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[perl5.git] / pod / perldiag.pod
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1=head1 NAME
2
3perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
4
5=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
8desperation):
9
10 (W) A warning (optional).
d1d15184 11 (D) A deprecation (enabled by default).
00eb3f2b 12 (S) A severe warning (enabled by default).
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13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
54310121 15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
cb1a09d0 16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
a0d0e21e 17
75b44862 18The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
64977eb6 19(W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
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20
21If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
22category is included with the classification letter in the description
466416ed 23below. E.g. C<(W closed)> means a warning in the C<closed> category.
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24
25Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
fa816bf3 26and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
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27to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
28of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
29
b7eceb5b 30Severe warnings are always enabled, unless they are explicitly disabled
e476b1b5 31with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
4438c4b7 32
748a9306 33Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
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34L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
36See L<warnings>.
a0d0e21e 37
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38The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
39lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
40denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
41ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
42letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
43letter.
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44
45=over 4
46
6df41af2 47=item accept() on closed socket %s
33633739 48
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49(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
50to check the return value of your socket() call? See
51L<perlfunc/accept>.
33633739 52
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53=item Aliasing via reference is experimental
54
55(S experimental::refaliasing) This warning is emitted if you use
56a reference constructor on the left-hand side of an assignment to
57alias one variable to another. Simply suppress the warning if you
58want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you are taking
59the risk of using an experimental feature which may change or be
60removed in a future Perl version:
61
62 no warnings "experimental::refaliasing";
63 use feature "refaliasing";
64 \$x = \$y;
65
de42a5a9 66=item Allocation too large: %x
a0d0e21e 67
6df41af2 68(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
a0d0e21e 69
04f74579 70=item '%c' allowed only after types %s in %s
ef54e1a4 71
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72(F) The modifiers '!', '<' and '>' are allowed in pack() or unpack() only
73after certain types. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
ef54e1a4 74
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75=item alpha->numify() is lossy
76
77(W numeric) An alpha version can not be numified without losing
78information.
79
6df41af2 80=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
43192e07 81
75b44862 82(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
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83keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
84one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
85subroutine is not imported.
43192e07 86
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87To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
88before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
89Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
90imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
43192e07 91
6df41af2 92To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
496a33f5 93on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
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94to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
95L<attributes>).
43192e07 96
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97=item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
98
99(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
100all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
101first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
102C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
103
6df41af2 104=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
43192e07 105
7c7af292 106(S ambiguous) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
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107you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
108a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
a0d0e21e 109
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110=item Ambiguous use of -%s resolved as -&%s()
111
112(S ambiguous) You wrote something like C<-foo>, which might be the
113string C<"-foo">, or a call to the function C<foo>, negated. If you meant
114the string, just write C<"-foo">. If you meant the function call,
115write C<-foo()>.
116
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117=item Ambiguous use of %c resolved as operator %c
118
7c7af292 119(S ambiguous) C<%>, C<&>, and C<*> are both infix operators (modulus,
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120bitwise and, and multiplication) I<and> initial special characters
121(denoting hashes, subroutines and typeglobs), and you said something
122like C<*foo * foo> that might be interpreted as either of them. We
123assumed you meant the infix operator, but please try to make it more
124clear -- in the example given, you might write C<*foo * foo()> if you
125really meant to multiply a glob by the result of calling a function.
d8225693 126
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127=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s} resolved to %c%s
128
129(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<@{foo}>, which might be
130asking for the variable C<@foo>, or it might be calling a function
131named foo, and dereferencing it as an array reference. If you wanted
1cecf2c0 132the variable, you can just write C<@foo>. If you wanted to call the
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133function, write C<@{foo()}> ... or you could just not have a variable
134and a function with the same name, and save yourself a lot of trouble.
135
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136=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s[...]} resolved to %c%s[...]
137
138=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s{...}} resolved to %c%s{...}
4da60377 139
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140(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<${foo[2]}> (where foo represents
141the name of a Perl keyword), which might be looking for element number
1422 of the array named C<@foo>, in which case please write C<$foo[2]>, or you
143might have meant to pass an anonymous arrayref to the function named
144foo, and then do a scalar deref on the value it returns. If you meant
145that, write C<${foo([2])}>.
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146
147In regular expressions, the C<${foo[2]}> syntax is sometimes necessary
148to disambiguate between array subscripts and character classes.
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149C</$length[2345]/>, for instance, will be interpreted as C<$length> followed
150by the character class C<[2345]>. If an array subscript is what you
151want, you can avoid the warning by changing C</${length[2345]}/> to the
152unsightly C</${\$length[2345]}/>, by renaming your array to something
153that does not coincide with a built-in keyword, or by simply turning
154off warnings with C<no warnings 'ambiguous';>.
4da60377 155
6df41af2 156=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
a0d0e21e 157
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158(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
159redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
160redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
c9f97d15 161
6df41af2 162=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
1028017a 163
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164(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
165redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
166into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
167though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
168which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
1028017a 169
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170 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
171 while (<STDIN>) {
172 print;
173 print OUT;
174 }
175 close OUT;
c9f97d15 176
6df41af2 177=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
eb6e2d6f 178
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179(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
180transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
be771a83 181one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
ac036724 182a scalar value (the length of an array, or the population info of a
183hash) and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
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184you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
185alternatives.
eb6e2d6f 186
6df41af2 187=item Arg too short for msgsnd
76cd736e 188
6df41af2 189(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
76cd736e 190
f86702cc 191=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 192
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193(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
194that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
195will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
a0d0e21e 196
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197Note that for the C<Inf> and C<NaN> (infinity and not-a-number) the
198definition of "numeric" is somewhat unusual: the strings themselves
199(like "Inf") are considered numeric, and anything following them is
200considered non-numeric.
201
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202=item Argument list not closed for PerlIO layer "%s"
203
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204(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O
205system you forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers
206take care of transforming data between external and internal
207representations.) Perl stopped parsing the layer list at this
208point and did not attempt to push this layer. If your program
209didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the
210result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
b4581f09 211
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212=item Argument "%s" treated as 0 in increment (++)
213
214(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to the C<++>
215operator which expects either a number or a string matching
216C</^[a-zA-Z]*[0-9]*\z/>. See L<perlop/Auto-increment and
217Auto-decrement> for details.
218
637494ac 219=item Array passed to stat will be coerced to a scalar%s
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220
221(W syntax) You called stat() on an array, but the array will be
222coerced to a scalar - the number of elements in the array.
223
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224=item A signature parameter must start with '$', '@' or '%'
225
226(F) Each subroutine signature parameter declaration must start with a valid
227sigil; for example:
228
229 sub foo ($a, $, $b = 1, @c) {}
230
231=item A slurpy parameter may not have a default value
232
233(F) Only scalar subroutine signature parameters may have a default value;
234for example:
235
236 sub foo ($a = 1) {} # legal
237 sub foo (@a = (1)) {} # invalid
238 sub foo (%a = (a => b)) {} # invalid
239
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240=item assertion botched: %s
241
21b5e840 242(X) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
a0d0e21e 243
0eacef8e 244=item Assertion %s failed: file "%s", line %d
a0d0e21e 245
21b5e840 246(X) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
a0d0e21e 247
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248=item Assigned value is not a reference
249
250(F) You tried to assign something that was not a reference to an lvalue
251reference (e.g., C<\$x = $y>). If you meant to make $x an alias to $y, use
252C<\$x = \$y>.
253
254=item Assigned value is not %s reference
255
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256(F) You tried to assign a reference to a reference constructor, but the
257two references were not of the same type. You cannot alias a scalar to
258an array, or an array to a hash; the two types must match.
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259
260 \$x = \@y; # error
261 \@x = \%y; # error
262 $y = [];
263 \$x = $y; # error; did you mean \$y?
264
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265=item Assigning non-zero to $[ is no longer possible
266
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267(F) When the "array_base" feature is disabled (e.g., under C<use v5.16;>)
268the special variable C<$[>, which is deprecated, is now a fixed zero value.
82122228 269
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270=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
271
272(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
273must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
274know which context to supply to the right side.
275
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276=item Assuming NOT a POSIX class since %s in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
277
278(W regexp) You had something like these:
279
280 [[:alnum]]
281 [[:digit:xyz]
282
283They look like they might have been meant to be the POSIX classes
284C<[:alnum:]> or C<[:digit:]>. If so, they should be written:
285
286 [[:alnum:]]
287 [[:digit:]xyz]
288
289Since these aren't legal POSIX class specifications, but are legal
290bracketed character classes, Perl treats them as the latter. In the
291first example, it matches the characters C<":">, C<"[">, C<"a">, C<"l">,
292C<"m">, C<"n">, and C<"u">.
293
294If these weren't meant to be POSIX classes, this warning message is
295spurious, and can be suppressed by reordering things, such as
296
297 [[al:num]]
298
299or
300
301 [[:munla]]
302
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303=item <> at require-statement should be quotes
304
305(F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
306C<require 'file'>.
307
2393f1b9 308=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
1b1f1335 309
49293501 310(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
2393f1b9 311the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
49293501 312
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313=item Attempt to bless into a freed package
314
315(F) You wrote C<bless $foo> with one argument after somehow causing
316the current package to be freed. Perl cannot figure out what to
317do, so it throws up in hands in despair.
318
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319=item Attempt to bless into a reference
320
321(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
57dedab9 322the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
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323supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
324
325 bless $self, $proto;
326
327when you intended
328
329 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
330
331If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
332of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
333example by:
334
335 bless $self, "$proto";
336
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337=item Attempt to clear deleted array
338
339(S debugging) An array was assigned to when it was being freed.
340Freed values are not supposed to be visible to Perl code. This
341can also happen if XS code calls C<av_clear> from a custom magic
342callback on the array.
343
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344=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
345
346(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
347which is not in its key set.
348
349=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
350
351(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
352declared readonly from a restricted hash.
353
de42a5a9 354=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%x
a0d0e21e 355
f84fe999 356(S internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
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357that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
358outside any of those arenas.
a0d0e21e 359
12578ffb 360=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string '%s'%s
bbce6d69 361
f84fe999 362(S internal) Perl maintains a reference-counted internal table of
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363strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
364strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
365of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
bbce6d69 366
7d5b40b4 367=item Attempt to free temp prematurely: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 368
f84fe999 369(S debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
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370free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
371SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
372free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
373try to free it.
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374
375=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
376
f84fe999 377(S internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
a0d0e21e 378
7d5b40b4 379=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 380
8f7e4d2c 381(S internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
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382see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
383earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
384This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
385that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
386mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
387corrupted.
a0d0e21e 388
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389=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
390
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391(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
392function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
393means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
394invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
395literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
396avoid this warning.
84902520 397
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398=item Attempt to reload %s aborted.
399
400(F) You tried to load a file with C<use> or C<require> that failed to
401compile once already. Perl will not try to compile this file again
402unless you delete its entry from %INC. See L<perlfunc/require> and
403L<perlvar/%INC>.
404
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405=item Attempt to set length of freed array
406
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407(W misc) You tried to set the length of an array which has
408been freed. You can do this by storing a reference to the
409scalar representing the last index of an array and later
410assigning through that reference. For example
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411
412 $r = do {my @a; \$#a};
413 $$r = 503
414
b7a902f4 415=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
416
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417(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
418used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
419dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 420
c9680906 421=item Attribute "locked" is deprecated, and will disappear in Perl 5.28
c32124fe 422
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423(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragma to modify the
424"locked" attribute on a code reference. The :locked attribute is
425obsolete, has had no effect since 5005 threads were removed, and
c9680906 426will be removed in a Perl 5.28.
c32124fe 427
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428=item Attribute prototype(%s) discards earlier prototype attribute in same sub
429
430(W misc) A sub was declared as sub foo : prototype(A) : prototype(B) {}, for
431example. Since each sub can only have one prototype, the earlier
432declaration(s) are discarded while the last one is applied.
433
c9680906 434=item Attribute "unique" is deprecated, and will disappear in Perl 5.28
f1a3ce43 435
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436(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragma to modify
437the "unique" attribute on an array, hash or scalar reference.
438The :unique attribute has had no effect since Perl 5.8.8, and
c9680906 439will be removed in a Perl 5.28.
f1a3ce43 440
ccce04a4
FC
441=item av_reify called on tied array
442
443(S debugging) This indicates that something went wrong and Perl got I<very>
444confused about C<@_> or C<@DB::args> being tied.
445
de42a5a9 446=item Bad arg length for %s, is %u, should be %d
a0d0e21e 447
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448(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
449or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 450S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
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451S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
452
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453=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
454
496a33f5 455(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
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456substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
457most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
458
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459=item Bad filehandle: %s
460
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461(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
462symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
463open(), or did it in another package.
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464
465=item Bad free() ignored
466
be771a83 467(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
fa816bf3 468been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 469setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 470
9ea8bc6d 471This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
6903afa2 472dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
be771a83 473which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 474
aa689395 475=item Bad hash
476
477(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
478
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479=item Badly placed ()'s
480
481(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
482of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
483Perl yourself.
484
a7cb8dae 485=item Bad name after %s
a0d0e21e 486
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487(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
488didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
489of quotes, so
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LW
490
491 $var = 'myvar';
492 $sym = mypack::$var;
493
494is not the same as
495
496 $var = 'myvar';
497 $sym = "mypack::$var";
498
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499=item Bad plugin affecting keyword '%s'
500
501(F) An extension using the keyword plugin mechanism violated the
502plugin API.
503
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504=item Bad realloc() ignored
505
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506(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that
507had never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can
508be disabled by setting the environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 509
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510=item Bad symbol for array
511
512(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
513wasn't a symbol table entry.
514
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515=item Bad symbol for dirhandle
516
517(P) An internal request asked to add a dirhandle entry to something
518that wasn't a symbol table entry.
519
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520=item Bad symbol for filehandle
521
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522(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
523that wasn't a symbol table entry.
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524
525=item Bad symbol for hash
526
527(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
528wasn't a symbol table entry.
529
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FC
530=item Bad symbol for scalar
531
532(P) An internal request asked to add a scalar entry to something that
533wasn't a symbol table entry.
534
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535=item Bareword found in conditional
536
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537(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
538conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
539of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
34d09196
GS
540
541 open FOO || die;
542
be771a83
GS
543It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
544a bareword:
34d09196
GS
545
546 use constant TYPO => 1;
547 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
548
549The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
550
a52f2cce
NC
551=item Bareword in require contains "%s"
552
a52f2cce
NC
553=item Bareword in require maps to disallowed filename "%s"
554
09eb1f39 555=item Bareword in require maps to empty filename
5bad2b39 556
a52f2cce 557(F) The bareword form of require has been invoked with a filename which could
d4e5761f 558not have been generated by a valid bareword permitted by the parser. You
a52f2cce
NC
559shouldn't be able to get this error from Perl code, but XS code may throw it
560if it passes an invalid module name to C<Perl_load_module>.
561
5bad2b39
DM
562=item Bareword in require must not start with a double-colon: "%s"
563
564(F) In C<require Bare::Word>, the bareword is not allowed to start with a
d4e5761f 565double-colon. Write C<require ::Foo::Bar> as C<require Foo::Bar> instead.
5bad2b39 566
6df41af2
GS
567=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
568
569(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
be771a83
GS
570subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
571symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
6df41af2
GS
572
573=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
574
be771a83
GS
575(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
576compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
577you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 578
a0d0e21e
LW
579=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
580
be771a83
GS
581(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
582subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
583exited.
a0d0e21e 584
68dc0745 585=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
586
587(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
be771a83
GS
588implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
589occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
590be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
591depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 592
c782d7ee 593=item \%d better written as $%d
6df41af2 594
be771a83
GS
595(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
596The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
597substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
598because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
599there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 600
252aa082
JH
601=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
602
e476b1b5 603(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
604(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
605L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 606
69282e91 607=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 608
be771a83
GS
609(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
610check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 611
c289d2f7
JH
612=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
613
614(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
4dcecea4 615Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 616
c5a0f51a
JH
617=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
618
e476b1b5 619(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 620
043c750c 621=item Bizarre copy of %s
4633a7c4 622
be771a83 623(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
ab830aa0 624copiable.
4633a7c4 625
5a25739d
FC
626=item Bizarre SvTYPE [%d]
627
434f489b 628(P) When starting a new thread or returning values from a thread, Perl
5a25739d
FC
629encountered an invalid data type.
630
b927b7e9 631=item Both or neither range ends should be Unicode in regex; marked by
6e8a73f2 632S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b927b7e9
KW
633
634(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
635
636In a bracketed character class in a regular expression pattern, you
637had a range which has exactly one end of it specified using C<\N{}>, and
638the other end is specified using a non-portable mechanism. Perl treats
639the range as a Unicode range, that is, all the characters in it are
640considered to be the Unicode characters, and which may be different code
641points on some platforms Perl runs on. For example, C<[\N{U+06}-\x08]>
642is treated as if you had instead said C<[\N{U+06}-\N{U+08}]>, that is it
643matches the characters whose code points in Unicode are 6, 7, and 8.
644But that C<\x08> might indicate that you meant something different, so
645the warning gets raised.
646
f675dbe5
CB
647=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
648
be771a83
GS
649(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
650iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
651which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 652
a0d0e21e
LW
653=item Callback called exit
654
4929bf7b 655(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
a0d0e21e
LW
656exited by calling exit.
657
6df41af2 658=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 659
be771a83
GS
660(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
661parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
662that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
663early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
664subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
665checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
666function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
667the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 668
0c7df902
JH
669=item Cannot chr %f
670
671(F) You passed an invalid number (like an infinity or not-a-number) to C<chr>.
672
5dee29d4 673=item Cannot compress %f in pack
0c7df902 674
5dee29d4
JH
675(F) You tried compressing an infinity or not-a-number as an unsigned
676integer with BER, which makes no sense.
0c7df902 677
49704364 678=item Cannot compress integer in pack
0258719b 679
717feafc
JH
680(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress.
681The BER compressed integer format can only be used with positive
682integers, and you attempted to compress a very large number (> 1e308).
683See L<perlfunc/pack>.
0258719b 684
49704364 685=item Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
0258719b
NC
686
687(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
688format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
689
5c1f4d79
NC
690=item Cannot convert a reference to %s to typeglob
691
6903afa2
FC
692(F) You manipulated Perl's symbol table directly, stored a reference
693in it, then tried to access that symbol via conventional Perl syntax.
694The access triggers Perl to autovivify that typeglob, but it there is
695no legal conversion from that type of reference to a typeglob.
5c1f4d79 696
4040665a 697=item Cannot copy to %s
ba2fdce6
NC
698
699(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy a value to an internal type that cannot
4dcecea4 700be directly assigned to.
ba2fdce6 701
b5d97229
RGS
702=item Cannot find encoding "%s"
703
704(S io) You tried to apply an encoding that did not exist to a filehandle,
705either with open() or binmode().
706
0c7df902
JH
707=item Cannot pack %f with '%c'
708
5dee29d4 709(F) You tried converting an infinity or not-a-number to an integer,
0c7df902
JH
710which makes no sense.
711
712=item Cannot printf %f with '%c'
713
714(F) You tried printing an infinity or not-a-number as a character (%c),
715which makes no sense. Maybe you meant '%s', or just stringifying it?
716
7355df7e
FC
717=item Cannot set tied @DB::args
718
719(F) C<caller> tried to set C<@DB::args>, but found it tied. Tying C<@DB::args>
720is not supported. (Before this error was added, it used to crash.)
721
ce65bc73
FC
722=item Cannot tie unreifiable array
723
724(P) You somehow managed to call C<tie> on an array that does not
725keep a reference count on its arguments and cannot be made to
726do so. Such arrays are not even supposed to be accessible to
727Perl code, but are only used internally.
728
46e58bd2
AC
729=item Cannot yet reorder sv_catpvfn() arguments from va_list
730
731(F) Some XS code tried to use C<sv_catpvfn()> or a related function with a
732format string that specifies explicit indexes for some of the elements, and
d4e5761f
FC
733using a C-style variable-argument list (a C<va_list>). This is not currently
734supported. XS authors wanting to do this must instead construct a C array
735of C<SV*> scalars containing the arguments.
46e58bd2 736
96ebfdd7
RK
737=item Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
738
739(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
740integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
741to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
742
a0d0e21e
LW
743=item Can't bless non-reference value
744
745(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
746encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
747
dc57907a
RGS
748=item Can't "break" in a loop topicalizer
749
0d863452 750(F) You called C<break>, but you're in a C<foreach> block rather than
6903afa2 751a C<given> block. You probably meant to use C<next> or C<last>.
0d863452
RH
752
753=item Can't "break" outside a given block
dc57907a 754
0d863452
RH
755(F) You called C<break>, but you're not inside a C<given> block.
756
6df41af2
GS
757=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
758
759(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
760object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
761like this will reproduce the error:
6df41af2
GS
762
763 $BADREF = undef;
764 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
765 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
766
a0d0e21e
LW
767=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
768
54310121 769(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
be771a83
GS
770ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
771didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
772object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
773
774=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
775
776(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
777object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
778defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
72b5445b
GS
779Something like this will reproduce the error:
780
781 $BADREF = 42;
782 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
783 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
784
dfe378f1
FC
785=item Can't call mro_isa_changed_in() on anonymous symbol table
786
787(P) Perl got confused as to whether a hash was a plain hash or a
788symbol table hash when trying to update @ISA caches.
789
2bf7e7b2
FC
790=item Can't call mro_method_changed_in() on anonymous symbol table
791
792(F) An XS module tried to call C<mro_method_changed_in> on a hash that was
793not attached to the symbol table.
794
a0d0e21e
LW
795=item Can't chdir to %s
796
f703fc96 797(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but F</foo/bar> is not a directory
a0d0e21e
LW
798that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
799
0545a864 800=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
104d25b7 801
be771a83
GS
802(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
803nosuid.
104d25b7 804
22e74366 805=item Can't coerce %s to %s in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
806
807(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 808(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
a0d0e21e
LW
809say things like:
810
811 *foo += 1;
812
813You CAN say
814
815 $foo = *foo;
816 $foo += 1;
817
818but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
819
0d863452 820=item Can't "continue" outside a when block
dc57907a 821
0d863452
RH
822(F) You called C<continue>, but you're not inside a C<when>
823or C<default> block.
824
a0d0e21e
LW
825=item Can't create pipe mailbox
826
be771a83
GS
827(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
828quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 829
eb64745e
GS
830=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
831
30c282f6
NC
832(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my", "our" or
833"state" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 834
fc7debfb
FC
835=item Can't "default" outside a topicalizer
836
837(F) You have used a C<default> block that is neither inside a
838C<foreach> loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is
839issued on exit from the C<default> block, so you won't get the
840error if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
841
1e85b658
DM
842=item Can't determine class of operator %s, assuming BASEOP
843
844(S) This warning indicates something wrong in the internals of perl.
845Perl was trying to find the class (e.g. LISTOP) of a particular OP,
846and was unable to do so. This is likely to be due to a bug in the perl
847internals, or due to a bug in XS code which manipulates perl optrees.
848
a2162cd9
FC
849=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
850
851(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
852a file in /dev, a FIFO or an uneditable directory. The file was ignored.
853
854=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
855
856(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
857reason.
858
859=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
860
861(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
862reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
863C<-i.bak>, or some such.
864
865=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
866
867(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
868characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
869inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
870
ab0b796c
KW
871=item Can't do %s("%s") on non-UTF-8 locale; resolved to "%s".
872
873(W locale) You are 1) running under "C<use locale>"; 2) the current
874locale is not a UTF-8 one; 3) you tried to do the designated case-change
875operation on the specified Unicode character; and 4) the result of this
876operation would mix Unicode and locale rules, which likely conflict.
877Mixing of different rule types is forbidden, so the operation was not
878done; instead the result is the indicated value, which is the best
879available that uses entirely Unicode rules. That turns out to almost
880always be the original character, unchanged.
881
882It is generally a bad idea to mix non-UTF-8 locales and Unicode, and
883this issue is one of the reasons why. This warning is raised when
884Unicode rules would normally cause the result of this operation to
885contain a character that is in the range specified by the locale,
8860..255, and hence is subject to the locale's rules, not Unicode's.
887
888If you are using locale purely for its characteristics related to things
889like its numeric and time formatting (and not C<LC_CTYPE>), consider
890using a restricted form of the locale pragma (see L<perllocale/The "use
891locale" pragma>) like "S<C<use locale ':not_characters'>>".
892
893Note that failed case-changing operations done as a result of
894case-insensitive C</i> regular expression matching will show up in this
895warning as having the C<fc> operation (as that is what the regular
896expression engine calls behind the scenes.)
897
a0d0e21e
LW
898=item Can't do waitpid with flags
899
be771a83
GS
900(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
901waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 902
a0d0e21e
LW
903=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
904
be771a83
GS
905(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
906point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
907line.
a0d0e21e 908
1109a392
MHM
909=item Can't %s %s-endian %ss on this platform
910
911(F) Your platform's byte-order is neither big-endian nor little-endian,
912or it has a very strange pointer size. Packing and unpacking big- or
913little-endian floating point values and pointers may not be possible.
914See L<perlfunc/pack>.
915
a0d0e21e
LW
916=item Can't exec "%s": %s
917
d1be9408 918(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
919named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
920permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
921C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
922architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
923can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
924#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
925
926=item Can't exec %s
927
be771a83
GS
928(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
929that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
930need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
931
932=item Can't execute %s
933
be771a83
GS
934(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
935found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 936
6df41af2 937=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 938
be771a83
GS
939(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
940is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2
GS
941
942=item Can't find label %s
943
be771a83
GS
944(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
945possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
946
947=item Can't find %s on PATH
948
be771a83
GS
949(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
950found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 951
6df41af2 952=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 953
be771a83
GS
954(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
955found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
956script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e
LW
957
958=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
959
be771a83
GS
960(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
961that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
962nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 963
fb73857a 964 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
965
97b3d10f 966If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have
b6b8cb97
FC
967included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag or there
968may not be a linebreak after it. A good programmer's editor will have
969a way to help you find these characters (or lack of characters). See
970L<perlop> for the full details on here-documents.
a0d0e21e 971
660a4616
TS
972=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s"
973
29f52644
KW
974=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
975
976(F) The named property which you specified via C<\p> or C<\P> is not one
977known to Perl. Perhaps you misspelled the name? See
e1b711da 978L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
29f52644
KW
979for a complete list of available official
980properties. If it is a
981L<user-defined property|perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties>
982it must have been defined by the time the regular expression is
983matched.
984
985If you didn't mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either
986by C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, or
5f8ad6b6 987until C<\E>).
660a4616 988
b3647a36 989=item Can't fork: %s
a0d0e21e 990
be771a83
GS
991(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
992pipeline.
a0d0e21e 993
b3647a36
SR
994=item Can't fork, trying again in 5 seconds
995
c973c02e 996(W pipe) A fork in a piped open failed with EAGAIN and will be retried
b3647a36
SR
997after five seconds.
998
748a9306
LW
999=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
1000
be771a83
GS
1001(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
1002between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
1003Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
1004the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
1005account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
1006the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
2fe2bdfd 1007the access-checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
be771a83
GS
1008the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
1009if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
1010because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
2fe2bdfd
FC
1011appears, the name lookup failed, and the access-checking routine gave up
1012and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access-checking
be771a83
GS
1013routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
1014shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
1015only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 1016
a0d0e21e
LW
1017=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
1018
be771a83
GS
1019(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
1020pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
1021
1022=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
1023
748a9306
LW
1024(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
1025mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 1026
6df41af2 1027=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 1028
be771a83
GS
1029(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
1030loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
1031
1032=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
1033
be771a83
GS
1034(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
1035a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
1036you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
1037See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 1038
5a25739d
FC
1039=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-%s
1040
1041(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
1042"string" or block.
1043
9850bf21 1044=item Can't goto subroutine from a sort sub (or similar callback)
cd299c6e 1045
9850bf21
RH
1046(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of the
1047comparison sub for a sort(), or from a similar callback (such
1048as the reduce() function in List::Util).
1049
6df41af2
GS
1050=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
1051
be771a83
GS
1052(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
1053subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
1054cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
1055routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 1056
0b5b802d
GS
1057=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
1058
be771a83
GS
1059(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
1060signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
1061signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
1062processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
1063situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
1064may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 1065
e2c0f81f
DG
1066=item Can't kill a non-numeric process ID
1067
1068(F) Process identifiers must be (signed) integers. It is a fatal error to
1069attempt to kill() an undefined, empty-string or otherwise non-numeric
1070process identifier.
1071
6df41af2 1072=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 1073
6df41af2 1074(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
1075except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
1076block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
1077block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
1078usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
1079inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
1080L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 1081
2c7d6b9c
RGS
1082=item Can't linearize anonymous symbol table
1083
1084(F) Perl tried to calculate the method resolution order (MRO) of a
1085package, but failed because the package stash has no name.
1086
b8170e59
JB
1087=item Can't load '%s' for module %s
1088
6903afa2
FC
1089(F) The module you tried to load failed to load a dynamic extension.
1090This may either mean that you upgraded your version of perl to one
1091that is incompatible with your old dynamic extensions (which is known
1092to happen between major versions of perl), or (more likely) that your
1093dynamic extension was built against an older version of the library
1094that is installed on your system. You may need to rebuild your old
1095dynamic extensions.
b8170e59 1096
748a9306
LW
1097=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
1098
2ba9eb46 1099(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
b7e4ecc1
FC
1100lexical variable using "my" or "state". This is not allowed. If you
1101want to localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with
1102the package name.
