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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
1b20cd17
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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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FC
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
a0d0e21e
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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.
a0d0e21e
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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
6df41af2
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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
a0d0e21e
LW
490
491 $var = 'myvar';
492 $sym = mypack::$var;
493
494is not the same as
495
496 $var = 'myvar';
497 $sym = "mypack::$var";
498
88e1f1a2
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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
4ad56ec9
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504=item Bad realloc() ignored
505
6903afa2
FC
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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SP
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)
d4360efa 1549L</""\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"">.
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
d4360efa 1656=item "\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"
f866a7cd 1657
d4360efa
S
1658(W syntax) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a way to specify
1659non-printable characters. You used it for a printable one, which
1660is better written as simply itself, perhaps preceded by a backslash
1661for non-word characters. Doing it the way you did is not portable
1662between ASCII and EBCDIC platforms.
f866a7cd 1663
6651ba0b
FC
1664=item Cloning substitution context is unimplemented
1665
1666(F) Creating a new thread inside the C<s///> operator is not supported.
1667
abc7ecad
SP
1668=item closedir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
1669
1670(W io) The dirhandle you tried to close is either closed or not really
1671a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
1672
5a25739d
FC
1673=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1674
1675(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1676
541ed3a9
FC
1677=item Closure prototype called
1678
1679(F) If a closure has attributes, the subroutine passed to an attribute
1680handler is the prototype that is cloned when a new closure is created.
1681This subroutine cannot be called.
1682
74d1b2e4
FC
1683=item \C no longer supported in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1684
1685(F) The \C character class used to allow a match of single byte
1686within a multi-byte utf-8 character, but was removed in v5.24 as
1687it broke encapsulation and its implementation was extremely buggy.
1688If you really need to process the individual bytes, you probably
1689want to convert your string to one where each underlying byte is
1690stored as a character, with utf8::encode().
1691
49704364
WL
1692=item Code missing after '/'
1693
6903afa2
FC
1694(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be
1695another template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 1696
c0236afe
KW
1697=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, and not portable
1698
1699(S non_unicode) You had a code point that has never been in any
1700standard, so it is likely that languages other than Perl will NOT
1701understand it. At one time, it was legal in some standards to have code
1702points up to 0x7FFF_FFFF, but not higher, and this code point is higher.
1703
1704Acceptance of these code points is a Perl extension, and you should
1705expect that nothing other than Perl can handle them; Perl itself on
1706EBCDIC platforms before v5.24 does not handle them.
1707
1708Code points above 0xFFFF_FFFF require larger than a 32 bit word.
1709
1710Perl also makes no guarantees that the representation of these code
1711points won't change at some point in the future, say when machines
1712become available that have larger than a 64-bit word. At that time,
1713files written by an older Perl would require conversion before being
1714readable by a newer Perl.
1715
5a25739d
FC
1716=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, may not be portable
1717
2d88a86a 1718(S non_unicode) You had a code point above the Unicode maximum
1b64326b
FC
1719of U+10FFFF.
1720
c0236afe
KW
1721Perl allows strings to contain a superset of Unicode code points, but
1722these may not be accepted by other languages/systems. Further, even if
1723these languages/systems accept these large code points, they may have
1724chosen a different representation for them than the UTF-8-like one that
1725Perl has, which would mean files are not exchangeable between them and
1726Perl.
1727
1728On EBCDIC platforms, code points above 0x3FFF_FFFF have a different
1729representation in Perl v5.24 than before, so any file containing these
1730that was written before that version will require conversion before
1731being readable by a later Perl.
0876b9a0 1732
6df41af2
GS
1733=item %s: Command not found
1734
a892b81a 1735(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> or another shell
66a1f5ec
FC
1736instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1737Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
8f721816 1738
3bcfc7b3
LM
1739 #!/usr/bin/perl
1740
1741=item %s: command not found
1742
1743(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<bash> or another shell
1744instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1745Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
1746
1747 #!/usr/bin/perl
1748
1749=item %s: command not found: %s
1750
1751(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<zsh> or another shell
1752instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1753Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
1754
1755 #!/usr/bin/perl
6df41af2 1756
7a2e2cd6 1757=item Compilation failed in require
1758
1759(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1760Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1761encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1762
c3464db5
DD
1763=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1764
be771a83
GS
1765(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1766situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1767to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1768arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1769recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1770under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1771in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1772that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1773on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1774
69282e91 1775=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1776
be771a83
GS
1777(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1778to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1779L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1780
e21e7c6a
FC
1781=item Constant(%s): Call to &{$^H{%s}} did not return a defined value
1782
1783(F) The subroutine registered to handle constant overloading
1784(see L<overload>) or a custom charnames handler (see
1785L<charnames/CUSTOM TRANSLATORS>) returned an undefined value.
1786
1787=item Constant(%s): $^H{%s} is not defined
1788
1789(F) The parser found inconsistencies while attempting to define an
1790overloaded constant. Perhaps you forgot to load the corresponding
f738a371 1791L<overload> pragma?
e21e7c6a 1792
779c5bc9
GS
1793=item Constant is not %s reference
1794
1795(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83 1796is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
6903afa2 1797The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
be771a83 1798usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1799See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1800
0ac016fc 1801=item Constants from lexical variables potentially modified elsewhere are
9840d1d6 1802deprecated. This will not be allowed in Perl 5.32
0ac016fc
FC
1803
1804(D deprecated) You wrote something like
1805
1806 my $var;
1807 $sub = sub () { $var };
1808
1809but $var is referenced elsewhere and could be modified after the C<sub>
1810expression is evaluated. Either it is explicitly modified elsewhere
1811(C<$var = 3>) or it is passed to a subroutine or to an operator like
1812C<printf> or C<map>, which may or may not modify the variable.
1813
1814Traditionally, Perl has captured the value of the variable at that
1815point and turned the subroutine into a constant eligible for inlining.
1816In those cases where the variable can be modified elsewhere, this
1817breaks the behavior of closures, in which the subroutine captures
1818the variable itself, rather than its value, so future changes to the
1819variable are reflected in the subroutine's return value.
1820
9840d1d6
A
1821This usage is deprecated, and will no longer be allowed in Perl 5.32,
1822making it possible to change the behavior in the future.
0ac016fc
FC
1823
1824If you intended for the subroutine to be eligible for inlining, then
1825make sure the variable is not referenced elsewhere, possibly by
1826copying it:
1827
1828 my $var2 = $var;
1829 $sub = sub () { $var2 };
1830
1831If you do want this subroutine to be a closure that reflects future
1832changes to the variable that it closes over, add an explicit C<return>:
1833
1834 my $var;
1835 $sub = sub () { return $var };
1836
4cee8e80
CS
1837=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1838
aeb94125
FC
1839(W redefine)(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously
1840been eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions">
1841for commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1842
9607fc9c 1843=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1844
be771a83
GS
1845(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1846for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1847workarounds.
9607fc9c 1848
5a25739d
FC
1849=item Constant(%s) unknown
1850
1851(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting
1852to define an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the
1853character name specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you
3ee1a09c 1854forgot to load the corresponding L<overload> pragma?
5a25739d 1855
4a873d7a
FC
1856=item :const is experimental
1857
1858(S experimental::const_attr) The "const" attribute is experimental.
1859If you want to use the feature, disable the warning with C<no warnings
1860'experimental::const_attr'>, but know that in doing so you are taking
1861the risk that your code may break in a future Perl version.
1862
b77472f9
FC
1863=item :const is not permitted on named subroutines
1864
1865(F) The "const" attribute causes an anonymous subroutine to be run and
465068b9 1866its value captured at the time that it is cloned. Named subroutines are
b77472f9
FC
1867not cloned like this, so the attribute does not make sense on them.
1868
e7ea3e70
IZ
1869=item Copy method did not return a reference
1870
6903afa2 1871(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1872L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1873
4aaa4757
FC
1874=item &CORE::%s cannot be called directly
1875
1876(F) You tried to call a subroutine in the C<CORE::> namespace
8d605c0d 1877with C<&foo> syntax or through a reference. Some subroutines
4aaa4757
FC
1878in this package cannot yet be called that way, but must be
1879called as barewords. Something like this will work:
1880
1881 BEGIN { *shove = \&CORE::push; }
1882 shove @array, 1,2,3; # pushes on to @array
1883
6798c92b
GS
1884=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1885
1886(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1887
675fa9ff
FC
1888=item Corrupted regexp opcode %d > %d
1889
1890(P) This is either an error in Perl, or, if you're using
1891one, your L<custom regular expression engine|perlreapi>. If not the
1892latter, report the problem through the L<perlbug> utility.
1893
a0d0e21e
LW
1894=item corrupted regexp pointers
1895
1896(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1897expression compiler gave it.
1898
1899=item corrupted regexp program
1900
be771a83
GS
1901(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1902valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1903
de42a5a9 1904=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%x at 0x%x
6df41af2
GS
1905
1906(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1907
49704364
WL
1908=item Count after length/code in unpack
1909
1910(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1911you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1912L<perlfunc/pack>.
1913
3f645a4e
FC
1914=item Declaring references is experimental
1915
1916(S experimental::declared_refs) This warning is emitted if you use
1917a reference constructor on the right-hand side of C<my>, C<state>, C<our>, or
1918C<local>. Simply suppress the warning if you want to use the feature, but
1919know that in doing so you are taking the risk of using an experimental
1920feature which may change or be removed in a future Perl version:
1921
1922 no warnings "experimental::declared_refs";
1923 use feature "declared_refs";
1924 $fooref = my \$foo;
1925
f2cccb4c
KW
1926=for comment
1927The following are used in lib/diagnostics.t for testing two =items that
1928share the same description. Changes here need to be propagated to there
1929
6651ba0b
FC
1930=item Deep recursion on anonymous subroutine
1931
a0d0e21e
LW
1932=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1933
be771a83
GS
1934(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1935100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1936infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1937which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1938
aad1d01f
NC
1939This threshold can be changed from 100, by recompiling the F<perl> binary,
1940setting the C pre-processor macro C<PERL_SUB_DEPTH_WARN> to the desired value.
1941
e0e4a6e3
FC
1942=item (?(DEFINE)....) does not allow branches in regex; marked by
1943S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
bcb95744 1944
6903afa2 1945(F) You used something like C<(?(DEFINE)...|..)> which is illegal. The
bcb95744
FC
1946most likely cause of this error is that you left out a parenthesis inside
1947of the C<....> part.
1948
6e8a73f2 1949The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
bcb95744
FC
1950discovered.
1951
62658f4d
PM
1952=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1953
1954(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1955there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1956
36447869
FC
1957=item delete argument is index/value array slice, use array slice
1958
1959(F) You used index/value array slice syntax (C<%array[...]>) as
1960the argument to C<delete>. You probably meant C<@array[...]> with
1961an @ symbol instead.
1962
1963=item delete argument is key/value hash slice, use hash slice
1964
1965(F) You used key/value hash slice syntax (C<%hash{...}>) as the argument to
1966C<delete>. You probably meant C<@hash{...}> with an @ symbol instead.
1967
0ffcbc25
FC
1968=item delete argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
1969
4a0af295 1970(F) The argument to C<delete> must be either a hash or array element,
0ffcbc25
FC
1971such as:
1972
1973 $foo{$bar}
1974 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
1975
1976or a hash or array slice, such as:
1977
1978 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
1979 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
1980
fc36a67e 1981=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1982
be771a83
GS
1983(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1984long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1985that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 1986
c437f7ac 1987=item Deprecated use of my() in false conditional. This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.30
6d3b25aa 1988
fa816bf3
FC
1989(D deprecated) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>. There
1990has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
6d3b25aa 1991not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
6903afa2 1992conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
fa816bf3 1993static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
6903afa2 1994relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
6d3b25aa 1995declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
36fb85f3 1996
6d3b25aa
RGS
1997 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
1998
1999becomes
2000
2001 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
2002
ea9d9ebc 2003Beginning with perl 5.10.0, you can also use C<state> variables to have
fa816bf3 2004lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
36fb85f3
RGS
2005
2006 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
2007
c437f7ac
A
2008This use of C<my()> in a false conditional has been deprecated since
2009Perl 5.10, and it will become a fatal error in Perl 5.30.
2010
500ab966
RGS
2011=item DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
2012
2013(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
6903afa2
FC
2014just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather
2015than to create a dangling reference.
500ab966 2016
3cdd684c
TP
2017=item Did not produce a valid header
2018
3de20fbe 2019See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 2020
6df41af2
GS
2021=item %s did not return a true value
2022
2023(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
2024it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
2025traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
2026do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
2027
cc507455 2028=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 2029
413ff9f6
FC
2030(W misc) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or
2031some such.
4633a7c4 2032
cc507455 2033=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 2034
be771a83
GS
2035(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
2036variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
2037seems superfluous.
33633739 2038
cc507455 2039=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 2040
be771a83
GS
2041(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
2042@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
2043carried away.
748a9306 2044
7e1af8bc 2045=item Died
5f05dabc 2046
2047(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
075b00aa 2048you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 2049
3cdd684c
TP
2050=item Document contains no data
2051
3de20fbe 2052See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 2053
62658f4d
PM
2054=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
2055
2056(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
943fc58e 2057define a C<$VERSION>.
62658f4d 2058
49704364
WL
2059=item '/' does not take a repeat count
2060
2061(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
2062See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2063
95cb0d72
FC
2064=item Don't know how to get file name
2065
2066(P) C<PerlIO_getname>, a perl internal I/O function specific to VMS, was
2067somehow called on another platform. This should not happen.
2068
4021c788 2069=item Don't know how to handle magic of type \%o
a0d0e21e
LW
2070
2071(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
2072
2073=item do_study: out of memory
2074
2075(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
2076
6df41af2
GS
2077=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
2078
56da5a46
RGS
2079(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2080"%s found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
6df41af2
GS
2081name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
2082because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
2083"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
2084something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
2085subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
2086"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 2087
30b17cc1 2088=item dump() better written as CORE::dump(). dump() will no longer be available in Perl 5.30
ac206dc8 2089
30b17cc1
A
2090(D deprecated, misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function,
2091without fully qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo.
2092
2093Use of a unqualified C<dump()> was deprecated in Perl 5.30, and this
2094will not be available in Perl 5.30.
2095
2096See L<perlfunc/dump>.
ac206dc8 2097
84d78eb7
YO
2098=item dump is not supported
2099
2100(F) Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.
2101
a0d0e21e
LW
2102=item Duplicate free() ignored
2103
be771a83
GS
2104(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
2105already been freed.
a0d0e21e 2106
1109a392
MHM
2107=item Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
2108
35f0cd76
FC
2109(W unpack) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a
2110type in a pack template. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1109a392 2111
4633a7c4
LW
2112=item elseif should be elsif
2113
fa816bf3
FC
2114(S syntax) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks
2115it's ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method
2116named "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
2117unlikely to be what you want.
2118
c30c479a
KW
2119=item Empty \%c in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2120
e0e4a6e3 2121=item Empty \%c{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 2122
af6f566e 2123(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
6903afa2 2124described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
af6f566e 2125a regular expression without specifying the property name.
ab13f0c7 2126
ac641426 2127=item ${^ENCODING} is no longer supported. Its use will be fatal in Perl 5.28
a15a3d9b
FC
2128
2129(D deprecated) The special variable C<${^ENCODING}>, formerly used to implement
2130the C<encoding> pragma, is no longer supported as of Perl 5.26.0.
2131
ac641426
A
2132Setting this variable will become a fatal error in Perl 5.28.
2133
85ab1d1d 2134=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 2135
85ab1d1d 2136(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
2137effective uids or gids failed.
2138
c038024b
RGS
2139=item %ENV is aliased to %s
2140
2141(F) You're running under taint mode, and the C<%ENV> variable has been
2142aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
6903afa2 2143program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
c038024b 2144
748a9306
LW
2145=item Error converting file specification %s
2146
5f05dabc 2147(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 2148specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
2149single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
2150an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
2151conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 2152
ad19ef22 2153=item Eval-group in insecure regular expression
e4d48cc9 2154
be771a83
GS
2155(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2156expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
2157is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 2158
ad19ef22 2159=item Eval-group not allowed at runtime, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
e4d48cc9 2160
be771a83
GS
2161(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
2162C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
f11307f5
FC
2163pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk,
2164it is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by using the
2165C<re 'eval'> pragma or by explicitly building the pattern from an
2166interpolated string at run time and using that in an eval(). See
2167L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 2168
ad19ef22 2169=item Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
6df41af2 2170
be771a83
GS
2171(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
2172assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
2173pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 2174
e0e4a6e3
FC
2175=item EVAL without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by
2176S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1a147d38
YO
2177
2178(F) You used a pattern that nested too many EVAL calls without consuming
6903afa2 2179any text. Restructure the pattern so that text is consumed.
1a147d38 2180
6e8a73f2 2181The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
2182discovered.
2183
fc36a67e 2184=item Excessively long <> operator
2185
2186(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
2187Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
2188filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
2189variable and glob that.
2190
ed9aa3b7
SG
2191=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
2192
af8bb25a 2193(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented on some systems, e.g., Symbian
6903afa2 2194OS. See L<perlport>.
ed9aa3b7 2195
c77da5ff 2196=item %sExecution of %s aborted due to compilation errors.
a0d0e21e
LW
2197
2198(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
2199
0ffcbc25
FC
2200=item exists argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine
2201
4a0af295 2202(F) The argument to C<exists> must be a hash or array element or a
0ffcbc25
FC
2203subroutine with an ampersand, such as:
2204
2205 $foo{$bar}
2206 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
2207 &do_something
2208
2209=item exists argument is not a subroutine name
2210
ccfc2567
FC
2211(F) The argument to C<exists> for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine name,
2212and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this error.
0ffcbc25 2213
a0d0e21e
LW
2214=item Exiting eval via %s
2215
be771a83
GS
2216(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
2217goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
2218
2219=item Exiting format via %s
2220
9a2ff54b 2221(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 2222goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 2223
0a753a76 2224=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
2225
be771a83
GS
2226(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
2227sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
2228loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 2229
a0d0e21e
LW
2230=item Exiting subroutine via %s
2231
be771a83
GS
2232(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
2233as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
2234
2235=item Exiting substitution via %s
2236
be771a83
GS
2237(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
2238as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 2239
e0e4a6e3 2240=item Expecting close bracket in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
c608e803 2241
675fa9ff 2242(F) You wrote something like
c608e803
KW
2243
2244 (?13
2245
2246to denote a capturing group of the form
2247L<C<(?I<PARNO>)>|perlre/(?PARNO) (?-PARNO) (?+PARNO) (?R) (?0)>,
2248but omitted the C<")">.
2249
e0e4a6e3 2250=item Expecting '(?flags:(?[...' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
27350048 2251
8b6fbf55
FC
2252(F) The C<(?[...])> extended character class regular expression construct
2253only allows character classes (including character class escapes like
2254C<\d>), operators, and parentheses. The one exception is C<(?flags:...)>
2255containing at least one flag and exactly one C<(?[...])> construct.
27350048
FC
2256This allows a regular expression containing just C<(?[...])> to be
2257interpolated. If you see this error message, then you probably
2258have some other C<(?...)> construct inside your character class. See
2259L<perlrecharclass/Extended Bracketed Character Classes>.
2260
baabe3fb 2261=item Experimental aliasing via reference not enabled
1f8155a2 2262
baabe3fb 2263(F) To do aliasing via references, you must first enable the feature:
1f8155a2 2264
baabe3fb
FC
2265 no warnings "experimental::refaliasing";
2266 use feature "refaliasing";
1f8155a2
FC
2267 \$x = \$y;
2268
74d1b2e4
FC
2269=item Experimental %s on scalar is now forbidden
2270
2271(F) An experimental feature added in Perl 5.14 allowed C<each>, C<keys>,
2272C<push>, C<pop>, C<shift>, C<splice>, C<unshift>, and C<values> to be called with a
2273scalar argument. This experiment is considered unsuccessful, and
2274has been removed. The C<postderef> feature may meet your needs better.
2275
30d9c59b
Z
2276=item Experimental subroutine signatures not enabled
2277
2278(F) To use subroutine signatures, you must first enable them:
2279
caa35032 2280 no warnings "experimental::signatures";
30d9c59b
Z
2281 use feature "signatures";
2282 sub foo ($left, $right) { ... }
2283
7b8d334a
GS
2284=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
2285
be771a83
GS
2286(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
2287the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
2288usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
2289e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 2290
6df41af2
GS
2291=item %s: Expression syntax
2292
be771a83
GS
2293(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
2294Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
2295
2296=item %s failed--call queue aborted
2297
3c10abe3
AG
2298(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a UNITCHECK,
2299CHECK, INIT, or END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the
2300queue of such routines has been prematurely ended.
6df41af2 2301
502aca56
TC
2302=item Failed to close in-place edit file %s: %s
2303
2304(F) Closing an output file from in-place editing, as with the C<-i>
2305command-line switch, failed.
2306
e0e4a6e3 2307=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
73b437c8 2308
98d31c73 2309(W regexp)(F) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3 2310character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
3c6ca74a
FC
2311in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". In a C<(?[...])>
2312construct, this is an error, rather than a warning. Consider quoting
e0e4a6e3 2313the "-", "\-". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression
3c6ca74a 2314the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 2315
1b1ee2ef 2316=item Fatal VMS error (status=%d) at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 2317
be771a83
GS
2318(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
2319system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
2320details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
2321you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
2322
2323=item fcntl is not implemented
2324
2325(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
2326PDP-11 or something?
2327
22846ab4
AB
2328=item FETCHSIZE returned a negative value
2329
2330(F) A tied array claimed to have a negative number of elements, which
2331is not possible.
2332
f337b084
TH
2333=item Field too wide in 'u' format in pack
2334
d8b5cc61 2335(W pack) Each line in an uuencoded string starts with a length indicator
6903afa2
FC
2336which can't encode values above 63. So there is no point in asking for
2337a line length bigger than that. Perl will behave as if you specified
5c96f6f7 2338C<u63> as the format.
f337b084 2339
a0e213fc
A
2340=item File::Glob::glob() will disappear in perl 5.30. Use File::Glob::bsd_glob() instead.
2341
2342(D deprecated) C<< File::Glob >> has a function called C<< glob >>, which
2343just calls C<< bsd_glob >>. However, its prototype is different from the
2344prototype of C<< CORE::glob >>, and hence, C<< File::Glob::glob >> should
2345not be used.
2346
2347C<< File::Glob::glob() >> was deprecated in perl 5.8.0. A deprecation
2348message was issued from perl 5.26.0 onwards, and the function will
2349disappear in perl 5.30.0.
2350
2351Code using C<< File::Glob::glob() >> should call
2352C<< File::Glob::bsd_glob() >> instead.
2353
af8c498a 2354=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 2355
6c8d78fb
HS
2356(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
2357it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
2358"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
2359write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 2360
af8c498a 2361=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 2362
6c8d78fb
HS
2363(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
2364you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
89a1bda8
FC
2365with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with ">". If you intended only to
2366read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>. Another possibility
2367is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0 (also known as STDIN) for
2368output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
97828cef
RGS
2369
2370=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
2371
2372(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
6903afa2 2373as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
97828cef
RGS
2374previously.
2375
2376=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
2377
2378(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
fa816bf3 2379as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
2380
2381=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
2382
2383(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
2384a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
2385happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
2386name.
a0d0e21e 2387
56e90b21
GS
2388=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
2389
be771a83 2390(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 2391some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
2392filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
2393same name?
56e90b21 2394
6df41af2
GS
2395=item Format not terminated
2396
2397(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
2398to the end of your file without finding such a line.
2399
a0d0e21e
LW
2400=item Format %s redefined
2401
e476b1b5 2402(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
2403
2404 {
271595cc 2405 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
2406 eval "format NAME =...";
2407 }
2408
a0d0e21e
LW
2409=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
2410
e476b1b5 2411(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
2412
2413 if ($foo = 123)
2414
2415when you meant
2416
2417 if ($foo == 123)
2418
2419(or something like that).
