Advice on version control

[startz]

I have a two part question on version control.

1. Looking backwards: If you have old R code and know the date on which the code was run, is there a reasonable way to find the version of R and of packages that were likely current at the time the code was run?

2. Looking forward: Is there a way to embed code in a script which would make it easy for someone to re-run the code years later with the same R and package versions as used originally.

The context is for a small shop where the people writing code are not professional programmers. So something low cost and easy would be nice. But all advice appreciated.

[nirgrahamuk]

@startz

Looking backwards: If you have old R code and know the date on which the code was run, is there a reasonable way to find the version of R and of packages that were likely current at the time the code was run?

yes. you can look at the https://mran.microsoft.com/timemachine MRAN timemachine to see what the latest package version was on cran/mran at a point in time.

@startz

Looking forward: Is there a way to embed code in a script which would make it easy for someone to re-run the code years later with the same R and package versions as used originally.

yes. do your work witin rstudio projects and use renv package to record the versions used

Introduction to renv

Also, I recommend you leverage RStudio's ability to integrate with git and github to source control your projects.
https://r-bio.github.io/intro-git-rstudio/

[startz]

Really helpful @nirgrahamuk. Much appreciated.