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1=head1 NAME
2
3perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
4
5=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
8desperation):
9
10 (W) A warning (optional).
d1d15184 11 (D) A deprecation (enabled by default).
00eb3f2b 12 (S) A severe warning (enabled by default).
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13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
54310121 15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
cb1a09d0 16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
a0d0e21e 17
75b44862 18The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
64977eb6 19(W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
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20
21If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
22category is included with the classification letter in the description
466416ed 23below. E.g. C<(W closed)> means a warning in the C<closed> category.
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24
25Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
fa816bf3 26and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
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27to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
28of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
29
b7eceb5b 30Severe warnings are always enabled, unless they are explicitly disabled
e476b1b5 31with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
4438c4b7 32
748a9306 33Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
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34L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
36See L<warnings>.
a0d0e21e 37
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38The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
39lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
40denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
41ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
42letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
43letter.
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44
45=over 4
46
6df41af2 47=item accept() on closed socket %s
33633739 48
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49(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
50to check the return value of your socket() call? See
51L<perlfunc/accept>.
33633739 52
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53=item Aliasing via reference is experimental
54
55(S experimental::refaliasing) This warning is emitted if you use
56a reference constructor on the left-hand side of an assignment to
57alias one variable to another. Simply suppress the warning if you
58want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you are taking
59the risk of using an experimental feature which may change or be
60removed in a future Perl version:
61
62 no warnings "experimental::refaliasing";
63 use feature "refaliasing";
64 \$x = \$y;
65
de42a5a9 66=item Allocation too large: %x
a0d0e21e 67
6df41af2 68(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
a0d0e21e 69
04f74579 70=item '%c' allowed only after types %s in %s
ef54e1a4 71
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72(F) The modifiers '!', '<' and '>' are allowed in pack() or unpack() only
73after certain types. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
ef54e1a4 74
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75=item alpha->numify() is lossy
76
77(W numeric) An alpha version can not be numified without losing
78information.
79
6df41af2 80=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
43192e07 81
75b44862 82(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
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83keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
84one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
85subroutine is not imported.
43192e07 86
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87To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
88before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
89Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
90imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
43192e07 91
6df41af2 92To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
496a33f5 93on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
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94to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
95L<attributes>).
43192e07 96
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97=item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
98
99(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
100all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
101first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
102C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
103
6df41af2 104=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
43192e07 105
7c7af292 106(S ambiguous) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
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107you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
108a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
a0d0e21e 109
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110=item Ambiguous use of -%s resolved as -&%s()
111
112(S ambiguous) You wrote something like C<-foo>, which might be the
113string C<"-foo">, or a call to the function C<foo>, negated. If you meant
114the string, just write C<"-foo">. If you meant the function call,
115write C<-foo()>.
116
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117=item Ambiguous use of %c resolved as operator %c
118
7c7af292 119(S ambiguous) C<%>, C<&>, and C<*> are both infix operators (modulus,
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120bitwise and, and multiplication) I<and> initial special characters
121(denoting hashes, subroutines and typeglobs), and you said something
122like C<*foo * foo> that might be interpreted as either of them. We
123assumed you meant the infix operator, but please try to make it more
124clear -- in the example given, you might write C<*foo * foo()> if you
125really meant to multiply a glob by the result of calling a function.
d8225693 126
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127=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s} resolved to %c%s
128
129(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<@{foo}>, which might be
130asking for the variable C<@foo>, or it might be calling a function
131named foo, and dereferencing it as an array reference. If you wanted
1cecf2c0 132the variable, you can just write C<@foo>. If you wanted to call the
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133function, write C<@{foo()}> ... or you could just not have a variable
134and a function with the same name, and save yourself a lot of trouble.
135
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136=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s[...]} resolved to %c%s[...]
137
138=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s{...}} resolved to %c%s{...}
4da60377 139
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140(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<${foo[2]}> (where foo represents
141the name of a Perl keyword), which might be looking for element number
1422 of the array named C<@foo>, in which case please write C<$foo[2]>, or you
143might have meant to pass an anonymous arrayref to the function named
144foo, and then do a scalar deref on the value it returns. If you meant
145that, write C<${foo([2])}>.
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146
147In regular expressions, the C<${foo[2]}> syntax is sometimes necessary
148to disambiguate between array subscripts and character classes.
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149C</$length[2345]/>, for instance, will be interpreted as C<$length> followed
150by the character class C<[2345]>. If an array subscript is what you
151want, you can avoid the warning by changing C</${length[2345]}/> to the
152unsightly C</${\$length[2345]}/>, by renaming your array to something
153that does not coincide with a built-in keyword, or by simply turning
154off warnings with C<no warnings 'ambiguous';>.
4da60377 155
6df41af2 156=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
a0d0e21e 157
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158(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
159redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
160redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
c9f97d15 161
6df41af2 162=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
1028017a 163
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164(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
165redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
166into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
167though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
168which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
1028017a 169
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170 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
171 while (<STDIN>) {
172 print;
173 print OUT;
174 }
175 close OUT;
c9f97d15 176
6df41af2 177=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
eb6e2d6f 178
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179(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
180transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
be771a83 181one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
ac036724 182a scalar value (the length of an array, or the population info of a
183hash) and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
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184you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
185alternatives.
eb6e2d6f 186
6df41af2 187=item Arg too short for msgsnd
76cd736e 188
6df41af2 189(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
76cd736e 190
f86702cc 191=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 192
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193(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
194that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
195will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
a0d0e21e 196
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197Note that for the C<Inf> and C<NaN> (infinity and not-a-number) the
198definition of "numeric" is somewhat unusual: the strings themselves
199(like "Inf") are considered numeric, and anything following them is
200considered non-numeric.
201
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202=item Argument list not closed for PerlIO layer "%s"
203
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204(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O
205system you forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers
206take care of transforming data between external and internal
207representations.) Perl stopped parsing the layer list at this
208point and did not attempt to push this layer. If your program
209didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the
210result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
b4581f09 211
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212=item Argument "%s" treated as 0 in increment (++)
213
214(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to the C<++>
215operator which expects either a number or a string matching
216C</^[a-zA-Z]*[0-9]*\z/>. See L<perlop/Auto-increment and
217Auto-decrement> for details.
218
637494ac 219=item Array passed to stat will be coerced to a scalar%s
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220
221(W syntax) You called stat() on an array, but the array will be
222coerced to a scalar - the number of elements in the array.
223
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224=item A signature parameter must start with '$', '@' or '%'
225
226(F) Each subroutine signature parameter declaration must start with a valid
227sigil; for example:
228
229 sub foo ($a, $, $b = 1, @c) {}
230
231=item A slurpy parameter may not have a default value
232
233(F) Only scalar subroutine signature parameters may have a default value;
234for example:
235
236 sub foo ($a = 1) {} # legal
237 sub foo (@a = (1)) {} # invalid
238 sub foo (%a = (a => b)) {} # invalid
239
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240=item assertion botched: %s
241
21b5e840 242(X) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
a0d0e21e 243
0eacef8e 244=item Assertion %s failed: file "%s", line %d
a0d0e21e 245
21b5e840 246(X) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
a0d0e21e 247
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248=item Assigned value is not a reference
249
250(F) You tried to assign something that was not a reference to an lvalue
251reference (e.g., C<\$x = $y>). If you meant to make $x an alias to $y, use
252C<\$x = \$y>.
253
254=item Assigned value is not %s reference
255
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256(F) You tried to assign a reference to a reference constructor, but the
257two references were not of the same type. You cannot alias a scalar to
258an array, or an array to a hash; the two types must match.
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259
260 \$x = \@y; # error
261 \@x = \%y; # error
262 $y = [];
263 \$x = $y; # error; did you mean \$y?
264
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265=item Assigning non-zero to $[ is no longer possible
266
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267(F) When the "array_base" feature is disabled
268(e.g., and under C<use v5.16;>, and as of Perl 5.30)
7d345e3d 269the special variable C<$[>, which is deprecated, is now a fixed zero value.
82122228 270
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271=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
272
273(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
274must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
275know which context to supply to the right side.
276
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277=item Assuming NOT a POSIX class since %s in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
278
279(W regexp) You had something like these:
280
281 [[:alnum]]
282 [[:digit:xyz]
283
284They look like they might have been meant to be the POSIX classes
285C<[:alnum:]> or C<[:digit:]>. If so, they should be written:
286
287 [[:alnum:]]
288 [[:digit:]xyz]
289
290Since these aren't legal POSIX class specifications, but are legal
291bracketed character classes, Perl treats them as the latter. In the
292first example, it matches the characters C<":">, C<"[">, C<"a">, C<"l">,
293C<"m">, C<"n">, and C<"u">.
294
295If these weren't meant to be POSIX classes, this warning message is
296spurious, and can be suppressed by reordering things, such as
297
298 [[al:num]]
299
300or
301
302 [[:munla]]
303
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304=item <> at require-statement should be quotes
305
306(F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
307C<require 'file'>.
308
2393f1b9 309=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
1b1f1335 310
49293501 311(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
2393f1b9 312the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
49293501 313
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314=item Attempt to bless into a freed package
315
316(F) You wrote C<bless $foo> with one argument after somehow causing
317the current package to be freed. Perl cannot figure out what to
0c5a5b27 318do, so it throws up its hands in despair.
dcdfe746 319
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320=item Attempt to bless into a reference
321
322(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
57dedab9 323the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
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324supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
325
326 bless $self, $proto;
327
328when you intended
329
330 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
331
332If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
333of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
334example by:
335
336 bless $self, "$proto";
337
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338=item Attempt to clear deleted array
339
340(S debugging) An array was assigned to when it was being freed.
341Freed values are not supposed to be visible to Perl code. This
342can also happen if XS code calls C<av_clear> from a custom magic
343callback on the array.
344
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345=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
346
347(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
348which is not in its key set.
349
350=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
351
352(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
353declared readonly from a restricted hash.
354
de42a5a9 355=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%x
a0d0e21e 356
f84fe999 357(S internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
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358that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
359outside any of those arenas.
a0d0e21e 360
12578ffb 361=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string '%s'%s
bbce6d69 362
f84fe999 363(S internal) Perl maintains a reference-counted internal table of
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364strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
365strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
366of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
bbce6d69 367
7d5b40b4 368=item Attempt to free temp prematurely: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 369
f84fe999 370(S debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
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371free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
372SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
373free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
374try to free it.
a0d0e21e
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375
376=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
377
f84fe999 378(S internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
a0d0e21e 379
7d5b40b4 380=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 381
8f7e4d2c 382(S internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
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383see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
384earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
385This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
386that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
387mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
388corrupted.
a0d0e21e 389
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390=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
391
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392(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
393function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
394means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
395invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
396literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
397avoid this warning.
84902520 398
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399=item Attempt to reload %s aborted.
400
401(F) You tried to load a file with C<use> or C<require> that failed to
402compile once already. Perl will not try to compile this file again
403unless you delete its entry from %INC. See L<perlfunc/require> and
404L<perlvar/%INC>.
405
1b20cd17
NC
406=item Attempt to set length of freed array
407
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FC
408(W misc) You tried to set the length of an array which has
409been freed. You can do this by storing a reference to the
410scalar representing the last index of an array and later
411assigning through that reference. For example
1b20cd17
NC
412
413 $r = do {my @a; \$#a};
414 $$r = 503
415
b7a902f4 416=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
417
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418(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
419used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
420dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 421
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422=item Attribute prototype(%s) discards earlier prototype attribute in same sub
423
424(W misc) A sub was declared as sub foo : prototype(A) : prototype(B) {}, for
425example. Since each sub can only have one prototype, the earlier
426declaration(s) are discarded while the last one is applied.
427
ccce04a4
FC
428=item av_reify called on tied array
429
430(S debugging) This indicates that something went wrong and Perl got I<very>
431confused about C<@_> or C<@DB::args> being tied.
432
de42a5a9 433=item Bad arg length for %s, is %u, should be %d
a0d0e21e 434
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435(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
436or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 437S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
a0d0e21e
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438S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
439
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440=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
441
496a33f5 442(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
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443substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
444most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
445
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446=item Bad filehandle: %s
447
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448(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
449symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
450open(), or did it in another package.
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451
452=item Bad free() ignored
453
be771a83 454(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
fa816bf3 455been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 456setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 457
9ea8bc6d 458This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
6903afa2 459dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
be771a83 460which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 461
aa689395 462=item Bad hash
463
464(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
465
6df41af2
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466=item Badly placed ()'s
467
468(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
469of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
470Perl yourself.
471
a7cb8dae 472=item Bad name after %s
a0d0e21e 473
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474(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
475didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
476of quotes, so
a0d0e21e
LW
477
478 $var = 'myvar';
479 $sym = mypack::$var;
480
481is not the same as
482
483 $var = 'myvar';
484 $sym = "mypack::$var";
485
88e1f1a2
JV
486=item Bad plugin affecting keyword '%s'
487
488(F) An extension using the keyword plugin mechanism violated the
489plugin API.
490
4ad56ec9
IZ
491=item Bad realloc() ignored
492
6903afa2
FC
493(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that
494had never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can
495be disabled by setting the environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 496
a0d0e21e
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497=item Bad symbol for array
498
499(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
500wasn't a symbol table entry.
501
4df3f177
SP
502=item Bad symbol for dirhandle
503
504(P) An internal request asked to add a dirhandle entry to something
505that wasn't a symbol table entry.
506
a0d0e21e
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507=item Bad symbol for filehandle
508
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509(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
510that wasn't a symbol table entry.
a0d0e21e
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511
512=item Bad symbol for hash
513
514(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
515wasn't a symbol table entry.
516
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FC
517=item Bad symbol for scalar
518
519(P) An internal request asked to add a scalar entry to something that
520wasn't a symbol table entry.
521
34d09196
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522=item Bareword found in conditional
523
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524(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
525conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
526of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
34d09196
GS
527
528 open FOO || die;
529
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530It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
531a bareword:
34d09196
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532
533 use constant TYPO => 1;
534 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
535
536The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
537
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NC
538=item Bareword in require contains "%s"
539
a52f2cce
NC
540=item Bareword in require maps to disallowed filename "%s"
541
09eb1f39 542=item Bareword in require maps to empty filename
5bad2b39 543
a52f2cce 544(F) The bareword form of require has been invoked with a filename which could
d4e5761f 545not have been generated by a valid bareword permitted by the parser. You
a52f2cce
NC
546shouldn't be able to get this error from Perl code, but XS code may throw it
547if it passes an invalid module name to C<Perl_load_module>.
548
5bad2b39
DM
549=item Bareword in require must not start with a double-colon: "%s"
550
551(F) In C<require Bare::Word>, the bareword is not allowed to start with a
d4e5761f 552double-colon. Write C<require ::Foo::Bar> as C<require Foo::Bar> instead.
