Let’s Gopher

Important

This code repository is used as an example project for the training "Go project automation". It’s not intended for real-world use. For a full-fledged Go project generator have a look at this repository.

Let’s Gopher is a simple, yet flexible project generator for Go. The tool uses templates available in the directory ~/.lets-gopher/templates. Users can create templates manually by creating directories and files as desired. Templates hosted on Git repositories can be downloaded and added to the template directory.

This project is based on Go Modules. Please enable Go Modules by setting the environment variable export GO111MODULES=on.

Installing a template

The project doesn’t come with any templates out-of-the-box. You need to install them yourself. The tool will report missing templates in the console output.

go run main.go
2019/01/17 13:30:20 No templates found!

Templates can only be installed from a Git URL. To install a template, run the install command with the --url parameter. The tool will clone the repository.

go run main.go install --url="https://github.com/bmuschko/go-helloworld-template.git"
2019/01/17 13:32:21 Cloning template from repository https://github.com/bmuschko/go-helloworld-template.git

Subsequent install operations pull the latest change from the originating repository.

go run main.go install --url="https://github.com/bmuschko/go-helloworld-template.git"
2019/01/17 13:32:25 Pulling latest changes for existing template in /Users/bmuschko/.lets-gopher/templates/go-helloworld-template

Alternatively, you can just create a new directory under ~/.lets-gopher/templates and populate it with files.

Generating projects from a template

You can generate a new project from the template if at least one template can be found. The files of a selected template will be written to $GOPATH/src/<base-path>.

go run main.go
? What template would you like to use to generate a project?  [Use arrows to move, type to filter]
❯ go-helloworld-template
You choose "go-helloworld-template"
? What base path would like to use? github.com/bmuschko/helloworld
You choose "github.com/bmuschko/helloworld"
Generating project in "/Users/bmuschko/go/src/github.com/bmuschko/helloworld"

Configuring default conventions

You might get tired of having to spell out certain default values. For example, you’ll likely want to use the same domain whenever you generate a new project. The tool can be configured in the file ~/.lets-gopher/.lets-gopher.yml.

domain: github.com/bmuschko

Configured default values are consumed as applicable but can still be reconfigured.

go run main.go
? What template would you like to use to generate a project?  [Use arrows to move, type to filter]
❯ go-helloworld-template
You choose "go-helloworld-template"
? What base path would like to use? (github.com/bmuschko/go-helloworld-template)
You choose "github.com/bmuschko/go-helloworld-template"
Generating project in "/Users/bmuschko/go/src/github.com/bmuschko/go-helloworld-template"