grpc
high-performance remote procedure call framework
TLDR
Generate Go code from proto
$ protoc --go_out=. --go-grpc_out=. [service.proto]
Generate Python code$ python -m grpc_tools.protoc -I. --python_out=. --grpc_python_out=. [service.proto]
Call gRPC service$ grpcurl -plaintext [localhost:50051] [package.Service/Method]
List services$ grpcurl -plaintext [localhost:50051] list
DESCRIPTION
gRPC is a high-performance RPC framework using Protocol Buffers for serialization. It enables efficient communication between services with features like streaming, authentication, and load balancing.gRPC uses HTTP/2 for transport and provides code generation for multiple languages from .proto service definitions.
PROTO FILE EXAMPLE
$ syntax = "proto3";
service Greeter {
rpc SayHello (HelloRequest) returns (HelloReply);
rpc SayHelloStream (HelloRequest) returns (stream HelloReply);
}
message HelloRequest {
string name = 1;
}
message HelloReply {
string message = 1;
}
service Greeter {
rpc SayHello (HelloRequest) returns (HelloReply);
rpc SayHelloStream (HelloRequest) returns (stream HelloReply);
}
message HelloRequest {
string name = 1;
}
message HelloReply {
string message = 1;
}
TOOLS
$ protoc Protocol buffer compiler
grpcurl Command-line gRPC client
grpc_cli Official gRPC CLI
evans Interactive gRPC client
grpcurl Command-line gRPC client
grpc_cli Official gRPC CLI
evans Interactive gRPC client
INSTALL
sudo dnf install grpc
sudo pacman -S grpc
brew install grpc
nix profile install nixpkgs#grpc
CAVEATS
Requires protocol buffer definitions. HTTP/2 needed; some proxies don't support it. Debugging harder than REST. Browser support requires gRPC-Web.
HISTORY
gRPC was developed by Google and open-sourced in 2015. It's based on Google's internal Stubby RPC framework and is now a CNCF project used extensively in cloud-native applications.