I would like to create a package that has a main function and uses the flag package to specify arguments.
Additionally, I want to be able to include this package in other packages, and call it's methods with a similar syntax to passing args on the cli. Possibly something like
err := myPackage.setFlags(args ...string)
out, err := myPackage.exec()
Some of the reasons I want the included package to have a main function is:
It enables me to distribute the package as a standalone executable. My users might not need the complete system
It could make manual troubleshooting easier
Should I keep everything separate and use os\exec?
Should I create standalone wrappers (maybe these can be generated?) for each package and call exported functions directly from the complete system without doing the setFlags thing?
Is there a good design pattern I could follow to do this?
Or am I conjuring up an anti-pattern?
A common pattern is to have a cmd pkg in your project that has executables.
Something like this
cmd/
foo/main.go
pkg/
foo/foo.go
cmd/foo imports pkg/foo and handles the command line flags. pkg/foo is the package with all of the library code. This pattern lets others import pkg/foo and cmd/foo gives you an executable called foo as well.