I'm new to Go (but not at programming), I love the language but I have a bit of trouble fully understanding the way I'm supposed to make internal libraries in an application through packages. For reference, getting external packages and then importing/using them is fine.
Let's say I'm making an application A.
/home/me/A/a.go (package main)
Then, I realize a.go start to be rather big, so I cut it into two parts
/home/me/A/a.go (package main)
/home/me/A/b.go (package main)
How am I supposed to import/include b.go from a.go to make its function available ?
As a continuation of the question, in the A I'm manipulation lots of objects O, so I figure it would be a lot better if I just give them their own package and encapsulate the functionalities in a public/exported api. How do I do that ?
I've tried creating ./lib/o.go (package o) and import lib/o but I keep getting error like
./a.go:6: imported and not used: "o"
./a.go:43: undefined: o
I have no GOPATH in my env but I tried export GOPATH=$GOPATH:/home/me/A and it didn't change the result.
I've tried to read the article on "go layout" but it felt a bit too overwhelming at once and I would really love a simpler explanation of that one "small" step I am trying to make
Thanks !
GOPATH/src/me/a/a.go:
package main
func main() {
test()
}
GOPATH/src/me/a/test.go:
package main
import "fmt"
func test() {
fmt.Println("test func !")
}
Exec:
$ go run a.go
# command-line-arguments
./a.go:4: undefined: test
EDIT: got my answer here: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/golang-nuts/qysy2bM_o1I
Either list all files in go run (go run a.go test.go) or use go build and run the resulting executable.
You're trying to use the Go build system while not following the necessaary required directory layouts. You will benefit a lot from reading this document.
In short, these are, wrt the go tool, the show stoppers:
You must have a valid, exported GOPATH
Package files with import path "example/foo" must be located in the $GOPATH/src/example/foo directory.
For more details please see the above linked article.
Related
I'm learning Go so I'm writing some basic utils and libraries for fun that I can reuse in other modules.
When importing them inside another module (using go get for example), I can use them just fine.
As I understand, Go will look for a package main and a main function to know the entrypoint when trying to run a go app/module.
The thing is that the libraries are not in "package main", not in main.go and have no main function, so how am I supposed to use the cli and use go run . to test the behavior of my function?
Do I absolutely need to create another module with a main.go file inside a package main?
Or do I need to create a test file and use go test ?
Thank you!
Non-main packages (i.e., library packages) are not runnable.
To run the code in them, you must either run a main package that imports and runs their code, or write test functions in _test.go files to run the code. Note that test files are not just for unit tests; you can write whatever you want in them, and they can often be easier than creating a new main package for testing.
Modern IDEs now will allow you to easily run individual tests in debugging mode, so you can step through your code and see if it's working how you expect. If you prefer print debugging and doing everything from the command-line, you can still run an individual test and see the print output like this:
// something_test.go
package mylibrary
func TestSomeFunction(t *testing.T) {
SomeFunction()
}
go test mylibrary -v -run TestSomeFunction
go test is the preferred way to test Go code.
If you do not want to use go test for some reason, then use build constraints and the go run command to execute a main program from the same directory as your package.
Here's an example program with a build constraint. Place the file in the same directory as the package source files. The comment //go:build ignore is a build constraint that excludes the file from the package sources.
//go:build ignore
package main
import (
"your/package/import/path" // <-- modify to your path
"fmt"
)
func main() {
// do something with your package here.
fmt.Println("example")
}
Assuming that the above file is named program.go, run the program from the package directory with the command:
go run program.go
The go run command is OK for running toy or test programs like this. Prefer the go build command for anything else.
