Get CRAN R package versions of specific date

Question

Is there an easy way to get a list with CRAN packages and their versions for a specific date?

E.g. code like this:

package_versions(packages = c("data.table", "lubridate"), date = "2018-01-01")

# Output
tribble(~package,     ~version,
        "data.table", "1.10.4-3",
        "lubridate",  "1.7.1")

One idea would be to set a checkpoint to a specific date and then use something like packageVersion. But I wonder if there is some simpler way without the need to install all those packages. Maybe scraping https://mran.microsoft.com/timemachine?

Answer 1

Now that MRAN doesn't exist, here's an updated version of Lucas Prestes solution that's using the CRAN archive (but it returns the package version url)

pack_version <- function(pack_list, date){

require(rvest)
require(dplyr)

myfunc <- function(x=pack_list, date=date){
  url<-paste0("https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/", x)
  webpage <- read_html(url)
  table <- html_table(webpage)[[1]]
  paste0(url, "/",
       table[, nchar(names(table)) > 0] |>
         filter(!is.na(`Last modified`) & `Last modified` != "") |>
         mutate(
           date_from = as.Date(`Last modified`, format = "%Y-%m-%d"),
           date_to = lead(date_from, default = Sys.Date())
         ) |>
         filter(date_from <= !!date & date_to >= !!date) |>
         pull(Name)
  )          
}
  sapply(pack_list, myfunc, date=date) 
}

r_date <- "2022-06-23" # version 4.1.2
r_packages <- c("ggplot2", "abind")

pack_version(r_packages, r_date)

Answer 2

Try it:

pack_version <- function(pack_list,date){
  require(rvest)
  myfunc <- function(x=pack_list,){
     url<-paste0("https://cran.microsoft.com/snapshot/", date,"/web/packages/", x, "/index.html")
     webpage <- read_html(url)
     table <- html_nodes(webpage, xpath='//td')
     html_text(table)[2]
}
  sapply(pack_list, myfunc, date=date) 
}

pack_list <- c("ggplot2", "abind")
date <- "2016-08-01"
pack_version(pack_list, date)

  ggplot2   abind 
  "2.1.0" "1.4-5"

Answer 3

Not really an answer but this could help.

library(versions)

#---- try:
x <- available.versions(c("lubridate", "data.table"))

#---- if you get an error with the above line, do:
# save the current locale
lct <- Sys.getlocale("LC_TIME") 
# set the C locale
Sys.setlocale("LC_TIME", "C")
# now this should work
x <- available.versions(c("lubridate", "data.table"))
# restore the locale
Sys.setlocale("LC_TIME", lct)

---

> x
$lubridate
   version       date available
1    1.7.4 2018-04-11      TRUE
2    1.7.3 2018-02-27      TRUE
3    1.7.2 2018-02-06      TRUE
4    1.7.1 2017-11-03      TRUE
5    1.6.0 2017-11-02      TRUE
6    1.7.0 2017-10-29      TRUE
7    1.5.6 2016-04-05      TRUE
8    1.5.0 2015-12-02      TRUE
9    1.3.3 2013-12-31      TRUE
10   1.3.2 2013-12-05     FALSE
11   1.3.1 2013-10-31     FALSE
12   1.3.0 2013-09-20     FALSE
13   1.2.0 2012-10-04     FALSE
14   1.1.0 2012-03-05     FALSE
15   0.2.6 2012-01-10     FALSE
16   0.2.5 2011-05-12     FALSE
17   0.2.4 2011-04-05     FALSE
18   0.2.3 2010-12-09     FALSE
19   0.2.2 2010-11-17     FALSE
20   0.2.1 2010-11-03     FALSE
21     0.2 2010-10-26     FALSE
22     0.1 2010-08-15     FALSE

$data.table
    version       date available
1    1.11.4 2018-05-27      TRUE
2    1.11.2 2018-05-08      TRUE
3    1.11.0 2018-05-01      TRUE
4  1.10.4-3 2017-10-27      TRUE
5  1.10.4-2 2017-10-12      TRUE
6  1.10.4-1 2017-10-09      TRUE
7    1.10.4 2017-02-01      TRUE
8    1.10.2 2017-01-31      TRUE
9    1.10.0 2016-12-03      TRUE
10    1.9.8 2016-11-25      TRUE
11    1.9.6 2015-09-19      TRUE
12    1.9.4 2014-10-02      TRUE
13    1.9.2 2014-02-27      TRUE
14   1.8.10 2013-09-03     FALSE
15    1.8.8 2013-03-06     FALSE
16    1.8.6 2012-11-13     FALSE
17    1.8.4 2012-11-09     FALSE
18    1.8.2 2012-07-17     FALSE
19    1.8.0 2012-07-16     FALSE
20   1.7.10 2012-02-07     FALSE
21    1.7.9 2012-01-31     FALSE
22    1.7.8 2012-01-25     FALSE
23    1.7.7 2011-12-15     FALSE
24    1.7.6 2011-12-13     FALSE
25    1.7.5 2011-12-04     FALSE
26    1.7.4 2011-11-29     FALSE
27    1.7.3 2011-11-25     FALSE
28    1.7.2 2011-11-07     FALSE
29    1.7.1 2011-10-22     FALSE
30    1.6.5 2011-08-25     FALSE
31    1.6.6 2011-08-25     FALSE
32    1.6.4 2011-08-10     FALSE
33    1.6.3 2011-08-04     FALSE
34    1.6.2 2011-07-02     FALSE
35    1.6.1 2011-06-29     FALSE
36      1.6 2011-04-24     FALSE
37    1.5.3 2011-02-11     FALSE
38    1.5.2 2011-01-21     FALSE
39    1.5.1 2011-01-08     FALSE
40      1.5 2010-09-14     FALSE
41    1.4.1 2010-05-03     FALSE
42      1.2 2008-09-01     FALSE
43      1.1 2008-08-27     FALSE
44      1.0 2006-04-14     FALSE