gomodifytags

Go tool to modify/update field tags in structs. gomodifytags makes it easy to
update, add or delete the tags in a struct field. You can easily add new tags,
update existing tags (such as appending a new key, i.e: db, xml, etc..) or
remove existing tags. It also allows you to add and remove tag options. It's
intended to be used by an editor, but also has modes to run it from the
terminal. Read the usage section below for more information.

Install

go get github.com/fatih/gomodifytags

Supported editors

• vim-go with :GoAddTags and :GoRemoveTags
• go-plus (atom) with commands golang:add-tags and golang:remove-tags
• vscode-go with commands Go: Add Tags and Go: Remove Tags
• A (Acme) with commands addtags and rmtags
• emacs-go-tag with commands go-tag-add and go-tag-remove

Usage

gomodifytags has multiple ways to modify a tag. Let's start with an example package:

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string
	Port        int
	EnableLogs  bool
	BaseDomain  string
	Credentials struct {
		Username string
		Password string
	}
}

We have to first pass a file. For that we can use the -file flag:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go
-line, -offset or -struct is not passed

What are these? There are three different ways of defining which field tags
to change:

• -struct: This accepts the struct name. i.e: -struct Server. The name
  should be a valid type name. The -struct flag selects the whole struct, and
  thus it will operate on all fields.
• -offset: This accepts a byte offset of the file. Useful for editors to pass
  the position under the cursor. i.e: -offset 548. The offset has to be
  inside a valid struct. The -offset selects the whole struct. If you need
  more granular option see -line
• -line: This accepts a string that defines the line or lines of which fields
  should be changed. I.e: -line 4 or -line 5,8

Let's continue by using the -struct tag:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -struct Server
one of [-add-tags, -add-options, -remove-tags, -remove-options, -clear-tags, -clear-options] should be defined

Adding tags & options

There are many options on how you can change the struct. Let us start by adding
tags. The following will add the json key to all fields. The value will be
automatically inherited from the field name and transformed to snake_case:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -struct Server -add-tags json

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string `json:"name"`
	Port        int    `json:"port"`
	EnableLogs  bool   `json:"enable_logs"`
	BaseDomain  string `json:"base_domain"`
	Credentials struct {
		Username string `json:"username"`
		Password string `json:"password"`
	} `json:"credentials"`
}

By default every change will be printed to stdout. So it's safe to run it and
see the results of it. If you want to change it permanently, pass the -w
(write) flag.

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -struct Server -add-tags json -w

You can pass multiple keys to add tags. The following will add json and xml
keys:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -struct Server -add-tags json,xml

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string `json:"name" xml:"name"`
	Port        int    `json:"port" xml:"port"`
	EnableLogs  bool   `json:"enable_logs" xml:"enable_logs"`
	BaseDomain  string `json:"base_domain" xml:"base_domain"`
	Credentials struct {
		Username string `json:"username" xml:"username"`
		Password string `json:"password" xml:"password"`
	} `json:"credentials" xml:"credentials"`
}

If you prefer to use camelCase instead of snake_case for the values, you
can use the -transform flag to define a different transformation rule. The
following example uses the camelcase transformation rule:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -struct Server -add-tags json,xml -transform camelcase

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string `json:"name" xml:"name"`
	Port        int    `json:"port" xml:"port"`
	EnableLogs  bool   `json:"enableLogs" xml:"enableLogs"`
	BaseDomain  string `json:"baseDomain" xml:"baseDomain"`
	Credentials struct {
		Username string `json:"username" xml:"username"`
		Password string `json:"password" xml:"password"`
	} `json:"credentials" xml:"credentials"`
}

We currently support the following transformations:

• snakecase: "BaseDomain" -> "base_domain"
• camelcase: "BaseDomain" -> "baseDomain"
• lispcase: "BaseDomain" -> "base-domain"
• pascalcase: "BaseDomain" -> "BaseDomain"
• keep: keeps the original field name

You can also pass a static value for each fields. This is useful if you use Go
packages that validates the struct fields or extract values for certain
operations. The following example adds the json key, a validate key with
the value set to gt=1 and the scope key with the value read-only:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -struct Server -add-tags json,validate:gt=1,scope:read-only

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string `json:"name" validate:"gt=1" scope:"read-only"`
	Port        int    `json:"port" validate:"gt=1" scope:"read-only"`
	EnableLogs  bool   `json:"enable_logs" validate:"gt=1" scope:"read-only"`
	BaseDomain  string `json:"base_domain" validate:"gt=1" scope:"read-only"`
	Credentials struct {
		Username string `json:"username" validate:"gt=1" scope:"read-only"`
		Password string `json:"password" validate:"gt=1" scope:"read-only"`
	} `json:"credentials" validate:"gt=1" scope:"read-only"`
}

