The default assumption is that R has access to the internet. For example, during startup, we might call foghorn to query the CRAN status of R packages we maintain. However, if there is no internet access (e.g. when being off the grid or running in airplane), such calls will fail - often with a long timeout period first.
Suggestion
Add a mechanism to skip startup scripts when there's no internet access. One idea is to introduce an environment variable
NO_INTERNET to be used in file names as:
Issue
The default assumption is that R has access to the internet. For example, during startup, we might call foghorn to query the CRAN status of R packages we maintain. However, if there is no internet access (e.g. when being off the grid or running in airplane), such calls will fail - often with a long timeout period first.
Suggestion
Add a mechanism to skip startup scripts when there's no internet access. One idea is to introduce an environment variable
NO_INTERNETto be used in file names as:This file will be skipped if, and only if:
NO_INTERNET=TRUEIt will be processed if:
NO_INTERNETis not definedNO_INTERNETis emptyNO_INTERNET=FALSENO_INTERNETis non-empty and not identical toTRUENO_INTERNET=trueNO_INTERNET=1NO_INTERNET=0Comment: It would be better if we could detect if an environment variable is defined or not, cf. Issue #89.