Removing packages installed with go get

I ran go get package to download a package before learning that I needed to set my GOPATH otherwise that package sullies my root Go install (I would much prefer to keep my Go install clean and separate core from custom). How do I remove packages installed previously?

Solution 1:

It's safe to just delete the source directory and compiled package file. Find the source directory under $GOPATH/src and the package file under $GOPATH/pkg/<architecture>, for example: $GOPATH/pkg/windows_amd64.

Solution 2:

You can delete the archive files and executable binaries that go install (or go get) produces for a package with go clean -i importpath.... These normally reside under $GOPATH/pkg and $GOPATH/bin, respectively.

Be sure to include ... on the importpath, since it appears that, if a package includes an executable, go clean -i will only remove that and not archive files for subpackages, like gore/gocode in the example below.

Source code then needs to be removed manually from $GOPATH/src.

go clean has an -n flag for a dry run that prints what will be run without executing it, so you can be certain (see go help clean). It also has a tempting -r flag to recursively clean dependencies, which you probably don't want to actually use since you'll see from a dry run that it will delete lots of standard library archive files!

A complete example, which you could base a script on if you like:

$ go get -u github.com/motemen/gore

$ which gore
/Users/ches/src/go/bin/gore

$ go clean -i -n github.com/motemen/gore...
cd /Users/ches/src/go/src/github.com/motemen/gore
rm -f gore gore.exe gore.test gore.test.exe commands commands.exe commands_test commands_test.exe complete complete.exe complete_test complete_test.exe debug debug.exe helpers_test helpers_test.exe liner liner.exe log log.exe main main.exe node node.exe node_test node_test.exe quickfix quickfix.exe session_test session_test.exe terminal_unix terminal_unix.exe terminal_windows terminal_windows.exe utils utils.exe
rm -f /Users/ches/src/go/bin/gore
cd /Users/ches/src/go/src/github.com/motemen/gore/gocode
rm -f gocode.test gocode.test.exe
rm -f /Users/ches/src/go/pkg/darwin_amd64/github.com/motemen/gore/gocode.a

$ go clean -i github.com/motemen/gore...

$ which gore

$ tree $GOPATH/pkg/darwin_amd64/github.com/motemen/gore
/Users/ches/src/go/pkg/darwin_amd64/github.com/motemen/gore

0 directories, 0 files

# If that empty directory really bugs you...
$ rmdir $GOPATH/pkg/darwin_amd64/github.com/motemen/gore

$ rm -rf $GOPATH/src/github.com/motemen/gore

Note that this information is based on the go tool in Go version 1.5.1.