From: "ufuk (Ufuk Kayserilioglu)" <noreply@...>
Date: 2021-12-27T12:34:07+00:00
Subject: [ruby-core:106835] [Ruby master Bug#18435] Calling `protected` on ancestor method changes result of `instance_methods(false)`

Issue #18435 has been updated by ufuk (Ufuk Kayserilioglu).


I understand why the difference in behaviour is happening, but I respectfully disagree that this is not a bug.

Regardless of how `protected` is implemented internally, the return value of `instance_methods(false)` should not include methods that explicitly say that their owner is a different constant in the ancestor chain. The fact that those methods **are** being returned is a leak of internal implementation details. Users of the method should not need to know how and why `protected` would have such a side-effect. Moreover, as I stated in my original report `private` does not have a similar problem, either.

Basically the documentation of `instance_methods` explicitly states:

> If the optional parameter is `false`, the methods of any ancestors are not included.

and, in this case, that statement is not correct.

----------------------------------------
Bug #18435: Calling `protected` on ancestor method changes result of `instance_methods(false)`
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/18435#change-95647

* Author: ufuk (Ufuk Kayserilioglu)
* Status: Open
* Priority: Normal
* ruby -v: ruby 2.7.5p203 (2021-11-24 revision f69aeb8314) [x86_64-darwin20]
* Backport: 2.6: UNKNOWN, 2.7: UNKNOWN, 3.0: UNKNOWN, 3.1: UNKNOWN
----------------------------------------
As documented `instance_methods(false)` works as follows:

```ruby
module A
  def method1()  end
end

class B
  include A

  def method2()  end
end

p B.instance_methods(false) #=> [:method2]
```

However, calling `protected` on the method defined by `A`, unexpectedly changes the result of `instance_methods(false)` on `B`, even though the owner of the method is still `A`:
```ruby
module A
  def method1()  end
end

class B
  include A

  protected :method1

  def method2()  end
end

p B.instance_methods(false) #=> [:method1, :method2]
p B.instance_method(:method1).owner #=> A
```

In contrast, calling `private` or `public` on the same method does not cause any changes on the result of `B.instance_methods(false)`.

This feels like a bug in the implementation of `instance_methods(false)`, but, if it is by design, it should at least be documented on `Module#instance_methods`.

This reproduction script gives the same output all the way from Ruby 2.0 up to Ruby-HEAD:
https://wandbox.org/permlink/LqbXMBTYxURRZmDz



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