5bad2b39 553
6df41af2
GS
554=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
555
556(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
be771a83
GS
557subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
558symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
6df41af2
GS
559
560=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
561
be771a83
GS
562(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
563compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
564you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 565
a0d0e21e
LW
566=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
567
be771a83
GS
568(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
569subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
570exited.
a0d0e21e 571
68dc0745 572=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
573
574(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
be771a83
GS
575implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
576occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
577be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
578depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 579
c782d7ee 580=item \%d better written as $%d
6df41af2 581
be771a83
GS
582(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
583The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
584substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
585because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
586there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 587
252aa082
JH
588=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
589
e476b1b5 590(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
591(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
592L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 593
69282e91 594=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 595
be771a83
GS
596(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
597check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 598
c289d2f7
JH
599=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
600
601(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
4dcecea4 602Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 603
c5a0f51a
JH
604=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
605
e476b1b5 606(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 607
043c750c 608=item Bizarre copy of %s
4633a7c4 609
be771a83 610(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
ab830aa0 611copiable.
4633a7c4 612
5a25739d
FC
613=item Bizarre SvTYPE [%d]
614
434f489b 615(P) When starting a new thread or returning values from a thread, Perl
5a25739d
FC
616encountered an invalid data type.
617
b927b7e9 618=item Both or neither range ends should be Unicode in regex; marked by
6e8a73f2 619S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b927b7e9
KW
620
621(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
622
623In a bracketed character class in a regular expression pattern, you
624had a range which has exactly one end of it specified using C<\N{}>, and
625the other end is specified using a non-portable mechanism. Perl treats
626the range as a Unicode range, that is, all the characters in it are
627considered to be the Unicode characters, and which may be different code
628points on some platforms Perl runs on. For example, C<[\N{U+06}-\x08]>
629is treated as if you had instead said C<[\N{U+06}-\N{U+08}]>, that is it
630matches the characters whose code points in Unicode are 6, 7, and 8.
631But that C<\x08> might indicate that you meant something different, so
632the warning gets raised.
633
f675dbe5
CB
634=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
635
be771a83
GS
636(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
637iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
638which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 639
a0d0e21e
LW
640=item Callback called exit
641
4929bf7b 642(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
a0d0e21e
LW
643exited by calling exit.
644
6df41af2 645=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 646
be771a83
GS
647(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
648parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
649that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
650early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
651subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
652checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
653function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
654the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 655
0c7df902
JH
656=item Cannot chr %f
657
658(F) You passed an invalid number (like an infinity or not-a-number) to C<chr>.
659
1b4d0d79
TC
660=item Cannot complete in-place edit of %s: %s
661
662(F) Your perl script appears to have changed directory while
663performing an in-place edit of a file specified by a relative path,
664and your system doesn't include the directory relative POSIX functions
665needed to handle that.
666
5dee29d4 667=item Cannot compress %f in pack
0c7df902 668
5dee29d4
JH
669(F) You tried compressing an infinity or not-a-number as an unsigned
670integer with BER, which makes no sense.
0c7df902 671
49704364 672=item Cannot compress integer in pack
0258719b 673
717feafc
JH
674(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress.
675The BER compressed integer format can only be used with positive
676integers, and you attempted to compress a very large number (> 1e308).
677See L<perlfunc/pack>.
0258719b 678
49704364 679=item Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
0258719b
NC
680
681(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
682format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
683
5c1f4d79
NC
684=item Cannot convert a reference to %s to typeglob
685
6903afa2
FC
686(F) You manipulated Perl's symbol table directly, stored a reference
687in it, then tried to access that symbol via conventional Perl syntax.
688The access triggers Perl to autovivify that typeglob, but it there is
689no legal conversion from that type of reference to a typeglob.
5c1f4d79 690
4040665a 691=item Cannot copy to %s
ba2fdce6
NC
692
693(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy a value to an internal type that cannot
4dcecea4 694be directly assigned to.
ba2fdce6 695
b5d97229
RGS
696=item Cannot find encoding "%s"
697
698(S io) You tried to apply an encoding that did not exist to a filehandle,
699either with open() or binmode().
700
714f94d1
FC
701=item Cannot open %s as a dirhandle: it is already open as a filehandle
702
703(F) You tried to use opendir() to associate a dirhandle to a symbol (glob
704or scalar) that already holds a filehandle. Since this idiom might render
705your code confusing, it was deprecated in Perl 5.10. As of Perl 5.28, it
706is a fatal error.
707
708=item Cannot open %s as a filehandle: it is already open as a dirhandle
709
710(F) You tried to use open() to associate a filehandle to a symbol (glob
711or scalar) that already holds a dirhandle. Since this idiom might render
712your code confusing, it was deprecated in Perl 5.10. As of Perl 5.28, it
713is a fatal error.
714
0c7df902
JH
715=item Cannot pack %f with '%c'
716
5dee29d4 717(F) You tried converting an infinity or not-a-number to an integer,
0c7df902
JH
718which makes no sense.
719
720=item Cannot printf %f with '%c'
721
722(F) You tried printing an infinity or not-a-number as a character (%c),
723which makes no sense. Maybe you meant '%s', or just stringifying it?
724
7355df7e
FC
725=item Cannot set tied @DB::args
726
727(F) C<caller> tried to set C<@DB::args>, but found it tied. Tying C<@DB::args>
728is not supported. (Before this error was added, it used to crash.)
729
ce65bc73
FC
730=item Cannot tie unreifiable array
731
732(P) You somehow managed to call C<tie> on an array that does not
733keep a reference count on its arguments and cannot be made to
734do so. Such arrays are not even supposed to be accessible to
735Perl code, but are only used internally.
736
26b0dc0c 737=item Cannot yet reorder sv_vcatpvfn() arguments from va_list
46e58bd2 738
26b0dc0c 739(F) Some XS code tried to use C<sv_vcatpvfn()> or a related function with a
46e58bd2 740format string that specifies explicit indexes for some of the elements, and
d4e5761f
FC
741using a C-style variable-argument list (a C<va_list>). This is not currently
742supported. XS authors wanting to do this must instead construct a C array
743of C<SV*> scalars containing the arguments.
46e58bd2 744
96ebfdd7
RK
745=item Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
746
747(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
748integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
749to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
750
a0d0e21e
LW
751=item Can't bless non-reference value
752
753(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
754encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
755
7896dde7
Z
756=item Can't "break" in a loop topicalizer
757
758(F) You called C<break>, but you're in a C<foreach> block rather than
759a C<given> block. You probably meant to use C<next> or C<last>.
760
761=item Can't "break" outside a given block
762
763(F) You called C<break>, but you're not inside a C<given> block.
764
6df41af2
GS
765=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
766
767(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
768object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
769like this will reproduce the error:
6df41af2
GS
770
771 $BADREF = undef;
772 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
773 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
774
a0d0e21e
LW
775=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
776
54310121 777(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
be771a83
GS
778ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
779didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
780object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
781
782=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
783
784(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
785object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
786defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
72b5445b
GS
787Something like this will reproduce the error:
788
789 $BADREF = 42;
790 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
791 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
792
dfe378f1
FC
793=item Can't call mro_isa_changed_in() on anonymous symbol table
794
795(P) Perl got confused as to whether a hash was a plain hash or a
796symbol table hash when trying to update @ISA caches.
797
2bf7e7b2
FC
798=item Can't call mro_method_changed_in() on anonymous symbol table
799
800(F) An XS module tried to call C<mro_method_changed_in> on a hash that was
801not attached to the symbol table.
802
a0d0e21e
LW
803=item Can't chdir to %s
804
f703fc96 805(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but F</foo/bar> is not a directory
a0d0e21e
LW
806that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
807
0545a864 808=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
104d25b7 809
be771a83
GS
810(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
811nosuid.
104d25b7 812
22e74366 813=item Can't coerce %s to %s in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
814
815(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 816(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
a0d0e21e
LW
817say things like:
818
819 *foo += 1;
820
821You CAN say
822
823 $foo = *foo;
824 $foo += 1;
825
826but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
827
7896dde7 828=item Can't "continue" outside a when block
dc57907a 829
7896dde7
Z
830(F) You called C<continue>, but you're not inside a C<when>
831or C<default> block.
0d863452 832
a0d0e21e
LW
833=item Can't create pipe mailbox
834
be771a83
GS
835(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
836quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 837
eb64745e
GS
838=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
839
30c282f6
NC
840(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my", "our" or
841"state" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 842
7896dde7
Z
843=item Can't "default" outside a topicalizer
844
845(F) You have used a C<default> block that is neither inside a
846C<foreach> loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is
847issued on exit from the C<default> block, so you won't get the
848error if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
849
1e85b658
DM
850=item Can't determine class of operator %s, assuming BASEOP
851
852(S) This warning indicates something wrong in the internals of perl.
853Perl was trying to find the class (e.g. LISTOP) of a particular OP,
854and was unable to do so. This is likely to be due to a bug in the perl
855internals, or due to a bug in XS code which manipulates perl optrees.
856
a2162cd9
FC
857=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
858
859(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
860a file in /dev, a FIFO or an uneditable directory. The file was ignored.
861
862=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
863
864(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
865reason.
866
a2162cd9
FC
867=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
868
869(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
870characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
871inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
872
ab0b796c
KW
873=item Can't do %s("%s") on non-UTF-8 locale; resolved to "%s".
874
875(W locale) You are 1) running under "C<use locale>"; 2) the current
876locale is not a UTF-8 one; 3) you tried to do the designated case-change
877operation on the specified Unicode character; and 4) the result of this
878operation would mix Unicode and locale rules, which likely conflict.
879Mixing of different rule types is forbidden, so the operation was not
880done; instead the result is the indicated value, which is the best
881available that uses entirely Unicode rules. That turns out to almost
882always be the original character, unchanged.
883
884It is generally a bad idea to mix non-UTF-8 locales and Unicode, and
885this issue is one of the reasons why. This warning is raised when
886Unicode rules would normally cause the result of this operation to
887contain a character that is in the range specified by the locale,
8880..255, and hence is subject to the locale's rules, not Unicode's.
889
890If you are using locale purely for its characteristics related to things
891like its numeric and time formatting (and not C<LC_CTYPE>), consider
892using a restricted form of the locale pragma (see L<perllocale/The "use
893locale" pragma>) like "S<C<use locale ':not_characters'>>".
894
895Note that failed case-changing operations done as a result of
896case-insensitive C</i> regular expression matching will show up in this
897warning as having the C<fc> operation (as that is what the regular
898expression engine calls behind the scenes.)
899
a0d0e21e
LW
900=item Can't do waitpid with flags
901
be771a83
GS
902(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
903waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 904
a0d0e21e
LW
905=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
906
be771a83
GS
907(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
908point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
909line.
a0d0e21e 910
1109a392
MHM
911=item Can't %s %s-endian %ss on this platform
912
913(F) Your platform's byte-order is neither big-endian nor little-endian,
914or it has a very strange pointer size. Packing and unpacking big- or
915little-endian floating point values and pointers may not be possible.
916See L<perlfunc/pack>.
917
a0d0e21e
LW
918=item Can't exec "%s": %s
919
d1be9408 920(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
921named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
922permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
923C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
924architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
925can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
926#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
927
928=item Can't exec %s
929
be771a83
GS
930(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
931that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
932need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
933
934=item Can't execute %s
935
be771a83
GS
936(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
937found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 938
6df41af2 939=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 940
be771a83
GS
941(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
942is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2
GS
943
944=item Can't find label %s
945
be771a83
GS
946(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
947possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
948
949=item Can't find %s on PATH
950
be771a83
GS
951(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
952found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 953
6df41af2 954=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 955
be771a83
GS
956(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
957found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
958script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e
LW
959
960=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
961
be771a83
GS
962(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
963that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
964nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 965
fb73857a 966 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
967
97b3d10f 968If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have
b6b8cb97
FC
969included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag or there
970may not be a linebreak after it. A good programmer's editor will have
971a way to help you find these characters (or lack of characters). See
972L<perlop> for the full details on here-documents.
a0d0e21e 973
660a4616
TS
974=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s"
975
29f52644
KW
976=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
977
978(F) The named property which you specified via C<\p> or C<\P> is not one
979known to Perl. Perhaps you misspelled the name? See
e1b711da 980L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
29f52644
KW
981for a complete list of available official
982properties. If it is a
983L<user-defined property|perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties>
984it must have been defined by the time the regular expression is
985matched.
986
987If you didn't mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either
988by C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, or
5f8ad6b6 989until C<\E>).
660a4616 990
b3647a36 991=item Can't fork: %s
a0d0e21e 992
be771a83
GS
993(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
994pipeline.
a0d0e21e 995
b3647a36
SR
996=item Can't fork, trying again in 5 seconds
997
c973c02e 998(W pipe) A fork in a piped open failed with EAGAIN and will be retried
b3647a36
SR
999after five seconds.
1000
748a9306
LW
1001=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
1002
be771a83
GS
1003(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
1004between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
1005Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
1006the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
1007account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
1008the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
2fe2bdfd 1009the access-checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
be771a83
GS
1010the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
1011if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
1012because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
2fe2bdfd
FC
1013appears, the name lookup failed, and the access-checking routine gave up
1014and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access-checking
be771a83
GS
1015routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
1016shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
1017only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 1018
a0d0e21e
LW
1019=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
1020
be771a83
GS
1021(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
1022pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
1023
1024=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
1025
748a9306
LW
1026(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
1027mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 1028
6d90e983
FC
1029=item Can't "goto" into a binary or list expression
1030
1031(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a binary
1032or list expression. You can't get there from here. The reason for this
1033restriction is that the interpreter would get confused as to how many
1034arguments there are, resulting in stack corruption or crashes. This
1035error occurs in cases such as these:
1036
1037 goto F;
1038 print do { F: }; # Can't jump into the arguments to print
1039
1040 goto G;
1041 $x + do { G: $y }; # How is + supposed to get its first operand?
1042
a01f4640
FC
1043=item Can't "goto" into a "given" block
1044
1045(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a C<given>
1046block. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1047
6df41af2 1048=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 1049
be771a83
GS
1050(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
1051loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
1052
1053=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
1054
be771a83
GS
1055(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
1056a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
1057you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
1058See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 1059
5a25739d
FC
1060=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-%s
1061
1062(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
1063"string" or block.
1064
9850bf21 1065=item Can't goto subroutine from a sort sub (or similar callback)
cd299c6e 1066
9850bf21
RH
1067(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of the
1068comparison sub for a sort(), or from a similar callback (such
1069as the reduce() function in List::Util).
