[R] Remove dependency on gendef for Visual Studio builds (fixes #5608) (#5764)

* [R-package] Remove dependency on gendef for Visual Studio builds (fixes #5608)

* clarify docs

* removed debugging print statement

* Make R CMake install more robust

* Fix doc format; add ToC

* Update build.rst

* Fix AppVeyor

Co-authored-by: Hyunsu Cho <chohyu01@cs.washington.edu>

R-package/CMakeLists.txt

@@ -36,3 +36,6 @@ set(LINKED_LIBRARIES_PRIVATE ${LINKED_LIBRARIES_PRIVATE} ${LIBR_CORE_LIBRARY} PA
 if (USE_OPENMP)
   target_link_libraries(xgboost-r PRIVATE OpenMP::OpenMP_CXX)
 endif ()
+
+set(LIBR_HOME "${LIBR_HOME}" PARENT_SCOPE)
+set(LIBR_EXECUTABLE "${LIBR_EXECUTABLE}" PARENT_SCOPE)

R-package/inst/make-r-def.R

@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+# [description]
+#     Create a definition file (.def) from a .dll file, using objdump. This
+#     is used by FindLibR.cmake when building the R package with MSVC.
+#
+# [usage]
+#
+#     Rscript make-r-def.R something.dll something.def
+#
+# [references]
+#    * https://www.cs.colorado.edu/~main/cs1300/doc/mingwfaq.html
+
+args <- commandArgs(trailingOnly = TRUE)
+
+IN_DLL_FILE <- args[[1L]]
+OUT_DEF_FILE <- args[[2L]]
+DLL_BASE_NAME <- basename(IN_DLL_FILE)
+
+message(sprintf("Creating '%s' from '%s'", OUT_DEF_FILE, IN_DLL_FILE))
+
+# system() will not raise an R exception if the process called
+# fails. Wrapping it here to get that behavior.
+#
+# system() introduces a lot of overhead, at least on Windows,
+# so trying processx if it is available
+.pipe_shell_command_to_stdout <- function(command, args, out_file) {
+    has_processx <- suppressMessages({
+        suppressWarnings({
+            require("processx")  # nolint
+        })
+    })
+    if (has_processx) {
+        p <- processx::process$new(
+            command = command
+            , args = args
+            , stdout = out_file
+            , windows_verbatim_args = FALSE
+        )
+        invisible(p$wait())
+    } else {
+        message(paste0(
+            "Using system2() to run shell commands. Installing "
+            , "'processx' with install.packages('processx') might "
+            , "make this faster."
+        ))
+        exit_code <- system2(
+            command = command
+            , args = shQuote(args)
+            , stdout = out_file
+        )
+        if (exit_code != 0L) {
+            stop(paste0("Command failed with exit code: ", exit_code))
+        }
+    }
+    return(invisible(NULL))
+}
+
+# use objdump to dump all the symbols
+OBJDUMP_FILE <- "objdump-out.txt"
+.pipe_shell_command_to_stdout(
+    command = "objdump"
+    , args = c("-p", IN_DLL_FILE)
+    , out_file = OBJDUMP_FILE
+)
+
+objdump_results <- readLines(OBJDUMP_FILE)
+result <- file.remove(OBJDUMP_FILE)
+
+# Only one table in the objdump results matters for our purposes,
+# see https://www.cs.colorado.edu/~main/cs1300/doc/mingwfaq.html
+start_index <- which(
+    grepl(
+        pattern = "[Ordinal/Name Pointer] Table"
+        , x = objdump_results
+        , fixed = TRUE
+    )
+)
+empty_lines <- which(objdump_results == "")
+end_of_table <- empty_lines[empty_lines > start_index][1L]
+
+# Read the contents of the table
+exported_symbols <- objdump_results[(start_index + 1L):end_of_table]
+exported_symbols <- gsub("\t", "", exported_symbols)
+exported_symbols <- gsub(".*\\] ", "", exported_symbols)
+exported_symbols <- gsub(" ", "", exported_symbols)
+
+# Write R.def file
+writeLines(
+    text = c(
+        paste0("LIBRARY \"", DLL_BASE_NAME, "\"")
+        , "EXPORTS"
+        , exported_symbols
+    )
+    , con = OUT_DEF_FILE
+    , sep = "\n"
+)
+message(sprintf("Successfully created '%s'", OUT_DEF_FILE))