High-performance protoc replacement

Buf also provides a modern, high-performance, drop-in replacement for protoc that uses Buf's internal compiler. When we say high-performance, we mean a 7.5x real-world improvement on a modern personal computer:

$ git remote -v

origin https://github.com/googleapis/googleapis (fetch)

origin https://github.com/googleapis/googleapis (push)

$ find . -name '*.proto' | wc -l

3064

$ time protoc -I . -o /dev/null $(find . -name '*.proto') 2>/dev/null

real 0m6.025s

user 0m5.104s

sys 0m0.348s

$ time buf protoc -I . -o /dev/null $(find . -name '*.proto') 2>/dev/null

real 0m0.799s

user 0m6.176s

sys 0m0.764s

This compiler is constantly integration tested across thousands of Protobuf files to verify that equivalent FileDescriptorSets are produced, and we have used it in production ourselves for a couple months now.

All flags and features of protoc are supported and compatible, with the following exceptions:

• --encode
• --decode
• --decode_raw
• --descriptor_set_in

The remaining flags can all be added if there is sufficient demand.

Additionally, we have added the flag:

• --by_dir

Using this flag will cause buf protoc to run your protoc plugins in parallel on a per-directory basis, resulting in major further performance improvements.

We are providing buf protoc as a mechanism for users to get into the Buf ecosystem with drop-in compatibility, and encourage you to try it out with your existing Protobuf workflows!