generate python classes from application/x-protobuf file

Question

I have a python script that receives a application/x-protobuf file from youtube. This part of the file

*youtubei#playerResponse
\862\94

yt_ad1\83
e~11200142,901816,936105,9407053,9407664,9407715,9408142,9410705,9412913,9415294,9416137,9417116,9417192,9417455,9418117,94182142\88\83
e~11200142,901816,936105,9407053,9407664,9407715,9408142,9410705,9412913,9415294,9416137,9417116,9417192,9417455,9418117,94182142\D6+
InnerTubeBuildLabelyoutube_20150727_RC2
InnerTubeChangelist99168778\83
e~11200142,901816,936105,9407053,9407664,9407715,9408142,9410705,9412913,9415294,9416137,9417116,9417192,9417455,9418117,94182142\88&
innertube.build.changelist99168778-
innertube.build.labelyoutube_20150727_RC2'
innertube.build.timestamp
1437996969E
!innertube.build.variants.checksum 47cbe83e1d9f5a44654ab7896473362e
innertube.client_name3!
innertube.client_version10.28z\BC\9A\EF\CA\DC\A2\80\C8 \E0](\A8F0\88\A48\98u@\B0\EAM\CD\CCL?U\CD\CCL?]\00\00@?`2h\E42p\C0>x\80\88\C4\90\98\A0\00\AD\00\00\00\00\B0\00\B8\00\C0\C8Ќ\D0\00\D8\E0\E8\C7\F0d\F8\00\80\90\00\98\00\C0\00\C8\A0\A8\00\B5\00\00\A0B\B8\00\D8\00\E0\00\E8\00\F0\F0\F8\80\00\88\00\90\00\B2ϭ\D3
\00\00 \C1\A2\DFޜ\00Z\AD

I want to generate python classes from this file. I used protoc to decode the file

cat binay_file | protoc --decode_raw > decoded_file

Then I used this command to generate the classes

protoc -I=/root --python_out=$DST_DIR /root/decoded_file

however this command always returns "Expected top-level statement (e.g. "message")." error.

Kenton Varda · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-30 19:45:03Z

1

The input to protoc is a .proto source file declaring the overall structure of the protocol. It looks like you're trying to use as input an actual message. This won't work -- these aren't the same thing.

There is no automated way to reverse-engineer a .proto file from a message instance, since an encoded message does not contain things like type names or field names and contains only limited information about actual field types. You can use the output of --decode_raw to make guesses about the original .proto file, but this is a reverse-engineering task that requires human analysis, not something that can be done by a program.

answered Jul 30, 2015 at 19:45

Kenton Varda

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