Protobuf timestamp not found - protocol-buffers

Question

Relatively new to GRPC and getting an error in my proto file that I cannot seem to make sense of. I would like to send a time in a message using the "google.protobuf.Timestamp". I cannot seem to import it. What am I doing wrong?
syntax = "proto3";
import "google/protobuf/timestamp.proto";
service ProfileService {
rpc ConstructProfileStructFromUser (ConstructProfileStructFromUserRequest) returns (ConstructProfileStructFromUserResponse);
}
message ConstructProfileStructFromUserRequest {
string transactionID = 1;
string User = 2;
}
message ConstructProfileStructFromUserResponse {
string UID = 1;
string ContactEmail = 2;
google.protobuf.Timestamp DateOfBirth = 3;
}
Both in my IDE and my compiler (using the below command) then I get the error
google/protobuf/timestamp.proto: File not found.
profile.proto: Import "google/protobuf/timestamp.proto" was not found or had errors.
profile.proto:21:5: "google.protobuf.Timestamp" is not defined.
Command to run:
protoc -I profile/ profile/profile.proto --go_out=plugins=grpc:profile
Protoc --version
libprotoc 3.0.0

Answer 1

I had this issue after installing the protoc compiler using the apt package manager (Ubuntu) and it put the protoc compiler somewhere like /usr/local/bin.
It seems by default protoc expects imports to be present in an include path relative to the protoc installation directory. For example:
protoc location: /usr/local/bin/protoc
include location: /usr/local/bin/include/*
Install pre-compiled binaries (any OS)
Downloading a pre-compiled binary as indicated below will have the needed include directory.
Instructions from grpc.io/docs/protoc-installation
Manually download from github.com/google/protobuf/releases the zip file corresponding to your operating system and computer architecture (protoc--.zip), or fetch the file using commands such as the following:
PB_REL="https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases"
curl -LO $PB_REL/download/v3.15.8/protoc-3.15.8-linux-x86_64.zip
Unzip the file under $HOME/.local or a directory of your choice. For example:
unzip protoc-3.15.8-linux-x86_64.zip -d $HOME/.local
Update your environment’s path variable to include the path to the protoc executable. For example:
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin"

Answer 2

If you installed protoc with your package manager, you only have to install the libprotobuf-dev (Ubuntu) or protobuf-devel (Fedora) package.
In general, you can find the containing package of a file on Ubuntu with
apt-file find google/protobuf/timestamp.proto
or on Fedora
dnf repoquery --file "**/google/protobuf/timestamp.proto" (this is how I found the package I needed). Other package managers probably have similar commands.

Answer 3

My problem was quite simple...
I didn't have the timestamp.proto downloaded locally and as a result it couldn't find it.
I cloned:
https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/tree/master/src/google/protobuf
And then when I run my compiler I have to give it the location to locate the timestamp.proto files.
For me it was...
protoc -I profile/ -I MY_CLONED_REPO_LOCATION/protobuf/src profile/profile.proto --go_out=plugins=grpc:profile
Once it knew where it had the path to the source then it could find it with no issues.

Answer 4

I had same problem with protoc 3.0.0 installed from ubuntu repo. I have found another solution, without reinstalling protobuf as #SwiftD suggested, using --proto_path protoc option.
In your .proto import should look like (i.e. without path):
syntax = "proto3";
import "timestamp.proto"
Then in the protoc invocation you pass absolute path to your package directory containing timestamp.proto (I use github.com/golang/protobuf/ptypes/timestamp) using --proto_path option.
protoc kcproto.proto --go_out=./ --proto_path=/home/my_home_dir_name/go/src/github.com/golang/protobuf/ptypes/timestamp --proto_path=./
replace /home/my_home_dir_name/ with your go package directory

Answer 5

For mac, I run this in the terminal
PROTOC_ZIP=protoc-3.14.0-osx-x86_64.zip
curl -OL https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases/download/v3.14.0/$PROTOC_ZIP
sudo unzip -o $PROTOC_ZIP -d /usr/local bin/protoc
sudo unzip -o $PROTOC_ZIP -d /usr/local 'include/*'
rm -f $PROTOC_ZIP
Note that you can change the version protoc-3.14.0 to whatever your need, for example protoc-3.x.x
Docs: http://google.github.io/proto-lens/installing-protoc.html

Answer 6

If you download from https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases, in the download directory there is an include directory, where all the google defined types (such as google/protobuf/timestamp.proto) live.
You can pass in an extra parameter --proto_path=/path/to/include to your protoc command, and it should work.

Answer 7

Go to the VSCode proto 3 extension settings and paste "protocol" at the end of the file:
"protoc": {
"options": [
"--proto_path=proto",
]
}
}

Answer 8

I had the same problem with
import "google/protobuf/timestamp.proto";
I'm on a fedora and installed protocol buffer compiler using the package manager dnf .
solution : delete your current protoc using then package manger .
on fedora:
sudo dnf remove protobuf-compiler
then follow the instruction to Install pre-compiled binaries (any OS) :
find the appropriate version of compiler herer https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases
unzip it in somewhere in your PATH . for example you can do something like this : $ unzip protoc-3.15.8-linux-x86_64.zip -d $HOME/.local
DONE !

Answer 9

What I ended up doing in same situation was to include
message google {
message protobuf {
message Timestamp {
int64 seconds = 1;
int32 nanos = 2;
}
}
}
In my proto-file. That was enough for it to be recognized as well known type, so in python I get the addition API described at https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/reference/python-generated#timestamp.
The main advantage is that we all can keep using the system install of protoc and don't have to install from source.