How to Install Hugo in Git Bash on Windows

Let’s see how we can quickly install Hugo in Git Bash on a Windows machine.

We will follow the advanced the installation that involves installing the Hugo source code with go and building the binaries ourselves.

1. Install Golang

If we already have Golang installed, we can skip this step.

Otherwise, let’s start by installing Golang.

1. Go to the official Golang downloads page
2. Download by selecting Microsoft Windows under Featured downloads
3. Run the executable and complete the Golang Setup Wizard

2. Install Git Bash

If we already have git and Git Bash installed, we can skip this step.

Otherwise, let’s install Git Bash.

1. Go to the Git Downloads page
2. Download the Windows executable
3. Run the executable and complete the Git Setup
4. On the Select Components page, ensure the option Git Bash Here is selected

3. Setup go local environment

Let’s open up the Git Bash terminal and setup our go local environment.

cd ~/
mkdir go && cd go
mkdir bin
mkdir pkg
mkdir src && cd src
mkdir github.com

If easier, feel free to copy all this code at once using the copy button in the top right hand corner of the code block.

4. Install Hugo

We can now install Hugo into the ~/go/src/github.com directory using go install.

cd ~/go/src/github.com/
mkdir gohugoio && cd gohugoio
git clone https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo.git
cd hugo
go install

Let’s confirm our Hugo installation in the terminal.

hugo version

Git Bash should now recognize the hugo command.