Installing and Linking to Apache Arrow inside Cmake - c++

Question

I'm trying to build and link-to apache-arrow v9.0.0 inside my cmake project using the following section in my CMakeLists.txt file.
ExternalProject_Add(arrow
URL "https://www.apache.org/dist/arrow/arrow-9.0.0/apache-arrow-9.0.0.tar.gz"
SOURCE_SUBDIR cpp)
message(STATUS "arrow source dir: ${arrow_SOURCE_DIR}")
include_directories(${arrow_SOURCE_DIR}/cpp/src)
The compilation complains that the apache-arrow headers are missing
fatal error: 'arrow/array.h' file not found
#include <arrow/array.h>
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 error generated.
supported by the fact that the output of message(STATUS "arrow source dir: ${arrow_SOURCE_DIR}") is empty
-- arrow source dir:
Another error seemingly related to the apache-arrow installation reported by cmake is that
CMake Error at cmake_modules/ThirdpartyToolchain.cmake:267 (find_package):
Could not find a configuration file for package "xsimd" that is compatible
with requested version "8.1.0".
The following configuration files were considered but not accepted:
/opt/homebrew/lib/cmake/xsimd/xsimdConfig.cmake, version: 9.0.1
Call Stack (most recent call first):
cmake_modules/ThirdpartyToolchain.cmake:2245 (resolve_dependency)
CMakeLists.txt:575 (include)
Of course, the traditional approach of installing apache-arrow externally with say brew install apache-arrow and using find_package works well enough, but I'd like something more cross-platform. One of the arrow devs had provided a link on how to properly use include_directories with ExternalProject_Add for an earlier question, but I guess that example is now outdated.
What's the recommended way of installing and then linking-to apache-arrow inside a cmake project using ExternalProject_Add?
Edit: Minimal Example
CMakeLists.txt
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.24)
project(arrow_cmake)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 23)
include(ExternalProject)
ExternalProject_Add(Arrow
URL "https://www.apache.org/dist/arrow/arrow-9.0.0/apache-arrow-9.0.0.tar.gz"
SOURCE_SUBDIR cpp
CMAKE_ARGS "-Dxsimd_SOURCE=BUNDLED"
)
add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} arrow_shared)
main.cpp
#include <iostream>
#include <arrow/array.h> // not found!
int main() {
std::cout << "Hello, World!" << std::endl;
return 0;
}

Answer 1

Could you try forcing Arrow build system to download and use the bundled xsimd? I've been able to reproduce and been able to build locally.
ExternalProject_Add(Arrow
URL "https://www.apache.org/dist/arrow/arrow-9.0.0/apache-arrow-9.0.0.tar.gz"
SOURCE_SUBDIR cpp
CMAKE_ARGS "-Dxsimd_SOURCE=BUNDLED"
)
I don't think we have documentation for it at the moment and we assume find_package to be used on the documentation: https://arrow.apache.org/docs/dev/cpp/build_system.html. Maybe we could open a ticket to improve the documentation in order to use it with CMake's ExternalProject or FetchContent.

Answer 2

Building arrow from sources in cmake took quite some doing. It's heavily influenced by this link.
cmake/arrow.cmake
# Build the Arrow C++ libraries.
function(build_arrow)
set(one_value_args)
set(multi_value_args)
cmake_parse_arguments(ARG
"${options}"
"${one_value_args}"
"${multi_value_args}"
${ARGN})
if (ARG_UNPARSED_ARGUMENTS)
message(SEND_ERROR "Error: unrecognized arguments: ${ARG_UNPARSED_ARGUMENTS}")
endif ()
# If Arrow needs to be built, the default location will be within the build tree.
set(ARROW_PREFIX "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/arrow_ep-prefix")
set(ARROW_SHARED_LIBRARY_DIR "${ARROW_PREFIX}/lib")
set(ARROW_SHARED_LIB_FILENAME
"${CMAKE_SHARED_LIBRARY_PREFIX}arrow${CMAKE_SHARED_LIBRARY_SUFFIX}")
set(ARROW_SHARED_LIB "${ARROW_SHARED_LIBRARY_DIR}/${ARROW_SHARED_LIB_FILENAME}")
set(PARQUET_SHARED_LIB_FILENAME
"${CMAKE_SHARED_LIBRARY_PREFIX}parquet${CMAKE_SHARED_LIBRARY_SUFFIX}")
set(PARQUET_SHARED_LIB "${ARROW_SHARED_LIBRARY_DIR}/${PARQUET_SHARED_LIB_FILENAME}")
set(ARROW_BINARY_DIR "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/arrow_ep-build")
set(ARROW_CMAKE_ARGS "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${ARROW_PREFIX}"
"-DCMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR=lib" "-Dxsimd_SOURCE=BUNDLED"
"-DARROW_BUILD_STATIC=OFF" "-DARROW_PARQUET=ON"
"-DARROW_WITH_UTF8PROC=OFF" "-DARROW_WITH_RE2=OFF"
"-DARROW_FILESYSTEM=ON" "-DARROW_CSV=ON" "-DARROW_PYTHON=ON")
set(ARROW_INCLUDE_DIR "${ARROW_PREFIX}/include")
set(ARROW_BUILD_BYPRODUCTS "${ARROW_SHARED_LIB}" "${PARQUET_SHARED_LIB}")
include(ExternalProject)
externalproject_add(arrow_ep
URL https://github.com/apache/arrow/archive/refs/tags/apache-arrow-9.0.0.tar.gz
SOURCE_SUBDIR cpp
BINARY_DIR "${ARROW_BINARY_DIR}"
CMAKE_ARGS "${ARROW_CMAKE_ARGS}"
BUILD_BYPRODUCTS "${ARROW_BUILD_BYPRODUCTS}")
set(ARROW_LIBRARY_TARGET arrow_shared)
set(PARQUET_LIBRARY_TARGET parquet_shared)
file(MAKE_DIRECTORY "${ARROW_INCLUDE_DIR}")
add_library(${ARROW_LIBRARY_TARGET} SHARED IMPORTED)
add_library(${PARQUET_LIBRARY_TARGET} SHARED IMPORTED)
set_target_properties(${ARROW_LIBRARY_TARGET}
PROPERTIES INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES ${ARROW_INCLUDE_DIR}
IMPORTED_LOCATION ${ARROW_SHARED_LIB})
set_target_properties(${PARQUET_LIBRARY_TARGET}
PROPERTIES INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES ${ARROW_INCLUDE_DIR}
IMPORTED_LOCATION ${PARQUET_SHARED_LIB})
add_dependencies(${ARROW_LIBRARY_TARGET} arrow_ep)
endfunction()
Use it in your CMakeLists.txt file as
...
set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake)
include(arrow)
build_arrow()