[Rd] problem with normalizePath()

[Laviolette, Michael]

The packages "readxl" and "haven" (and possibly others) no longer access files on shared network drives. The problem appears to be in the normalizePath() function. The file can be read from a local drive or by functions that don't call normalizePath(). The error thrown is

Error: path[1]="\\Hzndhhsvf2/data/OCPH/EPI/BHSDM/Group/17.xls": The system cannot find the file specified

Here's my session:

library(readxl)
library(XLConnect)

# attempting to read file from network drive
df1 <- read_excel("//Hzndhhsvf2/data/OCPH/EPI/BHSDM/Group/17.xls")
# pathname is fully qualified, but error thrown as above

cat(normalizePath("//Hzndhhsvf2/data/OCPH/EPI/BHSDM/Group/17.xls"))
# throws same error

# reading same file with different function
df2 <- readWorksheetFromFile("//Hzndhhsvf2/data/OCPH/EPI/BHSDM/Group/17.xls", 1)
# completes successfully

# reading same file from local drive
df3 <- read_excel("C:/17.xls")
# completes successfully

sessionInfo()
R version 3.3.2 (2016-10-31)
Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)
Running under: Windows 7 x64 (build 7601) Service Pack 1

locale:
[1] LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252  LC_CTYPE=English_United States.1252
[3] LC_MONETARY=English_United States.1252 LC_NUMERIC=C
[5] LC_TIME=English_United States.1252

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base

other attached packages:
[1] readxl_0.1.1         dplyr_0.5.0          XLConnect_0.2-12
[4] XLConnectJars_0.2-12 ROracle_1.2-1        DBI_0.5-1

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] magrittr_1.5   R6_2.2.0       assertthat_0.1 tools_3.3.2    haven_1.0.0
[6] tibble_1.2     Rcpp_0.12.7    rJava_0.9-8

Please advise.
Thanks,

Michael Laviolette PhD MPH
Public Health Statistician
Bureau of Public Health Statistics and Informatics
New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services
29 Hazen Drive
Concord, NH 03301-6504
Phone: 603-271-5688
Fax: 603-271-7623
Email: Michael.Laviolette at dhhs.nh.gov



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