Erm.. Why do you think the $this at the right hand side refers to the source?

$this->myObj = clone $this->myObj

Assign *a clone* of $this's propery `myObj' to $this's property `myObj'.

Manual:

"When an object is cloned, PHP 5 will perform a shallow copy of all of the object's properties. Any properties that are references to other variables, will remain references."

http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.cloning.php

If `myObj' contains an object then the clone() of the containing object creates an new object whose property `myObj' contains the same object as the original.

<?php

class Foo
{
    public $bar;
}

class Bar
{
}

$a = new Foo();
$a->bar = new Bar();

$b = clone($a);
echo ($a->bar === $b->bar) ? "Same objects\n" : "Different objects\n";

=> "Same objects"

<?php

class Foo
{
    public $bar;

    public function __clone ()
    {
            $this->bar = clone($this->bar);
    }
}

class Bar
{
}

$a = new Foo();
$a->bar = new Bar();

$b = clone($a);
echo ($a->bar === $b->bar) ? "Same objects\n" : "Different objects\n";

=> "Different objects"

You are, in fact, not "assigning $this->variable to $this->variable" but assigning the return value of calling clone($this->variable) to $this->variable.

Oh ok I see your point. The documentation was confusing to me. You can remove my bug report.