Allow using python -m grpc_tools.protoc in lieu of protoc

[yhtang]

Thank you for creating this valuable package!

Currently, protol's protoc command relies on system calls to the protoc executable. Since protoc is not available as a PyPI package, this creates challenges for Python projects that manage dependencies exclusively via pip. While the grpcio-tools package provides protoc functionality, it can only be accessed through python -m grpc_tools.protoc.

Would it be possible to add an option to allow users to specify how protoc is invoked?

[mtralka]

For anyone looking for a workaround, we can control the protoc executable path through --protoc-path so we have some access to get around this.

protoc-shim.sh - ensure executable

#!/bin/bash
python3 -m grpc_tools.protoc "$@"

Example protol command

protol \
	--create-package \
	--in-place \
	--python-out ./helloworld \
	protoc --proto-path=./protos helloworld.proto --protoc-path /protoc-shim.sh

I'm sure there are other ways but this was a quick mitigation sufficient for my needs.

[cpascual]

Thanks @mtralka for the workaround.

As a slightly simpler solution, you can avoid creating the shim by simply using

--protoc-path "python3 -m grpc_tools.protoc"

, as in e.g.:

protol \
	--create-package \
	--in-place \
	--python-out ./helloworld \
	protoc --proto-path=./protos helloworld.proto --protoc-path "python3 -m grpc_tools.protoc"