diff --git a/r-base/check.R b/r-base/check.R
index 2760be3..690bc43 100755
--- a/r-base/check.R
+++ b/r-base/check.R
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 source("/includes/validate-settings.R")
 source("/includes/register-dependencies.R")
+source("/includes/parse-args.R")
 
 suppressPackageStartupMessages(stopifnot(require(devtools)))
 suppressPackageStartupMessages(stopifnot(require(roxygen2)))
@@ -17,9 +18,18 @@ if (!file.exists("DESCRIPTION")) {
   stop("Can't do check: not a package\n")
 }
 
-cat("Looks like a package...\n"); Sys.sleep(1)
+cat("Looks like a package...\n")
+Sys.sleep(1)
 devtools::install(PKG, dependencies = TRUE)
-res <- devtools::check(PKG, error_on = "never")
+cat(
+  "Starting package checks on",
+  PKG,
+  "with cran option set to",
+  cran_arg,
+  "...\n"
+)
+Sys.sleep(1)
+res <- devtools::check(PKG, cran = cran_arg, error_on = "never")
 
 LIB$errors$check(res)
 LIB$warnings$check(res)
diff --git a/r-base/parse-args.R b/r-base/parse-args.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4fae493
--- /dev/null
+++ b/r-base/parse-args.R
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+# parse command line arguments
+parse_args <- function(args) {
+  arg_list <- list()
+  for (arg in args) {
+    if (grepl("^--", arg)) {
+      arg_name_value <- sub("^--", "", arg)
+      if (grepl("=", arg_name_value)) {
+        splits <- strsplit(arg_name_value, "=")[[1]]
+        arg_list[[splits[1]]] <- splits[2]
+      } else {
+        arg_list[[arg_name_value]] <- TRUE
+      }
+    }
+  }
+  return(arg_list)
+}
+
+usage <- function() {
+  cat("Usage: check [--cran=TRUE|FALSE]\n")
+}
+
+# set default value
+cran_arg <- TRUE
+
+args <- commandArgs(trailingOnly = TRUE)
+arg_list <- parse_args(args)
+
+# check command line argument
+if (length(args) > 0 && !is.null(arg_list$cran)) {
+  cran_arg <- as.logical(arg_list$cran)
+} elseif (length(args) > 0) {
+  usage_message()
+  quit(status = 1)
+}