2420
6df41af2
GS
2421=item %s found where operator expected
2422
56da5a46
RGS
2423(S syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator.
2424If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
be771a83
GS
2425operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
2426operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 2427
a0d0e21e
LW
2428=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
2429
2430(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
2431
2432=item gethostent not implemented
2433
2434(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
2435because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
2436on the Internet.
2437
69282e91 2438=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2439
be771a83
GS
2440(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
2441socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 2442
748a9306
LW
2443=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
2444
2445(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
2446C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
2447
6df41af2
GS
2448=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
2449
be771a83
GS
2450(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
2451forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
2452L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
2453
0f539b13
BF
2454=item given is experimental
2455
675fa9ff
FC
2456(S experimental::smartmatch) C<given> depends on smartmatch, which
2457is experimental, so its behavior may change or even be removed
2458in any future release of perl. See the explanation under
2459L<perlsyn/Experimental Details on given and when>.
0f539b13 2460
68567d27
FC
2461=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name (did you forget to
2462declare "my %s"?)
6df41af2 2463
a4edf47d 2464(F) You've said "use strict" or "use strict vars", which indicates
30c282f6 2465that all variables must either be lexically scoped (using "my" or "state"),
a4edf47d
GS
2466declared beforehand using "our", or explicitly qualified to say
2467which package the global variable is in (using "::").
6df41af2 2468
e476b1b5
GS
2469=item glob failed (%s)
2470
5ead438e 2471(S glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used
73c4e9dc
FC
2472for C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a C<glob>
2473pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
be771a83 2474nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
73c4e9dc
FC
2475resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell)
2476is broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables
2477in config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as
2478if it were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them
2479all empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
be771a83 2480think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 2481C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 2482
a0d0e21e
LW
2483=item Glob not terminated
2484
2485(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
2486a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
2487not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
2488earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 2489
b35b96b6
JH
2490=item gmtime(%f) failed
2491
2492(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that it could not handle:
2493too large, too small, or NaN. The returned value is C<undef>.
2494
bcd05b94 2495=item gmtime(%f) too large
8b56d6ff 2496
e9200be3 2497(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was larger than
fc003d4b 2498it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong
6903afa2 2499date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
fc003d4b
MS
2500not-a-number value).
2501
bcd05b94 2502=item gmtime(%f) too small
fc003d4b 2503
e9200be3 2504(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was smaller than
e7a1a147 2505it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong date.
8b56d6ff 2506
6df41af2 2507=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 2508
6df41af2
GS
2509(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
2510version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
2511
2512=item goto must have label
2513
2514(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
2515unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2516
6651ba0b
FC
2517=item Goto undefined subroutine%s
2518
2519(F) You tried to call a subroutine with C<goto &sub> syntax, but
2520the indicated subroutine hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
2521has since been undefined.
2522
6fbc9859 2523=item Group name must start with a non-digit word character in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 2524S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1f4f6bf1
YO
2525
2526(F) Group names must follow the rules for perl identifiers, meaning
f26c79ba
FC
2527they must start with a non-digit word character. A common cause of
2528this error is using (?&0) instead of (?0). See L<perlre>.
1f4f6bf1 2529
5a25739d
FC
2530=item ()-group starts with a count
2531
2532(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is supposed to follow
2533something: a template character or a ()-group. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2534
fe13d51d 2535=item %s had compilation errors.
6df41af2
GS
2536
2537(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
2538
a0d0e21e
LW
2539=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
2540
be771a83
GS
2541(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
2542to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
2543created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e 2544
6df41af2
GS
2545=item %s has too many errors
2546
2547(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
2548Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
2549
61e61fbc
JH
2550=item Hexadecimal float: exponent overflow
2551
d8f2b442 2552(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point has a larger exponent
61e61fbc
JH
2553than the floating point supports.
2554
2555=item Hexadecimal float: exponent underflow
2556
d8f2b442 2557(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point has a smaller exponent
b6d9b423
JH
2558than the floating point supports. With the IEEE 754 floating point,
2559this may also mean that the subnormals (formerly known as denormals)
2560are being used, which may or may not be an error.
61e61fbc 2561
5488d373 2562=item Hexadecimal float: internal error (%s)
cf4f6003
JH
2563
2564(F) Something went horribly bad in hexadecimal float handling.
2565
61e61fbc
JH
2566=item Hexadecimal float: mantissa overflow
2567
2568(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point literal had more bits in
2569the mantissa (the part between the 0x and the exponent, also known as
2570the fraction or the significand) than the floating point supports.
2571
40bca5ae
JH
2572=item Hexadecimal float: precision loss
2573
2574(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point had internally more
2575digits than could be output. This can be caused by unsupported
2576long double formats, or by 64-bit integers not being available
2577(needed to retrieve the digits under some configurations).
2578
2579=item Hexadecimal float: unsupported long double format
2580
2581(F) You have configured Perl to use long doubles but
d8f2b442 2582the internals of the long double format are unknown;
40bca5ae
JH
2583therefore the hexadecimal float output is impossible.
2584
252aa082
JH
2585=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
2586
e476b1b5 2587(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
2588(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2589L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 2590
8903cb82 2591=item Identifier too long
2592
2593(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 2594about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
2595names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
2596of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 2597
e0e4a6e3
FC
2598=item Ignoring zero length \N{} in character class in regex; marked by
2599S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
fc8cd66c 2600
f3ba6905 2601(W regexp) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a
0f44b2a5
FC
2602zero-length sequence. When such an escape is used in a character
2603class its behavior is not well defined. Check that the correct
2604escape has been used, and the correct charname handler is in scope.
fc8cd66c 2605
6df41af2 2606=item Illegal binary digit %s
f675dbe5 2607
6df41af2 2608(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
f675dbe5 2609
6df41af2 2610=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
a0d0e21e 2611
be771a83
GS
2612(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
2613binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
2614offending digit.
a0d0e21e 2615
6597eb22
FC
2616=item Illegal character after '_' in prototype for %s : %s
2617
e4d150f1
FC
2618(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype
2619declaration. The '_' in a prototype must be followed by a ';',
2620indicating the rest of the parameters are optional, or one of '@'
2621or '%', since those two will accept 0 or more final parameters.
6597eb22 2622
b913d0b8
FC
2623=item Illegal character \%o (carriage return)
2624
2625(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as
2626it would any other whitespace, which means you should never see
2627this error when Perl was built using standard options. For some
2628reason, your version of Perl appears to have been built without
2629this support. Talk to your Perl administrator.
2630
bb6b75cd 2631=item Illegal character following sigil in a subroutine signature
d3d9da4a
DM
2632
2633(F) A parameter in a subroutine signature contained an unexpected character
d4e5761f
FC
2634following the C<$>, C<@> or C<%> sigil character. Normally the sigil
2635should be followed by the variable name or C<=> etc. Perhaps you are
d3d9da4a
DM
2636trying use a prototype while in the scope of C<use feature 'signatures'>?
2637For example:
2638
2639 sub foo ($$) {} # legal - a prototype
2640
2641 use feature 'signatures;
2642 sub foo ($$) {} # illegal - was expecting a signature
2643 sub foo ($a, $b)
2644 :prototype($$) {} # legal
2645
2646
d37a9538
ST
2647=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
2648
197afce1 2649(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
2e9cc7ef 2650Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, \, and +.
30d9c59b
Z
2651Perhaps you were trying to write a subroutine signature but didn't enable
2652that feature first (C<use feature 'signatures'>), so your signature was
2653instead interpreted as a bad prototype.
d37a9538 2654
904d85c5
RGS
2655=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
2656
2657(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
6903afa2 2658you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
904d85c5 2659
8e742a20
MHM
2660=item Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
2661
6903afa2 2662(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See L<perlsub>.
8e742a20 2663
a0d0e21e
LW
2664=item Illegal division by zero
2665
be771a83
GS
2666(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
2667your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
2668meaningless input.
a0d0e21e 2669
6df41af2
GS
2670=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
2671
be771a83
GS
2672(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
2673A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
2674number stopped before the illegal character.
6df41af2 2675
a0d0e21e
LW
2676=item Illegal modulus zero
2677
be771a83
GS
2678(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
2679numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 2680
6df41af2 2681=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 2682
6df41af2
GS
2683(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
2684two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4
GS
2685
2686=item Illegal octal digit %s
a0d0e21e 2687
d1be9408 2688(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 2689
399388f4 2690=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
748a9306 2691
d1be9408 2692(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
75b44862 2693Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
748a9306 2694
e0e4a6e3 2695=item Illegal pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
c608e803 2696
675fa9ff 2697(F) You wrote something like
c608e803
KW
2698
2699 (?+foo)
2700
2701The C<"+"> is valid only when followed by digits, indicating a
2702capturing group. See
2703L<C<(?I<PARNO>)>|perlre/(?PARNO) (?-PARNO) (?+PARNO) (?R) (?0)>.
2704
375ed12a
JH
2705=item Illegal suidscript
2706
2707(F) The script run under suidperl was somehow illegal.
2708
fe13d51d 2709=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: -%c
6ff81951 2710
6df41af2 2711(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
646ca9b2 2712following switches: B<-[CDIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 2713
4003ea29
KW
2714=item Illegal user-defined property name
2715
2716(F) You specified a Unicode-like property name in a regular expression
2717pattern (using C<\p{}> or C<\P{}>) that Perl knows isn't an official
2718Unicode property, and was likely meant to be a user-defined property
2719name, but it can't be one of those, as they must begin with either C<In>
2720or C<Is>. Check the spelling. See also
2721L</Can't find Unicode property definition "%s">.
2722
6df41af2 2723=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 2724
75b44862 2725(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
2726internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
2727delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 2728
6df41af2 2729=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 2730
be771a83
GS
2731(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
2732name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
2733didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
2734ignored.
54310121 2735
6df41af2 2736=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 2737
be771a83
GS
2738(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
2739the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
2740system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
2741times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
2742would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 2743
be771a83
GS
2744Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
2745also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 2746
e0e4a6e3
FC
2747=item Incomplete expression within '(?[ ])' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
2748in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 2749
675fa9ff 2750(F) There was a syntax error within the C<(?[ ])>. This can happen if the
0d0b4b3b
KW
2751expression inside the construct was completely empty, or if there are
2752too many or few operands for the number of operators. Perl is not smart
2753enough to give you a more precise indication as to what is wrong.
2754
6fbc9859
MH
2755=item Inconsistent hierarchy during C3 merge of class '%s': merging failed on
2756parent '%s'
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2757
2758(F) The method resolution order (MRO) of the given class is not
2759C3-consistent, and you have enabled the C3 MRO for this class. See the C3
2760documentation in L<mro> for more information.
2761
cdd6375d
MH
2762=item Indentation on line %d of here-doc doesn't match delimiter
2763
2764(F) You have an indented here-document where one or more of its lines
2765have whitespace at the beginning that does not match the closing
2766delimiter.
2767
2768For example, line 2 below is wrong because it does not have at least
27692 spaces, but lines 1 and 3 are fine because they have at least 2:
2770
2771 if ($something) {
2772 print <<~EOF;
2773 Line 1
2774 Line 2 not
2775 Line 3
2776 EOF
2777 }
2778
2779Note that tabs and spaces are compared strictly, meaning 1 tab will
2780not match 8 spaces.
2781
6a2ed79a 2782=item Infinite recursion in regex
1a147d38
YO
2783
2784(F) You used a pattern that references itself without consuming any input
6903afa2 2785text. You should check the pattern to ensure that recursive patterns
1a147d38
YO
2786either consume text or fail.
2787
6dbe9451
NC
2788=item Initialization of state variables in list context currently forbidden
2789
dca6023d 2790(F) C<state> only permits initializing a single scalar variable, in scalar
4c9eaea6
FC
2791context. So C<state $a = 42> is allowed, but not C<state ($a) = 42>. To apply
2792state semantics to a hash or array, store a hash or array reference in a
2793scalar variable.
6dbe9451 2794
2186f873
FC
2795=item %%s[%s] in scalar context better written as $%s[%s]
2796
2797(W syntax) In scalar context, you've used an array index/value slice
2798(indicated by %) to select a single element of an array. Generally
2799it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
2800is that C<$foo[&bar]> always behaves like a scalar, both in the value it
2801returns and when evaluating its argument, while C<%foo[&bar]> provides
2802a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things if you're
2803expecting only one subscript. When called in list context, it also
2804returns the index (what C<&bar> returns) in addition to the value.
2805
2806=item %%s{%s} in scalar context better written as $%s{%s}
2807
2808(W syntax) In scalar context, you've used a hash key/value slice
2809(indicated by %) to select a single element of a hash. Generally it's
2810better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
2811is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves like a scalar, both in the value
2812it returns and when evaluating its argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> and
2813provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
2814if you're expecting only one subscript. When called in list context,
2815it also returns the key in addition to the value.
2816
a0d0e21e
LW
2817=item Insecure dependency in %s
2818
8b1a09fc 2819(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
2820The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
2821setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
2822tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
2823from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
2824such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
2825L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
2826
2827=item Insecure directory in %s
2828
be771a83
GS
2829(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2830setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
df98f984
RGS
2831the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
2832See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2833
62f468fc 2834=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2835
2836(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc 2837setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
332d5f78
SR
2838C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
2839supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
2840the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2841
0e9be77f
DM
2842=item Insecure user-defined property %s
2843
2844(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2845expression that contains a call to a user-defined character property
2846function, i.e. C<\p{IsFoo}> or C<\p{InFoo}>.
2847See L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties> and L<perlsec>.
2848
b9ef414d
FC
2849=item Integer overflow in format string for %s
2850
2851(F) The indexes and widths specified in the format string of C<printf()>
2852or C<sprintf()> are too large. The numbers must not overflow the size of
2853integers for your architecture.
2854
a7ae9550
GS
2855=item Integer overflow in %s number
2856
35928bc5 2857(S overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
2858either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
2859your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
2860On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
2861representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
28620b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
2863transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
2864internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
2865operations.
bbce6d69 2866
fc89ca81
FC
2867=item Integer overflow in srand
2868
2869(S overflow) The number you have passed to srand is too big to fit
2870in your architecture's integer representation. The number has been
2871replaced with the largest integer supported (0xFFFFFFFF on 32-bit
2872architectures). This means you may be getting less randomness than
2873you expect, because different random seeds above the maximum will
2874return the same sequence of random numbers.
2875
46314c13
JP
2876=item Integer overflow in version
2877
18da5252
FC
2878=item Integer overflow in version %d
2879
784d71ed
FC
2880(W overflow) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for
2881the size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
f084e84f 2882because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use an
784d71ed
FC
2883element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by trying
2884to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like 100/9.
46314c13 2885
e0e4a6e3 2886=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2887
2888(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
e0e4a6e3 2889The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
b45f050a
JF
2890discovered.
2891
748a9306
LW
2892=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
2893
be771a83
GS
2894(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
2895you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
2896to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
2897L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
2898Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
2899terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 2900
870978ae
FC
2901=item internal %<num>p might conflict with future printf extensions
2902
2903(S internal) Perl's internal routine that handles C<printf> and C<sprintf>
2904formatting follows a slightly different set of rules when called from
2905C or XS code. Specifically, formats consisting of digits followed
2906by "p" (e.g., "%7p") are reserved for future use. If you see this
2907message, then an XS module tried to call that routine with one such
2908reserved format.
2909
e0e4a6e3 2910=item Internal urp in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 2911
fa816bf3 2912(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
e0e4a6e3 2913S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
7253e4e3 2914discovered.
a0d0e21e 2915
6df41af2
GS
2916=item %s (...) interpreted as function
2917
75b44862 2918(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 2919followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 2920operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 2921L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 2922
f51551f7
FC
2923=item In '(?...)', the '(' and '?' must be adjacent in regex;
2924marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2925
2926(F) The two-character sequence C<"(?"> in this context in a regular
2927expression pattern should be an indivisible token, with nothing
2928intervening between the C<"("> and the C<"?">, but you separated them
2929with whitespace.
2930
09bef843
SB
2931=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
2932
a4a4c9e2 2933(F) The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
09bef843
SB
2934by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
2935
2936=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
2937
a4a4c9e2 2938(F) The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
be771a83 2939recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2940
e0e4a6e3
FC
2941=item Invalid character in charnames alias definition; marked by
2942S<<-- HERE> in '%s
225fb84f
KW
2943
2944(F) You tried to create a custom alias for a character name, with
2945the C<:alias> option to C<use charnames> and the specified character in
2946the indicated name isn't valid. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
2947
c8028aa6
TC
2948=item Invalid \0 character in %s for %s: %s\0%s
2949
fa3234e3
FC
2950(W syscalls) Embedded \0 characters in pathnames or other system call
2951arguments produce a warning as of 5.20. The parts after the \0 were
2952formerly ignored by system calls.
c8028aa6 2953
e0e4a6e3 2954=item Invalid character in \N{...}; marked by S<<-- HERE> in \N{%s}
a690c7c4
FC
2955
2956(F) Only certain characters are valid for character names. The
2957indicated one isn't. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
2958
c635e13b 2959=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
2960
be771a83
GS
2961(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
2962L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 2963
e0e4a6e3
FC
2964=item Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regex; marked by
2965S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9e08bc66 2966
98d31c73 2967(W regexp)(F) The numeric escape (for example C<\xHH>) of value < 256
9e08bc66
TS
2968didn't correspond to a single character through the conversion
2969from the encoding specified by the encoding pragma.
98d31c73
FC
2970The escape was replaced with REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (U+FFFD)
2971instead, except within S<C<(?[ ])>>, where it is a fatal error.
e0e4a6e3 2972The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
9e08bc66
TS
2973escape was discovered.
2974
8149aa9f
FC
2975=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...}
2976
e0e4a6e3
FC
2977=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...} in regex; marked by
2978S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 2979
8149aa9f 2980(F) The character constant represented by C<...> is not a valid hexadecimal
74f8e9e3
FC
2981number. Either it is empty, or you tried to use a character other than
29820 - 9 or A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number.
8149aa9f 2983
6651ba0b
FC
2984=item Invalid module name %s with -%c option: contains single ':'
2985
2986(F) The module argument to perl's B<-m> and B<-M> command-line options
2987cannot contain single colons in the module name, but only in the
2988arguments after "=". In other words, B<-MFoo::Bar=:baz> is ok, but
2989B<-MFoo:Bar=baz> is not.
2990
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2991=item Invalid mro name: '%s'
2992
162a3e34
FC
2993(F) You tried to C<mro::set_mro("classname", "foo")> or C<use mro 'foo'>,
2994where C<foo> is not a valid method resolution order (MRO). Currently,
2995the only valid ones supported are C<dfs> and C<c3>, unless you have loaded
2996a module that is a MRO plugin. See L<mro> and L<perlmroapi>.
2c7d6b9c 2997
40e4140b
FC
2998=item Invalid negative number (%s) in chr
2999
3000(W utf8) You passed a negative number to C<chr>. Negative numbers are
abc0aa9d 3001not valid character numbers, so it returns the Unicode replacement
40e4140b
FC
3002character (U+FFFD).
3003
74d1b2e4
FC
3004=item Invalid number '%s' for -C option.
3005
3006(F) You supplied a number to the -C option that either has extra leading
3007zeroes or overflows perl's unsigned integer representation.
3008
6651ba0b
FC
3009=item invalid option -D%c, use -D'' to see choices
3010
8ff21bfe
FC
3011(S debugging) Perl was called with invalid debugger flags. Call perl
3012with the B<-D> option with no flags to see the list of acceptable values.
982c4ecb 3013See also L<perlrun/-Dletters>.
6651ba0b 3014
6e8a73f2 3015=item Invalid quantifier in {,} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
35cd12d1
HS
3016
3017(F) The pattern looks like a {min,max} quantifier, but the min or max
3018could not be parsed as a valid number - either it has leading zeroes,
3019or it represents too big a number to cope with. The S<<-- HERE> shows
3020where in the regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3021
e0e4a6e3 3022=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
3023
3024(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
3025greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
3026C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
e0e4a6e3 3027up to C<ff>. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
7253e4e3 3028problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 3029
d1573ac7 3030=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
3031
3032(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
3033character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
3034
09bef843
SB
3035=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
3036
0120eecf 3037(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
3038elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
3039parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
3040See L<attributes>.
09bef843 3041
b4581f09
JH
3042=item Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
3043
2bfc5f71
FC
3044(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other
3045than a colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
b4581f09
JH
3046If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
3047list was terminated too soon.
3048
2c86d456
DG
3049=item Invalid strict version format (%s)
3050
fa816bf3 3051(F) A version number did not meet the "strict" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
3052A "strict" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
3053decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
3054v-string with a leading 'v' character and at least three components.
a6485a24 3055The parenthesized text indicates which criteria were not met.
2c86d456
DG
3056See the L<version> module for more details on allowed version formats.
3057
49704364 3058=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
96e4d5b1 3059
49704364
WL
3060(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
3061See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6728c851 3062
49704364 3063(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
75b44862 3064silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 3065
2c86d456
DG
3066=item Invalid version format (%s)
3067
fa816bf3 3068(F) A version number did not meet the "lax" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
3069A "lax" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
3070decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
fa816bf3
FC
3071v-string. If the v-string has fewer than three components, it
3072must have a leading 'v' character. Otherwise, the leading 'v' is
3073optional. Both decimal and dotted-decimal versions may have a
3074trailing "alpha" component separated by an underscore character
3075after a fractional or dotted-decimal component. The parenthesized
3076text indicates which criteria were not met. See the L<version> module
3077for more details on allowed version formats.
46314c13 3078
798ae1b7
DG
3079=item Invalid version object
3080
fa816bf3
FC
3081(F) The internal structure of the version object was invalid.
3082Perhaps the internals were modified directly in some way or
3083an arbitrary reference was blessed into the "version" class.
798ae1b7 3084
cd209d9d 3085=item In '(*VERB...)', the '(' and '*' must be adjacent in regex;
e0e4a6e3 3086marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff 3087
cd209d9d 3088(F) The two-character sequence C<"(*"> in
675fa9ff
FC
3089this context in a regular expression pattern should be an
3090indivisible token, with nothing intervening between the C<"(">
cd209d9d 3091and the C<"*">, but you separated them.
675fa9ff 3092
a0d0e21e
LW
3093=item ioctl is not implemented
3094
3095(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
3096strange for a machine that supports C.
3097
c289d2f7
JH
3098=item ioctl() on unopened %s
3099
3100(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
34b6fd5e 3101Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 3102
fe13d51d 3103=item IO layers (like '%s') unavailable
363c40c4
SB
3104
3105(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
34b6fd5e 3106you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO, Perl must be configured
363c40c4
SB
3107with 'useperlio'.
3108
80cbd5ad
JH
3109=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
3110
3111(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
34b6fd5e 3112neither as a system call nor an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
80cbd5ad 3113
6e8a73f2 3114=item '%s' is an unknown bound type in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
64935bc6
KW
3115
3116(F) You used C<\b{...}> or C<\B{...}> and the C<...> is not known to
3117Perl. The current valid ones are given in
3118L<perlrebackslash/\b{}, \b, \B{}, \B>.
3119
1972ac5c 3120=item %s() is deprecated on :utf8 handles. This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.30
74d1b2e4 3121
dd6d5da4 3122(D deprecated) The sysread(), recv(), syswrite() and send() operators are
74d1b2e4
FC
3123deprecated on handles that have the C<:utf8> layer, either explicitly, or
3124implicitly, eg., with the C<:encoding(UTF-16LE)> layer.
3125
3126Both sysread() and recv() currently use only the C<:utf8> flag for the stream,
3127ignoring the actual layers. Since sysread() and recv() do no UTF-8
3128validation they can end up creating invalidly encoded scalars.