748a9306 1103
6df41af2 1104=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 1105
6df41af2
GS
1106(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
1107handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 1108pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 1109that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 1110
ea071790 1111=item Can't locate %s
ec889f3a 1112
fa816bf3
FC
1113(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be found.
1114Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC, unless
1115the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you need
1116to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where the
1117extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
be771a83
GS
1118to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
1119L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 1120
6df41af2
GS
1121=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
1122
be771a83
GS
1123(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
1124autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
1125are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
1126the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 1127
b8170e59
JB
1128=item Can't locate loadable object for module %s in @INC
1129
1130(F) The module you loaded is trying to load an external library, like
d70d8e57 1131for example, F<foo.so> or F<bar.dll>, but the L<DynaLoader> module was
b8170e59
JB
1132unable to locate this library. See L<DynaLoader>.
1133
a0d0e21e
LW
1134=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
1135
1136(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
1137functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 1138method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e 1139
8af56b9d
FC
1140=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s" (perhaps you forgot
1141to load "%s"?)
1142
1143(F) You called a method on a class that did not exist, and the method
1144could not be found in UNIVERSAL. This often means that a method
1145requires a package that has not been loaded.
1146
a0d0e21e
LW
1147=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
1148
be771a83
GS
1149(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
1150doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 1151
2f7da168
RK
1152=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
1153
1154(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
1155e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
1156
f4ad53f4 1157=item Can't make list assignment to %ENV on this system
3e3baf6d 1158
be771a83
GS
1159(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
1160VMS.
3e3baf6d 1161
cd40cd58
NC
1162=item Can't make loaded symbols global on this platform while loading %s
1163
ff9c1ae8 1164(S) A module passed the flag 0x01 to DynaLoader::dl_load_file() to request
cd40cd58
NC
1165that symbols from the stated file are made available globally within the
1166process, but that functionality is not available on this platform. Whilst
1167the module likely will still work, this may prevent the perl interpreter
1168from loading other XS-based extensions which need to link directly to
1169functions defined in the C or XS code in the stated file.
1170
a0d0e21e
LW
1171=item Can't modify %s in %s
1172
be771a83
GS
1173(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
1174to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 1175
54310121 1176=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
a0d0e21e
LW
1177
1178(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
1179a NULL.
1180
0f948285 1181=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call of &%s
6df41af2
GS
1182
1183(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
2fe2bdfd 1184such. See L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
6df41af2 1185
cf6e1fa1
FC
1186=item Can't modify reference to %s in %s assignment
1187
1188(F) Only a limited number of constructs can be used as the argument to a
1189reference constructor on the left-hand side of an assignment, and what
1190you used was not one of them. See L<perlref/Assigning to References>.
1191
1192=item Can't modify reference to localized parenthesized array in list
1193assignment
1194
1195(F) Assigning to C<\local(@array)> or C<\(local @array)> is not supported, as
1196it is not clear exactly what it should do. If you meant to make @array
1197refer to some other array, use C<\@array = \@other_array>. If you want to
1198make the elements of @array aliases of the scalars referenced on the
1199right-hand side, use C<\(@array) = @scalar_refs>.
1200
1201=item Can't modify reference to parenthesized hash in list assignment
1202
1203(F) Assigning to C<\(%hash)> is not supported. If you meant to make %hash
1204refer to some other hash, use C<\%hash = \%other_hash>. If you want to
1205make the elements of %hash into aliases of the scalars referenced on the
1206right-hand side, use a hash slice: C<\@hash{@keys} = @those_scalar_refs>.
1207
5f05dabc 1208=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 1209
5f05dabc 1210(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
1211buffer.
1212
6df41af2
GS
1213=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
1214
1215(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
1216there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
1217count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
1218grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1219though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
1220once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 1221
a0d0e21e
LW
1222=item Can't open %s: %s
1223
c47ff5f1 1224(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e 1225filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
46fa9b26
FC
1226switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually
1227this is because you don't have read permission for a file which
1228you named on the command line.
1229
1230(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-e> switch, but F</dev/null> (or
1231your operating system's equivalent) could not be opened.
a0d0e21e 1232
9a869a14
RGS
1233=item Can't open a reference
1234
1235(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
2fe2bdfd 1236using the 3-arg open() syntax:
9a869a14
RGS
1237
1238 open FH, '>', $ref;
1239
1240but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
1241open is not supported.
1242
a0d0e21e
LW
1243=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
1244
be771a83
GS
1245(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
1246You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
1247as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
1248">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 1249
748a9306
LW
1250=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
1251
be771a83
GS
1252(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1253redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
1254the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1255
1256=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
1257
be771a83
GS
1258(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1259redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
1260command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
1261
1262=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
1263
be771a83
GS
1264(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1265redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
1266the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1267
1268=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
1269
be771a83
GS
1270(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1271redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
1272for stdout.
748a9306 1273
3b1cf97d 1274=item Can't open perl script "%s": %s
a0d0e21e
LW
1275
1276(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
1277
fa3aa65a
JC
1278If you're debugging a script that uses #!, and normally relies on the
1279shell's $PATH search, the -S option causes perl to do that search, so
1280you don't have to type the path or C<`which $scriptname`>.
1281
6df41af2
GS
1282=item Can't read CRTL environ
1283
1284(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
1285from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
1286missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
1287or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
1288searched.
6df41af2 1289
f3106bc8
LM
1290=item Can't redeclare "%s" in "%s"
1291
1292(F) A "my", "our" or "state" declaration was found within another declaration,
1293such as C<my ($x, my($y), $z)> or C<our (my $x)>.
1294
6df41af2
GS
1295=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
1296
1297(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
1298there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
1299count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
1300or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1301though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
1302loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
1303
64977eb6 1304=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 1305
be771a83
GS
1306(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
1307file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
1308the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 1309
a0d0e21e
LW
1310=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
1311
e476b1b5 1312(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
10f9c03d 1313probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
a0d0e21e 1314
748a9306
LW
1315=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
1316
be771a83
GS
1317(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
1318to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 1319
9415f659
KW
1320=item Can't represent character for Ox%X on this platform
1321
1322(F) There is a hard limit to how big a character code point can be due
1323to the fundamental properties of UTF-8, especially on EBCDIC
1324platforms. The given code point exceeds that. The only work-around is
1325to not use such a large code point.
1326
4f12ec0e
FC
1327=item Can't reset %ENV on this system
1328
1329(F) You called C<reset('E')> or similar, which tried to reset
1330all variables in the current package beginning with "E". In
1331the main package, that includes %ENV. Resetting %ENV is not
1332supported on some systems, notably VMS.
1333
fe13d51d 1334=item Can't resolve method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
6df41af2 1335
1fa582fa
FC
1336(F)(P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as
1337opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the
1338package. If the method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 1339
cd06dffe
GS
1340=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
1341
be771a83
GS
1342(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
1343temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
1344is not allowed.
cd06dffe 1345
96ebfdd7
RK
1346=item Can't return outside a subroutine
1347
1348(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1349there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1350
78f9721b
SM
1351=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
1352
6903afa2
FC
1353(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue
1354subroutine, but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl
1355think you meant to return only one value. You probably meant to
1356write parentheses around the call to the subroutine, which tell
1357Perl that the call should be in list context.
78f9721b 1358
a0d0e21e
LW
1359=item Can't stat script "%s"
1360
be771a83
GS
1361(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1362open already. Bizarre.
a0d0e21e 1363
a0d0e21e
LW
1364=item Can't take log of %g
1365
fb73857a 1366(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
6903afa2 1367negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
1368standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1369negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
1370
1371=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1372
1373(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 1374negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1375with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
1376
1377=item Can't undef active subroutine
1378
1379(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1380however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1381redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1382
c81225bc 1383=item Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d
a0d0e21e 1384
be771a83
GS
1385(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1386into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1387specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1388indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e 1389
6651ba0b
FC
1390=item Can't use '%c' after -mname
1391
1392(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-m> switch, but you put something
1393other than "=" after the module name.
1394
1f1ec7b5
KW
1395=item Can't use a hash as a reference
1396
1397(F) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
66a1f5ec
FC
1398C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl
1399<= 5.22.0 used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't
1400have. This was deprecated in perl 5.6.1.
1f1ec7b5
KW
1401
1402=item Can't use an array as a reference
1403
1404(F) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
66a1f5ec
FC
1405C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.22.0
1406used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. This
1407was deprecated in perl 5.6.1.
1f1ec7b5 1408
1db89ea5
BS
1409=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1410
e27ad1f2 1411(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1db89ea5
BS
1412table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1413for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1414
96ebfdd7
RK
1415=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1416
1417(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1418be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1419
6df41af2
GS
1420=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1421
be771a83
GS
1422(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1423references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1424
90b75b61 1425=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63 1426
20561843 1427(F) The first time the C<%!> hash is used, perl automatically loads the
6903afa2 1428Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1d2dff63
GS
1429provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1430
1109a392
MHM
1431=item Can't use both '<' and '>' after type '%c' in %s
1432
1433(F) A type cannot be forced to have both big-endian and little-endian
1434byte-order at the same time, so this combination of modifiers is not
1435allowed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1436
e35475de
KW
1437=item Can't use 'defined(@array)' (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?)
1438
1439(F) defined() is not useful on arrays because it
1440checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
1441array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
1442
1443=item Can't use 'defined(%hash)' (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?)
1444
1445(F) C<defined()> is not usually right on hashes.
1446
1447Although C<defined %hash> is false on a plain not-yet-used hash, it
1448becomes true in several non-obvious circumstances, including iterators,
1449weak references, stash names, even remaining true after C<undef %hash>.
1450These things make C<defined %hash> fairly useless in practice, so it now
1451generates a fatal error.
1452
1453If a check for non-empty is what you wanted then just put it in boolean
1454context (see L<perldata/Scalar values>):
1455
1456 if (%hash) {
1457 # not empty
1458 }
1459
1460If you had C<defined %Foo::Bar::QUUX> to check whether such a package
1461variable exists then that's never really been reliable, and isn't
1462a good way to enquire about the features of a package, or whether
1463it's loaded, etc.
1464
6df41af2
GS
1465=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1466
c1f06047 1467(P) The parser got confused when trying to parse a C<foreach> loop.
6df41af2 1468
aab6a793 1469=item Can't use global %s in "%s"
6df41af2 1470
be771a83
GS
1471(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1472is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1473(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1474have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1475weren't.
1476
6d3b25aa
RGS
1477=item Can't use '%c' in a group with different byte-order in %s
1478
1479(F) You attempted to force a different byte-order on a type
1480that is already inside a group with a byte-order modifier.
1481For example you cannot force little-endianness on a type that
1482is inside a big-endian group.
1483
c07a80fd 1484=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1485
1486(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1487You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1488and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1489Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1490lexical variable.
1491
a0d0e21e
LW
1492=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1493
1494(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1495reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1496test the type of the reference, if need be.
1497
748a9306 1498=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1499
5e634d20
FC
1500=item Can't use string ("%s"...) as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1501
b41bf23f
FC
1502(F) You've told Perl to dereference a string, something which
1503C<use strict> blocks to prevent it happening accidentally. See
1504L<perlref/"Symbolic references">. This can be triggered by an C<@> or C<$>
1505in a double-quoted string immediately before interpolating a variable,
1506for example in C<"user @$twitter_id">, which says to treat the contents
1507of C<$twitter_id> as an array reference; use a C<\> to have a literal C<@>
1508symbol followed by the contents of C<$twitter_id>: C<"user \@$twitter_id">.
a0d0e21e 1509
748a9306
LW
1510=item Can't use subscript on %s
1511
1512(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1513subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
209e7cf1 1514didn't look like a hash or array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
748a9306 1515
6df41af2
GS
1516=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1517
75b44862
GS
1518(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1519creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1520backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1521expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1522value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1523instead.
6df41af2 1524
810b8aa5
GS
1525=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1526
1527(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1528references can be weakened.
1529
fc7debfb
FC
1530=item Can't "when" outside a topicalizer
1531
1532(F) You have used a when() block that is neither inside a C<foreach>
1533loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is issued on exit
1534from the C<when> block, so you won't get the error if the match fails,
1535or if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
1536
5f05dabc 1537=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1538
be771a83
GS
1539(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1540with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1541Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1542
a04e6aad 1543=item Character following "\c" must be printable ASCII
f9d13529 1544
7357bd17 1545(F) In C<\cI<X>>, I<X> must be a printable (non-control) ASCII character.
17a3df4c 1546
727b6379 1547Note that ASCII characters that don't map to control characters are
7357bd17 1548discouraged, and will generate the warning (when enabled)
bfdc8cd3 1549L</""\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s". This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.28">.
f9d13529 1550
163a633c
KW
1551=item Character following \%c must be '{' or a single-character Unicode property name in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1552
1553(F) (In the above the C<%c> is replaced by either C<p> or C<P>.) You
1554specified something that isn't a legal Unicode property name. Most
1555Unicode properties are specified by C<\p{...}>. But if the name is a
1556single character one, the braces may be omitted.
1557
f337b084 1558=item Character in 'C' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1559
1560(W pack) You said
1561
1562 pack("C", $x)
1563
1564where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1565only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1566and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1567
1568 pack("C", $x & 255)
1569
1570If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1571instead.
1572
f337b084 1573=item Character in 'c' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1574
1575(W pack) You said
1576
1577 pack("c", $x)
1578
1579where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1580is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1581and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1582
1583 pack("c", $x & 255);
1584
1585If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1586instead.
1587
f337b084
TH
1588=item Character in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1589
1590(W unpack) You tried something like
1591
1592 unpack("H", "\x{2a1}")
1593
1a147d38 1594where the format expects to process a byte (a character with a value
6903afa2
FC
1595below 256), but a higher value was provided instead. Perl uses the
1596value modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
f337b084
TH
1597
1598 unpack("H", "\x{a1}")
1599
5a25739d
FC
1600=item Character in 'W' format wrapped in pack
1601
1602(W pack) You said
1603
1604 pack("U0W", $x)
1605
1606where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255. However, C<U0>-mode
1607expects all values to fall in the interval [0, 255], so Perl behaved
1608as if you meant:
1609
1610 pack("U0W", $x & 255)
1611
f337b084
TH
1612=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in pack
1613
1614(W pack) You tried something like
1615
1616 pack("u", "\x{1f3}b")
1617
1a147d38 1618where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1619value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1620uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1621
1622 pack("u", "\x{f3}b")
1623
1624=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1625
1626(W unpack) You tried something like
1627
1628 unpack("s", "\x{1f3}b")
1629
1a147d38 1630where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1631value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1632uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1633
1634 unpack("s", "\x{f3}b")
1635
f51551f7
FC
1636=item charnames alias definitions may not contain a sequence of multiple spaces
1637
1638(F) You defined a character name which had multiple space characters
1639in a row. Change them to single spaces. Usually these names are
1640defined in the C<:alias> import argument to C<use charnames>, but they
1641could be defined by a translator installed into C<$^H{charnames}>. See
1642L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
1643
1644=item charnames alias definitions may not contain trailing white-space
1645
1646(F) You defined a character name which ended in a space
1647character. Remove the trailing space(s). Usually these names are
1648defined in the C<:alias> import argument to C<use charnames>, but they
1649could be defined by a translator installed into C<$^H{charnames}>.
1650See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
1651
60121127
TC
1652=item chdir() on unopened filehandle %s
1653
1654(W unopened) You tried chdir() on a filehandle that was never opened.
1655
bfdc8cd3 1656=item "\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s". This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.28
f866a7cd 1657
bfdc8cd3
A
1658(D deprecated, syntax) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a
1659way to specify non-printable characters. You used it for a printable
1660one, which is better written as simply itself, perhaps preceded by
1661a backslash for non-word characters. Doing it the way you did is
1662not portable between ASCII and EBCDIC platforms.
1663
1664This usage is going to result in a fatal error in Perl 5.28.
f866a7cd 1665
6651ba0b
FC
1666=item Cloning substitution context is unimplemented
1667
1668(F) Creating a new thread inside the C<s///> operator is not supported.
1669
abc7ecad
SP
1670=item closedir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
1671
1672(W io) The dirhandle you tried to close is either closed or not really
1673a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
1674
5a25739d
FC
1675=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1676
1677(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1678
541ed3a9
FC
1679=item Closure prototype called
1680
1681(F) If a closure has attributes, the subroutine passed to an attribute
1682handler is the prototype that is cloned when a new closure is created.
1683This subroutine cannot be called.
1684
74d1b2e4
FC
1685=item \C no longer supported in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1686
1687(F) The \C character class used to allow a match of single byte
1688within a multi-byte utf-8 character, but was removed in v5.24 as
1689it broke encapsulation and its implementation was extremely buggy.
1690If you really need to process the individual bytes, you probably
1691want to convert your string to one where each underlying byte is
1692stored as a character, with utf8::encode().
1693
49704364
WL
1694=item Code missing after '/'
1695
6903afa2
FC
1696(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be
1697another template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 1698
c0236afe
KW
1699=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, and not portable
1700
1701(S non_unicode) You had a code point that has never been in any
1702standard, so it is likely that languages other than Perl will NOT
1703understand it. At one time, it was legal in some standards to have code
1704points up to 0x7FFF_FFFF, but not higher, and this code point is higher.
1705
1706Acceptance of these code points is a Perl extension, and you should
1707expect that nothing other than Perl can handle them; Perl itself on
1708EBCDIC platforms before v5.24 does not handle them.
1709
1710Code points above 0xFFFF_FFFF require larger than a 32 bit word.
1711
1712Perl also makes no guarantees that the representation of these code
1713points won't change at some point in the future, say when machines
1714become available that have larger than a 64-bit word. At that time,
1715files written by an older Perl would require conversion before being
1716readable by a newer Perl.
1717
5a25739d
FC
1718=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, may not be portable
1719
2d88a86a 1720(S non_unicode) You had a code point above the Unicode maximum
1b64326b
FC
1721of U+10FFFF.
1722
c0236afe
KW
1723Perl allows strings to contain a superset of Unicode code points, but
1724these may not be accepted by other languages/systems. Further, even if
1725these languages/systems accept these large code points, they may have
1726chosen a different representation for them than the UTF-8-like one that
1727Perl has, which would mean files are not exchangeable between them and
1728Perl.
1729
1730On EBCDIC platforms, code points above 0x3FFF_FFFF have a different
1731representation in Perl v5.24 than before, so any file containing these
1732that was written before that version will require conversion before
1733being readable by a later Perl.
0876b9a0 1734
6df41af2
GS
1735=item %s: Command not found
1736
a892b81a 1737(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> or another shell
66a1f5ec
FC
1738instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1739Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
8f721816 1740
3bcfc7b3
LM
1741 #!/usr/bin/perl
1742
1743=item %s: command not found
1744
1745(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<bash> or another shell
1746instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1747Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
1748
1749 #!/usr/bin/perl
1750
1751=item %s: command not found: %s
1752
1753(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<zsh> or another shell
1754instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1755Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
1756
1757 #!/usr/bin/perl
6df41af2 1758
7a2e2cd6 1759=item Compilation failed in require
1760
1761(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1762Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1763encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1764
c3464db5
DD
1765=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1766
be771a83
GS
1767(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1768situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1769to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1770arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1771recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1772under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1773in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1774that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1775on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1776
69282e91 1777=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1778
be771a83
GS
1779(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1780to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1781L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1782
e21e7c6a
FC
1783=item Constant(%s): Call to &{$^H{%s}} did not return a defined value
1784
1785(F) The subroutine registered to handle constant overloading
1786(see L<overload>) or a custom charnames handler (see
1787L<charnames/CUSTOM TRANSLATORS>) returned an undefined value.
1788
1789=item Constant(%s): $^H{%s} is not defined
1790
1791(F) The parser found inconsistencies while attempting to define an
1792overloaded constant. Perhaps you forgot to load the corresponding
f738a371 1793L<overload> pragma?
e21e7c6a 1794
779c5bc9
GS
1795=item Constant is not %s reference
1796
1797(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83 1798is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
6903afa2 1799The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
be771a83 1800usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1801See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1802
0ac016fc 1803=item Constants from lexical variables potentially modified elsewhere are
9840d1d6 1804deprecated. This will not be allowed in Perl 5.32
0ac016fc
FC
1805
1806(D deprecated) You wrote something like
1807
1808 my $var;
1809 $sub = sub () { $var };
1810
1811but $var is referenced elsewhere and could be modified after the C<sub>
1812expression is evaluated. Either it is explicitly modified elsewhere
1813(C<$var = 3>) or it is passed to a subroutine or to an operator like
1814C<printf> or C<map>, which may or may not modify the variable.
1815
1816Traditionally, Perl has captured the value of the variable at that
1817point and turned the subroutine into a constant eligible for inlining.
1818In those cases where the variable can be modified elsewhere, this
1819breaks the behavior of closures, in which the subroutine captures
1820the variable itself, rather than its value, so future changes to the
1821variable are reflected in the subroutine's return value.
1822
9840d1d6
A
1823This usage is deprecated, and will no longer be allowed in Perl 5.32,
1824making it possible to change the behavior in the future.
0ac016fc
FC
1825
1826If you intended for the subroutine to be eligible for inlining, then
1827make sure the variable is not referenced elsewhere, possibly by
1828copying it:
1829
1830 my $var2 = $var;
1831 $sub = sub () { $var2 };
1832
1833If you do want this subroutine to be a closure that reflects future
1834changes to the variable that it closes over, add an explicit C<return>:
1835
1836 my $var;
1837 $sub = sub () { return $var };
1838
4cee8e80
CS
1839=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1840
aeb94125
FC
1841(W redefine)(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously
1842been eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions">
1843for commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1844
9607fc9c 1845=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1846
be771a83
GS
1847(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1848for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1849workarounds.
9607fc9c 1850
5a25739d
FC
1851=item Constant(%s) unknown
1852
1853(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting
1854to define an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the
1855character name specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you
3ee1a09c 1856forgot to load the corresponding L<overload> pragma?
5a25739d 1857
4a873d7a
FC
1858=item :const is experimental
1859
1860(S experimental::const_attr) The "const" attribute is experimental.
1861If you want to use the feature, disable the warning with C<no warnings
1862'experimental::const_attr'>, but know that in doing so you are taking
1863the risk that your code may break in a future Perl version.
1864
b77472f9
FC
1865=item :const is not permitted on named subroutines
1866
1867(F) The "const" attribute causes an anonymous subroutine to be run and
465068b9 1868its value captured at the time that it is cloned. Named subroutines are
b77472f9
FC
1869not cloned like this, so the attribute does not make sense on them.
1870
e7ea3e70
IZ
1871=item Copy method did not return a reference
1872
6903afa2 1873(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1874L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1875
4aaa4757
FC
1876=item &CORE::%s cannot be called directly
1877
1878(F) You tried to call a subroutine in the C<CORE::> namespace
8d605c0d 1879with C<&foo> syntax or through a reference. Some subroutines
4aaa4757
FC
1880in this package cannot yet be called that way, but must be
1881called as barewords. Something like this will work:
1882
1883 BEGIN { *shove = \&CORE::push; }
1884 shove @array, 1,2,3; # pushes on to @array
1885
6798c92b
GS
1886=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1887
1888(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1889
675fa9ff
FC
1890=item Corrupted regexp opcode %d > %d
1891
1892(P) This is either an error in Perl, or, if you're using
1893one, your L<custom regular expression engine|perlreapi>. If not the
1894latter, report the problem through the L<perlbug> utility.
1895
a0d0e21e
LW
1896=item corrupted regexp pointers
1897
1898(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1899expression compiler gave it.
1900
1901=item corrupted regexp program
1902
be771a83
GS
1903(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1904valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1905
de42a5a9 1906=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%x at 0x%x
6df41af2
GS
1907
1908(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1909
49704364
WL
1910=item Count after length/code in unpack
1911
1912(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1913you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1914L<perlfunc/pack>.
1915
3f645a4e
FC
1916=item Declaring references is experimental
1917
1918(S experimental::declared_refs) This warning is emitted if you use
1919a reference constructor on the right-hand side of C<my>, C<state>, C<our>, or
1920C<local>. Simply suppress the warning if you want to use the feature, but
1921know that in doing so you are taking the risk of using an experimental
1922feature which may change or be removed in a future Perl version:
1923
1924 no warnings "experimental::declared_refs";
1925 use feature "declared_refs";
1926 $fooref = my \$foo;
1927
f2cccb4c
KW
1928=for comment
1929The following are used in lib/diagnostics.t for testing two =items that
1930share the same description. Changes here need to be propagated to there
1931
6651ba0b
FC
1932=item Deep recursion on anonymous subroutine
1933
a0d0e21e
LW
1934=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1935
be771a83
GS
1936(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1937100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1938infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1939which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1940
aad1d01f
NC
1941This threshold can be changed from 100, by recompiling the F<perl> binary,
1942setting the C pre-processor macro C<PERL_SUB_DEPTH_WARN> to the desired value.
1943
e0e4a6e3
FC
1944=item (?(DEFINE)....) does not allow branches in regex; marked by
1945S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
bcb95744 1946
6903afa2 1947(F) You used something like C<(?(DEFINE)...|..)> which is illegal. The
bcb95744
FC
1948most likely cause of this error is that you left out a parenthesis inside
1949of the C<....> part.
1950
6e8a73f2 1951The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
bcb95744
FC
1952discovered.
1953
62658f4d
PM
1954=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1955
1956(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1957there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1958
36447869
FC
1959=item delete argument is index/value array slice, use array slice
1960
1961(F) You used index/value array slice syntax (C<%array[...]>) as
1962the argument to C<delete>. You probably meant C<@array[...]> with
1963an @ symbol instead.
1964
1965=item delete argument is key/value hash slice, use hash slice
1966
1967(F) You used key/value hash slice syntax (C<%hash{...}>) as the argument to
1968C<delete>. You probably meant C<@hash{...}> with an @ symbol instead.
1969
0ffcbc25
FC
1970=item delete argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
1971
4a0af295 1972(F) The argument to C<delete> must be either a hash or array element,
0ffcbc25
FC
1973such as:
1974
1975 $foo{$bar}
1976 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
1977
1978or a hash or array slice, such as:
1979
1980 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
1981 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
1982
fc36a67e 1983=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1984
be771a83
GS
1985(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1986long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1987that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 1988
c437f7ac 1989=item Deprecated use of my() in false conditional. This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.30
6d3b25aa 1990
fa816bf3
FC
1991(D deprecated) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>. There
1992has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
6d3b25aa 1993not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
6903afa2 1994conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
fa816bf3 1995static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
6903afa2 1996relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
6d3b25aa 1997declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
36fb85f3 1998
6d3b25aa
RGS
1999 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
2000
2001becomes
2002
2003 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
2004
ea9d9ebc 2005Beginning with perl 5.10.0, you can also use C<state> variables to have
fa816bf3 2006lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
36fb85f3
RGS
2007
2008 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
2009
c437f7ac
A
2010This use of C<my()> in a false conditional has been deprecated since
2011Perl 5.10, and it will become a fatal error in Perl 5.30.
2012
500ab966
RGS
2013=item DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
2014
2015(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
6903afa2
FC
2016just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather
2017than to create a dangling reference.
500ab966 2018
3cdd684c
TP
2019=item Did not produce a valid header
2020
3de20fbe 2021See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 2022
6df41af2
GS
2023=item %s did not return a true value
2024
2025(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
2026it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
2027traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
2028do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
2029
cc507455 2030=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 2031
413ff9f6
FC
2032(W misc) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or
2033some such.
4633a7c4 2034
cc507455 2035=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 2036
be771a83
GS
2037(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
2038variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
2039seems superfluous.
33633739 2040
cc507455 2041=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 2042
be771a83
GS
2043(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
2044@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
2045carried away.
748a9306 2046
7e1af8bc 2047=item Died
5f05dabc 2048
2049(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
075b00aa 2050you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 2051
3cdd684c
TP
2052=item Document contains no data
2053
3de20fbe 2054See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 2055
62658f4d
PM
2056=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
2057
2058(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
943fc58e 2059define a C<$VERSION>.
62658f4d 2060
49704364
WL
2061=item '/' does not take a repeat count
2062
2063(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
2064See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2065
95cb0d72
FC
2066=item Don't know how to get file name
2067
2068(P) C<PerlIO_getname>, a perl internal I/O function specific to VMS, was
2069somehow called on another platform. This should not happen.
2070
4021c788 2071=item Don't know how to handle magic of type \%o
a0d0e21e
LW
2072
2073(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
2074
2075=item do_study: out of memory
2076
2077(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
2078
6df41af2
GS
2079=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
2080
56da5a46
RGS
2081(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2082"%s found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
6df41af2
GS
2083name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
2084because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
2085"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
2086something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
2087subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
2088"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 2089
30b17cc1 2090=item dump() better written as CORE::dump(). dump() will no longer be available in Perl 5.30
ac206dc8 2091
30b17cc1
A
2092(D deprecated, misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function,
2093without fully qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo.
2094
2095Use of a unqualified C<dump()> was deprecated in Perl 5.30, and this
2096will not be available in Perl 5.30.
2097
2098See L<perlfunc/dump>.
ac206dc8 2099
84d78eb7
YO
2100=item dump is not supported
2101
2102(F) Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.
