What is an http request multiplexer?

From net/http GoDoc and Source.

ListenAndServe starts an HTTP server with a given address and handler. The handler is usually nil, which means to use DefaultServeMux. Handle and HandleFunc add handlers to DefaultServeMux

DefaultServeMux is just a predefined http.ServeMux

var DefaultServeMux = &defaultServeMux
var defaultServeMux ServeMux

As you can see http.Handle calls DefaultServeMux internally.

func Handle(pattern string, handler Handler) { DefaultServeMux.Handle(pattern, handler) }

The purpose of http.NewServeMux() is to have your own instance of http.ServerMux for instances like when you require two http.ListenAndServe functions listening to different ports with different routes.

the multiplexer in Golang is some things like multiplexer in hardware which multiply some inputs into some outputs

i gave you a simple exampe

type CustomMultiplexer struct {
}

the given multiplexer have to implement the ServeHTTP method to be registered int http to server inputs

func (mux CustomMultiplexer) ServeHTTP(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    if r.URL.Path == "/" {
        SimpleRequestHandler(w, r)
        return
    }
    http.NotFound(w, r)
    return
}

my SimpleRequestHandler is a method as follow

func SimpleRequestHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    switch r.Method {
    case http.MethodGet:
        mySimpleGetRequestHandler(w, r)
        break
    default:
        http.Error(w, "method not allowed", http.StatusMethodNotAllowed)
        break
    }
}

now i can use my CustomMultiplxere to do multiplexing between incoming requested

func main() {
    customServer := CustomServer{}
    err := http.ListenAndServe(":9001", &customServer)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
}

the http.HandleFunc method works as my given simple multiplexer.