runner

Runner Package

Thread-safe lifecycle management for long-running services and periodic tasks with context cancellation, error tracking, and uptime monitoring.

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Table of Contents

• Overview
• Key Features
• Installation
• Architecture
• Quick Start
• Performance
• Use Cases
• Subpackages
  • startStop - Service Lifecycle Management
  • ticker - Periodic Task Execution
• Best Practices
• Testing
• Contributing
• Future Enhancements
• License

---

Overview

The runner package provides production-ready lifecycle management for Go services and periodic tasks. It handles complex scenarios like graceful shutdown, error collection, concurrent operations, and automatic cleanup with minimal boilerplate code.

Design Philosophy

1. Thread-Safe: All operations use atomic primitives and mutexes for concurrent safety
2. Context-Aware: Full support for context cancellation and timeout propagation
3. Error Tracking: Automatic error collection with retrieval interfaces
4. Clean Shutdown: Exponential backoff polling for graceful cleanup
5. Panic Recovery: Built-in panic recovery to prevent process crashes

---

Key Features

• Service Lifecycle Management: Start, stop, and restart long-running services with proper cleanup
• Periodic Execution: Execute functions at regular intervals with automatic lifecycle management
• Thread-Safe Operations: Atomic operations (atomic.Value), mutex protection (sync.Mutex)
• Context Cancellation: Proper propagation and handling of context cancellation
• Error Collection: Track all errors from operations with ErrorsLast() and ErrorsList()
• Uptime Tracking: Monitor how long a service has been running
• Panic Recovery: Automatic recovery with stack traces to prevent crashes
• Idempotent Operations: Safe to call Start/Stop multiple times
• Clean State Transitions: Automatic cleanup of previous instances on restart

---

Installation

go get github.com/nabbar/golib/runner

---

Architecture

Package Structure

The package is organized into specialized subpackages for different execution patterns:

runner/
├── interface.go         # Core Runner interface and function types
├── tools.go            # Utility functions (RecoveryCaller, RunNbr, RunTick)
├── startStop/          # Service lifecycle management (Start/Stop pattern)
│   ├── interface.go    # StartStop interface and constructor
│   └── model.go        # Implementation with state management
└── ticker/             # Periodic execution (ticker pattern)
    ├── interface.go    # Ticker interface and constructor
    └── model.go        # Implementation with time.Ticker

Component Overview

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  Runner Interface                     │
│  Start() Stop() Restart() IsRunning() Uptime()      │
└───────────┬────────────────────────────┬─────────────┘
            │                            │
   ┌────────▼──────────┐      ┌─────────▼──────────┐
   │    startStop      │      │      ticker        │
   │                   │      │                    │
   │ Service lifecycle │      │ Periodic execution │
   │ Start/Stop funcs  │      │ time.Ticker based  │
   │ Blocking pattern  │      │ Regular intervals  │
   └───────────────────┘      └────────────────────┘

Component	Purpose	Pattern	Thread-Safe
Runner Interface	Common lifecycle operations	Interface	N/A
startStop	Long-running services (HTTP server, listeners)	Start blocks, Stop cleans up	✅
ticker	Periodic tasks (cron-like, health checks)	Executes function every N duration	✅
Utilities	Helper functions (recovery, polling)	Standalone functions	✅

Execution Patterns

startStop Pattern (Blocking Service)

• Start function blocks until service terminates
• Stop function triggers graceful shutdown
• Use case: HTTP servers, database connections, message consumers

ticker Pattern (Periodic Execution)

• Function executes at regular intervals
• Continues until stopped or context cancelled
• Use case: Health checks, metrics collection, data synchronization

---

Performance

Memory Efficiency

The runner package maintains minimal memory overhead:

• Atomic Operations: Lock-free reads for state checks (IsRunning(), Uptime())
• Shared Context: Single context per runner instance
• Error Pooling: Efficient error collection using github.com/nabbar/golib/errors/pool
• Zero Allocations: State checks use atomic operations without heap allocations

