Sourcing R script over HTTPS

Question

Is there some way to source an R script from the web?

e.g. source(\'http://github.com/project/R/file.r\')

Reason: I currently have a project tha

Answer 1

Windows:

If Internet Explorer is configured to access the web using your organization's proxy, you can direct R to use these IE settings instead of the default R settings. This change can be made once by the following steps:

1. Save your work and close all R sessions you may have open.

2. Edit the following file. (Note: Your exact path will differ based on your R installation)

   C:\Program Files\R\R-2.15.2\etc\Rprofile.site

Open this "Rprofile.site" file in Notepad and add the following line on a new line at the end of the file:

utils::setInternet2(TRUE)

You may now open a new R session and retry your "source" command.

Linux alikes:

Use G. Grothendieck's suggestion. At the command prompt within R type:

source(pipe(paste("wget -O -", "https://github.com/enter/your/url/here.r")))

You may get an error saying:

cannot verify certificate - - - - Self-signed certificate encountered.

At this point it is up to you to decide whether you trust the person issuing the self-signed certificate and proceed or to stop.

If you decide to proceed, you can connect insecurely as follows:

source(pipe(paste("wget -O -", "https://github.com/enter/your/url.r", "--no-check-certificate")))

---

For more details, see the following:

See section 2.19

• CRAN R Documentation 2.19
• wget documentation section 2.8 for "no-check-certificate"

Similar questions here:

• Stackoverflow setInternet2 discussion
• Stackoverflow Proxy configuration discussion