program_status: Report which dependency programs tidymedia can find

In tidymedia: Media File Preprocessing and Metadata for the 'tidyverse'

Report which dependency programs tidymedia can find

Description

program_status() looks for the four programs that the package uses: ffmpeg, ffprobe, ffplay and mediainfo. It returns a table with one row for each program. The row shows where the program is and which version it reports. The call does not install, write or change anything.

Usage

program_status()

Details

The call looks in the same places as find_ffmpeg(). First it looks on the PATH, then at a location saved by set_program(). For locations saved by versions before 0.2.0, see the section "Locations saved by earlier versions" in find_ffmpeg().

A program that is not installed and has no saved location gets NA in both columns. This case gives no warning, so four missing programs give one table and not four warnings.

A saved location that cannot be used still gives a warning. Without it, the NA would look like a program you never had. Each warning names the saved location or the file that holds it, so you can fix it. There are three cases:

• tidymedia_location_gone: no program is at the saved location now.

• tidymedia_location_not_executable: a file is there, and it cannot be run. Give it permission to execute, or save another copy. This case does not arise on Windows, which has no execute bit.

• tidymedia_location_unreadable: the file that stores the location does not hold exactly one location.

In all three cases, the row has NA in both columns. unset_program() forgets the location, and set_program() replaces it.

The version is what the program reports about itself. For ffmpeg, ffprobe and ffplay, it is the FFmpeg build number. For mediainfo, it is the MediaInfo library version.

Sometimes the call finds a program but cannot get its version. Then the row has a location and an NA version. This happens when the program call fails. It also happens when the time limit in options(tidymedia.timeout = ) stops it.

Value

A tibble with one row for each program and three columns:

• program, the name of the program.

• location, the path to the program, or NA.

• version, the version that the program reported, or NA.

See Also

find_ffmpeg() and the other ⁠find_*()⁠ functions to look up one program. set_program() to save the location of a program that is not on the PATH. unset_program() to forget a saved location.

Other program management functions: find_ffmpeg(), install_on_win(), set_program(), unset_program()

Examples

# One row per program; NA where the program was not found
program_status()

tidymedia documentation built on Oct. 11, 2026, 5:08 p.m.