[Rd] recent changes to r-devel with package date checking?

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

Hi Simon,

I put up bug report 19037 with the diff below. Now we can pass a timestamp
in, and if it in RFC 822 format, it gets transformed into ISO 8601 format.

Demo and diff below, hope it helps.

Cheers, Dirk

### Demo

Using anytime to create an RFC 822 date:

edd using paul:~/git/tidycpp(master)$ Rscript --vanilla -e 'cat(anytime::rfc2822(Sys.time()),"\n")' 
Sun, 29 Mar 2026 09:36:29 -0500 
edd using paul:~/git/tidycpp(master)$ 
edd using paul:~/git/tidycpp(master)$ RD CMD INSTALL --built-timestamp='Sun, 29 Mar 2026 09:36:29 -0500' . 
* installing to library ‘/usr/local/lib/R-devel/lib/R/library’
* installing *source* package ‘tidyCpp’ ...
** this is package ‘tidyCpp’ version ‘0.0.11’
** using staged installation
** inst
** help
*** installing help indices
** building package indices
** installing vignettes
** testing if installed package can be loaded from temporary location
** testing if installed package can be loaded from final location
** testing if installed package keeps a record of temporary installation path
* DONE (tidyCpp)
edd using paul:~/git/tidycpp(master)$ grep Built /usr/local/lib/R-devel/lib/R/library/tidyCpp/DESCRIPTION 
Built: R 4.7.0; ; 2026-03-29 14:36:29 UTC; unix
edd using paul:~/git/tidycpp(master)$ 

Or if we want one from a debian/changelog:

edd using paul:~/git/tidycpp(master)$ grep ' -- Dirk' ~/deb/r-base/debian/changelog | head -1
 -- Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd using debian.org>  Wed, 11 Mar 2026 07:09:46 -0500
edd using paul:~/git/tidycpp(master)$ 
edd using paul:~/git/tidycpp(master)$ RD CMD INSTALL --built-timestamp='Wed, 11 Mar 2026 07:09:46 -0500' . 
* installing to library ‘/usr/local/lib/R-devel/lib/R/library’
* installing *source* package ‘tidyCpp’ ...
** this is package ‘tidyCpp’ version ‘0.0.11’
** using staged installation
** inst
** help
*** installing help indices
** building package indices
** installing vignettes
** testing if installed package can be loaded from temporary location
** testing if installed package can be loaded from final location
** testing if installed package keeps a record of temporary installation path
* DONE (tidyCpp)
edd using paul:~/git/tidycpp(master)$ grep Built /usr/local/lib/R-devel/lib/R/library/tidyCpp/DESCRIPTION 
Built: R 4.7.0; ; 2026-03-11 12:09:46 UTC; unix
edd using paul:~/git/tidycpp(master)$ 


### Diff (also in bug report 19037)

edd using paul:~/git/tidycpp(master)$ cat /tmp/r/r-builtstamp-r89738.updated.diff 
Index: src/library/tools/R/admin.R
===================================================================
--- src/library/tools/R/admin.R (revision 89738)
+++ src/library/tools/R/admin.R (working copy)
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #  File src/library/tools/R/admin.R
 #  Part of the R package, https://www.R-project.org
 #
-#  Copyright (C) 1995-2025 The R Core Team
+#  Copyright (C) 1995-2026 The R Core Team
 #
 #  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 #  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
@@ -65,6 +65,12 @@
         ## Prefer date in ISO 8601 format, UTC, avoid sub-seconds.
         builtStamp <- format(Sys.time(), "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S",
                              tz = "UTC", usetz = TRUE)
+    } else {
+        ## Debian may have passed a timestamp in RFC 822 format,
+        ## if it parses use it but as ISO 8601, UTC, no sub-seconds
+        if (!is.na(res <- strptime(builtStamp, "%a, %d %b %Y %T %z", tz="UTC")))
+            builtStamp <- format(res, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S",
+                                 tz = "UTC", usetz = TRUE)
     }
     Built <-
        paste0("R ",
edd using paul:~/git/tidycpp(master)$ 

-- 
dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd using debian.org