From @cpansprout

The declared_refs feature, which is about to be merged into blead, gives Perl 5.26.0 experimental support for declaring a reference to a variable​:

  my \$x; # equivalent to \my $x

It is intended mainly for use in conjunction with refaliasing​:

  my \$x = \$y;

--

Father Chrysostomos

From @tonycoz

On Sun, 17 Jul 2016 11​:26​:25 -0700, sprout wrote​:

The declared_refs feature, which is about to be merged into blead,
gives Perl 5.26.0 experimental support for declaring a reference to a
variable​:

my \$x; # equivalent to \my $x

It is intended mainly for use in conjunction with refaliasing​:

my \$x = \$y;

The documentation​:

Beginning in v5.26.0, the referencing operator can come after C<my>,
C<state>, C<our>, or C<local>. This syntax must be enabled with C<use
feature 'declared_refs'>. It is experimental, and will warn by default
unless C<no warnings 'experimental​::refaliasing'> is in effect.

implies you can do​:

  local \&foo = \&bar;

which you can't.

Of course, the above is equivalent to​:

  local *foo = \&bar;

Tony

The RT System itself - Status changed from 'new' to 'open'

Currently doesn't work with state: #19927
(Seems possible to make if do so, but the wrong optree is generated at present.)