Go - Enforce that an interface is only satisfied by types with a pointer receiver on a method?

I'm doing some experimentation with type parameters to come up with a generic way of wiring up structs that generate a response to JSON HTTP requests.

The Method interface which the structs must implement has a SetParams method. This will work as expected as long as the implementation uses a pointer receiver.

My question: Is there any way of making this a compile time error if SetParams has a value receiver?

Here is an example demonstrating the problem with a SetParams that has a value receiver:

package main
import (
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"log"
)
type PingParams struct {
Name string
}
type PingResponse struct {
Message string
}
func (p PingParams) Greeting() string {
if p.Name != "" {
return fmt.Sprintf("Hello, %s", p.Name)
}
return fmt.Sprintf("Hello, nobody!")
}
type GoodPing struct {
Params PingParams
}
// SetParams has a pointer receiver.
func (m *GoodPing) SetParams(p PingParams) {
fmt.Printf("assign %v with pointer receiver, Good!\n", p)
m.Params = p
}
func (m GoodPing) Run() (*PingResponse, error) {
return &PingResponse{Message: fmt.Sprintf("%T %s", m, m.Params.Greeting())}, nil
}
type BadPing struct {
Params PingParams
}
// SetParams has a value receiver.
func (m BadPing) SetParams(p PingParams) {
fmt.Printf("assign %v with value receiver, Bad!\n", p)
m.Params = p
}
func (m BadPing) Run() (*PingResponse, error) {
return &PingResponse{Message: fmt.Sprintf("%T %s", m, m.Params.Greeting())}, nil
}
type Method[M, RQ, RS any] interface {
// Run builds the RPC result.
Run() (*RS, error)
// SetParams is intended to set the request parameters in the struct implementing the RPC method.
// This then allows the request parameters to be easily available to all methods of the Method struct.
// The method MUST have a pointer receiver. This is NOT enforced at compile time.
SetParams(p RQ)
// The following line requires the implementing type is a pointer to M.
*M
// https://stackoverflow.com/a/72090807
}
func HandlerMethod[M, RQ, RS any, T Method[M, RQ, RS]](in json.RawMessage) (*RS, error) {
// A real implementation of this would return a func for wiring into a request router
var req RQ
err := json.Unmarshal(in, &req)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
var m T = new(M)
m.SetParams(req)
return m.Run()
}
func main() {
payload := []byte(`{"Name": "Mark"}`)
bad, err := HandlerMethod[BadPing, PingParams, PingResponse](payload)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Println(bad.Message)
good, err := HandlerMethod[GoodPing, PingParams, PingResponse](payload)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Println(good.Message)
}

https://go.dev/play/p/Eii8ADkmDxE

You can't do that.

When in your code you do this:

var m T = new(M)

even if T's type set includes only *M as a type term, *M's method set includes methods declared on M. The compiler can't check for you how the method ends up in *M's method set.

It is your responsibility when declaring the method SetParam on BadPing to make sure that the method doesn't attempt to unfruitfully modify the receiver.