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1=head1 NAME
2
3perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
4
5=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
8desperation):
9
10 (W) A warning (optional).
d1d15184 11 (D) A deprecation (enabled by default).
00eb3f2b 12 (S) A severe warning (enabled by default).
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13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
54310121 15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
cb1a09d0 16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
a0d0e21e 17
75b44862 18The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
64977eb6 19(W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
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20
21If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
22category is included with the classification letter in the description
466416ed 23below. E.g. C<(W closed)> means a warning in the C<closed> category.
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24
25Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
fa816bf3 26and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
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27to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
28of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
29
b7eceb5b 30Severe warnings are always enabled, unless they are explicitly disabled
e476b1b5 31with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
4438c4b7 32
748a9306 33Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
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34L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
36See L<warnings>.
a0d0e21e 37
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38The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
39lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
40denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
41ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
42letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
43letter.
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44
45=over 4
46
6df41af2 47=item accept() on closed socket %s
33633739 48
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49(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
50to check the return value of your socket() call? See
51L<perlfunc/accept>.
33633739 52
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53=item Aliasing via reference is experimental
54
55(S experimental::refaliasing) This warning is emitted if you use
56a reference constructor on the left-hand side of an assignment to
57alias one variable to another. Simply suppress the warning if you
58want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you are taking
59the risk of using an experimental feature which may change or be
60removed in a future Perl version:
61
62 no warnings "experimental::refaliasing";
63 use feature "refaliasing";
64 \$x = \$y;
65
de42a5a9 66=item Allocation too large: %x
a0d0e21e 67
6df41af2 68(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
a0d0e21e 69
04f74579 70=item '%c' allowed only after types %s in %s
ef54e1a4 71
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72(F) The modifiers '!', '<' and '>' are allowed in pack() or unpack() only
73after certain types. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
ef54e1a4 74
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75=item alpha->numify() is lossy
76
77(W numeric) An alpha version can not be numified without losing
78information.
79
6df41af2 80=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
43192e07 81
75b44862 82(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
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83keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
84one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
85subroutine is not imported.
43192e07 86
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87To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
88before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
89Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
90imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
43192e07 91
6df41af2 92To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
496a33f5 93on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
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94to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
95L<attributes>).
43192e07 96
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97=item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
98
99(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
100all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
101first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
102C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
103
6df41af2 104=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
43192e07 105
7c7af292 106(S ambiguous) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
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107you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
108a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
a0d0e21e 109
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110=item Ambiguous use of -%s resolved as -&%s()
111
112(S ambiguous) You wrote something like C<-foo>, which might be the
113string C<"-foo">, or a call to the function C<foo>, negated. If you meant
114the string, just write C<"-foo">. If you meant the function call,
115write C<-foo()>.
116
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117=item Ambiguous use of %c resolved as operator %c
118
7c7af292 119(S ambiguous) C<%>, C<&>, and C<*> are both infix operators (modulus,
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120bitwise and, and multiplication) I<and> initial special characters
121(denoting hashes, subroutines and typeglobs), and you said something
122like C<*foo * foo> that might be interpreted as either of them. We
123assumed you meant the infix operator, but please try to make it more
124clear -- in the example given, you might write C<*foo * foo()> if you
125really meant to multiply a glob by the result of calling a function.
d8225693 126
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127=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s} resolved to %c%s
128
129(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<@{foo}>, which might be
130asking for the variable C<@foo>, or it might be calling a function
131named foo, and dereferencing it as an array reference. If you wanted
1cecf2c0 132the variable, you can just write C<@foo>. If you wanted to call the
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133function, write C<@{foo()}> ... or you could just not have a variable
134and a function with the same name, and save yourself a lot of trouble.
135
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136=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s[...]} resolved to %c%s[...]
137
138=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s{...}} resolved to %c%s{...}
4da60377 139
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140(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<${foo[2]}> (where foo represents
141the name of a Perl keyword), which might be looking for element number
1422 of the array named C<@foo>, in which case please write C<$foo[2]>, or you
143might have meant to pass an anonymous arrayref to the function named
144foo, and then do a scalar deref on the value it returns. If you meant
145that, write C<${foo([2])}>.
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146
147In regular expressions, the C<${foo[2]}> syntax is sometimes necessary
148to disambiguate between array subscripts and character classes.
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149C</$length[2345]/>, for instance, will be interpreted as C<$length> followed
150by the character class C<[2345]>. If an array subscript is what you
151want, you can avoid the warning by changing C</${length[2345]}/> to the
152unsightly C</${\$length[2345]}/>, by renaming your array to something
153that does not coincide with a built-in keyword, or by simply turning
154off warnings with C<no warnings 'ambiguous';>.
4da60377 155
6df41af2 156=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
a0d0e21e 157
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158(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
159redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
160redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
c9f97d15 161
6df41af2 162=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
1028017a 163
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164(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
165redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
166into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
167though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
168which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
1028017a 169
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170 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
171 while (<STDIN>) {
172 print;
173 print OUT;
174 }
175 close OUT;
c9f97d15 176
6df41af2 177=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
eb6e2d6f 178
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179(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
180transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
be771a83 181one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
ac036724 182a scalar value (the length of an array, or the population info of a
183hash) and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
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184you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
185alternatives.
eb6e2d6f 186
6df41af2 187=item Arg too short for msgsnd
76cd736e 188
6df41af2 189(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
76cd736e 190
f86702cc 191=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 192
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193(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
194that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
195will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
a0d0e21e 196
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197Note that for the C<Inf> and C<NaN> (infinity and not-a-number) the
198definition of "numeric" is somewhat unusual: the strings themselves
199(like "Inf") are considered numeric, and anything following them is
200considered non-numeric.
201
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202=item Argument list not closed for PerlIO layer "%s"
203
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204(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O
205system you forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers
206take care of transforming data between external and internal
207representations.) Perl stopped parsing the layer list at this
208point and did not attempt to push this layer. If your program
209didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the
210result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
b4581f09 211
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212=item Argument "%s" treated as 0 in increment (++)
213
214(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to the C<++>
215operator which expects either a number or a string matching
216C</^[a-zA-Z]*[0-9]*\z/>. See L<perlop/Auto-increment and
217Auto-decrement> for details.
218
637494ac 219=item Array passed to stat will be coerced to a scalar%s
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220
221(W syntax) You called stat() on an array, but the array will be
222coerced to a scalar - the number of elements in the array.
223
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224=item A signature parameter must start with '$', '@' or '%'
225
226(F) Each subroutine signature parameter declaration must start with a valid
227sigil; for example:
228
229 sub foo ($a, $, $b = 1, @c) {}
230
231=item A slurpy parameter may not have a default value
232
233(F) Only scalar subroutine signature parameters may have a default value;
234for example:
235
236 sub foo ($a = 1) {} # legal
237 sub foo (@a = (1)) {} # invalid
238 sub foo (%a = (a => b)) {} # invalid
239
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240=item assertion botched: %s
241
21b5e840 242(X) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
a0d0e21e 243
0eacef8e 244=item Assertion %s failed: file "%s", line %d
a0d0e21e 245
21b5e840 246(X) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
a0d0e21e 247
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248=item Assigned value is not a reference
249
250(F) You tried to assign something that was not a reference to an lvalue
251reference (e.g., C<\$x = $y>). If you meant to make $x an alias to $y, use
252C<\$x = \$y>.
253
254=item Assigned value is not %s reference
255
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256(F) You tried to assign a reference to a reference constructor, but the
257two references were not of the same type. You cannot alias a scalar to
258an array, or an array to a hash; the two types must match.
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259
260 \$x = \@y; # error
261 \@x = \%y; # error
262 $y = [];
263 \$x = $y; # error; did you mean \$y?
264
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265=item Assigning non-zero to $[ is no longer possible
266
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267(F) When the "array_base" feature is disabled
268(e.g., and under C<use v5.16;>, and as of Perl 5.30)
7d345e3d 269the special variable C<$[>, which is deprecated, is now a fixed zero value.
82122228 270
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271=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
272
273(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
274must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
275know which context to supply to the right side.
276
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277=item Assuming NOT a POSIX class since %s in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
278
279(W regexp) You had something like these:
280
281 [[:alnum]]
282 [[:digit:xyz]
283
284They look like they might have been meant to be the POSIX classes
285C<[:alnum:]> or C<[:digit:]>. If so, they should be written:
286
287 [[:alnum:]]
288 [[:digit:]xyz]
289
290Since these aren't legal POSIX class specifications, but are legal
291bracketed character classes, Perl treats them as the latter. In the
292first example, it matches the characters C<":">, C<"[">, C<"a">, C<"l">,
293C<"m">, C<"n">, and C<"u">.
294
295If these weren't meant to be POSIX classes, this warning message is
296spurious, and can be suppressed by reordering things, such as
297
298 [[al:num]]
299
300or
301
302 [[:munla]]
303
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304=item <> at require-statement should be quotes
305
306(F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
307C<require 'file'>.
308
2393f1b9 309=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
1b1f1335 310
49293501 311(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
2393f1b9 312the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
49293501 313
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314=item Attempt to bless into a freed package
315
316(F) You wrote C<bless $foo> with one argument after somehow causing
317the current package to be freed. Perl cannot figure out what to
0c5a5b27 318do, so it throws up its hands in despair.
dcdfe746 319
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320=item Attempt to bless into a reference
321
322(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
57dedab9 323the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
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324supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
325
326 bless $self, $proto;
327
328when you intended
329
330 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
331
332If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
333of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
334example by:
335
336 bless $self, "$proto";
337
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338=item Attempt to clear deleted array
339
340(S debugging) An array was assigned to when it was being freed.
341Freed values are not supposed to be visible to Perl code. This
342can also happen if XS code calls C<av_clear> from a custom magic
343callback on the array.
344
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345=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
346
347(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
348which is not in its key set.
349
350=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
351
352(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
353declared readonly from a restricted hash.
354
de42a5a9 355=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%x
a0d0e21e 356
f84fe999 357(S internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
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358that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
359outside any of those arenas.
a0d0e21e 360
12578ffb 361=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string '%s'%s
bbce6d69 362
f84fe999 363(S internal) Perl maintains a reference-counted internal table of
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364strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
365strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
366of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
bbce6d69 367
7d5b40b4 368=item Attempt to free temp prematurely: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 369
f84fe999 370(S debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
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371free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
372SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
373free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
374try to free it.
a0d0e21e
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375
376=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
377
f84fe999 378(S internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
a0d0e21e 379
7d5b40b4 380=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 381
8f7e4d2c 382(S internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
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383see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
384earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
385This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
386that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
387mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
388corrupted.
a0d0e21e 389
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390=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
391
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392(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
393function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
394means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
395invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
396literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
397avoid this warning.
84902520 398
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399=item Attempt to reload %s aborted.
400
401(F) You tried to load a file with C<use> or C<require> that failed to
402compile once already. Perl will not try to compile this file again
403unless you delete its entry from %INC. See L<perlfunc/require> and
404L<perlvar/%INC>.
405
1b20cd17
NC
406=item Attempt to set length of freed array
407
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FC
408(W misc) You tried to set the length of an array which has
409been freed. You can do this by storing a reference to the
410scalar representing the last index of an array and later
411assigning through that reference. For example
1b20cd17
NC
412
413 $r = do {my @a; \$#a};
414 $$r = 503
415
b7a902f4 416=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
417
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418(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
419used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
420dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 421
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422=item Attribute prototype(%s) discards earlier prototype attribute in same sub
423
424(W misc) A sub was declared as sub foo : prototype(A) : prototype(B) {}, for
425example. Since each sub can only have one prototype, the earlier
426declaration(s) are discarded while the last one is applied.
427
ccce04a4
FC
428=item av_reify called on tied array
429
430(S debugging) This indicates that something went wrong and Perl got I<very>
431confused about C<@_> or C<@DB::args> being tied.
432
de42a5a9 433=item Bad arg length for %s, is %u, should be %d
a0d0e21e 434
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435(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
436or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 437S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
a0d0e21e
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438S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
439
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440=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
441
496a33f5 442(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
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443substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
444most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
445
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446=item Bad filehandle: %s
447
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448(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
449symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
450open(), or did it in another package.
a0d0e21e
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451
452=item Bad free() ignored
453
be771a83 454(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
fa816bf3 455been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 456setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 457
9ea8bc6d 458This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
6903afa2 459dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
be771a83 460which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 461
aa689395 462=item Bad hash
463
464(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
465
6df41af2
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466=item Badly placed ()'s
467
468(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
469of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
470Perl yourself.
471
a7cb8dae 472=item Bad name after %s
a0d0e21e 473
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474(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
475didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
476of quotes, so
a0d0e21e
LW
477
478 $var = 'myvar';
479 $sym = mypack::$var;
480
481is not the same as
482
483 $var = 'myvar';
484 $sym = "mypack::$var";
485
88e1f1a2
JV
486=item Bad plugin affecting keyword '%s'
487
488(F) An extension using the keyword plugin mechanism violated the
489plugin API.
490
4ad56ec9
IZ
491=item Bad realloc() ignored
492
6903afa2
FC
493(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that
494had never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can
495be disabled by setting the environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 496
a0d0e21e
LW
497=item Bad symbol for array
498
499(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
500wasn't a symbol table entry.
501
4df3f177
SP
502=item Bad symbol for dirhandle
503
504(P) An internal request asked to add a dirhandle entry to something
505that wasn't a symbol table entry.
506
a0d0e21e
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507=item Bad symbol for filehandle
508
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509(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
510that wasn't a symbol table entry.
a0d0e21e
LW
511
512=item Bad symbol for hash
513
514(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
515wasn't a symbol table entry.
516
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FC
517=item Bad symbol for scalar
518
519(P) An internal request asked to add a scalar entry to something that
520wasn't a symbol table entry.
521
34d09196
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522=item Bareword found in conditional
523
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524(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
525conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
526of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
34d09196
GS
527
528 open FOO || die;
529
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530It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
531a bareword:
34d09196
GS
532
533 use constant TYPO => 1;
534 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
535
536The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
537
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NC
538=item Bareword in require contains "%s"
539
a52f2cce
NC
540=item Bareword in require maps to disallowed filename "%s"
541
09eb1f39 542=item Bareword in require maps to empty filename
5bad2b39 543
a52f2cce 544(F) The bareword form of require has been invoked with a filename which could
d4e5761f 545not have been generated by a valid bareword permitted by the parser. You
a52f2cce
NC
546shouldn't be able to get this error from Perl code, but XS code may throw it
547if it passes an invalid module name to C<Perl_load_module>.
548
5bad2b39
DM
549=item Bareword in require must not start with a double-colon: "%s"
550
551(F) In C<require Bare::Word>, the bareword is not allowed to start with a
d4e5761f 552double-colon. Write C<require ::Foo::Bar> as C<require Foo::Bar> instead.
5bad2b39 553
6df41af2
GS
554=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
555
556(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
be771a83
GS
557subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
558symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
6df41af2
GS
559
560=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
561
be771a83
GS
562(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
563compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
564you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 565
a0d0e21e
LW
566=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
567
be771a83
GS
568(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
569subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
570exited.
a0d0e21e 571
68dc0745 572=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
573
574(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
be771a83
GS
575implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
576occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
577be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
578depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 579
c782d7ee 580=item \%d better written as $%d
6df41af2 581
be771a83
GS
582(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
583The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
584substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
585because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
586there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 587
252aa082
JH
588=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
589
e476b1b5 590(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
591(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
592L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 593
69282e91 594=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 595
be771a83
GS
596(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
597check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 598
c289d2f7
JH
599=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
600
601(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
4dcecea4 602Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 603
c5a0f51a
JH
604=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
605
e476b1b5 606(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 607
043c750c 608=item Bizarre copy of %s
4633a7c4 609
be771a83 610(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
ab830aa0 611copiable.
4633a7c4 612
5a25739d
FC
613=item Bizarre SvTYPE [%d]
614
434f489b 615(P) When starting a new thread or returning values from a thread, Perl
5a25739d
FC
616encountered an invalid data type.
617
b927b7e9 618=item Both or neither range ends should be Unicode in regex; marked by
6e8a73f2 619S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b927b7e9
KW
620
621(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
622
623In a bracketed character class in a regular expression pattern, you
624had a range which has exactly one end of it specified using C<\N{}>, and
625the other end is specified using a non-portable mechanism. Perl treats
626the range as a Unicode range, that is, all the characters in it are
627considered to be the Unicode characters, and which may be different code
628points on some platforms Perl runs on. For example, C<[\N{U+06}-\x08]>
629is treated as if you had instead said C<[\N{U+06}-\N{U+08}]>, that is it
630matches the characters whose code points in Unicode are 6, 7, and 8.
631But that C<\x08> might indicate that you meant something different, so
632the warning gets raised.
633
f675dbe5
CB
634=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
635
be771a83
GS
636(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
637iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
638which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 639
a0d0e21e
LW
640=item Callback called exit
641
4929bf7b 642(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
a0d0e21e
LW
643exited by calling exit.
644
6df41af2 645=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 646
be771a83
GS
647(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
648parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
649that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
650early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
651subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
652checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
653function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
654the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 655
0c7df902
JH
656=item Cannot chr %f
657
658(F) You passed an invalid number (like an infinity or not-a-number) to C<chr>.
659
1b4d0d79
TC
660=item Cannot complete in-place edit of %s: %s
661
662(F) Your perl script appears to have changed directory while
663performing an in-place edit of a file specified by a relative path,
664and your system doesn't include the directory relative POSIX functions
665needed to handle that.
666
5dee29d4 667=item Cannot compress %f in pack
0c7df902 668
5dee29d4
JH
669(F) You tried compressing an infinity or not-a-number as an unsigned
670integer with BER, which makes no sense.
0c7df902 671
49704364 672=item Cannot compress integer in pack
0258719b 673
717feafc
JH
674(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress.
675The BER compressed integer format can only be used with positive
676integers, and you attempted to compress a very large number (> 1e308).
677See L<perlfunc/pack>.
0258719b 678
49704364 679=item Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
0258719b
NC
680
681(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
682format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
683
5c1f4d79
NC
684=item Cannot convert a reference to %s to typeglob
685
6903afa2
FC
686(F) You manipulated Perl's symbol table directly, stored a reference
687in it, then tried to access that symbol via conventional Perl syntax.
688The access triggers Perl to autovivify that typeglob, but it there is
689no legal conversion from that type of reference to a typeglob.
5c1f4d79 690
4040665a 691=item Cannot copy to %s
ba2fdce6
NC
692
693(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy a value to an internal type that cannot
4dcecea4 694be directly assigned to.
ba2fdce6 695
b5d97229
RGS
696=item Cannot find encoding "%s"
697
698(S io) You tried to apply an encoding that did not exist to a filehandle,
699either with open() or binmode().
700
714f94d1
FC
701=item Cannot open %s as a dirhandle: it is already open as a filehandle
702
703(F) You tried to use opendir() to associate a dirhandle to a symbol (glob
704or scalar) that already holds a filehandle. Since this idiom might render
705your code confusing, it was deprecated in Perl 5.10. As of Perl 5.28, it
706is a fatal error.
707
708=item Cannot open %s as a filehandle: it is already open as a dirhandle
709
710(F) You tried to use open() to associate a filehandle to a symbol (glob
711or scalar) that already holds a dirhandle. Since this idiom might render
712your code confusing, it was deprecated in Perl 5.10. As of Perl 5.28, it
713is a fatal error.
714
0c7df902
JH
715=item Cannot pack %f with '%c'
716
5dee29d4 717(F) You tried converting an infinity or not-a-number to an integer,
0c7df902
JH
718which makes no sense.
719
720=item Cannot printf %f with '%c'
721
722(F) You tried printing an infinity or not-a-number as a character (%c),
723which makes no sense. Maybe you meant '%s', or just stringifying it?
724
7355df7e
FC
725=item Cannot set tied @DB::args
726
727(F) C<caller> tried to set C<@DB::args>, but found it tied. Tying C<@DB::args>
728is not supported. (Before this error was added, it used to crash.)
729
ce65bc73
FC
730=item Cannot tie unreifiable array
731
732(P) You somehow managed to call C<tie> on an array that does not
733keep a reference count on its arguments and cannot be made to
734do so. Such arrays are not even supposed to be accessible to
735Perl code, but are only used internally.
736
46e58bd2
AC
737=item Cannot yet reorder sv_catpvfn() arguments from va_list
738
739(F) Some XS code tried to use C<sv_catpvfn()> or a related function with a
740format string that specifies explicit indexes for some of the elements, and
d4e5761f
FC
741using a C-style variable-argument list (a C<va_list>). This is not currently
742supported. XS authors wanting to do this must instead construct a C array
743of C<SV*> scalars containing the arguments.
46e58bd2 744
96ebfdd7
RK
745=item Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
746
747(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
748integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
749to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
750
a0d0e21e
LW
751=item Can't bless non-reference value
752
753(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
754encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
755
7896dde7
Z
756=item Can't "break" in a loop topicalizer
757
758(F) You called C<break>, but you're in a C<foreach> block rather than
759a C<given> block. You probably meant to use C<next> or C<last>.
760
761=item Can't "break" outside a given block
762
763(F) You called C<break>, but you're not inside a C<given> block.
764
6df41af2
GS
765=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
766
767(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
768object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
769like this will reproduce the error:
6df41af2
GS
770
771 $BADREF = undef;
772 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
773 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
774
a0d0e21e
LW
775=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
776
54310121 777(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
be771a83
GS
778ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
779didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
780object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
781
782=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
783
784(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
785object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
786defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
72b5445b
GS
787Something like this will reproduce the error:
788
789 $BADREF = 42;
790 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
791 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
792
dfe378f1
FC
793=item Can't call mro_isa_changed_in() on anonymous symbol table
794
795(P) Perl got confused as to whether a hash was a plain hash or a
796symbol table hash when trying to update @ISA caches.
797
2bf7e7b2
FC
798=item Can't call mro_method_changed_in() on anonymous symbol table
799
800(F) An XS module tried to call C<mro_method_changed_in> on a hash that was
801not attached to the symbol table.
802
a0d0e21e
LW
803=item Can't chdir to %s
804
f703fc96 805(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but F</foo/bar> is not a directory
a0d0e21e
LW
806that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
807
0545a864 808=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
104d25b7 809
be771a83
GS
810(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
811nosuid.
104d25b7 812
22e74366 813=item Can't coerce %s to %s in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
814
815(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 816(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
a0d0e21e
LW
817say things like:
818
819 *foo += 1;
820
821You CAN say
822
823 $foo = *foo;
824 $foo += 1;
825
826but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
827
7896dde7 828=item Can't "continue" outside a when block
dc57907a 829
7896dde7
Z
830(F) You called C<continue>, but you're not inside a C<when>
831or C<default> block.
0d863452 832
a0d0e21e
LW
833=item Can't create pipe mailbox
834
be771a83
GS
835(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
836quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 837
eb64745e
GS
838=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
839
30c282f6
NC
840(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my", "our" or
841"state" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 842
7896dde7
Z
843=item Can't "default" outside a topicalizer
844
845(F) You have used a C<default> block that is neither inside a
846C<foreach> loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is
847issued on exit from the C<default> block, so you won't get the
848error if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
849
1e85b658
DM
850=item Can't determine class of operator %s, assuming BASEOP
851
852(S) This warning indicates something wrong in the internals of perl.
853Perl was trying to find the class (e.g. LISTOP) of a particular OP,
854and was unable to do so. This is likely to be due to a bug in the perl
855internals, or due to a bug in XS code which manipulates perl optrees.
856
a2162cd9
FC
857=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
858
859(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
860a file in /dev, a FIFO or an uneditable directory. The file was ignored.
861
862=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
863
864(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
865reason.
866
867=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
868
869(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
870reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
871C<-i.bak>, or some such.
872
873=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
874
875(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
876characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
877inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
878
ab0b796c
KW
879=item Can't do %s("%s") on non-UTF-8 locale; resolved to "%s".
880
881(W locale) You are 1) running under "C<use locale>"; 2) the current
882locale is not a UTF-8 one; 3) you tried to do the designated case-change
883operation on the specified Unicode character; and 4) the result of this
884operation would mix Unicode and locale rules, which likely conflict.
885Mixing of different rule types is forbidden, so the operation was not
886done; instead the result is the indicated value, which is the best
887available that uses entirely Unicode rules. That turns out to almost
888always be the original character, unchanged.
889
890It is generally a bad idea to mix non-UTF-8 locales and Unicode, and
891this issue is one of the reasons why. This warning is raised when
892Unicode rules would normally cause the result of this operation to
893contain a character that is in the range specified by the locale,
8940..255, and hence is subject to the locale's rules, not Unicode's.
895
896If you are using locale purely for its characteristics related to things
897like its numeric and time formatting (and not C<LC_CTYPE>), consider
898using a restricted form of the locale pragma (see L<perllocale/The "use
899locale" pragma>) like "S<C<use locale ':not_characters'>>".
900
901Note that failed case-changing operations done as a result of
902case-insensitive C</i> regular expression matching will show up in this
903warning as having the C<fc> operation (as that is what the regular
904expression engine calls behind the scenes.)
905
a0d0e21e
LW
906=item Can't do waitpid with flags
907
be771a83
GS
908(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
909waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 910
a0d0e21e
LW
911=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
912
be771a83
GS
913(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
914point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
915line.
a0d0e21e 916
1109a392
MHM
917=item Can't %s %s-endian %ss on this platform
918
919(F) Your platform's byte-order is neither big-endian nor little-endian,
920or it has a very strange pointer size. Packing and unpacking big- or
921little-endian floating point values and pointers may not be possible.
922See L<perlfunc/pack>.
923
a0d0e21e
LW
924=item Can't exec "%s": %s
925
d1be9408 926(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
927named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
928permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
929C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
930architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
931can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
932#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
933
934=item Can't exec %s
935
be771a83
GS
936(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
937that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
938need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
939
940=item Can't execute %s
941
be771a83
GS
942(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
943found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 944
6df41af2 945=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 946
be771a83
GS
947(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
948is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2
GS
949
950=item Can't find label %s
951
be771a83
GS
952(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
953possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
954
955=item Can't find %s on PATH
956
be771a83
GS
957(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
958found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 959
6df41af2 960=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 961
be771a83
GS
962(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
963found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
964script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e
LW
965
966=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
967
be771a83
GS
968(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
969that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
970nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 971
fb73857a 972 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
973
97b3d10f 974If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have
b6b8cb97
FC
975included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag or there
976may not be a linebreak after it. A good programmer's editor will have
977a way to help you find these characters (or lack of characters). See
978L<perlop> for the full details on here-documents.
a0d0e21e 979
660a4616
TS
980=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s"
981
29f52644
KW
982=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
983
984(F) The named property which you specified via C<\p> or C<\P> is not one
985known to Perl. Perhaps you misspelled the name? See
e1b711da 986L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
29f52644
KW
987for a complete list of available official
988properties. If it is a
989L<user-defined property|perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties>
990it must have been defined by the time the regular expression is
991matched.
992
993If you didn't mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either
994by C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, or
5f8ad6b6 995until C<\E>).
660a4616 996
b3647a36 997=item Can't fork: %s
a0d0e21e 998
be771a83
GS
999(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
1000pipeline.
a0d0e21e 1001
b3647a36
SR
1002=item Can't fork, trying again in 5 seconds
1003
c973c02e 1004(W pipe) A fork in a piped open failed with EAGAIN and will be retried
b3647a36
SR
1005after five seconds.
1006
748a9306
LW
1007=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
1008
be771a83
GS
1009(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
1010between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
1011Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
1012the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
1013account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
1014the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
2fe2bdfd 1015the access-checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
be771a83
GS
1016the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
1017if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
1018because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
2fe2bdfd
FC
1019appears, the name lookup failed, and the access-checking routine gave up
1020and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access-checking
be771a83
GS
1021routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
1022shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
1023only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 1024
a0d0e21e
LW
1025=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
1026
be771a83
GS
1027(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
1028pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
1029
1030=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
1031
748a9306
LW
1032(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
1033mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 1034
6d90e983
FC
1035=item Can't "goto" into a binary or list expression
1036
1037(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a binary
1038or list expression. You can't get there from here. The reason for this
1039restriction is that the interpreter would get confused as to how many
1040arguments there are, resulting in stack corruption or crashes. This
1041error occurs in cases such as these:
1042
1043 goto F;
1044 print do { F: }; # Can't jump into the arguments to print
1045
1046 goto G;
1047 $x + do { G: $y }; # How is + supposed to get its first operand?
1048
a01f4640
FC
1049=item Can't "goto" into a "given" block
1050
1051(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a C<given>
1052block. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1053
6df41af2 1054=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 1055
be771a83
GS
1056(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
1057loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
1058
1059=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
1060
be771a83
GS
1061(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
1062a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
1063you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
1064See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 1065
5a25739d
FC
1066=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-%s
1067
1068(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
1069"string" or block.
1070
9850bf21 1071=item Can't goto subroutine from a sort sub (or similar callback)
cd299c6e 1072
9850bf21
RH
1073(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of the
1074comparison sub for a sort(), or from a similar callback (such
1075as the reduce() function in List::Util).
1076
6df41af2
GS
1077=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
1078
be771a83
GS
1079(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
1080subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
1081cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
1082routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 1083
0b5b802d
GS
1084=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
1085
be771a83
GS
1086(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
1087signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
1088signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
1089processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
1090situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
1091may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 1092
e2c0f81f
DG
1093=item Can't kill a non-numeric process ID
1094
1095(F) Process identifiers must be (signed) integers. It is a fatal error to
1096attempt to kill() an undefined, empty-string or otherwise non-numeric
1097process identifier.
1098
6df41af2 1099=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 1100
6df41af2 1101(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
1102except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
1103block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
1104block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
1105usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
1106inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
1107L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 1108
2c7d6b9c
RGS
1109=item Can't linearize anonymous symbol table
1110
1111(F) Perl tried to calculate the method resolution order (MRO) of a
1112package, but failed because the package stash has no name.
1113
b8170e59
JB
1114=item Can't load '%s' for module %s
1115
6903afa2
FC
1116(F) The module you tried to load failed to load a dynamic extension.
1117This may either mean that you upgraded your version of perl to one
1118that is incompatible with your old dynamic extensions (which is known
1119to happen between major versions of perl), or (more likely) that your
1120dynamic extension was built against an older version of the library
1121that is installed on your system. You may need to rebuild your old
1122dynamic extensions.
b8170e59 1123
748a9306
LW
1124=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
1125
2ba9eb46 1126(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
b7e4ecc1
FC
1127lexical variable using "my" or "state". This is not allowed. If you
1128want to localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with
1129the package name.
748a9306 1130
6df41af2 1131=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 1132
6df41af2
GS
1133(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
1134handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 1135pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 1136that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 1137
ea071790 1138=item Can't locate %s
ec889f3a 1139
fa816bf3
FC
1140(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be found.
