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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
de42a5a9 53=item Allocation too large: %x
a0d0e21e 54
6df41af2 55(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
a0d0e21e 56
04f74579 57=item '%c' allowed only after types %s in %s
ef54e1a4 58
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59(F) The modifiers '!', '<' and '>' are allowed in pack() or unpack() only
60after certain types. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
ef54e1a4 61
6df41af2 62=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
43192e07 63
75b44862 64(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
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65keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
66one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
67subroutine is not imported.
43192e07 68
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69To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
70before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
71Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
72imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
43192e07 73
6df41af2 74To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
496a33f5 75on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
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76to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
77L<attributes>).
43192e07 78
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79=item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
80
81(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
82all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
83first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
84C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
85
6df41af2 86=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
43192e07 87
7c7af292 88(S ambiguous) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
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89you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
90a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
a0d0e21e 91
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92=item Ambiguous use of -%s resolved as -&%s()
93
94(S ambiguous) You wrote something like C<-foo>, which might be the
95string C<"-foo">, or a call to the function C<foo>, negated. If you meant
96the string, just write C<"-foo">. If you meant the function call,
97write C<-foo()>.
98
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99=item Ambiguous use of %c resolved as operator %c
100
7c7af292 101(S ambiguous) C<%>, C<&>, and C<*> are both infix operators (modulus,
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102bitwise and, and multiplication) I<and> initial special characters
103(denoting hashes, subroutines and typeglobs), and you said something
104like C<*foo * foo> that might be interpreted as either of them. We
105assumed you meant the infix operator, but please try to make it more
106clear -- in the example given, you might write C<*foo * foo()> if you
107really meant to multiply a glob by the result of calling a function.
d8225693 108
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109=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s} resolved to %c%s
110
111(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<@{foo}>, which might be
112asking for the variable C<@foo>, or it might be calling a function
113named foo, and dereferencing it as an array reference. If you wanted
1cecf2c0 114the variable, you can just write C<@foo>. If you wanted to call the
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115function, write C<@{foo()}> ... or you could just not have a variable
116and a function with the same name, and save yourself a lot of trouble.
117
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118=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s[...]} resolved to %c%s[...]
119
120=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s{...}} resolved to %c%s{...}
4da60377 121
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122(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<${foo[2]}> (where foo represents
123the name of a Perl keyword), which might be looking for element number
1242 of the array named C<@foo>, in which case please write C<$foo[2]>, or you
125might have meant to pass an anonymous arrayref to the function named
126foo, and then do a scalar deref on the value it returns. If you meant
127that, write C<${foo([2])}>.
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128
129In regular expressions, the C<${foo[2]}> syntax is sometimes necessary
130to disambiguate between array subscripts and character classes.
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131C</$length[2345]/>, for instance, will be interpreted as C<$length> followed
132by the character class C<[2345]>. If an array subscript is what you
133want, you can avoid the warning by changing C</${length[2345]}/> to the
134unsightly C</${\$length[2345]}/>, by renaming your array to something
135that does not coincide with a built-in keyword, or by simply turning
136off warnings with C<no warnings 'ambiguous';>.
4da60377 137
6df41af2 138=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
a0d0e21e 139
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140(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
141redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
142redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
c9f97d15 143
6df41af2 144=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
1028017a 145
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146(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
147redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
148into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
149though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
150which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
1028017a 151
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152 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
153 while (<STDIN>) {
154 print;
155 print OUT;
156 }
157 close OUT;
c9f97d15 158
6df41af2 159=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
eb6e2d6f 160
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161(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
162transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
be771a83 163one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
ac036724 164a scalar value (the length of an array, or the population info of a
165hash) and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
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166you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
167alternatives.
eb6e2d6f 168
6df41af2 169=item Arg too short for msgsnd
76cd736e 170
6df41af2 171(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
76cd736e 172
f86702cc 173=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 174
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175(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
176that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
177will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
a0d0e21e 178
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179=item Argument list not closed for PerlIO layer "%s"
180
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181(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O
182system you forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers
183take care of transforming data between external and internal
184representations.) Perl stopped parsing the layer list at this
185point and did not attempt to push this layer. If your program
186didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the
187result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
b4581f09 188
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189=item Argument "%s" treated as 0 in increment (++)
190
191(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to the C<++>
192operator which expects either a number or a string matching
193C</^[a-zA-Z]*[0-9]*\z/>. See L<perlop/Auto-increment and
194Auto-decrement> for details.
195
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196=item assertion botched: %s
197
21b5e840 198(X) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
a0d0e21e 199
0eacef8e 200=item Assertion %s failed: file "%s", line %d
a0d0e21e 201
21b5e840 202(X) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
a0d0e21e 203
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204=item Assigning non-zero to $[ is no longer possible
205
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206(F) When the "array_base" feature is disabled (e.g., under C<use v5.16;>)
207the special variable C<$[>, which is deprecated, is now a fixed zero value.
82122228 208
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209=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
210
211(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
212must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
213know which context to supply to the right side.
214
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215=item <> at require-statement should be quotes
216
217(F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
218C<require 'file'>.
219
2393f1b9 220=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
1b1f1335 221
49293501 222(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
2393f1b9 223the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
49293501 224
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225=item Attempt to bless into a freed package
226
227(F) You wrote C<bless $foo> with one argument after somehow causing
228the current package to be freed. Perl cannot figure out what to
229do, so it throws up in hands in despair.
230
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231=item Attempt to bless into a reference
232
233(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
57dedab9 234the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
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235supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
236
237 bless $self, $proto;
238
239when you intended
240
241 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
242
243If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
244of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
245example by:
246
247 bless $self, "$proto";
248
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249=item Attempt to clear deleted array
250
251(S debugging) An array was assigned to when it was being freed.
252Freed values are not supposed to be visible to Perl code. This
253can also happen if XS code calls C<av_clear> from a custom magic
254callback on the array.
255
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256=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
257
258(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
259which is not in its key set.
260
261=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
262
263(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
264declared readonly from a restricted hash.
265
de42a5a9 266=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%x
a0d0e21e 267
f84fe999 268(S internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
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269that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
270outside any of those arenas.
a0d0e21e 271
12578ffb 272=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string '%s'%s
bbce6d69 273
f84fe999 274(S internal) Perl maintains a reference-counted internal table of
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275strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
276strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
277of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
bbce6d69 278
7d5b40b4 279=item Attempt to free temp prematurely: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 280
f84fe999 281(S debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
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282free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
283SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
284free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
285try to free it.
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286
287=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
288
f84fe999 289(S internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
a0d0e21e 290
7d5b40b4 291=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 292
8f7e4d2c 293(S internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
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294see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
295earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
296This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
297that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
298mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
299corrupted.
a0d0e21e 300
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301=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
302
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303(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
304function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
305means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
306invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
307literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
308avoid this warning.
84902520 309
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310=item Attempt to reload %s aborted.
311
312(F) You tried to load a file with C<use> or C<require> that failed to
313compile once already. Perl will not try to compile this file again
314unless you delete its entry from %INC. See L<perlfunc/require> and
315L<perlvar/%INC>.
316
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317=item Attempt to set length of freed array
318
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319(W misc) You tried to set the length of an array which has
320been freed. You can do this by storing a reference to the
321scalar representing the last index of an array and later
322assigning through that reference. For example
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323
324 $r = do {my @a; \$#a};
325 $$r = 503
326
b7a902f4 327=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
328
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329(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
330used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
331dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 332
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333=item Attribute "locked" is deprecated
334
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335(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragma to modify the
336"locked" attribute on a code reference. The :locked attribute is
337obsolete, has had no effect since 5005 threads were removed, and
338will be removed in a future release of Perl 5.
c32124fe 339
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340=item Attribute prototype(%s) discards earlier prototype attribute in same sub
341
342(W misc) A sub was declared as sub foo : prototype(A) : prototype(B) {}, for
343example. Since each sub can only have one prototype, the earlier
344declaration(s) are discarded while the last one is applied.
345
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346=item Attribute "unique" is deprecated
347
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348(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragma to modify
349the "unique" attribute on an array, hash or scalar reference.
350The :unique attribute has had no effect since Perl 5.8.8, and
351will be removed in a future release of Perl 5.
f1a3ce43 352
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353=item av_reify called on tied array
354
355(S debugging) This indicates that something went wrong and Perl got I<very>
356confused about C<@_> or C<@DB::args> being tied.
357
de42a5a9 358=item Bad arg length for %s, is %u, should be %d
a0d0e21e 359
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360(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
361or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 362S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
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363S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
364
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365=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
366
496a33f5 367(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
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368substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
369most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
370
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371=item Bad filehandle: %s
372
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373(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
374symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
375open(), or did it in another package.
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376
377=item Bad free() ignored
378
be771a83 379(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
fa816bf3 380been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 381setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 382
9ea8bc6d 383This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
6903afa2 384dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
be771a83 385which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 386
aa689395 387=item Bad hash
388
389(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
390
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391=item Badly placed ()'s
392
393(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
394of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
395Perl yourself.
396
a7cb8dae 397=item Bad name after %s
a0d0e21e 398
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399(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
400didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
401of quotes, so
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402
403 $var = 'myvar';
404 $sym = mypack::$var;
405
406is not the same as
407
408 $var = 'myvar';
409 $sym = "mypack::$var";
410
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411=item Bad plugin affecting keyword '%s'
412
413(F) An extension using the keyword plugin mechanism violated the
414plugin API.
415
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416=item Bad realloc() ignored
417
6903afa2
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418(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that
419had never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can
420be disabled by setting the environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 421
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422=item Bad symbol for array
423
424(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
425wasn't a symbol table entry.
426
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427=item Bad symbol for dirhandle
428
429(P) An internal request asked to add a dirhandle entry to something
430that wasn't a symbol table entry.
431
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432=item Bad symbol for filehandle
433
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434(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
435that wasn't a symbol table entry.
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436
437=item Bad symbol for hash
438
439(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
440wasn't a symbol table entry.
441
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442=item Bareword found in conditional
443
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444(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
445conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
446of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
34d09196
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447
448 open FOO || die;
449
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450It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
451a bareword:
34d09196
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452
453 use constant TYPO => 1;
454 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
455
456The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
457
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458=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
459
460(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
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461subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
462symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
6df41af2
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463
464=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
465
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466(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
467compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
468you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 469
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470=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
471
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472(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
473subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
474exited.
a0d0e21e 475
68dc0745 476=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
477
478(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
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479implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
480occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
481be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
482depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 483
c782d7ee 484=item \%d better written as $%d
6df41af2 485
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486(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
487The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
488substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
489because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
490there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 491
252aa082
JH
492=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
493
e476b1b5 494(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
495(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
496L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 497
69282e91 498=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 499
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500(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
501check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 502
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503=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
504
505(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
4dcecea4 506Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 507
c5a0f51a
JH
508=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
509
e476b1b5 510(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 511
043c750c 512=item Bizarre copy of %s
4633a7c4 513
be771a83 514(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
ab830aa0 515copiable.
4633a7c4 516
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517=item Bizarre SvTYPE [%d]
518
434f489b 519(P) When starting a new thread or returning values from a thread, Perl
5a25739d
FC
520encountered an invalid data type.
521
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522=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
523
be771a83
GS
524(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
525iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
526which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 527
a0d0e21e
LW
528=item Callback called exit
529
4929bf7b 530(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
a0d0e21e
LW
531exited by calling exit.
532
6df41af2 533=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 534
be771a83
GS
535(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
536parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
537that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
538early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
539subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
540checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
541function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
542the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 543
56feebad
FC
544=item Calling POSIX::%s() is deprecated
545
546(D deprecated) You called a function whose use is deprecated. See
547the function's name in L<POSIX> for details.
548
49704364 549=item Cannot compress integer in pack
0258719b
NC
550
551(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress. The BER
552compressed integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you
553attempted to compress Infinity or a very large number (> 1e308).
554See L<perlfunc/pack>.
555
49704364 556=item Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
0258719b
NC
557
558(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
559format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
560
5c1f4d79
NC
561=item Cannot convert a reference to %s to typeglob
562
6903afa2
FC
563(F) You manipulated Perl's symbol table directly, stored a reference
564in it, then tried to access that symbol via conventional Perl syntax.
565The access triggers Perl to autovivify that typeglob, but it there is
566no legal conversion from that type of reference to a typeglob.
5c1f4d79 567
4040665a 568=item Cannot copy to %s
ba2fdce6
NC
569
570(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy a value to an internal type that cannot
4dcecea4 571be directly assigned to.
ba2fdce6 572
b5d97229
RGS
573=item Cannot find encoding "%s"
574
575(S io) You tried to apply an encoding that did not exist to a filehandle,
576either with open() or binmode().
577
7355df7e
FC
578=item Cannot set tied @DB::args
579
580(F) C<caller> tried to set C<@DB::args>, but found it tied. Tying C<@DB::args>
581is not supported. (Before this error was added, it used to crash.)
582
ce65bc73
FC
583=item Cannot tie unreifiable array
584
585(P) You somehow managed to call C<tie> on an array that does not
586keep a reference count on its arguments and cannot be made to
587do so. Such arrays are not even supposed to be accessible to
588Perl code, but are only used internally.
589
96ebfdd7
RK
590=item Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
591
592(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
593integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
594to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
595
a0d0e21e
LW
596=item Can't bless non-reference value
597
598(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
599encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
600
dc57907a
RGS
601=item Can't "break" in a loop topicalizer
602
0d863452 603(F) You called C<break>, but you're in a C<foreach> block rather than
6903afa2 604a C<given> block. You probably meant to use C<next> or C<last>.
0d863452
RH
605
606=item Can't "break" outside a given block
dc57907a 607
0d863452
RH
608(F) You called C<break>, but you're not inside a C<given> block.
609
6df41af2
GS
610=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
611
612(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
613object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
614like this will reproduce the error:
6df41af2
GS
615
616 $BADREF = undef;
617 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
618 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
619
a0d0e21e
LW
620=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
621
54310121 622(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
be771a83
GS
623ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
624didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
625object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
626
627=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
628
629(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
630object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
631defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
72b5445b
GS
632Something like this will reproduce the error:
633
634 $BADREF = 42;
635 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
636 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
637
dfe378f1
FC
638=item Can't call mro_isa_changed_in() on anonymous symbol table
639
640(P) Perl got confused as to whether a hash was a plain hash or a
641symbol table hash when trying to update @ISA caches.
642
2bf7e7b2
FC
643=item Can't call mro_method_changed_in() on anonymous symbol table
644
645(F) An XS module tried to call C<mro_method_changed_in> on a hash that was
646not attached to the symbol table.
647
a0d0e21e
LW
648=item Can't chdir to %s
649
f703fc96 650(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but F</foo/bar> is not a directory
a0d0e21e
LW
651that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
652
0545a864 653=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
104d25b7 654
be771a83
GS
655(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
656nosuid.
104d25b7 657
22e74366 658=item Can't coerce %s to %s in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
659
660(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 661(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
a0d0e21e
LW
662say things like:
663
664 *foo += 1;
665
666You CAN say
667
668 $foo = *foo;
669 $foo += 1;
670
671but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
672
0d863452 673=item Can't "continue" outside a when block
dc57907a 674
0d863452
RH
675(F) You called C<continue>, but you're not inside a C<when>
676or C<default> block.
677
a0d0e21e
LW
678=item Can't create pipe mailbox
679
be771a83
GS
680(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
681quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 682
eb64745e
GS
683=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
684
30c282f6
NC
685(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my", "our" or
686"state" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 687
fc7debfb
FC
688=item Can't "default" outside a topicalizer
689
690(F) You have used a C<default> block that is neither inside a
691C<foreach> loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is
692issued on exit from the C<default> block, so you won't get the
693error if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
694
6df41af2
GS
695=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
696
be771a83 697(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
df7075a8 698a file in /dev, a FIFO or an uneditable directory. The file was ignored.
6df41af2 699
a0d0e21e
LW
700=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
701
be771a83
GS
702(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
703reason.
a0d0e21e 704
54310121 705=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
a0d0e21e 706
be771a83
GS
707(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
708reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
709C<-i.bak>, or some such.
a0d0e21e 710
10f9c03d 711=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
a0d0e21e 712
e476b1b5 713(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
10f9c03d
CK
714characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
715inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
a0d0e21e 716
a0d0e21e
LW
717=item Can't do waitpid with flags
718
be771a83
GS
719(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
720waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 721
a0d0e21e
LW
722=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
723
be771a83
GS
724(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
725point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
726line.
a0d0e21e 727
1109a392
MHM
728=item Can't %s %s-endian %ss on this platform
729
730(F) Your platform's byte-order is neither big-endian nor little-endian,
731or it has a very strange pointer size. Packing and unpacking big- or
732little-endian floating point values and pointers may not be possible.
733See L<perlfunc/pack>.
734
a0d0e21e
LW
735=item Can't exec "%s": %s
736
d1be9408 737(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
738named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
739permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
740C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
741architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
742can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
743#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
744
745=item Can't exec %s
746
be771a83
GS
747(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
748that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
749need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
750
751=item Can't execute %s
752
be771a83
GS
753(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
754found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 755
6df41af2 756=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 757
be771a83
GS
758(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
759is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2 760
56ca2fc0
JH
761=item Can't find %s character property "%s"
762
763(F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
6903afa2 764could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property?
e1b711da 765See L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
9b73678d 766for a complete list of available official properties.
56ca2fc0 767
6df41af2
GS
768=item Can't find label %s
769
be771a83
GS
770(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
771possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
772
773=item Can't find %s on PATH
774
be771a83
GS
775(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
776found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 777
6df41af2 778=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 779
be771a83
GS
780(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
781found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
782script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e
LW
783
784=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
785
be771a83
GS
786(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
787that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
788nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 789
fb73857a 790 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
791
97b3d10f 792If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have
b6b8cb97
FC
793included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag or there
794may not be a linebreak after it. A good programmer's editor will have
795a way to help you find these characters (or lack of characters). See
796L<perlop> for the full details on here-documents.
a0d0e21e 797
660a4616
TS
798=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s"
799
5f8ad6b6
FC
800(F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode
801property (for example C<\p{Lu}> matches all uppercase
fa816bf3 802letters). If you did mean to use a Unicode property, see
e1b711da 803L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
6903afa2 804for a complete list of available properties. If you didn't
fa816bf3
FC
805mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either by
806C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, or
5f8ad6b6 807until C<\E>).
660a4616 808
b3647a36 809=item Can't fork: %s
a0d0e21e 810
be771a83
GS
811(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
812pipeline.
a0d0e21e 813
b3647a36
SR
814=item Can't fork, trying again in 5 seconds
815
c973c02e 816(W pipe) A fork in a piped open failed with EAGAIN and will be retried
b3647a36
SR
817after five seconds.
818
748a9306
LW
819=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
820
be771a83
GS
821(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
822between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
823Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
824the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
825account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
826the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
2fe2bdfd 827the access-checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
be771a83
GS
828the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
829if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
830because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
2fe2bdfd
FC
831appears, the name lookup failed, and the access-checking routine gave up
832and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access-checking
be771a83
GS
833routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
834shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
835only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 836
a0d0e21e
LW
837=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
838
be771a83
GS
839(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
840pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
841
842=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
843
748a9306
LW
844(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
845mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 846
6df41af2 847=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 848
be771a83
GS
849(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
850loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
851
852=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
853
be771a83
GS
854(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
855a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
856you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
857See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 858
5a25739d
FC
859=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-%s
860
861(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
862"string" or block.
863
9850bf21 864=item Can't goto subroutine from a sort sub (or similar callback)
cd299c6e 865
9850bf21
RH
866(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of the
867comparison sub for a sort(), or from a similar callback (such
868as the reduce() function in List::Util).
869
6df41af2
GS
870=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
871
be771a83
GS
872(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
873subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
874cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
875routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 876
0b5b802d
GS
877=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
878
be771a83
GS
879(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
880signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
881signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
882processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
883situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
884may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 885
e2c0f81f
DG
886=item Can't kill a non-numeric process ID
887
888(F) Process identifiers must be (signed) integers. It is a fatal error to
889attempt to kill() an undefined, empty-string or otherwise non-numeric
890process identifier.
891
6df41af2 892=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 893
6df41af2 894(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
895except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
896block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
897block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
898usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
899inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
900L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 901
2c7d6b9c
RGS
902=item Can't linearize anonymous symbol table
903
904(F) Perl tried to calculate the method resolution order (MRO) of a
905package, but failed because the package stash has no name.
906
b8170e59
JB
907=item Can't load '%s' for module %s
908
6903afa2
FC
909(F) The module you tried to load failed to load a dynamic extension.
910This may either mean that you upgraded your version of perl to one
911that is incompatible with your old dynamic extensions (which is known
912to happen between major versions of perl), or (more likely) that your
913dynamic extension was built against an older version of the library
914that is installed on your system. You may need to rebuild your old
915dynamic extensions.
b8170e59 916
748a9306
LW
917=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
918
2ba9eb46 919(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
b7e4ecc1
FC
920lexical variable using "my" or "state". This is not allowed. If you
921want to localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with
922the package name.
748a9306 923
6df41af2 924=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 925
6df41af2
GS
926(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
927handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 928pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 929that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 930
ea071790 931=item Can't locate %s
ec889f3a 932
fa816bf3
FC
933(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be found.
934Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC, unless
935the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you need
936to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where the
937extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
be771a83
GS
938to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
939L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 940
6df41af2
GS
941=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
942
be771a83
GS
943(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
944autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
945are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
946the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 947
b8170e59
JB
948=item Can't locate loadable object for module %s in @INC
949
950(F) The module you loaded is trying to load an external library, like
d70d8e57 951for example, F<foo.so> or F<bar.dll>, but the L<DynaLoader> module was
b8170e59
JB
952unable to locate this library. See L<DynaLoader>.
953
a0d0e21e
LW
954=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
955
956(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
957functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 958method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
959
960=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
961
be771a83
GS
962(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
963doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 964
2f7da168
RK
965=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
966
967(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
968e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
969
f4ad53f4 970=item Can't make list assignment to %ENV on this system
3e3baf6d 971
be771a83
GS
972(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
973VMS.
3e3baf6d 974
cd40cd58
NC
975=item Can't make loaded symbols global on this platform while loading %s
976
ff9c1ae8 977(S) A module passed the flag 0x01 to DynaLoader::dl_load_file() to request
cd40cd58
NC
978that symbols from the stated file are made available globally within the
979process, but that functionality is not available on this platform. Whilst
980the module likely will still work, this may prevent the perl interpreter
981from loading other XS-based extensions which need to link directly to
982functions defined in the C or XS code in the stated file.
983
a0d0e21e
LW
984=item Can't modify %s in %s
985
be771a83
GS
986(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
987to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 988
54310121 989=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
a0d0e21e
LW
990
991(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
992a NULL.
993
6df41af2
GS
994=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
995
996(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
2fe2bdfd 997such. See L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
6df41af2 998
5f05dabc 999=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 1000
5f05dabc 1001(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
1002buffer.
1003
6df41af2
GS
1004=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
1005
1006(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
1007there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
1008count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
1009grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1010though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
1011once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 1012
a0d0e21e
LW
1013=item Can't open %s: %s
1014
c47ff5f1 1015(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e 1016filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
46fa9b26
FC
1017switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually
1018this is because you don't have read permission for a file which
1019you named on the command line.
1020
1021(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-e> switch, but F</dev/null> (or
1022your operating system's equivalent) could not be opened.
a0d0e21e 1023
9a869a14
RGS
1024=item Can't open a reference
1025
1026(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
2fe2bdfd 1027using the 3-arg open() syntax:
9a869a14
RGS
1028
1029 open FH, '>', $ref;
1030
1031but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
1032open is not supported.
1033
a0d0e21e
LW
1034=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
1035
be771a83
GS
1036(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
1037You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
1038as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
1039">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 1040
748a9306
LW
1041=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
1042
be771a83
GS
1043(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1044redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
1045the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1046
1047=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
1048
be771a83
GS
1049(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1050redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
1051command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
1052
1053=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
1054
be771a83
GS
1055(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1056redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
1057the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1058
1059=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
1060
be771a83
GS
1061(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1062redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
1063for stdout.
748a9306 1064
3b1cf97d 1065=item Can't open perl script "%s": %s
a0d0e21e
LW
1066
1067(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
1068
fa3aa65a
JC
1069If you're debugging a script that uses #!, and normally relies on the
1070shell's $PATH search, the -S option causes perl to do that search, so
1071you don't have to type the path or C<`which $scriptname`>.
1072
6df41af2
GS
1073=item Can't read CRTL environ
1074
1075(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
1076from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
1077missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
1078or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
1079searched.
6df41af2 1080
6df41af2
GS
1081=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
1082
1083(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
1084there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
1085count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
1086or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1087though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
1088loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
1089
64977eb6 1090=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 1091
be771a83
GS
1092(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
1093file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
1094the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 1095
a0d0e21e
LW
1096=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
1097
e476b1b5 1098(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
10f9c03d 1099probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
a0d0e21e 1100
748a9306
LW
1101=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
1102
be771a83
GS
1103(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
1104to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 1105
4f12ec0e
FC
1106=item Can't reset %ENV on this system
1107
1108(F) You called C<reset('E')> or similar, which tried to reset
1109all variables in the current package beginning with "E". In
1110the main package, that includes %ENV. Resetting %ENV is not
1111supported on some systems, notably VMS.
