Beyond Linux® From Scratch (System V Edition) - Version 12.2

Chapter 9. General Libraries

Protobuf-27.3

Introduction to Protobuf

The Protobuf package contains utilities and libraries for using data in Google's data interchange format.

This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS 12.2 platform.

Package Information

Protobuf Dependencies

Required

Abseil-cpp-20240722.0 and CMake-3.30.2

Optional

gtest (for tests)

Installation of Protobuf

Install Protobuf by running the following commands: 

mkdir build &&
cd    build &&

cmake -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr      \
      -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release       \
      -D CMAKE_SKIP_INSTALL_RPATH=ON    \
      -D protobuf_BUILD_TESTS=OFF       \
      -D protobuf_ABSL_PROVIDER=package \
      -D protobuf_BUILD_LIBUPB=OFF      \
      -D protobuf_BUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON  \
      -D utf8_range_ENABLE_INSTALL=OFF  \
      -G Ninja ..                       &&
ninja

This package does come with a test suite, but it requires gtest, which is not part of BLFS.

Now, as the root user: 

sed 's/utf8_range//' -i *.pc &&
ninja install

Command Explanations

-D CMAKE_SKIP_INSTALL_RPATH=ON: This switch makes cmake remove hardcoded library search paths (rpath) when installing a binary executable file or a shared library. This package does not need rpath once it's installed into the standard location, and rpath may sometimes cause unwanted effects or even security issues.

sed 's/utf8_range//' -i *.pc: This command removes a leftover reference to libutf8_range from the pkg-config files installed by this package.

-D protobuf_BUILD_TESTS=OFF: This parameter prevents the tests from being built because gtest is not part of BLFS.

-D protobuf_ABSL_PROVIDER=package: This parameter allows the build system to use the system-installed copy of Abseil-cpp-20240722.0.

-D protobuf_BUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON: This parameter enables building shared versions of the libraries provided by this package instead of static versions.

-D utf8_range_ENABLE_INSTALL=OFF: This parameter disables installing the utf8_range static library. The functions provided by this library and used by protobuf is already embedded into libprotobuf.so, so installing a full copy of the static library is just wasting the disk space.

Contents

Installed Programs: protoc-26.1.0 and protoc (a symlink to protoc-26.1.0)
Installed Libraries: libprotobuf.so, libprotobuf-lite.so, and libprotoc.so
Installed Directories: /usr/include/google, /usr/include/java, /usr/include/upb_generator, and /usr/lib/cmake/protobuf

Short Descriptions

protoc

parses protocol buffer files and generates output for several programming languages and formats

libprotobuf.so

contains functions for utilizing data in Google's data interchange format

libprotobuf-lite.so

contains a simpler version of the functions for utilizing data in Google's data interchange format

libprotoc.so

contains functions used by protoc at runtime for outputting data for several programming languages and formats

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