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Find the first (root) commit in a GitHub repository

Source: R/get_first_repo_commit.R
get_first_repo_commit.Rd

Clones (or refreshes) a GitHub repository into a shared local cache and determines the earliest (root) commit using git history, without relying on the GitHub REST API.

Usage

get_first_repo_commit(
  owner,
  repo,
  branch = NULL,
  date_only = FALSE,
  cache_dir = getOption("ggext.git_cache", file.path(tempdir(), "gh_repo_cache"))
)

Arguments

owner

Character scalar. GitHub username or organization.

repo

Character scalar. GitHub repository name.

branch

Optional character scalar. Git ref to use (e.g. "main"). If NULL or empty, the function uses origin/HEAD when available, otherwise HEAD.

date_only

Logical. If TRUE, return only the Date of the first commit. Defaults to FALSE.

cache_dir

Directory used to cache cloned repositories. Defaults to getOption("ggext.git_cache", file.path(tempdir(), "gh_repo_cache")).

Value

If a root commit is found:

  • When date_only = TRUE, a Date.

  • Otherwise, a one-row data.frame with columns: first_repo, author, message, and url.

If the repository cannot be accessed or inspected:

  • Returns NA when date_only = TRUE

  • Returns NULL otherwise

Details

This function uses the same on-disk Git repository cache as related helpers:

The cache location is controlled by the ggext.git_cache option. Repositories cloned or refreshed by any of these functions are reused across calls, avoiding redundant network access.

See also

get_first_commit(), get_first_export(), get_first_call_github()

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
get_first_repo_commit("YuLab-SMU", "ggtree")
get_first_repo_commit("tidyverse", "ggplot2", date_only = TRUE)

options(ggext.git_cache = "~/Library/Caches/ggext_git")
} # }