How can I efficiently download a large file using Go? - go

Question

Is there a way to download a large file using Go that will store the content directly into a file instead of storing it all in memory before writing it to a file? Because the file is so big, storing it all in memory before writing it to a file is going to use up all the memory.

Answer 1

I'll assume you mean download via http (error checks omitted for brevity):
import ("net/http"; "io"; "os")
...
out, err := os.Create("output.txt")
defer out.Close()
...
resp, err := http.Get("http://example.com/")
defer resp.Body.Close()
...
n, err := io.Copy(out, resp.Body)
The http.Response's Body is a Reader, so you can use any functions that take a Reader, to, e.g. read a chunk at a time rather than all at once. In this specific case, io.Copy() does the gruntwork for you.

Answer 2

A more descriptive version of Steve M's answer.
import (
"os"
"net/http"
"io"
)
func downloadFile(filepath string, url string) (err error) {
// Create the file
out, err := os.Create(filepath)
if err != nil {
return err
}
defer out.Close()
// Get the data
resp, err := http.Get(url)
if err != nil {
return err
}
defer resp.Body.Close()
// Check server response
if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
return fmt.Errorf("bad status: %s", resp.Status)
}
// Writer the body to file
_, err = io.Copy(out, resp.Body)
if err != nil {
return err
}
return nil
}

Answer 3

The answer selected above using io.Copy is exactly what you need, but if you are interested in additional features like resuming broken downloads, auto-naming files, checksum validation or monitoring progress of multiple downloads, checkout the grab package.

Answer 4

Here is a sample. https://github.com/thbar/golang-playground/blob/master/download-files.go
Also I give u some codes might help you.
code:
func HTTPDownload(uri string) ([]byte, error) {
fmt.Printf("HTTPDownload From: %s.\n", uri)
res, err := http.Get(uri)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
defer res.Body.Close()
d, err := ioutil.ReadAll(res.Body)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Printf("ReadFile: Size of download: %d\n", len(d))
return d, err
}
func WriteFile(dst string, d []byte) error {
fmt.Printf("WriteFile: Size of download: %d\n", len(d))
err := ioutil.WriteFile(dst, d, 0444)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
return err
}
func DownloadToFile(uri string, dst string) {
fmt.Printf("DownloadToFile From: %s.\n", uri)
if d, err := HTTPDownload(uri); err == nil {
fmt.Printf("downloaded %s.\n", uri)
if WriteFile(dst, d) == nil {
fmt.Printf("saved %s as %s\n", uri, dst)
}
}
}