protobuf-c is a C binding for Google's Protocol Buffers (aka protobuf) library and code generator.

The overall design is similar to the C++ structure, except we try to generate as little code as possible.

This is an automake project, so to build it use something like:

./configure --prefix=$HOME/install
make
make install

To install into /usr like a normal package would, use --prefix=/usr.

It might be easiest to learn with a few examples.

To use the system, you should read more about the code we generate. To understand how the generated code works, read about [the protobuf-c library]

• The message serialization and deserialization code has been thoroughly tested.
• Still designing the Service stuff, so be careful about using it.
• Need to decide what to do about extensions
• Need to decide whether to handle groups.

Some binary compatibility changes are expected in pre-1.0 versions and by definition between major releases; so make sure you are linking to the protobuf-c that corresponds to the generated code you are using!

Currently, these are in a file called TODO in the source package.