Add python interface to Protobuf

[hjmallon]

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I am in a position where I could do with the Python (as well as the C++) interface included in the hunter version of Protobuf. brew install protobuf includes the python bindings too for example, see here.

I am not an expert in Python so I am not clear on the exact stages to this but I think we have a few options:

• Bind the url_sha1_cmake and url_sha1_pip generators together somehow to make a nasty Protobuf specific one
• Patch the protobuf cmake to optionally build and install the python bindings
• Have a separate pip_protobuf project (I tried this but the pip install needs to have a working directory in the SOURCE/python dir so changes would need to be made to url_sha1_pip.cmake).

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I posted this on Gitter too (thought an issue might be better).

[bkotzz]

I feel like the second option is the way to go - and we could have a certain version of protobuf that includes the python bindings.

When you say the bindings, I assume you mean the runtime library and not the compiler? Is there something here that you can’t get by installing the equivalent version from https://pypi.org/project/protobuf/?

[hjmallon]

When you say the bindings, I assume you mean the runtime library and not the compiler? Is there something here that you can’t get by installing the equivalent version from https://pypi.org/project/protobuf/?

Yep, I want the python bindings (as in the pypi package) at the same protobuf version as hunter is providing.

[bkotzz]

Got it. I’m just mentioning that every protobuf release is generally in pypi so you can probably find the same version there.

But if you’re interested in doing this, it will probably be easiest to make a new branch in the fork, make the required changes there, and then publish it as a separate release (ex. 3.10.0-with-py).

Also, if it’s easy to add the language runtime for all languages at once it may be worth doing that, instead of just python.