1[GoGo Protobuf looking for new ownership](https://github.com/gogo/protobuf/issues/691)
2
3# Protocol Buffers for Go with Gadgets
4
5[](https://github.com/gogo/protobuf/actions)
6[](http://godoc.org/github.com/gogo/protobuf)
7
8gogoprotobuf is a fork of <a href="https://github.com/golang/protobuf">golang/protobuf</a> with extra code generation features.
9
10This code generation is used to achieve:
11
12 - fast marshalling and unmarshalling
13 - more canonical Go structures
14 - goprotobuf compatibility
15 - less typing by optionally generating extra helper code
16 - peace of mind by optionally generating test and benchmark code
17 - other serialization formats
18
19Keeping track of how up to date gogoprotobuf is relative to golang/protobuf is done in this
20<a href="https://github.com/gogo/protobuf/issues/191">issue</a>
21
22## Release v1.3.0
23
24The project has updated to release v1.3.0. Check out the release notes <a href="https://github.com/gogo/protobuf/releases/tag/v1.3.0">here</a>.
25
26With this new release comes a new internal library version. This means any newly generated *pb.go files generated with the v1.3.0 library will not be compatible with the old library version (v1.2.1). However, current *pb.go files (generated with v1.2.1) should still work with the new library.
27
28Please make sure you manage your dependencies correctly when upgrading your project. If you are still using v1.2.1 and you update your dependencies, one of which could include a new *pb.go (generated with v1.3.0), you could get a compile time error.
29
30Our upstream repo, golang/protobuf, also had to go through this process in order to update their library version.
31Here is a link explaining <a href="https://github.com/golang/protobuf/issues/763#issuecomment-442434870">hermetic builds</a>.
32
33
34## Users
35
36These projects use gogoprotobuf:
37
38 - <a href="http://godoc.org/github.com/coreos/etcd">etcd</a> - <a href="https://blog.gopheracademy.com/advent-2015/etcd-distributed-key-value-store-with-grpc-http2/">blog</a> - <a href="https://github.com/coreos/etcd/blob/master/etcdserver/etcdserverpb/etcdserver.proto">sample proto file</a>
39 - <a href="https://www.spacemonkey.com/">spacemonkey</a> - <a href="https://www.spacemonkey.com/blog/posts/go-space-monkey">blog</a>
40 - <a href="http://badoo.com">badoo</a> - <a href="https://github.com/badoo/lsd/blob/32061f501c5eca9c76c596d790b450501ba27b2f/proto/lsd.proto">sample proto file</a>
41 - <a href="https://github.com/mesos/mesos-go">mesos-go</a> - <a href="https://github.com/mesos/mesos-go/blob/f9e5fb7c2f50ab5f23299f26b6b07c5d6afdd252/api/v0/mesosproto/authentication.proto">sample proto file</a>
42 - <a href="https://github.com/mozilla-services/heka">heka</a> - <a href="https://github.com/mozilla-services/heka/commit/eb72fbf7d2d28249fbaf8d8dc6607f4eb6f03351">the switch from golang/protobuf to gogo/protobuf when it was still on code.google.com</a>
43 - <a href="https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach">cockroachdb</a> - <a href="https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/blob/651d54d393e391a30154e9117ab4b18d9ee6d845/roachpb/metadata.proto">sample proto file</a>
44 - <a href="https://github.com/jbenet/go-ipfs">go-ipfs</a> - <a href="https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/blob/2b6da0c024f28abeb16947fb452787196a6b56a2/merkledag/pb/merkledag.proto">sample proto file</a>
45 - <a href="https://github.com/philhofer/rkive">rkive-go</a> - <a href="https://github.com/philhofer/rkive/blob/e5dd884d3ea07b341321073882ae28aa16dd11be/rpbc/riak_dt.proto">sample proto file</a>
46 - <a href="https://www.dropbox.com">dropbox</a>
47 - <a href="https://srclib.org/">srclib</a> - <a href="https://github.com/sourcegraph/srclib/blob/6538858f0c410cac5c63440317b8d009e889d3fb/graph/def.proto">sample proto file</a>
48 - <a href="http://www.adyoulike.com/">adyoulike</a>
49 - <a href="http://www.cloudfoundry.org/">cloudfoundry</a> - <a href="https://github.com/cloudfoundry/bbs/blob/d673710b8c4211037805129944ee4c5373d6588a/models/events.proto">sample proto file</a>
50 - <a href="http://kubernetes.io/">kubernetes</a> - <a href="https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/tree/88d8628137f94ee816aaa6606ae8cd045dee0bff/cmd/libs/go2idl">go2idl built on top of gogoprotobuf</a>
