Passing parameters to function closure - go

I'm trying to understand the difference in Go between creating an anonymous function which takes a parameter, versus having that function act as a closure. Here is an example of the difference.
With parameter:
func main() {
done := make(chan bool, 1)
go func(c chan bool) {
time.Sleep(50 * time.Millisecond)
c <- true
}(done)
<-done
}
As closure:
func main() {
done := make(chan bool, 1)
go func() {
time.Sleep(50 * time.Millisecond)
done <- true
}()
<-done
}
My question is, when is the first form better than the second? Would you ever use a parameter for this kind of thing? The only time I can see the first form being useful is when returning a func(x, y) from another function.

The difference between using a closure vs using a function parameter has to do with sharing the same variable vs getting a copy of the value. Consider these two examples below.
In the Closure all function calls will use the value stored in i. This value will most likely already reach 3 before any of the goroutines has had time to print it's value.
In the Parameter example each function call will get passed a copy of the value of i when the call was made, thus giving us the result we more likely wanted:
Closure:
for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
go func() {
fmt.Println(i)
}()
}
Result:
3
3
3
Parameter:
for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
go func(v int) {
fmt.Println(v)
}(i)
}
Result:
0
1
2
Playground: http://play.golang.org/p/T5rHrIKrQv

When to use parameters
Definitely the first form is preferred if you plan to change the value of the variable which you don't want to observe in the function.
This is the typical case when the anonymous function is inside a for loop and you intend to use the loop's variables, for example:
for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
go func(i int) {
fmt.Println(i)
}(i)
}
Without passing the variable i you might observe printing 10 ten times. With passing i, you will observe numbers printed from 0 to 9.
When not to use parameters
If you don't want to change the value of the variable, it is cheaper not to pass it and thus not create another copy of it. This is especially true for large structs. Although if you later alter the code and modify the variable, you may easily forget to check its effect on the closure and get unexpected results.
Also there might be cases when you do want to observe changes made to "outer" variables, such as:
func GetRes(name string) (Res, error) {
res, err := somepack.OpenRes(name)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
closeres := true
defer func() {
if closeres {
res.Close()
}
}()
// Do other stuff
if err = otherStuff(); err != nil {
return nil, err // res will be closed
}
// Everything went well, return res, but
// res must not be closed, it will be the responsibility of the caller
closeres = false
return res, nil // res will not be closed
}
In this case the GetRes() is to open some resource. But before returning it other things have to be done which might also fail. If those fail, res must be closed and not returned. If everything goes well, res must not be closed and returned.

This is a example of parameter from net/Listen
package main
import (
"io"
"log"
"net"
)
func main() {
// Listen on TCP port 2000 on all available unicast and
// anycast IP addresses of the local system.
l, err := net.Listen("tcp", ":2000")
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
defer l.Close()
for {
// Wait for a connection.
conn, err := l.Accept()
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
// Handle the connection in a new goroutine.
// The loop then returns to accepting, so that
// multiple connections may be served concurrently.
go func(c net.Conn) {
// Echo all incoming data.
io.Copy(c, c)
// Shut down the connection.
c.Close()
}(conn)
}
}