Thread Safety

All operations are thread-safe through:

• Atomic Values: libatm.Value[T] for lock-free reads (start time, cancel function)
• Mutex Protection: sync.Mutex for Start/Stop/Restart serialization
• Exponential Backoff: Efficient polling for cleanup completion (1ms → 10ms)
• Goroutine Safety: Multiple goroutines can safely call operations concurrently

Cleanup Guarantees

Stop Operation Flow:
├─ Cancel context (immediate)
├─ Poll for cleanup (exponential backoff)
│  └─ 1ms → 2ms → 4ms → 8ms → 10ms (max)
└─ Return after max 2 seconds

Stop Guarantees:

• Context cancellation: Immediate
• Cleanup detection: Up to 2 seconds with exponential backoff
• Idempotent: Safe to call multiple times
• No goroutine leaks: Verified with race detector

---

Use Cases

This package is designed for scenarios requiring reliable lifecycle management:

HTTP Servers

• Start server with graceful shutdown support
• Track uptime and running state
• Collect startup/shutdown errors
• Restart on configuration changes

Background Workers

• Process message queues with lifecycle control
• Graceful shutdown on termination signals
• Error tracking for debugging
• Uptime monitoring for health checks

Periodic Tasks

• Execute health checks every N seconds
• Scheduled data synchronization
• Metrics collection at regular intervals
• Cache cleanup and maintenance jobs

Database Connections

• Maintain connection pools with lifecycle management
• Automatic reconnection with restart
• Monitor connection uptime
• Clean shutdown of connections

Scheduled Jobs

• Cron-like periodic execution
• Log rotation and archival
• Report generation
• Data backup operations

---

Quick Start

HTTP Server with startStop

Manage an HTTP server lifecycle with graceful shutdown:

package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "net/http"
    "time"
    
    "github.com/nabbar/golib/runner/startStop"
)

func main() {
    srv := &http.Server{
        Addr:    ":8080",
        Handler: http.DefaultServeMux,
    }
    
    // Create runner with start and stop functions
    runner := startStop.New(
        func(ctx context.Context) error {
            // Start function blocks until server stops
            fmt.Println("Starting HTTP server on :8080")
            return srv.ListenAndServe()
        },
        func(ctx context.Context) error {
            // Stop function performs graceful shutdown
            fmt.Println("Shutting down HTTP server")
            return srv.Shutdown(ctx)
        },
    )
    
    // Start the server
    if err := runner.Start(context.Background()); err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    
    fmt.Printf("Server running (uptime: %v)\n", runner.Uptime())
    
    // Let it run for a while
    time.Sleep(5 * time.Second)
    
    // Stop the server
    ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 10*time.Second)
    defer cancel()
    
    if err := runner.Stop(ctx); err != nil {
        fmt.Printf("Stop error: %v\n", err)
    }
    
    // Check for errors during lifecycle
    if err := runner.ErrorsLast(); err != nil {
        fmt.Printf("Server errors: %v\n", err)
    }
}

Periodic Health Check with ticker

Execute a function at regular intervals:

package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "time"
    
    "github.com/nabbar/golib/runner/ticker"
)

func main() {
    checkCount := 0
    
    // Create ticker that runs every 2 seconds
    tick := ticker.New(2*time.Second, func(ctx context.Context, t *time.Ticker) error {
        checkCount++
        fmt.Printf("Health check #%d at %v\n", checkCount, time.Now())
        
        // Simulate occasional errors
        if checkCount%5 == 0 {
            return fmt.Errorf("health check warning at count %d", checkCount)
        }
        return nil
    })
    
    // Start the ticker
    if err := tick.Start(context.Background()); err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    
    fmt.Printf("Ticker started (running: %v)\n", tick.IsRunning())
    
    // Let it run for 10 seconds
    time.Sleep(10 * time.Second)
    
    // Stop the ticker
    if err := tick.Stop(context.Background()); err != nil {
        fmt.Printf("Stop error: %v\n", err)
    }
    
