diff --git a/src/main/java/org/perlonjava/core/Configuration.java b/src/main/java/org/perlonjava/core/Configuration.java
index 192f6369c..841a25795 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/perlonjava/core/Configuration.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/perlonjava/core/Configuration.java
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ public final class Configuration {
      * Automatically populated by Gradle/Maven during build.
      * DO NOT EDIT MANUALLY - this value is replaced at build time.
      */
-    public static final String gitCommitId = "5e818ead7";
+    public static final String gitCommitId = "9ad8b915c";
 
     /**
      * Git commit date of the build (ISO format: YYYY-MM-DD).
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/perlonjava/runtime/operators/IOOperator.java b/src/main/java/org/perlonjava/runtime/operators/IOOperator.java
index d8d1bd140..36429f7de 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/perlonjava/runtime/operators/IOOperator.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/perlonjava/runtime/operators/IOOperator.java
@@ -613,6 +613,11 @@ else if (secondArg.type == RuntimeScalarType.GLOB || secondArg.type == RuntimeSc
             RuntimeIO.registerGlobForFdRecycling(anonGlob, fh);
             // Use set() to modify the lvalue in place
             fileHandle.set(newGlob);
+            // Mark this scalar as the IO owner so scopeExitCleanup will close
+            // the handle when the variable goes out of scope. Copies of this
+            // reference (via set()) won't have ioOwner=true, preventing
+            // premature close of shared handles (e.g., Test2's dup'd STDOUT).
+            fileHandle.ioOwner = true;
         }
         long pid = fh.getPid();
         if (pid > 0) return new RuntimeScalar(pid);
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/perlonjava/runtime/perlmodule/XSLoader.java b/src/main/java/org/perlonjava/runtime/perlmodule/XSLoader.java
index 54a8af225..22f250374 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/perlonjava/runtime/perlmodule/XSLoader.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/perlonjava/runtime/perlmodule/XSLoader.java
@@ -8,12 +8,27 @@
 import java.lang.reflect.Field;
 import java.lang.reflect.Method;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
+import java.util.Set;
 
 import static org.perlonjava.runtime.runtimetypes.RuntimeContextType.SCALAR;
 import static org.perlonjava.runtime.runtimetypes.RuntimeScalarCache.scalarTrue;
 
 public class XSLoader extends PerlModuleBase {
 
+    /**
+     * Non-functional base classes that should be ignored when checking @ISA
+     * for pure-Perl fallback parents. These classes provide infrastructure
+     * (exporting, autoloading) but not the module's actual functionality.
+     * A module with only these in @ISA should NOT get the silent success
+     * treatment — it needs XS or its own pure-Perl fallback code.
+     */
+    private static final Set<String> NON_FUNCTIONAL_ISA = Set.of(
+            "Exporter",
+            "DynaLoader",
+            "AutoLoader",
+            "XSLoader"
+    );
+
     /**
      * Constructor for XSLoader.
      * Initializes the module with the name "XSLoader".
@@ -94,13 +109,18 @@ public static RuntimeList load(RuntimeArray args, int ctx) {
             
