If I set a variable equal to a reference, is the reference count of the item pointed to by the reference incremented?

I am going to show an example that's slightly more complicated than necessary cause it better represents what I'm trying to accomplish. 

my $foo = {
    by_id    => {
        0    => {
            id    => 0,
            name    => "bob",
            other    => "Nothing to see here",
        },
    },
};

$foo->{by_name}{bob} = $foo->{by_id}{0};

[download]

If I delete $foo->{by_id}{0};, is $foo->{by_name}{bob} still valid?

It's quite easy to simply test this, but I'm more interested in the discussion I hope to provoke in order to better understand perl's internal plumbing.

In reply to Setting a variable equal to a reference by babel17

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