[R] CRAN packaging checklist for version 16.1.0

[thisisnic]

Packaging checklist for CRAN release

For a high-level overview of the release process see the
Apache Arrow Release Management Guide.

cc @jonkeane @amoeba @nealrichardson @assignUser @paleolimbot for coordination on the various tasks to release

Before the release candidate is cut

• Create a GitHub issue entitled [R] CRAN packaging checklist for version X.X.X and copy this checklist to the issue.
• Review deprecated functions to advance their deprecation status, including removing preprocessor directives that no longer apply (search for ARROW_VERSION_MAJOR in r/src).
• Evaluate the status of any failing nightly tests and nightly packaging builds. These checks replicate most of the checks that CRAN runs, so we need them all to be passing or to understand that the failures may (though won't necessarily) result in a rejection from CRAN.
• Check current CRAN check results
• Ensure the contents of the README are accurate and up to date.
• Run urlchecker::url_check() on the R directory at the release candidate.
  commit. Ignore any errors with badges as they will be removed in the CRAN release branch.
• Polish NEWS but do not update version numbers (this is done automatically later). You can find commits by, for example, git log --oneline aa057d0..HEAD | grep "\[R\]"
• Run preliminary reverse dependency checks using archery docker run r-revdepcheck.
• For major releases, prepare tweet thread highlighting new features.

Wait for the release candidate to be cut:

After release candidate has been cut

• Create a CRAN-release branch from the release candidate commit

Prepare and check the .tar.gz that will be released to CRAN.

• git fetch upstream && git checkout release-X.X.X-rcXX && git clean -f -d
• Run make build. This copies Arrow C++ into tools/cpp, prunes some
  unnecessary components, and runs R CMD build to generate the source tarball.
  Because this will install the package, you will need to ensure that the version
  of Arrow C++ available to the configure script is the same as the version
  that is vendored into the R package (e.g., you may need to unset ARROW_HOME).
• devtools::check_built("arrow_X.X.X.tar.gz") locally
• Run reverse dependency checks using archery docker run r-revdepcheck.

Release vote

• Release vote passed!

Generate R package to submit to CRAN

• If the release candidate commit updated, rebase the CRAN release branch
  on that commit.
• Pick any commits that were made to main since the release commit that
  were needed to fix CRAN-related submission issues identified in the above
  steps.
• Remove badges from README.md
• Run urlchecker::url_check() on the R directory
• Create a PR entitled WIP: [R] Verify CRAN release-10.0.1-rc0. Add
  a comment @github-actions crossbow submit --group r to run all R crossbow
  jobs against the CRAN-specific release branch.
• Run Rscript tools/update-checksums.R <libarrow version> to download the checksums for the pre-compiled binaries from the ASF artifactory into the tools directory.
• Regenerate arrow_X.X.X.tar.gz (i.e., make build)

Ensure linux binary packages are available:

• Ensure linux binaries are available in the artifactory:
  https://apache.jfrog.io/ui/repos/tree/General/arrow/r

Check binary Arrow C++ distributions specific to the R package

• Upload the .tar.gz to win-builder (r-devel only)
  and confirm (with Nic, who will automatically receive an email about the results) that the check is clean.
  This step cannot be completed before Jeroen has put the binaries in the MinGW repository, i.e. here, here, and here.
• Upload the .tar.gz to MacBuilder
  and confirm that the check is clean
• Check install.packages("arrow_X.X.X.tar.gz") on Ubuntu and ensure that the
  hosted binaries are used
• devtools::check_built("arrow_X.X.X.tar.gz") locally one more time (for luck)

CRAN submission

• Nic to email CRAN to confirm change of maintainer
• Upload arrow_X.X.X.tar.gz to the
  CRAN submit page
• Confirm the submission email

Wait for CRAN...

• Accepted!
• Tag the tip of the CRAN-specific release branch
• Add a new line to the matrix in the backwards compatability job
• (patch releases only) Update the package version in ci/scripts/PKGBUILD, dev/tasks/homebrew-formulae/autobrew/apache-arrow.rb, r/DESCRIPTION, and r/NEWS.md
• (CRAN-only releases) Rebuild news page with pkgdown::build_news() and submit a PR to the asf-site branch of the docs site with the contents of arrow/r/docs/news/index.html replacing the current contents of arrow-site/docs/r/news/index.html
• (CRAN-only releases) Bump the version number in r/pkgdown/assets/versions.json, and update this on the the asf-site branch of the docs site too.
• Update the packaging checklist template to reflect any new realities of the
  packaging process.
• Wait for CRAN-hosted binaries on the
  CRAN package page to reflect the
  new version
• Tweet!

Component(s)

R

[assignUser]

This is ready to review and release related #41629

I believe this is also causing the builds we are hosting to be slightly busted. I just tried installing a nightly on arm64 and found that gzip wasn't enabled.

This would mean the binaries on jfrog are affected by this. Do we want to replace them? We also still have the issue with the offline build on CRAN...

[amoeba]

Thanks for starting this off @thisisnic. I noticed that #40388 is still open and I think at least one or two things are still undone (tagging commit for cran submission, update backwards compat job). Do you remember which commit we sent off to CRAN?

We also still have the issue with the offline build on CRAN...

Do we have an issue with next steps? Is this what caused the Mac build to be disabled?

[thisisnic]

Thanks for flagging this up @amoeba! In terms of the commit, it should be the one at the head of the relevant release branch.
I think we need to discuss this with CRAN perhaps, depending on whether it works or not upon the next release. Pinging @jonkeane who had a better idea.

[thisisnic]

@assignUser The issue you linked to, has that ended up just being a CI issue so doesn't affect the release? And can you elaborate on the Jfrog binaries issue, I don't understand exactly what's going on there.

[assignUser]

During the release process that workflow is used to create the binaries that nixlibs.R pulls from. So if the mac binaries there are busted we probably want to switch them for working ones. (which requires the PR to be merged and cherry picked on the cran branch so we can build them)

[thisisnic]

Right, sounds like we probably want to fix it then

[thisisnic]

This will need updating to read 16.1.0, then merging & cherry-picking: #41422

[thisisnic]

@paleolimbot Would you mind doing the revdepcheck pls? I haven't created an R-specific branch yet but I don't think we need to cherry-pick anything over that is code, so the main release branch should be good to use.

[paleolimbot]

I am back on Tuesday and can give it a try then!

[thisisnic]

I am back on Tuesday and can give it a try then!

Fantastic, thanks! Do you reckon you'll have time after that to make it into a Dockerfile like we chatted about a while ago?

[assignUser]

crossbow jobs from r-release branch: #41762

[assignUser]

Ok, that's an issue: https://www.r-project.org/nosvn/R.check/r-release-windows-x86_64/arrow-00install.html
They have turned off network access for the windows build as well.

[nealrichardson]

Ok, that's an issue: https://www.r-project.org/nosvn/R.check/r-release-windows-x86_64/arrow-00install.html They have turned off network access for the windows build as well.

Let's hope that was just a fluke.

[assignUser]

I am going to upload a tarball to winbuilder (though it passing there doesn't really mean anything)