GH-48091: [C++] Use FetchContent for bundled c-ares by raulcd · Pull Request #48092 · apache/arrow

raulcd · 2025-11-10T16:57:20Z

Rationale for this change

As a follow up of requiring a minimum CMake version >= 3.25 we discussed moving our dependencies from ExternalProject to FetchContent. This can heavily simplify our third party dependency management. Moving c-ares is the next step before moving grpc.

What changes are included in this PR?

The general change is moving from ExternalProject to FetchContent.

It also add some required integration due to other dependencies, like grpc, using ExternalProject. We not only have to build but also install in order for those other dependencies to find c-ares. This causes some timing issues between config, build, install that requires us to create a custom target to depend on so the other dependencies find abseil.

Are these changes tested?

Yes, the changes are tested locally and on CI.

Are there any user-facing changes?

No

GitHub Issue: [C++] Use FetchContent for bundled c-ares #48091

raulcd · 2025-11-10T17:21:08Z

@github-actions crossbow submit bundled

github-actions · 2025-11-10T17:23:36Z

Revision: 7e7f084

Submitted crossbow builds: ursacomputing/crossbow @ actions-d7ad44f8f1

Task	Status
test-r-depsource-bundled
test-ubuntu-22.04-cpp-bundled
test-ubuntu-24.04-cpp-bundled-offline
test-ubuntu-24.04-cpp-gcc-13-bundled

raulcd · 2025-11-17T10:54:55Z

@github-actions crossbow submit bundled

github-actions · 2025-11-17T10:57:14Z

Revision: 91f6b54

Submitted crossbow builds: ursacomputing/crossbow @ actions-490508cbda

Task	Status
test-r-depsource-bundled
test-ubuntu-22.04-cpp-bundled
test-ubuntu-24.04-cpp-bundled-offline
test-ubuntu-24.04-cpp-gcc-13-bundled

raulcd

@kou this follows the same structure of what we did for Abseil, the idea is to move RE2, Protobuf and then try to move GRPC and get rid of the need for installation.

kou · 2025-11-18T00:37:49Z

@github-actions crossbow submit -g r -g cpp

cpp/cmake_modules/ThirdpartyToolchain.cmake

github-actions · 2025-11-18T00:41:05Z

Revision: 91f6b54

Submitted crossbow builds: ursacomputing/crossbow @ actions-d22c15fa3f

Task	Status
example-cpp-minimal-build-static
example-cpp-minimal-build-static-system-dependency
example-cpp-tutorial
r-binary-packages
r-recheck-most
test-build-cpp-fuzz
test-conda-cpp
test-conda-cpp-valgrind
test-cuda-cpp-ubuntu-22.04-cuda-11.7.1
test-debian-12-cpp-amd64
test-debian-12-cpp-i386
test-fedora-42-cpp
test-r-arrow-backwards-compatibility
test-r-depsource-bundled
test-r-depsource-system
test-r-dev-duckdb
test-r-devdocs
test-r-extra-packages
test-r-gcc-11
test-r-gcc-12
test-r-install-local
test-r-install-local-minsizerel
test-r-linux-as-cran
test-r-linux-rchk
test-r-linux-sanitizers
test-r-linux-valgrind
test-r-m1-san
test-r-macos-as-cran
test-r-minimal-build
test-r-offline-maximal
test-r-offline-minimal
test-r-rhub-debian-gcc-devel-lto-latest
test-r-rhub-ubuntu-gcc12-custom-ccache
test-r-rhub-ubuntu-release-latest
test-r-rocker-r-ver-latest
test-r-rstudio-r-base-4.1-focal
test-r-rstudio-r-base-4.2-focal
test-r-ubuntu-22.04
test-r-versions
test-ubuntu-22.04-cpp
test-ubuntu-22.04-cpp-20
test-ubuntu-22.04-cpp-bundled
test-ubuntu-22.04-cpp-emscripten
test-ubuntu-22.04-cpp-no-threading
test-ubuntu-24.04-cpp
test-ubuntu-24.04-cpp-bundled-offline
test-ubuntu-24.04-cpp-gcc-13-bundled
test-ubuntu-24.04-cpp-gcc-14
test-ubuntu-24.04-cpp-minimal-with-formats
test-ubuntu-24.04-cpp-thread-sanitizer

raulcd · 2025-11-18T08:21:57Z

Some of the failures on the R job failures above (test-r-macos-as-cran) seem related to the previous abseil change, I'll investigate:

