Search code examples
c++cmakeprotocol-buffersgrpc

CMake cannot generate protocolbuf headers and source files on Windows

I am trying to compile a .proto file on Windows using CMake (version 3.23.1). To this aim, I am using documentations that can be found here and here. But at the end, the .cc and .h files are not generated. Here is my CMakeLists.txt file:

project(test_proto)    
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.23)

set(Protobuf_DIR "C:/grpc/debug/cmake")
set(gRPC_DIR "C:/grpc/debug/lib/cmake/grpc")
set(ZLIB_ROOT "C:/zlib/debug")
set(c-ares_DIR "C:/grpc/debug/lib/cmake/c-ares")

find_package(Protobuf CONFIG REQUIRED)
find_package(gRPC CONFIG REQUIRED)

set(PROTO_FILES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/proto/server.proto)
add_library(test_proto ${PROTO_FILES})

target_link_libraries(test_proto
   PUBLIC protobuf::libprotobuf
   PUBLIC gRPC::grpc
   PUBLIC gRPC::grpc++
)

set(PROTO_BINARY_DIR  "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/tmp")
set(PROTO_IMPORT_DIRS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/proto")

get_target_property(grpc_cpp_plugin_location gRPC::grpc_cpp_plugin LOCATION)
message(STATUS  " The value of grpc cpp location is: ${grpc_cpp_plugin_location}")

protobuf_generate(
    TARGET test_proto
    LANGUAGE cpp
    OUT_VAR PROTO_GENERATED_FILES
    IMPORT_DIRS ${PROTO_IMPORT_DIRS}
    PROTOC_OUT_DIR "${PROTO_BINARY_DIR}")

protobuf_generate(
    TARGET test_proto
    OUT_VAR PROTO_GENERATED_FILES
    LANGUAGE grpc
    GENERATE_EXTENSIONS .grpc.pb.h .grpc.pb.cc
    PLUGIN "protoc-gen-grpc=${grpc_cpp_plugin_location}"
    IMPORT_DIRS ${PROTO_IMPORT_DIRS}
    PROTOC_OUT_DIR "${PROTO_BINARY_DIR}")

message(STATUS " The generated files are located in: ${PROTO_GENERATED_FILES}")

After running the above CMake file using this command:

cmake.exe -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -S D:\cmake-test -B D:\cmake-test

I am getting this output:

-- Selecting Windows SDK version 10.0.19041.0 to target Windows 10.0.19042.
-- The C compiler identification is MSVC 19.29.30137.0
-- The CXX compiler identification is MSVC 19.29.30137.0
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working C compiler: c:/VS/MVS16117/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.29.30133/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe - skipped
-- Detecting C compile features
-- Detecting C compile features - done
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: c:/VS/MVS16117/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.29.30133/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe - skipped
-- Detecting CXX compile features
-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
-- Found ZLIB: C:/zlib/debug/lib/zlibd.lib (found version "1.2.11")
-- Found OpenSSL: optimized;C:/Program Files/OpenSSL-Win64/lib/VC/libcrypto64MD.lib;debug;C:/Program Files/OpenSSL-Win64/lib/VC/libcrypto64MDd.lib (found version "3.0.3")
--  The value of grpc cpp location is: C:/grpc/debug/bin/grpc_cpp_plugin.exe
--  The generated files are located in: D:/cmake-test/tmp/proto/server.grpc.pb.h;D:/cmake-test/tmp/proto/server.grpc.pb.cc;D:/cmake-test/tmp/proto/serverPLUGIN;D:/cmake-test/tmp/proto/serverprotoc-gen-grpc=C:/data/tools/grpc/v1.15.1-2/win64/release/bin/grpc_cpp_plugin.exe
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: D:/cmake-test

without any errors. But the .h and .cc files are not generated. Any ideas?

Solution

  • The main issue of my problem was related to having an old version of gRPC. By migrating to a new version (v1.56.0), everything is working as expected.

    In addition, as mentioned in the comments, the generated files are created at build time. For more info check here.