2103
a0d0e21e
LW
2104=item Duplicate free() ignored
2105
be771a83
GS
2106(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
2107already been freed.
a0d0e21e 2108
1109a392
MHM
2109=item Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
2110
35f0cd76
FC
2111(W unpack) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a
2112type in a pack template. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1109a392 2113
4633a7c4
LW
2114=item elseif should be elsif
2115
fa816bf3
FC
2116(S syntax) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks
2117it's ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method
2118named "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
2119unlikely to be what you want.
2120
c30c479a
KW
2121=item Empty \%c in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2122
e0e4a6e3 2123=item Empty \%c{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 2124
af6f566e 2125(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
6903afa2 2126described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
af6f566e 2127a regular expression without specifying the property name.
ab13f0c7 2128
ac641426 2129=item ${^ENCODING} is no longer supported. Its use will be fatal in Perl 5.28
a15a3d9b
FC
2130
2131(D deprecated) The special variable C<${^ENCODING}>, formerly used to implement
2132the C<encoding> pragma, is no longer supported as of Perl 5.26.0.
2133
ac641426
A
2134Setting this variable will become a fatal error in Perl 5.28.
2135
85ab1d1d 2136=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 2137
85ab1d1d 2138(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
2139effective uids or gids failed.
2140
c038024b
RGS
2141=item %ENV is aliased to %s
2142
2143(F) You're running under taint mode, and the C<%ENV> variable has been
2144aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
6903afa2 2145program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
c038024b 2146
748a9306
LW
2147=item Error converting file specification %s
2148
5f05dabc 2149(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 2150specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
2151single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
2152an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
2153conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 2154
ad19ef22 2155=item Eval-group in insecure regular expression
e4d48cc9 2156
be771a83
GS
2157(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2158expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
2159is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 2160
ad19ef22 2161=item Eval-group not allowed at runtime, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
e4d48cc9 2162
be771a83
GS
2163(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
2164C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
f11307f5
FC
2165pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk,
2166it is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by using the
2167C<re 'eval'> pragma or by explicitly building the pattern from an
2168interpolated string at run time and using that in an eval(). See
2169L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 2170
ad19ef22 2171=item Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
6df41af2 2172
be771a83
GS
2173(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
2174assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
2175pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 2176
e0e4a6e3
FC
2177=item EVAL without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by
2178S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1a147d38
YO
2179
2180(F) You used a pattern that nested too many EVAL calls without consuming
6903afa2 2181any text. Restructure the pattern so that text is consumed.
1a147d38 2182
6e8a73f2 2183The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
2184discovered.
2185
fc36a67e 2186=item Excessively long <> operator
2187
2188(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
2189Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
2190filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
2191variable and glob that.
2192
ed9aa3b7
SG
2193=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
2194
af8bb25a 2195(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented on some systems, e.g., Symbian
6903afa2 2196OS. See L<perlport>.
ed9aa3b7 2197
fe13d51d 2198=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors.
a0d0e21e
LW
2199
2200(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
2201
0ffcbc25
FC
2202=item exists argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine
2203
4a0af295 2204(F) The argument to C<exists> must be a hash or array element or a
0ffcbc25
FC
2205subroutine with an ampersand, such as:
2206
2207 $foo{$bar}
2208 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
2209 &do_something
2210
2211=item exists argument is not a subroutine name
2212
ccfc2567
FC
2213(F) The argument to C<exists> for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine name,
2214and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this error.
0ffcbc25 2215
a0d0e21e
LW
2216=item Exiting eval via %s
2217
be771a83
GS
2218(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
2219goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
2220
2221=item Exiting format via %s
2222
9a2ff54b 2223(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 2224goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 2225
0a753a76 2226=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
2227
be771a83
GS
2228(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
2229sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
2230loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 2231
a0d0e21e
LW
2232=item Exiting subroutine via %s
2233
be771a83
GS
2234(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
2235as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
2236
2237=item Exiting substitution via %s
2238
be771a83
GS
2239(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
2240as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 2241
e0e4a6e3 2242=item Expecting close bracket in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
c608e803 2243
675fa9ff 2244(F) You wrote something like
c608e803
KW
2245
2246 (?13
2247
2248to denote a capturing group of the form
2249L<C<(?I<PARNO>)>|perlre/(?PARNO) (?-PARNO) (?+PARNO) (?R) (?0)>,
2250but omitted the C<")">.
2251
e0e4a6e3 2252=item Expecting '(?flags:(?[...' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
27350048 2253
8b6fbf55
FC
2254(F) The C<(?[...])> extended character class regular expression construct
2255only allows character classes (including character class escapes like
2256C<\d>), operators, and parentheses. The one exception is C<(?flags:...)>
2257containing at least one flag and exactly one C<(?[...])> construct.
27350048
FC
2258This allows a regular expression containing just C<(?[...])> to be
2259interpolated. If you see this error message, then you probably
2260have some other C<(?...)> construct inside your character class. See
2261L<perlrecharclass/Extended Bracketed Character Classes>.
2262
baabe3fb 2263=item Experimental aliasing via reference not enabled
1f8155a2 2264
baabe3fb 2265(F) To do aliasing via references, you must first enable the feature:
1f8155a2 2266
baabe3fb
FC
2267 no warnings "experimental::refaliasing";
2268 use feature "refaliasing";
1f8155a2
FC
2269 \$x = \$y;
2270
74d1b2e4
FC
2271=item Experimental %s on scalar is now forbidden
2272
2273(F) An experimental feature added in Perl 5.14 allowed C<each>, C<keys>,
2274C<push>, C<pop>, C<shift>, C<splice>, C<unshift>, and C<values> to be called with a
2275scalar argument. This experiment is considered unsuccessful, and
2276has been removed. The C<postderef> feature may meet your needs better.
2277
30d9c59b
Z
2278=item Experimental subroutine signatures not enabled
2279
2280(F) To use subroutine signatures, you must first enable them:
2281
caa35032 2282 no warnings "experimental::signatures";
30d9c59b
Z
2283 use feature "signatures";
2284 sub foo ($left, $right) { ... }
2285
7b8d334a
GS
2286=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
2287
be771a83
GS
2288(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
2289the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
2290usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
2291e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 2292
6df41af2
GS
2293=item %s: Expression syntax
2294
be771a83
GS
2295(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
2296Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
2297
2298=item %s failed--call queue aborted
2299
3c10abe3
AG
2300(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a UNITCHECK,
2301CHECK, INIT, or END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the
2302queue of such routines has been prematurely ended.
6df41af2 2303
502aca56
TC
2304=item Failed to close in-place edit file %s: %s
2305
2306(F) Closing an output file from in-place editing, as with the C<-i>
2307command-line switch, failed.
2308
e0e4a6e3 2309=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
73b437c8 2310
98d31c73 2311(W regexp)(F) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3 2312character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
3c6ca74a
FC
2313in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". In a C<(?[...])>
2314construct, this is an error, rather than a warning. Consider quoting
e0e4a6e3 2315the "-", "\-". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression
3c6ca74a 2316the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 2317
1b1ee2ef 2318=item Fatal VMS error (status=%d) at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 2319
be771a83
GS
2320(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
2321system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
2322details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
2323you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
2324
2325=item fcntl is not implemented
2326
2327(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
2328PDP-11 or something?
2329
22846ab4
AB
2330=item FETCHSIZE returned a negative value
2331
2332(F) A tied array claimed to have a negative number of elements, which
2333is not possible.
2334
f337b084
TH
2335=item Field too wide in 'u' format in pack
2336
d8b5cc61 2337(W pack) Each line in an uuencoded string starts with a length indicator
6903afa2
FC
2338which can't encode values above 63. So there is no point in asking for
2339a line length bigger than that. Perl will behave as if you specified
5c96f6f7 2340C<u63> as the format.
f337b084 2341
a0e213fc
A
2342=item File::Glob::glob() will disappear in perl 5.30. Use File::Glob::bsd_glob() instead.
2343
2344(D deprecated) C<< File::Glob >> has a function called C<< glob >>, which
2345just calls C<< bsd_glob >>. However, its prototype is different from the
2346prototype of C<< CORE::glob >>, and hence, C<< File::Glob::glob >> should
2347not be used.
2348
2349C<< File::Glob::glob() >> was deprecated in perl 5.8.0. A deprecation
2350message was issued from perl 5.26.0 onwards, and the function will
2351disappear in perl 5.30.0.
2352
2353Code using C<< File::Glob::glob() >> should call
2354C<< File::Glob::bsd_glob() >> instead.
2355
af8c498a 2356=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 2357
6c8d78fb
HS
2358(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
2359it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
2360"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
2361write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 2362
af8c498a 2363=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 2364
6c8d78fb
HS
2365(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
2366you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
89a1bda8
FC
2367with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with ">". If you intended only to
2368read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>. Another possibility
2369is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0 (also known as STDIN) for
2370output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
97828cef
RGS
2371
2372=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
2373
2374(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
6903afa2 2375as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
97828cef
RGS
2376previously.
2377
2378=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
2379
2380(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
fa816bf3 2381as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
2382
2383=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
2384
2385(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
2386a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
2387happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
2388name.
a0d0e21e 2389
56e90b21
GS
2390=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
2391
be771a83 2392(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 2393some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
2394filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
2395same name?
56e90b21 2396
6df41af2
GS
2397=item Format not terminated
2398
2399(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
2400to the end of your file without finding such a line.
2401
a0d0e21e
LW
2402=item Format %s redefined
2403
e476b1b5 2404(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
2405
2406 {
271595cc 2407 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
2408 eval "format NAME =...";
2409 }
2410
a0d0e21e
LW
2411=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
2412
e476b1b5 2413(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
2414
2415 if ($foo = 123)
2416
2417when you meant
2418
2419 if ($foo == 123)
2420
2421(or something like that).
2422
6df41af2
GS
2423=item %s found where operator expected
2424
56da5a46
RGS
2425(S syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator.
2426If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
be771a83
GS
2427operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
2428operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 2429
a0d0e21e
LW
2430=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
2431
2432(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
2433
2434=item gethostent not implemented
2435
2436(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
2437because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
2438on the Internet.
2439
69282e91 2440=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2441
be771a83
GS
2442(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
2443socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 2444
748a9306
LW
2445=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
2446
2447(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
2448C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
2449
6df41af2
GS
2450=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
2451
be771a83
GS
2452(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
2453forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
2454L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
2455
0f539b13
BF
2456=item given is experimental
2457
675fa9ff
FC
2458(S experimental::smartmatch) C<given> depends on smartmatch, which
2459is experimental, so its behavior may change or even be removed
2460in any future release of perl. See the explanation under
2461L<perlsyn/Experimental Details on given and when>.
0f539b13 2462
68567d27
FC
2463=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name (did you forget to
2464declare "my %s"?)
6df41af2 2465
a4edf47d 2466(F) You've said "use strict" or "use strict vars", which indicates
30c282f6 2467that all variables must either be lexically scoped (using "my" or "state"),
a4edf47d
GS
2468declared beforehand using "our", or explicitly qualified to say
2469which package the global variable is in (using "::").
6df41af2 2470
e476b1b5
GS
2471=item glob failed (%s)
2472
5ead438e 2473(S glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used
73c4e9dc
FC
2474for C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a C<glob>
2475pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
be771a83 2476nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
73c4e9dc
FC
2477resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell)
2478is broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables
2479in config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as
2480if it were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them
2481all empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
be771a83 2482think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 2483C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 2484
a0d0e21e
LW
2485=item Glob not terminated
2486
2487(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
2488a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
2489not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
2490earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 2491
b35b96b6
JH
2492=item gmtime(%f) failed
2493
2494(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that it could not handle:
2495too large, too small, or NaN. The returned value is C<undef>.
2496
bcd05b94 2497=item gmtime(%f) too large
8b56d6ff 2498
e9200be3 2499(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was larger than
fc003d4b 2500it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong
6903afa2 2501date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
fc003d4b
MS
2502not-a-number value).
2503
bcd05b94 2504=item gmtime(%f) too small
fc003d4b 2505
e9200be3 2506(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was smaller than
e7a1a147 2507it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong date.
8b56d6ff 2508
6df41af2 2509=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 2510
6df41af2
GS
2511(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
2512version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
2513
2514=item goto must have label
2515
2516(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
2517unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2518
6651ba0b
FC
2519=item Goto undefined subroutine%s
2520
2521(F) You tried to call a subroutine with C<goto &sub> syntax, but
2522the indicated subroutine hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
2523has since been undefined.
2524
6fbc9859 2525=item Group name must start with a non-digit word character in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 2526S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1f4f6bf1
YO
2527
2528(F) Group names must follow the rules for perl identifiers, meaning
f26c79ba
FC
2529they must start with a non-digit word character. A common cause of
2530this error is using (?&0) instead of (?0). See L<perlre>.
1f4f6bf1 2531
5a25739d
FC
2532=item ()-group starts with a count
2533
2534(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is supposed to follow
2535something: a template character or a ()-group. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2536
fe13d51d 2537=item %s had compilation errors.
6df41af2
GS
2538
2539(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
2540
a0d0e21e
LW
2541=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
2542
be771a83
GS
2543(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
2544to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
2545created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e 2546
6df41af2
GS
2547=item %s has too many errors
2548
2549(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
2550Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
2551
61e61fbc
JH
2552=item Hexadecimal float: exponent overflow
2553
d8f2b442 2554(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point has a larger exponent
61e61fbc
JH
2555than the floating point supports.
2556
2557=item Hexadecimal float: exponent underflow
2558
d8f2b442 2559(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point has a smaller exponent
b6d9b423
JH
2560than the floating point supports. With the IEEE 754 floating point,
2561this may also mean that the subnormals (formerly known as denormals)
2562are being used, which may or may not be an error.
61e61fbc 2563
5488d373 2564=item Hexadecimal float: internal error (%s)
cf4f6003
JH
2565
2566(F) Something went horribly bad in hexadecimal float handling.
2567
61e61fbc
JH
2568=item Hexadecimal float: mantissa overflow
2569
2570(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point literal had more bits in
2571the mantissa (the part between the 0x and the exponent, also known as
2572the fraction or the significand) than the floating point supports.
2573
40bca5ae
JH
2574=item Hexadecimal float: precision loss
2575
2576(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point had internally more
2577digits than could be output. This can be caused by unsupported
2578long double formats, or by 64-bit integers not being available
2579(needed to retrieve the digits under some configurations).
2580
2581=item Hexadecimal float: unsupported long double format
2582
2583(F) You have configured Perl to use long doubles but
d8f2b442 2584the internals of the long double format are unknown;
40bca5ae
JH
2585therefore the hexadecimal float output is impossible.
2586
252aa082
JH
2587=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
2588
e476b1b5 2589(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
2590(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2591L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 2592
8903cb82 2593=item Identifier too long
2594
2595(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 2596about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
2597names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
2598of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 2599
e0e4a6e3
FC
2600=item Ignoring zero length \N{} in character class in regex; marked by
2601S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
fc8cd66c 2602
f3ba6905 2603(W regexp) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a
0f44b2a5
FC
2604zero-length sequence. When such an escape is used in a character
2605class its behavior is not well defined. Check that the correct
2606escape has been used, and the correct charname handler is in scope.
fc8cd66c 2607
6df41af2 2608=item Illegal binary digit %s
f675dbe5 2609
6df41af2 2610(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
f675dbe5 2611
6df41af2 2612=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
a0d0e21e 2613
be771a83
GS
2614(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
2615binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
2616offending digit.
a0d0e21e 2617
6597eb22
FC
2618=item Illegal character after '_' in prototype for %s : %s
2619
e4d150f1
FC
2620(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype
2621declaration. The '_' in a prototype must be followed by a ';',
2622indicating the rest of the parameters are optional, or one of '@'
2623or '%', since those two will accept 0 or more final parameters.
6597eb22 2624
b913d0b8
FC
2625=item Illegal character \%o (carriage return)
2626
2627(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as
2628it would any other whitespace, which means you should never see
2629this error when Perl was built using standard options. For some
2630reason, your version of Perl appears to have been built without
2631this support. Talk to your Perl administrator.
2632
bb6b75cd 2633=item Illegal character following sigil in a subroutine signature
d3d9da4a
DM
2634
2635(F) A parameter in a subroutine signature contained an unexpected character
d4e5761f
FC
2636following the C<$>, C<@> or C<%> sigil character. Normally the sigil
2637should be followed by the variable name or C<=> etc. Perhaps you are
d3d9da4a
DM
2638trying use a prototype while in the scope of C<use feature 'signatures'>?
2639For example:
2640
2641 sub foo ($$) {} # legal - a prototype
2642
2643 use feature 'signatures;
2644 sub foo ($$) {} # illegal - was expecting a signature
2645 sub foo ($a, $b)
2646 :prototype($$) {} # legal
2647
2648
d37a9538
ST
2649=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
2650
197afce1 2651(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
2e9cc7ef 2652Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, \, and +.
30d9c59b
Z
2653Perhaps you were trying to write a subroutine signature but didn't enable
2654that feature first (C<use feature 'signatures'>), so your signature was
2655instead interpreted as a bad prototype.
d37a9538 2656
904d85c5
RGS
2657=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
2658
2659(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
6903afa2 2660you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
904d85c5 2661
8e742a20
MHM
2662=item Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
2663
6903afa2 2664(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See L<perlsub>.
8e742a20 2665
a0d0e21e
LW
2666=item Illegal division by zero
2667
be771a83
GS
2668(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
2669your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
2670meaningless input.
a0d0e21e 2671
6df41af2
GS
2672=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
2673
be771a83
GS
2674(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
2675A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
2676number stopped before the illegal character.
6df41af2 2677
a0d0e21e
LW
2678=item Illegal modulus zero
2679
be771a83
GS
2680(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
2681numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 2682
6df41af2 2683=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 2684
6df41af2
GS
2685(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
2686two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4
GS
2687
2688=item Illegal octal digit %s
a0d0e21e 2689
d1be9408 2690(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 2691
399388f4 2692=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
748a9306 2693
d1be9408 2694(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
75b44862 2695Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
748a9306 2696
e0e4a6e3 2697=item Illegal pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
c608e803 2698
675fa9ff 2699(F) You wrote something like
c608e803
KW
2700
2701 (?+foo)
2702
2703The C<"+"> is valid only when followed by digits, indicating a
2704capturing group. See
2705L<C<(?I<PARNO>)>|perlre/(?PARNO) (?-PARNO) (?+PARNO) (?R) (?0)>.
2706
375ed12a
JH
2707=item Illegal suidscript
2708
2709(F) The script run under suidperl was somehow illegal.
2710
fe13d51d 2711=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: -%c
6ff81951 2712
6df41af2 2713(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
646ca9b2 2714following switches: B<-[CDIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 2715
4003ea29
KW
2716=item Illegal user-defined property name
2717
2718(F) You specified a Unicode-like property name in a regular expression
2719pattern (using C<\p{}> or C<\P{}>) that Perl knows isn't an official
2720Unicode property, and was likely meant to be a user-defined property
2721name, but it can't be one of those, as they must begin with either C<In>
2722or C<Is>. Check the spelling. See also
2723L</Can't find Unicode property definition "%s">.
2724
6df41af2 2725=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 2726
75b44862 2727(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
2728internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
2729delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 2730
6df41af2 2731=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 2732
be771a83
GS
2733(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
2734name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
2735didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
2736ignored.
54310121 2737
6df41af2 2738=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 2739
be771a83
GS
2740(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
2741the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
2742system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
2743times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
2744would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 2745
be771a83
GS
2746Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
2747also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 2748
e0e4a6e3
FC
2749=item Incomplete expression within '(?[ ])' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
2750in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 2751
675fa9ff 2752(F) There was a syntax error within the C<(?[ ])>. This can happen if the
0d0b4b3b
KW
2753expression inside the construct was completely empty, or if there are
2754too many or few operands for the number of operators. Perl is not smart
2755enough to give you a more precise indication as to what is wrong.
2756
6fbc9859
MH
2757=item Inconsistent hierarchy during C3 merge of class '%s': merging failed on
2758parent '%s'
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2759
2760(F) The method resolution order (MRO) of the given class is not
2761C3-consistent, and you have enabled the C3 MRO for this class. See the C3
2762documentation in L<mro> for more information.
2763
cdd6375d
MH
2764=item Indentation on line %d of here-doc doesn't match delimiter
2765
2766(F) You have an indented here-document where one or more of its lines
2767have whitespace at the beginning that does not match the closing
2768delimiter.
2769
2770For example, line 2 below is wrong because it does not have at least
27712 spaces, but lines 1 and 3 are fine because they have at least 2:
2772
2773 if ($something) {
2774 print <<~EOF;
2775 Line 1
2776 Line 2 not
2777 Line 3
2778 EOF
2779 }
2780
2781Note that tabs and spaces are compared strictly, meaning 1 tab will
2782not match 8 spaces.
2783
6a2ed79a 2784=item Infinite recursion in regex
1a147d38
YO
2785
2786(F) You used a pattern that references itself without consuming any input
6903afa2 2787text. You should check the pattern to ensure that recursive patterns
1a147d38
YO
2788either consume text or fail.
2789
6dbe9451
NC
2790=item Initialization of state variables in list context currently forbidden
2791
dca6023d 2792(F) C<state> only permits initializing a single scalar variable, in scalar
4c9eaea6
FC
2793context. So C<state $a = 42> is allowed, but not C<state ($a) = 42>. To apply
2794state semantics to a hash or array, store a hash or array reference in a
2795scalar variable.
6dbe9451 2796
2186f873
FC
2797=item %%s[%s] in scalar context better written as $%s[%s]
2798
2799(W syntax) In scalar context, you've used an array index/value slice
2800(indicated by %) to select a single element of an array. Generally
2801it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
2802is that C<$foo[&bar]> always behaves like a scalar, both in the value it
2803returns and when evaluating its argument, while C<%foo[&bar]> provides
2804a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things if you're
2805expecting only one subscript. When called in list context, it also
2806returns the index (what C<&bar> returns) in addition to the value.
2807
2808=item %%s{%s} in scalar context better written as $%s{%s}
2809
2810(W syntax) In scalar context, you've used a hash key/value slice
2811(indicated by %) to select a single element of a hash. Generally it's
2812better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
2813is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves like a scalar, both in the value
2814it returns and when evaluating its argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> and
2815provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
2816if you're expecting only one subscript. When called in list context,
2817it also returns the key in addition to the value.
2818
a0d0e21e
LW
2819=item Insecure dependency in %s
2820
8b1a09fc 2821(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
2822The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
2823setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
2824tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
2825from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
2826such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
2827L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
2828
2829=item Insecure directory in %s
2830
be771a83
GS
2831(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2832setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
df98f984
RGS
2833the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
2834See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2835
62f468fc 2836=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2837
2838(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc 2839setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
332d5f78
SR
2840C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
2841supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
2842the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2843
0e9be77f
DM
2844=item Insecure user-defined property %s
2845
2846(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2847expression that contains a call to a user-defined character property
2848function, i.e. C<\p{IsFoo}> or C<\p{InFoo}>.
2849See L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties> and L<perlsec>.
2850
b9ef414d
FC
2851=item Integer overflow in format string for %s
2852
2853(F) The indexes and widths specified in the format string of C<printf()>
2854or C<sprintf()> are too large. The numbers must not overflow the size of
2855integers for your architecture.
2856
a7ae9550
GS
2857=item Integer overflow in %s number
2858
35928bc5 2859(S overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
2860either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
2861your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
2862On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
2863representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
28640b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
2865transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
2866internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
2867operations.
bbce6d69 2868
fc89ca81
FC
2869=item Integer overflow in srand
2870
2871(S overflow) The number you have passed to srand is too big to fit
2872in your architecture's integer representation. The number has been
2873replaced with the largest integer supported (0xFFFFFFFF on 32-bit
2874architectures). This means you may be getting less randomness than
2875you expect, because different random seeds above the maximum will
2876return the same sequence of random numbers.
2877
46314c13
JP
2878=item Integer overflow in version
2879
18da5252
FC
2880=item Integer overflow in version %d
2881
784d71ed
FC
2882(W overflow) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for
2883the size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
f084e84f 2884because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use an
784d71ed
FC
2885element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by trying
2886to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like 100/9.
46314c13 2887
e0e4a6e3 2888=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2889
2890(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
e0e4a6e3 2891The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
b45f050a
JF
2892discovered.
2893
748a9306
LW
2894=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
2895
be771a83
GS
2896(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
2897you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
2898to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
2899L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
2900Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
2901terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 2902
870978ae
FC
2903=item internal %<num>p might conflict with future printf extensions
2904
2905(S internal) Perl's internal routine that handles C<printf> and C<sprintf>
2906formatting follows a slightly different set of rules when called from
2907C or XS code. Specifically, formats consisting of digits followed
2908by "p" (e.g., "%7p") are reserved for future use. If you see this
2909message, then an XS module tried to call that routine with one such
2910reserved format.
2911
e0e4a6e3 2912=item Internal urp in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 2913
fa816bf3 2914(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
e0e4a6e3 2915S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
7253e4e3 2916discovered.
a0d0e21e 2917
6df41af2
GS
2918=item %s (...) interpreted as function
2919
75b44862 2920(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 2921followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 2922operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 2923L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 2924
f51551f7
FC
2925=item In '(?...)', the '(' and '?' must be adjacent in regex;
2926marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2927
2928(F) The two-character sequence C<"(?"> in this context in a regular
2929expression pattern should be an indivisible token, with nothing
2930intervening between the C<"("> and the C<"?">, but you separated them
2931with whitespace.
2932
09bef843
SB
2933=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
2934
a4a4c9e2 2935(F) The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
09bef843
SB
2936by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
2937
2938=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
2939
a4a4c9e2 2940(F) The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
be771a83 2941recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2942
e0e4a6e3
FC
2943=item Invalid character in charnames alias definition; marked by
2944S<<-- HERE> in '%s
225fb84f
KW
2945
2946(F) You tried to create a custom alias for a character name, with
2947the C<:alias> option to C<use charnames> and the specified character in
2948the indicated name isn't valid. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
2949
c8028aa6
TC
2950=item Invalid \0 character in %s for %s: %s\0%s
2951
fa3234e3
FC
2952(W syscalls) Embedded \0 characters in pathnames or other system call
2953arguments produce a warning as of 5.20. The parts after the \0 were
2954formerly ignored by system calls.
c8028aa6 2955
e0e4a6e3 2956=item Invalid character in \N{...}; marked by S<<-- HERE> in \N{%s}
a690c7c4
FC
2957
2958(F) Only certain characters are valid for character names. The
2959indicated one isn't. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
2960
c635e13b 2961=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
2962
be771a83
GS
2963(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
2964L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 2965
e0e4a6e3
FC
2966=item Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regex; marked by
2967S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9e08bc66 2968
98d31c73 2969(W regexp)(F) The numeric escape (for example C<\xHH>) of value < 256
9e08bc66
TS
2970didn't correspond to a single character through the conversion
2971from the encoding specified by the encoding pragma.
98d31c73
FC
2972The escape was replaced with REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (U+FFFD)
2973instead, except within S<C<(?[ ])>>, where it is a fatal error.
e0e4a6e3 2974The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
9e08bc66
TS
2975escape was discovered.
2976
8149aa9f
FC
2977=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...}
2978
e0e4a6e3
FC
2979=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...} in regex; marked by
2980S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 2981
8149aa9f 2982(F) The character constant represented by C<...> is not a valid hexadecimal
74f8e9e3
FC
2983number. Either it is empty, or you tried to use a character other than
29840 - 9 or A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number.
8149aa9f 2985
6651ba0b
FC
2986=item Invalid module name %s with -%c option: contains single ':'
2987
2988(F) The module argument to perl's B<-m> and B<-M> command-line options
2989cannot contain single colons in the module name, but only in the
2990arguments after "=". In other words, B<-MFoo::Bar=:baz> is ok, but
2991B<-MFoo:Bar=baz> is not.
2992
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2993=item Invalid mro name: '%s'
2994
162a3e34
FC
2995(F) You tried to C<mro::set_mro("classname", "foo")> or C<use mro 'foo'>,
2996where C<foo> is not a valid method resolution order (MRO). Currently,
2997the only valid ones supported are C<dfs> and C<c3>, unless you have loaded
2998a module that is a MRO plugin. See L<mro> and L<perlmroapi>.
2c7d6b9c 2999
40e4140b
FC
3000=item Invalid negative number (%s) in chr
3001
3002(W utf8) You passed a negative number to C<chr>. Negative numbers are
abc0aa9d 3003not valid character numbers, so it returns the Unicode replacement
40e4140b
FC
3004character (U+FFFD).
3005
74d1b2e4
FC
3006=item Invalid number '%s' for -C option.
3007
3008(F) You supplied a number to the -C option that either has extra leading
3009zeroes or overflows perl's unsigned integer representation.
3010
6651ba0b
FC
3011=item invalid option -D%c, use -D'' to see choices
3012
8ff21bfe
FC
3013(S debugging) Perl was called with invalid debugger flags. Call perl
3014with the B<-D> option with no flags to see the list of acceptable values.
982c4ecb 3015See also L<perlrun/-Dletters>.
6651ba0b 3016
6e8a73f2 3017=item Invalid quantifier in {,} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
35cd12d1
HS
3018
3019(F) The pattern looks like a {min,max} quantifier, but the min or max
3020could not be parsed as a valid number - either it has leading zeroes,
3021or it represents too big a number to cope with. The S<<-- HERE> shows
3022where in the regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3023
e0e4a6e3 3024=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
3025
3026(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
3027greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
3028C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
e0e4a6e3 3029up to C<ff>. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
7253e4e3 3030problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 3031
d1573ac7 3032=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
3033
3034(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
3035character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
3036
09bef843
SB
3037=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
3038
0120eecf 3039(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
3040elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
3041parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
3042See L<attributes>.
