Question 1

How does Thrift compare to gRPC?

Accepted Answer

Thrift offers broader language support (28+ languages) and built-in versioning, while gRPC provides better HTTP/2 integration and cloud-native tooling. Thrift's lightweight stack may be preferred for performance, but gRPC has more active development for modern microservices.

Question 2

Thrift or Protocol Buffers for microservices?

Accepted Answer

Protocol Buffers is mainly a serialization format, whereas Thrift includes a full RPC stack with code generation. Use Protobuf if you only need serialization; choose Thrift for complete cross-language RPC services with versioning support.

Question 3

How to install Apache Thrift on Ubuntu?

Accepted Answer

Build from source: run ./bootstrap.sh, ./configure with boost paths if needed, make, and sudo make install. Check the README for language-specific steps, as some like PHP require manual installation via package managers.

Question 4

Can Thrift handle streaming data?

Accepted Answer

Thrift is optimized for synchronous RPC and lacks native streaming support like gRPC's bidirectional streams. For streaming needs, you'd need to implement custom transports or consider alternative frameworks.

Question 5

Is Thrift good for web browser clients?

Accepted Answer

Thrift supports JavaScript, but browser use can be limited due to RPC constraints and lack of WebSocket integration by default. For web apps, REST or WebSockets might be simpler, though Thrift can work with transpilation tools.

Question 6

How to version APIs in Thrift effectively?

Accepted Answer

Use optional fields, struct inheritance, and follow the Thrift Missing Guide for compatibility. Thrift's design allows adding new fields without breaking old clients, but careful planning is needed to avoid schema evolution issues.

Thrift Delphi Software Library

What is Thrift Delphi Software Library?

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Frequently Asked Questions