1141Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC, unless
1142the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you need
1143to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where the
1144extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
be771a83
GS
1145to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
1146L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 1147
6df41af2
GS
1148=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
1149
be771a83
GS
1150(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
1151autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
1152are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
1153the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 1154
b8170e59
JB
1155=item Can't locate loadable object for module %s in @INC
1156
1157(F) The module you loaded is trying to load an external library, like
d70d8e57 1158for example, F<foo.so> or F<bar.dll>, but the L<DynaLoader> module was
b8170e59
JB
1159unable to locate this library. See L<DynaLoader>.
1160
a0d0e21e
LW
1161=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
1162
1163(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
1164functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 1165method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e 1166
8af56b9d
FC
1167=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s" (perhaps you forgot
1168to load "%s"?)
1169
1170(F) You called a method on a class that did not exist, and the method
1171could not be found in UNIVERSAL. This often means that a method
1172requires a package that has not been loaded.
1173
a0d0e21e
LW
1174=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
1175
be771a83
GS
1176(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
1177doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 1178
2f7da168
RK
1179=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
1180
1181(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
1182e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
1183
f4ad53f4 1184=item Can't make list assignment to %ENV on this system
3e3baf6d 1185
be771a83
GS
1186(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
1187VMS.
3e3baf6d 1188
cd40cd58
NC
1189=item Can't make loaded symbols global on this platform while loading %s
1190
ff9c1ae8 1191(S) A module passed the flag 0x01 to DynaLoader::dl_load_file() to request
cd40cd58
NC
1192that symbols from the stated file are made available globally within the
1193process, but that functionality is not available on this platform. Whilst
1194the module likely will still work, this may prevent the perl interpreter
1195from loading other XS-based extensions which need to link directly to
1196functions defined in the C or XS code in the stated file.
1197
a0d0e21e
LW
1198=item Can't modify %s in %s
1199
be771a83
GS
1200(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
1201to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 1202
54310121 1203=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
a0d0e21e
LW
1204
1205(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
1206a NULL.
1207
0f948285 1208=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call of &%s
6df41af2 1209
8d9d0498
FC
1210=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call of &%s in %s
1211
6df41af2 1212(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
2fe2bdfd 1213such. See L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
6df41af2 1214
cf6e1fa1
FC
1215=item Can't modify reference to %s in %s assignment
1216
1217(F) Only a limited number of constructs can be used as the argument to a
1218reference constructor on the left-hand side of an assignment, and what
1219you used was not one of them. See L<perlref/Assigning to References>.
1220
1221=item Can't modify reference to localized parenthesized array in list
1222assignment
1223
1224(F) Assigning to C<\local(@array)> or C<\(local @array)> is not supported, as
1225it is not clear exactly what it should do. If you meant to make @array
1226refer to some other array, use C<\@array = \@other_array>. If you want to
1227make the elements of @array aliases of the scalars referenced on the
1228right-hand side, use C<\(@array) = @scalar_refs>.
1229
1230=item Can't modify reference to parenthesized hash in list assignment
1231
1232(F) Assigning to C<\(%hash)> is not supported. If you meant to make %hash
1233refer to some other hash, use C<\%hash = \%other_hash>. If you want to
1234make the elements of %hash into aliases of the scalars referenced on the
1235right-hand side, use a hash slice: C<\@hash{@keys} = @those_scalar_refs>.
1236
5f05dabc 1237=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 1238
5f05dabc 1239(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
1240buffer.
1241
6df41af2
GS
1242=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
1243
1244(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
1245there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
1246count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
1247grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1248though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
1249once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 1250
a0d0e21e
LW
1251=item Can't open %s: %s
1252
c47ff5f1 1253(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e 1254filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
46fa9b26
FC
1255switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually
1256this is because you don't have read permission for a file which
1257you named on the command line.
1258
1259(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-e> switch, but F</dev/null> (or
1260your operating system's equivalent) could not be opened.
a0d0e21e 1261
9a869a14
RGS
1262=item Can't open a reference
1263
1264(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
2fe2bdfd 1265using the 3-arg open() syntax:
9a869a14
RGS
1266
1267 open FH, '>', $ref;
1268
1269but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
1270open is not supported.
1271
a0d0e21e
LW
1272=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
1273
be771a83
GS
1274(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
1275You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
1276as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
1277">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 1278
748a9306
LW
1279=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
1280
be771a83
GS
1281(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1282redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
1283the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1284
1285=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
1286
be771a83
GS
1287(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1288redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
1289command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
1290
1291=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
1292
be771a83
GS
1293(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1294redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
1295the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1296
1297=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
1298
be771a83
GS
1299(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1300redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
1301for stdout.
748a9306 1302
3b1cf97d 1303=item Can't open perl script "%s": %s
a0d0e21e
LW
1304
1305(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
1306
fa3aa65a
JC
1307If you're debugging a script that uses #!, and normally relies on the
1308shell's $PATH search, the -S option causes perl to do that search, so
1309you don't have to type the path or C<`which $scriptname`>.
1310
6df41af2
GS
1311=item Can't read CRTL environ
1312
1313(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
1314from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
1315missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
1316or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
1317searched.
6df41af2 1318
f3106bc8
LM
1319=item Can't redeclare "%s" in "%s"
1320
1321(F) A "my", "our" or "state" declaration was found within another declaration,
1322such as C<my ($x, my($y), $z)> or C<our (my $x)>.
1323
6df41af2
GS
1324=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
1325
1326(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
1327there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
1328count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
1329or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1330though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
1331loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
1332
64977eb6 1333=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 1334
be771a83
GS
1335(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
1336file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
1337the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 1338
e0d4aead
TC
1339=item Can't rename in-place work file '%s' to '%s': %s
1340
1341(F) When closed implicitly, the temporary file for in-place editing
1342couldn't be renamed to the original filename.
1343
ecc6274e
FC
1344=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
1345
1346(F) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
1347probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
1348
748a9306
LW
1349=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
1350
be771a83
GS
1351(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
1352to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 1353
9415f659
KW
1354=item Can't represent character for Ox%X on this platform
1355
1356(F) There is a hard limit to how big a character code point can be due
1357to the fundamental properties of UTF-8, especially on EBCDIC
1358platforms. The given code point exceeds that. The only work-around is
1359to not use such a large code point.
1360
4f12ec0e
FC
1361=item Can't reset %ENV on this system
1362
1363(F) You called C<reset('E')> or similar, which tried to reset
1364all variables in the current package beginning with "E". In
1365the main package, that includes %ENV. Resetting %ENV is not
1366supported on some systems, notably VMS.
1367
fe13d51d 1368=item Can't resolve method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
6df41af2 1369
1fa582fa
FC
1370(F)(P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as
1371opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the
1372package. If the method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 1373
cd06dffe
GS
1374=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
1375
be771a83
GS
1376(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
1377temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
1378is not allowed.
cd06dffe 1379
96ebfdd7
RK
1380=item Can't return outside a subroutine
1381
1382(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1383there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1384
78f9721b
SM
1385=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
1386
6903afa2
FC
1387(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue
1388subroutine, but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl
1389think you meant to return only one value. You probably meant to
1390write parentheses around the call to the subroutine, which tell
1391Perl that the call should be in list context.
78f9721b 1392
a0d0e21e
LW
1393=item Can't stat script "%s"
1394
be771a83
GS
1395(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1396open already. Bizarre.
a0d0e21e 1397
a0d0e21e
LW
1398=item Can't take log of %g
1399
fb73857a 1400(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
6903afa2 1401negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
1402standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1403negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
1404
1405=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1406
1407(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 1408negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1409with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
1410
1411=item Can't undef active subroutine
1412
1413(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1414however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1415redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1416
ecc6274e
FC
1417=item Can't unweaken a nonreference
1418
1419(F) You attempted to unweaken something that was not a reference. Only
1420references can be unweakened.
1421
c81225bc 1422=item Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d
a0d0e21e 1423
be771a83
GS
1424(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1425into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1426specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1427indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e 1428
6651ba0b
FC
1429=item Can't use '%c' after -mname
1430
1431(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-m> switch, but you put something
1432other than "=" after the module name.
1433
1f1ec7b5
KW
1434=item Can't use a hash as a reference
1435
1436(F) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
66a1f5ec
FC
1437C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl
1438<= 5.22.0 used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't
1439have. This was deprecated in perl 5.6.1.
1f1ec7b5
KW
1440
1441=item Can't use an array as a reference
1442
1443(F) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
66a1f5ec
FC
1444C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.22.0
1445used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. This
1446was deprecated in perl 5.6.1.
1f1ec7b5 1447
1db89ea5
BS
1448=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1449
e27ad1f2 1450(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1db89ea5
BS
1451table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1452for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1453
96ebfdd7
RK
1454=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1455
1456(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1457be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1458
6df41af2
GS
1459=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1460
be771a83
GS
1461(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1462references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1463
90b75b61 1464=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63 1465
20561843 1466(F) The first time the C<%!> hash is used, perl automatically loads the
6903afa2 1467Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1d2dff63
GS
1468provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1469
1109a392
MHM
1470=item Can't use both '<' and '>' after type '%c' in %s
1471
1472(F) A type cannot be forced to have both big-endian and little-endian
1473byte-order at the same time, so this combination of modifiers is not
1474allowed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1475
e35475de
KW
1476=item Can't use 'defined(@array)' (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?)
1477
1478(F) defined() is not useful on arrays because it
1479checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
1480array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
1481
1482=item Can't use 'defined(%hash)' (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?)
1483
1484(F) C<defined()> is not usually right on hashes.
1485
1486Although C<defined %hash> is false on a plain not-yet-used hash, it
1487becomes true in several non-obvious circumstances, including iterators,
1488weak references, stash names, even remaining true after C<undef %hash>.
1489These things make C<defined %hash> fairly useless in practice, so it now
1490generates a fatal error.
1491
1492If a check for non-empty is what you wanted then just put it in boolean
1493context (see L<perldata/Scalar values>):
1494
1495 if (%hash) {
1496 # not empty
1497 }
1498
1499If you had C<defined %Foo::Bar::QUUX> to check whether such a package
1500variable exists then that's never really been reliable, and isn't
1501a good way to enquire about the features of a package, or whether
1502it's loaded, etc.
1503
6df41af2
GS
1504=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1505
c1f06047 1506(P) The parser got confused when trying to parse a C<foreach> loop.
6df41af2 1507
aab6a793 1508=item Can't use global %s in "%s"
6df41af2 1509
be771a83
GS
1510(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1511is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1512(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1513have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1514weren't.
1515
6d3b25aa
RGS
1516=item Can't use '%c' in a group with different byte-order in %s
1517
1518(F) You attempted to force a different byte-order on a type
1519that is already inside a group with a byte-order modifier.
1520For example you cannot force little-endianness on a type that
1521is inside a big-endian group.
1522
c07a80fd 1523=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1524
1525(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1526You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1527and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1528Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1529lexical variable.
1530
a0d0e21e
LW
1531=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1532
1533(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1534reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1535test the type of the reference, if need be.
1536
748a9306 1537=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1538
5e634d20
FC
1539=item Can't use string ("%s"...) as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1540
b41bf23f
FC
1541(F) You've told Perl to dereference a string, something which
1542C<use strict> blocks to prevent it happening accidentally. See
1543L<perlref/"Symbolic references">. This can be triggered by an C<@> or C<$>
1544in a double-quoted string immediately before interpolating a variable,
1545for example in C<"user @$twitter_id">, which says to treat the contents
1546of C<$twitter_id> as an array reference; use a C<\> to have a literal C<@>
1547symbol followed by the contents of C<$twitter_id>: C<"user \@$twitter_id">.
a0d0e21e 1548
748a9306
LW
1549=item Can't use subscript on %s
1550
1551(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1552subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
209e7cf1 1553didn't look like a hash or array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
748a9306 1554
6df41af2
GS
1555=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1556
75b44862
GS
1557(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1558creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1559backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1560expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1561value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1562instead.
6df41af2 1563
810b8aa5
GS
1564=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1565
1566(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1567references can be weakened.
1568
7896dde7
Z
1569=item Can't "when" outside a topicalizer
1570
1571(F) You have used a when() block that is neither inside a C<foreach>
1572loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is issued on exit
1573from the C<when> block, so you won't get the error if the match fails,
1574or if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
1575
5f05dabc 1576=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1577
be771a83
GS
1578(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1579with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1580Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1581
a04e6aad 1582=item Character following "\c" must be printable ASCII
f9d13529 1583
7357bd17 1584(F) In C<\cI<X>>, I<X> must be a printable (non-control) ASCII character.
17a3df4c 1585
727b6379 1586Note that ASCII characters that don't map to control characters are
7357bd17 1587discouraged, and will generate the warning (when enabled)
d4360efa 1588L</""\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"">.
f9d13529 1589
163a633c
KW
1590=item Character following \%c must be '{' or a single-character Unicode property name in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1591
1592(F) (In the above the C<%c> is replaced by either C<p> or C<P>.) You
1593specified something that isn't a legal Unicode property name. Most
1594Unicode properties are specified by C<\p{...}>. But if the name is a
1595single character one, the braces may be omitted.
1596
f337b084 1597=item Character in 'C' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1598
1599(W pack) You said
1600
1601 pack("C", $x)
1602
1603where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1604only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1605and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1606
1607 pack("C", $x & 255)
1608
1609If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1610instead.
1611
f337b084 1612=item Character in 'c' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1613
1614(W pack) You said
1615
1616 pack("c", $x)
1617
1618where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1619is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1620and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1621
1622 pack("c", $x & 255);
1623
1624If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1625instead.
1626
f337b084
TH
1627=item Character in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1628
1629(W unpack) You tried something like
1630
1631 unpack("H", "\x{2a1}")
1632
1a147d38 1633where the format expects to process a byte (a character with a value
6903afa2
FC
1634below 256), but a higher value was provided instead. Perl uses the
1635value modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
f337b084
TH
1636
1637 unpack("H", "\x{a1}")
1638
5a25739d
FC
1639=item Character in 'W' format wrapped in pack
1640
1641(W pack) You said
1642
1643 pack("U0W", $x)
1644
1645where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255. However, C<U0>-mode
1646expects all values to fall in the interval [0, 255], so Perl behaved
1647as if you meant:
1648
1649 pack("U0W", $x & 255)
1650
f337b084
TH
1651=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in pack
1652
1653(W pack) You tried something like
1654
1655 pack("u", "\x{1f3}b")
1656
1a147d38 1657where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1658value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1659uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1660
1661 pack("u", "\x{f3}b")
1662
1663=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1664
1665(W unpack) You tried something like
1666
1667 unpack("s", "\x{1f3}b")
1668
1a147d38 1669where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1670value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1671uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1672
1673 unpack("s", "\x{f3}b")
1674
8d9d0498
FC
1675=item charnames alias definitions may not contain a sequence of multiple
1676spaces; marked by S<<-- HERE> in %s
f51551f7
FC
1677
1678(F) You defined a character name which had multiple space characters
1679in a row. Change them to single spaces. Usually these names are
1680defined in the C<:alias> import argument to C<use charnames>, but they
1681could be defined by a translator installed into C<$^H{charnames}>. See
1682L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
1683
8d9d0498
FC
1684=item charnames alias definitions may not contain trailing white-space;
1685marked by S<<-- HERE> in %s
f51551f7
FC
1686
1687(F) You defined a character name which ended in a space
1688character. Remove the trailing space(s). Usually these names are
1689defined in the C<:alias> import argument to C<use charnames>, but they
1690could be defined by a translator installed into C<$^H{charnames}>.
1691See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
1692
60121127
TC
1693=item chdir() on unopened filehandle %s
1694
1695(W unopened) You tried chdir() on a filehandle that was never opened.
1696
d4360efa 1697=item "\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"
f866a7cd 1698
d4360efa
S
1699(W syntax) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a way to specify
1700non-printable characters. You used it for a printable one, which
1701is better written as simply itself, perhaps preceded by a backslash
1702for non-word characters. Doing it the way you did is not portable
1703between ASCII and EBCDIC platforms.
f866a7cd 1704
6651ba0b
FC
1705=item Cloning substitution context is unimplemented
1706
1707(F) Creating a new thread inside the C<s///> operator is not supported.
1708
abc7ecad
SP
1709=item closedir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
1710
1711(W io) The dirhandle you tried to close is either closed or not really
1712a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
1713
5a25739d
FC
1714=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1715
1716(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1717
541ed3a9
FC
1718=item Closure prototype called
1719
1720(F) If a closure has attributes, the subroutine passed to an attribute
1721handler is the prototype that is cloned when a new closure is created.
1722This subroutine cannot be called.
1723
74d1b2e4
FC
1724=item \C no longer supported in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1725
1726(F) The \C character class used to allow a match of single byte
1727within a multi-byte utf-8 character, but was removed in v5.24 as
1728it broke encapsulation and its implementation was extremely buggy.
1729If you really need to process the individual bytes, you probably
1730want to convert your string to one where each underlying byte is
1731stored as a character, with utf8::encode().
1732
49704364
WL
1733=item Code missing after '/'
1734
6903afa2
FC
1735(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be
1736another template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 1737
c0236afe
KW
1738=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, and not portable
1739
1740(S non_unicode) You had a code point that has never been in any
1741standard, so it is likely that languages other than Perl will NOT
1742understand it. At one time, it was legal in some standards to have code
1743points up to 0x7FFF_FFFF, but not higher, and this code point is higher.
1744
1745Acceptance of these code points is a Perl extension, and you should
1746expect that nothing other than Perl can handle them; Perl itself on
1747EBCDIC platforms before v5.24 does not handle them.
1748
1749Code points above 0xFFFF_FFFF require larger than a 32 bit word.
1750
1751Perl also makes no guarantees that the representation of these code
1752points won't change at some point in the future, say when machines
1753become available that have larger than a 64-bit word. At that time,
1754files written by an older Perl would require conversion before being
1755readable by a newer Perl.
1756
5a25739d
FC
1757=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, may not be portable
1758
2d88a86a 1759(S non_unicode) You had a code point above the Unicode maximum
1b64326b
FC
1760of U+10FFFF.
1761
c0236afe
KW
1762Perl allows strings to contain a superset of Unicode code points, but
1763these may not be accepted by other languages/systems. Further, even if
1764these languages/systems accept these large code points, they may have
1765chosen a different representation for them than the UTF-8-like one that
1766Perl has, which would mean files are not exchangeable between them and
1767Perl.
1768
1769On EBCDIC platforms, code points above 0x3FFF_FFFF have a different
1770representation in Perl v5.24 than before, so any file containing these
1771that was written before that version will require conversion before
1772being readable by a later Perl.
0876b9a0 1773
6df41af2
GS
1774=item %s: Command not found
1775
a892b81a 1776(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> or another shell
66a1f5ec
FC
1777instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1778Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
8f721816 1779
3bcfc7b3
LM
1780 #!/usr/bin/perl
1781
1782=item %s: command not found
1783
1784(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<bash> or another shell
1785instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1786Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
1787
1788 #!/usr/bin/perl
1789
1790=item %s: command not found: %s
1791
1792(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<zsh> or another shell
1793instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1794Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
1795
1796 #!/usr/bin/perl
6df41af2 1797
7a2e2cd6 1798=item Compilation failed in require
1799
1800(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1801Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1802encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1803
c3464db5
DD
1804=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1805
be771a83
GS
1806(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1807situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1808to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1809arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1810recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1811under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1812in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1813that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1814on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1815
69282e91 1816=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1817
be771a83
GS
1818(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1819to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1820L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1821
e21e7c6a
FC
1822=item Constant(%s): Call to &{$^H{%s}} did not return a defined value
1823
1824(F) The subroutine registered to handle constant overloading
1825(see L<overload>) or a custom charnames handler (see
1826L<charnames/CUSTOM TRANSLATORS>) returned an undefined value.
1827
1828=item Constant(%s): $^H{%s} is not defined
1829
1830(F) The parser found inconsistencies while attempting to define an
1831overloaded constant. Perhaps you forgot to load the corresponding
f738a371 1832L<overload> pragma?
e21e7c6a 1833
779c5bc9
GS
1834=item Constant is not %s reference
1835
1836(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83 1837is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
6903afa2 1838The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
be771a83 1839usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1840See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1841
0ac016fc 1842=item Constants from lexical variables potentially modified elsewhere are
9840d1d6 1843deprecated. This will not be allowed in Perl 5.32
0ac016fc
FC
1844
1845(D deprecated) You wrote something like
1846
1847 my $var;
1848 $sub = sub () { $var };
1849
1850but $var is referenced elsewhere and could be modified after the C<sub>
1851expression is evaluated. Either it is explicitly modified elsewhere
1852(C<$var = 3>) or it is passed to a subroutine or to an operator like
1853C<printf> or C<map>, which may or may not modify the variable.
1854
1855Traditionally, Perl has captured the value of the variable at that
1856point and turned the subroutine into a constant eligible for inlining.
1857In those cases where the variable can be modified elsewhere, this
1858breaks the behavior of closures, in which the subroutine captures
1859the variable itself, rather than its value, so future changes to the
1860variable are reflected in the subroutine's return value.
1861
9840d1d6
A
1862This usage is deprecated, and will no longer be allowed in Perl 5.32,
1863making it possible to change the behavior in the future.
0ac016fc
FC
1864
1865If you intended for the subroutine to be eligible for inlining, then
1866make sure the variable is not referenced elsewhere, possibly by
1867copying it:
1868
1869 my $var2 = $var;
1870 $sub = sub () { $var2 };
1871
1872If you do want this subroutine to be a closure that reflects future
1873changes to the variable that it closes over, add an explicit C<return>:
1874
1875 my $var;
1876 $sub = sub () { return $var };
1877
4cee8e80
CS
1878=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1879
aeb94125
FC
1880(W redefine)(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously
1881been eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions">
1882for commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1883
9607fc9c 1884=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1885
be771a83
GS
1886(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1887for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1888workarounds.
9607fc9c 1889
5a25739d
FC
1890=item Constant(%s) unknown
1891
1892(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting
1893to define an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the
1894character name specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you
3ee1a09c 1895forgot to load the corresponding L<overload> pragma?
5a25739d 1896
4a873d7a
FC
1897=item :const is experimental
1898
1899(S experimental::const_attr) The "const" attribute is experimental.
1900If you want to use the feature, disable the warning with C<no warnings
1901'experimental::const_attr'>, but know that in doing so you are taking
1902the risk that your code may break in a future Perl version.
1903
b77472f9
FC
1904=item :const is not permitted on named subroutines
1905
1906(F) The "const" attribute causes an anonymous subroutine to be run and
465068b9 1907its value captured at the time that it is cloned. Named subroutines are
b77472f9
FC
1908not cloned like this, so the attribute does not make sense on them.
1909
e7ea3e70
IZ
1910=item Copy method did not return a reference
1911
6903afa2 1912(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1913L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1914
4aaa4757
FC
1915=item &CORE::%s cannot be called directly
1916
1917(F) You tried to call a subroutine in the C<CORE::> namespace
8d605c0d 1918with C<&foo> syntax or through a reference. Some subroutines
4aaa4757
FC
1919in this package cannot yet be called that way, but must be
1920called as barewords. Something like this will work:
1921
1922 BEGIN { *shove = \&CORE::push; }
1923 shove @array, 1,2,3; # pushes on to @array
1924
6798c92b
GS
1925=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1926
1927(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1928
675fa9ff
FC
1929=item Corrupted regexp opcode %d > %d
1930
1931(P) This is either an error in Perl, or, if you're using
1932one, your L<custom regular expression engine|perlreapi>. If not the
1933latter, report the problem through the L<perlbug> utility.
1934
a0d0e21e
LW
1935=item corrupted regexp pointers
1936
1937(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1938expression compiler gave it.
1939
1940=item corrupted regexp program
1941
be771a83
GS
1942(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1943valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1944
de42a5a9 1945=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%x at 0x%x
6df41af2
GS
1946
1947(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1948
49704364
WL
1949=item Count after length/code in unpack
1950
1951(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1952you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1953L<perlfunc/pack>.
1954
3f645a4e
FC
1955=item Declaring references is experimental
1956
1957(S experimental::declared_refs) This warning is emitted if you use
1958a reference constructor on the right-hand side of C<my>, C<state>, C<our>, or
1959C<local>. Simply suppress the warning if you want to use the feature, but
1960know that in doing so you are taking the risk of using an experimental
1961feature which may change or be removed in a future Perl version:
1962
1963 no warnings "experimental::declared_refs";
1964 use feature "declared_refs";
1965 $fooref = my \$foo;
1966
f2cccb4c
KW
1967=for comment
1968The following are used in lib/diagnostics.t for testing two =items that
1969share the same description. Changes here need to be propagated to there
1970
6651ba0b
FC
1971=item Deep recursion on anonymous subroutine
1972
a0d0e21e
LW
1973=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1974
be771a83
GS
1975(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1976100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1977infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1978which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1979
aad1d01f
NC
1980This threshold can be changed from 100, by recompiling the F<perl> binary,
1981setting the C pre-processor macro C<PERL_SUB_DEPTH_WARN> to the desired value.
1982
e0e4a6e3
FC
1983=item (?(DEFINE)....) does not allow branches in regex; marked by
1984S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
bcb95744 1985
6903afa2 1986(F) You used something like C<(?(DEFINE)...|..)> which is illegal. The
bcb95744
FC
1987most likely cause of this error is that you left out a parenthesis inside
1988of the C<....> part.
1989
6e8a73f2 1990The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
bcb95744
FC
1991discovered.
1992
62658f4d
PM
1993=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1994
1995(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1996there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1997
0ffcbc25
FC
1998=item delete argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
1999
4a0af295 2000(F) The argument to C<delete> must be either a hash or array element,
0ffcbc25
FC
2001such as:
2002
2003 $foo{$bar}
2004 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
2005
2006or a hash or array slice, such as:
2007
2008 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
2009 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
2010
cc0776d6
DIM
2011or a hash key/value or array index/value slice, such as:
2012
2013 %foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
2014 %{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
2015
fc36a67e 2016=item Delimiter for here document is too long
2017
be771a83
GS
2018(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
2019long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
2020that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 2021
c437f7ac 2022=item Deprecated use of my() in false conditional. This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.30
6d3b25aa 2023
fa816bf3
FC
2024(D deprecated) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>. There
2025has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
6d3b25aa 2026not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
6903afa2 2027conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
fa816bf3 2028static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
6903afa2 2029relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
6d3b25aa 2030declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
36fb85f3 2031
6d3b25aa
RGS
2032 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
2033
2034becomes
2035
2036 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
2037
ea9d9ebc 2038Beginning with perl 5.10.0, you can also use C<state> variables to have
fa816bf3 2039lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
36fb85f3
RGS
2040
2041 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
2042
c437f7ac
A
2043This use of C<my()> in a false conditional has been deprecated since
2044Perl 5.10, and it will become a fatal error in Perl 5.30.
2045
500ab966
RGS
2046=item DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
2047
2048(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
6903afa2
FC
2049just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather
2050than to create a dangling reference.
500ab966 2051
3cdd684c
TP
2052=item Did not produce a valid header
2053
3de20fbe 2054See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 2055
6df41af2
GS
2056=item %s did not return a true value
2057
2058(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
2059it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
2060traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
2061do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
2062
cc507455 2063=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 2064
413ff9f6
FC
2065(W misc) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or
2066some such.
4633a7c4 2067
cc507455 2068=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 2069
52e3acf8 2070(W shadow) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
be771a83
GS
2071variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
2072seems superfluous.
33633739 2073
cc507455 2074=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 2075
be771a83
GS
2076(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
2077@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
2078carried away.
748a9306 2079
7e1af8bc 2080=item Died
5f05dabc 2081
2082(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
075b00aa 2083you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 2084
3cdd684c
TP
2085=item Document contains no data
2086
3de20fbe 2087See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 2088
62658f4d
PM
2089=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
2090
2091(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
943fc58e 2092define a C<$VERSION>.
62658f4d 2093
49704364
WL
2094=item '/' does not take a repeat count
2095
2096(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
2097See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2098
1c99110e 2099=item do "%s" failed, '.' is no longer in @INC; did you mean do "./%s"?
2a0461a3 2100
b28683c9 2101(D deprecated) Previously C< do "somefile"; > would search the current
1c99110e
DM
2102directory for the specified file. Since perl v5.26.0, F<.> has been
2103removed from C<@INC> by default, so this is no longer true. To search the
2104current directory (and only the current directory) you can write
2105C< do "./somefile"; >.
2a0461a3 2106
95cb0d72
FC
2107=item Don't know how to get file name
2108
2109(P) C<PerlIO_getname>, a perl internal I/O function specific to VMS, was
2110somehow called on another platform. This should not happen.
2111
4021c788 2112=item Don't know how to handle magic of type \%o
a0d0e21e
LW
2113
2114(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
2115
2116=item do_study: out of memory
2117
2118(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
2119
6df41af2
GS
2120=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
2121
56da5a46
RGS
2122(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2123"%s found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
6df41af2
GS
2124name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
2125because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
2126"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
2127something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
2128subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
2129"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 2130
d8ff3e95 2131=item dump() must be written as CORE::dump() as of Perl 5.30
ac206dc8 2132
d8ff3e95
JK
2133(F) You used the obsolete C<dump()> built-in function. That was deprecated in
2134Perl 5.8.0. As of Perl 5.30 it must be written in fully qualified format:
2135C<CORE::dump()>.
30b17cc1
A
2136
2137See L<perlfunc/dump>.
ac206dc8 2138
84d78eb7
YO
2139=item dump is not supported
2140
2141(F) Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.
2142
a0d0e21e
LW
2143=item Duplicate free() ignored
2144
be771a83
GS
2145(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
2146already been freed.
a0d0e21e 2147
1109a392
MHM
2148=item Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
2149
35f0cd76
FC
2150(W unpack) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a
2151type in a pack template. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1109a392 2152
4633a7c4
LW
2153=item elseif should be elsif
2154
fa816bf3
FC
2155(S syntax) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks
2156it's ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method
2157named "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
2158unlikely to be what you want.
2159
c30c479a
KW
2160=item Empty \%c in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2161
e0e4a6e3 2162=item Empty \%c{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 2163
af6f566e 2164(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
6903afa2 2165described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
af6f566e 2166a regular expression without specifying the property name.
ab13f0c7 2167
fd503f5c 2168=item ${^ENCODING} is no longer supported
a15a3d9b 2169
fd503f5c 2170(F) The special variable C<${^ENCODING}>, formerly used to implement
a15a3d9b
FC
2171the C<encoding> pragma, is no longer supported as of Perl 5.26.0.
2172
fd503f5c
DIM
2173Setting it to anything other than C<undef> is a fatal error as of Perl
21745.28.
ac641426 2175
85ab1d1d 2176=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 2177
85ab1d1d 2178(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
2179effective uids or gids failed.
