PROTOBUF-DECODING.md

Notes on decoding protobuf data

Protobuf:

message ProtocolBuffer {
    repeated string  Types   = 1;
    repeated bytes   Fields  = 2;
}

Go:

type ProtocolBuffer struct {
    []string Types
    [][]byte Fields
}

Example:

message Test {
    string Name        = 1;
    string Stuff       = 2;
    int32  Number      = 3;
    bytes  Data        = 4;
    string Version     = 5;
}

Debug with Go:

0: t=  1 bytes [6] 41 20 6e 61 6d 65
8: t=  2 bytes [10] 73 6f 6d .. 75 66 66
20: t=  3 varint 42
22: t=  4 bytes [3] 01 02 03
27: t=  5 bytes [5] 30 2e 31 2e 31

Protoc:

$ protoc --decode_raw < test.bin
1: "A name"
2: "some stuff"
3: 42
4: "\001\002\003"
5: "0.1.1"