x/net/websocket: remedy neglect; merge with gorilla websocket?

[zombiezen]

It is not well maintained, and essentially everyone uses https://github.com/gorilla/websocket.

This was raised as a concern in #17244: because it is in the x/net repository, people attach greater value to it than it really ought to have.

/cc @dsnet

EDIT 2016-12-02: Copying in my better-phrased problem statement from later in the thread:

The problem I see is that the ownership/maintenance story of x/net/websocket is unclear. It may suit your needs, and that is fine! However, it's not getting the same level of support as the standard library or even gorilla/websocket; it has no established owner AFAIK.

Along the lines of #17244, there is concern that it elevates the status and visibility of the package. I've anecdotally heard of it confusing many new users whose needs were much better filled with gorilla/websocket. I have not heard of someone using gorilla/websocket and then deciding to use x/net/websocket instead.

[bradfitz]

We can't just delete something and break people who aren't vendoring it.

We can document that it's deprecated perhaps.

Or somebody could maintain it.

[zombiezen]

Deprecated might be fine, but my experience is that I (and other devs I've talked to) have wasted time trying to use the package only to find out it fails in production and that Gorilla's package works.

[dsnet]

I support a strong deprecation message. Would that message endorse the Gorilla implementation?

If we implement golang/lint#238, I think that will help people avoid wasting time developing with deprecated packages or features.

[bradfitz]

"fails in production" -- what are the open bugs? There's not much to WebSockets. I'm afraid we're going to spend more time discussing things on this bug than we would just fixing any such issues.

[cespare]

Beyond any bugs that could be fixed by maintenance, the deeper problem with x/net/websocket is that it has the wrong API. It puts an io.Reader/Writer interface on top of what is fundamentally a message-based protocol.

I agree it should be documented as deprecated in favor of gorilla/websocket.

[zombiezen]

It's been long enough since I last tried to use it, but off-hand, you cannot implement a correct websocket reverse proxy with the current API, since it tries to implement io.Reader/io.Writer. Websocket, for better or for worse, is a frame-oriented protocol, not a stream-oriented protocol.

[bradfitz]

I agree it has the wrong API. But we could add ReadMessage and WriteMessage to it and deprecate Read and Write.

I am in favor of maintaining less code, though, (not that we ever maintained x/net/websocket much?), and I have no personal or sentimental connection to x/net/websocket, and we actually use gorilla/websocket in Camlistore these days, but it still feels core enough that we should have an official answer for websockets in x/net.

I suppose this all kinda depends on the policy for x/* we figure out in #17244.

[davecheney]

I had this problem with a version of my profile package. My solution was to move the code into a branch and deleting all the code from the package on master so it could not be imported. The README has told people not to use the package for years, now in addition jt says if they still want to do it anyway, they can find the code in the branch. I considered replacing the paxkage with one that panic'd during init, but that felt like adding insult to injury.

…

On Fri, 2 Dec 2016, 08:59 Brad Fitzpatrick ***@***.***> wrote: I agree it has the wrong API. But we could add ReadMessage and WriteMessage to it and deprecate Read and Write. I am in favor of maintaining less code, though, (not that we ever maintained x/net/websocket much?), and I have no personal or sentimental connection to x/net/websocket, and we actually use gorilla/websocket in Camlistore these days, but it still feels core enough that we should have an official answer for websockets in x/net. I suppose this all kinda depends on the policy for x/* we figure out in #17244 <#17244>. — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#18152 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAAcA2pJ4SojprgRJRtypivu71yvE_H4ks5rD1FIgaJpZM4LB-47> .

[cznic]

Please do not deprecate it. At work, we are using golang.org/x/net/websocket exclusively and we have never had any problem with it*. Quite the opposite, in our use case it's more robust than what we've ever expected.

*: Of course, that says nothing whatsoever about any trouble anyone else might have with it.

[bradfitz]

@cznic, "deprecate" does not mean "delete".

[cznic]

Yep. But I guess it means "no more bug fixes for you, ever".

[bradfitz]

No, not really. Deprecated is not black & white. We continue to fix bugs in other deprecated stuff when there's a good bug report and a clear fix and super minimal risk of breaking existing users. It just means we're not adding features to it, or means that a better way is known to exist.

