HTTP Request Handling: Is a Return Statement Necessary for Background Processing?

HTTP Request Handling: Closing Properly and Background Processing

When processing incoming HTTP requests, you may face a scenario where you need to respond with a 202 Accepted status code while continuing to process the payload in the background. To handle this situation effectively, it is important to know the proper way to close the request and initiate the background processing.

In the given code example, the index handler responds with the 202 Accepted status code and initiates the sleep operation as a goroutine. This approach is correct, as it closes the request and makes the sleep operation run asynchronously.

However, the question arises of whether it is necessary to include the return statement after the go statement. According to the official HTTP handler documentation, "Returning signals that the request is finished." This means that as soon as a return statement is executed in a handler, the request is considered complete. Any operations initiated after the return will not be executed within the scope of the handler.

Therefore, in this case, the return statement is not necessary. Execution will return from the handler as soon as the return statement is encountered, and the sleep operation will continue to run in the background.

To summarize, when you need to close an HTTP request and initiate background processing, it is sufficient to write the headers and call the go statement. The return statement is unnecessary and should be omitted. Just remember to avoid using the ResponseWriter and Request values in the background goroutine, as they may be reused.

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