I am confused about how to layout my Go project and then how to build it. I am reasonably new to Go and believe there was a time <1.13 where the GOPATH was important. I am using 1.14, so I believe I do not have to care about that and GOPATH is not set. I do not (for the moment) host my code on GitHub (which is something various articles assume). I have read a number of things, but it all leaves me more confused:
https://golang.org/cmd/go/#hdr-Compile_packages_and_dependencies
https://www.wolfe.id.au/2020/03/10/starting-a-go-project/
https://talks.golang.org/2014/organizeio.slide#1
I have laid out my project according to this: https://github.com/golang-standards/project-layout. (Except this project seems to use a Makefile. I do not want to write a Makefile. I believe this should all work without a Makefile. I really do not want to write a Makefile.)
Here is the structure:
/src
/cmd
main.go
/internal
helper.go
go.mod
go.mod looks like this:
module mycompany/mymodule
go 1.14
service.go looks as follows
package main // this has to be called 'main'
import (
"mycompany/mymodule/internal/helper"
)
func main () {
helper.greet("Jenny")
}
So, if I am in /src and I run build cmd/service.go I get
cmd/service.go:4:2: package mycompany/mymodule/internal/helper is not in GOROOT (/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.14.5/libexec/src/mycompany/mymodule/internal/helper)
Do I have to compile helper.go first? Manually? Surely not. go build surely should be able to build my entire project, right? Including all the dependencies. Could someone please tell me what I am missing?
When you run go build without specifying file path, it will look for the main function inside any .go files at current directory to start. It doesn't build entire project. But it wouldn't be a problem in this case.
You're importing wrong package. The package name to import must be mycompany/mymodule/internal not mycompany/mymodule/internal/helper.
And to invoke a function inside another package, it must be exposed to outside.
So you have to declare the function greet() as Greet()
I have 2 possibly related issues.
I have a test monorepo setup, with 2 subdirectories (mod1 and mod2).
Each one of them has a go.mod file in them, and each of the modules has a single .go file with basic printing code. in mod2 there is a subdirectory mod2_lib (that holds one of those simple .go files with basic printing code), since I read that Go modules are basically their own little GOPATH's.
Id like to call function Run() thats in a package mod2/mod2_lib from mod1, but all Im getting is build github.com/account_name/test/mod1: cannot find module for path github.com/account_name/test/mod2/mod2_lib.
here are the files Im using to figure this out:
mod1/t.go
package main
import (
"fmt"
"github.com/account_name/test/mod2/mod2_lib"
)
func main() {
fmt.Println("mod1")
mod2_lib.Run()
}
mod2/mod2_lib/t_lib.go
package mod2_lib
import "fmt"
func Run() {
fmt.Println("RUNS")
}
the second issue is that in this monorepo I'd like to have related Python and Rust code in top-level dirs py and rust. So I'd like to place all my Go packages in the go/src dir. How would other people import this go/src path into their project (possibly still having the "github.com/account_name/test/mod2/mod2_lib" as the import path, and not "github.com/account_name/test/go/src/mod2/mod2_lib")?
can anyone give me some pointers on these issues? I want to move to using Golang modules, and abandon the GOPATH.
the issue was that it was a private github.com repo. making it public fixed it! :) have to figure out authentication now for the module system.
I have 2 go files:
/Users/username/go/src/Test/src/main/Test.go
package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
fmt.Printf(SomeVar)
}
and file /Users/username/go/src/Test/src/main/someFile.go
package main
const SomeVar = "someFile"
However I am constantly getting compiler error:
/Users/username/go/src/Test/src/main/Test.go:6: undefined: SomeVar
Can someone explain to me why is SomeVar labeled as undefined?
Try
go run Test.go someFile.go
Quote:
I think you're misunderstanding how the go tool works. You can do "go
build" in a directory, and it'll build the whole package (a package is
defined as all .go files in a directory). Same for go install, go
test, etc. Go run is the only one that requires you to specify
specific files... it's really only meant to be used on very small
programs, which generally only need a single file.
So do:
go build && ./program_name
See also
You code is correct:
someFile.go and Test.go belong to the same package (main)
SomeVar is a const declared at top level, so it has a package block scope, namely the main package block scope
as a consequence, SomeVar is visible and can be accessed in both files
(if you need to review scoping in Go, please refer to the Language Specification - Declarations and Scope).
