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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
23below.
24
25Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
fa816bf3 26and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
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27to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
28of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
29
b7eceb5b 30Severe warnings are always enabled, unless they are explicitly disabled
e476b1b5 31with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
4438c4b7 32
748a9306 33Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
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34L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
36See L<warnings>.
a0d0e21e 37
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38The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
39lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
40denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
41ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
42letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
43letter.
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44
45=over 4
46
6df41af2 47=item accept() on closed socket %s
33633739 48
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49(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
50to check the return value of your socket() call? See
51L<perlfunc/accept>.
33633739 52
de42a5a9 53=item Allocation too large: %x
a0d0e21e 54
6df41af2 55(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
a0d0e21e 56
1109a392 57=item '%c' allowed only after types %s
ef54e1a4 58
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59(F) The modifiers '!', '<' and '>' are allowed in pack() or unpack() only
60after certain types. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
ef54e1a4 61
6df41af2 62=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
43192e07 63
75b44862 64(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
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65keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
66one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
67subroutine is not imported.
43192e07 68
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69To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
70before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
71Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
72imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
43192e07 73
6df41af2 74To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
496a33f5 75on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
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76to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
77L<attributes>).
43192e07 78
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79=item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
80
81(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
82all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
83first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
84C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
85
6df41af2 86=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
43192e07 87
7c7af292 88(S ambiguous) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
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89you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
90a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
a0d0e21e 91
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92=item Ambiguous use of %c resolved as operator %c
93
7c7af292 94(S ambiguous) C<%>, C<&>, and C<*> are both infix operators (modulus,
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95bitwise and, and multiplication) I<and> initial special characters
96(denoting hashes, subroutines and typeglobs), and you said something
97like C<*foo * foo> that might be interpreted as either of them. We
98assumed you meant the infix operator, but please try to make it more
99clear -- in the example given, you might write C<*foo * foo()> if you
100really meant to multiply a glob by the result of calling a function.
d8225693 101
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102=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s} resolved to %c%s
103
104(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<@{foo}>, which might be
105asking for the variable C<@foo>, or it might be calling a function
106named foo, and dereferencing it as an array reference. If you wanted
1cecf2c0 107the variable, you can just write C<@foo>. If you wanted to call the
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108function, write C<@{foo()}> ... or you could just not have a variable
109and a function with the same name, and save yourself a lot of trouble.
110
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111=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s[...]} resolved to %c%s[...]
112
113=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s{...}} resolved to %c%s{...}
4da60377 114
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115(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<${foo[2]}> (where foo represents
116the name of a Perl keyword), which might be looking for element number
1172 of the array named C<@foo>, in which case please write C<$foo[2]>, or you
118might have meant to pass an anonymous arrayref to the function named
119foo, and then do a scalar deref on the value it returns. If you meant
120that, write C<${foo([2])}>.
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121
122In regular expressions, the C<${foo[2]}> syntax is sometimes necessary
123to disambiguate between array subscripts and character classes.
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124C</$length[2345]/>, for instance, will be interpreted as C<$length> followed
125by the character class C<[2345]>. If an array subscript is what you
126want, you can avoid the warning by changing C</${length[2345]}/> to the
127unsightly C</${\$length[2345]}/>, by renaming your array to something
128that does not coincide with a built-in keyword, or by simply turning
129off warnings with C<no warnings 'ambiguous';>.
4da60377 130
bdac9d71 131=item Ambiguous use of -%s resolved as -&%s()
397d0f13 132
7c7af292 133(S ambiguous) You wrote something like C<-foo>, which might be the
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134string C<"-foo">, or a call to the function C<foo>, negated. If you meant
135the string, just write C<"-foo">. If you meant the function call,
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136write C<-foo()>.
137
6df41af2 138=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
a0d0e21e 139
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140(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
141redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
142redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
c9f97d15 143
6df41af2 144=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
1028017a 145
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146(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
147redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
148into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
149though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
150which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
1028017a 151
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152 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
153 while (<STDIN>) {
154 print;
155 print OUT;
156 }
157 close OUT;
c9f97d15 158
6df41af2 159=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
eb6e2d6f 160
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161(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
162transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
be771a83 163one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
ac036724 164a scalar value (the length of an array, or the population info of a
165hash) and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
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166you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
167alternatives.
eb6e2d6f 168
6df41af2 169=item Arg too short for msgsnd
76cd736e 170
6df41af2 171(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
76cd736e 172
b0fdf69e 173=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine
a0d0e21e 174
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175(F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element or a
176subroutine with an ampersand, such as:
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177
178 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 179 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
cc1c2e42 180 &do_something
a0d0e21e 181
8ea97a1e 182=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
5f05dabc 183
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184(F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
185such as:
5f05dabc 186
187 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 188 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
5f05dabc 189
8ea97a1e 190or a hash or array slice, such as:
5f05dabc 191
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192 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
193 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
5315574d 194
6df41af2 195=item %s argument is not a subroutine name
a0d0e21e 196
6df41af2 197(F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
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198name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
199error.
a0d0e21e 200
f86702cc 201=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 202
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203(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
204that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
205will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
a0d0e21e 206
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207=item Argument list not closed for PerlIO layer "%s"
208
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209(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O
210system you forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers
211take care of transforming data between external and internal
212representations.) Perl stopped parsing the layer list at this
213point and did not attempt to push this layer. If your program
214didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the
215result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
b4581f09 216
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217=item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
218
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219(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
220spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
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221
222=item assertion botched: %s
223
21b5e840 224(X) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
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225
226=item Assertion failed: file "%s"
227
21b5e840 228(X) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
a0d0e21e 229
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230=item Assigning non-zero to $[ is no longer possible
231
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232(F) When the "array_base" feature is disabled (e.g., under C<use v5.16;>)
233the special variable C<$[>, which is deprecated, is now a fixed zero value.
82122228 234
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235=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
236
237(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
238must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
239know which context to supply to the right side.
240
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241=item A thread exited while %d threads were running
242
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243(W threads)(S) When using threaded Perl, a thread (not necessarily
244the main thread) exited while there were still other threads running.
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245Usually it's a good idea first to collect the return values of the
246created threads by joining them, and only then to exit from the main
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247thread. See L<threads>.
248
2393f1b9 249=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
1b1f1335 250
49293501 251(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
2393f1b9 252the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
49293501 253
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254=item Attempt to bless into a reference
255
256(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
57dedab9 257the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
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258supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
259
260 bless $self, $proto;
261
262when you intended
263
264 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
265
266If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
267of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
268example by:
269
270 bless $self, "$proto";
271
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272=item Attempt to clear deleted array
273
274(S debugging) An array was assigned to when it was being freed.
275Freed values are not supposed to be visible to Perl code. This
276can also happen if XS code calls C<av_clear> from a custom magic
277callback on the array.
278
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279=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
280
281(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
282which is not in its key set.
283
284=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
285
286(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
287declared readonly from a restricted hash.
288
de42a5a9 289=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%x
a0d0e21e 290
f84fe999 291(S internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
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292that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
293outside any of those arenas.
a0d0e21e 294
12578ffb 295=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string '%s'%s
bbce6d69 296
f84fe999 297(S internal) Perl maintains a reference-counted internal table of
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298strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
299strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
300of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
bbce6d69 301
7d5b40b4 302=item Attempt to free temp prematurely: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 303
f84fe999 304(S debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
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305free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
306SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
307free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
308try to free it.
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309
310=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
311
f84fe999 312(S internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
a0d0e21e 313
7d5b40b4 314=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 315
8f7e4d2c 316(S internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
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317see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
318earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
319This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
320that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
321mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
322corrupted.
a0d0e21e 323
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324=item Attempt to join self
325
326(F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
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327impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
328to move the join() to some other thread.
dcdda58d 329
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330=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
331
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332(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
333function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
334means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
335invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
336literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
337avoid this warning.
84902520 338
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339=item Attempt to reload %s aborted.
340
341(F) You tried to load a file with C<use> or C<require> that failed to
342compile once already. Perl will not try to compile this file again
343unless you delete its entry from %INC. See L<perlfunc/require> and
344L<perlvar/%INC>.
345
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346=item Attempt to set length of freed array
347
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348(W misc) You tried to set the length of an array which has
349been freed. You can do this by storing a reference to the
350scalar representing the last index of an array and later
351assigning through that reference. For example
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352
353 $r = do {my @a; \$#a};
354 $$r = 503
355
b7a902f4 356=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
357
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358(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
359used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
360dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 361
c32124fe
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362=item Attribute "locked" is deprecated
363
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364(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragma to modify the
365"locked" attribute on a code reference. The :locked attribute is
366obsolete, has had no effect since 5005 threads were removed, and
367will be removed in a future release of Perl 5.
c32124fe 368
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369=item Attribute "unique" is deprecated
370
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371(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragma to modify
372the "unique" attribute on an array, hash or scalar reference.
373The :unique attribute has had no effect since Perl 5.8.8, and
374will be removed in a future release of Perl 5.
f1a3ce43 375
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376=item av_reify called on tied array
377
378(S debugging) This indicates that something went wrong and Perl got I<very>
379confused about C<@_> or C<@DB::args> being tied.
380
de42a5a9 381=item Bad arg length for %s, is %u, should be %d
a0d0e21e 382
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383(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
384or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 385S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
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386S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
387
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388=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
389
496a33f5 390(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
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391substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
392most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
393
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394=item Bad filehandle: %s
395
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396(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
397symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
398open(), or did it in another package.
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399
400=item Bad free() ignored
401
be771a83 402(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
fa816bf3 403been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 404setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 405
9ea8bc6d 406This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
6903afa2 407dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
be771a83 408which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 409
aa689395 410=item Bad hash
411
412(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
413
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414=item Badly placed ()'s
415
416(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
417of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
418Perl yourself.
419
a7cb8dae 420=item Bad name after %s
a0d0e21e 421
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422(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
423didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
424of quotes, so
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425
426 $var = 'myvar';
427 $sym = mypack::$var;
428
429is not the same as
430
431 $var = 'myvar';
432 $sym = "mypack::$var";
433
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434=item Bad plugin affecting keyword '%s'
435
436(F) An extension using the keyword plugin mechanism violated the
437plugin API.
438
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439=item Bad realloc() ignored
440
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441(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that
442had never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can
443be disabled by setting the environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 444
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445=item Bad symbol for array
446
447(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
448wasn't a symbol table entry.
449
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450=item Bad symbol for dirhandle
451
452(P) An internal request asked to add a dirhandle entry to something
453that wasn't a symbol table entry.
454
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455=item Bad symbol for filehandle
456
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457(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
458that wasn't a symbol table entry.
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459
460=item Bad symbol for hash
461
462(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
463wasn't a symbol table entry.
464
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465=item Bareword found in conditional
466
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467(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
468conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
469of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
34d09196
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470
471 open FOO || die;
472
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473It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
474a bareword:
34d09196
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475
476 use constant TYPO => 1;
477 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
478
479The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
480
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481=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
482
483(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
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484subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
485symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
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486
487=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
488
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489(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
490compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
491you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 492
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493=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
494
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495(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
496subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
497exited.
a0d0e21e 498
68dc0745 499=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
500
501(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
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502implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
503occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
504be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
505depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 506
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507=item \1 better written as $1
508
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509(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
510The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
511substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
512because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
513there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 514
252aa082
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515=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
516
e476b1b5 517(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
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JH
518(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
519L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 520
69282e91 521=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 522
be771a83
GS
523(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
524check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 525
c289d2f7
JH
526=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
527
528(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
4dcecea4 529Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 530
f866a7cd
FC
531=item "\b{" is deprecated; use "\b\{" instead
532
533=item "\B{" is deprecated; use "\B\{" instead
534
535(W deprecated, regexp) Use of an unescaped "{" immediately following a
536C<\b> or C<\B> is now deprecated so as to reserve its use for Perl
537itself in a future release.
538
c5a0f51a
JH
539=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
540
e476b1b5 541(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 542
043c750c 543=item Bizarre copy of %s
4633a7c4 544
be771a83 545(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
4dcecea4 546copiable.
4633a7c4 547
f675dbe5
CB
548=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
549
be771a83
GS
550(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
551iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
552which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 553
7fcfef4d
FC
554=item Bizarre SvTYPE [%d]
555
556(P) When starting a new thread or return values from a thread, Perl
557encountered an invalid data type.
558
a0d0e21e
LW
559=item Callback called exit
560
4929bf7b 561(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
a0d0e21e
LW
562exited by calling exit.
563
6df41af2 564=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 565
be771a83
GS
566(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
567parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
568that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
569early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
570subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
571checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
572function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
573the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 574
49704364 575=item Cannot compress integer in pack
0258719b
NC
576
577(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress. The BER
578compressed integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you
579attempted to compress Infinity or a very large number (> 1e308).
580See L<perlfunc/pack>.
581
49704364 582=item Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
0258719b
NC
583
584(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
585format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
586
5c1f4d79
NC
587=item Cannot convert a reference to %s to typeglob
588
6903afa2
FC
589(F) You manipulated Perl's symbol table directly, stored a reference
590in it, then tried to access that symbol via conventional Perl syntax.
591The access triggers Perl to autovivify that typeglob, but it there is
592no legal conversion from that type of reference to a typeglob.
5c1f4d79 593
4040665a 594=item Cannot copy to %s
ba2fdce6
NC
595
596(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy a value to an internal type that cannot
4dcecea4 597be directly assigned to.
ba2fdce6 598
b5d97229
RGS
599=item Cannot find encoding "%s"
600
601(S io) You tried to apply an encoding that did not exist to a filehandle,
602either with open() or binmode().
603
7355df7e
FC
604=item Cannot set tied @DB::args
605
606(F) C<caller> tried to set C<@DB::args>, but found it tied. Tying C<@DB::args>
607is not supported. (Before this error was added, it used to crash.)
608
ce65bc73
FC
609=item Cannot tie unreifiable array
610
611(P) You somehow managed to call C<tie> on an array that does not
612keep a reference count on its arguments and cannot be made to
613do so. Such arrays are not even supposed to be accessible to
614Perl code, but are only used internally.
615
96ebfdd7
RK
616=item Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
617
618(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
619integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
620to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
621
a0d0e21e
LW
622=item Can't bless non-reference value
623
624(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
625encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
626
dc57907a
RGS
627=item Can't "break" in a loop topicalizer
628
0d863452 629(F) You called C<break>, but you're in a C<foreach> block rather than
6903afa2 630a C<given> block. You probably meant to use C<next> or C<last>.
0d863452
RH
631
632=item Can't "break" outside a given block
dc57907a 633
0d863452
RH
634(F) You called C<break>, but you're not inside a C<given> block.
635
6df41af2
GS
636=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
637
638(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
639object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
640like this will reproduce the error:
6df41af2
GS
641
642 $BADREF = undef;
643 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
644 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
645
a0d0e21e
LW
646=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
647
54310121 648(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
be771a83
GS
649ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
650didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
651object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
652
653=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
654
655(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
656object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
657defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
72b5445b
GS
658Something like this will reproduce the error:
659
660 $BADREF = 42;
661 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
662 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
663
a0d0e21e
LW
664=item Can't chdir to %s
665
666(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
667that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
668
0545a864 669=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
104d25b7 670
be771a83
GS
671(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
672nosuid.
104d25b7 673
22e74366 674=item Can't coerce %s to %s in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
675
676(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 677(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
a0d0e21e
LW
678say things like:
679
680 *foo += 1;
681
682You CAN say
683
684 $foo = *foo;
685 $foo += 1;
686
687but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
688
0d863452 689=item Can't "continue" outside a when block
dc57907a 690
0d863452
RH
691(F) You called C<continue>, but you're not inside a C<when>
692or C<default> block.
693
a0d0e21e
LW
694=item Can't create pipe mailbox
695
be771a83
GS
696(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
697quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 698
eb64745e
GS
699=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
700
30c282f6
NC
701(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my", "our" or
702"state" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 703
fc7debfb
FC
704=item Can't "default" outside a topicalizer
705
706(F) You have used a C<default> block that is neither inside a
707C<foreach> loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is
708issued on exit from the C<default> block, so you won't get the
709error if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
710
6df41af2
GS
711=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
712
be771a83 713(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
df7075a8 714a file in /dev, a FIFO or an uneditable directory. The file was ignored.
6df41af2 715
a0d0e21e
LW
716=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
717
be771a83
GS
718(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
719reason.
a0d0e21e 720
54310121 721=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
a0d0e21e 722
be771a83
GS
723(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
724reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
725C<-i.bak>, or some such.
a0d0e21e 726
10f9c03d 727=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
a0d0e21e 728
e476b1b5 729(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
10f9c03d
CK
730characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
731inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
a0d0e21e 732
a0d0e21e
LW
733=item Can't do waitpid with flags
734
be771a83
GS
735(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
736waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 737
a0d0e21e
LW
738=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
739
be771a83
GS
740(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
741point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
742line.
a0d0e21e 743
1109a392
MHM
744=item Can't %s %s-endian %ss on this platform
745
746(F) Your platform's byte-order is neither big-endian nor little-endian,
747or it has a very strange pointer size. Packing and unpacking big- or
748little-endian floating point values and pointers may not be possible.
749See L<perlfunc/pack>.
750
a0d0e21e
LW
751=item Can't exec "%s": %s
752
d1be9408 753(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
754named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
755permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
756C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
757architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
758can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
759#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
760
761=item Can't exec %s
762
be771a83
GS
763(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
764that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
765need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
766
767=item Can't execute %s
768
be771a83
GS
769(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
770found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 771
6df41af2 772=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 773
be771a83
GS
774(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
775is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2 776
56ca2fc0
JH
777=item Can't find %s character property "%s"
778
779(F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
6903afa2 780could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property?
e1b711da
KW
781See L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
782for a complete list of available properties.
56ca2fc0 783
6df41af2
GS
784=item Can't find label %s
785
be771a83
GS
786(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
787possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
788
789=item Can't find %s on PATH
790
be771a83
GS
791(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
792found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 793
6df41af2 794=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 795
be771a83
GS
796(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
797found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
798script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e
LW
799
800=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
801
be771a83
GS
802(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
803that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
804nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 805
fb73857a 806 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
807
97b3d10f 808If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have
b6b8cb97
FC
809included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag or there
810may not be a linebreak after it. A good programmer's editor will have
811a way to help you find these characters (or lack of characters). See
812L<perlop> for the full details on here-documents.
a0d0e21e 813
660a4616
TS
814=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s"
815
5f8ad6b6
FC
816(F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode
817property (for example C<\p{Lu}> matches all uppercase
fa816bf3 818letters). If you did mean to use a Unicode property, see
e1b711da 819L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
6903afa2 820for a complete list of available properties. If you didn't
fa816bf3
FC
821mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either by
822C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, or
5f8ad6b6 823until C<\E>).
660a4616 824
b3647a36 825=item Can't fork: %s
a0d0e21e 826
be771a83
GS
827(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
828pipeline.
a0d0e21e 829
b3647a36
SR
830=item Can't fork, trying again in 5 seconds
831
c973c02e 832(W pipe) A fork in a piped open failed with EAGAIN and will be retried
b3647a36
SR
833after five seconds.
834
748a9306
LW
835=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
836
be771a83
GS
837(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
838between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
839Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
840the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
841account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
842the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
2fe2bdfd 843the access-checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
be771a83
GS
844the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
845if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
846because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
2fe2bdfd
FC
847appears, the name lookup failed, and the access-checking routine gave up
848and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access-checking
be771a83
GS
849routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
850shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
851only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 852
a0d0e21e
LW
853=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
854
be771a83
GS
855(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
856pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
857
858=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
859
748a9306
LW
860(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
861mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 862
6df41af2 863=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 864
be771a83
GS
865(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
866loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
867
868=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
869
be771a83
GS
870(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
871a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
872you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
873See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 874
9850bf21 875=item Can't goto subroutine from a sort sub (or similar callback)
cd299c6e 876
9850bf21
RH
877(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of the
878comparison sub for a sort(), or from a similar callback (such
879as the reduce() function in List::Util).
880
c74ace89 881=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-%s
b150fb22 882
be771a83 883(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
c74ace89 884"string" or block.
b150fb22 885
6df41af2
GS
886=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
887
be771a83
GS
888(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
889subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
890cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
891routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 892
0b5b802d
GS
893=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
894
be771a83
GS
895(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
896signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
897signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
898processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
899situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
900may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 901
e2c0f81f
DG
902=item Can't kill a non-numeric process ID
903
904(F) Process identifiers must be (signed) integers. It is a fatal error to
905attempt to kill() an undefined, empty-string or otherwise non-numeric
906process identifier.