1070
6df41af2
GS
1071=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
1072
be771a83
GS
1073(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
1074subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
1075cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
1076routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 1077
0b5b802d
GS
1078=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
1079
be771a83
GS
1080(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
1081signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
1082signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
1083processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
1084situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
1085may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 1086
e2c0f81f
DG
1087=item Can't kill a non-numeric process ID
1088
1089(F) Process identifiers must be (signed) integers. It is a fatal error to
1090attempt to kill() an undefined, empty-string or otherwise non-numeric
1091process identifier.
1092
6df41af2 1093=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 1094
6df41af2 1095(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
1096except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
1097block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
1098block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
1099usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
1100inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
1101L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 1102
2c7d6b9c
RGS
1103=item Can't linearize anonymous symbol table
1104
1105(F) Perl tried to calculate the method resolution order (MRO) of a
1106package, but failed because the package stash has no name.
1107
b8170e59
JB
1108=item Can't load '%s' for module %s
1109
6903afa2
FC
1110(F) The module you tried to load failed to load a dynamic extension.
1111This may either mean that you upgraded your version of perl to one
1112that is incompatible with your old dynamic extensions (which is known
1113to happen between major versions of perl), or (more likely) that your
1114dynamic extension was built against an older version of the library
1115that is installed on your system. You may need to rebuild your old
1116dynamic extensions.
b8170e59 1117
748a9306
LW
1118=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
1119
2ba9eb46 1120(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
b7e4ecc1
FC
1121lexical variable using "my" or "state". This is not allowed. If you
1122want to localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with
1123the package name.
748a9306 1124
6df41af2 1125=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 1126
6df41af2
GS
1127(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
1128handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 1129pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 1130that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 1131
ea071790 1132=item Can't locate %s
ec889f3a 1133
fa816bf3
FC
1134(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be found.
1135Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC, unless
1136the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you need
1137to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where the
1138extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
be771a83
GS
1139to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
1140L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 1141
6df41af2
GS
1142=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
1143
be771a83
GS
1144(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
1145autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
1146are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
1147the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 1148
b8170e59
JB
1149=item Can't locate loadable object for module %s in @INC
1150
1151(F) The module you loaded is trying to load an external library, like
d70d8e57 1152for example, F<foo.so> or F<bar.dll>, but the L<DynaLoader> module was
b8170e59
JB
1153unable to locate this library. See L<DynaLoader>.
1154
a0d0e21e
LW
1155=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
1156
1157(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
1158functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 1159method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e 1160
8af56b9d
FC
1161=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s" (perhaps you forgot
1162to load "%s"?)
1163
1164(F) You called a method on a class that did not exist, and the method
1165could not be found in UNIVERSAL. This often means that a method
1166requires a package that has not been loaded.
1167
a0d0e21e
LW
1168=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
1169
be771a83
GS
1170(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
1171doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 1172
2f7da168
RK
1173=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
1174
1175(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
1176e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
1177
f4ad53f4 1178=item Can't make list assignment to %ENV on this system
3e3baf6d 1179
be771a83
GS
1180(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
1181VMS.
3e3baf6d 1182
cd40cd58
NC
1183=item Can't make loaded symbols global on this platform while loading %s
1184
ff9c1ae8 1185(S) A module passed the flag 0x01 to DynaLoader::dl_load_file() to request
cd40cd58
NC
1186that symbols from the stated file are made available globally within the
1187process, but that functionality is not available on this platform. Whilst
1188the module likely will still work, this may prevent the perl interpreter
1189from loading other XS-based extensions which need to link directly to
1190functions defined in the C or XS code in the stated file.
1191
a0d0e21e
LW
1192=item Can't modify %s in %s
1193
be771a83
GS
1194(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
1195to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 1196
54310121 1197=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
a0d0e21e
LW
1198
1199(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
1200a NULL.
1201
0f948285 1202=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call of &%s
6df41af2 1203
8d9d0498
FC
1204=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call of &%s in %s
1205
6df41af2 1206(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
2fe2bdfd 1207such. See L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
6df41af2 1208
cf6e1fa1
FC
1209=item Can't modify reference to %s in %s assignment
1210
1211(F) Only a limited number of constructs can be used as the argument to a
1212reference constructor on the left-hand side of an assignment, and what
1213you used was not one of them. See L<perlref/Assigning to References>.
1214
1215=item Can't modify reference to localized parenthesized array in list
1216assignment
1217
1218(F) Assigning to C<\local(@array)> or C<\(local @array)> is not supported, as
1219it is not clear exactly what it should do. If you meant to make @array
1220refer to some other array, use C<\@array = \@other_array>. If you want to
1221make the elements of @array aliases of the scalars referenced on the
1222right-hand side, use C<\(@array) = @scalar_refs>.
1223
1224=item Can't modify reference to parenthesized hash in list assignment
1225
1226(F) Assigning to C<\(%hash)> is not supported. If you meant to make %hash
1227refer to some other hash, use C<\%hash = \%other_hash>. If you want to
1228make the elements of %hash into aliases of the scalars referenced on the
1229right-hand side, use a hash slice: C<\@hash{@keys} = @those_scalar_refs>.
1230
5f05dabc 1231=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 1232
5f05dabc 1233(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
1234buffer.
1235
6df41af2
GS
1236=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
1237
1238(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
1239there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
1240count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
1241grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1242though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
1243once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 1244
a0d0e21e
LW
1245=item Can't open %s: %s
1246
c47ff5f1 1247(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e 1248filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
46fa9b26
FC
1249switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually
1250this is because you don't have read permission for a file which
1251you named on the command line.
1252
1253(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-e> switch, but F</dev/null> (or
1254your operating system's equivalent) could not be opened.
a0d0e21e 1255
9a869a14
RGS
1256=item Can't open a reference
1257
1258(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
2fe2bdfd 1259using the 3-arg open() syntax:
9a869a14
RGS
1260
1261 open FH, '>', $ref;
1262
1263but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
1264open is not supported.
1265
a0d0e21e
LW
1266=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
1267
be771a83
GS
1268(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
1269You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
1270as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
1271">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 1272
748a9306
LW
1273=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
1274
be771a83
GS
1275(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1276redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
1277the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1278
1279=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
1280
be771a83
GS
1281(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1282redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
1283command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
1284
1285=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
1286
be771a83
GS
1287(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1288redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
1289the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1290
1291=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
1292
be771a83
GS
1293(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1294redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
1295for stdout.
748a9306 1296
3b1cf97d 1297=item Can't open perl script "%s": %s
a0d0e21e
LW
1298
1299(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
1300
fa3aa65a
JC
1301If you're debugging a script that uses #!, and normally relies on the
1302shell's $PATH search, the -S option causes perl to do that search, so
1303you don't have to type the path or C<`which $scriptname`>.
1304
6df41af2
GS
1305=item Can't read CRTL environ
1306
1307(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
1308from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
1309missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
1310or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
1311searched.
6df41af2 1312
f3106bc8
LM
1313=item Can't redeclare "%s" in "%s"
1314
1315(F) A "my", "our" or "state" declaration was found within another declaration,
1316such as C<my ($x, my($y), $z)> or C<our (my $x)>.
1317
6df41af2
GS
1318=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
1319
1320(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
1321there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
1322count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
1323or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1324though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
1325loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
1326
64977eb6 1327=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 1328
be771a83
GS
1329(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
1330file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
1331the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 1332
e0d4aead
TC
1333=item Can't rename in-place work file '%s' to '%s': %s
1334
1335(F) When closed implicitly, the temporary file for in-place editing
1336couldn't be renamed to the original filename.
1337
ecc6274e
FC
1338=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
1339
1340(F) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
1341probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
1342
748a9306
LW
1343=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
1344
be771a83
GS
1345(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
1346to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 1347
9415f659
KW
1348=item Can't represent character for Ox%X on this platform
1349
1350(F) There is a hard limit to how big a character code point can be due
1351to the fundamental properties of UTF-8, especially on EBCDIC
1352platforms. The given code point exceeds that. The only work-around is
1353to not use such a large code point.
1354
4f12ec0e
FC
1355=item Can't reset %ENV on this system
1356
1357(F) You called C<reset('E')> or similar, which tried to reset
1358all variables in the current package beginning with "E". In
1359the main package, that includes %ENV. Resetting %ENV is not
1360supported on some systems, notably VMS.
1361
fe13d51d 1362=item Can't resolve method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
6df41af2 1363
1fa582fa
FC
1364(F)(P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as
1365opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the
1366package. If the method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 1367
cd06dffe
GS
1368=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
1369
be771a83
GS
1370(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
1371temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
1372is not allowed.
cd06dffe 1373
96ebfdd7
RK
1374=item Can't return outside a subroutine
1375
1376(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1377there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1378
78f9721b
SM
1379=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
1380
6903afa2
FC
1381(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue
1382subroutine, but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl
1383think you meant to return only one value. You probably meant to
1384write parentheses around the call to the subroutine, which tell
1385Perl that the call should be in list context.
78f9721b 1386
a0d0e21e
LW
1387=item Can't stat script "%s"
1388
be771a83
GS
1389(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1390open already. Bizarre.
a0d0e21e 1391
a0d0e21e
LW
1392=item Can't take log of %g
1393
fb73857a 1394(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
6903afa2 1395negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
1396standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1397negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
1398
1399=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1400
1401(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 1402negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1403with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
1404
1405=item Can't undef active subroutine
1406
1407(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1408however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1409redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1410
ecc6274e
FC
1411=item Can't unweaken a nonreference
1412
1413(F) You attempted to unweaken something that was not a reference. Only
1414references can be unweakened.
1415
c81225bc 1416=item Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d
a0d0e21e 1417
be771a83
GS
1418(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1419into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1420specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1421indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e 1422
6651ba0b
FC
1423=item Can't use '%c' after -mname
1424
1425(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-m> switch, but you put something
1426other than "=" after the module name.
1427
1f1ec7b5
KW
1428=item Can't use a hash as a reference
1429
1430(F) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
66a1f5ec
FC
1431C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl
1432<= 5.22.0 used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't
1433have. This was deprecated in perl 5.6.1.
1f1ec7b5
KW
1434
1435=item Can't use an array as a reference
1436
1437(F) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
66a1f5ec
FC
1438C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.22.0
1439used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. This
1440was deprecated in perl 5.6.1.
1f1ec7b5 1441
1db89ea5
BS
1442=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1443
e27ad1f2 1444(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1db89ea5
BS
1445table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1446for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1447
96ebfdd7
RK
1448=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1449
1450(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1451be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1452
6df41af2
GS
1453=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1454
be771a83
GS
1455(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1456references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1457
90b75b61 1458=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63 1459
20561843 1460(F) The first time the C<%!> hash is used, perl automatically loads the
6903afa2 1461Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1d2dff63
GS
1462provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1463
1109a392
MHM
1464=item Can't use both '<' and '>' after type '%c' in %s
1465
1466(F) A type cannot be forced to have both big-endian and little-endian
1467byte-order at the same time, so this combination of modifiers is not
1468allowed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1469
e35475de
KW
1470=item Can't use 'defined(@array)' (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?)
1471
1472(F) defined() is not useful on arrays because it
1473checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
1474array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
1475
1476=item Can't use 'defined(%hash)' (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?)
1477
1478(F) C<defined()> is not usually right on hashes.
1479
1480Although C<defined %hash> is false on a plain not-yet-used hash, it
1481becomes true in several non-obvious circumstances, including iterators,
1482weak references, stash names, even remaining true after C<undef %hash>.
1483These things make C<defined %hash> fairly useless in practice, so it now
1484generates a fatal error.
1485
1486If a check for non-empty is what you wanted then just put it in boolean
1487context (see L<perldata/Scalar values>):
1488
1489 if (%hash) {
1490 # not empty
1491 }
1492
1493If you had C<defined %Foo::Bar::QUUX> to check whether such a package
1494variable exists then that's never really been reliable, and isn't
1495a good way to enquire about the features of a package, or whether
1496it's loaded, etc.
1497
6df41af2
GS
1498=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1499
c1f06047 1500(P) The parser got confused when trying to parse a C<foreach> loop.
6df41af2 1501
f27832e7 1502=item Can't use global %s in %s
6df41af2 1503
be771a83
GS
1504(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1505is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1506(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1507have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1508weren't.
1509
6d3b25aa
RGS
1510=item Can't use '%c' in a group with different byte-order in %s
1511
1512(F) You attempted to force a different byte-order on a type
1513that is already inside a group with a byte-order modifier.
1514For example you cannot force little-endianness on a type that
1515is inside a big-endian group.
1516
c07a80fd 1517=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1518
1519(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1520You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1521and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1522Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1523lexical variable.
1524
a0d0e21e
LW
1525=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1526
1527(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1528reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1529test the type of the reference, if need be.
1530
748a9306 1531=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1532
5e634d20
FC
1533=item Can't use string ("%s"...) as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1534
b41bf23f
FC
1535(F) You've told Perl to dereference a string, something which
1536C<use strict> blocks to prevent it happening accidentally. See
1537L<perlref/"Symbolic references">. This can be triggered by an C<@> or C<$>
1538in a double-quoted string immediately before interpolating a variable,
1539for example in C<"user @$twitter_id">, which says to treat the contents
1540of C<$twitter_id> as an array reference; use a C<\> to have a literal C<@>
1541symbol followed by the contents of C<$twitter_id>: C<"user \@$twitter_id">.
a0d0e21e 1542
748a9306
LW
1543=item Can't use subscript on %s
1544
1545(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1546subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
209e7cf1 1547didn't look like a hash or array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
748a9306 1548
6df41af2
GS
1549=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1550
75b44862
GS
1551(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1552creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1553backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1554expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1555value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1556instead.
6df41af2 1557
810b8aa5
GS
1558=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1559
1560(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1561references can be weakened.
1562
7896dde7
Z
1563=item Can't "when" outside a topicalizer
1564
1565(F) You have used a when() block that is neither inside a C<foreach>
1566loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is issued on exit
1567from the C<when> block, so you won't get the error if the match fails,
1568or if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
1569
5f05dabc 1570=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1571
be771a83
GS
1572(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1573with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1574Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1575
a04e6aad 1576=item Character following "\c" must be printable ASCII
f9d13529 1577
7357bd17 1578(F) In C<\cI<X>>, I<X> must be a printable (non-control) ASCII character.
17a3df4c 1579
727b6379 1580Note that ASCII characters that don't map to control characters are
7357bd17 1581discouraged, and will generate the warning (when enabled)
d4360efa 1582L</""\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"">.
f9d13529 1583
163a633c
KW
1584=item Character following \%c must be '{' or a single-character Unicode property name in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1585
1586(F) (In the above the C<%c> is replaced by either C<p> or C<P>.) You
1587specified something that isn't a legal Unicode property name. Most
1588Unicode properties are specified by C<\p{...}>. But if the name is a
1589single character one, the braces may be omitted.
