Beyond Linux® From Scratch (System V Edition) - Version 12.4

Chapter 9. General Libraries

Protobuf-32.0

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 12.4 platform.

Package Information

Protobuf Dependencies

Required

Abseil-cpp-20250814.0 and CMake-4.1.0

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_BUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON  \
      -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: 

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.

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

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

Contents

Installed Programs: protoc (a symlink to protoc-32.0.0), protoc-32.0.0, protoc-gen-upb (a symlink to protoc-gen-upb-32.0.0), and protoc-gen-upbdefs (a symlink to protoc-gen-upbdefs-32.0.0)
Installed Libraries: libprotobuf.so, libprotobuf-lite.so, libprotoc.so, libupb.a, libutf8_range.so, and libutf8_validity.so
Installed Directories: /usr/include/google, /usr/include/upb, /usr/lib/cmake/protobuf, and /usr/lib/cmake/utf8_range

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

libupb.a

is a small protobuf implementation written in C

libutf8_range.so

contains functions that allow a program to determine whether a sequence of characters is a valid UTF-8 sequence

libutf8_validity.so

contains functions that allow a program to determine whether a sequence of bytes is a valid UTF-8 sequence, and to find what the longest valid prefix of the sequence is