Using caller to Prevent Recursion in Ruby

recursion_helper.rb

# Inspired by blog post at: http://www.codebenders.com/code-cat/preventing-recursion-in-ruby/

module RecursionHelper
  def prevent_recursion(method_name)
    original = instance_method(method_name)

    define_method(method_name) do |*args|
      return if caller.any?{|c| c =~ /`#{method_name}'\z/}

      original.bind(self).call(*args)
    end
  end
end

recursive_x.rb

class RecursiveX
  def foo
    bar
    "foo done"
  end

  def bar
    foo
  end
end

RecursiveX.new.foo rescue $! # => #<SystemStackError: stack level too deep>

recursive_x_with_recursion_prevention.rb

require_relative 'recursion_helper'

class RecursiveXWithRecursionPrevention
  extend RecursionHelper

  def foo
    bar
    "foo done"
  end
  prevent_recursion :foo

  def bar
    foo
  end
end

puts RecursiveXWithRecursionPrevention.new.foo # => "foo done"