Dan,
R is using its own cross-platform code for HTTP/FTP connections and
relies on the usual http_proxy env variable. Hence your best bet is to
set http_proxy in .Rprofile as Kasper suggested.
Determining proxy settings from the preferences is very messy and
unreliable (due to PAC proxies), so the only alternative would be to
use Apple's CF network API for downloads. Given that it only adds
complexity (event loop issues etc.) with no obvious functional benefit
it is questionable whether it's worth the hassle.
Cheers,
Simon
On May 1, 2008, at 11:47 AM, Stranathan, Dan wrote:
Hello everyone
I have a R question for you. I am new to the wide world of all
things R and I am not a scientist or a programmer per se. I'm a
Systems Administrator trying to troubleshoot a network issue with R
- Specifically related to proxy servers.
Background:
My Institute has a Linus-based Squid proxy server that brokers all
http traffic through it. We have 2 versions of the proxy server. One
proxy server (used for 99% of our staff) requires the user to
manually type a password when prompted. Not all applications are
"smart" enough to understand a proxy can since it requires the 2-way
process of password negotiation, etc. Our 2nd Proxy server is
basically a "wide open door" to the Internet. Only certain managers
and the IT dept are allowed to use this proxy. It doesn't require a
password at all.
As you may know, the main way to configure proxy settings in OS X is
via the System Preferences (the Network Pane has a tab for proxy
settings). You can also configure these settings from the Terminal
via the networksetup and systemsetup commands too. Both ways achieve
the same result. You can also configure your shell session to be
"proxy-aware" using the UNIX http_proxy variable in
your .bash_profile (I describe this more below)
So far, both Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard) have worked
quite well with our proxy servers. In fact, all "proxy aware"
applications such as Safari, iTunes, WebDAV, etc work great (As long
as you know your password of course). Even the curl and wget
commands work from the Terminal with once the proper configurations
have been made.
My R Problem:
The GUI version of R 2.7.0 (and possibly earlier versions?) does not
work with our proxy server correctly. I have tried both of our proxy
servers (secure and open) and neither one will allow R to route out
to the Internet. Other apps like Safari, curl, etc have no problem
getting to the R update site (cran.r-project.org).
Certain command line tools will not honor the Mac OS X global proxy
settings. When this happens I usually just add an environmental
proxy setting with the "export http_proxy=<my proxy server>" to
my .bash_profile, etc and I can get around this problem quite
easily. I stumbled across this because the R command line tools (in
Terminal and X11) were not honoring the Mac OS X global proxy
settings at first, so I had to implement the setting I just
described. It works great now. But... I still cant get the R GUI app
to peacefully co-exist with my proxy servers, regardless of how I
configure the Mac OS X GUI system proxy or the shell environment.
Here is the error I get in the R GUI window:
Error in file(con, "r") : cannot open the connection
In addition: Warning message:
In file(con, "r") : unable to connect to 'cran.r-project.org' on
port 80.
If you can offer any suggestions I would greatly appreciate them!
Thanks!
-Dan
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