Share via

Setup BuildProtobuf VS 2017

  • Article

Creating a compiled Protobuf 3.1.0 for CNTK

If you want to build the Protobuf 3.1.0 for CNTK yourself, follow these instructions. The compiled Protobuf version will be located in c:\local\protobuf-3.1.0-vs17

The following steps assume that the Protobuf sources have been unzipped to the directory c:\local\src\protobuf-3.1.0. The instructions below will create the Protobuf libraries and header files in the directory c:\local\protobuf-3.1.0-vs17. If this location differs in your case, please adapt the steps below to match your directory structure.

There are two ways to build the CNTK Protobuf library, either through a batch file or manually.

Building through a batch file

In the directory Tools\devInstall\Windows you find the batch file buildProtoVS17.bat. This batch file takes two parameters to build the CNTK Protobuf library. The first parameter is the directory of the Protobuf source files you unpacked above, the second parameter is the destination directory for the created Protobuf library. In our case follow these steps from a standard Windows command prompt:

c:
cd \repos\cntk\Tools\devInstall\Windows
buildProtoVS17 C:\local\src\protobuf-3.1.0 C:\local\protobuf-3.1.0-vs17

Set the environment variable PROTOBUF_PATH to the Protobuf location (this is the second parameter in the command invocation above, not the sources location!

setx PROTOBUF_PATH c:\local\protobuf-3.1.0-vs17

Manual build steps for a CNTK Protobuf library

Note

If VS2017INSTALLDIR environment variable was not set by the Visual Studio installer, set it manually. The exact installation directory depends on both the version (2017 in this case) and offering (Community, Enterprise, etc) of Visual Studio, according to the following pattern: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\<version>\<offering>.

For Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise edition, run:

setx VS2017INSTALLDIR "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise"

For Visual Studio 2017 Community edition, run:

setx VS2017INSTALLDIR "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community"
  1. Launch a 64-bit Visual Studio 2017 development environment. The most convenient way is to execute the batch file vcvarsall.bat in the Visual Studio directory with the required parameters from a standard windows command shell:
"%VS2017INSTALLDIR%\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsall.bat" amd64 --vcvars_ver=14.11

If you can't find this batch file on your system, please revisit the installation of VS2017 and make sure you have the 'VC++ version 15.4 v14.11 toolset' option selected. 2. Create a build directory:  

cd C:\local\src\protobuf-3.1.0\cmake
mkdir build && cd build
  1. Create a debug build: 
mkdir debug && cd debug
cmake -G "NMake Makefiles" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -Dprotobuf_BUILD_TESTS=OFF -Dprotobuf_MSVC_STATIC_RUNTIME=OFF -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="c:\local\protobuf-3.1.0-vs17" ..\..
nmake && nmake install
cd ..
  1. Create a release build:
mkdir release && cd release
cmake -G "NMake Makefiles" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -Dprotobuf_BUILD_TESTS=OFF -Dprotobuf_MSVC_STATIC_RUNTIME=OFF -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="c:\local\protobuf-3.1.0-vs17" ..\..
nmake && nmake install
cd ..
  1. Set the environment variable PROTOBUF_PATH to the Protobuf location (Note: this is the install location used in the cmake command above, not the sources location!):
setx PROTOBUF_PATH c:\local\protobuf-3.1.0-vs17