On Monday 09 June 2008, amit saxena wrote:
> I just switched to Ruby and came across it.
> If we have to make a class method private then we should write it as:
>
> class Abc
>    
>     class<<self
>         private
>         def fun
>             p "hello"
>         end
>     end
>    
> end
>
> But if we write as:
>
> class Abc
>    
>     private
>     def self.fun
>         p "hello"
>     end
>
> end
>
> then the class method is not private but behaves as public.
>
> So, is it a carefully designed functionality? If so, then what is the
> thinking behind it? OR any other reasons behind it?
> Somebody told me that ruby encourages to define class methods the first
> way. But I think that if you are giving more than one methods to do a
> thing, then all should function the same way.
>
> Thanks and Regards,
> Amit

The Module#private method only works for instance methods, not for class
method. To make a class method private, you should use the
Module#private_class_method method. Note that, unlike private,
private_class_method only accepts one argument, so that you want to make more
than one method private, you should call it multiple times.

So, the correct method to make the method private using the second form is:

class Abc

def self.fun
p "hello"
end
private_class_method :fun

end

I hope this s

Stefano