To add options to for a given key, we use the -add-options flag. In the
example below we're going to add the json key and the omitempty option to
all json keys:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -struct Server -add-tags json -add-options json=omitempty

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string `json:"name,omitempty"`
	Port        int    `json:"port,omitempty"`
	EnableLogs  bool   `json:"enable_logs,omitempty"`
	BaseDomain  string `json:"base_domain,omitempty"`
	Credentials struct {
		Username string `json:"username,omitempty"`
		Password string `json:"password,omitempty"`
	} `json:"credentials,omitempty"`
}

If the key already exists you don't have to use -add-tags

Skipping unexported fields

By default all fields are processed. This main reason for this is to allow
structs to evolve with time and be ready in case a field is exported in the
future. However if you don't like this behavior, you can skip it by passing the
--skip-unexported flag:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -struct Server -add-tags json --skip-unexported

package main

type Server struct {
        Name       string `json:"name"`
        Port       int    `json:"port"`
        enableLogs bool
        baseDomain string
}

Removing tags & options

Let's continue with removing tags. We're going to use the following simple package:

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string `json:"name,omitempty" xml:"name,attr,cdata"`
	Port        int    `json:"port,omitempty" xml:"port,attr,cdata"`
	EnableLogs  bool   `json:"enable_logs,omitempty" xml:"enable_logs,attr,cdata"`
	BaseDomain  string `json:"base_domain,omitempty" xml:"base_domain,attr,cdata"`
	Credentials struct {
		Username string `json:"username,omitempty" xml:"username,attr,cdata"`
		Password string `json:"password,omitempty" xml:"password,attr,cdata"`
	} `json:"credentials,omitempty" xml:"credentials,attr,cdata"`
}

To remove the xml tags, we're going to use the -remove-tags flag:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -struct Server -remove-tags xml

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string `json:"name"`
	Port        int    `json:"port"`
	EnableLogs  bool   `json:"enable_logs"`
	BaseDomain  string `json:"base_domain"`
	Credentials struct {
		Username string `json:"username"`
		Password string `json:"password"`
	} `json:"credentials"`
}

You can also remove multiple tags. The example below removs json and xml:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -struct Server -remove-tags json,xml

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string
	Port        int
	EnableLogs  bool
	BaseDomain  string
	Credentials struct {
		Username string
		Password string
	}
}

If you want to remove all keys, we can also use the -clear-tags flag. This
flag removes all tags and doesn't require to explicitly pass the key names:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -struct Server -clear-tags

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string
	Port        int
	EnableLogs  bool
	BaseDomain  string
	Credentials struct {
		Username string
		Password string
	}
}

To remove any option, we can use the -remove-options flag. The following will
remove all omitempty flags from the json key:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -struct Server -remove-options json=omitempty

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string `json:"name" xml:"name,attr,cdata"`
	Port        int    `json:"port" xml:"port,attr,cdata"`
	EnableLogs  bool   `json:"enable_logs" xml:"enable_logs,attr,cdata"`
	BaseDomain  string `json:"base_domain" xml:"base_domain,attr,cdata"`
	Credentials struct {
		Username string `json:"username" xml:"username,attr,cdata"`
		Password string `json:"password" xml:"password,attr,cdata"`
	} `json:"credentials" xml:"credentials,attr,cdata"`
}

To remove multiple options from multiple tags just add another options:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -struct Server -remove-options json=omitempty,xml=cdata

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string `json:"name" xml:"name,attr"`
	Port        int    `json:"port" xml:"port,attr"`
	EnableLogs  bool   `json:"enable_logs" xml:"enable_logs,attr"`
	BaseDomain  string `json:"base_domain" xml:"base_domain,attr"`
	Credentials struct {
		Username string `json:"username" xml:"username,attr"`
		Password string `json:"password" xml:"password,attr"`
	} `json:"credentials" xml:"credentials,attr"`
}

Lastly, to remove all options without explicitly defining the keys and names,
we can use the -clear-options flag. The following example will remove all
options for the given struct:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -struct Server -clear-options

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string `json:"name" xml:"name"`
	Port        int    `json:"port" xml:"port"`
	EnableLogs  bool   `json:"enable_logs" xml:"enable_logs"`
	BaseDomain  string `json:"base_domain" xml:"base_domain"`
	Credentials struct {
		Username string `json:"username" xml:"username"`
		Password string `json:"password" xml:"password"`
	} `json:"credentials" xml:"credentials"`
}

Line based modification

So far all examples used the -struct flag. However we also can pass the line
numbers to only change certain files. Suppose we only want to remove the tags
for the Credentials struct (including the fields) for the following code (lines are included):

