Putting into a common namespace two .proto files that both import the same third file throws an error

[seishun]

Consider the following three files:

• example1.proto

import "example3.proto";

message Test1 {
    required int32 a = 1;
}

• example2.proto

import "example3.proto";

message Test2 {
  required string b = 2;
}

• example3.proto

message Test3 {
  required string b = 2;
}

Trying to put example1.proto and example2.proto into a common namespace throws the following:

> var builder = ProtoBuf.protoFromFile("./example1.proto");
undefined
> ProtoBuf.protoFromFile("./example2.proto", builder)
Error: Duplicate name in namespace Namespace : Test3
    at ProtoBuf.Reflect.Namespace.addChild (E:\Downloads\node_modules\protobufjs\ProtoBuf.js:1192:27)
    at ProtoBuf.Builder.Builder.create (E:\Downloads\node_modules\protobufjs\ProtoBuf.js:2530:42)
    at ProtoBuf.Builder.Builder.import (E:\Downloads\node_modules\protobufjs\ProtoBuf.js:2590:26)
    at ProtoBuf.Builder.Builder.import (E:\Downloads\node_modules\protobufjs\ProtoBuf.js:2622:43)
    at Object.ProtoBuf.protoFromString (E:\Downloads\node_modules\protobufjs\ProtoBuf.js:2757:34)
    at Object.ProtoBuf.protoFromFile (E:\Downloads\node_modules\protobufjs\ProtoBuf.js:2790:53)
    at repl:1:11
    at REPLServer.self.eval (repl.js:110:21)
    at Interface.<anonymous> (repl.js:239:12)
    at Interface.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:95:17)

[dcodeIO]

The recommended way of doing this is to use two builders through ProtoBuf.protoFromFile(...) or to create a compound .proto file for your application.

Of course file names could be remembered and excluded from the next include. However, ProtoBuf.js does not know of possible file changes, working directory changes and so on, which might lead to unexpected behaviour. Hmm..

[seishun]

Instead of remembering file names, you could remember the absolute paths - in node.js you can use path.resolve. It's not an issue in the browser, correct?

As for file changes, I think it would be best to follow the approach of node.js's require. If the file has been loaded before, it returns the cached module and doesn't care if the file has been modified.