[R] Problem with particular file in XML package?

[Keith Jewell]

The OP asked "Has anyone else had trouble with the XML package lately 
and if so, how did you resolve it?"

For what it's worth...

I failed to install XML using install() with the defaults; I can't 
remember the exact error message, something about access denied.

Downloading XML_3.98-1.1.zip with Internet Explorer 
<http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/contrib/3.2/XML_3.98-1.1.zip> 
gave a more informative error:
========================
Threat Source: http://cran.r-project.or...trib/3.2/XML_3.98-1.1.zip

The file requested could not be scanned by Sophos Anti-Virus. This means 
it could be encrypted or may contain errors that prevent full scanning. 
As a result, the file was blocked from downloading.
=====================
... so my access was blocked by our systems anti-virus.

Our IT people bypassed the anti-virus to download the zip from which I 
successfully installed.

I note that in the library as installed there is a file
    ...\XML\exampleData\dtd.zip
Double-clicking in Windows Explorer gives an error:
=========
Windows cannot open the folder. The Compressed (zipped) Folder ... is 
invalid.
=========

I speculate that Sophos Anti-Virus could not scan dtd.zip because it 
tried to open it as a zipped folder and failed. I don't know if it 
really is a zipped folder or if that's just its name :-O

This 2013 thread seems relevant 
https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-sig-mac/2013-November/010494.html


On 28/05/2015 07:38, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
> This really should have been sent to the package maintainer.  But that
> the zip file is corrupt has been reported several times, and does not
> block installation for anyone else, so your (plural) diagnosis is wrong.
>
> On 28/05/2015 03:56, Gen wrote:
>> I have been attempting to install the R devtools package at work.  The
>> version of R is 3.1.2 (Pumpkin Helmet).  However, the installation of
>> devtools fails because devtools depends on rversions which in turn
>> depends
>> upon the XML package (XML_3.98-1.1.tar.gz), and the XML package is not
>> importing correctly for us.
>>
>> One of our system administrators tried scanning through the files in the
>> XML package, and he said that the particular file:
>> /src/contrib/XML_3.98-1.1.tar.gz/XML/inst/exampleData/dtd.zip looks
>> corrupted.  The actual error message he received was: "Archive parsing
>> failed!  (Data is corrupted)."  For the record, I tried downloading an
>> older version of the XML package (XML_3.95-0.1.tar.gz) but that was also
>> without success -- this time there was a separate error message about not
>> being able to locate xml2-config.  (Perhaps XML_3.95-0.1.tar.gz is
>> just not
>> compatible with R version 3.1.2?)
>>
>> I tried browsing over to the "CRAN checks" link for the XML package and
>> noticed several red warning messages under the "Status" column -- not
>> sure
>> if that is typical?  Has anyone else had trouble with the XML package
>> lately and if so, how did you resolve it?  Would it be possible to remove
>> the potentially corrupted file and then re-upload the package source
>> XML_3.98-1.1.tar.gz to the CRAN webpage?  Thanks for your
>> help/suggestions!
>>
>>     [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>
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