How to change ~/.cache directory during the Go build process

Question

Go build touches ~/.cache which is undesirable.

How can I change the location of this directory?

Answer 1

The cache defaults to the operating system-defined user cache directory but can be moved by setting $GOCACHE.

Source: article from rsc

Answer 2

From the official documentation :

Build and test caching

The go command caches build outputs for reuse in future builds. The default location for cache data is a subdirectory named go-build in the standard user cache directory for the current operating system. Setting the GOCACHE environment variable overrides this default, and running 'go env GOCACHE' prints the current cache directory.

Note that the aforementioned go env GOCACHE command can be used to make sure that GOCACHE points to a desirable location before eg: building with go build . Example:

$ go env GOCACHE
/home/user/.cache/go-build
$ GOCACHE=/foo/bar
$ export GOCACHE
$ go env GOCACHE
/foo/bar