[cznic]

Great news, honestly. But then again, why to mark it deprecated in the first place? We can cope with it getting no attention from people not loving it, but we do and if we run into a bug we need to resolve, we would be more than happy to contribute the fix.

Status quo anybody?

[bradfitz]

But then again, why to mark it deprecated in the first place?

To tell users they might be happier elsewhere.

[zombiezen]

Precisely to @bradfitz's point: Deleting may be too strong, but I want to send a strong signal that there's a much better maintenance story for gorilla/websocket. Effort spent on x/net/websocket may be better spent on gorilla/websocket.

[gopherbot]

CL https://golang.org/cl/33806 mentions this issue.

[cznic]

To tell users they might be happier elsewhere.

I really really really don't want to sound snarky, but by that logic, the Go repository might be marked deprecated as well - just because users might be happier with Rust, C, Java, ...?

Effort spent on x/net/websocket may be better spent on gorilla/websocket.

I have no intention, nor desire to suggest or propose, regardless how impossible and foolish that would be, to delete github.com/gorilla/websocket, just because we don't and probably never would use it.

[bradfitz]

I really really really don't want to sound snarky,

Yet you did. And it's not very productive. It's actually just noise in this thread.

If you want to be productive, though, step up and maintain golang.org/x/net/websocket. That's one of the options I listed in my first comment (#18152 (comment))

[zombiezen]

I apologize, @cznic. The current proposal process biases bug titles to be action-based (do X) versus focused on problem statement, so I should have described the problem instead of a proposed plan of action. Maybe this is something we should consider improving in the proposal process.

The problem I see is that the ownership/maintenance story of x/net/websocket is unclear. It may suit your needs, and that is fine! However, it's not getting the same level of support as the standard library or even gorilla/websocket; it has no established owner AFAIK.

The other issue I see is along the lines of #17244, where there is concern that it elevates the status and visibility of the package. I've anecdotally heard of it confusing many new users whose needs were much better filled with gorilla/websocket. I have not heard of someone using gorilla/websocket and then deciding to use x/net/websocket instead.

[bradfitz]

And to be clear, @cznic, I'm quite serious about you maintaining x/net/websocket. As a user of it, you're better suited to be a maintainer of it than a random contributor looking for work to do. And you maintain enough other stuff that you know what the process entails.

[cznic]

It's actually just noise in this thread.

I respectfully disagree. I see no proof why it's different (wrt people happier with something else). I'm ready to acknowledge you're right if you can actually explain your judgement in some other way than simply claiming my point has no point (just noise in your words).

Nonetheless...

If you want to be productive, though, step up and maintain golang.org/x/net/websocket.

And to be clear, @cznic, I'm quite serious about you maintaining x/net/websocket. As a user of it, you're better suited to be a maintainer of it than a random contributor looking for work to do. And you maintain enough other stuff that you know what the process entails.

Regardless of us (at work) never having a problem with it, how do you expect me to maintain x/net/websocket? Serious question from a person having only R/O access to it.

I apologize, @cznic. ...

@zombiezen Relly appreciated, but there's nothing to apologize for. I don't agree with the proposal, but that's nothing personal. If I made an impression otherwise then it's my duty to apologize for my fault - sorry.

---

PS: @ALL Getting the company's approval to use Go and/or code from golang.org/whatever is one thing. The same for code from other domains is not the same.

[bradfitz]

Regardless of us (at work) never having a problem with it, how do you expect me to maintain x/net/websocket? Serious question from a person having only R/O access to it.

If you send us CLs, we'll +2 and you can submit.
If others send you CLs, we'll give you access to +2 their CLs and you can submit.

[bradfitz]

I respectfully disagree. I see no proof why it's different (wrt people happier with something else). I'm ready to acknowledge you're right if you can actually explain your judgement in some other way than simply claiming my point has no point (just noise in your words).

I find your comparison between recommending a maintained package and recommending a whole alternate language not even remotely equivalent. They're pretty absurdly different. You also found it ridiculous, which is why you prefaced it with "I really really really don't want to sound snarky". You can't just say something outlandish and preface it with "Not to be $X or anything, but ....".