1112
fe13d51d 1113=item Can't resolve method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
6df41af2 1114
1fa582fa
FC
1115(F)(P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as
1116opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the
1117package. If the method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 1118
cd06dffe
GS
1119=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
1120
be771a83
GS
1121(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
1122temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
1123is not allowed.
cd06dffe 1124
96ebfdd7
RK
1125=item Can't return outside a subroutine
1126
1127(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1128there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1129
78f9721b
SM
1130=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
1131
6903afa2
FC
1132(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue
1133subroutine, but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl
1134think you meant to return only one value. You probably meant to
1135write parentheses around the call to the subroutine, which tell
1136Perl that the call should be in list context.
78f9721b 1137
a0d0e21e
LW
1138=item Can't stat script "%s"
1139
be771a83
GS
1140(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1141open already. Bizarre.
a0d0e21e 1142
a0d0e21e
LW
1143=item Can't take log of %g
1144
fb73857a 1145(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
6903afa2 1146negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
1147standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1148negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
1149
1150=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1151
1152(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 1153negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1154with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
1155
1156=item Can't undef active subroutine
1157
1158(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1159however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1160redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1161
c81225bc 1162=item Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d
a0d0e21e 1163
be771a83
GS
1164(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1165into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1166specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1167indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e 1168
6651ba0b
FC
1169=item Can't use '%c' after -mname
1170
1171(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-m> switch, but you put something
1172other than "=" after the module name.
1173
1f1ec7b5
KW
1174=item Can't use a hash as a reference
1175
1176(F) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
66a1f5ec
FC
1177C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl
1178<= 5.22.0 used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't
1179have. This was deprecated in perl 5.6.1.
1f1ec7b5
KW
1180
1181=item Can't use an array as a reference
1182
1183(F) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
66a1f5ec
FC
1184C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.22.0
1185used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. This
1186was deprecated in perl 5.6.1.
1f1ec7b5 1187
1db89ea5
BS
1188=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1189
e27ad1f2 1190(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1db89ea5
BS
1191table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1192for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1193
96ebfdd7
RK
1194=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1195
1196(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1197be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1198
6df41af2
GS
1199=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1200
be771a83
GS
1201(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1202references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1203
90b75b61 1204=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63 1205
20561843 1206(F) The first time the C<%!> hash is used, perl automatically loads the
6903afa2 1207Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1d2dff63
GS
1208provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1209
1109a392
MHM
1210=item Can't use both '<' and '>' after type '%c' in %s
1211
1212(F) A type cannot be forced to have both big-endian and little-endian
1213byte-order at the same time, so this combination of modifiers is not
1214allowed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1215
e35475de
KW
1216=item Can't use 'defined(@array)' (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?)
1217
1218(F) defined() is not useful on arrays because it
1219checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
1220array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
1221
1222=item Can't use 'defined(%hash)' (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?)
1223
1224(F) C<defined()> is not usually right on hashes.
1225
1226Although C<defined %hash> is false on a plain not-yet-used hash, it
1227becomes true in several non-obvious circumstances, including iterators,
1228weak references, stash names, even remaining true after C<undef %hash>.
1229These things make C<defined %hash> fairly useless in practice, so it now
1230generates a fatal error.
1231
1232If a check for non-empty is what you wanted then just put it in boolean
1233context (see L<perldata/Scalar values>):
1234
1235 if (%hash) {
1236 # not empty
1237 }
1238
1239If you had C<defined %Foo::Bar::QUUX> to check whether such a package
1240variable exists then that's never really been reliable, and isn't
1241a good way to enquire about the features of a package, or whether
1242it's loaded, etc.
1243
6df41af2
GS
1244=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1245
be771a83
GS
1246(F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1247foreach.
6df41af2 1248
aab6a793 1249=item Can't use global %s in "%s"
6df41af2 1250
be771a83
GS
1251(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1252is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1253(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1254have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1255weren't.
1256
6d3b25aa
RGS
1257=item Can't use '%c' in a group with different byte-order in %s
1258
1259(F) You attempted to force a different byte-order on a type
1260that is already inside a group with a byte-order modifier.
1261For example you cannot force little-endianness on a type that
1262is inside a big-endian group.
1263
c07a80fd 1264=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1265
1266(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1267You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1268and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1269Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1270lexical variable.
1271
a0d0e21e
LW
1272=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1273
1274(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1275reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1276test the type of the reference, if need be.
1277
748a9306 1278=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1279
5e634d20
FC
1280=item Can't use string ("%s"...) as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1281
b41bf23f
FC
1282(F) You've told Perl to dereference a string, something which
1283C<use strict> blocks to prevent it happening accidentally. See
1284L<perlref/"Symbolic references">. This can be triggered by an C<@> or C<$>
1285in a double-quoted string immediately before interpolating a variable,
1286for example in C<"user @$twitter_id">, which says to treat the contents
1287of C<$twitter_id> as an array reference; use a C<\> to have a literal C<@>
1288symbol followed by the contents of C<$twitter_id>: C<"user \@$twitter_id">.
a0d0e21e 1289
748a9306
LW
1290=item Can't use subscript on %s
1291
1292(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1293subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
209e7cf1 1294didn't look like a hash or array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
748a9306 1295
6df41af2
GS
1296=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1297
75b44862
GS
1298(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1299creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1300backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1301expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1302value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1303instead.
6df41af2 1304
810b8aa5
GS
1305=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1306
1307(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1308references can be weakened.
1309
fc7debfb
FC
1310=item Can't "when" outside a topicalizer
1311
1312(F) You have used a when() block that is neither inside a C<foreach>
1313loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is issued on exit
1314from the C<when> block, so you won't get the error if the match fails,
1315or if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
1316
5f05dabc 1317=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1318
be771a83
GS
1319(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1320with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1321Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1322
a04e6aad 1323=item Character following "\c" must be printable ASCII
f9d13529 1324
7357bd17 1325(F) In C<\cI<X>>, I<X> must be a printable (non-control) ASCII character.
17a3df4c 1326
727b6379 1327Note that ASCII characters that don't map to control characters are
7357bd17 1328discouraged, and will generate the warning (when enabled)
727b6379 1329L</""\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"">.
f9d13529 1330
f337b084 1331=item Character in 'C' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1332
1333(W pack) You said
1334
1335 pack("C", $x)
1336
1337where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1338only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1339and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1340
1341 pack("C", $x & 255)
1342
1343If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1344instead.
1345
f337b084 1346=item Character in 'c' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1347
1348(W pack) You said
1349
1350 pack("c", $x)
1351
1352where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1353is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1354and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1355
1356 pack("c", $x & 255);
1357
1358If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1359instead.
1360
f337b084
TH
1361=item Character in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1362
1363(W unpack) You tried something like
1364
1365 unpack("H", "\x{2a1}")
1366
1a147d38 1367where the format expects to process a byte (a character with a value
6903afa2
FC
1368below 256), but a higher value was provided instead. Perl uses the
1369value modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
f337b084
TH
1370
1371 unpack("H", "\x{a1}")
1372
5a25739d
FC
1373=item Character in 'W' format wrapped in pack
1374
1375(W pack) You said
1376
1377 pack("U0W", $x)
1378
1379where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255. However, C<U0>-mode
1380expects all values to fall in the interval [0, 255], so Perl behaved
1381as if you meant:
1382
1383 pack("U0W", $x & 255)
1384
f337b084
TH
1385=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in pack
1386
1387(W pack) You tried something like
1388
1389 pack("u", "\x{1f3}b")
1390
1a147d38 1391where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1392value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1393uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1394
1395 pack("u", "\x{f3}b")
1396
1397=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1398
1399(W unpack) You tried something like
1400
1401 unpack("s", "\x{1f3}b")
1402
1a147d38 1403where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1404value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1405uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1406
1407 unpack("s", "\x{f3}b")
1408
f51551f7
FC
1409=item charnames alias definitions may not contain a sequence of multiple spaces
1410
1411(F) You defined a character name which had multiple space characters
1412in a row. Change them to single spaces. Usually these names are
1413defined in the C<:alias> import argument to C<use charnames>, but they
1414could be defined by a translator installed into C<$^H{charnames}>. See
1415L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
1416
1417=item charnames alias definitions may not contain trailing white-space
1418
1419(F) You defined a character name which ended in a space
1420character. Remove the trailing space(s). Usually these names are
1421defined in the C<:alias> import argument to C<use charnames>, but they
1422could be defined by a translator installed into C<$^H{charnames}>.
1423See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
1424
1425=item \C is deprecated in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1426
1427(D deprecated, regexp) The \C character class is deprecated, and will
1428become a compile-time error in a future release of perl (tentatively
1429v5.24). This construct allows you to match a single byte of what makes up
1430a multi-byte single UTF8 character, and breaks encapsulation. It is
1431currently also very buggy. If you really need to process the individual
1432bytes, you probably want to convert your string to one where each
1433underlying byte is stored as a character, with utf8::encode().
1434
f866a7cd
FC
1435=item "\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"
1436
1437(W syntax) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a way to specify
7ed0dd93
FC
1438non-printable characters. You used it for a printable one, which
1439is better written as simply itself, perhaps preceded by a backslash
1440for non-word characters. Doing it the way you did is not portable
1441between ASCII and EBCDIC platforms.
f866a7cd 1442
6651ba0b
FC
1443=item Cloning substitution context is unimplemented
1444
1445(F) Creating a new thread inside the C<s///> operator is not supported.
1446
abc7ecad
SP
1447=item closedir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
1448
1449(W io) The dirhandle you tried to close is either closed or not really
1450a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
1451
5a25739d
FC
1452=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1453
1454(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1455
541ed3a9
FC
1456=item Closure prototype called
1457
1458(F) If a closure has attributes, the subroutine passed to an attribute
1459handler is the prototype that is cloned when a new closure is created.
1460This subroutine cannot be called.
1461
49704364
WL
1462=item Code missing after '/'
1463
6903afa2
FC
1464(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be
1465another template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 1466
5a25739d
FC
1467=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, may not be portable
1468
2d88a86a 1469(S non_unicode) You had a code point above the Unicode maximum
1b64326b
FC
1470of U+10FFFF.
1471
1472Perl allows strings to contain a superset of Unicode code points, up
1473to the limit of what is storable in an unsigned integer on your system,
1474but these may not be accepted by other languages/systems. At one time,
1475it was legal in some standards to have code points up to 0x7FFF_FFFF,
1476but not higher. Code points above 0xFFFF_FFFF require larger than a
147732 bit word.
0876b9a0 1478
6df41af2
GS
1479=item %s: Command not found
1480
a892b81a 1481(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> or another shell
66a1f5ec
FC
1482instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1483Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
8f721816
MM
1484
1485 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
6df41af2 1486
7a2e2cd6 1487=item Compilation failed in require
1488
1489(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1490Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1491encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1492
c3464db5
DD
1493=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1494
be771a83
GS
1495(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1496situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1497to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1498arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1499recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1500under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1501in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1502that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1503on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1504
69282e91 1505=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1506
be771a83
GS
1507(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1508to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1509L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1510
e21e7c6a
FC
1511=item Constant(%s): Call to &{$^H{%s}} did not return a defined value
1512
1513(F) The subroutine registered to handle constant overloading
1514(see L<overload>) or a custom charnames handler (see
1515L<charnames/CUSTOM TRANSLATORS>) returned an undefined value.
1516
1517=item Constant(%s): $^H{%s} is not defined
1518
1519(F) The parser found inconsistencies while attempting to define an
1520overloaded constant. Perhaps you forgot to load the corresponding
f738a371 1521L<overload> pragma?
e21e7c6a 1522
779c5bc9
GS
1523=item Constant is not %s reference
1524
1525(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83 1526is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
6903afa2 1527The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
be771a83 1528usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1529See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1530
4cee8e80
CS
1531=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1532
aeb94125
FC
1533(W redefine)(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously
1534been eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions">
1535for commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1536
9607fc9c 1537=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1538
be771a83
GS
1539(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1540for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1541workarounds.
9607fc9c 1542
5a25739d
FC
1543=item Constant(%s) unknown
1544
1545(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting
1546to define an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the
1547character name specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you
1548forgot to load the corresponding L<overload> pragma?.
1549
e7ea3e70
IZ
1550=item Copy method did not return a reference
1551
6903afa2 1552(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1553L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1554
4aaa4757
FC
1555=item &CORE::%s cannot be called directly
1556
1557(F) You tried to call a subroutine in the C<CORE::> namespace
8d605c0d 1558with C<&foo> syntax or through a reference. Some subroutines
4aaa4757
FC
1559in this package cannot yet be called that way, but must be
1560called as barewords. Something like this will work:
1561
1562 BEGIN { *shove = \&CORE::push; }
1563 shove @array, 1,2,3; # pushes on to @array
1564
6798c92b
GS
1565=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1566
1567(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1568
675fa9ff
FC
1569=item Corrupted regexp opcode %d > %d
1570
1571(P) This is either an error in Perl, or, if you're using
1572one, your L<custom regular expression engine|perlreapi>. If not the
1573latter, report the problem through the L<perlbug> utility.
1574
a0d0e21e
LW
1575=item corrupted regexp pointers
1576
1577(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1578expression compiler gave it.
1579
1580=item corrupted regexp program
1581
be771a83
GS
1582(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1583valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1584
de42a5a9 1585=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%x at 0x%x
6df41af2
GS
1586
1587(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1588
49704364
WL
1589=item Count after length/code in unpack
1590
1591(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1592you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1593L<perlfunc/pack>.
1594
f2cccb4c
KW
1595=for comment
1596The following are used in lib/diagnostics.t for testing two =items that
1597share the same description. Changes here need to be propagated to there
1598
6651ba0b
FC
1599=item Deep recursion on anonymous subroutine
1600
a0d0e21e
LW
1601=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1602
be771a83
GS
1603(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1604100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1605infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1606which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1607
aad1d01f
NC
1608This threshold can be changed from 100, by recompiling the F<perl> binary,
1609setting the C pre-processor macro C<PERL_SUB_DEPTH_WARN> to the desired value.
1610
e0e4a6e3
FC
1611=item (?(DEFINE)....) does not allow branches in regex; marked by
1612S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
bcb95744 1613
6903afa2 1614(F) You used something like C<(?(DEFINE)...|..)> which is illegal. The
bcb95744
FC
1615most likely cause of this error is that you left out a parenthesis inside
1616of the C<....> part.
1617
9e3ec65c 1618The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
bcb95744
FC
1619discovered.
1620
62658f4d
PM
1621=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1622
1623(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1624there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1625
36447869
FC
1626=item delete argument is index/value array slice, use array slice
1627
1628(F) You used index/value array slice syntax (C<%array[...]>) as
1629the argument to C<delete>. You probably meant C<@array[...]> with
1630an @ symbol instead.
1631
1632=item delete argument is key/value hash slice, use hash slice
1633
1634(F) You used key/value hash slice syntax (C<%hash{...}>) as the argument to
1635C<delete>. You probably meant C<@hash{...}> with an @ symbol instead.
1636
0ffcbc25
FC
1637=item delete argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
1638
4a0af295 1639(F) The argument to C<delete> must be either a hash or array element,
0ffcbc25
FC
1640such as:
1641
1642 $foo{$bar}
1643 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
1644
1645or a hash or array slice, such as:
1646
1647 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
1648 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
1649
fc36a67e 1650=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1651
be771a83
GS
1652(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1653long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1654that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 1655
6d3b25aa
RGS
1656=item Deprecated use of my() in false conditional
1657
fa816bf3
FC
1658(D deprecated) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>. There
1659has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
6d3b25aa 1660not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
6903afa2 1661conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
fa816bf3 1662static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
6903afa2 1663relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
6d3b25aa 1664declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
36fb85f3 1665
6d3b25aa
RGS
1666 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
1667
1668becomes
1669
1670 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
1671
ea9d9ebc 1672Beginning with perl 5.10.0, you can also use C<state> variables to have
fa816bf3 1673lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
36fb85f3
RGS
1674
1675 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
1676
500ab966
RGS
1677=item DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
1678
1679(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
6903afa2
FC
1680just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather
1681than to create a dangling reference.
500ab966 1682
3cdd684c
TP
1683=item Did not produce a valid header
1684
1685See Server error.
1686
6df41af2
GS
1687=item %s did not return a true value
1688
1689(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1690it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1691traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1692do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1693
cc507455 1694=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 1695
413ff9f6
FC
1696(W misc) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or
1697some such.
4633a7c4 1698
cc507455 1699=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 1700
be771a83
GS
1701(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1702variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1703seems superfluous.
33633739 1704
cc507455 1705=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 1706
be771a83
GS
1707(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1708@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1709carried away.
748a9306 1710
7e1af8bc 1711=item Died
5f05dabc 1712
1713(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
075b00aa 1714you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 1715
3cdd684c
TP
1716=item Document contains no data
1717
1718See Server error.
1719
62658f4d
PM
1720=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1721
1722(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
943fc58e 1723define a C<$VERSION>.
62658f4d 1724
49704364
WL
1725=item '/' does not take a repeat count
1726
1727(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
1728See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1729
95cb0d72
FC
1730=item Don't know how to get file name
1731
1732(P) C<PerlIO_getname>, a perl internal I/O function specific to VMS, was
1733somehow called on another platform. This should not happen.
1734
4021c788 1735=item Don't know how to handle magic of type \%o
a0d0e21e
LW
1736
1737(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1738
1739=item do_study: out of memory
1740
1741(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1742
6df41af2
GS
1743=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1744
56da5a46
RGS
1745(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
1746"%s found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
6df41af2
GS
1747name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1748because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
1749"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1750something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1751subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1752"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 1753
ac206dc8
RGS
1754=item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1755
1756(W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1757qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1758
84d78eb7
YO
1759=item dump is not supported
1760
1761(F) Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.
1762
a0d0e21e
LW
1763=item Duplicate free() ignored
1764
be771a83
GS
1765(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1766already been freed.
a0d0e21e 1767
1109a392
MHM
1768=item Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
1769
35f0cd76
FC
1770(W unpack) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a
1771type in a pack template. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1109a392 1772
0953b66b
FC
1773=item each on reference is experimental
1774
0773cb3e
FC
1775(S experimental::autoderef) C<each> with a scalar argument is experimental
1776and may change or be removed in a future Perl version. If you want to
1777take the risk of using this feature, simply disable this warning:
0953b66b 1778
d401967c 1779 no warnings "experimental::autoderef";
0953b66b 1780
4633a7c4
LW
1781=item elseif should be elsif
1782
fa816bf3
FC
1783(S syntax) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks
1784it's ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method
1785named "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
1786unlikely to be what you want.
1787
e0e4a6e3 1788=item Empty \%c{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 1789
af6f566e 1790(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
6903afa2 1791described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
af6f566e 1792a regular expression without specifying the property name.
ab13f0c7 1793
85ab1d1d 1794=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 1795
85ab1d1d 1796(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
1797effective uids or gids failed.
1798
c038024b
RGS
1799=item %ENV is aliased to %s
1800
1801(F) You're running under taint mode, and the C<%ENV> variable has been
1802aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
6903afa2 1803program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
c038024b 1804
748a9306
LW
1805=item Error converting file specification %s
1806
5f05dabc 1807(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 1808specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
1809single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1810an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1811conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 1812
ad19ef22 1813=item Eval-group in insecure regular expression
e4d48cc9 1814
be771a83
GS
1815(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1816expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1817is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 1818
ad19ef22 1819=item Eval-group not allowed at runtime, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
e4d48cc9 1820
be771a83
GS
1821(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1822C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
f11307f5
FC
1823pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk,
1824it is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by using the
1825C<re 'eval'> pragma or by explicitly building the pattern from an
1826interpolated string at run time and using that in an eval(). See
1827L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 1828
ad19ef22 1829=item Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
6df41af2 1830
be771a83
GS
1831(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1832assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1833pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 1834
e0e4a6e3
FC
1835=item EVAL without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by
1836S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1a147d38
YO
1837
1838(F) You used a pattern that nested too many EVAL calls without consuming
6903afa2 1839any text. Restructure the pattern so that text is consumed.
1a147d38 1840
9e3ec65c 1841The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
1842discovered.
1843
fc36a67e 1844=item Excessively long <> operator
1845
1846(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1847Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1848filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1849variable and glob that.
1850
ed9aa3b7
SG
1851=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1852
af8bb25a 1853(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented on some systems, e.g., Symbian
6903afa2 1854OS. See L<perlport>.
ed9aa3b7 1855
fe13d51d 1856=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors.
a0d0e21e
LW
1857
1858(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1859
0ffcbc25
FC
1860=item exists argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine
1861
4a0af295 1862(F) The argument to C<exists> must be a hash or array element or a
0ffcbc25
FC
1863subroutine with an ampersand, such as:
1864
1865 $foo{$bar}
1866 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
1867 &do_something
1868
1869=item exists argument is not a subroutine name
1870
ccfc2567
FC
1871(F) The argument to C<exists> for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine name,
1872and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this error.
0ffcbc25 1873
a0d0e21e
LW
1874=item Exiting eval via %s
1875
be771a83
GS
1876(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1877goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
1878
1879=item Exiting format via %s
1880
9a2ff54b 1881(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 1882goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1883
0a753a76 1884=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1885
be771a83
GS
1886(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1887sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1888loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 1889
a0d0e21e
LW
1890=item Exiting subroutine via %s
1891
be771a83
GS
1892(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1893as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
1894
1895=item Exiting substitution via %s
1896
be771a83
GS
1897(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1898as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1899
e0e4a6e3 1900=item Expecting close bracket in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
c608e803 1901
675fa9ff 1902(F) You wrote something like
c608e803
KW
1903
1904 (?13
1905
1906to denote a capturing group of the form
1907L<C<(?I<PARNO>)>|perlre/(?PARNO) (?-PARNO) (?+PARNO) (?R) (?0)>,
1908but omitted the C<")">.
1909
e0e4a6e3 1910=item Expecting '(?flags:(?[...' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
27350048 1911
8b6fbf55
FC
1912(F) The C<(?[...])> extended character class regular expression construct
1913only allows character classes (including character class escapes like
1914C<\d>), operators, and parentheses. The one exception is C<(?flags:...)>
1915containing at least one flag and exactly one C<(?[...])> construct.
27350048
FC
1916This allows a regular expression containing just C<(?[...])> to be
1917interpolated. If you see this error message, then you probably
1918have some other C<(?...)> construct inside your character class. See
1919L<perlrecharclass/Extended Bracketed Character Classes>.
1920
30d9c59b
Z
1921=item Experimental subroutine signatures not enabled
1922
1923(F) To use subroutine signatures, you must first enable them:
1924
caa35032 1925 no warnings "experimental::signatures";
30d9c59b
Z
1926 use feature "signatures";
1927 sub foo ($left, $right) { ... }
1928
6da34ecb
FC
1929=item Experimental "%s" subs not enabled
1930
1931(F) To use lexical subs, you must first enable them:
1932
1933 no warnings 'experimental::lexical_subs';
1934 use feature 'lexical_subs';
1935 my sub foo { ... }
1936
7b8d334a
GS
1937=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1938
be771a83
GS
1939(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1940the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1941usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1942e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 1943
6df41af2
GS
1944=item %s: Expression syntax
1945
be771a83
GS
1946(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1947Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
1948
1949=item %s failed--call queue aborted
1950
3c10abe3
AG
1951(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a UNITCHECK,
1952CHECK, INIT, or END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the
1953queue of such routines has been prematurely ended.
6df41af2 1954
e0e4a6e3 1955=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
73b437c8 1956
98d31c73 1957(W regexp)(F) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3 1958character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
3c6ca74a
FC
1959in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". In a C<(?[...])>
1960construct, this is an error, rather than a warning. Consider quoting
e0e4a6e3 1961the "-", "\-". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression
3c6ca74a 1962the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 1963
1b1ee2ef 1964=item Fatal VMS error (status=%d) at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 1965
be771a83
GS
1966(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1967system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1968details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1969you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
1970
1971=item fcntl is not implemented
1972
1973(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1974PDP-11 or something?
1975
22846ab4
AB
1976=item FETCHSIZE returned a negative value
1977
1978(F) A tied array claimed to have a negative number of elements, which
1979is not possible.
1980
f337b084
TH
1981=item Field too wide in 'u' format in pack
1982
d8b5cc61 1983(W pack) Each line in an uuencoded string starts with a length indicator
6903afa2
FC
1984which can't encode values above 63. So there is no point in asking for
1985a line length bigger than that. Perl will behave as if you specified
5c96f6f7 1986C<u63> as the format.
f337b084 1987
af8c498a 1988=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 1989
6c8d78fb
HS
1990(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
1991it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
1992"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
1993write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 1994
af8c498a 1995=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 1996
6c8d78fb
HS
1997(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
1998you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
89a1bda8
FC
1999with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with ">". If you intended only to
2000read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>. Another possibility
2001is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0 (also known as STDIN) for
2002output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
97828cef
RGS
2003
2004=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
2005
2006(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
6903afa2 2007as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
97828cef
RGS
2008previously.