3129
3130Similarly, syswrite() and send() use only the C<:utf8> flag, otherwise ignoring
3131any layers. If the flag is set, both write the value UTF-8 encoded, even if
3132the layer is some different encoding, such as the example above.
3133
3134Ideally, all of these operators would completely ignore the C<:utf8> state,
3135working only with bytes, but this would result in silently breaking existing
1972ac5c
A
3136code.
3137
3138In Perl 5.30, it will no longer be possible to use sysread(), recv(),
3139syswrite() or send() to read or send bytes from/to :utf8 handles.
74d1b2e4 3140
d4360efa 3141=item "%s" is more clearly written simply as "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
acdfc3b6 3142
d4360efa 3143(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
30b17cc1
A
3144
3145You specified a character that has the given plainer way of writing it,
3146and which is also portable to platforms running with different character
d4360efa 3147sets.
acdfc3b6 3148
37398dc1 3149=item $* is no longer supported. Its use will be fatal in Perl 5.30
a678626e
A
3150
3151(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older
3152perls, has been removed as of 5.10.0 and is no longer supported. In
3153previous versions of perl the use of C<$*> enabled or disabled multi-line
3154matching within a string.
3155
3156Instead of using C<$*> you should use the C</m> (and maybe C</s>) regexp
3157modifiers. You can enable C</m> for a lexical scope (even a whole file)
3158with C<use re '/m'>. (In older versions: when C<$*> was set to a true value
3159then all regular expressions behaved as if they were written using C</m>.)
3160
37398dc1
A
3161Use of this variable will be a fatal error in Perl 5.30.
3162
3163=item $# is no longer supported. Its use will be fatal in Perl 5.30
a678626e
A
3164
3165(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$#>, deprecated in older
3166perls, has been removed as of 5.10.0 and is no longer supported. You
3167should use the printf/sprintf functions instead.
3168
37398dc1
A
3169Use of this variable will be a fatal error in Perl 5.30.
3170
ccf3535a 3171=item '%s' is not a code reference
6ad11d81 3172
6903afa2
FC
3173(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of
3174overload::constant needs to be a code reference. Either
3175an anonymous subroutine, or a reference to a subroutine.
6ad11d81 3176
ccf3535a 3177=item '%s' is not an overloadable type
6ad11d81 3178
04a80ee0
RGS
3179(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
3180unaware of.
6ad11d81 3181
5a25739d
FC
3182=item -i used with no filenames on the command line, reading from STDIN
3183
3184(S inplace) The C<-i> option was passed on the command line, indicating
3185that the script is intended to edit files in place, but no files were
3186given. This is usually a mistake, since editing STDIN in place doesn't
3187make sense, and can be confusing because it can make perl look like
3188it is hanging when it is really just trying to read from STDIN. You
3189should either pass a filename to edit, or remove C<-i> from the command
3190line. See L<perlrun> for more details.
3191
aec0ef10 3192=item Junk on end of regexp in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
3193
3194(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
3195
3196=item Label not found for "last %s"
3197
be771a83
GS
3198(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
3199of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3200L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
3201
3202=item Label not found for "next %s"
3203
3204(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
3205that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3206L<perlfunc/last>.
3207
3208=item Label not found for "redo %s"
3209
3210(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
3211that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3212L<perlfunc/last>.
3213
85ab1d1d 3214=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 3215
85ab1d1d 3216(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
3217effective uids or gids failed.
3218
49704364
WL
3219=item length/code after end of string in unpack
3220
d7f8936a 3221(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an unpack
6903afa2
FC
3222length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
3223an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 3224
25e26107 3225=item length() used on %s (did you mean "scalar(%s)"?)
e508c8a4 3226
0d46a4e7
FC
3227(W syntax) You used length() on either an array or a hash when you
3228probably wanted a count of the items.
e508c8a4
MH
3229
3230Array size can be obtained by doing:
3231
3232 scalar(@array);
3233
3234The number of items in a hash can be obtained by doing:
3235
3236 scalar(keys %hash);
3237
f0e67a1d
Z
3238=item Lexing code attempted to stuff non-Latin-1 character into Latin-1 input
3239
d4fe7078
RS
3240(F) An extension is attempting to insert text into the current parse
3241(using L<lex_stuff_pvn|perlapi/lex_stuff_pvn> or similar), but tried to insert a character that
3242couldn't be part of the current input. This is an inherent pitfall
3243of the stuffing mechanism, and one of the reasons to avoid it. Where
6903afa2 3244it is necessary to stuff, stuffing only plain ASCII is recommended.
f0e67a1d
Z
3245
3246=item Lexing code internal error (%s)
3247
3248(F) Lexing code supplied by an extension violated the lexer's API in a
3249detectable way.
3250
69282e91 3251=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 3252
be771a83
GS
3253(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
3254to check the return value of your socket() call? See
3255L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 3256
6651ba0b
FC
3257=item List form of piped open not implemented
3258
3259(F) On some platforms, notably Windows, the three-or-more-arguments
3260form of C<open> does not support pipes, such as C<open($pipe, '|-', @args)>.
3261Use the two-argument C<open($pipe, '|prog arg1 arg2...')> form instead.
3262
dc6bb7ba
FC
3263=item %s: loadable library and perl binaries are mismatched (got handshake key %p, needed %p)
3264
3265(P) A dynamic loading library C<.so> or C<.dll> was being loaded into the
3266process that was built against a different build of perl than the
3267said library was compiled against. Reinstalling the XS module will
3268likely fix this error.
3269
8c6180a9
KW
3270=item Locale '%s' may not work well.%s
3271
780fcc9f 3272(W locale) You are using the named locale, which is a non-UTF-8 one, and
dae67c56
KW
3273which perl has determined is not fully compatible with what it can
3274handle. The second C<%s> gives a reason.
8c6180a9
KW
3275
3276By far the most common reason is that the locale has characters in it
3277that are represented by more than one byte. The only such locales that
3278Perl can handle are the UTF-8 locales. Most likely the specified locale
3279is a non-UTF-8 one for an East Asian language such as Chinese or
3280Japanese. If the locale is a superset of ASCII, the ASCII portion of it
780fcc9f 3281may work in Perl.
8c6180a9
KW
3282
3283Some essentially obsolete locales that aren't supersets of ASCII, mainly
3284those in ISO 646 or other 7-bit locales, such as ASMO 449, can also have
3285problems, depending on what portions of the ASCII character set get
3286changed by the locale and are also used by the program.
3287The warning message lists the determinable conflicting characters.
3288
780fcc9f
KW
3289Note that not all incompatibilities are found.
3290
3291If this happens to you, there's not much you can do except switch to use a
3292different locale or use L<Encode> to translate from the locale into
3293UTF-8; if that's impracticable, you have been warned that some things
3294may break.
3295
3296This message is output once each time a bad locale is switched into
3297within the scope of C<S<use locale>>, or on the first possibly-affected
3298operation if the C<S<use locale>> inherits a bad one. It is not raised
3299for any operations from the L<POSIX> module.
3300
a2162cd9
FC
3301=item localtime(%f) failed
3302
3303(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that it could not handle:
3304too large, too small, or NaN. The returned value is C<undef>.
3305
3306=item localtime(%f) too large
3307
3308(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was larger
3309than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
3310wrong date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
3311not-a-number value).
3312
3313=item localtime(%f) too small
3314
3315(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was smaller
3316than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
3317wrong date.
3318
58e23c8d 3319=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3320
3321(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
6903afa2 3322handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release.
2e50fd82 3323
b88df990
NC
3324=item Lost precision when %s %f by 1
3325
e63e8a91
FC
3326(W imprecision) The value you attempted to increment or decrement by one
3327is too large for the underlying floating point representation to store
3328accurately, hence the target of C<++> or C<--> is unchanged. Perl issues this
3329warning because it has already switched from integers to floating point
3330when values are too large for integers, and now even floating point is
3331insufficient. You may wish to switch to using L<Math::BigInt> explicitly.
b88df990 3332
93fad930 3333=item lstat() on filehandle%s
2f7da168
RK
3334
3335(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
3336by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
3337instead on the filehandle.)
3338
345d70e3 3339=item lvalue attribute %s already-defined subroutine
bb3abb05 3340
345d70e3
FC
3341(W misc) Although L<attributes.pm|attributes> allows this, turning the lvalue
3342attribute on or off on a Perl subroutine that is already defined
3343does not always work properly. It may or may not do what you
3344want, depending on what code is inside the subroutine, with exact
3345details subject to change between Perl versions. Only do this
3346if you really know what you are doing.
bb3abb05 3347
885ef6f5
GG
3348=item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined
3349
345d70e3
FC
3350(W misc) Using the C<:lvalue> declarative syntax to make a Perl
3351subroutine an lvalue subroutine after it has been defined is
3352not permitted. To make the subroutine an lvalue subroutine,
3353add the lvalue attribute to the definition, or put the C<sub
3354foo :lvalue;> declaration before the definition.
3355
3356See also L<attributes.pm|attributes>.
885ef6f5 3357
6f1b3ab0
FC
3358=item Magical list constants are not supported
3359
3360(F) You assigned a magical array to a stash element, and then tried
3361to use the subroutine from the same slot. You are asking Perl to do
3362something it cannot do, details subject to change between Perl versions.
3363
2db62bbc 3364=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
49704364 3365
2db62bbc 3366(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
3367are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3368
3369=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
3370
2db62bbc 3371(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
3372are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3373
6df41af2
GS
3374=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
3375
3376(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
3377
3378 prefix1;prefix2
3379
3380or
6df41af2
GS
3381 prefix1 prefix2
3382
be771a83
GS
3383with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
3384a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
3385appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 3386"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 3387
2f758a16
ST
3388=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
3389
d37a9538
ST
3390(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
3391syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
3392obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
3393when the function is called.
30d9c59b
Z
3394Perhaps the function's author was trying to write a subroutine signature
3395but didn't enable that feature first (C<use feature 'signatures'>),
3396so the signature was instead interpreted as a bad prototype.
2f758a16 3397
2b5e7bc2 3398=item Malformed UTF-8 character%s
ba210ebe 3399
7cf8d05d
KW
3400(S utf8)(F) Perl detected a string that should be UTF-8, but didn't
3401comply with UTF-8 encoding rules, or represents a code point whose
3402ordinal integer value doesn't fit into the word size of the current
3403platform (overflows). Details as to the exact malformation are given in
3404the variable, C<%s>, part of the message.
ba210ebe 3405
2575c402
JW
3406One possible cause is that you set the UTF8 flag yourself for data that
3407you thought to be in UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy
8e179dd8 34088-bit data). To guard against this, you can use C<Encode::decode('UTF-8', ...)>.
2575c402
JW
3409
3410If you use the C<:encoding(UTF-8)> PerlIO layer for input, invalid byte
3411sequences are handled gracefully, but if you use C<:utf8>, the flag is
3412set without validating the data, possibly resulting in this error
3413message.
3414
3415See also L<Encode/"Handling Malformed Data">.
901b21bf 3416
bde9e88d 3417=item Malformed UTF-8 returned by \N{%s} immediately after '%s'
ff3f963a
KW
3418
3419(F) The charnames handler returned malformed UTF-8.
3420
4a5d3a93
FC
3421=item Malformed UTF-8 string in '%c' format in unpack
3422
3423(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3424rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3425
f337b084
TH
3426=item Malformed UTF-8 string in pack
3427
3428(F) You tried to pack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3429rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3430
3431=item Malformed UTF-8 string 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
24ca4586
A
3436=item Malformed UTF-8 string in "%s"
3437
3438(F) This message indicates a bug either in the Perl core or in XS
3439code. Such code was trying to find out if a character, allegedly
3440stored internally encoded as UTF-8, was of a given type, such as
3441being punctuation or a digit. But the character was not encoded
3442in legal UTF-8. The C<%s> is replaced by a string that can be used
3443by knowledgeable people to determine what the type being checked
3444against was.
3445
3446Passing malformed strings was deprecated in Perl 5.18, and
3447became fatal in Perl 5.26.
3448
4a5d3a93 3449=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
f337b084 3450
4a5d3a93
FC
3451(F) Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
3452doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
3453
30d9c59b
Z
3454=item Mandatory parameter follows optional parameter
3455
3456(F) In a subroutine signature, you wrote something like "$a = undef,
3457$b", making an earlier parameter optional and a later one mandatory.
3458Parameters are filled from left to right, so it's impossible for the
3459caller to omit an earlier one and pass a later one. If you want to act
3460as if the parameters are filled from right to left, declare the rightmost
3461optional and then shuffle the parameters around in the subroutine's body.
3462
2d88a86a
KW
3463=item Matched non-Unicode code point 0x%X against Unicode property; may
3464not be portable
3465
3466(S non_unicode) Perl allows strings to contain a superset of
3467Unicode code points; each code point may be as large as what is storable
3468in an unsigned integer on your system, but these may not be accepted by
3469other languages/systems. This message occurs when you matched a string
3470containing such a code point against a regular expression pattern, and
3471the code point was matched against a Unicode property, C<\p{...}> or
3472C<\P{...}>. Unicode properties are only defined on Unicode code points,
3473so the result of this match is undefined by Unicode, but Perl (starting
3474in v5.20) treats non-Unicode code points as if they were typical
3475unassigned Unicode ones, and matched this one accordingly. Whether a
3476given property matches these code points or not is specified in
3477L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>.
3478
3479This message is suppressed (unless it has been made fatal) if it is
3480immaterial to the results of the match if the code point is Unicode or
3481not. For example, the property C<\p{ASCII_Hex_Digit}> only can match
3482the 22 characters C<[0-9A-Fa-f]>, so obviously all other code points,
3483Unicode or not, won't match it. (And C<\P{ASCII_Hex_Digit}> will match
3484every code point except these 22.)
3485
3486Getting this message indicates that the outcome of the match arguably
3487should have been the opposite of what actually happened. If you think
3488that is the case, you may wish to make the C<non_unicode> warnings
3489category fatal; if you agree with Perl's decision, you may wish to turn
3490off this category.
3491
3492See L<perlunicode/Beyond Unicode code points> for more information.
3493
e0e4a6e3
FC
3494=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
3495m/%s/
4a5d3a93
FC
3496
3497(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
e0e4a6e3 3498regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The S<<-- HERE>
9e3ec65c 3499shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
4a5d3a93 3500See L<perlre>.
f337b084 3501
de42a5a9 3502=item Maximal count of pending signals (%u) exceeded
2563cec5 3503
6903afa2 3504(F) Perl aborted due to too high a number of signals pending. This
2563cec5
IZ
3505usually indicates that your operating system tried to deliver signals
3506too fast (with a very high priority), starving the perl process from
3507resources it would need to reach a point where it can process signals
6903afa2 3508safely. (See L<perlipc/"Deferred Signals (Safe Signals)">.)
2563cec5 3509
25f58aea
PN
3510=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
3511
3512(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
3513interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
3514"use" or "my".
3515
0d2487cd 3516=item '%' may not be used in pack
6df41af2
GS
3517
3518(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
3519checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
3520See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 3521
a0d0e21e
LW
3522=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
3523
3524(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 3525doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 3526
3cdd684c
TP
3527=item Method %s not permitted
3528
3de20fbe 3529See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 3530
a0d0e21e
LW
3531=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
3532
3533(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
3534by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
3535ended earlier on the current line.
3536
3537=item Misplaced _ in number
3538
d4ced10d
JH
3539(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
3540separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 3541
7baa4690
HS
3542=item Missing argument in %s
3543
3664866e
AB
3544(W missing) You called a function with fewer arguments than other
3545arguments you supplied indicated would be needed.
3546
3547Currently only emitted when a printf-type format required more
3548arguments than were supplied, but might be used in the future for
3549other cases where we can statically determine that arguments to
3550functions are missing, e.g. for the L<perlfunc/pack> function.
7baa4690 3551
9e81e6a1
RGS
3552=item Missing argument to -%c
3553
3554(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
3555immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
3556
ff3f963a 3557=item Missing braces on \N{}
423cee85 3558
e0e4a6e3 3559=item Missing braces on \N{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 3560
4a2d328f 3561(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
532cb70d
FC
3562double-quotish context. This can also happen when there is a space
3563(or comment) between the C<\N> and the C<{> in a regex with the C</x> modifier.
3564This modifier does not change the requirement that the brace immediately
3565follow the C<\N>.
423cee85 3566
f0a2b745
KW
3567=item Missing braces on \o{}
3568
3569(F) A C<\o> must be followed immediately by a C<{> in double-quotish context.
3570
a0d0e21e
LW
3571=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
3572
3573(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
3574"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
3575
06eaf0bc
GS
3576=item Missing command in piped open
3577
be771a83
GS
3578(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
3579C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
3580blank.
06eaf0bc 3581
961ce445
RGS
3582=item Missing control char name in \c
3583
3584(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
3585character name.
3586
591f5ca2
FC
3587=item Missing ']' in prototype for %s : %s
3588
bfe11873 3589(W illegalproto) A grouping was started with C<[> but never closed with C<]>.
591f5ca2 3590
8767b1ab 3591=item Missing name in "%s sub"
6df41af2 3592
87444db5 3593(F) The syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
be771a83 3594they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
3595
3596=item Missing $ on loop variable
3597
be771a83
GS
3598(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
3599are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
3600can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 3601
cc507455 3602=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306 3603
56da5a46
RGS
3604(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3605"%s found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
748a9306 3606
33fe1955 3607=item Missing or undefined argument to %s
f51551f7 3608
33fe1955 3609(F) You tried to call require or do with no argument or with an undefined
f51551f7 3610value as an argument. Require expects either a package name or a
33fe1955
LM
3611file-specification as an argument; do expects a filename. See
3612L<perlfunc/require EXPR> and L<perlfunc/do EXPR>.
f51551f7 3613
e0e4a6e3 3614=item Missing right brace on \%c{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 3615
ff3f963a
KW
3616(F) Missing right brace in C<\x{...}>, C<\p{...}>, C<\P{...}>, or C<\N{...}>.
3617
605eee60 3618=item Missing right brace on \N{}
faad849d 3619
4a68bf9d 3620=item Missing right brace on \N{} or unescaped left brace after \N
ff3f963a 3621
d32207c9
FC
3622(F) C<\N> has two meanings.
3623
3624The traditional one has it followed by a name enclosed in braces,
3625meaning the character (or sequence of characters) given by that
fa816bf3 3626name. Thus C<\N{ASTERISK}> is another way of writing C<*>, valid in both
d32207c9
FC
3627double-quoted strings and regular expression patterns. In patterns,
3628it doesn't have the meaning an unescaped C<*> does.
3629
3630Starting in Perl 5.12.0, C<\N> also can have an additional meaning (only)
3631in patterns, namely to match a non-newline character. (This is short
3632for C<[^\n]>, and like C<.> but is not affected by the C</s> regex modifier.)
3633
3634This can lead to some ambiguities. When C<\N> is not followed immediately
3635by a left brace, Perl assumes the C<[^\n]> meaning. Also, if the braces
3636form a valid quantifier such as C<\N{3}> or C<\N{5,}>, Perl assumes that this
3637means to match the given quantity of non-newlines (in these examples,
36383; and 5 or more, respectively). In all other case, where there is a
3639C<\N{> and a matching C<}>, Perl assumes that a character name is desired.
3640
3641However, if there is no matching C<}>, Perl doesn't know if it was
3642mistakenly omitted, or if C<[^\n]{> was desired, and raises this error.
3643If you meant the former, add the right brace; if you meant the latter,
3644escape the brace with a backslash, like so: C<\N\{>
ab13f0c7 3645
d98d5fff 3646=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 3647
be771a83
GS
3648(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
3649ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
3650were last editing.
a0d0e21e 3651
6df41af2
GS
3652=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
3653
56da5a46
RGS
3654(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3655"%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
6df41af2
GS
3656the previous line just because you saw this message.
3657
a0d0e21e
LW
3658=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
3659
3660(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 3661constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
3662catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
3663
3664 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
3665 mod(2);
3666
3667Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
3668
c5674021
PDF
3669Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
3670is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
3671
b7e4ecc1
FC
3672 $x = 1;
3673 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
3674 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to
3675 } # modify the 2
c5674021 3676
7a4340ed 3677=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3678
3679(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
3680subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
3681backwards.
3682
7a4340ed 3683=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 3684
be771a83
GS
3685(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
3686couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
3687
3688=item Module name must be constant
3689
3690(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
3691
be98fb35 3692=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 3693
be98fb35
GS
3694(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
3695you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
3696about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 3697
fe13d51d 3698=item More than one argument to '%s' open
ed9aa3b7 3699
6903afa2 3700(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
ed9aa3b7
SG
3701can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
3702list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
3703See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
3704
85396b18
FC
3705=item mprotect for COW string %p %u failed with %d
3706
3707(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_COW (see
3708L<perlguts/"Copy on Write">), but a shared string buffer
3709could not be made read-only.
3710
92951bce
FC
3711=item mprotect for %p %u failed with %d
3712
85396b18
FC
3713(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS (see L<perlhacktips>),
3714but an op tree could not be made read-only.
3715
3716=item mprotect RW for COW string %p %u failed with %d
3717
3718(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_COW (see
3719L<perlguts/"Copy on Write">), but a read-only shared string
3720buffer could not be made mutable.
3721
92951bce
FC
3722=item mprotect RW for %p %u failed with %d
3723
3724(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS (see
85396b18
FC
3725L<perlhacktips>), but a read-only op tree could not be made
3726mutable before freeing the ops.
92951bce 3727
a0d0e21e
LW
3728=item msg%s not implemented
3729
3730(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
3731
3732=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
3733
75b44862
GS
3734(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
3735They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 3736
d3d9da4a
DM
3737=item Multiple slurpy parameters not allowed
3738
3739(F) In subroutine signatures, a slurpy parameter (C<@> or C<%>) must be
3740the last parameter, and there must not be more than one of them; for
3741example:
3742
3743 sub foo ($a, @b) {} # legal
3744 sub foo ($a, @b, %) {} # invalid
3745
49704364 3746=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
6df41af2 3747
49704364
WL
3748(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
3749follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
3750See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2 3751
c869951c 3752=item %s must not be a named sequence in transliteration operator
f4240379
KW
3753
3754(F) Transliteration (C<tr///> and C<y///>) transliterates individual
3755characters. But a named sequence by definition is more than an
3756individual charater, and hence doing this operation on it doesn't make
3757sense.
3758
6df41af2
GS
3759=item "my sub" not yet implemented
3760
be771a83
GS
3761(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
3762that yet.
6df41af2 3763
a21eb52b
FC
3764=item "my" subroutine %s can't be in a package
3765
3766(F) Lexically scoped subroutines aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
3767sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front.
3768
5a25739d
FC
3769=item "my %s" used in sort comparison
3770
3771(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
3772You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
3773sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
3774lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
3775name, or rename the lexical variable.
3776
fd1b7234 3777=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
6df41af2 3778
be771a83
GS
3779(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
3780sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
3781local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 3782
8149aa9f
FC
3783=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
3784
c59aba6c
FC
3785(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable
3786names. If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then
3787just mention it again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our>
08a33b6b 3788declaration is also provided for this purpose.
c59aba6c 3789
66a1f5ec
FC
3790NOTE: This warning detects package symbols that have been used
3791only once. This means lexical variables will never trigger this
3792warning. It also means that all of the package variables $c, @c,
3793%c, as well as *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or
c59aba6c
FC
3794format) are considered the same; if a program uses $c only once
3795but also uses any of the others it will not trigger this warning.
3796Symbols beginning with an underscore and symbols using special
3797identifiers (q.v. L<perldata>) are exempt from this warning.
8149aa9f 3798
e0e4a6e3 3799=item Need exactly 3 octal digits in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b
KW
3800
3801(F) Within S<C<(?[ ])>>, all constants interpreted as octal need to be
3802exactly 3 digits long. This helps catch some ambiguities. If your
3803constant is too short, add leading zeros, like
3804
3805 (?[ [ \078 ] ]) # Syntax error!
