1 Protocol Buffers - Google's data interchange format 2 Copyright 2008 Google Inc. 3 4 This directory contains the Python Protocol Buffers runtime library. 5 6 Normally, this directory comes as part of the protobuf package, available 7 from: 8 9 http://code.google.com/p/protobuf 10 11 The complete package includes the C++ source code, which includes the 12 Protocol Compiler (protoc). If you downloaded this package from PyPI 13 or some other Python-specific source, you may have received only the 14 Python part of the code. In this case, you will need to obtain the 15 Protocol Compiler from some other source before you can use this 16 package. 17 18 Development Warning 19 =================== 20 21 The Python implementation of Protocol Buffers is not as mature as the C++ 22 and Java implementations. It may be more buggy, and it is known to be 23 pretty slow at this time. If you would like to help fix these issues, 24 join the Protocol Buffers discussion list and let us know! 25 26 Installation 27 ============ 28 29 1) Make sure you have Python 2.4 or newer. If in doubt, run: 30 31 $ python -V 32 33 2) If you do not have setuptools installed, note that it will be 34 downloaded and installed automatically as soon as you run setup.py. 35 If you would rather install it manually, you may do so by following 36 the instructions on this page: 37 38 http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/EasyInstall#installation-instructions 39 40 3) Build the C++ code, or install a binary distribution of protoc. If 41 you install a binary distribution, make sure that it is the same 42 version as this package. If in doubt, run: 43 44 $ protoc --version 45 46 4) Run the tests: 47 48 $ python setup.py test 49 50 If some tests fail, this library may not work correctly on your 51 system. Continue at your own risk. 52 53 Please note that there is a known problem with some versions of 54 Python on Cygwin which causes the tests to fail after printing the 55 error: "sem_init: Resource temporarily unavailable". This appears 56 to be a bug either in Cygwin or in Python: 57 http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2005-07/msg01378.html 58 We do not know if or when it might me fixed. We also do not know 59 how likely it is that this bug will affect users in practice. 60 61 5) Install: 62 63 $ python setup.py install 64 65 This step may require superuser privileges. 66 67 Usage 68 ===== 69 70 The complete documentation for Protocol Buffers is available via the 71 web at: 72 73 http://code.google.com/apis/protocolbuffers/ 74
