raw decoder for protobufs format

Question

I\'d like to find a way to convert a binary protobuf message into a human readable description of the contained data, without using the .proto files.

The background

Answer 1

For Posterity: Google's protocol buffer tools have the ability to decode raw buffers.

Just send the unknown buffer to it and pass the--decode_raw flag

$ cat has_no_proto.buff | protoc --decode_raw
2 {
  2: "Error retrieving information from server. [RH-02]"
}

So here's a message with field 2 set to an embedded message which in turn has its second field set to a string telling me I pissed off Google Play.

Type information isn't definite (it looks like it will try to display all binary data as strings -- but your requirement for varint/string/submessage distinction is met).