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Swift Protobuf Plugin

The protoc-gen-swift program is a plugin to Google's protoc compiler that works with protoc to translate proto files into Swift code.

Getting Started

If you've worked with Protocol Buffers before, adding Swift support is very simple: you just need to build the protoc-gen-swift program and copy it into any directory in your PATH. The protoc program will find and use it automatically, allowing you to build Swift sources for your proto files. You will also, of course, need to add the corresponding Swift runtime library to your project.

System Requirements

To use Swift with Protocol buffers, you'll need:

  • A recent Swift compiler. We recommend using the latest release build from Swift.org or the command-line tools included with the latest version of Xcode.

  • Google's protoc compiler. You can get recent versions from Google's github repository.

Build and Install

Building the plugin should be simple on any supported Swift platform:

git clone https://github.com/apple/swift-protobuf
cd swift-protobuf
swift build -c release

This will create a binary called protoc-gen-swift in the .build/release directory. To install, just copy this one executable anywhere in your PATH.

Converting .proto files into Swift

To generate Swift output for your .proto files, you run the protoc command as usual, using the --swift_out=<directory> option:

protoc --swift_out=. my.proto

The protoc program will automatically look for protoc-gen-swift in your PATH and use it.

Each .proto input file will get translated to a corresponding .pb.swift file in the output directory.

How to Specify Code-Generation Options

The plugin tries to use reasonable default behaviors for the code it generates, but there are a few things that can be configured to specific needs.

You can use the --swift_opt argument to protoc to pass options to the Swift code generator as follows:

protoc --swift_opt=[NAME]=[VALUE] --swift_out:. foo/bar/*.proto mumble/*.proto

If you need to specify multiple options, you can use more than one --swift_opt argument:

protoc \
    --swift_opt=[NAME1]=[VALUE1] \
    --swift_opt=[NAME2]=[VALUE2] \
    --swift_out=. foo/bar/*.proto mumble/*.proto

NOTE: protoc 3.2.0 does not recognize --swift_opt if you rely on protoc-gen-swift being found on the PATH. To work around this, you need to explicitly add the argument --plugin=[PATH-TO-protoc-gen-swift] to the command line, then the --swift_opt argument will be understood. If you are using protoc 3.2.1 or later, then this workaround is not needed.

Generation Option: FileNaming - Naming of Generated Sources

By default, the paths to the proto files are maintained on the generated files. So if you pass foo/bar/my.proto, you will get foo/bar/my.pb.swift in the output directory. The Swift plugin supports an option to control the generated file names, the option is given as part of the --swift_opt argument like this:

protoc --swift_opt=FileNaming=[value] --swift_out=. foo/bar/*.proto mumble/*.proto

The possible values for FileNaming are:

  • FullPath (default): Like all other languages, "foo/bar/baz.proto" makes "foo/bar/baz.pb.swift.
  • PathToUnderscores: To help with things like the Swift Package Manager where someone might want all the files in one directory; "foo/bar/baz.proto" makes "foo_bar_baz.pb.swift".
  • DropPath: Drop the path from the input and just write all files into the output directory; "foo/bar/baz.proto" makes "baz.pb.swift".
Generation Option: Visibility - Visibility of Generated Types

By default, SwiftProtobuf does not specify a visibility for the generated types, methods, and properties. As a result, these will end up with the default (internal) access. You can change this with the Visibility option:

protoc --swift_opt=Visibility=[value] --swift_out=. foo/bar/*.proto mumble/*.proto

The possible values for Visibility are:

  • Internal (default): No visibility is set for the types, so they get the default internal visibility.
  • Package (Swift 5.9 or later required): The visibility on the types is set to package so the types will be exposed across the whole Swift package they belong to.
  • Public: The visibility on the types is set to public so the types will be exposed outside the module they are compiled into.
Generation Option: ProtoPathModuleMappings - Swift Module names for proto paths

By default, the code generator assumes all of the resulting Swift files will be put into the same module. However, since protos can reference types from another proto file, those generated files might end up in different modules. This option allows you to specify that the code generated from the proto files will be distributed in multiple modules. This data is used during generation to then import the module and scope the types. This option takes the path of a file providing the mapping:

protoc --swift_opt=ProtoPathModuleMappings=[path.asciipb] --swift_out=. foo/bar/*.proto

The format of that mapping file is defined in swift_protobuf_module_mappings.proto, and files would look something like:

mapping {
  module_name: "MyModule"
  proto_file_path: "foo/bar.proto"
}
mapping {
  module_name: "OtherModule"
  proto_file_path: "mumble.proto"
  proto_file_path: "other/file.proto"
}

The proto_file_path values here should match the paths used in the proto file import statements.

Generation Option: ImplementationOnlyImports - @_implementationOnly-annotated imports

By default, SwiftProtobuf does not annotate any imports with @_implementationOnly. However, in some scenarios, such as when distributing an XCFramework, imports for types used only internally should be annotated as @_implementationOnly to avoid exposing internal symbols to clients. You can change this with the ImplementationOnlyImports option:

protoc --swift_opt=ImplementationOnlyImports=[value] --swift_out=. foo/bar/*.proto mumble/*.proto

The possible values for ImplementationOnlyImports are:

  • false (default): The @_implementationOnly annotation will never be used.
  • true: Imports of internal dependencies and any modules defined in the module mappings will be annotated as @_implementationOnly.

Important: Modules cannot be imported as implementation-only if they're exposed via public API, so even if ImplementationOnlyImports is set to true, this will only work if the Visibility is set to internal.

Generation Option: UseAccessLevelOnImports - imports preceded by a visibility modifier (public, package, internal)

The default behavior depends on the Swift version the plugin is compiled with. For Swift versions below 6.0 the default is false and the code generator does not precede any imports with a visibility modifier. You can change this by explicitly setting the UseAccessLevelOnImports option:

$ protoc --swift_opt=UseAccessLevelOnImports=[value] --swift_out=. foo/bar/*.proto mumble/*.proto

The possible values for UseAccessLevelOnImports are:

  • false: Generates plain import directives without a visibility modifier.
  • true: Imports of internal dependencies and any modules defined in the module mappings will be preceded by a visibility modifier corresponding to the visibility of the generated types - see Visibility option.

Important: It is strongly encouraged to use internal imports instead of @_implementationOnly imports. Hence UseAccessLevelOnImports and ImplementationOnlyImports options exclude each other.

Building your project

After copying the .pb.swift files into your project, you will need to add the SwiftProtobuf library to your project to support the generated code. If you are using the Swift Package Manager, you should first check what version of protoc-gen-swift you are currently using:

$ protoc-gen-swift --version
protoc-gen-swift 1.0.1

And then add a dependency to your Package.swift file. Adjust the Version() here to match the protoc-gen-swift version you checked above:

dependencies: [
    .package(name: "SwiftProtobuf", url: "https://github.com/apple/swift-protobuf.git", from: "1.6.0"),
]

If you are using Xcode, then you should:

  • Add the Swift source files generated from your protos directly to your project.
  • Add this SwiftPM package as dependency of your Xcode project: Apple Docs