nice, go-idiomatic way of using a shared map

Question

Say I had a program with concurrent access to a map, like this:

func getKey(r *http.Request) string { ... }

values := make(map[string]int)

http.HandleFunc("/get", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
  key := getKey(r)
  fmt.Fprint(w, values[key])
})

http.HandleFunc("/set", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
  key := getKey(r)
  values[key] = rand.Int()
})

This is bad since map writes are non-atomic. So I could use a read/write mutex

func getKey(r *http.Request) string { ... }

values := make(map[string]int)
var lock sync.RWMutex

http.HandleFunc("/get", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
  key := getKey(r)
  lock.RLock()
  fmt.Fprint(w, values[key])
  lock.RUnlock()
})

http.HandleFunc("/set", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
  key := getKey(r)
  lock.Lock()
  values[key] = rand.Int()
  lock.Unlock()
})

Which seems fine except for the fact that we're directly using mutexes and not channels.

What's a more go-idiomatic way of implementing this? Or is this one of those times where a mutex is really all you need?

Answer 1

Here's an alternative channel-based approach, using the channel as a mechanism for mutual exclusion:

func getKey(r *http.Request) string { ... }

values_ch := make(chan map[string]int, 1)
values_ch <- make(map[string]int)

http.HandleFunc("/get", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
  key := getKey(r)
  values := <- values_ch
  fmt.Fprint(w, values[key])
  values_ch <- values
})

http.HandleFunc("/set", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
  key := getKey(r)
  values := <- values_ch
  values[key] = rand.Int()
  values_ch <- values
})

where we initially put the resource in a shared channel. Then the goroutines can borrow and return that shared resource. However, unlike the solution with RWMutex, multiple readers can block each other.