Related

Check named return error using defer function

Hi I want to write a generic function to trace error message when a function returns error. So I wrote this:
func TraceError1(err *error) {
if err != nil && *err != nil {
pc := make([]uintptr, 15)
n := runtime.Callers(2, pc)
frames := runtime.CallersFrames(pc[:n])
frame, _ := frames.Next()
fmt.Printf("%s:%d %s\n", frame.File, frame.Line, frame.Function)
}
}
func TraceError2(err error) {
if err != nil {
pc := make([]uintptr, 15)
n := runtime.Callers(2, pc)
frames := runtime.CallersFrames(pc[:n])
frame, _ := frames.Next()
fmt.Printf("%s:%d %s\n", frame.File, frame.Line, frame.Function)
}
}
func foo() (err error) {
defer TraceError1(&err)
defer TraceError2(err)
fmt.Println("do something")
return fmt.Errorf("haha")
}
TraceError1 works but TraceError2 didn't. In my understanding, error is an interface so it is a pointer/address, why do I need to pass its address? Why TraceError2 cannot work? Thanks.
In case of TraceError1 you are passing a pointer to the named return value err. The pointer is non-nil, but the value it points at (err) is nil (at the time of defer). However, it is not yet evaluated (dereferenced) because TraceError1 has not yet been called. By the time the function does run (after foo returns) and the pointer gets dereferenced, the value of err has been updated (by the return statement inside foo).
However, in case of TraceError2, a nil interface value is passed, which will stay nil even when TraceError2 executes eventually.
Here is a simpler example:
package main
import "fmt"
func intByValue(i int) {
fmt.Printf("i = %d\n", i)
// ^--- `i` is an integer value
// --- whatever i was passed to the function, gets printed
}
func intByRef(i *int) {
var v int = *i // i is a pointer to an int, which gets dereferenced here
// the *address* where the actual value resides was passed
// while the address stays the same, its value can change before
// i is dereferenced, and its value stored in v.
fmt.Printf("i = %d\n", v)
}
func main() {
var i int
defer intByValue(i) // passed the *value* of i, which is 0 right now
defer intByRef(&i) // passed a *pointer* to i, which contains 0 right now
i = 100 // before intByRef could "dereference" its argument, the value that it
// contained has been updated
// intByRef gets called, dereferences the value, finds 100, prints it.
// intByValue gets called, finds 0, prints it
// result should be:
// i = 100
// i = 0
}
So unfortunately, if you want the ability to update the error (e.g. by returning a named return value) before it gets used by the deferred function, you are going to have to pass around pointers to the variable.
In other words, TraceError2 is simply not suited for your use case.
Edit: use correct terminology and (questionably) improve example code.
As go blog explained
The behavior of defer statements is straightforward and predictable.
There are three simple rules:
A deferred function's arguments are evaluated when the defer statement is evaluated.
Deferred function calls are executed in Last In First Out order after the surrounding function returns.
Deferred functions may read and assign to the returning function's named return values.
According to first point, when you call defer TraceError2(err) , that err = nil and that is the value pass to the TraceError2 function.
TraceError1(err *error) works because it is getting a pointer to err, and that pointer value is assigned before defer func TraceError1 is executed.
Simple example code to explain the behaviour.
package main
import (
"fmt"
"runtime"
)
func main() {
i := 0
defer func(i int) {
fmt.Printf("%d\n",i) //Output: 0
}(i)
defer func(i *int) {
defer fmt.Printf("%d\n",*i) //Output: 1
}(&i)
i++
}

