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<section id="changing-the-apache-arrow-format-specification">
<h1>Changing the Apache Arrow Format Specification<a class="headerlink" href="#changing-the-apache-arrow-format-specification" title="Permalink to this heading">#</a></h1>
<p><strong>Cross-language</strong> compatibility is important in Apache Arrow. To
maintain it, we use the following process when dealing with changes to
the format (files in
<a class="github reference external" href="https://github.com/apache/arrow/tree/main/format">apache/arrow</a>):</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>We must discuss and vote on the changes on the public mailing list</p></li>
<li><p>We must have at least two reference implementations and associated
integration tests</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These do not have to be done in order. In most cases, having at least
one draft reference implementation is helpful for design discussion.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
<p>We must update the corresponding documentation (files in
<a class="github reference external" href="https://github.com/apache/arrow/tree/main/docs/source/format">apache/arrow</a>)
too.</p>
</div>
<section id="discussion-and-voting-process">
<h2>Discussion and Voting Process<a class="headerlink" href="#discussion-and-voting-process" title="Permalink to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>Changes to the format should be discussed on the public mailing list.
Anyone can join the discussion. The discussion should be started by a
thread in <a class="reference external" href="mailto:dev&#37;&#52;&#48;arrow&#46;apache&#46;org">dev<span>&#64;</span>arrow<span>&#46;</span>apache<span>&#46;</span>org</a> with the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">[DISCUSS]</span></code> prefixed
subject.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
<p>We sometimes use <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">[Discuss]</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DISCUSS:</span></code> or something similar but
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">[DISCUSS]</span></code> is recommended.</p>
</div>
<p>Here are some examples:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p><a class="reference external" href="https://lists.apache.org/thread/9ynjmjlxm44j2pt443mcr2hmdl7m43yz">[Discuss][Format] Add 32-bit and 64-bit Decimals</a></p></li>
<li><p><a class="reference external" href="https://lists.apache.org/thread/dccj1qrozo88qsxx133kcy308qwfwpfm">[DISCUSS][Format] Starting to do some concrete work on the new “StringView” columnar data type</a></p></li>
</ul>
<p>The voting process is used to verify we have reached consensus. We can
start a vote for the format changes after we reach consensus in the
preceding DISCUSS mailing list thread. Similar to discussion threads,
voting thread must have the subject prefix <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">[VOTE]</span></code>.</p>
<p>See also: <a class="reference external" href="https://www.apache.org/foundation/voting.html">Apache Voting Process</a></p>
</section>
<section id="at-least-two-reference-implementations">
<h2>At Least Two Reference Implementations<a class="headerlink" href="#at-least-two-reference-implementations" title="Permalink to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>We must have at least two reference implementations and associated
integration tests to confirm whether the format changes are compatible
across languages and consistent.</p>
<p>Reference implementations must be within complete Arrow
implementations. For example, the C++ library is acceptable but the
Python library is not, since it is a wrapper around the C++
library. Here are candidate implementations:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>The C++ implementation</p></li>
<li><p>The Java implementation</p></li>
<li><p>The Rust (arrow-rs) implementation</p></li>
<li><p>The Go implementation</p></li>
</ul>
<p>We can discuss and vote to add more implementations to the list. We
may use <a class="reference internal" href="../status.html"><span class="doc">Implementation Status</span></a> to determine which implementations are
complete.</p>
</section>
<section id="versioning">
<h2>Versioning<a class="headerlink" href="#versioning" title="Permalink to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>The format version (which is separate from the library versions) must
also be incremented as new changed are made. See <a class="reference internal" href="Versioning.html"><span class="doc">Format Versioning and Stability</span></a>.</p>
</section>
</section>
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