2180
c038024b
RGS
2181=item %ENV is aliased to %s
2182
2183(F) You're running under taint mode, and the C<%ENV> variable has been
2184aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
6903afa2 2185program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
c038024b 2186
748a9306
LW
2187=item Error converting file specification %s
2188
5f05dabc 2189(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 2190specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
2191single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
2192an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
2193conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 2194
ad19ef22 2195=item Eval-group in insecure regular expression
e4d48cc9 2196
be771a83
GS
2197(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2198expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
2199is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 2200
ad19ef22 2201=item Eval-group not allowed at runtime, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
e4d48cc9 2202
be771a83
GS
2203(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
2204C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
f11307f5
FC
2205pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk,
2206it is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by using the
2207C<re 'eval'> pragma or by explicitly building the pattern from an
2208interpolated string at run time and using that in an eval(). See
2209L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 2210
ad19ef22 2211=item Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
6df41af2 2212
be771a83
GS
2213(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
2214assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
2215pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 2216
e0e4a6e3
FC
2217=item EVAL without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by
2218S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1a147d38
YO
2219
2220(F) You used a pattern that nested too many EVAL calls without consuming
6903afa2 2221any text. Restructure the pattern so that text is consumed.
1a147d38 2222
6e8a73f2 2223The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
2224discovered.
2225
fc36a67e 2226=item Excessively long <> operator
2227
2228(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
2229Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
2230filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
2231variable and glob that.
2232
ed9aa3b7
SG
2233=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
2234
af8bb25a 2235(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented on some systems, e.g., Symbian
6903afa2 2236OS. See L<perlport>.
ed9aa3b7 2237
c77da5ff 2238=item %sExecution of %s aborted due to compilation errors.
a0d0e21e
LW
2239
2240(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
2241
0ffcbc25
FC
2242=item exists argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine
2243
4a0af295 2244(F) The argument to C<exists> must be a hash or array element or a
0ffcbc25
FC
2245subroutine with an ampersand, such as:
2246
2247 $foo{$bar}
2248 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
2249 &do_something
2250
2251=item exists argument is not a subroutine name
2252
ccfc2567
FC
2253(F) The argument to C<exists> for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine name,
2254and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this error.
0ffcbc25 2255
a0d0e21e
LW
2256=item Exiting eval via %s
2257
be771a83
GS
2258(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
2259goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
2260
2261=item Exiting format via %s
2262
9a2ff54b 2263(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 2264goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 2265
0a753a76 2266=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
2267
be771a83
GS
2268(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
2269sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
2270loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 2271
a0d0e21e
LW
2272=item Exiting subroutine via %s
2273
be771a83
GS
2274(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
2275as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
2276
2277=item Exiting substitution via %s
2278
be771a83
GS
2279(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
2280as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 2281
e0e4a6e3 2282=item Expecting close bracket in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
c608e803 2283
675fa9ff 2284(F) You wrote something like
c608e803
KW
2285
2286 (?13
2287
2288to denote a capturing group of the form
2289L<C<(?I<PARNO>)>|perlre/(?PARNO) (?-PARNO) (?+PARNO) (?R) (?0)>,
2290but omitted the C<")">.
2291
c9ffefcc
FC
2292=item Expecting close paren for nested extended charclass in regex; marked
2293by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2294
2295(F) While parsing a nested extended character class like:
2296
2297 (?[ ... (?flags:(?[ ... ])) ... ])
2298 ^
2299
2300we expected to see a close paren ')' (marked by ^) but did not.
2301
2302=item Expecting close paren for wrapper for nested extended charclass in
2303regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2304
2305(F) While parsing a nested extended character class like:
2306
2307 (?[ ... (?flags:(?[ ... ])) ... ])
2308 ^
2309
2310we expected to see a close paren ')' (marked by ^) but did not.
2311
e0e4a6e3 2312=item Expecting '(?flags:(?[...' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
27350048 2313
8b6fbf55
FC
2314(F) The C<(?[...])> extended character class regular expression construct
2315only allows character classes (including character class escapes like
2316C<\d>), operators, and parentheses. The one exception is C<(?flags:...)>
2317containing at least one flag and exactly one C<(?[...])> construct.
27350048
FC
2318This allows a regular expression containing just C<(?[...])> to be
2319interpolated. If you see this error message, then you probably
2320have some other C<(?...)> construct inside your character class. See
2321L<perlrecharclass/Extended Bracketed Character Classes>.
2322
baabe3fb 2323=item Experimental aliasing via reference not enabled
1f8155a2 2324
baabe3fb 2325(F) To do aliasing via references, you must first enable the feature:
1f8155a2 2326
baabe3fb
FC
2327 no warnings "experimental::refaliasing";
2328 use feature "refaliasing";
1f8155a2
FC
2329 \$x = \$y;
2330
74d1b2e4
FC
2331=item Experimental %s on scalar is now forbidden
2332
2333(F) An experimental feature added in Perl 5.14 allowed C<each>, C<keys>,
2334C<push>, C<pop>, C<shift>, C<splice>, C<unshift>, and C<values> to be called with a
2335scalar argument. This experiment is considered unsuccessful, and
2336has been removed. The C<postderef> feature may meet your needs better.
2337
30d9c59b
Z
2338=item Experimental subroutine signatures not enabled
2339
2340(F) To use subroutine signatures, you must first enable them:
2341
caa35032 2342 no warnings "experimental::signatures";
30d9c59b
Z
2343 use feature "signatures";
2344 sub foo ($left, $right) { ... }
2345
7b8d334a
GS
2346=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
2347
be771a83
GS
2348(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
2349the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
2350usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
2351e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 2352
6df41af2
GS
2353=item %s: Expression syntax
2354
be771a83
GS
2355(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
2356Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
2357
2358=item %s failed--call queue aborted
2359
3c10abe3
AG
2360(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a UNITCHECK,
2361CHECK, INIT, or END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the
2362queue of such routines has been prematurely ended.
6df41af2 2363
e0d4aead 2364=item Failed to close in-place work file %s: %s
502aca56
TC
2365
2366(F) Closing an output file from in-place editing, as with the C<-i>
2367command-line switch, failed.
2368
e0e4a6e3 2369=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
73b437c8 2370
98d31c73 2371(W regexp)(F) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3 2372character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
3c6ca74a
FC
2373in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". In a C<(?[...])>
2374construct, this is an error, rather than a warning. Consider quoting
e0e4a6e3 2375the "-", "\-". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression
3c6ca74a 2376the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 2377
1b1ee2ef 2378=item Fatal VMS error (status=%d) at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 2379
be771a83
GS
2380(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
2381system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
2382details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
2383you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
2384
2385=item fcntl is not implemented
2386
2387(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
2388PDP-11 or something?
2389
22846ab4
AB
2390=item FETCHSIZE returned a negative value
2391
2392(F) A tied array claimed to have a negative number of elements, which
2393is not possible.
2394
f337b084
TH
2395=item Field too wide in 'u' format in pack
2396
d8b5cc61 2397(W pack) Each line in an uuencoded string starts with a length indicator
6903afa2
FC
2398which can't encode values above 63. So there is no point in asking for
2399a line length bigger than that. Perl will behave as if you specified
5c96f6f7 2400C<u63> as the format.
f337b084 2401
a0e213fc
A
2402=item File::Glob::glob() will disappear in perl 5.30. Use File::Glob::bsd_glob() instead.
2403
2404(D deprecated) C<< File::Glob >> has a function called C<< glob >>, which
2405just calls C<< bsd_glob >>. However, its prototype is different from the
2406prototype of C<< CORE::glob >>, and hence, C<< File::Glob::glob >> should
2407not be used.
2408
2409C<< File::Glob::glob() >> was deprecated in perl 5.8.0. A deprecation
2410message was issued from perl 5.26.0 onwards, and the function will
2411disappear in perl 5.30.0.
2412
2413Code using C<< File::Glob::glob() >> should call
2414C<< File::Glob::bsd_glob() >> instead.
2415
af8c498a 2416=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 2417
6c8d78fb
HS
2418(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
2419it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
2420"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
2421write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 2422
af8c498a 2423=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 2424
6c8d78fb
HS
2425(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
2426you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
89a1bda8
FC
2427with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with ">". If you intended only to
2428read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>. Another possibility
2429is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0 (also known as STDIN) for
2430output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
97828cef
RGS
2431
2432=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
2433
2434(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
6903afa2 2435as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
97828cef
RGS
2436previously.
2437
2438=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
2439
2440(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
fa816bf3 2441as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
2442
2443=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
2444
2445(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
2446a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
2447happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
2448name.
a0d0e21e 2449
56e90b21
GS
2450=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
2451
be771a83 2452(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 2453some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
2454filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
2455same name?
56e90b21 2456
6df41af2
GS
2457=item Format not terminated
2458
2459(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
2460to the end of your file without finding such a line.
2461
a0d0e21e
LW
2462=item Format %s redefined
2463
e476b1b5 2464(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
2465
2466 {
271595cc 2467 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
2468 eval "format NAME =...";
2469 }
2470
a0d0e21e
LW
2471=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
2472
e476b1b5 2473(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
2474
2475 if ($foo = 123)
2476
2477when you meant
2478
2479 if ($foo == 123)
2480
2481(or something like that).
2482
6df41af2
GS
2483=item %s found where operator expected
2484
56da5a46
RGS
2485(S syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator.
2486If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
be771a83
GS
2487operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
2488operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 2489
a0d0e21e
LW
2490=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
2491
2492(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
2493
2494=item gethostent not implemented
2495
2496(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
2497because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
2498on the Internet.
2499
69282e91 2500=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2501
be771a83
GS
2502(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
2503socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 2504
748a9306
LW
2505=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
2506
2507(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
2508C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
2509
6df41af2
GS
2510=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
2511
be771a83
GS
2512(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
2513forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
2514L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
2515
0f539b13
BF
2516=item given is experimental
2517
7896dde7
Z
2518(S experimental::smartmatch) C<given> depends on smartmatch, which
2519is experimental, so its behavior may change or even be removed
2520in any future release of perl. See the explanation under
2521L<perlsyn/Experimental Details on given and when>.
0f539b13 2522
68567d27
FC
2523=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name (did you forget to
2524declare "my %s"?)
6df41af2 2525
a4edf47d 2526(F) You've said "use strict" or "use strict vars", which indicates
30c282f6 2527that all variables must either be lexically scoped (using "my" or "state"),
a4edf47d
GS
2528declared beforehand using "our", or explicitly qualified to say
2529which package the global variable is in (using "::").
6df41af2 2530
e476b1b5
GS
2531=item glob failed (%s)
2532
5ead438e 2533(S glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used
73c4e9dc
FC
2534for C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a C<glob>
2535pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
be771a83 2536nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
73c4e9dc
FC
2537resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell)
2538is broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables
2539in config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as
2540if it were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them
2541all empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
be771a83 2542think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 2543C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 2544
a0d0e21e
LW
2545=item Glob not terminated
2546
2547(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
2548a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
2549not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
2550earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 2551
b35b96b6
JH
2552=item gmtime(%f) failed
2553
2554(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that it could not handle:
2555too large, too small, or NaN. The returned value is C<undef>.
2556
bcd05b94 2557=item gmtime(%f) too large
8b56d6ff 2558
e9200be3 2559(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was larger than
fc003d4b 2560it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong
6903afa2 2561date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
fc003d4b
MS
2562not-a-number value).
2563
bcd05b94 2564=item gmtime(%f) too small
fc003d4b 2565
e9200be3 2566(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was smaller than
e7a1a147 2567it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong date.
8b56d6ff 2568
6df41af2 2569=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 2570
6df41af2
GS
2571(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
2572version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
2573
2574=item goto must have label
2575
2576(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
2577unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2578
6651ba0b
FC
2579=item Goto undefined subroutine%s
2580
2581(F) You tried to call a subroutine with C<goto &sub> syntax, but
2582the indicated subroutine hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
2583has since been undefined.
2584
6fbc9859 2585=item Group name must start with a non-digit word character in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 2586S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1f4f6bf1
YO
2587
2588(F) Group names must follow the rules for perl identifiers, meaning
f26c79ba
FC
2589they must start with a non-digit word character. A common cause of
2590this error is using (?&0) instead of (?0). See L<perlre>.
1f4f6bf1 2591
5a25739d
FC
2592=item ()-group starts with a count
2593
2594(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is supposed to follow
2595something: a template character or a ()-group. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2596
fe13d51d 2597=item %s had compilation errors.
6df41af2
GS
2598
2599(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
2600
a0d0e21e
LW
2601=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
2602
be771a83
GS
2603(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
2604to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
2605created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e 2606
6df41af2
GS
2607=item %s has too many errors
2608
2609(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
2610Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
2611
61e61fbc
JH
2612=item Hexadecimal float: exponent overflow
2613
d8f2b442 2614(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point has a larger exponent
61e61fbc
JH
2615than the floating point supports.
2616
2617=item Hexadecimal float: exponent underflow
2618
d8f2b442 2619(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point has a smaller exponent
b6d9b423
JH
2620than the floating point supports. With the IEEE 754 floating point,
2621this may also mean that the subnormals (formerly known as denormals)
2622are being used, which may or may not be an error.
61e61fbc 2623
5488d373 2624=item Hexadecimal float: internal error (%s)
cf4f6003
JH
2625
2626(F) Something went horribly bad in hexadecimal float handling.
2627
61e61fbc
JH
2628=item Hexadecimal float: mantissa overflow
2629
2630(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point literal had more bits in
2631the mantissa (the part between the 0x and the exponent, also known as
2632the fraction or the significand) than the floating point supports.
2633
40bca5ae
JH
2634=item Hexadecimal float: precision loss
2635
2636(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point had internally more
2637digits than could be output. This can be caused by unsupported
2638long double formats, or by 64-bit integers not being available
2639(needed to retrieve the digits under some configurations).
2640
2641=item Hexadecimal float: unsupported long double format
2642
2643(F) You have configured Perl to use long doubles but
d8f2b442 2644the internals of the long double format are unknown;
40bca5ae
JH
2645therefore the hexadecimal float output is impossible.
2646
252aa082
JH
2647=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
2648
e476b1b5 2649(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
2650(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2651L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 2652
8903cb82 2653=item Identifier too long
2654
2655(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 2656about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
2657names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
2658of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 2659
e0e4a6e3
FC
2660=item Ignoring zero length \N{} in character class in regex; marked by
2661S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
fc8cd66c 2662
f3ba6905 2663(W regexp) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a
0f44b2a5
FC
2664zero-length sequence. When such an escape is used in a character
2665class its behavior is not well defined. Check that the correct
2666escape has been used, and the correct charname handler is in scope.
fc8cd66c 2667
283151b7 2668=item Illegal binary digit '%c'
f675dbe5 2669
6df41af2 2670(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
f675dbe5 2671
6df41af2 2672=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
a0d0e21e 2673
be771a83
GS
2674(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
2675binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
2676offending digit.
a0d0e21e 2677
6597eb22
FC
2678=item Illegal character after '_' in prototype for %s : %s
2679
e4d150f1
FC
2680(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype
2681declaration. The '_' in a prototype must be followed by a ';',
2682indicating the rest of the parameters are optional, or one of '@'
2683or '%', since those two will accept 0 or more final parameters.
6597eb22 2684
b913d0b8
FC
2685=item Illegal character \%o (carriage return)
2686
2687(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as
2688it would any other whitespace, which means you should never see
2689this error when Perl was built using standard options. For some
2690reason, your version of Perl appears to have been built without
2691this support. Talk to your Perl administrator.
2692
bb6b75cd 2693=item Illegal character following sigil in a subroutine signature
d3d9da4a
DM
2694
2695(F) A parameter in a subroutine signature contained an unexpected character
d4e5761f
FC
2696following the C<$>, C<@> or C<%> sigil character. Normally the sigil
2697should be followed by the variable name or C<=> etc. Perhaps you are
d3d9da4a
DM
2698trying use a prototype while in the scope of C<use feature 'signatures'>?
2699For example:
2700
2701 sub foo ($$) {} # legal - a prototype
2702
2703 use feature 'signatures;
2704 sub foo ($$) {} # illegal - was expecting a signature
2705 sub foo ($a, $b)
2706 :prototype($$) {} # legal
2707
2708
d37a9538
ST
2709=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
2710
197afce1 2711(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
2e9cc7ef 2712Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, \, and +.
30d9c59b
Z
2713Perhaps you were trying to write a subroutine signature but didn't enable
2714that feature first (C<use feature 'signatures'>), so your signature was
2715instead interpreted as a bad prototype.
d37a9538 2716
904d85c5
RGS
2717=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
2718
2719(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
6903afa2 2720you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
904d85c5 2721
8e742a20
MHM
2722=item Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
2723
6903afa2 2724(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See L<perlsub>.
8e742a20 2725
a0d0e21e
LW
2726=item Illegal division by zero
2727
be771a83
GS
2728(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
2729your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
2730meaningless input.
a0d0e21e 2731
6df41af2
GS
2732=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
2733
be771a83
GS
2734(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
2735A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
2736number stopped before the illegal character.
6df41af2 2737
a0d0e21e
LW
2738=item Illegal modulus zero
2739
be771a83
GS
2740(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
2741numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 2742
6df41af2 2743=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 2744
6df41af2
GS
2745(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
2746two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4 2747
283151b7 2748=item Illegal octal digit '%c'
a0d0e21e 2749
d1be9408 2750(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 2751
399388f4 2752=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
748a9306 2753
d1be9408 2754(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
75b44862 2755Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
748a9306 2756
ecc6274e
FC
2757=item Illegal operator following parameter in a subroutine signature
2758
2759(F) A parameter in a subroutine signature, was followed by something
2760other than C<=> introducing a default, C<,> or C<)>.
2761
2762 use feature 'signatures';
2763 sub foo ($=1) {} # legal
2764 sub foo ($a = 1) {} # legal
2765 sub foo ($a += 1) {} # illegal
2766 sub foo ($a == 1) {} # illegal
2767
e0e4a6e3 2768=item Illegal pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
c608e803 2769
675fa9ff 2770(F) You wrote something like
c608e803
KW
2771
2772 (?+foo)
2773
2774The C<"+"> is valid only when followed by digits, indicating a
2775capturing group. See
2776L<C<(?I<PARNO>)>|perlre/(?PARNO) (?-PARNO) (?+PARNO) (?R) (?0)>.
2777
375ed12a
JH
2778=item Illegal suidscript
2779
2780(F) The script run under suidperl was somehow illegal.
2781
fe13d51d 2782=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: -%c
6ff81951 2783
6df41af2 2784(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
646ca9b2 2785following switches: B<-[CDIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 2786
4003ea29
KW
2787=item Illegal user-defined property name
2788
2789(F) You specified a Unicode-like property name in a regular expression
2790pattern (using C<\p{}> or C<\P{}>) that Perl knows isn't an official
2791Unicode property, and was likely meant to be a user-defined property
2792name, but it can't be one of those, as they must begin with either C<In>
2793or C<Is>. Check the spelling. See also
2794L</Can't find Unicode property definition "%s">.
2795
6df41af2 2796=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 2797
75b44862 2798(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
2799internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
2800delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 2801
6df41af2 2802=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 2803
be771a83
GS
2804(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
2805name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
2806didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
2807ignored.
54310121 2808
6df41af2 2809=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 2810
be771a83
GS
2811(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
2812the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
2813system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
2814times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
2815would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 2816
be771a83
GS
2817Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
2818also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 2819
e0e4a6e3
FC
2820=item Incomplete expression within '(?[ ])' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
2821in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 2822
675fa9ff 2823(F) There was a syntax error within the C<(?[ ])>. This can happen if the
0d0b4b3b
KW
2824expression inside the construct was completely empty, or if there are
2825too many or few operands for the number of operators. Perl is not smart
2826enough to give you a more precise indication as to what is wrong.
2827
6fbc9859
MH
2828=item Inconsistent hierarchy during C3 merge of class '%s': merging failed on
2829parent '%s'
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2830
2831(F) The method resolution order (MRO) of the given class is not
2832C3-consistent, and you have enabled the C3 MRO for this class. See the C3
2833documentation in L<mro> for more information.
2834
cdd6375d
MH
2835=item Indentation on line %d of here-doc doesn't match delimiter
2836
2837(F) You have an indented here-document where one or more of its lines
2838have whitespace at the beginning that does not match the closing
2839delimiter.
2840
2841For example, line 2 below is wrong because it does not have at least
28422 spaces, but lines 1 and 3 are fine because they have at least 2:
2843
2844 if ($something) {
2845 print <<~EOF;
2846 Line 1
2847 Line 2 not
2848 Line 3
2849 EOF
2850 }
2851
2852Note that tabs and spaces are compared strictly, meaning 1 tab will
2853not match 8 spaces.
2854
6a2ed79a 2855=item Infinite recursion in regex
1a147d38
YO
2856
2857(F) You used a pattern that references itself without consuming any input
6903afa2 2858text. You should check the pattern to ensure that recursive patterns
1a147d38
YO
2859either consume text or fail.
2860
714f94d1
FC
2861=item Infinite recursion via empty pattern
2862
2863(F) You tried to use the empty pattern inside of a regex code block,
2864for instance C</(?{ s!!! })/>, which resulted in re-executing
2865the same pattern, which is an infinite loop which is broken by
2866throwing an exception.
2867
f99042c8 2868=item Initialization of state variables in list currently forbidden
6dbe9451 2869
f99042c8
Z
2870(F) C<state> only permits initializing a single variable, specified
2871without parentheses. So C<state $a = 42> and C<state @a = qw(a b c)> are
2872allowed, but not C<state ($a) = 42> or C<(state $a) = 42>. To initialize
2873more than one C<state> variable, initialize them one at a time.
6dbe9451 2874
2186f873
FC
2875=item %%s[%s] in scalar context better written as $%s[%s]
2876
2877(W syntax) In scalar context, you've used an array index/value slice
2878(indicated by %) to select a single element of an array. Generally
2879it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
2880is that C<$foo[&bar]> always behaves like a scalar, both in the value it
2881returns and when evaluating its argument, while C<%foo[&bar]> provides
2882a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things if you're
2883expecting only one subscript. When called in list context, it also
2884returns the index (what C<&bar> returns) in addition to the value.
2885
2886=item %%s{%s} in scalar context better written as $%s{%s}
2887
2888(W syntax) In scalar context, you've used a hash key/value slice
2889(indicated by %) to select a single element of a hash. Generally it's
2890better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
2891is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves like a scalar, both in the value
2892it returns and when evaluating its argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> and
2893provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
2894if you're expecting only one subscript. When called in list context,
2895it also returns the key in addition to the value.
2896
a0d0e21e
LW
2897=item Insecure dependency in %s
2898
8b1a09fc 2899(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
2900The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
2901setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
2902tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
2903from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
2904such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
2905L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
2906
2907=item Insecure directory in %s
2908
be771a83
GS
2909(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2910setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
df98f984
RGS
2911the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
2912See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2913
62f468fc 2914=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2915
2916(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc 2917setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
332d5f78
SR
2918C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
2919supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
2920the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2921
0e9be77f
DM
2922=item Insecure user-defined property %s
2923
2924(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2925expression that contains a call to a user-defined character property
2926function, i.e. C<\p{IsFoo}> or C<\p{InFoo}>.
2927See L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties> and L<perlsec>.
2928
b9ef414d
FC
2929=item Integer overflow in format string for %s
2930
2931(F) The indexes and widths specified in the format string of C<printf()>
2932or C<sprintf()> are too large. The numbers must not overflow the size of
2933integers for your architecture.
2934
a7ae9550
GS
2935=item Integer overflow in %s number
2936
35928bc5 2937(S overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
2938either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
2939your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
2940On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
2941representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
29420b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
2943transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
2944internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
2945operations.
bbce6d69 2946
fc89ca81
FC
2947=item Integer overflow in srand
2948
2949(S overflow) The number you have passed to srand is too big to fit
2950in your architecture's integer representation. The number has been
2951replaced with the largest integer supported (0xFFFFFFFF on 32-bit
2952architectures). This means you may be getting less randomness than
2953you expect, because different random seeds above the maximum will
2954return the same sequence of random numbers.
2955
46314c13
JP
2956=item Integer overflow in version
2957
18da5252
FC
2958=item Integer overflow in version %d
2959
784d71ed
FC
2960(W overflow) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for
2961the size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
f084e84f 2962because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use an
784d71ed
FC
2963element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by trying
2964to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like 100/9.
46314c13 2965
e0e4a6e3 2966=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2967
2968(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
e0e4a6e3 2969The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
b45f050a
JF
2970discovered.
2971
748a9306
LW
2972=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
2973
be771a83
GS
2974(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
2975you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
2976to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
2977L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
2978Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
2979terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 2980
870978ae
FC
2981=item internal %<num>p might conflict with future printf extensions
2982
2983(S internal) Perl's internal routine that handles C<printf> and C<sprintf>
2984formatting follows a slightly different set of rules when called from
2985C or XS code. Specifically, formats consisting of digits followed
2986by "p" (e.g., "%7p") are reserved for future use. If you see this
2987message, then an XS module tried to call that routine with one such
2988reserved format.
2989
e0e4a6e3 2990=item Internal urp in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 2991
fa816bf3 2992(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
e0e4a6e3 2993S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
7253e4e3 2994discovered.
a0d0e21e 2995
6df41af2
GS
2996=item %s (...) interpreted as function
2997
75b44862 2998(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 2999followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 3000operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 3001L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 3002
f51551f7
FC
3003=item In '(?...)', the '(' and '?' must be adjacent in regex;
3004marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3005
3006(F) The two-character sequence C<"(?"> in this context in a regular
3007expression pattern should be an indivisible token, with nothing
3008intervening between the C<"("> and the C<"?">, but you separated them
3009with whitespace.
3010
d9790612 3011=item In '(*...)', the '(' and '*' must be adjacent in regex;
edf23316
FC
3012marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3013
d9790612 3014(F) The two-character sequence C<"(*"> in this context in a regular
edf23316 3015expression pattern should be an indivisible token, with nothing
d9790612
KW
3016intervening between the C<"("> and the C<"*">, but you separated them.
3017Fix the pattern and retry.
edf23316 3018
09bef843
SB
3019=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
3020
a4a4c9e2 3021(F) The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
09bef843
SB
3022by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
3023
3024=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
3025
a4a4c9e2 3026(F) The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
be771a83 3027recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 3028
e0e4a6e3
FC
3029=item Invalid character in charnames alias definition; marked by
3030S<<-- HERE> in '%s
225fb84f
KW
3031
3032(F) You tried to create a custom alias for a character name, with
3033the C<:alias> option to C<use charnames> and the specified character in
3034the indicated name isn't valid. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
3035
c8028aa6
TC
3036=item Invalid \0 character in %s for %s: %s\0%s
3037
fa3234e3
FC
3038(W syscalls) Embedded \0 characters in pathnames or other system call
3039arguments produce a warning as of 5.20. The parts after the \0 were
3040formerly ignored by system calls.
c8028aa6 3041
e0e4a6e3 3042=item Invalid character in \N{...}; marked by S<<-- HERE> in \N{%s}
a690c7c4
FC
3043
3044(F) Only certain characters are valid for character names. The
3045indicated one isn't. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
3046
c635e13b 3047=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
3048
be771a83
GS
3049(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
3050L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 3051
e0e4a6e3
FC
3052=item Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regex; marked by
3053S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9e08bc66 3054
98d31c73 3055(W regexp)(F) The numeric escape (for example C<\xHH>) of value < 256
9e08bc66
TS
3056didn't correspond to a single character through the conversion
3057from the encoding specified by the encoding pragma.
98d31c73
FC
3058The escape was replaced with REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (U+FFFD)
3059instead, except within S<C<(?[ ])>>, where it is a fatal error.
e0e4a6e3 3060The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
9e08bc66
TS
3061escape was discovered.
3062
8149aa9f
FC
3063=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...}
3064
e0e4a6e3
FC
3065=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...} in regex; marked by
3066S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 3067
8149aa9f 3068(F) The character constant represented by C<...> is not a valid hexadecimal
74f8e9e3
FC
3069number. Either it is empty, or you tried to use a character other than
30700 - 9 or A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number.
8149aa9f 3071
6651ba0b
FC
3072=item Invalid module name %s with -%c option: contains single ':'
3073
3074(F) The module argument to perl's B<-m> and B<-M> command-line options
3075cannot contain single colons in the module name, but only in the
3076arguments after "=". In other words, B<-MFoo::Bar=:baz> is ok, but
3077B<-MFoo:Bar=baz> is not.
3078
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3079=item Invalid mro name: '%s'
3080
162a3e34
FC
3081(F) You tried to C<mro::set_mro("classname", "foo")> or C<use mro 'foo'>,
3082where C<foo> is not a valid method resolution order (MRO). Currently,
3083the only valid ones supported are C<dfs> and C<c3>, unless you have loaded
3084a module that is a MRO plugin. See L<mro> and L<perlmroapi>.
2c7d6b9c 3085
40e4140b
FC
3086=item Invalid negative number (%s) in chr
3087
3088(W utf8) You passed a negative number to C<chr>. Negative numbers are
abc0aa9d 3089not valid character numbers, so it returns the Unicode replacement
40e4140b
FC
3090character (U+FFFD).
3091
74d1b2e4
FC
3092=item Invalid number '%s' for -C option.
3093
3094(F) You supplied a number to the -C option that either has extra leading
3095zeroes or overflows perl's unsigned integer representation.
3096
6651ba0b
FC
3097=item invalid option -D%c, use -D'' to see choices
3098
8ff21bfe
FC
3099(S debugging) Perl was called with invalid debugger flags. Call perl
3100with the B<-D> option with no flags to see the list of acceptable values.
982c4ecb 3101See also L<perlrun/-Dletters>.
6651ba0b 3102
6e8a73f2 3103=item Invalid quantifier in {,} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
35cd12d1
HS
3104
3105(F) The pattern looks like a {min,max} quantifier, but the min or max
3106could not be parsed as a valid number - either it has leading zeroes,
3107or it represents too big a number to cope with. The S<<-- HERE> shows
3108where in the regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3109
e0e4a6e3 3110=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
3111
3112(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
3113greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
3114C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
e0e4a6e3 3115up to C<ff>. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
7253e4e3 3116problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 3117
d1573ac7 3118=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
3119
3120(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
3121character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
3122
09bef843
SB
3123=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
3124
0120eecf 3125(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
3126elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
3127parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
3128See L<attributes>.
09bef843 3129
b4581f09
JH
3130=item Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
3131
2bfc5f71
FC
3132(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other
3133than a colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
b4581f09
JH
3134If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
3135list was terminated too soon.
3136
2c86d456
DG
3137=item Invalid strict version format (%s)
3138
fa816bf3 3139(F) A version number did not meet the "strict" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
3140A "strict" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
3141decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
3142v-string with a leading 'v' character and at least three components.
a6485a24 3143The parenthesized text indicates which criteria were not met.
2c86d456
DG
3144See the L<version> module for more details on allowed version formats.