Recommended way of closing redundant sql.Rows object after Go routine

I'm using Go routines to send queries to PostgreSQL master and slave nodes in parallel. The first host that returns a valid result wins. Error cases are outside the scope of this question.
The caller is the only one that cares about the contents of a *sql.Rows object, so intentionally my function doesn't do any operations on those. I use buffered channels to retrieve return objects from the Go routines, so there should be no Go routine leak. Garbage collection should take care of the rest.
There is a problem I haven't taught about properly: the Rows objects that remain behind in the channel are never closed. When I call this function from a (read only) transaction, tx.Rollback() returns an error for every instance of non-closed Rows object: "unexpected command tag SELECT".
This function is called from higher level objects:
func multiQuery(ctx context.Context, xs []executor, query string, args ...interface{}) (*sql.Rows, error) {
rc := make(chan *sql.Rows, len(xs))
ec := make(chan error, len(xs))
for _, x := range xs {
go func(x executor) {
rows, err := x.QueryContext(ctx, query, args...)
switch { // Make sure only one of them is returned
case err != nil:
ec <- err
case rows != nil:
rc <- rows
}
}(x)
}
var me MultiError
for i := 0; i < len(xs); i++ {
select {
case err := <-ec:
me.append(err)
case rows := <-rc: // Return on the first success
return rows, nil
}
}
return nil, me.check()
}
Executors can be *sql.DB, *sql.Tx or anything that complies with the interface:
type executor interface {
ExecContext(ctx context.Context, query string, args ...interface{}) (sql.Result, error)
QueryContext(ctx context.Context, query string, args ...interface{}) (*sql.Rows, error)
QueryRowContext(ctx context.Context, query string, args ...interface{}) *sql.Row
}
Rollback logic:
func (mtx MultiTx) Rollback() error {
ec := make(chan error, len(mtx))
for _, tx := range mtx {
go func(tx *Tx) {
err := tx.Rollback()
ec <- err
}(tx)
}
var me MultiError
for i := 0; i < len(mtx); i++ {
if err := <-ec; err != nil {
me.append(err)
}
}
return me.check()
}
MultiTx is a collection of open transactions on multiple nodes. It is a higher level object that calls multiQuery
What would be the best approach to "clean up" unused rows? Options I'm thinking about not doing:
Cancel the context: I believe it will work inconsistently, multiple queries might already have returned by the time cancel() is called
Create a deferred Go routine which continues to drain the channels and close the rows objects: If a DB node is slow to respond, Rollback() is still called before rows.Close()
Use a sync.WaitGroup somewhere in the MultiTx type, maybe in combination with (2): This can cause Rollback to hang if one of the nodes is unresponsive. Also, I wouldn't be sure how I would implement that.
Ignore the Rollback errors: Ignoring errors never sounds like a good idea, they are there for a reason.
What would be the recommended way of approaching this?
Edit:
As suggested by #Peter, I've tried canceling the context, but it seems this also invalidates all the returned Rows from the query. On rows.Scan I'm getting context canceled error at the higher level caller.
This is what I've done so far:
func multiQuery(ctx context.Context, xs []executor, query string, args ...interface{}) (*sql.Rows, error) {
ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(ctx)
defer cancel()
rc := make(chan *sql.Rows, len(xs))
ec := make(chan error, len(xs))
for _, x := range xs {
go func(x executor) {
rows, err := x.QueryContext(ctx, query, args...)
switch { // Make sure only one of them is returned
case err != nil:
ec <- err
case rows != nil:
rc <- rows
cancel() // Cancel on success
}
}(x)
}
var (
me MultiError
rows *sql.Rows
)
for i := 0; i < len(xs); i++ {
select {
case err := <-ec:
me.append(err)
case r := <-rc:
if rows == nil { // Only use the first rows
rows = r
} else {
r.Close() // Cleanup remaining rows, if there are any
}
}
}
if rows != nil {
return rows, nil
}
return nil, me.check()
}
Edit 2:
#Adrian mentioned:
we can't see the code that's actually using any of this.
This code is reused by type methods. First there is the transaction type. The issues in this question are appearing on the Rollback() method above.
// MultiTx holds a slice of open transactions to multiple nodes.
// All methods on this type run their sql.Tx variant in one Go routine per Node.
type MultiTx []*Tx
// QueryContext runs sql.Tx.QueryContext on the tranactions in separate Go routines.
// The first non-error result is returned immediately
// and errors from the other Nodes will be ignored.
//
// If all nodes respond with the same error, that exact error is returned as-is.
// If there is a variety of errors, they will be embedded in a MultiError return.
//
// Implements boil.ContextExecutor.
func (mtx MultiTx) QueryContext(ctx context.Context, query string, args ...interface{}) (*sql.Rows, error) {
return multiQuery(ctx, mtx2Exec(mtx), query, args...)
}
Then there is:
// MultiNode holds a slice of Nodes.
// All methods on this type run their sql.DB variant in one Go routine per Node.
type MultiNode []*Node
// QueryContext runs sql.DB.QueryContext on the Nodes in separate Go routines.
// The first non-error result is returned immediately
// and errors from the other Nodes will be ignored.
//
// If all nodes respond with the same error, that exact error is returned as-is.
// If there is a variety of errors, they will be embedded in a MultiError return.
//
// Implements boil.ContextExecutor.
func (mn MultiNode) QueryContext(ctx context.Context, query string, args ...interface{}) (*sql.Rows, error) {
return multiQuery(ctx, nodes2Exec(mn), query, args...)
}
These methods the public wrappers around the multiQuery() function. Now I realize that just sending the *Rows into a buffered channel to die, is actually a memory leak. In the transaction cases it becomes clear, as Rollback() starts to complain. But in the non-transaction variant, the *Rows inside the channel will never be garbage collected, as the driver might hold reference to it until rows.Close() is called.
I've written this package to by used by an ORM, sqlboiler. My higher level logic passes a MultiTX object to the ORM. From that point, I don't have any explicit control over the returned Rows. A simplistic approach would be that my higher level code cancels the context before Rollback(), but I don't like that:
It gives a non-intuitive API. This (idiomatic) approach would break:
ctx, cancel = context.WithCancel(context.Background())
defer cancel()
tx, _ := db.BeginTx(ctx)
defer tx.Rollback()
The ORM's interfaces also specify the regular, non-context aware Query() variants, which in my package's case will run against context.Background().
