Install thrift with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository

Commands and aliases

• thrift

Project history

Thrift began at Facebook, was open sourced in April 2007, entered the Apache Incubator in May 2008, and became an Apache top-level project in October 2010. Apache's own project page describes the goal as efficient, reliable communication and data serialization across languages.

The project settled into the classic compiler-plus-runtime model: developers write service and type definitions in Thrift IDL, run the Thrift compiler, and combine the generated code with the runtime library for each target language. Apache's README describes Thrift as a lightweight, language-independent software stack for point-to-point RPC, with clean abstractions for transport, serialization, and application processing.

Adoption history

Thrift's adoption pattern follows its cross-language design. Apache documentation says each supported language needs both the generated code from the compiler and the Apache Thrift library for that language, while the language matrix notes broad language support and a large cross-language test matrix.

In package-manager culture, Thrift is widely packaged because it is both a CLI compiler and a family of language runtimes. The input package facts list Homebrew, Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, MacPorts, Nix, Scoop, and openSUSE-family packages, often with language-specific package names.

How it is used

A typical workflow is to define structs, exceptions, constants, and services in a `.thrift` IDL file, then run the compiler with a target such as `--gen go`, `--gen java`, or another supported backend. The generated code becomes the typed contract used by clients and servers.

Package maintainers care about the compiler/runtime split: projects may need the `thrift` executable at build time, runtime libraries in specific languages, and matching versions so generated code and library APIs agree.

Why package nerds care

Apache Thrift is significant to package nerds because it is a dependency bridge rather than just one executable. A single version bump can matter to C++, Java, Python, Go, Ruby, Node.js, and other ecosystems that consume generated bindings.

It also illustrates why package managers keep code generators around as first-class developer tools: Thrift IDL is often checked into source trees, but the generated output, runtime library, and compiler version still affect reproducibility.

Timeline

• 2007: Facebook open sourced Thrift.
• 2008: Thrift entered the Apache Incubator.
• 2010: Thrift graduated as an Apache top-level project.
• 2026: Apache Thrift v0.23.0 published on GitHub releases.

Related projects

• Facebook's fbthrift repository is an evolved internal branch that Facebook re-released in 2014 and explicitly describes as not being a distribution of Apache Thrift.
• CloudWeGo thriftgo is a Go implementation of a Thrift IDL compiler used by the CloudWeGo toolchain.

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/apache/thrift/releases
• https://github.com/apache/thrift
• https://github.com/facebook/fbthrift
• https://incubator.apache.org/projects/thrift.html
• https://thrift.apache.org/about
• https://thrift.apache.org/docs/
• https://thrift.apache.org/docs/Languages.html
• https://thrift.apache.org/docs/idl
• input source_facts.package-manager