Go Package context

External

• https://pkg.go.dev/context

Internal

• Go Modularization
• Go Concurrency

Overview

One of the key differences between Go and other language is explicit context propagation. Context propagation is a mechanism of propagating an additional call argument, called context, into function calls. There is actually a type called context.Context.

The context is used for:

• Cancellation logic. You can pass a special instance of a context that can get canceled. In that case, all functions you were to call with it would be able to detect this. Can be useful for handling application shutdown or stopping any processing.
• Timeouts. Timeouts can be set for execution, by using the corresponding context functions.
• Propagating extra metadata. Additional key/value pairs can be propagate inside the context. Useful in distributed tracing. This feature should be used sparingly, in exceptional cases.

The context is immutable, but it can be cloned with extra metadata.

Function using context should accept it as their first argument.

Concepts

Context

type Context interface {
	// Deadline returns the time when work done on behalf of this context
	// should be canceled. Deadline returns ok==false when no deadline is
	// set. Successive calls to Deadline return the same results.
	Deadline() (deadline time.Time, ok bool)

	// Done returns a channel that's closed when work done on behalf of this
	// context should be canceled. Done may return nil if this context can
	// never be canceled. Successive calls to Done return the same value.
	// The close of the Done channel may happen asynchronously,
	// after the cancel function returns.
	//
	// WithCancel arranges for Done to be closed when cancel is called;
	// WithDeadline arranges for Done to be closed when the deadline
	// expires; WithTimeout arranges for Done to be closed when the timeout
	// elapses.
	//
	// Done is provided for use in select statements:
	//
	//  // Stream generates values with DoSomething and sends them to out
	//  // until DoSomething returns an error or ctx.Done is closed.
	//  func Stream(ctx context.Context, out chan<- Value) error {
	//  	for {
	//  		v, err := DoSomething(ctx)
	//  		if err != nil {
	//  			return err
	//  		}
	//  		select {
	//  		case <-ctx.Done():
	//  			return ctx.Err()
	//  		case out <- v:
	//  		}
	//  	}
	//  }
	//
	// See https://blog.golang.org/pipelines for more examples of how to use
	// a Done channel for cancellation.
	Done() <-chan struct{}

	// If Done is not yet closed, Err returns nil.
	// If Done is closed, Err returns a non-nil error explaining why:
	// Canceled if the context was canceled
	// or DeadlineExceeded if the context's deadline passed.
	// After Err returns a non-nil error, successive calls to Err return the same error.
	Err() error

	// Value returns the value associated with this context for key, or nil
	// if no value is associated with key. Successive calls to Value with
	// the same key returns the same result.
	//
	// Use context values only for request-scoped data that transits
	// processes and API boundaries, not for passing optional parameters to
	// functions.
	//
	// A key identifies a specific value in a Context. Functions that wish
	// to store values in Context typically allocate a key in a global
	// variable then use that key as the argument to context.WithValue and
	// Context.Value. A key can be any type that supports equality;
	// packages should define keys as an unexported type to avoid
	// collisions.
	//
	// Packages that define a Context key should provide type-safe accessors
	// for the values stored using that key:
	//
	// 	// Package user defines a User type that's stored in Contexts.
	// 	package user
	//
	// 	import "context"
	//
	// 	// User is the type of value stored in the Contexts.
	// 	type User struct {...}
	//
	// 	// key is an unexported type for keys defined in this package.
	// 	// This prevents collisions with keys defined in other packages.
	// 	type key int
	//
	// 	// userKey is the key for user.User values in Contexts. It is
	// 	// unexported; clients use user.NewContext and user.FromContext
	// 	// instead of using this key directly.
	// 	var userKey key
	//
	// 	// NewContext returns a new Context that carries value u.
	// 	func NewContext(ctx context.Context, u *User) context.Context {
	// 		return context.WithValue(ctx, userKey, u)
	// 	}
	//
	// 	// FromContext returns the User value stored in ctx, if any.
	// 	func FromContext(ctx context.Context) (*User, bool) {
	// 		u, ok := ctx.Value(userKey).(*User)
	// 		return u, ok
	// 	}
	Value(key any) any
}

Context is concurrent-safe, its methods may be called by multiple goroutines simultaneously.

TODO

• https://go.dev/blog/context

Manage goroutines lifecycles.

If you have a component that blocks for any reason (disk, network IO, user), then it should probably take the context as a first parameter.

type reportStore interface {
  listTimes(ctx context.Context, ...) (..., error)
  writeFile(ctx context.Context, ...) error
  serveFile(ctx context.Context, ...) error
}

Using the value propagation feature of the Context is dubious. Don't use Context.value for stuff that should be regular dependencies between components. Use Context.value for data that can be passed to your program in any other way: only data that is request-scoped, stuff that is created at the beginning of a request lifecycle, like request ID, etc. If the information is available when the program starts or at any point prior to when the request starts, do not use context.value. This is the case for database handles, loggers, etc.

• https://go.dev/blog/context
• All functions performing I/O operations must accept context. Why? https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/microservices-with-go/9781804617007/B18865_02.xhtml#:-:text=all%20functions%20performing
• What is with the _ context.Context https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/microservices-with-go/9781804617007/B18865_02.xhtml#:-:text=(_%20context.Context