Golang websocket

Can someone help explain what does the following code snippet mean?

var partner = make(chan io.ReadWriteCloser)

func match(c io.ReadWriteCloser) {
    fmt.Fprintln(c, "Waiting for a partner...")
    select {
    case partner <- c:
        // handled by the other goroutine
    case p := <-partner:
        chat(p, c)
    }
}

Full version:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "golang.org/x/net/websocket"
    "html/template"
    "io"
    "log"
    "net/http"
)

const listenAddr = "localhost:4000"

type socket struct {
    conn *websocket.Conn
    done chan bool
}

func (s socket) Read(b []byte) (int, error) {
    return s.conn.Read(b)
}

func (s socket) Write(b []byte) (int, error) {
    return s.conn.Write(b)
}

func (s socket) Close() error {
    s.done <- true
    return nil
}

var rootTemplate = template.Must(template.New("root").Parse(`
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>Websocket Chat - Golang</title>
        <meta charset="UTF-8"/>
        <script>
            var input, output, websocket;

            function showMessage(msg) {
                var p = document.createElement("p");
                p.innerHTML = msg;
                output.appendChild(p);
            }
        
            function onMessage(e) {
                showMessage(e.data);
            }
            
            function onClose() {
                showMessage("Connection closed.");
            }
            
            function onKeyUp(e) {
                if (e.keyCode === 13) {
                    sendMessage();
                }
            }
            
            function sendMessage() {
                var msg = input.value;
                input.value = "";
                websocket.send(msg + "\n");
                showMessage(msg);
            }
            
            function init() {
                input = document.getElementById("input");
                input.addEventListener("keyup", onKeyUp, false);
                output = document.getElementById("output");
                websocket = new WebSocket("ws://{{.}}/socket");
                websocket.onmessage = onMessage;
                websocket.onclose = onClose;
            }
            
            window.addEventListener("load", init);
        </script>
    </head>
    <body>
        Say: <input id="input" type="text"/>
        <div id="output"></div>
    </body>
</html>
`))

func rootHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    rootTemplate.Execute(w, listenAddr)
}

func socketHandler(conn *websocket.Conn) {
    s := socket{conn: conn, done: make(chan bool)}
    go match(s)
    <-s.done
}

var partner = make(chan io.ReadWriteCloser)

func match(c io.ReadWriteCloser) {
    fmt.Fprintln(c, "Waiting for a partner...")
    select {
    case partner <- c:
        // handled by the other goroutine
    case p := <-partner:
        chat(p, c)
    }
}

func chat(a, b io.ReadWriteCloser) {
    fmt.Fprintln(a, "Found one! Say hi.")
    fmt.Fprintln(b, "Found one! Say hi.")
    errc := make(chan error, 1)
    go cp(a, b, errc)
    go cp(b, a, errc)
    if err := <-errc; err != nil {
        log.Println(err)
    }
    a.Close()
    b.Close()
    go io.Copy(b, a)
    io.Copy(a, b)
}

func cp(w io.Writer, r io.Reader, errc chan<- error) {
    _, err := io.Copy(w, r)
    errc <- err
}

func main() {
    http.HandleFunc("/", rootHandler)
    http.Handle("/socket", websocket.Handler(socketHandler))
    err := http.ListenAndServe(listenAddr, nil)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
}

Don’t quite understand why this chat function can be executed when a second joiner joins chat channel.

Solution

It looks like the HTTP handler creates a web socket and starts waiting for another party to connect. This is because when the HTTP request is handled, the handler calls match, which will block on select because the partner channel is neither readable nor writeable. There is no goroutine listening from it, or sending to it.

When the second request comes, match is called again from another goroutine. Now there are two goroutines, and they can be matched. One of the goroutines can send to the partner channel, and the other one receives it. The object transferred is the reader-writer, which is then used for communicating between the two partners.