The current documentation of ?on.exit reads [1]
> `on.exit` records [`expr`] as needing to be executed when the current
> function exits...
This is almost always how it is used, however I don't see that as
explaining this other common way to use on.exit():
local({
old = setwd(...)
on.exit(setwd(old))
readLines(...)
})
There's not really a "function" here. It may be that the actual
implementation of 'local()' eventually runs this code
indistinguishably from a function, which I'm not sure -- all I see is
that local() is a wrapper of eval.parent(), so it doesn't _look_ to me
like that's the case.
I'm not sure this word has a precise meaning in R but I think of
on.exit() as running upon leaving the "context" in this case. Would
that be an improvement? Is this more an "unintentional" benefit that
local() can be used like this?
I've definitely seen usage like this [2] that I've recommended just be
re-written with local instead:
(\(x) { old = setwd(...); on.exit(setwd(old)); readLines(...) })()
I'll also note that while this approach to using on.exit() is not
uncommon, and quite a useful idiom, it does not appear in the examples
either in ?on.exit or in ?local [3].
(I also don't see mention of these in any other R manual [4][5])
Mike C
[1]
https://github.com/r-devel/r-svn/blob/9bd62756d3c1289c3c01faec0e2b4de9e8a88d59/src/library/base/man/on.exit.Rd#L10-L13
[2]
https://github.com/rstudio/sass/blob/9228fcf39deecfe32b7cb90ed40690338a18acba/scripts/build_docs.R#L5-L23
[3]
https://github.com/r-devel/r-svn/blob/9bd62756d3c1289c3c01faec0e2b4de9e8a88d59/src/library/base/man/eval.Rd#L136-L138
[4] https://github.com/r-devel/r-svn/blob/main/doc/manual/R-intro.texi
[5]
https://github.com/r-devel/r-svn/blob/9bd62756d3c1289c3c01faec0e2b4de9e8a88d59/doc/manual/R-lang.texi#L3755-L3757
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