jonkeane commented on a change in pull request #9579: URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/pull/9579#discussion_r589565484
########## File path: r/README.md ########## @@ -178,6 +178,28 @@ For any other build/configuration challenges, see the [C++ developer guide](https://arrow.apache.org/docs/developers/cpp/building.html) and `vignette("install", package = "arrow")`. +### Using `remotes::install_github(...)` + +If you need an Arrow installation from a specific repository or at a specific ref, `remotes::install_github()` should work on most platforms. This method is helpful if you need a full install of arrow that is separate from another install (e.g. we use this in [arrowbench](https://github.com/ursacomputing/arrowbench) to install development versions of arrow isolated from the system install). However there are some caveats to be aware of: + +* Setting the environment variable `FORCE_TOOLS_LIBS_SCRIPT` to `true` will avoid linking to any arrow libraries already installed and attempt to build arrow from the same source at the repository+ref given. +* If you are using the `FORCE_TOOLS_LIBS_SCRIPT` you must also set `build = FALSE` in the `remotes::install_github()` call. This is similar to checking out the repository and calling `R CMD INSTALL .` in the `arrow/r` directory (as opposed to first calling `R CMD BUILD .` and then installing the tar.gz file that produces, which is the default for `remotes::install_github()`). +* Specify `subdir = "r"` to get the R package. +* On macOS you may need to also specify the environment variable `SDKROOT` to an appropriate location (typically something like `/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk`). This is most easily and reliably done using `xcrun --show-sdk-path` (to set the environment variable inside of R you can `Sys.setenv(SDKROOT=system("xcrun --show-sdk-path", intern = TRUE))`). Review comment: I've added more details here to explain what's going on. The biggest reason for "may" (beyond people on less than 10.14) is that I suspect many people have done things like symlink an sdk back to `/usr/include` which "avoids" this problem (but has its own issues) at the suggestion of various threads on SO about compiling issues. I've also seen many people suggest adding `export SDKROOT="$(xcrun --show-sdk-path)"` to one's profile to resolve issues like this. ---------------------------------------------------------------- This is an automated message from the Apache Git Service. To respond to the message, please log on to GitHub and use the URL above to go to the specific comment. For queries about this service, please contact Infrastructure at: us...@infra.apache.org
