{"id":50,"date":"2024-08-30T21:49:50","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T14:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gotutorial.org\/?page_id=50"},"modified":"2024-08-30T22:06:49","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T15:06:49","slug":"go-live-reload-nodemon","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.gotutorial.org\/go-tutorial\/go-live-reload-nodemon\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Set Up Live Reload for Go Programs with Nodemon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Summary<\/strong>: in this tutorial, you will learn how to set up live reload for Go programs with Nodemon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When developing Go programs, you often change your code and want those changes to be reflected immediately in the running program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of manually stopping and restarting your Go program each time you make a code change, you can utilize a tool like nodemon<\/code> to automate this process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through the steps to set up live reloading for a Go program using nodemon<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 1. Install Node.js on your computer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First, visit the Node.js official website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, download and install the suitable version for your operating system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, open your terminal and verify that Node.js and npm are installed correctly by running the following commands:<\/p>\n\n\n

node -v\nnpm -v<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n\n
These commands should display the installed versions of Node.js and npm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Note that npm stands for Node Package Manager, which allows you to install Node.js modules from the NPM repository.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 2: Install Nodemon<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Nodemon is a tool that monitors your GO source files and automatically restarts the GO program when it detects changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To install Nodemon, open your terminal and install nodemon<\/code> globally using the following npm install<\/code> command:<\/p>\n\n\n
npm install -g nodemon<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n\n
The -g flag instructs the command to install nodemon globally on your computer. This means that you can access the nodemon command from any directory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 3: Creating Up Your Go Program<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Here’s the Hello, World! program<\/a>. If you haven’t created it, here’s the source code.<\/p>\n\n\n
package<\/span> main\n\nimport<\/span> \"fmt\"<\/span>\n\nfunc<\/span> main<\/span>()<\/span><\/span> {\n    fmt.Println(\"Hello, World!\"<\/span>)\n}<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> Go<\/span> (<\/span>go<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
Note that you need to store the code in the main.go file under the hello-world directory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 4: Test Live Reload<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
First, open your terminal and navigate to the hello-world directory:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second, run the following command to perform live reloads of the main.go program:<\/p>\n\n\n
nodemon<\/span> --exec<\/span> go<\/span> run<\/span> main<\/span>.go<\/span> --signal<\/span> SIGTERM<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> CSS<\/span> (<\/span>css<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
In this command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • --exec go run main.go<\/code>: This instructs nodemon<\/code> to execute the command go run main.go<\/code> whenever changes are detected.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • --signal SIGTERM<\/code>: This option instructs nodemon<\/code> to send a SIGTERM<\/code> signal to the Go process when it needs to restart. It allows the Go program to handle a graceful shutdown if necessary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    With nodemon<\/code> running, you can make code changes to your main.go<\/code> file and watch the output message. For example, you can change the message to something like Hello, Go!<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n
    fmt.Println(\"Hello, Go!\"<\/span>)<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> JavaScript<\/span> (<\/span>javascript<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
    Save the file, and you’ll see that nodemon<\/code> automatically detects the change, stops the running Go process, and starts it again with the updated code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Step 5: Create a Nodemon Configuration File (Optional)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    If you want to customize nodemon<\/code>, you can create a nodemon.json<\/code> configuration file in the root of your project with the following code:<\/p>\n\n\n
    {\n  \"watch\"<\/span>: [\"*.go\"<\/span>],\n  \"exec\"<\/span>: \"go run main.go\"<\/span>,\n  \"signal\"<\/span>: \"SIGTERM\"<\/span>,\n  \"ext\"<\/span>: \"go\"<\/span>\n}<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> JSON \/ JSON with Comments<\/span> (<\/span>json<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
    In this file:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • \"watch\": [\"*.go\"]<\/code>: watch all .go<\/code> files in the current directory.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • \"exec\": \"go run main.go\"<\/code>: execute the go run main.go<\/code> command when nodemon detects the code changes in any .go<\/code> files.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • \"signal\": \"SIGTERM\"<\/code>: The signal to send to the process when restarting.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • \"ext\": \"go\"<\/code>: File extensions for the nodemon to monitor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
      After having this file, you can simply run the nodemon<\/code> without any arguments because it’ll use the settings from nodemon.json:<\/p>\n\n\n
      nodemon<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n\n
      Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      • Use nodemon<\/code> to auto-reload your Go program whenever you make changes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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