3145
49704364 3146=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
96e4d5b1 3147
49704364
WL
3148(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
3149See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6728c851 3150
49704364 3151(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
75b44862 3152silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 3153
2c86d456
DG
3154=item Invalid version format (%s)
3155
fa816bf3 3156(F) A version number did not meet the "lax" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
3157A "lax" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
3158decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
fa816bf3
FC
3159v-string. If the v-string has fewer than three components, it
3160must have a leading 'v' character. Otherwise, the leading 'v' is
3161optional. Both decimal and dotted-decimal versions may have a
3162trailing "alpha" component separated by an underscore character
3163after a fractional or dotted-decimal component. The parenthesized
3164text indicates which criteria were not met. See the L<version> module
3165for more details on allowed version formats.
46314c13 3166
798ae1b7
DG
3167=item Invalid version object
3168
fa816bf3
FC
3169(F) The internal structure of the version object was invalid.
3170Perhaps the internals were modified directly in some way or
3171an arbitrary reference was blessed into the "version" class.
798ae1b7 3172
cd209d9d 3173=item In '(*VERB...)', the '(' and '*' must be adjacent in regex;
e0e4a6e3 3174marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff 3175
edf23316
FC
3176(F) The two-character sequence C<"(*"> in this context in a regular
3177expression pattern should be an indivisible token, with nothing
3178intervening between the C<"("> and the C<"*">, but you separated them.
675fa9ff 3179
a0d0e21e
LW
3180=item ioctl is not implemented
3181
3182(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
3183strange for a machine that supports C.
3184
c289d2f7
JH
3185=item ioctl() on unopened %s
3186
3187(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
34b6fd5e 3188Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 3189
fe13d51d 3190=item IO layers (like '%s') unavailable
363c40c4
SB
3191
3192(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
34b6fd5e 3193you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO, Perl must be configured
363c40c4
SB
3194with 'useperlio'.
3195
80cbd5ad
JH
3196=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
3197
3198(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
34b6fd5e 3199neither as a system call nor an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
80cbd5ad 3200
6e8a73f2 3201=item '%s' is an unknown bound type in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
64935bc6
KW
3202
3203(F) You used C<\b{...}> or C<\B{...}> and the C<...> is not known to
3204Perl. The current valid ones are given in
3205L<perlrebackslash/\b{}, \b, \B{}, \B>.
3206
1ed4b776 3207=item %s() isn't allowed on :utf8 handles
74d1b2e4 3208
1ed4b776
TC
3209(F) The sysread(), recv(), syswrite() and send() operators are
3210not allowed on handles that have the C<:utf8> layer, either explicitly, or
74d1b2e4
FC
3211implicitly, eg., with the C<:encoding(UTF-16LE)> layer.
3212
1ed4b776
TC
3213Previously sysread() and recv() currently use only the C<:utf8> flag for the stream,
3214ignoring the actual layers. Since sysread() and recv() did no UTF-8
74d1b2e4
FC
3215validation they can end up creating invalidly encoded scalars.
3216
1ed4b776
TC
3217Similarly, syswrite() and send() used only the C<:utf8> flag, otherwise ignoring
3218any layers. If the flag is set, both wrote the value UTF-8 encoded, even if
74d1b2e4
FC
3219the layer is some different encoding, such as the example above.
3220
3221Ideally, all of these operators would completely ignore the C<:utf8> state,
3222working only with bytes, but this would result in silently breaking existing
1972ac5c
A
3223code.
3224
d4360efa 3225=item "%s" is more clearly written simply as "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
acdfc3b6 3226
d4360efa 3227(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
30b17cc1 3228
3f673807
FC
3229You specified a character that has the given plainer way of writing it, and
3230which is also portable to platforms running with different character sets.
acdfc3b6 3231
dcb414ac 3232=item $* is no longer supported as of Perl 5.30
a678626e 3233
dcb414ac
JK
3234(F) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older perls, was removed in
32355.10.0, is no longer supported and is a fatal error as of Perl 5.30. In
a678626e
A
3236previous versions of perl the use of C<$*> enabled or disabled multi-line
3237matching within a string.
3238
3239Instead of using C<$*> you should use the C</m> (and maybe C</s>) regexp
3240modifiers. You can enable C</m> for a lexical scope (even a whole file)
3241with C<use re '/m'>. (In older versions: when C<$*> was set to a true value
3242then all regular expressions behaved as if they were written using C</m>.)
3243
37398dc1
A
3244Use of this variable will be a fatal error in Perl 5.30.
3245
dcb414ac 3246=item $# is no longer supported as of Perl 5.30
a678626e 3247
dcb414ac
JK
3248(F) The special variable C<$#>, deprecated in older perls, was removed as of
32495.10.0, is no longer supported and is a fatal error as of Perl 5.30. You
a678626e
A
3250should use the printf/sprintf functions instead.
3251
ccf3535a 3252=item '%s' is not a code reference
6ad11d81 3253
6903afa2
FC
3254(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of
3255overload::constant needs to be a code reference. Either
3256an anonymous subroutine, or a reference to a subroutine.
6ad11d81 3257
ccf3535a 3258=item '%s' is not an overloadable type
6ad11d81 3259
04a80ee0
RGS
3260(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
3261unaware of.
6ad11d81 3262
5a25739d
FC
3263=item -i used with no filenames on the command line, reading from STDIN
3264
3265(S inplace) The C<-i> option was passed on the command line, indicating
3266that the script is intended to edit files in place, but no files were
3267given. This is usually a mistake, since editing STDIN in place doesn't
3268make sense, and can be confusing because it can make perl look like
3269it is hanging when it is really just trying to read from STDIN. You
3270should either pass a filename to edit, or remove C<-i> from the command
3271line. See L<perlrun> for more details.
3272
aec0ef10 3273=item Junk on end of regexp in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
3274
3275(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
3276
3277=item Label not found for "last %s"
3278
be771a83
GS
3279(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
3280of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3281L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
3282
3283=item Label not found for "next %s"
3284
3285(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
3286that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3287L<perlfunc/last>.
3288
3289=item Label not found for "redo %s"
3290
3291(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
3292that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3293L<perlfunc/last>.
3294
85ab1d1d 3295=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 3296
85ab1d1d 3297(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
3298effective uids or gids failed.
3299
49704364
WL
3300=item length/code after end of string in unpack
3301
d7f8936a 3302(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an unpack
6903afa2
FC
3303length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
3304an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 3305
25e26107 3306=item length() used on %s (did you mean "scalar(%s)"?)
e508c8a4 3307
0d46a4e7
FC
3308(W syntax) You used length() on either an array or a hash when you
3309probably wanted a count of the items.
e508c8a4
MH
3310
3311Array size can be obtained by doing:
3312
3313 scalar(@array);
3314
3315The number of items in a hash can be obtained by doing:
3316
3317 scalar(keys %hash);
3318
f0e67a1d
Z
3319=item Lexing code attempted to stuff non-Latin-1 character into Latin-1 input
3320
d4fe7078
RS
3321(F) An extension is attempting to insert text into the current parse
3322(using L<lex_stuff_pvn|perlapi/lex_stuff_pvn> or similar), but tried to insert a character that
3323couldn't be part of the current input. This is an inherent pitfall
3324of the stuffing mechanism, and one of the reasons to avoid it. Where
6903afa2 3325it is necessary to stuff, stuffing only plain ASCII is recommended.
f0e67a1d
Z
3326
3327=item Lexing code internal error (%s)
3328
3329(F) Lexing code supplied by an extension violated the lexer's API in a
3330detectable way.
3331
69282e91 3332=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 3333
be771a83
GS
3334(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
3335to check the return value of your socket() call? See
3336L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 3337
6651ba0b
FC
3338=item List form of piped open not implemented
3339
3340(F) On some platforms, notably Windows, the three-or-more-arguments
3341form of C<open> does not support pipes, such as C<open($pipe, '|-', @args)>.
3342Use the two-argument C<open($pipe, '|prog arg1 arg2...')> form instead.
3343
2a6971a9
KW
3344=item Literal vertical space in [] is illegal except under /x in regex;
3345marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3346
3347(F) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
3348
3349Likely you forgot the C</x> modifier or there was a typo in the pattern.
3350For example, did you really mean to match a form-feed? If so, all the
3351ASCII vertical space control characters are representable by escape
3352sequences which won't present such a jarring appearance as your pattern
3353does when displayed.
3354
3355 \r carriage return
3356 \f form feed
3357 \n line feed
3358 \cK vertical tab
3359
dc6bb7ba
FC
3360=item %s: loadable library and perl binaries are mismatched (got handshake key %p, needed %p)
3361
3362(P) A dynamic loading library C<.so> or C<.dll> was being loaded into the
3363process that was built against a different build of perl than the
3364said library was compiled against. Reinstalling the XS module will
3365likely fix this error.
3366
8b7358b9 3367=item Locale '%s' contains (at least) the following characters which
f03e1e3a 3368have unexpected meanings: %s The Perl program will use the expected
8b7358b9
KW
3369meanings
3370
3371(W locale) You are using the named UTF-8 locale. UTF-8 locales are
578a6a87
KW
3372expected to have very particular behavior, which most do. This message
3373arises when perl found some departures from the expectations, and is
3374notifying you that the expected behavior overrides these differences.
3375In some cases the differences are caused by the locale definition being
3376defective, but the most common causes of this warning are when there are
3377ambiguities and conflicts in following the Standard, and the locale has
3378chosen an approach that differs from Perl's.
3379
3380One of these is because that, contrary to the claims, Unicode is not
a2d13ee0
FC
3381completely locale insensitive. Turkish and some related languages
3382have two types of C<"I"> characters. One is dotted in both upper- and
578a6a87
KW
3383lowercase, and the other is dotless in both cases. Unicode allows a
3384locale to use either the Turkish rules, or the rules used in all other
3385instances, where there is only one type of C<"I">, which is dotless in
3386the uppercase, and dotted in the lower. The perl core does not (yet)
3387handle the Turkish case, and this message warns you of that. Instead,
8b7358b9
KW
3388the L<Unicode::Casing> module allows you to mostly implement the Turkish
3389casing rules.
3390
578a6a87
KW
3391The other common cause is for the characters
3392
3393 $ + < = > ^ ` | ~
3394
3395These are probematic. The C standard says that these should be
3396considered punctuation in the C locale (and the POSIX standard defers to
a2d13ee0
FC
3397the C standard), and Unicode is generally considered a superset of
3398the C locale. But Unicode has added an extra category, "Symbol", and
578a6a87
KW
3399classifies these particular characters as being symbols. Most UTF-8
3400locales have them treated as punctuation, so that L<ispunct(2)> returns
a2d13ee0
FC
3401non-zero for them. But a few locales have it return 0. Perl takes
3402the first approach, not using C<ispunct()> at all (see L<Note [5] in
3403perlrecharclass|perlrecharclass/[5]>), and this message is raised to notify you that you
3404are getting Perl's approach, not the locale's.
8b7358b9 3405
8c6180a9
KW
3406=item Locale '%s' may not work well.%s
3407
780fcc9f 3408(W locale) You are using the named locale, which is a non-UTF-8 one, and
dae67c56
KW
3409which perl has determined is not fully compatible with what it can
3410handle. The second C<%s> gives a reason.
8c6180a9
KW
3411
3412By far the most common reason is that the locale has characters in it
3413that are represented by more than one byte. The only such locales that
3414Perl can handle are the UTF-8 locales. Most likely the specified locale
3415is a non-UTF-8 one for an East Asian language such as Chinese or
3416Japanese. If the locale is a superset of ASCII, the ASCII portion of it
780fcc9f 3417may work in Perl.
8c6180a9
KW
3418
3419Some essentially obsolete locales that aren't supersets of ASCII, mainly
3420those in ISO 646 or other 7-bit locales, such as ASMO 449, can also have
3421problems, depending on what portions of the ASCII character set get
3422changed by the locale and are also used by the program.
3423The warning message lists the determinable conflicting characters.
3424
780fcc9f
KW
3425Note that not all incompatibilities are found.
3426
3427If this happens to you, there's not much you can do except switch to use a
3428different locale or use L<Encode> to translate from the locale into
3429UTF-8; if that's impracticable, you have been warned that some things
3430may break.
3431
3432This message is output once each time a bad locale is switched into
3433within the scope of C<S<use locale>>, or on the first possibly-affected
3434operation if the C<S<use locale>> inherits a bad one. It is not raised
3435for any operations from the L<POSIX> module.
3436
a2162cd9
FC
3437=item localtime(%f) failed
3438
3439(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that it could not handle:
3440too large, too small, or NaN. The returned value is C<undef>.
3441
3442=item localtime(%f) too large
3443
3444(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was larger
3445than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
3446wrong date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
3447not-a-number value).
3448
3449=item localtime(%f) too small
3450
3451(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was smaller
3452than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
3453wrong date.
3454
58e23c8d 3455=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3456
3457(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
6903afa2 3458handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release.
2e50fd82 3459
b88df990
NC
3460=item Lost precision when %s %f by 1
3461
e63e8a91
FC
3462(W imprecision) The value you attempted to increment or decrement by one
3463is too large for the underlying floating point representation to store
3464accurately, hence the target of C<++> or C<--> is unchanged. Perl issues this
3465warning because it has already switched from integers to floating point
3466when values are too large for integers, and now even floating point is
3467insufficient. You may wish to switch to using L<Math::BigInt> explicitly.
b88df990 3468
93fad930 3469=item lstat() on filehandle%s
2f7da168
RK
3470
3471(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
3472by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
3473instead on the filehandle.)
3474
345d70e3 3475=item lvalue attribute %s already-defined subroutine
bb3abb05 3476
345d70e3
FC
3477(W misc) Although L<attributes.pm|attributes> allows this, turning the lvalue
3478attribute on or off on a Perl subroutine that is already defined
3479does not always work properly. It may or may not do what you
3480want, depending on what code is inside the subroutine, with exact
3481details subject to change between Perl versions. Only do this
3482if you really know what you are doing.
bb3abb05 3483
885ef6f5
GG
3484=item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined
3485
345d70e3
FC
3486(W misc) Using the C<:lvalue> declarative syntax to make a Perl
3487subroutine an lvalue subroutine after it has been defined is
3488not permitted. To make the subroutine an lvalue subroutine,
3489add the lvalue attribute to the definition, or put the C<sub
3490foo :lvalue;> declaration before the definition.
3491
3492See also L<attributes.pm|attributes>.
885ef6f5 3493
6f1b3ab0
FC
3494=item Magical list constants are not supported
3495
3496(F) You assigned a magical array to a stash element, and then tried
3497to use the subroutine from the same slot. You are asking Perl to do
3498something it cannot do, details subject to change between Perl versions.
3499
2db62bbc 3500=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
49704364 3501
2db62bbc 3502(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
3503are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3504
3505=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
3506
2db62bbc 3507(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
3508are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3509
6df41af2
GS
3510=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
3511
3512(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
3513
3514 prefix1;prefix2
3515
3516or
6df41af2
GS
3517 prefix1 prefix2
3518
be771a83
GS
3519with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
3520a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
3521appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 3522"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 3523
2f758a16
ST
3524=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
3525
d37a9538
ST
3526(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
3527syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
3528obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
3529when the function is called.
30d9c59b
Z
3530Perhaps the function's author was trying to write a subroutine signature
3531but didn't enable that feature first (C<use feature 'signatures'>),
3532so the signature was instead interpreted as a bad prototype.
2f758a16 3533
2b5e7bc2 3534=item Malformed UTF-8 character%s
ba210ebe 3535
7cf8d05d
KW
3536(S utf8)(F) Perl detected a string that should be UTF-8, but didn't
3537comply with UTF-8 encoding rules, or represents a code point whose
3538ordinal integer value doesn't fit into the word size of the current
3539platform (overflows). Details as to the exact malformation are given in
3540the variable, C<%s>, part of the message.
ba210ebe 3541
2575c402 3542One possible cause is that you set the UTF8 flag yourself for data that
3f673807
FC
3543you thought to be in UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy 8-bit
3544data). To guard against this, you can use C<Encode::decode('UTF-8', ...)>.
2575c402
JW
3545
3546If you use the C<:encoding(UTF-8)> PerlIO layer for input, invalid byte
3f673807
FC
3547sequences are handled gracefully, but if you use C<:utf8>, the flag is set
3548without validating the data, possibly resulting in this error message.
2575c402
JW
3549
3550See also L<Encode/"Handling Malformed Data">.
901b21bf 3551
bde9e88d 3552=item Malformed UTF-8 returned by \N{%s} immediately after '%s'
ff3f963a
KW
3553
3554(F) The charnames handler returned malformed UTF-8.
3555
714f94d1
FC
3556=item Malformed UTF-8 string in "%s"
3557
3558(F) This message indicates a bug either in the Perl core or in XS
3559code. Such code was trying to find out if a character, allegedly
3560stored internally encoded as UTF-8, was of a given type, such as
3561being punctuation or a digit. But the character was not encoded
3562in legal UTF-8. The C<%s> is replaced by a string that can be used
3563by knowledgeable people to determine what the type being checked
3564against was.
3565
3566Passing malformed strings was deprecated in Perl 5.18, and
3567became fatal in Perl 5.26.
3568
4a5d3a93
FC
3569=item Malformed UTF-8 string in '%c' format in unpack
3570
3571(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3572rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3573
f337b084
TH
3574=item Malformed UTF-8 string in pack
3575
3576(F) You tried to pack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3577rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3578
3579=item Malformed UTF-8 string in unpack
3580
3581(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3582rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3583
4a5d3a93 3584=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
f337b084 3585
4a5d3a93
FC
3586(F) Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
3587doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
3588
30d9c59b
Z
3589=item Mandatory parameter follows optional parameter
3590
3591(F) In a subroutine signature, you wrote something like "$a = undef,
3592$b", making an earlier parameter optional and a later one mandatory.
3593Parameters are filled from left to right, so it's impossible for the
3594caller to omit an earlier one and pass a later one. If you want to act
3595as if the parameters are filled from right to left, declare the rightmost
3596optional and then shuffle the parameters around in the subroutine's body.
3597
2d88a86a
KW
3598=item Matched non-Unicode code point 0x%X against Unicode property; may
3599not be portable
3600
3601(S non_unicode) Perl allows strings to contain a superset of
3602Unicode code points; each code point may be as large as what is storable
0202c428 3603in a signed integer on your system, but these may not be accepted by
2d88a86a
KW
3604other languages/systems. This message occurs when you matched a string
3605containing such a code point against a regular expression pattern, and
3606the code point was matched against a Unicode property, C<\p{...}> or
3607C<\P{...}>. Unicode properties are only defined on Unicode code points,
3608so the result of this match is undefined by Unicode, but Perl (starting
3609in v5.20) treats non-Unicode code points as if they were typical
3610unassigned Unicode ones, and matched this one accordingly. Whether a
3611given property matches these code points or not is specified in
3612L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>.
3613
3614This message is suppressed (unless it has been made fatal) if it is
3615immaterial to the results of the match if the code point is Unicode or
3616not. For example, the property C<\p{ASCII_Hex_Digit}> only can match
3617the 22 characters C<[0-9A-Fa-f]>, so obviously all other code points,
3618Unicode or not, won't match it. (And C<\P{ASCII_Hex_Digit}> will match
3619every code point except these 22.)
3620
3621Getting this message indicates that the outcome of the match arguably
3622should have been the opposite of what actually happened. If you think
3623that is the case, you may wish to make the C<non_unicode> warnings
3624category fatal; if you agree with Perl's decision, you may wish to turn
3625off this category.
3626
3627See L<perlunicode/Beyond Unicode code points> for more information.
3628
e0e4a6e3
FC
3629=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
3630m/%s/
4a5d3a93
FC
3631
3632(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
e0e4a6e3 3633regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The S<<-- HERE>
9e3ec65c 3634shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
4a5d3a93 3635See L<perlre>.
f337b084 3636
de42a5a9 3637=item Maximal count of pending signals (%u) exceeded
2563cec5 3638
6903afa2 3639(F) Perl aborted due to too high a number of signals pending. This
2563cec5
IZ
3640usually indicates that your operating system tried to deliver signals
3641too fast (with a very high priority), starving the perl process from
3642resources it would need to reach a point where it can process signals
6903afa2 3643safely. (See L<perlipc/"Deferred Signals (Safe Signals)">.)
2563cec5 3644
25f58aea
PN
3645=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
3646
3647(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
3648interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
3649"use" or "my".
3650
0d2487cd 3651=item '%' may not be used in pack
6df41af2
GS
3652
3653(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
3654checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
3655See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 3656
a0d0e21e
LW
3657=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
3658
3659(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 3660doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 3661
3cdd684c
TP
3662=item Method %s not permitted
3663
3de20fbe 3664See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 3665
a0d0e21e
LW
3666=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
3667
3668(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
3669by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
3670ended earlier on the current line.
3671
3672=item Misplaced _ in number
3673
d4ced10d
JH
3674(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
3675separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 3676
0ea23158
DM
3677=item Missing argument for %n in %s
3678
3679(F) A C<%n> was used in a format string with no corresponding argument for
3680perl to write the current string length to.
3681
7baa4690
HS
3682=item Missing argument in %s
3683
3664866e
AB
3684(W missing) You called a function with fewer arguments than other
3685arguments you supplied indicated would be needed.
3686
3687Currently only emitted when a printf-type format required more
3688arguments than were supplied, but might be used in the future for
3689other cases where we can statically determine that arguments to
3690functions are missing, e.g. for the L<perlfunc/pack> function.
7baa4690 3691
9e81e6a1
RGS
3692=item Missing argument to -%c
3693
3694(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
3695immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
3696
ff3f963a 3697=item Missing braces on \N{}
423cee85 3698
e0e4a6e3 3699=item Missing braces on \N{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 3700
4a2d328f 3701(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
532cb70d
FC
3702double-quotish context. This can also happen when there is a space
3703(or comment) between the C<\N> and the C<{> in a regex with the C</x> modifier.
3704This modifier does not change the requirement that the brace immediately
3705follow the C<\N>.
423cee85 3706
f0a2b745
KW
3707=item Missing braces on \o{}
3708
3709(F) A C<\o> must be followed immediately by a C<{> in double-quotish context.
3710
a0d0e21e
LW
3711=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
3712
3713(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
3714"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
3715
06eaf0bc
GS
3716=item Missing command in piped open
3717
be771a83
GS
3718(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
3719C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
3720blank.
06eaf0bc 3721
961ce445
RGS
3722=item Missing control char name in \c
3723
3724(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
3725character name.
3726
591f5ca2
FC
3727=item Missing ']' in prototype for %s : %s
3728
bfe11873 3729(W illegalproto) A grouping was started with C<[> but never closed with C<]>.
591f5ca2 3730
8767b1ab 3731=item Missing name in "%s sub"
6df41af2 3732
87444db5 3733(F) The syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
be771a83 3734they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
3735
3736=item Missing $ on loop variable
3737
be771a83
GS
3738(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
3739are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
3740can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 3741
cc507455 3742=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306 3743
56da5a46
RGS
3744(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3745"%s found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
748a9306 3746
33fe1955 3747=item Missing or undefined argument to %s
f51551f7 3748
33fe1955 3749(F) You tried to call require or do with no argument or with an undefined
f51551f7 3750value as an argument. Require expects either a package name or a
33fe1955
LM
3751file-specification as an argument; do expects a filename. See
3752L<perlfunc/require EXPR> and L<perlfunc/do EXPR>.
f51551f7 3753
e0e4a6e3 3754=item Missing right brace on \%c{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 3755
ff3f963a
KW
3756(F) Missing right brace in C<\x{...}>, C<\p{...}>, C<\P{...}>, or C<\N{...}>.
3757
605eee60 3758=item Missing right brace on \N{}
faad849d 3759
4a68bf9d 3760=item Missing right brace on \N{} or unescaped left brace after \N
ff3f963a 3761
d32207c9
FC
3762(F) C<\N> has two meanings.
3763
3764The traditional one has it followed by a name enclosed in braces,
3765meaning the character (or sequence of characters) given by that
fa816bf3 3766name. Thus C<\N{ASTERISK}> is another way of writing C<*>, valid in both
d32207c9
FC
3767double-quoted strings and regular expression patterns. In patterns,
3768it doesn't have the meaning an unescaped C<*> does.
3769
3770Starting in Perl 5.12.0, C<\N> also can have an additional meaning (only)
3771in patterns, namely to match a non-newline character. (This is short
3772for C<[^\n]>, and like C<.> but is not affected by the C</s> regex modifier.)
3773
3774This can lead to some ambiguities. When C<\N> is not followed immediately
3775by a left brace, Perl assumes the C<[^\n]> meaning. Also, if the braces
3776form a valid quantifier such as C<\N{3}> or C<\N{5,}>, Perl assumes that this
3777means to match the given quantity of non-newlines (in these examples,
37783; and 5 or more, respectively). In all other case, where there is a
3779C<\N{> and a matching C<}>, Perl assumes that a character name is desired.
3780
3781However, if there is no matching C<}>, Perl doesn't know if it was
3782mistakenly omitted, or if C<[^\n]{> was desired, and raises this error.
3783If you meant the former, add the right brace; if you meant the latter,
3784escape the brace with a backslash, like so: C<\N\{>
ab13f0c7 3785
d98d5fff 3786=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 3787
be771a83
GS
3788(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
3789ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
3790were last editing.
a0d0e21e 3791
6df41af2
GS
3792=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
3793
56da5a46
RGS
3794(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3795"%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
6df41af2
GS
3796the previous line just because you saw this message.
3797
a0d0e21e
LW
3798=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
3799
3800(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 3801constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
3802catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
3803
3804 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
3805 mod(2);
3806
3807Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
3808
c5674021
PDF
3809Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
3810is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
3811
b7e4ecc1
FC
3812 $x = 1;
3813 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
3814 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to
3815 } # modify the 2
c5674021 3816
7a4340ed 3817=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3818
3819(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
3820subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
3821backwards.
3822
7a4340ed 3823=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 3824
be771a83
GS
3825(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
3826couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
3827
3828=item Module name must be constant
3829
3830(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
3831
be98fb35 3832=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 3833
be98fb35
GS
3834(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
3835you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
3836about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 3837
fe13d51d 3838=item More than one argument to '%s' open
ed9aa3b7 3839
6903afa2 3840(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
ed9aa3b7
SG
3841can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
3842list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
3843See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
3844
85396b18
FC
3845=item mprotect for COW string %p %u failed with %d
3846
3847(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_COW (see
3848L<perlguts/"Copy on Write">), but a shared string buffer
3849could not be made read-only.
3850
92951bce
FC
3851=item mprotect for %p %u failed with %d
3852
85396b18
FC
3853(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS (see L<perlhacktips>),
3854but an op tree could not be made read-only.
3855
3856=item mprotect RW for COW string %p %u failed with %d
3857
3858(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_COW (see
3859L<perlguts/"Copy on Write">), but a read-only shared string
3860buffer could not be made mutable.
3861
92951bce
FC
3862=item mprotect RW for %p %u failed with %d
3863
3864(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS (see
85396b18
FC
3865L<perlhacktips>), but a read-only op tree could not be made
3866mutable before freeing the ops.
92951bce 3867
a0d0e21e
LW
3868=item msg%s not implemented
3869
3870(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
3871
3872=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
3873
75b44862
GS
3874(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
3875They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 3876
d3d9da4a
DM
3877=item Multiple slurpy parameters not allowed
3878
3879(F) In subroutine signatures, a slurpy parameter (C<@> or C<%>) must be
3880the last parameter, and there must not be more than one of them; for
3881example:
3882
3883 sub foo ($a, @b) {} # legal
3884 sub foo ($a, @b, %) {} # invalid
3885
49704364 3886=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
6df41af2 3887
49704364
WL
3888(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
3889follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
3890See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2 3891
c869951c 3892=item %s must not be a named sequence in transliteration operator
f4240379
KW
3893
3894(F) Transliteration (C<tr///> and C<y///>) transliterates individual
3895characters. But a named sequence by definition is more than an
dabde021 3896individual character, and hence doing this operation on it doesn't make
f4240379
KW
3897sense.
3898
6df41af2
GS
3899=item "my sub" not yet implemented
3900
be771a83
GS
3901(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
3902that yet.
6df41af2 3903
a21eb52b
FC
3904=item "my" subroutine %s can't be in a package
3905
3906(F) Lexically scoped subroutines aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
3907sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front.
3908
5a25739d
FC
3909=item "my %s" used in sort comparison
3910
3911(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
3912You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
3913sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
3914lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
3915name, or rename the lexical variable.
3916
fd1b7234 3917=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
6df41af2 3918
be771a83
GS
3919(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
3920sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
3921local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 3922
8149aa9f
FC
3923=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
3924
c59aba6c
FC
3925(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable
3926names. If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then
3927just mention it again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our>
08a33b6b 3928declaration is also provided for this purpose.
c59aba6c 3929
66a1f5ec
FC
3930NOTE: This warning detects package symbols that have been used
3931only once. This means lexical variables will never trigger this
3932warning. It also means that all of the package variables $c, @c,
3933%c, as well as *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or
c59aba6c
FC
3934format) are considered the same; if a program uses $c only once
3935but also uses any of the others it will not trigger this warning.
3936Symbols beginning with an underscore and symbols using special
3937identifiers (q.v. L<perldata>) are exempt from this warning.
8149aa9f 3938
e0e4a6e3 3939=item Need exactly 3 octal digits in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b
KW
3940
3941(F) Within S<C<(?[ ])>>, all constants interpreted as octal need to be
3942exactly 3 digits long. This helps catch some ambiguities. If your
3943constant is too short, add leading zeros, like
3944
3945 (?[ [ \078 ] ]) # Syntax error!
3946 (?[ [ \0078 ] ]) # Works
3947 (?[ [ \007 8 ] ]) # Clearer
3948
3949The maximum number this construct can express is C<\777>. If you
675fa9ff
FC
3950need a larger one, you need to use L<\o{}|perlrebackslash/Octal escapes> instead. If you meant
3951two separate things, you need to separate them:
0d0b4b3b
KW
3952
3953 (?[ [ \7776 ] ]) # Syntax error!
3954 (?[ [ \o{7776} ] ]) # One meaning
3955 (?[ [ \777 6 ] ]) # Another meaning
3956 (?[ [ \777 \006 ] ]) # Still another
3957
49704364
WL
3958=item Negative '/' count in unpack
3959
3960(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
3961negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3962
a0d0e21e
LW
3963=item Negative length
3964
be771a83
GS
3965(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
3966length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 3967
ed9aa3b7
SG
3968=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
3969
3970(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
3971greater than or equal to zero.
3972
b3211734
KW
3973=item Negative repeat count does nothing
3974
3975(W numeric) You tried to execute the
3976L<C<x>|perlop/Multiplicative Operators> repetition operator fewer than 0
3977times, which doesn't make sense.