 CMake Error at cmake_modules/ThirdpartyToolchain.cmake:3171 (set_property):
  set_property can not be used on an ALIAS target.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  cmake_modules/ThirdpartyToolchain.cmake:173 (build_absl)
  cmake_modules/ThirdpartyToolchain.cmake:304 (build_dependency)
  cmake_modules/ThirdpartyToolchain.cmake:3490 (resolve_dependency)
  CMakeLists.txt:523 (include)

raulcd · 2025-11-18T14:54:57Z

@github-actions crossbow submit r-binary-packages

github-actions · 2025-11-18T14:57:17Z

Revision: 0b0a3d1

Submitted crossbow builds: ursacomputing/crossbow @ actions-f99573dc0b

Task	Status
r-binary-packages

raulcd · 2025-11-18T17:17:11Z

@github-actions crossbow submit -g r -g cpp

github-actions · 2025-11-18T17:20:42Z

Revision: 0b0a3d1

Submitted crossbow builds: ursacomputing/crossbow @ actions-c43d12b696

Task	Status
example-cpp-minimal-build-static
example-cpp-minimal-build-static-system-dependency
example-cpp-tutorial
r-binary-packages
r-recheck-most
test-build-cpp-fuzz
test-conda-cpp
test-conda-cpp-valgrind
test-cuda-cpp-ubuntu-22.04-cuda-11.7.1
test-debian-12-cpp-amd64
test-debian-12-cpp-i386
test-fedora-42-cpp
test-r-arrow-backwards-compatibility
test-r-depsource-bundled
test-r-depsource-system
test-r-dev-duckdb
test-r-devdocs
test-r-extra-packages
test-r-gcc-11
test-r-gcc-12
test-r-install-local
test-r-install-local-minsizerel
test-r-linux-as-cran
test-r-linux-rchk
test-r-linux-sanitizers
test-r-linux-valgrind
test-r-m1-san
test-r-macos-as-cran
test-r-minimal-build
test-r-offline-maximal
test-r-offline-minimal
test-r-rhub-debian-gcc-devel-lto-latest
test-r-rhub-ubuntu-gcc12-custom-ccache
test-r-rhub-ubuntu-release-latest
test-r-rocker-r-ver-latest
test-r-rstudio-r-base-4.1-focal
test-r-rstudio-r-base-4.2-focal
test-r-ubuntu-22.04
test-r-versions
test-ubuntu-22.04-cpp
test-ubuntu-22.04-cpp-20
test-ubuntu-22.04-cpp-bundled
test-ubuntu-22.04-cpp-emscripten
test-ubuntu-22.04-cpp-no-threading
test-ubuntu-24.04-cpp
test-ubuntu-24.04-cpp-bundled-offline
test-ubuntu-24.04-cpp-gcc-13-bundled
test-ubuntu-24.04-cpp-gcc-14
test-ubuntu-24.04-cpp-minimal-with-formats
test-ubuntu-24.04-cpp-thread-sanitizer

raulcd · 2025-11-18T18:01:43Z

cpp/cmake_modules/ThirdpartyToolchain.cmake

+    # When ABSL_ENABLE_INSTALL is ON, the real target is "time" not "absl_time"
+    # Cannot use set_property on alias targets (absl::time is an alias)
+    set_property(TARGET time


This is not required for c-ares but a bug fix required for macOS abseil as seen on some R failures

raulcd · 2025-11-18T19:00:16Z

I have a working PoC on this branch where I have migrated Abseil, c-ares, protobuf, re2 and gRPC and I can reduce back c-ares and re2 to something like:

function(build_re2)
  list(APPEND CMAKE_MESSAGE_INDENT "RE2: ")
  message(STATUS "Building RE2 from source using FetchContent")
  set(RE2_VENDORED
      TRUE
      PARENT_SCOPE)

  fetchcontent_declare(re2
                       URL ${RE2_SOURCE_URL}
                       URL_HASH "SHA256=${ARROW_RE2_BUILD_SHA256_CHECKSUM}")
  prepare_fetchcontent()
  fetchcontent_makeavailable(re2)

  set(ARROW_BUNDLED_STATIC_LIBS
      ${ARROW_BUNDLED_STATIC_LIBS} re2::re2
      PARENT_SCOPE)
  list(POP_BACK CMAKE_MESSAGE_INDENT)
endfunction()