2009
2010=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
2011
2012(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
fa816bf3 2013as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
2014
2015=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
2016
2017(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
2018a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
2019happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
2020name.
a0d0e21e 2021
56e90b21
GS
2022=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
2023
be771a83 2024(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 2025some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
2026filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
2027same name?
56e90b21 2028
6df41af2
GS
2029=item Format not terminated
2030
2031(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
2032to the end of your file without finding such a line.
2033
a0d0e21e
LW
2034=item Format %s redefined
2035
e476b1b5 2036(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
2037
2038 {
271595cc 2039 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
2040 eval "format NAME =...";
2041 }
2042
a0d0e21e
LW
2043=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
2044
e476b1b5 2045(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
2046
2047 if ($foo = 123)
2048
2049when you meant
2050
2051 if ($foo == 123)
2052
2053(or something like that).
2054
6df41af2
GS
2055=item %s found where operator expected
2056
56da5a46
RGS
2057(S syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator.
2058If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
be771a83
GS
2059operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
2060operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 2061
a0d0e21e
LW
2062=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
2063
2064(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
2065
2066=item gethostent not implemented
2067
2068(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
2069because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
2070on the Internet.
2071
69282e91 2072=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2073
be771a83
GS
2074(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
2075socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 2076
748a9306
LW
2077=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
2078
2079(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
2080C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
2081
6df41af2
GS
2082=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
2083
be771a83
GS
2084(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
2085forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
2086L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
2087
0f539b13
BF
2088=item given is experimental
2089
675fa9ff
FC
2090(S experimental::smartmatch) C<given> depends on smartmatch, which
2091is experimental, so its behavior may change or even be removed
2092in any future release of perl. See the explanation under
2093L<perlsyn/Experimental Details on given and when>.
0f539b13 2094
6df41af2
GS
2095=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
2096
a4edf47d 2097(F) You've said "use strict" or "use strict vars", which indicates
30c282f6 2098that all variables must either be lexically scoped (using "my" or "state"),
a4edf47d
GS
2099declared beforehand using "our", or explicitly qualified to say
2100which package the global variable is in (using "::").
6df41af2 2101
e476b1b5
GS
2102=item glob failed (%s)
2103
5ead438e 2104(S glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used
73c4e9dc
FC
2105for C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a C<glob>
2106pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
be771a83 2107nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
73c4e9dc
FC
2108resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell)
2109is broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables
2110in config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as
2111if it were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them
2112all empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
be771a83 2113think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 2114C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 2115
a0d0e21e
LW
2116=item Glob not terminated
2117
2118(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
2119a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
2120not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
2121earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 2122
b35b96b6
JH
2123=item gmtime(%f) failed
2124
2125(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that it could not handle:
2126too large, too small, or NaN. The returned value is C<undef>.
2127
bcd05b94 2128=item gmtime(%f) too large
8b56d6ff 2129
e9200be3 2130(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was larger than
fc003d4b 2131it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong
6903afa2 2132date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
fc003d4b
MS
2133not-a-number value).
2134
bcd05b94 2135=item gmtime(%f) too small
fc003d4b 2136
e9200be3 2137(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was smaller than
e7a1a147 2138it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong date.
8b56d6ff 2139
6df41af2 2140=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 2141
6df41af2
GS
2142(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
2143version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
2144
2145=item goto must have label
2146
2147(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
2148unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2149
6651ba0b
FC
2150=item Goto undefined subroutine%s
2151
2152(F) You tried to call a subroutine with C<goto &sub> syntax, but
2153the indicated subroutine hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
2154has since been undefined.
2155
6fbc9859 2156=item Group name must start with a non-digit word character in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 2157S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1f4f6bf1
YO
2158
2159(F) Group names must follow the rules for perl identifiers, meaning
f26c79ba
FC
2160they must start with a non-digit word character. A common cause of
2161this error is using (?&0) instead of (?0). See L<perlre>.
1f4f6bf1 2162
5a25739d
FC
2163=item ()-group starts with a count
2164
2165(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is supposed to follow
2166something: a template character or a ()-group. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2167
fe13d51d 2168=item %s had compilation errors.
6df41af2
GS
2169
2170(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
2171
a0d0e21e
LW
2172=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
2173
be771a83
GS
2174(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
2175to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
2176created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e 2177
6df41af2
GS
2178=item %s has too many errors
2179
2180(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
2181Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
2182
61e61fbc
JH
2183=item Hexadecimal float: exponent overflow
2184
d8f2b442 2185(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point has a larger exponent
61e61fbc
JH
2186than the floating point supports.
2187
2188=item Hexadecimal float: exponent underflow
2189
d8f2b442 2190(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point has a smaller exponent
61e61fbc
JH
2191than the floating point supports.
2192
cf4f6003
JH
2193=item Hexadecimal float: internal error
2194
2195(F) Something went horribly bad in hexadecimal float handling.
2196
61e61fbc
JH
2197=item Hexadecimal float: mantissa overflow
2198
2199(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point literal had more bits in
2200the mantissa (the part between the 0x and the exponent, also known as
2201the fraction or the significand) than the floating point supports.
2202
40bca5ae
JH
2203=item Hexadecimal float: precision loss
2204
2205(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point had internally more
2206digits than could be output. This can be caused by unsupported
2207long double formats, or by 64-bit integers not being available
2208(needed to retrieve the digits under some configurations).
2209
2210=item Hexadecimal float: unsupported long double format
2211
2212(F) You have configured Perl to use long doubles but
d8f2b442 2213the internals of the long double format are unknown;
40bca5ae
JH
2214therefore the hexadecimal float output is impossible.
2215
252aa082
JH
2216=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
2217
e476b1b5 2218(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
2219(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2220L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 2221
8903cb82 2222=item Identifier too long
2223
2224(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 2225about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
2226names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
2227of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 2228
e0e4a6e3
FC
2229=item Ignoring zero length \N{} in character class in regex; marked by
2230S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
fc8cd66c 2231
b5e3739b
FC
2232(W regexp) Named Unicode character escapes C<(\N{...})> may return a
2233zero-length sequence. When such an escape is used in a character class
2234its behaviour is not well defined. Check that the correct escape has
fc8cd66c
YO
2235been used, and the correct charname handler is in scope.
2236
6df41af2 2237=item Illegal binary digit %s
f675dbe5 2238
6df41af2 2239(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
f675dbe5 2240
6df41af2 2241=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
a0d0e21e 2242
be771a83
GS
2243(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
2244binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
2245offending digit.
a0d0e21e 2246
6597eb22
FC
2247=item Illegal character after '_' in prototype for %s : %s
2248
e4d150f1
FC
2249(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype
2250declaration. The '_' in a prototype must be followed by a ';',
2251indicating the rest of the parameters are optional, or one of '@'
2252or '%', since those two will accept 0 or more final parameters.
6597eb22 2253
78d0fecf 2254=item Illegal character \%o (carriage return)
4fdae800 2255
d5898338 2256(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
be771a83
GS
2257would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
2258when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
2259version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
2260to your Perl administrator.
4fdae800 2261
d37a9538
ST
2262=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
2263
197afce1 2264(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
2e9cc7ef 2265Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, \, and +.
30d9c59b
Z
2266Perhaps you were trying to write a subroutine signature but didn't enable
2267that feature first (C<use feature 'signatures'>), so your signature was
2268instead interpreted as a bad prototype.
d37a9538 2269
904d85c5
RGS
2270=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
2271
2272(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
6903afa2 2273you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
904d85c5 2274
8e742a20
MHM
2275=item Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
2276
6903afa2 2277(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See L<perlsub>.
8e742a20 2278
a0d0e21e
LW
2279=item Illegal division by zero
2280
be771a83
GS
2281(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
2282your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
2283meaningless input.
a0d0e21e 2284
6df41af2
GS
2285=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
2286
be771a83
GS
2287(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
2288A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
2289number stopped before the illegal character.
6df41af2 2290
a0d0e21e
LW
2291=item Illegal modulus zero
2292
be771a83
GS
2293(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
2294numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 2295
6df41af2 2296=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 2297
6df41af2
GS
2298(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
2299two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4
GS
2300
2301=item Illegal octal digit %s
a0d0e21e 2302
d1be9408 2303(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 2304
399388f4 2305=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
748a9306 2306
d1be9408 2307(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
75b44862 2308Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
748a9306 2309
e0e4a6e3 2310=item Illegal pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
c608e803 2311
675fa9ff 2312(F) You wrote something like
c608e803
KW
2313
2314 (?+foo)
2315
2316The C<"+"> is valid only when followed by digits, indicating a
2317capturing group. See
2318L<C<(?I<PARNO>)>|perlre/(?PARNO) (?-PARNO) (?+PARNO) (?R) (?0)>.
2319
375ed12a
JH
2320=item Illegal suidscript
2321
2322(F) The script run under suidperl was somehow illegal.
2323
fe13d51d 2324=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: -%c
6ff81951 2325
6df41af2 2326(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
646ca9b2 2327following switches: B<-[CDIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 2328
6df41af2 2329=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 2330
75b44862 2331(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
2332internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
2333delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 2334
6df41af2 2335=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 2336
be771a83
GS
2337(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
2338name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
2339didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
2340ignored.
54310121 2341
6df41af2 2342=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 2343
be771a83
GS
2344(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
2345the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
2346system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
2347times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
2348would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 2349
be771a83
GS
2350Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
2351also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 2352
e0e4a6e3
FC
2353=item Incomplete expression within '(?[ ])' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
2354in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 2355
675fa9ff 2356(F) There was a syntax error within the C<(?[ ])>. This can happen if the
0d0b4b3b
KW
2357expression inside the construct was completely empty, or if there are
2358too many or few operands for the number of operators. Perl is not smart
2359enough to give you a more precise indication as to what is wrong.
2360
6fbc9859
MH
2361=item Inconsistent hierarchy during C3 merge of class '%s': merging failed on
2362parent '%s'
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2363
2364(F) The method resolution order (MRO) of the given class is not
2365C3-consistent, and you have enabled the C3 MRO for this class. See the C3
2366documentation in L<mro> for more information.
2367
979699d9
JH
2368=item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
2369
2370(F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
2371Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
2372encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
2373
6a2ed79a 2374=item Infinite recursion in regex
1a147d38
YO
2375
2376(F) You used a pattern that references itself without consuming any input
6903afa2 2377text. You should check the pattern to ensure that recursive patterns
1a147d38
YO
2378either consume text or fail.
2379
6dbe9451
NC
2380=item Initialization of state variables in list context currently forbidden
2381
6903afa2
FC
2382(F) Currently the implementation of "state" only permits the
2383initialization of scalar variables in scalar context. Re-write
2384C<state ($a) = 42> as C<state $a = 42> to change from list to scalar
2385context. Constructions such as C<state (@a) = foo()> will be
2386supported in a future perl release.
6dbe9451 2387
2186f873
FC
2388=item %%s[%s] in scalar context better written as $%s[%s]
2389
2390(W syntax) In scalar context, you've used an array index/value slice
2391(indicated by %) to select a single element of an array. Generally
2392it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
2393is that C<$foo[&bar]> always behaves like a scalar, both in the value it
2394returns and when evaluating its argument, while C<%foo[&bar]> provides
2395a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things if you're
2396expecting only one subscript. When called in list context, it also
2397returns the index (what C<&bar> returns) in addition to the value.
2398
2399=item %%s{%s} in scalar context better written as $%s{%s}
2400
2401(W syntax) In scalar context, you've used a hash key/value slice
2402(indicated by %) to select a single element of a hash. Generally it's
2403better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
2404is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves like a scalar, both in the value
2405it returns and when evaluating its argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> and
2406provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
2407if you're expecting only one subscript. When called in list context,
2408it also returns the key in addition to the value.
2409
a0d0e21e
LW
2410=item Insecure dependency in %s
2411
8b1a09fc 2412(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
2413The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
2414setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
2415tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
2416from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
2417such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
2418L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
2419
2420=item Insecure directory in %s
2421
be771a83
GS
2422(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2423setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
df98f984
RGS
2424the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
2425See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2426
62f468fc 2427=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2428
2429(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc 2430setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
332d5f78
SR
2431C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
2432supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
2433the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2434
0e9be77f
DM
2435=item Insecure user-defined property %s
2436
2437(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2438expression that contains a call to a user-defined character property
2439function, i.e. C<\p{IsFoo}> or C<\p{InFoo}>.
2440See L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties> and L<perlsec>.
2441
b9ef414d
FC
2442=item Integer overflow in format string for %s
2443
2444(F) The indexes and widths specified in the format string of C<printf()>
2445or C<sprintf()> are too large. The numbers must not overflow the size of
2446integers for your architecture.
2447
a7ae9550
GS
2448=item Integer overflow in %s number
2449
35928bc5 2450(S overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
2451either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
2452your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
2453On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
2454representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
24550b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
2456transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
2457internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
2458operations.
bbce6d69 2459
fc89ca81
FC
2460=item Integer overflow in srand
2461
2462(S overflow) The number you have passed to srand is too big to fit
2463in your architecture's integer representation. The number has been
2464replaced with the largest integer supported (0xFFFFFFFF on 32-bit
2465architectures). This means you may be getting less randomness than
2466you expect, because different random seeds above the maximum will
2467return the same sequence of random numbers.
2468
46314c13
JP
2469=item Integer overflow in version
2470
18da5252
FC
2471=item Integer overflow in version %d
2472
784d71ed
FC
2473(W overflow) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for
2474the size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
f084e84f 2475because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use an
784d71ed
FC
2476element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by trying
2477to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like 100/9.
46314c13 2478
e0e4a6e3 2479=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2480
2481(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
e0e4a6e3 2482The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
b45f050a
JF
2483discovered.
2484
748a9306
LW
2485=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
2486
be771a83
GS
2487(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
2488you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
2489to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
2490L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
2491Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
2492terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 2493
870978ae
FC
2494=item internal %<num>p might conflict with future printf extensions
2495
2496(S internal) Perl's internal routine that handles C<printf> and C<sprintf>
2497formatting follows a slightly different set of rules when called from
2498C or XS code. Specifically, formats consisting of digits followed
2499by "p" (e.g., "%7p") are reserved for future use. If you see this
2500message, then an XS module tried to call that routine with one such
2501reserved format.
2502
e0e4a6e3 2503=item Internal urp in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 2504
fa816bf3 2505(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
e0e4a6e3 2506S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
7253e4e3 2507discovered.
a0d0e21e 2508
6df41af2
GS
2509=item %s (...) interpreted as function
2510
75b44862 2511(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 2512followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 2513operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 2514L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 2515
f51551f7
FC
2516=item In '(?...)', the '(' and '?' must be adjacent in regex;
2517marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2518
2519(F) The two-character sequence C<"(?"> in this context in a regular
2520expression pattern should be an indivisible token, with nothing
2521intervening between the C<"("> and the C<"?">, but you separated them
2522with whitespace.
2523
09bef843
SB
2524=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
2525
a4a4c9e2 2526(F) The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
09bef843
SB
2527by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
2528
2529=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
2530
a4a4c9e2 2531(F) The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
be771a83 2532recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2533
e0e4a6e3
FC
2534=item Invalid character in charnames alias definition; marked by
2535S<<-- HERE> in '%s
225fb84f
KW
2536
2537(F) You tried to create a custom alias for a character name, with
2538the C<:alias> option to C<use charnames> and the specified character in
2539the indicated name isn't valid. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
2540
c8028aa6
TC
2541=item Invalid \0 character in %s for %s: %s\0%s
2542
fa3234e3
FC
2543(W syscalls) Embedded \0 characters in pathnames or other system call
2544arguments produce a warning as of 5.20. The parts after the \0 were
2545formerly ignored by system calls.
c8028aa6 2546
e0e4a6e3 2547=item Invalid character in \N{...}; marked by S<<-- HERE> in \N{%s}
a690c7c4
FC
2548
2549(F) Only certain characters are valid for character names. The
2550indicated one isn't. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
2551
c635e13b 2552=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
2553
be771a83
GS
2554(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
2555L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 2556
e0e4a6e3
FC
2557=item Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regex; marked by
2558S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9e08bc66 2559
98d31c73 2560(W regexp)(F) The numeric escape (for example C<\xHH>) of value < 256
9e08bc66
TS
2561didn't correspond to a single character through the conversion
2562from the encoding specified by the encoding pragma.
98d31c73
FC
2563The escape was replaced with REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (U+FFFD)
2564instead, except within S<C<(?[ ])>>, where it is a fatal error.
e0e4a6e3 2565The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
9e08bc66
TS
2566escape was discovered.
2567
8149aa9f
FC
2568=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...}
2569
e0e4a6e3
FC
2570=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...} in regex; marked by
2571S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 2572
8149aa9f 2573(F) The character constant represented by C<...> is not a valid hexadecimal
74f8e9e3
FC
2574number. Either it is empty, or you tried to use a character other than
25750 - 9 or A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number.
8149aa9f 2576
6651ba0b
FC
2577=item Invalid module name %s with -%c option: contains single ':'
2578
2579(F) The module argument to perl's B<-m> and B<-M> command-line options
2580cannot contain single colons in the module name, but only in the
2581arguments after "=". In other words, B<-MFoo::Bar=:baz> is ok, but
2582B<-MFoo:Bar=baz> is not.
2583
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2584=item Invalid mro name: '%s'
2585
162a3e34
FC
2586(F) You tried to C<mro::set_mro("classname", "foo")> or C<use mro 'foo'>,
2587where C<foo> is not a valid method resolution order (MRO). Currently,
2588the only valid ones supported are C<dfs> and C<c3>, unless you have loaded
2589a module that is a MRO plugin. See L<mro> and L<perlmroapi>.
2c7d6b9c 2590
40e4140b
FC
2591=item Invalid negative number (%s) in chr
2592
2593(W utf8) You passed a negative number to C<chr>. Negative numbers are
1cd88304 2594not valid character numbers, so it return the Unicode replacement
40e4140b
FC
2595character (U+FFFD).
2596
1cd88304
JH
2597=item Invalid number (%f) in chr
2598
2599(W utf8) You passed an invalid number (like an infinity or
2600not-a-number) to C<chr>. Those are not valid character numbers,
2601so it return the Unicode replacement character (U+FFFD).
2602
6651ba0b
FC
2603=item invalid option -D%c, use -D'' to see choices
2604
8ff21bfe
FC
2605(S debugging) Perl was called with invalid debugger flags. Call perl
2606with the B<-D> option with no flags to see the list of acceptable values.
982c4ecb 2607See also L<perlrun/-Dletters>.
6651ba0b 2608
e0e4a6e3 2609=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2610
2611(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
2612greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
2613C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
e0e4a6e3 2614up to C<ff>. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
7253e4e3 2615problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 2616
d1573ac7 2617=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
2618
2619(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
2620character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
2621
09bef843
SB
2622=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
2623
0120eecf 2624(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
2625elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
2626parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
2627See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2628
b4581f09
JH
2629=item Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
2630
2bfc5f71
FC
2631(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other
2632than a colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
b4581f09
JH
2633If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2634list was terminated too soon.
2635
2c86d456
DG
2636=item Invalid strict version format (%s)
2637
fa816bf3 2638(F) A version number did not meet the "strict" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
2639A "strict" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
2640decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
2641v-string with a leading 'v' character and at least three components.
a6485a24 2642The parenthesized text indicates which criteria were not met.
2c86d456
DG
2643See the L<version> module for more details on allowed version formats.
2644
49704364 2645=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
96e4d5b1 2646
49704364
WL
2647(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
2648See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6728c851 2649
49704364 2650(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
75b44862 2651silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 2652
2c86d456
DG
2653=item Invalid version format (%s)
2654
fa816bf3 2655(F) A version number did not meet the "lax" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
2656A "lax" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
2657decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
fa816bf3
FC
2658v-string. If the v-string has fewer than three components, it
2659must have a leading 'v' character. Otherwise, the leading 'v' is
2660optional. Both decimal and dotted-decimal versions may have a
2661trailing "alpha" component separated by an underscore character
2662after a fractional or dotted-decimal component. The parenthesized
2663text indicates which criteria were not met. See the L<version> module
2664for more details on allowed version formats.
46314c13 2665
798ae1b7
DG
2666=item Invalid version object
2667
fa816bf3
FC
2668(F) The internal structure of the version object was invalid.
2669Perhaps the internals were modified directly in some way or
2670an arbitrary reference was blessed into the "version" class.
798ae1b7 2671
cd209d9d 2672=item In '(*VERB...)', the '(' and '*' must be adjacent in regex;
e0e4a6e3 2673marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff 2674
cd209d9d 2675(F) The two-character sequence C<"(*"> in
675fa9ff
FC
2676this context in a regular expression pattern should be an
2677indivisible token, with nothing intervening between the C<"(">
cd209d9d 2678and the C<"*">, but you separated them.
675fa9ff 2679
a0d0e21e
LW
2680=item ioctl is not implemented
2681
2682(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
2683strange for a machine that supports C.
2684
c289d2f7
JH
2685=item ioctl() on unopened %s
2686
2687(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
34b6fd5e 2688Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 2689
fe13d51d 2690=item IO layers (like '%s') unavailable
363c40c4
SB
2691
2692(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
34b6fd5e 2693you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO, Perl must be configured
363c40c4
SB
2694with 'useperlio'.
2695
80cbd5ad
JH
2696=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
2697
2698(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
34b6fd5e 2699neither as a system call nor an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
80cbd5ad 2700
4f650b80 2701=item $* is no longer supported
b4581f09 2702
4f650b80 2703(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older
ea9d9ebc 2704perls, has been removed as of 5.10.0 and is no longer supported. In
4f650b80
NC
2705previous versions of perl the use of C<$*> enabled or disabled multi-line
2706matching within a string.
4fd19576
B
2707
2708Instead of using C<$*> you should use the C</m> (and maybe C</s>) regexp
6903afa2
FC
2709modifiers. You can enable C</m> for a lexical scope (even a whole file)
2710with C<use re '/m'>. (In older versions: when C<$*> was set to a true value
570dedd4 2711then all regular expressions behaved as if they were written using C</m>.)
b4581f09 2712
8ae1fe26
RGS
2713=item $# is no longer supported
2714
a58ac25e 2715(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$#>, deprecated in older
ea9d9ebc 2716perls, has been removed as of 5.10.0 and is no longer supported. You
a58ac25e 2717should use the printf/sprintf functions instead.
8ae1fe26 2718
ccf3535a 2719=item '%s' is not a code reference
6ad11d81 2720
6903afa2
FC
2721(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of
2722overload::constant needs to be a code reference. Either
2723an anonymous subroutine, or a reference to a subroutine.
6ad11d81 2724
ccf3535a 2725=item '%s' is not an overloadable type
6ad11d81 2726
04a80ee0
RGS
2727(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
2728unaware of.
6ad11d81 2729
5a25739d
FC
2730=item -i used with no filenames on the command line, reading from STDIN
2731
2732(S inplace) The C<-i> option was passed on the command line, indicating
2733that the script is intended to edit files in place, but no files were
2734given. This is usually a mistake, since editing STDIN in place doesn't
2735make sense, and can be confusing because it can make perl look like
2736it is hanging when it is really just trying to read from STDIN. You
2737should either pass a filename to edit, or remove C<-i> from the command
2738line. See L<perlrun> for more details.
2739
aec0ef10 2740=item Junk on end of regexp in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
2741
2742(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
2743
0953b66b
FC
2744=item keys on reference is experimental
2745
0773cb3e
FC
2746(S experimental::autoderef) C<keys> with a scalar argument is experimental
2747and may change or be removed in a future Perl version. If you want to
2748take the risk of using this feature, simply disable this warning:
0953b66b 2749
d401967c 2750 no warnings "experimental::autoderef";
0953b66b 2751
a0d0e21e
LW
2752=item Label not found for "last %s"
2753
be771a83
GS
2754(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
2755of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2756L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2757
2758=item Label not found for "next %s"
2759
2760(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
2761that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2762L<perlfunc/last>.
2763
2764=item Label not found for "redo %s"
2765
2766(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
2767that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2768L<perlfunc/last>.
2769
85ab1d1d 2770=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 2771
85ab1d1d 2772(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
2773effective uids or gids failed.
2774
49704364
WL
2775=item length/code after end of string in unpack
2776
d7f8936a 2777(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an unpack
6903afa2
FC
2778length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
2779an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 2780
25e26107 2781=item length() used on %s (did you mean "scalar(%s)"?)
e508c8a4 2782
0d46a4e7
FC
2783(W syntax) You used length() on either an array or a hash when you
2784probably wanted a count of the items.
e508c8a4
MH
2785
2786Array size can be obtained by doing:
2787
2788 scalar(@array);
2789
2790The number of items in a hash can be obtained by doing:
2791
2792 scalar(keys %hash);
2793
f0e67a1d
Z
2794=item Lexing code attempted to stuff non-Latin-1 character into Latin-1 input
2795
d4fe7078
RS
2796(F) An extension is attempting to insert text into the current parse
2797(using L<lex_stuff_pvn|perlapi/lex_stuff_pvn> or similar), but tried to insert a character that
2798couldn't be part of the current input. This is an inherent pitfall
2799of the stuffing mechanism, and one of the reasons to avoid it. Where
6903afa2 2800it is necessary to stuff, stuffing only plain ASCII is recommended.
f0e67a1d
Z
2801
2802=item Lexing code internal error (%s)
2803
2804(F) Lexing code supplied by an extension violated the lexer's API in a
2805detectable way.