3978
e0e4a6e3 3979=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3980
6903afa2 3981(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses.
e0e4a6e3 3982So things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The S<<-- HERE> shows
9e3ec65c 3983whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 3984
7253e4e3 3985Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 3986C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3987
6df41af2 3988=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 3989
be771a83
GS
3990(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
3991scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e 3992
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3993=item next::method/next::can/maybe::next::method cannot find enclosing method
3994
3995(F) C<next::method> needs to be called within the context of a
3996real method in a real package, and it could not find such a context.
3997See L<mro>.
3998
5a25739d 3999=item \N in a character class must be a named character: \N{...} in regex;
e0e4a6e3 4000marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5a25739d 4001
32a77fbe
FC
4002(F) The new (as of Perl 5.12) meaning of C<\N> as C<[^\n]> is not valid in a
4003bracketed character class, for the same reason that C<.> in a character
4004class loses its specialness: it matches almost everything, which is
4005probably not what you want.
5a25739d 4006
022a330c 4007=item \N{} in inverted character class or as a range end-point is restricted to one character in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
0b4ce96d 4008
f3ba6905
FC
4009(F) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a
4010multi-character sequence. Even though a character class is
4011supposed to match just one character of input, perl will match the
4012whole thing correctly, except when the class is inverted (C<[^...]>),
4013or the escape is the beginning or final end point of a range. The
4014mathematically logical behavior for what matches when inverting
4015is very different from what people expect, so we have decided to
4016forbid it. Similarly unclear is what should be generated when the
4017C<\N{...}> is used as one of the end points of the range, such as in
8f0cd35a
KW
4018
4019 [\x{41}-\N{ARABIC SEQUENCE YEH WITH HAMZA ABOVE WITH AE}]
4020
f3ba6905
FC
4021What is meant here is unclear, as the C<\N{...}> escape is a sequence
4022of code points, so this is made an error.
0b4ce96d 4023
e0e4a6e3
FC
4024=item \N{NAME} must be resolved by the lexer in regex; marked by
4025S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5a25739d
FC
4026
4027(F) When compiling a regex pattern, an unresolved named character or
4028sequence was encountered. This can happen in any of several ways that
4029bypass the lexer, such as using single-quotish context, or an extra
4030backslash in double-quotish:
4031
4032 $re = '\N{SPACE}'; # Wrong!
4033 $re = "\\N{SPACE}"; # Wrong!
4034 /$re/;
4035
4036Instead, use double-quotes with a single backslash:
4037
4038 $re = "\N{SPACE}"; # ok
4039 /$re/;
4040
4041The lexer can be bypassed as well by creating the pattern from smaller
4042components:
4043
4044 $re = '\N';
4045 /${re}{SPACE}/; # Wrong!
4046
4047It's not a good idea to split a construct in the middle like this, and
4048it doesn't work here. Instead use the solution above.
4049
4050Finally, the message also can happen under the C</x> regex modifier when the
4051C<\N> is separated by spaces from the C<{>, in which case, remove the spaces.
4052
4053 /\N {SPACE}/x; # Wrong!
4054 /\N{SPACE}/x; # ok
4055
a0d0e21e
LW
4056=item No %s allowed while running setuid
4057
be771a83
GS
4058(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
4059setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
4060will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
4061securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 4062
6651ba0b
FC
4063=item No code specified for -%c
4064
4065(F) Perl's B<-e> and B<-E> command-line options require an argument. If
4066you want to run an empty program, pass the empty string as a separate
4067argument or run a program consisting of a single 0 or 1:
4068
4069 perl -e ""
4070 perl -e0
4071 perl -e1
4072
a0d0e21e
LW
4073=item No comma allowed after %s
4074
6903afa2
FC
4075(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is
4076not allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
a0d0e21e
LW
4077Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
4078
6903afa2
FC
4079One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported
4080a constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
4081importing took place, it may for example be that your operating
4082system does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did
4083use an explicit import list for the constants you expect to see;
4084please see L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an
4085explicit import list would probably have caught this error earlier
4086it naturally does not remedy the fact that your operating system
4087still does not support that constant. Maybe you have a typo in
4088the constants of the symbol import list of B<use> or B<import> or in the
4089constant name at the line where this error was triggered?
0a753a76 4090
748a9306
LW
4091=item No command into which to pipe on command line
4092
be771a83
GS
4093(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4094redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
4095doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 4096
a0d0e21e
LW
4097=item No DB::DB routine defined
4098
be771a83 4099(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
f7af5ce1 4100for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
ccafdc96
RGS
4101module) didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
4102statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
4103
4104=item No dbm on this machine
4105
4106(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 4107supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e 4108
ccafdc96 4109=item No DB::sub routine defined
a0d0e21e 4110
ccafdc96
RGS
4111(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
4112for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
4113module) didn't define a C<DB::sub> routine to be called at the beginning
4114of each ordinary subroutine call.
a0d0e21e 4115
6651ba0b
FC
4116=item No directory specified for -I
4117
4118(F) The B<-I> command-line switch requires a directory name as part of the
4119I<same> argument. Use B<-Ilib>, for instance. B<-I lib> won't work.
4120
c47ff5f1 4121=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 4122
be771a83
GS
4123(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4124redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
4125find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 4126
49704364
WL
4127=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
4128
4129(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
6903afa2 4130matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 4131
c47ff5f1 4132=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 4133
be771a83
GS
4134(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4135redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
4136name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 4137
2c7d6b9c
RGS
4138=item No next::method '%s' found for %s
4139
4140(F) C<next::method> found no further instances of this method name
4141in the remaining packages of the MRO of this class. If you don't want
4142it throwing an exception, use C<maybe::next::method>
fa816bf3 4143or C<next::can>. See L<mro>.
2c7d6b9c 4144
02a7a248
JH
4145=item Non-finite repeat count does nothing
4146
4147(W numeric) You tried to execute the
8a737443
FC
4148L<C<x>|perlop/Multiplicative Operators> repetition operator C<Inf> (or
4149C<-Inf>) or C<NaN> times, which doesn't make sense.
02a7a248 4150
e0e4a6e3 4151=item Non-hex character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
4152
4153(F) In a regular expression, there was a non-hexadecimal character where
4154a hex one was expected, like
4155
4156 (?[ [ \xDG ] ])
4157 (?[ [ \x{DEKA} ] ])
4158
e0e4a6e3 4159=item Non-octal character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
4160
4161(F) In a regular expression, there was a non-octal character where
4162an octal one was expected, like
4163
4164 (?[ [ \o{1278} ] ])
4165
4166=item Non-octal character '%c'. Resolved as "%s"
4167
4168(W digit) In parsing an octal numeric constant, a character was
4169unexpectedly encountered that isn't octal. The resulting value
4170is as indicated.
4171
6df41af2
GS
4172=item "no" not allowed in expression
4173
be771a83
GS
4174(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
4175returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 4176
675fa9ff
FC
4177=item Non-string passed as bitmask
4178
4179(W misc) A number has been passed as a bitmask argument to select().
4180Use the vec() function to construct the file descriptor bitmasks for
4181select. See L<perlfunc/select>.
4182
c47ff5f1 4183=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 4184
be771a83
GS
4185(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4186redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
4187doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 4188
c47ff5f1 4189=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 4190
be771a83
GS
4191(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4192redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
4193find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 4194
8d9d0498
FC
4195=item No package name allowed for subroutine %s in "our"
4196
1ec3e8de
GS
4197=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
4198
8d9d0498
FC
4199(F) Fully qualified subroutine and variable names are not allowed in "our"
4200declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing rules.
4201Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 4202
a0d0e21e
LW
4203=item No Perl script found in input
4204
4205(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
4206with #! and containing the word "perl".
4207
4208=item No setregid available
4209
4210(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
4211your system.
4212
4213=item No setreuid available
4214
4215(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
4216your system.
4217
5a25739d
FC
4218=item No such class %s
4219
4220(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state"
4221declaration, but this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
4222
e75d1f10
RD
4223=item No such class field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
4224
b7e4ecc1
FC
4225(F) You tried to access a key from a hash through the indicated typed
4226variable but that key is not allowed by the package of the same type.
4227The indicated package has restricted the set of allowed keys using the
4228L<fields> pragma.
e75d1f10 4229
3c20a832
SP
4230=item No such hook: %s
4231
dc7e5945
FC
4232(F) You specified a signal hook that was not recognized by Perl.
4233Currently, Perl accepts C<__DIE__> and C<__WARN__> as valid signal hooks.
3c20a832 4234
6df41af2
GS
4235=item No such pipe open
4236
4237(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
4238close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
4239earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 4240
a0d0e21e
LW
4241=item No such signal: SIG%s
4242
be771a83
GS
4243(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
4244not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
4245names on your system.
a0d0e21e
LW
4246
4247=item Not a CODE reference
4248
4249(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
4250subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
4251use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
4252also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4253
a0d0e21e
LW
4254=item Not a GLOB reference
4255
be771a83
GS
4256(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
4257symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
4258something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
4259kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4260
4261=item Not a HASH reference
4262
be771a83
GS
4263(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
4264reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
4265find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4266
b913d0b8
FC
4267=item '#' not allowed immediately following a sigil in a subroutine signature
4268
4269(F) In a subroutine signature definition, a comment following a sigil
dabde021 4270(C<$>, C<@> or C<%>), needs to be separated by whitespace or a comma etc., in
b913d0b8
FC
4271particular to avoid confusion with the C<$#> variable. For example:
4272
4273 # bad
4274 sub f ($# ignore first arg
4275 , $b) {}
4276 # good
4277 sub f ($, # ignore first arg
4278 $b) {}
4279
6df41af2
GS
4280=item Not an ARRAY reference
4281
be771a83
GS
4282(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
4283a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
4284to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 4285
a0d0e21e
LW
4286=item Not a SCALAR reference
4287
be771a83
GS
4288(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
4289a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
4290to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4291
4292=item Not a subroutine reference
4293
4294(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
4295subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
4296use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
4297also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4298
e7ea3e70 4299=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
4300
4301(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 4302doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 4303
a0d0e21e
LW
4304=item Not enough arguments for %s
4305
4306(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
4307
6df41af2
GS
4308=item Not enough format arguments
4309
be771a83
GS
4310(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
4311supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
4312
4313=item %s: not found
4314
be771a83
GS
4315(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
4316of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
4317yourself.
6df41af2 4318
e0e4a6e3 4319=item (?[...]) not valid in locale in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
4320
4321(F) C<(?[...])> cannot be used within the scope of a C<S<use locale>> or with
4322an C</l> regular expression modifier, as that would require deferring
4323to run-time the calculation of what it should evaluate to, and it is
4324regex compile-time only.
4325
6df41af2 4326=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 4327
6df41af2
GS
4328(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
4329timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
4330to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
4331F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
4332need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e 4333
6df41af2
GS
4334=item NULL OP IN RUN
4335
f84fe999 4336(S debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
be771a83 4337pointer.
6df41af2 4338
55497cff 4339=item Null picture in formline
4340
4341(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
4342specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
4343supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
4344
a0d0e21e
LW
4345=item Null realloc
4346
4347(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
4348
4349=item NULL regexp argument
4350
5f05dabc 4351(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
4352
4353=item NULL regexp parameter
4354
4355(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
4356
fc36a67e 4357=item Number too long
4358
be771a83 4359(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 4360about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
4361versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
4362the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
4363"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 4364
f0a2b745
KW
4365=item Number with no digits
4366
1043934d 4367(F) Perl was looking for a number but found nothing that looked like
6903afa2 4368a number. This happens, for example with C<\o{}>, with no number between
1043934d 4369the braces.
f0a2b745 4370
252aa082
JH
4371=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
4372
75b44862 4373(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
4374(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
4375L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 4376
ac7609e4 4377=item Odd name/value argument for subroutine '%s'
30d9c59b
Z
4378
4379(F) A subroutine using a slurpy hash parameter in its signature
4380received an odd number of arguments to populate the hash. It requires
4381the arguments to be paired, with the same number of keys as values.
35e5ce67 4382The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault.
30d9c59b 4383
ac7609e4
AC
4384The message attempts to include the name of the called subroutine. If the
4385subroutine has been aliased, the subroutine's original name will be shown,
4386regardless of what name the caller used.
4387
6ad11d81
JH
4388=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
4389
04a80ee0 4390(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
6903afa2 4391arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 4392
b21befc1
MG
4393=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
4394
4395(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
4396which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
4397
1930e939 4398=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 4399
be771a83
GS
4400(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
4401which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 4402
bbce6d69 4403=item Offset outside string
4404
1fa582fa 4405(F)(W layer) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv/seek operation
42bc49da 4406with an offset pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to
f5a7294f
JH
4407imagine. The sole exceptions to this are that zero padding will
4408take place when going past the end of the string when either
4409C<sysread()>ing a file, or when seeking past the end of a scalar opened
0f44b2a5 4410for I/O (in anticipation of future reads and to imitate the behavior
1a7a2554 4411with real files).
bbce6d69 4412
2cb35ee0
FC
4413=item Old package separator used in string
4414
4415(W syntax) You used the old package separator, "'", in a variable
4416named inside a double-quoted string; e.g., C<"In $name's house">. This
4417is equivalent to C<"In $name::s house">. If you meant the former, put
4418a backslash before the apostrophe (C<"In $name\'s house">).
4419
c289d2f7 4420=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
4421
4422(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
4423never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
4424call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
4425
96ebfdd7
RK
4426=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
4427
4428(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
4429that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
4430
a0d0e21e
LW
4431=item oops: oopsAV
4432
e476b1b5 4433(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
4434
4435=item oops: oopsHV
4436
e476b1b5 4437(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 4438
e0e4a6e3
FC
4439=item Operand with no preceding operator in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
4440m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 4441
675fa9ff 4442(F) You wrote something like
0d0b4b3b
KW
4443
4444 (?[ \p{Digit} \p{Thai} ])
4445
4446There are two operands, but no operator giving how you want to combine
4447them.
4448
a0288114 4449=item Operation "%s": no method found, %s
44a8e56a 4450
be771a83
GS
4451(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
4452handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
4453of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
e4aad80d 4454the C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 4455
5ff1373f 4456=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for non-Unicode code point 0x%X
9ae3ac1a 4457
52d1f2c9 4458(S non_unicode) You performed an operation requiring Unicode rules
b5af3ad2
FC
4459on a code point that is not in Unicode, so what it should do is not
4460defined. Perl has chosen to have it do nothing, and warn you.
9ae3ac1a
KW
4461
4462If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
4463matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
4464
4465If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 4466C<no warnings 'non_unicode';>.
9ae3ac1a 4467
5ff1373f 4468=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
9ae3ac1a 4469
4c2e59a0 4470(S surrogate) You performed an operation requiring Unicode
52d1f2c9 4471rules on a Unicode surrogate. Unicode frowns upon the use
ad94bb39 4472of surrogates for anything but storing strings in UTF-16, but
52d1f2c9 4473rules are (reluctantly) defined for the surrogates, and
ad94bb39
FC
4474they are to do nothing for this operation. Because the use of
4475surrogates can be dangerous, Perl warns.
9ae3ac1a
KW
4476
4477If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
4478matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
4479
4480If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 4481C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9ae3ac1a 4482
748a9306
LW
4483=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
4484
be771a83
GS
4485(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
4486was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
4487use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
4488example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
4489"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 4490
30d9c59b
Z
4491=item Optional parameter lacks default expression
4492
4493(F) In a subroutine signature, you wrote something like "$a =", making a
4494named optional parameter without a default value. A nameless optional
4495parameter is permitted to have no default value, but a named one must
4496have a specific default. You probably want "$a = undef".
4497
6df41af2
GS
4498=item "our" variable %s redeclared
4499
52e3acf8 4500(W shadow) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
be771a83 4501in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 4502
a80b8354
GS
4503=item Out of memory!
4504
4505(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
4506remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
4507no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 4508
19a52907
JH
4509At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
4510process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
4511C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
4512the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
4513and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
4514
6d3b25aa
RGS
4515=item Out of memory during %s extend
4516
4517(X) An attempt was made to extend an array, a list, or a string beyond
4518the largest possible memory allocation.
4519
6df41af2 4520=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 4521
6df41af2 4522(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
6903afa2 4523remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
4524the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
4525possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 4526
1b979e0a 4527=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 4528
1fa582fa 4529(X)(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
be771a83
GS
4530insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
4531request.
eff9c6e2
CS
4532
4533The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
4534depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
4535However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
4536emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
4537is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
4538where the failed request happened.
55497cff 4539
1b979e0a
IZ
4540=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
4541
4542(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
4543is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
4544C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 4545
6df41af2
GS
4546=item Out of memory for yacc stack
4547
be771a83
GS
4548(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
4549parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
4550otherwise.
6df41af2 4551
28be1210
TH
4552=item '.' outside of string in pack
4553
4554(F) The argument to a '.' in your template tried to move the working
4555position to before the start of the packed string being built.
4556
49704364 4557=item '@' outside of string in unpack
6df41af2 4558
49704364 4559(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6df41af2
GS
4560the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4561
f337b084
TH
4562=item '@' outside of string with malformed UTF-8 in unpack
4563
4564(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6903afa2 4565the string being unpacked. The string being unpacked was also invalid
fa816bf3 4566UTF-8. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
f337b084 4567
7778d804
FC
4568=item overload arg '%s' is invalid
4569
4570(W overload) The L<overload> pragma was passed an argument it did not
4571recognize. Did you mistype an operator?
4572
7cb0cfe6
BM
4573=item Overloaded dereference did not return a reference
4574
4575(F) An object with an overloaded dereference operator was dereferenced,
6903afa2 4576but the overloaded operation did not return a reference. See
7cb0cfe6
BM
4577L<overload>.
4578
4579=item Overloaded qr did not return a REGEXP
4580
4581(F) An object with a C<qr> overload was used as part of a match, but the
6903afa2 4582overloaded operation didn't return a compiled regexp. See L<overload>.
7cb0cfe6 4583
6df41af2
GS
4584=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
4585
be771a83
GS
4586(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
4587package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
4588some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
4589mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 4590
96ebfdd7
RK
4591=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
4592
4593(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
4594signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4595
a0d0e21e
LW
4596=item page overflow
4597
be771a83
GS
4598(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
4599page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 4600
6df41af2
GS
4601=item panic: %s
4602
4603(P) An internal error.
4604
c99a1475
NC
4605=item panic: attempt to call %s in %s
4606
4607(P) One of the file test operators entered a code branch that calls
4608an ACL related-function, but that function is not available on this
4609platform. Earlier checks mean that it should not be possible to
4610enter this branch on this platform.
4611
d5e473ac
SH
4612=item panic: child pseudo-process was never scheduled
4613
4614(P) A child pseudo-process in the ithreads implementation on Windows
4615was not scheduled within the time period allowed and therefore was not
4616able to initialize properly.
4617
5637ef5b 4618=item panic: ck_grep, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4619
4620(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
4621
5637ef5b 4622=item panic: corrupt saved stack index %ld
a0d0e21e 4623
be771a83
GS
4624(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
4625there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 4626
810b8aa5
GS
4627=item panic: del_backref
4628
4629(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
4630reference.
4631
a0d0e21e
LW
4632=item panic: do_subst
4633
be771a83
GS
4634(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
4635data.
a0d0e21e 4636
2269b42e 4637=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 4638
2269b42e 4639(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 4640data.
a0d0e21e 4641
b7f7fd0b
NC
4642=item panic: fold_constants JMPENV_PUSH returned %d
4643
10203f38 4644(P) While attempting folding constants an exception other than an C<eval>
b7f7fd0b
NC
4645failure was caught.
4646
255abbe7 4647=item panic: frexp: %f
c635e13b 4648
4649(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
4650
5637ef5b 4651=item panic: goto, type=%u, ix=%ld
a0d0e21e
LW
4652
4653(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
4654and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
4655
b0d55c99
FC
4656=item panic: gp_free failed to free glob pointer
4657
4658(P) The internal routine used to clear a typeglob's entries tried
6903afa2
FC
4659repeatedly, but each time something re-created entries in the glob.
4660Most likely the glob contains an object with a reference back to
4661the glob and a destructor that adds a new object to the glob.
b0d55c99 4662
5637ef5b 4663=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4664
4665(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
4666
5637ef5b 4667=item panic: INTERPCONCAT, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4668
4669(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
4670
e446cec8
IZ
4671=item panic: kid popen errno read
4672
1f91b9f5 4673(F) A forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
e446cec8 4674
5637ef5b 4675=item panic: last, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4676
4677(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
4678it wasn't a block context.
4679
4680=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
4681
be771a83
GS
4682(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
4683scope.
a0d0e21e 4684
5637ef5b 4685=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency %u
a0d0e21e
LW
4686
4687(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
4688invalid enum on the top of it.
4689
810b8aa5
GS
4690=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
4691
4692(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
4693references to an object.
4694
5637ef5b 4695=item panic: malloc, %s
6df41af2
GS
4696
4697(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
4698
27d5b266
JH
4699=item panic: memory wrap
4700
46f9c2c2
FC
4701(P) Something tried to allocate either more memory than possible or a
4702negative amount.
27d5b266 4703
5637ef5b 4704=item panic: pad_alloc, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4705
4706(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4707and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4708
5637ef5b 4709=item panic: pad_free curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4710
4711(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4712and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4713
4714=item panic: pad_free po
4715
c1bd5aaa 4716(P) A zero scratch pad offset was detected internally. An attempt was
61a9f070 4717made to free a target that had not been allocated to begin with.
a0d0e21e 4718
5637ef5b 4719=item panic: pad_reset curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4720
4721(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4722and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4723
4724=item panic: pad_sv po
4725
61a9f070
FC
4726(P) A zero scratch pad offset was detected internally. Most likely
4727an operator needed a target but that target had not been allocated
4728for whatever reason.
a0d0e21e 4729
5637ef5b 4730=item panic: pad_swipe curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4731
4732(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4733and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4734
4735=item panic: pad_swipe po
4736
4737(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
4738
5637ef5b 4739=item panic: pp_iter, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4740
4741(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
4742
96ebfdd7
RK
4743=item panic: pp_match%s
4744
4745(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
4746data.
4747
5637ef5b 4748=item panic: realloc, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4749
4750(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
4751
ccfb6d2e
FC
4752=item panic: reference miscount on nsv in sv_replace() (%d != 1)
4753
4754(P) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
4755reference count other than 1.
4756
5637ef5b 4757=item panic: restartop in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4758
4759(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
4760didn't supply the destination.
4761
5637ef5b 4762=item panic: return, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4763
4764(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
4765then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
4766
5637ef5b 4767=item panic: scan_num, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4768
4769(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
4770
4599db5f 4771=item panic: Sequence (?{...}): no code block found in regex m/%s/
d24ca0c5 4772
1f91b9f5 4773(P) While compiling a pattern that has embedded (?{}) or (??{}) code
d24ca0c5
DM
4774blocks, perl couldn't locate the code block that should have already been
4775seen and compiled by perl before control passed to the regex compiler.
4776
5a25739d
FC
4777=item panic: strxfrm() gets absurd - a => %u, ab => %u
4778
4779(P) The interpreter's sanity check of the C function strxfrm() failed.
4780In your current locale the returned transformation of the string "ab"
4781is shorter than that of the string "a", which makes no sense.
4782
6c65d5f9
NC
4783=item panic: sv_chop %s
4784
4785(P) The sv_chop() routine was passed a position that is not within the
4786scalar's string buffer.
4787
5637ef5b 4788=item panic: sv_insert, midend=%p, bigend=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4789
4790(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
4791was string.
4792
4793=item panic: top_env
4794
6224f72b 4795(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e 4796
65bca31a
NC
4797=item panic: unimplemented op %s (#%d) called
4798
a1efa96e
FC
4799(P) The compiler is screwed up and attempted to use an op that isn't
4800permitted at run time.
65bca31a 4801
01bbc29f
FC
4802=item panic: unknown OA_*: %x
4803
4804(P) The internal routine that handles arguments to C<&CORE::foo()>
4805subroutine calls was unable to determine what type of arguments
4806were expected.
4807
dea0fc0b
JH
4808=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
4809
4810(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 4811to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 4812
e0ea5e2d
NC
4813=item panic: utf16_to_utf8_reversed: odd bytelen
4814
4815(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8_reversed with an odd (as opposed
4816to even) byte length.
4817
5637ef5b 4818=item panic: yylex, %s
2f7da168
RK
4819
4820(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
4821
78181aa9
KW
4822=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
4823
4824(W parenthesis) You said something like
4825
4826 my $foo, $bar = @_;
4827
4828when you meant
4829
4830 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
4831
4832Remember that "my", "our", "local" and "state" bind tighter than comma.
4833
28ac2b49
Z
4834=item Parsing code internal error (%s)
4835
4836(F) Parsing code supplied by an extension violated the parser's API in
4837a detectable way.
4838
b9bd8d8c 4839=item Pattern subroutine nesting without pos change exceeded limit in regex
1a147d38
YO
4840
4841(F) You used a pattern that uses too many nested subpattern calls without
6903afa2
FC
4842consuming any text. Restructure the pattern so text is consumed before
4843the nesting limit is exceeded.
1a147d38 4844
96ebfdd7
RK
4845=item C<-p> destination: %s
4846
4847(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
4848command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
4849redirected it with select().)
4850
0ae4a328
FC
4851=item Perl API version %s of %s does not match %s
4852
d792985a 4853(F) The XS module in question was compiled against a different incompatible
0ae4a328
FC
4854version of Perl than the one that has loaded the XS module.
4855
8954b91a 4856=item Perl folding rules are not up-to-date for 0x%X; please use the perlbug
e0e4a6e3 4857utility to report; in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
d50a4f90 4858
6014bd26
JK
4859(S regexp) You used a regular expression with case-insensitive matching,
4860and there is a bug in Perl in which the built-in regular expression
4861folding rules are not accurate. This may lead to incorrect results.
4862Please report this as a bug using the L<perlbug> utility.
d50a4f90 4863
f51551f7
FC
4864=item PerlIO layer ':win32' is experimental
4865
4866(S experimental::win32_perlio) The C<:win32> PerlIO layer is
4867experimental. If you want to take the risk of using this layer,
4868simply disable this warning:
4869
4870 no warnings "experimental::win32_perlio";
4871
1109a392
MHM
4872=item Perl_my_%s() not available
4873
4874(F) Your platform has very uncommon byte-order and integer size,
4875so it was not possible to set up some or all fixed-width byte-order
4876conversion functions. This is only a problem when you're using the
4877'<' or '>' modifiers in (un)pack templates. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4878
6651ba0b
FC
4879=item Perl %s required (did you mean %s?)--this is only %s, stopped
4880
4881(F) The code you are trying to run has asked for a newer version of
4882Perl than you are running. Perhaps C<use 5.10> was written instead
4883of C<use 5.010> or C<use v5.10>. Without the leading C<v>, the number is
4884interpreted as a decimal, with every three digits after the
4885decimal point representing a part of the version number. So 5.10
4886is equivalent to v5.100.
4887
6903f24f 4888=item Perl %s required--this is only %s, stopped
6d3b25aa
RGS
4889
4890(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
4891recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
4892you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
4893
6df41af2
GS
4894=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
4895
fa816bf3 4896(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 4897C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 4898
96ebfdd7
RK
4899=item PERL_SIGNALS illegal: "%s"
4900
806b6d07 4901(X) See L<perlrun/PERL_SIGNALS> for legal values.
96ebfdd7 4902
6651ba0b
FC
4903=item Perls since %s too modern--this is %s, stopped
4904
4905(F) The code you are trying to run claims it will not run
4906on the version of Perl you are using because it is too new.
4907Maybe the code needs to be updated, or maybe it is simply
4908wrong and the version check should just be removed.
4909
675fa9ff
FC
4910=item perl: warning: Non hex character in '$ENV{PERL_HASH_SEED}', seed only partially set
4911
ff9c1ae8 4912(S) PERL_HASH_SEED should match /^\s*(?:0x)?[0-9a-fA-F]+\s*\z/ but it
675fa9ff
FC
4913contained a non hex character. This could mean you are not using the
4914hash seed you think you are.
6a5b4183 4915
6df41af2
GS
4916=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
4917
4918(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
4919
4920 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
4921 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
4922 LC_ALL = "En_US",
4923 LANG = (unset)
4924 are supported and installed on your system.
4925 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
4926
4927Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
4928settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
0ea6b70f
JH
4929This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
4930system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
4931locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
4932dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
4b07a369
FC
4933Perl can and will use, and the script will be run. Before you really
4934fix the problem, however, you will get the same error message each
4935time you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
0ea6b70f 4936L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
6df41af2 4937
6a5b4183
YO
4938=item perl: warning: strange setting in '$ENV{PERL_PERTURB_KEYS}': '%s'
4939
ff9c1ae8 4940(S) Perl was run with the environment variable PERL_PERTURB_KEYS defined
675fa9ff 4941but containing an unexpected value. The legal values of this setting
6a5b4183
YO
4942are as follows.
4943
4944 Numeric | String | Result
4945 --------+---------------+-----------------------------------------
4946 0 | NO | Disables key traversal randomization
4947 1 | RANDOM | Enables full key traversal randomization
555bd962
BG
4948 2 | DETERMINISTIC | Enables repeatable key traversal
4949 | | randomization
6a5b4183
YO
4950
4951Both numeric and string values are accepted, but note that string values are
675fa9ff 4952case sensitive. The default for this setting is "RANDOM" or 1.
aac486f1 4953
bd3fa61c 4954=item pid %x not a child
748a9306 4955
be771a83
GS
4956(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
4957process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
4958fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
748a9306 4959
49704364 4960=item 'P' must have an explicit size in unpack
3bf38418
WL
4961
4962(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
4963
6e8a73f2 4964=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
96ebfdd7 4965
e0e4a6e3 4966(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The S<<-- HERE>
9e3ec65c 4967shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
96ebfdd7
RK
4968Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
4969the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
4970not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
4971
4972=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
4973
4974(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
4975the BSD version, which takes a pid.
4976
46d34d0e 4977=item POSIX syntax [%c %c] belongs inside character classes%s in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 4978S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 4979
46d34d0e
KW
4980(W regexp) Perl thinks that you intended to write a POSIX character
4981class, but didn't use enough brackets. These POSIX class constructs [:
4982:], [= =], and [. .] go I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of
4983the construct, for example: C<qr/[012[:alpha:]345]/>. What the regular
4984expression pattern compiled to is probably not what you were intending.
4985For example, C<qr/[:alpha:]/> compiles to a regular bracketed character
4986class consisting of the four characters C<":">, C<"a">, C<"l">,
4987C<"h">, and C<"p">. To specify the POSIX class, it should have been
4988written C<qr/[[:alpha:]]/>.
4989
4990Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
9e3ec65c 4991implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and
e0e4a6e3 4992will cause fatal errors. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 4993expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4994
46d34d0e
KW
4995If the specification of the class was not completely valid, the message
4996indicates that.
