$ cargo install buffrs$ buffrs login$ buffrs init --api$ buffrs add<dependency>$ buffrs install
Useful resources:
Modern protobuf package managementUsage: buffrs <COMMAND>Commands: init Initializes a buffrs setup new Creates a new buffrs package in the current directory lint Check rule violations for this package add Adds dependencies to a manifest file remove Removes dependencies from a manifest file package Exports the current package into a distributable tgz archive publish Packages and uploads this api to the registry install Installs dependencies uninstall Uninstalls dependencies list Lists all protobuf files managed by Buffrs to stdout login Logs you in for a registry logout Logs you out from a registry lock Lockfile related commands help Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)Options: -h, --help Print help -V, --version Print version
Protocol buffers are agreeably a great way to define fully typed,language-independent API schemas with strong backward compatibility guarantees.They offer a neat experience for API consumers through generated bindings.Thebiggest problem associated with Protocol Buffers is their distribution.
- How do you consume the raw protobuf files of one project reliably in anotherone?
- How do you prevent transitive dependencies?
- How do you publish to a unified registry with package format acrosslanguages?
One obvious way is to generate code bindings in the repository containing theProtocol Buffers and publish the generated bindings, but this is associatedwith problems such as language lock-in. You need to proactively publishbindings for any possible language your API consumers may use. Also, instrongly typed languages like Rust, it is hard to extend the behavior ofgenerated code in consuming projects due tothe orphan rule. Summing up: thisapproach works somehow but hurts frequently.
This is where Buffrs comes in: Buffrs solves this by defining a strict,package-based distribution mechanism and treats Protocol Buffers as afirst-class citizen.
This allows you to publish Buffrs packages to a registry and properly dependon them in other projects.