2806
69282e91 2807=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2808
be771a83
GS
2809(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
2810to check the return value of your socket() call? See
2811L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 2812
6651ba0b
FC
2813=item List form of piped open not implemented
2814
2815(F) On some platforms, notably Windows, the three-or-more-arguments
2816form of C<open> does not support pipes, such as C<open($pipe, '|-', @args)>.
2817Use the two-argument C<open($pipe, '|prog arg1 arg2...')> form instead.
2818
b35b96b6
JH
2819=item localtime(%f) failed
2820
2821(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that it could not handle:
2822too large, too small, or NaN. The returned value is C<undef>.
2823
bcd05b94 2824=item localtime(%f) too large
8b56d6ff 2825
e9200be3 2826(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was larger
fc003d4b 2827than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
6903afa2 2828wrong date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
fc003d4b
MS
2829not-a-number value).
2830
bcd05b94 2831=item localtime(%f) too small
fc003d4b 2832
e9200be3 2833(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was smaller
fc003d4b 2834than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
e7a1a147 2835wrong date.
8b56d6ff 2836
58e23c8d 2837=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
2838
2839(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
6903afa2 2840handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release.
2e50fd82 2841
b88df990
NC
2842=item Lost precision when %s %f by 1
2843
e63e8a91
FC
2844(W imprecision) The value you attempted to increment or decrement by one
2845is too large for the underlying floating point representation to store
2846accurately, hence the target of C<++> or C<--> is unchanged. Perl issues this
2847warning because it has already switched from integers to floating point
2848when values are too large for integers, and now even floating point is
2849insufficient. You may wish to switch to using L<Math::BigInt> explicitly.
b88df990 2850
93fad930 2851=item lstat() on filehandle%s
2f7da168
RK
2852
2853(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
2854by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
2855instead on the filehandle.)
2856
345d70e3 2857=item lvalue attribute %s already-defined subroutine
bb3abb05 2858
345d70e3
FC
2859(W misc) Although L<attributes.pm|attributes> allows this, turning the lvalue
2860attribute on or off on a Perl subroutine that is already defined
2861does not always work properly. It may or may not do what you
2862want, depending on what code is inside the subroutine, with exact
2863details subject to change between Perl versions. Only do this
2864if you really know what you are doing.
bb3abb05 2865
885ef6f5
GG
2866=item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined
2867
345d70e3
FC
2868(W misc) Using the C<:lvalue> declarative syntax to make a Perl
2869subroutine an lvalue subroutine after it has been defined is
2870not permitted. To make the subroutine an lvalue subroutine,
2871add the lvalue attribute to the definition, or put the C<sub
2872foo :lvalue;> declaration before the definition.
2873
2874See also L<attributes.pm|attributes>.
885ef6f5 2875
6f1b3ab0
FC
2876=item Magical list constants are not supported
2877
2878(F) You assigned a magical array to a stash element, and then tried
2879to use the subroutine from the same slot. You are asking Perl to do
2880something it cannot do, details subject to change between Perl versions.
2881
2db62bbc 2882=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
49704364 2883
2db62bbc 2884(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
2885are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2886
2887=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
2888
2db62bbc 2889(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
2890are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2891
6df41af2
GS
2892=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
2893
2894(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
2895
2896 prefix1;prefix2
2897
2898or
6df41af2
GS
2899 prefix1 prefix2
2900
be771a83
GS
2901with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
2902a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
2903appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 2904"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 2905
2f758a16
ST
2906=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
2907
d37a9538
ST
2908(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
2909syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
2910obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
2911when the function is called.
30d9c59b
Z
2912Perhaps the function's author was trying to write a subroutine signature
2913but didn't enable that feature first (C<use feature 'signatures'>),
2914so the signature was instead interpreted as a bad prototype.
2f758a16 2915
ba210ebe
JH
2916=item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
2917
4d6f11e5 2918(S utf8)(F) Perl detected a string that didn't comply with UTF-8
2575c402 2919encoding rules, even though it had the UTF8 flag on.
ba210ebe 2920
2575c402
JW
2921One possible cause is that you set the UTF8 flag yourself for data that
2922you thought to be in UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy
6903afa2 29238-bit data). To guard against this, you can use Encode::decode_utf8.
2575c402
JW
2924
2925If you use the C<:encoding(UTF-8)> PerlIO layer for input, invalid byte
2926sequences are handled gracefully, but if you use C<:utf8>, the flag is
2927set without validating the data, possibly resulting in this error
2928message.
2929
2930See also L<Encode/"Handling Malformed Data">.
901b21bf 2931
107160e2
KW
2932=item Malformed UTF-8 character immediately after '%s'
2933
2934(F) You said C<use utf8>, but the program file doesn't comply with UTF-8
2935encoding rules. The message prints out the properly encoded characters
2936just before the first bad one. If C<utf8> warnings are enabled, a
2937warning is generated that gives more details about the type of
2938malformation.
2939
bde9e88d 2940=item Malformed UTF-8 returned by \N{%s} immediately after '%s'
ff3f963a
KW
2941
2942(F) The charnames handler returned malformed UTF-8.
2943
4a5d3a93
FC
2944=item Malformed UTF-8 string in '%c' format in unpack
2945
2946(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2947rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2948
f337b084
TH
2949=item Malformed UTF-8 string in pack
2950
2951(F) You tried to pack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2952rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2953
2954=item Malformed UTF-8 string in unpack
2955
2956(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2957rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2958
4a5d3a93 2959=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
f337b084 2960
4a5d3a93
FC
2961(F) Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
2962doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
2963
30d9c59b
Z
2964=item Mandatory parameter follows optional parameter
2965
2966(F) In a subroutine signature, you wrote something like "$a = undef,
2967$b", making an earlier parameter optional and a later one mandatory.
2968Parameters are filled from left to right, so it's impossible for the
2969caller to omit an earlier one and pass a later one. If you want to act
2970as if the parameters are filled from right to left, declare the rightmost
2971optional and then shuffle the parameters around in the subroutine's body.
2972
2d88a86a
KW
2973=item Matched non-Unicode code point 0x%X against Unicode property; may
2974not be portable
2975
2976(S non_unicode) Perl allows strings to contain a superset of
2977Unicode code points; each code point may be as large as what is storable
2978in an unsigned integer on your system, but these may not be accepted by
2979other languages/systems. This message occurs when you matched a string
2980containing such a code point against a regular expression pattern, and
2981the code point was matched against a Unicode property, C<\p{...}> or
2982C<\P{...}>. Unicode properties are only defined on Unicode code points,
2983so the result of this match is undefined by Unicode, but Perl (starting
2984in v5.20) treats non-Unicode code points as if they were typical
2985unassigned Unicode ones, and matched this one accordingly. Whether a
2986given property matches these code points or not is specified in
2987L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>.
2988
2989This message is suppressed (unless it has been made fatal) if it is
2990immaterial to the results of the match if the code point is Unicode or
2991not. For example, the property C<\p{ASCII_Hex_Digit}> only can match
2992the 22 characters C<[0-9A-Fa-f]>, so obviously all other code points,
2993Unicode or not, won't match it. (And C<\P{ASCII_Hex_Digit}> will match
2994every code point except these 22.)
2995
2996Getting this message indicates that the outcome of the match arguably
2997should have been the opposite of what actually happened. If you think
2998that is the case, you may wish to make the C<non_unicode> warnings
2999category fatal; if you agree with Perl's decision, you may wish to turn
3000off this category.
3001
3002See L<perlunicode/Beyond Unicode code points> for more information.
3003
e0e4a6e3
FC
3004=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
3005m/%s/
4a5d3a93
FC
3006
3007(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
e0e4a6e3 3008regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The S<<-- HERE>
9e3ec65c 3009shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
4a5d3a93 3010See L<perlre>.
f337b084 3011
de42a5a9 3012=item Maximal count of pending signals (%u) exceeded
2563cec5 3013
6903afa2 3014(F) Perl aborted due to too high a number of signals pending. This
2563cec5
IZ
3015usually indicates that your operating system tried to deliver signals
3016too fast (with a very high priority), starving the perl process from
3017resources it would need to reach a point where it can process signals
6903afa2 3018safely. (See L<perlipc/"Deferred Signals (Safe Signals)">.)
2563cec5 3019
25f58aea
PN
3020=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
3021
3022(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
3023interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
3024"use" or "my".
3025
0d2487cd 3026=item '%' may not be used in pack
6df41af2
GS
3027
3028(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
3029checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
3030See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 3031
a0d0e21e
LW
3032=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
3033
3034(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 3035doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 3036
3cdd684c
TP
3037=item Method %s not permitted
3038
3039See Server error.
3040
a0d0e21e
LW
3041=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
3042
3043(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
3044by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
3045ended earlier on the current line.
3046
3047=item Misplaced _ in number
3048
d4ced10d
JH
3049(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
3050separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 3051
7baa4690
HS
3052=item Missing argument in %s
3053
3664866e
AB
3054(W missing) You called a function with fewer arguments than other
3055arguments you supplied indicated would be needed.
3056
3057Currently only emitted when a printf-type format required more
3058arguments than were supplied, but might be used in the future for
3059other cases where we can statically determine that arguments to
3060functions are missing, e.g. for the L<perlfunc/pack> function.
7baa4690 3061
9e81e6a1
RGS
3062=item Missing argument to -%c
3063
3064(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
3065immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
3066
ff3f963a 3067=item Missing braces on \N{}
423cee85 3068
e0e4a6e3 3069=item Missing braces on \N{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 3070
4a2d328f 3071(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
532cb70d
FC
3072double-quotish context. This can also happen when there is a space
3073(or comment) between the C<\N> and the C<{> in a regex with the C</x> modifier.
3074This modifier does not change the requirement that the brace immediately
3075follow the C<\N>.
423cee85 3076
f0a2b745
KW
3077=item Missing braces on \o{}
3078
3079(F) A C<\o> must be followed immediately by a C<{> in double-quotish context.
3080
a0d0e21e
LW
3081=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
3082
3083(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
3084"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
3085
06eaf0bc
GS
3086=item Missing command in piped open
3087
be771a83
GS
3088(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
3089C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
3090blank.
06eaf0bc 3091
961ce445
RGS
3092=item Missing control char name in \c
3093
3094(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
3095character name.
3096
591f5ca2
FC
3097=item Missing ']' in prototype for %s : %s
3098
bfe11873 3099(W illegalproto) A grouping was started with C<[> but never closed with C<]>.
591f5ca2 3100
8767b1ab 3101=item Missing name in "%s sub"
6df41af2 3102
87444db5 3103(F) The syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
be771a83 3104they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
3105
3106=item Missing $ on loop variable
3107
be771a83
GS
3108(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
3109are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
3110can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 3111
cc507455 3112=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306 3113
56da5a46
RGS
3114(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3115"%s found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
748a9306 3116
f51551f7
FC
3117=item Missing or undefined argument to require
3118
3119(F) You tried to call require with no argument or with an undefined
3120value as an argument. Require expects either a package name or a
3121file-specification as an argument. See L<perlfunc/require>.
3122
e0e4a6e3 3123=item Missing right brace on \%c{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 3124
ff3f963a
KW
3125(F) Missing right brace in C<\x{...}>, C<\p{...}>, C<\P{...}>, or C<\N{...}>.
3126
4a68bf9d 3127=item Missing right brace on \N{} or unescaped left brace after \N
ff3f963a 3128
d32207c9
FC
3129(F) C<\N> has two meanings.
3130
3131The traditional one has it followed by a name enclosed in braces,
3132meaning the character (or sequence of characters) given by that
fa816bf3 3133name. Thus C<\N{ASTERISK}> is another way of writing C<*>, valid in both
d32207c9
FC
3134double-quoted strings and regular expression patterns. In patterns,
3135it doesn't have the meaning an unescaped C<*> does.
3136
3137Starting in Perl 5.12.0, C<\N> also can have an additional meaning (only)
3138in patterns, namely to match a non-newline character. (This is short
3139for C<[^\n]>, and like C<.> but is not affected by the C</s> regex modifier.)
3140
3141This can lead to some ambiguities. When C<\N> is not followed immediately
3142by a left brace, Perl assumes the C<[^\n]> meaning. Also, if the braces
3143form a valid quantifier such as C<\N{3}> or C<\N{5,}>, Perl assumes that this
3144means to match the given quantity of non-newlines (in these examples,
31453; and 5 or more, respectively). In all other case, where there is a
3146C<\N{> and a matching C<}>, Perl assumes that a character name is desired.
3147
3148However, if there is no matching C<}>, Perl doesn't know if it was
3149mistakenly omitted, or if C<[^\n]{> was desired, and raises this error.
3150If you meant the former, add the right brace; if you meant the latter,
3151escape the brace with a backslash, like so: C<\N\{>
ab13f0c7 3152
d98d5fff 3153=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 3154
be771a83
GS
3155(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
3156ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
3157were last editing.
a0d0e21e 3158
6df41af2
GS
3159=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
3160
56da5a46
RGS
3161(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3162"%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
6df41af2
GS
3163the previous line just because you saw this message.
3164
a0d0e21e
LW
3165=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
3166
3167(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 3168constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
3169catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
3170
3171 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
3172 mod(2);
3173
3174Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
3175
c5674021
PDF
3176Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
3177is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
3178
b7e4ecc1
FC
3179 $x = 1;
3180 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
3181 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to
3182 } # modify the 2
c5674021 3183
7a4340ed 3184=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3185
3186(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
3187subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
3188backwards.
3189
7a4340ed 3190=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 3191
be771a83
GS
3192(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
3193couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
3194
3195=item Module name must be constant
3196
3197(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
3198
be98fb35 3199=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 3200
be98fb35
GS
3201(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
3202you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
3203about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 3204
fe13d51d 3205=item More than one argument to '%s' open
ed9aa3b7 3206
6903afa2 3207(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
ed9aa3b7
SG
3208can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
3209list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
3210See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
3211
85396b18
FC
3212=item mprotect for COW string %p %u failed with %d
3213
3214(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_COW (see
3215L<perlguts/"Copy on Write">), but a shared string buffer
3216could not be made read-only.
3217
92951bce
FC
3218=item mprotect for %p %u failed with %d
3219
85396b18
FC
3220(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS (see L<perlhacktips>),
3221but an op tree could not be made read-only.
3222
3223=item mprotect RW for COW string %p %u failed with %d
3224
3225(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_COW (see
3226L<perlguts/"Copy on Write">), but a read-only shared string
3227buffer could not be made mutable.
3228
92951bce
FC
3229=item mprotect RW for %p %u failed with %d
3230
3231(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS (see
85396b18
FC
3232L<perlhacktips>), but a read-only op tree could not be made
3233mutable before freeing the ops.
92951bce 3234
a0d0e21e
LW
3235=item msg%s not implemented
3236
3237(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
3238
3239=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
3240
75b44862
GS
3241(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
3242They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 3243
49704364 3244=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
6df41af2 3245
49704364
WL
3246(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
3247follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
3248See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
3249
3250=item "my sub" not yet implemented
3251
be771a83
GS
3252(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
3253that yet.
6df41af2 3254
5a25739d
FC
3255=item "my %s" used in sort comparison
3256
3257(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
3258You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
3259sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
3260lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
3261name, or rename the lexical variable.
3262
fd1b7234 3263=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
6df41af2 3264
be771a83
GS
3265(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
3266sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
3267local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 3268
8149aa9f
FC
3269=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
3270
c59aba6c
FC
3271(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable
3272names. If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then
3273just mention it again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our>
08a33b6b 3274declaration is also provided for this purpose.
c59aba6c 3275
66a1f5ec
FC
3276NOTE: This warning detects package symbols that have been used
3277only once. This means lexical variables will never trigger this
3278warning. It also means that all of the package variables $c, @c,
3279%c, as well as *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or
c59aba6c
FC
3280format) are considered the same; if a program uses $c only once
3281but also uses any of the others it will not trigger this warning.
3282Symbols beginning with an underscore and symbols using special
3283identifiers (q.v. L<perldata>) are exempt from this warning.
8149aa9f 3284
e0e4a6e3 3285=item Need exactly 3 octal digits in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b
KW
3286
3287(F) Within S<C<(?[ ])>>, all constants interpreted as octal need to be
3288exactly 3 digits long. This helps catch some ambiguities. If your
3289constant is too short, add leading zeros, like
3290
3291 (?[ [ \078 ] ]) # Syntax error!
3292 (?[ [ \0078 ] ]) # Works
3293 (?[ [ \007 8 ] ]) # Clearer
3294
3295The maximum number this construct can express is C<\777>. If you
675fa9ff
FC
3296need a larger one, you need to use L<\o{}|perlrebackslash/Octal escapes> instead. If you meant
3297two separate things, you need to separate them:
0d0b4b3b
KW
3298
3299 (?[ [ \7776 ] ]) # Syntax error!
3300 (?[ [ \o{7776} ] ]) # One meaning
3301 (?[ [ \777 6 ] ]) # Another meaning
3302 (?[ [ \777 \006 ] ]) # Still another
3303
49704364
WL
3304=item Negative '/' count in unpack
3305
3306(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
3307negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3308
a0d0e21e
LW
3309=item Negative length
3310
be771a83
GS
3311(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
3312length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 3313
ed9aa3b7
SG
3314=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
3315
3316(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
3317greater than or equal to zero.
3318
b3211734
KW
3319=item Negative repeat count does nothing
3320
3321(W numeric) You tried to execute the
3322L<C<x>|perlop/Multiplicative Operators> repetition operator fewer than 0
3323times, which doesn't make sense.
3324
e0e4a6e3 3325=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3326
6903afa2 3327(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses.
e0e4a6e3 3328So things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The S<<-- HERE> shows
9e3ec65c 3329whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 3330
7253e4e3 3331Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 3332C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3333
6df41af2 3334=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 3335
be771a83
GS
3336(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
3337scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e 3338
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3339=item next::method/next::can/maybe::next::method cannot find enclosing method
3340
3341(F) C<next::method> needs to be called within the context of a
3342real method in a real package, and it could not find such a context.
3343See L<mro>.
3344
5a25739d 3345=item \N in a character class must be a named character: \N{...} in regex;
e0e4a6e3 3346marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5a25739d 3347
32a77fbe
FC
3348(F) The new (as of Perl 5.12) meaning of C<\N> as C<[^\n]> is not valid in a
3349bracketed character class, for the same reason that C<.> in a character
3350class loses its specialness: it matches almost everything, which is
3351probably not what you want.
5a25739d 3352
0b4ce96d 3353=item \N{} in character class restricted to one character in regex; marked
e0e4a6e3 3354by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0b4ce96d
FC
3355
3356(F) Named Unicode character escapes C<(\N{...})> may return a
3357multi-character sequence. Such an escape may not be used in
3358a character class, because character classes always match one
3359character of input. Check that the correct escape has been used,
e0e4a6e3 3360and the correct charname handler is in scope. The S<<-- HERE> shows
0b4ce96d
FC
3361whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
3362
e0e4a6e3
FC
3363=item \N{NAME} must be resolved by the lexer in regex; marked by
3364S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5a25739d
FC
3365
3366(F) When compiling a regex pattern, an unresolved named character or
3367sequence was encountered. This can happen in any of several ways that
3368bypass the lexer, such as using single-quotish context, or an extra
3369backslash in double-quotish:
3370
3371 $re = '\N{SPACE}'; # Wrong!
3372 $re = "\\N{SPACE}"; # Wrong!
3373 /$re/;
3374
3375Instead, use double-quotes with a single backslash:
3376
3377 $re = "\N{SPACE}"; # ok
3378 /$re/;
3379
3380The lexer can be bypassed as well by creating the pattern from smaller
3381components:
3382
3383 $re = '\N';
3384 /${re}{SPACE}/; # Wrong!
3385
3386It's not a good idea to split a construct in the middle like this, and
3387it doesn't work here. Instead use the solution above.
3388
3389Finally, the message also can happen under the C</x> regex modifier when the
3390C<\N> is separated by spaces from the C<{>, in which case, remove the spaces.
3391
3392 /\N {SPACE}/x; # Wrong!
3393 /\N{SPACE}/x; # ok
3394
a0d0e21e
LW
3395=item No %s allowed while running setuid
3396
be771a83
GS
3397(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
3398setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
3399will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
3400securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 3401
df758df2
KW
3402=item NO-BREAK SPACE in a charnames alias definition is deprecated
3403
3404(D deprecated) You defined a character name which contained a no-break
3405space character. Change it to a regular space. Usually these names are
3406defined in the C<:alias> import argument to C<use charnames>, but they
3407could be defined by a translator installed into C<$^H{charnames}>. See
3408L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
3409
6651ba0b
FC
3410=item No code specified for -%c
3411
3412(F) Perl's B<-e> and B<-E> command-line options require an argument. If
3413you want to run an empty program, pass the empty string as a separate
3414argument or run a program consisting of a single 0 or 1:
3415
3416 perl -e ""
3417 perl -e0
3418 perl -e1
3419
a0d0e21e
LW
3420=item No comma allowed after %s
3421
6903afa2
FC
3422(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is
3423not allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
a0d0e21e
LW
3424Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
3425
6903afa2
FC
3426One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported
3427a constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
3428importing took place, it may for example be that your operating
3429system does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did
3430use an explicit import list for the constants you expect to see;
3431please see L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an
3432explicit import list would probably have caught this error earlier
3433it naturally does not remedy the fact that your operating system
3434still does not support that constant. Maybe you have a typo in
3435the constants of the symbol import list of B<use> or B<import> or in the
3436constant name at the line where this error was triggered?
0a753a76 3437
748a9306
LW
3438=item No command into which to pipe on command line
3439
be771a83
GS
3440(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3441redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
3442doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 3443
a0d0e21e
LW
3444=item No DB::DB routine defined
3445
be771a83 3446(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
f7af5ce1 3447for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
ccafdc96
RGS
3448module) didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
3449statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
3450
3451=item No dbm on this machine
3452
3453(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 3454supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e 3455
ccafdc96 3456=item No DB::sub routine defined
a0d0e21e 3457
ccafdc96
RGS
3458(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
3459for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
3460module) didn't define a C<DB::sub> routine to be called at the beginning
3461of each ordinary subroutine call.
a0d0e21e 3462
6651ba0b
FC
3463=item No directory specified for -I
3464
3465(F) The B<-I> command-line switch requires a directory name as part of the
3466I<same> argument. Use B<-Ilib>, for instance. B<-I lib> won't work.
3467
c47ff5f1 3468=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 3469
be771a83
GS
3470(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3471redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
3472find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 3473
49704364
WL
3474=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
3475
3476(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
6903afa2 3477matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 3478
c47ff5f1 3479=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 3480
be771a83
GS
3481(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3482redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
3483name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 3484
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3485=item No next::method '%s' found for %s
3486
3487(F) C<next::method> found no further instances of this method name
3488in the remaining packages of the MRO of this class. If you don't want
3489it throwing an exception, use C<maybe::next::method>
fa816bf3 3490or C<next::can>. See L<mro>.
2c7d6b9c 3491
e0e4a6e3 3492=item Non-hex character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
3493
3494(F) In a regular expression, there was a non-hexadecimal character where
3495a hex one was expected, like
3496
3497 (?[ [ \xDG ] ])
3498 (?[ [ \x{DEKA} ] ])
3499
e0e4a6e3 3500=item Non-octal character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
3501
3502(F) In a regular expression, there was a non-octal character where
3503an octal one was expected, like
3504
3505 (?[ [ \o{1278} ] ])
3506
3507=item Non-octal character '%c'. Resolved as "%s"
3508
3509(W digit) In parsing an octal numeric constant, a character was
3510unexpectedly encountered that isn't octal. The resulting value
3511is as indicated.
3512
6df41af2
GS
3513=item "no" not allowed in expression
3514
be771a83
GS
3515(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
3516returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 3517
675fa9ff
FC
3518=item Non-string passed as bitmask
3519
3520(W misc) A number has been passed as a bitmask argument to select().
3521Use the vec() function to construct the file descriptor bitmasks for
3522select. See L<perlfunc/select>.
3523
c47ff5f1 3524=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 3525
be771a83
GS
3526(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3527redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
3528doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 3529
c47ff5f1 3530=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 3531
be771a83
GS
3532(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3533redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
3534find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 3535
1ec3e8de
GS
3536=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
3537
be771a83
GS
3538(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
3539declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
3540semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 3541
a0d0e21e
LW
3542=item No Perl script found in input
3543
3544(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
3545with #! and containing the word "perl".
3546
3547=item No setregid available
3548
3549(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
3550your system.
3551
3552=item No setreuid available
3553
3554(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
3555your system.
