[R] updating via CRAN and http

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

On Wed, Oct 08, 2003 at 04:25:13PM +0200, Arne.Muller at aventis.com wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> thanks for the tips on updating packages for 1.8.0. The updating is a real
> problem for me, since I've to do it sort of manually using my web-browser or
> wget. I'm behind a firewall that requires http/ftp authentification (username
> and passwd) for every request it sends to a server outside our intranet.
> Therefore all the nice tools for automatic updating (cran, cpan ...) don't
> for me (I've tried).

Please try to read the help pages, FAQ or mailing list archives. Trust me
that you are not the only corporate user around here. This question comes up
really frequently.

> I understand that the non-paranoid rest of the world can't be bothered, but
> is there any intenstion to include such authentification into the update
> procedures of R? I think for ftp it's kind of tricky, but at least for http
> the authentification seems to be straight forward.

Years ago a small patch of mine was integrated which allowed for wget as a
download methid.  Set e.g.

	options(download.file.method="wget")
	options(CRAN="http://cran.us.r-project.org")

in ~/.Rprofile. Get yourself a copy of wget, set it up with a suitable
~/.wgetrc as e.g. per

	http_proxy=http://some.where.on.the.intra.net:8080
	proxy=on
	proxy-user=abcdefgh
	proxy-passwd=XXXXXXXX

and make sure you change the file to read-only.  Test it with

        wget http://www.google.com
	
and if that works you will be fine for downloads within R too, including
package upgrades and normal http/ftp access as e.g. used by get.hist.quote()
in the tseries package.

This worked reliably for me in various environments, locations and operating
system, including several Win* variants.

Hth, Dirk

-- 
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                                                -- Groucho Marx