nealrichardson commented on a change in pull request #9579:
URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/pull/9579#discussion_r591997631
##########
File path: r/vignettes/install.Rmd
##########
@@ -166,10 +166,30 @@ run `install.packages("arrow")` or `R CMD INSTALL` but
not when running `R CMD c
unless you've set the `NOT_CRAN=true` environment variable.
For the mechanics of how all this works, see the R package `configure` script,
-which calls `tools/linuxlibs.R`.
+which calls `tools/nixlibs.R`.
If the C++ library is built from source, `inst/build_arrow_static.sh` is
executed.
This build script is also what is used to generate the prebuilt binaries.
+
+# 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 (with the
notable exception of windows). 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()`). 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(...))`.
Review comment:
Yeah the latter was my thought, I think on Linux you need build=FALSE
always (unless you've built C++ separately, in which case you already have a
git checkout and don't need install_github)
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