3556
5a25739d
FC
3557=item No such class %s
3558
3559(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state"
3560declaration, but this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
3561
e75d1f10
RD
3562=item No such class field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
3563
b7e4ecc1
FC
3564(F) You tried to access a key from a hash through the indicated typed
3565variable but that key is not allowed by the package of the same type.
3566The indicated package has restricted the set of allowed keys using the
3567L<fields> pragma.
e75d1f10 3568
3c20a832
SP
3569=item No such hook: %s
3570
dc7e5945
FC
3571(F) You specified a signal hook that was not recognized by Perl.
3572Currently, Perl accepts C<__DIE__> and C<__WARN__> as valid signal hooks.
3c20a832 3573
6df41af2
GS
3574=item No such pipe open
3575
3576(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
3577close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
3578earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 3579
a0d0e21e
LW
3580=item No such signal: SIG%s
3581
be771a83
GS
3582(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
3583not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
3584names on your system.
a0d0e21e
LW
3585
3586=item Not a CODE reference
3587
3588(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
3589subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
3590use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
3591also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 3592
a0d0e21e
LW
3593=item Not a GLOB reference
3594
be771a83
GS
3595(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
3596symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
3597something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
3598kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
3599
3600=item Not a HASH reference
3601
be771a83
GS
3602(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
3603reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
3604find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 3605
6df41af2
GS
3606=item Not an ARRAY reference
3607
be771a83
GS
3608(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
3609a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
3610to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 3611
d4fc4415
FC
3612=item Not an unblessed ARRAY reference
3613
3614(F) You passed a reference to a blessed array to C<push>, C<shift> or
3615another array function. These only accept unblessed array references
3616or arrays beginning explicitly with C<@>.
3617
a0d0e21e
LW
3618=item Not a SCALAR reference
3619
be771a83
GS
3620(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
3621a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
3622to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
3623
3624=item Not a subroutine reference
3625
3626(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
3627subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
3628use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
3629also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 3630
e7ea3e70 3631=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
3632
3633(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 3634doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 3635
a0d0e21e
LW
3636=item Not enough arguments for %s
3637
3638(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
3639
6df41af2
GS
3640=item Not enough format arguments
3641
be771a83
GS
3642(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
3643supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
3644
3645=item %s: not found
3646
be771a83
GS
3647(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
3648of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
3649yourself.
6df41af2 3650
e0e4a6e3 3651=item (?[...]) not valid in locale in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
3652
3653(F) C<(?[...])> cannot be used within the scope of a C<S<use locale>> or with
3654an C</l> regular expression modifier, as that would require deferring
3655to run-time the calculation of what it should evaluate to, and it is
3656regex compile-time only.
3657
6df41af2 3658=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 3659
6df41af2
GS
3660(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
3661timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
3662to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
3663F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
3664need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e 3665
6df41af2
GS
3666=item NULL OP IN RUN
3667
f84fe999 3668(S debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
be771a83 3669pointer.
6df41af2 3670
55497cff 3671=item Null picture in formline
3672
3673(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
3674specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
3675supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
3676
a0d0e21e
LW
3677=item Null realloc
3678
3679(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
3680
3681=item NULL regexp argument
3682
5f05dabc 3683(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
3684
3685=item NULL regexp parameter
3686
3687(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
3688
fc36a67e 3689=item Number too long
3690
be771a83 3691(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 3692about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
3693versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
3694the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
3695"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 3696
f0a2b745
KW
3697=item Number with no digits
3698
1043934d 3699(F) Perl was looking for a number but found nothing that looked like
6903afa2 3700a number. This happens, for example with C<\o{}>, with no number between
1043934d 3701the braces.
f0a2b745 3702
252aa082
JH
3703=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
3704
75b44862 3705(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
3706(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
3707L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 3708
30d9c59b
Z
3709=item Odd name/value argument for subroutine
3710
3711(F) A subroutine using a slurpy hash parameter in its signature
3712received an odd number of arguments to populate the hash. It requires
3713the arguments to be paired, with the same number of keys as values.
3714The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault. Inconveniently,
3715this error will be reported at the location of the subroutine, not that
3716of the caller.
3717
6ad11d81
JH
3718=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
3719
04a80ee0 3720(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
6903afa2 3721arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 3722
b21befc1
MG
3723=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
3724
3725(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
3726which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
3727
1930e939 3728=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 3729
be771a83
GS
3730(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
3731which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 3732
bbce6d69 3733=item Offset outside string
3734
1fa582fa 3735(F)(W layer) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv/seek operation
42bc49da 3736with an offset pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to
f5a7294f
JH
3737imagine. The sole exceptions to this are that zero padding will
3738take place when going past the end of the string when either
3739C<sysread()>ing a file, or when seeking past the end of a scalar opened
1a7a2554
MB
3740for I/O (in anticipation of future reads and to imitate the behaviour
3741with real files).
bbce6d69 3742
c289d2f7 3743=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
3744
3745(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
3746never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
3747call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
3748
96ebfdd7
RK
3749=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
3750
3751(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
3752that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
3753
a0d0e21e
LW
3754=item oops: oopsAV
3755
e476b1b5 3756(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
3757
3758=item oops: oopsHV
3759
e476b1b5 3760(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 3761
abc718f2
RGS
3762=item Opening dirhandle %s also as a file
3763
713e2616 3764(D io, deprecated) You used open() to associate a filehandle to
abc718f2
RGS
3765a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a dirhandle.
3766Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
3767and is deprecated.
3768
3769=item Opening filehandle %s also as a directory
3770
28038637 3771(D io, deprecated) You used opendir() to associate a dirhandle to
abc718f2
RGS
3772a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a filehandle.
3773Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
3774and is deprecated.
3775
e0e4a6e3
FC
3776=item Operand with no preceding operator in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
3777m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 3778
675fa9ff 3779(F) You wrote something like
0d0b4b3b
KW
3780
3781 (?[ \p{Digit} \p{Thai} ])
3782
3783There are two operands, but no operator giving how you want to combine
3784them.
3785
a0288114 3786=item Operation "%s": no method found, %s
44a8e56a 3787
be771a83
GS
3788(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
3789handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
3790of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
e4aad80d 3791the C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 3792
5ff1373f 3793=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for non-Unicode code point 0x%X
9ae3ac1a 3794
b5af3ad2
FC
3795(S non_unicode) You performed an operation requiring Unicode semantics
3796on a code point that is not in Unicode, so what it should do is not
3797defined. Perl has chosen to have it do nothing, and warn you.
9ae3ac1a
KW
3798
3799If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
3800matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
3801
3802If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 3803C<no warnings 'non_unicode';>.
9ae3ac1a 3804
5ff1373f 3805=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
9ae3ac1a 3806
4c2e59a0 3807(S surrogate) You performed an operation requiring Unicode
ad94bb39
FC
3808semantics on a Unicode surrogate. Unicode frowns upon the use
3809of surrogates for anything but storing strings in UTF-16, but
3810semantics are (reluctantly) defined for the surrogates, and
3811they are to do nothing for this operation. Because the use of
3812surrogates can be dangerous, Perl warns.
9ae3ac1a
KW
3813
3814If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
3815matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
3816
3817If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 3818C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9ae3ac1a 3819
748a9306
LW
3820=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
3821
be771a83
GS
3822(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
3823was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
3824use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
3825example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
3826"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 3827
30d9c59b
Z
3828=item Optional parameter lacks default expression
3829
3830(F) In a subroutine signature, you wrote something like "$a =", making a
3831named optional parameter without a default value. A nameless optional
3832parameter is permitted to have no default value, but a named one must
3833have a specific default. You probably want "$a = undef".
3834
6df41af2
GS
3835=item "our" variable %s redeclared
3836
be771a83
GS
3837(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
3838in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 3839
a80b8354
GS
3840=item Out of memory!
3841
3842(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
3843remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
3844no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 3845
19a52907
JH
3846At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
3847process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
3848C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
3849the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
3850and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
3851
6d3b25aa
RGS
3852=item Out of memory during %s extend
3853
3854(X) An attempt was made to extend an array, a list, or a string beyond
3855the largest possible memory allocation.
3856
6df41af2 3857=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 3858
6df41af2 3859(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
6903afa2 3860remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
3861the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
3862possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 3863
1b979e0a 3864=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 3865
1fa582fa 3866(X)(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
be771a83
GS
3867insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
3868request.
eff9c6e2
CS
3869
3870The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
3871depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
3872However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
3873emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
3874is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
3875where the failed request happened.
55497cff 3876
1b979e0a
IZ
3877=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
3878
3879(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
3880is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
3881C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 3882
6df41af2
GS
3883=item Out of memory for yacc stack
3884
be771a83
GS
3885(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
3886parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
3887otherwise.
6df41af2 3888
28be1210
TH
3889=item '.' outside of string in pack
3890
3891(F) The argument to a '.' in your template tried to move the working
3892position to before the start of the packed string being built.
3893
49704364 3894=item '@' outside of string in unpack
6df41af2 3895
49704364 3896(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6df41af2
GS
3897the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3898
f337b084
TH
3899=item '@' outside of string with malformed UTF-8 in unpack
3900
3901(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6903afa2 3902the string being unpacked. The string being unpacked was also invalid
fa816bf3 3903UTF-8. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
f337b084 3904
7778d804
FC
3905=item overload arg '%s' is invalid
3906
3907(W overload) The L<overload> pragma was passed an argument it did not
3908recognize. Did you mistype an operator?
3909
7cb0cfe6
BM
3910=item Overloaded dereference did not return a reference
3911
3912(F) An object with an overloaded dereference operator was dereferenced,
6903afa2 3913but the overloaded operation did not return a reference. See
7cb0cfe6
BM
3914L<overload>.
3915
3916=item Overloaded qr did not return a REGEXP
3917
3918(F) An object with a C<qr> overload was used as part of a match, but the
6903afa2 3919overloaded operation didn't return a compiled regexp. See L<overload>.
7cb0cfe6 3920
6df41af2
GS
3921=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
3922
be771a83
GS
3923(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
3924package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
3925some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
3926mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 3927
96ebfdd7
RK
3928=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
3929
3930(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3931signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3932
a0d0e21e
LW
3933=item page overflow
3934
be771a83
GS
3935(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
3936page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 3937
6df41af2
GS
3938=item panic: %s
3939
3940(P) An internal error.
3941
c99a1475
NC
3942=item panic: attempt to call %s in %s
3943
3944(P) One of the file test operators entered a code branch that calls
3945an ACL related-function, but that function is not available on this
3946platform. Earlier checks mean that it should not be possible to
3947enter this branch on this platform.
3948
d5e473ac
SH
3949=item panic: child pseudo-process was never scheduled
3950
3951(P) A child pseudo-process in the ithreads implementation on Windows
3952was not scheduled within the time period allowed and therefore was not
3953able to initialize properly.
3954
5637ef5b 3955=item panic: ck_grep, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3956
3957(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
3958
5637ef5b 3959=item panic: ck_split, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3960
3961(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
3962
5637ef5b 3963=item panic: corrupt saved stack index %ld
a0d0e21e 3964
be771a83
GS
3965(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
3966there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 3967
810b8aa5
GS
3968=item panic: del_backref
3969
3970(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
3971reference.
3972
a0d0e21e
LW
3973=item panic: die %s
3974
3975(P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
3976it wasn't an eval context.
3977
a0d0e21e
LW
3978=item panic: do_subst
3979
be771a83
GS
3980(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
3981data.
a0d0e21e 3982
2269b42e 3983=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 3984
2269b42e 3985(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 3986data.
a0d0e21e 3987
b7f7fd0b
NC
3988=item panic: fold_constants JMPENV_PUSH returned %d
3989
10203f38 3990(P) While attempting folding constants an exception other than an C<eval>
b7f7fd0b
NC
3991failure was caught.
3992
c635e13b 3993=item panic: frexp
3994
3995(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
3996
5637ef5b 3997=item panic: goto, type=%u, ix=%ld
a0d0e21e
LW
3998
3999(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
4000and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
4001
b0d55c99
FC
4002=item panic: gp_free failed to free glob pointer
4003
4004(P) The internal routine used to clear a typeglob's entries tried
6903afa2
FC
4005repeatedly, but each time something re-created entries in the glob.
4006Most likely the glob contains an object with a reference back to
4007the glob and a destructor that adds a new object to the glob.
b0d55c99 4008
5637ef5b 4009=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4010
4011(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
4012
5637ef5b 4013=item panic: INTERPCONCAT, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4014
4015(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
4016
e446cec8
IZ
4017=item panic: kid popen errno read
4018
1f91b9f5 4019(F) A forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
e446cec8 4020
5637ef5b 4021=item panic: last, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4022
4023(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
4024it wasn't a block context.
4025
4026=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
4027
be771a83
GS
4028(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
4029scope.
a0d0e21e 4030
5637ef5b 4031=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency %u
a0d0e21e
LW
4032
4033(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
4034invalid enum on the top of it.
4035
810b8aa5
GS
4036=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
4037
4038(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
4039references to an object.
4040
5637ef5b 4041=item panic: malloc, %s
6df41af2
GS
4042
4043(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
4044
27d5b266
JH
4045=item panic: memory wrap
4046
46f9c2c2
FC
4047(P) Something tried to allocate either more memory than possible or a
4048negative amount.
27d5b266 4049
5637ef5b 4050=item panic: pad_alloc, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4051
4052(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4053and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4054
5637ef5b 4055=item panic: pad_free curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4056
4057(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4058and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4059
4060=item panic: pad_free po
4061
4062(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
4063
5637ef5b 4064=item panic: pad_reset curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4065
4066(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4067and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4068
4069=item panic: pad_sv po
4070
4071(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
4072
5637ef5b 4073=item panic: pad_swipe curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4074
4075(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4076and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4077
4078=item panic: pad_swipe po
4079
4080(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
4081
5637ef5b 4082=item panic: pp_iter, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4083
4084(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
4085
96ebfdd7
RK
4086=item panic: pp_match%s
4087
4088(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
4089data.
4090
5637ef5b 4091=item panic: pp_split, pm=%p, s=%p
2269b42e
JH
4092
4093(P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
4094
5637ef5b 4095=item panic: realloc, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4096
4097(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
4098
ccfb6d2e
FC
4099=item panic: reference miscount on nsv in sv_replace() (%d != 1)
4100
4101(P) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
4102reference count other than 1.
4103
5637ef5b 4104=item panic: restartop in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4105
4106(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
4107didn't supply the destination.
4108
5637ef5b 4109=item panic: return, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4110
4111(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
4112then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
4113
5637ef5b 4114=item panic: scan_num, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4115
4116(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
4117
4599db5f 4118=item panic: Sequence (?{...}): no code block found in regex m/%s/
d24ca0c5 4119
1f91b9f5 4120(P) While compiling a pattern that has embedded (?{}) or (??{}) code
d24ca0c5
DM
4121blocks, perl couldn't locate the code block that should have already been
4122seen and compiled by perl before control passed to the regex compiler.
4123
5a25739d
FC
4124=item panic: strxfrm() gets absurd - a => %u, ab => %u
4125
4126(P) The interpreter's sanity check of the C function strxfrm() failed.
4127In your current locale the returned transformation of the string "ab"
4128is shorter than that of the string "a", which makes no sense.
4129
6c65d5f9
NC
4130=item panic: sv_chop %s
4131
4132(P) The sv_chop() routine was passed a position that is not within the
4133scalar's string buffer.
4134
5637ef5b 4135=item panic: sv_insert, midend=%p, bigend=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4136
4137(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
4138was string.
4139
4140=item panic: top_env
4141
6224f72b 4142(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e 4143
65bca31a
NC
4144=item panic: unimplemented op %s (#%d) called
4145
a1efa96e
FC
4146(P) The compiler is screwed up and attempted to use an op that isn't
4147permitted at run time.
65bca31a 4148
dea0fc0b
JH
4149=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
4150
4151(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 4152to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 4153
e0ea5e2d
NC
4154=item panic: utf16_to_utf8_reversed: odd bytelen
4155
4156(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8_reversed with an odd (as opposed
4157to even) byte length.
4158
5637ef5b 4159=item panic: yylex, %s
2f7da168
RK
4160
4161(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
4162
78181aa9
KW
4163=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
4164
4165(W parenthesis) You said something like
4166
4167 my $foo, $bar = @_;
4168
4169when you meant
4170
4171 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
4172
4173Remember that "my", "our", "local" and "state" bind tighter than comma.
4174
28ac2b49
Z
4175=item Parsing code internal error (%s)
4176
4177(F) Parsing code supplied by an extension violated the parser's API in
4178a detectable way.
4179
9816f121
KW
4180=item Passing malformed UTF-8 to "%s" is deprecated
4181
4182(D deprecated, utf8) This message indicates a bug either in the Perl
4183core or in XS code. Such code was trying to find out if a character,
4184allegedly stored internally encoded as UTF-8, was of a given type, such
4185as being punctuation or a digit. But the character was not encoded in
4186legal UTF-8. The C<%s> is replaced by a string that can be used by
4187knowledgeable people to determine what the type being checked against
4188was. If C<utf8> warnings are enabled, a further message is raised,
4189giving details of the malformation.
4190
b9bd8d8c 4191=item Pattern subroutine nesting without pos change exceeded limit in regex
1a147d38
YO
4192
4193(F) You used a pattern that uses too many nested subpattern calls without
6903afa2
FC
4194consuming any text. Restructure the pattern so text is consumed before
4195the nesting limit is exceeded.
1a147d38 4196
96ebfdd7
RK
4197=item C<-p> destination: %s
4198
4199(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
4200command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
4201redirected it with select().)
4202
4203=item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
4204
4205(F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
4206"Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
4207that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
4208
8954b91a 4209=item Perl folding rules are not up-to-date for 0x%X; please use the perlbug
e0e4a6e3 4210utility to report; in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
d50a4f90 4211
6014bd26
JK
4212(S regexp) You used a regular expression with case-insensitive matching,
4213and there is a bug in Perl in which the built-in regular expression
4214folding rules are not accurate. This may lead to incorrect results.
4215Please report this as a bug using the L<perlbug> utility.
d50a4f90 4216
f51551f7
FC
4217=item PerlIO layer ':win32' is experimental
4218
4219(S experimental::win32_perlio) The C<:win32> PerlIO layer is
4220experimental. If you want to take the risk of using this layer,
4221simply disable this warning:
4222
4223 no warnings "experimental::win32_perlio";
4224
1109a392
MHM
4225=item Perl_my_%s() not available
4226
4227(F) Your platform has very uncommon byte-order and integer size,
4228so it was not possible to set up some or all fixed-width byte-order
4229conversion functions. This is only a problem when you're using the
4230'<' or '>' modifiers in (un)pack templates. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4231
6651ba0b
FC
4232=item Perl %s required (did you mean %s?)--this is only %s, stopped
4233
4234(F) The code you are trying to run has asked for a newer version of
4235Perl than you are running. Perhaps C<use 5.10> was written instead
4236of C<use 5.010> or C<use v5.10>. Without the leading C<v>, the number is
4237interpreted as a decimal, with every three digits after the
4238decimal point representing a part of the version number. So 5.10
4239is equivalent to v5.100.
4240
6903f24f 4241=item Perl %s required--this is only %s, stopped
6d3b25aa
RGS
4242
4243(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
4244recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
4245you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
4246
6df41af2
GS
4247=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
4248
fa816bf3 4249(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 4250C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 4251
96ebfdd7
RK
4252=item PERL_SIGNALS illegal: "%s"
4253
806b6d07 4254(X) See L<perlrun/PERL_SIGNALS> for legal values.
96ebfdd7 4255
6651ba0b
FC
4256=item Perls since %s too modern--this is %s, stopped
4257
4258(F) The code you are trying to run claims it will not run
4259on the version of Perl you are using because it is too new.
4260Maybe the code needs to be updated, or maybe it is simply
4261wrong and the version check should just be removed.
4262
675fa9ff
FC
4263=item perl: warning: Non hex character in '$ENV{PERL_HASH_SEED}', seed only partially set
4264
ff9c1ae8 4265(S) PERL_HASH_SEED should match /^\s*(?:0x)?[0-9a-fA-F]+\s*\z/ but it
675fa9ff
FC
4266contained a non hex character. This could mean you are not using the
4267hash seed you think you are.
6a5b4183 4268
6df41af2
GS
4269=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
4270
4271(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
4272
4273 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
4274 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
4275 LC_ALL = "En_US",
4276 LANG = (unset)
4277 are supported and installed on your system.
4278 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
4279
4280Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
4281settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
0ea6b70f
JH
4282This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
4283system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
4284locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
4285dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
4b07a369
FC
4286Perl can and will use, and the script will be run. Before you really
4287fix the problem, however, you will get the same error message each
4288time you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
0ea6b70f 4289L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
6df41af2 4290
6a5b4183
YO
4291=item perl: warning: strange setting in '$ENV{PERL_PERTURB_KEYS}': '%s'
4292
ff9c1ae8 4293(S) Perl was run with the environment variable PERL_PERTURB_KEYS defined
675fa9ff 4294but containing an unexpected value. The legal values of this setting
6a5b4183
YO
4295are as follows.
4296
4297 Numeric | String | Result
4298 --------+---------------+-----------------------------------------
4299 0 | NO | Disables key traversal randomization
4300 1 | RANDOM | Enables full key traversal randomization
555bd962
BG
4301 2 | DETERMINISTIC | Enables repeatable key traversal
4302 | | randomization
6a5b4183
YO
4303
4304Both numeric and string values are accepted, but note that string values are
675fa9ff 4305case sensitive. The default for this setting is "RANDOM" or 1.
aac486f1 4306
bd3fa61c 4307=item pid %x not a child
748a9306 4308
be771a83
GS
4309(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
4310process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
4311fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
748a9306 4312
49704364 4313=item 'P' must have an explicit size in unpack
3bf38418
WL
4314
4315(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
4316
0953b66b
FC
4317=item pop on reference is experimental
4318
0773cb3e
FC
4319(S experimental::autoderef) C<pop> with a scalar argument is experimental
4320and may change or be removed in a future Perl version. If you want to
4321take the risk of using this feature, simply disable this warning:
0953b66b 4322
d401967c 4323 no warnings "experimental::autoderef";
0953b66b
FC
4324
4325=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex; marked by S<< <-- HERE in m/%s/ >>
96ebfdd7 4326
e0e4a6e3 4327(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The S<<-- HERE>
9e3ec65c 4328shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
96ebfdd7
RK
4329Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
4330the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
4331not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
4332
4333=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
4334
4335(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
4336the BSD version, which takes a pid.
4337
b33c0c71 4338=item POSIX syntax [%c %c] belongs inside character classes in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 4339S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 4340
9a0b3859 4341(W regexp) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
7253e4e3
RK
4342I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
4343/[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
9e3ec65c 4344implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and
e0e4a6e3 4345will cause fatal errors. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 4346expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4347
6fbc9859 4348=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 4349S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 4350
a125938c
FC
4351(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
4352with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
4353need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
4354character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[."
e0e4a6e3 4355and ".\]". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
a125938c 4356problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4357
6fbc9859 4358=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 4359S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 4360
7253e4e3
RK
4361(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
4362with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
4363need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
4364character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
e0e4a6e3 4365and "=\]". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
7253e4e3 4366problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4367
bbce6d69 4368=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
4369
e476b1b5 4370(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
75b44862 4371strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
be771a83
GS
4372literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
4373parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
bbce6d69 4374
774d564b 4375You probably wrote something like this:
4376
54310121 4377 @list = qw(
774d564b 4378 a # a comment
bbce6d69 4379 b # another comment
774d564b 4380 );
bbce6d69 4381
4382when you should have written this:
4383
774d564b 4384 @list = qw(
54310121 4385 a
4386 b
774d564b 4387 );
4388
4389If you really want comments, build your list the
4390old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
4391
4392 @list = (
4393 'a', # a comment
4394 'b', # another comment
4395 );
bbce6d69 4396
4397=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
4398
be771a83
GS
4399(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
4400commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
4401different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
4402frequently used.)
bbce6d69 4403
54310121 4404You probably wrote something like this:
bbce6d69 4405
774d564b 4406 qw! a, b, c !;
4407
4408which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
4409commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
bbce6d69 4410
774d564b 4411 qw! a b c !;
bbce6d69 4412
a0d0e21e
LW
4413=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
4414
4415(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
4416Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
4417end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
4418Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
4419
9da2d046
NT
4420=item Possible precedence issue with control flow operator
4421
4422(W syntax) There is a possible problem with the mixing of a control
4423flow operator (e.g. C<return>) and a low-precedence operator like
4424C<or>. Consider:
4425
4426 sub { return $a or $b; }
4427
4428This is parsed as:
4429
4430 sub { (return $a) or $b; }
4431
4432Which is effectively just:
4433
4434 sub { return $a; }
4435
4436Either use parentheses or the high-precedence variant of the operator.
4437
4438Note this may be also triggered for constructs like:
4439
4440 sub { 1 if die; }
4441
a690c7c4
FC
4442=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %c operator
4443
4444(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
4445with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
4446
4447 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
4448
4449This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
4450higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
4451really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, put the
4452parentheses explicitly and write C<$x & ($y == 0)>).
