Find meta data for all packages on CRAN that match a given author and all packages contained in
a vector of github repositories and return as a tibble. Meta data on packages that are
both on CRAN and github will be combined into a single row. Where meta data clash, the
CRAN version is preferred when prefer_cran is TRUE, otherwise the github
version is preferred.
Usage
get_meta(
cran_authors = NULL,
include_downloads = FALSE,
start = "2000-01-01",
end = Sys.Date(),
cran_packages = NULL,
github_repos = NULL,
prefer_cran = TRUE
)Arguments
Character vector to find in CRAN author names
- include_downloads
Should total CRAN downloads since
startbe added to the tibble?- start
Start date for download statistics. Ignored if
include_downloadsisFALSE.- end
End date for download statistics. Ignored if
include_downloadsisFALSE.- cran_packages
Character vector of CRAN packages. Ignored if
cran_authorsis provided.- github_repos
Character vector of github repos
- prefer_cran
When a package is both on CRAN and github, which information should be preferenced?
Examples
get_meta(cran_authors = "Hyndman")
#> # A tibble: 51 × 9
#> package date title description version authors url cran_url
#> <chr> <date> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 bayesforecast 2025-06-05 "Bay… "Fit Bayes… 1.0.5 "Asael… http… https:/…
#> 2 bfast 2025-08-18 "Bre… "Decomposi… 1.7.1 "Jan V… http… https:/…
#> 3 binb 2024-07-06 "'bi… "A collect… 0.0.7 "Dirk … http… https:/…
#> 4 calcal 2025-07-22 "Cal… "An R impl… 1.0.0 "Rob H… http… https:/…
#> 5 conformalForecast 2025-10-06 "Con… "Methods a… 0.1.0 "Xiaoq… http… https:/…
#> 6 cricketdata 2025-03-25 "Int… "Data on i… 0.3.0 "Rob H… http… https:/…
#> 7 demography 2025-10-06 "For… "Functions… 2.0.1 "Rob H… http… https:/…
#> 8 DescTools 2025-03-28 "Too… "A collect… 0.99.60 "Andri… http… https:/…
#> 9 distributional 2024-09-17 "Vec… "Vectorise… 0.5.0 "Mitch… http… https:/…
#> 10 eechidna 2021-02-25 "Exp… "Data from… 1.4.1 "Jerem… http… https:/…
#> # ℹ 41 more rows
#> # ℹ 1 more variable: github_url <chr>
get_meta(github_repos = c("robjhyndman/forecast", "earowang/hts"))
#> # A tibble: 2 × 7
#> package date title version authors url github_url
#> <chr> <date> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 forecast 2025-12-16 Forecasting Functions fo… 8.24.0… "Rob H… http… https://g…
#> 2 hts 2024-12-24 Hierarchical and Grouped… 6.0.3 "Rob H… http… https://g…
get_meta(cran_authors = "Emi Tanaka", github_repos = c("numbats/yowie", "numbats/monash"))
#> # A tibble: 15 × 9
#> package date title description version authors url cran_url
#> <chr> <date> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 edibble 2024-05-06 "Enc… "A system … 1.1.1 "Emi T… http… https:/…
#> 2 emend 2025-04-01 "Cle… "Provides … 0.1.0 "Emi T… http… https:/…
#> 3 flipbookr 2021-05-31 "Par… "Flipbooks… 0.1.0 "Evang… http… https:/…
#> 4 gghdr 2022-10-27 "Vis… "Provides … 0.2.0 "Mitch… http… https:/…
#> 5 ggincerta 2025-11-11 "Ext… "Provide s… 0.1.0 "Xueqi… http… https:/…
#> 6 ggmatplot 2022-05-17 "Plo… "A quick a… 0.1.2 "Xuan … http… https:/…
#> 7 lme4 2025-12-02 "Lin… "Fit linea… 1.1-38 "Dougl… http… https:/…
#> 8 moodlequiz 2025-12-06 "R M… "Enables t… 0.2.0 "Mitch… http… https:/…
#> 9 nestr 2022-02-01 "Bui… "Facilitat… 0.1.2 "Emi T… http… https:/…
#> 10 predictNMB 2023-06-03 "Eva… "Estimates… 0.2.1 "Rex P… http… https:/…
#> 11 QuadratiK 2025-02-04 "Col… "It includ… 1.1.3 "Giova… http… https:/…
#> 12 shinycustomloader 2018-03-27 "Cus… "A custom … 0.9.0 "Emi T… http… https:/…
#> 13 xaringan 2025-08-18 "Pre… "Create HT… 0.31 "Yihui… http… https:/…
#> 14 monash 2025-09-25 "Con… NA 0.0.0.… "Emi T… http… NA
#> 15 yowie 2021-09-06 "Lon… "Longitudi… 0.1.0 "Dewi … http… https:/…
#> # ℹ 1 more variable: github_url <chr>