Failing to import Go packages

DESCRIPTION.md

I've just installed Go from the package on the golang site.

When trying to build (or run) import getting an import error, but can't figure out why:

go build world2.go

This produces the error:

# world2.go:3:8: import "world": cannot find package

Running "go env" produces:

GOROOT="/usr/local/go" GOBIN="/usr/local/go/bin" GOARCH="amd64" GOCHAR="6" GOOS="darwin" GOEXE="" GOHOSTARCH="amd64" GOHOSTOS="darwin" GOTOOLDIR="/usr/local/go/pkg/tool/darwin_amd64" GOGCCFLAGS="-g -O2 -fPIC -m64 -pthread -fno-common" CGO_ENABLED="1"

This is what my file structure looks like (ala tree):

. ├── world.go └── world2.go

Any tips what I'm doing wrong or next steps?

world.go

package world

import "fmt"

func Greeting() {
	fmt.Println("Ola!")
}

world2.go

package main

import "world"

func main() {
	world.Greeting()
}

world.go has to be in directory $GOPATH/src/world and then naturally it has to be compiled.

@darkhelmet So if I'm working in $HOME/go-hello does that mean I should add that to my $GOPATH? Or do you normally add the current working directory to your GOPATH?

Right now, my $GOPATH = $HOME/.gopath (set in my .bash_profile)

Sit back and read up at http://golang.org/doc/code.html#GOPATH it is difficult to grasp at first and isn't like some other languages where you create some packages for use in the same project all at once. Anything you package up is considered to be a publicly fetch-able package, even if you don't.

So you make a 'world' package and set that in your GOPATH - something like ~/src/mystuff for stuff that isn't really public, plop all your 'world' package code in there.

Then you change your imports statement to something like:

import "mystuff/world"

Now the go tools know to search your GOPATH for this package code in the ~/src/mystuff/world folder. But it may no be compiled from that src folder yet so run:

go get mystuff/world

to have your current project to compile up the world package and be ready for linking when you are ready to

go build

Now if you wanted others to really use your world package you could publish it on somewhere public like github as import github.com/me/mystuff/world and then anyone who wanted to build your code could just go get github.com/me/mystuff/world or I think even go get all now.

One last note: in the project folder the go build command will look for package main and compile all the files that it is told to, no need to specify go build world2.go.

g'luck

Now if all you want to do is export something from a single source then just capitalize it as you had done in Greeting. If it is apart of the same package then it is visible.

package world

import "fmt"

func Greeting() {
    fmt.Println("Ola!")
}

package main

func main() {
    Greeting()
}

go build

Ola!

Oops, I meant like follows:

world.go

package main

import "fmt"

func Greeting() {
    fmt.Println("Ola!")
}

world2.go:

package main

func main() {
    Greeting()
}

Hi I got stuck with an error.
is it possible to call build.go file from other file?

I wanna call build.go file from another file

can anyone help plzz?

@dearing thank you so much for this, I have been endlessly searching for how to import a local package! So much fluff on all the other explanations. Bang on!

@aa-software2112 things have evolved since this discussion but I am happy my 7 year old comments have a net positive. Please read up on modules and vendoring and message me if you think I can help in any way.

hey , I am using atom ...but still cannot import local packages....can anyone help?