Is it expected behavior that a simulation will alter locally defined variables? My control statement includes this:

while ii < NITER
        let vgs_new = (3.3 * ii / NITER)
        ;; ........SOME OTHER SETUP STUFF.....        
        ; N1P8LVT
        echo 'BEFORE SIM, VGS_NEW = $&vgs_new'
        noise v(src_n1p8lvt) Vvgs_ctrl dec 1000 100 10e9
        echo 'AFTER SIM, VGS_NEW = $&vgs_new'

I get the following output (ngspice-44+):

Reset re-loads circuit ** sch_path: /users/colinww/foss/work/device_char/device_char.sch

Circuit: ** sch_path: /users/colinww/foss/work/device_char/device_char.sch

BEFORE SIM, VGS_NEW = 0
Doing analysis at TEMP = 27.000000 and TNOM = 27.000000

Using SPARSE 1.3 as Direct Linear Solver

No. of Data Rows : 8001

No. of Data Rows : 1
Error: &vgs_new: no such variable.
AFTER SIM, VGS_NEW =

I don’t expect the noise simulation (or any simulation for that matter) to have any impact on local variables. Is this a bug?