[R] download.file() / install.packages() from a url with a username and password

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Thu, 30 Jun 2005, John Marsland wrote:

> I am trying to create a repository for my own packages as an easy way
> to auto install packages on a number of servers.
>
> Obviously, I am able to connect using install.packages() to CRAN
> without problems but when I specify my own repos I get an error:
>
> > install.packages(pkgs, repos="http://some.site.com")
> Warnings message:
> cannot open: HTTP status was '401 Authorisation Required'
>
> I get a similar message if I try to use download.file() on the
> PACKAGES file.
>
> I have tried the url in the form http://username:password@url.com.
>
> Any ideas?

You need to use a method which supports this form of access.

The basic internal method in R does not.
It is likely that --internet2 on Windows does.
method="wget" does.

Since the internal method can handle authentication on proxies, it would 
not be hard to add this based on the existing code - patches are welcome.

-- 
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