Why do you get an undefined error then?
You probably launched go build Test.go or go run Test.go, both producing the following output, if launched from /Users/username/go/src/Test/src/main:
# command-line-arguments
./Test.go:6: undefined: SomeVar
You can find the reason here: Command go
If you launch go build or go run with a list of .go files, it treats them as a list of source files specifying a single package, i.e., it thinks there are no other pieces of code in the main package, hence the error.
The solution is including all the required .go files:
go build Test.go someFile.go
go run Test.go someFile.go
go build will also work with no arguments, building all the files it finds in the package as a result:
go build
Note 1: the above commands refer to the local package and, as such, must be launched from the /Users/username/go/src/Test/src/main directory
Note 2: though other answers already proposed valid solutions, I decided to add a few more details here to help the community, since this is a common question when you start working with Go :)
Due to landing on this page when I had a similar question, I'll include this answer alongside of what has already been stated. If you are using go run you may use:
go run . or go run .*
This question was also answered on this question
How to run all .go files within current directory through the command line (multi file package)
I'm playing with Google Go and I'm having fun (!), but I'm having some problems with package subsystem.
I'm running Go 1.0.1 on Mac OS X Lion. I've build also various single file programs without problems (I've also build a small webapp using html/templates without problems and it compiles and runs without any error).
I've defined a "reusable" package (even.go):
package even
func Even(i int) bool {
return i % 2 == 0
}
func Odd(i int) bool {
return i % 2 == 1
}
and a consumer program (useeven.go):
package main
import (
"./even"
"fmt"
)
func main() {
a := 5
b := 6
fmt.Printf("%d is even %v?\n", a, even.Even(a))
fmt.Printf("%d is odd %v?\n", b, even.Odd(b))
}
But when I compile the "library" using
go build even.go
I got nothing... No errors, no message... What happens?
How should I do this?
The answer to your question, "How should I do this?" is explained in How to Write Go Code. It's really pretty important stuff and worth taking a look at.
The behavior of go build might seem puzzling, but is actually conventional for command line programs--no output means that the program ran successfully. So what did it do? For that your answer is in go help build
... Otherwise build compiles the packages but discards the results,
serving only as a check that the packages can be built.
What, you wanted more? Of course. "How to Write Go Code" explains good ways of doing this. For a quick fix to your program, I'll explain that the go command expects each package and each executable program to be in a separate directory. If you just make a directory called even, immediately under the location of useeven.go, and move even.go to it, then go run useeven.go should run just as you have it.
go build only generates an output file when it builds a "single main package". If you want to output a file for your other package you should use go install. That will build and install that package to your pkgs directory.
As noted in a comment by the OP, go build and go run useeven.go work fine, once you put even.go in its own folder: ./even/even.go. There is a bit of Go magic in the ./ (in the import) that makes the "local package" build automatically without requiring it to be installed anywhere.
useeven/
├── even
│ └── even.go
└── useeven.go
If you wanted to make this work without the magic ./, then the library need to be installed. A quick-and-dirty way (at the risk of polluting your library namespace) of making this work for your project is to simply register the library's source location by using a symbolic link like so (in this example GOPATH is ~/go):
[ useeven ]
$ ln -s $(pwd)/even ~/go/src
Now when you build the program, it automatically performs a go get even to install an up-to-date version of your library.
Note that this doesn't make go install* work for the library, it just makes doing that unnecessary.
There are more idiomatic ways of doing this, if you're not in a hurry: How to import local packages in go?
The reason that output is not being generated here is because you're running the
go build even.go
command on the package and not the main go file. Doing so on the package will check for errors on the package, but because it's not a main with an output, no success messages will be generated. If there are issues with the package's contents, errors will be displayed, otherwise if it compiles fine there will be no output
Instead, you should run:
go build useeven.go
To create the binary, then to execute the binary and get output from the program:
./useeven