[Rd] internet.R test hangs if http proxy needed (PR#3108)

[Prof Brian Ripley]

This is intended to be a test of the socket functions.  It should fail
within the time-out period, not hang.

On Mon, 26 May 2003 b.rowlingson at lancaster.ac.uk wrote:

> Full_Name: Barry Rowlingson
> Version: 1.7.0
> OS: RH8/Mandrake 9.1
> Submission from: (NULL) (194.80.32.8)
> 
> 
> internet.R in the tests directory hangs during 'make check' if an http proxy is
> needed for http access from the machine. This happens in the httpget function
> defined therein.
> 
> It tries to make a direct socket connection to port 80 of a remote machine, and
> if local network policy does not permit that, then the test can hang. 

Why does it hang?  Isn't that the bug that needs fixing?  Do the other
tests fail gracefully if no proxy is set?  (They all do the couple of
places I have tried them in very restricted setups.)

> A fix? Perhaps skip that test if Sys.getenv("http_proxy") is defined. Or rewrite
> httpget to use the proxy if defined.

There seem to be two possibilities:

a) make.socket is failing and hanging or

b) the local setup is listening on the port and not sending replies, or 
replies that cannot be parsed.

We need help, as to reproduce this needs some particular local setup and 
there have been no reports from anyone during the beta-test period for 
1.7.0, nor from previous versions.  (That makes me suspect it is rare 
local setup.)  Can you please debug this further.

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595