Experimenting with Goloader for Plugins

Last updated: October 25, 2024

Notes from experimenting with dynamic plugin loading in Go. The standard plugin package has limitations (can't unload, Linux/macOS only, build constraints). Goloader is an alternative that loads Go object files at runtime without cgo.

References

• pkujhd/goloader, the main project
• goloader on pkg.go.dev
• ZenLiuCN/dynamic, a wrapper around goloader
  • compiler/bin.go
• VOvchinnikov/dynamic-runner
  • main.go
• goloaderbuilder examples
  • builder/main.go

Related: Go notebook/REPL approaches

• gopherdata/gophernotes
• cosmos72/gomacro
• janpfeifer/gonb

Related: IPC vs plugins discussion

• Reddit: How to implement dynamic plugins in Go
• Go issue #56776

Also interesting

• Drasi (GitHub), Microsoft's open-source project for change detection and reaction in complex systems