thrift

Apache Thrift cross-language code generator

TLDR

Generate code for a specific language from a Thrift file

$ thrift --gen [language] [file.thrift]

Generate code in a specific output directory

$ thrift --gen [language] -o [output_directory] [file.thrift]

Generate code with language-specific options

$ thrift --gen [language]:key1=val1,key2=val2 [file.thrift]

Generate code including all referenced Thrift files

$ thrift -r --gen [language] [file.thrift]

Add include search paths for Thrift imports

$ thrift -I [include_dir] --gen [language] [file.thrift]

List all available generators

$ thrift --help

SYNOPSIS

thrift [-o dir] [-out dir] [-I dir] [-nowarn] [-strict] [-v] [-r] [-debug] --gen lang[:options] file.thrift

thrift is the compiler for Apache Thrift, a framework for scalable cross-language services development. It combines a software stack with a code generation engine to build efficient and seamless services between languages like C++, Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, Erlang, Perl, Haskell, C#, JavaScript, Node.js, and more.The compiler reads a Thrift Interface Definition Language (IDL) file containing struct and service definitions, then generates language-specific implementation code. This enables developers to define data types and service interfaces once and generate the boilerplate code for multiple programming languages.Common generators include: cpp, java, py, rb, php, js, go, rs (Rust), swift, and many others. Run thrift without arguments to see all available generators for your installation.

PARAMETERS

--gen lang[:key=val,...]

Generate code with the specified generator. Language options can be passed as comma-separated key=value pairs.

-o dir

Set the output directory for gen-* packages. Default is the current directory.

-out dir

Set the output location directly without creating a gen-* folder.

-I dir

Add a directory to search for include directives. Can be specified multiple times.

-r, --recurse

Also generate code for included Thrift files recursively.

-nowarn

Suppress all compiler warnings.

-strict

Enable strict compiler warnings.

-v, --verbose

Enable verbose output mode.

-debug

Print parse debug trace to stdout.

-version

Print the compiler version and exit.

INSTALL

sudo apt install thrift-compiler

sudo dnf install thrift

sudo pacman -S thrift

sudo apk add thrift

sudo zypper install thrift

brew install thrift

nix profile install nixpkgs#thrift

CAVEATS

Generated code structure and options vary significantly between language generators. Some generators may require additional runtime libraries to be installed. The -nowarn flag is generally discouraged as it can hide important compatibility issues.

HISTORY

Apache Thrift was originally developed at Facebook in 2007 and was open-sourced in April 2008. It became an Apache Incubator project in May 2008 and graduated to a top-level Apache project in October 2010. The framework was designed to enable efficient and reliable communication across programming languages at scale.