in my swift library I have a simple protocol like this:

    protocol DebugPrintable {
        func debug() -> String
    }

I would like to export it so that users of the library can refer to the protocol, but that would turn it into a public protocol:

    public protocol DebugPrintable {
        func debug() -> String
    }

... which forces all uses of protocol to be public - which is unnecessary.

Can I somehow make the protocol public (so that it is exported from library) but not make it force all declared properties to be public?

CodePudding user response：

Here from documentation

You can’t set a protocol requirement to a different access level than the protocol it supports. This ensures that all of the protocol’s requirements will be visible on any type that adopts the protocol.

If you define a public protocol, the protocol’s requirements require a public access level for those requirements when they’re implemented. This behavior is different from other types, where a public type definition implies an access level of internal for the type’s members.

https://docs.swift.org/swift-book/LanguageGuide/AccessControl.html

I think you should move your protected properties to another protocol to satisfy above thing.