Expand description

Library to read and write protocol buffers data

Version 2 is stable

Currently developed branch of rust-protobuf is 3. It has the same spirit as version 2, but contains numerous improvements like:

  • runtime reflection for mutability, not just for access
  • protobuf text format and JSON parsing (which rely on reflection)
  • dynamic message support: work with protobuf data without generating code from schema

Stable version of rust-protobuf will be supported until version 3 released.

Tracking issue for version 3.

How to generate rust code

There are several ways to generate rust code from .proto files

Have a look at readme in protoc-rust crate.

Use pure rust protobuf parser and code generator

Readme should be in protobuf-codegen-pure crate.

Use protoc-gen-rust plugin

Readme is here.

Generated code

Have a look at generated files (for current development version), used internally in rust-protobuf:

Copy on write

Rust-protobuf can be used with bytes crate.

To enable Bytes you need to:

  1. Enable with-bytes feature in rust-protobuf:
[dependencies]
protobuf = { version = "~2.0", features = ["with-bytes"] }
  1. Enable bytes option

with Customize when codegen is invoked programmatically:

protoc_rust::run(protoc_rust::Args {
    ...
    customize: Customize {
        carllerche_bytes_for_bytes: Some(true),
        carllerche_bytes_for_string: Some(true),
        ..Default::default()
    },
});

or in .proto file:

import "rustproto.proto";

option (rustproto.carllerche_bytes_for_bytes_all) = true;
option (rustproto.carllerche_bytes_for_string_all) = true;

With these options enabled, fields of type bytes or string are generated as Bytes or Chars respectively. When CodedInputStream is constructed from Bytes object, fields of these types get subslices of original Bytes object, instead of being allocated on heap.

Accompanying crates

Re-exports

pub use crate::error::ProtobufError;
pub use crate::error::ProtobufResult;

Modules

Generated file from google/protobuf/descriptor.proto
Protobuf error type
Utilities to support “extension” fields.
JSON serialization and deserialization.
Lazily initialized data. Used in generated code.
Generated file from google/protobuf/compiler/plugin.proto
Reflection implementation for protobuf types.
Functions used by generated protobuf code. Should not be used by programs written by hands.
Generated file from rustproto.proto
Protobuf “text format” implementation.
Implementations of ProtobufType for all types.
Generated code for “well known types”
Serialization constants.

Structs

Cached size field used in generated code. It is always equal to itself to simplify generated code. (Generated code can use #[derive(Eq)]).
Thin wrapper around Bytes which guarantees that bytes are valid UTF-8 string. Should be API-compatible to String.
Buffered read with handy utilities.
Buffered write with handy utilities
Wrapper around vector to avoid deallocations on clear.
Like Option<T>, but keeps the actual element on clear.
Like Option<Box<T>>, but keeps the actual element on clear.
Hold “unknown” fields in parsed message.
Field unknown values.
Iterator over unknown values

Enums

Unknown value.
Reference to unknown value.

Constants

protobuf crate version
This symbol can be referenced to assert that proper version of crate is used

Traits

anything that can be cleared
Trait implemented for all generated structs for protobuf messages.
Trait implemented by all protobuf enum types.

Functions

Parse message from byte array.
Parse message from Bytes object. Resulting message may share references to the passed bytes object.
Parse message from reader. Parse stops on EOF or when error encountered.
Parse length-delimited message from stream.
Parse length-delimited message from bytes.
Parse length-delimited message from Read.