[R] Arrow package install - R binary version mismatch

[meztez]

Describe the bug, including details regarding any error messages, version, and platform.

Error that you might see : *** Unable to find libcurl and openssl

For systems with multiple R versions installed (Posit Connect, Posit Workbench...).

Installing arrow could results in unexpected behavior.

Say you run install.packages("arrow") using /opt/R/4.3.1/bin/R but your system R version (which R) is /opt/R/4.3.0/bin/R.
Or maybe R executable is not on your path.

This script

arrow/r/tools/nixlibs.R

Line 200 in 8c4941b

runner <- "`R CMD config CXX17` `R CMD config CPPFLAGS` `R CMD config CXX17FLAGS` `R CMD config CXX17STD` -E -xc++"

will use the system's R instead of /opt/R/4.3.1/bin/R or R will not be found resulting in an error.

Would it be possible to locate the currently running R executable and use that instead?

runner <- "`R CMD config CXX17` `R CMD config CPPFLAGS` `R CMD config CXX17FLAGS` `R CMD config CXX17STD` -E -xc++"

r_exec <- paste(R.home(component = "bin"), "R CMD config", sep="/")
runner <- sprintf("`%s CXX17` `%s CPPFLAGS` `%s CXX17FLAGS` `%s CXX17STD` -E -xc++", r_exec, r_exec, r_exec, r_exec)

Thanks

Component(s)

R

[kou]

Could you open a PR for this suggestion?

[thisisnic]

Thanks for reporting this @meztez, sounds like a reasonable suggestion to me!