Private method in groovy is not private

Question

class A {     private def sayHello() {        println "Anish"     }   }   def a_obj = new A()  a_obj.sayHello() 

output : Anish

Is there any way to protect sayHello() in groovy or am I missing something?

Answer 1

There is defect on that in Groovy issue tracking system and that defect is still open.

Answer 2

Searching for [groovy] private reveals:

groovy call private method in Java super class

What does 'private' mean in Groovy?

How to define private getter method in Groovy Bean?

It's not clear if it is a bug or by design, but it is going to get looked at again in Groovy 2.0