[Rd] download.file() on ftp URL fails in windows with default download method

Wed Aug 12 21:42:39 CEST 2015

We were also able to reproduce the issue on Windows Server 2012. If there's anything we can do to help please let me know; Elliot Waingold (CC'd here) can provide access to the VM we used for testing if that's of any help.

# David Smith

-- 
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-----Original Message-----
From: R-devel [mailto:r-devel-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Dan Tenenbaum
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2015 09:51
To: Uwe Ligges <ligges at statistik.tu-dortmund.de>
Cc: R-devel at r-project.org
Subject: Re: [Rd] download.file() on ftp URL fails in windows with default download method

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dan Tenenbaum" <dtenenba at fredhutch.org>
> To: "Uwe Ligges" <ligges at statistik.tu-dortmund.de>
> Cc: "R-devel at r-project.org" <r-devel at r-project.org>
> Sent: Saturday, August 8, 2015 4:02:54 PM
> Subject: Re: [Rd] download.file() on ftp URL fails in windows with 
> default download method
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Uwe Ligges" <ligges at statistik.tu-dortmund.de>
> > To: "Dan Tenenbaum" <dtenenba at fredhutch.org>, 
> > "R-devel at r-project.org" <r-devel at r-project.org>
> > Sent: Saturday, August 8, 2015 3:57:34 PM
> > Subject: Re: [Rd] download.file() on ftp URL fails in windows with 
> > default download method
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > On 08.08.2015 01:11, Dan Tenenbaum wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > >> url <-
> > >> "ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genomes/ASSEMBLY_REPORTS/All/GCF_000001405.13.assembly.txt"
> > >> download.file(url, tempfile())
> > > trying URL
> > > 'ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genomes/ASSEMBLY_REPORTS/All/GCF_000001405.13.assembly.txt'
> > > Error in download.file(url, tempfile()) :
> > >    cannot open URL
> > >    'ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genomes/ASSEMBLY_REPORTS/All/GCF_000001405.13.assembly.txt'
> > > In addition: Warning message:
> > > In download.file(url, tempfile()) : InternetOpenUrl failed: ''
> > >
> > > If I set method="curl" it works fine. This was on R-3.2.2-beta
> > > (sessionInfo() below) but I got the same results in R-3.2.1 and 
> > > R-devel.
> > >
> > > This does not happen on Windows Server 2008 but it happens on 
> > > Windows Server 2012.
> > 
> > 
> > Thanks for letting us know. The kot recent machine I checked with is 
> > Windows Server 2008 R2 and I have not got problems on those. Can 
> > someone else rerpoduce this on Windows Server 2012?
> > 
> 
> If you like I can give you temporary access (via remote desktop) to a 
> machine in the Amazon cloud.
> You can also download a Vagrant box here:
> 
> https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3a%2f%2fatlas
> .hashicorp.com%2fboxes%2fsearch%3futf8%3d%25E2%259C%2593%26sort%3d%26p
> rovider%3d%26q%3dwindows%2bserver%2b2012&data=01%7c01%7cdavidsmi%40mic
> rosoft.com%7ce6746faa79b6426c81a508d2a26d3d35%7c72f988bf86f141af91ab2d
> 7cd011db47%7c1&sdata=Z5pE32RJ7wEs4UBfRxXSDEqG6ESxFSFmHdFCU78kuaA%3d
> 

Just wanted to check in about this to see whether anyone else has been able to reproduce this, or if Uwe has, or if anyone needs help setting up a test environment either in the cloud or by using a VM (like with Vagrant). I would be more than happy to help. I can set up a temporary instance in the cloud that interested parties could access at no cost.

This issue looks like a showstopper for Bioconductor; we are in the process of moving our build system, and we were upgrading from Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2012 in the process, but this issue is going to affect a lot of packages if it is not resolved.

What I can say is that it does not seem like a firewall issue, as the download works fine if I specify method="curl"  (or libcurl) or paste the url into a browser, and I get the same results whether Windows Firewall is on or off.

My naive guess is that the InternetOpenUrl API has changed in between Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2012.

The offending call to this API seems to be at src/modules/internet/internet.c:#908 (in the R-3.2 branch; I did try R-devel as of r68987 and it still has this problem).

I am really hoping something can be done about this before the release of R-3.2.2.

Thanks!
Dan

> Dan
> 
> 
> 
> > Best,
> > Uwe Ligges
> > 
> > >
> > > Dan
> > >
> > >> sessionInfo()
> > > R version 3.2.2 beta (2015-08-05 r68859)
> > > Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit) Running under: Windows 
> > > Server 2012 x64 (build 9200)
> > >
> > > locale:
> > > [1] LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252 [2] 
> > > LC_CTYPE=English_United States.1252 [3] LC_MONETARY=English_United 
> > > States.1252 [4] LC_NUMERIC=C [5] LC_TIME=English_United 
> > > States.1252
> > >
> > > attached base packages:
> > > [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods
> > >   base
> > >
> > > ______________________________________________
> > > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list 
> > > https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3a%2f%2fs
> > > tat.ethz.ch%2fmailman%2flistinfo%2fr-devel&data=01%7c01%7cdavidsmi
> > > %40microsoft.com%7ce6746faa79b6426c81a508d2a26d3d35%7c72f988bf86f1
> > > 41af91ab2d7cd011db47%7c1&sdata=Xz86iq9HlmZoU5gRNgeGLx7hwoCSQVuBy9q
> > > bHPNebz8%3d
> > >
> >
> 
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