Live Reload with air in Go
Live reloading is a development technique that automatically rebuilds and restarts your application whenever changes are made to the source code. In Go, you can achieve live reloading using the air tool.
Installation
First, you need to install the air tool using go get:
go get -u github.com/cosmtrek/air
Configuration (Optional)
You can create a configuration file named air.toml in your project directory to customize air's behavior. Here's a sample air.toml file:
[build]
bin = "your-app-name"
cmd = "go build -o your-app-name"
[run]
port = 8080
watch = ["."]
[live_reload]
enable = true
port = 8080
extensions = ["go", "tmpl", "tpl", "html"]
delay = 1000
Adjust the settings according to your project structure and preferences.
Usage
Navigate to your project directory and run air:
air
This will start air using the configuration from air.toml, if available. Otherwise, it will use default settings.
Benefits
By using air, you can streamline your development workflow in Go by eliminating the need to manually stop and restart your application whenever you make changes. This can greatly improve productivity and iteration speed.
Troubleshooting
If you encounter any issues, ensure that air is installed properly and your Go binaries directory is included in your system's PATH environment variable.
Conclusion
Live reloading with air in Go is a powerful tool for speeding up development and improving productivity. By automatically rebuilding and restarting your application, you can focus more on writing code and less on managing the development server.