Resources are passed by reference

When copying one resource to another, you're actually creating a reference to the original resource, this is not an actual copy.

This is illustrated by the following example:

echo '<pre>';
// create an image resource
$image = imagecreate(100, 100);


// print the resource
var_dump($image);
// the above prints "resource(30) of type (gd)"

// create a copy 
// (actually creating a reference, 
// although =& is not implicitly used)
$copy = $image;

// print the reference
var_dump($copy);

// the above prints "resource(30) of type (gd)", same as before

// destroy the image resource
imagedestroy($image);

// this prints "resource(30) of type (Unknown)"
// so the image was destroyed
var_dump($image);

// this also prints "resource(30) of type (Unknown)"
// meaning that the reference points to a destroyed image
var_dump($copy);


echo '</pre>';

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