1590
f337b084 1591=item Character in 'C' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1592
1593(W pack) You said
1594
1595 pack("C", $x)
1596
1597where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1598only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1599and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1600
1601 pack("C", $x & 255)
1602
1603If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1604instead.
1605
f337b084 1606=item Character in 'c' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1607
1608(W pack) You said
1609
1610 pack("c", $x)
1611
1612where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1613is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1614and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1615
1616 pack("c", $x & 255);
1617
1618If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1619instead.
1620
f337b084
TH
1621=item Character in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1622
1623(W unpack) You tried something like
1624
1625 unpack("H", "\x{2a1}")
1626
1a147d38 1627where the format expects to process a byte (a character with a value
6903afa2
FC
1628below 256), but a higher value was provided instead. Perl uses the
1629value modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
f337b084
TH
1630
1631 unpack("H", "\x{a1}")
1632
5a25739d
FC
1633=item Character in 'W' format wrapped in pack
1634
1635(W pack) You said
1636
1637 pack("U0W", $x)
1638
1639where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255. However, C<U0>-mode
1640expects all values to fall in the interval [0, 255], so Perl behaved
1641as if you meant:
1642
1643 pack("U0W", $x & 255)
1644
f337b084
TH
1645=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in pack
1646
1647(W pack) You tried something like
1648
1649 pack("u", "\x{1f3}b")
1650
1a147d38 1651where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1652value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1653uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1654
1655 pack("u", "\x{f3}b")
1656
1657=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1658
1659(W unpack) You tried something like
1660
1661 unpack("s", "\x{1f3}b")
1662
1a147d38 1663where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1664value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1665uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1666
1667 unpack("s", "\x{f3}b")
1668
8d9d0498
FC
1669=item charnames alias definitions may not contain a sequence of multiple
1670spaces; marked by S<<-- HERE> in %s
f51551f7
FC
1671
1672(F) You defined a character name which had multiple space characters
1673in a row. Change them to single spaces. Usually these names are
1674defined in the C<:alias> import argument to C<use charnames>, but they
1675could be defined by a translator installed into C<$^H{charnames}>. See
1676L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
1677
8d9d0498
FC
1678=item charnames alias definitions may not contain trailing white-space;
1679marked by S<<-- HERE> in %s
f51551f7
FC
1680
1681(F) You defined a character name which ended in a space
1682character. Remove the trailing space(s). Usually these names are
1683defined in the C<:alias> import argument to C<use charnames>, but they
1684could be defined by a translator installed into C<$^H{charnames}>.
1685See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
1686
60121127
TC
1687=item chdir() on unopened filehandle %s
1688
1689(W unopened) You tried chdir() on a filehandle that was never opened.
1690
d4360efa 1691=item "\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"
f866a7cd 1692
d4360efa
S
1693(W syntax) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a way to specify
1694non-printable characters. You used it for a printable one, which
1695is better written as simply itself, perhaps preceded by a backslash
1696for non-word characters. Doing it the way you did is not portable
1697between ASCII and EBCDIC platforms.
f866a7cd 1698
6651ba0b
FC
1699=item Cloning substitution context is unimplemented
1700
1701(F) Creating a new thread inside the C<s///> operator is not supported.
1702
abc7ecad
SP
1703=item closedir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
1704
1705(W io) The dirhandle you tried to close is either closed or not really
1706a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
1707
5a25739d
FC
1708=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1709
1710(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1711
541ed3a9
FC
1712=item Closure prototype called
1713
1714(F) If a closure has attributes, the subroutine passed to an attribute
1715handler is the prototype that is cloned when a new closure is created.
1716This subroutine cannot be called.
1717
74d1b2e4
FC
1718=item \C no longer supported in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1719
1720(F) The \C character class used to allow a match of single byte
1721within a multi-byte utf-8 character, but was removed in v5.24 as
1722it broke encapsulation and its implementation was extremely buggy.
1723If you really need to process the individual bytes, you probably
1724want to convert your string to one where each underlying byte is
1725stored as a character, with utf8::encode().
1726
49704364
WL
1727=item Code missing after '/'
1728
6903afa2
FC
1729(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be
1730another template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 1731
c0236afe
KW
1732=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, and not portable
1733
dc4a6683 1734(S non_unicode portable) You had a code point that has never been in any
c0236afe 1735standard, so it is likely that languages other than Perl will NOT
dc4a6683
KW
1736understand it. This code point also will not fit in a 32-bit word on
1737ASCII platforms and therefore is non-portable between systems.
1738
1739At one time, it was legal in some standards to have code points up to
17400x7FFF_FFFF, but not higher, and this code point is higher.
c0236afe
KW
1741
1742Acceptance of these code points is a Perl extension, and you should
1743expect that nothing other than Perl can handle them; Perl itself on
1744EBCDIC platforms before v5.24 does not handle them.
1745
c0236afe
KW
1746Perl also makes no guarantees that the representation of these code
1747points won't change at some point in the future, say when machines
1748become available that have larger than a 64-bit word. At that time,
aaa9d2b4
KW
1749files containing any of these, written by an older Perl might require
1750conversion before being readable by a newer Perl.
c0236afe 1751
5a25739d
FC
1752=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, may not be portable
1753
2d88a86a 1754(S non_unicode) You had a code point above the Unicode maximum
1b64326b
FC
1755of U+10FFFF.
1756
c0236afe
KW
1757Perl allows strings to contain a superset of Unicode code points, but
1758these may not be accepted by other languages/systems. Further, even if
1759these languages/systems accept these large code points, they may have
1760chosen a different representation for them than the UTF-8-like one that
1761Perl has, which would mean files are not exchangeable between them and
1762Perl.
1763
1764On EBCDIC platforms, code points above 0x3FFF_FFFF have a different
1765representation in Perl v5.24 than before, so any file containing these
1766that was written before that version will require conversion before
1767being readable by a later Perl.
0876b9a0 1768
6df41af2
GS
1769=item %s: Command not found
1770
a892b81a 1771(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> or another shell
66a1f5ec
FC
1772instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1773Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
8f721816 1774
3bcfc7b3
LM
1775 #!/usr/bin/perl
1776
1777=item %s: command not found
1778
1779(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<bash> or another shell
1780instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1781Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
1782
1783 #!/usr/bin/perl
1784
1785=item %s: command not found: %s
1786
1787(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<zsh> or another shell
1788instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1789Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
1790
1791 #!/usr/bin/perl
6df41af2 1792
7a2e2cd6 1793=item Compilation failed in require
1794
1795(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1796Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1797encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1798
c3464db5
DD
1799=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1800
be771a83
GS
1801(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1802situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1803to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1804arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1805recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1806under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1807in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1808that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1809on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1810
69282e91 1811=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1812
be771a83
GS
1813(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1814to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1815L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1816
e21e7c6a
FC
1817=item Constant(%s): Call to &{$^H{%s}} did not return a defined value
1818
1819(F) The subroutine registered to handle constant overloading
1820(see L<overload>) or a custom charnames handler (see
1821L<charnames/CUSTOM TRANSLATORS>) returned an undefined value.
1822
1823=item Constant(%s): $^H{%s} is not defined
1824
1825(F) The parser found inconsistencies while attempting to define an
1826overloaded constant. Perhaps you forgot to load the corresponding
f738a371 1827L<overload> pragma?
e21e7c6a 1828
779c5bc9
GS
1829=item Constant is not %s reference
1830
1831(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83 1832is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
6903afa2 1833The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
be771a83 1834usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1835See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1836
30fc7a28 1837=item Constants from lexical variables potentially modified elsewhere are no longer permitted
0ac016fc 1838
30fc7a28 1839(F) You wrote something like
0ac016fc
FC
1840
1841 my $var;
1842 $sub = sub () { $var };
1843
1844but $var is referenced elsewhere and could be modified after the C<sub>
1845expression is evaluated. Either it is explicitly modified elsewhere
1846(C<$var = 3>) or it is passed to a subroutine or to an operator like
1847C<printf> or C<map>, which may or may not modify the variable.
1848
1849Traditionally, Perl has captured the value of the variable at that
1850point and turned the subroutine into a constant eligible for inlining.
1851In those cases where the variable can be modified elsewhere, this
1852breaks the behavior of closures, in which the subroutine captures
1853the variable itself, rather than its value, so future changes to the
1854variable are reflected in the subroutine's return value.
1855
30fc7a28 1856This usage was deprecated, and as of Perl 5.32 is no longer allowed,
9840d1d6 1857making it possible to change the behavior in the future.
0ac016fc
FC
1858
1859If you intended for the subroutine to be eligible for inlining, then
1860make sure the variable is not referenced elsewhere, possibly by
1861copying it:
1862
1863 my $var2 = $var;
1864 $sub = sub () { $var2 };
1865
1866If you do want this subroutine to be a closure that reflects future
1867changes to the variable that it closes over, add an explicit C<return>:
1868
1869 my $var;
1870 $sub = sub () { return $var };
1871
4cee8e80
CS
1872=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1873
aeb94125
FC
1874(W redefine)(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously
1875been eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions">
1876for commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1877
9607fc9c 1878=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1879
be771a83
GS
1880(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1881for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1882workarounds.
9607fc9c 1883
5a25739d
FC
1884=item Constant(%s) unknown
1885
1886(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting
1887to define an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the
1888character name specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you
3ee1a09c 1889forgot to load the corresponding L<overload> pragma?
5a25739d 1890
4a873d7a
FC
1891=item :const is experimental
1892
1893(S experimental::const_attr) The "const" attribute is experimental.
1894If you want to use the feature, disable the warning with C<no warnings
1895'experimental::const_attr'>, but know that in doing so you are taking
1896the risk that your code may break in a future Perl version.
1897
b77472f9
FC
1898=item :const is not permitted on named subroutines
1899
1900(F) The "const" attribute causes an anonymous subroutine to be run and
465068b9 1901its value captured at the time that it is cloned. Named subroutines are
b77472f9
FC
1902not cloned like this, so the attribute does not make sense on them.
1903
e7ea3e70
IZ
1904=item Copy method did not return a reference
1905
6903afa2 1906(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1907L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1908
4aaa4757
FC
1909=item &CORE::%s cannot be called directly
1910
1911(F) You tried to call a subroutine in the C<CORE::> namespace
8d605c0d 1912with C<&foo> syntax or through a reference. Some subroutines
4aaa4757
FC
1913in this package cannot yet be called that way, but must be
1914called as barewords. Something like this will work:
1915
1916 BEGIN { *shove = \&CORE::push; }
1917 shove @array, 1,2,3; # pushes on to @array
1918
6798c92b
GS
1919=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1920
1921(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1922
675fa9ff
FC
1923=item Corrupted regexp opcode %d > %d
1924
1925(P) This is either an error in Perl, or, if you're using
1926one, your L<custom regular expression engine|perlreapi>. If not the
8166b4e0 1927latter, report the problem to L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
675fa9ff 1928
a0d0e21e
LW
1929=item corrupted regexp pointers
1930
1931(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1932expression compiler gave it.
1933
1934=item corrupted regexp program
1935
be771a83
GS
1936(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1937valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1938
de42a5a9 1939=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%x at 0x%x
6df41af2
GS
1940
1941(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1942
49704364
WL
1943=item Count after length/code in unpack
1944
1945(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1946you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1947L<perlfunc/pack>.
1948
3f645a4e
FC
1949=item Declaring references is experimental
1950
1951(S experimental::declared_refs) This warning is emitted if you use
1952a reference constructor on the right-hand side of C<my>, C<state>, C<our>, or
1953C<local>. Simply suppress the warning if you want to use the feature, but
1954know that in doing so you are taking the risk of using an experimental
1955feature which may change or be removed in a future Perl version:
1956
1957 no warnings "experimental::declared_refs";
1958 use feature "declared_refs";
1959 $fooref = my \$foo;
1960
f2cccb4c
KW
1961=for comment
1962The following are used in lib/diagnostics.t for testing two =items that
1963share the same description. Changes here need to be propagated to there
1964
6651ba0b
FC
1965=item Deep recursion on anonymous subroutine
1966
a0d0e21e
LW
1967=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1968
be771a83
GS
1969(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1970100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1971infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1972which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1973
aad1d01f
NC
1974This threshold can be changed from 100, by recompiling the F<perl> binary,
1975setting the C pre-processor macro C<PERL_SUB_DEPTH_WARN> to the desired value.
1976
e0e4a6e3
FC
1977=item (?(DEFINE)....) does not allow branches in regex; marked by
1978S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
bcb95744 1979
6903afa2 1980(F) You used something like C<(?(DEFINE)...|..)> which is illegal. The
bcb95744
FC
1981most likely cause of this error is that you left out a parenthesis inside
1982of the C<....> part.
1983
6e8a73f2 1984The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
bcb95744
FC
1985discovered.
1986
62658f4d
PM
1987=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1988
1989(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1990there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1991
0ffcbc25
FC
1992=item delete argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
1993
4a0af295 1994(F) The argument to C<delete> must be either a hash or array element,
0ffcbc25
FC
1995such as:
1996
1997 $foo{$bar}
1998 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
1999
2000or a hash or array slice, such as:
2001
2002 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
2003 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
2004
cc0776d6
DIM
2005or a hash key/value or array index/value slice, such as:
2006
2007 %foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
2008 %{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
2009
fc36a67e 2010=item Delimiter for here document is too long
2011
be771a83
GS
2012(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
2013long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
2014that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 2015
c437f7ac 2016=item Deprecated use of my() in false conditional. This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.30
6d3b25aa 2017
fa816bf3
FC
2018(D deprecated) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>. There
2019has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
6d3b25aa 2020not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
6903afa2 2021conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
fa816bf3 2022static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
6903afa2 2023relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
6d3b25aa 2024declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
36fb85f3 2025
6d3b25aa
RGS
2026 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
2027
2028becomes
2029
2030 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
2031
ea9d9ebc 2032Beginning with perl 5.10.0, you can also use C<state> variables to have
fa816bf3 2033lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
36fb85f3
RGS
2034
2035 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
2036
c437f7ac
A
2037This use of C<my()> in a false conditional has been deprecated since
2038Perl 5.10, and it will become a fatal error in Perl 5.30.
2039
500ab966
RGS
2040=item DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
2041
2042(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
6903afa2
FC
2043just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather
2044than to create a dangling reference.
