DeprecatedInstanceVariableProxy transforms an instance variable into a deprecated one. It takes an instance of a class, a method on that class, an instance variable, and a deprecator as the last argument.
Trying to use the deprecated instance variable will result in a deprecation warning, pointing to the method as a replacement.
class Example def initialize @request = ActiveSupport::Deprecation::DeprecatedInstanceVariableProxy.new(self, :request, :@request, ActiveSupport::Deprecation.new) @_request = :special_request end def request @_request end def old_request @request end end example = Example.new # => #<Example:0x007fb9b31090b8 @_request=:special_request, @request=:special_request> example.old_request.to_s # => DEPRECATION WARNING: @request is deprecated! Call request.to_s instead of @request.to_s (Backtrace informationâ¦) "special_request" example.request.to_s # => "special_request"