Golang Hot Reload for Faster Development

Golang's hot reload feature can save developers a significant amount of time during development.

This feature allows for code changes to be reflected in the application without requiring a full restart.

Hot reload is particularly useful for iterative development, where small changes are made frequently to see their effects.

By reducing the need for manual restarts, developers can focus on writing code rather than waiting for it to take effect.

For your interest: Hot Water Heater

Air is a live reloading tool designed for Golang developers. It automatically reloads your Go application whenever you make changes to your codebase.

This means you don't have to stop and restart your server manually after every change.

Installing Air is a breeze. Follow these steps to get started with Golang hot reload.

First, install Air by running a command in your terminal. This will make Air available in your terminal. Navigate to your Go project directory and initialize Air using the command that creates a default .air.toml configuration file with default settings.

Explore further: Golang Test Command

The .air.toml file contains settings you can change, such as directories to watch, file extensions to monitor, and build commands. By default, it should work pretty well for you out of the box.

Here's a quick rundown of the .air.toml configuration file:

After setting up Air, you can start developing with ease. Just remember to exclude files that trigger the watching listener unnecessarily, like views/dashboard_templ.go.

Navigate to your project's root directory to set up Air for your Golang project.

To generate a default .air.toml configuration file, run the following command:

This will create a .air.toml file with default settings for directories to watch, file extensions to monitor, and build commands.

You can find out about more configuration options in the .air.toml file, but by default, it should work pretty well for you out of the box.

To start using Air in your Go project, run the following command from your project directory:

Air will now monitor your files and reload the application automatically whenever you make changes to the Go code.