500ab966 2045
3cdd684c
TP
2046=item Did not produce a valid header
2047
3de20fbe 2048See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 2049
6df41af2
GS
2050=item %s did not return a true value
2051
2052(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
2053it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
2054traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
2055do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
2056
cc507455 2057=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 2058
413ff9f6
FC
2059(W misc) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or
2060some such.
4633a7c4 2061
cc507455 2062=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 2063
52e3acf8 2064(W shadow) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
be771a83
GS
2065variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
2066seems superfluous.
33633739 2067
cc507455 2068=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 2069
be771a83
GS
2070(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
2071@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
2072carried away.
748a9306 2073
7e1af8bc 2074=item Died
5f05dabc 2075
2076(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
075b00aa 2077you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 2078
3cdd684c
TP
2079=item Document contains no data
2080
3de20fbe 2081See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 2082
62658f4d
PM
2083=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
2084
2085(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
943fc58e 2086define a C<$VERSION>.
62658f4d 2087
49704364
WL
2088=item '/' does not take a repeat count
2089
2090(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
2091See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2092
1c99110e 2093=item do "%s" failed, '.' is no longer in @INC; did you mean do "./%s"?
2a0461a3 2094
b28683c9 2095(D deprecated) Previously C< do "somefile"; > would search the current
1c99110e
DM
2096directory for the specified file. Since perl v5.26.0, F<.> has been
2097removed from C<@INC> by default, so this is no longer true. To search the
2098current directory (and only the current directory) you can write
2099C< do "./somefile"; >.
2a0461a3 2100
95cb0d72
FC
2101=item Don't know how to get file name
2102
2103(P) C<PerlIO_getname>, a perl internal I/O function specific to VMS, was
2104somehow called on another platform. This should not happen.
2105
4021c788 2106=item Don't know how to handle magic of type \%o
a0d0e21e
LW
2107
2108(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
2109
2110=item do_study: out of memory
2111
2112(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
2113
6df41af2
GS
2114=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
2115
56da5a46
RGS
2116(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2117"%s found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
6df41af2
GS
2118name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
2119because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
2120"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
2121something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
2122subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
2123"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 2124
d8ff3e95 2125=item dump() must be written as CORE::dump() as of Perl 5.30
ac206dc8 2126
d8ff3e95
JK
2127(F) You used the obsolete C<dump()> built-in function. That was deprecated in
2128Perl 5.8.0. As of Perl 5.30 it must be written in fully qualified format:
2129C<CORE::dump()>.
30b17cc1
A
2130
2131See L<perlfunc/dump>.
ac206dc8 2132
84d78eb7
YO
2133=item dump is not supported
2134
2135(F) Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.
2136
a0d0e21e
LW
2137=item Duplicate free() ignored
2138
be771a83
GS
2139(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
2140already been freed.
a0d0e21e 2141
1109a392
MHM
2142=item Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
2143
35f0cd76
FC
2144(W unpack) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a
2145type in a pack template. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1109a392 2146
4633a7c4
LW
2147=item elseif should be elsif
2148
fa816bf3
FC
2149(S syntax) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks
2150it's ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method
2151named "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
2152unlikely to be what you want.
2153
c30c479a
KW
2154=item Empty \%c in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2155
ccad8842
KW
2156=item Empty \%c{}
2157
e0e4a6e3 2158=item Empty \%c{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 2159
e750debb
KW
2160(F) You used something like C<\b{}>, C<\B{}>, C<\o{}>, C<\p>, C<\P>, or
2161C<\x> without specifying anything for it to operate on.
2162
2163Unfortunately, for backwards compatibility reasons, an empty C<\x> is
2164legal outside S<C<use re 'strict'>> and expands to a NUL character.
ab13f0c7 2165
d9a91485
KW
2166=item Empty (?) without any modifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2167
2168(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>>)
2169C<(?)> does nothing, so perhaps this is a typo.
2170
fd503f5c 2171=item ${^ENCODING} is no longer supported
a15a3d9b 2172
fd503f5c 2173(F) The special variable C<${^ENCODING}>, formerly used to implement
a15a3d9b
FC
2174the C<encoding> pragma, is no longer supported as of Perl 5.26.0.
2175
fd503f5c
DIM
2176Setting it to anything other than C<undef> is a fatal error as of Perl
21775.28.
ac641426 2178
85ab1d1d 2179=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 2180
85ab1d1d 2181(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
2182effective uids or gids failed.
2183
c038024b
RGS
2184=item %ENV is aliased to %s
2185
2186(F) You're running under taint mode, and the C<%ENV> variable has been
2187aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
6903afa2 2188program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
c038024b 2189
748a9306
LW
2190=item Error converting file specification %s
2191
5f05dabc 2192(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 2193specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
2194single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
2195an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
2196conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 2197
ad19ef22 2198=item Eval-group in insecure regular expression
e4d48cc9 2199
be771a83
GS
2200(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2201expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
2202is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 2203
ad19ef22 2204=item Eval-group not allowed at runtime, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
e4d48cc9 2205
be771a83
GS
2206(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
2207C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
f11307f5
FC
2208pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk,
2209it is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by using the
2210C<re 'eval'> pragma or by explicitly building the pattern from an
2211interpolated string at run time and using that in an eval(). See
2212L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 2213
ad19ef22 2214=item Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
6df41af2 2215
be771a83
GS
2216(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
2217assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
2218pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 2219
e0e4a6e3
FC
2220=item EVAL without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by
2221S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1a147d38
YO
2222
2223(F) You used a pattern that nested too many EVAL calls without consuming
6903afa2 2224any text. Restructure the pattern so that text is consumed.
1a147d38 2225
6e8a73f2 2226The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
2227discovered.
2228
fc36a67e 2229=item Excessively long <> operator
2230
2231(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
2232Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
2233filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
2234variable and glob that.
2235
ed9aa3b7
SG
2236=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
2237
af8bb25a 2238(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented on some systems, e.g., Symbian
6903afa2 2239OS. See L<perlport>.
ed9aa3b7 2240
c77da5ff 2241=item %sExecution of %s aborted due to compilation errors.
a0d0e21e
LW
2242
2243(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
2244
0ffcbc25
FC
2245=item exists argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine
2246
4a0af295 2247(F) The argument to C<exists> must be a hash or array element or a
0ffcbc25
FC
2248subroutine with an ampersand, such as:
2249
2250 $foo{$bar}
2251 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
2252 &do_something
2253
2254=item exists argument is not a subroutine name
2255
ccfc2567
FC
2256(F) The argument to C<exists> for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine name,
2257and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this error.
0ffcbc25 2258
a0d0e21e
LW
2259=item Exiting eval via %s
2260
be771a83
GS
2261(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
2262goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
2263
2264=item Exiting format via %s
2265
9a2ff54b 2266(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 2267goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 2268
0a753a76 2269=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
2270
be771a83
GS
2271(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
2272sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
2273loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 2274
a0d0e21e
LW
2275=item Exiting subroutine via %s
2276
be771a83
GS
2277(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
2278as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
2279
2280=item Exiting substitution via %s
2281
be771a83
GS
2282(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
2283as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 2284
e0e4a6e3 2285=item Expecting close bracket in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
c608e803 2286
675fa9ff 2287(F) You wrote something like
c608e803
KW
2288
2289 (?13
2290
2291to denote a capturing group of the form
2292L<C<(?I<PARNO>)>|perlre/(?PARNO) (?-PARNO) (?+PARNO) (?R) (?0)>,
2293but omitted the C<")">.
2294
c9ffefcc
FC
2295=item Expecting close paren for nested extended charclass in regex; marked
2296by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2297
2298(F) While parsing a nested extended character class like:
2299
2300 (?[ ... (?flags:(?[ ... ])) ... ])
2301 ^
2302
2303we expected to see a close paren ')' (marked by ^) but did not.
2304
2305=item Expecting close paren for wrapper for nested extended charclass in
2306regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2307
2308(F) While parsing a nested extended character class like:
2309
2310 (?[ ... (?flags:(?[ ... ])) ... ])
2311 ^
2312
2313we expected to see a close paren ')' (marked by ^) but did not.
2314
e0e4a6e3 2315=item Expecting '(?flags:(?[...' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
27350048 2316
8b6fbf55
FC
2317(F) The C<(?[...])> extended character class regular expression construct
2318only allows character classes (including character class escapes like
2319C<\d>), operators, and parentheses. The one exception is C<(?flags:...)>
2320containing at least one flag and exactly one C<(?[...])> construct.
27350048
FC
2321This allows a regular expression containing just C<(?[...])> to be
2322interpolated. If you see this error message, then you probably
2323have some other C<(?...)> construct inside your character class. See
2324L<perlrecharclass/Extended Bracketed Character Classes>.
2325
baabe3fb 2326=item Experimental aliasing via reference not enabled
1f8155a2 2327
baabe3fb 2328(F) To do aliasing via references, you must first enable the feature:
1f8155a2 2329
baabe3fb
FC
2330 no warnings "experimental::refaliasing";
2331 use feature "refaliasing";
1f8155a2
FC
2332 \$x = \$y;
2333
74d1b2e4
FC
2334=item Experimental %s on scalar is now forbidden
2335
2336(F) An experimental feature added in Perl 5.14 allowed C<each>, C<keys>,
2337C<push>, C<pop>, C<shift>, C<splice>, C<unshift>, and C<values> to be called with a
2338scalar argument. This experiment is considered unsuccessful, and
2339has been removed. The C<postderef> feature may meet your needs better.
2340
30d9c59b
Z
2341=item Experimental subroutine signatures not enabled
2342
2343(F) To use subroutine signatures, you must first enable them:
2344
caa35032 2345 no warnings "experimental::signatures";
30d9c59b
Z
2346 use feature "signatures";
2347 sub foo ($left, $right) { ... }
2348
7b8d334a
GS
2349=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
2350
be771a83
GS
2351(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
2352the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
2353usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
2354e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 2355
6df41af2
GS
2356=item %s: Expression syntax
2357
be771a83
GS
2358(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
2359Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
2360
2361=item %s failed--call queue aborted
2362
3c10abe3
AG
2363(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a UNITCHECK,
2364CHECK, INIT, or END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the
2365queue of such routines has been prematurely ended.
6df41af2 2366
e0d4aead 2367=item Failed to close in-place work file %s: %s
502aca56
TC
2368
2369(F) Closing an output file from in-place editing, as with the C<-i>
2370command-line switch, failed.
2371
e0e4a6e3 2372=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
73b437c8 2373
98d31c73 2374(W regexp)(F) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3 2375character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
3c6ca74a
FC
2376in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". In a C<(?[...])>
2377construct, this is an error, rather than a warning. Consider quoting
e0e4a6e3 2378the "-", "\-". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression
3c6ca74a 2379the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 2380
1b1ee2ef 2381=item Fatal VMS error (status=%d) at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 2382
be771a83
GS
2383(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
2384system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
2385details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
2386you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
2387
2388=item fcntl is not implemented
2389
2390(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
2391PDP-11 or something?
2392
22846ab4
AB
2393=item FETCHSIZE returned a negative value
2394
2395(F) A tied array claimed to have a negative number of elements, which
2396is not possible.
2397
f337b084
TH
2398=item Field too wide in 'u' format in pack
2399
d8b5cc61 2400(W pack) Each line in an uuencoded string starts with a length indicator
6903afa2
FC
2401which can't encode values above 63. So there is no point in asking for
2402a line length bigger than that. Perl will behave as if you specified
5c96f6f7 2403C<u63> as the format.
f337b084 2404
a0e213fc
A
2405=item File::Glob::glob() will disappear in perl 5.30. Use File::Glob::bsd_glob() instead.
2406
2407(D deprecated) C<< File::Glob >> has a function called C<< glob >>, which
2408just calls C<< bsd_glob >>. However, its prototype is different from the
2409prototype of C<< CORE::glob >>, and hence, C<< File::Glob::glob >> should
2410not be used.
2411
2412C<< File::Glob::glob() >> was deprecated in perl 5.8.0. A deprecation
2413message was issued from perl 5.26.0 onwards, and the function will
2414disappear in perl 5.30.0.
2415
2416Code using C<< File::Glob::glob() >> should call
2417C<< File::Glob::bsd_glob() >> instead.
2418
af8c498a 2419=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 2420
6c8d78fb
HS
2421(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
2422it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
2423"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
2424write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 2425
af8c498a 2426=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 2427
6c8d78fb
HS
2428(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
2429you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
89a1bda8
FC
2430with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with ">". If you intended only to
2431read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>. Another possibility
2432is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0 (also known as STDIN) for
2433output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
97828cef
RGS
2434
2435=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
2436
2437(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
6903afa2 2438as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
97828cef
RGS
2439previously.
2440
2441=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
2442
2443(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
fa816bf3 2444as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
2445
2446=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
2447
2448(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
2449a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
2450happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
2451name.
a0d0e21e 2452
56e90b21
GS
2453=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
2454
be771a83 2455(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 2456some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
2457filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
2458same name?
56e90b21 2459
6df41af2
GS
2460=item Format not terminated
2461
2462(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
2463to the end of your file without finding such a line.
2464
a0d0e21e
LW
2465=item Format %s redefined
2466
e476b1b5 2467(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
2468
2469 {
271595cc 2470 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
2471 eval "format NAME =...";
2472 }
2473
a0d0e21e
LW
2474=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
2475
e476b1b5 2476(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
2477
2478 if ($foo = 123)
2479
2480when you meant
2481
2482 if ($foo == 123)
2483
2484(or something like that).
2485
6df41af2
GS
2486=item %s found where operator expected
2487
56da5a46
RGS
2488(S syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator.
2489If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
be771a83
GS
2490operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
2491operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 2492
a0d0e21e
LW
2493=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
2494
2495(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
2496
2497=item gethostent not implemented
2498
2499(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
2500because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
2501on the Internet.
2502
69282e91 2503=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2504
be771a83
GS
2505(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
2506socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 2507
748a9306
LW
2508=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
2509
2510(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
2511C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
2512
6df41af2
GS
2513=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
2514
be771a83
GS
2515(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
2516forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
2517L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
2518
0f539b13
BF
2519=item given is experimental
2520
7896dde7
Z
2521(S experimental::smartmatch) C<given> depends on smartmatch, which
2522is experimental, so its behavior may change or even be removed
2523in any future release of perl. See the explanation under
2524L<perlsyn/Experimental Details on given and when>.
0f539b13 2525
68567d27
FC
2526=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name (did you forget to
2527declare "my %s"?)
6df41af2 2528
a4edf47d 2529(F) You've said "use strict" or "use strict vars", which indicates
30c282f6 2530that all variables must either be lexically scoped (using "my" or "state"),
a4edf47d
GS
2531declared beforehand using "our", or explicitly qualified to say
2532which package the global variable is in (using "::").
