How Do I Properly Wait for Go Routines to Finish and Avoid Deadlocks?

Waiting for Go Routines to Finish

Understanding the proper way to wait for Go routines to finish is crucial for ensuring program termination. This article addresses the technique of using a boolean channel to facilitate this process and explores potential issues.

Why does <-done Work?

Listening to the <-done channel is a blocking operation, meaning the program will pause until a value is received or the channel is closed. In the example provided, sending true to done using done <- true signifies the completion of the do_stuff routine. As a result, the main routine remains suspended until the value is received via <-done.

Understanding the Deadlock Error

When the last line <-done is uncommented, a deadlock error occurs because the channel becomes empty. With no sender to replenish the channel, the main routine remains indefinitely waiting for a value. This highlights the importance of closing channels once they have served their purpose to prevent such errors.

Alternative Approach for Parallelizing Tasks

While the provided example demonstrates how to wait for a single Go routine, the sync package offers a convenient solution for parallelizing multiple tasks. By utilizing wait groups, it is possible to wait for a specific number of routines to complete before proceeding, ensuring orderly program termination.

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