Make fish functions private

Question

I defined several helper functions that I only use in one specific fish script. I put them inside the wrapper function but you can still find them via autocompletion.

How can I hide them from auto completion and limit their scope to private?

function outer
   function inner_func
       echo "I still find this function via automplete"
   end
end

Answer 1

Fish does not have private functions, but it is possible this feature will be available in future versions. In the meantime, try using the following technique, a naming convention, or both.

functions -e function_name

Very close to what you need. You can use functions -e function_name before the end of the block to erase it from the global scope.

function outer
    function inner_func
        echo "I still find this function via automplete."
        echo "Not anymore!!"
        functions -e inner_func
    end
    # Let's test this!
    inner_func
end


$ outer
I still find this function via automplete.
Not anymore!!
$ inner_func
fish: Unknown command 'inner_func'

Naming Convention

• _my_module_func_name

This does not erase the function from the global scope, but it is a general good practice to avoid overriding existing functions unintentionally.

Notes

Functions declared inside a main function file (or functions inside other functions like inner_func) will be available only after its parent function is invoked at least once (this is fish lazy function autoloading), and exist only for the duration of that particular shell session.