From rgentlem at fhcrc.org  Fri Jul 28 21:12:32 2006
From: rgentlem at fhcrc.org (Robert Gentleman)
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 12:12:32 -0700
Subject: [Rd] [R] HTTP User-Agent header
In-Reply-To: <88a2333a0607281022i825d415l2840e47697a859fa@mail.gmail.com>
References: <88a2333a0607280656r7f5b6e64ve6d03dd215433df2@mail.gmail.com>	<Pine.LNX.4.64.0607281538020.20596@gannet.stats.ox.ac.uk>	<m2u051k7c7.fsf@ziti.fhcrc.org>
	<88a2333a0607281022i825d415l2840e47697a859fa@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <44CA61A0.7090804@fhcrc.org>

I wonder if it would not be better to make the user agent string 
something that is configurable (at the time R is built) rather than at 
run time. This would make Seth's patch about 1% as long. Or this could 
be handled as an option. The patches are pretty extensive and allow for 
setting the agent header by setting parameters in function calls (eg 
download.files). I am not sure there is a good use case for that level 
of flexibility and the additional code is substantial.


The issue that I think arises is that there are potentially other 
systems that will be unhappy with R's identification of itself and so 
some users may also need to turn it off.

Any strong opinions?



James P. Howard, II wrote:
> On 7/28/06, Seth Falcon <sfalcon at fhcrc.org> wrote:
> 
>> I have a rough draft patch, see below, that adds a User-Agent header
>> to HTTP requests made in R via download.file.  If there is interest, I
>> will polish it.
> 
> It looks right, but I am running under Windows without a compiler.
> 

-- 
Robert Gentleman, PhD
Program in Computational Biology
Division of Public Health Sciences
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
1100 Fairview Ave. N, M2-B876
PO Box 19024
Seattle, Washington 98109-1024
206-667-7700
rgentlem at fhcrc.org



[Rd] [R] HTTP User-Agent header
Robert Gentleman