Question

Assuming that we have:

http.HandleFunc("/smth", smthPage)
http.HandleFunc("/", homePage)

User sees a plain “404 page not found” when they try a wrong URL. How can I return a custom page for that case?

Update concerning gorilla/mux

Accepted answer is ok for those using pure net/http package.

If you use gorilla/mux you should use something like this:

func main() {
    r := mux.NewRouter()
    r.NotFoundHandler = http.HandlerFunc(notFound)
}

And implement func notFound(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) as you want.

Answer 1

I usually do this:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "net/http"
)

func main() {
    http.HandleFunc("/", homeHandler)
    http.HandleFunc("/smth/", smthHandler)
    http.ListenAndServe(":12345", nil)
}

func homeHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    if r.URL.Path != "/" {
        errorHandler(w, r, http.StatusNotFound)
        return
    }
    fmt.Fprint(w, "welcome home")
}

func smthHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    if r.URL.Path != "/smth/" {
        errorHandler(w, r, http.StatusNotFound)
        return
    }
    fmt.Fprint(w, "welcome smth")
}

func errorHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request, status int) {
    w.WriteHeader(status)
    if status == http.StatusNotFound {
        fmt.Fprint(w, "custom 404")
    }
}

Here I’ve simplified the code to only show custom 404, but I actually do more with this setup: I handle all the HTTP errors with errorHandler, in which I log useful information and send email to myself.