CGO: Use https://github.com/glebarez/go-sqlite with GORM

[gedw99]

Hey @0xERR0R

Was looking at the code base and seeing that your using the CGO based SQLITE driver.

https://gitlab.com/cznic/sqlite is a bit slower but there is no CGO and no need for any Sqlite DB on any OS.

https://github.com/glebarez/go-sqlite uses the above is designed to use Gorm. Its pretty heavily used, and I have had no issues so far with it.

This will make things a lot easier for dev and also users I think. What ya think ?

Here is a very simple example of it used with GORM: https://github.com/atmshang/cached-translate/blob/master/database.go

[0xERR0R]

Hi @gedw99,

Thank you for the hint. I'm already using "github.com/glebarez/sqlite" in my other project and it works well. In blocky, we are using sqlite only in tests, so I assume, we don't link in in release binary.

But maybe it would make sense to change the implementation if it makes development easier

[kwitsch]

Since the binaries are compiled with Zig as C compiler there shouldn't be any external dependencies.

Did you need dependencies for the precompiled binaries?

[gedw99]

ah that's new way to do things.. seems your using https://github.com/dosgo/zigtool

I actually don't get where zig fits in here. If you have time to explain I would appreciate it. Looks interesting

Normally to use that sqlite lib we are talking about you don't need anything under you...

[kwitsch]

Zig compiles every dependency needed into the final binary.
Especially handy if you got some CGo code since it can stay enabled without relying on external dependencies.
Blocky uses some system libraries that would break otherwise if the resulting binary is executed on a Docker scratch image.
There are a few that ignore disabling CGo and have to be switched explicitly which has other disadvantages.
Zig provides a very simple solution to this problem.

Hope that helps 🙂

[gedw99]

I used bun which is built with zig.

So the golang is compiled as a shared lib ( or something ) and then zig sort of wraps the golsng type of thing ??

Sorry to e so ignorant but this one is a new trick and am intrigued.

Maybe it’s a type of “ elegant monolith “ pattern ?. Build your many golsng bits and then zig sort of wraps them together perhaps ?

I guess the first question is why ? Good old golang is pretty is independent etc so curious about the why aspect …

[kwitsch]

I think this article has a good explanation: https://www.arp242.net/static-go.html

Short summary:
Go is compiled statically unless you use some os and net packages since they use CGO internally. Even disabling CGO through the enabled variable or explicitly compiling as static won't crosscompile correctly. Disabling the CGO part through the special build tags has performance and functionality impacts.
All these things can be ignored if Zig is used as C compiler since Zig always links statically.

Most folks can simply disable CGO and pass the -static parameter and be fine.
As explained this won't work for DNS applications that should be truly monolithic.

Hope this helps.

It's been a bit since I dug into the quirks of Golang, CGO and static compilation so please correct me if someone finds a mixup in my explanation. 😅