907
6df41af2 908=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 909
6df41af2 910(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
911except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
912block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
913block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
914usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
915inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
916L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 917
2c7d6b9c
RGS
918=item Can't linearize anonymous symbol table
919
920(F) Perl tried to calculate the method resolution order (MRO) of a
921package, but failed because the package stash has no name.
922
b8170e59
JB
923=item Can't load '%s' for module %s
924
6903afa2
FC
925(F) The module you tried to load failed to load a dynamic extension.
926This may either mean that you upgraded your version of perl to one
927that is incompatible with your old dynamic extensions (which is known
928to happen between major versions of perl), or (more likely) that your
929dynamic extension was built against an older version of the library
930that is installed on your system. You may need to rebuild your old
931dynamic extensions.
b8170e59 932
748a9306
LW
933=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
934
2ba9eb46 935(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
b7e4ecc1
FC
936lexical variable using "my" or "state". This is not allowed. If you
937want to localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with
938the package name.
748a9306 939
6df41af2 940=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 941
6df41af2
GS
942(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
943handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 944pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 945that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 946
ea071790 947=item Can't locate %s
ec889f3a 948
fa816bf3
FC
949(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be found.
950Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC, unless
951the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you need
952to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where the
953extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
be771a83
GS
954to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
955L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 956
6df41af2
GS
957=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
958
be771a83
GS
959(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
960autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
961are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
962the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 963
b8170e59
JB
964=item Can't locate loadable object for module %s in @INC
965
966(F) The module you loaded is trying to load an external library, like
d70d8e57 967for example, F<foo.so> or F<bar.dll>, but the L<DynaLoader> module was
b8170e59
JB
968unable to locate this library. See L<DynaLoader>.
969
a0d0e21e
LW
970=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
971
972(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
973functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 974method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
975
976=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
977
be771a83
GS
978(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
979doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 980
2f7da168
RK
981=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
982
983(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
984e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
985
f4ad53f4 986=item Can't make list assignment to %ENV on this system
3e3baf6d 987
be771a83
GS
988(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
989VMS.
3e3baf6d 990
a0d0e21e
LW
991=item Can't modify %s in %s
992
be771a83
GS
993(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
994to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 995
54310121 996=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
a0d0e21e
LW
997
998(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
999a NULL.
1000
6df41af2
GS
1001=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
1002
1003(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
2fe2bdfd 1004such. See L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
6df41af2 1005
5f05dabc 1006=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 1007
5f05dabc 1008(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
1009buffer.
1010
6df41af2
GS
1011=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
1012
1013(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
1014there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
1015count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
1016grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1017though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
1018once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 1019
46fa9b26
FC
1020=item Can't open %s
1021
1022(F) You tried to run a perl built with MAD support with
1023the PERL_XMLDUMP environment variable set, but the file
1024named by that variable could not be opened.
1025
a0d0e21e
LW
1026=item Can't open %s: %s
1027
c47ff5f1 1028(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e 1029filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
46fa9b26
FC
1030switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually
1031this is because you don't have read permission for a file which
1032you named on the command line.
1033
1034(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-e> switch, but F</dev/null> (or
1035your operating system's equivalent) could not be opened.
a0d0e21e 1036
9a869a14
RGS
1037=item Can't open a reference
1038
1039(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
2fe2bdfd 1040using the 3-arg open() syntax:
9a869a14
RGS
1041
1042 open FH, '>', $ref;
1043
1044but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
1045open is not supported.
1046
a0d0e21e
LW
1047=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
1048
be771a83
GS
1049(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
1050You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
1051as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
1052">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 1053
748a9306
LW
1054=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
1055
be771a83
GS
1056(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1057redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
1058the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1059
1060=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
1061
be771a83
GS
1062(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1063redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
1064command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
1065
1066=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
1067
be771a83
GS
1068(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1069redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
1070the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1071
1072=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
1073
be771a83
GS
1074(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1075redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
1076for stdout.
748a9306 1077
3b1cf97d 1078=item Can't open perl script "%s": %s
a0d0e21e
LW
1079
1080(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
1081
fa3aa65a
JC
1082If you're debugging a script that uses #!, and normally relies on the
1083shell's $PATH search, the -S option causes perl to do that search, so
1084you don't have to type the path or C<`which $scriptname`>.
1085
6df41af2
GS
1086=item Can't read CRTL environ
1087
1088(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
1089from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
1090missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
1091or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
1092searched.
6df41af2 1093
6df41af2
GS
1094=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
1095
1096(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
1097there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
1098count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
1099or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1100though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
1101loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
1102
64977eb6 1103=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 1104
be771a83
GS
1105(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
1106file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
1107the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 1108
a0d0e21e
LW
1109=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
1110
e476b1b5 1111(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
10f9c03d 1112probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
a0d0e21e 1113
748a9306
LW
1114=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
1115
be771a83
GS
1116(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
1117to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 1118
4f12ec0e
FC
1119=item Can't reset %ENV on this system
1120
1121(F) You called C<reset('E')> or similar, which tried to reset
1122all variables in the current package beginning with "E". In
1123the main package, that includes %ENV. Resetting %ENV is not
1124supported on some systems, notably VMS.
1125
fe13d51d 1126=item Can't resolve method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
6df41af2 1127
1fa582fa
FC
1128(F)(P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as
1129opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the
1130package. If the method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 1131
cd06dffe
GS
1132=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
1133
be771a83
GS
1134(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
1135temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
1136is not allowed.
cd06dffe 1137
96ebfdd7
RK
1138=item Can't return outside a subroutine
1139
1140(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1141there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1142
78f9721b
SM
1143=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
1144
6903afa2
FC
1145(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue
1146subroutine, but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl
1147think you meant to return only one value. You probably meant to
1148write parentheses around the call to the subroutine, which tell
1149Perl that the call should be in list context.
78f9721b 1150
a0d0e21e
LW
1151=item Can't stat script "%s"
1152
be771a83
GS
1153(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1154open already. Bizarre.
a0d0e21e 1155
a0d0e21e
LW
1156=item Can't take log of %g
1157
fb73857a 1158(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
6903afa2 1159negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
1160standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1161negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
1162
1163=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1164
1165(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 1166negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1167with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
1168
1169=item Can't undef active subroutine
1170
1171(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1172however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1173redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1174
c81225bc 1175=item Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d
a0d0e21e 1176
be771a83
GS
1177(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1178into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1179specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1180indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e 1181
6651ba0b
FC
1182=item Can't use '%c' after -mname
1183
1184(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-m> switch, but you put something
1185other than "=" after the module name.
1186
1db89ea5
BS
1187=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1188
e27ad1f2 1189(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1db89ea5
BS
1190table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1191for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1192
96ebfdd7
RK
1193=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1194
1195(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1196be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1197
6df41af2
GS
1198=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1199
be771a83
GS
1200(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1201references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1202
90b75b61 1203=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63 1204
20561843 1205(F) The first time the C<%!> hash is used, perl automatically loads the
6903afa2 1206Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1d2dff63
GS
1207provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1208
1109a392
MHM
1209=item Can't use both '<' and '>' after type '%c' in %s
1210
1211(F) A type cannot be forced to have both big-endian and little-endian
1212byte-order at the same time, so this combination of modifiers is not
1213allowed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1214
6df41af2
GS
1215=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1216
be771a83
GS
1217(F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1218foreach.
6df41af2 1219
aab6a793 1220=item Can't use global %s in "%s"
6df41af2 1221
be771a83
GS
1222(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1223is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1224(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1225have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1226weren't.
1227
6d3b25aa
RGS
1228=item Can't use '%c' in a group with different byte-order in %s
1229
1230(F) You attempted to force a different byte-order on a type
1231that is already inside a group with a byte-order modifier.
1232For example you cannot force little-endianness on a type that
1233is inside a big-endian group.
1234
c07a80fd 1235=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1236
1237(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1238You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1239and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1240Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1241lexical variable.
1242
a0d0e21e
LW
1243=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1244
1245(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1246reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1247test the type of the reference, if need be.
1248
748a9306 1249=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1250
b41bf23f
FC
1251(F) You've told Perl to dereference a string, something which
1252C<use strict> blocks to prevent it happening accidentally. See
1253L<perlref/"Symbolic references">. This can be triggered by an C<@> or C<$>
1254in a double-quoted string immediately before interpolating a variable,
1255for example in C<"user @$twitter_id">, which says to treat the contents
1256of C<$twitter_id> as an array reference; use a C<\> to have a literal C<@>
1257symbol followed by the contents of C<$twitter_id>: C<"user \@$twitter_id">.
a0d0e21e 1258
748a9306
LW
1259=item Can't use subscript on %s
1260
1261(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1262subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
209e7cf1 1263didn't look like a hash or array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
748a9306 1264
6df41af2
GS
1265=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1266
75b44862
GS
1267(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1268creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1269backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1270expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1271value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1272instead.
6df41af2 1273
810b8aa5
GS
1274=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1275
1276(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1277references can be weakened.
1278
fc7debfb
FC
1279=item Can't "when" outside a topicalizer
1280
1281(F) You have used a when() block that is neither inside a C<foreach>
1282loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is issued on exit
1283from the C<when> block, so you won't get the error if the match fails,
1284or if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
1285
5f05dabc 1286=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1287
be771a83
GS
1288(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1289with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1290Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1291
4a68bf9d 1292=item Character following "\c" must be ASCII
f9d13529 1293
1fa582fa 1294(F)(W deprecated, syntax) In C<\cI<X>>, I<X> must be an ASCII character.
79ef86ee 1295It is planned to make this fatal in all instances in Perl 5.18. In the
17a3df4c
KW
1296cases where it isn't fatal, the character this evaluates to is
1297derived by exclusive or'ing the code point of this character with 0x40.
1298
1299Note that non-alphabetic ASCII characters are discouraged here as well.
f9d13529 1300
f337b084 1301=item Character in 'C' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1302
1303(W pack) You said
1304
1305 pack("C", $x)
1306
1307where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1308only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1309and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1310
1311 pack("C", $x & 255)
1312
1313If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1314instead.
1315
f337b084
TH
1316=item Character in 'W' format wrapped in pack
1317
1318(W pack) You said
1319
1320 pack("U0W", $x)
1321
6903afa2
FC
1322where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255. However, C<U0>-mode
1323expects all values to fall in the interval [0, 255], so Perl behaved
1324as if you meant:
f337b084
TH
1325
1326 pack("U0W", $x & 255)
1327
1328=item Character in 'c' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1329
1330(W pack) You said
1331
1332 pack("c", $x)
1333
1334where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1335is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1336and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1337
1338 pack("c", $x & 255);
1339
1340If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1341instead.
1342
f337b084
TH
1343=item Character in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1344
1345(W unpack) You tried something like
1346
1347 unpack("H", "\x{2a1}")
1348
1a147d38 1349where the format expects to process a byte (a character with a value
6903afa2
FC
1350below 256), but a higher value was provided instead. Perl uses the
1351value modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
f337b084
TH
1352
1353 unpack("H", "\x{a1}")
1354
1355=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in pack
1356
1357(W pack) You tried something like
1358
1359 pack("u", "\x{1f3}b")
1360
1a147d38 1361where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1362value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1363uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1364
1365 pack("u", "\x{f3}b")
1366
1367=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1368
1369(W unpack) You tried something like
1370
1371 unpack("s", "\x{1f3}b")
1372
1a147d38 1373where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1374value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1375uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1376
1377 unpack("s", "\x{f3}b")
1378
f866a7cd
FC
1379=item "\c{" is deprecated and is more clearly written as ";"
1380
1381(D deprecated, syntax) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a way
1382to specify non-printable characters. You used it with a "{" which
1383evaluates to ";", which is printable. It is planned to remove the
79ef86ee 1384ability to specify a semi-colon this way in Perl 5.18. Just use a
f866a7cd
FC
1385semi-colon or a backslash-semi-colon without the "\c".
1386
1387=item "\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"
1388
1389(W syntax) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a way to specify
1390non-printable characters. You used it for a printable one, which is better
1391written as simply itself, perhaps preceded by a backslash for non-word
1392characters.
1393
6651ba0b
FC
1394=item Cloning substitution context is unimplemented
1395
1396(F) Creating a new thread inside the C<s///> operator is not supported.
1397
96ebfdd7
RK
1398=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1399
1400(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1401
abc7ecad
SP
1402=item closedir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
1403
1404(W io) The dirhandle you tried to close is either closed or not really
1405a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
1406
541ed3a9
FC
1407=item Closure prototype called
1408
1409(F) If a closure has attributes, the subroutine passed to an attribute
1410handler is the prototype that is cloned when a new closure is created.
1411This subroutine cannot be called.
1412
49704364
WL
1413=item Code missing after '/'
1414
6903afa2
FC
1415(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be
1416another template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 1417
0876b9a0
KW
1418=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, may not be portable
1419
c634fdd3 1420=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, all \p{} matches fail; all \P{} matches succeed
9ae3ac1a 1421
e2f4a215 1422(S utf8, non_unicode) You had a code point above the Unicode maximum
1b64326b
FC
1423of U+10FFFF.
1424
1425Perl allows strings to contain a superset of Unicode code points, up
1426to the limit of what is storable in an unsigned integer on your system,
1427but these may not be accepted by other languages/systems. At one time,
1428it was legal in some standards to have code points up to 0x7FFF_FFFF,
1429but not higher. Code points above 0xFFFF_FFFF require larger than a
143032 bit word.
0876b9a0 1431
9ae3ac1a
KW
1432None of the Unicode or Perl-defined properties will match a non-Unicode
1433code point. For example,
1434
1435 chr(0x7FF_FFFF) =~ /\p{Any}/
1436
1437will not match, because the code point is not in Unicode. But
1438
1439 chr(0x7FF_FFFF) =~ /\P{Any}/
1440
1441will match.
1442
94b42e47
KW
1443This may be counterintuitive at times, as both these fail:
1444
f9d4ccdc
FC
1445 chr(0x110000) =~ /\p{ASCII_Hex_Digit=True}/ # Fails.
1446 chr(0x110000) =~ /\p{ASCII_Hex_Digit=False}/ # Also fails!
94b42e47
KW
1447
1448and both these succeed:
1449
f9d4ccdc
FC
1450 chr(0x110000) =~ /\P{ASCII_Hex_Digit=True}/ # Succeeds.
1451 chr(0x110000) =~ /\P{ASCII_Hex_Digit=False}/ # Also succeeds!
94b42e47 1452
6df41af2
GS
1453=item %s: Command not found
1454
a892b81a
FC
1455(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> or another shell
1456shell instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script
1457into Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
8f721816
MM
1458
1459 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
6df41af2 1460
7a2e2cd6 1461=item Compilation failed in require
1462
1463(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1464Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1465encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1466
c3464db5
DD
1467=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1468
be771a83
GS
1469(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1470situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1471to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1472arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1473recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1474under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1475in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1476that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1477on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1478
38875929
DM
1479=item cond_broadcast() called on unlocked variable
1480
6903afa2
FC
1481(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to
1482call cond_broadcast() on a variable which wasn't locked.
1483The cond_broadcast() function is used to wake up another thread
1484that is waiting in a cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't
1485sent before the other thread has a chance to enter the wait, it
1486is usual for the signaling thread first to wait for a lock on
1487variable. This lock attempt will only succeed after the other
1488thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the lock.
38875929 1489
38875929
DM
1490=item cond_signal() called on unlocked variable
1491
6903afa2
FC
1492(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to
1493call cond_signal() on a variable which wasn't locked. The
1494cond_signal() function is used to wake up another thread that
1495is waiting in a cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't
1496sent before the other thread has a chance to enter the wait, it
1497is usual for the signaling thread first to wait for a lock on
1498variable. This lock attempt will only succeed after the other
1499thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the lock.
38875929 1500
69282e91 1501=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1502
be771a83
GS
1503(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1504to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1505L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1506
41ab332f 1507=item Constant(%s)%s: %s
6df41af2 1508
be771a83
GS
1509(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1510an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1511specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
fbb93542 1512corresponding L<overload> pragma?.
6df41af2 1513
fc8cd66c
YO
1514=item Constant(%s)%s: %s in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1515
1a147d38 1516(F) The parser found inconsistencies while attempting to find
fbb93542 1517the character name specified in the C<\N{...}> escape.
fc8cd66c 1518
779c5bc9
GS
1519=item Constant is not %s reference
1520
1521(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83 1522is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
6903afa2 1523The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
be771a83 1524usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1525See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1526
4cee8e80
CS
1527=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1528
aeb94125
FC
1529(W redefine)(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously
1530been eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions">
1531for commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1532
9607fc9c 1533=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1534
be771a83
GS
1535(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1536for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1537workarounds.
9607fc9c 1538
e7ea3e70
IZ
1539=item Copy method did not return a reference
1540
6903afa2 1541(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1542L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1543
4aaa4757
FC
1544=item &CORE::%s cannot be called directly
1545
1546(F) You tried to call a subroutine in the C<CORE::> namespace
8d605c0d 1547with C<&foo> syntax or through a reference. Some subroutines
4aaa4757
FC
1548in this package cannot yet be called that way, but must be
1549called as barewords. Something like this will work:
1550
1551 BEGIN { *shove = \&CORE::push; }
1552 shove @array, 1,2,3; # pushes on to @array
1553
6798c92b
GS
1554=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1555
1556(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1557
a0d0e21e
LW
1558=item corrupted regexp pointers
1559
1560(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1561expression compiler gave it.
1562
1563=item corrupted regexp program
1564
be771a83
GS
1565(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1566valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1567
de42a5a9 1568=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%x at 0x%x
6df41af2
GS
1569
1570(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1571
49704364
WL
1572=item Count after length/code in unpack
1573
1574(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1575you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1576L<perlfunc/pack>.
1577
6651ba0b
FC
1578=item Deep recursion on anonymous subroutine
1579
a0d0e21e
LW
1580=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1581
be771a83
GS
1582(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1583100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1584infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1585which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1586
aad1d01f
NC
1587This threshold can be changed from 100, by recompiling the F<perl> binary,
1588setting the C pre-processor macro C<PERL_SUB_DEPTH_WARN> to the desired value.
1589
f10b0346 1590=item defined(@array) is deprecated
69794302 1591
be771a83
GS
1592(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1593checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
64977eb6 1594array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1595
f10b0346 1596=item defined(%hash) is deprecated
69794302 1597
f0ec9725
KR
1598(D deprecated) C<defined()> is not usually right on hashes and has been
1599discouraged since 5.004.
1600
1601Although C<defined %hash> is false on a plain not-yet-used hash, it
1602becomes true in several non-obvious circumstances, including iterators,
1603weak references, stash names, even remaining true after C<undef %hash>.
1604These things make C<defined %hash> fairly useless in practice.
1605
1606If a check for non-empty is what you wanted then just put it in boolean
1607context (see L<perldata/Scalar values>):
16546e45
KR
1608
1609 if (%hash) {
1610 # not empty
1611 }
1612
f0ec9725
KR
1613If you had C<defined %Foo::Bar::QUUX> to check whether such a package
1614variable exists then that's never really been reliable, and isn't
1615a good way to enquire about the features of a package, or whether
1616it's loaded, etc.
1617
69794302 1618
bcb95744
FC
1619=item (?(DEFINE)....) does not allow branches in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1620
6903afa2 1621(F) You used something like C<(?(DEFINE)...|..)> which is illegal. The
bcb95744
FC
1622most likely cause of this error is that you left out a parenthesis inside
1623of the C<....> part.
1624
1625The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1626discovered.
1627
62658f4d
PM
1628=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1629
1630(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1631there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1632
fc36a67e 1633=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1634
be771a83
GS
1635(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1636long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1637that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 1638
6d3b25aa
RGS
1639=item Deprecated use of my() in false conditional
1640
fa816bf3
FC
1641(D deprecated) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>. There
1642has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
6d3b25aa 1643not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
6903afa2 1644conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
fa816bf3 1645static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
6903afa2 1646relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
6d3b25aa 1647declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
36fb85f3 1648
6d3b25aa
RGS
1649 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
1650
1651becomes
1652
1653 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
1654
fa816bf3
FC
1655Beginning with perl 5.9.4, you can also use C<state> variables to have
1656lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
36fb85f3
RGS
1657
1658 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
1659
500ab966
RGS
1660=item DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
1661
1662(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
6903afa2
FC
1663just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather
1664than to create a dangling reference.
