grpc/src/csharp

gRPC C#

A C# implementation of gRPC.

Status

Beta

PREREQUISITES

• Windows: .NET Framework 4.5+, Visual Studio 2013 or 2015
• Linux: Mono 4+, MonoDevelop 5.9+ (with NuGet add-in installed)
• Mac OS X: Xamarin Studio 5.9+

HOW TO USE

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.

BUILD FROM SOURCE

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

RUNNING TESTS

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

ON .NET CORE SUPPORT

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.

DOCUMENTATION

• the gRPC C# reference documentation is available online at grpc.io
• Helloworld example

CONTENTS

• ext: The extension library that wraps C API to be more digestible by C#.
• Grpc.Auth: gRPC OAuth2 support.
• Grpc.Core: The main gRPC C# library.
• Grpc.Examples: API examples for math.proto
• Grpc.Examples.MathClient: An example client that sends some requests to math server.
• Grpc.Examples.MathServer: An example client that sends some requests to math server.
• Grpc.IntegrationTesting: Cross-language gRPC implementation testing (interop testing).

THE NATIVE DEPENDENCY

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).