title: Params becomming nil
body: <p>Had some old code that on some condition would modify params. I believe it was working before (not 100%). We are now getting params set to nil whether or not the condition is met.</p>
  
  <p>The culprit is within the condition, I perform a <code>params = tmp.dup</code>. Even when the condition is false, this is causing an error in the update action.</p>
  
  <p>I was able to recreate with a minimal test</p>
  
  <p>(Rails 2.3.5)</p>
  
  <pre><code>rails bug;
  cd bug;
  
  script/generate scaffold bug name:string;
  rake db:create;
  rake db:migrate;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>edit apps/controllers/bugs_controller.rb
  add to beginning of update action</p>
  
  <pre><code>l_p = params.dup
  
  if (false)
  
    params = l_p.dup  # NOT REACHED
  
  end
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>script/server WEBrick -p 5001</p>
  
  <p>browse to <a href="http://localhost:5001/bugs" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://localhost:5001/bugs</a>
  create a new bug
  edit bug
  submit</p>