Is there anyway to close client request in golang/gin? - go

Using gin framework.
Is there anyway to notify client to close request connection, then server handler can do any back-ground jobs without letting the clients to wait on the connection?
func Test(c *gin.Context) {
c.String(200, "ok")
// close client request, then do some jobs, for example sync data with remote server.
//
}

Yes, you can do that. By simply returning from the handler. And the background job you want to do, you should put that on a new goroutine.
Note that the connection and/or request may be put back into a pool, but that is irrelevant, the client will see that serving the request ended. You achieve what you want.
Something like this:
func Test(c *gin.Context) {
c.String(200, "ok")
// By returning from this function, response will be sent to the client
// and the connection to the client will be closed
// Started goroutine will live on, of course:
go func() {
// This function will continue to execute...
}()
}
Also see: Goroutine execution inside an http handler

Related

Using `Context` to implement timeout

Assuming that I have a function that sends web requests to an API endpoint, I would like to add a timeout to the client so that if the call is taking too long, the operation breaks either by returning an error or panicing the current thread.
Another assumption is that, the client function (the function that sends web requests) comes from a library and it has been implemented in a synchronous way.
Let's have a look at the client function's signature:
func Send(params map[string]string) (*http.Response, error)
I would like to write a wrapper around this function to add a timeout mechanism. To do that, I can do:
func SendWithTimeout(ctx context.Context, params map[string]string) (*http.Response, error) {
completed := make(chan bool)
go func() {
res, err := Send(params)
_ = res
_ = err
completed <- true
}()
for {
select {
case <-ctx.Done():
{
return nil, errors.New("Cancelled")
}
case <-completed:
{
return nil, nil // just to test how this method works
}
}
}
}
Now when I call the new function and pass a cancellable context, I successfully get a cancellation error, but the goroutine that is running the original Send function keeps on running to the end.
Since, the function makes an API call meaning that establishing socket/TCP connections are actually involved in the background, it is not a good practice to leave a long-running API behind the scene.
Is there any standard way to interrupt the original Send function when the context.Done() is hit?
This is a "poor" design choice to add context support to an existing API / implementation that did not support it earlier. Context support should be added to the existing Send() implementation that uses it / monitors it, renaming it to SendWithTimeout(), and provide a new Send() function that takes no context, and calls SendWithTimeout() with context.TODO() or context.Background().
For example if your Send() function makes an outgoing HTTP call, that may be achieved by using http.NewRequest() followed by Client.Do(). In the new, context-aware version use http.NewRequestWithContext().
If you have a Send() function which you cannot change, then you're "out of luck". The function itself has to support the context or cancellation. You can't abort it from the outside.
See related:
Terminating function execution if a context is cancelled
Is it possible to cancel unfinished goroutines?
Stopping running function using context timeout in Golang
cancel a blocking operation in Go

gRPC Unary Call Connection State Check on Server

I have an unary gRPC call that can take up to few minute to be processed on my Go gRPC server (involves human agent on the mobile APP). I would like to know if there is a way to check if the connection has been terminated on the client side before sending the response.
I found the solution for ServerStreaming case with Context Status.Done channel, but it does not work for my Unary RPC.
Below is the signature of the function where the control should be made:
func (*Server) EndpointName(ctx context.Context, in *pb.EndpointRequest) (*pb.EndpointResponse, error) {
As per the function definition shown in your question, the endpoint function is passed a context (ctx context.Context). If the connection drops the context will be cancelled.
For example I can modify the helloworld example so that it simulates a long running job:
func (s *server) SayHello(ctx context.Context, in *pb.HelloRequest) (*pb.HelloReply, error) {
select {
case <-ctx.Done():
fmt.Println("Context is done:", ctx.Err())
return nil, status.Error(codes.Canceled, "does not matter as nothing will ever get this anyway...")
case <-time.After(time.Minute):
// This simulates a long-running process. In reality the process itself should be checking the context
}
return &pb.HelloReply{}, nil
}
To test this I altered greeter_client to call the function and then panic() whilst waiting for the response; the server outputs:
2022/08/08 08:16:57 server listening at [::]:50051
Context is done: context canceled

How to hook a channel into a websocket goroutine?

Golang guidelines say that the goroutine that opens and writes to a channel should close it, but then how do I hook it into a websocket (like gorilla/websocket) handler goroutine?
func (server *Server) websocketUpgrade(responseWriter http.ResponseWriter, request *http.Request) {
// handle the request
connection, err := server.websocketUpgrader.Upgrade(responseWriter, request, responseHeaders)
defer connection.Close()
// now I need a channel that the server will write to
// so that the server can send messages to the client
// but it can not be created here because the server has to control it (write to it and close it)
for message := range messageChannel {
connection.WriteMessage(websocket.BinaryMessage, message)
}
}
What are the best practices to handle situations like this where I have no direct access to the goroutine that I need to assign a message channel for?

