GH-49237: [R] Deprecate Feather reader and writer by thisisnic · Pull Request #49276 · apache/arrow

thisisnic · 2026-02-13T15:31:25Z

Rationale for this change

Arrow C++ is deprecating the Feather reader/writer (#49231) so we should update the R functions too

What changes are included in this PR?

Updated write_feather to mention in the docs that it's deprecated.
Refactored write_feather() to wrap new function write_ipc_impl() so we can show deprecation warnings on calls to write_feather() only (previously write_ipc_file() called write_feather() and so I didn't wanna add the deprecation warning without this refactor otherwise a call to write_ipc_file() would trigger it erroneously)
Once we eventually remove write_feather() we can remove this extra function
Split read_ipc_file() and read_feather() into separate functions so we can document them differently. Updated the examples to show using read_ipc_file()
Deprecated format = "feather" in open_dataset(), write_dataset(), and FileFormat$create() - now emits deprecation warning recommending format = "ipc" instead
Updated as.character.FileFormat to return "ipc" instead of "feather"
Updated docs and tests to use "ipc" instead of "feather"

Some 🤖 use here, but I decided on what to do.

Are these changes tested?

Yep

Are there any user-facing changes?

Yep - deprecation warning

GitHub Issue: [R] Deprecate Feather reader and writer #49237

github-actions · 2026-02-13T15:31:50Z

⚠️ GitHub issue #49237 has been automatically assigned in GitHub to PR creator.

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR deprecates Feather-oriented R APIs in favor of Arrow IPC terminology and updates documentation/tests to use read_ipc_file(), write_ipc_file(), and format = "ipc".

Changes:

Adds deprecation warnings for read_feather(), write_feather(), and format = "feather" dataset usage.
Splits IPC file reader/writer documentation from deprecated Feather docs.
Updates tests, examples, snapshots, and generated Rd files to use IPC naming.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 25 out of 39 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
r/R/feather.R	Refactors Feather/IPc reader-writer APIs and docs.
r/R/ipc-stream.R	Updates IPC stream docs and raw-file serialization path.
r/R/dataset-write.R	Deprecates `format = "feather"` for dataset writes.
r/R/dataset-format.R	Deprecates Feather format alias and returns `ipc` for IPC formats.
r/R/dataset.R	Updates dataset format documentation and display name.
r/R/dataset-factory.R	Updates dataset factory format documentation.
r/R/parquet.R	Updates inherited reader parameter docs.
r/R/record-batch-reader.R	Updates reader docs to reference IPC file APIs.
r/R/record-batch-writer.R	Updates writer docs to reference IPC file APIs.
r/R/extension.R	Updates extension examples to use IPC file APIs.
r/tests/testthat/test-feather.R	Updates Feather tests for deprecation and IPC replacements.
r/tests/testthat/test-dataset.R	Updates dataset IPC tests and adds Feather deprecation coverage.
r/tests/testthat/test-dataset-write.R	Updates dataset write tests and adds Feather deprecation coverage.
r/tests/testthat/test-read-write.R	Replaces Feather roundtrip usage with IPC file APIs.
r/tests/testthat/test-read-record-batch.R	Replaces Feather reader usage with IPC file reader.
r/tests/testthat/test-metadata.R	Replaces Feather metadata roundtrips with IPC roundtrips.
r/tests/testthat/test-s3.R	Updates S3 IPC read/write test naming and APIs.
r/tests/testthat/test-utf.R	Replaces Feather serialization test with IPC file APIs.
r/tests/testthat/test-extension.R	Updates extension roundtrip to use IPC file APIs.
r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-mutate.R	Updates dataset format usage to IPC.
r/tests/testthat/test-buffer.R	Replaces Feather writer with IPC file writer.
r/tests/testthat/test-backwards-compatibility.R	Reads Feather golden files via IPC file reader.
r/tests/testthat/test-Array.R	Updates timezone roundtrip to use IPC file APIs.
r/tests/testthat/helper-filesystems.R	Updates filesystem IPC read/write tests.
r/tests/testthat/_snaps/dataset-write.md	Updates snapshots for IPC format calls.
r/man/write_ipc_file.Rd	Adds generated docs for `write_ipc_file()`.
r/man/read_ipc_file.Rd	Adds generated docs for `read_ipc_file()`.
r/man/write_feather.Rd	Updates generated docs for deprecated writer.
r/man/read_feather.Rd	Updates generated docs for deprecated reader.
r/man/write_ipc_stream.Rd	Updates IPC stream writer docs.
r/man/read_ipc_stream.Rd	Updates IPC stream reader docs.
r/man/write_to_raw.Rd	Updates raw serialization docs.
r/man/write_dataset.Rd	Updates dataset write format docs.
r/man/open_dataset.Rd	Updates dataset opening format docs.
r/man/FileFormat.Rd	Updates file format docs.
r/man/dataset_factory.Rd	Updates dataset factory docs.
r/man/RecordBatchReader.Rd	Updates reader reference docs.
r/man/RecordBatchWriter.Rd	Updates writer reference docs.
r/man/vctrs_extension_array.Rd	Updates extension example docs.

