diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 97440f3..88e9745 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -113,6 +113,12 @@
       BUILD_ENV="-e CC=gcc -e CXX=g++"
       DISTRO=centos
 
+    - TEST_NAME="Python 2.6 (CentOS 6)"
+      BUILD_CMD="../cmake.sh"
+      BUILD_ARG="-DWITH_PYTHON=ON -DWITH_CPP=OFF -DWITH_JAVA=OFF -DWITH_HASKELL=OFF"
+      BUILD_ENV="-e CC=gcc -e CXX=g++"
+      DISTRO=centos6
+
     # Distribution
     - TEST_NAME="make dist"
       BUILD_CMD="../make-dist.sh"
diff --git a/build/cmake/DefineOptions.cmake b/build/cmake/DefineOptions.cmake
index 342e040..695a615 100644
--- a/build/cmake/DefineOptions.cmake
+++ b/build/cmake/DefineOptions.cmake
@@ -42,46 +42,50 @@
 
 # C++
 option(WITH_CPP "Build C++ Thrift library" ON)
-find_package(Boost 1.53 QUIET)
+if(WITH_CPP)
+    find_package(Boost 1.53 QUIET)
+    # NOTE: Currently the following options are C++ specific,
+    # but in future other libraries might reuse them.
+    # So they are not dependent on WITH_CPP but setting them without WITH_CPP currently
+    # has no effect.
+    if(ZLIB_LIBRARY)
+        # FindZLIB.cmake does not normalize path so we need to do it ourselves.
+        file(TO_CMAKE_PATH ${ZLIB_LIBRARY} ZLIB_LIBRARY)
+    endif()
+    find_package(ZLIB QUIET)
+    CMAKE_DEPENDENT_OPTION(WITH_ZLIB "Build with ZLIB support" ON
+                           "ZLIB_FOUND" OFF)
+    find_package(Libevent QUIET)
+    CMAKE_DEPENDENT_OPTION(WITH_LIBEVENT "Build with libevent support" ON
+                           "Libevent_FOUND" OFF)
+    find_package(Qt4 QUIET COMPONENTS QtCore QtNetwork)
+    CMAKE_DEPENDENT_OPTION(WITH_QT4 "Build with Qt4 support" ON
+                           "QT4_FOUND" OFF)
+    find_package(Qt5 QUIET COMPONENTS Core Network)
+    CMAKE_DEPENDENT_OPTION(WITH_QT5 "Build with Qt5 support" ON
+                           "Qt5_FOUND" OFF)
+    if(${WITH_QT4} AND ${WITH_QT5} AND ${CMAKE_MAJOR_VERSION} LESS 3)
+      # cmake < 3.0.0 causes conflict when building both Qt4 and Qt5
+      set(WITH_QT4 OFF)
+    endif()
+    find_package(OpenSSL QUIET)
+    CMAKE_DEPENDENT_OPTION(WITH_OPENSSL "Build with OpenSSL support" ON
+                           "OPENSSL_FOUND" OFF)
+    option(WITH_STDTHREADS "Build with C++ std::thread support" OFF)
+    CMAKE_DEPENDENT_OPTION(WITH_BOOSTTHREADS "Build with Boost threads support" OFF
+        "NOT WITH_STDTHREADS;Boost_FOUND" OFF)
+endif()
 CMAKE_DEPENDENT_OPTION(BUILD_CPP "Build C++ library" ON
                        "BUILD_LIBRARIES;WITH_CPP;Boost_FOUND" OFF)
-# NOTE: Currently the following options are C++ specific,
-# but in future other libraries might reuse them.
-# So they are not dependent on WITH_CPP but setting them without WITH_CPP currently
-# has no effect.
-if(ZLIB_LIBRARY)
-    # FindZLIB.cmake does not normalize path so we need to do it ourselves.
-    file(TO_CMAKE_PATH ${ZLIB_LIBRARY} ZLIB_LIBRARY)
-endif()
-find_package(ZLIB QUIET)
-CMAKE_DEPENDENT_OPTION(WITH_ZLIB "Build with ZLIB support" ON
-                       "ZLIB_FOUND" OFF)
-find_package(Libevent QUIET)
-CMAKE_DEPENDENT_OPTION(WITH_LIBEVENT "Build with libevent support" ON
-                       "Libevent_FOUND" OFF)
-find_package(Qt4 QUIET COMPONENTS QtCore QtNetwork)
-CMAKE_DEPENDENT_OPTION(WITH_QT4 "Build with Qt4 support" ON
-                       "QT4_FOUND" OFF)
-find_package(Qt5 QUIET COMPONENTS Core Network)
-CMAKE_DEPENDENT_OPTION(WITH_QT5 "Build with Qt5 support" ON
-                       "Qt5_FOUND" OFF)
-if(${WITH_QT4} AND ${WITH_QT5} AND ${CMAKE_MAJOR_VERSION} LESS 3)
-  # cmake < 3.0.0 causes conflict when building both Qt4 and Qt5
-  set(WITH_QT4 OFF)
-endif()
-find_package(OpenSSL QUIET)
-CMAKE_DEPENDENT_OPTION(WITH_OPENSSL "Build with OpenSSL support" ON
-                       "OPENSSL_FOUND" OFF)
-option(WITH_STDTHREADS "Build with C++ std::thread support" OFF)
-CMAKE_DEPENDENT_OPTION(WITH_BOOSTTHREADS "Build with Boost threads support" OFF
-    "NOT WITH_STDTHREADS;Boost_FOUND" OFF)
-
 
