R help - Mar 2007 - problem with installation of packages

I am having a peculiar problem with installation of packages. I am
trying to install the package "maptools". This is what I get.

install.packages("maptools",depend=T)
Warning in install.packages("maptools", depend = T) :
        argument 'lib' is missing: using /usr/local/lib/R/site-library
Warning: unable to access index for repository
http://cran.wustl.edu/src/contribdependency ''maptools'' is not
available

This is a machine running debian sarge. The http_proxy is correctly
set. I am able to download the package by using wget. I also tried
starting R with (R http_proxy-http://my-proxy/). That does not help
either.

I have R 2.4.1 on my debian system.

Will be grateful  for any help.

Vikas

This is an internet access problem (there is missing space in the message 
that has been corrected since 2.4.1)

The issue is
> Warning: unable to access index for repository
> http://cran.wustl.edu/src/contrib
That is an issue specific to your setup, but why is someone mailing from 
an Indian address using a mirror in the USA?  (Your signature is missing: 
please see the R posting guide.)

How do you _know_ 'The http_proxy is correctly set'?: no evidence is 
provided here and proxy problems remain the most likely cause.  You can 
debug your setup via options(internet.info=0), but we cannot do it for 
you.


On Tue, 27 Mar 2007, Vikas Rawal wrote:
> I am having a peculiar problem with installation of packages. I am
> trying to install the package "maptools". This is what I get.
>
> install.packages("maptools",depend=T)
> Warning in install.packages("maptools", depend = T) :
>        argument 'lib' is missing: using
/usr/local/lib/R/site-library
> Warning: unable to access index for repository
> http://cran.wustl.edu/src/contribdependency ''maptools'' is
not
> available
>
> This is a machine running debian sarge. The http_proxy is correctly
> set. I am able to download the package by using wget. I also tried
> starting R with (R http_proxy-http://my-proxy/). That does not help
> either.
As it is syntactically invalid, it will not.  Perhaps

$ http_proxy="http://my-proxy/" R

might help in bash or similar.
> I have R 2.4.1 on my debian system.
>
> Will be grateful  for any help.
>
> Vikas
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
-- 
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

Dear Professor Ripley,

Your diagnosis was absolutely right and I have been able to solve my
problem. I had looked up the archives and R Faq for similar problems
before posting, but they all pertained to windows. In fact you had
replied to the posts pointing to RW Faq. But these all pertained to
windows and the same issue is not discussed for some reason in Faq for
linux.
> That is an issue specific to your setup, but why is someone mailing
from 
> an Indian address using a mirror in the USA?  (Your signature is
missing: 
> please see the R posting guide.)
I used the USA mirror because the Indian mirrors do not show up in the
list that pops up. I have always wondered why. 
> How do you _know_ 'The http_proxy is correctly set'?: no evidence
is
> provided here and proxy problems remain the most likely cause.  You
can 
> debug your setup via options(internet.info=0), but we cannot do it for
> you.
What led me to believe the proxy was set correctly was that I was able
to download the packages using wget. My instinct was that wget and R
would both pick up the proxy settings from the same system variable.
There are obviously things about this part that I do not understand.
> >This is a machine running debian sarge. The http_proxy is correctly
> >set. I am able to download the package by using wget. I also tried
> >starting R with (R http_proxy-http://my-proxy/). That does not help
> >either.
> 
> As it is syntactically invalid, it will not.  Perhaps
> 
> $ http_proxy="http://my-proxy/" R
This indeed solved the problem. Thanks very much.

Vikas