6df41af2 2533
e476b1b5
GS
2534=item glob failed (%s)
2535
5ead438e 2536(S glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used
73c4e9dc
FC
2537for C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a C<glob>
2538pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
be771a83 2539nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
73c4e9dc
FC
2540resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell)
2541is broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables
2542in config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as
2543if it were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them
2544all empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
be771a83 2545think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 2546C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 2547
a0d0e21e
LW
2548=item Glob not terminated
2549
2550(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
2551a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
2552not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
2553earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 2554
b35b96b6
JH
2555=item gmtime(%f) failed
2556
2557(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that it could not handle:
2558too large, too small, or NaN. The returned value is C<undef>.
2559
bcd05b94 2560=item gmtime(%f) too large
8b56d6ff 2561
e9200be3 2562(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was larger than
fc003d4b 2563it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong
6903afa2 2564date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
fc003d4b
MS
2565not-a-number value).
2566
bcd05b94 2567=item gmtime(%f) too small
fc003d4b 2568
e9200be3 2569(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was smaller than
e7a1a147 2570it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong date.
8b56d6ff 2571
6df41af2 2572=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 2573
6df41af2
GS
2574(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
2575version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
2576
2577=item goto must have label
2578
2579(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
2580unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2581
6651ba0b
FC
2582=item Goto undefined subroutine%s
2583
2584(F) You tried to call a subroutine with C<goto &sub> syntax, but
2585the indicated subroutine hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
2586has since been undefined.
2587
6fbc9859 2588=item Group name must start with a non-digit word character in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 2589S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1f4f6bf1
YO
2590
2591(F) Group names must follow the rules for perl identifiers, meaning
f26c79ba
FC
2592they must start with a non-digit word character. A common cause of
2593this error is using (?&0) instead of (?0). See L<perlre>.
1f4f6bf1 2594
5a25739d
FC
2595=item ()-group starts with a count
2596
2597(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is supposed to follow
2598something: a template character or a ()-group. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2599
fe13d51d 2600=item %s had compilation errors.
6df41af2
GS
2601
2602(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
2603
a0d0e21e
LW
2604=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
2605
be771a83
GS
2606(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
2607to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
2608created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e 2609
6df41af2
GS
2610=item %s has too many errors
2611
2612(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
2613Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
2614
61e61fbc
JH
2615=item Hexadecimal float: exponent overflow
2616
d8f2b442 2617(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point has a larger exponent
61e61fbc
JH
2618than the floating point supports.
2619
2620=item Hexadecimal float: exponent underflow
2621
d8f2b442 2622(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point has a smaller exponent
b6d9b423
JH
2623than the floating point supports. With the IEEE 754 floating point,
2624this may also mean that the subnormals (formerly known as denormals)
2625are being used, which may or may not be an error.
61e61fbc 2626
5488d373 2627=item Hexadecimal float: internal error (%s)
cf4f6003
JH
2628
2629(F) Something went horribly bad in hexadecimal float handling.
2630
61e61fbc
JH
2631=item Hexadecimal float: mantissa overflow
2632
2633(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point literal had more bits in
2634the mantissa (the part between the 0x and the exponent, also known as
2635the fraction or the significand) than the floating point supports.
2636
40bca5ae
JH
2637=item Hexadecimal float: precision loss
2638
2639(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point had internally more
2640digits than could be output. This can be caused by unsupported
2641long double formats, or by 64-bit integers not being available
2642(needed to retrieve the digits under some configurations).
2643
2644=item Hexadecimal float: unsupported long double format
2645
2646(F) You have configured Perl to use long doubles but
d8f2b442 2647the internals of the long double format are unknown;
40bca5ae
JH
2648therefore the hexadecimal float output is impossible.
2649
252aa082
JH
2650=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
2651
e476b1b5 2652(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
2653(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2654L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 2655
8903cb82 2656=item Identifier too long
2657
2658(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 2659about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
2660names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
2661of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 2662
e0e4a6e3
FC
2663=item Ignoring zero length \N{} in character class in regex; marked by
2664S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
fc8cd66c 2665
f3ba6905 2666(W regexp) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a
0f44b2a5
FC
2667zero-length sequence. When such an escape is used in a character
2668class its behavior is not well defined. Check that the correct
2669escape has been used, and the correct charname handler is in scope.
fc8cd66c 2670
bcfb98ec 2671=item Illegal %s digit '%c' ignored
f675dbe5 2672
bcfb98ec
KW
2673(W digit) Here C<%s> is one of "binary", "octal", or "hex".
2674You may have tried to use a digit other than one that is legal for the
2675given type, such as only 0 and 1 for binary. For octals, this is raised
2676only if the illegal character is an '8' or '9'. For hex, 'A' - 'F' and
2677'a' - 'f' are legal.
2678Interpretation of the number stopped just before the offending digit or
2679character.
f675dbe5 2680
bcfb98ec 2681=item Illegal binary digit '%c'
a0d0e21e 2682
bcfb98ec 2683(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
a0d0e21e 2684
6597eb22
FC
2685=item Illegal character after '_' in prototype for %s : %s
2686
e4d150f1
FC
2687(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype
2688declaration. The '_' in a prototype must be followed by a ';',
2689indicating the rest of the parameters are optional, or one of '@'
2690or '%', since those two will accept 0 or more final parameters.
6597eb22 2691
b913d0b8
FC
2692=item Illegal character \%o (carriage return)
2693
2694(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as
2695it would any other whitespace, which means you should never see
2696this error when Perl was built using standard options. For some
2697reason, your version of Perl appears to have been built without
2698this support. Talk to your Perl administrator.
2699
bb6b75cd 2700=item Illegal character following sigil in a subroutine signature
d3d9da4a
DM
2701
2702(F) A parameter in a subroutine signature contained an unexpected character
d4e5761f
FC
2703following the C<$>, C<@> or C<%> sigil character. Normally the sigil
2704should be followed by the variable name or C<=> etc. Perhaps you are
d3d9da4a
DM
2705trying use a prototype while in the scope of C<use feature 'signatures'>?
2706For example:
2707
2708 sub foo ($$) {} # legal - a prototype
2709
2710 use feature 'signatures;
2711 sub foo ($$) {} # illegal - was expecting a signature
2712 sub foo ($a, $b)
2713 :prototype($$) {} # legal
2714
2715
d37a9538
ST
2716=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
2717
197afce1 2718(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
2e9cc7ef 2719Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, \, and +.
30d9c59b
Z
2720Perhaps you were trying to write a subroutine signature but didn't enable
2721that feature first (C<use feature 'signatures'>), so your signature was
2722instead interpreted as a bad prototype.
d37a9538 2723
904d85c5
RGS
2724=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
2725
2726(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
6903afa2 2727you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
904d85c5 2728
8e742a20
MHM
2729=item Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
2730
6903afa2 2731(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See L<perlsub>.
8e742a20 2732
a0d0e21e
LW
2733=item Illegal division by zero
2734
be771a83
GS
2735(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
2736your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
2737meaningless input.
a0d0e21e
LW
2738
2739=item Illegal modulus zero
2740
be771a83
GS
2741(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
2742numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 2743
6df41af2 2744=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 2745
6df41af2
GS
2746(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
2747two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4 2748
283151b7 2749=item Illegal octal digit '%c'
a0d0e21e 2750
d1be9408 2751(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 2752
ecc6274e
FC
2753=item Illegal operator following parameter in a subroutine signature
2754
2755(F) A parameter in a subroutine signature, was followed by something
2756other than C<=> introducing a default, C<,> or C<)>.
2757
2758 use feature 'signatures';
2759 sub foo ($=1) {} # legal
2760 sub foo ($a = 1) {} # legal
2761 sub foo ($a += 1) {} # illegal
2762 sub foo ($a == 1) {} # illegal
2763
e0e4a6e3 2764=item Illegal pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
c608e803 2765
675fa9ff 2766(F) You wrote something like
c608e803
KW
2767
2768 (?+foo)
2769
2770The C<"+"> is valid only when followed by digits, indicating a
2771capturing group. See
2772L<C<(?I<PARNO>)>|perlre/(?PARNO) (?-PARNO) (?+PARNO) (?R) (?0)>.
2773
375ed12a
JH
2774=item Illegal suidscript
2775
2776(F) The script run under suidperl was somehow illegal.
2777
fe13d51d 2778=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: -%c
6ff81951 2779
6df41af2 2780(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
646ca9b2 2781following switches: B<-[CDIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 2782
4003ea29
KW
2783=item Illegal user-defined property name
2784
2785(F) You specified a Unicode-like property name in a regular expression
2786pattern (using C<\p{}> or C<\P{}>) that Perl knows isn't an official
2787Unicode property, and was likely meant to be a user-defined property
2788name, but it can't be one of those, as they must begin with either C<In>
2789or C<Is>. Check the spelling. See also
2790L</Can't find Unicode property definition "%s">.
2791
6df41af2 2792=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 2793
75b44862 2794(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
2795internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
2796delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 2797
6df41af2 2798=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 2799
be771a83
GS
2800(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
2801name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
2802didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
2803ignored.
54310121 2804
6df41af2 2805=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 2806
be771a83
GS
2807(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
2808the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
2809system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
2810times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
2811would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 2812
be771a83
GS
2813Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
2814also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 2815
e0e4a6e3
FC
2816=item Incomplete expression within '(?[ ])' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
2817in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 2818
675fa9ff 2819(F) There was a syntax error within the C<(?[ ])>. This can happen if the
0d0b4b3b
KW
2820expression inside the construct was completely empty, or if there are
2821too many or few operands for the number of operators. Perl is not smart
2822enough to give you a more precise indication as to what is wrong.
2823
6fbc9859
MH
2824=item Inconsistent hierarchy during C3 merge of class '%s': merging failed on
2825parent '%s'
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2826
2827(F) The method resolution order (MRO) of the given class is not
2828C3-consistent, and you have enabled the C3 MRO for this class. See the C3
2829documentation in L<mro> for more information.
2830
cdd6375d
MH
2831=item Indentation on line %d of here-doc doesn't match delimiter
2832
2833(F) You have an indented here-document where one or more of its lines
2834have whitespace at the beginning that does not match the closing
2835delimiter.
2836
2837For example, line 2 below is wrong because it does not have at least
28382 spaces, but lines 1 and 3 are fine because they have at least 2:
2839
2840 if ($something) {
2841 print <<~EOF;
2842 Line 1
2843 Line 2 not
2844 Line 3
2845 EOF
2846 }
2847
2848Note that tabs and spaces are compared strictly, meaning 1 tab will
2849not match 8 spaces.
2850
6a2ed79a 2851=item Infinite recursion in regex
1a147d38
YO
2852
2853(F) You used a pattern that references itself without consuming any input
6903afa2 2854text. You should check the pattern to ensure that recursive patterns
1a147d38
YO
2855either consume text or fail.
2856
714f94d1
FC
2857=item Infinite recursion via empty pattern
2858
2859(F) You tried to use the empty pattern inside of a regex code block,
2860for instance C</(?{ s!!! })/>, which resulted in re-executing
2861the same pattern, which is an infinite loop which is broken by
2862throwing an exception.
2863
f99042c8 2864=item Initialization of state variables in list currently forbidden
6dbe9451 2865
f99042c8
Z
2866(F) C<state> only permits initializing a single variable, specified
2867without parentheses. So C<state $a = 42> and C<state @a = qw(a b c)> are
2868allowed, but not C<state ($a) = 42> or C<(state $a) = 42>. To initialize
2869more than one C<state> variable, initialize them one at a time.
6dbe9451 2870
2186f873
FC
2871=item %%s[%s] in scalar context better written as $%s[%s]
2872
2873(W syntax) In scalar context, you've used an array index/value slice
2874(indicated by %) to select a single element of an array. Generally
2875it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
2876is that C<$foo[&bar]> always behaves like a scalar, both in the value it
2877returns and when evaluating its argument, while C<%foo[&bar]> provides
2878a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things if you're
2879expecting only one subscript. When called in list context, it also
2880returns the index (what C<&bar> returns) in addition to the value.
2881
2882=item %%s{%s} in scalar context better written as $%s{%s}
2883
2884(W syntax) In scalar context, you've used a hash key/value slice
2885(indicated by %) to select a single element of a hash. Generally it's
2886better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
2887is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves like a scalar, both in the value
2888it returns and when evaluating its argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> and
2889provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
2890if you're expecting only one subscript. When called in list context,
2891it also returns the key in addition to the value.
2892
a0d0e21e
LW
2893=item Insecure dependency in %s
2894
8b1a09fc 2895(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
2896The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
2897setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
2898tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
2899from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
2900such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
2901L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
2902
2903=item Insecure directory in %s
2904
be771a83
GS
2905(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2906setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
df98f984
RGS
2907the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
2908See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2909
62f468fc 2910=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2911
2912(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc 2913setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
332d5f78
SR
2914C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
2915supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
2916the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2917
0e9be77f
DM
2918=item Insecure user-defined property %s
2919
2920(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2921expression that contains a call to a user-defined character property
2922function, i.e. C<\p{IsFoo}> or C<\p{InFoo}>.
2923See L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties> and L<perlsec>.
2924
b9ef414d
FC
2925=item Integer overflow in format string for %s
2926
2927(F) The indexes and widths specified in the format string of C<printf()>
2928or C<sprintf()> are too large. The numbers must not overflow the size of
2929integers for your architecture.
2930
a7ae9550
GS
2931=item Integer overflow in %s number
2932
35928bc5 2933(S overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
2934either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
2935your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
2936On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
2937representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
29380b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
2939transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
2940internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
2941operations.
bbce6d69 2942
fc89ca81
FC
2943=item Integer overflow in srand
2944
2945(S overflow) The number you have passed to srand is too big to fit
2946in your architecture's integer representation. The number has been
2947replaced with the largest integer supported (0xFFFFFFFF on 32-bit
2948architectures). This means you may be getting less randomness than
2949you expect, because different random seeds above the maximum will
2950return the same sequence of random numbers.
2951
46314c13
JP
2952=item Integer overflow in version
2953
18da5252
FC
2954=item Integer overflow in version %d
2955
784d71ed
FC
2956(W overflow) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for
2957the size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
f084e84f 2958because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use an
784d71ed
FC
2959element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by trying
2960to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like 100/9.
46314c13 2961
e0e4a6e3 2962=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2963
2964(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
e0e4a6e3 2965The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
b45f050a
JF
2966discovered.
2967
748a9306
LW
2968=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
2969
be771a83
GS
2970(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
2971you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
2972to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
2973L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
2974Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
2975terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 2976
870978ae
FC
2977=item internal %<num>p might conflict with future printf extensions
2978
2979(S internal) Perl's internal routine that handles C<printf> and C<sprintf>
2980formatting follows a slightly different set of rules when called from
2981C or XS code. Specifically, formats consisting of digits followed
2982by "p" (e.g., "%7p") are reserved for future use. If you see this
2983message, then an XS module tried to call that routine with one such
2984reserved format.
