1# Welcome to `include/grpcpp/impl/codegen` 2 3## Why is this directory here? 4 5This directory exists so that generated code can include selected files upon 6which it depends without having to depend on the entire gRPC C++ library. This 7is particularly relevant for users of bazel, particularly if they use the 8multi-lingual `proto_library` target type. Generated code that uses this target 9only depends on the gRPC C++ targets associated with these header files, not the 10entire gRPC C++ codebase since that would make the build time of these types of 11targets excessively large (particularly when they are not even C++ specific). 12 13## What should user code do? 14 15User code should *not* include anything from this directory. Only generated code 16and gRPC library code should include contents from this directory. User code 17should instead include contents from the main `grpcpp` directory or its 18accessible subcomponents like `grpcpp/support`. It is possible that we may 19remove this directory altogether if the motivations for its existence are no 20longer strong enough (e.g., if most users migrate away from the `proto_library` 21target type or if the additional overhead of depending on gRPC C++ is not high). 22