How to create server for persistent stream (aka pubsub) in Golang GRPC

I am building service that needs to send events to all subscribed consumers in Pub/Sub manner eg. send one event to all currently connected clients.
I am using Protobuf for that with the following proto definition:
service EventsService {
rpc ListenForEvents (AgentProcess) returns (stream Event) {}
}
Both server & client are written in Go.
My problem is that when client initiates connection then the stream it is not long-lived, eg. when server returns from ListenForEvents method:
func (e EventsService) ListenForEvents(process *pb.AgentProcess, listener pb.EventsService_ListenForEventsServer) error {
//persist listener here so it can be used later when backend needs to send some messages to client
return nil
}
then the client almost instantly gets EOF error which means that server probably closed connection.
What do I do so that the client is subscribed for a long time to the server? The main problem is that I might not have anything to send to the client when it calls ListenForEvents method on the server, this is why I want this stream to be long lived to be able to send messages later.
The stream terminates when you return from the server function. Instead, you should receive events somehow, and send them to the client without returning from your server. There are probably many ways you can do this. Below is the sketch of one way of doing it.
This relies on the server connection running on a separate goroutine. There is a Broadcast() function that will send messages to all connected clients. It looks like this:
var allRegisteredClients map[*pb.AgentProcess]chan Message
var clientsLock sync.RWMutex{}
func Broadcast(msg Message) {
clientsLock.RLock()
for _,x:=range allRegisteredClients {
x<-msg
}
clientsLock.RUnlock()
}
Then, your clients have to register themselves, and process messages:
func (e EventsService) ListenForEvents(process *pb.AgentProcess, listener pb.EventsService_ListenForEventsServer) error {
clientsLock.Lock()
ch:=make(chan Message)
allRegisteredClients[process]=ch
clientsLock.Unlock()
for msg:=range ch {
// send message
// Deal with errors
// Deal with client terminations
}
clientsLock.Lock()
delete(allRegisteredClients,process)
clientsLock.Unlock()
}
As I said, this is only a sketch of the idea.
I have managed to nail it down.
Basically I never return from method ListenForEvents.
It creates channel, persists in global-like map of subscribed clients and keeps reading from that channel indefinitely.
The whole implementation of server logic:
func (e EventsService) ListenForEvents(process *pb.AgentProcess, listener pb.EventsService_ListenForEventsServer) error {
chans, exists := e.listeners[process.Hostname]
chanForThisClient := make(chan *pb.Event)
if !exists {
e.listeners[process.Hostname] = []chan *pb.Event{chanForThisClient}
} else {
e.listeners[process.Hostname] = append(chans, chanForThisClient)
}
for {
select {
case <-listener.Context().Done():
return nil
case res := <-chanForThisClient:
_ = listener.Send(res)
}
}
return nil
}
You need to provide keepalive settings for grpc client and server
See details here https://github.com/grpc/grpc/blob/master/doc/keepalive.md
Examples https://github.com/grpc/grpc-go/tree/master/examples/features/keepalive

context.Err() on complete

I am making multiple RPC calls to my server where the handler looks like:
func (h *handler) GetData(ctx context.Context, request Payload) (*Data, error) {
go func(ctx context.Context) {
for {
test := 0
select {
case <-ctx.Done():
if ctx.Err() == context.Canceled {
log.Info(ctx.Err())
test = 1
break
}
}
if test == 1 {
break
}
}
}(ctx)
data := fetchData(request)
return data, nil
}
the fetchData API takes around 5 seconds to get data and reply back to my service. Meanwhile if the client requests again, then I abort the old request and fire a new request. The abort is not visible on context object.
Rather ctx.Err() shows a value of context.Canceled even when the calls are not cancelled and end gracefully with expected data.
I am new to Go and don't understand how exactly context manages Cancels, timeout and completion.
Some insight on the behaviour will be helpful.
From the docs (emphasize mine):
For incoming server requests, the context is canceled when the client's connection closes, the request is canceled (with HTTP/2), or when the ServeHTTP method returns.
In other words, cancellation does not necessarly mean that the client aborted the request.
Contexts that can be canceled must be canceled eventually, and the HTTP server takes care of that:
Canceling this context releases resources associated with it, so code should call cancel as soon as the operations running in this Context complete.
What you observe works as intended.

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