I'm starting to worry that this broken by design... Anyway, I will start by implementing a Go routine that will drain the channel and close the *Rows. After that I will see if I can implement some reasonable waiting / cancellation mechanism that won't affect the returned *Rows
I think that the function below will do what you require with the one provisio being that the context passed in should be cancelled when you are done with the results (otherwise one context.WithCancel will leak; I cannot see a way around that as cancelling it within the function will invalidate the returned sql.Rows).
Note that I have not had time to test this (would need to setup a database, implement your interfaces etc) so there may well be a bug hidden in the code (but I believe the basic algorithm is sound)
// queryResult holds the goroutine# and the result from that gorouting (need both so we can avoid cancelling the relevant context)
type queryResult struct {
no int
rows *sql.Rows
}
// multiQuery - Executes multiple queries and returns either the first to resutn a result or, if all fail, a multierror summarising the errors
// Important: This should be used for READ ONLY queries only (it is possible that more than one will complete)
// Note: The ctx passed in must be cancelled to avoid leaking a context (this routine cannot cancel the context used for the winning query)
func multiQuery(ctx context.Context, xs []executor, query string, args ...interface{}) (*sql.Rows, error) {
noOfQueries := len(xs)
rc := make(chan queryResult) // Channel for results; unbuffered because we only want one, and only one, result
ec := make(chan error) // errors get sent here - goroutines must send a result or 1 error
defer close(ec) // Ensure the error consolidation go routine will complete
// We need a way to cancel individual goroutines as we do not know which one will succeed
cancelFns := make([]context.CancelFunc, noOfQueries)
// All goroutines must terminate before we exit (otherwise the transaction maybe rolled back before they are cancelled leading to "unexpected command tag SELECT")
var wg sync.WaitGroup
wg.Add(noOfQueries)
for i, x := range xs {
var queryCtx context.Context
queryCtx, cancelFns[i] = context.WithCancel(ctx)
go func(ctx context.Context, queryNo int, x executor) {
defer wg.Done()
rows, err := x.QueryContext(ctx, query, args...)
if err != nil {
ec <- err // Error collection go routine guaranteed to run until all query goroutines complete
return
}
select {
case rc <- queryResult{queryNo, rows}:
return
case <-ctx.Done(): // If another query has already transmitted its results these should be thrown away
rows.Close() // not strictly required because closed context should tidy up
return
}
}(queryCtx, i, x)
}
// Start go routine that will send a MultiError to a channel if all queries fail
mec := make(chan MultiError)
go func() {
var me MultiError
errCount := 0
for err := range ec {
me.append(err)
errCount += 1
if errCount == noOfQueries {
mec <- me
return
}
}
}()
// Wait for one query to succeed or all queries to fail
select {
case me := <-mec:
for _, cancelFn := range cancelFns { // not strictly required so long as ctx is eventually cancelled
cancelFn()
}
wg.Wait()
return nil, me.check()
case result := <-rc:
for i, cancelFn := range cancelFns { // not strictly required so long as ctx is eventually cancelled
if i != result.no { // do not cancel the query that returned a result
cancelFn()
}
}
wg.Wait()
return result.rows, nil
}
}
Thanks to the comments from #Peter and the answer of #Brits, I got fresh ideas on how to approach this.
Blue print
3 out of 4 proposals from the question were needed to be implemented.
1. Cancel the Context
mtx.QueryContext() creates a descendant context and sets the CancelFunc in the MultiTx object.
The cancelWait() helper cancels an old context and waits for MultiTX.Done if its not nil. It is called on Rollback() and before every new query.
2. Drain the channel
In multiQuery(), Upon obtaining the first successful Rows, a Go routine is launched to drain and close the remaining Rows. The rows channel no longer needs to be buffered.
An additional Go routine and a WaitGroup is used to close the error and rows channels.
3. Return a done channel
Instead of the proposed WaitGroup, multiQuery() returns a done channel. The channel is closed once the drain & close routine has finished. mtx.QueryContext() sets done the channel on the MultiTx object.
Errors
Instead of the select block, only drain the error channel if there are now Rows. The error needs to remain buffered for this reason.
Code
// MultiTx holds a slice of open transactions to multiple nodes.
// All methods on this type run their sql.Tx variant in one Go routine per Node.
type MultiTx struct {
tx []*Tx
done chan struct{}
cancels context.CancelFunc
}
func (m *MultiTx) cancelWait() {
if m.cancel != nil {
m.cancel()
}
if m.done != nil {
<-m.done
}
// reset
m.done, m.cancel = nil, nil
}
// Context creates a child context and appends CancelFunc in MultiTx
func (m *MultiTx) context(ctx context.Context) context.Context {
m.cancelWait()
ctx, m.cancel = context.WithCancel(ctx)
return ctx
}
// QueryContext runs sql.Tx.QueryContext on the tranactions in separate Go routines.
func (m *MultiTx) QueryContext(ctx context.Context, query string, args ...interface{}) (rows *sql.Rows, err error) {
rows, m.done, err = multiQuery(m.context(ctx), mtx2Exec(m.tx), query, args...)
return rows, err
}
func (m *MultiTx) Rollback() error {
m.cancelWait()
ec := make(chan error, len(m.tx))
for _, tx := range m.tx {
go func(tx *Tx) {
err := tx.Rollback()
ec <- err
}(tx)
}
var me MultiError
for i := 0; i < len(m.tx); i++ {
if err := <-ec; err != nil {
me.append(err)
}
}
return me.check()
}
func multiQuery(ctx context.Context, xs []executor, query string, args ...interface{}) (*sql.Rows, chan struct{}, error) {
rc := make(chan *sql.Rows)
ec := make(chan error, len(xs))
var wg sync.WaitGroup
wg.Add(len(xs))
for _, x := range xs {
go func(x executor) {
rows, err := x.QueryContext(ctx, query, args...)
switch { // Make sure only one of them is returned
case err != nil:
ec <- err
case rows != nil:
rc <- rows
}
wg.Done()
}(x)
}
// Close channels when all query routines completed
go func() {
wg.Wait()
close(ec)
close(rc)
}()
rows, ok := <-rc
if ok { // ok will be false if channel closed before any rows
done := make(chan struct{}) // Done signals the caller that all remaining rows are properly closed
go func() {
for rows := range rc { // Drain channel and close unused Rows
rows.Close()
}
close(done)
}()
return rows, done, nil
}
// no rows, build error return
var me MultiError
for err := range ec {
me.append(err)
}
return nil, nil, me.check()
}
Edit: Cancel & wait for old contexts before every Query, as *sql.Tx is not Go routine save, all previous queries have to be done before a next call.

