[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/protobuf-c/protobuf-c.png?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/protobuf-c/protobuf-c)

## Overview

This is `protobuf-c`, a C implementation of [Google Protocol Buffers](https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/). It includes `libprotobuf-c`, a pure C library that implements protobuf encoding and decoding, and `protoc-c`, a code generator that converts Protocol Buffer `.proto` files to C descriptor code, based on the original `protoc`. `protobuf-c` formerly included an RPC implementation; that code has been split out into the [protobuf-c-rpc](https://github.com/protobuf-c/protobuf-c-rpc) project.

`protobuf-c` was originally maintained by Dave Benson through version 0.15 but is now being maintained by a new team. Thanks, Dave!

## Building

`protobuf-c` requires a C compiler, a C++ compiler, [Google Protocol Buffers](https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/), and `pkg-config` to be installed.

    ./configure && make && make install

If building from a git checkout, the `autotools` (`autoconf`, `automake`, `libtool`) must also be installed, and the build system must be generated by running the `autogen.sh` script.

    ./autogen.sh && ./configure && make && make install

## Synopsis

Include the `protobuf-c` header file:

    #include <protobuf-c/protobuf-c.h>

Link against the `protobuf-c` library.

    -lprotobuf-c

`libprotobuf-c` includes a `pkg-config` file. It is recommended to use the `pkg-config` system in order to determine the complete set of compiler and linker flags for building applications that utilize `libprotobuf-c`. If using `pkg-config` with `autoconf`, the `PKG_CHECK_MODULES` macro can be used to detect the presence of `libprotobuf-c`:

    PKG_CHECK_MODULES([PROTOBUF_C], [libprotobuf-c])

This will place compiler flags in the `PROTOBUF_C_CFLAGS` variable and linker flags in the `PROTOBUF_C_LDFLAGS` variable.

Note that the `protobuf-c` header file was installed as `google/protobuf-c/protobuf-c.h` in previous versions. A compatibility symlink has been left in place to avoid breaking existing code.

## Versioning

`protobuf-c` follows the [Semantic Versioning Specification](http://semver.org/).

## Contributing

Please send patches to the [protobuf-c mailing list](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/protobuf-c) or by opening a GitHub pull request.

Copyright to all contributions are retained by the original author, but must be licensed under the terms of the [BSD-2-Clause](http://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-2-Clause) license. Please add a `Signed-off-by` header to your commit message (`git commit -s`) to indicate that you are licensing your contribution under these terms.