This blog is updated daily.
A general description is here.
(Windows.) The DLLs ‘internet.dll’ and ‘internet2.dll’ have been merged. In this version it is safe to switch (repeatedly) between the internal and Windows internet functions within an R session.
The Windows internet functions are still selected by flag ‘--internet2’ or ‘setInternet2()’. This can be overridden for each ‘url()’ connection _via_ its new ‘method’ argument.
‘parent.env<-’ can no longer modify the parent of a locked namespace or namespace imports environment. Contributed by Karl Millar.
Work in progress on optional use of ‘libcurl’ (version 7.28.0 or later) for Internet access (including on Windows):
• ‘capabilities("libcurl")’ reports if this is available.
• ‘libcurlVersion()’ reports the version in use, and other details.
• ‘curlGetHeaders()’ retrieves the headers for ‘http://’, ‘https://’, ‘ftp://’ and ‘ftps://’ URLs: analysis of these headers can provide insights into the `existence' of a URL (it might for example be permanently redirected) and will be so used in ‘R CMD check’.
• ‘download.file()’ has a new built-in method ‘"libcurl"’ which should handle ‘https://’ and ‘ftps://’ URLs, follow redirections, and allows simultaneous downloads of multiple URLs.
• ‘url()’ has a new method ‘"libcurl"’.