Wait result of multiple goroutines

I am searching a way to execute asynchronously two functions in go which returns different results and errors, wait for them to finish and print both results. Also if one of function returned error I do not want to wait for another function, and just print the error.
For example, I have this functions:
func methodInt(error bool) (int, error) {
<-time.NewTimer(time.Millisecond * 100).C
if error {
return 0, errors.New("Some error")
} else {
return 1, nil
}
}
func methodString(error bool) (string, error) {
<-time.NewTimer(time.Millisecond * 120).C
if error {
return "", errors.New("Some error")
} else {
return "Some result", nil
}
}
Here https://play.golang.org/p/-8StYapmlg is how I implemented it, but it has too much code I think. It can be simplified by using interface{} but I don't want to go this way. I want something simpler as, for example, can be implemented in C# with async/await. Probably there is some library that simplifies such operation.
UPDATE: Thank for your responses! It is awesome how fast I got help! I like the usage of WaitGroup. It obviously makes the code more robust to changes, so I easily can add another async method without changing exact count of methods in the end. However, there is still so much code in comparison to same in C#. I know that in go I don't need to explicitly mark methods as async, making them actually to return tasks, but methods call looks much more simple, for example, consider this link actually catching exception is also needed
By the way, I found that in my task I actually don't need to know returning type of the functions I want to run async because it will be anyway marshaled to json, and now I just call multiple services in the endpoint layer of go-kit.
You should create two channels for errors and results, then first read errors if no erorrs then read the results, this sample should works for your use case:
package main
import (
"errors"
"sync"
)
func test(i int) (int, error) {
if i > 2 {
return 0, errors.New("test error")
}
return i + 5, nil
}
func test2(i int) (int, error) {
if i > 3 {
return 0, errors.New("test2 error")
}
return i + 7, nil
}
func main() {
results := make(chan int, 2)
errors := make(chan error, 2)
var wg sync.WaitGroup
wg.Add(1)
go func() {
defer wg.Done()
result, err := test(3)
if err != nil {
errors <- err
return
}
results <- result
}()
wg.Add(1)
go func() {
defer wg.Done()
result, err := test2(3)
if err != nil {
errors <- err
return
}
results <- result
}()
// here we wait in other goroutine to all jobs done and close the channels
go func() {
wg.Wait()
close(results)
close(errors)
}()
for err := range errors {
// here error happend u could exit your caller function
println(err.Error())
return
}
for res := range results {
println("--------- ", res, " ------------")
}
}
I think here sync.WaitGroup can be used. It can waits for different and dynamic number of goroutines.
I have created a smaller, self-contained example of how you can have two go routines run asynchronously and wait for both to finish or quit the program if an error occurs (see below for an explanation):
package main
import (
"errors"
"fmt"
"math/rand"
"time"
)
func main() {
rand.Seed(time.Now().UnixNano())
// buffer the channel so the async go routines can exit right after sending
// their error
status := make(chan error, 2)
go func(c chan<- error) {
if rand.Intn(2) == 0 {
c <- errors.New("func 1 error")
} else {
fmt.Println("func 1 done")
c <- nil
}
}(status)
go func(c chan<- error) {
if rand.Intn(2) == 0 {
c <- errors.New("func 2 error")
} else {
fmt.Println("func 2 done")
c <- nil
}
}(status)
for i := 0; i < 2; i++ {
if err := <-status; err != nil {
fmt.Println("error encountered:", err)
break
}
}
}
What I do is create a channel that is used for synchronization of the two go routines. Writing to and reading from it blocks. The channel is used to pass the error value around, or nil if the function succeeds.
At the end I read one value per async go routine from the channel. This blocks until a value is received. If an error occurs, I exit the loop, thus quitting the program.
The functions either succeed or fail randomly.
I hope this gets you going on how to coordinate go routines, if not, let me know in the comments.
Note that if you run this in the Go Playground, the rand.Seed will do nothing, the playground always has the same "random" numbers, so the behavior will not change.

