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httr

DEVOPS
Velocity0.0

User-friendly HTTP client for R with authentication and request configuration

github.com/r-lib/httr ↗

httr's last releases are housekeeping - the package now points users at httr2

maintenancesuccessionhttpdeprecationcran
◆Current state
httr is in wind-down. The last release with real feature work was 1.4.0 in 2018; everything since is test stabilization, CRAN-driven fixes, and unwinding a dependency on the httpbin service. Version 1.4.7 removed the vignette contents outright and redirects readers to httr2.
◆Where it's heading
This is a succession, not a decline. The maintainers are keeping httr installable and passing checks for the very large base of packages that depend on it, while all design work happens in httr2. The pattern across these six releases is unambiguous: nothing lands here unless CRAN, a test service, or a platform forced it.
◆Prediction
Expect continued patch releases driven only by CRAN checks and toolchain changes; the interesting HTTP work in R will keep landing in httr2.

◆Recent moves

  1. 2y ago

    Vignettes removed and redirected to httr2

    ⚡ SPARK

    The release where httr formally hands off: its vignette contents were removed and replaced with a pointer to httr2. The accompanying changes - upload seeking, and dropping the httpbin test service - are the kind of work you do to keep a package installable rather than to grow it.

    View source ↗
  2. 3y ago

    Stops using the httpbin service in examples and tests

    Test infrastructure only - examples and tests stop calling httpbin after that service became unreliable. No user-visible change, and a clear marker of a package being kept alive rather than developed.

    View source ↗
  3. 3y ago

    Out-of-band auth helper honors the rlang_interactive option

    An internal interactivity check in the out-of-band OAuth flow now respects the rlang_interactive global option, which matters only when you need to declare a session interactive enough for that flow.

    View source ↗
  4. 3y ago

    Fixes an intermittent test failure

    A single fix to an intermittent test failure - a release that exists to keep the package on CRAN, with nothing in it for users.

    View source ↗
  5. 6y ago

    parse_url() follows RFC3986 for scheme parsing

    parse_url() now defers to RFC3986 for scheme parsing, with somewhat more permissive syntax. It is the only user-visible behavior change in this stretch of maintenance releases.

    View source ↗
  6. 7y ago

    Drops the Windows CA bundle override so curl uses schannel

    Removing the default cainfo option on Windows lets curl use the native schannel backend, which stops the override from breaking custom trust certificates on corporate networks. The rest is error-message accuracy in http_status() and RETRY().

    View source ↗