UNIVERSAL::ref - Turns ref() into a multimethod

       ambrus  for the excellent idea to overload defined() to allow Perl 5 to have Perl 6's "interesting values
       of undef."

       chromatic for pointing out how utterly broken ref() is. This fix covers its biggest hole.

       Joshua ben Jore - jjore@cpan.org

       This module changes the behavior of the builtin function ref(). If ref() is called on an object that has
       requested an overloaded ref, the object's "->ref" method will be called and its return value used
       instead.

       The standard Artistic / GPL license most other perl code is typically using.

perl v5.40.1                                       2025-04-15                                UNIVERSAL::ref(3pm)

       import
           A  pragma  for  ref()-enabling  your  class.  This  adds  the  calling class name to a global list of
           ref()-enabled classes.

               package YourClass;
               use UNIVERSAL::ref;
               sub ref { ... }

       unimport
           A pragma for ref()-disabling your class. This removes the calling class name from a  global  list  of
           ref()-enabled classes.

       UNIVERSAL::ref - Turns ref() into a multimethod

         # True! Wrapper pretends to be Thing.
         ref( Wrapper->new( Thing->new ) )
           eq ref( Thing->new );

         package Thing;
         sub new { bless [], shift }

         package Wrapper;
         sub new {
             my ($class,$proxy) = @_;
             bless \ $proxy, $class;
         }
         sub ref {
             my $self = shift @_;
             return $$self;
         }

       Currently UNIVERSAL::ref must be installed before any ref() calls that are to be affected.

       I think ref() always occurs in an implicit scalar context. There is no accomodation for list context.

       UNIVERSAL::ref probably shouldn't allow a module to lie to itself. Or should it?

       To enable this feature for a class, "use UNIVERSAL::ref" in your class. Here is a sample proxy module.

         package Pirate;
         # Pirate pretends to be a Privateer
         use UNIVERSAL::ref;
         sub new { bless {}, shift }
         sub ref { return 'Privateer' }

       Anywhere you call ref($obj) on a "Pirate" object, it will allow "Pirate" to lie and pretend to be
       something else.