Note: deprecated in favor of https://github.com/Mitranim/gow since Go 1.11.

Overview

Minimal CLI tool for Go development. Can:

• run an entire Go package with a single command, without go build
• optionally watch and rerun on file changes

Works on MacOS, should work on Linux. Pull requests for Windows are welcome.

Why

• one command to build and run
• easy to remember
• can watch and rerun

The Go team has rejected multiple proposals to add directory support to go run: [1][2]. One has finally been accepted: [3], but is not part of a stable Go release at the time of writing.

Why not existing runners

Existing runners, like realize, tend to:

• have an earth-shattering amount of bells and whistles
• have verbose logging you can't disable
• have unnecessary delays in the file watcher
• use CPU constantly
• require config files
• put garbage in the working directory
• mess with file paths in error reports
• have thousands of lines of code, so you can't fix them yourself

gorun doesn't.

Installation

go get -u github.com/Mitranim/gorun

This will automatically compile the executable. Make sure $GOPATH/bin is in your $PATH so the shell can discover it. For example, my ~/.profile contains this:

export GOPATH=~/go
export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH/bin

Usage

# Run current directory
gorun .

# Run subdirectory
gorun ./src/go

# Specify process name
gorun -n=my-app .

# Watch and rerun
gorun -w .

# Any additional arguments are passed to the program
gorun . arg0 arg1 arg2 ...

# Usage info
gorun -h

Changelog

2018-06-28

Now ignores non-.go files when watching, regardless of the watch pattern.

2018-06-15

Now uses go install when possible, falling back on go build.

When gorun uses go build and is stopped with ^C or by closing a terminal tab, it immediately deletes its temporary directory with the binary.

After updating gorun, delete any leftover directories:

find $TMPDIR -name "gorun-*" -delete

Verbose log now includes build duration.

TODO

Consider stopping the child process with SIGINT to allow cleanup; don't forget a timeout.

Alternatives

For general purpose file watching, consider these excellent tools:

• https://github.com/emcrisostomo/fswatch
• https://github.com/mattgreen/watchexec

Differences:

• gorun builds and runs a Go directory, which can be fiddly and awkward otherwise.
• Most general-purpose watchers don't support killing and restarting the child process; watchexec is one of the few exceptions.
• For Go, remembering how to invoke gorun is much easier.

License

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WTFPL

Misc

I'm receptive to suggestions. If this tool almost satisfies you but needs changes, open an issue or chat me up. Contacts: https://mitranim.com/#contacts