thrift的全名叫做Apache thrift，是一款软件开发RPC框架，可以很高效地实现跨语言的RPC服务。
本文简要介绍了thrift的背景、相关概念以及安装流程。并给出了C++以及python版本的入门例子。其中背景概念部分翻译自[1]。
1 Krzysztof Rakowski的Apache Thrift介绍
1.1 部分历史与背景
Thrift由facebook在2007年提出。facebook的公司文化就是不限制你选择任何开发语言，用最佳方案解决实际问题。毫无疑问，公司内部许多应用程序都是用不同语言编写的。这也是为什么facebook需要一种工具，使这些应用程序能够相互通信。然后他们花了一些精力寻找这样的工具，可惜并没找到合适的。facebook发布的白皮书也提到了他们曾经考察的工具，以及Thrift框架的设计思路。
当然啦，牛逼如facebook的程序员克服了一些挑战，自己开发了该需求的解决方案——Thrift就是这样诞生的。不久之后，他们开源了Thrift，并且托管到Apache基金会，后者开始负责Thrift的开发。现在Thrift不仅仅被用在facebook（公司内部应用间通信的主要工具），而且被其他许多公司使用。（包括Evernote、Twitter和Netflix等知名公司）。facebook的工程师仍然会在fork版本FBThrift上继续开发。并且有希望与Apache Thrift整合。
1.2 Apache Thrift究竟是什么
我们想象一下这种情形：你有许多用不同语言开发的应用程序，比如一种很常见的情况就是公司内部独立的开发小组各自开发了一些应用程序，用来执行一些不同的内部任务。那怎么让这些应用程序相互通信呢？当然啦，你可以添加一些REST API。但是在许多情况下——尤其是你要传输二进制数据——这种方案并不能满足性能和可靠性要求。
1.3 Thrift如何工作
首先，让我们从Apache Thrift开发者的角度来看看。
Thrift框架的主要概念是服务，服务和面向对象编程语言中的类很相似。每个服务中都包含方法，也是OOP中的类似概念。Thrift还实现了需要数据类型。这些数据类型在每种编程语言中都有具体对应的类型，最简单的例子比如Thrift中的int，在所有语言中都会映射成整型。但是复杂点的比如set，在php中会映射成array，在java中会映射成HashSet。编写服务的文本文件也被称为Thrift文档（后缀是.thrift），包括服务在内，文档中的所有代码都是接口定义语言(Interface Description Language ,IDL)，如果要了解详细语法，请参考官方文档[2]。（注：其实IDL语法很简单，源码中有一份自解释的Thrift文件：tutorial.thrift）
# Thrift Tutorial
# Mark Slee (mcslee@facebook.com)
#
# This file aims to teach you how to use Thrift, in a .thrift file. Neato. The
# first thing to notice is that .thrift files support standard shell comments.
# This lets you make your thrift file executable and include your Thrift build
# step on the top line. And you can place comments like this anywhere you like.
#
# Before running this file, you will need to have installed the thrift compiler
# into /usr/local/bin.
/**
* The first thing to know about are types. The available types in Thrift are:
*
* bool Boolean, one byte
* i8 (byte) Signed 8-bit integer
* i16 Signed 16-bit integer
* i32 Signed 32-bit integer
* i64 Signed 64-bit integer
* double 64-bit floating point value
* string String
* binary Blob (byte array)
* map<t1,t2> Map from one type to another
* list<t1> Ordered list of one type
* set<t1> Set of unique elements of one type
*
* Did you also notice that Thrift supports C style comments?
*/
// Just in case you were wondering... yes. We support simple C comments too.
/**
* Thrift files can reference other Thrift files to include common struct
* and service definitions. These are found using the current path, or by
* searching relative to any paths specified with the -I compiler flag.
*
* Included objects are accessed using the name of the .thrift file as a
* prefix. i.e. shared.SharedObject
*/
include "shared.thrift"
/**
* Thrift files can namespace, package, or prefix their output in various
* target languages.
