Compiling grpc on Ubuntu 22.04 with system libprotobuf

[Mandeep Sandhu]

Hey all,

I'm trying to build gRPC from source using this guide: https://grpc.io/docs/languages/cpp/quickstart/

I'm running Ubuntu 22.04.

One thing I'm doing differently is trying to use the system installation of libprobuf & protoc. I'm doing this because I already have a c++ application that uses protobuf & I would like grpc build to use that same installation (the grpc lib will also be used in this c++ application).

This is how I configure gRPC:

cmake -DgRPC_INSTALL=ON \
    -DgRPC_BUILD_TESTS=OFF \
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="/home/mandeep/work/grpc/cmake/install" \
    -DgRPC_ZLIB_PROVIDER=package \
    -DgRPC_PROTOBUF_PROVIDER=package \
    ../..

But with this, I get the error that cmake cannot find the protobuf cmake files:

CMake Error at cmake/protobuf.cmake:58 (find_package):
  Could not find a package configuration file provided by "Protobuf" with any
  of the following names:

    ProtobufConfig.cmake
    protobuf-config.cmake

  Add the installation prefix of "Protobuf" to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH or set
  "Protobuf_DIR" to a directory containing one of the above files.  If
  "Protobuf" provides a separate development package or SDK, be sure it has
  been installed.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  CMakeLists.txt:377 (include)

I understand that the *.cmake files listed in the error message are not provided in any of the ubuntu-provided protobuf packages.

I did find "protobuf-config.cmake" under third_party/protobuf/cmake/protobuf, but setting that in the cmake configure step also gives an error, although this time its a different error:

-- Could NOT find utf8_range (missing: utf8_range_DIR)
CMake Error at third_party/protobuf/cmake/protobuf/protobuf-config.cmake:14 (include):
  include could not find requested file:

    /home/mandeep/work/grpc/third_party/protobuf/cmake/protobuf/protobuf-targets.cmake
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  cmake/protobuf.cmake:58 (find_package)
  CMakeLists.txt:377 (include)

Can anyone suggest whats the correct way to configure grpc build to use the system installed protobuf packages?

These are the packages install on my system:

$ dpkg -l | grep protobuf

ii  libprotobuf-dev:amd64                         3.12.4-1ubuntu7.22.04.1                           amd64        protocol buffers C++ library (development files) and proto files
ii  libprotobuf-lite23:amd64                      3.12.4-1ubuntu7.22.04.1                           amd64        protocol buffers C++ library (lite version)
ii  libprotobuf23:amd64                           3.12.4-1ubuntu7.22.04.1                           amd64        protocol buffers C++ library
ii  protobuf-compiler                             3.12.4-1ubuntu7.22.04.1                           amd64        compiler for protocol buffer definition files
ii  python3-protobuf                              3.12.4-1ubuntu7.22.04.1                           amd64        Python 3 bindings for protocol buffers

Thanks for your time

-mandeep

[Mandeep Sandhu]

bumping this for visibility, in case someone's got ideas on how to debug this issue further.

[Michael Henke]

I am having the same problem, anyone have an idea on how to move forward.?

[veb...@google.com]

I think that Ubuntu built-in protobuf isn't configured to support CMake. I don't think there is a way to workaround this issue other than installing Protobuf from source.

You can see how to install Protobuf from https://github.com/grpc/grpc/blob/master/test/distrib/cpp/run_distrib_test_cmake.sh

[Pragadeesh nagaraj]

You can try specifying in CMAKE where to find the protobuf file like the below highlighted text.
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local \

 -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON \

 -DgRPC_INSTALL=ON \

 -DgRPC_BUILD_TESTS=OFF \ 

 -DgRPC_CPP_PLUGIN=ON \

 -DgRPC_PROTOBUF_PROVIDER=package \ 

 -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/path/to/your/protobuf \ ..

There is another option you can try as an alternative  -Dprotobuf_DIR=/path/to/your/protobuf/lib/cmake/protobuf \.  if you have protobuf cmake file available in your installation path.

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