How does protocol buffer handle versioning?

protocol-buffers protobuf-net
CodingHero picture CodingHero · Dec 15, 2011 · Viewed 25.4k times · Source

How does protocol buffers handle type versioning?

For example, when I need to change a type definition over time? Like adding and removing fields.

Answer

Marc Gravell picture Marc Gravell · Dec 15, 2011

Google designed protobuf to be pretty forgiving with versioning:

  • unexpected data is either stored as "extensions" (making it round-trip safe), or silently dropped, depending on the implementation
  • new fields are generally added as "optional", meaning that old data can be loaded successfully

however:

  • do not renumber fields - that would break existing data
  • you should not normally change the way any given field is stored (i.e. from a fixed-with 32-bit int to a "varint")

Generally speaking, though - it will just work, and you don't need to worry much about versioning.

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