Files not reviewed (14)

r/man/FileFormat.Rd: Language not supported
r/man/RecordBatchReader.Rd: Language not supported
r/man/RecordBatchWriter.Rd: Language not supported
r/man/dataset_factory.Rd: Language not supported
r/man/open_dataset.Rd: Language not supported
r/man/read_feather.Rd: Language not supported
r/man/read_ipc_file.Rd: Language not supported
r/man/read_ipc_stream.Rd: Language not supported
r/man/vctrs_extension_array.Rd: Language not supported
r/man/write_dataset.Rd: Language not supported
r/man/write_feather.Rd: Language not supported
r/man/write_ipc_file.Rd: Language not supported
r/man/write_ipc_stream.Rd: Language not supported
r/man/write_to_raw.Rd: Language not supported

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jonkeane

A few comments, but this looks good and if CI is happy I think we are ok to merge. I do think we should avoid changing those signatures now and actually have a deprecation cycle in case someone is using them.

jonkeane · 2026-06-30T13:56:41Z

      pretty_file_type <- list(
        parquet = "Parquet",
-        ipc = "Feather"
+        ipc = "IPC"


I'm slightly surprised by the all caps here? Is that just the display name? And "ipc" is still what we expect people to type?

Yeah, it's the display name, I've updated to "Arrow IPC" as that's a bit prettier. and yeah, afaik it is.

### Rationale for this change See #49231. Deprecate the Feather reader/writer and point users to the Arrow IPC file API. ### What changes are included in this PR? `ipc::feather::Reader::Open`, `ipc::feather::WriteTable` and the `WriteProperties` struct marked with `ARROW_DEPRECATED`, pointing users to `ipc::RecordBatchFileReader` and `ipc::MakeFileWriter`. Deprecation warnings supressed at the internal call sites: `feather.cc`, `feather_test.cc`, the R binding `r/src/feather.cpp` (R deprecation is in #49276), and the GLib binding (GLib deprecation is in #49673). ### Are these changes tested? `-Werror` build of arrow-feather-test passes locally. ### Are there any user-facing changes? No functional change, compile-time deprecation warning for `feather::Reader::Open`, `feather::WriteTable` or feather::WriteProperties. * GitHub Issue: #49231 Authored-by: Tadeja Kadunc <tadeja.kadunc@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Antoine Pitrou <antoine@python.org>

github-actions Bot added Component: R awaiting committer review Awaiting committer review labels Feb 13, 2026

thisisnic force-pushed the GH-49237_feather_deprecation branch from d3eca24 to d32a2e3 Compare February 16, 2026 10:32

piyushka-ally mentioned this pull request Apr 2, 2026

GH-49232: [Python] deprecate feather python #49590

Merged

thisisnic force-pushed the GH-49237_feather_deprecation branch from d7c26bb to 71a2ff5 Compare April 6, 2026 07:28

github-actions Bot added Component: Parquet Component: Documentation labels Apr 6, 2026

thisisnic marked this pull request as ready for review May 28, 2026 09:54

thisisnic requested a review from jonkeane as a code owner May 28, 2026 09:54

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings May 28, 2026 09:54

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of thisisnic May 28, 2026 09:54 View session

Copilot AI reviewed May 28, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread r/R/ipc-stream.R Outdated

Comment thread r/R/ipc-stream.R Outdated

Comment thread r/R/feather.R

github-actions Bot added awaiting changes Awaiting changes and removed awaiting committer review Awaiting committer review labels May 28, 2026

jonkeane approved these changes Jun 30, 2026

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github-actions Bot added awaiting merge Awaiting merge and removed awaiting changes Awaiting changes labels Jun 30, 2026

tadeja mentioned this pull request Jul 1, 2026

GH-49231: [C++] Deprecate Feather reader and writer #50321

Merged

thisisnic added 7 commits July 2, 2026 06:50

Update read/write feather

6c1c7f8

Swap out read/write Feather for IPC

775c369

Update tests, improve wording

7e3c58b

Add deprecations to other areas we missed

df26a89

Update docs

c914771

Remove unused ellipses

11998d5

deprecate ellipses

f27f400

thisisnic force-pushed the GH-49237_feather_deprecation branch from 0e1a899 to f27f400 Compare July 2, 2026 07:21

github-actions Bot added awaiting changes Awaiting changes and removed awaiting merge Awaiting merge labels Jul 2, 2026

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GH-49237: [R] Deprecate Feather reader and writer#49276

GH-49237: [R] Deprecate Feather reader and writer#49276
thisisnic wants to merge 7 commits into
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thisisnic commented Feb 13, 2026 •

edited

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thisisnic commented Feb 13, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Rationale for this change

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thisisnic commented Feb 13, 2026 •

edited

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