3 This directory contains the C++ implementation of gRPC.
5 # To start using gRPC C++
7 This section describes how to add gRPC as a dependency to your C++ project.
9 In the C++ world, there's no universally accepted standard for managing project dependencies.
10 Therefore, gRPC supports several major build systems, which should satisfy most users.
12 ## Supported Platforms
14 * Supported: These platforms are officially supported. We test our code on these
15 platform and have automated continuous integration tests for them.
17 * Best Effort: We do not have continous integration tests for these, but we are fairly confident that gRPC C++ would work on them.
18 We will make our best effort to support them, and we welcome patches for such platforms, but we might need to declare bankruptcy on some issues.
20 | Operating System | Architectures | Versions | Support Level |
21 |------------------|---------------|----------|---------------|
22 | Linux - Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS | x86, x64 | clang 3.4+, GCC 4.9+ | Supported |
23 | Windows 10+ | x86, x64 | Visual Studio 2015+ | Supported |
24 | MacOS | x86, x64 | XCode 7.2+ | Supported |
25 | Linux - Others | x86, x64 | clang 3.4+, GCC 4.9+ | Best Effort |
26 | Linux | ARM | | Best Effort |
27 | iOS | | | Best Effort |
28 | Android | | | Best Effort |
32 Bazel is the primary build system used by the core gRPC development team. Bazel
33 provides fast builds and it easily handles dependencies that support bazel.
35 To add gRPC as a dependency in bazel:
36 1. determine commit SHA for the grpc release you want to use
37 2. Use the [http_archive](https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/repo/http.html#http_archive) bazel rule to include gRPC source
40 name = "com_github_grpc_grpc",
42 "https://github.com/grpc/grpc/archive/YOUR_GRPC_COMMIT_SHA.tar.gz",
44 strip_prefix = "grpc-YOUR_GRPC_COMMIT_SHA",
46 load("@com_github_grpc_grpc//bazel:grpc_deps.bzl", "grpc_deps")
48 load("@com_github_grpc_grpc//bazel:grpc_extra_deps.bzl", "grpc_extra_deps")
54 `cmake` is your best option if you cannot use bazel. It supports building on Linux,
55 MacOS and Windows (official support) but also has a good chance of working on
56 other platforms (no promises!). `cmake` has good support for crosscompiling and
57 can be used for targeting the Android platform.
59 To build gRPC C++ from source, follow the [BUILDING guide](../../BUILDING.md).
63 The canonical way to discover dependencies in CMake is the
64 [`find_package` command](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/command/find_package.html).
67 find_package(gRPC CONFIG REQUIRED)
68 add_executable(my_exe my_exe.cc)
69 target_link_libraries(my_exe gRPC::grpc++)
71 [Full example](../../examples/cpp/helloworld/CMakeLists.txt)
73 `find_package` can only find software that has already been installed on your
74 system. In practice that means you'll need to install gRPC using cmake first.
75 gRPC's cmake support provides the option to install gRPC either system-wide
76 (not recommended) or under a directory prefix in a way that you can later
77 easily use it with the `find_package(gRPC CONFIG REQUIRED)` command.
79 The following sections describe strategies to automatically build gRPC
80 as part of your project.
83 If you are using CMake v3.11 or newer you should use CMake's
84 [FetchContent module](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/module/FetchContent.html).
85 The first time you run CMake in a given build directory, FetchContent will
86 clone the gRPC repository and its submodules. `FetchContent_MakeAvailable()`
87 also sets up an `add_subdirectory()` rule for you. This causes gRPC to be
88 built as part of your project.
91 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.15)
97 GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/grpc/grpc
98 GIT_TAG RELEASE_TAG_HERE # e.g v1.28.0
100 set(FETCHCONTENT_QUIET OFF)
101 FetchContent_MakeAvailable(gRPC)
103 add_executable(my_exe my_exe.cc)
104 target_link_libraries(my_exe grpc++)
107 Note that you need to
108 [install the prerequisites](../../BUILDING.md#pre-requisites)
109 before building gRPC.
112 If you cannot use FetchContent, another approach is to add the gRPC source tree
114 [git submodule](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Submodules).
115 You can then add it to your CMake project with `add_subdirectory()`.
116 [Example](../../examples/cpp/helloworld/CMakeLists.txt)
118 ### Support system-installed gRPC
120 If your project builds gRPC you should still consider the case where a user
121 wants to build your software using a previously installed gRPC. Here's a
122 code snippet showing how this is typically done.
125 option(USE_SYSTEM_GRPC "Use system installed gRPC" OFF)
127 # Find system-installed gRPC
128 find_package(gRPC CONFIG REQUIRED)
130 # Build gRPC using FetchContent or add_subdirectory
134 [Full example](../../examples/cpp/helloworld/CMakeLists.txt)
138 If your project does not use CMake (e.g. you're using `make` directly), you can
139 first install gRPC C++ using CMake, and have your non-CMake project rely on the
140 `pkgconfig` files which are provided by gRPC installation.
141 [Example](../../test/distrib/cpp/run_distrib_test_cmake_pkgconfig.sh)
143 **Note for CentOS 7 users**
145 CentOS-7 ships with `pkg-config` 0.27.1, which has a
146 [bug](https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=54716) that can make
147 invocations take extremely long to complete. If you plan to use `pkg-config`,
148 you'll want to upgrade it to something newer.
152 The default choice for building on UNIX based systems used to be `make`, but we are no longer recommending it.
153 You should use `bazel` or `cmake` instead.
155 To install gRPC for C++ on your system using `make`, follow the [Building gRPC C++](../../BUILDING.md)
156 instructions to build from source and then install locally using `make install`.
157 This also installs the protocol buffer compiler `protoc` (if you don't have it already),
158 and the C++ gRPC plugin for `protoc`.
160 WARNING: After installing with `make install` there is no easy way to uninstall, which can cause issues
161 if you later want to remove the grpc and/or protobuf installation or upgrade to a newer version.
165 We do not officially support any packaging system for C++, but there are some community-maintained packages that are kept up-to-date
166 and are known to work well. More contributions and support for popular packaging systems are welcome!
168 ### Install using vcpkg package
169 gRPC is available using the [vcpkg](https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg) dependency manager:
172 # install vcpkg package manager on your system using the official instructions
173 git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git
176 # Bootstrap on Linux:
178 # Bootstrap on Windows instead:
179 # ./bootstrap-vcpkg.bat
181 ./vcpkg integrate install
183 # install gRPC using vcpkg package manager
187 The gRPC port in vcpkg is kept up to date by Microsoft team members and community contributors. If the version is out of date, please [create an issue or pull request](https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg) on the vcpkg repository.
190 ## Examples & Additional Documentation
192 You can find out how to build and run our simplest gRPC C++ example in our
193 [C++ quick start](../../examples/cpp).
195 For more detailed documentation on using gRPC in C++ , see our main
196 documentation site at [grpc.io](https://grpc.io), specifically:
198 * [Overview](https://grpc.io/docs): An introduction to gRPC with a simple
199 Hello World example in all our supported languages, including C++.
200 * [gRPC Basics - C++](https://grpc.io/docs/languages/cpp/basics):
201 A tutorial that steps you through creating a simple gRPC C++ example
203 * [Asynchronous Basics - C++](https://grpc.io/docs/languages/cpp/async):
204 A tutorial that shows you how to use gRPC C++'s asynchronous/non-blocking
208 # To start developing gRPC C++
210 For instructions on how to build gRPC C++ from source, follow the [Building gRPC C++](../../BUILDING.md) instructions.