4997
6fbc9859 4998=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 4999S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 5000
a125938c
FC
5001(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
5002with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
5003need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
5004character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[."
e0e4a6e3 5005and ".\]". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
a125938c 5006problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5007
6fbc9859 5008=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 5009S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 5010
7253e4e3
RK
5011(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
5012with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
5013need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
5014character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
e0e4a6e3 5015and "=\]". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
7253e4e3 5016problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5017
bbce6d69 5018=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
5019
e476b1b5 5020(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
75b44862 5021strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
be771a83
GS
5022literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
5023parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
bbce6d69 5024
774d564b 5025You probably wrote something like this:
5026
54310121 5027 @list = qw(
774d564b 5028 a # a comment
bbce6d69 5029 b # another comment
774d564b 5030 );
bbce6d69 5031
5032when you should have written this:
5033
774d564b 5034 @list = qw(
54310121 5035 a
5036 b
774d564b 5037 );
5038
5039If you really want comments, build your list the
5040old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
5041
5042 @list = (
5043 'a', # a comment
5044 'b', # another comment
5045 );
bbce6d69 5046
5047=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
5048
be771a83
GS
5049(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
5050commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
5051different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
5052frequently used.)
bbce6d69 5053
54310121 5054You probably wrote something like this:
bbce6d69 5055
774d564b 5056 qw! a, b, c !;
5057
5058which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
5059commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
bbce6d69 5060
774d564b 5061 qw! a b c !;
bbce6d69 5062
a0d0e21e
LW
5063=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
5064
5065(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
5066Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
5067end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
5068Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
5069
9da2d046
NT
5070=item Possible precedence issue with control flow operator
5071
5072(W syntax) There is a possible problem with the mixing of a control
5073flow operator (e.g. C<return>) and a low-precedence operator like
5074C<or>. Consider:
5075
5076 sub { return $a or $b; }
5077
5078This is parsed as:
5079
5080 sub { (return $a) or $b; }
5081
5082Which is effectively just:
5083
5084 sub { return $a; }
5085
5086Either use parentheses or the high-precedence variant of the operator.
5087
5088Note this may be also triggered for constructs like:
5089
5090 sub { 1 if die; }
5091
8823cb89 5092=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %s operator
a690c7c4
FC
5093
5094(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
5095with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
5096
5097 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
5098
5099This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
5100higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
5101really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, put the
5102parentheses explicitly and write C<$x & ($y == 0)>).
5103
77772344
B
5104=item Possible unintended interpolation of $\ in regex
5105
5106(W ambiguous) You said something like C<m/$\/> in a regex.
5107The regex C<m/foo$\s+bar/m> translates to: match the word 'foo', the output
8ddb446c 5108record separator (see L<perlvar/$\>) and the letter 's' (one time or more)
77772344
B
5109followed by the word 'bar'.
5110
5111If this is what you intended then you can silence the warning by using
5112C<m/${\}/> (for example: C<m/foo${\}s+bar/>).
5113
5114If instead you intended to match the word 'foo' at the end of the line
5115followed by whitespace and the word 'bar' on the next line then you can use
5116C<m/$(?)\/> (for example: C<m/foo$(?)\s+bar/>).
5117
e5035638
FC
5118=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
5119
ccf3535a 5120(W ambiguous) You said something like '@foo' in a double-quoted string
6903afa2 5121but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
e5035638
FC
5122literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
5123to the array you apparently lost track of.
5124
a0d0e21e
LW
5125=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
5126
e476b1b5 5127(S precedence) The old irregular construct
cb1a09d0 5128
a0d0e21e
LW
5129 open FOO || die;
5130
5131is now misinterpreted as
5132
5133 open(FOO || die);
5134
be771a83
GS
5135because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
5136list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
5137parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
5138of "||".
a0d0e21e 5139
3cdd684c
TP
5140=item Premature end of script headers
5141
3de20fbe 5142See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 5143
6df41af2
GS
5144=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
5145
be771a83 5146(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5147before now. Check your control flow.
6df41af2 5148
9a7dcd9c 5149=item print() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 5150
be771a83 5151(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5152before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5153
6df41af2 5154=item Process terminated by SIG%s
a0d0e21e 5155
6df41af2
GS
5156(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
5157applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
5158port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
5159L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
fecfaeb8 5160in L<perlos2>.
a0d0e21e 5161
327323c1
RGS
5162=item Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s
5163
fa816bf3
FC
5164(W illegalproto) A character follows % or @ in a prototype. This is
5165useless, since % and @ gobble the rest of the subroutine arguments.
327323c1 5166
3fe9a6f1 5167=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4633a7c4 5168
9a0b3859 5169(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
be771a83 5170declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4633a7c4 5171
ed9aa3b7
SG
5172=item Prototype not terminated
5173
2a6fd447 5174(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
ed9aa3b7
SG
5175definition.
5176
eedb00fa
PM
5177=item Prototype '%s' overridden by attribute 'prototype(%s)' in %s
5178
5179(W prototype) A prototype was declared in both the parentheses after
5180the sub name and via the prototype attribute. The prototype in
5181parentheses is useless, since it will be replaced by the prototype
5182from the attribute before it's ever used.
5183
6e8a73f2 5184=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
96ebfdd7 5185
6903afa2 5186(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if
e0e4a6e3 5187you meant it literally. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 5188expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
96ebfdd7 5189
6e8a73f2 5190=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9baa0206 5191
6903afa2 5192(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of
e0e4a6e3 5193the {min,max} construct. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 5194expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9baa0206 5195
675fa9ff
FC
5196=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex
5197
e0e4a6e3
FC
5198=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex; marked by
5199S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
5200
5201(W regexp) Minima should be less than or equal to maxima. If you really
5202want your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}.
5203
e1729dc6 5204=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression in regex m/%s/
9baa0206 5205
b45f050a
JF
5206(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
5207it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
5208quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
5209"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
5210C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
9baa0206 5211
89ea2908
GA
5212=item Range iterator outside integer range
5213
5214(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
5215are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
be771a83
GS
5216One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
5217by prepending "0" to your numbers.
89ea2908 5218
ad513756 5219=item Ranges of ASCII printables should be some subset of "0-9", "A-Z", or
6e8a73f2 5220"a-z" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ad513756
FC
5221
5222(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
5223
5224Stricter rules help to find typos and other errors. Perhaps you didn't
5225even intend a range here, if the C<"-"> was meant to be some other
5226character, or should have been escaped (like C<"\-">). If you did
5227intend a range, the one that was used is not portable between ASCII and
5228EBCDIC platforms, and doesn't have an obvious meaning to a casual
5229reader.
5230
5231 [3-7] # OK; Obvious and portable
5232 [d-g] # OK; Obvious and portable
5233 [A-Y] # OK; Obvious and portable
5234 [A-z] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5235 [a-Z] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5236 [%-.] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5237 [\x41-Z] # WRONG; Not portable; not obvious to non-geek
5238
5239(You can force portability by specifying a Unicode range, which means that
5240the endpoints are specified by
5241L<C<\N{...}>|perlrecharclass/Character Ranges>, but the meaning may
5242still not be obvious.)
5243The stricter rules require that ranges that start or stop with an ASCII
5244character that is not a control have all their endpoints be the literal
5245character, and not some escape sequence (like C<"\x41">), and the ranges
5246must be all digits, or all uppercase letters, or all lowercase letters.
5247
5248=item Ranges of digits should be from the same group in regex; marked by
6e8a73f2 5249S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ad513756
FC
5250
5251(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
5252
5253Stricter rules help to find typos and other errors. You included a
5254range, and at least one of the end points is a decimal digit. Under the
5255stricter rules, when this happens, both end points should be digits in
5256the same group of 10 consecutive digits.
5257
3b7fbd4a
SP
5258=item readdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5259
1a147d38 5260(W io) The dirhandle you're reading from is either closed or not really
3b7fbd4a
SP
5261a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5262
96ebfdd7
RK
5263=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
5264
5265(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
5266before now. Check your control flow.
5267
b5fe5ca2
SR
5268=item read() on closed filehandle %s
5269
5270(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
5271
5272=item read() on unopened filehandle %s
5273
5274(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
5275
de42a5a9 5276=item Reallocation too large: %x
6df41af2
GS
5277
5278(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
5279
4ad56ec9
IZ
5280=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
5281
be771a83
GS
5282(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
5283already been freed.
4ad56ec9 5284
a0d0e21e
LW
5285=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
5286
19b29141 5287(S debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
be771a83 5288the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
a0d0e21e
LW
5289which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
5290
6651ba0b
FC
5291=item Recursive call to Perl_load_module in PerlIO_find_layer
5292
5293(P) It is currently not permitted to load modules when creating
5294a filehandle inside an %INC hook. This can happen with C<open my
5295$fh, '<', \$scalar>, which implicitly loads PerlIO::scalar. Try
5296loading PerlIO::scalar explicitly first.
5297
3e0ccd42 5298=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
a0d0e21e 5299
2c7d6b9c
RGS
5300(F) While calculating the method resolution order (MRO) of a package, Perl
5301believes it found an infinite loop in the C<@ISA> hierarchy. This is a
5302crude check that bails out after 100 levels of C<@ISA> depth.
a0d0e21e 5303
f51551f7
FC
5304=item Redundant argument in %s
5305
5306(W redundant) You called a function with more arguments than other
3617dbb6 5307arguments you supplied indicated would be needed. Currently only
f51551f7
FC
5308emitted when a printf-type format required fewer arguments than were
5309supplied, but might be used in the future for e.g. L<perlfunc/pack>.
5310
12605ff9
FC
5311=item refcnt_dec: fd %d%s
5312
2e0cfa16
FC
5313=item refcnt: fd %d%s
5314
12605ff9
FC
5315=item refcnt_inc: fd %d%s
5316
fa816bf3 5317(P) Perl's I/O implementation failed an internal consistency check. If
2e0cfa16
FC
5318you see this message, something is very wrong.
5319
1930e939
TP
5320=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
5321
be771a83 5322(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
6903afa2
FC
5323with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This
5324usually means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant
5325to use parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
7b8d334a
GS
5326
5327 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
5328 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
5329 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
5330 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
5331
810b8aa5
GS
5332=item Reference is already weak
5333
e476b1b5 5334(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
810b8aa5
GS
5335Doing so has no effect.
5336
ae2cf9f6
DIM
5337=item Reference is not weak
5338
5339(W misc) You have attempted to unweaken a reference that is not weak.
5340Doing so has no effect.
5341
e0e4a6e3 5342=item Reference to invalid group 0 in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b72d83b2 5343
6903afa2
FC
5344(F) You used C<\g0> or similar in a regular expression. You may refer
5345to capturing parentheses only with strictly positive integers
5346(normal backreferences) or with strictly negative integers (relative
5347backreferences). Using 0 does not make sense.
b72d83b2 5348
e0e4a6e3
FC
5349=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5350m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
5351
5352(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
6903afa2 5353not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If
bbaee129
FC
5354you wanted to have the character with ordinal 7 inserted into the regular
5355expression, prepend zeroes to make it three digits long: C<\007>
9baa0206 5356
6e8a73f2 5357The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
b45f050a 5358discovered.
9baa0206 5359
e0e4a6e3
FC
5360=item Reference to nonexistent named group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
5361in m/%s/
1a147d38
YO
5362
5363(F) You used something like C<\k'NAME'> or C<< \k<NAME> >> in your regular
9381611c 5364expression, but there is no corresponding named capturing parentheses
6903afa2 5365such as C<(?'NAME'...)> or C<< (?<NAME>...) >>. Check if the name has been
9381611c 5366spelled correctly both in the backreference and the declaration.
1a147d38 5367
6e8a73f2 5368The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
5369discovered.
5370
e0e4a6e3
FC
5371=item Reference to nonexistent or unclosed group in regex; marked by
5372S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1a147d38 5373
bcb95744
FC
5374(F) You used something like C<\g{-7}> in your regular expression, but there
5375are not at least seven sets of closed capturing parentheses in the
5376expression before where the C<\g{-7}> was located.
1a147d38 5377
6e8a73f2 5378The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
5379discovered.
5380
a0d0e21e
LW
5381=item regexp memory corruption
5382
5383(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
5384expression compiler gave it.
5385
ff3f26d2
KW
5386=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may appear a maximum of twice
5387
4d910168 5388=item Regexp modifier "%c" may appear a maximum of twice in regex; marked
e0e4a6e3 5389by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4d910168 5390
ce170e67 5391(F) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
ff3f26d2 5392of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
3955e1a9 5393
6fbc9859
MH
5394=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear after the "-" in regex; marked by <--
5395HERE in m/%s/
9442e3b8 5396
f8b5bc72
FC
5397(F) Turning off the given modifier has the side effect of turning on
5398another one. Perl currently doesn't allow this. Reword the regular
9442e3b8
KW
5399expression to use the modifier you want to turn on (and place it before
5400the minus), instead of the one you want to turn off.
5401
591f5ca2
FC
5402=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may not appear twice
5403
4d910168
FC
5404=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear twice in regex; marked by <--
5405HERE in m/%s/
5406
ce170e67 5407(F) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
591f5ca2
FC
5408of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
5409
3955e1a9
KW
5410=item Regexp modifiers "/%c" and "/%c" are mutually exclusive
5411
4d910168 5412=item Regexp modifiers "%c" and "%c" are mutually exclusive in regex;
e0e4a6e3 5413marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4d910168 5414
ce170e67 5415(F) The regular expression pattern had more than one of these
3955e1a9
KW
5416mutually exclusive modifiers. Retain only the modifier that is
5417supposed to be there.
5418
aec0ef10 5419=item Regexp out of space in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5420
be771a83
GS
5421(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
5422earlier.
a0d0e21e 5423
a7f533cb 5424=item Repeated format line will never terminate (~~ and @#)
a1b95068 5425
d7f8936a 5426(F) Your format contains the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence and a
a1b95068 5427numeric field that will never go blank so that the repetition never
6903afa2 5428terminates. You might use ^# instead. See L<perlform>.
a1b95068 5429
b08e453b
RB
5430=item Replacement list is longer than search list
5431
5432(W misc) You have used a replacement list that is longer than the
fa816bf3 5433search list. So the additional elements in the replacement list
b08e453b
RB
5434are meaningless.
5435
d9790612
KW
5436=item '(*%s' requires a terminating ':' in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5437
5438(F) You used a construct that needs a colon and pattern argument.
5439Supply these or check that you are using the right construct.
5440
5e0a247b
KW
5441=item '%s' resolved to '\o{%s}%d'
5442
5443(W misc, regexp) You wrote something like C<\08>, or C<\179> in a
5444double-quotish string. All but the last digit is treated as a single
5445character, specified in octal. The last digit is the next character in
5446the string. To tell Perl that this is indeed what you want, you can use
5447the C<\o{ }> syntax, or use exactly three digits to specify the octal
5448for the character.
5449
a0d0e21e
LW
5450=item Reversed %s= operator
5451
be771a83 5452(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
964742a1 5453always come last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
a0d0e21e 5454
abc7ecad
SP
5455=item rewinddir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5456
1b303a7d
FC
5457(W io) The dirhandle you tried to do a rewinddir() on is either closed
5458or not really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
abc7ecad 5459
96ebfdd7
RK
5460=item Scalars leaked: %d
5461
7bd1381d 5462(S internal) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping
4f5966a5
FC
5463of scalars: not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time
5464Perl exited. What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which
5465is of course bad, especially if the Perl program is intended to be
5466long-running.
96ebfdd7 5467
a0d0e21e
LW
5468=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
5469
be771a83
GS
5470(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
5471single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
5472value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
5473behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
5474argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
5475and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
5476if you're expecting only one subscript.
a0d0e21e 5477
748a9306 5478On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5f05dabc 5479element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
748a9306
LW
5480Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
5481L<perlref>.
5482
a6006777 5483=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
5484
75b44862 5485(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
be771a83
GS
5486element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
5487(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
5488like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
5489argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
5490and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
5491if you're expecting only one subscript.
5492
5493On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
5494as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
5495not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
a6006777 5496L<perlref>.
5497
a0d0e21e
LW
5498=item Search pattern not terminated
5499
5500(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
5501construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5502Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 5503
ea9d9ebc 5504Note that since Perl 5.10.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
5d9c98cd 5505construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
ea9d9ebc
FC
5506in Perl 5.10.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
5507misparsed by pre-5.10.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
5d9c98cd 5508
abc7ecad
SP
5509=item seekdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5510
5511(W io) The dirhandle you are doing a seekdir() on is either closed or not
5512really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5513
3257ea4f
FC
5514=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
5515
5516(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
5517filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
5518
a0d0e21e
LW
5519=item select not implemented
5520
5521(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
5522
ae21d580 5523=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
68a4a7e4 5524
ae21d580
JH
5525(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
5526the current implementation.
68a4a7e4 5527
6df41af2 5528=item Semicolon seems to be missing
a0d0e21e 5529
75b44862
GS
5530(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
5531semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
a0d0e21e
LW
5532
5533=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
5534
be771a83
GS
5535(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
5536scalar that had previously been marked as free.
a0d0e21e 5537
6df41af2 5538=item sem%s not implemented
a0d0e21e 5539
6df41af2 5540(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
a0d0e21e 5541
69282e91 5542=item send() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 5543
be771a83 5544(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5545before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5546
0ae4a328
FC
5547=item Sequence "\c{" invalid
5548
5549(F) These three characters may not appear in sequence in a
5550double-quotish context. This message is raised only on non-ASCII
5551platforms (a different error message is output on ASCII ones). If you
5552were intending to specify a control character with this sequence, you'll
5553have to use a different way to specify it.
5554
e0e4a6e3 5555=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
7b8d334a 5556
6903afa2 5557(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The
e0e4a6e3 5558S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
6903afa2 5559discovered. See L<perlre>.
1b1626e4 5560
e0e4a6e3
FC
5561=item Sequence (?%c...) not implemented in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5562m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5563
6903afa2 5564(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
e0e4a6e3 5565but has not yet been written. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
9e3ec65c 5566regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5567
e0e4a6e3
FC
5568=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5569m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5570
d921c7bf 5571(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense.
e0e4a6e3 5572The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
d921c7bf 5573discovered. This may happen when using the C<(?^...)> construct to tell
fb85c044 5574Perl to use the default regular expression modifiers, and you
9442e3b8 5575redundantly specify a default modifier. For other
9de15fec 5576causes, see L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 5577
aec0ef10 5578=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
5579
5580(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
aec0ef10 5581parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. See
7253e4e3 5582L<perlre>.
6df41af2 5583
07ea66ee
FC
5584=item Sequence (?&... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5585m/%s/
5586
5587(F) A named reference of the form C<(?&...)> was missing the final
5588closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
5589in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5590
e0e4a6e3 5591=item Sequence (?%c... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
4599db5f
FC
5592in m/%s/
5593
5594(F) A named group of the form C<(?'...')> or C<< (?<...>) >> was missing the final
e0e4a6e3 5595closing quote or angle bracket. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
4599db5f
FC
5596regular expression the problem was discovered.
5597
e0e4a6e3 5598=item Sequence (?(%c... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
4599db5f
FC
5599in m/%s/
5600
5601(F) A named reference of the form C<(?('...')...)> or C<< (?(<...>)...) >> was
5602missing the final closing quote or angle bracket after the name. The
e0e4a6e3 5603S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
4599db5f
FC
5604discovered.
5605
5b9ce456
KW
5606=item Sequence (?... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5607m/%s/
5608
5609(F) There was no matching closing parenthesis for the '('. The
5610S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
5611discovered.
5612
e0e4a6e3
FC
5613=item Sequence \%s... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5614m/%s/
5a25739d
FC
5615
5616(F) The regular expression expects a mandatory argument following the escape
5617sequence and this has been omitted or incorrectly written.
5618
9da1dd8f
DM
5619=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated with ')'
5620
be149b43
DM
5621(F) The end of the perl code contained within the {...} must be
5622followed immediately by a ')'.
9da1dd8f 5623
74d1b2e4 5624=item Sequence (?PE<gt>... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4599db5f 5625
74d1b2e4 5626(F) A named reference of the form C<(?PE<gt>...)> was missing the final
cfbef7dc
KW
5627closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
5628in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5629
5630=item Sequence (?PE<lt>... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5631
5632(F) A named group of the form C<(?PE<lt>...E<gt>')> was missing the final
5633closing angle bracket. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
5634regular expression the problem was discovered.
5635
74d1b2e4
FC
5636=item Sequence ?P=... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5637m/%s/
cfbef7dc 5638
74d1b2e4 5639(F) A named reference of the form C<(?P=...)> was missing the final
e0e4a6e3 5640closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
4599db5f
FC
5641in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5642
5643=item Sequence (?R) not terminated in regex m/%s/
5644
5645(F) An C<(?R)> or C<(?0)> sequence in a regular expression was missing the
5646final parenthesis.
5647
3de20fbe 5648=item Z<>500 Server error
a5f75d66 5649
6903afa2
FC
5650(A) This is the error message generally seen in a browser window
5651when trying to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The
5652actual error text varies widely from server to server. The most
5653frequently-seen variants are "500 Server error", "Method (something)
5654not permitted", "Document contains no data", "Premature end of script
5655headers", and "Did not produce a valid header".
9607fc9c 5656
5657B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
5658
6903afa2
FC
5659You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by
5660the user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the
5661user account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment
5662variables (like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't
5663in a location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or
5664less. Please see the following for more information:
9607fc9c 5665
06a5f41f
JH
5666 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
5667 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
5668 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
a5f75d66 5669
be94a901
GS
5670You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
5671
a0d0e21e
LW
5672=item setegid() not implemented
5673
be771a83
GS
5674(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
5675support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5676didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
5677
5678=item seteuid() not implemented
5679
be771a83
GS
5680(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
5681support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5682didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 5683
81777298
GS
5684=item setpgrp can't take arguments
5685
be771a83
GS
5686(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
5687arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
5688group ID.
81777298 5689
a0d0e21e
LW
5690=item setrgid() not implemented
5691
be771a83
GS
5692(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
5693support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5694didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
5695
5696=item setruid() not implemented
5697
be771a83
GS
5698(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
5699support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5700didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 5701
6df41af2
GS
5702=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
5703
be771a83
GS
5704(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
5705forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
5706L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
5707
520b6fb6 5708=item Setting $/ to a reference to %s is forbidden
6da34ecb 5709
3f673807
FC
5710(F) You assigned a reference to a scalar to C<$/> where the referenced item is
5711not a positive integer. In older perls this B<appeared> to work the same as
5712setting it to C<undef> but was in fact internally different, less efficient
5713and with very bad luck could have resulted in your file being split by a
5714stringified form of the reference.
6da34ecb 5715
ea9d9ebc 5716In Perl 5.20.0 this was changed so that it would be B<exactly> the same as
3f673807 5717setting C<$/> to undef, with the exception that this warning would be thrown.
6da34ecb 5718
3f673807
FC
5719You are recommended to change your code to set C<$/> to C<undef> explicitly if
5720you wish to slurp the file. As of Perl 5.28 assigning C<$/> to a reference
5721to an integer which isn't positive is a fatal error.
6da34ecb 5722
ee0ba734 5723=item Setting $/ to %s reference is forbidden
a48e4205
FC
5724
5725(F) You tried to assign a reference to a non integer to C<$/>. In older
5726Perls this would have behaved similarly to setting it to a reference to
5727a positive integer, where the integer was the address of the reference.
5728As of Perl 5.20.0 this is a fatal error, to allow future versions of Perl
5729to use non-integer refs for more interesting purposes.
5730
a0d0e21e
LW
5731=item shm%s not implemented
5732
5733(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
5734
984200d0
YST
5735=item !=~ should be !~
5736
5737(W syntax) The non-matching operator is !~, not !=~. !=~ will be
5738interpreted as the != (numeric not equal) and ~ (1's complement)
5739operators: probably not what you intended.
5740
6df41af2
GS
5741=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
5742
5743(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
be771a83
GS
5744as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
5745result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
5746probably not what you had in mind.
6df41af2 5747
69282e91 5748=item shutdown() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 5749
75b44862
GS
5750(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
5751superfluous.
a0d0e21e 5752
f86702cc 5753=item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
a0d0e21e 5754
be771a83
GS
5755(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
5756Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
a0d0e21e 5757
efc859fb
FC
5758=item Slab leaked from cv %p
5759
5760(S) If you see this message, then something is seriously wrong with the
5761internal bookkeeping of op trees. An op tree needed to be freed after
5762a compilation error, but could not be found, so it was leaked instead.
5763
3b9aea04
SH
5764=item sleep(%u) too large
5765
5766(W overflow) You called C<sleep> with a number that was larger than
5767it can reliably handle and C<sleep> probably slept for less time than
5768requested.
5769
30d9c59b
Z
5770=item Slurpy parameter not last
5771
5772(F) In a subroutine signature, you put something after a slurpy (array or
5773hash) parameter. The slurpy parameter takes all the available arguments,
5774so there can't be any left to fill later parameters.
5775
7896dde7
Z
5776=item Smart matching a non-overloaded object breaks encapsulation
5777
5778(F) You should not use the C<~~> operator on an object that does not
5779overload it: Perl refuses to use the object's underlying structure
5780for the smart match.
5781
0f539b13
BF
5782=item Smartmatch is experimental
5783
5784(S experimental::smartmatch) This warning is emitted if you
5785use the smartmatch (C<~~>) operator. This is currently an experimental
5786feature, and its details are subject to change in future releases of
7896dde7
Z
5787Perl. Particularly, its current behavior is noticed for being
5788unnecessarily complex and unintuitive, and is very likely to be
5789overhauled.
0f539b13 5790
b02f3645
AC
5791=item Sorry, hash keys must be smaller than 2**31 bytes
5792
5793(F) You tried to create a hash containing a very large key, where "very
5794large" means that it needs at least 2 gigabytes to store. Unfortunately,
5795Perl doesn't yet handle such large hash keys. You should
5796reconsider your design to avoid hashing such a long string directly.
5797
714f94d1
FC
5798=item sort is now a reserved word
5799
5800(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
5801But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
5802
f1c31c52
FC
5803=item Source filters apply only to byte streams
5804
5805(F) You tried to activate a source filter (usually by loading a
5806source filter module) within a string passed to C<eval>. This is
5807not permitted under the C<unicode_eval> feature. Consider using
5808C<evalbytes> instead. See L<feature>.
5809
8cbc2e3b
JH
5810=item splice() offset past end of array
5811
5812(W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
fa816bf3
FC
5813the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the
5814end of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want,
5815try explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset.
5816See L<perlfunc/splice>.
8cbc2e3b 5817
a0d0e21e
LW
5818=item Split loop
5819
be771a83
GS
5820(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
5821iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
6903afa2 5822happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
a0d0e21e 5823
a0d0e21e
LW
5824=item Statement unlikely to be reached
5825
be771a83
GS
5826(W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
5827die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
5828unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
5829instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
5830a block by itself.
a0d0e21e 5831
a21eb52b
FC
5832=item "state" subroutine %s can't be in a package
5833
5834(F) Lexically scoped subroutines aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
5835sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front.
5836
a2e39214
FC
5837=item "state %s" used in sort comparison
5838
5839(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
5840You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
5841sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
5842lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
5843name, or rename the lexical variable.
5844
5a25739d
FC
5845=item "state" variable %s can't be in a package
5846
5847(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
5848sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
5849local() if you want to localize a package variable.
5850
9ddeeac9 5851=item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
6df41af2 5852
355b1299
JH
5853(W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
5854was either never opened or has since been closed.
6df41af2 5855
5a25739d
FC
5856=item Strings with code points over 0xFF may not be mapped into in-memory file handles
5857
5858(W utf8) You tried to open a reference to a scalar for read or append
5859where the scalar contained code points over 0xFF. In-memory files
5860model on-disk files and can only contain bytes.
5861
fe13d51d 5862=item Stub found while resolving method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
e7ea3e70 5863
be771a83
GS
5864(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
5865stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
5866C<can> may break this.
e7ea3e70 5867
a8c56356
DM
5868=item Subroutine attributes must come before the signature
5869
5870(F) When subroutine signatures are enabled, any subroutine attributes must
5871come before the signature. Note that this order was the opposite in
3b980406 5872versions 5.22..5.26. So:
a8c56356 5873
3b980406
Z
5874 sub foo :lvalue ($a, $b) { ... } # 5.20 and 5.28 +
5875 sub foo ($a, $b) :lvalue { ... } # 5.22 .. 5.26
a8c56356 5876
4e85e1b4
FC
5877=item Subroutine "&%s" is not available
5878
5879(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
5880attempting to capture an outer lexical subroutine that is not currently
5881available. This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the lexical
c387a7d0
FC
5882subroutine may be declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has
5883not yet been created. (Remember that named subs are created at compile
5884time, while anonymous subs are created at run-time.) For example,
4e85e1b4
FC
5885
5886 sub { my sub a {...} sub f { \&a } }
5887
c387a7d0 5888At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current "a" sub,
4e85e1b4
FC
5889since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely, the
5890following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by now
5891been created and is live:
5892
5893 sub { my sub a {...} eval 'sub f { \&a }' }->();
5894
c387a7d0
FC
5895The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a lexical subroutine
5896that has gone out of scope, for example,
4e85e1b4
FC
5897
5898 sub f {
5899 my sub a {...}
5900 sub { eval '\&a' }
5901 }
5902 f()->();
5903
5904Here, when the '\&a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
5905being executed, so its &a is not available for capture.
5906
4eb94d7c
FC
5907=item "%s" subroutine &%s masks earlier declaration in same %s
5908
52e3acf8 5909(W shadow) A "my" or "state" subroutine has been redeclared in the
4eb94d7c
FC
5910current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to
5911the previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error.
5912Note that the earlier subroutine will still exist until the end of
20d33786 5913the scope or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
4eb94d7c 5914
9d92fedb
FC
5915=item Subroutine %s redefined
5916
5917(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
5918
5919 {
5920 no warnings 'redefine';
5921 eval "sub name { ... }";
5922 }
5923
2a9203e9
FC
5924=item Subroutine "%s" will not stay shared
5925
5926(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a "my"
5927subroutine defined in an outer named subroutine.
5928
5929When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of the outer
5930subroutine's lexical subroutine as it was before and during the *first*
5931call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
5932outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
5933longer share a common value for the lexical subroutine. In other words,
5934it will no longer be shared. This will especially make a difference
5935if the lexical subroutines accesses lexical variables declared in its
5936surrounding scope.
5937
5938This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
5939anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
5940reference lexical subroutines in outer subroutines are created, they
5941are automatically rebound to the current values of such lexical subs.
