Install R packages from github downloading master.zip

Question

I probably have some issues in my connectivity (some sort of blocks, I don't know) and I can't install directly form gitHub

> install_github("assertthat") Installing github repo(s) assertthat/master from hadley Installing assertthat.zip from https://github.com/hadley/assertthat/archive/master.zip 

I tried with lots of other packages, same result. However, I am able to download master.zip form the browser. Can you tell if it's possible install directly the .zip? thanks.

Answer 1

This answer is just a refined version of my comments. Essentially you can install packages using devtools by unzipping a local zipfile downloaded from github, and then running the install function

install("path/to/unzipped_pkg_zip_file")

The latest dev version of devtools contains an install_local utility function that makes it easy to work directly with local zip files.