Question 1

How does Hotswap compare to Air or other Go hot-reload tools?

Accepted Answer

Hotswap is for production-level, zero-downtime reloading using Go's plugin system, while tools like Air are for development-time reloading without isolation. It offers safer updates but requires a plugin-based architecture and more setup.

Question 2

Can I use Hotswap with an existing Go web server?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but you need to refactor code into plugins, define required functions like OnLoad, and ensure no imports between host and plugins. Start with the demos to understand the structure and lifecycle hooks.

Question 3

Does Hotswap work on Windows for live reloading?

Accepted Answer

No, plugin reloading is not supported on Windows due to Go's limitations. However, static linking works for debugging, as mentioned in the README, making it a partial solution for Windows teams.

Question 4

What are the performance overheads of using Hotswap?

Accepted Answer

There's overhead from plugin isolation and live mechanisms, and old plugin versions remain in memory, increasing resource usage over time. It's designed for safety, so trade-offs exist in memory and complexity.

Question 5

How do I handle data persistence across plugin reloads?

Accepted Answer

Use live data objects to serialize data for asynchronous jobs, ensuring compatibility with new code versions. Avoid global variables in plugins, as they can become stale after reloads.

Question 6

Is Hotswap suitable for microservices with Docker?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it can enable zero-downtime deployments in containerized environments, but you must structure each service as plugins and manage dependencies, which might add complexity to CI/CD pipelines.

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