 # C GLib
 option(WITH_C_GLIB "Build C (GLib) Thrift library" ON)
-find_package(GLIB QUIET COMPONENTS gobject)
+if(WITH_C_GLIB)
+    find_package(GLIB QUIET COMPONENTS gobject)
+endif()
 CMAKE_DEPENDENT_OPTION(BUILD_C_GLIB "Build C (GLib) library" ON
                        "BUILD_LIBRARIES;WITH_C_GLIB;GLIB_FOUND" OFF)
+
 # Java
 option(WITH_JAVA "Build Java Thrift library" ON)
 if(ANDROID)
diff --git a/build/cmake/DefinePlatformSpecifc.cmake b/build/cmake/DefinePlatformSpecifc.cmake
old mode 100755
new mode 100644
diff --git a/build/docker/centos6/Dockerfile b/build/docker/centos6/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0e571c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/docker/centos6/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+# Apache Thrift Docker build environment for Centos 6
+#
+# This file is intended for testing old packages that are not available for
+# latest Ubuntu LTS/Debian/CentOS. Currently, it is only used for Python 2.6.
+#
+
+FROM centos:6
+MAINTAINER Apache Thrift <dev@thrift.apache.org>
+
+RUN yum install -y \
+      autoconf \
+      bison \
+      bison-devel \
+      clang \
+      flex \
+      gcc \
+      gcc-c++ \
+      git \
+      libtool \
+      m4 \
+      make \
+      perl \
+      tar \
+      python-devel \
+      python-setuptools \
+      python-twisted-web \
+      python-six \
+    && yum clean all
+
+# CMake
+RUN curl -sSL https://cmake.org/files/v3.4/cmake-3.4.1.tar.gz | tar -xz && \
+    cd cmake-3.4.1 && ./bootstrap && make -j4 && make install
+
+ENV THRIFT_ROOT /thrift
+RUN mkdir -p $THRIFT_ROOT/src
+COPY scripts $THRIFT_ROOT
+WORKDIR $THRIFT_ROOT/src
diff --git a/build/docker/centos6/scripts/keepit b/build/docker/centos6/scripts/keepit
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cb885df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/docker/centos6/scripts/keepit
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+keep it
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 27299b4..141b542 100755
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -277,7 +277,7 @@
 AX_THRIFT_LIB(python, [Python], yes)
 if test "$with_python" = "yes";  then
   AC_PATH_PROG([TRIAL], [trial])
-  AM_PATH_PYTHON(2.4,, :)
+  AM_PATH_PYTHON(2.6,, :)
   if test -n "$TRIAL" && test "x$PYTHON" != "x" && test "x$PYTHON" != "x:" ; then
     have_python="yes"
   fi
diff --git a/lib/py/src/compat.py b/lib/py/src/compat.py
index b2f47dc..06f672a 100644
--- a/lib/py/src/compat.py
+++ b/lib/py/src/compat.py
@@ -22,6 +22,6 @@
 
   def str_to_binary(str_val):
     try:
-      return bytearray(str_val, 'utf8')
+      return bytes(str_val, 'utf8')
     except:
       return str_val
diff --git a/lib/py/src/protocol/TCompactProtocol.py b/lib/py/src/protocol/TCompactProtocol.py
index a8b025a..6023066 100644
--- a/lib/py/src/protocol/TCompactProtocol.py
+++ b/lib/py/src/protocol/TCompactProtocol.py
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@
 
 
 def writeVarint(trans, n):
-  out = []
+  out = bytearray()
   while True:
     if n & ~0x7f == 0:
       out.append(n)
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@
     else:
       out.append((n & 0xff) | 0x80)
       n = n >> 7
-  trans.write(bytearray(out))
+  trans.write(bytes(out))
 
 
 def readVarint(trans):
diff --git a/lib/py/src/protocol/TJSONProtocol.py b/lib/py/src/protocol/TJSONProtocol.py
index acfce4a..3612e91 100644
--- a/lib/py/src/protocol/TJSONProtocol.py
+++ b/lib/py/src/protocol/TJSONProtocol.py
@@ -203,7 +203,7 @@
     json_str.append('"')
     self.trans.write(str_to_binary(''.join(json_str)))
 
-  def writeJSONNumber(self, number, formatter='{}'):
+  def writeJSONNumber(self, number, formatter='{0}'):
     self.context.write()
     jsNumber = str(formatter.format(number)).encode('ascii')
     if self.context.escapeNum():
@@ -550,7 +550,7 @@
 
   def writeDouble(self, dbl):
     # 17 significant digits should be just enough for any double precision value.
-    self.writeJSONNumber(dbl, '{:.17g}')
+    self.writeJSONNumber(dbl, '{0:.17g}')
 
   def writeString(self, string):
     self.writeJSONString(string)
diff --git a/test/py/SerializationTest.py b/test/py/SerializationTest.py
index 99e0393..d4755cf 100755
--- a/test/py/SerializationTest.py
+++ b/test/py/SerializationTest.py
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 from thrift.transport import TTransport
 from thrift.protocol import TBinaryProtocol, TCompactProtocol, TJSONProtocol
 from thrift.TSerialization import serialize, deserialize
+import sys
 import unittest
 
 
@@ -258,6 +259,9 @@
     self.assertTrue(len(rep) > 0)
 
   def testIntegerLimits(self):
+    if (sys.version_info[0] == 2 and sys.version_info[1] <= 6):
+      print('Skipping testIntegerLimits for Python 2.6')
+      return
     bad_values = [CompactProtoTestStruct(a_byte=128), CompactProtoTestStruct(a_byte=-129),
                   CompactProtoTestStruct(a_i16=32768), CompactProtoTestStruct(a_i16=-32769),
                   CompactProtoTestStruct(a_i32=2147483648), CompactProtoTestStruct(a_i32=-2147483649),