importing google/protobuf/*.protos when using protoc-c

Question

I installed protoc, protoc-c, libprotobuf and libprotobuf-c on my system. I have .proto file that imports timestamp.proto as follows:

syntax = "proto3";

import "google/protobuf/timestamp.proto";

message DeviceCtx {

    google.protobuf.Timestamp CID = 1;

    uint32 ContextLen = 2;

    bytes ContextBuf = 3;

}

Am using protoc-c to generate the C binding for the same using below:

home>protoc-c --c_out=. a.proto
home>ls a.pb-c*
a.pb-c.c a.pb-c.h

It generates the C bindings for this proto file. But when I try compiling this .c file, I get the following error as it is looking for timestamp.pb-c.h file.

home>gcc a.pb-c.c dummy.c -I/usr/local/include -L/usr/local/lib -lprotobuf-c
In file included from a.pb-c.c:9:0:
a.pb-c.h:17:10: fatal error: google/protobuf/timestamp.pb-c.h: No such file or directory
#include "google/protobuf/timestamp.pb-c.h"
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.

With protoc-c I don't see the header files for standard proto like timestamp.proto being generated/staged when I installed the protoc-c. Does that mean we have to explicitly recompile all the protos under google/protobuf using protoc-c to generate the C binding for all the protos (google/protobuf/*.protos), stage the generated header files under /usr/local/include/google/protobuf and include *pb-c.c files in our library make for it to build successfully? Do I need to install any specific package to get the C bindings for protos under google/protobuf. Did I miss some step during install, which would have done the autogeneration of C bindings for all protos under google/protobuf and staged it correctly.

I don't see any issues if I don't import any protos from google/protobuf.

When using protoc for the same proto file, I don't see any such issue.

home>protoc --cpp_out=. a.proto
home>g++ a.pb.cc dummy.cc -I/usr/local/include -L/usr/local/lib -lprotobuf
home>

I am new to protobuf and using protoc-c compiler for the first time. So apologize for my shortcomings.

Thanks, -Mini

jpa · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-08 18:34:16Z

0

Usually in 3rd party protobuf libraries, you would treat the Google's .proto files the same as you would any .proto you write yourself. So you would write rules to compile them to a folder in your project-specific include directory.

answered Mar 8, 2019 at 18:34

jpa

12.5k1 gold badge40 silver badges57 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

importing google/protobuf/*.protos when using protoc-c

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related