download.file              package:base              R Documentation

_D_o_w_n_l_o_a_d _F_i_l_e _f_r_o_m _t_h_e _I_n_t_e_r_n_e_t

_D_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n:

     This function can be used to download a file from the Internet
     either using a helper application such as `wget' or by making a
     direct socket connection.

_U_s_a_g_e:

     download.file(url, destfile, method = "auto", quiet=FALSE)

_A_r_g_u_m_e_n_t_s:

     url: A character string with the URL of a file to be downloaded.

destfile: A character string with the name where the downloaded file is
          saved.

  method: Tool to be used for downloading files.  Currently download
          methods `"auto"', `"wget"', `"lynx"'  `"cp"' and `"socket"'
          are available.  To use `"wget"' or `"lynx"' the executable
          must be installed on your system and in your path. To use
          `"socket"' the file must be on an `HTTP' server, in plain
          text, and your system must allow socket connections to be
          opened to that server.

   quiet: If `TRUE', suppress status messages from the download tool
          (if any).

_D_e_t_a_i_l_s:

     The function `download.file' can be used to download a single file
     as described by `url' from the internet and store it in
     `destfile'. It makes a system call to the tool given by `method',
     the respective program must be installed on your system and be in
     the search path for executables.  If method `"cp"' is used, then
     the `url' must start with `"file:"' and give the path to a local
     file. Method `"auto"' (the default) searches for available tools
     at runtime. The `url' must start with a type specification such as
     `"http://"', `"ftp://"' or `"file:"'.

_N_o_t_e:

     Cacheing proxies and firewalls may well not allow method
     `"socket"' socket to be used.

