Possibility to change protobuf version

[CAMOBAP]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I faced with a conflict between different protobuf version (probably this is problem of linker on android)

[libprotobuf FATAL /Users/camobap/.conan/data/onnxruntime/1.2.0/alpr/local/build/f502a074061dd809bc2f0d02202f07e31b204b22/onnxruntime/cmake/external/protobuf/src/google/protobuf/stubs/common.cc:87] This program was compiled against version 3.0.0 of the Protocol Buffer runtime library, which is not compatible with the installed version (3.11.3).  Contact the program author for an update.  If you compiled the program yourself, make sure that your headers are from the same version of Protocol Buffers as your link-time library.  (Version verification failed in "out/soong/.intermediates/frameworks/av/drm/libmediadrm/libmediadrm/android_x86_64_shared_core/gen/proto/frameworks/av/drm/libmediadrm/protos/plugin_metrics.pb.cc".)terminating with uncaught exception of type google::protobuf::FatalException: This program was compiled against version 3.0.0 of the Protocol Buffer runtime library, which is not compatible with the installed version (3.11.3).  Contact the program author for an update.  If you compiled the program yourself, make sure that your headers are from the same version of Protocol Buffers as your link-time library.  (Version verification failed in "out/soong/.intermediates/frameworks/av/drm/libmediadrm/libmediadrm/android_x86_64_shared_core/gen/proto/frameworks/av/drm/libmediadrm/protos/plugin_metrics.pb.cc".)

I cannot chance protobuf version of libmediadrm because this is system library.

So it will be nice to have a possibility to change version protobuf library.

Are there some requirements for the minimal protobuf version?

System information

• ONNX Runtime version (you are using): 1.2.0

Describe the solution you'd like

It will be nice to have some options on build.[sh|bat] or CMakeLists.txt

./build.sh --protobuf_prefix ... or ./build.sh --protobuf_version ... or

Describe alternatives you've considered

A possible workaround is to use dlopen, but it doesn't quite fit my needshttps://stackoverflow.com/questions/52203862/building-an-android-executable-grpc-server-that-uses-protocol-buffers-without-a

Additional context

[snnn]

1. If you only use onnxruntime as a shared library via C/C++, or you only use its Python/C#/... bindings, then you don't need to keep the two protobuf version consist. They can be different. For example, you may build onnxruntime in a clean docker container that doesn't have protobuf installed, then you won't see such build error anymore.

2. It is a concern only if you static link to onnxruntime . In this case, please turn on the following cmake option:
   https://github.com/microsoft/onnxruntime/blob/master/cmake/CMakeLists.txt#L98

3. The last choice, go to onnxruntime's protobuf submodule directory, update it to the version you want, like:

git fetch --tags
git reset --hard v3.12.1

[CAMOBAP]

Thanks, Changming Sun (@snnn)

1. ... you won't see such build error anymore.

The problem which I faced with happens on runtime, as I said highly likely it's ld bug/issue

#3 works pretty well for me

[snnn]

BTW, for example, our onnxruntime server depends on GRPC, and GRPC depends on protobuf too. Though it uses a different protobuf version that onnxruntime needs, it doesn't matter.

[snnn]

Update:
Our latest code doesn't support protobuf v3.12.1. But it does support v3.11.x and lower.