Load package dynamically

dynamic go load runtime package

34,469

Solution 1

You might consider executing the ‘plugin’ packages at runtime, by writing out a new program (say, to a temp directory) and executing via exec.Command, something along the lines of exec.Command("go", "run", files…).Run()

You’ll see some similar code here.

Solution 2

No, Go doesn't support dynamically loaded libraries.

Your best bet is to start the plugin as its own executable and communicate with it through sockets or via stdin/stdout.

2017 update

This answer is no longer true, Go now supports plugins (for Linux and MacOS only as of June 2021)

Solution 3

There is support for this now as of go 1.8

https://golang.org/pkg/plugin/

34,469

Pepeluis

Updated on July 09, 2022

Comments

Pepeluis almost 2 years

Is it possible to load a specific package during runtime? I want to have a kind of plugins where each one has the same functions than the others but with different behaviour, and depending on the configuration file, load one or other.
Pepeluis almost 10 years

But in that way, how can I load the package for the first time without knowing which package would be used?
Pepeluis almost 10 years

Hi, thank you, it could solve my problem, and I could communicate both with zeroMQ or similar.
Pepeluis almost 10 years

The problem with init is that I don't know which package should be loaded until the config file is read. So if I can't load a package dynamically, the init way is not the solution.
zhaozhi over 9 years

I make "dynamic loading" by build several plugins independently, these plugins must support reading data from stdin, then in the main.go, I read plugin list from a config file, then use exec.Command to start each plugin (in go routine), then I can write to plugins' StdinPipe, and each plugin can read.
Petar about 9 years

"compile languages won't nor provide dynamic loading" - c/c++ are compiled languages and they do provide it through 'dlopen'. Virtually all languages provide some sort of dynamic loading except for go.
Mikhail T. almost 8 years

And now there is a dlopen-package for Go, which allows use of shared libraries. How you generate those -- and whether you can turn Go-code into a library -- are separate concerns...
user2679859 about 7 years

But still only on Linux (as of go 1.8)
OneOfOne about 7 years

Well, linux and osx.
Aaron over 6 years

It's not stable yet! The plugin support is currently incomplete, only supports Linux, and has known bugs. Please report any issues.