2985
e0e4a6e3 2986=item Internal urp in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 2987
fa816bf3 2988(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
e0e4a6e3 2989S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
7253e4e3 2990discovered.
a0d0e21e 2991
6df41af2
GS
2992=item %s (...) interpreted as function
2993
75b44862 2994(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 2995followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 2996operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 2997L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 2998
f51551f7
FC
2999=item In '(?...)', the '(' and '?' must be adjacent in regex;
3000marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3001
3002(F) The two-character sequence C<"(?"> in this context in a regular
3003expression pattern should be an indivisible token, with nothing
3004intervening between the C<"("> and the C<"?">, but you separated them
3005with whitespace.
3006
d9790612 3007=item In '(*...)', the '(' and '*' must be adjacent in regex;
edf23316
FC
3008marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3009
d9790612 3010(F) The two-character sequence C<"(*"> in this context in a regular
edf23316 3011expression pattern should be an indivisible token, with nothing
d9790612
KW
3012intervening between the C<"("> and the C<"*">, but you separated them.
3013Fix the pattern and retry.
edf23316 3014
09bef843
SB
3015=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
3016
a4a4c9e2 3017(F) The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
09bef843
SB
3018by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
3019
3020=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
3021
a4a4c9e2 3022(F) The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
be771a83 3023recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 3024
e0e4a6e3
FC
3025=item Invalid character in charnames alias definition; marked by
3026S<<-- HERE> in '%s
225fb84f
KW
3027
3028(F) You tried to create a custom alias for a character name, with
3029the C<:alias> option to C<use charnames> and the specified character in
3030the indicated name isn't valid. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
3031
c8028aa6
TC
3032=item Invalid \0 character in %s for %s: %s\0%s
3033
fa3234e3
FC
3034(W syscalls) Embedded \0 characters in pathnames or other system call
3035arguments produce a warning as of 5.20. The parts after the \0 were
3036formerly ignored by system calls.
c8028aa6 3037
e0e4a6e3 3038=item Invalid character in \N{...}; marked by S<<-- HERE> in \N{%s}
a690c7c4
FC
3039
3040(F) Only certain characters are valid for character names. The
3041indicated one isn't. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
3042
c635e13b 3043=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
3044
be771a83
GS
3045(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
3046L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 3047
e0e4a6e3
FC
3048=item Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regex; marked by
3049S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9e08bc66 3050
98d31c73 3051(W regexp)(F) The numeric escape (for example C<\xHH>) of value < 256
9e08bc66
TS
3052didn't correspond to a single character through the conversion
3053from the encoding specified by the encoding pragma.
98d31c73
FC
3054The escape was replaced with REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (U+FFFD)
3055instead, except within S<C<(?[ ])>>, where it is a fatal error.
e0e4a6e3 3056The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
9e08bc66
TS
3057escape was discovered.
3058
8149aa9f
FC
3059=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...}
3060
e0e4a6e3
FC
3061=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...} in regex; marked by
3062S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 3063
8149aa9f 3064(F) The character constant represented by C<...> is not a valid hexadecimal
74f8e9e3
FC
3065number. Either it is empty, or you tried to use a character other than
30660 - 9 or A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number.
8149aa9f 3067
6651ba0b
FC
3068=item Invalid module name %s with -%c option: contains single ':'
3069
3070(F) The module argument to perl's B<-m> and B<-M> command-line options
3071cannot contain single colons in the module name, but only in the
3072arguments after "=". In other words, B<-MFoo::Bar=:baz> is ok, but
3073B<-MFoo:Bar=baz> is not.
3074
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3075=item Invalid mro name: '%s'
3076
162a3e34
FC
3077(F) You tried to C<mro::set_mro("classname", "foo")> or C<use mro 'foo'>,
3078where C<foo> is not a valid method resolution order (MRO). Currently,
3079the only valid ones supported are C<dfs> and C<c3>, unless you have loaded
3080a module that is a MRO plugin. See L<mro> and L<perlmroapi>.
2c7d6b9c 3081
40e4140b
FC
3082=item Invalid negative number (%s) in chr
3083
3084(W utf8) You passed a negative number to C<chr>. Negative numbers are
abc0aa9d 3085not valid character numbers, so it returns the Unicode replacement
40e4140b
FC
3086character (U+FFFD).
3087
74d1b2e4
FC
3088=item Invalid number '%s' for -C option.
3089
3090(F) You supplied a number to the -C option that either has extra leading
3091zeroes or overflows perl's unsigned integer representation.
3092
6651ba0b
FC
3093=item invalid option -D%c, use -D'' to see choices
3094
8ff21bfe
FC
3095(S debugging) Perl was called with invalid debugger flags. Call perl
3096with the B<-D> option with no flags to see the list of acceptable values.
982c4ecb 3097See also L<perlrun/-Dletters>.
6651ba0b 3098
6e8a73f2 3099=item Invalid quantifier in {,} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
35cd12d1
HS
3100
3101(F) The pattern looks like a {min,max} quantifier, but the min or max
3102could not be parsed as a valid number - either it has leading zeroes,
3103or it represents too big a number to cope with. The S<<-- HERE> shows
3104where in the regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3105
e0e4a6e3 3106=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
3107
3108(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
3109greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
3110C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
e0e4a6e3 3111up to C<ff>. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
7253e4e3 3112problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 3113
d1573ac7 3114=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
3115
3116(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
3117character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
3118
09bef843
SB
3119=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
3120
0120eecf 3121(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
3122elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
3123parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
3124See L<attributes>.
09bef843 3125
b4581f09
JH
3126=item Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
3127
2bfc5f71
FC
3128(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other
3129than a colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
b4581f09
JH
3130If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
3131list was terminated too soon.
3132
2c86d456
DG
3133=item Invalid strict version format (%s)
3134
fa816bf3 3135(F) A version number did not meet the "strict" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
3136A "strict" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
3137decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
3138v-string with a leading 'v' character and at least three components.
a6485a24 3139The parenthesized text indicates which criteria were not met.
2c86d456
DG
3140See the L<version> module for more details on allowed version formats.
3141
49704364 3142=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
96e4d5b1 3143
49704364
WL
3144(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
3145See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6728c851 3146
49704364 3147(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
75b44862 3148silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 3149
2c86d456
DG
3150=item Invalid version format (%s)
3151
fa816bf3 3152(F) A version number did not meet the "lax" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
3153A "lax" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
3154decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
fa816bf3
FC
3155v-string. If the v-string has fewer than three components, it
3156must have a leading 'v' character. Otherwise, the leading 'v' is
3157optional. Both decimal and dotted-decimal versions may have a
3158trailing "alpha" component separated by an underscore character
3159after a fractional or dotted-decimal component. The parenthesized
3160text indicates which criteria were not met. See the L<version> module
3161for more details on allowed version formats.
46314c13 3162
798ae1b7
DG
3163=item Invalid version object
3164
fa816bf3
FC
3165(F) The internal structure of the version object was invalid.
3166Perhaps the internals were modified directly in some way or
3167an arbitrary reference was blessed into the "version" class.
798ae1b7 3168
cd209d9d 3169=item In '(*VERB...)', the '(' and '*' must be adjacent in regex;
e0e4a6e3 3170marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff 3171
edf23316
FC
3172(F) The two-character sequence C<"(*"> in this context in a regular
3173expression pattern should be an indivisible token, with nothing
3174intervening between the C<"("> and the C<"*">, but you separated them.
675fa9ff 3175
a0d0e21e
LW
3176=item ioctl is not implemented
3177
3178(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
3179strange for a machine that supports C.
3180
c289d2f7
JH
3181=item ioctl() on unopened %s
3182
3183(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
34b6fd5e 3184Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 3185
fe13d51d 3186=item IO layers (like '%s') unavailable
363c40c4
SB
3187
3188(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
34b6fd5e 3189you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO, Perl must be configured
363c40c4
SB
3190with 'useperlio'.
3191
80cbd5ad
JH
3192=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
3193
3194(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
34b6fd5e 3195neither as a system call nor an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
80cbd5ad 3196
6e8a73f2 3197=item '%s' is an unknown bound type in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
64935bc6
KW
3198
3199(F) You used C<\b{...}> or C<\B{...}> and the C<...> is not known to
3200Perl. The current valid ones are given in
3201L<perlrebackslash/\b{}, \b, \B{}, \B>.
3202
1ed4b776 3203=item %s() isn't allowed on :utf8 handles
74d1b2e4 3204
1ed4b776
TC
3205(F) The sysread(), recv(), syswrite() and send() operators are
3206not allowed on handles that have the C<:utf8> layer, either explicitly, or
74d1b2e4
FC
3207implicitly, eg., with the C<:encoding(UTF-16LE)> layer.
3208
1ed4b776
TC
3209Previously sysread() and recv() currently use only the C<:utf8> flag for the stream,
3210ignoring the actual layers. Since sysread() and recv() did no UTF-8
74d1b2e4
FC
3211validation they can end up creating invalidly encoded scalars.
3212
1ed4b776
TC
3213Similarly, syswrite() and send() used only the C<:utf8> flag, otherwise ignoring
3214any layers. If the flag is set, both wrote the value UTF-8 encoded, even if
74d1b2e4
FC
3215the layer is some different encoding, such as the example above.
3216
3217Ideally, all of these operators would completely ignore the C<:utf8> state,
3218working only with bytes, but this would result in silently breaking existing
1972ac5c
A
3219code.
3220
d4360efa 3221=item "%s" is more clearly written simply as "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
acdfc3b6 3222
d4360efa 3223(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
30b17cc1 3224
3f673807
FC
3225You specified a character that has the given plainer way of writing it, and
3226which is also portable to platforms running with different character sets.
acdfc3b6 3227
dcb414ac 3228=item $* is no longer supported as of Perl 5.30
a678626e 3229
dcb414ac
JK
3230(F) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older perls, was removed in
32315.10.0, is no longer supported and is a fatal error as of Perl 5.30. In
a678626e
A
3232previous versions of perl the use of C<$*> enabled or disabled multi-line
3233matching within a string.
3234
3235Instead of using C<$*> you should use the C</m> (and maybe C</s>) regexp
3236modifiers. You can enable C</m> for a lexical scope (even a whole file)
3237with C<use re '/m'>. (In older versions: when C<$*> was set to a true value
3238then all regular expressions behaved as if they were written using C</m>.)
3239
37398dc1
A
3240Use of this variable will be a fatal error in Perl 5.30.
3241
dcb414ac 3242=item $# is no longer supported as of Perl 5.30
a678626e 3243
dcb414ac
JK
3244(F) The special variable C<$#>, deprecated in older perls, was removed as of
32455.10.0, is no longer supported and is a fatal error as of Perl 5.30. You
a678626e
A
3246should use the printf/sprintf functions instead.
3247
ccf3535a 3248=item '%s' is not a code reference
6ad11d81 3249
6903afa2
FC
3250(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of
3251overload::constant needs to be a code reference. Either
3252an anonymous subroutine, or a reference to a subroutine.
6ad11d81 3253
ccf3535a 3254=item '%s' is not an overloadable type
6ad11d81 3255
04a80ee0
RGS
3256(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
3257unaware of.
6ad11d81 3258
813e85a0
PE
3259=item isa is experimental
3260
3261(S experimental::isa) This warning is emitted if you use the (C<isa>)
3262operator. This operator is currently experimental and its behaviour may
3263change in future releases of Perl.
3264
5a25739d
FC
3265=item -i used with no filenames on the command line, reading from STDIN
3266
3267(S inplace) The C<-i> option was passed on the command line, indicating
3268that the script is intended to edit files in place, but no files were
3269given. This is usually a mistake, since editing STDIN in place doesn't
3270make sense, and can be confusing because it can make perl look like
3271it is hanging when it is really just trying to read from STDIN. You
3272should either pass a filename to edit, or remove C<-i> from the command
3273line. See L<perlrun> for more details.
3274
aec0ef10 3275=item Junk on end of regexp in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
3276
3277(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
3278
105c827d
TC
3279=item \K not permitted in lookahead/lookbehind in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3280
3281(F) Your regular expression used C<\K> in a lookhead or lookbehind
3282assertion, which isn't permitted.
3283
a0d0e21e
LW
3284=item Label not found for "last %s"
3285
be771a83
GS
3286(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
3287of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3288L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
3289
3290=item Label not found for "next %s"
3291
3292(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
3293that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3294L<perlfunc/last>.
3295
3296=item Label not found for "redo %s"
3297
3298(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
3299that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3300L<perlfunc/last>.
3301
85ab1d1d 3302=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 3303
85ab1d1d 3304(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
3305effective uids or gids failed.
3306
49704364
WL
3307=item length/code after end of string in unpack
3308
d7f8936a 3309(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an unpack
6903afa2
FC
3310length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
3311an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 3312
25e26107 3313=item length() used on %s (did you mean "scalar(%s)"?)
e508c8a4 3314
0d46a4e7
FC
3315(W syntax) You used length() on either an array or a hash when you
3316probably wanted a count of the items.
e508c8a4
MH
3317
3318Array size can be obtained by doing:
3319
3320 scalar(@array);
3321
3322The number of items in a hash can be obtained by doing:
3323
3324 scalar(keys %hash);
3325
f0e67a1d
Z
3326=item Lexing code attempted to stuff non-Latin-1 character into Latin-1 input
3327
d4fe7078
RS
3328(F) An extension is attempting to insert text into the current parse
3329(using L<lex_stuff_pvn|perlapi/lex_stuff_pvn> or similar), but tried to insert a character that
3330couldn't be part of the current input. This is an inherent pitfall
3331of the stuffing mechanism, and one of the reasons to avoid it. Where
6903afa2 3332it is necessary to stuff, stuffing only plain ASCII is recommended.
f0e67a1d
Z
3333
3334=item Lexing code internal error (%s)
3335
3336(F) Lexing code supplied by an extension violated the lexer's API in a
3337detectable way.
3338
69282e91 3339=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 3340
be771a83
GS
3341(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
3342to check the return value of your socket() call? See
3343L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 3344
6651ba0b
FC
3345=item List form of piped open not implemented
3346
3347(F) On some platforms, notably Windows, the three-or-more-arguments
3348form of C<open> does not support pipes, such as C<open($pipe, '|-', @args)>.
3349Use the two-argument C<open($pipe, '|prog arg1 arg2...')> form instead.
3350
2a6971a9
KW
3351=item Literal vertical space in [] is illegal except under /x in regex;
3352marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3353
3354(F) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
3355
3356Likely you forgot the C</x> modifier or there was a typo in the pattern.
