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I've added a custom build step to my Visual Studio project files which generates the google protobuf .h/.cc files from the .proto input files. But I've been wondering if it's possible to start a compile only if the content of the proto files has changed?
Is there a way to tell VisualStudio from a custom build step exactly that? What is the optimal way to integrate proto files into a visual studio build solution?
At the moment, at every build the .proto file is updated which then also updates the time stamp of the output .h/.cc files ...which then issues a recompile of everything dependent from that. Is there a better way around it, while still building them directly from visual studio?
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Protobuf is used to serialize data structure efficiently. It is faster, smaller & simpler than XML. Protobuf is useful in developing programs to communicate with each other over a wire and it is created by Google. It helps us in creating gRPC services.
What are protocol buffers? Protocol buffers are Google's language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible mechanism for serializing structured data – think XML, but smaller, faster, and simpler.
Follow these detailed instructions to specify Custom Build Tool.
Considering your proto file resides together with .h/.cpp files in standard project configuration, here are values to be inserted in Custom Build Tool:
Command Line:
path\to\protoc --proto_path=$(ProjectDir) --cpp_out=$(ProjectDir) %(FullPath)
Outputs:
$(ProjectDir)%(Filename).pb.h;$(ProjectDir)%(Filename).pb.cc
Please note usage of item metadata macros, which replaced some of deprecated macros (like $(InputDir) and $(InputName)).
Now Protocol Buffers compiler will be run only when Input file (i.e. %(FullPath)) is newer than "Outputs".
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