versions-package: versions: Query and Install Specific Versions of Packages on...
In goldingn/versions: Query and Install Specific Versions of Packages on CRAN

Installs specified versions of R packages hosted on CRAN and provides functions to list available versions and the versions of currently installed packages. These tools can be used to help make R projects and packages more reproducible. versions fits in the narrow gap between the devtools install_version function and the checkpoint package.

devtools::install_version installs a stated package version from source files stored on the CRAN archives. However CRAN does not store binary versions of packages so Windows users need to have RTools installed and Windows and OSX users get longer installation times.

checkpoint uses the Revolution Analytics MRAN server to install packages (from source or binary) as they were available on a given date. It also provides a helpful interface to detect the packages in use in a directory and install all of those packages for a given date. checkpoint doesn't provide install.packages-like functionality however, and that's what versions aims to do, by querying MRAN.

As MRAN only goes back to 2014-09-17, versions can't install packages from before this date.

The available functions are:

available.versions
install.versions
install.dates
installed.versions

The URL for MRAN may change from time to time. As of versions 0.4, the URL is https://cran.microsoft.com/snapshot, and this is what the package uses. If the MRAN server URL changes before versions can be updated, users can point versions to the new URL via the option 'versions.mran'. Ie. options(versions.mran = "<some/new/url>")

## Not run: 

# list the available versions of checkpoint
available.versions('checkpoint')

# install a specific version
install.versions('checkpoint', '0.3.9')

# check the installed version
installed.versions('versions')

# install checkpoint as of a specific date
install.dates('checkpoint', '2014-12-25')


## End(Not run)