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

If you are using protocol buffers version 2, you can use the default values to implement this. Protocol buffers 3 has removed support for default values so this answer doesn't work there.

In the .proto file defining your interface, have something like:

message MyLoginMessage
{
    ... normal login fields ...

    // Increment this number when you make new releases
    // of this .proto.
    optional int32 protocol_version [default=55];
}

This way any client will automatically include the version number taken from the .proto.

Edit: Ah, just noticed the proto3 tag.. so I guess this answer is not useful to you after all.