500ab966 1665
3cdd684c
TP
1666=item Did not produce a valid header
1667
1668See Server error.
1669
6df41af2
GS
1670=item %s did not return a true value
1671
1672(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1673it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1674traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1675do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1676
cc507455 1677=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 1678
413ff9f6
FC
1679(W misc) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or
1680some such.
4633a7c4 1681
cc507455 1682=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 1683
be771a83
GS
1684(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1685variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1686seems superfluous.
33633739 1687
cc507455 1688=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 1689
be771a83
GS
1690(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1691@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1692carried away.
748a9306 1693
7e1af8bc 1694=item Died
5f05dabc 1695
1696(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
075b00aa 1697you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 1698
3cdd684c
TP
1699=item Document contains no data
1700
1701See Server error.
1702
62658f4d
PM
1703=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1704
1705(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1706define a C<$VERSION.>
1707
49704364
WL
1708=item '/' does not take a repeat count
1709
1710(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
1711See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1712
a0d0e21e
LW
1713=item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1714
1715(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1716
1717=item do_study: out of memory
1718
1719(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1720
6df41af2
GS
1721=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1722
56da5a46
RGS
1723(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
1724"%s found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
6df41af2
GS
1725name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1726because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
1727"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1728something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1729subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1730"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 1731
ac206dc8
RGS
1732=item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1733
1734(W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1735qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1736
84d78eb7
YO
1737=item dump is not supported
1738
1739(F) Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.
1740
a0d0e21e
LW
1741=item Duplicate free() ignored
1742
be771a83
GS
1743(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1744already been freed.
a0d0e21e 1745
1109a392
MHM
1746=item Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
1747
35f0cd76
FC
1748(W unpack) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a
1749type in a pack template. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1109a392 1750
4633a7c4
LW
1751=item elseif should be elsif
1752
fa816bf3
FC
1753(S syntax) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks
1754it's ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method
1755named "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
1756unlikely to be what you want.
1757
ab13f0c7
JH
1758=item Empty %s
1759
af6f566e 1760(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
6903afa2 1761described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
af6f566e 1762a regular expression without specifying the property name.
ab13f0c7 1763
85ab1d1d 1764=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 1765
85ab1d1d 1766(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
1767effective uids or gids failed.
1768
c038024b
RGS
1769=item %ENV is aliased to %s
1770
1771(F) You're running under taint mode, and the C<%ENV> variable has been
1772aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
6903afa2 1773program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
c038024b 1774
748a9306
LW
1775=item Error converting file specification %s
1776
5f05dabc 1777(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 1778specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
1779single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1780an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1781conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 1782
ad19ef22 1783=item Eval-group in insecure regular expression
e4d48cc9 1784
be771a83
GS
1785(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1786expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1787is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 1788
ad19ef22 1789=item Eval-group not allowed at runtime, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
e4d48cc9 1790
be771a83
GS
1791(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1792C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
f11307f5
FC
1793pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk,
1794it is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by using the
1795C<re 'eval'> pragma or by explicitly building the pattern from an
1796interpolated string at run time and using that in an eval(). See
1797L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 1798
ad19ef22 1799=item Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
6df41af2 1800
be771a83
GS
1801(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1802assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1803pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 1804
1a147d38
YO
1805=item EVAL without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1806
1807(F) You used a pattern that nested too many EVAL calls without consuming
6903afa2 1808any text. Restructure the pattern so that text is consumed.
1a147d38
YO
1809
1810The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1811discovered.
1812
fc36a67e 1813=item Excessively long <> operator
1814
1815(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1816Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1817filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1818variable and glob that.
1819
ed9aa3b7
SG
1820=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1821
af8bb25a 1822(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented on some systems, e.g., Symbian
6903afa2 1823OS. See L<perlport>.
ed9aa3b7 1824
fe13d51d 1825=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors.
a0d0e21e
LW
1826
1827(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1828
1829=item Exiting eval via %s
1830
be771a83
GS
1831(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1832goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
1833
1834=item Exiting format via %s
1835
9a2ff54b 1836(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 1837goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1838
0a753a76 1839=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1840
be771a83
GS
1841(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1842sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1843loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 1844
a0d0e21e
LW
1845=item Exiting subroutine via %s
1846
be771a83
GS
1847(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1848as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
1849
1850=item Exiting substitution via %s
1851
be771a83
GS
1852(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1853as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1854
e7d0b801
FC
1855=item Experimental "%s" subs not enabled
1856
1857(F) To use lexical subs, you must first enable them:
1858
f1d34ca8 1859 no warnings 'experimental::lexical_subs';
e7d0b801
FC
1860 use feature 'lexical_subs';
1861 my sub foo { ... }
1862
7b8d334a
GS
1863=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1864
be771a83
GS
1865(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1866the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1867usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1868e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 1869
6df41af2
GS
1870=item %s: Expression syntax
1871
be771a83
GS
1872(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1873Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
1874
1875=item %s failed--call queue aborted
1876
3c10abe3
AG
1877(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a UNITCHECK,
1878CHECK, INIT, or END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the
1879queue of such routines has been prematurely ended.
6df41af2 1880
7253e4e3 1881=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
73b437c8 1882
be771a83 1883(W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3
RK
1884character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1885in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1886"-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1887problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 1888
1b1ee2ef 1889=item Fatal VMS error (status=%d) at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 1890
be771a83
GS
1891(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1892system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1893details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1894you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
1895
1896=item fcntl is not implemented
1897
1898(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1899PDP-11 or something?
1900
22846ab4
AB
1901=item FETCHSIZE returned a negative value
1902
1903(F) A tied array claimed to have a negative number of elements, which
1904is not possible.
1905
f337b084
TH
1906=item Field too wide in 'u' format in pack
1907
d8b5cc61 1908(W pack) Each line in an uuencoded string starts with a length indicator
6903afa2
FC
1909which can't encode values above 63. So there is no point in asking for
1910a line length bigger than that. Perl will behave as if you specified
5c96f6f7 1911C<u63> as the format.
f337b084 1912
af8c498a 1913=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 1914
6c8d78fb
HS
1915(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
1916it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
1917"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
1918write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 1919
af8c498a 1920=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 1921
6c8d78fb
HS
1922(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
1923you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
89a1bda8
FC
1924with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with ">". If you intended only to
1925read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>. Another possibility
1926is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0 (also known as STDIN) for
1927output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
97828cef
RGS
1928
1929=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
1930
1931(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
6903afa2 1932as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
97828cef
RGS
1933previously.
1934
1935=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
1936
1937(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
fa816bf3 1938as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
1939
1940=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1941
1942(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
1943a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1944happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1945name.
a0d0e21e 1946
56e90b21
GS
1947=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1948
be771a83 1949(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 1950some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
1951filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1952same name?
56e90b21 1953
6df41af2
GS
1954=item Format not terminated
1955
1956(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1957to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1958
a0d0e21e
LW
1959=item Format %s redefined
1960
e476b1b5 1961(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
1962
1963 {
271595cc 1964 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
1965 eval "format NAME =...";
1966 }
1967
a0d0e21e
LW
1968=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1969
e476b1b5 1970(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
1971
1972 if ($foo = 123)
1973
1974when you meant
1975
1976 if ($foo == 123)
1977
1978(or something like that).
1979
6df41af2
GS
1980=item %s found where operator expected
1981
56da5a46
RGS
1982(S syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator.
1983If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
be771a83
GS
1984operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
1985operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 1986
a0d0e21e
LW
1987=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1988
1989(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1990
1991=item gethostent not implemented
1992
1993(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1994because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1995on the Internet.
1996
69282e91 1997=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1998
be771a83
GS
1999(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
2000socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 2001
748a9306
LW
2002=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
2003
2004(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
2005C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
2006
6df41af2
GS
2007=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
2008
be771a83
GS
2009(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
2010forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
2011L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
2012
2013=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
2014
a4edf47d 2015(F) You've said "use strict" or "use strict vars", which indicates
30c282f6 2016that all variables must either be lexically scoped (using "my" or "state"),
a4edf47d
GS
2017declared beforehand using "our", or explicitly qualified to say
2018which package the global variable is in (using "::").
6df41af2 2019
e476b1b5
GS
2020=item glob failed (%s)
2021
5ead438e 2022(S glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used
73c4e9dc
FC
2023for C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a C<glob>
2024pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
be771a83 2025nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
73c4e9dc
FC
2026resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell)
2027is broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables
2028in config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as
2029if it were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them
2030all empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
be771a83 2031think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 2032C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 2033
a0d0e21e
LW
2034=item Glob not terminated
2035
2036(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
2037a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
2038not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
2039earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 2040
bcd05b94 2041=item gmtime(%f) too large
8b56d6ff 2042
e9200be3 2043(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was larger than
fc003d4b 2044it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong
6903afa2 2045date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
fc003d4b
MS
2046not-a-number value).
2047
bcd05b94 2048=item gmtime(%f) too small
fc003d4b 2049
e9200be3 2050(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was smaller than
e7a1a147 2051it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong date.
8b56d6ff 2052
6df41af2 2053=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 2054
6df41af2
GS
2055(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
2056version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
2057
2058=item goto must have label
2059
2060(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
2061unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2062
6651ba0b
FC
2063=item Goto undefined subroutine%s
2064
2065(F) You tried to call a subroutine with C<goto &sub> syntax, but
2066the indicated subroutine hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
2067has since been undefined.
2068
49704364 2069=item ()-group starts with a count
18529408 2070
bca4a986
FC
2071(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is supposed to follow
2072something: a template character or a ()-group. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
18529408 2073
1f4f6bf1
YO
2074=item Group name must start with a non-digit word character in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2075
2076(F) Group names must follow the rules for perl identifiers, meaning
2077they must start with a non-digit word character. A common cause of
2078this error is using (?&0) instead of (?0). See L<perlre>.
2079
fe13d51d 2080=item %s had compilation errors.
6df41af2
GS
2081
2082(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
2083
a0d0e21e
LW
2084=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
2085
be771a83
GS
2086(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
2087to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
2088created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e
LW
2089
2090=item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
2091
be771a83
GS
2092(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
2093spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
a0d0e21e 2094
6df41af2
GS
2095=item %s has too many errors
2096
2097(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
2098Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
2099
252aa082
JH
2100=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
2101
e476b1b5 2102(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
2103(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2104L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 2105
82f96200
JL
2106=item -i used with no filenames on the command line, reading from STDIN
2107
2108(S inplace) The C<-i> option was passed on the command line, indicating
2109that the script is intended to edit files inplace, but no files were
0421bbaa
FC
2110given. This is usually a mistake, since editing STDIN inplace doesn't
2111make sense, and can be confusing because it can make perl look like
2112it is hanging when it is really just trying to read from STDIN. You
2113should either pass a filename to edit, or remove C<-i> from the command
2114line. See L<perlrun> for more details.
82f96200 2115
8903cb82 2116=item Identifier too long
2117
2118(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 2119about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
2120names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
2121of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 2122
c3c41406 2123=item Ignoring zero length \N{} in character class
fc8cd66c 2124
20561843 2125(W) Named Unicode character escapes C<(\N{...})> may return a zero-length
6903afa2
FC
2126sequence. When such an escape is used in a character class its
2127behaviour is not well defined. Check that the correct escape has
fc8cd66c
YO
2128been used, and the correct charname handler is in scope.
2129
6df41af2 2130=item Illegal binary digit %s
f675dbe5 2131
6df41af2 2132(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
f675dbe5 2133
6df41af2 2134=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
a0d0e21e 2135
be771a83
GS
2136(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
2137binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
2138offending digit.
a0d0e21e 2139
6597eb22
FC
2140=item Illegal character after '_' in prototype for %s : %s
2141
2142(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
2143Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, \, and +.
2144
78d0fecf 2145=item Illegal character \%o (carriage return)
4fdae800 2146
d5898338 2147(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
be771a83
GS
2148would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
2149when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
2150version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
2151to your Perl administrator.
4fdae800 2152
d37a9538
ST
2153=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
2154
197afce1 2155(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
2e9cc7ef 2156Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, \, and +.
d37a9538 2157
904d85c5
RGS
2158=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
2159
2160(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
6903afa2 2161you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
904d85c5 2162
8e742a20
MHM
2163=item Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
2164
6903afa2 2165(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See L<perlsub>.
8e742a20 2166
a0d0e21e
LW
2167=item Illegal division by zero
2168
be771a83
GS
2169(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
2170your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
2171meaningless input.
a0d0e21e 2172
6df41af2
GS
2173=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
2174
be771a83
GS
2175(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
2176A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
2177number stopped before the illegal character.
6df41af2 2178
a0d0e21e
LW
2179=item Illegal modulus zero
2180
be771a83
GS
2181(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
2182numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 2183
6df41af2 2184=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 2185
6df41af2
GS
2186(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
2187two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4
GS
2188
2189=item Illegal octal digit %s
a0d0e21e 2190
d1be9408 2191(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 2192
399388f4 2193=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
748a9306 2194
d1be9408 2195(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
75b44862 2196Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
748a9306 2197
fe13d51d 2198=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: -%c
6ff81951 2199
6df41af2 2200(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
646ca9b2 2201following switches: B<-[CDIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 2202
6df41af2 2203=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 2204
75b44862 2205(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
2206internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
2207delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 2208
6df41af2 2209=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 2210
be771a83
GS
2211(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
2212name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
2213didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
2214ignored.
54310121 2215
6df41af2 2216=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 2217
be771a83
GS
2218(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
2219the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
2220system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
2221times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
2222would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 2223
be771a83
GS
2224Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
2225also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 2226
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2227=item Inconsistent hierarchy during C3 merge of class '%s': merging failed on parent '%s'
2228
2229(F) The method resolution order (MRO) of the given class is not
2230C3-consistent, and you have enabled the C3 MRO for this class. See the C3
2231documentation in L<mro> for more information.
2232
979699d9
JH
2233=item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
2234
2235(F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
2236Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
2237encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
2238
1a147d38
YO
2239=item Infinite recursion in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2240
2241(F) You used a pattern that references itself without consuming any input
6903afa2 2242text. You should check the pattern to ensure that recursive patterns
1a147d38
YO
2243either consume text or fail.
2244
2245The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2246discovered.
2247
6dbe9451
NC
2248=item Initialization of state variables in list context currently forbidden
2249
6903afa2
FC
2250(F) Currently the implementation of "state" only permits the
2251initialization of scalar variables in scalar context. Re-write
2252C<state ($a) = 42> as C<state $a = 42> to change from list to scalar
2253context. Constructions such as C<state (@a) = foo()> will be
2254supported in a future perl release.
6dbe9451 2255
a0d0e21e
LW
2256=item Insecure dependency in %s
2257
8b1a09fc 2258(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
2259The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
2260setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
2261tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
2262from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
2263such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
2264L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
2265
2266=item Insecure directory in %s
2267
be771a83
GS
2268(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2269setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
df98f984
RGS
2270the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
2271See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2272
62f468fc 2273=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2274
2275(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc 2276setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
332d5f78
SR
2277C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
2278supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
2279the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2280
0e9be77f
DM
2281=item Insecure user-defined property %s
2282
2283(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2284expression that contains a call to a user-defined character property
2285function, i.e. C<\p{IsFoo}> or C<\p{InFoo}>.
2286See L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties> and L<perlsec>.
2287
b9ef414d
FC
2288=item Integer overflow in format string for %s
2289
2290(F) The indexes and widths specified in the format string of C<printf()>
2291or C<sprintf()> are too large. The numbers must not overflow the size of
2292integers for your architecture.
2293
a7ae9550
GS
2294=item Integer overflow in %s number
2295
35928bc5 2296(S overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
2297either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
2298your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
2299On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
2300representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
23010b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
2302transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
2303internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
2304operations.
bbce6d69 2305
fc89ca81
FC
2306=item Integer overflow in srand
2307
2308(S overflow) The number you have passed to srand is too big to fit
2309in your architecture's integer representation. The number has been
2310replaced with the largest integer supported (0xFFFFFFFF on 32-bit
2311architectures). This means you may be getting less randomness than
2312you expect, because different random seeds above the maximum will
2313return the same sequence of random numbers.
2314
46314c13
JP
2315=item Integer overflow in version
2316
18da5252
FC
2317=item Integer overflow in version %d
2318
784d71ed
FC
2319(W overflow) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for
2320the size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
f084e84f 2321because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use an
784d71ed
FC
2322element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by trying
2323to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like 100/9.
46314c13 2324
7253e4e3 2325=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2326
2327(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
7253e4e3 2328The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a
JF
2329discovered.
2330
748a9306
LW
2331=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
2332
be771a83
GS
2333(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
2334you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
2335to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
2336L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
2337Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
2338terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 2339
7253e4e3 2340=item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2341
fa816bf3 2342(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
7253e4e3
RK
2343<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2344discovered.
a0d0e21e 2345
6df41af2
GS
2346=item %s (...) interpreted as function
2347
75b44862 2348(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 2349followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 2350operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 2351L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 2352
09bef843
SB
2353=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
2354
a4a4c9e2 2355(F) The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
09bef843
SB
2356by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
2357
2358=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
2359
a4a4c9e2 2360(F) The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
be771a83 2361recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2362
4d7cd482
KW
2363=item Invalid character in \N{...}; marked by <-- HERE in \N{%s}
2364
2365(F) Only certain characters are valid for character names. The
2366indicated one isn't. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
2367
225fb84f
KW
2368=item Invalid character in charnames alias definition; marked by <-- HERE in '%s
2369
2370(F) You tried to create a custom alias for a character name, with
2371the C<:alias> option to C<use charnames> and the specified character in
2372the indicated name isn't valid. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
2373
c635e13b 2374=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
2375
be771a83
GS
2376(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
2377L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 2378
9e08bc66
TS
2379=item Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2380
2381(W regexp) The numeric escape (for example C<\xHH>) of value < 256
2382didn't correspond to a single character through the conversion
2383from the encoding specified by the encoding pragma.
2384The escape was replaced with REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (U+FFFD) instead.
2385The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2386escape was discovered.
2387
8149aa9f
FC
2388=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...}
2389
aec0ef10
FC
2390=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...} in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2391
8149aa9f 2392(F) The character constant represented by C<...> is not a valid hexadecimal
74f8e9e3
FC
2393number. Either it is empty, or you tried to use a character other than
23940 - 9 or A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number.
8149aa9f 2395
6651ba0b
FC
2396=item Invalid module name %s with -%c option: contains single ':'
2397
2398(F) The module argument to perl's B<-m> and B<-M> command-line options
2399cannot contain single colons in the module name, but only in the
2400arguments after "=". In other words, B<-MFoo::Bar=:baz> is ok, but
2401B<-MFoo:Bar=baz> is not.
2402
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2403=item Invalid mro name: '%s'
2404
162a3e34
FC
2405(F) You tried to C<mro::set_mro("classname", "foo")> or C<use mro 'foo'>,
2406where C<foo> is not a valid method resolution order (MRO). Currently,
2407the only valid ones supported are C<dfs> and C<c3>, unless you have loaded
2408a module that is a MRO plugin. See L<mro> and L<perlmroapi>.
2c7d6b9c 2409
40e4140b
FC
2410=item Invalid negative number (%s) in chr
2411
2412(W utf8) You passed a negative number to C<chr>. Negative numbers are
2413not valid characters numbers, so it return the Unicode replacement
2414character (U+FFFD).
2415
6651ba0b
FC
2416=item invalid option -D%c, use -D'' to see choices
2417
8ff21bfe
FC
2418(S debugging) Perl was called with invalid debugger flags. Call perl
2419with the B<-D> option with no flags to see the list of acceptable values.
0341637c 2420See also L<perlrun/B<-D>I<letters>>.
6651ba0b 2421
7253e4e3 2422=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2423
2424(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
2425greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
2426C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
2427up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2428problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 2429
d1573ac7 2430=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
2431
2432(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
2433character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
2434
09bef843
SB
2435=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
2436
0120eecf 2437(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
2438elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
2439parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
2440See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2441
b4581f09
JH
2442=item Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
2443
2bfc5f71
FC
2444(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other
2445than a colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
b4581f09
JH
2446If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2447list was terminated too soon.
