protoc-gen-go-grpc: program not found or is not executable

Question

go version: go version go1.14 linux/amd64

go.mod

module [redacted]

go 1.14

require (
    github.com/golang/protobuf v1.4.0-rc.2
    google.golang.org/grpc v1.27.1
    google.golang.org/protobuf v1.20.0 // indirect
)

I am running the following command:

protoc -I ./src/pbdefs/protos/ --go-grpc_out=. src/pbdefs/protos/*.proto

to generate my GRPC output files from .proto files, with I am getting an error

protoc-gen-go-grpc: program not found or is not executable
Please specify a program using absolute path or make sure the program is available in your PATH system variable
--go-grpc_out: protoc-gen-go-grpc: Plugin failed with status code 1.

Answer 1

the missing plugin has been implemented at https://github.com/grpc/grpc-go.

command below should fix it

go install google.golang.org/grpc/cmd/protoc-gen-go-grpc@latest

Answer 2

The Golang Protobuf has released a new version of Go protocol buffers which they are calling it as the APIv2.

Because APIv2 is not backwards compatible with APIv1, therefore we will need to adapt all our Golang code for the new API.

You can learn more about the new API here and here

Migration steps:

In order to run the new code generation will be necessary to install the following gRPC gen plugins:

go get -u google.golang.org/protobuf/cmd/protoc-gen-go
go install google.golang.org/protobuf/cmd/protoc-gen-go

go get -u google.golang.org/grpc/cmd/protoc-gen-go-grpc
go install google.golang.org/grpc/cmd/protoc-gen-go-grpc

Then use the following command to generate the code.

  # generate the messages
 protoc --go_out="$GO_GEN_PATH" -I "$dependecies" "$proto"

 # generate the services
 protoc --go-grpc_out="$GO_GEN_PATH" -I "$dependecies" "$proto"

Answer 3

If you haven't done, so you need to install the protoc-gen-go plugin like so:

go get github.com/golang/protobuf/protoc-gen-go

this will install the plugin (if your GOPATH is ${HOME}/go) to:

${HOME}/go/bin/protoc-gen-go

Then when running protoc, either update your path, or set it dynamically like so:

PATH="${PATH}:${HOME}/go/bin" protoc ...

Answer 4

OK, just found out, as per https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf-go/releases/tag/v1.20.0

The v1.20 protoc-gen-go does not support generating gRPC service definitions. In the future, gRPC service generation will be supported by a new protoc-gen-go-grpc plugin provided by the Go gRPC project.

The github.com/golang/protobuf version of protoc-gen-go continues to support gRPC and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

EDIT 29/05/2020:

Following an update from @Mark in the comments, according to the Tracking issue on github, protoc-gen-go-grpc has now been merged. However, according to the same issue:

Even with this merged, it is unreleased (v0.0) and subject to change. We do plan to add a requirement that the Unimplemented service implementation be included in all registered services, with an escape hatch in the form of a command-line arg as suggested by @neild.

Answer 5

Update your PATH so that the protoc compiler can find the plugins: export PATH="$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin"

Answer 6

Share my useful bash command here:

go get -u google.golang.org/protobuf/cmd/protoc-gen-go
go install google.golang.org/protobuf/cmd/protoc-gen-go

go get -u google.golang.org/grpc/cmd/protoc-gen-go-grpc
go install google.golang.org/grpc/cmd/protoc-gen-go-grpc

protoc --proto_path=./proto ./proto/*.proto --plugin=$(go env GOPATH)/bin/protoc-gen-go-grpc --go-grpc_out=./pb 

protoc --proto_path=./proto ./proto/*.proto --plugin=$(go env GOPATH)/bin/protoc-gen-go --go_out=./pb

Answer 7

For all who aren't much into the topic (like me) and still have trouble to figure out a working solution, here's a step-by-step approach:

1. apt install protobuf-compiler installs the compiler under apt install protobuf-compiler, available via protoc from then.
2. Install the old go generator plugin to be used by protoc: go get -u google.golang.org/protobuf/cmd/protoc-gen-go and go install google.golang.org/protobuf/cmd/protoc-gen-go. Also, make sure that the installed plugin can be found in $PATH or add it with export PATH=$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin if needed.
3. To tell that plugin not only to generate the protobuf message type information but also the grcp methods, use a command like protoc --go_out=plugins=grpc:my/relative/output/path ./my_file.proto.

