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diff --git a/docs/concepts.rst b/docs/concepts.rst index 4bc0dee8..2ae76521 100644 --- a/docs/concepts.rst +++ b/docs/concepts.rst @@ -10,47 +10,40 @@ The things outlined here are the underlying concepts of the nanopb design. Proto files =========== -All Protocol Buffers implementations use .proto files to describe the message format. -The point of these files is to be a portable interface description language. +All Protocol Buffers implementations use .proto files to describe the message +format. The point of these files is to be a portable interface description +language. Compiling .proto files for nanopb --------------------------------- -Nanopb uses the Google's protoc compiler to parse the .proto file, and then a python script to generate the C header and source code from it:: +Nanopb uses the Google's protoc compiler to parse the .proto file, and then a +python script to generate the C header and source code from it:: user@host:~$ protoc -omessage.pb message.proto user@host:~$ python ../generator/nanopb_generator.py message.pb Writing to message.h and message.c user@host:~$ -Compiling .proto files with nanopb options ------------------------------------------- -Nanopb defines two extensions for message fields described in .proto files: *max_size* and *max_count*. -These are the maximum size of a string and maximum count of items in an array:: +Modifying generator behaviour +----------------------------- +Using generator options, you can set maximum sizes for fields in order to +allocate them statically. The preferred way to do this is to create an .options +file with the same name as your .proto file:: - required string name = 1 [(nanopb).max_size = 40]; - repeated PhoneNumber phone = 4 [(nanopb).max_count = 5]; + # Foo.proto + message Foo { + required string name = 1; + } -To use these extensions, you need to place an import statement in the beginning of the file:: - - import "nanopb.proto"; - -This file, in turn, requires the file *google/protobuf/descriptor.proto*. This is usually installed under */usr/include*. Therefore, to compile a .proto file which uses options, use a protoc command similar to:: - - protoc -I/usr/include -Inanopb/generator -I. -omessage.pb message.proto - -The options can be defined in file, message and field scopes:: - - option (nanopb_fileopt).max_size = 20; // File scope - message Message - { - option (nanopb_msgopt).max_size = 30; // Message scope - required string fieldsize = 1 [(nanopb).max_size = 40]; // Field scope - } +:: -It is also possible to give the options on command line, but then they will affect the whole file. For example:: + # Foo.options + Foo.name max_size:16 - user@host:~$ python ../generator/nanopb_generator.py -s 'max_size: 20' message.pb +For more information on this, see the `Proto file options`_ section in the +reference manual. +.. _`Proto file options`: reference.html#proto-file-options Streams ======= |