Go: "stat hello.go: no such file or directory"

Just installed Go on Mac OS X, Yosemite Version 10.10.3, as explained in the Getting Started page of the official website:

> Mac OS X package installer
>
> Download the package file, open it, and follow the prompts to install
> the Go tools. The package installs the Go distribution to
> /usr/local/go.
>
> The package should put the /usr/local/go/bin directory in your PATH
> environment variable. You may need to restart any open Terminal
> sessions for the change to take effect.

I am now in the Test your installation section, which states:

> Check that Go is installed correctly by building a simple program, as
> follows.
>
> Create a file named hello.go and put the following program in it:
>
> package main
>
> import "fmt"
>
> func main() {
> fmt.Printf("hello, world\n") }
>
> Then run it with the go tool:
>
> $ go run hello.go
> hello, world
>
> If you see the "hello, world" message then your Go installation is
> working.

So, I created a hello.go file and, since I could not (ie: did not know how to) access the /usr/local/go/bin directory, I saved it on my desktop.

Obviously, I got the following error message:

stat hello.go: no such file or directory

So, where should I save my Go files to be able to run them?

UPDATE: after some research, I stumbled upond this video, explaining how to set the GOPATH.

If I want my Go workspace to be in user/code/go, how should I write my export GOPATH= command?

if your are using docker compose up/down to build image. You need to run

docker compose build

after changes in Dockerfile.

In my case, it was as simple as right clicking the file, and then clicking 'open in integrated terminal.' Then, to run your file type 'go run filename.go'

The GOPATH and PATH environment variables

The GOPATH environment variable specifies the location of your workspace. It defaults to a directory named go inside your home directory ($HOME/go).

If you really want to change your GOPATH to something else add GOPATH to your shell/bash/zsh initialization file .bash_profile, .bashrc or .zshrc.

export GOPATH=/something-else

Add GOPATH/bin directory to your PATH environment variable so you can run Go programs anywhere.

export PATH=$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin

Following the explanation of Andrew Gerrand in Writing, building, installing, and testing Go code, I configured my Go workspace as follows:

1. Create workspace

First, since I want my Go code to be in my_user_name/code/go, I started by creating the corresponding folder:

$ cd code
$ mkdir go

2. Setup GOPATH

Then I configured the GOPATH:

$ cd
$ export GOPATH=$HOME/code/go
$ cd code/go

3. Add files to workspace

Last, I manually (through the Finder) moved my hello.go file into the workspace and ran:

$ go run hello.go

Worked like a charm.