Installing Protocol Buffer 2.4.1 on Mavericks

Sure, you can install the latest protocol buffer via Brew, but what happens when your entire organization is still stuck on protocol buffer 2.4.1?

Like me, if you tried to install protocol buffer 2.4.1 on OS X Mavericks, you’ll get a compilation error. This is how I fixed it.

1 . Open terminal.app and run brew update

2 . Get the hash for ProtoBuf 2.4.1 by running brew versions protobuf

3 . Run cd `brew —prefix`

4 . Get the 2.4.1 brew installation script by running git checkout $hash_shown_in_step2 Library/Formula/protobuf.rb

5 . Attempt to install protobuf 2.4.1 by running brew install protobuf and you’ll get the error like the following:

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make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make: *** [all] Error 2

READ THIS: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/wiki/troubleshooting

6 . Go to HomeBrew’s source directory folder by running cd /Library/Caches/Homebrew

7 . Unzip protobuf-2.4.1.tar.bz2

8 . Open src/google/protobuf/message.h

9 . Go to line 115 and change

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#ifdef __DECCXX
// HP C++'s iosfwd doesn't work.
#include <iostream>
#else
#include <iosfwd>
#endif

To

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#ifdef __DECCXX
// HP C++'s iosfwd doesn't work.
#include <iostream>
#else
#include <sstream>
#endif 

10 . In the protobuf directory, run tar -cvjf protobuf-2.4.1.tar.bz2 .

11 . Obviously after modifying the code, the SHA sum will be different now. Get the new SHA sum by running shasum protobuf-2.4.1.tar.bz2 abd then run brew edit protobuf and change the SHA1 with the new SHA sum

12 . Finally run brew install protobuf again and enjoy your Protocol Buffer 2.4.1