R Hide internal objects in package from autocomplete

Question

I am developing a package in Rstudio and I am trying to save object as internal to the package so that the user cannot see it. I make a default package project in Rstudio called "testpackage" and then execute:

library(devtools)
test.hidden.object <- 1:5
use_data(test.hidden.object,internal = T,overwrite = T)

Then I build the package, which saves it to my library. Then I restart Rstudio, and execute:

library(testpackage)
test.hidden.object

It prints out: [1] 1 2 3 4 5

The environment is empty, executing:

ls()

prints out "character(0)"

From what I understand, it is not possible to hide an object in a package from the user if the user knows the name of object, and I don't want to do that. But what worries me is that the autocomplete functionally is able to find these objects.

In both Rstudio and the R console, if I load the package and then type "test.hid" and then press TAB I can see the object "test.hidden.object" as an option. Should autocomplete be able to reveal internal objects? Am I building the package incorrectly?

To fix this problem I have so far updated R, Rstudio, devtools, and I have manually created the sysdata.rda file myself instead of using "use_data", but each time I am able to see the internal objects with autocomplete.

Use a prefixed period: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41553480/declare-variable-with-a-dot-at-the-begining-in-r/41554044#41554044 — HFBrowning, Aug 04 '17 at 22:12
Yup - there's no mechanism to be more restrictive. `R` ain't `Java` ;D — HFBrowning, Aug 04 '17 at 22:17
@user2554330 Oh, sure - and I will cop to being woefully unfamiliar with the ins and outs of `devtools`. I don't think I quite interpreted the question the most helpful way - nice work figuring out the real problem! — HFBrowning, Aug 07 '17 at 22:29

user2554330 · Accepted Answer · 2017-08-09T15:14:31.720

I think you are mistaken in your description. Autocompletion in RStudio and other R front ends will only show symbols that are visible in the current context. Your users can't make use of symbols that aren't exported, so autocompletion won't display them.

You may see hidden symbols while editing files in your own package, because your package code can see hidden symbols. But your users won't.

Edited to add: I've just followed your instructions more closely, and managed to duplicate what you saw. The problem is that by default the NAMESPACE file declares everything to be public, regardless of the setting for internal. This looks like a devtools misunderstanding or bug. To fix it, manually edit your NAMESPACE file to make sure only public symbols are exported.

2nd edit: The docs for devtools::use_data have been updated on Github. They now say "If TRUE, stores all objects in a single R/sysdata.rda file. Objects in this file follow the usual export rules. Note that this means they will be exported if you are using the common exportPattern() rule which exports all objects except for those that start with .."

Thanks for looking into this! – Helpless one Aug 07 '17 at 16:09 — Helpless one, Aug 07 '17 at 16:09

R Hide internal objects in package from autocomplete

1 Answers1