Get CRAN location and first release date for an R package — get_first_release • exttools

Determines whether a package is currently on CRAN, only in the CRAN archive, or in neither location, and returns the earliest known release date.

Usage

get_first_release(
  pkg,
  cran_package_db = NULL,
  archive_df = NULL,
  date_only = FALSE
)

Arguments

pkg: Character scalar. Package name.
cran_package_db: A data frame returned by tools::CRAN_package_db().
archive_df: A data frame with columns package and archive_date, typically created by build_archive_df().
date_only: Logical. If TRUE, return only the release date as a scalar.

Value

If date_only = FALSE (default), a one-row data frame with columns:

package
first_release

If date_only = TRUE, a single Date (or NA).