gRPC C#
A C# implementation of gRPC.
Beta
Windows
Open Visual Studio and start a new project/solution.
Add NuGet package Grpc
as a dependency (Project options -> Manage NuGet Packages). That will also pull all the transitive dependencies (including the gRPC native library that gRPC C# is using internally).
Linux (Debian)
Open MonoDevelop and start a new project/solution.
Add NuGet package Grpc
as a dependency (Project -> Add NuGet packages). That will also pull all the transitive dependencies (including the gRPC native library that gRPC C# is using internally).
NOTE: gRPC C# doesn't have a good story yet for shipping precompiled Linux version of Protocol Buffers compiler (protoc) and the gRPC protoc plugin. You can install them using gRPC Linuxbrew instructions.
Mac OS X
Open Xamarin Studio and start a new project/solution.
Add NuGet package Grpc
as a dependency (Project -> Add NuGet packages). That will also pull all the transitive dependencies (including the gRPC native library that gRPC C# is using internally).
NOTE: gRPC C# doesn't have a good story yet for shipping precompiled Mac OS X version of Protocol Buffers compiler (protoc) and the gRPC protoc plugin. You can install them using gRPC Homebrew instructions.
You only need to go through these steps if you are planning to develop gRPC C#. If you are a user of gRPC C#, go to Usage section above.
Windows
The grpc_csharp_ext native library needs to be built so you can build the gRPC C# solution. Open the solution vsprojects/grpc_csharp_ext.sln
in Visual Studio and build it.
Open src\csharp\Grpc.sln
(path is relative to gRPC repository root) using Visual Studio
Linux
The grpc_csharp_ext native library needs to be built so you can build the gRPC C# solution:
# from the gRPC repository root $ make CONFIG=dbg grpc_csharp_ext
Use MonoDevelop to open the solution Grpc.sln
Mac OS X
The grpc_csharp_ext native library needs to be built so you can build the gRPC C# solution.
# from the gRPC repository root $ tools/run_tests/run_tests.py -c dbg -l csharp --build_only
Use Xamarin Studio to open the solution Grpc.sln
gRPC C# is using NUnit as the testing framework.
Under Visual Studio, make sure NUnit test adapter is installed (under "Extensions and Updates"). Then you should be able to run all the tests using Test Explorer.
Under Monodevelop or Xamarin Studio, make sure you installed "NUnit support" in Add-in manager. Then you should be able to run all the test from the Test View.
gRPC team uses a Python script to simplify facilitate running tests for different languages.
tools/run_tests/run_tests.py -l csharp
We are committed to providing full support for .NET Core in near future, but currently, the support is for .NET Core is experimental/work-in-progress.
Internally, gRPC C# uses a native library written in C (gRPC C core) and invokes its functionality via P/Invoke. grpc_csharp_ext
library is a native extension library that facilitates this by wrapping some C core API into a form that's more digestible for P/Invoke.
Prior to version 0.13, installing grpc_csharp_ext
was required to make gRPC work on Linux and MacOS. Starting with version 0.13, we have improved the packaging story significantly and precompiled versions of the native library for all supported platforms are now shipped with the NuGet package. Just installing the Grpc
NuGet package should be the only step needed to use gRPC C#, regardless of your platform (Windows, Linux or Mac) and the bitness (32 or 64bit).