2448
2c86d456
DG
2449=item Invalid strict version format (%s)
2450
fa816bf3 2451(F) A version number did not meet the "strict" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
2452A "strict" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
2453decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
2454v-string with a leading 'v' character and at least three components.
a6485a24 2455The parenthesized text indicates which criteria were not met.
2c86d456
DG
2456See the L<version> module for more details on allowed version formats.
2457
49704364 2458=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
96e4d5b1 2459
49704364
WL
2460(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
2461See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6728c851 2462
49704364 2463(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
75b44862 2464silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 2465
2c86d456
DG
2466=item Invalid version format (%s)
2467
fa816bf3 2468(F) A version number did not meet the "lax" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
2469A "lax" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
2470decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
fa816bf3
FC
2471v-string. If the v-string has fewer than three components, it
2472must have a leading 'v' character. Otherwise, the leading 'v' is
2473optional. Both decimal and dotted-decimal versions may have a
2474trailing "alpha" component separated by an underscore character
2475after a fractional or dotted-decimal component. The parenthesized
2476text indicates which criteria were not met. See the L<version> module
2477for more details on allowed version formats.
46314c13 2478
798ae1b7
DG
2479=item Invalid version object
2480
fa816bf3
FC
2481(F) The internal structure of the version object was invalid.
2482Perhaps the internals were modified directly in some way or
2483an arbitrary reference was blessed into the "version" class.
798ae1b7 2484
a0d0e21e
LW
2485=item ioctl is not implemented
2486
2487(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
2488strange for a machine that supports C.
2489
c289d2f7
JH
2490=item ioctl() on unopened %s
2491
2492(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
34b6fd5e 2493Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 2494
fe13d51d 2495=item IO layers (like '%s') unavailable
363c40c4
SB
2496
2497(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
34b6fd5e 2498you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO, Perl must be configured
363c40c4
SB
2499with 'useperlio'.
2500
80cbd5ad
JH
2501=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
2502
2503(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
34b6fd5e 2504neither as a system call nor an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
80cbd5ad 2505
b4581f09
JH
2506=item $* is no longer supported
2507
a58ac25e 2508(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older
6903afa2 2509perls, has been removed as of 5.9.0 and is no longer supported. In
a58ac25e
FC
2510previous versions of perl the use of C<$*> enabled or disabled multi-line
2511matching within a string.
4fd19576
B
2512
2513Instead of using C<$*> you should use the C</m> (and maybe C</s>) regexp
6903afa2
FC
2514modifiers. You can enable C</m> for a lexical scope (even a whole file)
2515with C<use re '/m'>. (In older versions: when C<$*> was set to a true value
570dedd4 2516then all regular expressions behaved as if they were written using C</m>.)
b4581f09 2517
8ae1fe26
RGS
2518=item $# is no longer supported
2519
a58ac25e 2520(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$#>, deprecated in older
6903afa2 2521perls, has been removed as of 5.9.3 and is no longer supported. You
a58ac25e 2522should use the printf/sprintf functions instead.
8ae1fe26 2523
ccf3535a 2524=item '%s' is not a code reference
6ad11d81 2525
6903afa2
FC
2526(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of
2527overload::constant needs to be a code reference. Either
2528an anonymous subroutine, or a reference to a subroutine.
6ad11d81 2529
ccf3535a 2530=item '%s' is not an overloadable type
6ad11d81 2531
04a80ee0
RGS
2532(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
2533unaware of.
6ad11d81 2534
aec0ef10 2535=item Junk on end of regexp in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
2536
2537(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
2538
2539=item Label not found for "last %s"
2540
be771a83
GS
2541(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
2542of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2543L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2544
2545=item Label not found for "next %s"
2546
2547(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
2548that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2549L<perlfunc/last>.
2550
2551=item Label not found for "redo %s"
2552
2553(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
2554that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2555L<perlfunc/last>.
2556
85ab1d1d 2557=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 2558
85ab1d1d 2559(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
2560effective uids or gids failed.
2561
49704364
WL
2562=item length/code after end of string in unpack
2563
d7f8936a 2564(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an unpack
6903afa2
FC
2565length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
2566an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 2567
e508c8a4
MH
2568=item length() used on %s
2569
0d46a4e7
FC
2570(W syntax) You used length() on either an array or a hash when you
2571probably wanted a count of the items.
e508c8a4
MH
2572
2573Array size can be obtained by doing:
2574
2575 scalar(@array);
2576
2577The number of items in a hash can be obtained by doing:
2578
2579 scalar(keys %hash);
2580
f0e67a1d
Z
2581=item Lexing code attempted to stuff non-Latin-1 character into Latin-1 input
2582
2583(F) An extension is attempting to insert text into the current parse
6903afa2
FC
2584(using L<lex_stuff_pvn|perlapi/lex_stuff_pvn> or similar), but tried to insert a character that
2585couldn't be part of the current input. This is an inherent pitfall
2586of the stuffing mechanism, and one of the reasons to avoid it. Where
2587it is necessary to stuff, stuffing only plain ASCII is recommended.
f0e67a1d
Z
2588
2589=item Lexing code internal error (%s)
2590
2591(F) Lexing code supplied by an extension violated the lexer's API in a
2592detectable way.
2593
69282e91 2594=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2595
be771a83
GS
2596(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
2597to check the return value of your socket() call? See
2598L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 2599
6651ba0b
FC
2600=item List form of piped open not implemented
2601
2602(F) On some platforms, notably Windows, the three-or-more-arguments
2603form of C<open> does not support pipes, such as C<open($pipe, '|-', @args)>.
2604Use the two-argument C<open($pipe, '|prog arg1 arg2...')> form instead.
2605
bcd05b94 2606=item localtime(%f) too large
8b56d6ff 2607
e9200be3 2608(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was larger
fc003d4b 2609than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
6903afa2 2610wrong date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
fc003d4b
MS
2611not-a-number value).
2612
bcd05b94 2613=item localtime(%f) too small
fc003d4b 2614
e9200be3 2615(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was smaller
fc003d4b 2616than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
e7a1a147 2617wrong date.
8b56d6ff 2618
58e23c8d 2619=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
2620
2621(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
6903afa2 2622handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release.
2e50fd82 2623
b88df990
NC
2624=item Lost precision when %s %f by 1
2625
e63e8a91
FC
2626(W imprecision) The value you attempted to increment or decrement by one
2627is too large for the underlying floating point representation to store
2628accurately, hence the target of C<++> or C<--> is unchanged. Perl issues this
2629warning because it has already switched from integers to floating point
2630when values are too large for integers, and now even floating point is
2631insufficient. You may wish to switch to using L<Math::BigInt> explicitly.
b88df990 2632
93fad930 2633=item lstat() on filehandle%s
2f7da168
RK
2634
2635(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
2636by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
2637instead on the filehandle.)
2638
345d70e3 2639=item lvalue attribute %s already-defined subroutine
bb3abb05 2640
345d70e3
FC
2641(W misc) Although L<attributes.pm|attributes> allows this, turning the lvalue
2642attribute on or off on a Perl subroutine that is already defined
2643does not always work properly. It may or may not do what you
2644want, depending on what code is inside the subroutine, with exact
2645details subject to change between Perl versions. Only do this
2646if you really know what you are doing.
bb3abb05 2647
885ef6f5
GG
2648=item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined
2649
345d70e3
FC
2650(W misc) Using the C<:lvalue> declarative syntax to make a Perl
2651subroutine an lvalue subroutine after it has been defined is
2652not permitted. To make the subroutine an lvalue subroutine,
2653add the lvalue attribute to the definition, or put the C<sub
2654foo :lvalue;> declaration before the definition.
2655
2656See also L<attributes.pm|attributes>.
885ef6f5 2657
2db62bbc 2658=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
49704364 2659
2db62bbc 2660(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
2661are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2662
2663=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
2664
2db62bbc 2665(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
2666are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2667
6df41af2
GS
2668=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
2669
2670(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
2671
2672 prefix1;prefix2
2673
2674or
6df41af2
GS
2675 prefix1 prefix2
2676
be771a83
GS
2677with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
2678a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
2679appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 2680"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 2681
2f758a16
ST
2682=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
2683
d37a9538
ST
2684(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
2685syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
2686obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
2687when the function is called.
2f758a16 2688
ba210ebe
JH
2689=item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
2690
4d6f11e5 2691(S utf8)(F) Perl detected a string that didn't comply with UTF-8
2575c402 2692encoding rules, even though it had the UTF8 flag on.
ba210ebe 2693
2575c402
JW
2694One possible cause is that you set the UTF8 flag yourself for data that
2695you thought to be in UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy
6903afa2 26968-bit data). To guard against this, you can use Encode::decode_utf8.
2575c402
JW
2697
2698If you use the C<:encoding(UTF-8)> PerlIO layer for input, invalid byte
2699sequences are handled gracefully, but if you use C<:utf8>, the flag is
2700set without validating the data, possibly resulting in this error
2701message.
2702
2703See also L<Encode/"Handling Malformed Data">.
901b21bf 2704
107160e2
KW
2705=item Malformed UTF-8 character immediately after '%s'
2706
2707(F) You said C<use utf8>, but the program file doesn't comply with UTF-8
2708encoding rules. The message prints out the properly encoded characters
2709just before the first bad one. If C<utf8> warnings are enabled, a
2710warning is generated that gives more details about the type of
2711malformation.
2712
bde9e88d 2713=item Malformed UTF-8 returned by \N{%s} immediately after '%s'
ff3f963a
KW
2714
2715(F) The charnames handler returned malformed UTF-8.
2716
4a5d3a93
FC
2717=item Malformed UTF-8 string in '%c' format in unpack
2718
2719(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2720rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2721
f337b084
TH
2722=item Malformed UTF-8 string in pack
2723
2724(F) You tried to pack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2725rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2726
2727=item Malformed UTF-8 string in unpack
2728
2729(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2730rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2731
4a5d3a93 2732=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
f337b084 2733
4a5d3a93
FC
2734(F) Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
2735doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
2736
2737=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2738
2739(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
2740regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
2741shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2742See L<perlre>.
f337b084 2743
de42a5a9 2744=item Maximal count of pending signals (%u) exceeded
2563cec5 2745
6903afa2 2746(F) Perl aborted due to too high a number of signals pending. This
2563cec5
IZ
2747usually indicates that your operating system tried to deliver signals
2748too fast (with a very high priority), starving the perl process from
2749resources it would need to reach a point where it can process signals
6903afa2 2750safely. (See L<perlipc/"Deferred Signals (Safe Signals)">.)
2563cec5 2751
25f58aea
PN
2752=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2753
2754(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
2755interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
2756"use" or "my".
2757
0d2487cd 2758=item '%' may not be used in pack
6df41af2
GS
2759
2760(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
2761checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
2762See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 2763
a0d0e21e
LW
2764=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
2765
2766(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 2767doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2768
3cdd684c
TP
2769=item Method %s not permitted
2770
2771See Server error.
2772
a0d0e21e
LW
2773=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
2774
2775(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
2776by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
2777ended earlier on the current line.
2778
2779=item Misplaced _ in number
2780
d4ced10d
JH
2781(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
2782separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 2783
7baa4690
HS
2784=item Missing argument in %s
2785
2786(W uninitialized) A printf-type format required more arguments than were
2787supplied.
2788
9e81e6a1
RGS
2789=item Missing argument to -%c
2790
2791(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2792immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
2793
ff3f963a 2794=item Missing braces on \N{}
423cee85 2795
aec0ef10
FC
2796=item Missing braces on \N{} in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2797
4a2d328f 2798(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
532cb70d
FC
2799double-quotish context. This can also happen when there is a space
2800(or comment) between the C<\N> and the C<{> in a regex with the C</x> modifier.
2801This modifier does not change the requirement that the brace immediately
2802follow the C<\N>.
423cee85 2803
f0a2b745
KW
2804=item Missing braces on \o{}
2805
2806(F) A C<\o> must be followed immediately by a C<{> in double-quotish context.
2807
a0d0e21e
LW
2808=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
2809
2810(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
2811"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
2812
06eaf0bc
GS
2813=item Missing command in piped open
2814
be771a83
GS
2815(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
2816C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
2817blank.
06eaf0bc 2818
961ce445
RGS
2819=item Missing control char name in \c
2820
2821(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
2822character name.
2823
8767b1ab 2824=item Missing name in "%s sub"
6df41af2 2825
be771a83
GS
2826(F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
2827they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
2828
2829=item Missing $ on loop variable
2830
be771a83
GS
2831(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
2832are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
2833can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 2834
cc507455 2835=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306 2836
56da5a46
RGS
2837(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2838"%s found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
748a9306 2839
aec0ef10 2840=item Missing right brace on \%c{} in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 2841
ff3f963a
KW
2842(F) Missing right brace in C<\x{...}>, C<\p{...}>, C<\P{...}>, or C<\N{...}>.
2843
4a68bf9d 2844=item Missing right brace on \N{} or unescaped left brace after \N
ff3f963a 2845
d32207c9
FC
2846(F) C<\N> has two meanings.
2847
2848The traditional one has it followed by a name enclosed in braces,
2849meaning the character (or sequence of characters) given by that
fa816bf3 2850name. Thus C<\N{ASTERISK}> is another way of writing C<*>, valid in both
d32207c9
FC
2851double-quoted strings and regular expression patterns. In patterns,
2852it doesn't have the meaning an unescaped C<*> does.
2853
2854Starting in Perl 5.12.0, C<\N> also can have an additional meaning (only)
2855in patterns, namely to match a non-newline character. (This is short
2856for C<[^\n]>, and like C<.> but is not affected by the C</s> regex modifier.)
2857
2858This can lead to some ambiguities. When C<\N> is not followed immediately
2859by a left brace, Perl assumes the C<[^\n]> meaning. Also, if the braces
2860form a valid quantifier such as C<\N{3}> or C<\N{5,}>, Perl assumes that this
2861means to match the given quantity of non-newlines (in these examples,
28623; and 5 or more, respectively). In all other case, where there is a
2863C<\N{> and a matching C<}>, Perl assumes that a character name is desired.
2864
2865However, if there is no matching C<}>, Perl doesn't know if it was
2866mistakenly omitted, or if C<[^\n]{> was desired, and raises this error.
2867If you meant the former, add the right brace; if you meant the latter,
2868escape the brace with a backslash, like so: C<\N\{>
ab13f0c7 2869
d98d5fff 2870=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 2871
be771a83
GS
2872(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
2873ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
2874were last editing.
a0d0e21e 2875
6df41af2
GS
2876=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
2877
56da5a46
RGS
2878(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2879"%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
6df41af2
GS
2880the previous line just because you saw this message.
2881
a0d0e21e
LW
2882=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
2883
2884(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 2885constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
2886catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
2887
2888 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
2889 mod(2);
2890
2891Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
2892
c5674021
PDF
2893Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
2894is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
2895
b7e4ecc1
FC
2896 $x = 1;
2897 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
2898 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to
2899 } # modify the 2
c5674021 2900
7a4340ed 2901=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2902
2903(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
2904subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
2905backwards.
2906
7a4340ed 2907=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 2908
be771a83
GS
2909(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
2910couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
2911
2912=item Module name must be constant
2913
2914(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
2915
be98fb35 2916=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 2917
be98fb35
GS
2918(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
2919you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
2920about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 2921
fe13d51d 2922=item More than one argument to '%s' open
ed9aa3b7 2923
6903afa2 2924(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
ed9aa3b7
SG
2925can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
2926list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
2927See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
2928
a0d0e21e
LW
2929=item msg%s not implemented
2930
2931(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
2932
2933=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
2934
75b44862
GS
2935(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
2936They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 2937
49704364 2938=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
6df41af2 2939
49704364
WL
2940(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
2941follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
2942See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2943
2944=item "my sub" not yet implemented
2945
be771a83
GS
2946(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
2947that yet.
6df41af2 2948
fd1b7234 2949=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
6df41af2 2950
be771a83
GS
2951(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2952sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2953local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 2954
8149aa9f
FC
2955=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2956
2957(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
2958If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2959again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
2960provided for this purpose.
2961
2962NOTE: This warning detects symbols that have been used only once so $c, @c,
2963%c, *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or format) are considered
2964the same; if a program uses $c only once but also uses any of the others it
2965will not trigger this warning.
2966
aec0ef10 2967=item \N in a character class must be a named character: \N{...} in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
ff3f963a 2968
c3c41406 2969(F) The new (5.12) meaning of C<\N> as C<[^\n]> is not valid in a bracketed
f4e361c7
FC
2970character class, for the same reason that C<.> in a character class loses
2971its specialness: it matches almost everything, which is probably not
2972what you want.
c3c41406 2973
aec0ef10 2974=item \N{NAME} must be resolved by the lexer in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
c3c41406 2975
f4e361c7
FC
2976(F) When compiling a regex pattern, an unresolved named character or
2977sequence was encountered. This can happen in any of several ways that
2978bypass the lexer, such as using single-quotish context, or an extra
7fae04b9 2979backslash in double-quotish:
c3c41406
KW
2980
2981 $re = '\N{SPACE}'; # Wrong!
b09c05e6 2982 $re = "\\N{SPACE}"; # Wrong!
c3c41406
KW
2983 /$re/;
2984
b09c05e6 2985Instead, use double-quotes with a single backslash:
c3c41406
KW
2986
2987 $re = "\N{SPACE}"; # ok
2988 /$re/;
2989
2990The lexer can be bypassed as well by creating the pattern from smaller
2991components:
2992
2993 $re = '\N';
2994 /${re}{SPACE}/; # Wrong!
2995
2996It's not a good idea to split a construct in the middle like this, and it
2997doesn't work here. Instead use the solution above.
2998
2999Finally, the message also can happen under the C</x> regex modifier when the
3000C<\N> is separated by spaces from the C<{>, in which case, remove the spaces.
3001
3002 /\N {SPACE}/x; # Wrong!
3003 /\N{SPACE}/x; # ok
ff3f963a 3004
49704364
WL
3005=item Negative '/' count in unpack
3006
3007(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
3008negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3009
a0d0e21e
LW
3010=item Negative length
3011
be771a83
GS
3012(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
3013length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 3014
ed9aa3b7
SG
3015=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
3016
3017(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
3018greater than or equal to zero.
3019
7253e4e3 3020=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3021
6903afa2
FC
3022(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses.
3023So things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the
3024regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 3025
7253e4e3 3026Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 3027C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3028
6df41af2 3029=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 3030
be771a83
GS
3031(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
3032scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e 3033
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3034=item next::method/next::can/maybe::next::method cannot find enclosing method
3035
3036(F) C<next::method> needs to be called within the context of a
3037real method in a real package, and it could not find such a context.
3038See L<mro>.
3039
a0d0e21e
LW
3040=item No %s allowed while running setuid
3041
be771a83
GS
3042(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
3043setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
3044will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
3045securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 3046
6651ba0b
FC
3047=item No code specified for -%c
3048
3049(F) Perl's B<-e> and B<-E> command-line options require an argument. If
3050you want to run an empty program, pass the empty string as a separate
3051argument or run a program consisting of a single 0 or 1:
3052
3053 perl -e ""
3054 perl -e0
3055 perl -e1
3056
a0d0e21e
LW
3057=item No comma allowed after %s
3058
6903afa2
FC
3059(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is
3060not allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
a0d0e21e
LW
3061Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
3062
6903afa2
FC
3063One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported
3064a constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
3065importing took place, it may for example be that your operating
3066system does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did
3067use an explicit import list for the constants you expect to see;
3068please see L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an
3069explicit import list would probably have caught this error earlier
3070it naturally does not remedy the fact that your operating system
3071still does not support that constant. Maybe you have a typo in
3072the constants of the symbol import list of B<use> or B<import> or in the
3073constant name at the line where this error was triggered?
0a753a76 3074
748a9306
LW
3075=item No command into which to pipe on command line
3076
be771a83
GS
3077(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3078redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
3079doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 3080
a0d0e21e
LW
3081=item No DB::DB routine defined
3082
be771a83 3083(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
f7af5ce1 3084for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
ccafdc96
RGS
3085module) didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
3086statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
3087
3088=item No dbm on this machine
3089
3090(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 3091supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e 3092
ccafdc96 3093=item No DB::sub routine defined
a0d0e21e 3094
ccafdc96
RGS
3095(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
3096for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
3097module) didn't define a C<DB::sub> routine to be called at the beginning
3098of each ordinary subroutine call.
a0d0e21e 3099
6651ba0b
FC
3100=item No directory specified for -I
3101
3102(F) The B<-I> command-line switch requires a directory name as part of the
3103I<same> argument. Use B<-Ilib>, for instance. B<-I lib> won't work.
