Building the Arrow libraries 🏋🏿♀️#
The Arrow project contains a number of libraries that enable work in many languages. Most libraries (C++, C#, Go, Java, JavaScript, Julia, and Rust) already contain distinct implementations of Arrow.
This is different for C (Glib), MATLAB, Python, R, and Ruby as they are built on top of the C++ library. In this section of the guide we will try to make a friendly introduction to the build, dealing with some of these libraries as well has how they work with the C++ library.
If you decide to contribute to Arrow you might need to compile the C++ source code. This is done using a tool called CMake, which you may or may not have experience with. If not, this section of the guide will help you better understand CMake and the process of building Arrow’s C++ code.
This content is intended to help explain the concepts related to and tools required for building Arrow’s C++ library from source. If you are looking for the specific required steps, or already feel comfortable with compiling Arrow’s C++ library, then feel free to proceed to the C++, PyArrow or R package build section.
Building Arrow C++#
Why build Arrow C++ from source?#
For Arrow implementations which are built on top of the C++ implementation (e.g. Python and R), wrappers and interfaces have been written to the underlying C++ functions. If you want to work on PyArrow or the R package, you may need to edit the source code of the C++ library too.
Detailed instructions on building C++ library from source can be found here.
About CMake#
CMake is a cross-platform build system generator and it defers
to another program such as make or ninja for the actual build.
If you are running into errors with the build process, the first thing to
do is to look at the error message thoroughly and check the building
documentation for any similar error advice. Also changing the CMake flags
for compiling Arrow could be useful.
CMake presets#
You could also try to build with CMake presets which are a collection of build and test recipes for Arrow’s CMake. They are a very useful starting points.
More detailed information about CMake presets can be found in the CMake presets section.
Optional flags and environment variables#
Flags used in the CMake build are used to include additional components and to handle third-party dependencies. The build for C++ library can be minimal with no use of flags or can be changed with adding optional components from the list.
See also
Full list of optional flags: Optional Components
R and Python have specific lists of flags in their respective builds that need to be included. You can find the links at the end of this section.
In general on Python side, the options are set with CMake flags and paths with environment variables. In R the environment variables are used for all things connected to the build, also for setting CMake flags.
Building other Arrow libraries#
After building the Arrow C++ library, you need to build PyArrow on top of it also. The reason is the same; so you can edit the code and run tests on the edited code you have locally.
Why do we have to do builds separately?
As mentioned at the beginning of this page, the Python part of the Arrow project is built on top of the C++ library. In order to make changes in the Python part of Arrow as well as the C++ part of Arrow, you need to build them separately.
We hope this introduction was enough to help you start with the building process.
See also
Follow the instructions to build PyArrow together with the C++ library
Or
When you will make change to the code, you may need to recompile PyArrow or Arrow C++:
Recompiling Cython
If you only make changes to .py files, you do not need to
recompile PyArrow. However, you should recompile it if you make
changes in .pyx or .pxd files.
To do that run this command again:
$ python setup.py build_ext --inplace
Recompiling C++
Similarly, you will need to recompile the C++ code if you have made changes to any C++ files. In this case, re-run the build commands again.
When working on code in the R package, depending on your OS and planned changes, you may or may not need to build the Arrow C++ library (often referred to in the R documentation as ‘libarrow’) from source.
More information on this and full instructions on setting up the Arrow C++ library and Arrow R package can be found in the R developer docs.
Reinstalling R package and running ‘make clean’
If you make changes to the Arrow C++ part of the code, also called libarrow, you will need to:
reinstall libarrow,
run
make clean,reinstall the R package.
The make clean function is defined in r/Makefile and will
remove any cached object code in the r/src/ directory, ensuring
you have a clean reinstall. The Makefile also includes functions
like make test, make doc, etc. and was added to help with
common tasks from the command line.
See more in the Troubleshooting section of the R Developer environment setup article.
Building from source vs. using binaries
Using binaries is a fast and simple way of working with the last release of Arrow. However, if you use these it means that you will be unable to make changes to the Arrow C++ library.
Note
Every language has its own way of dealing with binaries. To get more information navigate to the section of the language you are interested to find more information.