[R-SIG-Mac] Question Regarding R, Mac OS X, and Proxy Servers:

[Simon Urbanek]

Dan,

R is using its own cross-platform code for HTTP/FTP connections and  
relies on the usual http_proxy env variable. Hence your best bet is to  
set http_proxy in .Rprofile as Kasper suggested.

Determining proxy settings from the preferences is very messy and  
unreliable (due to PAC proxies), so the only alternative would be to  
use Apple's CF network API for downloads. Given that it only adds  
complexity (event loop issues etc.) with no obvious functional benefit  
it is questionable whether it's worth the hassle.

Cheers,
Simon


On May 1, 2008, at 11:47 AM, Stranathan, Dan wrote:

> Hello everyone
>
> I have a R question for you. I am new to the wide world of all  
> things R and I am not a scientist or a programmer per se. I'm a  
> Systems Administrator trying to troubleshoot a network issue with R  
> - Specifically related to proxy servers.
>
> Background:
> My Institute has a Linus-based Squid proxy server that brokers all  
> http traffic through it. We have 2 versions of the proxy server. One  
> proxy server (used for 99% of our staff) requires the user to  
> manually type a password when prompted. Not all applications are  
> "smart" enough to understand a proxy can since it requires the 2-way  
> process of password negotiation, etc. Our 2nd Proxy server is  
> basically a "wide open door" to the Internet. Only certain managers  
> and the IT dept are allowed to use this proxy. It doesn't require a  
> password at all.
>
> As you may know, the main way to configure proxy settings in OS X is  
> via the System Preferences (the Network Pane has a tab for proxy  
> settings). You can also configure these settings from the Terminal  
> via the networksetup and systemsetup commands too. Both ways achieve  
> the same result. You can also configure your shell session to be  
> "proxy-aware" using the UNIX http_proxy variable in  
> your .bash_profile (I describe this more below)
>
> So far, both Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard) have worked  
> quite well with our proxy servers. In fact, all "proxy aware"  
> applications such as Safari, iTunes, WebDAV, etc work great (As long  
> as you know your password of course). Even the curl and wget   
> commands work from the Terminal with once the proper configurations  
> have been made.
>
> My R Problem:
> The GUI version of R 2.7.0 (and possibly earlier versions?) does not  
> work with our proxy server correctly. I have tried both of our proxy  
> servers (secure and open) and neither one will allow R to route out  
> to the Internet. Other apps like Safari, curl, etc have no problem  
> getting to the R update site (cran.r-project.org).
>
> Certain command line tools will not honor the Mac OS X global proxy  
> settings. When this happens I usually just add an environmental  
> proxy setting with the "export http_proxy=<my proxy server>" to  
> my .bash_profile, etc and I can get around this problem quite  
> easily. I stumbled across this because the R command line tools (in  
> Terminal and X11) were not honoring the Mac OS X global proxy  
> settings at first, so I had to implement the setting I just  
> described. It works great now. But... I still cant get the R GUI app  
> to peacefully co-exist with my proxy servers, regardless of how I  
> configure the Mac OS X GUI system proxy or the shell environment.  
> Here is the error I get in the R GUI window:
>
> Error in file(con, "r") : cannot open the connection
> In addition: Warning message:
> In file(con, "r") : unable to connect to 'cran.r-project.org' on  
> port 80.
>>
>
>
>
> If you can offer any suggestions I would greatly appreciate them!
>
>
> Thanks!
>
> -Dan
>
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