gRPC / Protobuf interface versioning

Question

Let\'s say we use gRCP/Protobuf to connect many application. Those application are developped and released at their own team, with their own speed. Over time there will be d

Answer 1

In the upcoming versions of gRPC, there will be a new feature called Server Reflection. This will allow a client to ask the server for the Descriptors that descriptor the proto file being used. Rather than the server knowing about the version the client is running, the client will know what the server is running. If the server descriptor matches the one the client already has, then it will know that they are speaking at the same version.

This will be released in version 1.1.

Note that Protobufs are designed so that you don't have to do this! If you set up your proto correctly, old and new versions of clients and server should work together.