R/checkRVersion.R

In gtools: Various R Programming Tools

#' Check if a newer version of R is available
#'
#' Check if a newer version of R is available
#'
#' This function accesses the R web site to discover the latest released
#' version of R.  It then compares this version to the running version.  If the
#' running version is the same as the latest version, it prints the message,
#' "The latest version of R is installed:" followed by the version number, and
#' returns NULL.  If the running version is older than the current version, it
#' displays the message, "A newer version of R is now available:" followed by
#' the corresponding version number, and returns the version number.
#'
#' If \code{quiet=TRUE}, no printing is performed.
#'
#' @param quiet Logical indicating whether printed output should be suppressed.
#' @return Either the version number of the latest version of R, if the running
#' version is less than the latest version, or NULL.
#' @note This function uses the internet to access the R project web site.
#' If internet access is unavailable or the R project web site is down, the function will fail.
#' @author Gregory R. Warnes
#' @seealso \code{\link[base]{R.Version}}
#' @keywords utilities
#' @examples
#'
#' try(
#'    ver <- checkRVersion()
#' )
#' print(ver)
#' @export
checkRVersion <- function(quiet = FALSE) {

  cran_page <- tryCatch(
      suppressWarnings(scan(
          file = "https://cran.r-project.org/src/base/R-4",
          what = "", quiet = TRUE)),
      error = function(cond) {
          stop("Your internet connection is not working (or CRAN is down)")
      }
  )

  matches <- grep("R-[0-9]\\.[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+", cran_page, value = TRUE)
  versionList <- gsub("^.*R-([0-9].[0-9]+.[0-9]+).*$", "\\1", matches)
  versionList <- numeric_version(versionList)
  if (max(versionList) > getRversion()) {
    if (!quiet) {
      cat("A newer version of R is now available: ")
      cat(as.character(max(versionList)))
      cat("\n")
    }
    invisible(max(versionList))
  }
  else {
    if (!quiet) {
      cat("The latest version of R is installed: ")
      cat(as.character(max(versionList)))
      cat("\n")
    }
    invisible(NULL)
  }
}