51 - <a href="https://dgraph.io/">dgraph</a> - <a href="https://github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/releases/tag/v0.4.3">release notes</a> - <a href="https://discuss.dgraph.io/t/gogoprotobuf-is-extremely-fast/639">benchmarks</a></a>
52 - <a href="https://github.com/centrifugal/centrifugo">centrifugo</a> - <a href="https://forum.golangbridge.org/t/centrifugo-real-time-messaging-websocket-or-sockjs-server-v1-5-0-released/2861">release notes</a> - <a href="https://medium.com/@fzambia/centrifugo-protobuf-inside-json-outside-21d39bdabd68#.o3icmgjqd">blog</a>
53 - <a href="https://github.com/docker/swarmkit">docker swarmkit</a> - <a href="https://github.com/docker/swarmkit/blob/63600e01af3b8da2a0ed1c9fa6e1ae4299d75edb/api/objects.proto">sample proto file</a>
54 - <a href="https://nats.io/">nats.io</a> - <a href="https://github.com/nats-io/go-nats-streaming/blob/master/pb/protocol.proto">go-nats-streaming</a>
55 - <a href="https://github.com/pingcap/tidb">tidb</a> - Communication between <a href="https://github.com/pingcap/tipb/blob/master/generate-go.sh#L4">tidb</a> and <a href="https://github.com/pingcap/kvproto/blob/master/generate_go.sh#L3">tikv</a>
56 - <a href="https://github.com/AsynkronIT/protoactor-go">protoactor-go</a> - <a href="https://github.com/AsynkronIT/protoactor-go/blob/master/protobuf/protoc-gen-protoactor/main.go">vanity command</a> that also generates actors from service definitions
57 - <a href="https://containerd.io/">containerd</a> - <a href="https://github.com/containerd/containerd/tree/master/cmd/protoc-gen-gogoctrd">vanity command with custom field names</a> that conforms to the golang convention.
58 - <a href="https://github.com/heroiclabs/nakama">nakama</a>
59 - <a href="https://github.com/src-d/proteus">proteus</a>
60 - <a href="https://github.com/go-graphite">carbonzipper stack</a>
61 - <a href="https://sendgrid.com/">sendgrid</a>
62 - <a href="https://github.com/zero-os/0-stor">zero-os/0-stor</a>
63 - <a href="https://github.com/spacemeshos/go-spacemesh">go-spacemesh</a>
64 - <a href="https://github.com/weaveworks/cortex">cortex</a> - <a href="https://github.com/weaveworks/cortex/blob/fee02a59729d3771ef888f7bf0fd050e1197c56e/pkg/ingester/client/cortex.proto">sample proto file</a>
65 - <a href="http://skywalking.apache.org/">Apache SkyWalking APM</a> - Istio telemetry receiver based on Mixer bypass protocol
66 - <a href="https://github.com/hyperledger/burrow">Hyperledger Burrow</a> - a permissioned DLT framework
67 - <a href="https://github.com/iov-one/weave">IOV Weave</a> - a blockchain framework - <a href="https://github.com/iov-one/weave/tree/23f9856f1e316f93cb3d45d92c4c6a0c4810f6bf/spec/gogo">sample proto files</a>
68
69Please let us know if you are using gogoprotobuf by posting on our <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/gogoprotobuf/Brw76BxmFpQ">GoogleGroup</a>.
70
71### Mentioned
72
73 - <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/albertstrasheim/serialization-in-go">Cloudflare - go serialization talk - Albert Strasheim</a>
74 - <a href="https://youtu.be/4xB46Xl9O9Q?t=557">GopherCon 2014 Writing High Performance Databases in Go by Ben Johnson</a>
75 - <a href="https://github.com/alecthomas/go_serialization_benchmarks">alecthomas' go serialization benchmarks</a>
76 - <a href="http://agniva.me/go/2017/11/18/gogoproto.html">Go faster with gogoproto - Agniva De Sarker</a>
77 - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY9T020HLP8">Evolution of protobuf (Gource Visualization) - Landon Wilkins</a>
78 - <a href="https://fosdem.org/2018/schedule/event/gopherjs/">Creating GopherJS Apps with gRPC-Web - Johan Brandhorst</a>
79 - <a href="https://jbrandhorst.com/post/gogoproto/">So you want to use GoGo Protobuf - Johan Brandhorst</a>
80 - <a href="https://jbrandhorst.com/post/grpc-errors/">Advanced gRPC Error Usage - Johan Brandhorst</a>
81 - <a href="https://www.udemy.com/grpc-golang/?couponCode=GITHUB10">gRPC Golang Course on Udemy - Stephane Maarek</a>
82
83## Getting Started
84
85There are several ways to use gogoprotobuf, but for all you need to install go and protoc.
