Question

I would like to create a function (CleanEnvir) which basically calls remove/rm and which removes certain objects from .GlobalEnv.

  CleanEnvir <- function(pattern = "tmp"){
      rm(list = ls()[grep("tmp", ls())], envir = globalenv())
  }

  keep <- 1
  tmp.to.be.removed <- 0
  ls()

  ## does not work
  CleanEnvir()
  ls()

  ## does work
  rm(list = ls()[grep("tmp", ls())], envir = globalenv())
  ls()

Answer 1

ls() needs to look in the correct place. By default it looks in the current frame, that of the function CleanEnvir in your case and hence was only finding "pattern" in your original.

CleanEnvir <- function(pattern = "tmp") {
    objs <- ls(pos = ".GlobalEnv")
    rm(list = objs[grep("tmp", objs)], pos = ".GlobalEnv")
}

Which gives:

> CleanEnvir <- function(pattern = "tmp") {
+     objs <- ls(pos = ".GlobalEnv")
+     rm(list = objs[grep("tmp", objs)], pos = ".GlobalEnv")
+ }
> ls()
[1] "CleanEnvir"        "foo"               "keep"             
[4] "tmp.to.be.removed"
> CleanEnvir()
> ls()
[1] "CleanEnvir" "foo"        "keep"