1Protocol Buffers - Google's data interchange format 2=================================================== 3 4[](https://fusion.corp.google.com/projectanalysis/current/KOKORO/prod:protobuf%2Fgithub%2Fmaster%2Fubuntu%2Fcpp_distcheck%2Fcontinuous) [](https://fusion.corp.google.com/projectanalysis/current/KOKORO/prod:protobuf%2Fgithub%2Fmaster%2Fubuntu%2Fbazel%2Fcontinuous) [](https://fusion.corp.google.com/projectanalysis/current/KOKORO/prod:protobuf%2Fgithub%2Fmaster%2Fmacos%2Fcpp%2Fcontinuous) [](https://fusion.corp.google.com/projectanalysis/current/KOKORO/prod:protobuf%2Fgithub%2Fmaster%2Fmacos%2Fcpp_distcheck%2Fcontinuous) [](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/protobuf/protobuf) 5 6Copyright 2008 Google Inc. 7 8https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/ 9 10C++ Installation - Unix 11----------------------- 12 13To build protobuf from source, the following tools are needed: 14 15 * autoconf 16 * automake 17 * libtool 18 * make 19 * g++ 20 * unzip 21 22On Ubuntu/Debian, you can install them with: 23 24 $ sudo apt-get install autoconf automake libtool curl make g++ unzip 25 26On other platforms, please use the corresponding package managing tool to 27install them before proceeding. 28 29To get the source, download one of the release .tar.gz or .zip packages in the 30release page: 31 32 https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases/latest 33 34For example: if you only need C++, download `protobuf-cpp-[VERSION].tar.gz`; if 35you need C++ and Java, download `protobuf-java-[VERSION].tar.gz` (every package 36contains C++ source already); if you need C++ and multiple other languages, 37download `protobuf-all-[VERSION].tar.gz`. 38 39You can also get the source by "git clone" our git repository. Make sure you 40have also cloned the submodules and generated the configure script (skip this 41if you are using a release .tar.gz or .zip package): 42 43 $ git clone https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf.git 44 $ cd protobuf 45 $ git submodule update --init --recursive 46 $ ./autogen.sh 47 48To build and install the C++ Protocol Buffer runtime and the Protocol 49Buffer compiler (protoc) execute the following: 50 51 $ ./configure 52 $ make 53 $ make check 54 $ sudo make install 55 $ sudo ldconfig # refresh shared library cache. 56 57If "make check" fails, you can still install, but it is likely that 58some features of this library will not work correctly on your system. 59Proceed at your own risk. 60 61For advanced usage information on configure and make, please refer to the 62autoconf documentation: 63 64 http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/autoconf.html#Running-configure-Scripts 65 66**Hint on install location** 67 68By default, the package will be installed to /usr/local. However, 69on many platforms, /usr/local/lib is not part of LD_LIBRARY_PATH. 70You can add it, but it may be easier to just install to /usr 71instead. To do this, invoke configure as follows: 72 73 ./configure --prefix=/usr 74 75If you already built the package with a different prefix, make sure 76to run "make clean" before building again. 77 78**Compiling dependent packages** 79 80To compile a package that uses Protocol Buffers, you need to pass 81various flags to your compiler and linker. As of version 2.2.0, 82Protocol Buffers integrates with pkg-config to manage this. If you 83have pkg-config installed, then you can invoke it to get a list of 84flags like so: 85 86 pkg-config --cflags protobuf # print compiler flags 87 pkg-config --libs protobuf # print linker flags 88 pkg-config --cflags --libs protobuf # print both 89 90For example: 91 92 c++ my_program.cc my_proto.pb.cc `pkg-config --cflags --libs protobuf` 93 94Note that packages written prior to the 2.2.0 release of Protocol 95Buffers may not yet integrate with pkg-config to get flags, and may 96not pass the correct set of flags to correctly link against 97libprotobuf. If the package in question uses autoconf, you can 98often fix the problem by invoking its configure script like: 99 100 configure CXXFLAGS="$(pkg-config --cflags protobuf)" \ 101 LIBS="$(pkg-config --libs protobuf)" 102 103This will force it to use the correct flags. 