Protoc-gen-go-grpc: program not found or is not executable

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Error: protoc-gen-go-grpc: program not found or is not executable

The error message suggests that the program protoc-gen-go-grpc either cannot be found or is not executable on your system. This program is part of the protoc compiler suite and is used for generating gRPC code from protocol buffer definitions.

Possible causes:

  • The protoc-gen-go-grpc program is not installed.
  • The program is installed but not added to the system’s executable path.
  • The program is installed and added to the path, but lacks proper execution permissions.

Solution:

To resolve this issue, follow the steps below:

  1. Check if the program is installed by running the following command in your terminal or command prompt:
    2. protoc-gen-go-grpc --version

    If you see the version information, it means the program is installed. Otherwise, proceed to the next step.

  2. If the program is not installed, install it using the appropriate installation method on your system. For example, using go get command:
    3. go get google.golang.org/grpc/cmd/protoc-gen-go-grpc
  3. If the program is installed, but not added to the system’s executable path, you can either add the path manually or use the full path when generating gRPC code. For example:
    4. protoc --go-grpc_out=. --go-grpc_opt=paths=source_relative --plugin=protoc-gen-go-grpc=/path/to/protoc-gen-go-grpc your_service.proto

    Replace /path/to/protoc-gen-go-grpc with the actual path to the protoc-gen-go-grpc executable.

  4. If the program is installed, added to the path but lacks execution permissions, you need to grant the necessary permissions. For Unix-based systems, use the chmod command:
    5. chmod +x /path/to/protoc-gen-go-grpc

Example:

Let’s assume you have a protobuf file named example.proto and you want to generate gRPC code for Go. Make sure to replace /path/to/protoc-gen-go-grpc with the actual path to your protoc-gen-go-grpc program:

protoc --go-grpc_out=. --go-grpc_opt=paths=source_relative --plugin=protoc-gen-go-grpc=/path/to/protoc-gen-go-grpc example.proto

This command will generate Go code for gRPC based on the example.proto file using the protoc-gen-go-grpc program.

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