By the time most people are selecting a websocket package, they've already selected their programming language (Go, in this case). On the off chance they haven't yet selected their programming language (say, they're writing a prototype application to decide whether they like the Go ecosystem), that argues even more in favor of @zombiezen's point that we should point them to the solution that's going to be make them happy, rather than the first thing they stumbled into.

Hence https://golang.org/cl/33806

[groob]

Thank you Brad,

Not to add noise to the issue, but we've recently had to introduce websockets to our app and had this debate do research to find out wether x/net/websocket would work. Luckily I was aware of discussion in #17244 which mentions websocket vs the gorilla package. The mention will help others save time and avoid using something just because it looks official.

[cznic]

If others send you CLs, we'll give you access to +2 their CLs and you can submit.

Let's roll.

[leaxoy]

But how about implement it in standard package net/websocket?

[bradfitz]

@leaxoy, no thanks. Unmaintained code in x/ is bad enough. We don't also want more code in std, especially if it's unmaintained. See https://golang.org/doc/faq#x_in_std

[nhooyr]

I opened a PR to add my library to the deprecation message as well. golang/net#51

Should we make the deprecation message stronger as discussed in #33215?

It seems to actively have issues with pings as described by @fjl at ethereum/go-ethereum#19798 (comment)

The issue here isn't that github.com/x/net/websocket doesn't handle ping (it does). We are seeing the reproducer behave this way because SetWriteDeadline interacts badly with the built-in ping frame handler. Whenever the RPC client wants to write something, it sets a write deadline. In the reproducer it only writes once to establish the subscription. When the ping frame arrives 12 seconds after the write, the write deadline that's set has already passed and writing the pong frame fails. The pong write error is returned from Read, causing the client to reconnect.

I looked over the code and confirmed this is an issue. The ping handling code never resets the write deadline and instead relies on the user of the Conn to reset the deadline to zero after reading which is definitely confusing behaviour. I suppose this could be fixed pretty easily but people ought to just use gorilla or mine. Mine also has a net.Conn wrapper to make such a transition easier. I'll add this to the deprecation message.

[lxzan]

try https://github.com/lxzan/gws , provide better performance, easier to use API

[ruyi789]

这个包满足我的，因为很小，而且是官方维护。唯一不足的地方大多数人没法用它，因为不会Read。

var c *websocket.Conn
var buf bytes.Buffer
b := make([]byte, 1024)

for {
	n, err := c.Read(b)

	if n > 0 {
		buf.Write(b[:n])
	} else if err != nil {
		return
	}

	//处理帧数据，你可能有如下三种判断之一：

	if err == io.EOF { //表示帧结束? 但是你可能永远等不到io.EOF这个值
		//处理帧数据
		buf.Reset()
	}

	//或者
	if buf.Len() == c.Len() { //c.Len()? 这方法返回没有准确表达我需要的条件，不知道有什么作用:frame.Length?
		//处理帧数据
		buf.Reset()
	}

	//或者
	if buf.Len() == int(c.FrameDataLenth()) { //ok,非常棒。但是 websocket.Conn 没有这个方法：FrameDataLenth=frame.header.Length
		//处理帧数据
		buf.Reset()
	}

}

[dmytro-i]

@bradfitz do you think it's possible to continue the conversation about merging gorilla/webosocket into x/net/websocket now that they have new maintainers or that ship has sailed a long time ago?

[sedyh]

Hello, is there any update on this? It's been a long time since gorilla/ws got maintainers.
I really want to have good ws solution in stdlib.

[gophun]

Hello, is there any update on this? It's been a long time since gorilla/ws got maintainers.
I really want to have good ws solution in stdlib.

@sedyh

'x/' packages like x/net/websocket aren't part of the standard library either. If you like gorilla/websocket just use it.

Additionally, in light of the recent xz open source attack, we've all been reminded that sending pressure comments to open source maintainers, urging them to incorporate code from individuals they don't personally know, is not advisable. The code of gorilla/websocket wasn't created with the same review standards as packages by the Go project. And I personally feel that it has gotten worse after the change in maintainership, see gorilla/websocket#873

[gopherbot]

Change https://go.dev/cl/614075 mentions this issue: websocket: update nhooyr.io/websocket to github.com/coder/websocket