Run a .go file under Apache from source by 'compiling on the fly'

I'm able to run a Go application as a website with Apache using the following code.

hello.go:

package main

import (
	"os"
)

func main() {
	os.Stdout.WriteString("Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8\n\n")
	os.Stdout.WriteString("Hello!\n")
}

.htaccess:

AddHandler cgi-script .exe

I compile the app using go build hello.go and going to http://localhost/hello.exe works as expected.

But now I have to recompile after every change I make in the sourcecode.

Is it somehow possible to tell Apache to run hello.go (Apache should run go run hello.go) when visiting http://localhost/hello.go?

By the way, this is only to speed development, not for production!

Go is a compiled language, you'd need to compile it first. There currently aren't any interpreters/VM's for Go.

You're best bet is to just have a process/cron job that checks for the .go file being newer than the binary, and rebuilding it when it notices the file changed.

https://github.com/howeyc/fsnotify is a package that allows you to watch files for changes.

You could use gorun which enables you to put a #!/usr/bin/gorun line at the top of the file so it is run like a script. gorun will compile it on the fly then run it. I've used it quite a bit for making golang scripts and I expect it would work for CGIs too.

You'd have to mark the script as executable (chmod +x) and tell apache that the .go extension was executable.

Not sure I'd recommend this for production but it should work reasonably efficiently as gorun has a cache.

An easy solution would be to use a tool which re-compiles your code on changes to the source files. For example GoWatch.

Or try it yourself by using fsnotify as Erik already stated. Example: Simple Compile Daemon.

You could also invoke go run in your CGI script.