I think there is a confusion of nomenclature here. \ returns a reference to something and that reference can be assigned to a scalar variable, which is then said to be a reference to the original something.

A copy of the reference by using my $ref2 = $ref1; generates the same result as my $ref2 = \$something;. You seem to be talking about some sort of alias, somewhat like a *nix file system hard link. I am having trouble imagining a situation where you would require such a thing in Perl. Perhaps you need to show us a code snippet to illustrate the problem you are having?

DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel

In reply to Re^3: a reference by any other name... by GrandFather
in thread a reference by any other name... by blogical

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