autoreload

README

autoreload

This tool provides the functionality to automatically reload a go application upon source code changes.

About

There are two parts to getting autoreload to work:

1. autoreload (inside docker or your code, for example)

   autoreload works with your code. It's responsible for rebuilding your binary whenever it receives data (what's in the data is irrelevant, it just needs to be something) through the reset port (default: 12345).

2. watcher (should be run outside docker/your application, on your machine for example)

   The watcher.sh script watches for .go file changes in the project directory, telling the server to restart whenever a change is detected. Runs nc/netcat command to send data to the reset port, which informs autoreload to rebuild

   If you're running with Docker: This should be run outside the docker container, because file system events are not properly detected inside the boot2docker VM: https://github.com/boot2docker/boot2docker/issues/688

• watcher.sh will continue to watch the file system and contact the reset port in a loop until cancelled.

• autoreload will continue to listen on the reset port and rebuild the binary whenever contacted in a loop until cancelled.

---

Requirements

Golang

Currently tested on golang 1.4 and golang 1.5, but presumably works on other versions

nc/netcat

File system watchers

• For Macs, fswatch is required to run watcher.sh.
• For other systems, anything that can watch the file system and send a packet to port 12345 will work.

Required Ports

Port 12345 must be open for watcher.sh to communicate with autoreload.

Port 9000 must be open if you're running the godocs server.

If you're running Docker, see here for how to open ports between Docker and host.

---

How it works

1. Install autoreload

   go get github.com/graciouseloise/autoreload
   

2. Set up your application autoreload

   cd app/your-go-app
   $GOPATH/bin/autoreload
   

3. Run the watcher

   ./watcher.sh
   

4. Change some of your source code and watch as the binary is reloaded

---

Get Help

$GOPATH/bin/autoreload --help

usage: autoreload [<flags>]

Autoreload functionality

Flags:
      --help              Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man).
  -d, --godocs            Run godocs server
  -c, --command=serve     Command arguments for running
      --build=./binary    Target file to build to and run
      --file=main.go      File name to build against
  -r, --reset-port=12345  Port to listen for reset signal

---

Examples

You can combine any of the below flags

To run with a local godocs server (default: False)

$GOPATH/bin/autoreload -d

To specify the filename of the binary being built (default: ./binary)

$GOPATH/bin/autoreload --build=./my-app

To specify the file to build against (default: No filename)

$GOPATH/bin/autoreload --file=main.go

To run with command line arguments for your application (default: None)

$GOPATH/bin/autoreload -c run

To run with custom reset port (default: 12345)

$GOPATH/bin/autoreload -r 12346

You'll need to run the watcher with a the same port

./watcher.sh 12346