4453
77772344
B
4454=item Possible unintended interpolation of $\ in regex
4455
4456(W ambiguous) You said something like C<m/$\/> in a regex.
4457The regex C<m/foo$\s+bar/m> translates to: match the word 'foo', the output
8ddb446c 4458record separator (see L<perlvar/$\>) and the letter 's' (one time or more)
77772344
B
4459followed by the word 'bar'.
4460
4461If this is what you intended then you can silence the warning by using
4462C<m/${\}/> (for example: C<m/foo${\}s+bar/>).
4463
4464If instead you intended to match the word 'foo' at the end of the line
4465followed by whitespace and the word 'bar' on the next line then you can use
4466C<m/$(?)\/> (for example: C<m/foo$(?)\s+bar/>).
4467
e5035638
FC
4468=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
4469
ccf3535a 4470(W ambiguous) You said something like '@foo' in a double-quoted string
6903afa2 4471but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
e5035638
FC
4472literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
4473to the array you apparently lost track of.
4474
1f25714a
FC
4475=item Postfix dereference is experimental
4476
4477(S experimental::postderef) This warning is emitted if you use
4478the experimental postfix dereference syntax. Simply suppress the
4479warning if you want to use the feature, but know that in doing
4480so you are taking the risk of using an experimental feature which
4481may change or be removed in a future Perl version:
4482
4483 no warnings "experimental::postderef";
4484 use feature "postderef", "postderef_qq";
4485 $ref->$*;
4486 $aref->@*;
4487 $aref->@[@indices];
4488 ... etc ...
4489
a0d0e21e
LW
4490=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
4491
e476b1b5 4492(S precedence) The old irregular construct
cb1a09d0 4493
a0d0e21e
LW
4494 open FOO || die;
4495
4496is now misinterpreted as
4497
4498 open(FOO || die);
4499
be771a83
GS
4500because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
4501list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
4502parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
4503of "||".
a0d0e21e 4504
3cdd684c
TP
4505=item Premature end of script headers
4506
4507See Server error.
4508
6df41af2
GS
4509=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
4510
be771a83 4511(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4512before now. Check your control flow.
6df41af2 4513
9a7dcd9c 4514=item print() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 4515
be771a83 4516(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4517before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 4518
6df41af2 4519=item Process terminated by SIG%s
a0d0e21e 4520
6df41af2
GS
4521(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
4522applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
4523port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
4524L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
fecfaeb8 4525in L<perlos2>.
a0d0e21e 4526
e0e4a6e3 4527=item Property '%s' is unknown in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 4528
675fa9ff 4529(F) The named property which you specified via C<\p> or C<\P> is not one
0d0b4b3b
KW
4530known to Perl. Perhaps you misspelled the name? See
4531L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
675fa9ff
FC
4532for a complete list of available official
4533properties. If it is a L<user-defined property|perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties>
0d0b4b3b
KW
4534it must have been defined by the time the regular expression is
4535compiled.
4536
327323c1
RGS
4537=item Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s
4538
fa816bf3
FC
4539(W illegalproto) A character follows % or @ in a prototype. This is
4540useless, since % and @ gobble the rest of the subroutine arguments.
327323c1 4541
3fe9a6f1 4542=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4633a7c4 4543
9a0b3859 4544(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
be771a83 4545declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4633a7c4 4546
ed9aa3b7
SG
4547=item Prototype not terminated
4548
2a6fd447 4549(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
ed9aa3b7
SG
4550definition.
4551
eedb00fa
PM
4552=item Prototype '%s' overridden by attribute 'prototype(%s)' in %s
4553
4554(W prototype) A prototype was declared in both the parentheses after
4555the sub name and via the prototype attribute. The prototype in
4556parentheses is useless, since it will be replaced by the prototype
4557from the attribute before it's ever used.
4558
f9eb106c
FC
4559=item \p{} uses Unicode rules, not locale rules
4560
4561(W) You compiled a regular expression that contained a Unicode property
4562match (C<\p> or C<\P>), but the regular expression is also being told to
4563use the run-time locale, not Unicode. Instead, use a POSIX character
4564class, which should know about the locale's rules.
4565(See L<perlrecharclass/POSIX Character Classes>.)
4566
4567Even if the run-time locale is ISO 8859-1 (Latin1), which is a subset of
4568Unicode, some properties will give results that are not valid for that
4569subset.
4570
4571Here are a couple of examples to help you see what's going on. If the
4572locale is ISO 8859-7, the character at code point 0xD7 is the "GREEK
4573CAPITAL LETTER CHI". But in Unicode that code point means the
4574"MULTIPLICATION SIGN" instead, and C<\p> always uses the Unicode
4575meaning. That means that C<\p{Alpha}> won't match, but C<[[:alpha:]]>
4576should. Only in the Latin1 locale are all the characters in the same
4577positions as they are in Unicode. But, even here, some properties give
4578incorrect results. An example is C<\p{Changes_When_Uppercased}> which
4579is true for "LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH DIAERESIS", but since the upper
4580case of that character is not in Latin1, in that locale it doesn't
4581change when upper cased.
4582
0953b66b
FC
4583=item push on reference is experimental
4584
0773cb3e
FC
4585(S experimental::autoderef) C<push> with a scalar argument is experimental
4586and may change or be removed in a future Perl version. If you want to
4587take the risk of using this feature, simply disable this warning:
0953b66b 4588
d401967c 4589 no warnings "experimental::autoderef";
0953b66b
FC
4590
4591=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by S<< <-- HERE in m/%s/ >>
96ebfdd7 4592
6903afa2 4593(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if
e0e4a6e3 4594you meant it literally. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 4595expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
96ebfdd7 4596
e0e4a6e3
FC
4597=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
4598m/%s/
9baa0206 4599
6903afa2 4600(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of
e0e4a6e3 4601the {min,max} construct. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 4602expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9baa0206 4603
675fa9ff
FC
4604=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex
4605
e0e4a6e3
FC
4606=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex; marked by
4607S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
4608
4609(W regexp) Minima should be less than or equal to maxima. If you really
4610want your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}.
4611
b33c0c71
MH
4612=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression in regex; marked by <--
4613HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 4614
b45f050a
JF
4615(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
4616it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
4617quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
4618"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
4619C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
9baa0206 4620
9e3ec65c 4621The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
7253e4e3
RK
4622discovered.
4623
89ea2908
GA
4624=item Range iterator outside integer range
4625
4626(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
4627are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
be771a83
GS
4628One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
4629by prepending "0" to your numbers.
89ea2908 4630
3b7fbd4a
SP
4631=item readdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4632
1a147d38 4633(W io) The dirhandle you're reading from is either closed or not really
3b7fbd4a
SP
4634a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4635
96ebfdd7
RK
4636=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
4637
4638(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
4639before now. Check your control flow.
4640
b5fe5ca2
SR
4641=item read() on closed filehandle %s
4642
4643(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
4644
4645=item read() on unopened filehandle %s
4646
4647(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
4648
de42a5a9 4649=item Reallocation too large: %x
6df41af2
GS
4650
4651(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
4652
4ad56ec9
IZ
4653=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
4654
be771a83
GS
4655(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
4656already been freed.
4ad56ec9 4657
a0d0e21e
LW
4658=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
4659
19b29141 4660(S debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
be771a83 4661the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
a0d0e21e
LW
4662which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
4663
6651ba0b
FC
4664=item Recursive call to Perl_load_module in PerlIO_find_layer
4665
4666(P) It is currently not permitted to load modules when creating
4667a filehandle inside an %INC hook. This can happen with C<open my
4668$fh, '<', \$scalar>, which implicitly loads PerlIO::scalar. Try
4669loading PerlIO::scalar explicitly first.
4670
3e0ccd42 4671=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
a0d0e21e 4672
2c7d6b9c
RGS
4673(F) While calculating the method resolution order (MRO) of a package, Perl
4674believes it found an infinite loop in the C<@ISA> hierarchy. This is a
4675crude check that bails out after 100 levels of C<@ISA> depth.
a0d0e21e 4676
f51551f7
FC
4677=item Redundant argument in %s
4678
4679(W redundant) You called a function with more arguments than other
4680arguments you supplied indicated would be needed. Currently only
4681emitted when a printf-type format required fewer arguments than were
4682supplied, but might be used in the future for e.g. L<perlfunc/pack>.
4683
12605ff9
FC
4684=item refcnt_dec: fd %d%s
4685
2e0cfa16
FC
4686=item refcnt: fd %d%s
4687
12605ff9
FC
4688=item refcnt_inc: fd %d%s
4689
fa816bf3 4690(P) Perl's I/O implementation failed an internal consistency check. If
2e0cfa16
FC
4691you see this message, something is very wrong.
4692
1930e939
TP
4693=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
4694
be771a83 4695(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
6903afa2
FC
4696with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This
4697usually means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant
4698to use parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
7b8d334a
GS
4699
4700 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
4701 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
4702 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
4703 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
4704
810b8aa5
GS
4705=item Reference is already weak
4706
e476b1b5 4707(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
810b8aa5
GS
4708Doing so has no effect.
4709
e0e4a6e3 4710=item Reference to invalid group 0 in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b72d83b2 4711
6903afa2
FC
4712(F) You used C<\g0> or similar in a regular expression. You may refer
4713to capturing parentheses only with strictly positive integers
4714(normal backreferences) or with strictly negative integers (relative
4715backreferences). Using 0 does not make sense.
b72d83b2 4716
e0e4a6e3
FC
4717=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
4718m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
4719
4720(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
6903afa2 4721not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If
bbaee129
FC
4722you wanted to have the character with ordinal 7 inserted into the regular
4723expression, prepend zeroes to make it three digits long: C<\007>
9baa0206 4724
9e3ec65c 4725The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
b45f050a 4726discovered.
9baa0206 4727
e0e4a6e3
FC
4728=item Reference to nonexistent named group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
4729in m/%s/
1a147d38
YO
4730
4731(F) You used something like C<\k'NAME'> or C<< \k<NAME> >> in your regular
9381611c 4732expression, but there is no corresponding named capturing parentheses
6903afa2 4733such as C<(?'NAME'...)> or C<< (?<NAME>...) >>. Check if the name has been
9381611c 4734spelled correctly both in the backreference and the declaration.
1a147d38 4735
9e3ec65c 4736The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
4737discovered.
4738
e0e4a6e3
FC
4739=item Reference to nonexistent or unclosed group in regex; marked by
4740S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1a147d38 4741
bcb95744
FC
4742(F) You used something like C<\g{-7}> in your regular expression, but there
4743are not at least seven sets of closed capturing parentheses in the
4744expression before where the C<\g{-7}> was located.
1a147d38 4745
9e3ec65c 4746The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
4747discovered.
4748
a0d0e21e
LW
4749=item regexp memory corruption
4750
4751(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
4752expression compiler gave it.
4753
ff3f26d2
KW
4754=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may appear a maximum of twice
4755
4d910168 4756=item Regexp modifier "%c" may appear a maximum of twice in regex; marked
e0e4a6e3 4757by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4d910168 4758
ce170e67 4759(F) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
ff3f26d2 4760of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
3955e1a9 4761
6fbc9859
MH
4762=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear after the "-" in regex; marked by <--
4763HERE in m/%s/
9442e3b8 4764
f8b5bc72
FC
4765(F) Turning off the given modifier has the side effect of turning on
4766another one. Perl currently doesn't allow this. Reword the regular
9442e3b8
KW
4767expression to use the modifier you want to turn on (and place it before
4768the minus), instead of the one you want to turn off.
4769
591f5ca2
FC
4770=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may not appear twice
4771
4d910168
FC
4772=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear twice in regex; marked by <--
4773HERE in m/%s/
4774
ce170e67 4775(F) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
591f5ca2
FC
4776of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
4777
3955e1a9
KW
4778=item Regexp modifiers "/%c" and "/%c" are mutually exclusive
4779
4d910168 4780=item Regexp modifiers "%c" and "%c" are mutually exclusive in regex;
e0e4a6e3 4781marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4d910168 4782
ce170e67 4783(F) The regular expression pattern had more than one of these
3955e1a9
KW
4784mutually exclusive modifiers. Retain only the modifier that is
4785supposed to be there.
4786
aec0ef10 4787=item Regexp out of space in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4788
be771a83
GS
4789(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
4790earlier.
a0d0e21e 4791
a7f533cb 4792=item Repeated format line will never terminate (~~ and @#)
a1b95068 4793
d7f8936a 4794(F) Your format contains the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence and a
a1b95068 4795numeric field that will never go blank so that the repetition never
6903afa2 4796terminates. You might use ^# instead. See L<perlform>.
a1b95068 4797
b08e453b
RB
4798=item Replacement list is longer than search list
4799
4800(W misc) You have used a replacement list that is longer than the
fa816bf3 4801search list. So the additional elements in the replacement list
b08e453b
RB
4802are meaningless.
4803
5e0a247b
KW
4804=item '%s' resolved to '\o{%s}%d'
4805
4806(W misc, regexp) You wrote something like C<\08>, or C<\179> in a
4807double-quotish string. All but the last digit is treated as a single
4808character, specified in octal. The last digit is the next character in
4809the string. To tell Perl that this is indeed what you want, you can use
4810the C<\o{ }> syntax, or use exactly three digits to specify the octal
4811for the character.
4812
a0d0e21e
LW
4813=item Reversed %s= operator
4814
be771a83 4815(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
964742a1 4816always come last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
a0d0e21e 4817
abc7ecad
SP
4818=item rewinddir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4819
1b303a7d
FC
4820(W io) The dirhandle you tried to do a rewinddir() on is either closed
4821or not really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
abc7ecad 4822
96ebfdd7
RK
4823=item Scalars leaked: %d
4824
7bd1381d 4825(S internal) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping
4f5966a5
FC
4826of scalars: not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time
4827Perl exited. What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which
4828is of course bad, especially if the Perl program is intended to be
4829long-running.
96ebfdd7 4830
a0d0e21e
LW
4831=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
4832
be771a83
GS
4833(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
4834single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
4835value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
4836behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
4837argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
4838and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
4839if you're expecting only one subscript.
a0d0e21e 4840
748a9306 4841On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5f05dabc 4842element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
748a9306
LW
4843Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
4844L<perlref>.
4845
a6006777 4846=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
4847
75b44862 4848(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
be771a83
GS
4849element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
4850(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
4851like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
4852argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
4853and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
4854if you're expecting only one subscript.
4855
4856On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
4857as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
4858not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
a6006777 4859L<perlref>.
4860
a0d0e21e
LW
4861=item Search pattern not terminated
4862
4863(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
4864construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 4865Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 4866
ea9d9ebc 4867Note that since Perl 5.10.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
5d9c98cd 4868construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
ea9d9ebc
FC
4869in Perl 5.10.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
4870misparsed by pre-5.10.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
5d9c98cd 4871
abc7ecad
SP
4872=item seekdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4873
4874(W io) The dirhandle you are doing a seekdir() on is either closed or not
4875really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4876
3257ea4f
FC
4877=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
4878
4879(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
4880filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
4881
a0d0e21e
LW
4882=item select not implemented
4883
4884(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
4885
ae21d580 4886=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
68a4a7e4 4887
ae21d580
JH
4888(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
4889the current implementation.
68a4a7e4 4890
6df41af2 4891=item Semicolon seems to be missing
a0d0e21e 4892
75b44862
GS
4893(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
4894semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
a0d0e21e
LW
4895
4896=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
4897
be771a83
GS
4898(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
4899scalar that had previously been marked as free.
a0d0e21e 4900
6df41af2 4901=item sem%s not implemented
a0d0e21e 4902
6df41af2 4903(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
a0d0e21e 4904
69282e91 4905=item send() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 4906
be771a83 4907(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4908before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 4909
e0e4a6e3 4910=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
7b8d334a 4911
6903afa2 4912(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The
e0e4a6e3 4913S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
6903afa2 4914discovered. See L<perlre>.
1b1626e4 4915
e0e4a6e3
FC
4916=item Sequence (?%c...) not implemented in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
4917m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4918
6903afa2 4919(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
e0e4a6e3 4920but has not yet been written. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
9e3ec65c 4921regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4922
e0e4a6e3
FC
4923=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
4924m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4925
d921c7bf 4926(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense.
e0e4a6e3 4927The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
d921c7bf 4928discovered. This may happen when using the C<(?^...)> construct to tell
fb85c044 4929Perl to use the default regular expression modifiers, and you
9442e3b8 4930redundantly specify a default modifier. For other
9de15fec 4931causes, see L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 4932
aec0ef10 4933=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
4934
4935(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
aec0ef10 4936parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. See
7253e4e3 4937L<perlre>.
6df41af2 4938
07ea66ee
FC
4939=item Sequence (?&... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
4940m/%s/
4941
4942(F) A named reference of the form C<(?&...)> was missing the final
4943closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
4944in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
4945
e0e4a6e3 4946=item Sequence (?%c... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
4599db5f
FC
4947in m/%s/
4948
4949(F) A named group of the form C<(?'...')> or C<< (?<...>) >> was missing the final
e0e4a6e3 4950closing quote or angle bracket. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
4599db5f
FC
4951regular expression the problem was discovered.
4952
e0e4a6e3 4953=item Sequence (?(%c... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
4599db5f
FC
4954in m/%s/
4955
4956(F) A named reference of the form C<(?('...')...)> or C<< (?(<...>)...) >> was
4957missing the final closing quote or angle bracket after the name. The
e0e4a6e3 4958S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
4599db5f
FC
4959discovered.
4960
e0e4a6e3
FC
4961=item Sequence \%s... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
4962m/%s/
5a25739d
FC
4963
4964(F) The regular expression expects a mandatory argument following the escape
4965sequence and this has been omitted or incorrectly written.
4966
9da1dd8f
DM
4967=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated with ')'
4968
be149b43
DM
4969(F) The end of the perl code contained within the {...} must be
4970followed immediately by a ')'.
9da1dd8f 4971
e0e4a6e3
FC
4972=item Sequence ?P=... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
4973m/%s/
4599db5f
FC
4974
4975(F) A named reference of the form C<(?P=...)> was missing the final
e0e4a6e3 4976closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
4599db5f
FC
4977in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
4978
4979=item Sequence (?R) not terminated in regex m/%s/
4980
4981(F) An C<(?R)> or C<(?0)> sequence in a regular expression was missing the
4982final parenthesis.
4983
3d6c5fec 4984=item Server error (a.k.a. "500 Server error")
a5f75d66 4985
6903afa2
FC
4986(A) This is the error message generally seen in a browser window
4987when trying to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The
4988actual error text varies widely from server to server. The most
4989frequently-seen variants are "500 Server error", "Method (something)
4990not permitted", "Document contains no data", "Premature end of script
4991headers", and "Did not produce a valid header".
9607fc9c 4992
4993B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
4994
6903afa2
FC
4995You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by
4996the user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the
4997user account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment
4998variables (like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't
4999in a location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or
5000less. Please see the following for more information:
9607fc9c 5001
06a5f41f
JH
5002 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
5003 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
5004 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
a5f75d66 5005
be94a901
GS
5006You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
5007
a0d0e21e
LW
5008=item setegid() not implemented
5009
be771a83
GS
5010(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
5011support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5012didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
5013
5014=item seteuid() not implemented
5015
be771a83
GS
5016(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
5017support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5018didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 5019
81777298
GS
5020=item setpgrp can't take arguments
5021
be771a83
GS
5022(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
5023arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
5024group ID.
81777298 5025
a0d0e21e
LW
5026=item setrgid() not implemented
5027
be771a83
GS
5028(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
5029support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5030didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
5031
5032=item setruid() not implemented
5033
be771a83
GS
5034(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
5035support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5036didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 5037
6df41af2
GS
5038=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
5039
be771a83
GS
5040(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
5041forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
5042L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
5043
6da34ecb
FC
5044=item Setting $/ to a reference to %s as a form of slurp is deprecated, treating as undef
5045
5046(W deprecated) You assigned a reference to a scalar to C<$/> where the
eedc0d19 5047referenced item is not a positive integer. In older perls this B<appeared>
6da34ecb
FC
5048to work the same as setting it to C<undef> but was in fact internally
5049different, less efficient and with very bad luck could have resulted in
5050your file being split by a stringified form of the reference.
5051
ea9d9ebc 5052In Perl 5.20.0 this was changed so that it would be B<exactly> the same as
6da34ecb
FC
5053setting C<$/> to undef, with the exception that this warning would be
5054thrown.
5055
eedc0d19
FC
5056You are recommended to change your code to set C<$/> to C<undef> explicitly
5057if you wish to slurp the file. In future versions of Perl assigning
5058a reference to will throw a fatal error.
6da34ecb 5059
ee0ba734 5060=item Setting $/ to %s reference is forbidden
a48e4205
FC
5061
5062(F) You tried to assign a reference to a non integer to C<$/>. In older
5063Perls this would have behaved similarly to setting it to a reference to
5064a positive integer, where the integer was the address of the reference.
5065As of Perl 5.20.0 this is a fatal error, to allow future versions of Perl
5066to use non-integer refs for more interesting purposes.
5067
0953b66b
FC
5068=item shift on reference is experimental
5069
d401967c 5070(S experimental::autoderef) C<shift> with a scalar argument is experimental
0953b66b
FC
5071and may change or be removed in a future Perl version. If you want to
5072take the risk of using this feature, simply disable this warning:
5073
d401967c 5074 no warnings "experimental::autoderef";
0953b66b 5075
a0d0e21e
LW
5076=item shm%s not implemented
5077
5078(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
5079
984200d0
YST
5080=item !=~ should be !~
5081
5082(W syntax) The non-matching operator is !~, not !=~. !=~ will be
5083interpreted as the != (numeric not equal) and ~ (1's complement)
5084operators: probably not what you intended.
5085
6df41af2
GS
5086=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
5087
5088(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
be771a83
GS
5089as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
5090result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
5091probably not what you had in mind.
6df41af2 5092
69282e91 5093=item shutdown() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 5094
75b44862
GS
5095(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
5096superfluous.
a0d0e21e 5097
f86702cc 5098=item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
a0d0e21e 5099
be771a83
GS
5100(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
5101Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
a0d0e21e 5102
efc859fb
FC
5103=item Slab leaked from cv %p
5104
5105(S) If you see this message, then something is seriously wrong with the
5106internal bookkeeping of op trees. An op tree needed to be freed after
5107a compilation error, but could not be found, so it was leaked instead.
5108
3b9aea04
SH
5109=item sleep(%u) too large
5110
5111(W overflow) You called C<sleep> with a number that was larger than
5112it can reliably handle and C<sleep> probably slept for less time than
5113requested.
5114
30d9c59b
Z
5115=item Slurpy parameter not last
5116
5117(F) In a subroutine signature, you put something after a slurpy (array or
5118hash) parameter. The slurpy parameter takes all the available arguments,
5119so there can't be any left to fill later parameters.
5120
675fa9ff
FC
5121=item Smart matching a non-overloaded object breaks encapsulation
5122
5123(F) You should not use the C<~~> operator on an object that does not
5124overload it: Perl refuses to use the object's underlying structure
5125for the smart match.
5126
0f539b13
BF
5127=item Smartmatch is experimental
5128
5129(S experimental::smartmatch) This warning is emitted if you
5130use the smartmatch (C<~~>) operator. This is currently an experimental
5131feature, and its details are subject to change in future releases of
5132Perl. Particularly, its current behavior is noticed for being
5133unnecessarily complex and unintuitive, and is very likely to be
5134overhauled.
5135
a0d0e21e
LW
5136=item sort is now a reserved word
5137
5138(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
5139But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
5140
a0d0e21e
LW
5141=item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
5142
d747172a
FC
5143(F) A sort comparison subroutine written in XS must return exactly one
5144item. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e 5145
f1c31c52
FC
5146=item Source filters apply only to byte streams
5147
5148(F) You tried to activate a source filter (usually by loading a
5149source filter module) within a string passed to C<eval>. This is
5150not permitted under the C<unicode_eval> feature. Consider using
5151C<evalbytes> instead. See L<feature>.
5152
8cbc2e3b
JH
5153=item splice() offset past end of array
5154
5155(W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
fa816bf3
FC
5156the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the
5157end of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want,
5158try explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset.
5159See L<perlfunc/splice>.
8cbc2e3b 5160
0953b66b
FC
5161=item splice on reference is experimental
5162
0773cb3e
FC
5163(S experimental::autoderef) C<splice> with a scalar argument
5164is experimental and may change or be removed in a future
5165Perl version. If you want to take the risk of using this
5166feature, simply disable this warning:
0953b66b 5167
d401967c 5168 no warnings "experimental::autoderef";
0953b66b 5169
a0d0e21e
LW
5170=item Split loop
5171
be771a83
GS
5172(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
5173iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
6903afa2 5174happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
a0d0e21e 5175
a0d0e21e
LW
5176=item Statement unlikely to be reached
5177
be771a83
GS
5178(W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
5179die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
5180unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
5181instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
5182a block by itself.
a0d0e21e 5183
a2e39214
FC
5184=item "state %s" used in sort comparison
5185
5186(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
5187You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
5188sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
5189lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
5190name, or rename the lexical variable.