             return scalarTrue.getList();
         } catch (Exception e) {
-            // No Java XS class found. If the module's @ISA already has a pure-Perl
-            // parent (set by the .pm file before calling XSLoader::load), the module
-            // can function through inheritance. Return success so the require doesn't
-            // fail — the pure-Perl methods from the parent will be used.
+            // No Java XS class found. If the module's @ISA already has a
+            // functional pure-Perl parent (set by the .pm file before calling
+            // XSLoader::load), the module can function through inheritance.
+            // Return success so the require doesn't fail.
+            //
+            // We skip non-functional base classes (Exporter, DynaLoader, etc.)
+            // because their presence in @ISA does NOT mean the module can work
+            // without its XS code — e.g. Clone has @ISA=(Exporter) but still
+            // needs its own pure-Perl fallback to define clone().
             String isaKey = moduleName + "::ISA";
             RuntimeArray isa = GlobalVariable.getGlobalArray(isaKey);
-            if (isa != null && !isa.isEmpty()) {
+            if (isa != null && hasFunctionalParent(isa)) {
                 // @ISA fallback succeeded. Also try to load any jar: PERL5LIB shim
                 // for this module, which may provide method overrides (e.g., bug fixes
                 // for the pure-Perl parent that the XS version would normally handle).
@@ -164,6 +184,24 @@ private static boolean versionsCompatible(String javaVersion, String requestedVe
         return javaMajor.equals(requestedMajor);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Checks whether @ISA contains at least one functional parent class.
+     * Non-functional base classes (Exporter, DynaLoader, etc.) are skipped
+     * because they provide infrastructure, not the module's actual methods.
+     *
+     * @param isa The module's @ISA array
+     * @return true if at least one entry is a functional parent
+     */
+    private static boolean hasFunctionalParent(RuntimeArray isa) {
+        for (int i = 0; i < isa.size(); i++) {
+            String parent = isa.get(i).toString();
+            if (!NON_FUNCTIONAL_ISA.contains(parent)) {
+                return true;
+            }
+        }
+        return false;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Stub implementation of bootstrap_inherit for compatibility.
      * In standard Perl, this is used for inheritance-aware XS loading.
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/perlonjava/runtime/runtimetypes/RuntimeScalar.java b/src/main/java/org/perlonjava/runtime/runtimetypes/RuntimeScalar.java
index 56042809d..bf206e1cd 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/perlonjava/runtime/runtimetypes/RuntimeScalar.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/perlonjava/runtime/runtimetypes/RuntimeScalar.java
@@ -65,6 +65,19 @@ private static boolean mightBeInteger(String s) {
     public int type;
     public Object value;
 
+    /**
+     * True if this scalar was the direct target of an {@code open()} call that
+     * created a new anonymous filehandle glob. Used by {@link #scopeExitCleanup}
+     * to distinguish "owned" filehandles (should be closed at scope exit) from
+     * copies/aliases of shared handles (should NOT be closed, as other variables
+     * still reference the same glob).
+     * <p>
+     * Set by {@link org.perlonjava.runtime.operators.IOOperator#open} after creating
+     * a new anonymous glob. NOT copied by {@link #set(RuntimeScalar)}, so copies
+     * like {@code my $io = $handles->[$hid]} remain {@code false}.
+     */
+    public boolean ioOwner;
+
     // Constructors
     public RuntimeScalar() {
         this.type = UNDEF;
@@ -1798,7 +1811,7 @@ private void closeIOOnDrop() {
      * @param scalar the RuntimeScalar being cleaned up (may be null if slot was already nulled)
      */
     public static void scopeExitCleanup(RuntimeScalar scalar) {
-        if (scalar != null && scalar.type == GLOBREFERENCE
+        if (scalar != null && scalar.ioOwner && scalar.type == GLOBREFERENCE
                 && scalar.value instanceof RuntimeGlob glob
                 && glob.globName == null) {
             RuntimeScalar ioSlot = glob.getIO();
diff --git a/src/main/perl/lib/TAP/Parser/Iterator/Process.pm b/src/main/perl/lib/TAP/Parser/Iterator/Process.pm
index 59306251c..6e669ee73 100644
--- a/src/main/perl/lib/TAP/Parser/Iterator/Process.pm
+++ b/src/main/perl/lib/TAP/Parser/Iterator/Process.pm
@@ -254,11 +254,12 @@ sub _next {
                 while ( my @ready = $sel->can_read ) {
                     for my $fh (@ready) {
                         my $got = sysread $fh, my ($chunk), $chunk_size;
+                        $got = 0 if !defined $got || $got eq '';
 
                         if ( $got == 0 ) {
                             $sel->remove($fh);
                         }
-                        elsif ( $fh == $err ) {
+                        elsif ( ref $err && $fh == $err ) {
                             print STDERR $chunk;    # echo STDERR
                         }
                         else {
@@ -340,7 +341,9 @@ sub _finish {
 
     # If we have an IO::Select we also have an error handle to close.
     if ( $self->{sel} ) {
-        ( delete $self->{err} )->close;
+        if ( $self->{err} && ref $self->{err} ) {
+            ( delete $self->{err} )->close;
+        }
         delete $self->{sel};
     }
     else {