Cannot use machinetalk-protobuf without resorting to git subtree

[bobvanderlinden]

To make use of .proto files it would be nice to have them in a standard location, so that other projects can more easily depend on them. From what I gathered .proto files should go in /usr/include/{namespace}/*.proto.

It would also be nice to install the .h files in /usr/include (or whatever includedir is set) as well and compile a .so and/or .a and place those /usr/lib.

Installing a pkgconfig file would allow other C/C++ projects to depend on the protobuf files without resorting to git subtree.

[mhaberler]

we can do that, I guess the files would then go to /usr/include/machinetalk/*.proto ?

[mhaberler]

pkgconfig file - are you suggesting to wrap these proto files into a machinetalk-protobuf package?

what would the pkg-config invocation look like to retrieve the path to the .proto files?

[bobvanderlinden]

Yes, if the namespace is machinetalk, then yes, it would go there.

For the .proto files, I've used pkg-config --variable=includedir protobuf for instance in node-machinetalk before. It results in /usr/include on my system.

[mhaberler]

ah, pk-config can retrieve dirs too. Yes, that would work!

[machinekoder]

Good idea, would make things easier.

[machinekoder]

Is this still an issue?

[bobvanderlinden]

Hmm, I think so. I don't know what is best though. A pkgconfig file would only partly help, because people would still need to install machinetalk-protobuf. A separate deb (with pkgconfig) could be a solution, but it would also require compiling and installing .so and .a I think.

Basically it comes down to, do we want to package machinetalk-protobuf separately?

[machinekoder]

We definitely can split the Machintalk Protobuf stuff from Machinekit. Projects have been prepared to use namespaces. Separation needs to be executed.