How does golang defer work in cycles? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Proper way to release resources with defer in a loop?
(3 answers)
Closed 11 months ago.
I'm trying to handle reconnections to MongoDB. To do this I try to perform every operation three times (in case it fails with io.EOF)
type MongoDB struct {
session *mgo.Session
DB *mgo.Database
}
func (d MongoDB) performWithReconnect(collection string,
operation func(*mgo.Collection) error) error {
var err error
for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
session := d.session.Copy()
defer session.Close()
err = operation(session.DB(Config.MongoDb).C(collection))
if err == io.EOF{
continue
}
if err == nil{
return err
}
}
return err
}
So the question is about defer. Will it close all sessions as I suppose or it is going to behave some other way?
If you know some good practices to handle this different way I will be happy to read them.
Consider the following program
package main
import (
"fmt"
)
func print(s string, i int) {
fmt.Println(s, i)
}
func main() {
for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
defer print("loop", i)
}
fmt.Println("after loop 1")
for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
func(i int) {
defer print("func", i)
}(i)
}
fmt.Println("after loop 2")
}
It will print
after loop 1
func 0
func 1
func 2
after loop 2
loop 2
loop 1
loop 0
The deferred function calls will be put on stack and then executed in a reverse order at the end of surrounding function. In your case it will be quite bad as you will have connections waiting to be closed.
I recommend wrapping the contents of loop into an inline function. It will call deferred function just as you want it.
From A Tour of Go:
A defer statement defers the execution of a function until the surrounding function returns.
So in your code, you're creating three (identical) defer functions, which will all run when the function exits.
If you need a defer to run inside of a loop, you have to put it inside of a function. This can be done in an anonymous function thusly:
for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
err := func() error {
session := d.session.Copy()
defer session.Close()
return operation(session.DB(Config.MongoDb).C(collection))
}()
if err == io.EOF {
continue
}
if err != nil {
return err
}
}

Data passed by reference to "defer"

There is a passage in the "Mastering Concurrency in Go" book which made me think I might be missing something about "defer" functions.
You should also take note that any data passed by reference may be in an unexpected state.
func main() {
aValue := new(int)
defer fmt.Println(*aValue)
for i := 0; i < 100; i++ {
*aValue++
}
}
This prints 0, I thought, because according to spec:
Each time a "defer" statement executes, the function value and parameters to the call are evaluated as usual and saved anew
That is, *aValue is 0 when defer is called and that's why at the end it prints 0. Whether or not a pointer is passed to the differ function in this case is irrelevant.
Is my understanding correct or am I missing something?
Consider a situation using structs.
type User struct {
Name string
}
func main() {
user := User{}
defer fmt.Printf("%#v\n", user)
user.Name = "AJ"
}
You know defer should run at the end, so you might expect to see User{Name: "AJ"} but instead you get User{Name: ""} because defer binds parameters.
If you use a pointer it works.
user := &User{}
If you use a closure, it works.
defer func() {
fmt.Printf("%#v\n", user)
}()
The defer statement is "evaluating" the parameters and saving the result, and the result of evaluating *aValue is 0 at the time of the defer call. Something like this may be what you're looking for:
func main() {
aValue := new(int)
defer func() { fmt.Println(*aValue) }()
for i := 0; i < 100; i++ {
*aValue++
}
}

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