Timeout for WaitGroup.Wait()

I did it like this: http://play.golang.org/p/eWv0fRlLEC

go func() {
    wg.Wait()
    c <- struct{}{}
}()
timeout := time.Duration(1) * time.Second
fmt.Printf("Wait for waitgroup (up to %s)\n", timeout)
select {
case <-c:
    fmt.Printf("Wait group finished\n")
case <-time.After(timeout):
    fmt.Printf("Timed out waiting for wait group\n")
}
fmt.Printf("Free at last\n")

It works fine, but is it the best way to do it?

Mostly your solution you posted below is as good as it can get. Couple of tips to improve it:

• Alternatively you may close the channel to signal completion instead of sending a value on it, a receive operation on a closed channel can always proceed immediately.
• And it's better to use defer statement to signal completion, it is executed even if a function terminates abruptly.
• Also if there is only one "job" to wait for, you can completely omit the WaitGroup and just send a value or close the channel when job is complete (the same channel you use in your select statement).
• Specifying 1 second duration is as simple as: timeout := time.Second. Specifying 2 seconds for example is: timeout := 2 * time.Second. You don't need the conversion, time.Second is already of type time.Duration, multiplying it with an untyped constant like 2 will also yield a value of type time.Duration.

I would also create a helper / utility function wrapping this functionality. Note that WaitGroup must be passed as a pointer else the copy will not get "notified" of the WaitGroup.Done() calls. Something like:

// waitTimeout waits for the waitgroup for the specified max timeout.
// Returns true if waiting timed out.
func waitTimeout(wg *sync.WaitGroup, timeout time.Duration) bool {
    c := make(chan struct{})
    go func() {
        defer close(c)
        wg.Wait()
    }()
    select {
    case <-c:
        return false // completed normally
    case <-time.After(timeout):
        return true // timed out
    }
}

Using it:

if waitTimeout(&wg, time.Second) {
    fmt.Println("Timed out waiting for wait group")
} else {
    fmt.Println("Wait group finished")
}

Try it on the Go Playground.