3806 (?[ [ \0078 ] ]) # Works
3807 (?[ [ \007 8 ] ]) # Clearer
3808
3809The maximum number this construct can express is C<\777>. If you
675fa9ff
FC
3810need a larger one, you need to use L<\o{}|perlrebackslash/Octal escapes> instead. If you meant
3811two separate things, you need to separate them:
0d0b4b3b
KW
3812
3813 (?[ [ \7776 ] ]) # Syntax error!
3814 (?[ [ \o{7776} ] ]) # One meaning
3815 (?[ [ \777 6 ] ]) # Another meaning
3816 (?[ [ \777 \006 ] ]) # Still another
3817
49704364
WL
3818=item Negative '/' count in unpack
3819
3820(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
3821negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3822
a0d0e21e
LW
3823=item Negative length
3824
be771a83
GS
3825(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
3826length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 3827
ed9aa3b7
SG
3828=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
3829
3830(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
3831greater than or equal to zero.
3832
b3211734
KW
3833=item Negative repeat count does nothing
3834
3835(W numeric) You tried to execute the
3836L<C<x>|perlop/Multiplicative Operators> repetition operator fewer than 0
3837times, which doesn't make sense.
3838
e0e4a6e3 3839=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3840
6903afa2 3841(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses.
e0e4a6e3 3842So things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The S<<-- HERE> shows
9e3ec65c 3843whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 3844
7253e4e3 3845Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 3846C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3847
6df41af2 3848=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 3849
be771a83
GS
3850(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
3851scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e 3852
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3853=item next::method/next::can/maybe::next::method cannot find enclosing method
3854
3855(F) C<next::method> needs to be called within the context of a
3856real method in a real package, and it could not find such a context.
3857See L<mro>.
3858
5a25739d 3859=item \N in a character class must be a named character: \N{...} in regex;
e0e4a6e3 3860marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5a25739d 3861
32a77fbe
FC
3862(F) The new (as of Perl 5.12) meaning of C<\N> as C<[^\n]> is not valid in a
3863bracketed character class, for the same reason that C<.> in a character
3864class loses its specialness: it matches almost everything, which is
3865probably not what you want.
5a25739d 3866
022a330c 3867=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 3868
f3ba6905
FC
3869(F) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a
3870multi-character sequence. Even though a character class is
3871supposed to match just one character of input, perl will match the
3872whole thing correctly, except when the class is inverted (C<[^...]>),
3873or the escape is the beginning or final end point of a range. The
3874mathematically logical behavior for what matches when inverting
3875is very different from what people expect, so we have decided to
3876forbid it. Similarly unclear is what should be generated when the
3877C<\N{...}> is used as one of the end points of the range, such as in
8f0cd35a
KW
3878
3879 [\x{41}-\N{ARABIC SEQUENCE YEH WITH HAMZA ABOVE WITH AE}]
3880
f3ba6905
FC
3881What is meant here is unclear, as the C<\N{...}> escape is a sequence
3882of code points, so this is made an error.
0b4ce96d 3883
e0e4a6e3
FC
3884=item \N{NAME} must be resolved by the lexer in regex; marked by
3885S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5a25739d
FC
3886
3887(F) When compiling a regex pattern, an unresolved named character or
3888sequence was encountered. This can happen in any of several ways that
3889bypass the lexer, such as using single-quotish context, or an extra
3890backslash in double-quotish:
3891
3892 $re = '\N{SPACE}'; # Wrong!
3893 $re = "\\N{SPACE}"; # Wrong!
3894 /$re/;
3895
3896Instead, use double-quotes with a single backslash:
3897
3898 $re = "\N{SPACE}"; # ok
3899 /$re/;
3900
3901The lexer can be bypassed as well by creating the pattern from smaller
3902components:
3903
3904 $re = '\N';
3905 /${re}{SPACE}/; # Wrong!
3906
3907It's not a good idea to split a construct in the middle like this, and
3908it doesn't work here. Instead use the solution above.
3909
3910Finally, the message also can happen under the C</x> regex modifier when the
3911C<\N> is separated by spaces from the C<{>, in which case, remove the spaces.
3912
3913 /\N {SPACE}/x; # Wrong!
3914 /\N{SPACE}/x; # ok
3915
a0d0e21e
LW
3916=item No %s allowed while running setuid
3917
be771a83
GS
3918(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
3919setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
3920will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
3921securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 3922
6651ba0b
FC
3923=item No code specified for -%c
3924
3925(F) Perl's B<-e> and B<-E> command-line options require an argument. If
3926you want to run an empty program, pass the empty string as a separate
3927argument or run a program consisting of a single 0 or 1:
3928
3929 perl -e ""
3930 perl -e0
3931 perl -e1
3932
a0d0e21e
LW
3933=item No comma allowed after %s
3934
6903afa2
FC
3935(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is
3936not allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
a0d0e21e
LW
3937Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
3938
6903afa2
FC
3939One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported
3940a constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
3941importing took place, it may for example be that your operating
3942system does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did
3943use an explicit import list for the constants you expect to see;
3944please see L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an
3945explicit import list would probably have caught this error earlier
3946it naturally does not remedy the fact that your operating system
3947still does not support that constant. Maybe you have a typo in
3948the constants of the symbol import list of B<use> or B<import> or in the
3949constant name at the line where this error was triggered?
0a753a76 3950
748a9306
LW
3951=item No command into which to pipe on command line
3952
be771a83
GS
3953(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3954redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
3955doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 3956
a0d0e21e
LW
3957=item No DB::DB routine defined
3958
be771a83 3959(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
f7af5ce1 3960for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
ccafdc96
RGS
3961module) didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
3962statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
3963
3964=item No dbm on this machine
3965
3966(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 3967supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e 3968
ccafdc96 3969=item No DB::sub routine defined
a0d0e21e 3970
ccafdc96
RGS
3971(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
3972for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
3973module) didn't define a C<DB::sub> routine to be called at the beginning
3974of each ordinary subroutine call.
a0d0e21e 3975
6651ba0b
FC
3976=item No directory specified for -I
3977
3978(F) The B<-I> command-line switch requires a directory name as part of the
3979I<same> argument. Use B<-Ilib>, for instance. B<-I lib> won't work.
3980
c47ff5f1 3981=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 3982
be771a83
GS
3983(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3984redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
3985find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 3986
49704364
WL
3987=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
3988
3989(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
6903afa2 3990matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 3991
c47ff5f1 3992=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 3993
be771a83
GS
3994(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3995redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
3996name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 3997
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3998=item No next::method '%s' found for %s
3999
4000(F) C<next::method> found no further instances of this method name
4001in the remaining packages of the MRO of this class. If you don't want
4002it throwing an exception, use C<maybe::next::method>
fa816bf3 4003or C<next::can>. See L<mro>.
2c7d6b9c 4004
02a7a248
JH
4005=item Non-finite repeat count does nothing
4006
4007(W numeric) You tried to execute the
8a737443
FC
4008L<C<x>|perlop/Multiplicative Operators> repetition operator C<Inf> (or
4009C<-Inf>) or C<NaN> times, which doesn't make sense.
02a7a248 4010
e0e4a6e3 4011=item Non-hex character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
4012
4013(F) In a regular expression, there was a non-hexadecimal character where
4014a hex one was expected, like
4015
4016 (?[ [ \xDG ] ])
4017 (?[ [ \x{DEKA} ] ])
4018
e0e4a6e3 4019=item Non-octal character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
4020
4021(F) In a regular expression, there was a non-octal character where
4022an octal one was expected, like
4023
4024 (?[ [ \o{1278} ] ])
4025
4026=item Non-octal character '%c'. Resolved as "%s"
4027
4028(W digit) In parsing an octal numeric constant, a character was
4029unexpectedly encountered that isn't octal. The resulting value
4030is as indicated.
4031
6df41af2
GS
4032=item "no" not allowed in expression
4033
be771a83
GS
4034(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
4035returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 4036
675fa9ff
FC
4037=item Non-string passed as bitmask
4038
4039(W misc) A number has been passed as a bitmask argument to select().
4040Use the vec() function to construct the file descriptor bitmasks for
4041select. See L<perlfunc/select>.
4042
c47ff5f1 4043=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 4044
be771a83
GS
4045(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4046redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
4047doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 4048
c47ff5f1 4049=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 4050
be771a83
GS
4051(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4052redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
4053find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 4054
1ec3e8de
GS
4055=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
4056
be771a83
GS
4057(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
4058declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
52d1f2c9 4059rules. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 4060
a0d0e21e
LW
4061=item No Perl script found in input
4062
4063(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
4064with #! and containing the word "perl".
4065
4066=item No setregid available
4067
4068(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
4069your system.
4070
4071=item No setreuid available
4072
4073(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
4074your system.
4075
5a25739d
FC
4076=item No such class %s
4077
4078(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state"
4079declaration, but this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
4080
e75d1f10
RD
4081=item No such class field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
4082
b7e4ecc1
FC
4083(F) You tried to access a key from a hash through the indicated typed
4084variable but that key is not allowed by the package of the same type.
4085The indicated package has restricted the set of allowed keys using the
4086L<fields> pragma.
e75d1f10 4087
3c20a832
SP
4088=item No such hook: %s
4089
dc7e5945
FC
4090(F) You specified a signal hook that was not recognized by Perl.
4091Currently, Perl accepts C<__DIE__> and C<__WARN__> as valid signal hooks.
3c20a832 4092
6df41af2
GS
4093=item No such pipe open
4094
4095(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
4096close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
4097earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 4098
a0d0e21e
LW
4099=item No such signal: SIG%s
4100
be771a83
GS
4101(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
4102not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
4103names on your system.
a0d0e21e
LW
4104
4105=item Not a CODE reference
4106
4107(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
4108subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
4109use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
4110also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4111
a0d0e21e
LW
4112=item Not a GLOB reference
4113
be771a83
GS
4114(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
4115symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
4116something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
4117kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4118
4119=item Not a HASH reference
4120
be771a83
GS
4121(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
4122reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
4123find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4124
b913d0b8
FC
4125=item '#' not allowed immediately following a sigil in a subroutine signature
4126
4127(F) In a subroutine signature definition, a comment following a sigil
4128(C<$>, C<@> or C<%>), needs to be separated by whitespace or a commma etc., in
4129particular to avoid confusion with the C<$#> variable. For example:
4130
4131 # bad
4132 sub f ($# ignore first arg
4133 , $b) {}
4134 # good
4135 sub f ($, # ignore first arg
4136 $b) {}
4137
6df41af2
GS
4138=item Not an ARRAY reference
4139
be771a83
GS
4140(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
4141a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
4142to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 4143
a0d0e21e
LW
4144=item Not a SCALAR reference
4145
be771a83
GS
4146(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
4147a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
4148to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4149
4150=item Not a subroutine reference
4151
4152(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
4153subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
4154use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
4155also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4156
e7ea3e70 4157=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
4158
4159(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 4160doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 4161
a0d0e21e
LW
4162=item Not enough arguments for %s
4163
4164(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
4165
6df41af2
GS
4166=item Not enough format arguments
4167
be771a83
GS
4168(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
4169supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
4170
4171=item %s: not found
4172
be771a83
GS
4173(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
4174of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
4175yourself.
6df41af2 4176
e0e4a6e3 4177=item (?[...]) not valid in locale in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
4178
4179(F) C<(?[...])> cannot be used within the scope of a C<S<use locale>> or with
4180an C</l> regular expression modifier, as that would require deferring
4181to run-time the calculation of what it should evaluate to, and it is
4182regex compile-time only.
4183
6df41af2 4184=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 4185
6df41af2
GS
4186(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
4187timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
4188to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
4189F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
4190need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e 4191
6df41af2
GS
4192=item NULL OP IN RUN
4193
f84fe999 4194(S debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
be771a83 4195pointer.
6df41af2 4196
55497cff 4197=item Null picture in formline
4198
4199(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
4200specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
4201supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
4202
a0d0e21e
LW
4203=item Null realloc
4204
4205(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
4206
4207=item NULL regexp argument
4208
5f05dabc 4209(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
4210
4211=item NULL regexp parameter
4212
4213(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
4214
fc36a67e 4215=item Number too long
4216
be771a83 4217(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 4218about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
4219versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
4220the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
4221"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 4222
f0a2b745
KW
4223=item Number with no digits
4224
1043934d 4225(F) Perl was looking for a number but found nothing that looked like
6903afa2 4226a number. This happens, for example with C<\o{}>, with no number between
1043934d 4227the braces.
f0a2b745 4228
252aa082
JH
4229=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
4230
75b44862 4231(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
4232(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
4233L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 4234
30d9c59b
Z
4235=item Odd name/value argument for subroutine
4236
4237(F) A subroutine using a slurpy hash parameter in its signature
4238received an odd number of arguments to populate the hash. It requires
4239the arguments to be paired, with the same number of keys as values.
35e5ce67 4240The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault.
30d9c59b 4241
6ad11d81
JH
4242=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
4243
04a80ee0 4244(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
6903afa2 4245arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 4246
b21befc1
MG
4247=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
4248
4249(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
4250which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
4251
1930e939 4252=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 4253
be771a83
GS
4254(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
4255which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 4256
bbce6d69 4257=item Offset outside string
4258
1fa582fa 4259(F)(W layer) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv/seek operation
42bc49da 4260with an offset pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to
f5a7294f
JH
4261imagine. The sole exceptions to this are that zero padding will
4262take place when going past the end of the string when either
4263C<sysread()>ing a file, or when seeking past the end of a scalar opened
0f44b2a5 4264for I/O (in anticipation of future reads and to imitate the behavior
1a7a2554 4265with real files).
bbce6d69 4266
c289d2f7 4267=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
4268
4269(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
4270never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
4271call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
4272
96ebfdd7
RK
4273=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
4274
4275(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
4276that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
4277
a0d0e21e
LW
4278=item oops: oopsAV
4279
e476b1b5 4280(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
4281
4282=item oops: oopsHV
4283
e476b1b5 4284(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 4285
122d6c09 4286=item Opening dirhandle %s also as a file. This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.28
abc718f2 4287
713e2616 4288(D io, deprecated) You used open() to associate a filehandle to
abc718f2
RGS
4289a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a dirhandle.
4290Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
122d6c09
A
4291and this was deprecated in Perl 5.10. In Perl 5.28, this
4292will be a fatal error.
abc718f2 4293
122d6c09 4294=item Opening filehandle %s also as a directory. This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.28
abc718f2 4295
28038637 4296(D io, deprecated) You used opendir() to associate a dirhandle to
abc718f2
RGS
4297a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a filehandle.
4298Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
122d6c09
A
4299and this was deprecated in Perl 5.10. In Perl 5.28, this
4300will be a fatal error.
abc718f2 4301
e0e4a6e3
FC
4302=item Operand with no preceding operator in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
4303m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 4304
675fa9ff 4305(F) You wrote something like
0d0b4b3b
KW
4306
4307 (?[ \p{Digit} \p{Thai} ])
4308
4309There are two operands, but no operator giving how you want to combine
4310them.
4311
a0288114 4312=item Operation "%s": no method found, %s
44a8e56a 4313
be771a83
GS
4314(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
4315handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
4316of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
e4aad80d 4317the C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 4318
5ff1373f 4319=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for non-Unicode code point 0x%X
9ae3ac1a 4320
52d1f2c9 4321(S non_unicode) You performed an operation requiring Unicode rules
b5af3ad2
FC
4322on a code point that is not in Unicode, so what it should do is not
4323defined. Perl has chosen to have it do nothing, and warn you.
9ae3ac1a
KW
4324
4325If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
4326matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
4327
4328If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 4329C<no warnings 'non_unicode';>.
9ae3ac1a 4330
5ff1373f 4331=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
9ae3ac1a 4332
4c2e59a0 4333(S surrogate) You performed an operation requiring Unicode
52d1f2c9 4334rules on a Unicode surrogate. Unicode frowns upon the use
ad94bb39 4335of surrogates for anything but storing strings in UTF-16, but
52d1f2c9 4336rules are (reluctantly) defined for the surrogates, and
ad94bb39
FC
4337they are to do nothing for this operation. Because the use of
4338surrogates can be dangerous, Perl warns.
9ae3ac1a
KW
4339
4340If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
4341matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
4342
4343If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 4344C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9ae3ac1a 4345
748a9306
LW
4346=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
4347
be771a83
GS
4348(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
4349was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
4350use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
4351example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
4352"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 4353
30d9c59b
Z
4354=item Optional parameter lacks default expression
4355
4356(F) In a subroutine signature, you wrote something like "$a =", making a
4357named optional parameter without a default value. A nameless optional
4358parameter is permitted to have no default value, but a named one must
4359have a specific default. You probably want "$a = undef".
4360
6df41af2
GS
4361=item "our" variable %s redeclared
4362
be771a83
GS
4363(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
4364in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 4365
a80b8354
GS
4366=item Out of memory!
4367
4368(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
4369remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
4370no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 4371
19a52907
JH
4372At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
4373process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
4374C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
4375the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
4376and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
4377
6d3b25aa
RGS
4378=item Out of memory during %s extend
4379
4380(X) An attempt was made to extend an array, a list, or a string beyond
4381the largest possible memory allocation.
4382
6df41af2 4383=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 4384
6df41af2 4385(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
6903afa2 4386remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
4387the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
4388possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 4389
1b979e0a 4390=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 4391
1fa582fa 4392(X)(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
be771a83
GS
4393insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
4394request.
eff9c6e2
CS
4395
4396The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
4397depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
4398However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
4399emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
4400is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
4401where the failed request happened.
55497cff 4402
1b979e0a
IZ
4403=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
4404
4405(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
4406is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
4407C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 4408
6df41af2
GS
4409=item Out of memory for yacc stack
4410
be771a83
GS
4411(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
4412parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
4413otherwise.
6df41af2 4414
28be1210
TH
4415=item '.' outside of string in pack
4416
4417(F) The argument to a '.' in your template tried to move the working
4418position to before the start of the packed string being built.
4419
49704364 4420=item '@' outside of string in unpack
6df41af2 4421
49704364 4422(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6df41af2
GS
4423the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4424
f337b084
TH
4425=item '@' outside of string with malformed UTF-8 in unpack
4426
4427(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6903afa2 4428the string being unpacked. The string being unpacked was also invalid
fa816bf3 4429UTF-8. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
f337b084 4430
7778d804
FC
4431=item overload arg '%s' is invalid
4432
4433(W overload) The L<overload> pragma was passed an argument it did not
4434recognize. Did you mistype an operator?
4435
7cb0cfe6
BM
4436=item Overloaded dereference did not return a reference
4437
4438(F) An object with an overloaded dereference operator was dereferenced,
6903afa2 4439but the overloaded operation did not return a reference. See
7cb0cfe6
BM
4440L<overload>.
4441
4442=item Overloaded qr did not return a REGEXP
4443
4444(F) An object with a C<qr> overload was used as part of a match, but the
6903afa2 4445overloaded operation didn't return a compiled regexp. See L<overload>.
7cb0cfe6 4446
6df41af2
GS
4447=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
4448
be771a83
GS
4449(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
4450package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
4451some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
4452mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 4453
96ebfdd7
RK
4454=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
4455
4456(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
4457signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4458
a0d0e21e
LW
4459=item page overflow
4460
be771a83
GS
4461(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
4462page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 4463
6df41af2
GS
4464=item panic: %s
4465
4466(P) An internal error.
4467
c99a1475
NC
4468=item panic: attempt to call %s in %s
4469
4470(P) One of the file test operators entered a code branch that calls
4471an ACL related-function, but that function is not available on this
4472platform. Earlier checks mean that it should not be possible to
4473enter this branch on this platform.
4474
d5e473ac
SH
4475=item panic: child pseudo-process was never scheduled
4476
4477(P) A child pseudo-process in the ithreads implementation on Windows
4478was not scheduled within the time period allowed and therefore was not
4479able to initialize properly.
4480
5637ef5b 4481=item panic: ck_grep, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4482
4483(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
4484
5637ef5b 4485=item panic: corrupt saved stack index %ld
a0d0e21e 4486
be771a83
GS
4487(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
4488there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 4489
810b8aa5
GS
4490=item panic: del_backref
4491
4492(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
4493reference.
4494
a0d0e21e
LW
4495=item panic: do_subst
4496
be771a83
GS
4497(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
4498data.
a0d0e21e 4499
2269b42e 4500=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 4501
2269b42e 4502(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 4503data.
a0d0e21e 4504
b7f7fd0b
NC
4505=item panic: fold_constants JMPENV_PUSH returned %d
4506
10203f38 4507(P) While attempting folding constants an exception other than an C<eval>
b7f7fd0b
NC
4508failure was caught.
4509
255abbe7 4510=item panic: frexp: %f
c635e13b 4511
4512(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
4513
5637ef5b 4514=item panic: goto, type=%u, ix=%ld
a0d0e21e
LW
4515
4516(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
4517and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
4518
b0d55c99
FC
4519=item panic: gp_free failed to free glob pointer
4520
4521(P) The internal routine used to clear a typeglob's entries tried
6903afa2
FC
4522repeatedly, but each time something re-created entries in the glob.
4523Most likely the glob contains an object with a reference back to
4524the glob and a destructor that adds a new object to the glob.
b0d55c99 4525
5637ef5b 4526=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4527
4528(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
4529
5637ef5b 4530=item panic: INTERPCONCAT, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4531
4532(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
4533
e446cec8
IZ
4534=item panic: kid popen errno read
4535
1f91b9f5 4536(F) A forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
e446cec8 4537
5637ef5b 4538=item panic: last, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4539
4540(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
4541it wasn't a block context.
4542
4543=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
4544
be771a83
GS
4545(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
4546scope.
a0d0e21e 4547
5637ef5b 4548=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency %u
a0d0e21e
LW
4549
4550(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
4551invalid enum on the top of it.
4552
810b8aa5
GS
4553=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
4554
4555(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
4556references to an object.
4557
5637ef5b 4558=item panic: malloc, %s
6df41af2
GS
4559
4560(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
4561
27d5b266
JH
4562=item panic: memory wrap
4563
46f9c2c2
FC
4564(P) Something tried to allocate either more memory than possible or a
4565negative amount.
27d5b266 4566
5637ef5b 4567=item panic: pad_alloc, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4568
4569(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4570and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4571
5637ef5b 4572=item panic: pad_free curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4573
4574(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4575and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4576
4577=item panic: pad_free po
4578
c1bd5aaa 4579(P) A zero scratch pad offset was detected internally. An attempt was
61a9f070 4580made to free a target that had not been allocated to begin with.
a0d0e21e 4581
5637ef5b 4582=item panic: pad_reset curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4583
4584(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4585and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4586
4587=item panic: pad_sv po
4588
61a9f070
FC
4589(P) A zero scratch pad offset was detected internally. Most likely
4590an operator needed a target but that target had not been allocated
4591for whatever reason.
a0d0e21e 4592
5637ef5b 4593=item panic: pad_swipe curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4594
4595(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4596and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4597
4598=item panic: pad_swipe po
4599
4600(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
4601
5637ef5b 4602=item panic: pp_iter, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4603
4604(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
4605
96ebfdd7
RK
4606=item panic: pp_match%s
4607
4608(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
4609data.
4610
5637ef5b 4611=item panic: realloc, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4612
4613(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
4614
ccfb6d2e
FC
4615=item panic: reference miscount on nsv in sv_replace() (%d != 1)
4616
4617(P) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
4618reference count other than 1.
4619
5637ef5b 4620=item panic: restartop in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4621
4622(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
4623didn't supply the destination.