*/
namespace cl tutorial
namespace cpp tutorial
namespace d tutorial
namespace dart tutorial
namespace java tutorial
namespace php tutorial
namespace perl tutorial
namespace haxe tutorial
namespace netstd tutorial
/**
* Thrift lets you do typedefs to get pretty names for your types. Standard
* C style here.
*/
typedef i32 MyInteger
/**
* Thrift also lets you define constants for use across languages. Complex
* types and structs are specified using JSON notation.
*/
const i32 INT32CONSTANT = 9853
const map<string,string> MAPCONSTANT = {'hello':'world', 'goodnight':'moon'}
/**
* You can define enums, which are just 32 bit integers. Values are optional
* and start at 1 if not supplied, C style again.
*/
enum Operation {
ADD = 1,
SUBTRACT = 2,
MULTIPLY = 3,
DIVIDE = 4
}
/**
* Structs are the basic complex data structures. They are comprised of fields
* which each have an integer identifier, a type, a symbolic name, and an
* optional default value.
*
* Fields can be declared "optional", which ensures they will not be included
* in the serialized output if they aren't set. Note that this requires some
* manual management in some languages.
*/
struct Work {
1: i32 num1 = 0,
2: i32 num2,
3: Operation op,
4: optional string comment,
}
/**
* Structs can also be exceptions, if they are nasty.
*/
exception InvalidOperation {
1: i32 whatOp,
2: string why
}
/**
* Ahh, now onto the cool part, defining a service. Services just need a name
* and can optionally inherit from another service using the extends keyword.
*/
service Calculator extends shared.SharedService {
/**
* A method definition looks like C code. It has a return type, arguments,
* and optionally a list of exceptions that it may throw. Note that argument
* lists and exception lists are specified using the exact same syntax as
* field lists in struct or exception definitions.
*/
void ping(),
i32 add(1:i32 num1, 2:i32 num2),
i32 calculate(1:i32 logid, 2:Work w) throws (1:InvalidOperation ouch),
/**
* This method has a oneway modifier. That means the client only makes
* a request and does not listen for any response at all. Oneway methods
* must be void.
*/
oneway void zip()
}
/**
* That just about covers the basics. Take a look in the test/ folder for more
* detailed examples. After you run this file, your generated code shows up
* in folders with names gen-<language>. The generated code isn't too scary
* to look at. It even has pretty indentation.
*/
接着，从这个Thrift文件——通过Apache Thrift编译器——你可以生成server和client的stub。这些自动生成的代码被称为Apache Thrift库，然后你借助库，按照你的需求，实现指定语言的server和client——过程很像代码填空，填好自己相关部分即可。（比如对象创建、方法调用等语句），这样就实现了不同应用程序相互通信。你生成的server和client代码嵌入到你的应用程序中。过程如下所示：
看实例之前，让我们大致看下Apache Thrift的架构。如下图所示：
传输层的功能是从你使用的介质（一般是socket）中读写负载。协议层一般和传输层解耦，负责数据的编码和解析，方便数据传输。常用协议包括：binary，compact（Thrift独有）以及JSON。至于处理器层，这里说的很模糊，主要是把用户指定的输入输出协议作为参数，然后从输入读取数据，按照用户规则进行处理，最后向输出写入数据[3]，如下图所示：
在server和client代码中，这三层组合在一起。如果你想两个应用程序相互通信，那么server和client要使用相同的传输层和协议层集合，这样才能正确编码和解析数据。第三节有C++以及python版本的入门例子。
2 安装
1、安装依赖项，官方给出了不同系统下的依赖项安装步骤。
2、编译源代码，安装
# github mirror: https://github.com/apache/thrift
git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/thrift.git
