r-cran-status

Files (1)

• SKILL.md

SKILL.md (first lines)

# CRAN Package Status

Check a package's submission/review state, a specific historical version's
fate (e.g. `{package} {version}`, as in `btw v1.4.0`), or its current
`R CMD check` results across CRAN's test platforms.

"CRAN status" is ambiguous between two questions:

- **Submission status**: is/was this package (or version) in review,
  published, archived, or rejected? See "Submission Status".
- **Check results**: is the published version passing `R CMD check` on all
  platforms, or does it have WARN/ERROR/NOTE flags risking removal? See
  "Check Results".

CRAN's servers are a shared, unpaid resource. Never issue requests in
parallel or in a tight loop — pause briefly (e.g. `sleep 1`) between
requests, stop looping as soon as a match is found, and avoid re-fetching a
page you've already checked in this session.

## Workflow

1. Ask for the package name if not provided. A version may also be given
   (e.g. `btw v1.4.0` or `btw 1.4.0`); strip any leading `v`.
2. Decide which question is being asked:
   - Version given, or request mentions submission, review, the queue, or
     rejection/archival → **Submission Status**.
   - Request mentions checks, `R CMD check`, WARN/ERROR/NOTE, or
     platforms/flavors → **Check Results**.
   - Request mentions win-builder, `check_win_devel()`, or whether a
     submission arrived → **Win-Builder**.
   - If genuinely ambiguous (e.g. just "check the CRAN status of x"), ask
     which is meant, or check both and report both.
3. Follow the relevant section below and report the result.

## Submission Status

1. Check the currently published version first (see below).
2. If no version was requested, or it matches the current version: report it
   as the current, published release. Skip to step 5 unless it's absent from
   `PACKAGES`, in which case continue to step 3.
3. If a prior check this conversation already located the package in a
   stage or reviewer folder, check that folder first, then forward from it
   in the pipeline order (see "CRAN Review Stages") — don't re-sweep from
   the start. Otherwise, sweep all stage and reviewer folders.
4. Search the `incoming/` stage folders (see below).
5. Search the reviewer-assigned folders (see below).
6. If a specific version was requested and doesn't match the current
   published version (or the package isn't published at all), check the
   CRAN Archive for that version (see below).
7. Report the result (see "Reporting Submission Status Results").

## CRAN Review Stages

Listed in typical pipeline order — a package usually moves top to bottom,
though not every package passes through every stage:

- `inspect` / `newbies`: awaiting initial manual inspection (`newbies` is for
  first-time submitters)
- `pending`: awaiting closer review
- `human/<initials>`: assigned to a CRAN reviewer
- `pretest`: automated checks (re)running
- `waiting`: CRAN is waiting for a maintainer response (loops back to
  `pretest` once the maintainer responds)
- `recheck`: reverse-dependency checks
- `publish`: approved and awaiting publication
- `archive`: rejected

## Checking Incoming Stage Folders

Replace `{package}` with the actual package name. Start at the last-known
stage if one exists (see Submission Status step 3), else at `inspect`:

```sh
for stage in inspect newbies pending pretest waiting recheck publish archive; do
  curl -Ls "https://cran.r-project.org/incoming/$stage/" |
    grep -Eio '[^"]*{package}[^"]*' &&
    echo "Stage: $stage" && break
  sleep 1
done
```

## Checking Reviewer-Assigned Folders

Reviewer-initials folders (e.g. `human/KH`) change as CRAN's team changes,
so discover them from the `incoming/` listing instead of a fixed set: any
folder there that isn't one of the stage names above is a reviewer folder.

```sh
reviewer_folders=$(
  curl -Ls "https://cran.r-project.org/incoming/" |
    grep -Eio '<a href="[^"]+/">' |
    sed -E 's/<a href="([^"]+)\/">/\1/' |
    grep -Ev '^(inspect|newbies|pending|pretest|publish|recheck|archive|waiting|special)$'
)

for stage in $reviewer_folders; do
  curl -Ls "https://cran.r-project.org/incoming/$stage/" |
    grep -Eio '[^"]*{package}[^"]*' &&
    echo "Stage: human/$stage" && break
  sleep 1
done
```

## Checking Whether the Package Is Already Published

```sh
curl -Ls https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/PACKAGES |
  awk -v pkg="{package}" '
    $0 == "Package: " pkg { found=1 }
    found && /^Version:/ { print; exit }
  '
```

A printed `Version:` line is the current CRAN version. Remember it — needed
later to say whether a requested older version was "superseded by" it.

## Checking a Specific Version in the CRAN Archive

Superseded versions move out of `src/contrib/` into a per-package archive

From posit-dev/skills, MIT.

More from posit-dev/skills