ARROW-18341: [Doc][Python] Update note about bundling Arrow C++ on Windows (apache#14660)

AlenkaF · pitrou · jorisvandenbossche · web-flow · commit 3cc982e519dc · 2022-11-22T08:49:02.000+01:00
Lead-authored-by: Alenka Frim &lt;frim.alenka@gmail.com&gt;
Co-authored-by: Alenka Frim &lt;AlenkaF@users.noreply.github.com&gt;
Co-authored-by: Antoine Pitrou &lt;pitrou@free.fr&gt;
Co-authored-by: Joris Van den Bossche &lt;jorisvandenbossche@gmail.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Joris Van den Bossche &lt;jorisvandenbossche@gmail.com&gt;
diff --git a/docs/source/developers/python.rst b/docs/source/developers/python.rst
@@ -563,19 +563,23 @@ Then run the unit tests with:
    the Python extension. This is recommended for development as it allows the
    C++ libraries to be re-built separately.
 
-   If you want to bundle the Arrow C++ libraries with ``pyarrow``, add
-   the ``--bundle-arrow-cpp`` option when building:
+   If you are using the conda package manager then conda will ensure the Arrow C++
+   libraries are found. In case you are *not* using conda then you have to:
+
+   * add the path of installed DLL libraries to ``PATH`` every time before
+     importing ``pyarrow``, or
+   * bundle the Arrow C++ libraries with ``pyarrow``.
+
+   If you want to bundle the Arrow C++ libraries with ``pyarrow``, set the
+   ``PYARROW_BUNDLE_ARROW_CPP`` environment variable before building ``pyarrow``:
 
    .. code-block::
 
-      $ python setup.py build_ext --bundle-arrow-cpp
+      $ set PYARROW_BUNDLE_ARROW_CPP=1
+      $ python setup.py build_ext --inplace
 
-   Important: If you combine ``--bundle-arrow-cpp`` with ``--inplace`` the
-   Arrow C++ libraries get copied to the source tree and are not cleared
-   by ``python setup.py clean``. They remain in place and will take precedence
-   over any later Arrow C++ libraries contained in ``CONDA_PREFIX``. This can lead to
-   incompatibilities when ``pyarrow`` is later built without
-   ``--bundle-arrow-cpp``.
+   Note that bundled Arrow C++ libraries will not be automatically
+   updated when rebuilding Arrow C++.
 
 Caveats
 -------