4624
5637ef5b 4625=item panic: return, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4626
4627(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
4628then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
4629
5637ef5b 4630=item panic: scan_num, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4631
4632(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
4633
4599db5f 4634=item panic: Sequence (?{...}): no code block found in regex m/%s/
d24ca0c5 4635
1f91b9f5 4636(P) While compiling a pattern that has embedded (?{}) or (??{}) code
d24ca0c5
DM
4637blocks, perl couldn't locate the code block that should have already been
4638seen and compiled by perl before control passed to the regex compiler.
4639
5a25739d
FC
4640=item panic: strxfrm() gets absurd - a => %u, ab => %u
4641
4642(P) The interpreter's sanity check of the C function strxfrm() failed.
4643In your current locale the returned transformation of the string "ab"
4644is shorter than that of the string "a", which makes no sense.
4645
6c65d5f9
NC
4646=item panic: sv_chop %s
4647
4648(P) The sv_chop() routine was passed a position that is not within the
4649scalar's string buffer.
4650
5637ef5b 4651=item panic: sv_insert, midend=%p, bigend=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4652
4653(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
4654was string.
4655
4656=item panic: top_env
4657
6224f72b 4658(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e 4659
65bca31a
NC
4660=item panic: unimplemented op %s (#%d) called
4661
a1efa96e
FC
4662(P) The compiler is screwed up and attempted to use an op that isn't
4663permitted at run time.
65bca31a 4664
01bbc29f
FC
4665=item panic: unknown OA_*: %x
4666
4667(P) The internal routine that handles arguments to C<&CORE::foo()>
4668subroutine calls was unable to determine what type of arguments
4669were expected.
4670
dea0fc0b
JH
4671=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
4672
4673(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 4674to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 4675
e0ea5e2d
NC
4676=item panic: utf16_to_utf8_reversed: odd bytelen
4677
4678(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8_reversed with an odd (as opposed
4679to even) byte length.
4680
5637ef5b 4681=item panic: yylex, %s
2f7da168
RK
4682
4683(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
4684
78181aa9
KW
4685=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
4686
4687(W parenthesis) You said something like
4688
4689 my $foo, $bar = @_;
4690
4691when you meant
4692
4693 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
4694
4695Remember that "my", "our", "local" and "state" bind tighter than comma.
4696
28ac2b49
Z
4697=item Parsing code internal error (%s)
4698
4699(F) Parsing code supplied by an extension violated the parser's API in
4700a detectable way.
4701
b9bd8d8c 4702=item Pattern subroutine nesting without pos change exceeded limit in regex
1a147d38
YO
4703
4704(F) You used a pattern that uses too many nested subpattern calls without
6903afa2
FC
4705consuming any text. Restructure the pattern so text is consumed before
4706the nesting limit is exceeded.
1a147d38 4707
96ebfdd7
RK
4708=item C<-p> destination: %s
4709
4710(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
4711command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
4712redirected it with select().)
4713
0ae4a328
FC
4714=item Perl API version %s of %s does not match %s
4715
d792985a 4716(F) The XS module in question was compiled against a different incompatible
0ae4a328
FC
4717version of Perl than the one that has loaded the XS module.
4718
8954b91a 4719=item Perl folding rules are not up-to-date for 0x%X; please use the perlbug
e0e4a6e3 4720utility to report; in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
d50a4f90 4721
6014bd26
JK
4722(S regexp) You used a regular expression with case-insensitive matching,
4723and there is a bug in Perl in which the built-in regular expression
4724folding rules are not accurate. This may lead to incorrect results.
4725Please report this as a bug using the L<perlbug> utility.
d50a4f90 4726
f51551f7
FC
4727=item PerlIO layer ':win32' is experimental
4728
4729(S experimental::win32_perlio) The C<:win32> PerlIO layer is
4730experimental. If you want to take the risk of using this layer,
4731simply disable this warning:
4732
4733 no warnings "experimental::win32_perlio";
4734
1109a392
MHM
4735=item Perl_my_%s() not available
4736
4737(F) Your platform has very uncommon byte-order and integer size,
4738so it was not possible to set up some or all fixed-width byte-order
4739conversion functions. This is only a problem when you're using the
4740'<' or '>' modifiers in (un)pack templates. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4741
6651ba0b
FC
4742=item Perl %s required (did you mean %s?)--this is only %s, stopped
4743
4744(F) The code you are trying to run has asked for a newer version of
4745Perl than you are running. Perhaps C<use 5.10> was written instead
4746of C<use 5.010> or C<use v5.10>. Without the leading C<v>, the number is
4747interpreted as a decimal, with every three digits after the
4748decimal point representing a part of the version number. So 5.10
4749is equivalent to v5.100.
4750
6903f24f 4751=item Perl %s required--this is only %s, stopped
6d3b25aa
RGS
4752
4753(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
4754recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
4755you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
4756
6df41af2
GS
4757=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
4758
fa816bf3 4759(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 4760C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 4761
96ebfdd7
RK
4762=item PERL_SIGNALS illegal: "%s"
4763
806b6d07 4764(X) See L<perlrun/PERL_SIGNALS> for legal values.
96ebfdd7 4765
6651ba0b
FC
4766=item Perls since %s too modern--this is %s, stopped
4767
4768(F) The code you are trying to run claims it will not run
4769on the version of Perl you are using because it is too new.
4770Maybe the code needs to be updated, or maybe it is simply
4771wrong and the version check should just be removed.
4772
675fa9ff
FC
4773=item perl: warning: Non hex character in '$ENV{PERL_HASH_SEED}', seed only partially set
4774
ff9c1ae8 4775(S) PERL_HASH_SEED should match /^\s*(?:0x)?[0-9a-fA-F]+\s*\z/ but it
675fa9ff
FC
4776contained a non hex character. This could mean you are not using the
4777hash seed you think you are.
6a5b4183 4778
6df41af2
GS
4779=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
4780
4781(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
4782
4783 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
4784 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
4785 LC_ALL = "En_US",
4786 LANG = (unset)
4787 are supported and installed on your system.
4788 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
4789
4790Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
4791settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
0ea6b70f
JH
4792This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
4793system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
4794locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
4795dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
4b07a369
FC
4796Perl can and will use, and the script will be run. Before you really
4797fix the problem, however, you will get the same error message each
4798time you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
0ea6b70f 4799L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
6df41af2 4800
6a5b4183
YO
4801=item perl: warning: strange setting in '$ENV{PERL_PERTURB_KEYS}': '%s'
4802
ff9c1ae8 4803(S) Perl was run with the environment variable PERL_PERTURB_KEYS defined
675fa9ff 4804but containing an unexpected value. The legal values of this setting
6a5b4183
YO
4805are as follows.
4806
4807 Numeric | String | Result
4808 --------+---------------+-----------------------------------------
4809 0 | NO | Disables key traversal randomization
4810 1 | RANDOM | Enables full key traversal randomization
555bd962
BG
4811 2 | DETERMINISTIC | Enables repeatable key traversal
4812 | | randomization
6a5b4183
YO
4813
4814Both numeric and string values are accepted, but note that string values are
675fa9ff 4815case sensitive. The default for this setting is "RANDOM" or 1.
aac486f1 4816
bd3fa61c 4817=item pid %x not a child
748a9306 4818
be771a83
GS
4819(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
4820process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
4821fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
748a9306 4822
49704364 4823=item 'P' must have an explicit size in unpack
3bf38418
WL
4824
4825(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
4826
6e8a73f2 4827=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
96ebfdd7 4828
e0e4a6e3 4829(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The S<<-- HERE>
9e3ec65c 4830shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
96ebfdd7
RK
4831Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
4832the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
4833not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
4834
4835=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
4836
4837(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
4838the BSD version, which takes a pid.
4839
46d34d0e 4840=item POSIX syntax [%c %c] belongs inside character classes%s in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 4841S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 4842
46d34d0e
KW
4843(W regexp) Perl thinks that you intended to write a POSIX character
4844class, but didn't use enough brackets. These POSIX class constructs [:
4845:], [= =], and [. .] go I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of
4846the construct, for example: C<qr/[012[:alpha:]345]/>. What the regular
4847expression pattern compiled to is probably not what you were intending.
4848For example, C<qr/[:alpha:]/> compiles to a regular bracketed character
4849class consisting of the four characters C<":">, C<"a">, C<"l">,
4850C<"h">, and C<"p">. To specify the POSIX class, it should have been
4851written C<qr/[[:alpha:]]/>.
4852
4853Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
9e3ec65c 4854implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and
e0e4a6e3 4855will cause fatal errors. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 4856expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4857
46d34d0e
KW
4858If the specification of the class was not completely valid, the message
4859indicates that.
4860
6fbc9859 4861=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 4862S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 4863
a125938c
FC
4864(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
4865with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
4866need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
4867character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[."
e0e4a6e3 4868and ".\]". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
a125938c 4869problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4870
6fbc9859 4871=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 4872S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 4873
7253e4e3
RK
4874(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
4875with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
4876need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
4877character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
e0e4a6e3 4878and "=\]". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
7253e4e3 4879problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4880
bbce6d69 4881=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
4882
e476b1b5 4883(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
75b44862 4884strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
be771a83
GS
4885literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
4886parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
bbce6d69 4887
774d564b 4888You probably wrote something like this:
4889
54310121 4890 @list = qw(
774d564b 4891 a # a comment
bbce6d69 4892 b # another comment
774d564b 4893 );
bbce6d69 4894
4895when you should have written this:
4896
774d564b 4897 @list = qw(
54310121 4898 a
4899 b
774d564b 4900 );
4901
4902If you really want comments, build your list the
4903old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
4904
4905 @list = (
4906 'a', # a comment
4907 'b', # another comment
4908 );
bbce6d69 4909
4910=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
4911
be771a83
GS
4912(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
4913commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
4914different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
4915frequently used.)
bbce6d69 4916
54310121 4917You probably wrote something like this:
bbce6d69 4918
774d564b 4919 qw! a, b, c !;
4920
4921which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
4922commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
bbce6d69 4923
774d564b 4924 qw! a b c !;
bbce6d69 4925
a0d0e21e
LW
4926=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
4927
4928(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
4929Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
4930end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
4931Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
4932
9da2d046
NT
4933=item Possible precedence issue with control flow operator
4934
4935(W syntax) There is a possible problem with the mixing of a control
4936flow operator (e.g. C<return>) and a low-precedence operator like
4937C<or>. Consider:
4938
4939 sub { return $a or $b; }
4940
4941This is parsed as:
4942
4943 sub { (return $a) or $b; }
4944
4945Which is effectively just:
4946
4947 sub { return $a; }
4948
4949Either use parentheses or the high-precedence variant of the operator.
4950
4951Note this may be also triggered for constructs like:
4952
4953 sub { 1 if die; }
4954
8823cb89 4955=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %s operator
a690c7c4
FC
4956
4957(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
4958with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
4959
4960 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
4961
4962This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
4963higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
4964really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, put the
4965parentheses explicitly and write C<$x & ($y == 0)>).
4966
77772344
B
4967=item Possible unintended interpolation of $\ in regex
4968
4969(W ambiguous) You said something like C<m/$\/> in a regex.
4970The regex C<m/foo$\s+bar/m> translates to: match the word 'foo', the output
8ddb446c 4971record separator (see L<perlvar/$\>) and the letter 's' (one time or more)
77772344
B
4972followed by the word 'bar'.
4973
4974If this is what you intended then you can silence the warning by using
4975C<m/${\}/> (for example: C<m/foo${\}s+bar/>).
4976
4977If instead you intended to match the word 'foo' at the end of the line
4978followed by whitespace and the word 'bar' on the next line then you can use
4979C<m/$(?)\/> (for example: C<m/foo$(?)\s+bar/>).
4980
e5035638
FC
4981=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
4982
ccf3535a 4983(W ambiguous) You said something like '@foo' in a double-quoted string
6903afa2 4984but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
e5035638
FC
4985literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
4986to the array you apparently lost track of.
4987
a0d0e21e
LW
4988=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
4989
e476b1b5 4990(S precedence) The old irregular construct
cb1a09d0 4991
a0d0e21e
LW
4992 open FOO || die;
4993
4994is now misinterpreted as
4995
4996 open(FOO || die);
4997
be771a83
GS
4998because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
4999list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
5000parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
5001of "||".
a0d0e21e 5002
3cdd684c
TP
5003=item Premature end of script headers
5004
3de20fbe 5005See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 5006
6df41af2
GS
5007=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
5008
be771a83 5009(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5010before now. Check your control flow.
6df41af2 5011
9a7dcd9c 5012=item print() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 5013
be771a83 5014(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5015before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5016
6df41af2 5017=item Process terminated by SIG%s
a0d0e21e 5018
6df41af2
GS
5019(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
5020applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
5021port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
5022L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
fecfaeb8 5023in L<perlos2>.
a0d0e21e 5024
327323c1
RGS
5025=item Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s
5026
fa816bf3
FC
5027(W illegalproto) A character follows % or @ in a prototype. This is
5028useless, since % and @ gobble the rest of the subroutine arguments.
327323c1 5029
3fe9a6f1 5030=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4633a7c4 5031
9a0b3859 5032(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
be771a83 5033declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4633a7c4 5034
ed9aa3b7
SG
5035=item Prototype not terminated
5036
2a6fd447 5037(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
ed9aa3b7
SG
5038definition.
5039
eedb00fa
PM
5040=item Prototype '%s' overridden by attribute 'prototype(%s)' in %s
5041
5042(W prototype) A prototype was declared in both the parentheses after
5043the sub name and via the prototype attribute. The prototype in
5044parentheses is useless, since it will be replaced by the prototype
5045from the attribute before it's ever used.
5046
6e8a73f2 5047=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
96ebfdd7 5048
6903afa2 5049(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if
e0e4a6e3 5050you meant it literally. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 5051expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
96ebfdd7 5052
6e8a73f2 5053=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9baa0206 5054
6903afa2 5055(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of
e0e4a6e3 5056the {min,max} construct. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 5057expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9baa0206 5058
675fa9ff
FC
5059=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex
5060
e0e4a6e3
FC
5061=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex; marked by
5062S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
5063
5064(W regexp) Minima should be less than or equal to maxima. If you really
5065want your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}.
5066
e1729dc6 5067=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression in regex m/%s/
9baa0206 5068
b45f050a
JF
5069(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
5070it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
5071quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
5072"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
5073C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
9baa0206 5074
89ea2908
GA
5075=item Range iterator outside integer range
5076
5077(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
5078are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
be771a83
GS
5079One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
5080by prepending "0" to your numbers.
89ea2908 5081
ad513756 5082=item Ranges of ASCII printables should be some subset of "0-9", "A-Z", or
6e8a73f2 5083"a-z" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ad513756
FC
5084
5085(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
5086
5087Stricter rules help to find typos and other errors. Perhaps you didn't
5088even intend a range here, if the C<"-"> was meant to be some other
5089character, or should have been escaped (like C<"\-">). If you did
5090intend a range, the one that was used is not portable between ASCII and
5091EBCDIC platforms, and doesn't have an obvious meaning to a casual
5092reader.
5093
5094 [3-7] # OK; Obvious and portable
5095 [d-g] # OK; Obvious and portable
5096 [A-Y] # OK; Obvious and portable
5097 [A-z] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5098 [a-Z] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5099 [%-.] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5100 [\x41-Z] # WRONG; Not portable; not obvious to non-geek
5101
5102(You can force portability by specifying a Unicode range, which means that
5103the endpoints are specified by
5104L<C<\N{...}>|perlrecharclass/Character Ranges>, but the meaning may
5105still not be obvious.)
5106The stricter rules require that ranges that start or stop with an ASCII
5107character that is not a control have all their endpoints be the literal
5108character, and not some escape sequence (like C<"\x41">), and the ranges
5109must be all digits, or all uppercase letters, or all lowercase letters.
5110
5111=item Ranges of digits should be from the same group in regex; marked by
6e8a73f2 5112S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ad513756
FC
5113
5114(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
5115
5116Stricter rules help to find typos and other errors. You included a
5117range, and at least one of the end points is a decimal digit. Under the
5118stricter rules, when this happens, both end points should be digits in
5119the same group of 10 consecutive digits.
5120
3b7fbd4a
SP
5121=item readdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5122
1a147d38 5123(W io) The dirhandle you're reading from is either closed or not really
3b7fbd4a
SP
5124a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5125
96ebfdd7
RK
5126=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
5127
5128(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
5129before now. Check your control flow.
5130
b5fe5ca2
SR
5131=item read() on closed filehandle %s
5132
5133(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
5134
5135=item read() on unopened filehandle %s
5136
5137(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
5138
de42a5a9 5139=item Reallocation too large: %x
6df41af2
GS
5140
5141(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
5142
4ad56ec9
IZ
5143=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
5144
be771a83
GS
5145(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
5146already been freed.
4ad56ec9 5147
a0d0e21e
LW
5148=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
5149
19b29141 5150(S debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
be771a83 5151the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
a0d0e21e
LW
5152which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
5153
6651ba0b
FC
5154=item Recursive call to Perl_load_module in PerlIO_find_layer
5155
5156(P) It is currently not permitted to load modules when creating
5157a filehandle inside an %INC hook. This can happen with C<open my
5158$fh, '<', \$scalar>, which implicitly loads PerlIO::scalar. Try
5159loading PerlIO::scalar explicitly first.
5160
3e0ccd42 5161=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
a0d0e21e 5162
2c7d6b9c
RGS
5163(F) While calculating the method resolution order (MRO) of a package, Perl
5164believes it found an infinite loop in the C<@ISA> hierarchy. This is a
5165crude check that bails out after 100 levels of C<@ISA> depth.
a0d0e21e 5166
f51551f7
FC
5167=item Redundant argument in %s
5168
5169(W redundant) You called a function with more arguments than other
3617dbb6 5170arguments you supplied indicated would be needed. Currently only
f51551f7
FC
5171emitted when a printf-type format required fewer arguments than were
5172supplied, but might be used in the future for e.g. L<perlfunc/pack>.
5173
12605ff9
FC
5174=item refcnt_dec: fd %d%s
5175
2e0cfa16
FC
5176=item refcnt: fd %d%s
5177
12605ff9
FC
5178=item refcnt_inc: fd %d%s
5179
fa816bf3 5180(P) Perl's I/O implementation failed an internal consistency check. If
2e0cfa16
FC
5181you see this message, something is very wrong.
5182
1930e939
TP
5183=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
5184
be771a83 5185(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
6903afa2
FC
5186with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This
5187usually means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant
5188to use parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
7b8d334a
GS
5189
5190 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
5191 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
5192 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
5193 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
5194
810b8aa5
GS
5195=item Reference is already weak
5196
e476b1b5 5197(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
810b8aa5
GS
5198Doing so has no effect.
5199
e0e4a6e3 5200=item Reference to invalid group 0 in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b72d83b2 5201
6903afa2
FC
5202(F) You used C<\g0> or similar in a regular expression. You may refer
5203to capturing parentheses only with strictly positive integers
5204(normal backreferences) or with strictly negative integers (relative
5205backreferences). Using 0 does not make sense.
b72d83b2 5206
e0e4a6e3
FC
5207=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5208m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
5209
5210(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
6903afa2 5211not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If
bbaee129
FC
5212you wanted to have the character with ordinal 7 inserted into the regular
5213expression, prepend zeroes to make it three digits long: C<\007>
9baa0206 5214
6e8a73f2 5215The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
b45f050a 5216discovered.
9baa0206 5217
e0e4a6e3
FC
5218=item Reference to nonexistent named group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
5219in m/%s/
1a147d38
YO
5220
5221(F) You used something like C<\k'NAME'> or C<< \k<NAME> >> in your regular
9381611c 5222expression, but there is no corresponding named capturing parentheses
6903afa2 5223such as C<(?'NAME'...)> or C<< (?<NAME>...) >>. Check if the name has been
9381611c 5224spelled correctly both in the backreference and the declaration.
1a147d38 5225
6e8a73f2 5226The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
5227discovered.
5228
e0e4a6e3
FC
5229=item Reference to nonexistent or unclosed group in regex; marked by
5230S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1a147d38 5231
bcb95744
FC
5232(F) You used something like C<\g{-7}> in your regular expression, but there
5233are not at least seven sets of closed capturing parentheses in the
5234expression before where the C<\g{-7}> was located.
1a147d38 5235
6e8a73f2 5236The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
5237discovered.
5238
a0d0e21e
LW
5239=item regexp memory corruption
5240
5241(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
5242expression compiler gave it.
5243
ff3f26d2
KW
5244=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may appear a maximum of twice
5245
4d910168 5246=item Regexp modifier "%c" may appear a maximum of twice in regex; marked
e0e4a6e3 5247by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4d910168 5248
ce170e67 5249(F) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
ff3f26d2 5250of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
3955e1a9 5251
6fbc9859
MH
5252=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear after the "-" in regex; marked by <--
5253HERE in m/%s/
9442e3b8 5254
f8b5bc72
FC
5255(F) Turning off the given modifier has the side effect of turning on
5256another one. Perl currently doesn't allow this. Reword the regular
9442e3b8
KW
5257expression to use the modifier you want to turn on (and place it before
5258the minus), instead of the one you want to turn off.
5259
591f5ca2
FC
5260=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may not appear twice
5261
4d910168
FC
5262=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear twice in regex; marked by <--
5263HERE in m/%s/
5264
ce170e67 5265(F) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
591f5ca2
FC
5266of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
5267
3955e1a9
KW
5268=item Regexp modifiers "/%c" and "/%c" are mutually exclusive
5269
4d910168 5270=item Regexp modifiers "%c" and "%c" are mutually exclusive in regex;
e0e4a6e3 5271marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4d910168 5272
ce170e67 5273(F) The regular expression pattern had more than one of these
3955e1a9
KW
5274mutually exclusive modifiers. Retain only the modifier that is
5275supposed to be there.
5276
aec0ef10 5277=item Regexp out of space in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5278
be771a83
GS
5279(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
5280earlier.
a0d0e21e 5281
a7f533cb 5282=item Repeated format line will never terminate (~~ and @#)
a1b95068 5283
d7f8936a 5284(F) Your format contains the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence and a
a1b95068 5285numeric field that will never go blank so that the repetition never
6903afa2 5286terminates. You might use ^# instead. See L<perlform>.
a1b95068 5287
b08e453b
RB
5288=item Replacement list is longer than search list
5289
5290(W misc) You have used a replacement list that is longer than the
fa816bf3 5291search list. So the additional elements in the replacement list
b08e453b
RB
5292are meaningless.
5293
5e0a247b
KW
5294=item '%s' resolved to '\o{%s}%d'
5295
5296(W misc, regexp) You wrote something like C<\08>, or C<\179> in a
5297double-quotish string. All but the last digit is treated as a single
5298character, specified in octal. The last digit is the next character in
5299the string. To tell Perl that this is indeed what you want, you can use
5300the C<\o{ }> syntax, or use exactly three digits to specify the octal
5301for the character.
5302
a0d0e21e
LW
5303=item Reversed %s= operator
5304
be771a83 5305(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
964742a1 5306always come last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
a0d0e21e 5307
abc7ecad
SP
5308=item rewinddir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5309
1b303a7d
FC
5310(W io) The dirhandle you tried to do a rewinddir() on is either closed
5311or not really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
abc7ecad 5312
96ebfdd7
RK
5313=item Scalars leaked: %d
5314
7bd1381d 5315(S internal) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping
4f5966a5
FC
5316of scalars: not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time
5317Perl exited. What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which
5318is of course bad, especially if the Perl program is intended to be
5319long-running.
96ebfdd7 5320
a0d0e21e
LW
5321=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
5322
be771a83
GS
5323(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
5324single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
5325value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
5326behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
5327argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
5328and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
5329if you're expecting only one subscript.
a0d0e21e 5330
748a9306 5331On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5f05dabc 5332element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
748a9306
LW
5333Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
5334L<perlref>.
