Go:embed reading individual files

I was having trouble accessing a particular file (json, in this case). In the past, I’ve had no drama getting at templates and the like but was clearly missing something here.

To access a single file, you can use the ReadFile method on the embedded filesystem.

For instance,

# tree .
├── main.go
└── embeds
  └── stuff.json

I want to explicitly unmarshal stuff.json in my main.go

An abridged version of how to do that.

package main

import "embed"

//go:embed files
var jsonFiles embed.FS

fun main() {

  js, _ := jsonFiles.ReadFile("embeds/stuff.json")
  
  var p map[string]any
  err := json.Unmarshal(js, &p)
  if err != nil { log.Fatalln("failed to read embedded file") }

This opens the file for reading and gets all of its contents. A perfect solution for my needs.

To read the entire directory just swap out ReadFile with ReadDir("embeds").

Tags:

  #go #embed #TIL