[PHP-BUG] Bug #71477 [NEW]: Inconsist behavior during assign-by-reference in __get()

From:             arepo at nologin dot ru
Operating system: 
PHP version:      7.0.2
Package:          PHP Language Specification
Bug Type:         Bug
Bug description:Inconsist behavior during assign-by-reference in __get()

Description:
------------
In PHP 7+ assign-by-ref creates a property BEFORE calling
$this->getProp($name). This behavior is described in the documentations
only for arrays.

You can see result in https://3v4l.org/PBZRS 

Test script:
---------------
<?php
class MagicByRef {
	private $prop = 'hello';

	private function &getProp($name)
	{
		printf(
			"%s: %s is %s\n",
			__METHOD__,
			$name,
			property_exists($this, $name) ? 'exists' : 'not exists'
		);

		return $this->prop;
	}

	public function __set($name, $value)
	{
		echo __METHOD__ , "($name, $value)\n";
	}

	public function &__get($name)
	{
		echo __METHOD__ , "($name)\n";

		$this->$name = &$this->getProp($name);

		return $this->$name;
	}
}

echo 'Assignment by reference: $this->$name = &$this->getProp($name)',
":\n";
$m = new MagicByRef;

$m->hello;

Expected result:
----------------
Assignment by reference: $this->$name = &$this->getProp($name):
MagicByRef::__get(hello)
MagicByRef::getProp: hello is not exists

Actual result:
--------------
Assignment by reference: $this->$name = &$this->getProp($name):
MagicByRef::__get(hello)
MagicByRef::getProp: hello is exists

-- 
Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=71477&edit=1
-- 
Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4):   https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=trysnapshot54
Try a snapshot (PHP 5.5):   https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=trysnapshot55
Try a snapshot (trunk):     https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=trysnapshottrunk
Fixed in SVN:               https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=fixed
Fixed in release:           https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=alreadyfixed
Need backtrace:             https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=needtrace
Need Reproduce Script:      https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=needscript
Try newer version:          https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=oldversion
Not developer issue:        https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=support
Expected behavior:          https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=notwrong
Not enough info:            https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=notenoughinfo
Submitted twice:            https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=submittedtwice
register_globals:           https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=globals
PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=php4
Daylight Savings:           https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=dst
IIS Stability:              https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=isapi
Install GNU Sed:            https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=gnused
Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=float
No Zend Extensions:         https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=nozend
MySQL Configuration Error:  https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71477&r=mysqlcfg