FullClone

The standard clone method creates a fresh instance of most (non-scalar) objects but does not clone internal state. This internal state remains aliased in the cloned copy. The full_clone method digs deep and makes copies of these internal variables, not just arrays and hashes. It also allows classes to specify an exclusion list of variables that are not to be processed.

New for version 0.0.10, now 84% faster (at least full_dup was in my tests).

This comprehensive approach creates another issue to be resolved. In Ruby, if an attempt is made to clone an immutable data item like a number, an error occurs. The justification for this uncharacteristic strictness is not at all clear, but it does mean that the clone operation must be applied with great care.

Unlike the standard clone method, the full_clone method does not throw an exception when it sees un-clonable value objects like 42 or true. These values simply return themselves. This is deemed correct because those types of objects are immutable and do not need to be duped. Instead of raising an exception, the code returns the immutable object instead.

Another issue that this gem deals with is that of data with looping reference chains. To handle this, the code tracks object ID values and does not re-clone data that has already been cloned. Thus even nasty edge cases are handled without any special effort on the part of the application programmer.

This gem is a member of a family of four gems that all provide data copying services in a safe, easy to use format. The following outlines the available gems and how to chose from among them.

Notes

• Since none of these gems override the default clone and dup methods, the default behaviors remain available. Further, if multiple, differing requirements exists, more than one family member gem may be employed in the same project without fear of conflict.
• If multiple family gems are employed, they will each need to be installed and required into the application. See below for details.
• Meta-data attributes include the frozen status and singleton methods. However the tainted status is always copied.

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'full_clone'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install full_clone

The safe_dup gem is at: ( https://rubygems.org/gems/safe_dup )
The safe_clone gem is at: ( https://rubygems.org/gems/safe_clone )
The full_dup gem is at: ( https://rubygems.org/gems/full_dup )
The full_clone gem is at: ( https://rubygems.org/gems/full_clone )

require 'full_clone'

then, in those places where regular clone was problematic, use:

foo = my_object.full_clone

instead of

foo = my_object.clone

To exclude some instance variables from the deep cloning process, define a full_clone_exclude method in the required class:

def full_clone_exclude
  [:@bad_var1, :@bad_var2, :@bad_var_etc]
end

This also can be applied to arrays and hashes. In this case, it is possible to define a singleton method on the cloned data. Then the exclude method would return an array of array indexes or hash keys to be omitted from the full clone recursion. Here is an example that never clones the first two elements of the array:

my_array.define_singleton_method(:full_clone_exclude) { [0, 1] }

The full_clone gem tracks its progress and handles data objects that contain loops, cycles, and other forms of recursion. In order to do this, it relies heavily on the object_id property of the data being copied. If object_id is broken, then full_clone and hashes and ... will also be broken!

1. Fork it ( https://github.com/PeterCamilleri/full_clone/fork )
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request

Go to the GitHub repository and raise an issue calling attention to some aspect that could use some TLC or a suggestion or an idea.

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

Everyone interacting in the fully_freeze project’s codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms and mailing lists is expected to follow the code of conduct.