5335
a6006777 5336=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
5337
75b44862 5338(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
be771a83
GS
5339element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
5340(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
5341like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
5342argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
5343and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
5344if you're expecting only one subscript.
5345
5346On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
5347as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
5348not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
a6006777 5349L<perlref>.
5350
a0d0e21e
LW
5351=item Search pattern not terminated
5352
5353(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
5354construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5355Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 5356
ea9d9ebc 5357Note that since Perl 5.10.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
5d9c98cd 5358construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
ea9d9ebc
FC
5359in Perl 5.10.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
5360misparsed by pre-5.10.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
5d9c98cd 5361
abc7ecad
SP
5362=item seekdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5363
5364(W io) The dirhandle you are doing a seekdir() on is either closed or not
5365really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5366
3257ea4f
FC
5367=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
5368
5369(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
5370filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
5371
a0d0e21e
LW
5372=item select not implemented
5373
5374(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
5375
ae21d580 5376=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
68a4a7e4 5377
ae21d580
JH
5378(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
5379the current implementation.
68a4a7e4 5380
6df41af2 5381=item Semicolon seems to be missing
a0d0e21e 5382
75b44862
GS
5383(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
5384semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
a0d0e21e
LW
5385
5386=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
5387
be771a83
GS
5388(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
5389scalar that had previously been marked as free.
a0d0e21e 5390
6df41af2 5391=item sem%s not implemented
a0d0e21e 5392
6df41af2 5393(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
a0d0e21e 5394
69282e91 5395=item send() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 5396
be771a83 5397(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5398before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5399
0ae4a328
FC
5400=item Sequence "\c{" invalid
5401
5402(F) These three characters may not appear in sequence in a
5403double-quotish context. This message is raised only on non-ASCII
5404platforms (a different error message is output on ASCII ones). If you
5405were intending to specify a control character with this sequence, you'll
5406have to use a different way to specify it.
5407
e0e4a6e3 5408=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
7b8d334a 5409
6903afa2 5410(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The
e0e4a6e3 5411S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
6903afa2 5412discovered. See L<perlre>.
1b1626e4 5413
e0e4a6e3
FC
5414=item Sequence (?%c...) not implemented in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5415m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5416
6903afa2 5417(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
e0e4a6e3 5418but has not yet been written. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
9e3ec65c 5419regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5420
e0e4a6e3
FC
5421=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5422m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5423
d921c7bf 5424(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense.
e0e4a6e3 5425The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
d921c7bf 5426discovered. This may happen when using the C<(?^...)> construct to tell
fb85c044 5427Perl to use the default regular expression modifiers, and you
9442e3b8 5428redundantly specify a default modifier. For other
9de15fec 5429causes, see L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 5430
aec0ef10 5431=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
5432
5433(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
aec0ef10 5434parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. See
7253e4e3 5435L<perlre>.
6df41af2 5436
07ea66ee
FC
5437=item Sequence (?&... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5438m/%s/
5439
5440(F) A named reference of the form C<(?&...)> was missing the final
5441closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
5442in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5443
e0e4a6e3 5444=item Sequence (?%c... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
4599db5f
FC
5445in m/%s/
5446
5447(F) A named group of the form C<(?'...')> or C<< (?<...>) >> was missing the final
e0e4a6e3 5448closing quote or angle bracket. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
4599db5f
FC
5449regular expression the problem was discovered.
5450
e0e4a6e3 5451=item Sequence (?(%c... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
4599db5f
FC
5452in m/%s/
5453
5454(F) A named reference of the form C<(?('...')...)> or C<< (?(<...>)...) >> was
5455missing the final closing quote or angle bracket after the name. The
e0e4a6e3 5456S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
4599db5f
FC
5457discovered.
5458
5b9ce456
KW
5459=item Sequence (?... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5460m/%s/
5461
5462(F) There was no matching closing parenthesis for the '('. The
5463S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
5464discovered.
5465
e0e4a6e3
FC
5466=item Sequence \%s... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5467m/%s/
5a25739d
FC
5468
5469(F) The regular expression expects a mandatory argument following the escape
5470sequence and this has been omitted or incorrectly written.
5471
9da1dd8f
DM
5472=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated with ')'
5473
be149b43
DM
5474(F) The end of the perl code contained within the {...} must be
5475followed immediately by a ')'.
9da1dd8f 5476
74d1b2e4 5477=item Sequence (?PE<gt>... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4599db5f 5478
74d1b2e4 5479(F) A named reference of the form C<(?PE<gt>...)> was missing the final
cfbef7dc
KW
5480closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
5481in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5482
5483=item Sequence (?PE<lt>... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5484
5485(F) A named group of the form C<(?PE<lt>...E<gt>')> was missing the final
5486closing angle bracket. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
5487regular expression the problem was discovered.
5488
74d1b2e4
FC
5489=item Sequence ?P=... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5490m/%s/
cfbef7dc 5491
74d1b2e4 5492(F) A named reference of the form C<(?P=...)> was missing the final
e0e4a6e3 5493closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
4599db5f
FC
5494in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5495
5496=item Sequence (?R) not terminated in regex m/%s/
5497
5498(F) An C<(?R)> or C<(?0)> sequence in a regular expression was missing the
5499final parenthesis.
5500
3de20fbe 5501=item Z<>500 Server error
a5f75d66 5502
6903afa2
FC
5503(A) This is the error message generally seen in a browser window
5504when trying to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The
5505actual error text varies widely from server to server. The most
5506frequently-seen variants are "500 Server error", "Method (something)
5507not permitted", "Document contains no data", "Premature end of script
5508headers", and "Did not produce a valid header".
9607fc9c 5509
5510B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
5511
6903afa2
FC
5512You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by
5513the user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the
5514user account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment
5515variables (like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't
5516in a location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or
5517less. Please see the following for more information:
9607fc9c 5518
06a5f41f
JH
5519 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
5520 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
5521 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
a5f75d66 5522
be94a901
GS
5523You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
5524
a0d0e21e
LW
5525=item setegid() not implemented
5526
be771a83
GS
5527(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
5528support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5529didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
5530
5531=item seteuid() not implemented
5532
be771a83
GS
5533(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
5534support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5535didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 5536
81777298
GS
5537=item setpgrp can't take arguments
5538
be771a83
GS
5539(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
5540arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
5541group ID.
81777298 5542
a0d0e21e
LW
5543=item setrgid() not implemented
5544
be771a83
GS
5545(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
5546support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5547didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
5548
5549=item setruid() not implemented
5550
be771a83
GS
5551(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
5552support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5553didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 5554
6df41af2
GS
5555=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
5556
be771a83
GS
5557(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
5558forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
5559L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
5560
d8940893 5561=item Setting $/ to a reference to %s as a form of slurp is deprecated, treating as undef. This will be fatal in Perl 5.28
6da34ecb 5562
ddc3d23f 5563(D deprecated) You assigned a reference to a scalar to C<$/> where the
eedc0d19 5564referenced item is not a positive integer. In older perls this B<appeared>
6da34ecb
FC
5565to work the same as setting it to C<undef> but was in fact internally
5566different, less efficient and with very bad luck could have resulted in
5567your file being split by a stringified form of the reference.
5568
ea9d9ebc 5569In Perl 5.20.0 this was changed so that it would be B<exactly> the same as
6da34ecb
FC
5570setting C<$/> to undef, with the exception that this warning would be
5571thrown.
5572
eedc0d19 5573You are recommended to change your code to set C<$/> to C<undef> explicitly
d8940893
A
5574if you wish to slurp the file. In Perl 5.28 assigning C<$/> to a
5575reference to an integer which isn't positive will throw a fatal error.
6da34ecb 5576
ee0ba734 5577=item Setting $/ to %s reference is forbidden
a48e4205
FC
5578
5579(F) You tried to assign a reference to a non integer to C<$/>. In older
5580Perls this would have behaved similarly to setting it to a reference to
5581a positive integer, where the integer was the address of the reference.
5582As of Perl 5.20.0 this is a fatal error, to allow future versions of Perl
5583to use non-integer refs for more interesting purposes.
5584
a0d0e21e
LW
5585=item shm%s not implemented
5586
5587(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
5588
984200d0
YST
5589=item !=~ should be !~
5590
5591(W syntax) The non-matching operator is !~, not !=~. !=~ will be
5592interpreted as the != (numeric not equal) and ~ (1's complement)
5593operators: probably not what you intended.
5594
6df41af2
GS
5595=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
5596
5597(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
be771a83
GS
5598as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
5599result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
5600probably not what you had in mind.
6df41af2 5601
69282e91 5602=item shutdown() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 5603
75b44862
GS
5604(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
5605superfluous.
a0d0e21e 5606
f86702cc 5607=item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
a0d0e21e 5608
be771a83
GS
5609(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
5610Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
a0d0e21e 5611
efc859fb
FC
5612=item Slab leaked from cv %p
5613
5614(S) If you see this message, then something is seriously wrong with the
5615internal bookkeeping of op trees. An op tree needed to be freed after
5616a compilation error, but could not be found, so it was leaked instead.
5617
3b9aea04
SH
5618=item sleep(%u) too large
5619
5620(W overflow) You called C<sleep> with a number that was larger than
5621it can reliably handle and C<sleep> probably slept for less time than
5622requested.
5623
30d9c59b
Z
5624=item Slurpy parameter not last
5625
5626(F) In a subroutine signature, you put something after a slurpy (array or
5627hash) parameter. The slurpy parameter takes all the available arguments,
5628so there can't be any left to fill later parameters.
5629
675fa9ff
FC
5630=item Smart matching a non-overloaded object breaks encapsulation
5631
5632(F) You should not use the C<~~> operator on an object that does not
5633overload it: Perl refuses to use the object's underlying structure
5634for the smart match.
5635
0f539b13
BF
5636=item Smartmatch is experimental
5637
5638(S experimental::smartmatch) This warning is emitted if you
5639use the smartmatch (C<~~>) operator. This is currently an experimental
5640feature, and its details are subject to change in future releases of
5641Perl. Particularly, its current behavior is noticed for being
5642unnecessarily complex and unintuitive, and is very likely to be
5643overhauled.
5644
a0d0e21e
LW
5645=item sort is now a reserved word
5646
5647(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
5648But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
5649
f1c31c52
FC
5650=item Source filters apply only to byte streams
5651
5652(F) You tried to activate a source filter (usually by loading a
5653source filter module) within a string passed to C<eval>. This is
5654not permitted under the C<unicode_eval> feature. Consider using
5655C<evalbytes> instead. See L<feature>.
5656
8cbc2e3b
JH
5657=item splice() offset past end of array
5658
5659(W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
fa816bf3
FC
5660the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the
5661end of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want,
5662try explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset.
5663See L<perlfunc/splice>.
8cbc2e3b 5664
a0d0e21e
LW
5665=item Split loop
5666
be771a83
GS
5667(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
5668iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
6903afa2 5669happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
a0d0e21e 5670
a0d0e21e
LW
5671=item Statement unlikely to be reached
5672
be771a83
GS
5673(W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
5674die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
5675unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
5676instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
5677a block by itself.
a0d0e21e 5678
a21eb52b
FC
5679=item "state" subroutine %s can't be in a package
5680
5681(F) Lexically scoped subroutines aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
5682sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front.
5683
a2e39214
FC
5684=item "state %s" used in sort comparison
5685
5686(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
5687You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
5688sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
5689lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
5690name, or rename the lexical variable.
5691
5a25739d
FC
5692=item "state" variable %s can't be in a package
5693
5694(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
5695sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
5696local() if you want to localize a package variable.
5697
9ddeeac9 5698=item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
6df41af2 5699
355b1299
JH
5700(W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
5701was either never opened or has since been closed.
6df41af2 5702
5a25739d
FC
5703=item Strings with code points over 0xFF may not be mapped into in-memory file handles
5704
5705(W utf8) You tried to open a reference to a scalar for read or append
5706where the scalar contained code points over 0xFF. In-memory files
5707model on-disk files and can only contain bytes.
5708
fe13d51d 5709=item Stub found while resolving method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
e7ea3e70 5710
be771a83
GS
5711(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
5712stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
5713C<can> may break this.
e7ea3e70 5714
4e85e1b4
FC
5715=item Subroutine "&%s" is not available
5716
5717(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
5718attempting to capture an outer lexical subroutine that is not currently
5719available. This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the lexical
c387a7d0
FC
5720subroutine may be declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has
5721not yet been created. (Remember that named subs are created at compile
5722time, while anonymous subs are created at run-time.) For example,
4e85e1b4
FC
5723
5724 sub { my sub a {...} sub f { \&a } }
5725
c387a7d0 5726At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current "a" sub,
4e85e1b4
FC
5727since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely, the
5728following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by now
5729been created and is live:
5730
5731 sub { my sub a {...} eval 'sub f { \&a }' }->();
5732
c387a7d0
FC
5733The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a lexical subroutine
5734that has gone out of scope, for example,
4e85e1b4
FC
5735
5736 sub f {
5737 my sub a {...}
5738 sub { eval '\&a' }
5739 }
5740 f()->();
5741
5742Here, when the '\&a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
5743being executed, so its &a is not available for capture.
5744
4eb94d7c
FC
5745=item "%s" subroutine &%s masks earlier declaration in same %s
5746
5747(W misc) A "my" or "state" subroutine has been redeclared in the
5748current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to
5749the previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error.
5750Note that the earlier subroutine will still exist until the end of
20d33786 5751the scope or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
4eb94d7c 5752
9d92fedb
FC
5753=item Subroutine %s redefined
5754
5755(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
5756
5757 {
5758 no warnings 'redefine';
5759 eval "sub name { ... }";
5760 }
5761
2a9203e9
FC
5762=item Subroutine "%s" will not stay shared
5763
5764(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a "my"
5765subroutine defined in an outer named subroutine.
5766
5767When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of the outer
5768subroutine's lexical subroutine as it was before and during the *first*
5769call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
5770outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
5771longer share a common value for the lexical subroutine. In other words,
5772it will no longer be shared. This will especially make a difference
5773if the lexical subroutines accesses lexical variables declared in its
5774surrounding scope.
5775
5776This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
5777anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
5778reference lexical subroutines in outer subroutines are created, they
5779are automatically rebound to the current values of such lexical subs.
5780
a0d0e21e
LW
5781=item Substitution loop
5782
be771a83
GS
5783(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
5784shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
5785is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
5d44bfff 5786L<perlop/"Regexp Quote-Like Operators">.
a0d0e21e
LW
5787
5788=item Substitution pattern not terminated
5789
d1be9408 5790(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 5791construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5792Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
5793
5794=item Substitution replacement not terminated
5795
d1be9408 5796(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 5797construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5798Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
5799
5800=item substr outside of string
5801
8a9eb13d 5802(W substr)(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
be771a83
GS
5803a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
5804length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
5805substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
5806assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
a0d0e21e 5807
bf1320bf
RGS
5808=item sv_upgrade from type %d down to type %d
5809
9d277376 5810(P) Perl tried to force the upgrade of an SV to a type which was actually
bf1320bf
RGS
5811inferior to its current type.
5812
05a40652
FC
5813=item SWASHNEW didn't return an HV ref
5814
5815(P) Something went wrong internally when Perl was trying to look up
5816Unicode characters.
5817
6fbc9859 5818=item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 5819S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 5820
fa816bf3
FC
5821(F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most
5822two branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or
5823both to contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose
5824it in clustering parentheses:
b45f050a
JF
5825
5826 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
5827
e0e4a6e3 5828The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem
fa816bf3 5829was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5830
e0e4a6e3
FC
5831=item Switch condition not recognized in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5832m/%s/
b45f050a 5833
9f57786a
FC
5834(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
5835is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5836
5837 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
5838 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
5839 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
5840 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
5841 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
5842 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
5843 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
5844 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
5845 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
5846
6e8a73f2 5847The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9f57786a 5848discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5849
a1244175
FC
5850=item Switch (?(condition)... not terminated in regex; marked by
5851S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5852
99775d13
FC
5853(F) You omitted to close a (?(condition)...) block somewhere
5854in the pattern. Add a closing parenthesis in the appropriate
5855position. See L<perlre>.
a1244175 5856
85ab1d1d
JH
5857=item switching effective %s is not implemented
5858
be771a83
GS
5859(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
5860and effective uids or gids.
85ab1d1d 5861
a0d0e21e
LW
5862=item syntax error
5863
5864(F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
5865
5866 A keyword is misspelled.
5867 A semicolon is missing.
5868 A comma is missing.
5869 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
5870 An opening or closing brace is missing.
5871 A closing quote is missing.
5872
5873Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
5874error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
5875The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
5876it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
5f05dabc 5877before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
a0d0e21e
LW
5878Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
5879the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
5880C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
524e9188 5881if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
a0d0e21e 5882
ccf3535a 5883=item syntax error at line %d: '%s' unexpected
cb1a09d0 5884
be771a83
GS
5885(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
5886of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
5887yourself.
cb1a09d0 5888
25f58aea
PN
5889=item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
5890
5891(F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
5892a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
5893or "my $var" or "our $var".
5894
675fa9ff
FC
5895=item Syntax error in (?[...]) in regex m/%s/
5896
5897(F) Perl could not figure out what you meant inside this construct; this
5898notifies you that it is giving up trying.
5899
591f5ca2
FC
5900=item %s syntax OK
5901
5902(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
5903
b5fe5ca2
SR
5904=item sysread() on closed filehandle %s
5905
5906(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
5907
5908=item sysread() on unopened filehandle %s
5909
5910(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
5911
6087ac44 5912=item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
a0d0e21e 5913
6087ac44
JH
5914(F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
5915"shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
5916machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
5917unconfigured. Consult your system support.
a0d0e21e 5918
69282e91 5919=item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 5920
be771a83 5921(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5922before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5923
96ebfdd7
RK
5924=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
5925
5926(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
5927know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
5928
fc36a67e 5929=item Target of goto is too deeply nested
5930
be771a83
GS
5931(F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
5932for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
fc36a67e 5933
abc7ecad
SP
5934=item telldir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5935
5936(W io) The dirhandle you tried to telldir() is either closed or not really
5937a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5938
c2771421
FC
5939=item tell() on unopened filehandle
5940
5941(W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
5942was either never opened or has since been closed.
5943
b82b06b8
FC
5944=item That use of $[ is unsupported
5945
5946(F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted
5947as a compiler directive. You may say only one of
5948
5949 $[ = 0;
5950 $[ = 1;
5951 ...
5952 local $[ = 0;
5953 local $[ = 1;
5954 ...
5955
5956This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out
5957from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[> and L<arybase>.
5958
a6eb74ec
FC
5959=item The bitwise feature is experimental
5960
5961(S experimental::bitwise) This warning is emitted if you use bitwise
5962operators (C<& | ^ ~ &. |. ^. ~.>) with the "bitwise" feature enabled.
5963Simply suppress the warning if you want to use the feature, but know
5964that in doing so you are taking the risk of using an experimental
5965feature which may change or be removed in a future Perl version:
5966
5967 no warnings "experimental::bitwise";
5968 use feature "bitwise";
5969 $x |.= $y;
5970
67b16946 5971=item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia.
a0d0e21e
LW
5972
5973(F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
5974probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
8b1a09fc 5975think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
a0d0e21e
LW
5976will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
5977will deny it.
5978
3f645a4e
FC
5979=item The experimental declared_refs feature is not enabled
5980
5981(F) To declare references to variables, as in C<my \%x>, you must first enable
5982the feature:
5983
5984 no warnings "experimental::declared_refs";
5985 use feature "declared_refs";
5986
675fa9ff
FC
5987=item The %s function is unimplemented
5988
5989(F) The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture,
5990according to the probings of Configure.
5991
0d0b4b3b
KW
5992=item The regex_sets feature is experimental
5993
5994(S experimental::regex_sets) This warning is emitted if you
5995use the syntax S<C<(?[ ])>> in a regular expression.
5996The details of this feature are subject to change.
5997if you want to use it, but know that in doing so you
5998are taking the risk of using an experimental feature which may
5999change in a future Perl version, you can do this to silence the
6000warning:
6001
6002 no warnings "experimental::regex_sets";
6003
30d9c59b
Z
6004=item The signatures feature is experimental
6005
6006(S experimental::signatures) This warning is emitted if you unwrap a
6007subroutine's arguments using a signature. Simply suppress the warning
6008if you want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you are taking
6009the risk of using an experimental feature which may change or be removed
6010in a future Perl version:
6011
6012 no warnings "experimental::signatures";
6013 use feature "signatures";
6014 sub foo ($left, $right) { ... }
6015
5e1c7ca2 6016=item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
a0d0e21e 6017
be771a83
GS
6018(F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
6019linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
6020past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
6021instead.
a0d0e21e 6022
371fce9b
DM
6023=item The 'unique' attribute may only be applied to 'our' variables
6024
1108974d 6025(F) This attribute was never supported on C<my> or C<sub> declarations.
371fce9b 6026
437784d6 6027=item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
f675dbe5
CB
6028
6029=item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
6030
75b44862 6031(W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
be771a83
GS
6032element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
6033wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
6034need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
6035F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
6036target of the change to
f675dbe5
CB
6037%ENV which produced the warning.
6038
6a5b4183
YO
6039=item This Perl has not been built with support for randomized hash key traversal but something called Perl_hv_rand_set().
6040
6041(F) Something has attempted to use an internal API call which
6042depends on Perl being compiled with the default support for randomized hash
f26c79ba 6043key traversal, but this Perl has been compiled without it. You should
6a5b4183
YO
6044report this warning to the relevant upstream party, or recompile perl
6045with default options.
6046
a0d0e21e
LW
6047=item times not implemented
6048
be771a83
GS
6049(F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
6050suspect you're not running on Unix.
a0d0e21e 6051
6d3b25aa
RGS
6052=item "-T" is on the #! line, it must also be used on the command line
6053
b7e4ecc1
FC
6054(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains
6055the B<-T> option (or the B<-t> option), but Perl was not invoked with
6056B<-T> in its command line. This is an error because, by the time
6057Perl discovers a B<-T> in a script, it's too late to properly taint
6058everything from the environment. So Perl gives up.
6d3b25aa
RGS
6059
6060If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
b7e4ecc1
FC
6061mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be
6062fixed by editing the #! line so that the B<-%c> option is a part of
6063Perl's first argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -%c> to C<perl -%c -n>.
6d3b25aa
RGS
6064
6065If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
fe13d51d 6066B<-%c> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -%c scriptname>.
6d3b25aa 6067
3a2263fe
RGS
6068=item To%s: illegal mapping '%s'
6069
6070(F) You tried to define a customized To-mapping for lc(), lcfirst,
6071uc(), or ucfirst() (or their string-inlined versions), but you
6072specified an illegal mapping.
6073See L<perlunicode/"User-Defined Character Properties">.
6074
49704364
WL
6075=item Too deeply nested ()-groups
6076
1a147d38 6077(F) Your template contains ()-groups with a ridiculously deep nesting level.
49704364 6078
a0d0e21e
LW
6079=item Too few args to syscall
6080
6081(F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
6082system call to call, silly dilly.
6083
bb6b75cd
DM
6084=item Too few arguments for subroutine
6085
6086(F) A subroutine using a signature received too few arguments than
6087required by the signature. The caller of the subroutine is presumably
6088at fault.
6089
96ebfdd7
RK
6090=item Too late for "-%s" option
6091
6092(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
4ba71d51
FC
6093B<-M>, B<-m> or B<-C> option.
6094
6903afa2
FC
6095In the case of B<-M> and B<-m>, this is an error because those options
6096are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
4ba71d51 6097
6903afa2
FC
6098The B<-C> option only works if it is specified on the command line as
6099well (with the same sequence of letters or numbers following). Either
6100specify this option on the command line, or, if your system supports
6101it, make your script executable and run it directly instead of passing
6102it to perl.
