jonkeane commented on a change in pull request #9579: URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/pull/9579#discussion_r589583011
########## 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))`). +* If you have arrow installed already, you may want to change your Makevars `CPPFLAGS` and `LDFLAGS` to `""` in order to prevent the installation process from attempting to link to already installed system versions of arrow. One way to do this temporarily is wrapping your `remotes::install_github()` call like so: `withr::with_makevars(list(CPPFLAGS = "", LDFLAGS = ""), remotes::install_github(...))`. + +As with other installation methods setting the environment variables `LIBARROW_MINIMAL=false` and `ARROW_R_DEV=true` will provide a more full-featured version of Arrow and provide more verbose output respectively. + +For example, to install from the (fictional) branch `bugfix` from `apache/arrow` one could: + +```r +Sys.setenv(FORCE_TOOLS_LIBS_SCRIPT="true") +Sys.setenv(LIBARROW_MINIMAL="false") +remotes::install_github("apache/arrow", ref = "bugfix", subdir = "r", build = FALSE) +``` + +This feature is experimental and might not work on all platforms. Review comment: I've taken this out entirely now that it's moved to the install vignette. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 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
