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gRPC - now with easy installation

Today we are happy to provide an update that significantly simplifies the getting started experience for gRPC.

  • For most languages, the gRPC runtime can now be installed in a single step via native package managers such as npm for Node.js, gem for Ruby and pip for Python. Even though our Node, Ruby and Python runtimes are wrapped on gRPC’s C core, users now don’t need to explicitly pre-install the C core library as a package in most Linux distributions. We autofetch it for you :-).

  • For Java, we have simplified the steps needed to add gRPC support to your build tools by providing plugins for Maven and Gradle. These let you easily depend on the core runtime to deploy or ship generated libraries into production environments.

  • You can also use our Dockerfiles to use these updated packages - deploying microservices built on gRPC should now be a very simple experience.

The installation story is not yet complete: we are now focused on improving your development experience by packaging our protocol buffer plugins in the same way as the gRPC runtime. This will simplify code generation and setting up your development environment.

Want to try it?

Here’s how to install the gRPC runtime today in all our supported languages:

LanguagePlatformCommand
Node.jsLinux, Mac, Windowsnpm install grpc
PythonLinux, Mac, Windowspip install grpcio
RubyLinux, Mac, Windowsgem install grpc
PHPLinux, Mac, Windowspecl install grpc-beta
GoLinux, Mac, Windowsgo get google.golang.org/grpc
Objective-CMacRuntime source fetched automatically from GitHub by CocoaPods
C#WindowsInstall gRPC NuGet package from your IDE (Visual Studio, Monodevelop, Xamarin Studio)
JavaLinux, Mac, WindowsUse our Maven and Gradle plugins that provide gRPC with statically linked boringssl
C++Linux, Mac, WindowsCurrently requires manual build and install

You can find out more about installation in our quick start pages and GitHub repositories. Do send us your feedback on our mailing list or file issues on our issue tracker if you run into any problems.