System: Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora. Might work for others as well.
As mentioned here, to update a go version you will first need to uninstall the original version.
To uninstall, delete the /usr/local/go
directory by:
$ sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go
Go to the downloads page and download the binary release suitable for your system.
To extract the archive file:
$ sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf /home/nikhita/Downloads/go1.8.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz
$ echo $PATH | grep "/usr/local/go/bin"
If you are facing
-bash: /usr/local/go/bin/go: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error
error, please make sure that you are installing with correct OS version of go binary file.rm-rf /usr/local/go/bin/go
for older versiontar -C /usr/local -xzf go
again