Looks kinda trivial once you've figured that out, but it's quite hard to figure that out if you aren't into that topic and only have scarce information about how the go files generator generator and the grcp extension are supposed to work together.

Answer 8

Please check the Go Environment variables by running the Go env command on the Terminal and make sure that the following values are set.

GOBIN=some folder location

GOPATH= some folder location

If these are looking good try installing the go plugin

go get -u google.golang.org/grpc

or run the following on the terminal

go install google.golang.org/grpc/cmd/protoc-gen-go-grpc@latest

Answer 9

I was searching for a good answer and finally, it worked for me:

protoc --go-grpc_out=. file_path/file_name*.proto 

Answer 10

I was able to solve a problem in 2022 by finding an answer in a GitHub issue

https://github.com/golang/protobuf/issues/795

As @neild suggested, I added both GOPATH and GOROOT to my PATH environment variable by using the command

'export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/go/bin' for GOPATH

'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin' for GOROOT

and it works for me

Answer 11

i solve using this command :

• protoc calculator/calculatorpb/calculator.proto --go-grpc_out=.
• protoc -I=. --go_out=. calculator/calculatorpb/calculator.proto

to generate calculator_pb.go and calculator_grpc.go

syntax = "proto3";

package calculator;
option go_package = "calculator/calculatorpb";

message SumRequest {
  int32 first_number = 1;
  int32 second_number = 2;
}

message SumResponse {
  int32 sum_result =1 ;
}

service CalculatorService{
  rpc Sum(SumRequest) returns(SumResponse) {}
}

Answer 12

I had to install all these:

go install \
   github.com/grpc-ecosystem/grpc-gateway/v2/protoc-gen-grpc-gateway \
   github.com/grpc-ecosystem/grpc-gateway/v2/protoc-gen-openapiv2 \
   google.golang.org/protobuf/cmd/protoc-gen-go \
   google.golang.org/grpc/cmd/protoc-gen-go-grpc

Answer 13

Use go get to download the following packages:

$ go get github.com/grpc-ecosystem/grpc-gateway/v2/protoc-gen-grpc-gateway
$ go get google.golang.org/protobuf/cmd/protoc-gen-go
$ go get google.golang.org/grpc/cmd/protoc-gen-go-grpc

This installs the protoc generator plugins we need to generate the stubs. Make sure to add $GOPATH/bin to your $PATH so that executables installed via go get are available on your $PATH.

Here's an example of what a protoc command might look like to generate Go stubs, assuming that you're at the root of your repository and you have your proto files in a directory called proto:

$ protoc -I ./proto \
   --go_out ./proto --go_opt paths=source_relative \
   --go-grpc_out ./proto --go-grpc_opt paths=source_relative \
   ./proto/helloworld/hello_world.proto

We use the go and go-grpc plugins to generate Go types and gRPC service definitions. We're outputting the generated files relative to the proto folder, and we're using the paths=source_relative option, which means that the generated files will appear in the same directory as the source .proto file.

You should check out the tutorial series on gRPC-Gateway, i.e., https://grpc-ecosystem.github.io/grpc-gateway/docs/tutorials/. Also, you can refer to my simple hello world program, which uses gRPC-Gateway, i.e., https://github.com/iamrajiv/helloworld-grpc-gateway.

Answer 14

You can also use https://github.com/storyicon/powerproto to install all protoc-related dependencies (including protoc-gen-go-grpc) with one click and for version control.