Bug #11055: autoload resets private_constant

• Status: Closed
• Assignee: matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto)
• Target version: -
• ruby -v: 50203
• Backport: 2.0.0: UNKNOWN, 2.1: UNKNOWN, 2.2: UNKNOWN

[nobu (Nobuyoshi Nakada)]

Is this behavior intentional?

Suppose the following file:

$ cat a/b.rb
class A; B = 1; end

This causes NameError.

$ ruby -I. -e 'class A;autoload :B, "a/b.rb"; private_constant :B; end' -e 'p A::B'
-e:2:in `<main>': private constant A::B referenced (NameError)

But after it got loaded, A::B becomes public.

$ ruby -I. -e 'class A;autoload :B, "a/b.rb"; private_constant :B; B; end' -e 'p A::B'
1

[jeremyevans0 (Jeremy Evans)]

• File const-visibility-before-autoload-11055.patch const-visibility-before-autoload-11055.patch added

I doubt dropping the existing constant visibility information is intentional behavior. You can work around the current behavior by resetting private_constant/deprecate_constant inside the autoloaded file, but that leads to duplication.

Attached is a patch that will copy the constant visibility information across the autoload.

[matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto)]

I agree with fixing this. Nobu will investigate the patch and consider the issue detail.

Matz.

• Status changed from Assigned to Closed

Applied in changeset git|47c97e1e843159c3c4d57f8c5e22daea57c3ffe1.

---

Do not lose existing constant visibility when autoloading

This copies the private/deprecate constant visibility across the
autoload. It still is backwards compatible with setting the
private/deprecate constant visibility in the autoloaded file.
However, if you explicitly set public constant in the autoloaded
file, that will be reset after the autoload.

Fixes [Bug #11055]