09bef843 3043
b4581f09
JH
3044=item Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
3045
2bfc5f71
FC
3046(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other
3047than a colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
b4581f09
JH
3048If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
3049list was terminated too soon.
3050
2c86d456
DG
3051=item Invalid strict version format (%s)
3052
fa816bf3 3053(F) A version number did not meet the "strict" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
3054A "strict" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
3055decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
3056v-string with a leading 'v' character and at least three components.
a6485a24 3057The parenthesized text indicates which criteria were not met.
2c86d456
DG
3058See the L<version> module for more details on allowed version formats.
3059
49704364 3060=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
96e4d5b1 3061
49704364
WL
3062(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
3063See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6728c851 3064
49704364 3065(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
75b44862 3066silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 3067
2c86d456
DG
3068=item Invalid version format (%s)
3069
fa816bf3 3070(F) A version number did not meet the "lax" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
3071A "lax" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
3072decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
fa816bf3
FC
3073v-string. If the v-string has fewer than three components, it
3074must have a leading 'v' character. Otherwise, the leading 'v' is
3075optional. Both decimal and dotted-decimal versions may have a
3076trailing "alpha" component separated by an underscore character
3077after a fractional or dotted-decimal component. The parenthesized
3078text indicates which criteria were not met. See the L<version> module
3079for more details on allowed version formats.
46314c13 3080
798ae1b7
DG
3081=item Invalid version object
3082
fa816bf3
FC
3083(F) The internal structure of the version object was invalid.
3084Perhaps the internals were modified directly in some way or
3085an arbitrary reference was blessed into the "version" class.
798ae1b7 3086
cd209d9d 3087=item In '(*VERB...)', the '(' and '*' must be adjacent in regex;
e0e4a6e3 3088marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff 3089
cd209d9d 3090(F) The two-character sequence C<"(*"> in
675fa9ff
FC
3091this context in a regular expression pattern should be an
3092indivisible token, with nothing intervening between the C<"(">
cd209d9d 3093and the C<"*">, but you separated them.
675fa9ff 3094
a0d0e21e
LW
3095=item ioctl is not implemented
3096
3097(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
3098strange for a machine that supports C.
3099
c289d2f7
JH
3100=item ioctl() on unopened %s
3101
3102(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
34b6fd5e 3103Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 3104
fe13d51d 3105=item IO layers (like '%s') unavailable
363c40c4
SB
3106
3107(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
34b6fd5e 3108you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO, Perl must be configured
363c40c4
SB
3109with 'useperlio'.
3110
80cbd5ad
JH
3111=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
3112
3113(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
34b6fd5e 3114neither as a system call nor an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
80cbd5ad 3115
6e8a73f2 3116=item '%s' is an unknown bound type in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
64935bc6
KW
3117
3118(F) You used C<\b{...}> or C<\B{...}> and the C<...> is not known to
3119Perl. The current valid ones are given in
3120L<perlrebackslash/\b{}, \b, \B{}, \B>.
3121
1972ac5c 3122=item %s() is deprecated on :utf8 handles. This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.30
74d1b2e4 3123
dd6d5da4 3124(D deprecated) The sysread(), recv(), syswrite() and send() operators are
74d1b2e4
FC
3125deprecated on handles that have the C<:utf8> layer, either explicitly, or
3126implicitly, eg., with the C<:encoding(UTF-16LE)> layer.
3127
3128Both sysread() and recv() currently use only the C<:utf8> flag for the stream,
3129ignoring the actual layers. Since sysread() and recv() do no UTF-8
3130validation they can end up creating invalidly encoded scalars.
3131
3132Similarly, syswrite() and send() use only the C<:utf8> flag, otherwise ignoring
3133any layers. If the flag is set, both write the value UTF-8 encoded, even if
3134the layer is some different encoding, such as the example above.
3135
3136Ideally, all of these operators would completely ignore the C<:utf8> state,
3137working only with bytes, but this would result in silently breaking existing
1972ac5c
A
3138code.
3139
3140In Perl 5.30, it will no longer be possible to use sysread(), recv(),
3141syswrite() or send() to read or send bytes from/to :utf8 handles.
74d1b2e4 3142
bfdc8cd3 3143=item "%s" is more clearly written simply as "%s" in regex. This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.28; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
acdfc3b6 3144
bfdc8cd3 3145(W deprecated, regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
30b17cc1
A
3146
3147You specified a character that has the given plainer way of writing it,
3148and which is also portable to platforms running with different character
3149sets. This usage is deprecated, and will be a fatal error in Perl 5.28.
acdfc3b6 3150
37398dc1 3151=item $* is no longer supported. Its use will be fatal in Perl 5.30
a678626e
A
3152
3153(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older
3154perls, has been removed as of 5.10.0 and is no longer supported. In
3155previous versions of perl the use of C<$*> enabled or disabled multi-line
3156matching within a string.
3157
3158Instead of using C<$*> you should use the C</m> (and maybe C</s>) regexp
3159modifiers. You can enable C</m> for a lexical scope (even a whole file)
3160with C<use re '/m'>. (In older versions: when C<$*> was set to a true value
3161then all regular expressions behaved as if they were written using C</m>.)
3162
37398dc1
A
3163Use of this variable will be a fatal error in Perl 5.30.
3164
3165=item $# is no longer supported. Its use will be fatal in Perl 5.30
a678626e
A
3166
3167(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$#>, deprecated in older
3168perls, has been removed as of 5.10.0 and is no longer supported. You
3169should use the printf/sprintf functions instead.
3170
37398dc1
A
3171Use of this variable will be a fatal error in Perl 5.30.
3172
ccf3535a 3173=item '%s' is not a code reference
6ad11d81 3174
6903afa2
FC
3175(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of
3176overload::constant needs to be a code reference. Either
3177an anonymous subroutine, or a reference to a subroutine.
6ad11d81 3178
ccf3535a 3179=item '%s' is not an overloadable type
6ad11d81 3180
04a80ee0
RGS
3181(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
3182unaware of.
6ad11d81 3183
5a25739d
FC
3184=item -i used with no filenames on the command line, reading from STDIN
3185
3186(S inplace) The C<-i> option was passed on the command line, indicating
3187that the script is intended to edit files in place, but no files were
3188given. This is usually a mistake, since editing STDIN in place doesn't
3189make sense, and can be confusing because it can make perl look like
3190it is hanging when it is really just trying to read from STDIN. You
3191should either pass a filename to edit, or remove C<-i> from the command
3192line. See L<perlrun> for more details.
3193
aec0ef10 3194=item Junk on end of regexp in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
3195
3196(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
3197
3198=item Label not found for "last %s"
3199
be771a83
GS
3200(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
3201of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3202L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
3203
3204=item Label not found for "next %s"
3205
3206(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
3207that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3208L<perlfunc/last>.
3209
3210=item Label not found for "redo %s"
3211
3212(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
3213that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3214L<perlfunc/last>.
3215
85ab1d1d 3216=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 3217
85ab1d1d 3218(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
3219effective uids or gids failed.
3220
49704364
WL
3221=item length/code after end of string in unpack
3222
d7f8936a 3223(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an unpack
6903afa2
FC
3224length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
3225an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 3226
25e26107 3227=item length() used on %s (did you mean "scalar(%s)"?)
e508c8a4 3228
0d46a4e7
FC
3229(W syntax) You used length() on either an array or a hash when you
3230probably wanted a count of the items.
e508c8a4
MH
3231
3232Array size can be obtained by doing:
3233
3234 scalar(@array);
3235
3236The number of items in a hash can be obtained by doing:
3237
3238 scalar(keys %hash);
3239
f0e67a1d
Z
3240=item Lexing code attempted to stuff non-Latin-1 character into Latin-1 input
3241
d4fe7078
RS
3242(F) An extension is attempting to insert text into the current parse
3243(using L<lex_stuff_pvn|perlapi/lex_stuff_pvn> or similar), but tried to insert a character that
3244couldn't be part of the current input. This is an inherent pitfall
3245of the stuffing mechanism, and one of the reasons to avoid it. Where
6903afa2 3246it is necessary to stuff, stuffing only plain ASCII is recommended.
f0e67a1d
Z
3247
3248=item Lexing code internal error (%s)
3249
3250(F) Lexing code supplied by an extension violated the lexer's API in a
3251detectable way.
3252
69282e91 3253=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 3254
be771a83
GS
3255(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
3256to check the return value of your socket() call? See
3257L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 3258
6651ba0b
FC
3259=item List form of piped open not implemented
3260
3261(F) On some platforms, notably Windows, the three-or-more-arguments
3262form of C<open> does not support pipes, such as C<open($pipe, '|-', @args)>.
3263Use the two-argument C<open($pipe, '|prog arg1 arg2...')> form instead.
3264
dc6bb7ba
FC
3265=item %s: loadable library and perl binaries are mismatched (got handshake key %p, needed %p)
3266
3267(P) A dynamic loading library C<.so> or C<.dll> was being loaded into the
3268process that was built against a different build of perl than the
3269said library was compiled against. Reinstalling the XS module will
3270likely fix this error.
3271
8c6180a9
KW
3272=item Locale '%s' may not work well.%s
3273
780fcc9f 3274(W locale) You are using the named locale, which is a non-UTF-8 one, and
dae67c56
KW
3275which perl has determined is not fully compatible with what it can
3276handle. The second C<%s> gives a reason.
8c6180a9
KW
3277
3278By far the most common reason is that the locale has characters in it
3279that are represented by more than one byte. The only such locales that
3280Perl can handle are the UTF-8 locales. Most likely the specified locale
3281is a non-UTF-8 one for an East Asian language such as Chinese or
3282Japanese. If the locale is a superset of ASCII, the ASCII portion of it
780fcc9f 3283may work in Perl.
8c6180a9
KW
3284
3285Some essentially obsolete locales that aren't supersets of ASCII, mainly
3286those in ISO 646 or other 7-bit locales, such as ASMO 449, can also have
3287problems, depending on what portions of the ASCII character set get
3288changed by the locale and are also used by the program.
3289The warning message lists the determinable conflicting characters.
3290
780fcc9f
KW
3291Note that not all incompatibilities are found.
3292
3293If this happens to you, there's not much you can do except switch to use a
3294different locale or use L<Encode> to translate from the locale into
3295UTF-8; if that's impracticable, you have been warned that some things
3296may break.
3297
3298This message is output once each time a bad locale is switched into
3299within the scope of C<S<use locale>>, or on the first possibly-affected
3300operation if the C<S<use locale>> inherits a bad one. It is not raised
3301for any operations from the L<POSIX> module.
3302
a2162cd9
FC
3303=item localtime(%f) failed
3304
3305(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that it could not handle:
3306too large, too small, or NaN. The returned value is C<undef>.
3307
3308=item localtime(%f) too large
3309
3310(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was larger
3311than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
3312wrong date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
3313not-a-number value).
3314
3315=item localtime(%f) too small
3316
3317(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was smaller
3318than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
3319wrong date.
3320
58e23c8d 3321=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3322
3323(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
6903afa2 3324handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release.
2e50fd82 3325
b88df990
NC
3326=item Lost precision when %s %f by 1
3327
e63e8a91
FC
3328(W imprecision) The value you attempted to increment or decrement by one
3329is too large for the underlying floating point representation to store
3330accurately, hence the target of C<++> or C<--> is unchanged. Perl issues this
3331warning because it has already switched from integers to floating point
3332when values are too large for integers, and now even floating point is
3333insufficient. You may wish to switch to using L<Math::BigInt> explicitly.
b88df990 3334
93fad930 3335=item lstat() on filehandle%s
2f7da168
RK
3336
3337(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
3338by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
3339instead on the filehandle.)
3340
345d70e3 3341=item lvalue attribute %s already-defined subroutine
bb3abb05 3342
345d70e3
FC
3343(W misc) Although L<attributes.pm|attributes> allows this, turning the lvalue
3344attribute on or off on a Perl subroutine that is already defined
3345does not always work properly. It may or may not do what you
3346want, depending on what code is inside the subroutine, with exact
3347details subject to change between Perl versions. Only do this
3348if you really know what you are doing.
bb3abb05 3349
885ef6f5
GG
3350=item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined
3351
345d70e3
FC
3352(W misc) Using the C<:lvalue> declarative syntax to make a Perl
3353subroutine an lvalue subroutine after it has been defined is
3354not permitted. To make the subroutine an lvalue subroutine,
3355add the lvalue attribute to the definition, or put the C<sub
3356foo :lvalue;> declaration before the definition.
3357
3358See also L<attributes.pm|attributes>.
885ef6f5 3359
6f1b3ab0
FC
3360=item Magical list constants are not supported
3361
3362(F) You assigned a magical array to a stash element, and then tried
3363to use the subroutine from the same slot. You are asking Perl to do
3364something it cannot do, details subject to change between Perl versions.
3365
2db62bbc 3366=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
49704364 3367
2db62bbc 3368(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
3369are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3370
3371=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
3372
2db62bbc 3373(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
3374are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3375
6df41af2
GS
3376=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
3377
3378(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
3379
3380 prefix1;prefix2
3381
3382or
6df41af2
GS
3383 prefix1 prefix2
3384
be771a83
GS
3385with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
3386a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
3387appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 3388"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 3389
2f758a16
ST
3390=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
3391
d37a9538
ST
3392(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
3393syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
3394obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
3395when the function is called.
30d9c59b
Z
3396Perhaps the function's author was trying to write a subroutine signature
3397but didn't enable that feature first (C<use feature 'signatures'>),
3398so the signature was instead interpreted as a bad prototype.
2f758a16 3399
2b5e7bc2 3400=item Malformed UTF-8 character%s
ba210ebe 3401
7cf8d05d
KW
3402(S utf8)(F) Perl detected a string that should be UTF-8, but didn't
3403comply with UTF-8 encoding rules, or represents a code point whose
3404ordinal integer value doesn't fit into the word size of the current
3405platform (overflows). Details as to the exact malformation are given in
3406the variable, C<%s>, part of the message.
ba210ebe 3407
2575c402
JW
3408One possible cause is that you set the UTF8 flag yourself for data that
3409you thought to be in UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy
8e179dd8 34108-bit data). To guard against this, you can use C<Encode::decode('UTF-8', ...)>.
2575c402
JW
3411
3412If you use the C<:encoding(UTF-8)> PerlIO layer for input, invalid byte
3413sequences are handled gracefully, but if you use C<:utf8>, the flag is
3414set without validating the data, possibly resulting in this error
3415message.
3416
3417See also L<Encode/"Handling Malformed Data">.
901b21bf 3418
107160e2
KW
3419=item Malformed UTF-8 character immediately after '%s'
3420
3421(F) You said C<use utf8>, but the program file doesn't comply with UTF-8
3422encoding rules. The message prints out the properly encoded characters
3423just before the first bad one. If C<utf8> warnings are enabled, a
3424warning is generated that gives more details about the type of
3425malformation.
3426
bde9e88d 3427=item Malformed UTF-8 returned by \N{%s} immediately after '%s'
ff3f963a
KW
3428
3429(F) The charnames handler returned malformed UTF-8.
3430
4a5d3a93
FC
3431=item Malformed UTF-8 string in '%c' format in unpack
3432
3433(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3434rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3435
f337b084
TH
3436=item Malformed UTF-8 string in pack
3437
3438(F) You tried to pack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3439rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3440
3441=item Malformed UTF-8 string in unpack
3442
3443(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3444rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3445
24ca4586
A
3446=item Malformed UTF-8 string in "%s"
3447
3448(F) This message indicates a bug either in the Perl core or in XS
3449code. Such code was trying to find out if a character, allegedly
3450stored internally encoded as UTF-8, was of a given type, such as
3451being punctuation or a digit. But the character was not encoded
3452in legal UTF-8. The C<%s> is replaced by a string that can be used
3453by knowledgeable people to determine what the type being checked
3454against was.
3455
3456Passing malformed strings was deprecated in Perl 5.18, and
3457became fatal in Perl 5.26.
3458
4a5d3a93 3459=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
f337b084 3460
4a5d3a93
FC
3461(F) Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
3462doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
3463
30d9c59b
Z
3464=item Mandatory parameter follows optional parameter
3465
3466(F) In a subroutine signature, you wrote something like "$a = undef,
3467$b", making an earlier parameter optional and a later one mandatory.
3468Parameters are filled from left to right, so it's impossible for the
3469caller to omit an earlier one and pass a later one. If you want to act
3470as if the parameters are filled from right to left, declare the rightmost
3471optional and then shuffle the parameters around in the subroutine's body.
3472
2d88a86a
KW
3473=item Matched non-Unicode code point 0x%X against Unicode property; may
3474not be portable
3475
3476(S non_unicode) Perl allows strings to contain a superset of
3477Unicode code points; each code point may be as large as what is storable
3478in an unsigned integer on your system, but these may not be accepted by
3479other languages/systems. This message occurs when you matched a string
3480containing such a code point against a regular expression pattern, and
3481the code point was matched against a Unicode property, C<\p{...}> or
3482C<\P{...}>. Unicode properties are only defined on Unicode code points,
3483so the result of this match is undefined by Unicode, but Perl (starting
3484in v5.20) treats non-Unicode code points as if they were typical
3485unassigned Unicode ones, and matched this one accordingly. Whether a
3486given property matches these code points or not is specified in
3487L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>.
3488
3489This message is suppressed (unless it has been made fatal) if it is
3490immaterial to the results of the match if the code point is Unicode or
3491not. For example, the property C<\p{ASCII_Hex_Digit}> only can match
3492the 22 characters C<[0-9A-Fa-f]>, so obviously all other code points,
3493Unicode or not, won't match it. (And C<\P{ASCII_Hex_Digit}> will match
3494every code point except these 22.)
3495
3496Getting this message indicates that the outcome of the match arguably
3497should have been the opposite of what actually happened. If you think
3498that is the case, you may wish to make the C<non_unicode> warnings
3499category fatal; if you agree with Perl's decision, you may wish to turn
3500off this category.
3501
3502See L<perlunicode/Beyond Unicode code points> for more information.
3503
e0e4a6e3
FC
3504=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
3505m/%s/
4a5d3a93
FC
3506
3507(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
e0e4a6e3 3508regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The S<<-- HERE>
9e3ec65c 3509shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
4a5d3a93 3510See L<perlre>.
f337b084 3511
de42a5a9 3512=item Maximal count of pending signals (%u) exceeded
2563cec5 3513
6903afa2 3514(F) Perl aborted due to too high a number of signals pending. This
2563cec5
IZ
3515usually indicates that your operating system tried to deliver signals
3516too fast (with a very high priority), starving the perl process from
3517resources it would need to reach a point where it can process signals
6903afa2 3518safely. (See L<perlipc/"Deferred Signals (Safe Signals)">.)
2563cec5 3519
25f58aea
PN
3520=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
3521
3522(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
3523interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
3524"use" or "my".
3525
0d2487cd 3526=item '%' may not be used in pack
6df41af2
GS
3527
3528(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
3529checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
3530See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 3531
a0d0e21e
LW
3532=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
3533
3534(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 3535doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 3536
3cdd684c
TP
3537=item Method %s not permitted
3538
3de20fbe 3539See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 3540
a0d0e21e
LW
3541=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
3542
3543(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
3544by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
3545ended earlier on the current line.
3546
3547=item Misplaced _ in number
3548
d4ced10d
JH
3549(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
3550separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 3551
7baa4690
HS
3552=item Missing argument in %s
3553
3664866e
AB
3554(W missing) You called a function with fewer arguments than other
3555arguments you supplied indicated would be needed.
3556
3557Currently only emitted when a printf-type format required more
3558arguments than were supplied, but might be used in the future for
3559other cases where we can statically determine that arguments to
3560functions are missing, e.g. for the L<perlfunc/pack> function.
7baa4690 3561
9e81e6a1
RGS
3562=item Missing argument to -%c
3563
3564(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
3565immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
3566
ff3f963a 3567=item Missing braces on \N{}
423cee85 3568
e0e4a6e3 3569=item Missing braces on \N{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 3570
4a2d328f 3571(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
532cb70d
FC
3572double-quotish context. This can also happen when there is a space
3573(or comment) between the C<\N> and the C<{> in a regex with the C</x> modifier.
3574This modifier does not change the requirement that the brace immediately
3575follow the C<\N>.
423cee85 3576
f0a2b745
KW
3577=item Missing braces on \o{}
3578
3579(F) A C<\o> must be followed immediately by a C<{> in double-quotish context.
3580
a0d0e21e
LW
3581=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
3582
3583(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
3584"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
3585
06eaf0bc
GS
3586=item Missing command in piped open
3587
be771a83
GS
3588(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
3589C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
3590blank.
06eaf0bc 3591
961ce445
RGS
3592=item Missing control char name in \c
3593
3594(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
3595character name.
3596
591f5ca2
FC
3597=item Missing ']' in prototype for %s : %s
3598
bfe11873 3599(W illegalproto) A grouping was started with C<[> but never closed with C<]>.
591f5ca2 3600
8767b1ab 3601=item Missing name in "%s sub"
6df41af2 3602
87444db5 3603(F) The syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
be771a83 3604they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
3605
3606=item Missing $ on loop variable
3607
be771a83
GS
3608(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
3609are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
3610can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 3611
cc507455 3612=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306 3613
56da5a46
RGS
3614(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3615"%s found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
748a9306 3616
33fe1955 3617=item Missing or undefined argument to %s
f51551f7 3618
33fe1955 3619(F) You tried to call require or do with no argument or with an undefined
f51551f7 3620value as an argument. Require expects either a package name or a
33fe1955
LM
3621file-specification as an argument; do expects a filename. See
3622L<perlfunc/require EXPR> and L<perlfunc/do EXPR>.
f51551f7 3623
e0e4a6e3 3624=item Missing right brace on \%c{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 3625
ff3f963a
KW
3626(F) Missing right brace in C<\x{...}>, C<\p{...}>, C<\P{...}>, or C<\N{...}>.
3627
605eee60 3628=item Missing right brace on \N{}
faad849d 3629
4a68bf9d 3630=item Missing right brace on \N{} or unescaped left brace after \N
ff3f963a 3631
d32207c9
FC
3632(F) C<\N> has two meanings.
3633
3634The traditional one has it followed by a name enclosed in braces,
3635meaning the character (or sequence of characters) given by that
fa816bf3 3636name. Thus C<\N{ASTERISK}> is another way of writing C<*>, valid in both
d32207c9
FC
3637double-quoted strings and regular expression patterns. In patterns,
3638it doesn't have the meaning an unescaped C<*> does.
3639
3640Starting in Perl 5.12.0, C<\N> also can have an additional meaning (only)
3641in patterns, namely to match a non-newline character. (This is short
3642for C<[^\n]>, and like C<.> but is not affected by the C</s> regex modifier.)
3643
3644This can lead to some ambiguities. When C<\N> is not followed immediately
3645by a left brace, Perl assumes the C<[^\n]> meaning. Also, if the braces
3646form a valid quantifier such as C<\N{3}> or C<\N{5,}>, Perl assumes that this
3647means to match the given quantity of non-newlines (in these examples,
36483; and 5 or more, respectively). In all other case, where there is a
3649C<\N{> and a matching C<}>, Perl assumes that a character name is desired.
3650
3651However, if there is no matching C<}>, Perl doesn't know if it was
3652mistakenly omitted, or if C<[^\n]{> was desired, and raises this error.
3653If you meant the former, add the right brace; if you meant the latter,
3654escape the brace with a backslash, like so: C<\N\{>
ab13f0c7 3655
d98d5fff 3656=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 3657
be771a83
GS
3658(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
3659ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
3660were last editing.
a0d0e21e 3661
6df41af2
GS
3662=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
3663
56da5a46
RGS
3664(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3665"%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
6df41af2
GS
3666the previous line just because you saw this message.
3667
a0d0e21e
LW
3668=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
3669
3670(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 3671constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
3672catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
3673
3674 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
3675 mod(2);
3676
3677Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
3678
c5674021
PDF
3679Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
3680is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
3681
b7e4ecc1
FC
3682 $x = 1;
3683 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
3684 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to
3685 } # modify the 2
c5674021 3686
7a4340ed 3687=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3688
3689(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
3690subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
3691backwards.
3692
7a4340ed 3693=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 3694
be771a83
GS
3695(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
3696couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
3697
3698=item Module name must be constant
3699
3700(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
3701
be98fb35 3702=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 3703
be98fb35
GS
3704(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
3705you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
3706about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 3707
fe13d51d 3708=item More than one argument to '%s' open
ed9aa3b7 3709
6903afa2 3710(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
ed9aa3b7
SG
3711can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
3712list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
3713See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
3714
85396b18
FC
3715=item mprotect for COW string %p %u failed with %d
3716
3717(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_COW (see
3718L<perlguts/"Copy on Write">), but a shared string buffer
3719could not be made read-only.
3720
92951bce
FC
3721=item mprotect for %p %u failed with %d
3722
85396b18
FC
3723(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS (see L<perlhacktips>),
3724but an op tree could not be made read-only.
3725
3726=item mprotect RW for COW string %p %u failed with %d
3727
3728(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_COW (see
3729L<perlguts/"Copy on Write">), but a read-only shared string
3730buffer could not be made mutable.
3731
92951bce
FC
3732=item mprotect RW for %p %u failed with %d
3733
3734(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS (see
85396b18
FC
3735L<perlhacktips>), but a read-only op tree could not be made
3736mutable before freeing the ops.
92951bce 3737
a0d0e21e
LW
3738=item msg%s not implemented
3739
3740(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
3741
3742=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
3743
75b44862
GS
3744(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
3745They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 3746
d3d9da4a
DM
3747=item Multiple slurpy parameters not allowed
3748
3749(F) In subroutine signatures, a slurpy parameter (C<@> or C<%>) must be
3750the last parameter, and there must not be more than one of them; for
3751example:
3752
3753 sub foo ($a, @b) {} # legal
3754 sub foo ($a, @b, %) {} # invalid
3755
49704364 3756=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
6df41af2 3757
49704364
WL
3758(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
3759follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
3760See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2 3761
c869951c 3762=item %s must not be a named sequence in transliteration operator
f4240379
KW
3763
3764(F) Transliteration (C<tr///> and C<y///>) transliterates individual
3765characters. But a named sequence by definition is more than an
3766individual charater, and hence doing this operation on it doesn't make
3767sense.
3768
6df41af2
GS
3769=item "my sub" not yet implemented
3770
be771a83
GS
3771(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
3772that yet.
6df41af2 3773
a21eb52b
FC
3774=item "my" subroutine %s can't be in a package
3775
3776(F) Lexically scoped subroutines aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
3777sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front.
3778
5a25739d
FC
3779=item "my %s" used in sort comparison
3780
3781(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
3782You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
3783sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
3784lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
3785name, or rename the lexical variable.
3786
fd1b7234 3787=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
6df41af2 3788
be771a83
GS
3789(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
3790sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
3791local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 3792
8149aa9f
FC
3793=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
3794
c59aba6c
FC
3795(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable
3796names. If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then
3797just mention it again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our>
08a33b6b 3798declaration is also provided for this purpose.
c59aba6c 3799
66a1f5ec
FC
3800NOTE: This warning detects package symbols that have been used
3801only once. This means lexical variables will never trigger this
3802warning. It also means that all of the package variables $c, @c,
3803%c, as well as *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or
c59aba6c
FC
3804format) are considered the same; if a program uses $c only once
3805but also uses any of the others it will not trigger this warning.
3806Symbols beginning with an underscore and symbols using special
3807identifiers (q.v. L<perldata>) are exempt from this warning.
8149aa9f 3808
e0e4a6e3 3809=item Need exactly 3 octal digits in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b
KW
3810
3811(F) Within S<C<(?[ ])>>, all constants interpreted as octal need to be
3812exactly 3 digits long. This helps catch some ambiguities. If your
3813constant is too short, add leading zeros, like
3814
3815 (?[ [ \078 ] ]) # Syntax error!
3816 (?[ [ \0078 ] ]) # Works
3817 (?[ [ \007 8 ] ]) # Clearer
3818
3819The maximum number this construct can express is C<\777>. If you
675fa9ff
FC
3820need a larger one, you need to use L<\o{}|perlrebackslash/Octal escapes> instead. If you meant
3821two separate things, you need to separate them:
0d0b4b3b
KW
3822
3823 (?[ [ \7776 ] ]) # Syntax error!
3824 (?[ [ \o{7776} ] ]) # One meaning
3825 (?[ [ \777 6 ] ]) # Another meaning
3826 (?[ [ \777 \006 ] ]) # Still another
3827
49704364
WL
3828=item Negative '/' count in unpack
3829
3830(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
3831negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3832
a0d0e21e
LW
3833=item Negative length
3834
be771a83
GS
3835(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
3836length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 3837
ed9aa3b7
SG
3838=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
3839
3840(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
3841greater than or equal to zero.
3842
b3211734
KW
3843=item Negative repeat count does nothing
3844
3845(W numeric) You tried to execute the
3846L<C<x>|perlop/Multiplicative Operators> repetition operator fewer than 0
3847times, which doesn't make sense.
