% File src/library/utils/man/download.file.Rd
% Part of the R package, http://www.R-project.org
% Copyright 1995-2010 R Core Development Team
% Distributed under GPL 2 or later

\name{download.file}
\alias{download.file}
\concept{proxy}
\concept{ftp}
\concept{http}
\title{Download File from the Internet}
\description{
  This function can be used to download a file from the Internet.
}
\usage{
download.file(url, destfile, method, quiet = FALSE, mode = "w",
              cacheOK = TRUE)
}
\arguments{
  \item{url}{A character string naming the URL of a resource to be
    downloaded.}

  \item{destfile}{A character string with the name where the downloaded
    file is saved.  Tilde-expansion is performed.}

  \item{method}{Method to be used for downloading files.  Currently
    download methods \code{"internal"}, \code{"wget"}, \code{"curl"}
    and \code{"lynx"} are available, and there is a value \code{"auto"}: see
    \sQuote{Details}.  The method can also be set through the option
    \code{"download.file.method"}: see \code{\link{options}()}.}

  \item{quiet}{If \code{TRUE}, suppress status messages (if any), and
    the progress bar.}

  \item{mode}{character.  The mode with which to write the file. Useful
    values are \code{"w"}, \code{"wb"} (binary), \code{"a"} (append) and
    \code{"ab"}.  Only used for the \code{"internal"} method.
#ifdef windows
    (See also \sQuote{Details}.)
#endif
  }

  \item{cacheOK}{logical.  Is a server-side cached value acceptable?
    Implemented for the \code{"internal"} and \code{"wget"} methods.}
}
\details{
  The function \code{download.file} can be used to download a single
  file as described by \code{url} from the internet and store it in
  \code{destfile}.
  The \code{url} must start with a scheme such as
  \samp{http://}, \samp{ftp://} or \samp{file://}.

#ifdef unix
  If \code{method = "auto"} is chosen (the default), the internal method
  is chosen for \samp{file://} URLs, and for the others provided
  \code{\link{capabilities}("http/ftp")} is true (which it almost always
  is).  Otherwise methods \code{"wget"}, \code{"curl"} and \code{"lynx"}
  are tried in turn.
#endif
#ifdef windows
  If \code{method = "auto"} is chosen (the default), the internal method
  is used on Windows.
#endif

  \code{cacheOK = FALSE} is useful for \samp{http://} URLs, and will
  attempt to get a copy directly from the site rather than from an
  intermediate cache.  (Not all platforms support it.)
  It is used by \code{\link{available.packages}}.

  The remaining details apply to method \code{"internal"} only.

  Note that \samp{https://} URLs are
#ifdef unix
  not supported.
#endif
#ifdef windows
  only supported if \option{--internet2} or
  \code{\link{setInternet2}(TRUE)} was used (to make use of Internet
  Explorer internals), and then only if the certificate is considered to
  be valid.
#endif

  See \code{\link{url}} for how \samp{file://} URLs are interpreted,
  especially on Windows.  This function does decode encoded URLs.

  The timeout for many parts of the transfer can be set by the option
  \code{timeout} which defaults to 60 seconds.

  The level of detail provided during transfer can be set by the
  \code{quiet} argument and the \code{internet.info} option.  The
  details depend on the platform and scheme, but setting
  \code{internet.info} to 0 gives all available details, including
  all server responses. Using 2 (the default) gives only serious
  messages, and 3 or more suppresses all messages.

#ifdef windows
  A progress bar tracks the transfer.  If the file length is known, the
  full width of the bar is the known length.  Otherwise the initial
  width represents 100 Kbytes and is doubled whenever the current width
  is exceeded.

  If \code{mode} is not supplied and \code{url} ends in one of
  \code{.gz}, \code{.bz2}, \code{.tgz} or \code{.zip} a binary transfer
  is done.  Since Windows (unlike Unix-alikes) does distinguish between
  text and binary files, care is needed that other binary file types are
  transferred with \code{mode = "wb"}.

  There is an alternative method if you have Internet Explorer 4 or
  later installed.   You can use the command line flag \option{--internet2}, 
  or call \code{\link{setInternet2}(TRUE)} and then 
  the \sQuote{Internet Options} of the system are used to choose proxies
  and so on; these are set in the Control Panel and are those used for
  Internet Explorer.  That version does not support \code{cacheOK = FALSE}.
#endif
#ifdef unix
  A progress bar tracks the transfer.  If the file length is known, an
  equals sign represents 2\% of the transfer completed: otherwise a dot
  represents 10Kb.
#endif

  Method \code{"wget"} can be used with proxy firewalls which require
  user/password authentication if proper values are stored in the
  configuration file for \code{wget}.
}
\note{
  Methods \code{"wget"} and \code{"lynx"} are mainly for historical
  compatibility, but they and \code{"curl"} can be used for URLs
  (e.g. \samp{https://} URLs or those than use cookies) which the
  internal method does not support.  They will block all other activity
  on the \R process.

  For methods \code{"wget"}, \code{"curl"}and \code{"lynx"} a system
  call is made to the tool given by \code{method}, and the respective
  program must be installed on your system and be in the search path for
  executables.
}
\section{Setting Proxies}{
  This applies to the internal code only.

  Proxies can be specified via environment variables.
  Setting \env{"no_proxy"} to \code{"*"} stops any proxy being tried.
  Otherwise the setting of \env{"http_proxy"} or \env{"ftp_proxy"}
  (or failing that, the all upper-case version) is consulted and if
  non-empty used as a proxy site.  For FTP transfers, the username
  and password on the proxy can be specified by \env{"ftp_proxy_user"}
  and \env{"ftp_proxy_password"}.  The form of \env{"http_proxy"}
  should be \code{"http://proxy.dom.com/"} or
  \code{"http://proxy.dom.com:8080/"} where the port defaults to
  \code{80} and the trailing slash may be omitted. For
  \env{"ftp_proxy"} use the form \code{"ftp://proxy.dom.com:3128/"}
  where the default port is \code{21}.  These environment variables
  must be set before the download code is first used: they cannot be
  altered later by calling \code{\link{Sys.setenv}}.

  Usernames and passwords can be set for HTTP proxy transfers via
  environment variable \env{http_proxy_user} in the form
  \code{user:passwd}.  Alternatively, \env{http_proxy} can be of the
  form \code{"http://user:pass@proxy.dom.com:8080/"} for compatibility
  with \code{wget}.  Only the HTTP/1.0 basic authentication scheme is
  supported.
#ifdef windows
  Under Windows, if \env{http_proxy_user} is set to \code{"ask"} then
  a dialog box will come up for the user to enter the username and
  password.  \bold{NB:} you will be given only one opportunity to enter this,
  but if proxy authentication is required and fails there will be one
  further prompt per download.
#endif
}
\value{
  An (invisible) integer code, \code{0} for success and non-zero for
  failure.  For the \code{"wget"} and \code{"lynx"} methods this is the
  status code returned by the external program.  The \code{"internal"}
  method can return \code{1}, but will in most cases throw an error.
}
\seealso{
  \code{\link{options}} to set the \code{HTTPUserAgent}, \code{timeout}
  and \code{internet.info} options.

  \code{\link{url}} for a finer-grained way to read data from URLs.

  \code{\link{url.show}}, \code{\link{available.packages}},
  \code{\link{download.packages}} for applications.

  Contributed package \pkg{RCurl} provides more comprehensive facilities
  to download from URLs.
}
\keyword{utilities}
