r-cran-status · diff
v1.0 to v1.0
23 added, 15 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: r-cran-status
description: Look up an R package's live status on cran.r-project.org - submission/review state (queue, human review, waiting, archived, past version's fate) or R CMD check results (OK/NOTE/WARN/ERROR per platform). Use for "what's the CRAN status of X", "did X get accepted/rejected", "is X passing CRAN checks", "when was version Y archived".
metadata:
author: Garrick Aden-Buie (@gadenbuie)
version: "1.0"
license: MIT
---
# 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**.
- 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. Search the `incoming/` stage folders (see below).
- 4. Search the reviewer-assigned folders (see below).
- 5. If a specific version was requested and doesn't match the current
+ 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).
- 6. Report the result (see "Reporting Submission Status Results").
+ 7. Report the result (see "Reporting Submission Status Results").
## CRAN Review Stages
- - `inspect`: awaiting manual inspection
- - `newbies`: first-time submission inspection queue
+ 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
- - `waiting`: CRAN is waiting for a maintainer response
- - `pretest`: automated checks rerunning after a fix
- - `archive`: rejected
+ - `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:
+ 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 publish recheck waiting archive; do
+ 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: $stage" && break
sleep 1
done
```
## Checking Reviewer-Assigned Folders
- Reviewer-initials folders (e.g. `human/KH`) change over time as CRAN's team
- changes, so discover them dynamically from the `incoming/` directory listing
- rather than assuming a fixed set. Any folder in the listing that isn't one of
- the known stage names above is a reviewer-assigned folder:
+ Reviewer-initials folders (e.g. `human/KH`) change as CRAN's team changes,
+ so discover them from the `incoming/` listing instead of a fixed set: any
+ folder there that isn't one of the stage names above is a reviewer folder.
```sh
reviewer_folders=$(
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
folder. This `Archive` is unrelated to the `archive` `incoming/` stage above
(that means "rejected"; this means "an older version, since superseded").
```sh
curl -Ls "https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/{package}/" |
grep -Eio '[^"]*{package}_{version}\.tar\.gz[^"]*'
```
A matching `.tar.gz` filename means that exact version was published and has
since been superseded.
## Reporting Submission Status Results
- **No version requested:**
- Present in `PACKAGES`: report as published, with current version.
- Else found in an `incoming/` or reviewer folder: report the folder name
and meaning from the stage list above.
- Else: report it wasn't found in CRAN's submission queue or index.
- **Specific version requested:**
- Matches current version in `PACKAGES`: report as the current release.
- Else found in the CRAN Archive: report it was published and has been
superseded by the current version (from `PACKAGES`), e.g. "available in
the archive, superseded by v1.5.0".
- Else the package (any version) is found in an `incoming/` or reviewer
folder: report that stage, noting the requested version wasn't a past
release.
- Else: report the requested version wasn't found (current, archived, or
in-review).
## Check Results
CRAN publishes per-platform `R CMD check` results for every published
package at `https://cran.r-project.org/web/checks/check_results_{package}.html`.
WARN or ERROR results persisting more than ~2-4 weeks risk archival by CRAN.
Fetch and simplify the results table:
```sh
curl -Ls "https://cran.r-project.org/web/checks/check_results_{package}.html" |
grep '<tr> <td>' |
sed -E 's/<[^>]+>/ /g' |
awk '{print $1": "$NF}'
```
Prints one `flavor: STATUS` line per row, e.g.:
```
r-devel-linux-x86_64-debian-clang: OK
r-oldrel-windows-x86_64: ERROR
```
Status is `OK`, `NOTE`, `WARN`, or `ERROR`. For any non-`OK` flavor, full
failure output is further down the same page under "Check Details" — fetch
again without stripping tags and read the `<pre>`-formatted section after
the failing flavor's `Version:` / `Check:` / `Result:` lines.
A 404 means no CRAN check history — likely not currently published. Check
submission status instead.
### Reporting Check Results
- Every flavor `OK`: report the package passes checks on all platforms.
- Any flavor `NOTE`/`WARN`/`ERROR`: list affected flavors and status,
summarize failure reason(s) from "Check Details", and note that
persistent WARN/ERROR can lead to archival.
- Page 404s: report no check results exist; check/report submission status
instead.