Issue #21940 has been updated by dak2 (Daichi Kamiyama). Patch: https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/16303 ---------------------------------------- Bug #21940: Ruby::Box: `$_` returns stale value due to gvar_tbl caching https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21940#change-116579 * Author: dak2 (Daichi Kamiyama) * Status: Open * ruby -v: 4.0.1 * Backport: 3.2: UNKNOWN, 3.3: UNKNOWN, 3.4: UNKNOWN, 4.0: UNKNOWN ---------------------------------------- ## Environment - Ruby Version v4.0.1 - OS: macOS 15.6.1 (arm64) - `RUBY_BOX=1` enabled ## Reproduction ```shell echo -e "a\nb" | RUBY_BOX=1 ruby -e 'gets; $_; gets; p $_' ``` ## Expected ``` "b\n" ``` The second gets reads `"b"` and sets it to `$_`. `p $_` should return the latest value. ## Actual ``` "a\n" ``` `$_` returns the stale value from the first gets. ## Root Cause `$_` is a special variable stored in `svar`. Its getter (`rb_lastline_get`) reads the current value from svar each time it is called. However, when Box is enabled, I believe `rb_gvar_get()` caches the value in the Box's `gvar_tbl` on first access. On subsequent reads, it returns the cached value directly without calling the getter. Since gets updates `$_` via `rb_lastline_set()` which bypasses `rb_gvar_set()`, the cache becomes stale. -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/