3104
c47ff5f1 3105=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 3106
be771a83
GS
3107(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3108redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
3109find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 3110
49704364
WL
3111=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
3112
3113(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
6903afa2 3114matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 3115
c47ff5f1 3116=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 3117
be771a83
GS
3118(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3119redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
3120name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 3121
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3122=item No next::method '%s' found for %s
3123
3124(F) C<next::method> found no further instances of this method name
3125in the remaining packages of the MRO of this class. If you don't want
3126it throwing an exception, use C<maybe::next::method>
fa816bf3 3127or C<next::can>. See L<mro>.
2c7d6b9c 3128
6df41af2
GS
3129=item "no" not allowed in expression
3130
be771a83
GS
3131(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
3132returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 3133
c47ff5f1 3134=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 3135
be771a83
GS
3136(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3137redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
3138doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 3139
c47ff5f1 3140=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 3141
be771a83
GS
3142(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3143redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
3144find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 3145
1ec3e8de
GS
3146=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
3147
be771a83
GS
3148(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
3149declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
3150semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 3151
a0d0e21e
LW
3152=item No Perl script found in input
3153
3154(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
3155with #! and containing the word "perl".
3156
3157=item No setregid available
3158
3159(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
3160your system.
3161
3162=item No setreuid available
3163
3164(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
3165your system.
3166
e75d1f10
RD
3167=item No such class field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
3168
b7e4ecc1
FC
3169(F) You tried to access a key from a hash through the indicated typed
3170variable but that key is not allowed by the package of the same type.
3171The indicated package has restricted the set of allowed keys using the
3172L<fields> pragma.
e75d1f10 3173
2c692339
RGS
3174=item No such class %s
3175
dc7e5945
FC
3176(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state"
3177declaration, but this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
2c692339 3178
3c20a832
SP
3179=item No such hook: %s
3180
dc7e5945
FC
3181(F) You specified a signal hook that was not recognized by Perl.
3182Currently, Perl accepts C<__DIE__> and C<__WARN__> as valid signal hooks.
3c20a832 3183
6df41af2
GS
3184=item No such pipe open
3185
3186(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
3187close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
3188earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 3189
a0d0e21e
LW
3190=item No such signal: SIG%s
3191
be771a83
GS
3192(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
3193not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
3194names on your system.
a0d0e21e
LW
3195
3196=item Not a CODE reference
3197
3198(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
3199subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
3200use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
3201also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 3202
a0d0e21e
LW
3203=item Not a GLOB reference
3204
be771a83
GS
3205(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
3206symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
3207something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
3208kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
3209
3210=item Not a HASH reference
3211
be771a83
GS
3212(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
3213reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
3214find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 3215
6df41af2
GS
3216=item Not an ARRAY reference
3217
be771a83
GS
3218(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
3219a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
3220to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 3221
d4fc4415
FC
3222=item Not an unblessed ARRAY reference
3223
3224(F) You passed a reference to a blessed array to C<push>, C<shift> or
3225another array function. These only accept unblessed array references
3226or arrays beginning explicitly with C<@>.
3227
a0d0e21e
LW
3228=item Not a SCALAR reference
3229
be771a83
GS
3230(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
3231a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
3232to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
3233
3234=item Not a subroutine reference
3235
3236(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
3237subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
3238use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
3239also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 3240
e7ea3e70 3241=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
3242
3243(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 3244doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 3245
a0d0e21e
LW
3246=item Not enough arguments for %s
3247
3248(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
3249
6df41af2
GS
3250=item Not enough format arguments
3251
be771a83
GS
3252(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
3253supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
3254
3255=item %s: not found
3256
be771a83
GS
3257(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
3258of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
3259yourself.
6df41af2
GS
3260
3261=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 3262
6df41af2
GS
3263(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
3264timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
3265to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
3266F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
3267need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e 3268
f0a2b745
KW
3269=item Non-octal character '%c'. Resolved as "%s"
3270
fa816bf3
FC
3271(W digit) In parsing an octal numeric constant, a character was
3272unexpectedly encountered that isn't octal. The resulting value
3273is as indicated.
f0a2b745 3274
4ef2275c
GA
3275=item Non-string passed as bitmask
3276
3277(W misc) A number has been passed as a bitmask argument to select().
3278Use the vec() function to construct the file descriptor bitmasks for
6903afa2 3279select. See L<perlfunc/select>.
4ef2275c 3280
a0d0e21e
LW
3281=item Null filename used
3282
be771a83
GS
3283(F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
3284machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
a0d0e21e 3285
6df41af2
GS
3286=item NULL OP IN RUN
3287
f84fe999 3288(S debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
be771a83 3289pointer.
6df41af2 3290
55497cff 3291=item Null picture in formline
3292
3293(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
3294specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
3295supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
3296
a0d0e21e
LW
3297=item Null realloc
3298
3299(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
3300
3301=item NULL regexp argument
3302
5f05dabc 3303(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
3304
3305=item NULL regexp parameter
3306
3307(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
3308
fc36a67e 3309=item Number too long
3310
be771a83 3311(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 3312about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
3313versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
3314the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
3315"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 3316
f0a2b745
KW
3317=item Number with no digits
3318
1043934d 3319(F) Perl was looking for a number but found nothing that looked like
6903afa2 3320a number. This happens, for example with C<\o{}>, with no number between
1043934d 3321the braces.
f0a2b745 3322
271c8bde
FC
3323=item "my %s" used in sort comparison
3324
3325(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
3326You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
3327sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
3328lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
3329name, or rename the lexical variable.
3330
252aa082
JH
3331=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
3332
75b44862 3333(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
3334(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
3335L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 3336
6ad11d81
JH
3337=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
3338
04a80ee0 3339(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
6903afa2 3340arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 3341
b21befc1
MG
3342=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
3343
3344(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
3345which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
3346
1930e939 3347=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 3348
be771a83
GS
3349(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
3350which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 3351
bbce6d69 3352=item Offset outside string
3353
1fa582fa 3354(F)(W layer) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv/seek operation
42bc49da 3355with an offset pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to
f5a7294f
JH
3356imagine. The sole exceptions to this are that zero padding will
3357take place when going past the end of the string when either
3358C<sysread()>ing a file, or when seeking past the end of a scalar opened
1a7a2554
MB
3359for I/O (in anticipation of future reads and to imitate the behaviour
3360with real files).
bbce6d69 3361
c289d2f7 3362=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
3363
3364(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
3365never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
3366call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
3367
96ebfdd7
RK
3368=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
3369
3370(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
3371that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
3372
a0d0e21e
LW
3373=item oops: oopsAV
3374
e476b1b5 3375(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
3376
3377=item oops: oopsHV
3378
e476b1b5 3379(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 3380
abc718f2
RGS
3381=item Opening dirhandle %s also as a file
3382
713e2616 3383(D io, deprecated) You used open() to associate a filehandle to
abc718f2
RGS
3384a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a dirhandle.
3385Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
3386and is deprecated.
3387
3388=item Opening filehandle %s also as a directory
3389
28038637 3390(D io, deprecated) You used opendir() to associate a dirhandle to
abc718f2
RGS
3391a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a filehandle.
3392Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
3393and is deprecated.
3394
a0288114 3395=item Operation "%s": no method found, %s
44a8e56a 3396
be771a83
GS
3397(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
3398handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
3399of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
e4aad80d 3400the C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 3401
5ff1373f 3402=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for non-Unicode code point 0x%X
9ae3ac1a 3403
3fc8aa03 3404(S utf8, non_unicode) You performed an operation requiring Unicode
73c4e9dc
FC
3405semantics on a code point that is not in Unicode, so what it should do
3406is not defined. Perl has chosen to have it do nothing, and warn you.
9ae3ac1a
KW
3407
3408If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
3409matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
3410
3411If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 3412C<no warnings 'non_unicode';>.
9ae3ac1a 3413
5ff1373f 3414=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
9ae3ac1a 3415
3fc8aa03 3416(S utf8, surrogate) You performed an operation requiring Unicode
73c4e9dc
FC
3417semantics on a Unicode surrogate. Unicode frowns upon the use of
3418surrogates for anything but storing strings in UTF-16, but semantics
3419are (reluctantly) defined for the surrogates, and they are to do
3420nothing for this operation. Because the use of surrogates can be
3421dangerous, Perl warns.
9ae3ac1a
KW
3422
3423If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
3424matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
3425
3426If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 3427C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9ae3ac1a 3428
748a9306
LW
3429=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
3430
be771a83
GS
3431(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
3432was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
3433use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
3434example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
3435"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 3436
6df41af2
GS
3437=item "our" variable %s redeclared
3438
be771a83
GS
3439(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
3440in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 3441
a80b8354
GS
3442=item Out of memory!
3443
3444(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
3445remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
3446no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 3447
19a52907
JH
3448At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
3449process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
3450C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
3451the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
3452and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
3453
6d3b25aa
RGS
3454=item Out of memory during %s extend
3455
3456(X) An attempt was made to extend an array, a list, or a string beyond
3457the largest possible memory allocation.
3458
6df41af2 3459=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 3460
6df41af2 3461(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
6903afa2 3462remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
3463the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
3464possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 3465
1b979e0a 3466=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 3467
1fa582fa 3468(X)(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
be771a83
GS
3469insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
3470request.
eff9c6e2
CS
3471
3472The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
3473depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
3474However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
3475emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
3476is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
3477where the failed request happened.
55497cff 3478
1b979e0a
IZ
3479=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
3480
3481(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
3482is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
3483C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 3484
6df41af2
GS
3485=item Out of memory for yacc stack
3486
be771a83
GS
3487(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
3488parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
3489otherwise.
6df41af2 3490
28be1210
TH
3491=item '.' outside of string in pack
3492
3493(F) The argument to a '.' in your template tried to move the working
3494position to before the start of the packed string being built.
3495
49704364 3496=item '@' outside of string in unpack
6df41af2 3497
49704364 3498(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6df41af2
GS
3499the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3500
f337b084
TH
3501=item '@' outside of string with malformed UTF-8 in unpack
3502
3503(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6903afa2 3504the string being unpacked. The string being unpacked was also invalid
fa816bf3 3505UTF-8. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
f337b084 3506
7778d804
FC
3507=item overload arg '%s' is invalid
3508
3509(W overload) The L<overload> pragma was passed an argument it did not
3510recognize. Did you mistype an operator?
3511
7cb0cfe6
BM
3512=item Overloaded dereference did not return a reference
3513
3514(F) An object with an overloaded dereference operator was dereferenced,
6903afa2 3515but the overloaded operation did not return a reference. See
7cb0cfe6
BM
3516L<overload>.
3517
3518=item Overloaded qr did not return a REGEXP
3519
3520(F) An object with a C<qr> overload was used as part of a match, but the
6903afa2 3521overloaded operation didn't return a compiled regexp. See L<overload>.
7cb0cfe6 3522
6df41af2
GS
3523=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
3524
be771a83
GS
3525(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
3526package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
3527some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
3528mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 3529
96ebfdd7
RK
3530=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
3531
3532(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3533signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3534
a0d0e21e
LW
3535=item page overflow
3536
be771a83
GS
3537(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
3538page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 3539
6df41af2
GS
3540=item panic: %s
3541
3542(P) An internal error.
3543
c99a1475
NC
3544=item panic: attempt to call %s in %s
3545
3546(P) One of the file test operators entered a code branch that calls
3547an ACL related-function, but that function is not available on this
3548platform. Earlier checks mean that it should not be possible to
3549enter this branch on this platform.
3550
d5e473ac
SH
3551=item panic: child pseudo-process was never scheduled
3552
3553(P) A child pseudo-process in the ithreads implementation on Windows
3554was not scheduled within the time period allowed and therefore was not
3555able to initialize properly.
3556
5637ef5b 3557=item panic: ck_grep, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3558
3559(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
3560
5637ef5b 3561=item panic: ck_split, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3562
3563(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
3564
5637ef5b 3565=item panic: corrupt saved stack index %ld
a0d0e21e 3566
be771a83
GS
3567(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
3568there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 3569
810b8aa5
GS
3570=item panic: del_backref
3571
3572(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
3573reference.
3574
a0d0e21e
LW
3575=item panic: die %s
3576
3577(P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
3578it wasn't an eval context.
3579
a0d0e21e
LW
3580=item panic: do_subst
3581
be771a83
GS
3582(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
3583data.
a0d0e21e 3584
2269b42e 3585=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 3586
2269b42e 3587(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 3588data.
a0d0e21e 3589
b7f7fd0b
NC
3590=item panic: fold_constants JMPENV_PUSH returned %d
3591
10203f38 3592(P) While attempting folding constants an exception other than an C<eval>
b7f7fd0b
NC
3593failure was caught.
3594
c635e13b 3595=item panic: frexp
3596
3597(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
3598
5637ef5b 3599=item panic: goto, type=%u, ix=%ld
a0d0e21e
LW
3600
3601(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
3602and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
3603
b0d55c99
FC
3604=item panic: gp_free failed to free glob pointer
3605
3606(P) The internal routine used to clear a typeglob's entries tried
6903afa2
FC
3607repeatedly, but each time something re-created entries in the glob.
3608Most likely the glob contains an object with a reference back to
3609the glob and a destructor that adds a new object to the glob.
b0d55c99 3610
5637ef5b 3611=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3612
3613(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
3614
5637ef5b 3615=item panic: INTERPCONCAT, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3616
3617(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
3618
e446cec8
IZ
3619=item panic: kid popen errno read
3620
3621(F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
3622
5637ef5b 3623=item panic: last, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3624
3625(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
3626it wasn't a block context.
3627
3628=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
3629
be771a83
GS
3630(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
3631scope.
a0d0e21e 3632
5637ef5b 3633=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency %u
a0d0e21e
LW
3634
3635(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
3636invalid enum on the top of it.
3637
810b8aa5
GS
3638=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
3639
3640(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
3641references to an object.
3642
5637ef5b 3643=item panic: malloc, %s
6df41af2
GS
3644
3645(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
3646
27d5b266
JH
3647=item panic: memory wrap
3648
3649(P) Something tried to allocate more memory than possible.
3650
5637ef5b 3651=item panic: pad_alloc, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
3652
3653(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3654and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3655
5637ef5b 3656=item panic: pad_free curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
3657
3658(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3659and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3660
3661=item panic: pad_free po
3662
3663(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3664
5637ef5b 3665=item panic: pad_reset curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
3666
3667(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3668and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3669
3670=item panic: pad_sv po
3671
3672(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3673
5637ef5b 3674=item panic: pad_swipe curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
3675
3676(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3677and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3678
3679=item panic: pad_swipe po
3680
3681(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3682
5637ef5b 3683=item panic: pp_iter, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3684
3685(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
3686
96ebfdd7
RK
3687=item panic: pp_match%s
3688
3689(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
3690data.
3691
5637ef5b 3692=item panic: pp_split, pm=%p, s=%p
2269b42e
JH
3693
3694(P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
3695
5637ef5b 3696=item panic: realloc, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3697
3698(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
3699
ccfb6d2e
FC
3700=item panic: reference miscount on nsv in sv_replace() (%d != 1)
3701
3702(P) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
3703reference count other than 1.
3704
5637ef5b 3705=item panic: restartop in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3706
3707(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
3708didn't supply the destination.
3709
5637ef5b 3710=item panic: return, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3711
3712(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
3713then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
3714
5637ef5b 3715=item panic: scan_num, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3716
3717(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
3718
d24ca0c5
DM
3719=item panic: Sequence (?{...}): no code block found
3720
3721(P) while compiling a pattern that has embedded (?{}) or (??{}) code
3722blocks, perl couldn't locate the code block that should have already been
3723seen and compiled by perl before control passed to the regex compiler.
3724
6c65d5f9
NC
3725=item panic: sv_chop %s
3726
3727(P) The sv_chop() routine was passed a position that is not within the
3728scalar's string buffer.
3729
5637ef5b 3730=item panic: sv_insert, midend=%p, bigend=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
3731
3732(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
3733was string.
3734
ad49ad39
NC
3735=item panic: strxfrm() gets absurd - a => %u, ab => %u
3736
3737(P) The interpreter's sanity check of the C function strxfrm() failed.
3738In your current locale the returned transformation of the string "ab" is
3739shorter than that of the string "a", which makes no sense.
3740
a0d0e21e
LW
3741=item panic: top_env
3742
6224f72b 3743(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e 3744
65bca31a
NC
3745=item panic: unimplemented op %s (#%d) called
3746
a1efa96e
FC
3747(P) The compiler is screwed up and attempted to use an op that isn't
3748permitted at run time.
65bca31a 3749
dea0fc0b
JH
3750=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
3751
3752(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 3753to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 3754
e0ea5e2d
NC
3755=item panic: utf16_to_utf8_reversed: odd bytelen
3756
3757(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8_reversed with an odd (as opposed
3758to even) byte length.
3759
5637ef5b 3760=item panic: yylex, %s
2f7da168
RK
3761
3762(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
3763
28ac2b49
Z
3764=item Parsing code internal error (%s)
3765
3766(F) Parsing code supplied by an extension violated the parser's API in
3767a detectable way.
3768
1a147d38
YO
3769=item Pattern subroutine nesting without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3770
3771(F) You used a pattern that uses too many nested subpattern calls without
6903afa2
FC
3772consuming any text. Restructure the pattern so text is consumed before
3773the nesting limit is exceeded.
1a147d38
YO
3774
3775The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3776discovered.
3777
7b8d334a 3778=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
a0d0e21e 3779
e476b1b5 3780(W parenthesis) You said something like
a0d0e21e
LW
3781
3782 my $foo, $bar = @_;
3783
3784when you meant
3785
3786 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
3787
30c282f6 3788Remember that "my", "our", "local" and "state" bind tighter than comma.
a0d0e21e 3789
96ebfdd7
RK
3790=item C<-p> destination: %s
3791
3792(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
3793command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
3794redirected it with select().)
3795
3796=item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
3797
3798(F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3799"Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
3800that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
3801
801eb083 3802=item Perl folding rules are not up-to-date for 0x%x; please use the perlbug utility to report
d50a4f90
KW
3803
3804(W regex, deprecated) You used a regular expression with
3805case-insensitive matching, and there is a bug in Perl in which the
3806built-in regular expression folding rules are not accurate. This may
3807lead to incorrect results. Please report this as a bug using the
3808"perlbug" utility. (This message is marked deprecated, so that it by
3809default will be turned-on.)
3810
1109a392
MHM
3811=item Perl_my_%s() not available
3812
3813(F) Your platform has very uncommon byte-order and integer size,
3814so it was not possible to set up some or all fixed-width byte-order
3815conversion functions. This is only a problem when you're using the
3816'<' or '>' modifiers in (un)pack templates. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3817
6651ba0b
FC
3818=item Perl %s required (did you mean %s?)--this is only %s, stopped
3819
3820(F) The code you are trying to run has asked for a newer version of
3821Perl than you are running. Perhaps C<use 5.10> was written instead
3822of C<use 5.010> or C<use v5.10>. Without the leading C<v>, the number is
3823interpreted as a decimal, with every three digits after the
3824decimal point representing a part of the version number. So 5.10
3825is equivalent to v5.100.
3826
6d3b25aa
RGS
3827=item Perl %s required--this is only version %s, stopped
3828
3829(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
3830recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
3831you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
3832
6df41af2
GS
3833=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
3834
fa816bf3 3835(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 3836C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 3837
96ebfdd7
RK
3838=item PERL_SIGNALS illegal: "%s"
3839
806b6d07 3840(X) See L<perlrun/PERL_SIGNALS> for legal values.
96ebfdd7 3841
6651ba0b
FC
3842=item Perls since %s too modern--this is %s, stopped
3843
3844(F) The code you are trying to run claims it will not run
3845on the version of Perl you are using because it is too new.
3846Maybe the code needs to be updated, or maybe it is simply
3847wrong and the version check should just be removed.
