gRPC Python Tools
=================

Package for gRPC Python tools.

Supported Python Versions
-------------------------
Python >= 3.6

Installation
------------

The gRPC Python tools package is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Installing From PyPI
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you are installing locally...

::

  $ pip install grpcio-tools

Else system wide (on Ubuntu)...

::

  $ sudo pip install grpcio-tools

If you're on Windows make sure that you installed the :code:`pip.exe` component
when you installed Python (if not go back and install it!) then invoke:

::

  $ pip.exe install grpcio-tools

Windows users may need to invoke :code:`pip.exe` from a command line ran as
administrator.

n.b. On Windows and on macOS one *must* have a recent release of :code:`pip`
to retrieve the proper wheel from PyPI. Be sure to upgrade to the latest
version!

You might also need to install Cython to handle installation via the source
distribution if gRPC Python's system coverage with wheels does not happen to
include your system.

Installing From Source
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Building from source requires that you have the Python headers (usually a
package named :code:`python-dev`) and Cython installed. It further requires a
GCC-like compiler to go smoothly; you can probably get it to work without
GCC-like stuff, but you may end up having a bad time.

::

  $ export REPO_ROOT=grpc  # REPO_ROOT can be any directory of your choice
  $ git clone -b RELEASE_TAG_HERE https://github.com/grpc/grpc $REPO_ROOT
  $ cd $REPO_ROOT
  $ git submodule update --init

  $ cd tools/distrib/python/grpcio_tools
  $ python ../make_grpcio_tools.py

  # For the next command do `sudo pip install` if you get permission-denied errors
  $ GRPC_PYTHON_BUILD_WITH_CYTHON=1 pip install .

You cannot currently install Python from source on Windows. Things might work
out for you in MSYS2 (follow the Linux instructions), but it isn't officially
supported at the moment.

Troubleshooting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Help, I ...

* **... see compiler errors on some platforms when either installing from source or from the source distribution**

  If you see

  ::

    /tmp/pip-build-U8pSsr/cython/Cython/Plex/Scanners.c:4:20: fatal error: Python.h: No such file or directory
    #include "Python.h"
                    ^
    compilation terminated.

  You can fix it by installing `python-dev` package. i.e

  ::

    sudo apt-get install python-dev

  If you see something similar to:

  ::

    third_party/protobuf/src/google/protobuf/stubs/mathlimits.h:173:31: note: in expansion of macro 'SIGNED_INT_MAX'
    static const Type kPosMax = SIGNED_INT_MAX(Type); \\
                               ^

  And your toolchain is GCC (at the time of this writing, up through at least
  GCC 6.0), this is probably a bug where GCC chokes on constant expressions
  when the :code:`-fwrapv` flag is specified. You should consider setting your
  environment with :code:`CFLAGS=-fno-wrapv` or using clang (:code:`CC=clang`).

Usage
-----

Given protobuf include directories :code:`$INCLUDE`, an output directory
:code:`$OUTPUT`, and proto files :code:`$PROTO_FILES`, invoke as:

::

  $ python -m grpc_tools.protoc -I$INCLUDE --python_out=$OUTPUT --grpc_python_out=$OUTPUT $PROTO_FILES

To use as a build step in setuptools-based projects, you may use the provided
command class in your :code:`setup.py`:

::

  setuptools.setup(
    # ...
    cmdclass={
      'build_proto_modules': grpc_tools.command.BuildPackageProtos,
    }
    # ...
  )

Invocation of the command will walk the project tree and transpile every
:code:`.proto` file into a :code:`_pb2.py` file in the same directory.

Note that this particular approach requires :code:`grpcio-tools` to be
installed on the machine before the setup script is invoked (i.e. no
combination of :code:`setup_requires` or :code:`install_requires` will provide
access to :code:`grpc_tools.command.BuildPackageProtos` if it isn't already
installed). One way to work around this can be found in our
:code:`grpcio-health-checking`
`package <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/grpcio-health-checking>`_:

::

  class BuildPackageProtos(setuptools.Command):
    """Command to generate project *_pb2.py modules from proto files."""
    # ...
    def run(self):
      from grpc_tools import command
      command.build_package_protos(self.distribution.package_dir[''])

Now including :code:`grpcio-tools` in :code:`setup_requires` will provide the
command on-setup as desired.

For more information on command classes, consult :code:`setuptools` documentation.
