go - Unmarshal to a interface type

Question

I have some code I've been dumped with and am actually stumped - I've worked with RPC and the JSON side of things before but I can't seem to get it to work over RPC when it works fine locally.

package main

import (
    "log"
    "net"
    "net/rpc"
    "net/rpc/jsonrpc"
    "reflect"
)

type Foo interface {
    SayHello() error
}

type fakeFoo struct {
    internalValue string
}

func NewFakeFoo() *fakeFoo {
    f := &fakeFoo{}
    f.internalValue = "123456789012347"
    return f
}

func (m *fakeFoo) SayHello() error {
    return nil
}

type FooManager struct {
    availableFoos []Foo
}

func NewFooManager() *FooManager {
    p := new(FooManager)
    p.availableFoos = make([]Foo, 0)
    return p
}

func AddFoo(mm *FooManager, m Foo) {
    mm.availableFoos = append(mm.availableFoos, m)
    log.Println("Added type ", reflect.TypeOf(m))
}

func (mm *FooManager) GetAvailableFoos(in []Foo, out *[]Foo) error {

    log.Println("availableFoos:", reflect.TypeOf(mm.availableFoos))
    log.Println("*out is", reflect.TypeOf(*out))

    *out = append(in, mm.availableFoos...)

    log.Println("Out is:", reflect.TypeOf(*out))

    return nil
}

func startServer(mm *FooManager) {
    server := rpc.NewServer()
    server.Register(mm)

    l, e := net.Listen("tcp", ":8222")
    if e != nil {
        log.Fatal("listen error:", e)
    }

    for {
        conn, err := l.Accept()
        log.Println("Incoming!")
        if err != nil {
            log.Fatal(err)
        }

        go server.ServeCodec(jsonrpc.NewServerCodec(conn))
    }
}

func main() {
    fake1 := NewFakeFoo()

    fooHolder := NewFooManager()
    AddFoo(fooHolder, fake1)
    go startServer(fooHolder)

    log.Println("Using standard function call")
    var foos []Foo
    fooHolder.GetAvailableFoos(foos, &foos)
    log.Println(foos)

    log.Println("Using RPC call")
    conn, err := net.Dial("tcp", "localhost:8222")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalln(err)
    }
    defer conn.Close()
    c := jsonrpc.NewClient(conn)

    err = c.Call("FooManager.GetAvailableFoos", foos, &foos)
    if err != nil {
        log.Println(foos)
        log.Fatal("GetAvailableFoos error:", err)
    }
    log.Println("Success: ", foos)
}

(also here but no tcp available urgh! http://play.golang.org/p/HmK-K09D2J )

The output is pretty surprising as it indicates something going wrong with the marshalling rather than with the actual data - Running it in wireshark I can see the data being sent in the correct form (I had success using a similar technique in another question) but can't for the life of me get this to stop throwing marshalling bugs.

The output from running this is as follows:

2015/09/07 10:04:35 Added type  *main.fakeFoo
2015/09/07 10:04:35 Using standard function call
2015/09/07 10:04:35 availableFoos: []main.Foo
2015/09/07 10:04:35 *out is []main.Foo
2015/09/07 10:04:35 Out is: []main.Foo
2015/09/07 10:04:35 [0x1870a540]
2015/09/07 10:04:35 Using RPC call
2015/09/07 10:04:35 Incoming!
2015/09/07 10:04:35 [0x1870a540]
2015/09/07 10:04:35 GetAvailableFoos error:json: cannot unmarshal object into Go value of type main.Foo
exit status 1

Am I missing an interface/type trick or is this a bug in Go's marshalling?

Answer 1

Waitting for answers