- proto 3
- Updating A Message Type
- Protocol Buffers Well-Known Types
- Protocol Buffer all options
- Protocol buffer style guide
- FAQ
- some examples
- videos
In order to perform code generation, you will need to install protoc on your computer.
It is actually very easy, open a command line interface and type brew install protobuf
Find the correct protocol buffers version based on your Linux Distro
Example with x64:
# Make sure you grab the latest version
curl -OL https://github.com/google/protobuf/releases/download/v3.5.1/protoc-3.5.1-linux-x86_64.zip
# Unzip
unzip protoc-3.5.1-linux-x86_64.zip -d protoc3
# Move protoc to /usr/local/bin/
sudo mv protoc3/bin/* /usr/local/bin/
# Move protoc3/include to /usr/local/include/
sudo mv protoc3/include/* /usr/local/include/
# Optional: change owner
sudo chown [user] /usr/local/bin/protoc
sudo chown -R [user] /usr/local/include/google
Download the windows archive
Extract all to C:\proto3
Your directory structure should now be:
C:\proto3\bin
C:\proto3\include
Finally, add C:\proto3\bin to your PATH:
- From the desktop, right-click My Computer and click Properties.
- In the System Properties window, click on the Advanced tab
- In the Advanced section, click the Environment Variables button.
- Finally, in the Environment Variables window (as shown below), highlight the Path variable in the Systems Variable section and click the Edit button. Add or modify the path lines with the paths you wish the computer to access. Each different directory is separated with a semicolon as shown below.
C:\Program Files; C:\Winnt; ...... ; C:\proto3\bin
you need to add ; C:\proto3\bin at the end
Setup your protoc with the following steps
export GO_PATH=~/go
export PATH=$PATH:/$GO_PATH/bin
source ~/.zshrc
go install google.golang.org/protobuf/cmd/protoc-gen-go@latest
go install google.golang.org/grpc/cmd/protoc-gen-go-grpc@latest
go mod tidy
For windows please check the documentation
# we can compile the entire folder
protoc --go_out=./src/go proto/*.proto
protoc --java_out=./src/java proto/*.proto
protoc --python_out=./src/python proto/*.proto
# we can also compile by the file
protoc --go_out=./src/go proto/address.proto
protoc --java_out=./src/java proto/address.proto
protoc --python_out=./src/python proto/address.proto
# if we specify these options in the proto files itself then we will
# no longer need to specify the packages for the protoc compiler
option go_package = "/src/go";
option java_package = "/src/java";
option py_package = "/src/python";
protoc --go_out=. proto/*.proto
protoc --java_out=. proto/*.proto
protoc --python_out=. proto/*.proto
# Make sure to to import the other proto files
# if we are using them in the current proto file
# use message with the proper . convention if that proto file have any package declairation
first we have to mention the syntax then we will create a proto messge, which is similar to struct
a message contains fields, which each field consists of [ field type , field name = tag; ]
syntax = "proto3";
// additionally we can set these option to directly tell where to compile
option go_package = "/app/proto";
option java_package = "/src/java";
option py_package = "/src/python";
message Address {
string buildingName = 1;
string streetName = 2;
string areaName = 3;
string cityName = 4;
string districtName = 5;
string stateName = 6;
string countryName = 7;
int32 pinCode = 8;
optional string googleLocation = 9;
repeated string landMarks = 11;
map<string, string> otherInformations = 12;
}
when we do not set any field then the field will not be serialized
we will not get any payload overhead for any empty data, though we can use some default value
oneOf and map can not be repeated
google has some wellknown data types top use time time, duration, check the links sections for refference
we have many options to use inside a proto file, check the FileOptions message inside the descriptor.proto
for naming convention check the style guide from the links
proto.Message is the interface that all proto structs are implementing, we can use that anywhere
Read an arbitrary protocol message from standard input and write the raw tag/value pairs in text format to standard output. No PROTO_FILES should be given when using this flag.
cat simple.bin | protoc --decode_rawRead a binary message of the given type from standard input and write it in text format to standard output. The message type must be defined in PROTO_FILES or their imports.
cat simple.bin | protoc --decode=Simple simple.proto > simple.txtcat simple.bin | protoc --decode=simple.Simple simple.proto > simple.txtRead a text-format message of the given type from standard input and write it in binary to standard output. The message type must be defined in PROTO_FILES or their imports.
cat simple.txt | protoc --encode=Simple simple.proto > simple.pbcat simple.txt | protoc --encode=simple.Simple simple.proto > simple.pb