Ruby methods which load from a Yaml file, like YAML.safe_load or YAML.safe_load_file, support passing freeze: true to deep-freeze the entire contents from the Yaml file.
This is available by default on Ruby 3.0 and newer. On older Rubies, you can install psych 3.2.0 or newer for :freeze support.
As an example, consider the following Yaml file:
---
message:
- hello
- universe
foo:
bar:
baz: "example"
We can now load it as usual, but pass freeze: true.
>> test = YAML.safe_load_file('example.yml', freeze: true)
=> {"message"=>["hello", "universe"], "foo"=>{"bar"=>{"baz"=>"example"}}}
The Hash itself is frozen:
>> test.frozen?
=> true
And no matter how deep you dig, everything inside that Hash is also frozen.
>> test['message'].frozen?
=> true
>> test['foo']['bar']['baz'].frozen?
=> true
Loading from a file likely means that its contents should be considered immutable (e.g. a configuration), so we recommend you use freeze: true almost always.
Especially use this instead of YAML.safe_load_file(...).freeze which will not freeze any nested objects.