5191
5a25739d
FC
5192=item "state" variable %s can't be in a package
5193
5194(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
5195sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
5196local() if you want to localize a package variable.
5197
9ddeeac9 5198=item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
6df41af2 5199
355b1299
JH
5200(W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
5201was either never opened or has since been closed.
6df41af2 5202
5a25739d
FC
5203=item Strings with code points over 0xFF may not be mapped into in-memory file handles
5204
5205(W utf8) You tried to open a reference to a scalar for read or append
5206where the scalar contained code points over 0xFF. In-memory files
5207model on-disk files and can only contain bytes.
5208
fe13d51d 5209=item Stub found while resolving method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
e7ea3e70 5210
be771a83
GS
5211(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
5212stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
5213C<can> may break this.
e7ea3e70 5214
4e85e1b4
FC
5215=item Subroutine "&%s" is not available
5216
5217(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
5218attempting to capture an outer lexical subroutine that is not currently
5219available. This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the lexical
c387a7d0
FC
5220subroutine may be declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has
5221not yet been created. (Remember that named subs are created at compile
5222time, while anonymous subs are created at run-time.) For example,
4e85e1b4
FC
5223
5224 sub { my sub a {...} sub f { \&a } }
5225
c387a7d0 5226At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current "a" sub,
4e85e1b4
FC
5227since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely, the
5228following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by now
5229been created and is live:
5230
5231 sub { my sub a {...} eval 'sub f { \&a }' }->();
5232
c387a7d0
FC
5233The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a lexical subroutine
5234that has gone out of scope, for example,
4e85e1b4
FC
5235
5236 sub f {
5237 my sub a {...}
5238 sub { eval '\&a' }
5239 }
5240 f()->();
5241
5242Here, when the '\&a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
5243being executed, so its &a is not available for capture.
5244
4eb94d7c
FC
5245=item "%s" subroutine &%s masks earlier declaration in same %s
5246
5247(W misc) A "my" or "state" subroutine has been redeclared in the
5248current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to
5249the previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error.
5250Note that the earlier subroutine will still exist until the end of
20d33786 5251the scope or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
4eb94d7c 5252
a0d0e21e
LW
5253=item Subroutine %s redefined
5254
e476b1b5 5255(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
5256
5257 {
271595cc 5258 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
5259 eval "sub name { ... }";
5260 }
5261
5262=item Substitution loop
5263
be771a83
GS
5264(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
5265shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
5266is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
5d44bfff 5267L<perlop/"Regexp Quote-Like Operators">.
a0d0e21e
LW
5268
5269=item Substitution pattern not terminated
5270
d1be9408 5271(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 5272construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5273Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
5274
5275=item Substitution replacement not terminated
5276
d1be9408 5277(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 5278construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5279Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
5280
5281=item substr outside of string
5282
8a9eb13d 5283(W substr)(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
be771a83
GS
5284a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
5285length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
5286substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
5287assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
a0d0e21e 5288
bf1320bf
RGS
5289=item sv_upgrade from type %d down to type %d
5290
9d277376 5291(P) Perl tried to force the upgrade of an SV to a type which was actually
bf1320bf
RGS
5292inferior to its current type.
5293
05a40652
FC
5294=item SWASHNEW didn't return an HV ref
5295
5296(P) Something went wrong internally when Perl was trying to look up
5297Unicode characters.
5298
6fbc9859 5299=item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 5300S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 5301
fa816bf3
FC
5302(F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most
5303two branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or
5304both to contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose
5305it in clustering parentheses:
b45f050a
JF
5306
5307 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
5308
e0e4a6e3 5309The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem
fa816bf3 5310was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5311
e0e4a6e3
FC
5312=item Switch condition not recognized in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5313m/%s/
b45f050a 5314
9f57786a
FC
5315(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
5316is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5317
5318 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
5319 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
5320 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
5321 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
5322 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
5323 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
5324 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
5325 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
5326 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
5327
5328The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
5329discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5330
85ab1d1d
JH
5331=item switching effective %s is not implemented
5332
be771a83
GS
5333(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
5334and effective uids or gids.
85ab1d1d 5335
a0d0e21e
LW
5336=item syntax error
5337
5338(F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
5339
5340 A keyword is misspelled.
5341 A semicolon is missing.
5342 A comma is missing.
5343 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
5344 An opening or closing brace is missing.
5345 A closing quote is missing.
5346
5347Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
5348error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
5349The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
5350it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
5f05dabc 5351before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
a0d0e21e
LW
5352Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
5353the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
5354C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
524e9188 5355if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
a0d0e21e 5356
ccf3535a 5357=item syntax error at line %d: '%s' unexpected
cb1a09d0 5358
be771a83
GS
5359(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
5360of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
5361yourself.
cb1a09d0 5362
25f58aea
PN
5363=item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
5364
5365(F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
5366a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
5367or "my $var" or "our $var".
5368
675fa9ff
FC
5369=item Syntax error in (?[...]) in regex m/%s/
5370
5371(F) Perl could not figure out what you meant inside this construct; this
5372notifies you that it is giving up trying.
5373
591f5ca2
FC
5374=item %s syntax OK
5375
5376(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
5377
b5fe5ca2
SR
5378=item sysread() on closed filehandle %s
5379
5380(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
5381
5382=item sysread() on unopened filehandle %s
5383
5384(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
5385
6087ac44 5386=item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
a0d0e21e 5387
6087ac44
JH
5388(F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
5389"shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
5390machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
5391unconfigured. Consult your system support.
a0d0e21e 5392
69282e91 5393=item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 5394
be771a83 5395(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5396before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5397
96ebfdd7
RK
5398=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
5399
5400(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
5401know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
5402
fc36a67e 5403=item Target of goto is too deeply nested
5404
be771a83
GS
5405(F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
5406for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
fc36a67e 5407
abc7ecad
SP
5408=item telldir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5409
5410(W io) The dirhandle you tried to telldir() is either closed or not really
5411a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5412
c2771421
FC
5413=item tell() on unopened filehandle
5414
5415(W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
5416was either never opened or has since been closed.
5417
b82b06b8
FC
5418=item That use of $[ is unsupported
5419
5420(F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted
5421as a compiler directive. You may say only one of
5422
5423 $[ = 0;
5424 $[ = 1;
5425 ...
5426 local $[ = 0;
5427 local $[ = 1;
5428 ...
5429
5430This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out
5431from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[> and L<arybase>.
5432
67b16946 5433=item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia.
a0d0e21e
LW
5434
5435(F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
5436probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
8b1a09fc 5437think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
a0d0e21e
LW
5438will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
5439will deny it.
5440
675fa9ff
FC
5441=item The %s function is unimplemented
5442
5443(F) The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture,
5444according to the probings of Configure.
5445
64fbf0dd 5446=item The lexical_subs feature is experimental
ebd25686 5447
64fbf0dd
FC
5448(S experimental::lexical_subs) This warning is emitted if you
5449declare a sub with C<my> or C<state>. Simply suppress the warning
5450if you want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you
5451are taking the risk of using an experimental feature which may
5452change or be removed in a future Perl version:
ebd25686 5453
f1d34ca8 5454 no warnings "experimental::lexical_subs";
ebd25686 5455 use feature "lexical_subs";
64fbf0dd 5456 my sub foo { ... }
ebd25686 5457
0d0b4b3b
KW
5458=item The regex_sets feature is experimental
5459
5460(S experimental::regex_sets) This warning is emitted if you
5461use the syntax S<C<(?[ ])>> in a regular expression.
5462The details of this feature are subject to change.
5463if you want to use it, but know that in doing so you
5464are taking the risk of using an experimental feature which may
5465change in a future Perl version, you can do this to silence the
5466warning:
5467
5468 no warnings "experimental::regex_sets";
5469
30d9c59b
Z
5470=item The signatures feature is experimental
5471
5472(S experimental::signatures) This warning is emitted if you unwrap a
5473subroutine's arguments using a signature. Simply suppress the warning
5474if you want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you are taking
5475the risk of using an experimental feature which may change or be removed
5476in a future Perl version:
5477
5478 no warnings "experimental::signatures";
5479 use feature "signatures";
5480 sub foo ($left, $right) { ... }
5481
5e1c7ca2 5482=item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
a0d0e21e 5483
be771a83
GS
5484(F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
5485linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
5486past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
5487instead.
a0d0e21e 5488
371fce9b
DM
5489=item The 'unique' attribute may only be applied to 'our' variables
5490
1108974d 5491(F) This attribute was never supported on C<my> or C<sub> declarations.
371fce9b 5492
437784d6 5493=item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
f675dbe5
CB
5494
5495=item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
5496
75b44862 5497(W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
be771a83
GS
5498element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
5499wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
5500need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
5501F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
5502target of the change to
f675dbe5
CB
5503%ENV which produced the warning.
5504
6a5b4183
YO
5505=item This Perl has not been built with support for randomized hash key traversal but something called Perl_hv_rand_set().
5506
5507(F) Something has attempted to use an internal API call which
5508depends on Perl being compiled with the default support for randomized hash
f26c79ba 5509key traversal, but this Perl has been compiled without it. You should
6a5b4183
YO
5510report this warning to the relevant upstream party, or recompile perl
5511with default options.
5512
a0d0e21e
LW
5513=item times not implemented
5514
be771a83
GS
5515(F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
5516suspect you're not running on Unix.
a0d0e21e 5517
6d3b25aa
RGS
5518=item "-T" is on the #! line, it must also be used on the command line
5519
b7e4ecc1
FC
5520(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains
5521the B<-T> option (or the B<-t> option), but Perl was not invoked with
5522B<-T> in its command line. This is an error because, by the time
5523Perl discovers a B<-T> in a script, it's too late to properly taint
5524everything from the environment. So Perl gives up.
6d3b25aa
RGS
5525
5526If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
b7e4ecc1
FC
5527mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be
5528fixed by editing the #! line so that the B<-%c> option is a part of
5529Perl's first argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -%c> to C<perl -%c -n>.
6d3b25aa
RGS
5530
5531If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
fe13d51d 5532B<-%c> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -%c scriptname>.
6d3b25aa 5533
3a2263fe
RGS
5534=item To%s: illegal mapping '%s'
5535
5536(F) You tried to define a customized To-mapping for lc(), lcfirst,
5537uc(), or ucfirst() (or their string-inlined versions), but you
5538specified an illegal mapping.
5539See L<perlunicode/"User-Defined Character Properties">.
5540
49704364
WL
5541=item Too deeply nested ()-groups
5542
1a147d38 5543(F) Your template contains ()-groups with a ridiculously deep nesting level.
49704364 5544
a0d0e21e
LW
5545=item Too few args to syscall
5546
5547(F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
5548system call to call, silly dilly.
5549
30d9c59b
Z
5550=item Too few arguments for subroutine
5551
5552(F) A subroutine using a signature received fewer arguments than required
5553by the signature. The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault.
5554Inconveniently, this error will be reported at the location of the
5555subroutine, not that of the caller.
5556
96ebfdd7
RK
5557=item Too late for "-%s" option
5558
5559(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
4ba71d51
FC
5560B<-M>, B<-m> or B<-C> option.
5561
6903afa2
FC
5562In the case of B<-M> and B<-m>, this is an error because those options
5563are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
4ba71d51 5564
6903afa2
FC
5565The B<-C> option only works if it is specified on the command line as
5566well (with the same sequence of letters or numbers following). Either
5567specify this option on the command line, or, if your system supports
5568it, make your script executable and run it directly instead of passing
5569it to perl.
96ebfdd7 5570
ddda08b7
GS
5571=item Too late to run %s block
5572
5573(W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
5574when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
be771a83
GS
5575loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
5576instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
5577BEGIN block.
ddda08b7 5578
a0d0e21e
LW
5579=item Too many args to syscall
5580
5f05dabc 5581(F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
a0d0e21e
LW
5582
5583=item Too many arguments for %s
5584
5585(F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
5586
30d9c59b
Z
5587=item Too many arguments for subroutine
5588
5589(F) A subroutine using a signature received more arguments than required
5590by the signature. The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault.
5591Inconveniently, this error will be reported at the location of the
5592subroutine, not that of the caller.
5593
6df41af2
GS
5594=item Too many )'s
5595
49704364
WL
5596(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
5597Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
5598
8c40cb74
NC
5599=item Too many ('s
5600
be771a83
GS
5601(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
5602Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 5603
7253e4e3 5604=item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5605
be771a83
GS
5606(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
5607Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 5608
2c268ad5 5609=item Transliteration pattern not terminated
a0d0e21e
LW
5610
5611(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
fb73857a 5612or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
5613C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 5614
2c268ad5 5615=item Transliteration replacement not terminated
a0d0e21e 5616
6a36df5d
YST
5617(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr///, tr[][],
5618y/// or y[][] construct.
a0d0e21e 5619
96ebfdd7
RK
5620=item '%s' trapped by operation mask
5621
5622(F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
6903afa2 5623disallowed. See L<Safe>.
96ebfdd7 5624
a0d0e21e
LW
5625=item truncate not implemented
5626
5627(F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
5628Configure knows about.
5629
19c481f4
FC
5630=item Type of arg %d to &CORE::%s must be %s
5631
5632(F) The subroutine in question in the CORE package requires its argument
5633to be a hard reference to data of the specified type. Overloading is
5634ignored, so a reference to an object that is not the specified type, but
5635nonetheless has overloading to handle it, will still not be accepted.
5636
a0d0e21e
LW
5637=item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
5638
5639(F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
8b1a09fc 5640certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
5641%NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
a0d0e21e
LW
5642{EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
5643
7ac5715b 5644=item Type of argument to %s must be unblessed hashref or arrayref
cba5a3b0 5645
7ac5715b
FC
5646(F) You called C<keys>, C<values> or C<each> with a scalar argument that
5647was not a reference to an unblessed hash or array.
cba5a3b0 5648
eec2d3df
GS
5649=item umask not implemented
5650
be771a83
GS
5651(F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
5652use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
a0d0e21e
LW
5653
5654=item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
5655
c632e777 5656(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 5657many execution contexts were entered and left.
a0d0e21e
LW
5658
5659=item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
5660
4a983e45 5661(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 5662many values were temporarily localized.
a0d0e21e
LW
5663
5664=item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
5665
090cebb2 5666(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 5667many blocks were entered and left.
a0d0e21e 5668
6651ba0b
FC
5669=item Unbalanced string table refcount: (%d) for "%s"
5670
31ff3bd2 5671(S internal) On exit, Perl found some strings remaining in the shared
6651ba0b
FC
5672string table used for copy on write and for hash keys. The entries
5673should have been freed, so this indicates a bug somewhere.
5674
a0d0e21e
LW
5675=item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
5676
2092d7c1 5677(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 5678many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
a0d0e21e
LW
5679
5680=item Undefined format "%s" called
5681
5682(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
5683another package? See L<perlform>.
5684
5685=item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
5686
be771a83
GS
5687(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
5688Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e
LW
5689
5690=item Undefined subroutine &%s called
5691
be771a83
GS
5692(F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
5693since been undefined.
a0d0e21e
LW
5694
5695=item Undefined subroutine called
5696
5697(F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
5698or if it was, it has since been undefined.
5699
5700=item Undefined subroutine in sort
5701
be771a83
GS
5702(F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
5703to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e 5704
4633a7c4
LW
5705=item Undefined top format "%s" called
5706
5707(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
5708another package? See L<perlform>.
5709
20408e3c
GS
5710=item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
5711
be771a83
GS
5712(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
5713C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
5714C<undef *foo>.
20408e3c 5715
6df41af2
GS
5716=item %s: Undefined variable
5717
be771a83
GS
5718(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
5719Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 5720
412f55bb
KW
5721=item Unescaped left brace in regex is deprecated, passed through in regex;
5722marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5723
5724(D deprecated, regexp) You used a literal C<"{"> character in a regular
66a1f5ec
FC
5725expression pattern. You should change to use C<"\{"> instead, because a
5726future version of Perl (tentatively v5.26) will consider this to be a
5727syntax error. If the pattern delimiters are also braces, any matching
5728right brace (C<"}">) should also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser,
5729for example,
412f55bb
KW
5730
5731 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
5732
a0d0e21e
LW
5733=item unexec of %s into %s failed!
5734
5735(F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
5736representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
5737
e0e4a6e3
FC
5738=item Unexpected binary operator '%c' with no preceding operand in regex;
5739marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 5740
675fa9ff 5741(F) You had something like this:
0d0b4b3b
KW
5742
5743 (?[ | \p{Digit} ])
5744
5745where the C<"|"> is a binary operator with an operand on the right, but
5746no operand on the left.
5747
e0e4a6e3 5748=item Unexpected character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 5749
675fa9ff 5750(F) You had something like this:
0d0b4b3b
KW
5751
5752 (?[ z ])
5753
5754Within C<(?[ ])>, no literal characters are allowed unless they are
5755within an inner pair of square brackets, like
5756
5757 (?[ [ z ] ])
5758
5759Another possibility is that you forgot a backslash. Perl isn't smart
5760enough to figure out what you really meant.
5761
6651ba0b
FC
5762=item Unexpected constant lvalue entersub entry via type/targ %d:%d
5763
5764(P) When compiling a subroutine call in lvalue context, Perl failed an
5765internal consistency check. It encountered a malformed op tree.
5766
6c341f67
TC
5767=item Unexpected exit %u
5768
5769(S) exit() was called or the script otherwise finished gracefully when
5770C<PERL_EXIT_WARN> was set in C<PL_exit_flags>.
5771
878ce265 5772=item Unexpected exit failure %d
6c341f67
TC
5773
5774(S) An uncaught die() was called when C<PERL_EXIT_WARN> was set in
5775C<PL_exit_flags>.
5776
e0e4a6e3 5777=item Unexpected ')' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
5778
5779(F) You had something like this:
5780
5781 (?[ ( \p{Digit} + ) ])
5782
5783The C<")"> is out-of-place. Something apparently was supposed to
5784be combined with the digits, or the C<"+"> shouldn't be there, or
5785something like that. Perl can't figure out what was intended.
5786
e0e4a6e3
FC
5787=item Unexpected '(' with no preceding operator in regex; marked by
5788S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
5789
5790(F) You had something like this:
5791
5792 (?[ \p{Digit} ( \p{Lao} + \p{Thai} ) ])
5793
5794There should be an operator before the C<"(">, as there's
5795no indication as to how the digits are to be combined
5796with the characters in the Lao and Thai scripts.
5797
0876b9a0
KW
5798=item Unicode non-character U+%X is illegal for open interchange
5799
4c2e59a0 5800(S nonchar) Certain codepoints, such as U+FFFE and U+FFFF, are
66a1f5ec
FC
5801defined by the Unicode standard to be non-characters. Those
5802are legal codepoints, but are reserved for internal use; so,
5803applications shouldn't attempt to exchange them. An application
5804may not be expecting any of these characters at all, and receiving
5805them may lead to bugs. If you know what you are doing you can
5806turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'nonchar';>.
5807
5808This is not really a "severe" error, but it is supposed to be
5809raised by default even if warnings are not enabled, and currently
5810the only way to do that in Perl is to mark it as serious.
6a807e21 5811
c794c51b
FC
5812=item Unicode surrogate U+%X is illegal in UTF-8
5813
4c2e59a0 5814(S surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
c794c51b
FC
5815not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
5816U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
5817internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
5818available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
5819problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
5820came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 5821off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
c794c51b 5822
dcfe9e74
KW
5823=item Unknown charname '%s'
5824
5825(F) The name you used inside C<\N{}> is unknown to Perl. Check the
5826spelling. You can say C<use charnames ":loose"> to not have to be
5827so precise about spaces, hyphens, and capitalization on standard Unicode
5828names. (Any custom aliases that have been created must be specified
5829exactly, regardless of whether C<:loose> is used or not.) This error may
5830also happen if the C<\N{}> is not in the scope of the corresponding
5831C<S<use charnames>>.
5832
04177465
FC
5833=item Unknown error
5834
5835(P) Perl was about to print an error message in C<$@>, but the C<$@> variable
5836did not exist, even after an attempt to create it.
5837
6170680b
IZ
5838=item Unknown open() mode '%s'
5839
437784d6 5840(F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
c47ff5f1 5841of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
488dad83 5842C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
6170680b 5843
b4581f09
JH
5844=item Unknown PerlIO layer "%s"
5845
5846(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
5847system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
5848internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
5849are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
5850explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
5851value of the environment variable PERLIO.
5852
f675dbe5
CB
5853=item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
5854
5855(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
5856iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
5857data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
5858subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
a05d7ebb 5859
0da72d5e
KW
5860=item Unknown regex modifier "%s"
5861
5862(F) Alphanumerics immediately following the closing delimiter
5863of a regular expression pattern are interpreted by Perl as modifier
5864flags for the regex. One of the ones you specified is invalid. One way
5865this can happen is if you didn't put in white space between the end of
5866the regex and a following alphanumeric operator:
5867
5868 if ($a =~ /foo/and $bar == 3) { ... }
5869
5870The C<"a"> is a valid modifier flag, but the C<"n"> is not, and raises
5871this error. Likely what was meant instead was:
5872
5873 if ($a =~ /foo/ and $bar == 3) { ... }
5874
5a25739d
FC
5875=item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
5876
5877(W) You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
5878
e0e4a6e3
FC
5879=item Unknown switch condition (?(...)) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5880m/%s/
96ebfdd7
RK
5881
5882(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
6903afa2 5883is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5fecf430 5884
674f6ed9
FC
5885 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
5886 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
5887 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
5888 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
5889 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
5890 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
5891 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
5892 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
5893 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
96ebfdd7 5894
9e3ec65c 5895The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
96ebfdd7
RK
5896discovered. See L<perlre>.
5897
a05d7ebb
JH
5898=item Unknown Unicode option letter '%c'
5899
a4a4c9e2 5900(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb
JH
5901of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
5902
64187737 5903=item Unknown Unicode option value %d
a05d7ebb 5904
a4a4c9e2 5905(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb 5906of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
f675dbe5 5907
e0e4a6e3 5908=item Unknown verb pattern '%s' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1
YO
5909
5910(F) You either made a typo or have incorrectly put a C<*> quantifier
5911after an open brace in your pattern. Check the pattern and review
5912L<perlre> for details on legal verb patterns.
5913
c2771421
FC
5914=item Unknown warnings category '%s'
5915
6903afa2 5916(F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
c2771421
FC
5917category that is unknown to perl at this point.
5918
14ef4c80
FC
5919Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a
5920module (e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have loaded this
5921module first.
c2771421 5922
e0e4a6e3 5923=item Unmatched '[' in POSIX class in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
5924
5925(F) You had something like this:
5926
5927 (?[ [:digit: ])
5928
5929That should be written:
5930
5931 (?[ [:digit:] ])
5932
e0e4a6e3
FC
5933=item Unmatched '%c' in POSIX class in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5934m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 5935
675fa9ff 5936(F) You had something like this:
0d0b4b3b
KW
5937
5938 (?[ [:alnum] ])
5939
5940There should be a second C<":">, like this:
5941
5942 (?[ [:alnum:] ])
5943
e0e4a6e3 5944=item Unmatched [ in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 5945
6903afa2 5946(F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
be771a83 5947include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
e0e4a6e3 5948first. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
6903afa2 5949problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 5950
e0e4a6e3 5951=item Unmatched ( in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 5952
e0e4a6e3 5953=item Unmatched ) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
5954
5955(F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
6903afa2 5956expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
e0e4a6e3 5957the matching parenthesis. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
9e3ec65c 5958regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 5959
d98d5fff 5960=item Unmatched right %s bracket
a0d0e21e 5961
be771a83
GS
5962(F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
5963ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
5964general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
5965you were last editing.
a0d0e21e 5966
a0d0e21e
LW
5967=item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
5968
be771a83
GS
5969(W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
5970reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
5971somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
5972subroutine.
a0d0e21e 5973
e0e4a6e3
FC
5974=item Unrecognized character %s; marked by S<<-- HERE> after %s near column
5975%d
a0d0e21e 5976
54310121 5977(F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
1b303a7d
FC
5978in your Perl script (or eval) near the specified column. Perhaps you
5979tried to run a compressed script, a binary program, or a directory as
5980a Perl program.
a0d0e21e 5981
e0e4a6e3
FC
5982=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class in regex; marked by
5983S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 5984
675fa9ff
FC
5985(F) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
5986recognized by Perl inside character classes. This is a fatal
5987error when the character class is used within C<(?[ ])>.
0d0b4b3b 5988
6fbc9859 5989=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class passed through in regex;
e0e4a6e3 5990marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 5991
be771a83
GS
5992(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
5993recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
b224edc1 5994understood literally, but this may change in a future version of Perl.
e0e4a6e3 5995The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
2628b4e0 5996escape was discovered.
6df41af2 5997
4a68bf9d 5998=item Unrecognized escape \%c passed through
2f7da168 5999
2628b4e0 6000(W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b224edc1
KW
6001recognized by Perl. The character was understood literally, but this may
6002change in a future version of Perl.