86After that you can choose:
87
88 - Speed
89 - More Speed and more generated code
90 - Most Speed and most customization
91
92### Installation
93
94To install it, you must first have Go (at least version 1.6.3 or 1.9 if you are using gRPC) installed (see [http://golang.org/doc/install](http://golang.org/doc/install)).
95Latest patch versions of 1.12 and 1.15 are continuously tested.
96
97Next, install the standard protocol buffer implementation from [https://github.com/google/protobuf](https://github.com/google/protobuf).
98Most versions from 2.3.1 should not give any problems, but 2.6.1, 3.0.2 and 3.14.0 are continuously tested.
99
100### Speed
101
102Install the protoc-gen-gofast binary
103
104 go get github.com/gogo/protobuf/protoc-gen-gofast
105
106Use it to generate faster marshaling and unmarshaling go code for your protocol buffers.
107
108 protoc --gofast_out=. myproto.proto
109
110This does not allow you to use any of the other gogoprotobuf [extensions](https://github.com/gogo/protobuf/blob/master/extensions.md).
111
112### More Speed and more generated code
113
114Fields without pointers cause less time in the garbage collector.
115More code generation results in more convenient methods.
116
117Other binaries are also included:
118
119 protoc-gen-gogofast (same as gofast, but imports gogoprotobuf)
120 protoc-gen-gogofaster (same as gogofast, without XXX_unrecognized, less pointer fields)
121 protoc-gen-gogoslick (same as gogofaster, but with generated string, gostring and equal methods)
122
123Installing any of these binaries is easy. Simply run:
124
125 go get github.com/gogo/protobuf/proto
126 go get github.com/gogo/protobuf/{binary}
127 go get github.com/gogo/protobuf/gogoproto
128
129These binaries allow you to use gogoprotobuf [extensions](https://github.com/gogo/protobuf/blob/master/extensions.md). You can also use your own binary.
130
131To generate the code, you also need to set the include path properly.
132
133 protoc -I=. -I=$GOPATH/src -I=$GOPATH/src/github.com/gogo/protobuf/protobuf --{binary}_out=. myproto.proto
134
135To use proto files from "google/protobuf" you need to add additional args to protoc.
136
137 protoc -I=. -I=$GOPATH/src -I=$GOPATH/src/github.com/gogo/protobuf/protobuf --{binary}_out=\
138 Mgoogle/protobuf/any.proto=github.com/gogo/protobuf/types,\
139 Mgoogle/protobuf/duration.proto=github.com/gogo/protobuf/types,\
140 Mgoogle/protobuf/struct.proto=github.com/gogo/protobuf/types,\
141 Mgoogle/protobuf/timestamp.proto=github.com/gogo/protobuf/types,\
142 Mgoogle/protobuf/wrappers.proto=github.com/gogo/protobuf/types:. \
143 myproto.proto
144
145Note that in the protoc command, {binary} does not contain the initial prefix of "protoc-gen".
146
147### Most Speed and most customization
148
149Customizing the fields of the messages to be the fields that you actually want to use removes the need to copy between the structs you use and structs you use to serialize.
150gogoprotobuf also offers more serialization formats and generation of tests and even more methods.
151
152Please visit the [extensions](https://github.com/gogo/protobuf/blob/master/extensions.md) page for more documentation.
153
154Install protoc-gen-gogo:
155
156 go get github.com/gogo/protobuf/proto
157 go get github.com/gogo/protobuf/jsonpb
158 go get github.com/gogo/protobuf/protoc-gen-gogo
159 go get github.com/gogo/protobuf/gogoproto
160
161## GRPC
162
163It works the same as golang/protobuf, simply specify the plugin.
164Here is an example using gofast:
165
166 protoc --gofast_out=plugins=grpc:. my.proto
167
168See [https://github.com/gogo/grpc-example](https://github.com/gogo/grpc-example) for an example of using gRPC with gogoprotobuf and the wider grpc-ecosystem.
169
170
171## License
172This software is licensed under the 3-Clause BSD License
173("BSD License 2.0", "Revised BSD License", "New BSD License", or "Modified BSD License").
174
175
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