3848
6df41af2
GS
3849=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3850
3851(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
3852
3853 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3854 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
3855 LC_ALL = "En_US",
3856 LANG = (unset)
3857 are supported and installed on your system.
3858 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
3859
3860Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
3861settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
0ea6b70f
JH
3862This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
3863system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
3864locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
3865dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
4b07a369
FC
3866Perl can and will use, and the script will be run. Before you really
3867fix the problem, however, you will get the same error message each
3868time you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
0ea6b70f 3869L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
6df41af2 3870
bd3fa61c 3871=item pid %x not a child
748a9306 3872
be771a83
GS
3873(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
3874process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
3875fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
748a9306 3876
49704364 3877=item 'P' must have an explicit size in unpack
3bf38418
WL
3878
3879(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
3880
96ebfdd7
RK
3881=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3882
3883(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The <-- HERE
3884shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
3885Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
3886the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
3887not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
3888
3889=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
3890
3891(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
3892the BSD version, which takes a pid.
3893
49704364 3894=item POSIX syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 3895
9a0b3859 3896(W regexp) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
7253e4e3
RK
3897I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
3898/[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
3899implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and will
3900cause fatal errors. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3901where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 3902
49704364 3903=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3904
3905(F regexp) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
7253e4e3
RK
3906beginning with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
3907If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
3908expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
3909backslash: "\[." and ".\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
3910about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 3911
49704364 3912=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 3913
7253e4e3
RK
3914(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
3915with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
3916need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
3917character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
3918and "=\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
3919problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 3920
bbce6d69 3921=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
3922
e476b1b5 3923(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
75b44862 3924strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
be771a83
GS
3925literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
3926parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
bbce6d69 3927
774d564b 3928You probably wrote something like this:
3929
54310121 3930 @list = qw(
774d564b 3931 a # a comment
bbce6d69 3932 b # another comment
774d564b 3933 );
bbce6d69 3934
3935when you should have written this:
3936
774d564b 3937 @list = qw(
54310121 3938 a
3939 b
774d564b 3940 );
3941
3942If you really want comments, build your list the
3943old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
3944
3945 @list = (
3946 'a', # a comment
3947 'b', # another comment
3948 );
bbce6d69 3949
3950=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
3951
be771a83
GS
3952(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
3953commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
3954different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
3955frequently used.)
bbce6d69 3956
54310121 3957You probably wrote something like this:
bbce6d69 3958
774d564b 3959 qw! a, b, c !;
3960
3961which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
3962commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
bbce6d69 3963
774d564b 3964 qw! a b c !;
bbce6d69 3965
a0d0e21e
LW
3966=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
3967
3968(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
3969Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
3970end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
3971Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
3972
276b2a0c
RGS
3973=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %c operator
3974
3975(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
3976with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
3977
3978 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
3979
3980This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
6903afa2 3981higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
96a925ab
YST
3982really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, put the
3983parentheses explicitly and write C<$x & ($y == 0)>).
276b2a0c 3984
77772344
B
3985=item Possible unintended interpolation of $\ in regex
3986
3987(W ambiguous) You said something like C<m/$\/> in a regex.
3988The regex C<m/foo$\s+bar/m> translates to: match the word 'foo', the output
8ddb446c 3989record separator (see L<perlvar/$\>) and the letter 's' (one time or more)
77772344
B
3990followed by the word 'bar'.
3991
3992If this is what you intended then you can silence the warning by using
3993C<m/${\}/> (for example: C<m/foo${\}s+bar/>).
3994
3995If instead you intended to match the word 'foo' at the end of the line
3996followed by whitespace and the word 'bar' on the next line then you can use
3997C<m/$(?)\/> (for example: C<m/foo$(?)\s+bar/>).
3998
e5035638
FC
3999=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
4000
ccf3535a 4001(W ambiguous) You said something like '@foo' in a double-quoted string
6903afa2 4002but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
e5035638
FC
4003literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
4004to the array you apparently lost track of.
4005
a0d0e21e
LW
4006=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
4007
e476b1b5 4008(S precedence) The old irregular construct
cb1a09d0 4009
a0d0e21e
LW
4010 open FOO || die;
4011
4012is now misinterpreted as
4013
4014 open(FOO || die);
4015
be771a83
GS
4016because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
4017list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
4018parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
4019of "||".
a0d0e21e 4020
3cdd684c
TP
4021=item Premature end of script headers
4022
4023See Server error.
4024
6df41af2
GS
4025=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
4026
be771a83 4027(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4028before now. Check your control flow.
6df41af2 4029
9a7dcd9c 4030=item print() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 4031
be771a83 4032(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4033before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 4034
6df41af2 4035=item Process terminated by SIG%s
a0d0e21e 4036
6df41af2
GS
4037(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
4038applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
4039port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
4040L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
fecfaeb8 4041in L<perlos2>.
a0d0e21e 4042
327323c1
RGS
4043=item Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s
4044
fa816bf3
FC
4045(W illegalproto) A character follows % or @ in a prototype. This is
4046useless, since % and @ gobble the rest of the subroutine arguments.
327323c1 4047
3fe9a6f1 4048=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4633a7c4 4049
9a0b3859 4050(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
be771a83 4051declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4633a7c4 4052
ed9aa3b7
SG
4053=item Prototype not terminated
4054
2a6fd447 4055(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
ed9aa3b7
SG
4056definition.
4057
f9eb106c
FC
4058=item \p{} uses Unicode rules, not locale rules
4059
4060(W) You compiled a regular expression that contained a Unicode property
4061match (C<\p> or C<\P>), but the regular expression is also being told to
4062use the run-time locale, not Unicode. Instead, use a POSIX character
4063class, which should know about the locale's rules.
4064(See L<perlrecharclass/POSIX Character Classes>.)
4065
4066Even if the run-time locale is ISO 8859-1 (Latin1), which is a subset of
4067Unicode, some properties will give results that are not valid for that
4068subset.
4069
4070Here are a couple of examples to help you see what's going on. If the
4071locale is ISO 8859-7, the character at code point 0xD7 is the "GREEK
4072CAPITAL LETTER CHI". But in Unicode that code point means the
4073"MULTIPLICATION SIGN" instead, and C<\p> always uses the Unicode
4074meaning. That means that C<\p{Alpha}> won't match, but C<[[:alpha:]]>
4075should. Only in the Latin1 locale are all the characters in the same
4076positions as they are in Unicode. But, even here, some properties give
4077incorrect results. An example is C<\p{Changes_When_Uppercased}> which
4078is true for "LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH DIAERESIS", but since the upper
4079case of that character is not in Latin1, in that locale it doesn't
4080change when upper cased.
4081
96ebfdd7
RK
4082=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4083
6903afa2
FC
4084(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if
4085you meant it literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
4086about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
96ebfdd7 4087
49704364 4088=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 4089
6903afa2
FC
4090(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of
4091the {min,max} construct. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
4092about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9baa0206 4093
49704364 4094=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 4095
b45f050a
JF
4096(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
4097it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
4098quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
4099"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
4100C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
9baa0206 4101
7253e4e3
RK
4102The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4103discovered.
4104
31c15ce5
KW
4105=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex
4106
4107(W regexp) Minima should be less than or equal to maxima. If you really
4108want your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}.
4109
89ea2908
GA
4110=item Range iterator outside integer range
4111
4112(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
4113are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
be771a83
GS
4114One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
4115by prepending "0" to your numbers.
89ea2908 4116
3b7fbd4a
SP
4117=item readdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4118
1a147d38 4119(W io) The dirhandle you're reading from is either closed or not really
3b7fbd4a
SP
4120a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4121
96ebfdd7
RK
4122=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
4123
4124(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
4125before now. Check your control flow.
4126
b5fe5ca2
SR
4127=item read() on closed filehandle %s
4128
4129(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
4130
4131=item read() on unopened filehandle %s
4132
4133(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
4134
de42a5a9 4135=item Reallocation too large: %x
6df41af2
GS
4136
4137(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
4138
4ad56ec9
IZ
4139=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
4140
be771a83
GS
4141(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
4142already been freed.
4ad56ec9 4143
a0d0e21e
LW
4144=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
4145
be771a83
GS
4146(F debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
4147the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
a0d0e21e
LW
4148which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
4149
6651ba0b
FC
4150=item Recursive call to Perl_load_module in PerlIO_find_layer
4151
4152(P) It is currently not permitted to load modules when creating
4153a filehandle inside an %INC hook. This can happen with C<open my
4154$fh, '<', \$scalar>, which implicitly loads PerlIO::scalar. Try
4155loading PerlIO::scalar explicitly first.
4156
3e0ccd42 4157=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
a0d0e21e 4158
2c7d6b9c
RGS
4159(F) While calculating the method resolution order (MRO) of a package, Perl
4160believes it found an infinite loop in the C<@ISA> hierarchy. This is a
4161crude check that bails out after 100 levels of C<@ISA> depth.
a0d0e21e 4162
12605ff9
FC
4163=item refcnt_dec: fd %d%s
4164
2e0cfa16
FC
4165=item refcnt: fd %d%s
4166
12605ff9
FC
4167=item refcnt_inc: fd %d%s
4168
fa816bf3 4169(P) Perl's I/O implementation failed an internal consistency check. If
2e0cfa16
FC
4170you see this message, something is very wrong.
4171
1930e939
TP
4172=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
4173
be771a83 4174(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
6903afa2
FC
4175with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This
4176usually means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant
4177to use parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
7b8d334a
GS
4178
4179 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
4180 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
4181 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
4182 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
4183
810b8aa5
GS
4184=item Reference is already weak
4185
e476b1b5 4186(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
810b8aa5
GS
4187Doing so has no effect.
4188
aec0ef10 4189=item Reference to invalid group 0 in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b72d83b2 4190
6903afa2
FC
4191(F) You used C<\g0> or similar in a regular expression. You may refer
4192to capturing parentheses only with strictly positive integers
4193(normal backreferences) or with strictly negative integers (relative
4194backreferences). Using 0 does not make sense.
b72d83b2 4195
49704364 4196=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
4197
4198(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
6903afa2 4199not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If
bbaee129
FC
4200you wanted to have the character with ordinal 7 inserted into the regular
4201expression, prepend zeroes to make it three digits long: C<\007>
9baa0206 4202
7253e4e3 4203The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a 4204discovered.
9baa0206 4205
1a147d38
YO
4206=item Reference to nonexistent named group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4207
4208(F) You used something like C<\k'NAME'> or C<< \k<NAME> >> in your regular
9381611c 4209expression, but there is no corresponding named capturing parentheses
6903afa2 4210such as C<(?'NAME'...)> or C<< (?<NAME>...) >>. Check if the name has been
9381611c 4211spelled correctly both in the backreference and the declaration.
1a147d38
YO
4212
4213The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4214discovered.
4215
bcb95744 4216=item Reference to nonexistent or unclosed group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1a147d38 4217
bcb95744
FC
4218(F) You used something like C<\g{-7}> in your regular expression, but there
4219are not at least seven sets of closed capturing parentheses in the
4220expression before where the C<\g{-7}> was located.
1a147d38
YO
4221
4222The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4223discovered.
4224
a0d0e21e
LW
4225=item regexp memory corruption
4226
4227(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
4228expression compiler gave it.
4229
ff3f26d2
KW
4230=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may appear a maximum of twice
4231
3955e1a9
KW
4232=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may not appear twice
4233
f6a766d5 4234(F syntax, regexp) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
ff3f26d2 4235of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
3955e1a9 4236
aec0ef10 4237=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear after the "-" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9442e3b8 4238
f8b5bc72
FC
4239(F) Turning off the given modifier has the side effect of turning on
4240another one. Perl currently doesn't allow this. Reword the regular
9442e3b8
KW
4241expression to use the modifier you want to turn on (and place it before
4242the minus), instead of the one you want to turn off.
4243
3955e1a9
KW
4244=item Regexp modifiers "/%c" and "/%c" are mutually exclusive
4245
f6a766d5 4246(F syntax, regexp) The regular expression pattern had more than one of these
3955e1a9
KW
4247mutually exclusive modifiers. Retain only the modifier that is
4248supposed to be there.
4249
aec0ef10 4250=item Regexp out of space in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4251
be771a83
GS
4252(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
4253earlier.
a0d0e21e 4254
a1b95068
WL
4255=item Repeated format line will never terminate (~~ and @# incompatible)
4256
d7f8936a 4257(F) Your format contains the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence and a
a1b95068 4258numeric field that will never go blank so that the repetition never
6903afa2 4259terminates. You might use ^# instead. See L<perlform>.
a1b95068 4260
b08e453b
RB
4261=item Replacement list is longer than search list
4262
4263(W misc) You have used a replacement list that is longer than the
fa816bf3 4264search list. So the additional elements in the replacement list
b08e453b
RB
4265are meaningless.
4266
a0d0e21e
LW
4267=item Reversed %s= operator
4268
be771a83 4269(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
964742a1 4270always come last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
a0d0e21e 4271
abc7ecad
SP
4272=item rewinddir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4273
4274(W io) The dirhandle you tried to do a rewinddir() on is either closed or not
4275really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4276
96ebfdd7
RK
4277=item Scalars leaked: %d
4278
7bd1381d 4279(S internal) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping
4f5966a5
FC
4280of scalars: not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time
4281Perl exited. What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which
4282is of course bad, especially if the Perl program is intended to be
4283long-running.
96ebfdd7 4284
a0d0e21e
LW
4285=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
4286
be771a83
GS
4287(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
4288single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
4289value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
4290behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
4291argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
4292and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
4293if you're expecting only one subscript.
a0d0e21e 4294
748a9306 4295On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5f05dabc 4296element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
748a9306
LW
4297Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
4298L<perlref>.
4299
a6006777 4300=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
4301
75b44862 4302(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
be771a83
GS
4303element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
4304(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
4305like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
4306argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
4307and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
4308if you're expecting only one subscript.
4309
4310On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
4311as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
4312not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
a6006777 4313L<perlref>.
4314
a0d0e21e
LW
4315=item Search pattern not terminated
4316
4317(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
4318construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 4319Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 4320
0cb1bcd7 4321Note that since Perl 5.9.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
5d9c98cd
JH
4322construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
4323in Perl 5.9.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
4324misparsed by pre-5.9.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
4325
25c09cbf
SF
4326=item Search pattern not terminated or ternary operator parsed as search pattern
4327
4328(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a C<?PATTERN?>
4329construct.
4330
4331The question mark is also used as part of the ternary operator (as in
4332C<foo ? 0 : 1>) leading to some ambiguous constructions being wrongly
6903afa2 4333parsed. One way to disambiguate the parsing is to put parentheses around
25c09cbf
SF
4334the conditional expression, i.e. C<(foo) ? 0 : 1>.
4335
abc7ecad
SP
4336=item seekdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4337
4338(W io) The dirhandle you are doing a seekdir() on is either closed or not
4339really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4340
3257ea4f
FC
4341=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
4342
4343(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
4344filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
4345
a0d0e21e
LW
4346=item select not implemented
4347
4348(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
4349
ae21d580 4350=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
68a4a7e4 4351
ae21d580
JH
4352(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
4353the current implementation.
68a4a7e4 4354
6df41af2 4355=item Semicolon seems to be missing
a0d0e21e 4356
75b44862
GS
4357(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
4358semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
a0d0e21e
LW
4359
4360=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
4361
be771a83
GS
4362(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
4363scalar that had previously been marked as free.
a0d0e21e 4364
6df41af2 4365=item sem%s not implemented
a0d0e21e 4366
6df41af2 4367(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
a0d0e21e 4368
69282e91 4369=item send() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 4370
be771a83 4371(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4372before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 4373
7253e4e3 4374=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
7b8d334a 4375
6903afa2
FC
4376(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The
4377<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4378discovered. See L<perlre>.
1b1626e4 4379
49704364 4380=item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4381
6903afa2
FC
4382(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
4383but has not yet been written. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
4384expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4385
49704364 4386=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4387
7253e4e3
RK
4388(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense. The
4389<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
fb85c044
KW
4390discovered. This happens when using the C<(?^...)> construct to tell
4391Perl to use the default regular expression modifiers, and you
9442e3b8 4392redundantly specify a default modifier. For other
9de15fec 4393causes, see L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 4394
4a68bf9d 4395=item Sequence \%s... not terminated in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1f1031fe
YO
4396
4397(F) The regular expression expects a mandatory argument following the escape
4398sequence and this has been omitted or incorrectly written.
4399
aec0ef10 4400=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
4401
4402(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
aec0ef10 4403parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. See
7253e4e3 4404L<perlre>.
6df41af2 4405
9da1dd8f
DM
4406=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated with ')'
4407
be149b43
DM
4408(F) The end of the perl code contained within the {...} must be
4409followed immediately by a ')'.
9da1dd8f 4410
d7201950 4411=item Z<>500 Server error
6df41af2
GS
4412
4413See Server error.
4414
a5f75d66
AD
4415=item Server error
4416
6903afa2
FC
4417(A) This is the error message generally seen in a browser window
4418when trying to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The
4419actual error text varies widely from server to server. The most
4420frequently-seen variants are "500 Server error", "Method (something)
4421not permitted", "Document contains no data", "Premature end of script
4422headers", and "Did not produce a valid header".
9607fc9c 4423
4424B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
4425
6903afa2
FC
4426You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by
4427the user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the
4428user account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment
4429variables (like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't
4430in a location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or
4431less. Please see the following for more information:
9607fc9c 4432
06a5f41f
JH
4433 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
4434 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
4435 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
a5f75d66 4436
be94a901
GS
4437You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
4438
a0d0e21e
LW
4439=item setegid() not implemented
4440
be771a83
GS
4441(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
4442support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
4443didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
4444
4445=item seteuid() not implemented
4446
be771a83
GS
4447(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
4448support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
4449didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 4450
81777298
GS
4451=item setpgrp can't take arguments
4452
be771a83
GS
4453(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
4454arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
4455group ID.
81777298 4456
a0d0e21e
LW
4457=item setrgid() not implemented
4458
be771a83
GS
4459(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
4460support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
4461didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
4462
4463=item setruid() not implemented
4464
be771a83
GS
4465(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
4466support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
4467didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 4468
6df41af2
GS
4469=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
4470
be771a83
GS
4471(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
4472forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
4473L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
4474
a0d0e21e
LW
4475=item shm%s not implemented
4476
4477(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
4478
984200d0
YST
4479=item !=~ should be !~
4480
4481(W syntax) The non-matching operator is !~, not !=~. !=~ will be
4482interpreted as the != (numeric not equal) and ~ (1's complement)
4483operators: probably not what you intended.
4484
6df41af2
GS
4485=item <> should be quotes
4486
4487(F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
4488C<require 'file'>.
4489
4490=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
4491
4492(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
be771a83
GS
4493as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
4494result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
4495probably not what you had in mind.
6df41af2 4496
69282e91 4497=item shutdown() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 4498
75b44862
GS
4499(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
4500superfluous.
a0d0e21e 4501
f86702cc 4502=item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
a0d0e21e 4503
be771a83
GS
4504(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
4505Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
a0d0e21e 4506
efc859fb
FC
4507=item Slab leaked from cv %p
4508
4509(S) If you see this message, then something is seriously wrong with the
4510internal bookkeeping of op trees. An op tree needed to be freed after
4511a compilation error, but could not be found, so it was leaked instead.
4512
3b9aea04
SH
4513=item sleep(%u) too large
4514
4515(W overflow) You called C<sleep> with a number that was larger than
4516it can reliably handle and C<sleep> probably slept for less time than
4517requested.
4518
229c18ce
RGS
4519=item Smart matching a non-overloaded object breaks encapsulation
4520
4521(F) You should not use the C<~~> operator on an object that does not
4522overload it: Perl refuses to use the object's underlying structure for
4523the smart match.
4524
a0d0e21e
LW
4525=item sort is now a reserved word
4526
4527(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
4528But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
4529
a0d0e21e
LW
4530=item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
4531
d747172a
FC
4532(F) A sort comparison subroutine written in XS must return exactly one
4533item. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e 4534
f1c31c52
FC
4535=item Source filters apply only to byte streams
4536
4537(F) You tried to activate a source filter (usually by loading a
4538source filter module) within a string passed to C<eval>. This is
4539not permitted under the C<unicode_eval> feature. Consider using
4540C<evalbytes> instead. See L<feature>.
4541
8cbc2e3b
JH
4542=item splice() offset past end of array
4543
4544(W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
fa816bf3
FC
4545the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the
4546end of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want,
4547try explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset.