    // Check collected errors
    errors := tick.ErrorsList()
    fmt.Printf("Total errors: %d\n", len(errors))
    for i, err := range errors {
        fmt.Printf("  Error %d: %v\n", i+1, err)
    }
}

Context Cancellation

Automatic shutdown when context is cancelled:

package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "time"
    
    "github.com/nabbar/golib/runner/ticker"
)

func main() {
    // Create context with 5 second timeout
    ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 5*time.Second)
    defer cancel()
    
    tick := ticker.New(1*time.Second, func(ctx context.Context, t *time.Ticker) error {
        fmt.Printf("Tick at %v\n", time.Now())
        return nil
    })
    
    if err := tick.Start(ctx); err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    
    // Wait for context to expire
    <-ctx.Done()
    
    // Ticker automatically stops when context is cancelled
    time.Sleep(100 * time.Millisecond)
    fmt.Printf("Ticker running: %v (stopped automatically)\n", tick.IsRunning())
}

Utility Functions

The package provides utility functions for common patterns:

package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "time"
    
    "github.com/nabbar/golib/runner"
)

func main() {
    // RunNbr: Retry up to N times with custom check and action
    success := runner.RunNbr(5,
        func() bool {
            // Check if condition is met
            return serverIsReady()
        },
        func() {
            // Action to perform between checks
            time.Sleep(100 * time.Millisecond)
        },
    )
    fmt.Printf("Server ready: %v\n", success)
    
    // RunTick: Poll with timeout and ticker interval
    ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 5*time.Second)
    defer cancel()
    
    ready := runner.RunTick(ctx, 100*time.Millisecond, 5*time.Second,
        func() bool {
            return databaseIsConnected()
        },
        func() {
            fmt.Println("Waiting for database...")
        },
    )
    fmt.Printf("Database ready: %v\n", ready)
}

func serverIsReady() bool {
    // Check server readiness
    return true
}

func databaseIsConnected() bool {
    // Check database connection
    return true
}

Panic Recovery

Built-in panic recovery prevents crashes:

package main

import (
    "context"
    
    "github.com/nabbar/golib/runner/startStop"
)

func main() {
    runner := startStop.New(
        func(ctx context.Context) error {
            // This panic will be recovered automatically
            panic("something went wrong!")
        },
        func(ctx context.Context) error {
            return nil
        },
    )
    
    // Start will not crash the process
    _ = runner.Start(context.Background())
    
    // Recovery message is printed to stderr with stack trace
    // Process continues running
}

---

Subpackages

startStop Subpackage

Lifecycle management for long-running services with blocking start and graceful stop operations.

Features

• Start function executes asynchronously (runs in goroutine)
• Stop function triggers graceful shutdown
• Automatic cleanup detection with exponential backoff
• Context cancellation support
• Error tracking for both start and stop operations
• Uptime monitoring

Interface

type StartStop interface {
    // Runner interface methods
    Start(ctx context.Context) error
    Stop(ctx context.Context) error
    Restart(ctx context.Context) error
    IsRunning() bool
    Uptime() time.Duration
    
    // Error tracking methods
    ErrorsLast() error
    ErrorsList() []error
}

State Management

State Transitions:
┌─────────┐  Start()  ┌─────────┐  Stop()   ┌─────────┐
│ Stopped │ ───────> │ Running │ ───────> │ Stopped │
└─────────┘          └─────────┘          └─────────┘
     ▲                                          │
     └──────────── Restart() ───────────────────┘

Example: Message Queue Worker

import (
    "context"
    "github.com/nabbar/golib/runner/startStop"
)

func NewWorker(queue MessageQueue) startStop.StartStop {
    return startStop.New(
        func(ctx context.Context) error {
            // Start consuming messages (blocks)
            for {
                select {
                case <-ctx.Done():
                    return nil
                case msg := <-queue.Messages():
                    if err := processMessage(msg); err != nil {
                        return err
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        func(ctx context.Context) error {
            // Stop consuming and cleanup
            return queue.Close()
        },
    )
}

See GoDoc for complete API.

