sql: parser for DSN

[Archos]

The SQL drivers have different schemes to parse the Data Source Name, even in drivers for the same SQL engine, i.e. in
"github.com/Go-SQL-Driver/MySQL" and "github.com/serbaut/go-mysql".

So I think that "database/sql/driver" could have an interface for that all drivers use the same kind of parser, i.e. using RFC 3986 net/url strings as DSN.

[Julien Schmidt]

I think thats a design which would require an API change (assuming we don't want to confuse the user with a second Open function). So it won't change until Go 2.
But I would appreciate such a uniform DSN.

[serbaut]

We could use regular urls and let the scheme select driver. For example:

sql.RegisterScheme("foo", &driver{})

sql.RegisterScheme("oracle", &driver{})

db.OpenURL("foo://user:pass@host?foo-specific-params")

db.OpenURL("oracle://user:pass@host?oracle-specific-params")

Having a url makes it easier to handle db config in settings and flags. Like

./myapp --db=oracle://server1

[database]

db = postgresql://localhost

[Andy Balholm]

I appreciate the drivers that use their database's standard DSN format, like github.com/lib/pq, which uses the same format at the C libpq, and github.com/mattn/go-adodb, which uses the standard ADO format.

I can't comment on MySQL, since I have no idea if there's a standard format for MySQL connection strings.