Want to stop http server remotely - http

Question

I want to stop the http server remotely (which I can do), but I also want to receive a message indicating that it has been stopped after it has been stopped. That is causing me some problems. The only solution that I could find is as shown below, which I do not consider ideal.
Can anyone provide a better solution. The problem is that the final message sent to the client is not getting through unless I use the goroutine as shown at the end "go func() {".
Code is as follows:
//*************
func stopServer(ohtWriter http.ResponseWriter, phtRequest *http.Request) {// Stop The Server
//*************
var iBytesSent int
var oOsError os.Error
var sErmes string
println("Stopping Server")
iBytesSent,oOsError = ohtWriter.Write([]byte("Message from server - server now stopped."))
if oOsError != nil {
sErmes = ". Error = " +oOsError.String()
} else {
sErmes = ". No error on write"
}
println("stopServer: Bytes sent = " +strconv.Itoa(iBytesSent) +sErmes)
ohtFlusher, tCanFlush := ohtWriter.(http.Flusher)
if tCanFlush {
ohtFlusher.Flush()
}
go func() {
time.Sleep(3e9)
os.Exit(0)
}()
}

Answer 1

Yeah I think without support from the http package, a graceful shutdown is not really possible. This is maybe a little bit less cringe-worthy, but will still slam closed any other concurrent requests in flight at the time of this request. Maybe try filing a feature request on the Go issue tracker. Better yet, open up the http package, and add a graceful shutdown method, and submit it.
Edit: I guess if you control all of the http.Handlers in your app, you could keep a count of in-flight requests (using appropriate thread synchronization), and modify the code below to a) refuse new connections once "shutdown" is called and b) wait for all in-flight requests to complete before shutting down...
package main
import (
"http"
"os"
"io"
"log"
"strconv"
)
func main() {
http.HandleFunc("/", ServeHTTP)
http.ListenAndServe(":8081", nil)
}
const responseString = "Shutting down\n"
func ServeHTTP(w http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {
w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "text/plain; charset=utf-8")
w.Header().Set("Content-Length", strconv.Itoa(len(responseString)))
io.WriteString(w, responseString)
f, canFlush := w.(http.Flusher)
if canFlush {
f.Flush()
}
conn, _, err := w.(http.Hijacker).Hijack()
if err != nil {
log.Fatalf("error while shutting down: %v", err)
}
conn.Close()
log.Println("Shutting down")
os.Exit(0)
}

Answer 2

Haven't tried it yet, but using http.ServerConn directly might work.

Answer 3

Here's a simple way that's good enough for local development.
http://www.sergiotapia.me/how-to-stop-your-go-http-server/
package main
import (
"net/http"
"os"
"github.com/bmizerany/pat"
)
var mux = pat.New()
func main() {
mux.Get("/kill", http.HandlerFunc(kill))
http.Handle("/", mux)
http.ListenAndServe(":8080", nil)
}
func kill(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
os.Exit(0)
}