[R-package] [ci] Reduce manual effort for version updates

[jameslamb]

This is the first step towards #3283 . It does not automate creating any artifacts (#3283 (comment), #3285 (comment)), but it removes some of the manual steps needed to update the R package when the version of LightGBM is updated.

In #3071 (comment) I proposed adding a Makefile with a make release recipe, but I decided not to do that in this PR because I thought it would be very thin and therefore not worth adding another file to the repo.

As of this PR, the only change that will need to be made in a release PR is to regenerate R-package/configure, which can be done with this command if you have Docker available (documented here):

docker run \
    -v $(pwd):/opt/LightGBM \
    -t ubuntu:18.04 \
    /bin/bash -c "cd /opt/LightGBM && ./R-package/recreate-configure.sh"

I tested this with values 3.0.0, 5.2.1 and 5.2.1rc in VERSION.txt, just to make sure it all works as expected.

[guolinke]

@jameslamb I think this will be included in 3.0.0 ?

[jameslamb]

yes it should be!

Sorry, should have clarified...I built the package in #3293 (comment) from this branch, so it is ok.

[StrikerRUS]

@jameslamb

In #3071 (comment) I proposed adding a Makefile with a make release recipe, but I decided not to do that in this PR because I thought it would be very thin and therefore not worth adding another file to the repo.

Absolutely agree!

[StrikerRUS]

Thanks, LGTM if it is working inside a Docker.

[jameslamb]

Thanks, LGTM if it is working inside a Docker.

thanks! I can confirm that it is. The diff in configure in this PR was generated with the docker run command in the README. Everything else in this PR will work outside of Docker, for example anywhere that people run build-cran-package.sh or Rscript build_r.R.

Now that this is automated, it will also fail builds where we update VERSION.txt but forget to update R-package/configure, which I think is a good thing!

[github-actions]

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