[R] CRAN packaging checklist for version 15.0.1

[thisisnic]

Packaging checklist for CRAN release

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

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

• 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!

[thisisnic]

The following PRs were cherry-picked to this branch if they didn't already exist on it:

06d841ee7d 10 days ago MINOR: [Documentation][C++][Python][R] Clarify docstrings around max_chunksize (#40251)
65c2b46c83 13 days ago GH-40199: [R] dbplyr 2.5.0 forward compatibility (#40197)
aceb51a0ce 2 weeks ago GH-40190: [R][Docs] Update NEWS.md with build system changes (#40191)
e1241e74a9 4 weeks ago GH-39987: [R] Make it possible to use a rtools libarrow on windows  (#39986)
66b41c4855 4 weeks ago GH-39738: [R] Support build against the last three released versions of Arrow (#39739)
8ffc2140af 4 weeks ago GH-39933: [R] Fix pointer conversion to Python for latest reticulate (#39969)
b684028dfb 5 weeks ago GH-39859: [R] Remove macOS from the allow list (#39861)
2e8bd8d0b5 6 weeks ago GH-39761: [Docs] Link to Go documentation references outdated documentation from 2018 (#39750)
cbc7349eb9 7 weeks ago MINOR: [Release] Update versions for 16.0.0-SNAPSHOT
05b8f366e1 7 weeks ago GH-39697: [R] Source build should check if offline (#39699)
f55c0d75ce 7 weeks ago GH-39626: [Docs][R] Update NEWS.md for 15.0.0 (#39627)
1df2e4ac82 7 weeks ago GH-39584: [R] fallback to source gracefully (#39587)
0d128c6d01 7 weeks ago GH-39601: [R] Don't download cmake when TEST_OFFLINE_BUILD=true (#39602)
d7bc55542e 8 weeks ago MINOR: [R] Clean up docs (#39591)
3cc04f1e83 8 weeks ago GH-39523: [R] Don't override explicitly set NOT_CRAN=false when on dev version (#39524)
4e101f02f8 8 weeks ago MINOR: [R][Docs] Fix geoarrrow url in NEWS.md (#39547)
f60c281809 8 weeks ago MINOR: [R] Default to bundled re2 build (#39514)
20bcf0f430 8 weeks ago GH-38811: [R] Actually use fetched cmake on macos (#39453)

[thisisnic]

Crossbow jobs running at: #40414

[thisisnic]

Macbuilder: https://mac.r-project.org/macbuilder/results/1709868307-bcbde9c96638e97c/

[amoeba]

As discussed on Zulip, I made tweet/toot threads for this release covering 15.0.0 changes: https://twitter.com/brycem/status/1767654789104669110 https://toot.cafe/@amoeba/112084720266951164

[amoeba]

Hey @thisisnic, do we need to add bumping the r-universe-release tag to the checklist?

Edit: Nic let me know that this was added to the checklist for the future and that they're aware it needs to be done for this release too.

[thisisnic]

Yup! Mind reviewing this PR I made earlier?: #40651

[thisisnic]

Now bumped for this release