01  package main
02  
03  type Server struct {
04  	Name        string `json:"name" xml:"name"`
05  	Port        int    `json:"port" xml:"port"`
06  	EnableLogs  bool   `json:"enable_logs" xml:"enable_logs"`
07  	BaseDomain  string `json:"base_domain" xml:"base_domain"`
08  	Credentials struct {
09  		Username string `json:"username" xml:"username"`
10  		Password string `json:"password" xml:"password"`
11  	} `json:"credentials" xml:"credentials"`
12  }

To remove the tags for the credentials we're going to pass the -line flag:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -line 8,11 -clear-tags xml

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string `json:"name" xml:"name"`
	Port        int    `json:"port" xml:"port"`
	EnableLogs  bool   `json:"enable_logs" xml:"enable_logs"`
	BaseDomain  string `json:"base_domain" xml:"base_domain"`
	Credentials struct {
		Username string
		Password string
	}
}

For removing the xml tags for certain lines, we can use the -remove-tags
field. The following example will remove the xml tags for the lines 6 and 7
(fields with names of EnableLogs and BaseDomain):

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -line 6,7 -remove-tags xml

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string `json:"name" xml:"name"`
	Port        int    `json:"port" xml:"port"`
	EnableLogs  bool   `json:"enable_logs"`
	BaseDomain  string `json:"base_domain"`
	Credentials struct {
		Username string `json:"username" xml:"username"`
		Password string `json:"password" xml:"password"`
	} `json:"credentials" xml:"credentials"`
}

The same logic applies to adding tags or any other option as well. To add the
bson tag to the lines between 5 and 7, we can use the following example:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -line 5,7 -add-tags bson

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string `json:"name" xml:"name"`
	Port        int    `json:"port" xml:"port" bson:"port"`
	EnableLogs  bool   `json:"enable_logs" xml:"enable_logs" bson:"enable_logs"`
	BaseDomain  string `json:"base_domain" xml:"base_domain" bson:"base_domain"`
	Credentials struct {
		Username string `json:"username" xml:"username"`
		Password string `json:"password" xml:"password"`
	} `json:"credentials" xml:"credentials"`
}

Editor integration

Editors can use the tool by calling the tool and then either replace the buffer
with the stdout or use the -w flag.

Also -line and -offset flags should be preferred to be used with editors.
An editor can select a range of lines and then pass it to -line flag. The
editor also can pass the offset under the cursor if it's inside the struct to
-offset

Editors also can use the -format flag to output a json output with the
changed lines. This is useful if you want to explicitly replace the buffer with
the given lines. For the file below:

package main

type Server struct {
	Name        string
	Port        int
	EnableLogs  bool
	BaseDomain  string
	Credentials struct {
		Username string
		Password string
	}
}

If we add the xml tag and tell to output the format in json with the
-format flag, the following will be outputed:

$ gomodifytags -file demo.go -struct Server -add-tags xml -format json

{
  "start": 3,
  "end": 12,
  "lines": [
    "type Server struct {",
    "\tName        string `xml:\"name\"`",
    "\tPort        int    `xml:\"port\"`",
    "\tEnableLogs  bool   `xml:\"enable_logs\"`",
    "\tBaseDomain  string `xml:\"base_domain\"`",
    "\tCredentials struct {",
    "\t\tUsername string `xml:\"username\"`",
    "\t\tPassword string `xml:\"password\"`",
    "\t} `xml:\"credentials\"`",
    "}"
  ]
}

The output is defined with the following Go struct:

type output struct {
	Start int      `json:"start"`
	End   int      `json:"end"`
	Lines []string `json:"lines"`
}

The start and end specifices the positions in the file the lines will
apply. With this information, you can replace the editor buffer by iterating
over the lines and set it for the given range. An example how it's done in
vim-go in Vimscript is:

let index = 0
for line_number in range(start, end)
  call setline(line_number, lines[index])
  let index += 1
endfor

Unsaved files

Editors can supply gomodifytags with the contents of unsaved buffers by
using the -modified flag and writing an archive to stdin.
Files in the archive will be preferred over those on disk.

Each archive entry consists of:

• the file name, followed by a newline
• the (decimal) file size, followed by a newline
• the contents of the file

Development

At least Go v1.11.x is required. Older versions might work, but it's not
recommended.

gomodifytags uses Go modules for
dependency management. This means that you don't have to go get it into a
GOPATH anymore. Checkout the repository:

git clone https://github.com/fatih/gomodifytags.git

Start developing the code. To build a binary, execute:

GO111MODULE=on go build -mod=vendor

This will create a gomodifytags binary in the current directory. To test the
package, run the following:

GO111MODULE=on go test -v -mod=vendor

If everything works fine, feel free to open a pull request with your changes.