Serve static files with Go using gorilla/mux

Question

I'm trying to serve static files with Go, after following a few tutorials and other SO answers (here and here) I've arrived at the below code. I have researched numerous other similar questions, but the answers aren't working for me. I'm implementing my routing slightly different than most of the other questions, so I wonder if there's a subtle issue there that's causing the problem, but unfortunately my Go skills aren't polished enough to see what it is. My code is below (I've excluded the code for the handlers as it shouldn't be relevant).

router.go

package main

import (
    "net/http"

    "github.com/gorilla/mux"
)

func NewRouter() *mux.Router {
    router := mux.NewRouter().StrictSlash(true)

    for _, route := range routes {
        var handler http.Handler

        handler = route.HandlerFunc
        handler = Logger(handler, route.Name)

        router.
            Methods(route.Method).
            Path(route.Path).
            Name(route.Name).
            Handler(handler)
    }

    // This should work?
    fs := http.FileServer(http.Dir("./static"))
    router.PathPrefix("/static/").Handler(http.StripPrefix("/static/", fs))

    return router
}

routes.go

package main

import (
    "net/http"

    "web-api/app/handlers"
)

type Route struct {
    Name        string
    Method      string
    Path        string
    HandlerFunc http.HandlerFunc
}

type Routes []Route

var routes = Routes{
    Route{
        "Index",
        "GET",
        "/",
        handlers.Index,
    },
    Route{
        "Login",
        "GET",
        "/login",
        handlers.GetLogin,
    },
    Route{
        "Login",
        "POST",
        "/login",
        handlers.PostLogin,
    },
}

main.go

...

func main() {

    router := NewRouter()

    log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(":8080", router))
}

My file structure is setup as:

- app
    - main.go
    - router.go
    - routes.go
    - static/
        - stylesheets/
            - index.css

For some reason the browser can't access localhost:8080/static/stylesheets/index.css

Are you running the application from the `app` directory? The path `./static` is relative to the current working directory, not to a source file. — Cerise Limón, Dec 01 '17 at 00:29
I was building it from the parent directory of app, building it _inside_ app works, thank you! I'll mark your answer as correct if you leave it as an answer. Will using an absolute path allow me to build it from anywhere? — Matt Craig, Dec 01 '17 at 01:15
This is unrelated to where you build the application. It depends on current working directory of where you run the application. — Cerise Limón, Dec 01 '17 at 02:49

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 01 '17 at 02:52

File paths are relative to the current working directory, not to source code file that references the path.

The application's file server configuration assumes that the app directory is the current working directory. Change directory to the app directory before running the application.

Serve static files with Go using gorilla/mux

1 Answers1