---

ticker Subpackage

Execute functions at regular intervals with automatic lifecycle management.

Features

• Executes function every N duration using time.Ticker
• Automatic goroutine lifecycle management
• Context cancellation support
• Error collection from all executions
• Configurable tick interval (minimum 1ms, default 30s)
• Graceful shutdown with cleanup detection

Interface

type Ticker interface {
    // Runner interface methods
    Start(ctx context.Context) error
    Stop(ctx context.Context) error
    Restart(ctx context.Context) error
    IsRunning() bool
    Uptime() time.Duration
    
    // Error tracking methods
    ErrorsLast() error
    ErrorsList() []error
}

Execution Flow

Ticker Lifecycle:
Start() ──> goroutine created
             ↓
         time.Ticker created
             ↓
         ┌───────────────┐
         │  Tick Loop    │ ──> Execute function
         │  <-ticker.C   │ ──> Collect errors
         │  <-ctx.Done() │ ──> Check cancellation
         └───────────────┘
             ↓
Stop() ──> Context cancelled
             ↓
         Cleanup: ticker.Stop(), clear uptime

Example: Metrics Collection

import (
    "context"
    "time"
    "github.com/nabbar/golib/runner/ticker"
)

func StartMetricsCollector() ticker.Ticker {
    return ticker.New(30*time.Second, func(ctx context.Context, t *time.Ticker) error {
        // Collect metrics
        metrics := collectSystemMetrics()
        
        // Send to monitoring service
        if err := sendMetrics(metrics); err != nil {
            return err // Error is collected automatically
        }
        
        return nil
    })
}

// Usage
collector := StartMetricsCollector()
collector.Start(context.Background())

// Runs every 30 seconds until stopped
time.Sleep(5 * time.Minute)

collector.Stop(context.Background())

// Check for errors during collection
if err := collector.ErrorsLast(); err != nil {
    log.Printf("Metrics collection errors: %v", err)
}

Example: Cache Cleanup

func StartCacheCleanup(cache *Cache) ticker.Ticker {
    return ticker.New(10*time.Minute, func(ctx context.Context, t *time.Ticker) error {
        // Remove expired entries
        removed := cache.RemoveExpired()
        log.Printf("Removed %d expired cache entries", removed)
        return nil
    })
}

See GoDoc for complete API.

---

Best Practices

Always Use Context

// ✅ Good: Proper context usage
func startService(ctx context.Context) {
    runner := startStop.New(startFunc, stopFunc)
    if err := runner.Start(ctx); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
}

// ❌ Bad: Using background context everywhere
func startServiceBad() {
    runner := startStop.New(startFunc, stopFunc)
    runner.Start(context.Background()) // Can't be cancelled externally
}

Handle Errors

// ✅ Good: Check and handle errors
func runService(ctx context.Context) error {
    runner := startStop.New(startFunc, stopFunc)
    
    if err := runner.Start(ctx); err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("start failed: %w", err)
    }
    
    // ... later ...
    
    if err := runner.Stop(ctx); err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("stop failed: %w", err)
    }
    
    // Check for operational errors
    if errs := runner.ErrorsList(); len(errs) > 0 {
        return fmt.Errorf("service errors: %v", errs)
    }
    
    return nil
}

// ❌ Bad: Ignoring errors
func runServiceBad() {
    runner := startStop.New(startFunc, stopFunc)
    runner.Start(context.Background())
    // No error checking!
}

Graceful Shutdown

// ✅ Good: Proper shutdown with timeout
func main() {
    runner := startStop.New(startFunc, stopFunc)
    runner.Start(context.Background())
    
    // Handle shutdown signals
    sigChan := make(chan os.Signal, 1)
    signal.Notify(sigChan, os.Interrupt, syscall.SIGTERM)
    <-sigChan
    
    // Stop with timeout
    ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 10*time.Second)
    defer cancel()
    
    if err := runner.Stop(ctx); err != nil {
        log.Printf("Stop error: %v", err)
    }
}

