The allocator of _modify tracks the values it created so that a later
update can modify them in place instead of copying them. When a target
path is a proper prefix of an earlier one, getpath hands such a value to
the update function, which may store it in more than one place; updating
through one of those places then changes all of them.
$ gojq -cn '{"a":{"b":1}} | (.a.b, .a, .a.p.z) |= {p: ., q: .}'
.a.p and .a.q hold separate values in jq, so only .a.p gains the "z" key,
while gojq adds it to both. Release the allocator whenever a value it
created leaves the update, so that the values are copied on update from
then on. The same applies to an object used as a path element, which
stays reachable through the path after the update.
dualfroz
upstream