backends: Select the default backend and default keyring

In r-lib/keyring: Access the System Credential Store from R

Select the default backend and default keyring

Description

The default backend is selected

1. based on the keyring_backend option. See base::options(). This can be set to a character string, and then the backend_string class is used to create the default backend.

2. If this is not set, then the R_KEYRING_BACKEND environment variable is checked.

3. If this is not set, either, then the backend is selected automatically, based on the OS:

   1. On Windows, the Windows Credential Store ("wincred") is used.

   2. On macOS, Keychain services are selected ("macos").

   3. Linux uses the Secret Service API ("secret_service"), and it also checks that the service is available. It is typically only available on systems with a GUI.

   4. If the file backend ("file") is available, it is selected.

   5. On other operating systems, secrets are stored in environment variables ("env").

Usage

default_backend(keyring = NULL)

Arguments

keyring

Character string, the name of the keyring to use, or NULL for the default keyring.

Details

Most backends support multiple keyrings. For these the keyring is selected from:

1. the supplied keyring argument (if not NULL), or

2. the keyring_keyring option.

   • You can change this by using options(keyring_keyring = "NEWVALUE")

3. If this is not set, the R_KEYRING_KEYRING environment variable.

   • Change this value with Sys.setenv(R_KEYRING_KEYRING = "NEWVALUE"), either in your script or in your .Renviron file. See base::Startup for information about using .Renviron

4. Finally, if neither of these are set, the OS default keyring is used.

   • Usually the keyring is automatically unlocked when the user logs in.

Value

The backend object itself.

See Also

backend_env, backend_file, backend_macos, backend_secret_service, backend_wincred

r-lib/keyring documentation built on Jan. 4, 2024, 7:49 a.m.