// ❌ Bad: Abrupt shutdown
func mainBad() {
    runner := startStop.New(startFunc, stopFunc)
    runner.Start(context.Background())
    // Process exits without cleanup
}

Appropriate Ticker Intervals

// ✅ Good: Reasonable intervals
tick := ticker.New(30*time.Second, healthCheckFunc)  // Every 30 seconds
tick := ticker.New(5*time.Minute, cleanupFunc)       // Every 5 minutes

// ❌ Bad: Too frequent, wastes CPU
tick := ticker.New(10*time.Millisecond, func(ctx context.Context, t *time.Ticker) error {
    // Heavy operation every 10ms = 100 times/second!
    return doHeavyWork()
})

Check Running State

// ✅ Good: Check before operations
if runner.IsRunning() {
    uptime := runner.Uptime()
    log.Printf("Service uptime: %v", uptime)
} else {
    log.Println("Service is not running")
}

// ✅ Good: Idempotent operations
runner.Stop(ctx) // Safe to call even if not running

Error Collection in Tickers

// ✅ Good: Errors don't stop the ticker
tick := ticker.New(1*time.Second, func(ctx context.Context, t *time.Ticker) error {
    if err := performCheck(); err != nil {
        // Return error - ticker continues, error is collected
        return fmt.Errorf("check failed: %w", err)
    }
    return nil
})

// Later, review all errors
tick.Stop(context.Background())
for i, err := range tick.ErrorsList() {
    log.Printf("Error %d: %v", i+1, err)
}

---

Testing

Test Suite: 100+ specs using Ginkgo v2 and Gomega (≥80% coverage)

# Run tests
go test ./...

# With coverage
go test -cover ./...

# With race detection (recommended)
CGO_ENABLED=1 go test -race ./...

# Using Ginkgo CLI
ginkgo -race -cover

Coverage Areas

• Lifecycle operations (Start, Stop, Restart)
• Concurrent operations and thread safety
• Error collection and retrieval
• Context cancellation
• Edge cases (nil contexts, quick exits, panics)
• Uptime tracking

Quality Assurance

• ✅ Zero data races (verified with -race)
• ✅ Thread-safe concurrent operations
• ✅ Proper goroutine cleanup
• ✅ Panic recovery without crashes

See TESTING.md for detailed testing documentation.

---

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these guidelines:

Code Contributions

• Do not use AI to generate package implementation code
• AI may assist with tests, documentation, and bug fixing
• All contributions must pass go test -race
• Maintain or improve test coverage (≥80%)
• Follow existing code style and patterns

Documentation

• Update README.md for new features
• Add examples for common use cases
• Keep TESTING.md synchronized with test changes
• Document all public functions and types

Testing

• Write tests for all new features
• Test edge cases and error conditions
• Verify thread safety with race detector
• Add comments explaining complex scenarios

Pull Requests

• Provide clear description of changes
• Reference related issues
• Include test results
• Update documentation

See CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed guidelines.

---

Future Enhancements

Potential improvements for future versions:

Advanced Scheduling

• Cron-like scheduling syntax
• Multiple schedule support
• Skip overlapping executions
• Timezone-aware scheduling

Health Monitoring

• Built-in health check endpoints
• Automatic restart on failures
• Exponential backoff for retries
• Circuit breaker integration

Metrics & Observability

• Execution duration tracking
• Success/failure rate metrics
• Prometheus integration
• OpenTelemetry tracing

Advanced Features

• Graceful reload without downtime
• Priority-based execution
• Resource-aware scheduling
• Distributed coordination (etcd/consul)

Suggestions and contributions are welcome via GitHub issues.

---

AI Transparency Notice

In accordance with Article 50.4 of the EU AI Act, AI assistance has been used for testing, documentation, and bug fixing under human supervision.

---

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details.

---

Resources

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Documentation: GoDoc
• Testing Guide: TESTING.md
• Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md