cd thrift
./bootstrap.sh
# 禁用lua语言，查看更多参数：./configure --help
./configure --with-lua=no
# 编译
make
# 安装
sudo make install
configure这一步结束会在terminal输出对不同语言的支持信息，检查一下是否满足自己要求。
Building Plugin Support ...... : yes
Building C++ Library ......... : yes
Building C (GLib) Library .... : no
Building Java Library ........ : no
Building C# Library .......... : no
Building .NET Core Library ... : no
Building Python Library ...... : yes
Building Ruby Library ........ : no
Building Haxe Library ........ : no
Building Haskell Library ..... : no
Building Perl Library ........ : no
Building PHP Library ......... : yes
Building Dart Library ........ : no
Building Erlang Library ...... : no
Building Go Library .......... : no
Building D Library ........... : no
Building NodeJS Library ...... : no
Building Lua Library ......... : no
C++ Library:
Build TZlibTransport ...... : yes
Build TNonblockingServer .. : yes
Build TQTcpServer (Qt4) .... : no
Build TQTcpServer (Qt5) .... : no
Python Library:
Using Python .............. : /usr/bin/python
Using Python3 ............. : /usr/local/bin/python3
如果make这一步出现缺少.a文件的问题：
g++: error: /usr/lib64/libboost_unit_test_framework.a: No such file or directory
首先检查上一步的依赖项有没有全部安装，没问题的话可以看看/usr/local/lib/下有没有该文件，再拷贝到make过程中所寻找的路径下。
$ ls /usr/local/lib/libboost_unit_test_framework.*
/usr/local/lib/libboost_unit_test_framework.a
/usr/local/lib/libboost_unit_test_framework.so
/usr/local/lib/libboost_unit_test_framework.so.1.53.0
$ ls /usr/lib64/libboost_unit_test_framework*
/usr/lib64/libboost_unit_test_framework-mt.so /usr/lib64/libboost_unit_test_framework.so
/usr/lib64/libboost_unit_test_framework-mt.so.1.53.0 /usr/lib64/libboost_unit_test_framework.so.1.53.0
$ make -n | grep libboost_unit_test_framework
/bin/sh ../../../libtool --tag=CXX --mode=link g++ -Wall -Wextra -pedantic -g -O2 -std=c++11 -L/usr/lib64 -o processor_test processor/ProcessorTest.o processor/EventLog.o processor/ServerThread.o libprocessortest.la ../../../lib/cpp/libthrift.la ../../../lib/cpp/libthriftnb.la /usr/lib64/libboost_unit_test_framework.a -L/usr/lib64 -levent -lrt -lpthread
$ sudo cp /usr/local/lib/libboost_unit_test_framework.a /usr/lib64/
$ make
no error.
3、验证
$ thrift -version
Thrift version 1.0.0-dev
$ which thrift
/usr/local/bin/thrift
3 入门例子
编写一个简单的thrift文件，定义相乘函数
$ ls
multiplication.thrift
$ cat multiplication.thrift
namespace py tutorial
service MultiplicationService
{
i32 multiply(1:i32 n1, 2:i32 n2),
}
3.1 C++ server和client
编译生成c++代码
$ thrift --gen cpp multiplication.thrift
$ ls -R
.:
gen-cpp multiplication.thrift
./gen-cpp:
multiplication_constants.cpp MultiplicationService.h multiplication_types.h
multiplication_constants.h MultiplicationService_server.skeleton.cpp
MultiplicationService.cpp multiplication_types.cpp
接下来修改官方模版skeleton.cpp[4]
$ mv MultiplicationService_server.skeleton.cpp server.cpp
只需要修改server.cpp中int32_t multiply(const int32_t n1, const int32_t n2)函数
$ cat server.cpp
...(中间省略)...
int32_t multiply(const int32_t n1, const int32_t n2) {
// Your implementation goes here
return n1*n2;
}
...(中间省略)...
