[R] Problem accessing help files

[Marc Schwartz]

On Feb 3, 2010, at 2:46 PM, Jonathan wrote:

> Hi; I posted this to the R-help last week, but there was no resolution..
> 
> Could anybody provide an idea, or alternatively direct me to another
> resource that might have ideas?
> --
> 
> I'm running R (ver. 2.10.1; installed as an administrator; running as an
> administrator) on Windows 7 64-bit, and R is having trouble accessing help
> files and browsing URL's:
> 
>> ?sum
> starting httpd help server ... done
> Error in shell.exec(url) :
>  access to 'http://127.0.0.1:12300/library/base/html/sum.html' denied
> 
> Also, this:
> 
>> browseURL("http://www.r-project.org")
> Error in shell.exec(url) : access to 'http://www.r-project.org' denied
> 
> 
> Any thoughts?  Thanks!
> 
> Regards,
> Jonathan


Typically that occurs if a proxy setting has been configured or your browser. Since R version 2.10.0, a local web server is installed to serve up dynamically generated help pages.

Depending upon whether you are using IE or perhaps Firefox, the details will vary, but you want to check the network settings for the browser and if needed, add an exception to the proxy configuration for 127.0.0.1, which is the loopback interface.

For IE 7/8, there is some information here:

  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Change-proxy-settings-in-Internet-Explorer

and for Firefox:

  http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Options+window+-+Advanced+panel#Network_tab

Beware of any line wrapping in the above URLs.

HTH,

Marc Schwartz