5942
a0d0e21e
LW
5943=item Substitution loop
5944
be771a83
GS
5945(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
5946shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
5947is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
5d44bfff 5948L<perlop/"Regexp Quote-Like Operators">.
a0d0e21e
LW
5949
5950=item Substitution pattern not terminated
5951
d1be9408 5952(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 5953construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5954Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
5955
5956=item Substitution replacement not terminated
5957
d1be9408 5958(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 5959construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5960Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
5961
5962=item substr outside of string
5963
8a9eb13d 5964(W substr)(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
be771a83
GS
5965a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
5966length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
5967substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
5968assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
a0d0e21e 5969
bf1320bf
RGS
5970=item sv_upgrade from type %d down to type %d
5971
9d277376 5972(P) Perl tried to force the upgrade of an SV to a type which was actually
bf1320bf
RGS
5973inferior to its current type.
5974
05a40652
FC
5975=item SWASHNEW didn't return an HV ref
5976
5977(P) Something went wrong internally when Perl was trying to look up
5978Unicode characters.
5979
6fbc9859 5980=item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 5981S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 5982
fa816bf3
FC
5983(F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most
5984two branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or
5985both to contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose
5986it in clustering parentheses:
b45f050a
JF
5987
5988 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
5989
e0e4a6e3 5990The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem
fa816bf3 5991was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5992
e0e4a6e3
FC
5993=item Switch condition not recognized in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5994m/%s/
b45f050a 5995
9f57786a
FC
5996(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
5997is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5998
5999 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
6000 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
6001 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
6002 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
6003 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
6004 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
6005 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
6006 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
6007 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
6008
6e8a73f2 6009The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9f57786a 6010discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 6011
a1244175
FC
6012=item Switch (?(condition)... not terminated in regex; marked by
6013S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6014
99775d13
FC
6015(F) You omitted to close a (?(condition)...) block somewhere
6016in the pattern. Add a closing parenthesis in the appropriate
6017position. See L<perlre>.
a1244175 6018
85ab1d1d
JH
6019=item switching effective %s is not implemented
6020
be771a83
GS
6021(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
6022and effective uids or gids.
85ab1d1d 6023
a0d0e21e
LW
6024=item syntax error
6025
6026(F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
6027
6028 A keyword is misspelled.
6029 A semicolon is missing.
6030 A comma is missing.
6031 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
6032 An opening or closing brace is missing.
6033 A closing quote is missing.
6034
6035Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
6036error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
6037The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
6038it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
5f05dabc 6039before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
a0d0e21e
LW
6040Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
6041the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
6042C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
524e9188 6043if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
a0d0e21e 6044
ccf3535a 6045=item syntax error at line %d: '%s' unexpected
cb1a09d0 6046
be771a83
GS
6047(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
6048of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
6049yourself.
cb1a09d0 6050
25f58aea
PN
6051=item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
6052
6053(F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
6054a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
6055or "my $var" or "our $var".
6056
19a498a4 6057=item Syntax error in (?[...]) in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6058
6059(F) Perl could not figure out what you meant inside this construct; this
6060notifies you that it is giving up trying.
6061
591f5ca2
FC
6062=item %s syntax OK
6063
6064(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
6065
b5fe5ca2
SR
6066=item sysread() on closed filehandle %s
6067
6068(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
6069
6070=item sysread() on unopened filehandle %s
6071
6072(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
6073
6087ac44 6074=item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
a0d0e21e 6075
6087ac44
JH
6076(F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
6077"shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
6078machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
6079unconfigured. Consult your system support.
a0d0e21e 6080
69282e91 6081=item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 6082
be771a83 6083(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 6084before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 6085
96ebfdd7
RK
6086=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
6087
6088(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
6089know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
6090
fc36a67e 6091=item Target of goto is too deeply nested
6092
be771a83
GS
6093(F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
6094for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
fc36a67e 6095
abc7ecad
SP
6096=item telldir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
6097
6098(W io) The dirhandle you tried to telldir() is either closed or not really
6099a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
6100
c2771421
FC
6101=item tell() on unopened filehandle
6102
6103(W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
6104was either never opened or has since been closed.
6105
e7206367
KW
6106=item The alpha_assertions feature is experimental
6107
6108(S experimental::alpha_assertions) This feature is experimental
8c11620d 6109and its behavior may change in any future release of perl. See
e7206367
KW
6110L<perlre/Extended Patterns>.
6111
67b16946 6112=item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia.
a0d0e21e
LW
6113
6114(F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
6115probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
8b1a09fc 6116think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
a0d0e21e
LW
6117will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
6118will deny it.
6119
3f645a4e
FC
6120=item The experimental declared_refs feature is not enabled
6121
6122(F) To declare references to variables, as in C<my \%x>, you must first enable
6123the feature:
6124
6125 no warnings "experimental::declared_refs";
6126 use feature "declared_refs";
6127
675fa9ff
FC
6128=item The %s function is unimplemented
6129
6130(F) The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture,
6131according to the probings of Configure.
6132
21c34e97
KW
6133=item The private_use feature is experimental
6134
6135(S experimental::private_use) This feature is actually a hook for future
6136use.
6137
0d0b4b3b
KW
6138=item The regex_sets feature is experimental
6139
6140(S experimental::regex_sets) This warning is emitted if you
6141use the syntax S<C<(?[ ])>> in a regular expression.
6142The details of this feature are subject to change.
27169d38 6143If you want to use it, but know that in doing so you
0d0b4b3b
KW
6144are taking the risk of using an experimental feature which may
6145change in a future Perl version, you can do this to silence the
6146warning:
6147
6148 no warnings "experimental::regex_sets";
6149
edf23316
FC
6150=item The script_run feature is experimental
6151
6152(S experimental::script_run) This feature is experimental
6153and its behavior may in any future release of perl. See
6154L<perlre/Script Runs>.
6155
30d9c59b
Z
6156=item The signatures feature is experimental
6157
6158(S experimental::signatures) This warning is emitted if you unwrap a
6159subroutine's arguments using a signature. Simply suppress the warning
6160if you want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you are taking
6161the risk of using an experimental feature which may change or be removed
6162in a future Perl version:
6163
6164 no warnings "experimental::signatures";
6165 use feature "signatures";
6166 sub foo ($left, $right) { ... }
6167
5e1c7ca2 6168=item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
a0d0e21e 6169
be771a83
GS
6170(F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
6171linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
6172past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
6173instead.
a0d0e21e 6174
371fce9b
DM
6175=item The 'unique' attribute may only be applied to 'our' variables
6176
1108974d 6177(F) This attribute was never supported on C<my> or C<sub> declarations.
371fce9b 6178
437784d6 6179=item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
f675dbe5
CB
6180
6181=item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
6182
75b44862 6183(W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
be771a83
GS
6184element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
6185wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
6186need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
6187F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
6188target of the change to
f675dbe5
CB
6189%ENV which produced the warning.
6190
6a5b4183
YO
6191=item This Perl has not been built with support for randomized hash key traversal but something called Perl_hv_rand_set().
6192
6193(F) Something has attempted to use an internal API call which
6194depends on Perl being compiled with the default support for randomized hash
f26c79ba 6195key traversal, but this Perl has been compiled without it. You should
6a5b4183
YO
6196report this warning to the relevant upstream party, or recompile perl
6197with default options.
6198
1f692f6a
JK
6199=item This use of my() in false conditional is no longer allowed
6200
6201(F) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>. There
6202has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
6203not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
6204conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
6205static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
6206relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
6207declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
6208
6209 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
6210
6211becomes
6212
6213 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
6214
6215Beginning with perl 5.10.0, you can also use C<state> variables to have
6216lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
6217
6218 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
6219
6220This use of C<my()> in a false conditional was deprecated beginning in
6221Perl 5.10 and became a fatal error in Perl 5.30.
6222
a0d0e21e
LW
6223=item times not implemented
6224
be771a83
GS
6225(F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
6226suspect you're not running on Unix.
a0d0e21e 6227
6d3b25aa
RGS
6228=item "-T" is on the #! line, it must also be used on the command line
6229
b7e4ecc1
FC
6230(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains
6231the B<-T> option (or the B<-t> option), but Perl was not invoked with
6232B<-T> in its command line. This is an error because, by the time
6233Perl discovers a B<-T> in a script, it's too late to properly taint
6234everything from the environment. So Perl gives up.
6d3b25aa
RGS
6235
6236If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
b7e4ecc1
FC
6237mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be
6238fixed by editing the #! line so that the B<-%c> option is a part of
6239Perl's first argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -%c> to C<perl -%c -n>.
6d3b25aa
RGS
6240
6241If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
fe13d51d 6242B<-%c> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -%c scriptname>.
6d3b25aa 6243
3a2263fe
RGS
6244=item To%s: illegal mapping '%s'
6245
6246(F) You tried to define a customized To-mapping for lc(), lcfirst,
6247uc(), or ucfirst() (or their string-inlined versions), but you
6248specified an illegal mapping.
6249See L<perlunicode/"User-Defined Character Properties">.
6250
49704364
WL
6251=item Too deeply nested ()-groups
6252
1a147d38 6253(F) Your template contains ()-groups with a ridiculously deep nesting level.
49704364 6254
a0d0e21e
LW
6255=item Too few args to syscall
6256
6257(F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
6258system call to call, silly dilly.
6259
ac7609e4 6260=item Too few arguments for subroutine '%s'
bb6b75cd 6261
3f673807
FC
6262(F) A subroutine using a signature fewer arguments than required by the
6263signature. The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault.
bb6b75cd 6264
3f673807
FC
6265The message attempts to include the name of the called subroutine. If
6266the subroutine has been aliased, the subroutine's original name will be
6267shown, regardless of what name the caller used.
ac7609e4 6268
96ebfdd7
RK
6269=item Too late for "-%s" option
6270
6271(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
4ba71d51
FC
6272B<-M>, B<-m> or B<-C> option.
6273
6903afa2
FC
6274In the case of B<-M> and B<-m>, this is an error because those options
6275are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
4ba71d51 6276
6903afa2
FC
6277The B<-C> option only works if it is specified on the command line as
6278well (with the same sequence of letters or numbers following). Either
6279specify this option on the command line, or, if your system supports
6280it, make your script executable and run it directly instead of passing
6281it to perl.
96ebfdd7 6282
ddda08b7
GS
6283=item Too late to run %s block
6284
6285(W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
6286when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
be771a83
GS
6287loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
6288instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
6289BEGIN block.
ddda08b7 6290
a0d0e21e
LW
6291=item Too many args to syscall
6292
5f05dabc 6293(F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
a0d0e21e
LW
6294
6295=item Too many arguments for %s
6296
6297(F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
6298
ac7609e4 6299=item Too many arguments for subroutine '%s'
bb6b75cd 6300
3f673807
FC
6301(F) A subroutine using a signature received more arguments than permitted
6302by the signature. The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault.
bb6b75cd 6303
ac7609e4
AC
6304The message attempts to include the name of the called subroutine. If the
6305subroutine has been aliased, the subroutine's original name will be shown,
6306regardless of what name the caller used.
bb6b75cd 6307
6df41af2
GS
6308=item Too many )'s
6309
49704364
WL
6310(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6311Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6312
8c40cb74
NC
6313=item Too many ('s
6314
be771a83
GS
6315(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6316Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 6317
7253e4e3 6318=item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 6319
be771a83
GS
6320(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
6321Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 6322
2c268ad5 6323=item Transliteration pattern not terminated
a0d0e21e
LW
6324
6325(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
fb73857a 6326or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
6327C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 6328
2c268ad5 6329=item Transliteration replacement not terminated
a0d0e21e 6330
6a36df5d
YST
6331(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr///, tr[][],
6332y/// or y[][] construct.
a0d0e21e 6333
96ebfdd7
RK
6334=item '%s' trapped by operation mask
6335
6336(F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
6903afa2 6337disallowed. See L<Safe>.
96ebfdd7 6338
a0d0e21e
LW
6339=item truncate not implemented
6340
6341(F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
6342Configure knows about.
6343
19c481f4
FC
6344=item Type of arg %d to &CORE::%s must be %s
6345
6346(F) The subroutine in question in the CORE package requires its argument
6347to be a hard reference to data of the specified type. Overloading is
6348ignored, so a reference to an object that is not the specified type, but
6349nonetheless has overloading to handle it, will still not be accepted.
6350
a0d0e21e
LW
6351=item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
6352
6353(F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
8b1a09fc 6354certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
6355%NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
a0d0e21e
LW
6356{EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
6357
eec2d3df
GS
6358=item umask not implemented
6359
be771a83
GS
6360(F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
6361use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
a0d0e21e
LW
6362
6363=item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
6364
c632e777 6365(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6366many execution contexts were entered and left.
a0d0e21e
LW
6367
6368=item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
6369
4a983e45 6370(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6371many values were temporarily localized.
a0d0e21e
LW
6372
6373=item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
6374
090cebb2 6375(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6376many blocks were entered and left.
a0d0e21e 6377
6651ba0b
FC
6378=item Unbalanced string table refcount: (%d) for "%s"
6379
31ff3bd2 6380(S internal) On exit, Perl found some strings remaining in the shared
6651ba0b
FC
6381string table used for copy on write and for hash keys. The entries
6382should have been freed, so this indicates a bug somewhere.
6383
a0d0e21e
LW
6384=item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
6385
2092d7c1 6386(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6387many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
a0d0e21e
LW
6388
6389=item Undefined format "%s" called
6390
6391(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
6392another package? See L<perlform>.
6393
6394=item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
6395
be771a83
GS
6396(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
6397Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e
LW
6398
6399=item Undefined subroutine &%s called
6400
be771a83
GS
6401(F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
6402since been undefined.
a0d0e21e
LW
6403
6404=item Undefined subroutine called
6405
6406(F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
6407or if it was, it has since been undefined.
6408
6409=item Undefined subroutine in sort
6410
be771a83
GS
6411(F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
6412to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e 6413
4633a7c4
LW
6414=item Undefined top format "%s" called
6415
6416(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
6417another package? See L<perlform>.
6418
20408e3c
GS
6419=item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
6420
be771a83
GS
6421(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
6422C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
6423C<undef *foo>.
20408e3c 6424
6df41af2
GS
6425=item %s: Undefined variable
6426
be771a83
GS
6427(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6428Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 6429
76416d1a
KW
6430=item Unescaped left brace in regex is passed through in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6431
6432(W regexp) The simple rule to remember, if you want to
6433match a literal C<"{"> character (U+007B C<LEFT CURLY BRACKET>) in a
6434regular expression pattern, is to escape each literal instance of it in
6435some way. Generally easiest is to precede it with a backslash, like
6436C<"\{"> or enclose it in square brackets (C<"[{]">). If the pattern
6437delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace (C<"}">) should
6438also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for example,
6439
6440 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
6441
6442Forcing literal C<"{"> characters to be escaped will enable the Perl
6443language to be extended in various ways in future releases. To avoid
6444needlessly breaking existing code, the restriction is is not enforced in
6445contexts where there are unlikely to ever be extensions that could
6446conflict with the use there of C<"{"> as a literal. Those that are
6447not potentially ambiguous do not warn; those that are do raise a
6448non-deprecation warning.
6449
6450In this release of Perl, some literal uses of C<"{"> are fatal, and some
6451still just deprecated. This is because of an oversight: some uses of a
6452literal C<"{"> that should have raised a deprecation warning starting in
6453v5.20 did not warn until v5.26. By making the already-warned uses fatal
6454now, some of the planned extensions can be made to the language sooner.
6455The cases which are still allowed will be fatal in Perl 5.32.
6456
6457The contexts where no warnings or errors are raised are:
6458
6459=over 4
6460
6461=item *
6462
6463as the first character in a pattern, or following C<"^"> indicating to
6464anchor the match to the beginning of a line.
6465
6466=item *
6467
6468as the first character following a C<"|"> indicating alternation.
6469
6470=item *
6471
6472as the first character in a parenthesized grouping like
6473
6474 /foo({bar)/
6475 /foo(?:{bar)/
6476
6477=item *
6478
6479as the first character following a quantifier
6480
6481 /\s*{/
6482
6483=back
6484
6485=for comment
6486The text of the message above is duplicated below to allow splain (and
6487'use diagnostics') to work. Since one is deprecated, and one not, khw
6488thinks they can't be combined as one message.
8e84dec2 6489
0367231c
KW
6490=item Unescaped left brace in regex is deprecated here (and will be fatal in Perl 5.32), passed through in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6491
8e84dec2 6492(D deprecated, regexp) The simple rule to remember, if you want to
21792e61 6493match a literal C<"{"> character (U+007B C<LEFT CURLY BRACKET>) in a
8e84dec2
KW
6494regular expression pattern, is to escape each literal instance of it in
6495some way. Generally easiest is to precede it with a backslash, like
21792e61
KW
6496C<"\{"> or enclose it in square brackets (C<"[{]">). If the pattern
6497delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace (C<"}">) should
8e84dec2
KW
6498also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for example,
6499
6500 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
6501
21792e61 6502Forcing literal C<"{"> characters to be escaped will enable the Perl
8e84dec2
KW
6503language to be extended in various ways in future releases. To avoid
6504needlessly breaking existing code, the restriction is is not enforced in
6505contexts where there are unlikely to ever be extensions that could
76416d1a
KW
6506conflict with the use there of C<"{"> as a literal. Those that are
6507not potentially ambiguous do not warn; those that are do raise a
6508non-deprecation warning.
8e84dec2 6509
21792e61 6510In this release of Perl, some literal uses of C<"{"> are fatal, and some
8e84dec2 6511still just deprecated. This is because of an oversight: some uses of a
21792e61 6512literal C<"{"> that should have raised a deprecation warning starting in
8e84dec2
KW
6513v5.20 did not warn until v5.26. By making the already-warned uses fatal
6514now, some of the planned extensions can be made to the language sooner.
76416d1a 6515The cases which are still allowed will be fatal in Perl 5.32.
8e84dec2
KW
6516
6517The contexts where no warnings or errors are raised are:
6518
6519=over 4
6520
6521=item *
6522
21792e61 6523as the first character in a pattern, or following C<"^"> indicating to
8e84dec2
KW
6524anchor the match to the beginning of a line.
6525
6526=item *
6527
21792e61 6528as the first character following a C<"|"> indicating alternation.
8e84dec2
KW
6529
6530=item *
6531
6532as the first character in a parenthesized grouping like
6533
6534 /foo({bar)/
6535 /foo(?:{bar)/
6536
6537=item *
6538
6539as the first character following a quantifier
6540
6541 /\s*{/
6542
6543=back
6544
6545=for comment
6546The text of the message above is duplicated below to allow splain (and
6547'use diagnostics') to work. Since one is fatal, and one not, they can't
76416d1a
KW
6548be combined as one message. Perhaps perldiag could be enhanced to
6549handle this case.
8e84dec2
KW
6550
6551=item Unescaped left brace in regex is illegal here in regex;
6e8a73f2 6552marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
412f55bb 6553
8e84dec2
KW
6554(F) The simple rule to remember, if you want to
6555match a literal C<"{"> character (U+007B C<LEFT CURLY BRACKET>) in a
6556regular expression pattern, is to escape each literal instance of it in
6557some way. Generally easiest is to precede it with a backslash, like
6558C<"\{"> or enclose it in square brackets (C<"[{]">). If the pattern
6559delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace (C<"}">) should
6560also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for example,
6561
6562 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
6563
6564Forcing literal C<"{"> characters to be escaped will enable the Perl
6565language to be extended in various ways in future releases. To avoid
6566needlessly breaking existing code, the restriction is is not enforced in
6567contexts where there are unlikely to ever be extensions that could
76416d1a
KW
6568conflict with the use there of C<"{"> as a literal. Those that are
6569not potentially ambiguous do not warn; those that are do raise a
6570non-deprecation warning.
8e84dec2
KW
6571
6572In this release of Perl, some literal uses of C<"{"> are fatal, and some
6573still just deprecated. This is because of an oversight: some uses of a
6574literal C<"{"> that should have raised a deprecation warning starting in
6575v5.20 did not warn until v5.26. By making the already-warned uses fatal
6576now, some of the planned extensions can be made to the language sooner.
76416d1a 6577The cases which are still allowed will be fatal in Perl 5.32.
8e84dec2
KW
6578
6579The contexts where no warnings or errors are raised are:
6580
6581=over 4
6582
6583=item *
6584
6585as the first character in a pattern, or following C<"^"> indicating to
6586anchor the match to the beginning of a line.
6587
6588=item *
6589
6590as the first character following a C<"|"> indicating alternation.
6591
6592=item *
6593
6594as the first character in a parenthesized grouping like
6595
6596 /foo({bar)/
6597 /foo(?:{bar)/
6598
6599=item *
6600
6601as the first character following a quantifier
412f55bb 6602
8e84dec2 6603 /\s*{/
412f55bb 6604
8e84dec2 6605=back
1656665e 6606
a4368cc3
KW
6607=item Unescaped literal '%c' in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6608
6609(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>>)
6610
6611Within the scope of C<S<use re 'strict'>> in a regular expression
6612pattern, you included an unescaped C<}> or C<]> which was interpreted
6613literally. These two characters are sometimes metacharacters, and
6614sometimes literals, depending on what precedes them in the
6615pattern. This is unlike the similar C<)> which is always a
6616metacharacter unless escaped.
6617
6618This action at a distance, perhaps a large distance, can lead to Perl
6619silently misinterpreting what you meant, so when you specify that you
6620want extra checking by C<S<use re 'strict'>>, this warning is generated.
6621If you meant the character as a literal, simply confirm that to Perl by
6622preceding the character with a backslash, or make it into a bracketed
6623character class (like C<[}]>). If you meant it as closing a
6624corresponding C<[> or C<{>, you'll need to look back through the pattern
6625to find out why that isn't happening.
6626
a0d0e21e
LW
6627=item unexec of %s into %s failed!
6628
6629(F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
6630representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
6631
e0e4a6e3
FC
6632=item Unexpected binary operator '%c' with no preceding operand in regex;
6633marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6634
675fa9ff 6635(F) You had something like this:
0d0b4b3b
KW
6636
6637 (?[ | \p{Digit} ])
6638
6639where the C<"|"> is a binary operator with an operand on the right, but
6640no operand on the left.
6641
e0e4a6e3 6642=item Unexpected character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6643
675fa9ff 6644(F) You had something like this:
0d0b4b3b
KW
6645
6646 (?[ z ])
6647
6648Within C<(?[ ])>, no literal characters are allowed unless they are
6649within an inner pair of square brackets, like
6650
6651 (?[ [ z ] ])
6652
6653Another possibility is that you forgot a backslash. Perl isn't smart
6654enough to figure out what you really meant.
6655
6651ba0b
FC
6656=item Unexpected constant lvalue entersub entry via type/targ %d:%d
6657
6658(P) When compiling a subroutine call in lvalue context, Perl failed an
6659internal consistency check. It encountered a malformed op tree.
6660
6c341f67
TC
6661=item Unexpected exit %u
6662
6663(S) exit() was called or the script otherwise finished gracefully when
6664C<PERL_EXIT_WARN> was set in C<PL_exit_flags>.
6665
878ce265 6666=item Unexpected exit failure %d
6c341f67
TC
6667
6668(S) An uncaught die() was called when C<PERL_EXIT_WARN> was set in
6669C<PL_exit_flags>.
6670
e0e4a6e3 6671=item Unexpected ')' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6672
6673(F) You had something like this:
6674
6675 (?[ ( \p{Digit} + ) ])
6676
6677The C<")"> is out-of-place. Something apparently was supposed to
6678be combined with the digits, or the C<"+"> shouldn't be there, or
6679something like that. Perl can't figure out what was intended.
6680
c9ffefcc
FC
6681=item Unexpected ']' with no following ')' in (?[... in regex; marked by
6682<-- HERE in m/%s/
6683
6684(F) While parsing an extended character class a ']' character was
6685encountered at a point in the definition where the only legal use of
6686']' is to close the character class definition as part of a '])', you
6687may have forgotten the close paren, or otherwise confused the parser.
6688
e0e4a6e3
FC
6689=item Unexpected '(' with no preceding operator in regex; marked by
6690S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6691
6692(F) You had something like this:
6693
6694 (?[ \p{Digit} ( \p{Lao} + \p{Thai} ) ])
6695
6696There should be an operator before the C<"(">, as there's
6697no indication as to how the digits are to be combined
6698with the characters in the Lao and Thai scripts.
6699
ba707cdc 6700=item Unicode non-character U+%X is not recommended for open interchange
0876b9a0 6701
4c2e59a0 6702(S nonchar) Certain codepoints, such as U+FFFE and U+FFFF, are
66a1f5ec
FC
6703defined by the Unicode standard to be non-characters. Those
6704are legal codepoints, but are reserved for internal use; so,
6705applications shouldn't attempt to exchange them. An application
6706may not be expecting any of these characters at all, and receiving
6707them may lead to bugs. If you know what you are doing you can
6708turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'nonchar';>.
6709
6710This is not really a "severe" error, but it is supposed to be
6711raised by default even if warnings are not enabled, and currently
6712the only way to do that in Perl is to mark it as serious.
6a807e21 6713
c794c51b
FC
6714=item Unicode surrogate U+%X is illegal in UTF-8
6715
4c2e59a0 6716(S surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
c794c51b
FC
6717not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
6718U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
6719internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
6720available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
6721problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
6722came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 6723off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
c794c51b 6724
dcfe9e74
KW
6725=item Unknown charname '%s'
6726
6727(F) The name you used inside C<\N{}> is unknown to Perl. Check the
6728spelling. You can say C<use charnames ":loose"> to not have to be
6729so precise about spaces, hyphens, and capitalization on standard Unicode
6730names. (Any custom aliases that have been created must be specified
6731exactly, regardless of whether C<:loose> is used or not.) This error may
6732also happen if the C<\N{}> is not in the scope of the corresponding
6733C<S<use charnames>>.
6734
d9790612
KW
6735=item Unknown '(*...)' construct '%s' in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6736
6737(F) The C<(*> was followed by something that the regular expression
6738compiler does not recognize. Check your spelling.
6739
04177465
FC
6740=item Unknown error
6741
6742(P) Perl was about to print an error message in C<$@>, but the C<$@> variable
6743did not exist, even after an attempt to create it.
6744
7bb2ffc8
KW
6745=item Unknown locale category %d; can't set it to %s
6746
6747(W locale) You used a locale category that perl doesn't recognize, so it
6748cannot carry out your request. Check that you are using a valid
6749category. If so, see L<perllocale/Multi-threaded> for advice on
6750reporting this as a bug, and for modifying perl locally to accommodate
6751your needs.
6752
6170680b
IZ
6753=item Unknown open() mode '%s'
6754
437784d6 6755(F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
c47ff5f1 6756of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
488dad83 6757C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
6170680b 6758
b4581f09
JH
6759=item Unknown PerlIO layer "%s"
6760
6761(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
6762system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
6763internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
6764are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
6765explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
6766value of the environment variable PERLIO.
6767
f675dbe5
CB
6768=item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
6769
6770(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
6771iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
6772data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
6773subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
a05d7ebb 6774
283151b7 6775=item Unknown regexp modifier "/%s"
0da72d5e
KW
6776
6777(F) Alphanumerics immediately following the closing delimiter
6778of a regular expression pattern are interpreted by Perl as modifier
6779flags for the regex. One of the ones you specified is invalid. One way
6780this can happen is if you didn't put in white space between the end of
6781the regex and a following alphanumeric operator:
6782
6783 if ($a =~ /foo/and $bar == 3) { ... }
6784
6785The C<"a"> is a valid modifier flag, but the C<"n"> is not, and raises
6786this error. Likely what was meant instead was:
6787
6788 if ($a =~ /foo/ and $bar == 3) { ... }
6789
5a25739d
FC
6790=item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
6791
6792(W) You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
6793
e0e4a6e3
FC
6794=item Unknown switch condition (?(...)) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6795m/%s/
96ebfdd7
RK
6796
6797(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
6903afa2 6798is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5fecf430 6799
e7206367
KW
6800 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
6801 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
6802 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
6803 (*pla:...) (*plb:...) true if subpattern matches; also
6804 (*positive_lookahead:...)
6805 (*positive_lookbehind:...)
6806 (*nla:...) (*nlb:...) true if subpattern fails to match; also
6807 (*negative_lookahead:...)
6808 (*negative_lookbehind:...)
6809 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
6810 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
6811 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2,
6812 etc.
6813 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
6814 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
96ebfdd7 6815
6e8a73f2 6816The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
96ebfdd7
RK
6817discovered. See L<perlre>.
6818
a05d7ebb
JH
6819=item Unknown Unicode option letter '%c'
6820
a4a4c9e2 6821(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb
JH
6822of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
6823
64187737 6824=item Unknown Unicode option value %d
a05d7ebb 6825
a4a4c9e2 6826(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb 6827of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
f675dbe5 6828
e0e4a6e3 6829=item Unknown verb pattern '%s' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1
YO
6830
6831(F) You either made a typo or have incorrectly put a C<*> quantifier
6832after an open brace in your pattern. Check the pattern and review
6833L<perlre> for details on legal verb patterns.
6834
c2771421
FC
6835=item Unknown warnings category '%s'
6836
6903afa2 6837(F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
c2771421
FC
6838category that is unknown to perl at this point.
6839
14ef4c80
FC
6840Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a
6841module (e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have loaded this
6842module first.
c2771421 6843
e0e4a6e3 6844=item Unmatched [ in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6845
6903afa2 6846(F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
be771a83 6847include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
e0e4a6e3 6848first. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
6903afa2 6849problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 6850
e0e4a6e3 6851=item Unmatched ( in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 6852
e0e4a6e3 6853=item Unmatched ) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
6854
6855(F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
6903afa2 6856expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
e0e4a6e3 6857the matching parenthesis. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
9e3ec65c 6858regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 6859
d98d5fff 6860=item Unmatched right %s bracket
a0d0e21e 6861
be771a83
GS
6862(F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
6863ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
6864general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
6865you were last editing.
a0d0e21e 6866
a0d0e21e
LW
6867=item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
6868
be771a83
GS
6869(W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
6870reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
6871somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
6872subroutine.
a0d0e21e 6873
e0e4a6e3
FC
6874=item Unrecognized character %s; marked by S<<-- HERE> after %s near column
6875%d
a0d0e21e 6876
54310121 6877(F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
1b303a7d
FC
6878in your Perl script (or eval) near the specified column. Perhaps you
6879tried to run a compressed script, a binary program, or a directory as
6880a Perl program.
a0d0e21e 6881
e0e4a6e3
FC
6882=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class in regex; marked by
6883S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6884
675fa9ff
FC
6885(F) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
6886recognized by Perl inside character classes. This is a fatal
6887error when the character class is used within C<(?[ ])>.
0d0b4b3b 6888
6fbc9859 6889=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class passed through in regex;
e0e4a6e3 6890marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6891
be771a83
GS
6892(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
6893recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
b224edc1 6894understood literally, but this may change in a future version of Perl.
e0e4a6e3 6895The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
2628b4e0 6896escape was discovered.
6df41af2 6897
4a68bf9d 6898=item Unrecognized escape \%c passed through
2f7da168 6899
2628b4e0 6900(W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b224edc1
KW
6901recognized by Perl. The character was understood literally, but this may
6902change in a future version of Perl.