然后编写client.cpp
#include "MultiplicationService.h"
#include <thrift/transport/TSocket.h>
#include <thrift/transport/TBufferTransports.h>
#include <thrift/protocol/TBinaryProtocol.h>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
using namespace apache::thrift;
using namespace apache::thrift::protocol;
using namespace apache::thrift::transport;
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
boost::shared_ptr<TSocket> socket(new TSocket("localhost", 9090));
boost::shared_ptr<TTransport> transport(new TBufferedTransport(socket));
boost::shared_ptr<TProtocol> protocol(new TBinaryProtocol(transport));
int res=0;
MultiplicationServiceClient client(protocol);
transport->open();
res = client.multiply(10,10);
cout << "res "<<res<<endl;
transport->close();
return 0;
}
编译源码
$ g++ -c MultiplicationService.cpp
$ g++ -c multiplication_constants.cpp multiplication_types.cpp server.cpp
$ g++ -lthrift *.o -o server.exe
$ g++ -c MultiplicationService.cpp multiplication_constants.cpp multiplication_types.cpp client.cpp
$ g++ -lthrift *.o -o client.exe
$ ls -R
.:
gen-cpp multiplication.thrift
./gen-cpp:
client.cpp multiplication_constants.cpp MultiplicationService.cpp multiplication_types.cpp server.cpp
client.exe multiplication_constants.h MultiplicationService.h multiplication_types.h server.exe
client.o multiplication_constants.o MultiplicationService.o multiplication_types.o server.o
运行
shell1> ./server.exe
shell2> ./client.exe
res 100
如果运行server.exe出现找不到共享库的错误，解决办法如下：
$ ./server
./server: error while loading shared libraries: libthrift-1.0.0-dev.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
$ sudo find / -name "libthrift*so" #where is your libthrift
/usr/local/lib/libthrift-1.0.0-dev.so
/usr/local/lib/libthrift.so
...
$ echo "export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/lib/:/usr/lib/" >> ~/.bashrc #set env var
$ . ~/.bashrc #reload
3.2 python server和client
生成python代码
$ thrift --gen py multiplication.thrift
$ ls -R gen-py
./gen-py:
__init__.py tutorial
./gen-py/tutorial:
constants.py __init__.pyc MultiplicationService.pyc ttypes.py
__init__.py MultiplicationService.py MultiplicationService-remote ttypes.pyc
创建server.py和client.py
server.py
import glob
import sys
sys.path.append('gen-py')
sys.path.insert(0, glob.glob('../../lib/py/build/lib*')[0])
from tutorial import MultiplicationService
from thrift.transport import TSocket
from thrift.transport import TTransport
from thrift.protocol import TBinaryProtocol
from thrift.server import TServer
class MultiplicationServiceHandler(MultiplicationService.Iface):
def __init__(self):
self.log = {}
def multiply(self, n1, n2):
print('multiply(%d,%d)' % (n1,n2))
return n1*n2
if __name__ == '__main__':
handler = MultiplicationServiceHandler()
processor = MultiplicationService.Processor(handler)
transport = TSocket.TServerSocket(port=9090)
tfactory = TTransport.TBufferedTransportFactory()
pfactory = TBinaryProtocol.TBinaryProtocolFactory()
server = TServer.TSimpleServer(processor, transport, tfactory, pfactory)
# You could do one of these for a multithreaded server
# server = TServer.TThreadedServer(
# processor, transport, tfactory, pfactory)
# server = TServer.TThreadPoolServer(
# processor, transport, tfactory, pfactory)
print('Starting the server...')
server.serve()
client.py
import sys
import glob
sys.path.append('gen-py')
sys.path.insert(0, glob.glob('../../lib/py/build/lib*')[0])
from tutorial import MultiplicationService
from thrift import Thrift
from thrift.transport import TSocket
from thrift.transport import TTransport
from thrift.protocol import TBinaryProtocol
def main():
transport = TSocket.TSocket('localhost', 9090)
# Buffering is critical. Raw sockets are very slow
transport = TTransport.TBufferedTransport(transport)
# Wrap in a protocol
protocol = TBinaryProtocol.TBinaryProtocol(transport)
# Create a client to use the protocol encoder
client = MultiplicationService.Client(protocol)
# Connect!
transport.open()
print(client.multiply(10,10))
# Close!
transport.close()
if __name__ == '__main__':
try:
main()
except Thrift.TException as tx:
print('%s' % tx.message)
运行
$ chmod a+x server.py
$ chmod a+x client.py
shell1> ./server.py
Starting the server...
multiply(10,10)
shell2> ./client.py
100
python client使用C++ server提供的服务
shell1> ./server.exe
shell2> ./client.py
100