"
deep"
copy,
which contains no references to any other Object (i.e. if the original Object
contains references to other Objects, then the actual data are copied, not
simply the references). This means that modifications may safely be made to
the copy without indirectly affecting any other Object. A null Object pointer (AST__NULL) will be returned if this function is invoked with the AST error status set, or if it should fail for any reason.