reading csv files over ssl with R

No need to write it to a file - just use textConnection()

require(RCurl)myCsv <- getURL("https://gist.github.com/raw/667867/c47ec2d72801cfd84c6320e1fe37055ffe600c87/test.csv")WhatJDwants <- read.csv(textConnection(myCsv))

Using Dirk's advice to explore method="" resulted in this slightly more concise approach which does not depend on the external RCurl package.

temporaryFile <- tempfile()download.file("https://gist.github.com/raw/667867/c47ec2d72801cfd84c6320e1fe37055ffe600c87/test.csv",destfile=temporaryFile, method="curl")read.csv(temporaryFile)

But it appears that I can't just set options("download.file.method"="curl")

Yes -- see help(download.file) which is pointed to by read.csv() and all its cousins. The method= argument there has:

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

and you then use this option to options():

download.file.method: Method to be used for download.file. Currently download methods "internal", "wget" and "lynx" are available. There is no default for this option, when method = "auto" is chosen: see download.file.

to turn to the external program curl, rather than the RCurl package.

Edit: Looks like I was half-right and half-wrong. read.csv() et al do not use the selected method, one needs to manually employ download.file() (which then uses curl or other selected methods). Other functions that do use download.file() (such as package installation or updates) will profit from setting the option, but for JD's initial query concerning csv files over https, an explicit download.file() is needed before read.csv() of the downloaded file.