96ebfdd7 6103
ddda08b7
GS
6104=item Too late to run %s block
6105
6106(W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
6107when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
be771a83
GS
6108loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
6109instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
6110BEGIN block.
ddda08b7 6111
a0d0e21e
LW
6112=item Too many args to syscall
6113
5f05dabc 6114(F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
a0d0e21e
LW
6115
6116=item Too many arguments for %s
6117
6118(F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
6119
bb6b75cd
DM
6120=item Too many arguments for subroutine
6121
6122(F) A subroutine using a signature received too many arguments than
6123required by the signature. The caller of the subroutine is presumably
6124at fault.
6125
6126
6df41af2
GS
6127=item Too many )'s
6128
49704364
WL
6129(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6130Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6131
8c40cb74
NC
6132=item Too many ('s
6133
be771a83
GS
6134(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6135Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 6136
7253e4e3 6137=item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 6138
be771a83
GS
6139(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
6140Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 6141
2c268ad5 6142=item Transliteration pattern not terminated
a0d0e21e
LW
6143
6144(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
fb73857a 6145or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
6146C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 6147
2c268ad5 6148=item Transliteration replacement not terminated
a0d0e21e 6149
6a36df5d
YST
6150(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr///, tr[][],
6151y/// or y[][] construct.
a0d0e21e 6152
96ebfdd7
RK
6153=item '%s' trapped by operation mask
6154
6155(F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
6903afa2 6156disallowed. See L<Safe>.
96ebfdd7 6157
a0d0e21e
LW
6158=item truncate not implemented
6159
6160(F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
6161Configure knows about.
6162
19c481f4
FC
6163=item Type of arg %d to &CORE::%s must be %s
6164
6165(F) The subroutine in question in the CORE package requires its argument
6166to be a hard reference to data of the specified type. Overloading is
6167ignored, so a reference to an object that is not the specified type, but
6168nonetheless has overloading to handle it, will still not be accepted.
6169
a0d0e21e
LW
6170=item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
6171
6172(F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
8b1a09fc 6173certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
6174%NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
a0d0e21e
LW
6175{EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
6176
eec2d3df
GS
6177=item umask not implemented
6178
be771a83
GS
6179(F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
6180use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
a0d0e21e
LW
6181
6182=item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
6183
c632e777 6184(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6185many execution contexts were entered and left.
a0d0e21e
LW
6186
6187=item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
6188
4a983e45 6189(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6190many values were temporarily localized.
a0d0e21e
LW
6191
6192=item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
6193
090cebb2 6194(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6195many blocks were entered and left.
a0d0e21e 6196
6651ba0b
FC
6197=item Unbalanced string table refcount: (%d) for "%s"
6198
31ff3bd2 6199(S internal) On exit, Perl found some strings remaining in the shared
6651ba0b
FC
6200string table used for copy on write and for hash keys. The entries
6201should have been freed, so this indicates a bug somewhere.
6202
a0d0e21e
LW
6203=item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
6204
2092d7c1 6205(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6206many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
a0d0e21e
LW
6207
6208=item Undefined format "%s" called
6209
6210(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
6211another package? See L<perlform>.
6212
6213=item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
6214
be771a83
GS
6215(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
6216Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e
LW
6217
6218=item Undefined subroutine &%s called
6219
be771a83
GS
6220(F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
6221since been undefined.
a0d0e21e
LW
6222
6223=item Undefined subroutine called
6224
6225(F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
6226or if it was, it has since been undefined.
6227
6228=item Undefined subroutine in sort
6229
be771a83
GS
6230(F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
6231to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e 6232
4633a7c4
LW
6233=item Undefined top format "%s" called
6234
6235(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
6236another package? See L<perlform>.
6237
20408e3c
GS
6238=item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
6239
be771a83
GS
6240(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
6241C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
6242C<undef *foo>.
20408e3c 6243
6df41af2
GS
6244=item %s: Undefined variable
6245
be771a83
GS
6246(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6247Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 6248
286c9456 6249=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
6250
6251(D deprecated, regexp) The simple rule to remember, if you want to
286c9456 6252match a literal C<{> character (U+007B C<LEFT CURLY BRACKET>) in a
8e84dec2
KW
6253regular expression pattern, is to escape each literal instance of it in
6254some way. Generally easiest is to precede it with a backslash, like
286c9456
A
6255C<\{> or enclose it in square brackets (C<[{]>). If the pattern
6256delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace (C<}>) should
8e84dec2
KW
6257also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for example,
6258
6259 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
6260
286c9456 6261Forcing literal C<{> characters to be escaped will enable the Perl
8e84dec2
KW
6262language to be extended in various ways in future releases. To avoid
6263needlessly breaking existing code, the restriction is is not enforced in
6264contexts where there are unlikely to ever be extensions that could
286c9456 6265conflict with the use there of C<{> as a literal.
8e84dec2 6266
286c9456 6267In this release of Perl, some literal uses of C<{> are fatal, and some
8e84dec2 6268still just deprecated. This is because of an oversight: some uses of a
286c9456 6269literal C<{> that should have raised a deprecation warning starting in
8e84dec2
KW
6270v5.20 did not warn until v5.26. By making the already-warned uses fatal
6271now, some of the planned extensions can be made to the language sooner.
286c9456 6272The cases which are still allowed will be fatal in Perl 5.30.
8e84dec2
KW
6273
6274The contexts where no warnings or errors are raised are:
6275
6276=over 4
6277
6278=item *
6279
286c9456 6280as the first character in a pattern, or following C<^> indicating to
8e84dec2
KW
6281anchor the match to the beginning of a line.
6282
6283=item *
6284
286c9456 6285as the first character following a C<|> indicating alternation.
8e84dec2
KW
6286
6287=item *
6288
6289as the first character in a parenthesized grouping like
6290
6291 /foo({bar)/
6292 /foo(?:{bar)/
6293
6294=item *
6295
6296as the first character following a quantifier
6297
6298 /\s*{/
6299
6300=back
6301
6302=for comment
6303The text of the message above is duplicated below to allow splain (and
6304'use diagnostics') to work. Since one is fatal, and one not, they can't
6305be combined as one message. And since the non-fatal one is temporary,
6306there's no real need to enhance perldiag to handle this transient case.
6307
6308=item Unescaped left brace in regex is illegal here in regex;
6e8a73f2 6309marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
412f55bb 6310
8e84dec2
KW
6311(F) The simple rule to remember, if you want to
6312match a literal C<"{"> character (U+007B C<LEFT CURLY BRACKET>) in a
6313regular expression pattern, is to escape each literal instance of it in
6314some way. Generally easiest is to precede it with a backslash, like
6315C<"\{"> or enclose it in square brackets (C<"[{]">). If the pattern
6316delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace (C<"}">) should
6317also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for example,
6318
6319 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
6320
6321Forcing literal C<"{"> characters to be escaped will enable the Perl
6322language to be extended in various ways in future releases. To avoid
6323needlessly breaking existing code, the restriction is is not enforced in
6324contexts where there are unlikely to ever be extensions that could
6325conflict with the use there of C<"{"> as a literal.
6326
6327In this release of Perl, some literal uses of C<"{"> are fatal, and some
6328still just deprecated. This is because of an oversight: some uses of a
6329literal C<"{"> that should have raised a deprecation warning starting in
6330v5.20 did not warn until v5.26. By making the already-warned uses fatal
6331now, some of the planned extensions can be made to the language sooner.
6332
6333The contexts where no warnings or errors are raised are:
6334
6335=over 4
6336
6337=item *
6338
6339as the first character in a pattern, or following C<"^"> indicating to
6340anchor the match to the beginning of a line.
6341
6342=item *
6343
6344as the first character following a C<"|"> indicating alternation.
6345
6346=item *
6347
6348as the first character in a parenthesized grouping like
6349
6350 /foo({bar)/
6351 /foo(?:{bar)/
6352
6353=item *
6354
6355as the first character following a quantifier
412f55bb 6356
8e84dec2 6357 /\s*{/
412f55bb 6358
8e84dec2 6359=back
1656665e 6360
a4368cc3
KW
6361=item Unescaped literal '%c' in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6362
6363(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>>)
6364
6365Within the scope of C<S<use re 'strict'>> in a regular expression
6366pattern, you included an unescaped C<}> or C<]> which was interpreted
6367literally. These two characters are sometimes metacharacters, and
6368sometimes literals, depending on what precedes them in the
6369pattern. This is unlike the similar C<)> which is always a
6370metacharacter unless escaped.
6371
6372This action at a distance, perhaps a large distance, can lead to Perl
6373silently misinterpreting what you meant, so when you specify that you
6374want extra checking by C<S<use re 'strict'>>, this warning is generated.
6375If you meant the character as a literal, simply confirm that to Perl by
6376preceding the character with a backslash, or make it into a bracketed
6377character class (like C<[}]>). If you meant it as closing a
6378corresponding C<[> or C<{>, you'll need to look back through the pattern
6379to find out why that isn't happening.
6380
a0d0e21e
LW
6381=item unexec of %s into %s failed!
6382
6383(F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
6384representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
6385
e0e4a6e3
FC
6386=item Unexpected binary operator '%c' with no preceding operand in regex;
6387marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6388
675fa9ff 6389(F) You had something like this:
0d0b4b3b
KW
6390
6391 (?[ | \p{Digit} ])
6392
6393where the C<"|"> is a binary operator with an operand on the right, but
6394no operand on the left.
6395
e0e4a6e3 6396=item Unexpected character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6397
675fa9ff 6398(F) You had something like this:
0d0b4b3b
KW
6399
6400 (?[ z ])
6401
6402Within C<(?[ ])>, no literal characters are allowed unless they are
6403within an inner pair of square brackets, like
6404
6405 (?[ [ z ] ])
6406
6407Another possibility is that you forgot a backslash. Perl isn't smart
6408enough to figure out what you really meant.
6409
6651ba0b
FC
6410=item Unexpected constant lvalue entersub entry via type/targ %d:%d
6411
6412(P) When compiling a subroutine call in lvalue context, Perl failed an
6413internal consistency check. It encountered a malformed op tree.
6414
6c341f67
TC
6415=item Unexpected exit %u
6416
6417(S) exit() was called or the script otherwise finished gracefully when
6418C<PERL_EXIT_WARN> was set in C<PL_exit_flags>.
6419
878ce265 6420=item Unexpected exit failure %d
6c341f67
TC
6421
6422(S) An uncaught die() was called when C<PERL_EXIT_WARN> was set in
6423C<PL_exit_flags>.
6424
e0e4a6e3 6425=item Unexpected ')' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6426
6427(F) You had something like this:
6428
6429 (?[ ( \p{Digit} + ) ])
6430
6431The C<")"> is out-of-place. Something apparently was supposed to
6432be combined with the digits, or the C<"+"> shouldn't be there, or
6433something like that. Perl can't figure out what was intended.
6434
e0e4a6e3
FC
6435=item Unexpected '(' with no preceding operator in regex; marked by
6436S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6437
6438(F) You had something like this:
6439
6440 (?[ \p{Digit} ( \p{Lao} + \p{Thai} ) ])
6441
6442There should be an operator before the C<"(">, as there's
6443no indication as to how the digits are to be combined
6444with the characters in the Lao and Thai scripts.
6445
ba707cdc 6446=item Unicode non-character U+%X is not recommended for open interchange
0876b9a0 6447
4c2e59a0 6448(S nonchar) Certain codepoints, such as U+FFFE and U+FFFF, are
66a1f5ec
FC
6449defined by the Unicode standard to be non-characters. Those
6450are legal codepoints, but are reserved for internal use; so,
6451applications shouldn't attempt to exchange them. An application
6452may not be expecting any of these characters at all, and receiving
6453them may lead to bugs. If you know what you are doing you can
6454turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'nonchar';>.
6455
6456This is not really a "severe" error, but it is supposed to be
6457raised by default even if warnings are not enabled, and currently
6458the only way to do that in Perl is to mark it as serious.
6a807e21 6459
c794c51b
FC
6460=item Unicode surrogate U+%X is illegal in UTF-8
6461
4c2e59a0 6462(S surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
c794c51b
FC
6463not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
6464U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
6465internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
6466available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
6467problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
6468came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 6469off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
c794c51b 6470
dcfe9e74
KW
6471=item Unknown charname '%s'
6472
6473(F) The name you used inside C<\N{}> is unknown to Perl. Check the
6474spelling. You can say C<use charnames ":loose"> to not have to be
6475so precise about spaces, hyphens, and capitalization on standard Unicode
6476names. (Any custom aliases that have been created must be specified
6477exactly, regardless of whether C<:loose> is used or not.) This error may
6478also happen if the C<\N{}> is not in the scope of the corresponding
6479C<S<use charnames>>.
6480
db99d38d 6481=item Unknown charname '' is deprecated. Its use will be fatal in Perl 5.28
09eb1f39
FC
6482
6483(D deprecated) You had a C<\N{}> with nothing between the braces. This
db99d38d
A
6484usage was deprecated in Perl 5.24, and will be made a syntax error in
6485in Perl 5.28.
09eb1f39 6486
04177465
FC
6487=item Unknown error
6488
6489(P) Perl was about to print an error message in C<$@>, but the C<$@> variable
6490did not exist, even after an attempt to create it.
6491
6170680b
IZ
6492=item Unknown open() mode '%s'
6493
437784d6 6494(F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
c47ff5f1 6495of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
488dad83 6496C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
6170680b 6497
b4581f09
JH
6498=item Unknown PerlIO layer "%s"
6499
6500(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
6501system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
6502internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
6503are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
6504explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
6505value of the environment variable PERLIO.
6506
f675dbe5
CB
6507=item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
6508
6509(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
6510iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
6511data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
6512subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
a05d7ebb 6513
0da72d5e
KW
6514=item Unknown regex modifier "%s"
6515
6516(F) Alphanumerics immediately following the closing delimiter
6517of a regular expression pattern are interpreted by Perl as modifier
6518flags for the regex. One of the ones you specified is invalid. One way
6519this can happen is if you didn't put in white space between the end of
6520the regex and a following alphanumeric operator:
6521
6522 if ($a =~ /foo/and $bar == 3) { ... }
6523
6524The C<"a"> is a valid modifier flag, but the C<"n"> is not, and raises
6525this error. Likely what was meant instead was:
6526
6527 if ($a =~ /foo/ and $bar == 3) { ... }
6528
5a25739d
FC
6529=item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
6530
6531(W) You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
6532
e0e4a6e3
FC
6533=item Unknown switch condition (?(...)) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6534m/%s/
96ebfdd7
RK
6535
6536(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
6903afa2 6537is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5fecf430 6538
674f6ed9
FC
6539 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
6540 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
6541 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
6542 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
6543 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
6544 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
6545 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
6546 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
6547 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
96ebfdd7 6548
6e8a73f2 6549The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
96ebfdd7
RK
6550discovered. See L<perlre>.
6551
a05d7ebb
JH
6552=item Unknown Unicode option letter '%c'
6553
a4a4c9e2 6554(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb
JH
6555of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
6556
64187737 6557=item Unknown Unicode option value %d
a05d7ebb 6558
a4a4c9e2 6559(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb 6560of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
f675dbe5 6561
e0e4a6e3 6562=item Unknown verb pattern '%s' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1
YO
6563
6564(F) You either made a typo or have incorrectly put a C<*> quantifier
6565after an open brace in your pattern. Check the pattern and review
6566L<perlre> for details on legal verb patterns.
6567
c2771421
FC
6568=item Unknown warnings category '%s'
6569
6903afa2 6570(F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
c2771421
FC
6571category that is unknown to perl at this point.
6572
14ef4c80
FC
6573Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a
6574module (e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have loaded this
6575module first.
c2771421 6576
e0e4a6e3 6577=item Unmatched [ in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6578
6903afa2 6579(F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
be771a83 6580include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
e0e4a6e3 6581first. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
6903afa2 6582problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 6583
e0e4a6e3 6584=item Unmatched ( in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 6585
e0e4a6e3 6586=item Unmatched ) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
6587
6588(F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
6903afa2 6589expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
e0e4a6e3 6590the matching parenthesis. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
9e3ec65c 6591regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 6592
d98d5fff 6593=item Unmatched right %s bracket
a0d0e21e 6594
be771a83
GS
6595(F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
6596ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
6597general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
6598you were last editing.
a0d0e21e 6599
a0d0e21e
LW
6600=item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
6601
be771a83
GS
6602(W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
6603reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
6604somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
6605subroutine.
a0d0e21e 6606
e0e4a6e3
FC
6607=item Unrecognized character %s; marked by S<<-- HERE> after %s near column
6608%d
a0d0e21e 6609
54310121 6610(F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
1b303a7d
FC
6611in your Perl script (or eval) near the specified column. Perhaps you
6612tried to run a compressed script, a binary program, or a directory as
6613a Perl program.
a0d0e21e 6614
e0e4a6e3
FC
6615=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class in regex; marked by
6616S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6617
675fa9ff
FC
6618(F) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
6619recognized by Perl inside character classes. This is a fatal
6620error when the character class is used within C<(?[ ])>.
0d0b4b3b 6621
6fbc9859 6622=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class passed through in regex;
e0e4a6e3 6623marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6624
be771a83
GS
6625(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
6626recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
b224edc1 6627understood literally, but this may change in a future version of Perl.
e0e4a6e3 6628The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
2628b4e0 6629escape was discovered.
6df41af2 6630
4a68bf9d 6631=item Unrecognized escape \%c passed through
2f7da168 6632
2628b4e0 6633(W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b224edc1
KW
6634recognized by Perl. The character was understood literally, but this may
6635change in a future version of Perl.
2f7da168 6636
e0e4a6e3
FC
6637=item Unrecognized escape \%s passed through in regex; marked by
6638S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6639
be771a83 6640(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b7e4ecc1 6641recognized by Perl. The character(s) were understood literally, but
e0e4a6e3 6642this may change in a future version of Perl. The S<<-- HERE> shows
9e3ec65c 6643whereabouts in the regular expression the escape was discovered.
6df41af2 6644
a0d0e21e
LW
6645=item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
6646
be771a83
GS
6647(F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
6648recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
6649on your system.
a0d0e21e 6650
90248788 6651=item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
a0d0e21e 6652
be771a83
GS
6653(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
6654think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
6655bad switch on your behalf.)
a0d0e21e
LW
6656
6657=item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
6658
be771a83
GS
6659(W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
6660operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
5b3eff12 6661PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
a0d0e21e
LW
6662
6663=item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
6664
6665(F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
6666
6df41af2
GS
6667=item Unsupported function %s
6668
6669(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
6670At least, Configure doesn't think so.
6671
54310121 6672=item Unsupported function fork
6673
6674(F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
6675
be771a83 6676Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
6903afa2 6677of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
be771a83 6678changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
54310121 6679
7aa207d6 6680=item Unsupported script encoding %s
b250498f
GS
6681
6682(F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
7aa207d6 6683declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot read.
b250498f 6684
a0d0e21e
LW
6685=item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
6686
6687(F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
6688least that's what Configure thought.
6689
6df41af2 6690=item Unterminated attribute list
a0d0e21e 6691
be771a83
GS
6692(F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
6693start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
6694block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
6695attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
a0d0e21e 6696
09bef843
SB
6697=item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
6698
be771a83
GS
6699(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
6700an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
09bef843
SB
6701character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
6702character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
6703
f1991046
GS
6704=item Unterminated compressed integer
6705
6706(F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
6707compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
6708See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6709
6f2d7fc9
FC
6710=item Unterminated delimiter for here document
6711
6712(F) This message occurs when a here document label has an initial
6713quotation mark but the final quotation mark is missing. Perhaps
6714you wrote:
6715
6716 <<"foo
6717
6718instead of:
6719
6720 <<"foo"
6721
e0e4a6e3 6722=item Unterminated \g... pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
779fedd7 6723
e0e4a6e3 6724=item Unterminated \g{...} pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2bf803e2 6725
5364049c
KW
6726(F) In a regular expression, you had a C<\g> that wasn't followed by a
6727proper group reference. In the case of C<\g{>, the closing brace is
6728missing; otherwise the C<\g> must be followed by an integer. Fix the
6729pattern and retry.
e2e6a0f1 6730
6df41af2 6731=item Unterminated <> operator
09bef843 6732
6df41af2 6733(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
6734a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
6735not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
6736earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
09bef843 6737
e0e4a6e3
FC
6738=item Unterminated verb pattern argument in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6739m/%s/
905fe053
FC
6740
6741(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB:ARG)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 6742the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 6743
e0e4a6e3 6744=item Unterminated verb pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
905fe053
FC
6745
6746(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 6747the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 6748
6df41af2 6749=item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
a0d0e21e 6750
be771a83
GS
6751(W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
6752still valid when C<untie> was called.
a0d0e21e 6753
8e11cd2b
JC
6754=item Usage: POSIX::%s(%s)
6755
6756(F) You called a POSIX function with incorrect arguments.
6757See L<POSIX/FUNCTIONS> for more information.
6758
6759=item Usage: Win32::%s(%s)
6760
6761(F) You called a Win32 function with incorrect arguments.
6762See L<Win32> for more information.
6763
89474f50
FC
6764=item $[ used in %s (did you mean $] ?)
6765
6766(W syntax) You used C<$[> in a comparison, such as:
6767
6768 if ($[ > 5.006) {
6769 ...
6770 }
6771
6772You probably meant to use C<$]> instead. C<$[> is the base for indexing
6773arrays. C<$]> is the Perl version number in decimal.
6774
6da34ecb
FC
6775=item Use "%s" instead of "%s"
6776
6777(F) The second listed construct is no longer legal. Use the first one
6778instead.
6779
8fe85e3f
FC
6780=item Useless assignment to a temporary
6781
6782(W misc) You assigned to an lvalue subroutine, but what
6783the subroutine returned was a temporary scalar about to
6784be discarded, so the assignment had no effect.
6785
e0e4a6e3
FC
6786=item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex; marked by
6787S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 6788
96ebfdd7
RK
6789(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
6790meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 6791
96ebfdd7 6792 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
6793
6794must be written as
6795
96ebfdd7 6796 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5 6797
6e8a73f2 6798The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9e3ec65c 6799discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 6800
b4581f09
JH
6801=item Useless localization of %s
6802
6903afa2
FC
6803(W syntax) The localization of lvalues such as C<local($x=10)> is legal,
6804but in fact the local() currently has no effect. This may change at
b4581f09
JH
6805some point in the future, but in the meantime such code is discouraged.
6806
e0e4a6e3
FC
6807=item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6808m/%s/
9d1d55b5 6809
96ebfdd7
RK
6810(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
6811meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 6812
96ebfdd7 6813 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
6814
6815must be written as
6816
96ebfdd7 6817 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5 6818
6e8a73f2 6819The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9e3ec65c 6820discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 6821
3108f4df
FC
6822=item Useless use of attribute "const"
6823
796b6530 6824(W misc) The C<const> attribute has no effect except
3108f4df
FC
6825on anonymous closure prototypes. You applied it to
6826a subroutine via L<attributes.pm|attributes>. This is only useful
6827inside an attribute handler for an anonymous subroutine.
6828
b08e453b
RB
6829=item Useless use of /d modifier in transliteration operator
6830
6831(W misc) You have used the /d modifier where the searchlist has the
6903afa2 6832same length as the replacelist. See L<perlop> for more information
b08e453b
RB
6833about the /d modifier.
6834
820438b1
FC
6835=item Useless use of \E
6836
6837(W misc) You have a \E in a double-quotish string without a C<\U>,
6838C<\L> or C<\Q> preceding it.
6839
4fa6dd16
KW
6840=item Useless use of greediness modifier '%c' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6841
6842(W regexp) You specified something like these:
6843
6844 qr/a{3}?/
6845 qr/b{1,1}+/
6846
6847The C<"?"> and C<"+"> don't have any effect, as they modify whether to
6848match more or fewer when there is a choice, and by specifying to match
6849exactly a given numer, there is no room left for a choice.
