Professor Ripley and Brian Rowe, Thank you both for your helpful suggestions. I was unable to solve this problem. Apparently there is a passive FTP server that is not supported by R. I'll have to find another programming language, perhaps IDL, that can do this. Manually retrieving the hundreds of files I need is not an option. thank you again for your attempts to help me. Best regards, Zack
> Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:37:43 +0000 > From: rip...@stats.ox.ac.uk > To: zack_hol...@hotmail.com > CC: r-help@r-project.org > Subject: Re: [R] problems with download.file() from ftp? > > First, try the example in the test file (tests/internet.R) > > read.table("ftp://ftp.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/datasets/csb/ch11b.dat") > > or > > download.file("ftp://ftp.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/datasets/csb/ch11b.dat", > "test" > > That is known to work on many, many R systems. > > I get the same error as you on that URL, but it looks to me that the > site required PASV ftp, something R's download.file does not support. > From the detailed logs (options(internet.info=0) > > <<< > 230--------------------------------------------------------- > 230- Welcome To The > 230- Natural Resources Conservation Service - USDA > 230- NATIONAL WATER and CLIMATE CENTER > 230--------------------------------------------------------- > 230- > 230- The Local Date and Time is Mon Jan 12 08:30:25 2009 > 230- Current Directory is / > 230- Information Contact is: i...@wcc.nrcs.usda.gov > 230- ----------------------------------------------------------- > 230- Note that data files herein are at most updated once an hour. > 230- > 230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply. > > -- > 19: In download.file(url, dest) : > --- > > -- > 20: In download.file(url, dest) : Got 230 > 21: In download.file(url, dest) : Invalid answer to PASV > > Since you are on Windows, using --internet2 (see the rw-FAQ) might > work. > > On Mon, 12 Jan 2009, zack holden wrote: > >> >> Dear list, >> >> I am trying to download a text file from an ftp site using download.file(). >> >> I used the following code: >> url <- >> "ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/data/snow/snow_course/table/history/idaho/13e19.txt" >> dest <- "c:/test/downloadtest.txt" >> download.file(url, dest) >> I get this error message, indicating that R is unable to open the connection: >> trying URL >> 'ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/data/snow/snow_course/table/history/idaho/13e19.txt' >> Error in download.file(url, dest) : >> cannot open URL >> 'ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/data/snow/snow_course/table/history/idaho/13e19.txt' >> >> I'm sure there is a simple solution that allows R to open this connection, >> but after reading the "url" help file for an hour, I can't seem to find the >> solution. Is anyone willing to help me solve this problem? >> >> thanks in advance for any advice, >> >> Zack > > -- > Brian D. Ripley, rip...@stats.ox.ac.uk > Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/ > University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self) > 1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA) > Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595 ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.