Platform independent API to many system credential store implementations. Currently supported:
Keychain on macOS,
Credential Store on Windows,
the Secret Service API on Linux, and
environment variables on other platforms.
The default is operating system specific, and is described in
default_backend(). In most cases you don't have to configure this.
MacOS: backend_macos
Linux: backend_secret_service
Windows: backend_wincred
Or store the secrets in environment variables on other operating systems: backend_env
Each keyring can contain one or many secrets (keys). A key is defined by a service name and a password. Once a key is defined, it persists in the keyring store of the operating system. This means the keys persist beyond the termination of and R session. Specifically, you can define a key once, and then read the key value in completely independent R sessions.
Setting a secret interactively: key_set()
Setting a secret from a script, i.e. non-interactively:
key_set_with_value()
Reading a secret: key_get()
Listing secrets: key_list()
Deleting a secret: key_delete()
A keyring is a collection of keys that can be treated as a unit. A keyring typically has a name and a password to unlock it.
Note that all platforms have a default keyring, and key_get(), etc.
will use that automatically. The default keyring is also convenient,
because the OS unlocks it automatically when you log in, so secrets
are available immediately.
You only need to explicitly deal with keyrings and the keyring_*
functions if you want to use a different keyring.