6850
6df41af2 6851=item Useless use of %s in void context
a0d0e21e 6852
75b44862 6853(W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
be771a83
GS
6854nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
6855value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
6856often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
6857to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
6858get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
6859said
a0d0e21e 6860
6df41af2 6861 $one, $two = 1, 2;
748a9306 6862
6df41af2
GS
6863when you meant to say
6864
6865 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
6866
6867Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
6868reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
6869example, if you say
6870
6871 $array = (1,2);
6872
6873when you should have said
6874
6875 $array = [1,2];
6876
6877The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
6878while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
6879a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
6880throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
6881L<perlref> for more on this.
6882
65191a1e
BS
6883This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
6884since they are often used in statements like
6885
4358a253 6886 1 while sub_with_side_effects();
65191a1e
BS
6887
6888String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
6889about.
6890
e0e4a6e3 6891=item Useless use of (?-p) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6892
6893(W regexp) The C<p> modifier cannot be turned off once set. Trying to do
6894so is futile.
6895
6df41af2
GS
6896=item Useless use of "re" pragma
6897
6903afa2 6898(W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
6df41af2 6899
a801c63c
RGS
6900=item Useless use of sort in scalar context
6901
6902(W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
6903
6904 my $x = sort @y;
6905
6906This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
6907
de4864e4
JH
6908=item Useless use of %s with no values
6909
f87c3213 6910(W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
6903afa2
FC
6911apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
6912usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
de4864e4 6913possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
6903afa2 6914if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
de4864e4
JH
6915you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
6916
6df41af2
GS
6917=item "use" not allowed in expression
6918
be771a83
GS
6919(F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
6920returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
748a9306 6921
36b2db7e
FC
6922=item Use of assignment to $[ is deprecated
6923
6924(D deprecated) The C<$[> variable (index of the first element in an array)
6903afa2 6925is deprecated. See L<perlvar/"$[">.
36b2db7e 6926
e5aa3f0b 6927=item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is deprecated. Its use will be fatal in Perl 5.28
4633a7c4 6928
8ab8f082 6929(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted
1b303a7d
FC
6930form if you wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the
6931here-document.
83ce3e12 6932
e5aa3f0b
A
6933Use of a bare terminator was deprecated in Perl 5.000, and
6934will be a fatal error in Perl 5.28.
6935
64e578a2
MJD
6936=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
6937
6938(W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
6939modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
6940
4ac733c9
MJD
6941=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
6942
6943(W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
6944use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
6945used. (This may change in the future.)
6946
fcdb3ac1 6947=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
6948
6949(D deprecated) You used a code point that will not be allowed in a
6950future perl version, because it is too large. Unicode only allows code
6951points up to 0x10FFFF, but Perl allows much larger ones. However, the
6952largest possible ones break the perl interpreter in some constructs,
6953including causing it to hang in a few cases. The known problem areas
6954are in C<tr///>, regular expression pattern matching using quantifiers,
904cefa8
KW
6955as quote delimiters in C<qI<X>...I<X>> (where I<X> is the C<chr()> of a large
6956code point), and as the upper limits in loops.
6957There may be other breakages as well. If you get this warning, and
6958things aren't working correctly, you probably have found one of these.
2d212e86
KW
6959
6960If your code is to run on various platforms, keep in mind that the upper
6961limit depends on the platform. It is much larger on 64-bit word sizes
6962than 32-bit ones.
6963
fcdb3ac1
A
6964The use of out of range code points was deprecated in Perl 5.24, and
6965it will be a fatal error in Perl 5.28.
6966
6ef4f8b7 6967=item Use of comma-less variable list is deprecated. Its use will be fatal in Perl 5.28
591f5ca2
FC
6968
6969(D deprecated) The values you give to a format should be
6970separated by commas, not just aligned on a line.
6971
6ef4f8b7
A
6972This usage will be fatal in Perl 5.28.
6973
675fa9ff
FC
6974=item Use of each() on hash after insertion without resetting hash iterator results in undefined behavior
6975
f26c79ba
FC
6976(S internal) The behavior of C<each()> after insertion is undefined;
6977it may skip items, or visit items more than once. Consider using
6978C<keys()> instead of C<each()>.
675fa9ff 6979
5585e758 6980=item Infinite recursion via empty pattern
794826f4
YO
6981
6982(F) You tried to use the empty pattern inside of a regex code block,
5585e758
YO
6983for instance C</(?{ s!!! })/>, which resulted in re-executing
6984the same pattern, which is an infinite loop which is broken by
6985throwing an exception.
794826f4 6986
2dc78664 6987=item Use of := for an empty attribute list is not allowed
036e1e65 6988
2dc78664
NC
6989(F) The construction C<my $x := 42> used to parse as equivalent to
6990C<my $x : = 42> (applying an empty attribute list to C<$x>).
6991This construct was deprecated in 5.12.0, and has now been made a syntax
6992error, so C<:=> can be reclaimed as a new operator in the future.
6993
6994If you need an empty attribute list, for example in a code generator, add
6995a space before the C<=>.
036e1e65 6996
fafdadbd
KW
6997=item Use of %s for non-UTF-8 locale is wrong. Assuming a UTF-8 locale
6998
6999(W locale) You are matching a regular expression using locale rules,
7000and the specified construct was encountered. This construct is only
7001valid for UTF-8 locales, which the current locale isn't. This doesn't
7002make sense. Perl will continue, assuming a Unicode (UTF-8) locale, but
7003the results are likely to be wrong.
7004
b6c83531 7005=item Use of freed value in iteration
2f7da168 7006
b6c83531
JH
7007(F) Perhaps you modified the iterated array within the loop?
7008This error is typically caused by code like the following:
2f7da168
RK
7009
7010 @a = (3,4);
7011 @a = () for (1,2,@a);
7012
7013You are not supposed to modify arrays while they are being iterated over.
7014For speed and efficiency reasons, Perl internally does not do full
7015reference-counting of iterated items, hence deleting such an item in the
7016middle of an iteration causes Perl to see a freed value.
7017
96ebfdd7 7018=item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
35ae6b54 7019
96ebfdd7
RK
7020(W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
7021operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
7022repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
35ae6b54 7023
dc6e8de0 7024=item Use of "goto" to jump into a construct is deprecated
0b98bec9
RGS
7025
7026(D deprecated) Using C<goto> to jump from an outer scope into an inner
7027scope is deprecated and should be avoided.
7028
dc6e8de0 7029This was deprecated in Perl 5.12.
9fc8eee0 7030
d9d53e86 7031=item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated. This will be fatal in Perl 5.28
dc848c6f 7032
1da25648
FC
7033(D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD>
7034subroutines are looked up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy)
7035even when the subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain
7036functions (e.g. C<Foo::bar()>), not as methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or
7037C<< $obj->bar() >>).
dc848c6f 7038
be771a83
GS
7039This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup only for
7040methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base of existing
7041code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl
7042currently issues an optional warning when non-methods use inherited
7043C<AUTOLOAD>s.
dc848c6f 7044
7045The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
be771a83
GS
7046non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used
7047to depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class
7048named C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during
7049startup.
dc848c6f 7050
be771a83
GS
7051In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);>
7052you should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
7b8d334a 7053C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
a23209c7 7054
d9d53e86
A
7055This feature was deprecated in Perl 5.004, and will be fatal in Perl 5.28.
7056
6df41af2
GS
7057=item Use of %s in printf format not supported
7058
7059(F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
7060only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
7061
5840701a 7062=item Use of -l on filehandle%s
5a7abfcc
FC
7063
7064(W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
7065it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
7066The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
7067
1f1cc344 7068=item Use of reference "%s" as array index
d804643f 7069
77b96956 7070(W misc) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
1f1cc344
JH
7071isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
7072to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
d804643f 7073
64977eb6 7074If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
1f1cc344 7075C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
54e0f05c 7076however, because you can overload the numification and stringification
c69ca1d4 7077operators and then you presumably know what you are doing.
d804643f 7078
4055dbce
RS
7079=item Use of state $_ is experimental
7080
7081(S experimental::lexical_topic) Lexical $_ is an experimental feature and
7082its behavior may change or even be removed in any future release of perl.
7083See the explanation under L<perlvar/$_>.
7084
87e05d1a 7085=item Use of strings with code points over 0xFF as arguments to %s
ecbcbef0 7086operator is deprecated. This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.28
87e05d1a
KW
7087
7088(D deprecated) You tried to use one of the string bitwise operators
7089(C<&> or C<|> or C<^> or C<~>) on a string containing a code point over
70900xFF. The string bitwise operators treat their operands as strings of
7091bytes, and values beyond 0xFF are nonsensical in this context.
7092
ecbcbef0
A
7093Such usage will be a fatal error in Perl 5.28.
7094
bbd7eb8a
RD
7095=item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
7096
159f47d9 7097(W taint, deprecated) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
bbd7eb8a
RD
7098arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
7099but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
7100arguments. See L<perlsec>.
7101
94749a5e 7102=item Use of unassigned code point or non-standalone grapheme for a
7cb258c1 7103delimiter will be a fatal error starting in Perl 5.30
94749a5e
KW
7104
7105(D deprecated)
7106A grapheme is what appears to a native-speaker of a language to be a
7107character. In Unicode (and hence Perl) a grapheme may actually be
7108several adjacent characters that together form a complete grapheme. For
7109example, there can be a base character, like "R" and an accent, like a
7110circumflex "^", that appear when displayed to be a single character with
7111the circumflex hovering over the "R". Perl currently allows things like
7112that circumflex to be delimiters of strings, patterns, I<etc>. When
7113displayed, the circumflex would look like it belongs to the character
7114just to the left of it. In order to move the language to be able to
7115accept graphemes as delimiters, we have to deprecate the use of
7116delimiters which aren't graphemes by themselves. Also, a delimiter must
7117already be assigned (or known to be never going to be assigned) to try
7118to future-proof code, for otherwise code that works today would fail to
7119compile if the currently unassigned delimiter ends up being something
7120that isn't a stand-alone grapheme. Because Unicode is never going to
7121assign
7122L<non-character code points|perlunicode/Noncharacter code points>, nor
7123L<code points that are above the legal Unicode maximum|
7124perlunicode/Beyond Unicode code points>, those can be delimiters, and
7125their use won't raise this warning.
7126
cc95b072 7127=item Use of uninitialized value%s
a0d0e21e 7128
be771a83
GS
7129(W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
7130defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
7131To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
a0d0e21e 7132
6903afa2
FC
7133To help you figure out what was undefined, perl will try to tell you
7134the name of the variable (if any) that was undefined. In some cases
7135it cannot do this, so it also tells you what operation you used the
7136undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your program
50a39ba4 7137and the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily appear
6903afa2
FC
7138literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is usually
7139optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to the
7140C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in
7141your program.
e5be4a53 7142
67cdf558
KW
7143=item "use re 'strict'" is experimental
7144
7145(S experimental::re_strict) The things that are different when a regular
7146expression pattern is compiled under C<'strict'> are subject to change
7147in future Perl releases in incompatible ways. This means that a pattern
7148that compiles today may not in a future Perl release. This warning is
7149to alert you to that risk.
7150
e0e4a6e3
FC
7151=item Use \x{...} for more than two hex characters in regex; marked by
7152S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
7153
7154(F) In a regular expression, you said something like
7155
7156 (?[ [ \xBEEF ] ])
7157
7158Perl isn't sure if you meant this
7159
7160 (?[ [ \x{BEEF} ] ])
7161
7162or if you meant this
7163
7164 (?[ [ \x{BE} E F ] ])
7165
7166You need to add either braces or blanks to disambiguate.
7167
6fbc9859 7168=item Using just the first character returned by \N{} in character class in
e0e4a6e3 7169regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ff3f963a 7170
f3ba6905
FC
7171(W regexp) Named Unicode character escapes C<(\N{...})> may return
7172a multi-character sequence. Even though a character class is
7173supposed to match just one character of input, perl will match
7174the whole thing correctly, except when the class is inverted
7175(C<[^...]>), or the escape is the beginning or final end point of
7176a range. For these, what should happen isn't clear at all. In
7177these circumstances, Perl discards all but the first character
7178of the returned sequence, which is not likely what you want.
ff3f963a 7179
6e8a73f2 7180=item Using /u for '%s' instead of /%s in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
64935bc6
KW
7181
7182(W regexp) You used a Unicode boundary (C<\b{...}> or C<\B{...}>) in a
7183portion of a regular expression where the character set modifiers C</a>
7184or C</aa> are in effect. These two modifiers indicate an ASCII
0308b42c 7185interpretation, and this doesn't make sense for a Unicode defintion.
64935bc6
KW
7186The generated regular expression will compile so that the boundary uses
7187all of Unicode. No other portion of the regular expression is affected.
7188
c794c51b
FC
7189=item Using !~ with %s doesn't make sense
7190
7191(F) Using the C<!~> operator with C<s///r>, C<tr///r> or C<y///r> is
0f44b2a5 7192currently reserved for future use, as the exact behavior has not
6903afa2 7193been decided. (Simply returning the boolean opposite of the
c794c51b 7194modified string is usually not particularly useful.)
0876b9a0 7195
949cf498
KW
7196=item UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
7197
4c2e59a0 7198(S surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
949cf498
KW
7199not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
7200U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
7201internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
7202available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
7203problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
7204came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 7205off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9466bab6 7206
68dc0745 7207=item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
a6006777 7208
75b44862 7209(W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
be771a83
GS
7210C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
7211can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
7212false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
7213constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
7214C<defined> operator.
a6006777 7215
f675dbe5
CB
7216=item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
7217
be771a83
GS
7218(W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
7219%ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
7220longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
72211024 characters.
f675dbe5 7222
b5c19bd7 7223=item Variable "%s" is not available
44a8e56a 7224
b5c19bd7
DM
7225(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
7226attempting to capture an outer lexical that is not currently available.
6903afa2 7227This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the outer lexical may be
b5c19bd7
DM
7228declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has not yet been created.
7229(Remember that named subs are created at compile time, while anonymous
6903afa2 7230subs are created at run-time.) For example,
44a8e56a 7231
b5c19bd7 7232 sub { my $a; sub f { $a } }
44a8e56a 7233
b5c19bd7 7234At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current value of $a,
6903afa2 7235since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely,
b5c19bd7
DM
7236the following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by
7237now been created and is live:
be771a83 7238
b5c19bd7
DM
7239 sub { my $a; eval 'sub f { $a }' }->();
7240
7241The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a variable that has
7242gone out of scope, for example,
7243
7244 sub f {
7245 my $a;
7246 sub { eval '$a' }
7247 }
7248 f()->();
7249
1b303a7d
FC
7250Here, when the '$a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
7251being executed, so its $a is not available for capture.
44a8e56a 7252
b4581f09
JH
7253=item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
7254
120b0f81 7255(S misc) With "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable
413ff9f6 7256that you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
b4581f09
JH
7257something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
7258that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
7259front of your variable.
7260
aec0ef10 7261=item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex m/%s/
b4581f09
JH
7262
7263(F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
d0a29c36
KW
7264known at compile time. For positive lookbehind, you can use the C<\K>
7265regex construct as a way to get the equivalent functionality. See
a8f2f5fa 7266L<(?<=pattern) and \K in perlre|perlre/\K>.
d0a29c36
KW
7267
7268There are non-obvious Unicode rules under C</i> that can match variably,
7269but which you might not think could. For example, the substring C<"ss">
7270can match the single character LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S. There are
7271other sequences of ASCII characters that can match single ligature
7272characters, such as LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FFI matching C<qr/ffi/i>.
7273Starting in Perl v5.16, if you only care about ASCII matches, adding the
7274C</aa> modifier to the regex will exclude all these non-obvious matches,
7275thus getting rid of this message. You can also say C<S<use re qw(/aa)>>
7276to apply C</aa> to all regular expressions compiled within its scope.
7277See L<re>.
b4581f09
JH
7278
7279=item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
7280
b9cc85ad
FC
7281(W misc) A "my", "our" or "state" variable has been redeclared in the
7282current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the
7283previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note
7284that the earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope
20d33786 7285or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
b4581f09 7286
6df41af2
GS
7287=item Variable syntax
7288
7289(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
7290of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
7291Perl yourself.
7292
44a8e56a 7293=item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
7294
be771a83 7295(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
b5c19bd7 7296lexical variable defined in an outer named subroutine.
44a8e56a 7297
b5c19bd7 7298When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of
be771a83
GS
7299the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
7300call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
7301outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
7302longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
7303variable will no longer be shared.
44a8e56a 7304
44a8e56a 7305This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
7306anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
b5c19bd7 7307reference variables in outer subroutines are created, they
be771a83 7308are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
44a8e56a 7309
6651ba0b
FC
7310=item vector argument not supported with alpha versions
7311
8b6051f1 7312(S printf) The %vd (s)printf format does not support version objects
6651ba0b
FC
7313with alpha parts.
7314
e0e4a6e3
FC
7315=item Verb pattern '%s' has a mandatory argument in regex; marked by
7316S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1 7317
6903afa2
FC
7318(F) You used a verb pattern that requires an argument. Supply an
7319argument or check that you are using the right verb.
e2e6a0f1 7320
e0e4a6e3
FC
7321=item Verb pattern '%s' may not have an argument in regex; marked by
7322S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1 7323
6903afa2 7324(F) You used a verb pattern that is not allowed an argument. Remove the
e2e6a0f1
YO
7325argument or check that you are using the right verb.
7326
9c88bb56 7327=item Version control conflict marker
397c43d8
LM
7328
7329(F) The parser found a line starting with C<E<lt><<<<<<>,
d4e5761f 7330C<E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>>, or C<=======>. These may be left by a
397c43d8
LM
7331version control system to mark conflicts after a failed merge operation.
7332
084610c0
GS
7333=item Version number must be a constant number
7334
7335(P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
7336its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
7337the version number.
7338
808ee47e
SP
7339=item Version string '%s' contains invalid data; ignoring: '%s'
7340
32e998fd
RGS
7341(W misc) The version string contains invalid characters at the end, which
7342are being ignored.
808ee47e 7343
7e1af8bc 7344=item Warning: something's wrong
5f05dabc 7345
7346(W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
ec8bb14c 7347you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 7348
f86702cc 7349=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
a0d0e21e 7350
be771a83
GS
7351(S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
7352the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
7353space.
a0d0e21e 7354
96d7c888
FC
7355=item Warning: unable to close filehandle properly: %s
7356
7357=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly: %s
7358
ab7ca7ed
AP
7359(S io) There were errors during the implicit close() done on a filehandle
7360when its reference count reached zero while it was still open, e.g.:
cc4d3128
DM
7361
7362 {
7363 open my $fh, '>', $file or die "open: '$file': $!\n";
7364 print $fh $data or die "print: $!";
7365 } # implicit close here
7366
95032a5b
AP
7367Because various errors may only be detected by close() (e.g. buffering could
7368allow the C<print> in this example to return true even when the disk is full),
d4e5761f
FC
7369it is dangerous to ignore its result. So when it happens implicitly, perl
7370will signal errors by warning.
cc4d3128 7371
ab7ca7ed
AP
7372B<Prior to version 5.22.0, perl ignored such errors>, so the common idiom shown
7373above was liable to cause B<silent data loss>.
96d7c888 7374
5f05dabc 7375=item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
a0d0e21e 7376
be771a83
GS
7377(S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
7378looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
7379term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
7380function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
a0d0e21e
LW
7381
7382 rand + 5;
7383
7384you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
7385
7386 rand() + 5;
7387
7388but in actual fact, you got
7389
7390 rand(+5);
7391
5f05dabc 7392So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
a0d0e21e 7393
0f539b13
BF
7394=item when is experimental
7395
7396(S experimental::smartmatch) C<when> depends on smartmatch, which is
7397experimental. Additionally, it has several special cases that may
7398not be immediately obvious, and their behavior may change or
675fa9ff
FC
7399even be removed in any future release of perl. See the explanation
7400under L<perlsyn/Experimental Details on given and when>.
0f539b13 7401
4b3603a4
JH
7402=item Wide character in %s
7403
c8f79457 7404(S utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting
cd28123a
JH
7405one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print). The easiest
7406way to quiet this warning is simply to add the C<:utf8> layer to the
7407output, e.g. C<binmode STDOUT, ':utf8'>. Another way to turn off the
7408warning is to add C<no warnings 'utf8';> but that is often closer to
7409cheating. In general, you are supposed to explicitly mark the
7410filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
4b3603a4 7411
613abc6d
KW
7412=item Wide character (U+%X) in %s
7413
7414(W locale) While in a single-byte locale (I<i.e.>, a non-UTF-8
7415one), a multi-byte character was encountered. Perl considers this
50ea4745 7416character to be the specified Unicode code point. Combining non-UTF-8
613abc6d
KW
7417locales and Unicode is dangerous. Almost certainly some characters
7418will have two different representations. For example, in the ISO 8859-7
7419(Greek) locale, the code point 0xC3 represents a Capital Gamma. But so
7420also does 0x393. This will make string comparisons unreliable.
7421
7422You likely need to figure out how this multi-byte character got mixed up
7423with your single-byte locale (or perhaps you thought you had a UTF-8
7424locale, but Perl disagrees).
7425
49704364
WL
7426=item Within []-length '%c' not allowed
7427
fa816bf3
FC
7428(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]>
7429only if C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes that
7430can be determined from the template alone. This is not possible if
7431it contains any of the codes @, /, U, u, w or a *-length. Redesign
7432the template.
49704364 7433
74d1b2e4
FC
7434=item %s() with negative argument
7435
7436(S misc) Certain operations make no sense with negative arguments.
7437Warning is given and the operation is not done.
7438
9a7dcd9c 7439=item write() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 7440
be771a83 7441(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 7442before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 7443
9ae3ac1a 7444=item %s "\x%X" does not map to Unicode
b4581f09 7445
27f95370
FC
7446(S utf8) When reading in different encodings, Perl tries to
7447map everything into Unicode characters. The bytes you read
7448in are not legal in this encoding. For example
b4581f09
JH
7449
7450 utf8 "\xE4" does not map to Unicode
7451
7452if you try to read in the a-diaereses Latin-1 as UTF-8.
7453
49704364 7454=item 'X' outside of string
a0d0e21e 7455
49704364
WL
7456(F) You had a (un)pack template that specified a relative position before
7457the beginning of the string being (un)packed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
a0d0e21e 7458
49704364 7459=item 'x' outside of string in unpack
a0d0e21e
LW
7460
7461(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
7462the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
7463
a0d0e21e
LW
7464=item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
7465
5f05dabc 7466(F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
a0d0e21e 7467sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
1b1f1335 7468about what you want. Your best bet is to put a setuid C wrapper around
496a33f5 7469your script.
a0d0e21e
LW
7470
7471=item You need to quote "%s"
7472
be771a83
GS
7473(W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
7474Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
7475which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
7476assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
7477what you want, put an & in front.)
a0d0e21e 7478
6cfd5ea7
JH
7479=item Your random numbers are not that random
7480
50a39ba4 7481(F) When trying to initialize the random seed for hashes, Perl could
6cfd5ea7
JH
7482not get any randomness out of your system. This usually indicates
7483Something Very Wrong.
7484
e0e4a6e3 7485=item Zero length \N{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
8a5a438d 7486
f3ba6905 7487(F) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a zero-length
8a5a438d 7488sequence. Such an escape was used in an extended character class, i.e.
fe0a3646
KW
7489C<(?[...])>, or under C<use re 'strict'>, which is not permitted. Check
7490that the correct escape has been used, and the correct charnames handler
7491is in scope. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
7492expression the problem was discovered.
8a5a438d 7493
a0d0e21e
LW
7494=back
7495
00eb3f2b
RGS
7496=head1 SEE ALSO
7497
44ecbbd8 7498L<warnings>, L<diagnostics>.
00eb3f2b 7499
56e90b21 7500=cut