4548See L<perlfunc/splice>.
8cbc2e3b 4549
a0d0e21e
LW
4550=item Split loop
4551
be771a83
GS
4552(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
4553iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
6903afa2 4554happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
a0d0e21e 4555
a0d0e21e
LW
4556=item Statement unlikely to be reached
4557
be771a83
GS
4558(W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
4559die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
4560unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
4561instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
4562a block by itself.
a0d0e21e 4563
fd1b7234
FC
4564=item "state" variable %s can't be in a package
4565
4566(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
4567sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
4568local() if you want to localize a package variable.
4569
a2e39214
FC
4570=item "state %s" used in sort comparison
4571
4572(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
4573You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
4574sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
4575lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
4576name, or rename the lexical variable.
4577
9ddeeac9 4578=item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
6df41af2 4579
355b1299
JH
4580(W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
4581was either never opened or has since been closed.
6df41af2 4582
fe13d51d 4583=item Stub found while resolving method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
e7ea3e70 4584
be771a83
GS
4585(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
4586stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
4587C<can> may break this.
e7ea3e70 4588
4e85e1b4
FC
4589=item Subroutine "&%s" is not available
4590
4591(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
4592attempting to capture an outer lexical subroutine that is not currently
4593available. This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the lexical
4594subroutine may be declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has not
4595yet been created. (Remember that named subs are created at compile time,
4596while anonymous subs are created at run-time.) For example,
4597
4598 sub { my sub a {...} sub f { \&a } }
4599
4600At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current the "a" sub,
4601since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely, the
4602following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by now
4603been created and is live:
4604
4605 sub { my sub a {...} eval 'sub f { \&a }' }->();
4606
4607The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a variable that has
4608gone out of scope, for example,
4609
4610 sub f {
4611 my sub a {...}
4612 sub { eval '\&a' }
4613 }
4614 f()->();
4615
4616Here, when the '\&a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
4617being executed, so its &a is not available for capture.
4618
4eb94d7c
FC
4619=item "%s" subroutine &%s masks earlier declaration in same %s
4620
4621(W misc) A "my" or "state" subroutine has been redeclared in the
4622current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to
4623the previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error.
4624Note that the earlier subroutine will still exist until the end of
20d33786 4625the scope or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
4eb94d7c 4626
a0d0e21e
LW
4627=item Subroutine %s redefined
4628
e476b1b5 4629(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
4630
4631 {
271595cc 4632 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
4633 eval "sub name { ... }";
4634 }
4635
4636=item Substitution loop
4637
be771a83
GS
4638(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
4639shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
4640is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
5d44bfff 4641L<perlop/"Regexp Quote-Like Operators">.
a0d0e21e
LW
4642
4643=item Substitution pattern not terminated
4644
d1be9408 4645(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 4646construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 4647Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
4648
4649=item Substitution replacement not terminated
4650
d1be9408 4651(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 4652construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 4653Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
4654
4655=item substr outside of string
4656
8a9eb13d 4657(W substr)(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
be771a83
GS
4658a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
4659length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
4660substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
4661assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
a0d0e21e 4662
bf1320bf
RGS
4663=item sv_upgrade from type %d down to type %d
4664
9d277376 4665(P) Perl tried to force the upgrade of an SV to a type which was actually
bf1320bf
RGS
4666inferior to its current type.
4667
49704364 4668=item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 4669
fa816bf3
FC
4670(F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most
4671two branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or
4672both to contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose
4673it in clustering parentheses:
b45f050a
JF
4674
4675 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
4676
fa816bf3
FC
4677The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem
4678was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4679
49704364 4680=item Switch condition not recognized in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 4681
39ef1de7 4682(F) If the argument to the (?(...)if-clause|else-clause) construct is
fa816bf3 4683a number, it can be only a number. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
6903afa2 4684expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4685
85ab1d1d
JH
4686=item switching effective %s is not implemented
4687
be771a83
GS
4688(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
4689and effective uids or gids.
85ab1d1d 4690
ae7df085 4691=item %s syntax OK
2f7da168
RK
4692
4693(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
4694
a0d0e21e
LW
4695=item syntax error
4696
4697(F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
4698
4699 A keyword is misspelled.
4700 A semicolon is missing.
4701 A comma is missing.
4702 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
4703 An opening or closing brace is missing.
4704 A closing quote is missing.
4705
4706Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
4707error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
4708The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
4709it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
5f05dabc 4710before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
a0d0e21e
LW
4711Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
4712the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
4713C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
524e9188 4714if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
a0d0e21e 4715
ccf3535a 4716=item syntax error at line %d: '%s' unexpected
cb1a09d0 4717
be771a83
GS
4718(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
4719of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
4720yourself.
cb1a09d0 4721
25f58aea
PN
4722=item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
4723
4724(F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
4725a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
4726or "my $var" or "our $var".
4727
b5fe5ca2
SR
4728=item sysread() on closed filehandle %s
4729
4730(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
4731
4732=item sysread() on unopened filehandle %s
4733
4734(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
4735
6087ac44 4736=item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
a0d0e21e 4737
6087ac44
JH
4738(F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
4739"shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
4740machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
4741unconfigured. Consult your system support.
a0d0e21e 4742
69282e91 4743=item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 4744
be771a83 4745(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4746before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 4747
96ebfdd7
RK
4748=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
4749
4750(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
4751know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
4752
fc36a67e 4753=item Target of goto is too deeply nested
4754
be771a83
GS
4755(F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
4756for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
fc36a67e 4757
abc7ecad
SP
4758=item telldir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4759
4760(W io) The dirhandle you tried to telldir() is either closed or not really
4761a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4762
c2771421
FC
4763=item tell() on unopened filehandle
4764
4765(W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
4766was either never opened or has since been closed.
4767
b82b06b8
FC
4768=item That use of $[ is unsupported
4769
4770(F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted
4771as a compiler directive. You may say only one of
4772
4773 $[ = 0;
4774 $[ = 1;
4775 ...
4776 local $[ = 0;
4777 local $[ = 1;
4778 ...
4779
4780This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out
4781from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[> and L<arybase>.
4782
f86702cc 4783=item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia
a0d0e21e
LW
4784
4785(F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
4786probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
8b1a09fc 4787think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
a0d0e21e
LW
4788will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
4789will deny it.
4790
64fbf0dd 4791=item The lexical_subs feature is experimental
ebd25686 4792
64fbf0dd
FC
4793(S experimental::lexical_subs) This warning is emitted if you
4794declare a sub with C<my> or C<state>. Simply suppress the warning
4795if you want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you
4796are taking the risk of using an experimental feature which may
4797change or be removed in a future Perl version:
ebd25686 4798
f1d34ca8 4799 no warnings "experimental::lexical_subs";
ebd25686 4800 use feature "lexical_subs";
64fbf0dd 4801 my sub foo { ... }
ebd25686 4802
6df41af2
GS
4803=item The %s function is unimplemented
4804
a4a4c9e2 4805(F) The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture, according
6df41af2
GS
4806to the probings of Configure.
4807
5e1c7ca2 4808=item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
a0d0e21e 4809
be771a83
GS
4810(F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
4811linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
4812past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
4813instead.
a0d0e21e 4814
371fce9b
DM
4815=item The 'unique' attribute may only be applied to 'our' variables
4816
1108974d 4817(F) This attribute was never supported on C<my> or C<sub> declarations.
371fce9b 4818
437784d6 4819=item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
f675dbe5
CB
4820
4821=item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
4822
75b44862 4823(W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
be771a83
GS
4824element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
4825wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
4826need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
4827F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
4828target of the change to
f675dbe5
CB
4829%ENV which produced the warning.
4830
6b3c7930
JH
4831=item thread failed to start: %s
4832
4447dfc1 4833(W threads)(S) The entry point function of threads->create() failed for some reason.
6b3c7930 4834
a0d0e21e
LW
4835=item times not implemented
4836
be771a83
GS
4837(F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
4838suspect you're not running on Unix.
a0d0e21e 4839
6d3b25aa
RGS
4840=item "-T" is on the #! line, it must also be used on the command line
4841
b7e4ecc1
FC
4842(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains
4843the B<-T> option (or the B<-t> option), but Perl was not invoked with
4844B<-T> in its command line. This is an error because, by the time
4845Perl discovers a B<-T> in a script, it's too late to properly taint
4846everything from the environment. So Perl gives up.
6d3b25aa
RGS
4847
4848If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
b7e4ecc1
FC
4849mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be
4850fixed by editing the #! line so that the B<-%c> option is a part of
4851Perl's first argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -%c> to C<perl -%c -n>.
6d3b25aa
RGS
4852
4853If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
fe13d51d 4854B<-%c> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -%c scriptname>.
6d3b25aa 4855
3a2263fe
RGS
4856=item To%s: illegal mapping '%s'
4857
4858(F) You tried to define a customized To-mapping for lc(), lcfirst,
4859uc(), or ucfirst() (or their string-inlined versions), but you
4860specified an illegal mapping.
4861See L<perlunicode/"User-Defined Character Properties">.
4862
49704364
WL
4863=item Too deeply nested ()-groups
4864
1a147d38 4865(F) Your template contains ()-groups with a ridiculously deep nesting level.
49704364 4866
a0d0e21e
LW
4867=item Too few args to syscall
4868
4869(F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
4870system call to call, silly dilly.
4871
96ebfdd7
RK
4872=item Too late for "-%s" option
4873
4874(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
4ba71d51
FC
4875B<-M>, B<-m> or B<-C> option.
4876
6903afa2
FC
4877In the case of B<-M> and B<-m>, this is an error because those options
4878are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
4ba71d51 4879
6903afa2
FC
4880The B<-C> option only works if it is specified on the command line as
4881well (with the same sequence of letters or numbers following). Either
4882specify this option on the command line, or, if your system supports
4883it, make your script executable and run it directly instead of passing
4884it to perl.
96ebfdd7 4885
ddda08b7
GS
4886=item Too late to run %s block
4887
4888(W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
4889when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
be771a83
GS
4890loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
4891instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
4892BEGIN block.
ddda08b7 4893
a0d0e21e
LW
4894=item Too many args to syscall
4895
5f05dabc 4896(F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
a0d0e21e
LW
4897
4898=item Too many arguments for %s
4899
4900(F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
4901
6df41af2
GS
4902=item Too many )'s
4903
49704364
WL
4904(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
4905Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
4906
8c40cb74
NC
4907=item Too many ('s
4908
be771a83
GS
4909(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
4910Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 4911
7253e4e3 4912=item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4913
be771a83
GS
4914(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
4915Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 4916
2c268ad5 4917=item Transliteration pattern not terminated
a0d0e21e
LW
4918
4919(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
fb73857a 4920or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
4921C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 4922
2c268ad5 4923=item Transliteration replacement not terminated
a0d0e21e 4924
6a36df5d
YST
4925(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr///, tr[][],
4926y/// or y[][] construct.
a0d0e21e 4927
96ebfdd7
RK
4928=item '%s' trapped by operation mask
4929
4930(F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
6903afa2 4931disallowed. See L<Safe>.
96ebfdd7 4932
a0d0e21e
LW
4933=item truncate not implemented
4934
4935(F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
4936Configure knows about.
4937
19c481f4
FC
4938=item Type of arg %d to &CORE::%s must be %s
4939
4940(F) The subroutine in question in the CORE package requires its argument
4941to be a hard reference to data of the specified type. Overloading is
4942ignored, so a reference to an object that is not the specified type, but
4943nonetheless has overloading to handle it, will still not be accepted.
4944
a0d0e21e
LW
4945=item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
4946
4947(F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
8b1a09fc 4948certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
4949%NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
a0d0e21e
LW
4950{EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
4951
7ac5715b 4952=item Type of argument to %s must be unblessed hashref or arrayref
cba5a3b0 4953
7ac5715b
FC
4954(F) You called C<keys>, C<values> or C<each> with a scalar argument that
4955was not a reference to an unblessed hash or array.
cba5a3b0 4956
eec2d3df
GS
4957=item umask not implemented
4958
be771a83
GS
4959(F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
4960use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
a0d0e21e
LW
4961
4962=item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
4963
c632e777 4964(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 4965many execution contexts were entered and left.
a0d0e21e
LW
4966
4967=item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
4968
4a983e45 4969(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 4970many values were temporarily localized.
a0d0e21e
LW
4971
4972=item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
4973
090cebb2 4974(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 4975many blocks were entered and left.
a0d0e21e 4976
6651ba0b
FC
4977=item Unbalanced string table refcount: (%d) for "%s"
4978
31ff3bd2 4979(S internal) On exit, Perl found some strings remaining in the shared
6651ba0b
FC
4980string table used for copy on write and for hash keys. The entries
4981should have been freed, so this indicates a bug somewhere.
4982
a0d0e21e
LW
4983=item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
4984
2092d7c1 4985(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 4986many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
a0d0e21e
LW
4987
4988=item Undefined format "%s" called
4989
4990(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
4991another package? See L<perlform>.
4992
4993=item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
4994
be771a83
GS
4995(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
4996Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4997
4998=item Undefined subroutine &%s called
4999
be771a83
GS
5000(F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
5001since been undefined.
a0d0e21e
LW
5002
5003=item Undefined subroutine called
5004
5005(F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
5006or if it was, it has since been undefined.
5007
5008=item Undefined subroutine in sort
5009
be771a83
GS
5010(F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
5011to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e 5012
4633a7c4
LW
5013=item Undefined top format "%s" called
5014
5015(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
5016another package? See L<perlform>.
5017
20408e3c
GS
5018=item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
5019
be771a83
GS
5020(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
5021C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
5022C<undef *foo>.
20408e3c 5023
6df41af2
GS
5024=item %s: Undefined variable
5025
be771a83
GS
5026(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
5027Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 5028
2a53d331
KW
5029=item Unescaped left brace in regex is deprecated, passed through
5030
5031(D) You used a literal C<"{"> character in a regular expression pattern.
5032You should change to use C<"\{"> instead, because a future version of
5033Perl (tentatively v5.20) will consider this to be a syntax error. If
5034the pattern delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace
5035(C<"}">) should also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for
5036example,
5037
5038 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
5039
a0d0e21e
LW
5040=item unexec of %s into %s failed!
5041
5042(F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
5043representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
5044
6651ba0b
FC
5045=item Unexpected constant lvalue entersub entry via type/targ %d:%d
5046
5047(P) When compiling a subroutine call in lvalue context, Perl failed an
5048internal consistency check. It encountered a malformed op tree.
5049
0876b9a0
KW
5050=item Unicode non-character U+%X is illegal for open interchange
5051
e2f7b30e 5052(S utf8, nonchar) Certain codepoints, such as U+FFFE and U+FFFF, are
6903afa2
FC
5053defined by the Unicode standard to be non-characters. Those are
5054legal codepoints, but are reserved for internal use; so, applications
5055shouldn't attempt to exchange them. If you know what you are doing
5056you can turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'nonchar';>.
b45f050a 5057
c794c51b
FC
5058=item Unicode surrogate U+%X is illegal in UTF-8
5059
d2bb714f 5060(S utf8, surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
c794c51b
FC
5061not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
5062U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
5063internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
5064available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
5065problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
5066came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 5067off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
c794c51b 5068
a0d0e21e
LW
5069=item Unknown BYTEORDER
5070
be771a83
GS
5071(F) There are no byte-swapping functions for a machine with this byte
5072order.
a0d0e21e 5073
dcfe9e74
KW
5074=item Unknown charname '%s'
5075
5076(F) The name you used inside C<\N{}> is unknown to Perl. Check the
5077spelling. You can say C<use charnames ":loose"> to not have to be
5078so precise about spaces, hyphens, and capitalization on standard Unicode
5079names. (Any custom aliases that have been created must be specified
5080exactly, regardless of whether C<:loose> is used or not.) This error may
5081also happen if the C<\N{}> is not in the scope of the corresponding
5082C<S<use charnames>>.
5083
04177465
FC
5084=item Unknown error
5085
5086(P) Perl was about to print an error message in C<$@>, but the C<$@> variable
5087did not exist, even after an attempt to create it.
5088
6170680b
IZ
5089=item Unknown open() mode '%s'
5090
437784d6 5091(F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
c47ff5f1 5092of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
488dad83 5093C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
6170680b 5094
b4581f09
JH
5095=item Unknown PerlIO layer "%s"
5096
5097(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
5098system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
5099internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
5100are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
5101explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
5102value of the environment variable PERLIO.
5103
f675dbe5
CB
5104=item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
5105
5106(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
5107iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
5108data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
5109subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
a05d7ebb 5110
2f7da168
RK
5111=item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
5112
a4a4c9e2 5113(W) You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
2f7da168 5114
0da72d5e
KW
5115=item Unknown regex modifier "%s"
5116
5117(F) Alphanumerics immediately following the closing delimiter
5118of a regular expression pattern are interpreted by Perl as modifier
5119flags for the regex. One of the ones you specified is invalid. One way
5120this can happen is if you didn't put in white space between the end of
5121the regex and a following alphanumeric operator:
5122
5123 if ($a =~ /foo/and $bar == 3) { ... }
5124
5125The C<"a"> is a valid modifier flag, but the C<"n"> is not, and raises
5126this error. Likely what was meant instead was:
5127
5128 if ($a =~ /foo/ and $bar == 3) { ... }
5129
bcd05b94 5130=item Unknown switch condition (?(%s in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
96ebfdd7
RK
5131
5132(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
6903afa2 5133is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5fecf430 5134
674f6ed9
FC
5135 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
5136 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
5137 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
5138 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
5139 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
5140 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
5141 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
5142 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
5143 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
96ebfdd7
RK
5144
5145The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
5146discovered. See L<perlre>.
5147
a05d7ebb
JH
5148=item Unknown Unicode option letter '%c'
5149
a4a4c9e2 5150(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb
JH
5151of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
5152
5153=item Unknown Unicode option value %x
5154
a4a4c9e2 5155(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb 5156of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
f675dbe5 5157
e2e6a0f1
YO
5158=item Unknown verb pattern '%s' in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5159
5160(F) You either made a typo or have incorrectly put a C<*> quantifier
5161after an open brace in your pattern. Check the pattern and review
5162L<perlre> for details on legal verb patterns.
5163
c2771421
FC
5164=item Unknown warnings category '%s'
5165
6903afa2 5166(F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
c2771421
FC
5167category that is unknown to perl at this point.
5168
14ef4c80
FC
5169Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a
5170module (e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have loaded this
5171module first.
c2771421 5172
aec0ef10 5173=item Unmatched [ in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 5174
6903afa2 5175(F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
be771a83 5176include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
6903afa2
FC
5177first. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
5178problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 5179
aec0ef10
FC
5180=item Unmatched ( in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5181
5182=item Unmatched ) in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
5183
5184(F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
6903afa2
FC
5185expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
5186the matching parenthesis. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
5187about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 5188
d98d5fff 5189=item Unmatched right %s bracket
a0d0e21e 5190
be771a83
GS
5191(F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
5192ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
5193general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
5194you were last editing.
a0d0e21e 5195
a0d0e21e
LW
5196=item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
5197
be771a83
GS
5198(W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
5199reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
5200somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
5201subroutine.
a0d0e21e 5202
b1fc3636 5203=item Unrecognized character %s; marked by <-- HERE after %s near column %d
a0d0e21e 5204
54310121 5205(F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
b1fc3636 5206in your Perl script (or eval) near the specified column. Perhaps you tried
356c7adf 5207to run a compressed script, a binary program, or a directory as a Perl program.
a0d0e21e 5208
4a68bf9d 5209=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class passed through in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 5210
be771a83
GS
5211(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
5212recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
b224edc1 5213understood literally, but this may change in a future version of Perl.
2628b4e0
TS
5214The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
5215escape was discovered.
6df41af2 5216
4a68bf9d 5217=item Unrecognized escape \%c passed through
2f7da168 5218
2628b4e0 5219(W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b224edc1
KW
5220recognized by Perl. The character was understood literally, but this may
5221change in a future version of Perl.
2f7da168 5222
216bfc0a 5223=item Unrecognized escape \%s passed through in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 5224
be771a83 5225(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b7e4ecc1
FC
5226recognized by Perl. The character(s) were understood literally, but
5227this may change in a future version of Perl. The <-- HERE shows in
5228the regular expression about where the escape was discovered.