3848
e0e4a6e3 3849=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3850
6903afa2 3851(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses.
e0e4a6e3 3852So things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The S<<-- HERE> shows
9e3ec65c 3853whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 3854
7253e4e3 3855Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 3856C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3857
6df41af2 3858=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 3859
be771a83
GS
3860(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
3861scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e 3862
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3863=item next::method/next::can/maybe::next::method cannot find enclosing method
3864
3865(F) C<next::method> needs to be called within the context of a
3866real method in a real package, and it could not find such a context.
3867See L<mro>.
3868
5a25739d 3869=item \N in a character class must be a named character: \N{...} in regex;
e0e4a6e3 3870marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5a25739d 3871
32a77fbe
FC
3872(F) The new (as of Perl 5.12) meaning of C<\N> as C<[^\n]> is not valid in a
3873bracketed character class, for the same reason that C<.> in a character
3874class loses its specialness: it matches almost everything, which is
3875probably not what you want.
5a25739d 3876
022a330c 3877=item \N{} in inverted character class or as a range end-point is restricted to one character in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
0b4ce96d 3878
f3ba6905
FC
3879(F) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a
3880multi-character sequence. Even though a character class is
3881supposed to match just one character of input, perl will match the
3882whole thing correctly, except when the class is inverted (C<[^...]>),
3883or the escape is the beginning or final end point of a range. The
3884mathematically logical behavior for what matches when inverting
3885is very different from what people expect, so we have decided to
3886forbid it. Similarly unclear is what should be generated when the
3887C<\N{...}> is used as one of the end points of the range, such as in
8f0cd35a
KW
3888
3889 [\x{41}-\N{ARABIC SEQUENCE YEH WITH HAMZA ABOVE WITH AE}]
3890
f3ba6905
FC
3891What is meant here is unclear, as the C<\N{...}> escape is a sequence
3892of code points, so this is made an error.
0b4ce96d 3893
e0e4a6e3
FC
3894=item \N{NAME} must be resolved by the lexer in regex; marked by
3895S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5a25739d
FC
3896
3897(F) When compiling a regex pattern, an unresolved named character or
3898sequence was encountered. This can happen in any of several ways that
3899bypass the lexer, such as using single-quotish context, or an extra
3900backslash in double-quotish:
3901
3902 $re = '\N{SPACE}'; # Wrong!
3903 $re = "\\N{SPACE}"; # Wrong!
3904 /$re/;
3905
3906Instead, use double-quotes with a single backslash:
3907
3908 $re = "\N{SPACE}"; # ok
3909 /$re/;
3910
3911The lexer can be bypassed as well by creating the pattern from smaller
3912components:
3913
3914 $re = '\N';
3915 /${re}{SPACE}/; # Wrong!
3916
3917It's not a good idea to split a construct in the middle like this, and
3918it doesn't work here. Instead use the solution above.
3919
3920Finally, the message also can happen under the C</x> regex modifier when the
3921C<\N> is separated by spaces from the C<{>, in which case, remove the spaces.
3922
3923 /\N {SPACE}/x; # Wrong!
3924 /\N{SPACE}/x; # ok
3925
a0d0e21e
LW
3926=item No %s allowed while running setuid
3927
be771a83
GS
3928(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
3929setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
3930will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
3931securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 3932
6651ba0b
FC
3933=item No code specified for -%c
3934
3935(F) Perl's B<-e> and B<-E> command-line options require an argument. If
3936you want to run an empty program, pass the empty string as a separate
3937argument or run a program consisting of a single 0 or 1:
3938
3939 perl -e ""
3940 perl -e0
3941 perl -e1
3942
a0d0e21e
LW
3943=item No comma allowed after %s
3944
6903afa2
FC
3945(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is
3946not allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
a0d0e21e
LW
3947Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
3948
6903afa2
FC
3949One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported
3950a constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
3951importing took place, it may for example be that your operating
3952system does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did
3953use an explicit import list for the constants you expect to see;
3954please see L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an
3955explicit import list would probably have caught this error earlier
3956it naturally does not remedy the fact that your operating system
3957still does not support that constant. Maybe you have a typo in
3958the constants of the symbol import list of B<use> or B<import> or in the
3959constant name at the line where this error was triggered?
0a753a76 3960
748a9306
LW
3961=item No command into which to pipe on command line
3962
be771a83
GS
3963(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3964redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
3965doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 3966
a0d0e21e
LW
3967=item No DB::DB routine defined
3968
be771a83 3969(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
f7af5ce1 3970for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
ccafdc96
RGS
3971module) didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
3972statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
3973
3974=item No dbm on this machine
3975
3976(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 3977supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e 3978
ccafdc96 3979=item No DB::sub routine defined
a0d0e21e 3980
ccafdc96
RGS
3981(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
3982for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
3983module) didn't define a C<DB::sub> routine to be called at the beginning
3984of each ordinary subroutine call.
a0d0e21e 3985
6651ba0b
FC
3986=item No directory specified for -I
3987
3988(F) The B<-I> command-line switch requires a directory name as part of the
3989I<same> argument. Use B<-Ilib>, for instance. B<-I lib> won't work.
3990
c47ff5f1 3991=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 3992
be771a83
GS
3993(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3994redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
3995find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 3996
49704364
WL
3997=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
3998
3999(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
6903afa2 4000matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 4001
c47ff5f1 4002=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 4003
be771a83
GS
4004(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4005redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
4006name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 4007
2c7d6b9c
RGS
4008=item No next::method '%s' found for %s
4009
4010(F) C<next::method> found no further instances of this method name
4011in the remaining packages of the MRO of this class. If you don't want
4012it throwing an exception, use C<maybe::next::method>
fa816bf3 4013or C<next::can>. See L<mro>.
2c7d6b9c 4014
02a7a248
JH
4015=item Non-finite repeat count does nothing
4016
4017(W numeric) You tried to execute the
8a737443
FC
4018L<C<x>|perlop/Multiplicative Operators> repetition operator C<Inf> (or
4019C<-Inf>) or C<NaN> times, which doesn't make sense.
02a7a248 4020
e0e4a6e3 4021=item Non-hex character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
4022
4023(F) In a regular expression, there was a non-hexadecimal character where
4024a hex one was expected, like
4025
4026 (?[ [ \xDG ] ])
4027 (?[ [ \x{DEKA} ] ])
4028
e0e4a6e3 4029=item Non-octal character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
4030
4031(F) In a regular expression, there was a non-octal character where
4032an octal one was expected, like
4033
4034 (?[ [ \o{1278} ] ])
4035
4036=item Non-octal character '%c'. Resolved as "%s"
4037
4038(W digit) In parsing an octal numeric constant, a character was
4039unexpectedly encountered that isn't octal. The resulting value
4040is as indicated.
4041
6df41af2
GS
4042=item "no" not allowed in expression
4043
be771a83
GS
4044(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
4045returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 4046
675fa9ff
FC
4047=item Non-string passed as bitmask
4048
4049(W misc) A number has been passed as a bitmask argument to select().
4050Use the vec() function to construct the file descriptor bitmasks for
4051select. See L<perlfunc/select>.
4052
c47ff5f1 4053=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 4054
be771a83
GS
4055(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4056redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
4057doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 4058
c47ff5f1 4059=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 4060
be771a83
GS
4061(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4062redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
4063find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 4064
1ec3e8de
GS
4065=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
4066
be771a83
GS
4067(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
4068declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
52d1f2c9 4069rules. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 4070
a0d0e21e
LW
4071=item No Perl script found in input
4072
4073(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
4074with #! and containing the word "perl".
4075
4076=item No setregid available
4077
4078(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
4079your system.
4080
4081=item No setreuid available
4082
4083(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
4084your system.
4085
5a25739d
FC
4086=item No such class %s
4087
4088(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state"
4089declaration, but this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
4090
e75d1f10
RD
4091=item No such class field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
4092
b7e4ecc1
FC
4093(F) You tried to access a key from a hash through the indicated typed
4094variable but that key is not allowed by the package of the same type.
4095The indicated package has restricted the set of allowed keys using the
4096L<fields> pragma.
e75d1f10 4097
3c20a832
SP
4098=item No such hook: %s
4099
dc7e5945
FC
4100(F) You specified a signal hook that was not recognized by Perl.
4101Currently, Perl accepts C<__DIE__> and C<__WARN__> as valid signal hooks.
3c20a832 4102
6df41af2
GS
4103=item No such pipe open
4104
4105(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
4106close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
4107earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 4108
a0d0e21e
LW
4109=item No such signal: SIG%s
4110
be771a83
GS
4111(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
4112not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
4113names on your system.
a0d0e21e
LW
4114
4115=item Not a CODE reference
4116
4117(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
4118subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
4119use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
4120also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4121
a0d0e21e
LW
4122=item Not a GLOB reference
4123
be771a83
GS
4124(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
4125symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
4126something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
4127kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4128
4129=item Not a HASH reference
4130
be771a83
GS
4131(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
4132reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
4133find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4134
b913d0b8
FC
4135=item '#' not allowed immediately following a sigil in a subroutine signature
4136
4137(F) In a subroutine signature definition, a comment following a sigil
4138(C<$>, C<@> or C<%>), needs to be separated by whitespace or a commma etc., in
4139particular to avoid confusion with the C<$#> variable. For example:
4140
4141 # bad
4142 sub f ($# ignore first arg
4143 , $b) {}
4144 # good
4145 sub f ($, # ignore first arg
4146 $b) {}
4147
6df41af2
GS
4148=item Not an ARRAY reference
4149
be771a83
GS
4150(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
4151a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
4152to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 4153
a0d0e21e
LW
4154=item Not a SCALAR reference
4155
be771a83
GS
4156(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
4157a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
4158to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4159
4160=item Not a subroutine reference
4161
4162(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
4163subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
4164use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
4165also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4166
e7ea3e70 4167=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
4168
4169(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 4170doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 4171
a0d0e21e
LW
4172=item Not enough arguments for %s
4173
4174(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
4175
6df41af2
GS
4176=item Not enough format arguments
4177
be771a83
GS
4178(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
4179supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
4180
4181=item %s: not found
4182
be771a83
GS
4183(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
4184of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
4185yourself.
6df41af2 4186
e0e4a6e3 4187=item (?[...]) not valid in locale in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
4188
4189(F) C<(?[...])> cannot be used within the scope of a C<S<use locale>> or with
4190an C</l> regular expression modifier, as that would require deferring
4191to run-time the calculation of what it should evaluate to, and it is
4192regex compile-time only.
4193
6df41af2 4194=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 4195
6df41af2
GS
4196(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
4197timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
4198to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
4199F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
4200need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e 4201
6df41af2
GS
4202=item NULL OP IN RUN
4203
f84fe999 4204(S debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
be771a83 4205pointer.
6df41af2 4206
55497cff 4207=item Null picture in formline
4208
4209(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
4210specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
4211supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
4212
a0d0e21e
LW
4213=item Null realloc
4214
4215(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
4216
4217=item NULL regexp argument
4218
5f05dabc 4219(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
4220
4221=item NULL regexp parameter
4222
4223(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
4224
fc36a67e 4225=item Number too long
4226
be771a83 4227(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 4228about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
4229versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
4230the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
4231"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 4232
f0a2b745
KW
4233=item Number with no digits
4234
1043934d 4235(F) Perl was looking for a number but found nothing that looked like
6903afa2 4236a number. This happens, for example with C<\o{}>, with no number between
1043934d 4237the braces.
f0a2b745 4238
252aa082
JH
4239=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
4240
75b44862 4241(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
4242(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
4243L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 4244
30d9c59b
Z
4245=item Odd name/value argument for subroutine
4246
4247(F) A subroutine using a slurpy hash parameter in its signature
4248received an odd number of arguments to populate the hash. It requires
4249the arguments to be paired, with the same number of keys as values.
4250The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault. Inconveniently,
4251this error will be reported at the location of the subroutine, not that
4252of the caller.
4253
6ad11d81
JH
4254=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
4255
04a80ee0 4256(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
6903afa2 4257arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 4258
b21befc1
MG
4259=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
4260
4261(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
4262which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
4263
1930e939 4264=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 4265
be771a83
GS
4266(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
4267which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 4268
bbce6d69 4269=item Offset outside string
4270
1fa582fa 4271(F)(W layer) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv/seek operation
42bc49da 4272with an offset pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to
f5a7294f
JH
4273imagine. The sole exceptions to this are that zero padding will
4274take place when going past the end of the string when either
4275C<sysread()>ing a file, or when seeking past the end of a scalar opened
0f44b2a5 4276for I/O (in anticipation of future reads and to imitate the behavior
1a7a2554 4277with real files).
bbce6d69 4278
c289d2f7 4279=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
4280
4281(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
4282never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
4283call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
4284
96ebfdd7
RK
4285=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
4286
4287(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
4288that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
4289
a0d0e21e
LW
4290=item oops: oopsAV
4291
e476b1b5 4292(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
4293
4294=item oops: oopsHV
4295
e476b1b5 4296(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 4297
122d6c09 4298=item Opening dirhandle %s also as a file. This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.28
abc718f2 4299
713e2616 4300(D io, deprecated) You used open() to associate a filehandle to
abc718f2
RGS
4301a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a dirhandle.
4302Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
122d6c09
A
4303and this was deprecated in Perl 5.10. In Perl 5.28, this
4304will be a fatal error.
abc718f2 4305
122d6c09 4306=item Opening filehandle %s also as a directory. This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.28
abc718f2 4307
28038637 4308(D io, deprecated) You used opendir() to associate a dirhandle to
abc718f2
RGS
4309a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a filehandle.
4310Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
122d6c09
A
4311and this was deprecated in Perl 5.10. In Perl 5.28, this
4312will be a fatal error.
abc718f2 4313
e0e4a6e3
FC
4314=item Operand with no preceding operator in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
4315m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 4316
675fa9ff 4317(F) You wrote something like
0d0b4b3b
KW
4318
4319 (?[ \p{Digit} \p{Thai} ])
4320
4321There are two operands, but no operator giving how you want to combine
4322them.
4323
a0288114 4324=item Operation "%s": no method found, %s
44a8e56a 4325
be771a83
GS
4326(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
4327handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
4328of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
e4aad80d 4329the C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 4330
5ff1373f 4331=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for non-Unicode code point 0x%X
9ae3ac1a 4332
52d1f2c9 4333(S non_unicode) You performed an operation requiring Unicode rules
b5af3ad2
FC
4334on a code point that is not in Unicode, so what it should do is not
4335defined. Perl has chosen to have it do nothing, and warn you.
9ae3ac1a
KW
4336
4337If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
4338matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
4339
4340If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 4341C<no warnings 'non_unicode';>.
9ae3ac1a 4342
5ff1373f 4343=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
9ae3ac1a 4344
4c2e59a0 4345(S surrogate) You performed an operation requiring Unicode
52d1f2c9 4346rules on a Unicode surrogate. Unicode frowns upon the use
ad94bb39 4347of surrogates for anything but storing strings in UTF-16, but
52d1f2c9 4348rules are (reluctantly) defined for the surrogates, and
ad94bb39
FC
4349they are to do nothing for this operation. Because the use of
4350surrogates can be dangerous, Perl warns.
9ae3ac1a
KW
4351
4352If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
4353matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
4354
4355If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 4356C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9ae3ac1a 4357
748a9306
LW
4358=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
4359
be771a83
GS
4360(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
4361was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
4362use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
4363example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
4364"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 4365
30d9c59b
Z
4366=item Optional parameter lacks default expression
4367
4368(F) In a subroutine signature, you wrote something like "$a =", making a
4369named optional parameter without a default value. A nameless optional
4370parameter is permitted to have no default value, but a named one must
4371have a specific default. You probably want "$a = undef".
4372
6df41af2
GS
4373=item "our" variable %s redeclared
4374
be771a83
GS
4375(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
4376in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 4377
a80b8354
GS
4378=item Out of memory!
4379
4380(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
4381remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
4382no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 4383
19a52907
JH
4384At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
4385process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
4386C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
4387the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
4388and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
4389
6d3b25aa
RGS
4390=item Out of memory during %s extend
4391
4392(X) An attempt was made to extend an array, a list, or a string beyond
4393the largest possible memory allocation.
4394
6df41af2 4395=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 4396
6df41af2 4397(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
6903afa2 4398remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
4399the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
4400possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 4401
1b979e0a 4402=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 4403
1fa582fa 4404(X)(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
be771a83
GS
4405insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
4406request.
eff9c6e2
CS
4407
4408The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
4409depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
4410However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
4411emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
4412is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
4413where the failed request happened.
55497cff 4414
1b979e0a
IZ
4415=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
4416
4417(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
4418is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
4419C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 4420
6df41af2
GS
4421=item Out of memory for yacc stack
4422
be771a83
GS
4423(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
4424parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
4425otherwise.
6df41af2 4426
28be1210
TH
4427=item '.' outside of string in pack
4428
4429(F) The argument to a '.' in your template tried to move the working
4430position to before the start of the packed string being built.
4431
49704364 4432=item '@' outside of string in unpack
6df41af2 4433
49704364 4434(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6df41af2
GS
4435the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4436
f337b084
TH
4437=item '@' outside of string with malformed UTF-8 in unpack
4438
4439(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6903afa2 4440the string being unpacked. The string being unpacked was also invalid
fa816bf3 4441UTF-8. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
f337b084 4442
7778d804
FC
4443=item overload arg '%s' is invalid
4444
4445(W overload) The L<overload> pragma was passed an argument it did not
4446recognize. Did you mistype an operator?
4447
7cb0cfe6
BM
4448=item Overloaded dereference did not return a reference
4449
4450(F) An object with an overloaded dereference operator was dereferenced,
6903afa2 4451but the overloaded operation did not return a reference. See
7cb0cfe6
BM
4452L<overload>.
4453
4454=item Overloaded qr did not return a REGEXP
4455
4456(F) An object with a C<qr> overload was used as part of a match, but the
6903afa2 4457overloaded operation didn't return a compiled regexp. See L<overload>.
7cb0cfe6 4458
6df41af2
GS
4459=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
4460
be771a83
GS
4461(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
4462package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
4463some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
4464mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 4465
96ebfdd7
RK
4466=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
4467
4468(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
4469signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4470
a0d0e21e
LW
4471=item page overflow
4472
be771a83
GS
4473(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
4474page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 4475
6df41af2
GS
4476=item panic: %s
4477
4478(P) An internal error.
4479
c99a1475
NC
4480=item panic: attempt to call %s in %s
4481
4482(P) One of the file test operators entered a code branch that calls
4483an ACL related-function, but that function is not available on this
4484platform. Earlier checks mean that it should not be possible to
4485enter this branch on this platform.
4486
d5e473ac
SH
4487=item panic: child pseudo-process was never scheduled
4488
4489(P) A child pseudo-process in the ithreads implementation on Windows
4490was not scheduled within the time period allowed and therefore was not
4491able to initialize properly.
4492
5637ef5b 4493=item panic: ck_grep, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4494
4495(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
4496
5637ef5b 4497=item panic: corrupt saved stack index %ld
a0d0e21e 4498
be771a83
GS
4499(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
4500there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 4501
810b8aa5
GS
4502=item panic: del_backref
4503
4504(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
4505reference.
4506
a0d0e21e
LW
4507=item panic: do_subst
4508
be771a83
GS
4509(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
4510data.
a0d0e21e 4511
2269b42e 4512=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 4513
2269b42e 4514(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 4515data.
a0d0e21e 4516
b7f7fd0b
NC
4517=item panic: fold_constants JMPENV_PUSH returned %d
4518
10203f38 4519(P) While attempting folding constants an exception other than an C<eval>
b7f7fd0b
NC
4520failure was caught.
4521
255abbe7 4522=item panic: frexp: %f
c635e13b 4523
4524(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
4525
5637ef5b 4526=item panic: goto, type=%u, ix=%ld
a0d0e21e
LW
4527
4528(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
4529and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
4530
b0d55c99
FC
4531=item panic: gp_free failed to free glob pointer
4532
4533(P) The internal routine used to clear a typeglob's entries tried
6903afa2
FC
4534repeatedly, but each time something re-created entries in the glob.
4535Most likely the glob contains an object with a reference back to
4536the glob and a destructor that adds a new object to the glob.
b0d55c99 4537
5637ef5b 4538=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4539
4540(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
4541
5637ef5b 4542=item panic: INTERPCONCAT, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4543
4544(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
4545
e446cec8
IZ
4546=item panic: kid popen errno read
4547
1f91b9f5 4548(F) A forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
e446cec8 4549
5637ef5b 4550=item panic: last, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4551
4552(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
4553it wasn't a block context.
4554
4555=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
4556
be771a83
GS
4557(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
4558scope.
a0d0e21e 4559
5637ef5b 4560=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency %u
a0d0e21e
LW
4561
4562(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
4563invalid enum on the top of it.
4564
810b8aa5
GS
4565=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
4566
4567(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
4568references to an object.
4569
5637ef5b 4570=item panic: malloc, %s
6df41af2
GS
4571
4572(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
4573
27d5b266
JH
4574=item panic: memory wrap
4575
46f9c2c2
FC
4576(P) Something tried to allocate either more memory than possible or a
4577negative amount.
27d5b266 4578
5637ef5b 4579=item panic: pad_alloc, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4580
4581(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4582and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4583
5637ef5b 4584=item panic: pad_free curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4585
4586(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4587and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4588
4589=item panic: pad_free po
4590
c1bd5aaa 4591(P) A zero scratch pad offset was detected internally. An attempt was
61a9f070 4592made to free a target that had not been allocated to begin with.
a0d0e21e 4593
5637ef5b 4594=item panic: pad_reset curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4595
4596(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4597and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4598
4599=item panic: pad_sv po
4600
61a9f070
FC
4601(P) A zero scratch pad offset was detected internally. Most likely
4602an operator needed a target but that target had not been allocated
4603for whatever reason.
a0d0e21e 4604
5637ef5b 4605=item panic: pad_swipe curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4606
4607(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4608and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4609
4610=item panic: pad_swipe po
4611
4612(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
4613
5637ef5b 4614=item panic: pp_iter, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4615
4616(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
4617
96ebfdd7
RK
4618=item panic: pp_match%s
4619
4620(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
4621data.
4622
5637ef5b 4623=item panic: realloc, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4624
4625(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
4626
ccfb6d2e
FC
4627=item panic: reference miscount on nsv in sv_replace() (%d != 1)
4628
4629(P) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
4630reference count other than 1.
4631
5637ef5b 4632=item panic: restartop in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4633
4634(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
4635didn't supply the destination.
4636
5637ef5b 4637=item panic: return, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4638
4639(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
4640then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
4641
5637ef5b 4642=item panic: scan_num, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4643
4644(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
4645
4599db5f 4646=item panic: Sequence (?{...}): no code block found in regex m/%s/
d24ca0c5 4647
1f91b9f5 4648(P) While compiling a pattern that has embedded (?{}) or (??{}) code
d24ca0c5
DM
4649blocks, perl couldn't locate the code block that should have already been
4650seen and compiled by perl before control passed to the regex compiler.
4651
5a25739d
FC
4652=item panic: strxfrm() gets absurd - a => %u, ab => %u
4653
4654(P) The interpreter's sanity check of the C function strxfrm() failed.
4655In your current locale the returned transformation of the string "ab"
4656is shorter than that of the string "a", which makes no sense.
4657
6c65d5f9
NC
4658=item panic: sv_chop %s
4659
4660(P) The sv_chop() routine was passed a position that is not within the
4661scalar's string buffer.
4662
5637ef5b 4663=item panic: sv_insert, midend=%p, bigend=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4664
4665(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
4666was string.
4667
4668=item panic: top_env
4669
6224f72b 4670(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e 4671
65bca31a
NC
4672=item panic: unimplemented op %s (#%d) called
4673
a1efa96e
FC
4674(P) The compiler is screwed up and attempted to use an op that isn't
4675permitted at run time.
65bca31a 4676
01bbc29f
FC
4677=item panic: unknown OA_*: %x
4678
4679(P) The internal routine that handles arguments to C<&CORE::foo()>
4680subroutine calls was unable to determine what type of arguments
4681were expected.
4682
dea0fc0b
JH
4683=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
4684
4685(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 4686to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 4687
e0ea5e2d
NC
4688=item panic: utf16_to_utf8_reversed: odd bytelen
4689
4690(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8_reversed with an odd (as opposed
4691to even) byte length.
4692
5637ef5b 4693=item panic: yylex, %s
2f7da168
RK
4694
4695(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
4696
78181aa9
KW
4697=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
4698
4699(W parenthesis) You said something like
4700
4701 my $foo, $bar = @_;
4702
4703when you meant
4704
4705 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
4706
4707Remember that "my", "our", "local" and "state" bind tighter than comma.
4708
28ac2b49
Z
4709=item Parsing code internal error (%s)
4710
4711(F) Parsing code supplied by an extension violated the parser's API in
4712a detectable way.
4713
b9bd8d8c 4714=item Pattern subroutine nesting without pos change exceeded limit in regex
1a147d38
YO
4715
4716(F) You used a pattern that uses too many nested subpattern calls without
6903afa2
FC
4717consuming any text. Restructure the pattern so text is consumed before
4718the nesting limit is exceeded.
1a147d38 4719
96ebfdd7
RK
4720=item C<-p> destination: %s
4721
4722(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
4723command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
4724redirected it with select().)
4725
0ae4a328
FC
4726=item Perl API version %s of %s does not match %s
4727
d792985a 4728(F) The XS module in question was compiled against a different incompatible
0ae4a328
FC
4729version of Perl than the one that has loaded the XS module.
4730
8954b91a 4731=item Perl folding rules are not up-to-date for 0x%X; please use the perlbug
e0e4a6e3 4732utility to report; in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
d50a4f90 4733
6014bd26
JK
4734(S regexp) You used a regular expression with case-insensitive matching,
4735and there is a bug in Perl in which the built-in regular expression
4736folding rules are not accurate. This may lead to incorrect results.
4737Please report this as a bug using the L<perlbug> utility.
d50a4f90 4738
f51551f7
FC
4739=item PerlIO layer ':win32' is experimental
4740
4741(S experimental::win32_perlio) The C<:win32> PerlIO layer is
4742experimental. If you want to take the risk of using this layer,
4743simply disable this warning:
4744
4745 no warnings "experimental::win32_perlio";
4746
1109a392
MHM
4747=item Perl_my_%s() not available
4748
4749(F) Your platform has very uncommon byte-order and integer size,
4750so it was not possible to set up some or all fixed-width byte-order
4751conversion functions. This is only a problem when you're using the
4752'<' or '>' modifiers in (un)pack templates. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4753
6651ba0b
FC
4754=item Perl %s required (did you mean %s?)--this is only %s, stopped
4755
4756(F) The code you are trying to run has asked for a newer version of
4757Perl than you are running. Perhaps C<use 5.10> was written instead
4758of C<use 5.010> or C<use v5.10>. Without the leading C<v>, the number is
4759interpreted as a decimal, with every three digits after the
4760decimal point representing a part of the version number. So 5.10
4761is equivalent to v5.100.
4762
6903f24f 4763=item Perl %s required--this is only %s, stopped
6d3b25aa
RGS
4764
4765(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
4766recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
4767you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
4768
6df41af2
GS
4769=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
4770
fa816bf3 4771(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 4772C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 4773
96ebfdd7
RK
4774=item PERL_SIGNALS illegal: "%s"
4775
806b6d07 4776(X) See L<perlrun/PERL_SIGNALS> for legal values.
96ebfdd7 4777
6651ba0b
FC
4778=item Perls since %s too modern--this is %s, stopped
4779
4780(F) The code you are trying to run claims it will not run
4781on the version of Perl you are using because it is too new.
4782Maybe the code needs to be updated, or maybe it is simply
4783wrong and the version check should just be removed.
4784
675fa9ff
FC
4785=item perl: warning: Non hex character in '$ENV{PERL_HASH_SEED}', seed only partially set
4786
ff9c1ae8 4787(S) PERL_HASH_SEED should match /^\s*(?:0x)?[0-9a-fA-F]+\s*\z/ but it
675fa9ff
FC
4788contained a non hex character. This could mean you are not using the
4789hash seed you think you are.
6a5b4183 4790
6df41af2
GS
4791=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
4792
4793(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
4794
4795 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
4796 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
4797 LC_ALL = "En_US",
4798 LANG = (unset)
4799 are supported and installed on your system.
4800 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
4801
4802Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
4803settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
0ea6b70f
JH
4804This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
4805system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
4806locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
4807dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
4b07a369
FC
4808Perl can and will use, and the script will be run. Before you really
4809fix the problem, however, you will get the same error message each
4810time you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
0ea6b70f 4811L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
6df41af2 4812
6a5b4183
YO
4813=item perl: warning: strange setting in '$ENV{PERL_PERTURB_KEYS}': '%s'
4814
ff9c1ae8 4815(S) Perl was run with the environment variable PERL_PERTURB_KEYS defined
675fa9ff 4816but containing an unexpected value. The legal values of this setting
6a5b4183
YO
4817are as follows.
4818
4819 Numeric | String | Result
4820 --------+---------------+-----------------------------------------
4821 0 | NO | Disables key traversal randomization
4822 1 | RANDOM | Enables full key traversal randomization
555bd962
BG
4823 2 | DETERMINISTIC | Enables repeatable key traversal
4824 | | randomization
6a5b4183
YO
4825
4826Both numeric and string values are accepted, but note that string values are
675fa9ff 4827case sensitive. The default for this setting is "RANDOM" or 1.
aac486f1 4828
bd3fa61c 4829=item pid %x not a child
748a9306 4830
be771a83
GS
4831(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
4832process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
4833fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
748a9306 4834
49704364 4835=item 'P' must have an explicit size in unpack
3bf38418
WL
4836
4837(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
4838
6e8a73f2 4839=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
96ebfdd7 4840
e0e4a6e3 4841(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The S<<-- HERE>
9e3ec65c 4842shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
96ebfdd7
RK
4843Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
4844the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
4845not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
4846
4847=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
4848
4849(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
4850the BSD version, which takes a pid.
