv && mv gv ~/bin

If you plan to use gv as a wrapper, then create go and gofmt symlinks as well,

# Replace ~/bin with your bin directory of choice
ln -sv ~/bin/gv ~/bin/go
ln -sv ~/bin/gv ~/bin/gofmt

⚠️ Warning: Make there are no other copies of go / gofmt in your $PATH. If there are, remove them or ensure the copies pointing to gv come first.

Usage

For basic usage simply use go and gofmt as usual. The latest stable Go release will be installed as the system default,

$ go version
Downloading go1.15.8.linux-amd64.tar.gz ...
################################################################ 100.0%
Unpacking go1.15.8.linux-amd64.tar.gz ...
go version go1.15.8 linux/amd64

$ go version
go version go1.15.8 linux/amd64

Upgrade Go

Use gv -u and gv -U to upgrade the "stable" and "unstable" releases respectively,

$ gv -u
Downloading go1.15.8.linux-amd64.tar.gz ...
################################################################ 100.0%
Unpacking go1.15.8.linux-amd64.tar.gz ...
$ ~/sdk/stable/bin/go version
go version go1.15.8 linux/amd64
$ gv -U
Downloading go1.16rc1.linux-amd64.tar.gz ...
################################################################ 100.0%
Unpacking go1.16rc1.linux-amd64.tar.gz ...
$ ~/sdk/unstable/bin/go version
go version go1.16rc1 linux/amd64

Set project/directory version

$ gv -s unstable
$ go version
go version go1.16rc1 linux/amd64
$ cat .goversion
unstable
$ gv -s go1.14
$ go version
go version go1.14 linux/amd64

Set system version

$ gv -S unstable
$ go version
go version go1.16rc1 linux/amd64
$ readlink ~/sdk/system
unstable
$ gv -s go1.14
$ readlink ~/sdk/system
go1.14

Install a specific version

$ gv -i go1.15.3
Downloading go1.15.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz ...
################################################################ 100.0%
Unpacking go1.15.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz ...
$ ~/sdk/go1.15.3/bin/go version
go version go1.15.3 linux/amd64

Use a version-specific wrapper

$ go1.15.3 version
go version go1.15.3 linux/amd64

Check the configured version

The current version,

$ go version
go version go1.15.8 linux/amd64

The unstable version,

$ GOVERSION=unstable go version
go version go1.16rc1 linux/amd64

The system (i.e. default) version,

$ GOVERSION=system go version
go version go1.15.8 linux/amd64

Install the development version of Go

$ gv -i gotip
Cloning into '/home/chris/sdk/gotip'...
remote: Counting objects: 10336, done
remote: Finding sources: 100% (10336/10336)
remote: Total 10336 (delta 1335), reused 6667 (delta 1335)
Receiving objects: 100% (10336/10336), 24.24 MiB | 1.21 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (1335/1335), done.
Updating files: 100% (9480/9480), done.
Updating the go development tree...
From https://go.googlesource.com/go
 * branch            master     -> FETCH_HEAD
HEAD is now at 33d72fd doc/faq: update generics entry to reflect accepted proposal
Building Go cmd/dist using /home/chris/sdk/go1.15.8. (go1.15.8 /amd64)
Building Go toolchain1 using /home/chris/sdk/go1.15.8.
Building Go bootstrap cmd/go (go_bootstrap) using Go toolchain1.
Building Go toolchain2 using go_bootstrap and Go toolchain1.
Building Go toolchain3 using go_bootstrap and Go toolchain2.
Building packages and commands for linux/amd64.
---
Installed Go for linux/amd64 in /home/chris/sdk/gotip
Installed commands in /home/chris/sdk/gotip/bin
Success. You may now run 'gotip'!
$ GOVERSION=gotip go version  # or "gotip version"
go version devel +33d72fd Mon Feb 15 01:54:22 2021 +0000 linux/amd64

Show `gv` help

$ gv -h
usage: gv [-uUisSh]
   or: gv -c cmd [arguments]
   or: go|gv <command> [arguments]
   or: gofmt [flags] [path ...]

gv is a Go version manager and wrapper

  -u
        Install or upgrade the stable release
  -U
        Install or upgrade the unstable release
  -i version
        Install the specified version (e.g. "go1.15.6", "gotip", etc)
  -s version
        Set (and install) the Go version for the current directory (i.e. update .goversion)
  -S version
        Set (and install) the system Go version (i.e. update ~/sdk/system symlink)
  -l
        List versions available to be installed
  -c cmd
        Run the given command instead of delegating based on $0
  -h
        Show this usage information

c2nes/gv

gv