Install R packages not working

[gitmiguelribeiro]

I'm using R version 4.4.2 (2024-10-31 ucrt) -- "Pile of Leaves", and it works fine in Rstudio.

For some reason, I'm not able to install.packages or call them. I keep getting the error below:

install.packages('tidyverse')
Warning: unable to access index for repository https://cran.rstudio.com/src/contrib:
cannot open URL 'https://cran.rstudio.com/src/contrib/PACKAGES'
Warning: unable to access index for repository https://cran.rstudio.com/bin/windows/contrib/4.4:
cannot open URL 'https://cran.rstudio.com/bin/windows/contrib/4.4/PACKAGES'
Warning message:
package ‘tidyverse’ is not available for this version of R

A version of this package for your version of R might be available elsewhere,
see the ideas at
https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-patched/R-admin.html#Installing-packages

[jennybc]

What happens if you try to install tidyverse from outside of Positron? The above looks more like a ?hopefully temporary? glitch in the CRAN mirror than anything to do with Positron.

[gitmiguelribeiro]

Works normally. Using Rstudio I can install and load them.

[jennybc]

What do you get for getOption("repos") in the 2 scenarios (working, not working)?

[gitmiguelribeiro]

Not working scenario (Positron):

CRAN
"https://cran.rstudio.com/"
attr(,"IDE")
[1] TRUE

Working scenario (RStudio):
CRAN
"http://cran.rstudio.com/"
attr(,"RStudio")
[1] TRUE

[jennybc]

Is there any more context to this? For example, is renv or another environment management tool involved? Do you have an .Rprofile?

[jennybc]

One other line of inquiry is whether you're behind some sort of firewall or proxy and things are configured differently w.r.t. RStudio vs. Positron.

[gitmiguelribeiro]

Not really. I just installed Positron and it doesn't install any packages. Rstudio on the other hand install them normally, but I had to uncheck the Use secure download method for HTTP in order for it to work.
I have an .Rprofile with the following line only:
.libPaths("C:/Users/141640/AppData/Local/R/Rpackages")

[gitmiguelribeiro]

Found the solution in https://support.posit.co/hc/en-us/articles/206827897-Secure-Package-Downloads-for-R

I added the lines bellow in the .Rprofile and also run the in Positron console. Works fine now, thank you for your questions, they helped finding the answer.

options(download.file.method = "wininet")
options(repos = "https://cran.rstudio.com")

[jennybc]

Glad you're unstuck! I will emphasize that you want to be using https here (vs. disabling secure download). So your experience in RStudio raises an eyebrow.

I still find it rather peculiar that you needed to configure options in Positron 🤔