4851
46d34d0e 4852=item POSIX syntax [%c %c] belongs inside character classes%s in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 4853S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 4854
46d34d0e
KW
4855(W regexp) Perl thinks that you intended to write a POSIX character
4856class, but didn't use enough brackets. These POSIX class constructs [:
4857:], [= =], and [. .] go I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of
4858the construct, for example: C<qr/[012[:alpha:]345]/>. What the regular
4859expression pattern compiled to is probably not what you were intending.
4860For example, C<qr/[:alpha:]/> compiles to a regular bracketed character
4861class consisting of the four characters C<":">, C<"a">, C<"l">,
4862C<"h">, and C<"p">. To specify the POSIX class, it should have been
4863written C<qr/[[:alpha:]]/>.
4864
4865Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
9e3ec65c 4866implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and
e0e4a6e3 4867will cause fatal errors. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 4868expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4869
46d34d0e
KW
4870If the specification of the class was not completely valid, the message
4871indicates that.
4872
6fbc9859 4873=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 4874S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 4875
a125938c
FC
4876(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
4877with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
4878need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
4879character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[."
e0e4a6e3 4880and ".\]". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
a125938c 4881problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4882
6fbc9859 4883=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 4884S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 4885
7253e4e3
RK
4886(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
4887with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
4888need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
4889character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
e0e4a6e3 4890and "=\]". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
7253e4e3 4891problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4892
bbce6d69 4893=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
4894
e476b1b5 4895(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
75b44862 4896strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
be771a83
GS
4897literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
4898parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
bbce6d69 4899
774d564b 4900You probably wrote something like this:
4901
54310121 4902 @list = qw(
774d564b 4903 a # a comment
bbce6d69 4904 b # another comment
774d564b 4905 );
bbce6d69 4906
4907when you should have written this:
4908
774d564b 4909 @list = qw(
54310121 4910 a
4911 b
774d564b 4912 );
4913
4914If you really want comments, build your list the
4915old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
4916
4917 @list = (
4918 'a', # a comment
4919 'b', # another comment
4920 );
bbce6d69 4921
4922=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
4923
be771a83
GS
4924(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
4925commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
4926different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
4927frequently used.)
bbce6d69 4928
54310121 4929You probably wrote something like this:
bbce6d69 4930
774d564b 4931 qw! a, b, c !;
4932
4933which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
4934commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
bbce6d69 4935
774d564b 4936 qw! a b c !;
bbce6d69 4937
a0d0e21e
LW
4938=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
4939
4940(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
4941Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
4942end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
4943Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
4944
9da2d046
NT
4945=item Possible precedence issue with control flow operator
4946
4947(W syntax) There is a possible problem with the mixing of a control
4948flow operator (e.g. C<return>) and a low-precedence operator like
4949C<or>. Consider:
4950
4951 sub { return $a or $b; }
4952
4953This is parsed as:
4954
4955 sub { (return $a) or $b; }
4956
4957Which is effectively just:
4958
4959 sub { return $a; }
4960
4961Either use parentheses or the high-precedence variant of the operator.
4962
4963Note this may be also triggered for constructs like:
4964
4965 sub { 1 if die; }
4966
8823cb89 4967=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %s operator
a690c7c4
FC
4968
4969(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
4970with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
4971
4972 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
4973
4974This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
4975higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
4976really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, put the
4977parentheses explicitly and write C<$x & ($y == 0)>).
4978
77772344
B
4979=item Possible unintended interpolation of $\ in regex
4980
4981(W ambiguous) You said something like C<m/$\/> in a regex.
4982The regex C<m/foo$\s+bar/m> translates to: match the word 'foo', the output
8ddb446c 4983record separator (see L<perlvar/$\>) and the letter 's' (one time or more)
77772344
B
4984followed by the word 'bar'.
4985
4986If this is what you intended then you can silence the warning by using
4987C<m/${\}/> (for example: C<m/foo${\}s+bar/>).
4988
4989If instead you intended to match the word 'foo' at the end of the line
4990followed by whitespace and the word 'bar' on the next line then you can use
4991C<m/$(?)\/> (for example: C<m/foo$(?)\s+bar/>).
4992
e5035638
FC
4993=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
4994
ccf3535a 4995(W ambiguous) You said something like '@foo' in a double-quoted string
6903afa2 4996but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
e5035638
FC
4997literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
4998to the array you apparently lost track of.
4999
a0d0e21e
LW
5000=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
5001
e476b1b5 5002(S precedence) The old irregular construct
cb1a09d0 5003
a0d0e21e
LW
5004 open FOO || die;
5005
5006is now misinterpreted as
5007
5008 open(FOO || die);
5009
be771a83
GS
5010because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
5011list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
5012parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
5013of "||".
a0d0e21e 5014
3cdd684c
TP
5015=item Premature end of script headers
5016
3de20fbe 5017See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 5018
6df41af2
GS
5019=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
5020
be771a83 5021(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5022before now. Check your control flow.
6df41af2 5023
9a7dcd9c 5024=item print() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 5025
be771a83 5026(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5027before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5028
6df41af2 5029=item Process terminated by SIG%s
a0d0e21e 5030
6df41af2
GS
5031(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
5032applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
5033port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
5034L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
fecfaeb8 5035in L<perlos2>.
a0d0e21e 5036
327323c1
RGS
5037=item Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s
5038
fa816bf3
FC
5039(W illegalproto) A character follows % or @ in a prototype. This is
5040useless, since % and @ gobble the rest of the subroutine arguments.
327323c1 5041
3fe9a6f1 5042=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4633a7c4 5043
9a0b3859 5044(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
be771a83 5045declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4633a7c4 5046
ed9aa3b7
SG
5047=item Prototype not terminated
5048
2a6fd447 5049(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
ed9aa3b7
SG
5050definition.
5051
eedb00fa
PM
5052=item Prototype '%s' overridden by attribute 'prototype(%s)' in %s
5053
5054(W prototype) A prototype was declared in both the parentheses after
5055the sub name and via the prototype attribute. The prototype in
5056parentheses is useless, since it will be replaced by the prototype
5057from the attribute before it's ever used.
5058
6e8a73f2 5059=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
96ebfdd7 5060
6903afa2 5061(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if
e0e4a6e3 5062you meant it literally. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 5063expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
96ebfdd7 5064
6e8a73f2 5065=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9baa0206 5066
6903afa2 5067(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of
e0e4a6e3 5068the {min,max} construct. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 5069expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9baa0206 5070
675fa9ff
FC
5071=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex
5072
e0e4a6e3
FC
5073=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex; marked by
5074S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
5075
5076(W regexp) Minima should be less than or equal to maxima. If you really
5077want your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}.
5078
e1729dc6 5079=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression in regex m/%s/
9baa0206 5080
b45f050a
JF
5081(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
5082it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
5083quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
5084"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
5085C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
9baa0206 5086
89ea2908
GA
5087=item Range iterator outside integer range
5088
5089(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
5090are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
be771a83
GS
5091One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
5092by prepending "0" to your numbers.
89ea2908 5093
ad513756 5094=item Ranges of ASCII printables should be some subset of "0-9", "A-Z", or
6e8a73f2 5095"a-z" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ad513756
FC
5096
5097(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
5098
5099Stricter rules help to find typos and other errors. Perhaps you didn't
5100even intend a range here, if the C<"-"> was meant to be some other
5101character, or should have been escaped (like C<"\-">). If you did
5102intend a range, the one that was used is not portable between ASCII and
5103EBCDIC platforms, and doesn't have an obvious meaning to a casual
5104reader.
5105
5106 [3-7] # OK; Obvious and portable
5107 [d-g] # OK; Obvious and portable
5108 [A-Y] # OK; Obvious and portable
5109 [A-z] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5110 [a-Z] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5111 [%-.] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5112 [\x41-Z] # WRONG; Not portable; not obvious to non-geek
5113
5114(You can force portability by specifying a Unicode range, which means that
5115the endpoints are specified by
5116L<C<\N{...}>|perlrecharclass/Character Ranges>, but the meaning may
5117still not be obvious.)
5118The stricter rules require that ranges that start or stop with an ASCII
5119character that is not a control have all their endpoints be the literal
5120character, and not some escape sequence (like C<"\x41">), and the ranges
5121must be all digits, or all uppercase letters, or all lowercase letters.
5122
5123=item Ranges of digits should be from the same group in regex; marked by
6e8a73f2 5124S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ad513756
FC
5125
5126(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
5127
5128Stricter rules help to find typos and other errors. You included a
5129range, and at least one of the end points is a decimal digit. Under the
5130stricter rules, when this happens, both end points should be digits in
5131the same group of 10 consecutive digits.
5132
3b7fbd4a
SP
5133=item readdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5134
1a147d38 5135(W io) The dirhandle you're reading from is either closed or not really
3b7fbd4a
SP
5136a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5137
96ebfdd7
RK
5138=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
5139
5140(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
5141before now. Check your control flow.
5142
b5fe5ca2
SR
5143=item read() on closed filehandle %s
5144
5145(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
5146
5147=item read() on unopened filehandle %s
5148
5149(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
5150
de42a5a9 5151=item Reallocation too large: %x
6df41af2
GS
5152
5153(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
5154
4ad56ec9
IZ
5155=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
5156
be771a83
GS
5157(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
5158already been freed.
4ad56ec9 5159
a0d0e21e
LW
5160=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
5161
19b29141 5162(S debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
be771a83 5163the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
a0d0e21e
LW
5164which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
5165
6651ba0b
FC
5166=item Recursive call to Perl_load_module in PerlIO_find_layer
5167
5168(P) It is currently not permitted to load modules when creating
5169a filehandle inside an %INC hook. This can happen with C<open my
5170$fh, '<', \$scalar>, which implicitly loads PerlIO::scalar. Try
5171loading PerlIO::scalar explicitly first.
5172
3e0ccd42 5173=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
a0d0e21e 5174
2c7d6b9c
RGS
5175(F) While calculating the method resolution order (MRO) of a package, Perl
5176believes it found an infinite loop in the C<@ISA> hierarchy. This is a
5177crude check that bails out after 100 levels of C<@ISA> depth.
a0d0e21e 5178
f51551f7
FC
5179=item Redundant argument in %s
5180
5181(W redundant) You called a function with more arguments than other
3617dbb6 5182arguments you supplied indicated would be needed. Currently only
f51551f7
FC
5183emitted when a printf-type format required fewer arguments than were
5184supplied, but might be used in the future for e.g. L<perlfunc/pack>.
5185
12605ff9
FC
5186=item refcnt_dec: fd %d%s
5187
2e0cfa16
FC
5188=item refcnt: fd %d%s
5189
12605ff9
FC
5190=item refcnt_inc: fd %d%s
5191
fa816bf3 5192(P) Perl's I/O implementation failed an internal consistency check. If
2e0cfa16
FC
5193you see this message, something is very wrong.
5194
1930e939
TP
5195=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
5196
be771a83 5197(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
6903afa2
FC
5198with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This
5199usually means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant
5200to use parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
7b8d334a
GS
5201
5202 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
5203 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
5204 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
5205 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
5206
810b8aa5
GS
5207=item Reference is already weak
5208
e476b1b5 5209(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
810b8aa5
GS
5210Doing so has no effect.
5211
e0e4a6e3 5212=item Reference to invalid group 0 in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b72d83b2 5213
6903afa2
FC
5214(F) You used C<\g0> or similar in a regular expression. You may refer
5215to capturing parentheses only with strictly positive integers
5216(normal backreferences) or with strictly negative integers (relative
5217backreferences). Using 0 does not make sense.
b72d83b2 5218
e0e4a6e3
FC
5219=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5220m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
5221
5222(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
6903afa2 5223not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If
bbaee129
FC
5224you wanted to have the character with ordinal 7 inserted into the regular
5225expression, prepend zeroes to make it three digits long: C<\007>
9baa0206 5226
6e8a73f2 5227The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
b45f050a 5228discovered.
9baa0206 5229
e0e4a6e3
FC
5230=item Reference to nonexistent named group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
5231in m/%s/
1a147d38
YO
5232
5233(F) You used something like C<\k'NAME'> or C<< \k<NAME> >> in your regular
9381611c 5234expression, but there is no corresponding named capturing parentheses
6903afa2 5235such as C<(?'NAME'...)> or C<< (?<NAME>...) >>. Check if the name has been
9381611c 5236spelled correctly both in the backreference and the declaration.
1a147d38 5237
6e8a73f2 5238The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
5239discovered.
5240
e0e4a6e3
FC
5241=item Reference to nonexistent or unclosed group in regex; marked by
5242S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1a147d38 5243
bcb95744
FC
5244(F) You used something like C<\g{-7}> in your regular expression, but there
5245are not at least seven sets of closed capturing parentheses in the
5246expression before where the C<\g{-7}> was located.
1a147d38 5247
6e8a73f2 5248The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
5249discovered.
5250
a0d0e21e
LW
5251=item regexp memory corruption
5252
5253(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
5254expression compiler gave it.
5255
ff3f26d2
KW
5256=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may appear a maximum of twice
5257
4d910168 5258=item Regexp modifier "%c" may appear a maximum of twice in regex; marked
e0e4a6e3 5259by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4d910168 5260
ce170e67 5261(F) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
ff3f26d2 5262of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
3955e1a9 5263
6fbc9859
MH
5264=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear after the "-" in regex; marked by <--
5265HERE in m/%s/
9442e3b8 5266
f8b5bc72
FC
5267(F) Turning off the given modifier has the side effect of turning on
5268another one. Perl currently doesn't allow this. Reword the regular
9442e3b8
KW
5269expression to use the modifier you want to turn on (and place it before
5270the minus), instead of the one you want to turn off.
5271
591f5ca2
FC
5272=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may not appear twice
5273
4d910168
FC
5274=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear twice in regex; marked by <--
5275HERE in m/%s/
5276
ce170e67 5277(F) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
591f5ca2
FC
5278of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
5279
3955e1a9
KW
5280=item Regexp modifiers "/%c" and "/%c" are mutually exclusive
5281
4d910168 5282=item Regexp modifiers "%c" and "%c" are mutually exclusive in regex;
e0e4a6e3 5283marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4d910168 5284
ce170e67 5285(F) The regular expression pattern had more than one of these
3955e1a9
KW
5286mutually exclusive modifiers. Retain only the modifier that is
5287supposed to be there.
5288
aec0ef10 5289=item Regexp out of space in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5290
be771a83
GS
5291(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
5292earlier.
a0d0e21e 5293
a7f533cb 5294=item Repeated format line will never terminate (~~ and @#)
a1b95068 5295
d7f8936a 5296(F) Your format contains the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence and a
a1b95068 5297numeric field that will never go blank so that the repetition never
6903afa2 5298terminates. You might use ^# instead. See L<perlform>.
a1b95068 5299
b08e453b
RB
5300=item Replacement list is longer than search list
5301
5302(W misc) You have used a replacement list that is longer than the
fa816bf3 5303search list. So the additional elements in the replacement list
b08e453b
RB
5304are meaningless.
5305
5e0a247b
KW
5306=item '%s' resolved to '\o{%s}%d'
5307
5308(W misc, regexp) You wrote something like C<\08>, or C<\179> in a
5309double-quotish string. All but the last digit is treated as a single
5310character, specified in octal. The last digit is the next character in
5311the string. To tell Perl that this is indeed what you want, you can use
5312the C<\o{ }> syntax, or use exactly three digits to specify the octal
5313for the character.
5314
a0d0e21e
LW
5315=item Reversed %s= operator
5316
be771a83 5317(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
964742a1 5318always come last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
a0d0e21e 5319
abc7ecad
SP
5320=item rewinddir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5321
1b303a7d
FC
5322(W io) The dirhandle you tried to do a rewinddir() on is either closed
5323or not really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
abc7ecad 5324
96ebfdd7
RK
5325=item Scalars leaked: %d
5326
7bd1381d 5327(S internal) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping
4f5966a5
FC
5328of scalars: not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time
5329Perl exited. What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which
5330is of course bad, especially if the Perl program is intended to be
5331long-running.
96ebfdd7 5332
a0d0e21e
LW
5333=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
5334
be771a83
GS
5335(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
5336single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
5337value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
5338behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
5339argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
5340and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
5341if you're expecting only one subscript.
a0d0e21e 5342
748a9306 5343On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5f05dabc 5344element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
748a9306
LW
5345Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
5346L<perlref>.
5347
a6006777 5348=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
5349
75b44862 5350(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
be771a83
GS
5351element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
5352(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
5353like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
5354argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
5355and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
5356if you're expecting only one subscript.
5357
5358On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
5359as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
5360not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
a6006777 5361L<perlref>.
5362
a0d0e21e
LW
5363=item Search pattern not terminated
5364
5365(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
5366construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5367Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 5368
ea9d9ebc 5369Note that since Perl 5.10.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
5d9c98cd 5370construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
ea9d9ebc
FC
5371in Perl 5.10.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
5372misparsed by pre-5.10.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
5d9c98cd 5373
abc7ecad
SP
5374=item seekdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5375
5376(W io) The dirhandle you are doing a seekdir() on is either closed or not
5377really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5378
3257ea4f
FC
5379=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
5380
5381(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
5382filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
5383
a0d0e21e
LW
5384=item select not implemented
5385
5386(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
5387
ae21d580 5388=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
68a4a7e4 5389
ae21d580
JH
5390(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
5391the current implementation.
68a4a7e4 5392
6df41af2 5393=item Semicolon seems to be missing
a0d0e21e 5394
75b44862
GS
5395(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
5396semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
a0d0e21e
LW
5397
5398=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
5399
be771a83
GS
5400(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
5401scalar that had previously been marked as free.
a0d0e21e 5402
6df41af2 5403=item sem%s not implemented
a0d0e21e 5404
6df41af2 5405(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
a0d0e21e 5406
69282e91 5407=item send() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 5408
be771a83 5409(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5410before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5411
0ae4a328
FC
5412=item Sequence "\c{" invalid
5413
5414(F) These three characters may not appear in sequence in a
5415double-quotish context. This message is raised only on non-ASCII
5416platforms (a different error message is output on ASCII ones). If you
5417were intending to specify a control character with this sequence, you'll
5418have to use a different way to specify it.
5419
e0e4a6e3 5420=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
7b8d334a 5421
6903afa2 5422(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The
e0e4a6e3 5423S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
6903afa2 5424discovered. See L<perlre>.
1b1626e4 5425
e0e4a6e3
FC
5426=item Sequence (?%c...) not implemented in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5427m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5428
6903afa2 5429(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
e0e4a6e3 5430but has not yet been written. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
9e3ec65c 5431regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5432
e0e4a6e3
FC
5433=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5434m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5435
d921c7bf 5436(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense.
e0e4a6e3 5437The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
d921c7bf 5438discovered. This may happen when using the C<(?^...)> construct to tell
fb85c044 5439Perl to use the default regular expression modifiers, and you
9442e3b8 5440redundantly specify a default modifier. For other
9de15fec 5441causes, see L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 5442
aec0ef10 5443=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
5444
5445(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
aec0ef10 5446parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. See
7253e4e3 5447L<perlre>.
6df41af2 5448
07ea66ee
FC
5449=item Sequence (?&... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5450m/%s/
5451
5452(F) A named reference of the form C<(?&...)> was missing the final
5453closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
5454in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5455
e0e4a6e3 5456=item Sequence (?%c... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
4599db5f
FC
5457in m/%s/
5458
5459(F) A named group of the form C<(?'...')> or C<< (?<...>) >> was missing the final
e0e4a6e3 5460closing quote or angle bracket. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
4599db5f
FC
5461regular expression the problem was discovered.
5462
e0e4a6e3 5463=item Sequence (?(%c... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
4599db5f
FC
5464in m/%s/
5465
5466(F) A named reference of the form C<(?('...')...)> or C<< (?(<...>)...) >> was
5467missing the final closing quote or angle bracket after the name. The
e0e4a6e3 5468S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
4599db5f
FC
5469discovered.
5470
5b9ce456
KW
5471=item Sequence (?... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5472m/%s/
5473
5474(F) There was no matching closing parenthesis for the '('. The
5475S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
5476discovered.
5477
e0e4a6e3
FC
5478=item Sequence \%s... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5479m/%s/
5a25739d
FC
5480
5481(F) The regular expression expects a mandatory argument following the escape
5482sequence and this has been omitted or incorrectly written.
5483
9da1dd8f
DM
5484=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated with ')'
5485
be149b43
DM
5486(F) The end of the perl code contained within the {...} must be
5487followed immediately by a ')'.
9da1dd8f 5488
74d1b2e4 5489=item Sequence (?PE<gt>... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4599db5f 5490
74d1b2e4 5491(F) A named reference of the form C<(?PE<gt>...)> was missing the final
cfbef7dc
KW
5492closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
5493in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5494
5495=item Sequence (?PE<lt>... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5496
5497(F) A named group of the form C<(?PE<lt>...E<gt>')> was missing the final
5498closing angle bracket. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
5499regular expression the problem was discovered.
5500
74d1b2e4
FC
5501=item Sequence ?P=... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5502m/%s/
cfbef7dc 5503
74d1b2e4 5504(F) A named reference of the form C<(?P=...)> was missing the final
e0e4a6e3 5505closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
4599db5f
FC
5506in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5507
5508=item Sequence (?R) not terminated in regex m/%s/
5509
5510(F) An C<(?R)> or C<(?0)> sequence in a regular expression was missing the
5511final parenthesis.
5512
3de20fbe 5513=item Z<>500 Server error
a5f75d66 5514
6903afa2
FC
5515(A) This is the error message generally seen in a browser window
5516when trying to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The
5517actual error text varies widely from server to server. The most
5518frequently-seen variants are "500 Server error", "Method (something)
5519not permitted", "Document contains no data", "Premature end of script
5520headers", and "Did not produce a valid header".
9607fc9c 5521
5522B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
5523
6903afa2
FC
5524You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by
5525the user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the
5526user account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment
5527variables (like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't
5528in a location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or
5529less. Please see the following for more information:
9607fc9c 5530
06a5f41f
JH
5531 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
5532 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
5533 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
a5f75d66 5534
be94a901
GS
5535You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
5536
a0d0e21e
LW
5537=item setegid() not implemented
5538
be771a83
GS
5539(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
5540support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5541didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
5542
5543=item seteuid() not implemented
5544
be771a83
GS
5545(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
5546support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5547didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 5548
81777298
GS
5549=item setpgrp can't take arguments
5550
be771a83
GS
5551(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
5552arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
5553group ID.
81777298 5554
a0d0e21e
LW
5555=item setrgid() not implemented
5556
be771a83
GS
5557(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
5558support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5559didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
5560
5561=item setruid() not implemented
5562
be771a83
GS
5563(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
5564support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5565didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 5566
6df41af2
GS
5567=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
5568
be771a83
GS
5569(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
5570forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
5571L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
5572
d8940893 5573=item Setting $/ to a reference to %s as a form of slurp is deprecated, treating as undef. This will be fatal in Perl 5.28
6da34ecb 5574
ddc3d23f 5575(D deprecated) You assigned a reference to a scalar to C<$/> where the
eedc0d19 5576referenced item is not a positive integer. In older perls this B<appeared>
6da34ecb
FC
5577to work the same as setting it to C<undef> but was in fact internally
5578different, less efficient and with very bad luck could have resulted in
5579your file being split by a stringified form of the reference.
5580
ea9d9ebc 5581In Perl 5.20.0 this was changed so that it would be B<exactly> the same as
6da34ecb
FC
5582setting C<$/> to undef, with the exception that this warning would be
5583thrown.
5584
eedc0d19 5585You are recommended to change your code to set C<$/> to C<undef> explicitly
d8940893
A
5586if you wish to slurp the file. In Perl 5.28 assigning C<$/> to a
5587reference to an integer which isn't positive will throw a fatal error.
6da34ecb 5588
ee0ba734 5589=item Setting $/ to %s reference is forbidden
a48e4205
FC
5590
5591(F) You tried to assign a reference to a non integer to C<$/>. In older
5592Perls this would have behaved similarly to setting it to a reference to
5593a positive integer, where the integer was the address of the reference.
5594As of Perl 5.20.0 this is a fatal error, to allow future versions of Perl
5595to use non-integer refs for more interesting purposes.
5596
a0d0e21e
LW
5597=item shm%s not implemented
5598
5599(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
5600
984200d0
YST
5601=item !=~ should be !~
5602
5603(W syntax) The non-matching operator is !~, not !=~. !=~ will be
5604interpreted as the != (numeric not equal) and ~ (1's complement)
5605operators: probably not what you intended.
5606
6df41af2
GS
5607=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
5608
5609(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
be771a83
GS
5610as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
5611result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
5612probably not what you had in mind.
6df41af2 5613
69282e91 5614=item shutdown() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 5615
75b44862
GS
5616(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
5617superfluous.
a0d0e21e 5618
f86702cc 5619=item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
a0d0e21e 5620
be771a83
GS
5621(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
5622Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
a0d0e21e 5623
efc859fb
FC
5624=item Slab leaked from cv %p
5625
5626(S) If you see this message, then something is seriously wrong with the
5627internal bookkeeping of op trees. An op tree needed to be freed after
5628a compilation error, but could not be found, so it was leaked instead.
5629
3b9aea04
SH
5630=item sleep(%u) too large
5631
5632(W overflow) You called C<sleep> with a number that was larger than
5633it can reliably handle and C<sleep> probably slept for less time than
5634requested.
5635
30d9c59b
Z
5636=item Slurpy parameter not last
5637
5638(F) In a subroutine signature, you put something after a slurpy (array or
5639hash) parameter. The slurpy parameter takes all the available arguments,
5640so there can't be any left to fill later parameters.
5641
675fa9ff
FC
5642=item Smart matching a non-overloaded object breaks encapsulation
5643
5644(F) You should not use the C<~~> operator on an object that does not
5645overload it: Perl refuses to use the object's underlying structure
5646for the smart match.
5647
0f539b13
BF
5648=item Smartmatch is experimental
5649
5650(S experimental::smartmatch) This warning is emitted if you
5651use the smartmatch (C<~~>) operator. This is currently an experimental
5652feature, and its details are subject to change in future releases of
5653Perl. Particularly, its current behavior is noticed for being
5654unnecessarily complex and unintuitive, and is very likely to be
5655overhauled.
5656
a0d0e21e
LW
5657=item sort is now a reserved word
5658
5659(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
5660But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
5661
f1c31c52
FC
5662=item Source filters apply only to byte streams
5663
5664(F) You tried to activate a source filter (usually by loading a
5665source filter module) within a string passed to C<eval>. This is
5666not permitted under the C<unicode_eval> feature. Consider using
5667C<evalbytes> instead. See L<feature>.
5668
8cbc2e3b
JH
5669=item splice() offset past end of array
5670
5671(W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
fa816bf3
FC
5672the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the
5673end of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want,
5674try explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset.
5675See L<perlfunc/splice>.
8cbc2e3b 5676
a0d0e21e
LW
5677=item Split loop
5678
be771a83
GS
5679(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
5680iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
6903afa2 5681happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
a0d0e21e 5682
a0d0e21e
LW
5683=item Statement unlikely to be reached
5684
be771a83
GS
5685(W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
5686die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
5687unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
5688instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
5689a block by itself.
a0d0e21e 5690
a21eb52b
FC
5691=item "state" subroutine %s can't be in a package
5692
5693(F) Lexically scoped subroutines aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
5694sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front.
5695
a2e39214
FC
5696=item "state %s" used in sort comparison
5697
5698(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
5699You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
5700sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
5701lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
5702name, or rename the lexical variable.
5703
5a25739d
FC
5704=item "state" variable %s can't be in a package
5705
5706(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
5707sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
5708local() if you want to localize a package variable.
5709
9ddeeac9 5710=item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
6df41af2 5711
355b1299
JH
5712(W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
5713was either never opened or has since been closed.
6df41af2 5714
5a25739d
FC
5715=item Strings with code points over 0xFF may not be mapped into in-memory file handles
5716
5717(W utf8) You tried to open a reference to a scalar for read or append
5718where the scalar contained code points over 0xFF. In-memory files
5719model on-disk files and can only contain bytes.
5720
fe13d51d 5721=item Stub found while resolving method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
e7ea3e70 5722
be771a83
GS
5723(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
5724stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
5725C<can> may break this.
e7ea3e70 5726
4e85e1b4
FC
5727=item Subroutine "&%s" is not available
5728
5729(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
5730attempting to capture an outer lexical subroutine that is not currently
5731available. This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the lexical
c387a7d0
FC
5732subroutine may be declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has
5733not yet been created. (Remember that named subs are created at compile
5734time, while anonymous subs are created at run-time.) For example,
4e85e1b4
FC
5735
5736 sub { my sub a {...} sub f { \&a } }
5737
c387a7d0 5738At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current "a" sub,
4e85e1b4
FC
5739since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely, the
5740following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by now
5741been created and is live:
5742
5743 sub { my sub a {...} eval 'sub f { \&a }' }->();
5744
c387a7d0
FC
5745The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a lexical subroutine
5746that has gone out of scope, for example,
4e85e1b4
FC
5747
5748 sub f {
5749 my sub a {...}
5750 sub { eval '\&a' }
5751 }
5752 f()->();
5753
5754Here, when the '\&a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
5755being executed, so its &a is not available for capture.