6df41af2 5229
a0d0e21e
LW
5230=item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
5231
be771a83
GS
5232(F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
5233recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
5234on your system.
a0d0e21e 5235
90248788 5236=item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
a0d0e21e 5237
be771a83
GS
5238(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
5239think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
5240bad switch on your behalf.)
a0d0e21e
LW
5241
5242=item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
5243
be771a83
GS
5244(W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
5245operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
5b3eff12 5246PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
a0d0e21e
LW
5247
5248=item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
5249
5250(F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
5251
6df41af2
GS
5252=item Unsupported function %s
5253
5254(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
5255At least, Configure doesn't think so.
5256
54310121 5257=item Unsupported function fork
5258
5259(F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
5260
be771a83 5261Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
6903afa2 5262of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
be771a83 5263changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
54310121 5264
7aa207d6 5265=item Unsupported script encoding %s
b250498f
GS
5266
5267(F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
7aa207d6 5268declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot read.
b250498f 5269
a0d0e21e
LW
5270=item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
5271
5272(F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
5273least that's what Configure thought.
5274
6df41af2 5275=item Unterminated attribute list
a0d0e21e 5276
be771a83
GS
5277(F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
5278start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
5279block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
5280attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
a0d0e21e 5281
09bef843
SB
5282=item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
5283
be771a83
GS
5284(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
5285an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
09bef843
SB
5286character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
5287character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
5288
f1991046
GS
5289=item Unterminated compressed integer
5290
5291(F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
5292compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
5293See L<perlfunc/pack>.
5294
6f2d7fc9
FC
5295=item Unterminated delimiter for here document
5296
5297(F) This message occurs when a here document label has an initial
5298quotation mark but the final quotation mark is missing. Perhaps
5299you wrote:
5300
5301 <<"foo
5302
5303instead of:
5304
5305 <<"foo"
5306
2bf803e2
YO
5307=item Unterminated \g{...} pattern in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5308
5309(F) You missed a close brace on a \g{..} pattern (group reference) in
fa816bf3 5310a regular expression. Fix the pattern and retry.
e2e6a0f1 5311
6df41af2 5312=item Unterminated <> operator
09bef843 5313
6df41af2 5314(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
5315a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
5316not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
5317earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
09bef843 5318
905fe053
FC
5319=item Unterminated verb pattern argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5320
5321(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB:ARG)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 5322the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053
FC
5323
5324=item Unterminated verb pattern in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5325
5326(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 5327the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 5328
6df41af2 5329=item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
a0d0e21e 5330
be771a83
GS
5331(W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
5332still valid when C<untie> was called.
a0d0e21e 5333
8e11cd2b
JC
5334=item Usage: POSIX::%s(%s)
5335
5336(F) You called a POSIX function with incorrect arguments.
5337See L<POSIX/FUNCTIONS> for more information.
5338
5339=item Usage: Win32::%s(%s)
5340
5341(F) You called a Win32 function with incorrect arguments.
5342See L<Win32> for more information.
5343
89474f50
FC
5344=item $[ used in %s (did you mean $] ?)
5345
5346(W syntax) You used C<$[> in a comparison, such as:
5347
5348 if ($[ > 5.006) {
5349 ...
5350 }
5351
5352You probably meant to use C<$]> instead. C<$[> is the base for indexing
5353arrays. C<$]> is the Perl version number in decimal.
5354
8fe85e3f
FC
5355=item Useless assignment to a temporary
5356
5357(W misc) You assigned to an lvalue subroutine, but what
5358the subroutine returned was a temporary scalar about to
5359be discarded, so the assignment had no effect.
5360
96ebfdd7 5361=item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 5362
96ebfdd7
RK
5363(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
5364meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 5365
96ebfdd7 5366 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
5367
5368must be written as
5369
96ebfdd7 5370 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
5371
5372The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
6903afa2 5373where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 5374
b4581f09
JH
5375=item Useless localization of %s
5376
6903afa2
FC
5377(W syntax) The localization of lvalues such as C<local($x=10)> is legal,
5378but in fact the local() currently has no effect. This may change at
b4581f09
JH
5379some point in the future, but in the meantime such code is discouraged.
5380
96ebfdd7 5381=item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 5382
96ebfdd7
RK
5383(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
5384meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 5385
96ebfdd7 5386 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
5387
5388must be written as
5389
96ebfdd7 5390 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
5391
5392The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
6903afa2 5393where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 5394
b08e453b
RB
5395=item Useless use of /d modifier in transliteration operator
5396
5397(W misc) You have used the /d modifier where the searchlist has the
6903afa2 5398same length as the replacelist. See L<perlop> for more information
b08e453b
RB
5399about the /d modifier.
5400
820438b1
FC
5401=item Useless use of \E
5402
5403(W misc) You have a \E in a double-quotish string without a C<\U>,
5404C<\L> or C<\Q> preceding it.
5405
6df41af2 5406=item Useless use of %s in void context
a0d0e21e 5407
75b44862 5408(W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
be771a83
GS
5409nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
5410value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
5411often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
5412to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
5413get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
5414said
a0d0e21e 5415
6df41af2 5416 $one, $two = 1, 2;
748a9306 5417
6df41af2
GS
5418when you meant to say
5419
5420 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
5421
5422Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
5423reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
5424example, if you say
5425
5426 $array = (1,2);
5427
5428when you should have said
5429
5430 $array = [1,2];
5431
5432The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
5433while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
5434a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
5435throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
5436L<perlref> for more on this.
5437
65191a1e
BS
5438This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
5439since they are often used in statements like
5440
4358a253 5441 1 while sub_with_side_effects();
65191a1e
BS
5442
5443String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
5444about.
5445
6df41af2
GS
5446=item Useless use of "re" pragma
5447
6903afa2 5448(W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
6df41af2 5449
a801c63c
RGS
5450=item Useless use of sort in scalar context
5451
5452(W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
5453
5454 my $x = sort @y;
5455
5456This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
5457
de4864e4
JH
5458=item Useless use of %s with no values
5459
f87c3213 5460(W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
6903afa2
FC
5461apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
5462usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
de4864e4 5463possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
6903afa2 5464if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
de4864e4
JH
5465you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
5466
6df41af2
GS
5467=item "use" not allowed in expression
5468
be771a83
GS
5469(F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
5470returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
748a9306 5471
36b2db7e
FC
5472=item Use of assignment to $[ is deprecated
5473
5474(D deprecated) The C<$[> variable (index of the first element in an array)
6903afa2 5475is deprecated. See L<perlvar/"$[">.
36b2db7e 5476
c47ff5f1 5477=item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is deprecated
4633a7c4 5478
8ab8f082 5479(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted
83ce3e12
RGS
5480form if you wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
5481
5482=item Use of comma-less variable list is deprecated
5483
8ab8f082 5484(D deprecated) The values you give to a format should be
83ce3e12 5485separated by commas, not just aligned on a line.
4633a7c4 5486
96ebfdd7
RK
5487=item Use of chdir('') or chdir(undef) as chdir() deprecated
5488
5489(D deprecated) chdir() with no arguments is documented to change to
5490$ENV{HOME} or $ENV{LOGDIR}. chdir(undef) and chdir('') share this
5491behavior, but that has been deprecated. In future versions they
5492will simply fail.
5493
5494Be careful to check that what you pass to chdir() is defined and not
5495blank, else you might find yourself in your home directory.
5496
64e578a2
MJD
5497=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
5498
5499(W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
5500modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
5501
4ac733c9
MJD
5502=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
5503
5504(W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
5505use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
5506used. (This may change in the future.)
5507
2dc78664 5508=item Use of := for an empty attribute list is not allowed
036e1e65 5509
2dc78664
NC
5510(F) The construction C<my $x := 42> used to parse as equivalent to
5511C<my $x : = 42> (applying an empty attribute list to C<$x>).
5512This construct was deprecated in 5.12.0, and has now been made a syntax
5513error, so C<:=> can be reclaimed as a new operator in the future.
5514
5515If you need an empty attribute list, for example in a code generator, add
5516a space before the C<=>.
036e1e65 5517
b6c83531 5518=item Use of freed value in iteration
2f7da168 5519
b6c83531
JH
5520(F) Perhaps you modified the iterated array within the loop?
5521This error is typically caused by code like the following:
2f7da168
RK
5522
5523 @a = (3,4);
5524 @a = () for (1,2,@a);
5525
5526You are not supposed to modify arrays while they are being iterated over.
5527For speed and efficiency reasons, Perl internally does not do full
5528reference-counting of iterated items, hence deleting such an item in the
5529middle of an iteration causes Perl to see a freed value.
5530
39b99f21 5531=item Use of *glob{FILEHANDLE} is deprecated
5532
5533(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the shorter *glob{IO} form
5534to access the filehandle slot within a typeglob.
5535
96ebfdd7 5536=item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
35ae6b54 5537
96ebfdd7
RK
5538(W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
5539operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
5540repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
35ae6b54 5541
0b98bec9
RGS
5542=item Use of "goto" to jump into a construct is deprecated
5543
5544(D deprecated) Using C<goto> to jump from an outer scope into an inner
5545scope is deprecated and should be avoided.
5546
dc848c6f 5547=item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
5548
1da25648
FC
5549(D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD>
5550subroutines are looked up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy)
5551even when the subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain
5552functions (e.g. C<Foo::bar()>), not as methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or
5553C<< $obj->bar() >>).
dc848c6f 5554
be771a83
GS
5555This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup only for
5556methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base of existing
5557code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl
5558currently issues an optional warning when non-methods use inherited
5559C<AUTOLOAD>s.
dc848c6f 5560
5561The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
be771a83
GS
5562non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used
5563to depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class
5564named C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during
5565startup.
dc848c6f 5566
be771a83
GS
5567In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);>
5568you should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
7b8d334a 5569C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
fb73857a 5570
6df41af2
GS
5571=item Use of %s in printf format not supported
5572
5573(F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
5574only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
5575
6df41af2
GS
5576=item Use of %s is deprecated
5577
75b44862 5578(D deprecated) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use,
be771a83
GS
5579generally because there's a better way to do it, and also because the
5580old way has bad side effects.
6df41af2 5581
5a7abfcc
FC
5582=item Use of -l on filehandle %s
5583
5584(W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
5585it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
5586The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
5587
7c7df812
FC
5588=item Use of %s on a handle without * is deprecated
5589
22d6fc57 5590(D deprecated) You used C<tie>, C<tied> or C<untie> on a scalar but that scalar
fa816bf3 5591happens to hold a typeglob, which means its filehandle will be tied. If
22d6fc57
FC
5592you mean to tie a handle, use an explicit * as in C<tie *$handle>.
5593
5594This was a long-standing bug that was removed in Perl 5.16, as there was
5595no way to tie the scalar itself when it held a typeglob, and no way to
5596untie a scalar that had had a typeglob assigned to it. If you see this
5597message, you must be using an older version.
7c7df812 5598
905fe053
FC
5599=item Use of ?PATTERN? without explicit operator is deprecated
5600
5601(D deprecated) You have written something like C<?\w?>, for a regular
5602expression that matches only once. Starting this term directly with
5603the question mark delimiter is now deprecated, so that the question mark
5604will be available for use in new operators in the future. Write C<m?\w?>
5605instead, explicitly using the C<m> operator: the question mark delimiter
5606still invokes match-once behaviour.
5607
1f1cc344 5608=item Use of reference "%s" as array index
d804643f 5609
77b96956 5610(W misc) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
1f1cc344
JH
5611isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
5612to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
d804643f 5613
64977eb6 5614If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
1f1cc344 5615C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
54e0f05c 5616however, because you can overload the numification and stringification
c69ca1d4 5617operators and then you presumably know what you are doing.
d804643f 5618
bbd7eb8a
RD
5619=item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
5620
159f47d9 5621(W taint, deprecated) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
bbd7eb8a
RD
5622arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
5623but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
5624arguments. See L<perlsec>.
5625
cc95b072 5626=item Use of uninitialized value%s
a0d0e21e 5627
be771a83
GS
5628(W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
5629defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
5630To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
a0d0e21e 5631
6903afa2
FC
5632To help you figure out what was undefined, perl will try to tell you
5633the name of the variable (if any) that was undefined. In some cases
5634it cannot do this, so it also tells you what operation you used the
5635undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your program
5636anid the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily appear
5637literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is usually
5638optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to the
5639C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in
5640your program.
e5be4a53 5641
a1063b2d
RH
5642=item Using a hash as a reference is deprecated
5643
496a33f5 5644(D deprecated) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
1b1f1335 5645C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1
6903afa2
FC
5646used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now
5647deprecated, and will be removed in a future version.
a1063b2d
RH
5648
5649=item Using an array as a reference is deprecated
5650
496a33f5 5651(D deprecated) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
1b1f1335 5652C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1 used to
6903afa2
FC
5653allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated,
5654and will be removed in a future version.
a1063b2d 5655
ff3f963a
KW
5656=item Using just the first character returned by \N{} in character class
5657
5658(W) A charnames handler may return a sequence of more than one character.
5659Currently all but the first one are discarded when used in a regular
5660expression pattern bracketed character class.
5661
c794c51b
FC
5662=item Using !~ with %s doesn't make sense
5663
5664(F) Using the C<!~> operator with C<s///r>, C<tr///r> or C<y///r> is
5665currently reserved for future use, as the exact behaviour has not
6903afa2 5666been decided. (Simply returning the boolean opposite of the
c794c51b 5667modified string is usually not particularly useful.)
0876b9a0 5668
949cf498
KW
5669=item UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
5670
968342a3 5671(S utf8, surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
949cf498
KW
5672not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
5673U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
5674internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
5675available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
5676problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
5677came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 5678off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9466bab6 5679
68dc0745 5680=item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
a6006777 5681
75b44862 5682(W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
be771a83
GS
5683C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
5684can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
5685false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
5686constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
5687C<defined> operator.
a6006777 5688
f675dbe5
CB
5689=item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
5690
be771a83
GS
5691(W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
5692%ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
5693longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
56941024 characters.
f675dbe5 5695
b5c19bd7 5696=item Variable "%s" is not available
44a8e56a 5697
b5c19bd7
DM
5698(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
5699attempting to capture an outer lexical that is not currently available.
6903afa2 5700This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the outer lexical may be
b5c19bd7
DM
5701declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has not yet been created.
5702(Remember that named subs are created at compile time, while anonymous
6903afa2 5703subs are created at run-time.) For example,
44a8e56a 5704
b5c19bd7 5705 sub { my $a; sub f { $a } }
44a8e56a 5706
b5c19bd7 5707At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current value of $a,
6903afa2 5708since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely,
b5c19bd7
DM
5709the following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by
5710now been created and is live:
be771a83 5711
b5c19bd7
DM
5712 sub { my $a; eval 'sub f { $a }' }->();
5713
5714The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a variable that has
5715gone out of scope, for example,
5716
5717 sub f {
5718 my $a;
5719 sub { eval '$a' }
5720 }
5721 f()->();
5722
5723Here, when the '$a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently being
5724executed, so its $a is not available for capture.
44a8e56a 5725
b4581f09
JH
5726=item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
5727
120b0f81 5728(S misc) With "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable
413ff9f6 5729that you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
b4581f09
JH
5730something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
5731that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
5732front of your variable.
5733
aec0ef10 5734=item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex m/%s/
b4581f09
JH
5735
5736(F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
58e23c8d 5737known at compile time. See L<perlre>.
b4581f09
JH
5738
5739=item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
5740
b9cc85ad
FC
5741(W misc) A "my", "our" or "state" variable has been redeclared in the
5742current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the
5743previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note
5744that the earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope
20d33786 5745or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
b4581f09 5746
6df41af2
GS
5747=item Variable syntax
5748
5749(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
5750of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
5751Perl yourself.
5752
44a8e56a 5753=item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
5754
be771a83 5755(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
b5c19bd7 5756lexical variable defined in an outer named subroutine.
44a8e56a 5757
b5c19bd7 5758When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of
be771a83
GS
5759the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
5760call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
5761outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
5762longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
5763variable will no longer be shared.
44a8e56a 5764
44a8e56a 5765This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
5766anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
b5c19bd7 5767reference variables in outer subroutines are created, they
be771a83 5768are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
44a8e56a 5769
6651ba0b
FC
5770=item vector argument not supported with alpha versions
5771
8b6051f1 5772(S printf) The %vd (s)printf format does not support version objects
6651ba0b
FC
5773with alpha parts.
5774
e2e6a0f1
YO
5775=item Verb pattern '%s' has a mandatory argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5776
6903afa2
FC
5777(F) You used a verb pattern that requires an argument. Supply an
5778argument or check that you are using the right verb.
e2e6a0f1
YO
5779
5780=item Verb pattern '%s' may not have an argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5781
6903afa2 5782(F) You used a verb pattern that is not allowed an argument. Remove the
e2e6a0f1
YO
5783argument or check that you are using the right verb.
5784
084610c0
GS
5785=item Version number must be a constant number
5786
5787(P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
5788its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
5789the version number.
5790
808ee47e
SP
5791=item Version string '%s' contains invalid data; ignoring: '%s'
5792
32e998fd
RGS
5793(W misc) The version string contains invalid characters at the end, which
5794are being ignored.
808ee47e 5795
7e1af8bc 5796=item Warning: something's wrong
5f05dabc 5797
5798(W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
ec8bb14c 5799you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 5800
f86702cc 5801=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
a0d0e21e 5802
be771a83
GS
5803(S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
5804the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
5805space.
a0d0e21e 5806
5f05dabc 5807=item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
a0d0e21e 5808
be771a83
GS
5809(S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
5810looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
5811term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
5812function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
a0d0e21e
LW
5813
5814 rand + 5;
5815
5816you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
5817
5818 rand() + 5;
5819
5820but in actual fact, you got
5821
5822 rand(+5);
5823
5f05dabc 5824So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
a0d0e21e 5825
4b3603a4
JH
5826=item Wide character in %s
5827
c8f79457 5828(S utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting
cd28123a
JH
5829one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print). The easiest
5830way to quiet this warning is simply to add the C<:utf8> layer to the
5831output, e.g. C<binmode STDOUT, ':utf8'>. Another way to turn off the
5832warning is to add C<no warnings 'utf8';> but that is often closer to
5833cheating. In general, you are supposed to explicitly mark the
5834filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
4b3603a4 5835
49704364
WL
5836=item Within []-length '%c' not allowed
5837
fa816bf3
FC
5838(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]>
5839only if C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes that
5840can be determined from the template alone. This is not possible if
5841it contains any of the codes @, /, U, u, w or a *-length. Redesign
5842the template.
49704364 5843
9a7dcd9c 5844=item write() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 5845
be771a83 5846(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5847before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5848
9ae3ac1a 5849=item %s "\x%X" does not map to Unicode
b4581f09 5850
a4a4c9e2 5851(F) When reading in different encodings Perl tries to map everything
b4581f09
JH
5852into Unicode characters. The bytes you read in are not legal in
5853this encoding, for example
5854
5855 utf8 "\xE4" does not map to Unicode
5856
5857if you try to read in the a-diaereses Latin-1 as UTF-8.
5858
49704364 5859=item 'X' outside of string
a0d0e21e 5860
49704364
WL
5861(F) You had a (un)pack template that specified a relative position before
5862the beginning of the string being (un)packed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
a0d0e21e 5863
49704364 5864=item 'x' outside of string in unpack
a0d0e21e
LW
5865
5866(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
5867the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
5868
a0d0e21e
LW
5869=item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
5870
5f05dabc 5871(F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
a0d0e21e 5872sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
1b1f1335 5873about what you want. Your best bet is to put a setuid C wrapper around
496a33f5 5874your script.
a0d0e21e
LW
5875
5876=item You need to quote "%s"
5877
be771a83
GS
5878(W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
5879Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
5880which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
5881assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
5882what you want, put an & in front.)
a0d0e21e 5883
6cfd5ea7
JH
5884=item Your random numbers are not that random
5885
5886(F) When trying to initialise the random seed for hashes, Perl could
5887not get any randomness out of your system. This usually indicates
5888Something Very Wrong.
5889
a0d0e21e
LW
5890=back
5891
00eb3f2b
RGS
5892=head1 SEE ALSO
5893
ed3f9c4f 5894L<warnings>, L<perllexwarn>, L<diagnostics>.
00eb3f2b 5895
56e90b21 5896=cut