[R] downloaf.file

[ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk]

Essentially no.  Most servers will give you the length if you start the 
download, and then R prints it out, but it may be "unknown".  As in
> update.packages()
trying URL `http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/PACKAGES'
Content type `text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1' length 95407 bytes
opened URL
.......... .......... .......... .......... ..........
.......... .......... .......... .......... ...
downloaded 93Kb

and you can (probably) interrupt during those dots.

On Tue, 4 Feb 2003, Adelchi Azzalini wrote:

> to download a file from the net, the function download.file(..)
> does the job.  However, before embarking on the download, I would
> like to find out how large the file is.  Is there a way to know it?
> 
> Most easily, this question has been asked before, but I am new to 
> the list.

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595