and

function(build_cares)
  list(APPEND CMAKE_MESSAGE_INDENT "c-ares: ")
  message(STATUS "Building c-ares from source using FetchContent")
  set(CARES_VENDORED
      TRUE
      PARENT_SCOPE)

  fetchcontent_declare(cares
                       URL ${CARES_SOURCE_URL}
                       URL_HASH "SHA256=${ARROW_CARES_BUILD_SHA256_CHECKSUM}")
  prepare_fetchcontent()

  set(CARES_SHARED OFF)
  set(CARES_STATIC ON)
  fetchcontent_makeavailable(cares)

  if(APPLE)
    # libresolv must be linked from c-ares version 1.16.1
    find_library(LIBRESOLV_LIBRARY NAMES resolv libresolv REQUIRED)
    set_target_properties(c-ares::cares PROPERTIES INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES
                                                   "${LIBRESOLV_LIBRARY}")
  endif()

  set(ARROW_BUNDLED_STATIC_LIBS
      ${ARROW_BUNDLED_STATIC_LIBS} c-ares::cares
      PARENT_SCOPE)
  list(POP_BACK CMAKE_MESSAGE_INDENT)
endfunction()

For Abseil and Protobuf as those are dependencies for other libraries too, it will take longer but we should be able to reduce them once everything is migrated to FetchContent. That branch is just for investigation purposes at the moment.

kou

+1

Is this ready to merge? Do we need more changes in this PR?

raulcd

Yes, this is ready to be merged. I just wanted to point out that we will be able to simplify it once the rest of the work is done :)
I'll merge it.

conbench-apache-arrow · 2025-11-19T20:23:15Z

After merging your PR, Conbench analyzed the 4 benchmarking runs that have been run so far on merge-commit bc51a76.

There were no benchmark performance regressions. 🎉

The full Conbench report has more details. It also includes information about 4 possible false positives for unstable benchmarks that are known to sometimes produce them.

### Rationale for this change As a follow up of requiring a minimum CMake version >= 3.25 we discussed moving our dependencies from ExternalProject to FetchContent. This can heavily simplify our third party dependency management. Moving c-ares is the next step before moving grpc. ### What changes are included in this PR? The general change is moving from `ExternalProject` to `FetchContent`. It also add some required integration due to other dependencies, like grpc, using `ExternalProject`. We not only have to build but also install in order for those other dependencies to find c-ares. This causes some timing issues between config, build, install that requires us to create a custom target to depend on so the other dependencies find abseil. ### Are these changes tested? Yes, the changes are tested locally and on CI. ### Are there any user-facing changes? No * GitHub Issue: apache#48091 Authored-by: Raúl Cumplido <raulcumplido@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Raúl Cumplido <raulcumplido@gmail.com>

github-actions bot added Component: C++ awaiting committer review Awaiting committer review labels Nov 10, 2025

apacheGH-48091: [C++] Use FetchContent for bundled c-ares

cb903ad

raulcd force-pushed the GH-48091 branch from 7e7f084 to cb903ad Compare November 17, 2025 09:21

Move from macro build_cares to function

91f6b54

raulcd marked this pull request as ready for review November 17, 2025 12:04

raulcd commented Nov 17, 2025

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github-actions bot added awaiting changes Awaiting changes and removed awaiting committer review Awaiting committer review labels Nov 17, 2025

kou added the CI: Extra Run extra CI label Nov 18, 2025

kou reviewed Nov 18, 2025

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cpp/cmake_modules/ThirdpartyToolchain.cmake Show resolved Hide resolved

Keep c-ares as part of ARROW_BUNDLED_STATIC_LIBS

36e457b

github-actions bot added awaiting change review Awaiting change review and removed awaiting changes Awaiting changes labels Nov 18, 2025

Fix for target on Abseil Alias on macOS bundled build

0b0a3d1

raulcd commented Nov 18, 2025

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raulcd requested a review from kou November 18, 2025 18:15

kou approved these changes Nov 18, 2025

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raulcd commented Nov 19, 2025

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raulcd merged commit bc51a76 into apache:main Nov 19, 2025
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raulcd removed the awaiting changes Awaiting changes label Nov 19, 2025

raulcd mentioned this pull request Nov 19, 2025

[C++] Use FetchContent for bundled c-ares #48091

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