Published 2025-11-02.
Time to read: 1 minutes.

This page is part of the golang collection.

Installation

Install Go.

Test the installed version:

Shell

$ go version
go version go1.24.2 linux/amd64 

Install the Go extension for Visual Studio Code:

Shell

$ code --install-extension golang.Go

Install the Delve debugger:

1. the Command Palette CTRL-SHIFT-P
2. Type Go: Install/Update Tools
3. Select dlv (Delve debugger) from the list and install it

Code Folding

Go is not automatically configured for folding in Visual Studio Code. I use the #region folding for VS Code extension to provide code folding. Add the following to the appropriate Visual Studio Code settings.json:

.vscode/settings.json fragment

"maptz.regionfolder": {
  "[go]": {
    "foldStart": "// #region [NAME]",
    "foldEnd": "// #endregion",
    "foldStartRegex": "//[\\s]*#region",
    "foldEndRegex": "//[\\s]*#endregion"
  }
}

Spaces vs. Tabs

I strongly favor spaces. I only use tabs in Makefiles because that is required. However, the official recommendation for Go is to use tabs.

😈 Fuck that. 😈

I defined a formatting rule in Visual Studio Code to convert tabs to spaces in all files with a .go filetype. The rule lives in %APPDATA%/Code/User/settings.json:

%APPDATA%/Code/User/settings.json

"[go]": {
  "editor.insertSpaces": true,
  "editor.tabSize": 2,
  "editor.defaultFormatter": "golang.go"
},

The above also defines the default formatter to use for Go source.

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