How can I compile a Go program?

Question

I got Go to compile:

0 known bugs; 0 unexpected bugs

and typed in the "hello world":

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
  fmt.Printf("Hello, 世界\n")
}

Then I tried to compile it, but it wouldn't go:

$ 8c gotest2
gotest2:1 not a function
gotest2:1 syntax error, last name: main

This is going on on Ubuntu Linux on Pentium. Go installed and passed its tests. So where did I go wrong? Can someone tell me where to go from here?

I also tried this program:

package main

import fmt "fmt"  // Package implementing formatted I/O.


func main() {
    fmt.Printf("Hello, world; or Καλημέρα κόσμε; or こんにちは 世界\n");
}

But this was also no go _{(must stop making go puns)}:

$ 8c gotest3.go
gotest3.go:1 not a function
gotest3.go:1 syntax error, last name: main

Answer 1

You're using 8c, which is the c compiler. 8g will compile go, and 8l will link.

Answer 2

For Go 1.0+ the correct build command is now: go build

Answer 3

(Update for Go1.0.x)

The section "Compile packages and dependencies" now list go build as the way to compile in go.
You still call 8g behind the scene, and the parameters you could pass to 8g are now passed with -gcflags.

-gcflags 'arg list'

arguments to pass on each 5g, 6g, or 8g compiler invocation