Updating packages via R-update-package is brocken

[paulkitt]

When updating packages via the role the 'R-update-package' results in this error:

failed: [... (item={'name': 'psych', 'type': 'cran', 'state': 'updated'}) => changed=false 
  ansible_loop_var: item
  cmd:
  - /usr/local/bin/R-update-package
  - psych
  - cran
  - /usr/local/lib/R/site-library
  delta: '0:00:01.354098'
  end: '2024-04-02 11:24:04.696954'
  item:
    name: psych
    state: updated
    type: cran
  msg: non-zero return code
  rc: 1
  start: '2024-04-02 11:24:03.342856'
  stderr: |-
    Error in download.file(url = paste0(repos, "/PACKAGES.rds"), destfile = dest,  :
      downloaded length 0 != reported length 0
    Calls: withCallingHandlers ... tryCatchList -> tryCatchOne -> doTryCatch -> download.file
    Execution halted
  stderr_lines: <omitted>
  stdout: ''
  stdout_lines: <omitted>

I tried to use the R update script directly resulting in the same problem:

./R-update-package psych cran /usr/local/lib/R/site-library 
Error in download.file(url = paste0(repos, "/PACKAGES.rds"), destfile = dest,  : 
  downloaded length 0 != reported length 0
Calls: withCallingHandlers ... tryCatchList -> tryCatchOne -> doTryCatch -> download.file
Execution halted