A protobuf debugging tool – protoc --decode_raw on steroids.
Large binary data is truncated by default. The length is always visible. You can use --full to show the full data. In combination with the message selection (see below) you can get an overview first and then get the full data of specific fields.
String content is ready to be pasted to things like echo '{"my": "json"}' | jq.
Use a jq-like syntax to select sub-messages only.
The tool decides between nested protobuf messages, strings and raw bytes on a best-guess basis. Sometimes it is wrong but you can help. E.g. if you know, no fixed length types are used, add --no-fixed to get the correct output.
cargo install decode_rawDepending on how cargo is set up on your system you should find the binary in $HOME/.cargo/bin or $CARGO_HOME/bin. It is covenient to add this folder to you $PATH.
You can check your installed version with decode_raw --version and update with:
cargo install --force decode_rawdecode_raw reads serialized protobuf from STDIN and prints it.
From pipe
$ echo 08bf99bfb4e502120a4a616e6520536d697468 | xxd -r -p | decode_raw
1: 95941545151
2: (10 bytes) 'Jane Smith'
From file
decode_raw < docs/person.bin
1: 1021211
2: (8 bytes) 'John Doe'
3 {
· 1: 959435311
· 2: (11 bytes) 'Susanne Doe'
}
3 {
· 1: 81154811
· 2: (9 bytes) 'Mac Smith'
· 3 {
· · 1: 95941545151
· · 2: (10 bytes) 'Jane Smith'
· }
}
decode_raw should:
- Make Simon happy when debugging protobuf
- Be trivial to get started for users of
protoc --decode_raw - Support proto3
It does not intend to:
- Provide stable outputs for scripting
- Become a performance winner
- Help with broken protobuf serialization. Those will be considered raw app level bytes.
- Support proto2