[Rd] download.file does not process gz files correctly (truncates them?)

[Jeroen Ooms]

On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 2:42 PM, Henrik Bengtsson
<henrik.bengtsson at gmail.com> wrote:
> Use mode="wb" when you download the file. See
> https://github.com/HenrikBengtsson/Wishlist-for-R/issues/30.
>
> R core, and others, is there a good argument for why we are not making this
> the default download mode? It seems like a such a simple fix to such a
> common "mistake".

I'd like to second this feature request. This default behaviour is
unexpected and often leads to r scripts that were written on
mac/linux, to produce corrupted files on windows, checksum mismatches,
etc.

Even for text files, the default should be to download the file as-is.
Trying to "fix" line-endings should be opt-in, never the default.
Downloading a file via a browser or ftp client on windows also doesn't
change the file, why should R?


On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 3:02 PM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at gmail.com> wrote:
> Many downloads are text files (HTML, CSV, etc.), and if those are downloaded
> in binary, a Windows user might end up with a file that Notepad can't
> handle, because it would have Unix-style line endings.

True but I don't think this is relevant. The same holds e.g. for the R
files in source packages, which also have unix line endings. Most
Windows users will use an actual editor that understands both types of
line endings, or can convert between the two.

Downloading-file should do just that.