Go Develop WSL2

How to develop Golang in WSL2

Reasons

Recently, I have been working on a project that requires Golang development, and I found that developing Golang on Windows is… well, pathetic.

Initially, I tried to use go on Windows; the compilation speed was so slow. When a colleague used a Mac, which compiled in 2 seconds, mine took about half a minute or more; then, I wrote a Dockerfile to copy files to WSL and build the image with the Linux runtime, but it was not convenient to debug.

So, here comes the solution: using WSL2 to develop Golang.

Prerequisites

WSL2 installed, please refer to this for installation guide

Install Gvm

Before installing Golang, we need to install gvm (Go Version Manager) first

Install required packages

sudo apt update
sudo apt install curl git mercurial make binutils bison gcc build-essential -y

Install gvm

bash < <(curl -s -S -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/moovweb/gvm/master/binscripts/gvm-installer)

After installation, check the available versions

gvm listall

Output:

gvm gos (available)

    go1
    go1.0.1
    .
    .
    .
    go1.22rc2
    go1.22.0
    go1.22.1
    release.r56
    release.r57

Install your version (recommended to install version grander than 1.18 for integration with dlv and gopls)
```
gvm install go1.22.1 --binary
```
Set the default version
```
gvm use go1.22.1 --default
```

Install Golang Tools

Install dlv for debugging

go install github.com/go-delve/delve/cmd/dlv@latest

Windows VSCode Integration

Install WSL extension in VSCode
Install Go extension in VSCode

Add settings to F1 -> Preference: Open User Settings (JSON)

{
  "go.useLanguageServer": true,
  "terminal.integrated.shellArgs.linux": ["-l"],
  "code-runner.saveAllFilesBeforeRun": true,
  "code-runner.ignoreSelection": true,
  "code-runner.runInTerminal": true
}

Create a Hello World Project

WSL

Clone go-training/hello-world in WSL2

cd ~
mkdir repos
cd repos
git clone https://github.com/go-training/helloworld

Windows

Open the project by VSCode in Windows and command with F1 -> WSL: Connect to WSL (or click the bottom left corner of the VSCode)
Run command F1 -> File: Open Folder... to ~/repos/helloworld in VSCode
go mod init
```
go mod init main.go
go mod tidy 
```

.vscode/launch.json

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Launch",
            "type": "go",
            "request": "launch",
            "mode": "auto",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "env": {},
            "args": []
        }
    ]
}

Run the project by F5

Starting: /home/<username>/.gvm/pkgsets/go1.22.1/global/bin/dlv dap --listen=127.0.0.1:43847 --log-dest=3 from /home/<username>/repos/helloworld
DAP server listening at: 127.0.0.1:43847
Type 'dlv help' for list of commands.
Hello World!!
Process 28762 has exited with status 0
Detaching
dlv dap (28549) exited with code: 0

Congratulations! You are now able to develop Golang in WSL2 with VSCode.

Copy the SSH key from Windows to WSL2

cp /mnt/c/Users/<username>/.ssh/* ~/.ssh/

Change the permission of the key
```
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
```

Add the key to the ssh-agent

sudo apt install keychain
eval `keychain --eval --agents ssh id_ed25519`

Using SSH instead of HTTPS

By default, go get uses HTTPS when cloning a repository, it will be a issue if we have repo references with SSH, when company’s policy is to use SSH for security reasons.
Add the following configuration to ~/.gitconfig to use SSH instead of HTTPS
```
[url "ssh://git@github.com/"]
  insteadOf = https://github.com/
```