104 105If you are writing an autoconf-based package that uses Protocol 106Buffers, you should probably use the PKG_CHECK_MODULES macro in your 107configure script like: 108 109 PKG_CHECK_MODULES([protobuf], [protobuf]) 110 111See the pkg-config man page for more info. 112 113If you only want protobuf-lite, substitute "protobuf-lite" in place 114of "protobuf" in these examples. 115 116**Note for Mac users** 117 118For a Mac system, Unix tools are not available by default. You will first need 119to install Xcode from the Mac AppStore and then run the following command from 120a terminal: 121 122 $ sudo xcode-select --install 123 124To install Unix tools, you can install "port" following the instructions at 125https://www.macports.org . This will reside in /opt/local/bin/port for most 126Mac installations. 127 128 $ sudo /opt/local/bin/port install autoconf automake libtool 129 130Then follow the Unix instructions above. 131 132**Note for cross-compiling** 133 134The makefiles normally invoke the protoc executable that they just 135built in order to build tests. When cross-compiling, the protoc 136executable may not be executable on the host machine. In this case, 137you must build a copy of protoc for the host machine first, then use 138the --with-protoc option to tell configure to use it instead. For 139example: 140 141 ./configure --with-protoc=protoc 142 143This will use the installed protoc (found in your $PATH) instead of 144trying to execute the one built during the build process. You can 145also use an executable that hasn't been installed. For example, if 146you built the protobuf package for your host machine in ../host, 147you might do: 148 149 ./configure --with-protoc=../host/src/protoc 150 151Either way, you must make sure that the protoc executable you use 152has the same version as the protobuf source code you are trying to 153use it with. 154 155**Note for Solaris users** 156 157Solaris 10 x86 has a bug that will make linking fail, complaining 158about libstdc++.la being invalid. We have included a work-around 159in this package. To use the work-around, run configure as follows: 160 161 ./configure LDFLAGS=-L$PWD/src/solaris 162 163See src/solaris/libstdc++.la for more info on this bug. 164 165**Note for HP C++ Tru64 users** 166 167To compile invoke configure as follows: 168 169 ./configure CXXFLAGS="-O -std ansi -ieee -D__USE_STD_IOSTREAM" 170 171Also, you will need to use gmake instead of make. 172 173**Note for AIX users** 174 175Compile using the IBM xlC C++ compiler as follows: 176 177 ./configure CXX=xlC 178 179Also, you will need to use GNU `make` (`gmake`) instead of AIX `make`. 180 181C++ Installation - Windows 182-------------------------- 183 184If you only need the protoc binary, you can download it from the release 185page: 186 187 https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases/latest 188 189In the downloads section, download the zip file protoc-$VERSION-win32.zip. 190It contains the protoc binary as well as public proto files of protobuf 191library. 192 193Protobuf and its dependencies can be installed directly by using `vcpkg`: 194 195 >vcpkg install protobuf protobuf:x64-windows 196 197If zlib support is desired, you'll also need to install the zlib feature: 198 199 >vcpkg install protobuf[zlib] protobuf[zlib]:x64-windows 200 201See https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg for more information. 202 203To build from source using Microsoft Visual C++, see [cmake/README.md](../cmake/README.md). 204 205To build from source using Cygwin or MinGW, follow the Unix installation 206instructions, above. 207 208Binary Compatibility Warning 209---------------------------- 210 211Due to the nature of C++, it is unlikely that any two versions of the 212Protocol Buffers C++ runtime libraries will have compatible ABIs. 213That is, if you linked an executable against an older version of 214libprotobuf, it is unlikely to work with a newer version without 215re-compiling. This problem, when it occurs, will normally be detected 216immediately on startup of your app. Still, you may want to consider 217using static linkage. You can configure this package to install 218static libraries only using: 219 220 ./configure --disable-shared 221 222Usage 223----- 224 225The complete documentation for Protocol Buffers is available via the 226web at: 227 228 https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/ 229
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