Fix Missing Protobuf Include Files

Fix Missing Protobuf Include Files | Generated by AI

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Understanding the Error

This failure in greptime-proto (pinned to commit 14b9dc40 from the GreptimeTeam repo) occurs during protobuf compilation. Specifically, protoc can’t locate the standard Google well-known type google/protobuf/duration.proto (and likely others like timestamp.proto). This cascades into import errors in GreptimeDB’s own protos (e.g., ddl.proto imports Duration, causing undefined type errors in database.proto).

The root cause: Your protoc installation (from the manual upgrade) only includes the binary (/usr/local/bin/protoc), but not the include files containing Google’s core protos. prost-build in the crate’s build.rs runs protoc without explicitly setting --proto_path to Google’s includes, so it fails on relative imports like "google/protobuf/duration.proto".

This is common with binary-only protobuf installs; the full SDK provides /usr/include/google/protobuf/ (or equivalent).

Quick Fix: Install Protobuf Includes

Since you already have a recent protoc binary, add the missing includes without downgrading:

Download the Full Protobuf Release (matching your protoc version, e.g., 27.3 or latest):

wget https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases/download/v27.3/protoc-27.3-linux-x86_64.zip
unzip protoc-27.3-linux-x86_64.zip -d protoc-full

Install the Include Files:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/include/google/protobuf
sudo cp -r protoc-full/include/google /usr/local/include/
sudo chmod -R a+r /usr/local/include/google/protobuf  # Ensure readability
rm -rf protoc-full protoc-*.zip  # Cleanup

Verify:
- Check protoc: protoc --version (should be ≥3.21).
- Test includes: ls /usr/local/include/google/protobuf/duration.proto (should exist).
- Quick smoke test: protoc --proto_path=/usr/local/include proto/greptime/v1/ddl.proto --decode_raw=stdin < /dev/null (from your project dir; ignore output, just check for no “File not found”).

Retry the Build:

make clean  # Clears partial builds
make

If you’re on a distro with apt (e.g., Ubuntu), an alternative is sudo apt install libprotobuf-dev—but this might install an older version (e.g., 3.12), conflicting with your manual protoc. If so, stick to the manual include copy and set PROTOC=/usr/local/bin/protoc explicitly.

Additional Tips

If errors persist (e.g., other missing protos like wrappers.proto), the full include/google/ copy should cover them.
For containerized builds (Docker), add these steps to your Dockerfile.
Post-build, test with cargo run --bin greptime -- standalone start to ensure protos integrate correctly.
This revision of greptime-proto is recent (Oct 2024-ish); if issues linger, check for upstream fixes in the repo.

GreptimeDB Build Docs
Protobuf Well-Known Types

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