[sluongng]

https://github.com/googleapis/googleapis/blob/master/google/... is a more complete version of this. It supports resumable uploads, and the download can start from an offset within a file, allowing you to download only part of the file instead of the whole.

Another version of this is to use grpc to communicate the "metadata" of a download file, and then "side" load the file using a side channel with http (or some other light-weight copy methods). Gitlab uses this to transfer Git packfiles and serve git fetch requests iirc https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitaly/-/blob/master/doc/sidec...

[pipo234]

I understand some of the appeal of grpc, but resumable uploads and download offsets have long be part of plain http. (E.g. RFC 7233)

Relying on http has the advantage that you can leverage commodity infrastructure like caching proxies and CDN.

Why push protobuf over http when all you need is present in http already?

[avianlyric]

Because you may already have robust and sensible gRPC infrastructure setup and working, and setting up the correct HTTP infrastructure to take advantage of all the benefits that plain old HTTP provides may not be worth it.

If moving big files around is a major part of the system you’re building, then it’s worth the effort. But if you’re only occasionally moving big files around, then reusing your existing gRPC infrastructure is likely preferable. Keeps your systems nice and uniform, which make it easier to understand later once you’ve forgotten what you originally implemented.

[sluongng]

The evolving schema is much more attractive than a bunch of plain text HTTP headers when you want to communicate additional metadata with the file download/upload.

For example, there are common metadata such as the digest (hash) of the blob, the compression algorithm, the base compression dictionary, whether Reed-Solomon is applicable or not, etc...

And like others have pointed out, having existing grpc infrastructure in place definitely helps using it a lot easier.

But yeah, it's a tradeoff.

[ithkuil]

I like implementing this standard gRPC interface (of I already have a gRPC based project) because it allows me to reuse a troubleshooting utility I wrote that uses it:

https://github.com/mkmik/byter