CuDF backend doesn't check CuDF version before doing version-dependent things

[jpivarski]

I had cudf 24.04.01 installed (apparently, when a package comes from another channel, update --all doesn't get it), and got this error from tests-cuda/test_3051_to_cuda.py:

>       return cudf.core.column.lists.ListColumn(
            size=length,
            data=None,
            mask=m,
            children=(ind_buf, cont),
            dtype=cudf.core.dtypes.ListDtype(cont.dtype),
        )
E       TypeError: ListColumn.__init__() got an unexpected keyword argument 'data'
E       
E       This error occurred while calling
E       
E           ak.to_cudf(
E               <Array [[[1, 2, 3], [], [3, 4]], []] type='2 * var * var * int64'>
E           )

Naturally, this is #3309. I updated cudf to 24.10.01 and there's no problem.

If you try to use this feature without CuDF, I'm sure you'd get some error message saying, "you need to install CuDF," but the above error message is mysterious if you don't know that you have an old version of CuDF. It would be more helpful if it said, "you need to install VERSION XYZ of CuDF," like

awkward/src/awkward/numba/__init__.py

Lines 34 to 38 in 8f69dbf

	if parse_version(numba.__version__) < parse_version("0.50"):
	raise ImportError(
	"Awkward Array can only work with numba 0.50 or later "
	f"(you have version {numba.__version__})"
	)

@martindurant, is 24.10.00 the exact minimum? Which is the minimum CuDF version that is okay/the maximum CuDF version that is bad?

[martindurant]

It seems that when I said "they kept the same arguments but forced you to supply and name them", I was wrong :|
rapidsai/cudf#16454 was the PR, I'm not sure when it got released.

[jpivarski]

Okay, then 24.10.00 is the first release that we support.

This issue stands as a add that version check, in a style similar to the Numba version check.

[martindurant]

Here is the other PR in cudf specifically for the signature change of NumericalColumn (i.e., the argument names): rapidsai/cudf#16457 (August 15). Before that PR is when our current code would actually break.