2f7da168 6003
e0e4a6e3
FC
6004=item Unrecognized escape \%s passed through in regex; marked by
6005S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6006
be771a83 6007(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b7e4ecc1 6008recognized by Perl. The character(s) were understood literally, but
e0e4a6e3 6009this may change in a future version of Perl. The S<<-- HERE> shows
9e3ec65c 6010whereabouts in the regular expression the escape was discovered.
6df41af2 6011
a0d0e21e
LW
6012=item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
6013
be771a83
GS
6014(F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
6015recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
6016on your system.
a0d0e21e 6017
90248788 6018=item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
a0d0e21e 6019
be771a83
GS
6020(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
6021think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
6022bad switch on your behalf.)
a0d0e21e 6023
0953b66b
FC
6024=item unshift on reference is experimental
6025
0773cb3e
FC
6026(S experimental::autoderef) C<unshift> with a scalar argument
6027is experimental and may change or be removed in a future
6028Perl version. If you want to take the risk of using this
6029feature, simply disable this warning:
0953b66b 6030
d401967c 6031 no warnings "experimental::autoderef";
0953b66b 6032
a0d0e21e
LW
6033=item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
6034
be771a83
GS
6035(W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
6036operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
5b3eff12 6037PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
a0d0e21e
LW
6038
6039=item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
6040
6041(F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
6042
6df41af2
GS
6043=item Unsupported function %s
6044
6045(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
6046At least, Configure doesn't think so.
6047
54310121 6048=item Unsupported function fork
6049
6050(F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
6051
be771a83 6052Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
6903afa2 6053of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
be771a83 6054changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
54310121 6055
7aa207d6 6056=item Unsupported script encoding %s
b250498f
GS
6057
6058(F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
7aa207d6 6059declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot read.
b250498f 6060
a0d0e21e
LW
6061=item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
6062
6063(F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
6064least that's what Configure thought.
6065
6df41af2 6066=item Unterminated attribute list
a0d0e21e 6067
be771a83
GS
6068(F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
6069start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
6070block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
6071attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
a0d0e21e 6072
09bef843
SB
6073=item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
6074
be771a83
GS
6075(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
6076an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
09bef843
SB
6077character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
6078character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
6079
f1991046
GS
6080=item Unterminated compressed integer
6081
6082(F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
6083compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
6084See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6085
6f2d7fc9
FC
6086=item Unterminated delimiter for here document
6087
6088(F) This message occurs when a here document label has an initial
6089quotation mark but the final quotation mark is missing. Perhaps
6090you wrote:
6091
6092 <<"foo
6093
6094instead of:
6095
6096 <<"foo"
6097
e0e4a6e3 6098=item Unterminated \g... pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
779fedd7 6099
e0e4a6e3 6100=item Unterminated \g{...} pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2bf803e2 6101
5364049c
KW
6102(F) In a regular expression, you had a C<\g> that wasn't followed by a
6103proper group reference. In the case of C<\g{>, the closing brace is
6104missing; otherwise the C<\g> must be followed by an integer. Fix the
6105pattern and retry.
e2e6a0f1 6106
6df41af2 6107=item Unterminated <> operator
09bef843 6108
6df41af2 6109(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
6110a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
6111not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
6112earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
09bef843 6113
e0e4a6e3
FC
6114=item Unterminated verb pattern argument in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6115m/%s/
905fe053
FC
6116
6117(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB:ARG)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 6118the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 6119
e0e4a6e3 6120=item Unterminated verb pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
905fe053
FC
6121
6122(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 6123the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 6124
6df41af2 6125=item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
a0d0e21e 6126
be771a83
GS
6127(W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
6128still valid when C<untie> was called.
a0d0e21e 6129
8e11cd2b
JC
6130=item Usage: POSIX::%s(%s)
6131
6132(F) You called a POSIX function with incorrect arguments.
6133See L<POSIX/FUNCTIONS> for more information.
6134
6135=item Usage: Win32::%s(%s)
6136
6137(F) You called a Win32 function with incorrect arguments.
6138See L<Win32> for more information.
6139
89474f50
FC
6140=item $[ used in %s (did you mean $] ?)
6141
6142(W syntax) You used C<$[> in a comparison, such as:
6143
6144 if ($[ > 5.006) {
6145 ...
6146 }
6147
6148You probably meant to use C<$]> instead. C<$[> is the base for indexing
6149arrays. C<$]> is the Perl version number in decimal.
6150
6da34ecb
FC
6151=item Use "%s" instead of "%s"
6152
6153(F) The second listed construct is no longer legal. Use the first one
6154instead.
6155
8fe85e3f
FC
6156=item Useless assignment to a temporary
6157
6158(W misc) You assigned to an lvalue subroutine, but what
6159the subroutine returned was a temporary scalar about to
6160be discarded, so the assignment had no effect.
6161
e0e4a6e3
FC
6162=item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex; marked by
6163S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 6164
96ebfdd7
RK
6165(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
6166meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 6167
96ebfdd7 6168 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
6169
6170must be written as
6171
96ebfdd7 6172 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5 6173
9e3ec65c
FC
6174The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
6175discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 6176
b4581f09
JH
6177=item Useless localization of %s
6178
6903afa2
FC
6179(W syntax) The localization of lvalues such as C<local($x=10)> is legal,
6180but in fact the local() currently has no effect. This may change at
b4581f09
JH
6181some point in the future, but in the meantime such code is discouraged.
6182
e0e4a6e3
FC
6183=item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6184m/%s/
9d1d55b5 6185
96ebfdd7
RK
6186(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
6187meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 6188
96ebfdd7 6189 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
6190
6191must be written as
6192
96ebfdd7 6193 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5 6194
9e3ec65c
FC
6195The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
6196discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 6197
b08e453b
RB
6198=item Useless use of /d modifier in transliteration operator
6199
6200(W misc) You have used the /d modifier where the searchlist has the
6903afa2 6201same length as the replacelist. See L<perlop> for more information
b08e453b
RB
6202about the /d modifier.
6203
820438b1
FC
6204=item Useless use of \E
6205
6206(W misc) You have a \E in a double-quotish string without a C<\U>,
6207C<\L> or C<\Q> preceding it.
6208
4fa6dd16
KW
6209=item Useless use of greediness modifier '%c' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6210
6211(W regexp) You specified something like these:
6212
6213 qr/a{3}?/
6214 qr/b{1,1}+/
6215
6216The C<"?"> and C<"+"> don't have any effect, as they modify whether to
6217match more or fewer when there is a choice, and by specifying to match
6218exactly a given numer, there is no room left for a choice.
6219
6df41af2 6220=item Useless use of %s in void context
a0d0e21e 6221
75b44862 6222(W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
be771a83
GS
6223nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
6224value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
6225often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
6226to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
6227get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
6228said
a0d0e21e 6229
6df41af2 6230 $one, $two = 1, 2;
748a9306 6231
6df41af2
GS
6232when you meant to say
6233
6234 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
6235
6236Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
6237reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
6238example, if you say
6239
6240 $array = (1,2);
6241
6242when you should have said
6243
6244 $array = [1,2];
6245
6246The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
6247while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
6248a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
6249throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
6250L<perlref> for more on this.
6251
65191a1e
BS
6252This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
6253since they are often used in statements like
6254
4358a253 6255 1 while sub_with_side_effects();
65191a1e
BS
6256
6257String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
6258about.
6259
e0e4a6e3 6260=item Useless use of (?-p) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6261
6262(W regexp) The C<p> modifier cannot be turned off once set. Trying to do
6263so is futile.
6264
6df41af2
GS
6265=item Useless use of "re" pragma
6266
6903afa2 6267(W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
6df41af2 6268
a801c63c
RGS
6269=item Useless use of sort in scalar context
6270
6271(W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
6272
6273 my $x = sort @y;
6274
6275This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
6276
de4864e4
JH
6277=item Useless use of %s with no values
6278
f87c3213 6279(W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
6903afa2
FC
6280apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
6281usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
de4864e4 6282possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
6903afa2 6283if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
de4864e4
JH
6284you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
6285
6df41af2
GS
6286=item "use" not allowed in expression
6287
be771a83
GS
6288(F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
6289returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
748a9306 6290
36b2db7e
FC
6291=item Use of assignment to $[ is deprecated
6292
6293(D deprecated) The C<$[> variable (index of the first element in an array)
6903afa2 6294is deprecated. See L<perlvar/"$[">.
36b2db7e 6295
c47ff5f1 6296=item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is deprecated
4633a7c4 6297
8ab8f082 6298(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted
1b303a7d
FC
6299form if you wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the
6300here-document.
83ce3e12 6301
96ebfdd7
RK
6302=item Use of chdir('') or chdir(undef) as chdir() deprecated
6303
6304(D deprecated) chdir() with no arguments is documented to change to
6305$ENV{HOME} or $ENV{LOGDIR}. chdir(undef) and chdir('') share this
6306behavior, but that has been deprecated. In future versions they
6307will simply fail.
6308
6309Be careful to check that what you pass to chdir() is defined and not
6310blank, else you might find yourself in your home directory.
6311
64e578a2
MJD
6312=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
6313
6314(W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
6315modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
6316
4ac733c9
MJD
6317=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
6318
6319(W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
6320use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
6321used. (This may change in the future.)
6322
591f5ca2
FC
6323=item Use of comma-less variable list is deprecated
6324
6325(D deprecated) The values you give to a format should be
6326separated by commas, not just aligned on a line.
6327
675fa9ff
FC
6328=item Use of each() on hash after insertion without resetting hash iterator results in undefined behavior
6329
f26c79ba
FC
6330(S internal) The behavior of C<each()> after insertion is undefined;
6331it may skip items, or visit items more than once. Consider using
6332C<keys()> instead of C<each()>.
675fa9ff 6333
2dc78664 6334=item Use of := for an empty attribute list is not allowed
036e1e65 6335
2dc78664
NC
6336(F) The construction C<my $x := 42> used to parse as equivalent to
6337C<my $x : = 42> (applying an empty attribute list to C<$x>).
6338This construct was deprecated in 5.12.0, and has now been made a syntax
6339error, so C<:=> can be reclaimed as a new operator in the future.
6340
6341If you need an empty attribute list, for example in a code generator, add
6342a space before the C<=>.
036e1e65 6343
b6c83531 6344=item Use of freed value in iteration
2f7da168 6345
b6c83531
JH
6346(F) Perhaps you modified the iterated array within the loop?
6347This error is typically caused by code like the following:
2f7da168
RK
6348
6349 @a = (3,4);
6350 @a = () for (1,2,@a);
6351
6352You are not supposed to modify arrays while they are being iterated over.
6353For speed and efficiency reasons, Perl internally does not do full
6354reference-counting of iterated items, hence deleting such an item in the
6355middle of an iteration causes Perl to see a freed value.
6356
39b99f21 6357=item Use of *glob{FILEHANDLE} is deprecated
6358
6359(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the shorter *glob{IO} form
6360to access the filehandle slot within a typeglob.
6361
96ebfdd7 6362=item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
35ae6b54 6363
96ebfdd7
RK
6364(W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
6365operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
6366repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
35ae6b54 6367
0b98bec9
RGS
6368=item Use of "goto" to jump into a construct is deprecated
6369
6370(D deprecated) Using C<goto> to jump from an outer scope into an inner
6371scope is deprecated and should be avoided.
6372
dc848c6f 6373=item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
6374
1da25648
FC
6375(D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD>
6376subroutines are looked up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy)
6377even when the subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain
6378functions (e.g. C<Foo::bar()>), not as methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or
6379C<< $obj->bar() >>).
dc848c6f 6380
be771a83
GS
6381This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup only for
6382methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base of existing
6383code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl
6384currently issues an optional warning when non-methods use inherited
6385C<AUTOLOAD>s.
dc848c6f 6386
6387The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
be771a83
GS
6388non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used
6389to depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class
6390named C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during
6391startup.
dc848c6f 6392
be771a83
GS
6393In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);>
6394you should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
7b8d334a 6395C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
a23209c7 6396
6df41af2
GS
6397=item Use of %s in printf format not supported
6398
6399(F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
6400only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
6401
6df41af2
GS
6402=item Use of %s is deprecated
6403
75b44862 6404(D deprecated) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use,
be771a83
GS
6405generally because there's a better way to do it, and also because the
6406old way has bad side effects.
6df41af2 6407
591f5ca2
FC
6408=item Use of literal control characters in variable names is deprecated
6409
6410(D deprecated) Using literal control characters in the source to refer
6411to the ^FOO variables, like C<$^X> and C<${^GLOBAL_PHASE}> is now
6412deprecated. This only affects code like C<$\cT>, where \cT is a control in
6413the source code: C<${"\cT"}> and C<$^T> remain valid.
6414
5840701a 6415=item Use of -l on filehandle%s
5a7abfcc
FC
6416
6417(W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
6418it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
6419The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
6420
4055dbce
RS
6421=item Use of my $_ is experimental
6422
6423(S experimental::lexical_topic) Lexical $_ is an experimental feature and
6424its behavior may change or even be removed in any future release of perl.
6425See the explanation under L<perlvar/$_>.
6426
7c7df812
FC
6427=item Use of %s on a handle without * is deprecated
6428
22d6fc57 6429(D deprecated) You used C<tie>, C<tied> or C<untie> on a scalar but that scalar
fa816bf3 6430happens to hold a typeglob, which means its filehandle will be tied. If
22d6fc57
FC
6431you mean to tie a handle, use an explicit * as in C<tie *$handle>.
6432
6433This was a long-standing bug that was removed in Perl 5.16, as there was
6434no way to tie the scalar itself when it held a typeglob, and no way to
6435untie a scalar that had had a typeglob assigned to it. If you see this
6436message, you must be using an older version.
7c7df812 6437
1f1cc344 6438=item Use of reference "%s" as array index
d804643f 6439
77b96956 6440(W misc) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
1f1cc344
JH
6441isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
6442to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
d804643f 6443
64977eb6 6444If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
1f1cc344 6445C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
54e0f05c 6446however, because you can overload the numification and stringification
c69ca1d4 6447operators and then you presumably know what you are doing.
d804643f 6448
4055dbce
RS
6449=item Use of state $_ is experimental
6450
6451(S experimental::lexical_topic) Lexical $_ is an experimental feature and
6452its behavior may change or even be removed in any future release of perl.
6453See the explanation under L<perlvar/$_>.
6454
bbd7eb8a
RD
6455=item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
6456
159f47d9 6457(W taint, deprecated) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
bbd7eb8a
RD
6458arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
6459but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
6460arguments. See L<perlsec>.
6461
cc95b072 6462=item Use of uninitialized value%s
a0d0e21e 6463
be771a83
GS
6464(W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
6465defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
6466To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
a0d0e21e 6467
6903afa2
FC
6468To help you figure out what was undefined, perl will try to tell you
6469the name of the variable (if any) that was undefined. In some cases
6470it cannot do this, so it also tells you what operation you used the
6471undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your program
50a39ba4 6472and the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily appear
6903afa2
FC
6473literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is usually
6474optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to the
6475C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in
6476your program.
e5be4a53 6477
e0e4a6e3
FC
6478=item Use \x{...} for more than two hex characters in regex; marked by
6479S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6480
6481(F) In a regular expression, you said something like
6482
6483 (?[ [ \xBEEF ] ])
6484
6485Perl isn't sure if you meant this
6486
6487 (?[ [ \x{BEEF} ] ])
6488
6489or if you meant this
6490
6491 (?[ [ \x{BE} E F ] ])
6492
6493You need to add either braces or blanks to disambiguate.
6494
6fbc9859 6495=item Using just the first character returned by \N{} in character class in
e0e4a6e3 6496regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ff3f963a 6497
687531b5
FC
6498(W regexp) A charnames handler may return a sequence of more than one
6499character. Currently all but the first one are discarded when used in
6500a regular expression pattern bracketed character class.
ff3f963a 6501
c794c51b
FC
6502=item Using !~ with %s doesn't make sense
6503
6504(F) Using the C<!~> operator with C<s///r>, C<tr///r> or C<y///r> is
6505currently reserved for future use, as the exact behaviour has not
6903afa2 6506been decided. (Simply returning the boolean opposite of the
c794c51b 6507modified string is usually not particularly useful.)
0876b9a0 6508
949cf498
KW
6509=item UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
6510
4c2e59a0 6511(S surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
949cf498
KW
6512not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
6513U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
6514internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
6515available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
6516problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
6517came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 6518off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9466bab6 6519
68dc0745 6520=item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
a6006777 6521
75b44862 6522(W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
be771a83
GS
6523C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
6524can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
6525false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
6526constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
6527C<defined> operator.
a6006777 6528
f675dbe5
CB
6529=item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
6530
be771a83
GS
6531(W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
6532%ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
6533longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
65341024 characters.
f675dbe5 6535
0953b66b
FC
6536=item values on reference is experimental
6537
0773cb3e
FC
6538(S experimental::autoderef) C<values> with a scalar argument
6539is experimental and may change or be removed in a future
6540Perl version. If you want to take the risk of using this
6541feature, simply disable this warning:
0953b66b 6542
d401967c 6543 no warnings "experimental::autoderef";
0953b66b 6544
b5c19bd7 6545=item Variable "%s" is not available
44a8e56a 6546
b5c19bd7
DM
6547(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
6548attempting to capture an outer lexical that is not currently available.
6903afa2 6549This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the outer lexical may be
b5c19bd7
DM
6550declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has not yet been created.
6551(Remember that named subs are created at compile time, while anonymous
6903afa2 6552subs are created at run-time.) For example,
44a8e56a 6553
b5c19bd7 6554 sub { my $a; sub f { $a } }
44a8e56a 6555
b5c19bd7 6556At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current value of $a,
6903afa2 6557since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely,
b5c19bd7
DM
6558the following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by
6559now been created and is live:
be771a83 6560
b5c19bd7
DM
6561 sub { my $a; eval 'sub f { $a }' }->();
6562
6563The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a variable that has
6564gone out of scope, for example,
6565
6566 sub f {
6567 my $a;
6568 sub { eval '$a' }
6569 }
6570 f()->();
6571
1b303a7d
FC
6572Here, when the '$a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
6573being executed, so its $a is not available for capture.
44a8e56a 6574
b4581f09
JH
6575=item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
6576
120b0f81 6577(S misc) With "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable
413ff9f6 6578that you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
b4581f09
JH
6579something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
6580that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
6581front of your variable.
6582
aec0ef10 6583=item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex m/%s/
b4581f09
JH
6584
6585(F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
d0a29c36
KW
6586known at compile time. For positive lookbehind, you can use the C<\K>
6587regex construct as a way to get the equivalent functionality. See
6588L<perlre/(?<=pattern) \K>.
6589
6590There are non-obvious Unicode rules under C</i> that can match variably,
6591but which you might not think could. For example, the substring C<"ss">
6592can match the single character LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S. There are
6593other sequences of ASCII characters that can match single ligature
6594characters, such as LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FFI matching C<qr/ffi/i>.
6595Starting in Perl v5.16, if you only care about ASCII matches, adding the
6596C</aa> modifier to the regex will exclude all these non-obvious matches,
6597thus getting rid of this message. You can also say C<S<use re qw(/aa)>>
6598to apply C</aa> to all regular expressions compiled within its scope.
6599See L<re>.
b4581f09
JH
6600
6601=item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
6602
b9cc85ad
FC
6603(W misc) A "my", "our" or "state" variable has been redeclared in the
6604current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the
6605previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note
6606that the earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope
20d33786 6607or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
b4581f09 6608
6df41af2
GS
6609=item Variable syntax
6610
6611(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
6612of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
6613Perl yourself.
6614
44a8e56a 6615=item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
6616
be771a83 6617(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
b5c19bd7 6618lexical variable defined in an outer named subroutine.
44a8e56a 6619
b5c19bd7 6620When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of
be771a83
GS
6621the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
6622call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
6623outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
6624longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
6625variable will no longer be shared.
44a8e56a 6626
44a8e56a 6627This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
6628anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
b5c19bd7 6629reference variables in outer subroutines are created, they
be771a83 6630are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
44a8e56a 6631
6651ba0b
FC
6632=item vector argument not supported with alpha versions
6633
8b6051f1 6634(S printf) The %vd (s)printf format does not support version objects
6651ba0b
FC
6635with alpha parts.
6636
e0e4a6e3
FC
6637=item Verb pattern '%s' has a mandatory argument in regex; marked by
6638S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1 6639
6903afa2
FC
6640(F) You used a verb pattern that requires an argument. Supply an
6641argument or check that you are using the right verb.
e2e6a0f1 6642
e0e4a6e3
FC
6643=item Verb pattern '%s' may not have an argument in regex; marked by
6644S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1 6645
6903afa2 6646(F) You used a verb pattern that is not allowed an argument. Remove the
e2e6a0f1
YO
6647argument or check that you are using the right verb.
6648
084610c0
GS
6649=item Version number must be a constant number
6650
6651(P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
6652its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
6653the version number.
6654
808ee47e
SP
6655=item Version string '%s' contains invalid data; ignoring: '%s'
6656
32e998fd
RGS
6657(W misc) The version string contains invalid characters at the end, which
6658are being ignored.
808ee47e 6659
7e1af8bc 6660=item Warning: something's wrong
5f05dabc 6661
6662(W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
ec8bb14c 6663you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 6664
f86702cc 6665=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
a0d0e21e 6666
be771a83
GS
6667(S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
6668the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
6669space.
a0d0e21e 6670
5f05dabc 6671=item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
a0d0e21e 6672
be771a83
GS
6673(S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
6674looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
6675term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
6676function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
a0d0e21e
LW
6677
6678 rand + 5;
6679
6680you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
6681
6682 rand() + 5;
6683
6684but in actual fact, you got
6685
6686 rand(+5);
6687
5f05dabc 6688So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
a0d0e21e 6689
0f539b13
BF
6690=item when is experimental
6691
6692(S experimental::smartmatch) C<when> depends on smartmatch, which is
6693experimental. Additionally, it has several special cases that may
6694not be immediately obvious, and their behavior may change or
675fa9ff
FC
6695even be removed in any future release of perl. See the explanation
6696under L<perlsyn/Experimental Details on given and when>.
0f539b13 6697
4b3603a4
JH
6698=item Wide character in %s
6699
c8f79457 6700(S utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting
cd28123a
JH
6701one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print). The easiest
6702way to quiet this warning is simply to add the C<:utf8> layer to the
6703output, e.g. C<binmode STDOUT, ':utf8'>. Another way to turn off the
6704warning is to add C<no warnings 'utf8';> but that is often closer to
6705cheating. In general, you are supposed to explicitly mark the
6706filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
4b3603a4 6707
49704364
WL
6708=item Within []-length '%c' not allowed
6709
fa816bf3
FC
6710(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]>
6711only if C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes that
6712can be determined from the template alone. This is not possible if
6713it contains any of the codes @, /, U, u, w or a *-length. Redesign
6714the template.
49704364 6715
9a7dcd9c 6716=item write() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 6717
be771a83 6718(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 6719before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 6720
9ae3ac1a 6721=item %s "\x%X" does not map to Unicode
b4581f09 6722
27f95370
FC
6723(S utf8) When reading in different encodings, Perl tries to
6724map everything into Unicode characters. The bytes you read
6725in are not legal in this encoding. For example
b4581f09
JH
6726
6727 utf8 "\xE4" does not map to Unicode
6728
6729if you try to read in the a-diaereses Latin-1 as UTF-8.
6730
49704364 6731=item 'X' outside of string
a0d0e21e 6732
49704364
WL
6733(F) You had a (un)pack template that specified a relative position before
6734the beginning of the string being (un)packed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
a0d0e21e 6735
49704364 6736=item 'x' outside of string in unpack
a0d0e21e
LW
6737
6738(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
6739the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6740
a0d0e21e
LW
6741=item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
6742
5f05dabc 6743(F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
a0d0e21e 6744sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
1b1f1335 6745about what you want. Your best bet is to put a setuid C wrapper around
496a33f5 6746your script.
a0d0e21e
LW
6747
6748=item You need to quote "%s"
6749
be771a83
GS
6750(W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
6751Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
6752which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
6753assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
6754what you want, put an & in front.)
a0d0e21e 6755
6cfd5ea7
JH
6756=item Your random numbers are not that random
6757
50a39ba4 6758(F) When trying to initialize the random seed for hashes, Perl could
6cfd5ea7
JH
6759not get any randomness out of your system. This usually indicates
6760Something Very Wrong.
6761
e0e4a6e3 6762=item Zero length \N{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
8a5a438d
FC
6763
6764(F) Named Unicode character escapes C<(\N{...})> may return a zero-length
6765sequence. Such an escape was used in an extended character class, i.e.
6766C<(?[...])>, which is not permitted. Check that the correct escape has
e0e4a6e3 6767been used, and the correct charnames handler is in scope. The S<<-- HERE>
8a5a438d
FC
6768shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
6769
a0d0e21e
LW
6770=back
6771
00eb3f2b
RGS
6772=head1 SEE ALSO
6773
44ecbbd8 6774L<warnings>, L<diagnostics>.
00eb3f2b 6775
56e90b21 6776=cut