[R] `install.packages()` and https proxy with R 4.5

[Lukas Schneiderbauer]

Hi all,

I work from a Windows 11 environment behind a firewall, and I require proxy
settings to reach the (private) R package repository I work with.
Using R 4.4 I used to set the environment variable "https_proxy" which led
to e.g. "install.packages()" to work just fine.

I recently upgraded vom R version 4.4.2 to 4.5.1, and I find that the proxy
settings seem to be not respected anymore: I get an HTTP 401 error when
using `install.packages()`, while installing packages with the package
{pak} seems to work just fine. Switching the download method via the
install.packages argument `method` to "curl" also seems to do the trick
(although that seems to introduce other problems).
Could it be that the default method (libcurl as far as I know) lost the
ability to respect the "https_proxy" environment variable? I find the docs
of `install.packages()` and `download.file()` still suggest that this
should be working.

It seems to be that this is a bug in 4.5.1 but I wanted this mailing list's
opinion before opening a ticket or taking similar actions.

Best, Lukas

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