devtools::load_all() has an extra warning that pkgload::load_all() doesn't

[emstruong]

Hello,

It seems that although pkgload::load_all() now supports a debug=FALSE argument, devtools::load_all() seems to be warning that this argument is inappropriate, despite devtools() apparently documenting that debug is an appropriate argument

devtools::load_all(debug = FALSE)
#> ℹ Loading cSEM
#> Warning in devtools::load_all(debug = FALSE): Arguments in `...` must be used.
#> ✖ Problematic argument:
#> • debug = FALSE
#> ℹ Did you misspell an argument name?
pkgload::load_all(debug = FALSE)
#> ℹ Loading cSEM
devtools::load_all(debug = FALSE)
#> ℹ Loading cSEM
#> Warning in devtools::load_all(debug = FALSE): Arguments in `...` must be used.
#> ✖ Problematic argument:
#> • debug = FALSE
#> ℹ Did you misspell an argument name?

^{Created on 2026-02-17 with reprex v2.1.1}

Session info

sessioninfo::session_info()
#> ─ Session info ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
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#>  date     2026-02-17
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#>  quarto   1.8.27 @ /opt/quarto/bin/quarto
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#> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

[jennybc]

My current assessment of this is that it basically feels like a bug or, at least, infelicity in rlang::check_dots_used(). devtools::load_all() has ... for exactly the purpose of passing arguments along to pkgload without cluttering up the simpler world view of devtools::load_all().

What seems to be happening here is that, although debug is a formal argument of pkgload::load_all(), due to lazy evaluation, there are many common usage scenarios in which it is never evaluated, leading to a false positive. Basically if there's no compiled code or if the compiled code seems up-to-date. Which applies to probably >95% of load_all() calls.