Error code E0446

A private type was used in a public type signature.

Erroneous code example:

#![deny(private_in_public)]
struct Bar(u32);

mod foo {
    use crate::Bar;
    pub fn bar() -> Bar { // error: private type in public interface
        Bar(0)
    }
}

fn main() {}

Run

There are two ways to solve this error. The first is to make the public type signature only public to a module that also has access to the private type. This is done by using pub(crate) or pub(in crate::my_mod::etc) Example:

struct Bar(u32);

mod foo {
    use crate::Bar;
    pub(crate) fn bar() -> Bar { // only public to crate root
        Bar(0)
    }
}

fn main() {}

Run

The other way to solve this error is to make the private type public. Example:

pub struct Bar(u32); // we set the Bar type public
mod foo {
    use crate::Bar;
    pub fn bar() -> Bar { // ok!
        Bar(0)
    }
}

fn main() {}

Run

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