2f7da168 6903
e0e4a6e3
FC
6904=item Unrecognized escape \%s passed through in regex; marked by
6905S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6906
be771a83 6907(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b7e4ecc1 6908recognized by Perl. The character(s) were understood literally, but
e0e4a6e3 6909this may change in a future version of Perl. The S<<-- HERE> shows
9e3ec65c 6910whereabouts in the regular expression the escape was discovered.
6df41af2 6911
a0d0e21e
LW
6912=item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
6913
be771a83
GS
6914(F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
6915recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
6916on your system.
a0d0e21e 6917
90248788 6918=item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
a0d0e21e 6919
be771a83
GS
6920(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
6921think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
6922bad switch on your behalf.)
a0d0e21e
LW
6923
6924=item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
6925
be771a83
GS
6926(W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
6927operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
5b3eff12 6928PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
a0d0e21e
LW
6929
6930=item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
6931
6932(F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
6933
6df41af2
GS
6934=item Unsupported function %s
6935
6936(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
6937At least, Configure doesn't think so.
6938
54310121 6939=item Unsupported function fork
6940
6941(F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
6942
be771a83 6943Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
6903afa2 6944of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
be771a83 6945changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
54310121 6946
7aa207d6 6947=item Unsupported script encoding %s
b250498f
GS
6948
6949(F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
7aa207d6 6950declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot read.
b250498f 6951
a0d0e21e
LW
6952=item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
6953
6954(F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
6955least that's what Configure thought.
6956
d9790612
KW
6957=item Unterminated '(*...' argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6958
6959(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*...:...)> but did not terminate
6960the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
6961
6df41af2 6962=item Unterminated attribute list
a0d0e21e 6963
be771a83
GS
6964(F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
6965start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
6966block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
6967attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
a0d0e21e 6968
09bef843
SB
6969=item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
6970
be771a83
GS
6971(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
6972an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
09bef843
SB
6973character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
6974character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
6975
f1991046
GS
6976=item Unterminated compressed integer
6977
6978(F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
6979compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
6980See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6981
d9790612
KW
6982=item Unterminated '(*...' construct in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6983
6984(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*...)> but did not terminate
6985the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
6986
6f2d7fc9
FC
6987=item Unterminated delimiter for here document
6988
6989(F) This message occurs when a here document label has an initial
6990quotation mark but the final quotation mark is missing. Perhaps
6991you wrote:
6992
6993 <<"foo
6994
6995instead of:
6996
6997 <<"foo"
6998
e0e4a6e3 6999=item Unterminated \g... pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
779fedd7 7000
e0e4a6e3 7001=item Unterminated \g{...} pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2bf803e2 7002
5364049c
KW
7003(F) In a regular expression, you had a C<\g> that wasn't followed by a
7004proper group reference. In the case of C<\g{>, the closing brace is
7005missing; otherwise the C<\g> must be followed by an integer. Fix the
7006pattern and retry.
e2e6a0f1 7007
6df41af2 7008=item Unterminated <> operator
09bef843 7009
6df41af2 7010(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
7011a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
7012not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
7013earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
09bef843 7014
e0e4a6e3
FC
7015=item Unterminated verb pattern argument in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
7016m/%s/
905fe053
FC
7017
7018(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB:ARG)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 7019the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 7020
e0e4a6e3 7021=item Unterminated verb pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
905fe053
FC
7022
7023(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 7024the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 7025
6df41af2 7026=item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
a0d0e21e 7027
be771a83
GS
7028(W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
7029still valid when C<untie> was called.
a0d0e21e 7030
8e11cd2b
JC
7031=item Usage: POSIX::%s(%s)
7032
7033(F) You called a POSIX function with incorrect arguments.
7034See L<POSIX/FUNCTIONS> for more information.
7035
7036=item Usage: Win32::%s(%s)
7037
7038(F) You called a Win32 function with incorrect arguments.
7039See L<Win32> for more information.
7040
89474f50
FC
7041=item $[ used in %s (did you mean $] ?)
7042
7043(W syntax) You used C<$[> in a comparison, such as:
7044
7045 if ($[ > 5.006) {
7046 ...
7047 }
7048
7049You probably meant to use C<$]> instead. C<$[> is the base for indexing
7050arrays. C<$]> is the Perl version number in decimal.
7051
6da34ecb
FC
7052=item Use "%s" instead of "%s"
7053
7054(F) The second listed construct is no longer legal. Use the first one
7055instead.
7056
8fe85e3f
FC
7057=item Useless assignment to a temporary
7058
7059(W misc) You assigned to an lvalue subroutine, but what
7060the subroutine returned was a temporary scalar about to
7061be discarded, so the assignment had no effect.
7062
e0e4a6e3
FC
7063=item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex; marked by
7064S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 7065
96ebfdd7
RK
7066(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
7067meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 7068
96ebfdd7 7069 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
7070
7071must be written as
7072
96ebfdd7 7073 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5 7074
6e8a73f2 7075The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9e3ec65c 7076discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 7077
b4581f09
JH
7078=item Useless localization of %s
7079
6903afa2
FC
7080(W syntax) The localization of lvalues such as C<local($x=10)> is legal,
7081but in fact the local() currently has no effect. This may change at
b4581f09
JH
7082some point in the future, but in the meantime such code is discouraged.
7083
e0e4a6e3
FC
7084=item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
7085m/%s/
9d1d55b5 7086
96ebfdd7
RK
7087(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
7088meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 7089
96ebfdd7 7090 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
7091
7092must be written as
7093
96ebfdd7 7094 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5 7095
6e8a73f2 7096The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9e3ec65c 7097discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 7098
3108f4df
FC
7099=item Useless use of attribute "const"
7100
796b6530 7101(W misc) The C<const> attribute has no effect except
3108f4df
FC
7102on anonymous closure prototypes. You applied it to
7103a subroutine via L<attributes.pm|attributes>. This is only useful
7104inside an attribute handler for an anonymous subroutine.
7105
b08e453b
RB
7106=item Useless use of /d modifier in transliteration operator
7107
7108(W misc) You have used the /d modifier where the searchlist has the
6903afa2 7109same length as the replacelist. See L<perlop> for more information
b08e453b
RB
7110about the /d modifier.
7111
820438b1
FC
7112=item Useless use of \E
7113
7114(W misc) You have a \E in a double-quotish string without a C<\U>,
7115C<\L> or C<\Q> preceding it.
7116
4fa6dd16
KW
7117=item Useless use of greediness modifier '%c' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
7118
7119(W regexp) You specified something like these:
7120
7121 qr/a{3}?/
7122 qr/b{1,1}+/
7123
7124The C<"?"> and C<"+"> don't have any effect, as they modify whether to
7125match more or fewer when there is a choice, and by specifying to match
7126exactly a given numer, there is no room left for a choice.
7127
6df41af2 7128=item Useless use of %s in void context
a0d0e21e 7129
75b44862 7130(W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
be771a83
GS
7131nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
7132value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
7133often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
7134to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
7135get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
7136said
a0d0e21e 7137
6df41af2 7138 $one, $two = 1, 2;
748a9306 7139
6df41af2
GS
7140when you meant to say
7141
7142 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
7143
7144Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
7145reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
7146example, if you say
7147
7148 $array = (1,2);
7149
7150when you should have said
7151
7152 $array = [1,2];
7153
7154The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
7155while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
7156a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
7157throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
7158L<perlref> for more on this.
7159
65191a1e
BS
7160This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
7161since they are often used in statements like
7162
4358a253 7163 1 while sub_with_side_effects();
65191a1e
BS
7164
7165String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
7166about.
7167
e0e4a6e3 7168=item Useless use of (?-p) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
7169
7170(W regexp) The C<p> modifier cannot be turned off once set. Trying to do
7171so is futile.
7172
6df41af2
GS
7173=item Useless use of "re" pragma
7174
6903afa2 7175(W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
6df41af2 7176
a801c63c
RGS
7177=item Useless use of sort in scalar context
7178
7179(W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
7180
7181 my $x = sort @y;
7182
7183This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
7184
de4864e4
JH
7185=item Useless use of %s with no values
7186
f87c3213 7187(W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
6903afa2
FC
7188apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
7189usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
de4864e4 7190possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
6903afa2 7191if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
de4864e4
JH
7192you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
7193
6df41af2
GS
7194=item "use" not allowed in expression
7195
be771a83
GS
7196(F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
7197returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
748a9306 7198
c6e25b09 7199=item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is forbidden
4633a7c4 7200
3f673807
FC
7201(F) You are now required to use the explicitly quoted form if you wish
7202to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
83ce3e12 7203
3f673807
FC
7204Use of a bare terminator was deprecated in Perl 5.000, and is a fatal
7205error as of Perl 5.28.
e5aa3f0b 7206
64e578a2
MJD
7207=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
7208
7209(W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
7210modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
7211
4ac733c9
MJD
7212=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
7213
7214(W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
7215use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
7216used. (This may change in the future.)
7217
fb7e7255
KW
7218=item Use of code point 0x%s is not allowed; the permissible max is 0x%x
7219
7220=item Use of code point 0x%s is not allowed; the permissible max is 0x%x
7221in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
113b8661
A
7222
7223(F) You used a code point that is not allowed, because it is too large.
7224Unicode only allows code points up to 0x10FFFF, but Perl allows much
7225larger ones. Earlier versions of Perl allowed code points above IV_MAX
7226(0x7FFFFFF on 32-bit platforms, 0x7FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF on 64-bit platforms),
7227however, this could possibly break the perl interpreter in some constructs,
7228including causing it to hang in a few cases.
2d212e86
KW
7229
7230If your code is to run on various platforms, keep in mind that the upper
7231limit depends on the platform. It is much larger on 64-bit word sizes
7232than 32-bit ones.
7233
fcdb3ac1 7234The use of out of range code points was deprecated in Perl 5.24, and
113b8661 7235became a fatal error in Perl 5.28.
fcdb3ac1 7236
675fa9ff
FC
7237=item Use of each() on hash after insertion without resetting hash iterator results in undefined behavior
7238
f26c79ba
FC
7239(S internal) The behavior of C<each()> after insertion is undefined;
7240it may skip items, or visit items more than once. Consider using
7241C<keys()> instead of C<each()>.
675fa9ff 7242
2dc78664 7243=item Use of := for an empty attribute list is not allowed
036e1e65 7244
2dc78664
NC
7245(F) The construction C<my $x := 42> used to parse as equivalent to
7246C<my $x : = 42> (applying an empty attribute list to C<$x>).
7247This construct was deprecated in 5.12.0, and has now been made a syntax
7248error, so C<:=> can be reclaimed as a new operator in the future.
7249
7250If you need an empty attribute list, for example in a code generator, add
7251a space before the C<=>.
036e1e65 7252
fafdadbd
KW
7253=item Use of %s for non-UTF-8 locale is wrong. Assuming a UTF-8 locale
7254
7255(W locale) You are matching a regular expression using locale rules,
7256and the specified construct was encountered. This construct is only
7257valid for UTF-8 locales, which the current locale isn't. This doesn't
7258make sense. Perl will continue, assuming a Unicode (UTF-8) locale, but
7259the results are likely to be wrong.
7260
b6c83531 7261=item Use of freed value in iteration
2f7da168 7262
b6c83531
JH
7263(F) Perhaps you modified the iterated array within the loop?
7264This error is typically caused by code like the following:
2f7da168
RK
7265
7266 @a = (3,4);
7267 @a = () for (1,2,@a);
7268
7269You are not supposed to modify arrays while they are being iterated over.
7270For speed and efficiency reasons, Perl internally does not do full
7271reference-counting of iterated items, hence deleting such an item in the
7272middle of an iteration causes Perl to see a freed value.
7273
96ebfdd7 7274=item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
35ae6b54 7275
96ebfdd7
RK
7276(W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
7277operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
7278repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
35ae6b54 7279
dc6e8de0 7280=item Use of "goto" to jump into a construct is deprecated
0b98bec9
RGS
7281
7282(D deprecated) Using C<goto> to jump from an outer scope into an inner
7283scope is deprecated and should be avoided.
7284
dc6e8de0 7285This was deprecated in Perl 5.12.
9fc8eee0 7286
600c10ce
KW
7287=item Use of '%s' in \p{} or \P{} is deprecated because: %s
7288
7289(D deprecated) Certain properties are deprecated by Unicode, and may
7290eventually be removed from the Standard, at which time Perl will follow
7291along. In the meantime, this message is raised to notify you.
7292
64278e8c
A
7293=item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s::%s() is no longer allowed
7294
7295(F) As an accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines were looked up as
7296methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy), even when the subroutines to be
7297autoloaded were called as plain functions (e.g. C<Foo::bar()>), not as
7298methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or C<< $obj->bar() >>).
7299
7300This was deprecated in Perl 5.004, and was made fatal in Perl 5.28.
d9d53e86 7301
6df41af2
GS
7302=item Use of %s in printf format not supported
7303
7304(F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
7305only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
7306
5840701a 7307=item Use of -l on filehandle%s
5a7abfcc
FC
7308
7309(W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
7310it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
7311The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
7312
1f1cc344 7313=item Use of reference "%s" as array index
d804643f 7314
77b96956 7315(W misc) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
1f1cc344
JH
7316isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
7317to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
d804643f 7318
64977eb6 7319If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
1f1cc344 7320C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
54e0f05c 7321however, because you can overload the numification and stringification
c69ca1d4 7322operators and then you presumably know what you are doing.
d804643f 7323
87e05d1a 7324=item Use of strings with code points over 0xFF as arguments to %s
5d09ee1c 7325operator is not allowed
87e05d1a 7326
3f673807
FC
7327(F) You tried to use one of the string bitwise operators (C<&> or C<|> or C<^> or
7328C<~>) on a string containing a code point over 0xFF. The string bitwise
7329operators treat their operands as strings of bytes, and values beyond
73300xFF are nonsensical in this context.
87e05d1a 7331
5d09ee1c 7332This became fatal in Perl 5.28.
ecbcbef0 7333
315f3fc1
KW
7334=item Use of strings with code points over 0xFF as arguments to C<vec>
7335is deprecated. This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.32
7336
7337(D deprecated) You tried to use L<C<vec>|perlfunc/vec EXPR,OFFSET,BITS>
7338on a string containing a code point over 0xFF, which is nonsensical here.
7339
7340Such usage will be a fatal error in Perl 5.32.
7341
bbd7eb8a
RD
7342=item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
7343
159f47d9 7344(W taint, deprecated) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
bbd7eb8a
RD
7345arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
7346but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
7347arguments. See L<perlsec>.
7348
94749a5e 7349=item Use of unassigned code point or non-standalone grapheme for a
7cb258c1 7350delimiter will be a fatal error starting in Perl 5.30
94749a5e
KW
7351
7352(D deprecated)
7353A grapheme is what appears to a native-speaker of a language to be a
7354character. In Unicode (and hence Perl) a grapheme may actually be
7355several adjacent characters that together form a complete grapheme. For
7356example, there can be a base character, like "R" and an accent, like a
7357circumflex "^", that appear when displayed to be a single character with
7358the circumflex hovering over the "R". Perl currently allows things like
7359that circumflex to be delimiters of strings, patterns, I<etc>. When
7360displayed, the circumflex would look like it belongs to the character
7361just to the left of it. In order to move the language to be able to
7362accept graphemes as delimiters, we have to deprecate the use of
7363delimiters which aren't graphemes by themselves. Also, a delimiter must
7364already be assigned (or known to be never going to be assigned) to try
7365to future-proof code, for otherwise code that works today would fail to
7366compile if the currently unassigned delimiter ends up being something
7367that isn't a stand-alone grapheme. Because Unicode is never going to
7368assign
7369L<non-character code points|perlunicode/Noncharacter code points>, nor
7370L<code points that are above the legal Unicode maximum|
7371perlunicode/Beyond Unicode code points>, those can be delimiters, and
7372their use won't raise this warning.
7373
cc95b072 7374=item Use of uninitialized value%s
a0d0e21e 7375
be771a83
GS
7376(W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
7377defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
7378To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
a0d0e21e 7379
6903afa2
FC
7380To help you figure out what was undefined, perl will try to tell you
7381the name of the variable (if any) that was undefined. In some cases
7382it cannot do this, so it also tells you what operation you used the
7383undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your program
50a39ba4 7384and the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily appear
6903afa2
FC
7385literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is usually
7386optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to the
7387C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in
7388your program.
e5be4a53 7389
67cdf558
KW
7390=item "use re 'strict'" is experimental
7391
7392(S experimental::re_strict) The things that are different when a regular
7393expression pattern is compiled under C<'strict'> are subject to change
7394in future Perl releases in incompatible ways. This means that a pattern
7395that compiles today may not in a future Perl release. This warning is
7396to alert you to that risk.
7397
e0e4a6e3
FC
7398=item Use \x{...} for more than two hex characters in regex; marked by
7399S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
7400
7401(F) In a regular expression, you said something like
7402
7403 (?[ [ \xBEEF ] ])
7404
7405Perl isn't sure if you meant this
7406
7407 (?[ [ \x{BEEF} ] ])
7408
7409or if you meant this
7410
7411 (?[ [ \x{BE} E F ] ])
7412
7413You need to add either braces or blanks to disambiguate.
7414
6fbc9859 7415=item Using just the first character returned by \N{} in character class in
e0e4a6e3 7416regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ff3f963a 7417
f3ba6905
FC
7418(W regexp) Named Unicode character escapes C<(\N{...})> may return
7419a multi-character sequence. Even though a character class is
7420supposed to match just one character of input, perl will match
7421the whole thing correctly, except when the class is inverted
7422(C<[^...]>), or the escape is the beginning or final end point of
7423a range. For these, what should happen isn't clear at all. In
7424these circumstances, Perl discards all but the first character
7425of the returned sequence, which is not likely what you want.
ff3f963a 7426
6e8a73f2 7427=item Using /u for '%s' instead of /%s in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
64935bc6
KW
7428
7429(W regexp) You used a Unicode boundary (C<\b{...}> or C<\B{...}>) in a
7430portion of a regular expression where the character set modifiers C</a>
7431or C</aa> are in effect. These two modifiers indicate an ASCII
33f0d962 7432interpretation, and this doesn't make sense for a Unicode definition.
64935bc6
KW
7433The generated regular expression will compile so that the boundary uses
7434all of Unicode. No other portion of the regular expression is affected.
7435
c794c51b
FC
7436=item Using !~ with %s doesn't make sense
7437
7438(F) Using the C<!~> operator with C<s///r>, C<tr///r> or C<y///r> is
0f44b2a5 7439currently reserved for future use, as the exact behavior has not
6903afa2 7440been decided. (Simply returning the boolean opposite of the
c794c51b 7441modified string is usually not particularly useful.)
0876b9a0 7442
949cf498
KW
7443=item UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
7444
4c2e59a0 7445(S surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
949cf498
KW
7446not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
7447U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
7448internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
7449available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
7450problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
7451came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 7452off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9466bab6 7453
68dc0745 7454=item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
a6006777 7455
75b44862 7456(W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
be771a83
GS
7457C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
7458can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
7459false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
7460constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
7461C<defined> operator.
a6006777 7462
f675dbe5
CB
7463=item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
7464
be771a83
GS
7465(W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
7466%ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
7467longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
74681024 characters.
f675dbe5 7469
b5c19bd7 7470=item Variable "%s" is not available
44a8e56a 7471
b5c19bd7
DM
7472(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
7473attempting to capture an outer lexical that is not currently available.
6903afa2 7474This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the outer lexical may be
b5c19bd7
DM
7475declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has not yet been created.
7476(Remember that named subs are created at compile time, while anonymous
6903afa2 7477subs are created at run-time.) For example,
44a8e56a 7478
b5c19bd7 7479 sub { my $a; sub f { $a } }
44a8e56a 7480
b5c19bd7 7481At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current value of $a,
6903afa2 7482since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely,
b5c19bd7
DM
7483the following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by
7484now been created and is live:
be771a83 7485
b5c19bd7
DM
7486 sub { my $a; eval 'sub f { $a }' }->();
7487
7488The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a variable that has
7489gone out of scope, for example,
7490
7491 sub f {
7492 my $a;
7493 sub { eval '$a' }
7494 }
7495 f()->();
7496
1b303a7d
FC
7497Here, when the '$a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
7498being executed, so its $a is not available for capture.
44a8e56a 7499
b4581f09
JH
7500=item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
7501
120b0f81 7502(S misc) With "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable
413ff9f6 7503that you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
b4581f09
JH
7504something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
7505that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
7506front of your variable.
7507
aec0ef10 7508=item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex m/%s/
b4581f09
JH
7509
7510(F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
d0a29c36
KW
7511known at compile time. For positive lookbehind, you can use the C<\K>
7512regex construct as a way to get the equivalent functionality. See
a8f2f5fa 7513L<(?<=pattern) and \K in perlre|perlre/\K>.
d0a29c36 7514
754dd754
KW
7515Starting in Perl 5.18, there are non-obvious Unicode rules under C</i>
7516that can match variably, but which you might not think could. For
7517example, the substring C<"ss"> can match the single character LATIN
7518SMALL LETTER SHARP S. Here's a complete list of the current ones
7519affecting ASCII characters:
7520
7521 ASCII
7522 sequence Matches single letter under /i
7523 FF U+FB00 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FF
7524 FFI U+FB03 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FFI
7525 FFL U+FB04 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FFL
7526 FI U+FB01 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FI
7527 FL U+FB02 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FL
7528 SS U+00DF LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S
7529 U+1E9E LATIN CAPITAL LETTER SHARP S
7530 ST U+FB06 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE ST
7531 U+FB05 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE LONG S T
7532
7533This list is subject to change, but is quite unlikely to.
7534Each ASCII sequence can be any combination of upper- and lowercase.
7535
7536You can avoid this by using a bracketed character class in the
7537lookbehind assertion, like
7538
7539 (?<![sS]t)
7540 (?<![fF]f[iI])
7541
7542This fools Perl into not matching the ligatures.
7543
7544Another option for Perls starting with 5.16, if you only care about
7545ASCII matches, is to add the C</aa> modifier to the regex. This will
7546exclude all these non-obvious matches, thus getting rid of this message.
7547You can also say
7548
7549 use if $] ge 5.016, re => '/aa';
7550
d0a29c36
KW
7551to apply C</aa> to all regular expressions compiled within its scope.
7552See L<re>.
b4581f09
JH
7553
7554=item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
7555
52e3acf8 7556(W shadow) A "my", "our" or "state" variable has been redeclared in the
b9cc85ad
FC
7557current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the
7558previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note
7559that the earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope
20d33786 7560or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
b4581f09 7561
6df41af2
GS
7562=item Variable syntax
7563
7564(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
7565of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
7566Perl yourself.
7567
44a8e56a 7568=item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
7569
be771a83 7570(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
b5c19bd7 7571lexical variable defined in an outer named subroutine.
44a8e56a 7572
b5c19bd7 7573When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of
be771a83
GS
7574the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
7575call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
7576outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
7577longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
7578variable will no longer be shared.
44a8e56a 7579
44a8e56a 7580This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
7581anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
b5c19bd7 7582reference variables in outer subroutines are created, they
be771a83 7583are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
44a8e56a 7584
6651ba0b
FC
7585=item vector argument not supported with alpha versions
7586
8b6051f1 7587(S printf) The %vd (s)printf format does not support version objects
6651ba0b
FC
7588with alpha parts.
7589
e0e4a6e3
FC
7590=item Verb pattern '%s' has a mandatory argument in regex; marked by
7591S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1 7592
6903afa2
FC
7593(F) You used a verb pattern that requires an argument. Supply an
7594argument or check that you are using the right verb.
e2e6a0f1 7595
e0e4a6e3
FC
7596=item Verb pattern '%s' may not have an argument in regex; marked by
7597S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1 7598
6903afa2 7599(F) You used a verb pattern that is not allowed an argument. Remove the
e2e6a0f1
YO
7600argument or check that you are using the right verb.
7601
9c88bb56 7602=item Version control conflict marker
397c43d8
LM
7603
7604(F) The parser found a line starting with C<E<lt><<<<<<>,
d4e5761f 7605C<E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>>, or C<=======>. These may be left by a
397c43d8
LM
7606version control system to mark conflicts after a failed merge operation.
7607
084610c0
GS
7608=item Version number must be a constant number
7609
7610(P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
7611its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
7612the version number.
7613
808ee47e
SP
7614=item Version string '%s' contains invalid data; ignoring: '%s'
7615
32e998fd
RGS
7616(W misc) The version string contains invalid characters at the end, which
7617are being ignored.
808ee47e 7618
7e1af8bc 7619=item Warning: something's wrong
5f05dabc 7620
7621(W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
ec8bb14c 7622you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 7623
f86702cc 7624=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
a0d0e21e 7625
be771a83
GS
7626(S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
7627the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
7628space.
a0d0e21e 7629
96d7c888
FC
7630=item Warning: unable to close filehandle properly: %s
7631
7632=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly: %s
7633
ab7ca7ed
AP
7634(S io) There were errors during the implicit close() done on a filehandle
7635when its reference count reached zero while it was still open, e.g.:
cc4d3128
DM
7636
7637 {
7638 open my $fh, '>', $file or die "open: '$file': $!\n";
7639 print $fh $data or die "print: $!";
7640 } # implicit close here
7641
95032a5b
AP
7642Because various errors may only be detected by close() (e.g. buffering could
7643allow the C<print> in this example to return true even when the disk is full),
d4e5761f
FC
7644it is dangerous to ignore its result. So when it happens implicitly, perl
7645will signal errors by warning.
cc4d3128 7646
ab7ca7ed
AP
7647B<Prior to version 5.22.0, perl ignored such errors>, so the common idiom shown
7648above was liable to cause B<silent data loss>.
96d7c888 7649
5f05dabc 7650=item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
a0d0e21e 7651
be771a83
GS
7652(S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
7653looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
7654term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
7655function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
a0d0e21e
LW
7656
7657 rand + 5;
7658
7659you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
7660
7661 rand() + 5;
7662
7663but in actual fact, you got
7664
7665 rand(+5);
7666
5f05dabc 7667So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
a0d0e21e 7668
7896dde7 7669=item when is experimental
0f539b13 7670
7896dde7
Z
7671(S experimental::smartmatch) C<when> depends on smartmatch, which is
7672experimental. Additionally, it has several special cases that may
7673not be immediately obvious, and their behavior may change or
7674even be removed in any future release of perl. See the explanation
7675under L<perlsyn/Experimental Details on given and when>.
0f539b13 7676
4b3603a4
JH
7677=item Wide character in %s
7678
479b791b
KW
7679(S utf8) Perl met a wide character (ordinal >255) when it wasn't
7680expecting one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print).
7681
7682If this warning does come from I/O, the easiest
7683way to quiet it is simply to add the C<:utf8> layer, I<e.g.>,
7684S<C<binmode STDOUT, ':utf8'>>. Another way to turn off the warning is
7685to add S<C<no warnings 'utf8';>> but that is often closer to
cd28123a
JH
7686cheating. In general, you are supposed to explicitly mark the
7687filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
4b3603a4 7688
479b791b
KW
7689If the warning comes from other than I/O, this diagnostic probably
7690indicates that incorrect results are being obtained. You should examine
7691your code to determine how a wide character is getting to an operation
7692that doesn't handle them.
7693
613abc6d
KW
7694=item Wide character (U+%X) in %s
7695
7696(W locale) While in a single-byte locale (I<i.e.>, a non-UTF-8
7697one), a multi-byte character was encountered. Perl considers this
50ea4745 7698character to be the specified Unicode code point. Combining non-UTF-8
613abc6d
KW
7699locales and Unicode is dangerous. Almost certainly some characters
7700will have two different representations. For example, in the ISO 8859-7
7701(Greek) locale, the code point 0xC3 represents a Capital Gamma. But so
7702also does 0x393. This will make string comparisons unreliable.
7703
7704You likely need to figure out how this multi-byte character got mixed up
7705with your single-byte locale (or perhaps you thought you had a UTF-8
7706locale, but Perl disagrees).
7707
49704364
WL
7708=item Within []-length '%c' not allowed
7709
fa816bf3
FC
7710(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]>
7711only if C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes that
7712can be determined from the template alone. This is not possible if
7713it contains any of the codes @, /, U, u, w or a *-length. Redesign
7714the template.
49704364 7715
74d1b2e4
FC
7716=item %s() with negative argument
7717
7718(S misc) Certain operations make no sense with negative arguments.
7719Warning is given and the operation is not done.
7720
9a7dcd9c 7721=item write() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 7722
be771a83 7723(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 7724before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 7725
9ae3ac1a 7726=item %s "\x%X" does not map to Unicode
b4581f09 7727
27f95370
FC
7728(S utf8) When reading in different encodings, Perl tries to
7729map everything into Unicode characters. The bytes you read
7730in are not legal in this encoding. For example
b4581f09
JH
7731
7732 utf8 "\xE4" does not map to Unicode
7733
7734if you try to read in the a-diaereses Latin-1 as UTF-8.
7735
49704364 7736=item 'X' outside of string
a0d0e21e 7737
49704364
WL
7738(F) You had a (un)pack template that specified a relative position before
7739the beginning of the string being (un)packed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
a0d0e21e 7740
49704364 7741=item 'x' outside of string in unpack
a0d0e21e
LW
7742
7743(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
7744the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
7745
a0d0e21e
LW
7746=item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
7747
5f05dabc 7748(F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
a0d0e21e 7749sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
b5145c7d
Z
7750about what you want. There is a vulnerability anywhere that you have a
7751set-id script, and to close it you need to remove the set-id bit from
7752the script that you're attempting to run. To actually run the script
7753set-id, your best bet is to put a set-id C wrapper around your script.
a0d0e21e
LW
7754
7755=item You need to quote "%s"
7756
be771a83
GS
7757(W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
7758Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
7759which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
7760assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
7761what you want, put an & in front.)
a0d0e21e 7762
6cfd5ea7
JH
7763=item Your random numbers are not that random
7764
50a39ba4 7765(F) When trying to initialize the random seed for hashes, Perl could
6cfd5ea7
JH
7766not get any randomness out of your system. This usually indicates
7767Something Very Wrong.
7768
e0e4a6e3 7769=item Zero length \N{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
8a5a438d 7770
f3ba6905 7771(F) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a zero-length
8a5a438d 7772sequence. Such an escape was used in an extended character class, i.e.
fe0a3646
KW
7773C<(?[...])>, or under C<use re 'strict'>, which is not permitted. Check
7774that the correct escape has been used, and the correct charnames handler
7775is in scope. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
7776expression the problem was discovered.
8a5a438d 7777
a0d0e21e
LW
7778=back
7779
00eb3f2b
RGS
7780=head1 SEE ALSO
7781
44ecbbd8 7782L<warnings>, L<diagnostics>.
00eb3f2b 7783
56e90b21 7784=cut