R help - Oct 2007 - R-2.6.0 - packages installation through a proxy - not working

Hello everyone,

I run R on Gentoo Linux and this week I upgraded R from 2.5.0 to
2.6.0. With the new build, I have stumbled upon an unpleasant problem:
I can no longer install packages from CRAN through a transparent
proxy. With the previous version, I simply added to
/usr/lib/R/etc/Renviron the following line and it functioned like a
charm:
## Proxy settings
http_proxy="SERVER:3128"

With 2.6.0, however, R refuses to connect to the CRAN mirror. I have
added to the new Renviron even more lines (useless, probably). Now the
Proxy settings look like this:
## Proxy settings
http_proxy="SERVER:3128"
https_proxy="SERVER:3128"
ftp_proxy="SERVER:3128"

I also tried - with no luck - to use the following command at the
start of the R session:
Sys.setenv(http_proxy="SERVER:3128")

I get the following error message:
> install.packages("Rcmdr", dependencies=TRUE)
--- Please select a CRAN mirror for use in this session ---
Error in open.connection(file, "r") : unable to open connection
In addition: Warning message:
In open.connection(file, "r") :
  unable to connect to 'cran.r-project.org' on port 80.
Loading Tcl/Tk interface ... done
Warning: unable to access index for repository
http://cran.stat.unipd.it/src/contrib
Warning message:
In install.packages("Rcmdr", dependencies = TRUE) :
  package 'Rcmdr' is not available


So, is this a bug in R-2.6.0 or did anything change in the way these
settings are handled?

Regards,
Liviu

Liviu Andronic wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I run R on Gentoo Linux and this week I upgraded R from 2.5.0 to
> 2.6.0. With the new build, I have stumbled upon an unpleasant problem:
> I can no longer install packages from CRAN through a transparent
> proxy. With the previous version, I simply added to
I always change the variables in the terminal window before I start R, i.e.

export http_proxy=SERVER:3128
export ftp_proxy=SERVER:3128

and then start R - I did it this morning, and it worked.
> /usr/lib/R/etc/Renviron the following line and it functioned like a
> charm:
> ## Proxy settings
> http_proxy="SERVER:3128"
> 
> With 2.6.0, however, R refuses to connect to the CRAN mirror. I have
> added to the new Renviron even more lines (useless, probably). Now the
> Proxy settings look like this:
> ## Proxy settings
> http_proxy="SERVER:3128"
> https_proxy="SERVER:3128"
> ftp_proxy="SERVER:3128"
> 
> I also tried - with no luck - to use the following command at the
> start of the R session:
> Sys.setenv(http_proxy="SERVER:3128")
> 
> I get the following error message:
>> install.packages("Rcmdr", dependencies=TRUE)
> --- Please select a CRAN mirror for use in this session ---
> Error in open.connection(file, "r") : unable to open connection
> In addition: Warning message:
> In open.connection(file, "r") :
>   unable to connect to 'cran.r-project.org' on port 80.
> Loading Tcl/Tk interface ... done
> Warning: unable to access index for repository
> http://cran.stat.unipd.it/src/contrib
> Warning message:
> In install.packages("Rcmdr", dependencies = TRUE) :
>   package 'Rcmdr' is not available
> 
> 
> So, is this a bug in R-2.6.0 or did anything change in the way these
> settings are handled?
> 
> Regards,
> Liviu
> 
> ______________________________________________
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> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
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On 10/16/07, Rainer M. Krug <Rainer at krugs.de>
wrote:
> I always change the variables in the terminal window before I start R, i.e.
>
> export http_proxy=SERVER:3128
> export ftp_proxy=SERVER:3128
>
> and then start R - I did it this morning, and it worked.
I always start up Gentoo with these variables set system wide:

localhost m1_1sem # env | grep -i proxy
http_proxy=SERVER:3128
ftp_proxy=SERVER:3128
rsync_proxy=SERVER:3128
https_proxy=SERVER:3128

However, R seems to ignore them. I always had to put the necessary
variables in Renviron. I have just tried your method, but it also
failed. I double-checked the proxy server name, so I doubt the problem
is there.

There must be something else that blocks R from accessing the Internet.

Regards,
Liviu

On 10/17/07, Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd at debian.org>
wrote:
> Hmm, I haven't had to do that in a while. What happens if you do
>
>         > update.packages(method="wget")
>
> ie use an explicit setting of method?
This exact way of manually specifying the method within the command
(as opposed to setting it in Rprofile.site) is working. I used it
successfully with install. and update.packages().

Liviu