Guidance For: 0.13.0 | 0.12.0 | 0.11.0
Thrift supports many programming languages and has an impressive test suite that exercises most of the languages, protocols, and transports. Each build exercises a matrix of thousands of possible combinations. Each language typically has a minimum required version as well as support libraries - some mandatory and some optional. The information provided below will help you assess whether you can use Apache Thrift with your project. Obviously this is a complex matrix to maintain and may not be correct in all cases - if you spot an error please inform the developers using the mailing list, or better yet, Edit on GitHub.
Apache Thrift currently uses two build systems. The autoconf build system is the most complete and builds all supported languages, however it does not support Windows.. The cmake build system works on Linux and Windows, and has been designated by the project to replace autoconf however this transition will take quite some time to complete. During that transition, the cmake build will not support all languages.
The Language/Library Levels indicate the minimum and maximum versions that are used in the continuous integration environments (Appveyor, Travis) for Apache Thrift. Other language levels may be supported for each language, however tested less thoroughly; check the README file inside each lib directory for additional details. Note: while a language may contain support for protocols, transports, and servers, the extent to which each is tested as part of the overall build process varies. The definitive integration test for the project is called the “cross” test which executes a test matrix with clients and servers communicating across languages.
Thrift‘s core transport (supported by all languages) is TSocket. Thrift’s core protocol is TBinary, supported by all languages except for JavaScript.