Protobuf timestamp not found

Question

Relatively new to GRPC and getting an error in my proto file that I cannot seem to make sense of. I would like to send a time in a message using the "google.protobuf.Timestamp". I cannot seem to import it. What am I doing wrong?

    syntax = "proto3";

    import "google/protobuf/timestamp.proto";

    service ProfileService {
        rpc ConstructProfileStructFromUser (ConstructProfileStructFromUserRequest) returns (ConstructProfileStructFromUserResponse);
    }

    message ConstructProfileStructFromUserRequest {
        string transactionID    = 1;
        string User         = 2;
    }

    message ConstructProfileStructFromUserResponse {
        string UID = 1;
        string ContactEmail = 2;
        google.protobuf.Timestamp DateOfBirth = 3;
    }

Both in my IDE and my compiler (using the below command) then I get the error

google/protobuf/timestamp.proto: File not found.
profile.proto: Import "google/protobuf/timestamp.proto" was not found or had errors.
profile.proto:21:5: "google.protobuf.Timestamp" is not defined.

Command to run:

protoc -I profile/ profile/profile.proto --go_out=plugins=grpc:profile

Protoc --version

libprotoc 3.0.0

Solution 1

I had this issue - I had installed thr protoc compiler using the apt package manager (ubuntu) and it put the protoc compiler in somewhere like /usr/local/bin it seems by default protoc expects and required imports to be present in an include path relative to this .e.g. /usr/local/bin/include/* next to /usr/local/bin/protoc.

To fix I removed the installed version with apt and downloaded the latest release from the github page - github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases look for the protoc download for your os/arch (e.g protoc-3.13.0-linux-x86_64.zip) this download has the required include (in the inlcude folder). Just place the include folder next to the binary in your PATH.

Solution 2

My problem was quite simple...

I didn't have the timestamp.proto downloaded locally and as a result it couldn't find it.

I cloned:

https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/tree/master/src/google/protobuf

And then when I run my compiler I have to give it the location to locate the timestamp.proto files.

For me it was...

protoc -I profile/ -I MY_CLONED_REPO_LOCATION/protobuf/src profile/profile.proto --go_out=plugins=grpc:profile

Once it knew where it had the path to the source then it could find it with no issues.

Solution 3

I had same problem with protoc 3.0.0 installed from ubuntu repo. I have found another solution, without reinstalling protobuf as @SwiftD suggested, using --proto_path protoc option. In your .proto import should look like (i.e. without path):

syntax = "proto3";

import "timestamp.proto"

Then in the protoc invocation you pass absolute path to your package directory containing timestamp.proto (I use github.com/golang/protobuf/ptypes/timestamp) using --proto_path option.

protoc kcproto.proto --go_out=./  --proto_path=/home/my_home_dir_name/go/src/github.com/golang/protobuf/ptypes/timestamp --proto_path=./

replace /home/my_home_dir_name/ with your go package directory

Solution 4

For mac, I run this in the terminal

PROTOC_ZIP=protoc-3.14.0-osx-x86_64.zip
curl -OL https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases/download/v3.14.0/$PROTOC_ZIP
sudo unzip -o $PROTOC_ZIP -d /usr/local bin/protoc
sudo unzip -o $PROTOC_ZIP -d /usr/local 'include/*'
rm -f $PROTOC_ZIP

Note that you can change the version protoc-3.14.0 to whatever your need, for example protoc-3.x.x

Docs: http://google.github.io/proto-lens/installing-protoc.html

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Comments

[Dapo Michaels]

What exactly did you do @SwiftD after downloading it

[SwiftD]

@dapo first you need to uninstall any existing protoc then once downloaded you want the binary from the download to be somewhere in your path e.g /usr/local/bin/protoc (assuming /usr/local/bin is in your PATH var) then you just need to place the includes folder from the download in the same folder next to it e.g /usr/local/bin/includes. should work now from any location, call version flag to confirm

[LeoRado]

I installed the protoc compiler to /usr/local/bin, but didn't copy the required imports. This issue got solved after I copied the additional imports to "/usr/local/bin/include'.