sevlyar/go-daemon

A library for writing system daemons in golang.

Go

2,309

157 commits

updated Jul 19, 2026

See the code

README

go-daemon Build Status GoDoc

Library for writing system daemons in Go.

Now supported only UNIX-based OS (Windows is not supported). But the library was tested only on Linux and OSX, so that if you have an ability to test the library on other platforms, give me feedback, please (#26).

Please, feel free to send me bug reports and fixes. Many thanks to all contributors.

Features

  • Goroutine-safe daemonization;
  • Out of box work with pid-files;
  • Easy handling of system signals;
  • The control of a daemon.

Installation

go get github.com/sevlyar/go-daemon

You can use gopkg.in:

go get gopkg.in/sevlyar/go-daemon.v0

If you want to use the library in production project, please use vendoring, because i can not ensure backward compatibility before release v1.0.

Examples

Documentation

godoc.org/github.com/sevlyar/go-daemon

How it works

We can not use fork syscall in Golang's runtime, because child process doesn't inherit threads and goroutines in that case. The library uses a simple trick: it runs its own copy with a mark - a predefined environment variable. Availability of the variable for the process means an execution in the child's copy. So that if the mark is not setted - the library executes parent's operations and runs its own copy with mark, and if the mark is setted - the library executes child's operations:

import "log"

func main() {
	Pre()

	context := new(Context)
	child, _ := context.Reborn()

	if child != nil {
		PostParent()
	} else {
		defer func() {
			if err := context.Release(); err != nil {
				log.Printf("Unable to release pid-file: %s", err.Error())
			}
		}()

		PostChild()
	}
}

daemon
go
golang
library
pid
pidfile

Project health

Overall

3.6/10

Maintained

1/10

Code review

10/10
OpenSSF Scorecard

Latest release

v0.1.7 · Nov 10, 2025

Releases this year

1

Significant stargazers

Kamran Ahmed

41,257 followers · starred Dec 2025

Ben Johnson

4,328 followers · starred Apr 2022

Winlin

1,253 followers · starred Nov 2015

Andy Grunwald

515 followers · starred Apr 2022

sevlyar/go-daemon

A library for writing system daemons in golang.

Go

2,309

157 commits

updated Jul 19, 2026

See the code

README

go-daemon Build Status GoDoc

Library for writing system daemons in Go.

Now supported only UNIX-based OS (Windows is not supported). But the library was tested only on Linux and OSX, so that if you have an ability to test the library on other platforms, give me feedback, please (#26).

Please, feel free to send me bug reports and fixes. Many thanks to all contributors.

Features

  • Goroutine-safe daemonization;
  • Out of box work with pid-files;
  • Easy handling of system signals;
  • The control of a daemon.

Installation

go get github.com/sevlyar/go-daemon

You can use gopkg.in:

go get gopkg.in/sevlyar/go-daemon.v0

If you want to use the library in production project, please use vendoring, because i can not ensure backward compatibility before release v1.0.

Examples

Documentation

godoc.org/github.com/sevlyar/go-daemon

How it works

We can not use fork syscall in Golang's runtime, because child process doesn't inherit threads and goroutines in that case. The library uses a simple trick: it runs its own copy with a mark - a predefined environment variable. Availability of the variable for the process means an execution in the child's copy. So that if the mark is not setted - the library executes parent's operations and runs its own copy with mark, and if the mark is setted - the library executes child's operations:

import "log"

func main() {
	Pre()

	context := new(Context)
	child, _ := context.Reborn()

	if child != nil {
		PostParent()
	} else {
		defer func() {
			if err := context.Release(); err != nil {
				log.Printf("Unable to release pid-file: %s", err.Error())
			}
		}()

		PostChild()
	}
}

daemon
go
golang
library
pid
pidfile

Project health

Overall

3.6/10

Maintained

1/10

Code review

10/10
OpenSSF Scorecard

Latest release

v0.1.7 · Nov 10, 2025

Releases this year

1

Significant stargazers

Kamran Ahmed

41,257 followers · starred Dec 2025

Ben Johnson

4,328 followers · starred Apr 2022

Winlin

1,253 followers · starred Nov 2015

Andy Grunwald

515 followers · starred Apr 2022