22.1.3.9 Package Prefixes for Symbols

Package prefixes are printed if necessary. The rules for package prefixes are as follows. When the symbol is printed, if it is in the KEYWORD package, then it is printed with a preceding colon; otherwise, if it is accessible in the current package, it is printed without any package prefix; otherwise, it is printed with a package prefix.

A symbol that is apparently uninterned is printed preceded by “#:”

if *print-gensym* is true and printer escaping is enabled; if *print-gensym* is false or printer escaping is disabled,

then the symbol is printed without a prefix, as if it were in the current package.

Because the #: syntax does not intern the following symbol, it is necessary to use circular-list syntax if *print-circle* is true and the same uninterned symbol appears several times in an expression to be printed. For example, the result of

 (let ((x (make-symbol "FOO"))) (list x x))

would be printed as (#:foo #:foo) if *print-circle* were false, but as (#1=#:foo #1#) if *print-circle* were true.

A summary of the preceding package prefix rules follows:

foo:bar

foo:bar is printed when symbol bar is external in its home package foo and is not accessible in the current package.

foo::bar

foo::bar is printed when bar is internal in its home package foo and is not accessible in the current package.

:bar

:bar is printed when the home package of bar is the KEYWORD package.

#:bar

#:bar is printed when bar is apparently uninterned, even in the pathological case that bar has no home package but is nevertheless somehow accessible in the current package.