[Build] Protobuf version selected by bazel doesn't compile

[waarmond]

What happened + What you expected to happen

My distro uses protobuf 25.3

Ray's bazel selects 3.19.6 which always fails:

ERROR: [bazel-cache]/external/com_google_protobuf/src/google/protobuf/BUILD.bazel:129:8: @@com_google_protobuf//src/google/protobuf:gen_wkt_cc_sources: no such attribute 'exec_tools' in 'genrule' rule (did you mean 'executable'?)
INFO: Repository go_sdk instantiated at:
  /ray/src/ray/WORKSPACE:17:16: in <toplevel>
  ./external/com_github_grpc_grpc/bazel/grpc_extra_deps.bzl:56:27: in grpc_extra_deps
  ./external/io_bazel_rules_go/go/private/sdk.bzl:453:28: in go_register_toolchains
  ./external/io_bazel_rules_go/go/private/sdk.bzl:129:21: in go_download_sdk
Repository rule _go_download_sdk defined at:
  ./external/io_bazel_rules_go/go/private/sdk.bzl:116:35: in <toplevel>
INFO: Repository protobuf~3.19.6 instantiated at:
  <builtin>: in <toplevel>
Repository rule http_archive defined at:
  ./external/bazel_tools/tools/build_defs/repo/http.bzl:381:31: in <toplevel>
ERROR: ./external/com_google_protobuf/BUILD.bazel:82:6: Target '@@com_google_protobuf//src/google/protobuf:wrappers_proto' contains an error and its package is in error and referenced by '@@com_google_protobuf//:wrappers_proto'

How may I force to use system protobuf instead of the vendored version?

May be caused by bazelbuild/bazel#19132

Versions / Dependencies

Python 3.10
Linux main 6.8.0
bazel 7.0.2

Next try with bazel 5.4.1 - Abseil problems:

Compiling absl/debugging/internal/vdso_support.cc [for host] failed: (Exit 1): gcc failed: error executing command 
  (cd ./sandbox/linux-sandbox/2/execroot/com_github_ray_project_ray && \

Compiling absl/debugging/internal/address_is_readable.cc [for host] failed: (Exit 1): gcc failed: error executing command 

Compiling absl/time/internal/cctz/src/time_zone_format.cc [for host] failed: (Exit 1): gcc failed: error executing command 

 Compiling absl/debugging/internal/demangle.cc [for host] failed: (Exit 1): gcc failed: error executing command 

Reproduction script

python -m build --wheel --no-isolation

Issue Severity

High: It blocks me from completing my task.

[mattip]

There is no current plan for ray to support bazel>5, see #31504 (comment), and newer protobuf requires bazel>5

[waarmond]

I've compiled protobuf 3.18 (/usr/bin/protoc3.18) in parallel to my distro's version.

Now its: src/main/tools/linux-sandbox-pid1.cc:487: "execvp(/usr/lib/ccache/bin/gcc, 0x558ce0d34340)": No such file or directory

Giving bazel the ccache it demands: ccache: error: Failed to create directory /home/me/.ccache/tmp: Read-only file system
bazelbuild/bazel#12124 !

[aslonnie]

bazel used by ray is upgraded to 6. we are also hard-pinning the bazel version now.