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Copyright 2008 Google Inc.

https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/

If you get the source from github, you need to generate the configure scriptfirst:

$ ./autogen.sh

This will download gtest source (which is used for C++ Protocol Bufferunit-tests) to the current directory and run automake, autoconf, etc.to generate the configure script and various template makefiles.

You can skip this step if you are using a release package (which alreadycontains gtest and the configure script).

To build and install the C++ Protocol Buffer runtime and the ProtocolBuffer compiler (protoc) execute the following:

$ ./configure$ make$ make check$ make install

If "make check" fails, you can still install, but it is likely thatsome features of this library will not work correctly on your system.Proceed at your own risk.

"make install" may require superuser privileges.

For advanced usage information on configure and make, see INSTALL.txt.

Hint on install location

By default, the package will be installed to /usr/local. However,on many platforms, /usr/local/lib is not part of LD_LIBRARY_PATH.You can add it, but it may be easier to just install to /usrinstead. To do this, invoke configure as follows:

./configure --prefix=/usr

If you already built the package with a different prefix, make sureto run "make clean" before building again.

Compiling dependent packages

To compile a package that uses Protocol Buffers, you need to passvarious flags to your compiler and linker. As of version 2.2.0,Protocol Buffers integrates with pkg-config to manage this. If youhave pkg-config installed, then you can invoke it to get a list offlags like so:

pkg-config --cflags protobuf         # print compiler flagspkg-config --libs protobuf           # print linker flagspkg-config --cflags --libs protobuf  # print both

For example:

c++ my_program.cc my_proto.pb.cc `pkg-config --cflags --libs protobuf`

Note that packages written prior to the 2.2.0 release of ProtocolBuffers may not yet integrate with pkg-config to get flags, and maynot pass the correct set of flags to correctly link againstlibprotobuf. If the package in question uses autoconf, you canoften fix the problem by invoking its configure script like:

configure CXXFLAGS="$(pkg-config --cflags protobuf)" \          LIBS="$(pkg-config --libs protobuf)"

This will force it to use the correct flags.

If you are writing an autoconf-based package that uses ProtocolBuffers, you should probably use the PKG_CHECK_MODULES macro in yourconfigure script like:

PKG_CHECK_MODULES([protobuf], [protobuf])

See the pkg-config man page for more info.

If you only want protobuf-lite, substitute "protobuf-lite" in placeof "protobuf" in these examples.

Note for Mac users

For a Mac system, Unix tools are not available by default. You will first needto install Xcode from the Mac AppStore and then run the following command froma terminal:

$ sudo xcode-select --install

To install Unix tools, you can install "port" following the instructions athttps://www.macports.org . This will reside in /opt/local/bin/port for mostMac installations.

$ sudo /opt/local/bin/port install autoconf automake libtool

Then follow the Unix instructions above.

Note for cross-compiling

The makefiles normally invoke the protoc executable that they justbuilt in order to build tests. When cross-compiling, the protocexecutable may not be executable on the host machine. In this case,you must build a copy of protoc for the host machine first, then usethe --with-protoc option to tell configure to use it instead. Forexample:

./configure --with-protoc=protoc

This will use the installed protoc (found in your $PATH) instead oftrying to execute the one built during the build process. You canalso use an executable that hasn't been installed. For example, ifyou built the protobuf package for your host machine in ../host,you might do:

./configure --with-protoc=../host/src/protoc

Either way, you must make sure that the protoc executable you usehas the same version as the protobuf source code you are trying touse it with.

Note for Solaris users

Solaris 10 x86 has a bug that will make linking fail, complainingabout libstdc++.la being invalid. We have included a work-aroundin this package. To use the work-around, run configure as follows:

./configure LDFLAGS=-L$PWD/src/solaris

See src/solaris/libstdc++.la for more info on this bug.

Note for HP C++ Tru64 users

To compile invoke configure as follows:

./configure CXXFLAGS="-O -std ansi -ieee -D__USE_STD_IOSTREAM"

Also, you will need to use gmake instead of make.

Note for AIX users

Compile using the IBM xlC C++ compiler as follows:

./configure CXX=xlC

Also, you will need to use GNUmake (gmake) instead of AIXmake.

If you are using Microsoft Visual C++, see cmake/README.md.

If you are using Cygwin or MinGW, follow the Unix installationinstructions, above.

Due to the nature of C++, it is unlikely that any two versions of theProtocol Buffers C++ runtime libraries will have compatible ABIs.That is, if you linked an executable against an older version oflibprotobuf, it is unlikely to work with a newer version withoutre-compiling. This problem, when it occurs, will normally be detectedimmediately on startup of your app. Still, you may want to considerusing static linkage. You can configure this package to installstatic libraries only using:

./configure --disable-shared

The Java and Python runtime libraries for Protocol Buffers are locatedin the java and python directories. See the README file in eachdirectory for more information on how to compile and install them.Note that both of them require you to first install the ProtocolBuffer compiler (protoc), which is part of the C++ package.

The complete documentation for Protocol Buffers is available via theweb at:

https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/