5756
4eb94d7c
FC
5757=item "%s" subroutine &%s masks earlier declaration in same %s
5758
5759(W misc) A "my" or "state" subroutine has been redeclared in the
5760current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to
5761the previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error.
5762Note that the earlier subroutine will still exist until the end of
20d33786 5763the scope or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
4eb94d7c 5764
9d92fedb
FC
5765=item Subroutine %s redefined
5766
5767(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
5768
5769 {
5770 no warnings 'redefine';
5771 eval "sub name { ... }";
5772 }
5773
2a9203e9
FC
5774=item Subroutine "%s" will not stay shared
5775
5776(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a "my"
5777subroutine defined in an outer named subroutine.
5778
5779When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of the outer
5780subroutine's lexical subroutine as it was before and during the *first*
5781call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
5782outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
5783longer share a common value for the lexical subroutine. In other words,
5784it will no longer be shared. This will especially make a difference
5785if the lexical subroutines accesses lexical variables declared in its
5786surrounding scope.
5787
5788This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
5789anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
5790reference lexical subroutines in outer subroutines are created, they
5791are automatically rebound to the current values of such lexical subs.
5792
a0d0e21e
LW
5793=item Substitution loop
5794
be771a83
GS
5795(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
5796shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
5797is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
5d44bfff 5798L<perlop/"Regexp Quote-Like Operators">.
a0d0e21e
LW
5799
5800=item Substitution pattern not terminated
5801
d1be9408 5802(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 5803construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5804Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
5805
5806=item Substitution replacement not terminated
5807
d1be9408 5808(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 5809construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5810Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
5811
5812=item substr outside of string
5813
8a9eb13d 5814(W substr)(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
be771a83
GS
5815a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
5816length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
5817substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
5818assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
a0d0e21e 5819
bf1320bf
RGS
5820=item sv_upgrade from type %d down to type %d
5821
9d277376 5822(P) Perl tried to force the upgrade of an SV to a type which was actually
bf1320bf
RGS
5823inferior to its current type.
5824
05a40652
FC
5825=item SWASHNEW didn't return an HV ref
5826
5827(P) Something went wrong internally when Perl was trying to look up
5828Unicode characters.
5829
6fbc9859 5830=item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 5831S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 5832
fa816bf3
FC
5833(F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most
5834two branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or
5835both to contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose
5836it in clustering parentheses:
b45f050a
JF
5837
5838 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
5839
e0e4a6e3 5840The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem
fa816bf3 5841was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5842
e0e4a6e3
FC
5843=item Switch condition not recognized in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5844m/%s/
b45f050a 5845
9f57786a
FC
5846(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
5847is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5848
5849 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
5850 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
5851 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
5852 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
5853 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
5854 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
5855 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
5856 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
5857 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
5858
6e8a73f2 5859The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9f57786a 5860discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5861
a1244175
FC
5862=item Switch (?(condition)... not terminated in regex; marked by
5863S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5864
99775d13
FC
5865(F) You omitted to close a (?(condition)...) block somewhere
5866in the pattern. Add a closing parenthesis in the appropriate
5867position. See L<perlre>.
a1244175 5868
85ab1d1d
JH
5869=item switching effective %s is not implemented
5870
be771a83
GS
5871(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
5872and effective uids or gids.
85ab1d1d 5873
a0d0e21e
LW
5874=item syntax error
5875
5876(F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
5877
5878 A keyword is misspelled.
5879 A semicolon is missing.
5880 A comma is missing.
5881 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
5882 An opening or closing brace is missing.
5883 A closing quote is missing.
5884
5885Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
5886error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
5887The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
5888it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
5f05dabc 5889before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
a0d0e21e
LW
5890Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
5891the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
5892C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
524e9188 5893if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
a0d0e21e 5894
ccf3535a 5895=item syntax error at line %d: '%s' unexpected
cb1a09d0 5896
be771a83
GS
5897(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
5898of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
5899yourself.
cb1a09d0 5900
25f58aea
PN
5901=item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
5902
5903(F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
5904a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
5905or "my $var" or "our $var".
5906
675fa9ff
FC
5907=item Syntax error in (?[...]) in regex m/%s/
5908
5909(F) Perl could not figure out what you meant inside this construct; this
5910notifies you that it is giving up trying.
5911
591f5ca2
FC
5912=item %s syntax OK
5913
5914(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
5915
b5fe5ca2
SR
5916=item sysread() on closed filehandle %s
5917
5918(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
5919
5920=item sysread() on unopened filehandle %s
5921
5922(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
5923
6087ac44 5924=item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
a0d0e21e 5925
6087ac44
JH
5926(F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
5927"shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
5928machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
5929unconfigured. Consult your system support.
a0d0e21e 5930
69282e91 5931=item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 5932
be771a83 5933(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5934before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5935
96ebfdd7
RK
5936=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
5937
5938(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
5939know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
5940
fc36a67e 5941=item Target of goto is too deeply nested
5942
be771a83
GS
5943(F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
5944for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
fc36a67e 5945
abc7ecad
SP
5946=item telldir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5947
5948(W io) The dirhandle you tried to telldir() is either closed or not really
5949a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5950
c2771421
FC
5951=item tell() on unopened filehandle
5952
5953(W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
5954was either never opened or has since been closed.
5955
b82b06b8
FC
5956=item That use of $[ is unsupported
5957
5958(F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted
5959as a compiler directive. You may say only one of
5960
5961 $[ = 0;
5962 $[ = 1;
5963 ...
5964 local $[ = 0;
5965 local $[ = 1;
5966 ...
5967
5968This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out
5969from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[> and L<arybase>.
5970
a6eb74ec
FC
5971=item The bitwise feature is experimental
5972
5973(S experimental::bitwise) This warning is emitted if you use bitwise
5974operators (C<& | ^ ~ &. |. ^. ~.>) with the "bitwise" feature enabled.
5975Simply suppress the warning if you want to use the feature, but know
5976that in doing so you are taking the risk of using an experimental
5977feature which may change or be removed in a future Perl version:
5978
5979 no warnings "experimental::bitwise";
5980 use feature "bitwise";
5981 $x |.= $y;
5982
67b16946 5983=item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia.
a0d0e21e
LW
5984
5985(F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
5986probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
8b1a09fc 5987think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
a0d0e21e
LW
5988will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
5989will deny it.
5990
3f645a4e
FC
5991=item The experimental declared_refs feature is not enabled
5992
5993(F) To declare references to variables, as in C<my \%x>, you must first enable
5994the feature:
5995
5996 no warnings "experimental::declared_refs";
5997 use feature "declared_refs";
5998
675fa9ff
FC
5999=item The %s function is unimplemented
6000
6001(F) The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture,
6002according to the probings of Configure.
6003
0d0b4b3b
KW
6004=item The regex_sets feature is experimental
6005
6006(S experimental::regex_sets) This warning is emitted if you
6007use the syntax S<C<(?[ ])>> in a regular expression.
6008The details of this feature are subject to change.
6009if you want to use it, but know that in doing so you
6010are taking the risk of using an experimental feature which may
6011change in a future Perl version, you can do this to silence the
6012warning:
6013
6014 no warnings "experimental::regex_sets";
6015
30d9c59b
Z
6016=item The signatures feature is experimental
6017
6018(S experimental::signatures) This warning is emitted if you unwrap a
6019subroutine's arguments using a signature. Simply suppress the warning
6020if you want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you are taking
6021the risk of using an experimental feature which may change or be removed
6022in a future Perl version:
6023
6024 no warnings "experimental::signatures";
6025 use feature "signatures";
6026 sub foo ($left, $right) { ... }
6027
5e1c7ca2 6028=item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
a0d0e21e 6029
be771a83
GS
6030(F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
6031linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
6032past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
6033instead.
a0d0e21e 6034
371fce9b
DM
6035=item The 'unique' attribute may only be applied to 'our' variables
6036
1108974d 6037(F) This attribute was never supported on C<my> or C<sub> declarations.
371fce9b 6038
437784d6 6039=item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
f675dbe5
CB
6040
6041=item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
6042
75b44862 6043(W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
be771a83
GS
6044element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
6045wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
6046need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
6047F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
6048target of the change to
f675dbe5
CB
6049%ENV which produced the warning.
6050
6a5b4183
YO
6051=item This Perl has not been built with support for randomized hash key traversal but something called Perl_hv_rand_set().
6052
6053(F) Something has attempted to use an internal API call which
6054depends on Perl being compiled with the default support for randomized hash
f26c79ba 6055key traversal, but this Perl has been compiled without it. You should
6a5b4183
YO
6056report this warning to the relevant upstream party, or recompile perl
6057with default options.
6058
a0d0e21e
LW
6059=item times not implemented
6060
be771a83
GS
6061(F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
6062suspect you're not running on Unix.
a0d0e21e 6063
6d3b25aa
RGS
6064=item "-T" is on the #! line, it must also be used on the command line
6065
b7e4ecc1
FC
6066(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains
6067the B<-T> option (or the B<-t> option), but Perl was not invoked with
6068B<-T> in its command line. This is an error because, by the time
6069Perl discovers a B<-T> in a script, it's too late to properly taint
6070everything from the environment. So Perl gives up.
6d3b25aa
RGS
6071
6072If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
b7e4ecc1
FC
6073mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be
6074fixed by editing the #! line so that the B<-%c> option is a part of
6075Perl's first argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -%c> to C<perl -%c -n>.
6d3b25aa
RGS
6076
6077If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
fe13d51d 6078B<-%c> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -%c scriptname>.
6d3b25aa 6079
3a2263fe
RGS
6080=item To%s: illegal mapping '%s'
6081
6082(F) You tried to define a customized To-mapping for lc(), lcfirst,
6083uc(), or ucfirst() (or their string-inlined versions), but you
6084specified an illegal mapping.
6085See L<perlunicode/"User-Defined Character Properties">.
6086
49704364
WL
6087=item Too deeply nested ()-groups
6088
1a147d38 6089(F) Your template contains ()-groups with a ridiculously deep nesting level.
49704364 6090
a0d0e21e
LW
6091=item Too few args to syscall
6092
6093(F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
6094system call to call, silly dilly.
6095
bb6b75cd
DM
6096=item Too few arguments for subroutine
6097
6098(F) A subroutine using a signature received too few arguments than
6099required by the signature. The caller of the subroutine is presumably
6100at fault.
6101
96ebfdd7
RK
6102=item Too late for "-%s" option
6103
6104(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
4ba71d51
FC
6105B<-M>, B<-m> or B<-C> option.
6106
6903afa2
FC
6107In the case of B<-M> and B<-m>, this is an error because those options
6108are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
4ba71d51 6109
6903afa2
FC
6110The B<-C> option only works if it is specified on the command line as
6111well (with the same sequence of letters or numbers following). Either
6112specify this option on the command line, or, if your system supports
6113it, make your script executable and run it directly instead of passing
6114it to perl.
96ebfdd7 6115
ddda08b7
GS
6116=item Too late to run %s block
6117
6118(W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
6119when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
be771a83
GS
6120loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
6121instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
6122BEGIN block.
ddda08b7 6123
a0d0e21e
LW
6124=item Too many args to syscall
6125
5f05dabc 6126(F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
a0d0e21e
LW
6127
6128=item Too many arguments for %s
6129
6130(F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
6131
bb6b75cd
DM
6132=item Too many arguments for subroutine
6133
6134(F) A subroutine using a signature received too many arguments than
6135required by the signature. The caller of the subroutine is presumably
6136at fault.
6137
6138
6df41af2
GS
6139=item Too many )'s
6140
49704364
WL
6141(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6142Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6143
8c40cb74
NC
6144=item Too many ('s
6145
be771a83
GS
6146(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6147Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 6148
7253e4e3 6149=item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 6150
be771a83
GS
6151(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
6152Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 6153
2c268ad5 6154=item Transliteration pattern not terminated
a0d0e21e
LW
6155
6156(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
fb73857a 6157or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
6158C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 6159
2c268ad5 6160=item Transliteration replacement not terminated
a0d0e21e 6161
6a36df5d
YST
6162(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr///, tr[][],
6163y/// or y[][] construct.
a0d0e21e 6164
96ebfdd7
RK
6165=item '%s' trapped by operation mask
6166
6167(F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
6903afa2 6168disallowed. See L<Safe>.
96ebfdd7 6169
a0d0e21e
LW
6170=item truncate not implemented
6171
6172(F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
6173Configure knows about.
6174
19c481f4
FC
6175=item Type of arg %d to &CORE::%s must be %s
6176
6177(F) The subroutine in question in the CORE package requires its argument
6178to be a hard reference to data of the specified type. Overloading is
6179ignored, so a reference to an object that is not the specified type, but
6180nonetheless has overloading to handle it, will still not be accepted.
6181
a0d0e21e
LW
6182=item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
6183
6184(F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
8b1a09fc 6185certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
6186%NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
a0d0e21e
LW
6187{EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
6188
eec2d3df
GS
6189=item umask not implemented
6190
be771a83
GS
6191(F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
6192use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
a0d0e21e
LW
6193
6194=item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
6195
c632e777 6196(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6197many execution contexts were entered and left.
a0d0e21e
LW
6198
6199=item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
6200
4a983e45 6201(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6202many values were temporarily localized.
a0d0e21e
LW
6203
6204=item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
6205
090cebb2 6206(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6207many blocks were entered and left.
a0d0e21e 6208
6651ba0b
FC
6209=item Unbalanced string table refcount: (%d) for "%s"
6210
31ff3bd2 6211(S internal) On exit, Perl found some strings remaining in the shared
6651ba0b
FC
6212string table used for copy on write and for hash keys. The entries
6213should have been freed, so this indicates a bug somewhere.
6214
a0d0e21e
LW
6215=item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
6216
2092d7c1 6217(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6218many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
a0d0e21e
LW
6219
6220=item Undefined format "%s" called
6221
6222(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
6223another package? See L<perlform>.
6224
6225=item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
6226
be771a83
GS
6227(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
6228Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e
LW
6229
6230=item Undefined subroutine &%s called
6231
be771a83
GS
6232(F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
6233since been undefined.
a0d0e21e
LW
6234
6235=item Undefined subroutine called
6236
6237(F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
6238or if it was, it has since been undefined.
6239
6240=item Undefined subroutine in sort
6241
be771a83
GS
6242(F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
6243to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e 6244
4633a7c4
LW
6245=item Undefined top format "%s" called
6246
6247(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
6248another package? See L<perlform>.
6249
20408e3c
GS
6250=item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
6251
be771a83
GS
6252(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
6253C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
6254C<undef *foo>.
20408e3c 6255
6df41af2
GS
6256=item %s: Undefined variable
6257
be771a83
GS
6258(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6259Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 6260
286c9456 6261=item Unescaped left brace in regex is deprecated here (and will be fatal in Perl 5.30), passed through in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
8e84dec2
KW
6262
6263(D deprecated, regexp) The simple rule to remember, if you want to
286c9456 6264match a literal C<{> character (U+007B C<LEFT CURLY BRACKET>) in a
8e84dec2
KW
6265regular expression pattern, is to escape each literal instance of it in
6266some way. Generally easiest is to precede it with a backslash, like
286c9456
A
6267C<\{> or enclose it in square brackets (C<[{]>). If the pattern
6268delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace (C<}>) should
8e84dec2
KW
6269also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for example,
6270
6271 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
6272
286c9456 6273Forcing literal C<{> characters to be escaped will enable the Perl
8e84dec2
KW
6274language to be extended in various ways in future releases. To avoid
6275needlessly breaking existing code, the restriction is is not enforced in
6276contexts where there are unlikely to ever be extensions that could
286c9456 6277conflict with the use there of C<{> as a literal.
8e84dec2 6278
286c9456 6279In this release of Perl, some literal uses of C<{> are fatal, and some
8e84dec2 6280still just deprecated. This is because of an oversight: some uses of a
286c9456 6281literal C<{> that should have raised a deprecation warning starting in
8e84dec2
KW
6282v5.20 did not warn until v5.26. By making the already-warned uses fatal
6283now, some of the planned extensions can be made to the language sooner.
286c9456 6284The cases which are still allowed will be fatal in Perl 5.30.
8e84dec2
KW
6285
6286The contexts where no warnings or errors are raised are:
6287
6288=over 4
6289
6290=item *
6291
286c9456 6292as the first character in a pattern, or following C<^> indicating to
8e84dec2
KW
6293anchor the match to the beginning of a line.
6294
6295=item *
6296
286c9456 6297as the first character following a C<|> indicating alternation.
8e84dec2
KW
6298
6299=item *
6300
6301as the first character in a parenthesized grouping like
6302
6303 /foo({bar)/
6304 /foo(?:{bar)/
6305
6306=item *
6307
6308as the first character following a quantifier
6309
6310 /\s*{/
6311
6312=back
6313
6314=for comment
6315The text of the message above is duplicated below to allow splain (and
6316'use diagnostics') to work. Since one is fatal, and one not, they can't
6317be combined as one message. And since the non-fatal one is temporary,
6318there's no real need to enhance perldiag to handle this transient case.
6319
6320=item Unescaped left brace in regex is illegal here in regex;
6e8a73f2 6321marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
412f55bb 6322
8e84dec2
KW
6323(F) The simple rule to remember, if you want to
6324match a literal C<"{"> character (U+007B C<LEFT CURLY BRACKET>) in a
6325regular expression pattern, is to escape each literal instance of it in
6326some way. Generally easiest is to precede it with a backslash, like
6327C<"\{"> or enclose it in square brackets (C<"[{]">). If the pattern
6328delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace (C<"}">) should
6329also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for example,
6330
6331 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
6332
6333Forcing literal C<"{"> characters to be escaped will enable the Perl
6334language to be extended in various ways in future releases. To avoid
6335needlessly breaking existing code, the restriction is is not enforced in
6336contexts where there are unlikely to ever be extensions that could
6337conflict with the use there of C<"{"> as a literal.
6338
6339In this release of Perl, some literal uses of C<"{"> are fatal, and some
6340still just deprecated. This is because of an oversight: some uses of a
6341literal C<"{"> that should have raised a deprecation warning starting in
6342v5.20 did not warn until v5.26. By making the already-warned uses fatal
6343now, some of the planned extensions can be made to the language sooner.
6344
6345The contexts where no warnings or errors are raised are:
6346
6347=over 4
6348
6349=item *
6350
6351as the first character in a pattern, or following C<"^"> indicating to
6352anchor the match to the beginning of a line.
6353
6354=item *
6355
6356as the first character following a C<"|"> indicating alternation.
6357
6358=item *
6359
6360as the first character in a parenthesized grouping like
6361
6362 /foo({bar)/
6363 /foo(?:{bar)/
6364
6365=item *
6366
6367as the first character following a quantifier
412f55bb 6368
8e84dec2 6369 /\s*{/
412f55bb 6370
8e84dec2 6371=back
1656665e 6372
a4368cc3
KW
6373=item Unescaped literal '%c' in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6374
6375(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>>)
6376
6377Within the scope of C<S<use re 'strict'>> in a regular expression
6378pattern, you included an unescaped C<}> or C<]> which was interpreted
6379literally. These two characters are sometimes metacharacters, and
6380sometimes literals, depending on what precedes them in the
6381pattern. This is unlike the similar C<)> which is always a
6382metacharacter unless escaped.
6383
6384This action at a distance, perhaps a large distance, can lead to Perl
6385silently misinterpreting what you meant, so when you specify that you
6386want extra checking by C<S<use re 'strict'>>, this warning is generated.
6387If you meant the character as a literal, simply confirm that to Perl by
6388preceding the character with a backslash, or make it into a bracketed
6389character class (like C<[}]>). If you meant it as closing a
6390corresponding C<[> or C<{>, you'll need to look back through the pattern
6391to find out why that isn't happening.
6392
a0d0e21e
LW
6393=item unexec of %s into %s failed!
6394
6395(F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
6396representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
6397
e0e4a6e3
FC
6398=item Unexpected binary operator '%c' with no preceding operand in regex;
6399marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6400
675fa9ff 6401(F) You had something like this:
0d0b4b3b
KW
6402
6403 (?[ | \p{Digit} ])
6404
6405where the C<"|"> is a binary operator with an operand on the right, but
6406no operand on the left.
6407
e0e4a6e3 6408=item Unexpected character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6409
675fa9ff 6410(F) You had something like this:
0d0b4b3b
KW
6411
6412 (?[ z ])
6413
6414Within C<(?[ ])>, no literal characters are allowed unless they are
6415within an inner pair of square brackets, like
6416
6417 (?[ [ z ] ])
6418
6419Another possibility is that you forgot a backslash. Perl isn't smart
6420enough to figure out what you really meant.
6421
6651ba0b
FC
6422=item Unexpected constant lvalue entersub entry via type/targ %d:%d
6423
6424(P) When compiling a subroutine call in lvalue context, Perl failed an
6425internal consistency check. It encountered a malformed op tree.
6426
6c341f67
TC
6427=item Unexpected exit %u
6428
6429(S) exit() was called or the script otherwise finished gracefully when
6430C<PERL_EXIT_WARN> was set in C<PL_exit_flags>.
6431
878ce265 6432=item Unexpected exit failure %d
6c341f67
TC
6433
6434(S) An uncaught die() was called when C<PERL_EXIT_WARN> was set in
6435C<PL_exit_flags>.
6436
e0e4a6e3 6437=item Unexpected ')' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6438
6439(F) You had something like this:
6440
6441 (?[ ( \p{Digit} + ) ])
6442
6443The C<")"> is out-of-place. Something apparently was supposed to
6444be combined with the digits, or the C<"+"> shouldn't be there, or
6445something like that. Perl can't figure out what was intended.
6446
e0e4a6e3
FC
6447=item Unexpected '(' with no preceding operator in regex; marked by
6448S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6449
6450(F) You had something like this:
6451
6452 (?[ \p{Digit} ( \p{Lao} + \p{Thai} ) ])
6453
6454There should be an operator before the C<"(">, as there's
6455no indication as to how the digits are to be combined
6456with the characters in the Lao and Thai scripts.
6457
ba707cdc 6458=item Unicode non-character U+%X is not recommended for open interchange
0876b9a0 6459
4c2e59a0 6460(S nonchar) Certain codepoints, such as U+FFFE and U+FFFF, are
66a1f5ec
FC
6461defined by the Unicode standard to be non-characters. Those
6462are legal codepoints, but are reserved for internal use; so,
6463applications shouldn't attempt to exchange them. An application
6464may not be expecting any of these characters at all, and receiving
6465them may lead to bugs. If you know what you are doing you can
6466turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'nonchar';>.
6467
6468This is not really a "severe" error, but it is supposed to be
6469raised by default even if warnings are not enabled, and currently
6470the only way to do that in Perl is to mark it as serious.
6a807e21 6471
c794c51b
FC
6472=item Unicode surrogate U+%X is illegal in UTF-8
6473
4c2e59a0 6474(S surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
c794c51b
FC
6475not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
6476U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
6477internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
6478available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
6479problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
6480came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 6481off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
c794c51b 6482
dcfe9e74
KW
6483=item Unknown charname '%s'
6484
6485(F) The name you used inside C<\N{}> is unknown to Perl. Check the
6486spelling. You can say C<use charnames ":loose"> to not have to be
6487so precise about spaces, hyphens, and capitalization on standard Unicode
6488names. (Any custom aliases that have been created must be specified
6489exactly, regardless of whether C<:loose> is used or not.) This error may
6490also happen if the C<\N{}> is not in the scope of the corresponding
6491C<S<use charnames>>.
6492
db99d38d 6493=item Unknown charname '' is deprecated. Its use will be fatal in Perl 5.28
09eb1f39
FC
6494
6495(D deprecated) You had a C<\N{}> with nothing between the braces. This
db99d38d
A
6496usage was deprecated in Perl 5.24, and will be made a syntax error in
6497in Perl 5.28.
09eb1f39 6498
04177465
FC
6499=item Unknown error
6500
6501(P) Perl was about to print an error message in C<$@>, but the C<$@> variable
6502did not exist, even after an attempt to create it.
6503
6170680b
IZ
6504=item Unknown open() mode '%s'
6505
437784d6 6506(F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
c47ff5f1 6507of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
488dad83 6508C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
6170680b 6509
b4581f09
JH
6510=item Unknown PerlIO layer "%s"
6511
6512(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
6513system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
6514internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
6515are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
6516explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
6517value of the environment variable PERLIO.
6518
f675dbe5
CB
6519=item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
6520
6521(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
6522iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
6523data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
6524subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
a05d7ebb 6525
0da72d5e
KW
6526=item Unknown regex modifier "%s"
6527
6528(F) Alphanumerics immediately following the closing delimiter
6529of a regular expression pattern are interpreted by Perl as modifier
6530flags for the regex. One of the ones you specified is invalid. One way
6531this can happen is if you didn't put in white space between the end of
6532the regex and a following alphanumeric operator:
6533
6534 if ($a =~ /foo/and $bar == 3) { ... }
6535
6536The C<"a"> is a valid modifier flag, but the C<"n"> is not, and raises
6537this error. Likely what was meant instead was:
6538
6539 if ($a =~ /foo/ and $bar == 3) { ... }
6540
5a25739d
FC
6541=item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
6542
6543(W) You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
6544
e0e4a6e3
FC
6545=item Unknown switch condition (?(...)) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6546m/%s/
96ebfdd7
RK
6547
6548(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
6903afa2 6549is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5fecf430 6550
674f6ed9
FC
6551 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
6552 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
6553 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
6554 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
6555 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
6556 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
6557 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
6558 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
6559 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
96ebfdd7 6560
6e8a73f2 6561The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
96ebfdd7
RK
6562discovered. See L<perlre>.
6563
a05d7ebb
JH
6564=item Unknown Unicode option letter '%c'
6565
a4a4c9e2 6566(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb
JH
6567of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
6568
64187737 6569=item Unknown Unicode option value %d
a05d7ebb 6570
a4a4c9e2 6571(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb 6572of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
f675dbe5 6573
e0e4a6e3 6574=item Unknown verb pattern '%s' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1
YO
6575
6576(F) You either made a typo or have incorrectly put a C<*> quantifier
6577after an open brace in your pattern. Check the pattern and review
6578L<perlre> for details on legal verb patterns.
6579
c2771421
FC
6580=item Unknown warnings category '%s'
6581
6903afa2 6582(F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
c2771421
FC
6583category that is unknown to perl at this point.
6584
14ef4c80
FC
6585Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a
6586module (e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have loaded this
6587module first.
c2771421 6588
e0e4a6e3 6589=item Unmatched [ in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6590
6903afa2 6591(F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
be771a83 6592include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
e0e4a6e3 6593first. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
6903afa2 6594problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 6595
e0e4a6e3 6596=item Unmatched ( in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 6597
e0e4a6e3 6598=item Unmatched ) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
6599
6600(F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
6903afa2 6601expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
e0e4a6e3 6602the matching parenthesis. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
9e3ec65c 6603regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 6604
d98d5fff 6605=item Unmatched right %s bracket
a0d0e21e 6606
be771a83
GS
6607(F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
6608ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
6609general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
6610you were last editing.
a0d0e21e 6611
a0d0e21e
LW
6612=item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
6613
be771a83
GS
6614(W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
6615reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
6616somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
6617subroutine.
a0d0e21e 6618
e0e4a6e3
FC
6619=item Unrecognized character %s; marked by S<<-- HERE> after %s near column
6620%d
a0d0e21e 6621
54310121 6622(F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
1b303a7d
FC
6623in your Perl script (or eval) near the specified column. Perhaps you
6624tried to run a compressed script, a binary program, or a directory as
6625a Perl program.
a0d0e21e 6626
e0e4a6e3
FC
6627=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class in regex; marked by
6628S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6629
675fa9ff
FC
6630(F) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
6631recognized by Perl inside character classes. This is a fatal
6632error when the character class is used within C<(?[ ])>.
0d0b4b3b 6633
6fbc9859 6634=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class passed through in regex;
e0e4a6e3 6635marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6636
be771a83
GS
6637(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
6638recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
b224edc1 6639understood literally, but this may change in a future version of Perl.
e0e4a6e3 6640The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
2628b4e0 6641escape was discovered.
6df41af2 6642
4a68bf9d 6643=item Unrecognized escape \%c passed through
2f7da168 6644
2628b4e0 6645(W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b224edc1
KW
6646recognized by Perl. The character was understood literally, but this may
6647change in a future version of Perl.
2f7da168 6648
e0e4a6e3
FC
6649=item Unrecognized escape \%s passed through in regex; marked by
6650S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6651
be771a83 6652(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b7e4ecc1 6653recognized by Perl. The character(s) were understood literally, but
e0e4a6e3 6654this may change in a future version of Perl. The S<<-- HERE> shows
9e3ec65c 6655whereabouts in the regular expression the escape was discovered.
6df41af2 6656
a0d0e21e
LW
6657=item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
6658
be771a83
GS
6659(F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
6660recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
6661on your system.
a0d0e21e 6662
90248788 6663=item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
a0d0e21e 6664
be771a83
GS
6665(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
6666think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
6667bad switch on your behalf.)
a0d0e21e
LW
6668
6669=item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
6670
be771a83
GS
6671(W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
6672operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
5b3eff12 6673PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
a0d0e21e
LW
6674
6675=item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
6676
6677(F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
6678
6df41af2
GS
6679=item Unsupported function %s
6680
6681(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
6682At least, Configure doesn't think so.
6683
54310121 6684=item Unsupported function fork
6685
6686(F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
6687
be771a83 6688Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
6903afa2 6689of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
be771a83 6690changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
54310121 6691
7aa207d6 6692=item Unsupported script encoding %s
b250498f
GS
6693
6694(F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
7aa207d6 6695declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot read.
b250498f 6696
a0d0e21e
LW
6697=item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
6698
6699(F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
6700least that's what Configure thought.
6701
6df41af2 6702=item Unterminated attribute list
a0d0e21e 6703
be771a83
GS
6704(F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
6705start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
6706block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
6707attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
a0d0e21e 6708
09bef843
SB
6709=item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
6710
be771a83
GS
6711(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
6712an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
09bef843
SB
6713character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
6714character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
6715
f1991046
GS
6716=item Unterminated compressed integer
6717
6718(F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
6719compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
6720See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6721
6f2d7fc9
FC
6722=item Unterminated delimiter for here document
6723
6724(F) This message occurs when a here document label has an initial
6725quotation mark but the final quotation mark is missing. Perhaps
6726you wrote:
6727
6728 <<"foo
6729
6730instead of:
6731
6732 <<"foo"
6733
e0e4a6e3 6734=item Unterminated \g... pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
779fedd7 6735
e0e4a6e3 6736=item Unterminated \g{...} pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2bf803e2 6737
5364049c
KW
6738(F) In a regular expression, you had a C<\g> that wasn't followed by a
6739proper group reference. In the case of C<\g{>, the closing brace is
6740missing; otherwise the C<\g> must be followed by an integer. Fix the
6741pattern and retry.
e2e6a0f1 6742
6df41af2 6743=item Unterminated <> operator
09bef843 6744
6df41af2 6745(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
6746a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
6747not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
6748earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
09bef843 6749
e0e4a6e3
FC
6750=item Unterminated verb pattern argument in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6751m/%s/
905fe053
FC
6752
6753(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB:ARG)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 6754the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 6755
e0e4a6e3 6756=item Unterminated verb pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
905fe053
FC
6757
6758(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 6759the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 6760
6df41af2 6761=item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
a0d0e21e 6762
be771a83
GS
6763(W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
6764still valid when C<untie> was called.
a0d0e21e 6765
8e11cd2b
JC
6766=item Usage: POSIX::%s(%s)
6767
6768(F) You called a POSIX function with incorrect arguments.
6769See L<POSIX/FUNCTIONS> for more information.
6770
6771=item Usage: Win32::%s(%s)
6772
6773(F) You called a Win32 function with incorrect arguments.
6774See L<Win32> for more information.
6775
89474f50
FC
6776=item $[ used in %s (did you mean $] ?)
6777
6778(W syntax) You used C<$[> in a comparison, such as:
6779
6780 if ($[ > 5.006) {
6781 ...
6782 }
6783
6784You probably meant to use C<$]> instead. C<$[> is the base for indexing
6785arrays. C<$]> is the Perl version number in decimal.
6786
6da34ecb
FC
6787=item Use "%s" instead of "%s"
6788
6789(F) The second listed construct is no longer legal. Use the first one
6790instead.
6791
8fe85e3f
FC
6792=item Useless assignment to a temporary
6793
6794(W misc) You assigned to an lvalue subroutine, but what
6795the subroutine returned was a temporary scalar about to
6796be discarded, so the assignment had no effect.
6797
e0e4a6e3
FC
6798=item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex; marked by
6799S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 6800
96ebfdd7
RK
6801(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
6802meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 6803
96ebfdd7 6804 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
6805
6806must be written as
6807
96ebfdd7 6808 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5 6809
6e8a73f2 6810The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9e3ec65c 6811discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 6812
b4581f09
JH
6813=item Useless localization of %s
6814
6903afa2
FC
6815(W syntax) The localization of lvalues such as C<local($x=10)> is legal,
6816but in fact the local() currently has no effect. This may change at
b4581f09
JH
6817some point in the future, but in the meantime such code is discouraged.
6818
e0e4a6e3
FC
6819=item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6820m/%s/
9d1d55b5 6821
96ebfdd7
RK
6822(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
6823meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 6824
96ebfdd7 6825 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
6826
6827must be written as
6828
96ebfdd7 6829 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5 6830
6e8a73f2 6831The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9e3ec65c 6832discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 6833
3108f4df
FC
6834=item Useless use of attribute "const"
6835
796b6530 6836(W misc) The C<const> attribute has no effect except
3108f4df
FC
6837on anonymous closure prototypes. You applied it to
6838a subroutine via L<attributes.pm|attributes>. This is only useful
6839inside an attribute handler for an anonymous subroutine.
6840
b08e453b
RB
6841=item Useless use of /d modifier in transliteration operator
6842
6843(W misc) You have used the /d modifier where the searchlist has the
6903afa2 6844same length as the replacelist. See L<perlop> for more information
b08e453b
RB
6845about the /d modifier.
6846
820438b1
FC
6847=item Useless use of \E
6848
6849(W misc) You have a \E in a double-quotish string without a C<\U>,
6850C<\L> or C<\Q> preceding it.
6851
4fa6dd16
KW
6852=item Useless use of greediness modifier '%c' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6853
6854(W regexp) You specified something like these:
6855
6856 qr/a{3}?/
6857 qr/b{1,1}+/
6858
6859The C<"?"> and C<"+"> don't have any effect, as they modify whether to
6860match more or fewer when there is a choice, and by specifying to match
6861exactly a given numer, there is no room left for a choice.
6862
6df41af2 6863=item Useless use of %s in void context
a0d0e21e 6864
75b44862 6865(W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
be771a83
GS
6866nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
6867value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
6868often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
6869to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
6870get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
6871said
a0d0e21e 6872
6df41af2 6873 $one, $two = 1, 2;
748a9306 6874
6df41af2
GS
6875when you meant to say
6876
6877 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
6878
6879Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
6880reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
6881example, if you say
6882
6883 $array = (1,2);
6884
6885when you should have said
6886
6887 $array = [1,2];
6888
6889The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
6890while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
6891a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
6892throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
6893L<perlref> for more on this.
6894
65191a1e
BS
6895This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
6896since they are often used in statements like
6897
4358a253 6898 1 while sub_with_side_effects();
65191a1e
BS
6899
6900String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
6901about.
6902
e0e4a6e3 6903=item Useless use of (?-p) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6904
6905(W regexp) The C<p> modifier cannot be turned off once set. Trying to do
6906so is futile.
6907
6df41af2
GS
6908=item Useless use of "re" pragma
6909
6903afa2 6910(W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
6df41af2 6911
a801c63c
RGS
6912=item Useless use of sort in scalar context
6913
6914(W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
6915
6916 my $x = sort @y;
6917
6918This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
6919
de4864e4
JH
6920=item Useless use of %s with no values
6921
f87c3213 6922(W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
6903afa2
FC
6923apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
6924usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
de4864e4 6925possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
6903afa2 6926if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
de4864e4
JH
6927you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
6928
6df41af2
GS
6929=item "use" not allowed in expression
6930
be771a83
GS
6931(F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
6932returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
748a9306 6933
36b2db7e
FC
6934=item Use of assignment to $[ is deprecated
6935
6936(D deprecated) The C<$[> variable (index of the first element in an array)
6903afa2 6937is deprecated. See L<perlvar/"$[">.
36b2db7e 6938
e5aa3f0b 6939=item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is deprecated. Its use will be fatal in Perl 5.28
4633a7c4 6940
8ab8f082 6941(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted
1b303a7d
FC
6942form if you wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the
6943here-document.
83ce3e12 6944
e5aa3f0b
A
6945Use of a bare terminator was deprecated in Perl 5.000, and
6946will be a fatal error in Perl 5.28.
6947
64e578a2
MJD
6948=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
6949
6950(W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
6951modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
6952
4ac733c9
MJD
6953=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
6954
6955(W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
6956use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
6957used. (This may change in the future.)
6958
fcdb3ac1 6959=item Use of code point 0x%s is deprecated; the permissible max is 0x%s. This will be fatal in Perl 5.28
2d212e86
KW
6960
6961(D deprecated) You used a code point that will not be allowed in a
6962future perl version, because it is too large. Unicode only allows code
6963points up to 0x10FFFF, but Perl allows much larger ones. However, the
6964largest possible ones break the perl interpreter in some constructs,
6965including causing it to hang in a few cases. The known problem areas
6966are in C<tr///>, regular expression pattern matching using quantifiers,
904cefa8
KW
6967as quote delimiters in C<qI<X>...I<X>> (where I<X> is the C<chr()> of a large
6968code point), and as the upper limits in loops.
6969There may be other breakages as well. If you get this warning, and
6970things aren't working correctly, you probably have found one of these.
2d212e86
KW
6971
6972If your code is to run on various platforms, keep in mind that the upper
6973limit depends on the platform. It is much larger on 64-bit word sizes
6974than 32-bit ones.
6975
fcdb3ac1
A
6976The use of out of range code points was deprecated in Perl 5.24, and
6977it will be a fatal error in Perl 5.28.
6978
6ef4f8b7 6979=item Use of comma-less variable list is deprecated. Its use will be fatal in Perl 5.28
591f5ca2
FC
6980
6981(D deprecated) The values you give to a format should be
6982separated by commas, not just aligned on a line.
6983
6ef4f8b7
A
6984This usage will be fatal in Perl 5.28.
6985
675fa9ff
FC
6986=item Use of each() on hash after insertion without resetting hash iterator results in undefined behavior
6987
f26c79ba
FC
6988(S internal) The behavior of C<each()> after insertion is undefined;
6989it may skip items, or visit items more than once. Consider using
6990C<keys()> instead of C<each()>.
675fa9ff 6991
5585e758 6992=item Infinite recursion via empty pattern
794826f4
YO
6993
6994(F) You tried to use the empty pattern inside of a regex code block,
5585e758
YO
6995for instance C</(?{ s!!! })/>, which resulted in re-executing
6996the same pattern, which is an infinite loop which is broken by
6997throwing an exception.
794826f4 6998
2dc78664 6999=item Use of := for an empty attribute list is not allowed
036e1e65 7000
2dc78664
NC
7001(F) The construction C<my $x := 42> used to parse as equivalent to
7002C<my $x : = 42> (applying an empty attribute list to C<$x>).
7003This construct was deprecated in 5.12.0, and has now been made a syntax
7004error, so C<:=> can be reclaimed as a new operator in the future.
7005
7006If you need an empty attribute list, for example in a code generator, add
7007a space before the C<=>.
036e1e65 7008
fafdadbd
KW
7009=item Use of %s for non-UTF-8 locale is wrong. Assuming a UTF-8 locale
7010
7011(W locale) You are matching a regular expression using locale rules,
7012and the specified construct was encountered. This construct is only
7013valid for UTF-8 locales, which the current locale isn't. This doesn't
7014make sense. Perl will continue, assuming a Unicode (UTF-8) locale, but
7015the results are likely to be wrong.
7016
b6c83531 7017=item Use of freed value in iteration
2f7da168 7018
b6c83531
JH
7019(F) Perhaps you modified the iterated array within the loop?
7020This error is typically caused by code like the following:
2f7da168
RK
7021
7022 @a = (3,4);
7023 @a = () for (1,2,@a);
7024
7025You are not supposed to modify arrays while they are being iterated over.
7026For speed and efficiency reasons, Perl internally does not do full
7027reference-counting of iterated items, hence deleting such an item in the
7028middle of an iteration causes Perl to see a freed value.
7029
96ebfdd7 7030=item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
35ae6b54 7031
96ebfdd7
RK
7032(W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
7033operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
7034repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
35ae6b54 7035
dc6e8de0 7036=item Use of "goto" to jump into a construct is deprecated
0b98bec9
RGS
7037
7038(D deprecated) Using C<goto> to jump from an outer scope into an inner
7039scope is deprecated and should be avoided.
7040
dc6e8de0 7041This was deprecated in Perl 5.12.
9fc8eee0 7042
d9d53e86 7043=item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated. This will be fatal in Perl 5.28
dc848c6f 7044
1da25648
FC
7045(D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD>
7046subroutines are looked up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy)
7047even when the subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain
7048functions (e.g. C<Foo::bar()>), not as methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or
7049C<< $obj->bar() >>).
dc848c6f 7050
be771a83
GS
7051This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup only for
7052methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base of existing
7053code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl
7054currently issues an optional warning when non-methods use inherited
7055C<AUTOLOAD>s.
dc848c6f 7056
7057The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
be771a83
GS
7058non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used
7059to depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class
7060named C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during
7061startup.
dc848c6f 7062
be771a83
GS
7063In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);>
7064you should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
7b8d334a 7065C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
a23209c7 7066
d9d53e86
A
7067This feature was deprecated in Perl 5.004, and will be fatal in Perl 5.28.
7068
6df41af2
GS
7069=item Use of %s in printf format not supported
7070
7071(F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
7072only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
7073
5840701a 7074=item Use of -l on filehandle%s
5a7abfcc
FC
7075
7076(W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
7077it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
7078The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
7079
1f1cc344 7080=item Use of reference "%s" as array index
d804643f 7081
77b96956 7082(W misc) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
1f1cc344
JH
7083isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
7084to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
d804643f 7085
64977eb6 7086If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
1f1cc344 7087C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
54e0f05c 7088however, because you can overload the numification and stringification
c69ca1d4 7089operators and then you presumably know what you are doing.
d804643f 7090
4055dbce
RS
7091=item Use of state $_ is experimental
7092
7093(S experimental::lexical_topic) Lexical $_ is an experimental feature and
7094its behavior may change or even be removed in any future release of perl.
7095See the explanation under L<perlvar/$_>.
7096
87e05d1a 7097=item Use of strings with code points over 0xFF as arguments to %s
ecbcbef0 7098operator is deprecated. This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.28
87e05d1a
KW
7099
7100(D deprecated) You tried to use one of the string bitwise operators
7101(C<&> or C<|> or C<^> or C<~>) on a string containing a code point over
71020xFF. The string bitwise operators treat their operands as strings of
7103bytes, and values beyond 0xFF are nonsensical in this context.
7104
ecbcbef0
A
7105Such usage will be a fatal error in Perl 5.28.
7106
bbd7eb8a
RD
7107=item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
7108
159f47d9 7109(W taint, deprecated) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
bbd7eb8a
RD
7110arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
7111but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
7112arguments. See L<perlsec>.
7113
94749a5e 7114=item Use of unassigned code point or non-standalone grapheme for a
7cb258c1 7115delimiter will be a fatal error starting in Perl 5.30
94749a5e
KW
7116
7117(D deprecated)
7118A grapheme is what appears to a native-speaker of a language to be a
7119character. In Unicode (and hence Perl) a grapheme may actually be
7120several adjacent characters that together form a complete grapheme. For
7121example, there can be a base character, like "R" and an accent, like a
7122circumflex "^", that appear when displayed to be a single character with
7123the circumflex hovering over the "R". Perl currently allows things like
7124that circumflex to be delimiters of strings, patterns, I<etc>. When
7125displayed, the circumflex would look like it belongs to the character
7126just to the left of it. In order to move the language to be able to
7127accept graphemes as delimiters, we have to deprecate the use of
7128delimiters which aren't graphemes by themselves. Also, a delimiter must
7129already be assigned (or known to be never going to be assigned) to try
7130to future-proof code, for otherwise code that works today would fail to
7131compile if the currently unassigned delimiter ends up being something
7132that isn't a stand-alone grapheme. Because Unicode is never going to
7133assign
7134L<non-character code points|perlunicode/Noncharacter code points>, nor
7135L<code points that are above the legal Unicode maximum|
7136perlunicode/Beyond Unicode code points>, those can be delimiters, and
7137their use won't raise this warning.
7138
cc95b072 7139=item Use of uninitialized value%s
a0d0e21e 7140
be771a83
GS
7141(W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
7142defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
7143To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
a0d0e21e 7144
6903afa2
FC
7145To help you figure out what was undefined, perl will try to tell you
7146the name of the variable (if any) that was undefined. In some cases
7147it cannot do this, so it also tells you what operation you used the
7148undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your program
50a39ba4 7149and the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily appear
6903afa2
FC
7150literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is usually
7151optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to the
7152C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in
7153your program.
e5be4a53 7154
67cdf558
KW
7155=item "use re 'strict'" is experimental
7156
7157(S experimental::re_strict) The things that are different when a regular
7158expression pattern is compiled under C<'strict'> are subject to change
7159in future Perl releases in incompatible ways. This means that a pattern
7160that compiles today may not in a future Perl release. This warning is
7161to alert you to that risk.
7162
e0e4a6e3
FC
7163=item Use \x{...} for more than two hex characters in regex; marked by
7164S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
7165
7166(F) In a regular expression, you said something like
7167
7168 (?[ [ \xBEEF ] ])
7169
7170Perl isn't sure if you meant this
7171
7172 (?[ [ \x{BEEF} ] ])
7173
7174or if you meant this
7175
7176 (?[ [ \x{BE} E F ] ])
7177
7178You need to add either braces or blanks to disambiguate.
7179
6fbc9859 7180=item Using just the first character returned by \N{} in character class in
e0e4a6e3 7181regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ff3f963a 7182
f3ba6905
FC
7183(W regexp) Named Unicode character escapes C<(\N{...})> may return
7184a multi-character sequence. Even though a character class is
7185supposed to match just one character of input, perl will match
7186the whole thing correctly, except when the class is inverted
7187(C<[^...]>), or the escape is the beginning or final end point of
7188a range. For these, what should happen isn't clear at all. In
7189these circumstances, Perl discards all but the first character
7190of the returned sequence, which is not likely what you want.
ff3f963a 7191
6e8a73f2 7192=item Using /u for '%s' instead of /%s in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
64935bc6
KW
7193
7194(W regexp) You used a Unicode boundary (C<\b{...}> or C<\B{...}>) in a
7195portion of a regular expression where the character set modifiers C</a>
7196or C</aa> are in effect. These two modifiers indicate an ASCII
0308b42c 7197interpretation, and this doesn't make sense for a Unicode defintion.
64935bc6
KW
7198The generated regular expression will compile so that the boundary uses
7199all of Unicode. No other portion of the regular expression is affected.
7200
c794c51b
FC
7201=item Using !~ with %s doesn't make sense
7202
7203(F) Using the C<!~> operator with C<s///r>, C<tr///r> or C<y///r> is
0f44b2a5 7204currently reserved for future use, as the exact behavior has not
6903afa2 7205been decided. (Simply returning the boolean opposite of the
c794c51b 7206modified string is usually not particularly useful.)
0876b9a0 7207
949cf498
KW
7208=item UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
7209
4c2e59a0 7210(S surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
949cf498
KW
7211not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
7212U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
7213internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
7214available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
7215problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
7216came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 7217off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9466bab6 7218
68dc0745 7219=item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
a6006777 7220
75b44862 7221(W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
be771a83
GS
7222C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
7223can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
7224false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
7225constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
7226C<defined> operator.
a6006777 7227
f675dbe5
CB
7228=item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
7229
be771a83
GS
7230(W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
7231%ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
7232longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
72331024 characters.
f675dbe5 7234
b5c19bd7 7235=item Variable "%s" is not available
44a8e56a 7236
b5c19bd7
DM
7237(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
7238attempting to capture an outer lexical that is not currently available.
6903afa2 7239This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the outer lexical may be
b5c19bd7
DM
7240declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has not yet been created.
7241(Remember that named subs are created at compile time, while anonymous
6903afa2 7242subs are created at run-time.) For example,
44a8e56a 7243
b5c19bd7 7244 sub { my $a; sub f { $a } }
44a8e56a 7245
b5c19bd7 7246At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current value of $a,
6903afa2 7247since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely,
b5c19bd7
DM
7248the following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by
7249now been created and is live:
be771a83 7250
b5c19bd7
DM
7251 sub { my $a; eval 'sub f { $a }' }->();
7252
7253The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a variable that has
7254gone out of scope, for example,
7255
7256 sub f {
7257 my $a;
7258 sub { eval '$a' }
7259 }
7260 f()->();
7261
1b303a7d
FC
7262Here, when the '$a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
7263being executed, so its $a is not available for capture.
44a8e56a 7264
b4581f09
JH
7265=item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
7266
120b0f81 7267(S misc) With "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable
413ff9f6 7268that you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
b4581f09
JH
7269something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
7270that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
7271front of your variable.
7272
aec0ef10 7273=item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex m/%s/
b4581f09
JH
7274
7275(F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
d0a29c36
KW
7276known at compile time. For positive lookbehind, you can use the C<\K>
7277regex construct as a way to get the equivalent functionality. See
a8f2f5fa 7278L<(?<=pattern) and \K in perlre|perlre/\K>.
d0a29c36
KW
7279
7280There are non-obvious Unicode rules under C</i> that can match variably,
7281but which you might not think could. For example, the substring C<"ss">
7282can match the single character LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S. There are
7283other sequences of ASCII characters that can match single ligature
7284characters, such as LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FFI matching C<qr/ffi/i>.
7285Starting in Perl v5.16, if you only care about ASCII matches, adding the
7286C</aa> modifier to the regex will exclude all these non-obvious matches,
7287thus getting rid of this message. You can also say C<S<use re qw(/aa)>>
7288to apply C</aa> to all regular expressions compiled within its scope.
7289See L<re>.
b4581f09
JH
7290
7291=item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
7292
b9cc85ad
FC
7293(W misc) A "my", "our" or "state" variable has been redeclared in the
7294current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the
7295previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note
7296that the earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope
20d33786 7297or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
b4581f09 7298
6df41af2
GS
7299=item Variable syntax
7300
7301(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
7302of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
7303Perl yourself.
7304
44a8e56a 7305=item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
7306
be771a83 7307(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
b5c19bd7 7308lexical variable defined in an outer named subroutine.
44a8e56a 7309
b5c19bd7 7310When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of
be771a83
GS
7311the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
7312call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
7313outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
7314longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
7315variable will no longer be shared.
44a8e56a 7316
44a8e56a 7317This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
7318anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
b5c19bd7 7319reference variables in outer subroutines are created, they
be771a83 7320are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
44a8e56a 7321
6651ba0b
FC
7322=item vector argument not supported with alpha versions
7323
8b6051f1 7324(S printf) The %vd (s)printf format does not support version objects
6651ba0b
FC
7325with alpha parts.
7326
e0e4a6e3
FC
7327=item Verb pattern '%s' has a mandatory argument in regex; marked by
7328S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1 7329
6903afa2
FC
7330(F) You used a verb pattern that requires an argument. Supply an
7331argument or check that you are using the right verb.
e2e6a0f1 7332
e0e4a6e3
FC
7333=item Verb pattern '%s' may not have an argument in regex; marked by
7334S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1 7335
6903afa2 7336(F) You used a verb pattern that is not allowed an argument. Remove the
e2e6a0f1
YO
7337argument or check that you are using the right verb.
7338
9c88bb56 7339=item Version control conflict marker
397c43d8
LM
7340
7341(F) The parser found a line starting with C<E<lt><<<<<<>,
d4e5761f 7342C<E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>>, or C<=======>. These may be left by a
397c43d8
LM
7343version control system to mark conflicts after a failed merge operation.
7344
084610c0
GS
7345=item Version number must be a constant number
7346
7347(P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
7348its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
7349the version number.
7350
808ee47e
SP
7351=item Version string '%s' contains invalid data; ignoring: '%s'
7352
32e998fd
RGS
7353(W misc) The version string contains invalid characters at the end, which
7354are being ignored.
808ee47e 7355
7e1af8bc 7356=item Warning: something's wrong
5f05dabc 7357
7358(W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
ec8bb14c 7359you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 7360
f86702cc 7361=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
a0d0e21e 7362
be771a83
GS
7363(S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
7364the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
7365space.
a0d0e21e 7366
96d7c888
FC
7367=item Warning: unable to close filehandle properly: %s
7368
7369=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly: %s
7370
ab7ca7ed
AP
7371(S io) There were errors during the implicit close() done on a filehandle
7372when its reference count reached zero while it was still open, e.g.:
cc4d3128
DM
7373
7374 {
7375 open my $fh, '>', $file or die "open: '$file': $!\n";
7376 print $fh $data or die "print: $!";
7377 } # implicit close here
7378
95032a5b
AP
7379Because various errors may only be detected by close() (e.g. buffering could
7380allow the C<print> in this example to return true even when the disk is full),
d4e5761f
FC
7381it is dangerous to ignore its result. So when it happens implicitly, perl
7382will signal errors by warning.
cc4d3128 7383
ab7ca7ed
AP
7384B<Prior to version 5.22.0, perl ignored such errors>, so the common idiom shown
7385above was liable to cause B<silent data loss>.
96d7c888 7386
5f05dabc 7387=item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
a0d0e21e 7388
be771a83
GS
7389(S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
7390looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
7391term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
7392function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
a0d0e21e
LW
7393
7394 rand + 5;
7395
7396you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
7397
7398 rand() + 5;
7399
7400but in actual fact, you got
7401
7402 rand(+5);
7403
5f05dabc 7404So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
a0d0e21e 7405
0f539b13
BF
7406=item when is experimental
7407
7408(S experimental::smartmatch) C<when> depends on smartmatch, which is
7409experimental. Additionally, it has several special cases that may
7410not be immediately obvious, and their behavior may change or
675fa9ff
FC
7411even be removed in any future release of perl. See the explanation
7412under L<perlsyn/Experimental Details on given and when>.
0f539b13 7413
4b3603a4
JH
7414=item Wide character in %s
7415
c8f79457 7416(S utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting
cd28123a
JH
7417one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print). The easiest
7418way to quiet this warning is simply to add the C<:utf8> layer to the
7419output, e.g. C<binmode STDOUT, ':utf8'>. Another way to turn off the
7420warning is to add C<no warnings 'utf8';> but that is often closer to
7421cheating. In general, you are supposed to explicitly mark the
7422filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
4b3603a4 7423
613abc6d
KW
7424=item Wide character (U+%X) in %s
7425
7426(W locale) While in a single-byte locale (I<i.e.>, a non-UTF-8
7427one), a multi-byte character was encountered. Perl considers this
50ea4745 7428character to be the specified Unicode code point. Combining non-UTF-8
613abc6d
KW
7429locales and Unicode is dangerous. Almost certainly some characters
7430will have two different representations. For example, in the ISO 8859-7
7431(Greek) locale, the code point 0xC3 represents a Capital Gamma. But so
7432also does 0x393. This will make string comparisons unreliable.
7433
7434You likely need to figure out how this multi-byte character got mixed up
7435with your single-byte locale (or perhaps you thought you had a UTF-8
7436locale, but Perl disagrees).
7437
49704364
WL
7438=item Within []-length '%c' not allowed
7439
fa816bf3
FC
7440(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]>
7441only if C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes that
7442can be determined from the template alone. This is not possible if
7443it contains any of the codes @, /, U, u, w or a *-length. Redesign
7444the template.
49704364 7445
74d1b2e4
FC
7446=item %s() with negative argument
7447
7448(S misc) Certain operations make no sense with negative arguments.
7449Warning is given and the operation is not done.
7450
9a7dcd9c 7451=item write() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 7452
be771a83 7453(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 7454before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 7455
9ae3ac1a 7456=item %s "\x%X" does not map to Unicode
b4581f09 7457
27f95370
FC
7458(S utf8) When reading in different encodings, Perl tries to
7459map everything into Unicode characters. The bytes you read
7460in are not legal in this encoding. For example
b4581f09
JH
7461
7462 utf8 "\xE4" does not map to Unicode
7463
7464if you try to read in the a-diaereses Latin-1 as UTF-8.
7465
49704364 7466=item 'X' outside of string
a0d0e21e 7467
49704364
WL
7468(F) You had a (un)pack template that specified a relative position before
7469the beginning of the string being (un)packed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
a0d0e21e 7470
49704364 7471=item 'x' outside of string in unpack
a0d0e21e
LW
7472
7473(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
7474the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
7475
a0d0e21e
LW
7476=item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
7477
5f05dabc 7478(F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
a0d0e21e 7479sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
1b1f1335 7480about what you want. Your best bet is to put a setuid C wrapper around
496a33f5 7481your script.
a0d0e21e
LW
7482
7483=item You need to quote "%s"
7484
be771a83
GS
7485(W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
7486Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
7487which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
7488assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
7489what you want, put an & in front.)
a0d0e21e 7490
6cfd5ea7
JH
7491=item Your random numbers are not that random
7492
50a39ba4 7493(F) When trying to initialize the random seed for hashes, Perl could
6cfd5ea7
JH
7494not get any randomness out of your system. This usually indicates
7495Something Very Wrong.
7496
e0e4a6e3 7497=item Zero length \N{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
8a5a438d 7498
f3ba6905 7499(F) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a zero-length
8a5a438d 7500sequence. Such an escape was used in an extended character class, i.e.
fe0a3646
KW
7501C<(?[...])>, or under C<use re 'strict'>, which is not permitted. Check
7502that the correct escape has been used, and the correct charnames handler
7503is in scope. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
7504expression the problem was discovered.
8a5a438d 7505
a0d0e21e
LW
7506=back
7507
00eb3f2b
RGS
7508=head1 SEE ALSO
7509
44ecbbd8 7510L<warnings>, L<diagnostics>.
00eb3f2b 7511
56e90b21 7512=cut