3357For example, did you really mean to match a form-feed? If so, all the
3358ASCII vertical space control characters are representable by escape
3359sequences which won't present such a jarring appearance as your pattern
3360does when displayed.
3361
3362 \r carriage return
3363 \f form feed
3364 \n line feed
3365 \cK vertical tab
3366
dc6bb7ba
FC
3367=item %s: loadable library and perl binaries are mismatched (got handshake key %p, needed %p)
3368
3369(P) A dynamic loading library C<.so> or C<.dll> was being loaded into the
3370process that was built against a different build of perl than the
3371said library was compiled against. Reinstalling the XS module will
3372likely fix this error.
3373
8b7358b9 3374=item Locale '%s' contains (at least) the following characters which
f03e1e3a 3375have unexpected meanings: %s The Perl program will use the expected
8b7358b9
KW
3376meanings
3377
3378(W locale) You are using the named UTF-8 locale. UTF-8 locales are
578a6a87
KW
3379expected to have very particular behavior, which most do. This message
3380arises when perl found some departures from the expectations, and is
3381notifying you that the expected behavior overrides these differences.
3382In some cases the differences are caused by the locale definition being
3383defective, but the most common causes of this warning are when there are
3384ambiguities and conflicts in following the Standard, and the locale has
3385chosen an approach that differs from Perl's.
3386
3387One of these is because that, contrary to the claims, Unicode is not
a2d13ee0
FC
3388completely locale insensitive. Turkish and some related languages
3389have two types of C<"I"> characters. One is dotted in both upper- and
578a6a87
KW
3390lowercase, and the other is dotless in both cases. Unicode allows a
3391locale to use either the Turkish rules, or the rules used in all other
3392instances, where there is only one type of C<"I">, which is dotless in
3393the uppercase, and dotted in the lower. The perl core does not (yet)
3394handle the Turkish case, and this message warns you of that. Instead,
8b7358b9
KW
3395the L<Unicode::Casing> module allows you to mostly implement the Turkish
3396casing rules.
3397
578a6a87
KW
3398The other common cause is for the characters
3399
3400 $ + < = > ^ ` | ~
3401
3402These are probematic. The C standard says that these should be
3403considered punctuation in the C locale (and the POSIX standard defers to
a2d13ee0
FC
3404the C standard), and Unicode is generally considered a superset of
3405the C locale. But Unicode has added an extra category, "Symbol", and
578a6a87
KW
3406classifies these particular characters as being symbols. Most UTF-8
3407locales have them treated as punctuation, so that L<ispunct(2)> returns
a2d13ee0
FC
3408non-zero for them. But a few locales have it return 0. Perl takes
3409the first approach, not using C<ispunct()> at all (see L<Note [5] in
3410perlrecharclass|perlrecharclass/[5]>), and this message is raised to notify you that you
3411are getting Perl's approach, not the locale's.
8b7358b9 3412
8c6180a9
KW
3413=item Locale '%s' may not work well.%s
3414
780fcc9f 3415(W locale) You are using the named locale, which is a non-UTF-8 one, and
dae67c56
KW
3416which perl has determined is not fully compatible with what it can
3417handle. The second C<%s> gives a reason.
8c6180a9
KW
3418
3419By far the most common reason is that the locale has characters in it
3420that are represented by more than one byte. The only such locales that
3421Perl can handle are the UTF-8 locales. Most likely the specified locale
3422is a non-UTF-8 one for an East Asian language such as Chinese or
3423Japanese. If the locale is a superset of ASCII, the ASCII portion of it
780fcc9f 3424may work in Perl.
8c6180a9
KW
3425
3426Some essentially obsolete locales that aren't supersets of ASCII, mainly
3427those in ISO 646 or other 7-bit locales, such as ASMO 449, can also have
3428problems, depending on what portions of the ASCII character set get
3429changed by the locale and are also used by the program.
3430The warning message lists the determinable conflicting characters.
3431
780fcc9f
KW
3432Note that not all incompatibilities are found.
3433
3434If this happens to you, there's not much you can do except switch to use a
3435different locale or use L<Encode> to translate from the locale into
3436UTF-8; if that's impracticable, you have been warned that some things
3437may break.
3438
3439This message is output once each time a bad locale is switched into
3440within the scope of C<S<use locale>>, or on the first possibly-affected
3441operation if the C<S<use locale>> inherits a bad one. It is not raised
3442for any operations from the L<POSIX> module.
3443
a2162cd9
FC
3444=item localtime(%f) failed
3445
3446(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that it could not handle:
3447too large, too small, or NaN. The returned value is C<undef>.
3448
3449=item localtime(%f) too large
3450
3451(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was larger
3452than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
3453wrong date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
3454not-a-number value).
3455
3456=item localtime(%f) too small
3457
3458(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was smaller
3459than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
3460wrong date.
3461
58e23c8d 3462=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3463
3464(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
6903afa2 3465handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release.
2e50fd82 3466
b88df990
NC
3467=item Lost precision when %s %f by 1
3468
e63e8a91
FC
3469(W imprecision) The value you attempted to increment or decrement by one
3470is too large for the underlying floating point representation to store
3471accurately, hence the target of C<++> or C<--> is unchanged. Perl issues this
3472warning because it has already switched from integers to floating point
3473when values are too large for integers, and now even floating point is
3474insufficient. You may wish to switch to using L<Math::BigInt> explicitly.
b88df990 3475
93fad930 3476=item lstat() on filehandle%s
2f7da168
RK
3477
3478(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
3479by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
3480instead on the filehandle.)
3481
345d70e3 3482=item lvalue attribute %s already-defined subroutine
bb3abb05 3483
345d70e3
FC
3484(W misc) Although L<attributes.pm|attributes> allows this, turning the lvalue
3485attribute on or off on a Perl subroutine that is already defined
3486does not always work properly. It may or may not do what you
3487want, depending on what code is inside the subroutine, with exact
3488details subject to change between Perl versions. Only do this
3489if you really know what you are doing.
bb3abb05 3490
885ef6f5
GG
3491=item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined
3492
345d70e3
FC
3493(W misc) Using the C<:lvalue> declarative syntax to make a Perl
3494subroutine an lvalue subroutine after it has been defined is
3495not permitted. To make the subroutine an lvalue subroutine,
3496add the lvalue attribute to the definition, or put the C<sub
3497foo :lvalue;> declaration before the definition.
3498
3499See also L<attributes.pm|attributes>.
885ef6f5 3500
6f1b3ab0
FC
3501=item Magical list constants are not supported
3502
3503(F) You assigned a magical array to a stash element, and then tried
3504to use the subroutine from the same slot. You are asking Perl to do
3505something it cannot do, details subject to change between Perl versions.
3506
2db62bbc 3507=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
49704364 3508
2db62bbc 3509(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
3510are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3511
3512=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
3513
2db62bbc 3514(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
3515are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3516
6df41af2
GS
3517=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
3518
3519(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
3520
3521 prefix1;prefix2
3522
3523or
6df41af2
GS
3524 prefix1 prefix2
3525
be771a83
GS
3526with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
3527a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
3528appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 3529"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 3530
2f758a16
ST
3531=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
3532
d37a9538
ST
3533(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
3534syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
3535obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
3536when the function is called.
30d9c59b
Z
3537Perhaps the function's author was trying to write a subroutine signature
3538but didn't enable that feature first (C<use feature 'signatures'>),
3539so the signature was instead interpreted as a bad prototype.
2f758a16 3540
2b5e7bc2 3541=item Malformed UTF-8 character%s
ba210ebe 3542
7cf8d05d
KW
3543(S utf8)(F) Perl detected a string that should be UTF-8, but didn't
3544comply with UTF-8 encoding rules, or represents a code point whose
3545ordinal integer value doesn't fit into the word size of the current
3546platform (overflows). Details as to the exact malformation are given in
3547the variable, C<%s>, part of the message.
ba210ebe 3548
2575c402 3549One possible cause is that you set the UTF8 flag yourself for data that
3f673807
FC
3550you thought to be in UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy 8-bit
3551data). To guard against this, you can use C<Encode::decode('UTF-8', ...)>.
2575c402
JW
3552
3553If you use the C<:encoding(UTF-8)> PerlIO layer for input, invalid byte
3f673807
FC
3554sequences are handled gracefully, but if you use C<:utf8>, the flag is set
3555without validating the data, possibly resulting in this error message.
2575c402
JW
3556
3557See also L<Encode/"Handling Malformed Data">.
901b21bf 3558
bde9e88d 3559=item Malformed UTF-8 returned by \N{%s} immediately after '%s'
ff3f963a
KW
3560
3561(F) The charnames handler returned malformed UTF-8.
3562
714f94d1
FC
3563=item Malformed UTF-8 string in "%s"
3564
3565(F) This message indicates a bug either in the Perl core or in XS
3566code. Such code was trying to find out if a character, allegedly
3567stored internally encoded as UTF-8, was of a given type, such as
3568being punctuation or a digit. But the character was not encoded
3569in legal UTF-8. The C<%s> is replaced by a string that can be used
3570by knowledgeable people to determine what the type being checked
3571against was.
3572
3573Passing malformed strings was deprecated in Perl 5.18, and
3574became fatal in Perl 5.26.
3575
4a5d3a93
FC
3576=item Malformed UTF-8 string in '%c' format in unpack
3577
3578(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3579rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3580
f337b084
TH
3581=item Malformed UTF-8 string in pack
3582
3583(F) You tried to pack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3584rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3585
3586=item Malformed UTF-8 string in unpack
3587
3588(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3589rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3590
4a5d3a93 3591=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
f337b084 3592
4a5d3a93
FC
3593(F) Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
3594doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
3595
30d9c59b
Z
3596=item Mandatory parameter follows optional parameter
3597
3598(F) In a subroutine signature, you wrote something like "$a = undef,
3599$b", making an earlier parameter optional and a later one mandatory.
3600Parameters are filled from left to right, so it's impossible for the
3601caller to omit an earlier one and pass a later one. If you want to act
3602as if the parameters are filled from right to left, declare the rightmost
3603optional and then shuffle the parameters around in the subroutine's body.
3604
2d88a86a
KW
3605=item Matched non-Unicode code point 0x%X against Unicode property; may
3606not be portable
3607
3608(S non_unicode) Perl allows strings to contain a superset of
3609Unicode code points; each code point may be as large as what is storable
0202c428 3610in a signed integer on your system, but these may not be accepted by
2d88a86a
KW
3611other languages/systems. This message occurs when you matched a string
3612containing such a code point against a regular expression pattern, and
3613the code point was matched against a Unicode property, C<\p{...}> or
3614C<\P{...}>. Unicode properties are only defined on Unicode code points,
3615so the result of this match is undefined by Unicode, but Perl (starting
3616in v5.20) treats non-Unicode code points as if they were typical
3617unassigned Unicode ones, and matched this one accordingly. Whether a
3618given property matches these code points or not is specified in
3619L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>.
3620
3621This message is suppressed (unless it has been made fatal) if it is
3622immaterial to the results of the match if the code point is Unicode or
3623not. For example, the property C<\p{ASCII_Hex_Digit}> only can match
3624the 22 characters C<[0-9A-Fa-f]>, so obviously all other code points,
3625Unicode or not, won't match it. (And C<\P{ASCII_Hex_Digit}> will match
3626every code point except these 22.)
3627
3628Getting this message indicates that the outcome of the match arguably
3629should have been the opposite of what actually happened. If you think
3630that is the case, you may wish to make the C<non_unicode> warnings
3631category fatal; if you agree with Perl's decision, you may wish to turn
3632off this category.
3633
3634See L<perlunicode/Beyond Unicode code points> for more information.
3635
e0e4a6e3
FC
3636=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
3637m/%s/
4a5d3a93
FC
3638
3639(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
e0e4a6e3 3640regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The S<<-- HERE>
9e3ec65c 3641shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
4a5d3a93 3642See L<perlre>.
f337b084 3643
de42a5a9 3644=item Maximal count of pending signals (%u) exceeded
2563cec5 3645
6903afa2 3646(F) Perl aborted due to too high a number of signals pending. This
2563cec5
IZ
3647usually indicates that your operating system tried to deliver signals
3648too fast (with a very high priority), starving the perl process from
3649resources it would need to reach a point where it can process signals
6903afa2 3650safely. (See L<perlipc/"Deferred Signals (Safe Signals)">.)
2563cec5 3651
25f58aea
PN
3652=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
3653
3654(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
3655interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
3656"use" or "my".
3657
0d2487cd 3658=item '%' may not be used in pack
6df41af2
GS
3659
3660(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
3661checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
3662See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 3663
a0d0e21e
LW
3664=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
3665
3666(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 3667doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 3668
3cdd684c
TP
3669=item Method %s not permitted
3670
3de20fbe 3671See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 3672
a0d0e21e
LW
3673=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
3674
3675(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
3676by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
3677ended earlier on the current line.
3678
3679=item Misplaced _ in number
3680
d4ced10d
JH
3681(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
3682separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 3683
0ea23158
DM
3684=item Missing argument for %n in %s
3685
3686(F) A C<%n> was used in a format string with no corresponding argument for
3687perl to write the current string length to.
3688
7baa4690
HS
3689=item Missing argument in %s
3690
3664866e
AB
3691(W missing) You called a function with fewer arguments than other
3692arguments you supplied indicated would be needed.
3693
3694Currently only emitted when a printf-type format required more
3695arguments than were supplied, but might be used in the future for
3696other cases where we can statically determine that arguments to
3697functions are missing, e.g. for the L<perlfunc/pack> function.
7baa4690 3698
9e81e6a1
RGS
3699=item Missing argument to -%c
3700
3701(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
3702immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
3703
ff3f963a 3704=item Missing braces on \N{}
423cee85 3705
e0e4a6e3 3706=item Missing braces on \N{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 3707
4a2d328f 3708(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
532cb70d
FC
3709double-quotish context. This can also happen when there is a space
3710(or comment) between the C<\N> and the C<{> in a regex with the C</x> modifier.
3711This modifier does not change the requirement that the brace immediately
3712follow the C<\N>.
423cee85 3713
f0a2b745
KW
3714=item Missing braces on \o{}
3715
3716(F) A C<\o> must be followed immediately by a C<{> in double-quotish context.
3717
a0d0e21e
LW
3718=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
3719
3720(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
3721"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
3722
06eaf0bc
GS
3723=item Missing command in piped open
3724
be771a83
GS
3725(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
3726C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
3727blank.
06eaf0bc 3728
961ce445
RGS
3729=item Missing control char name in \c
3730
3731(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
3732character name.
3733
591f5ca2
FC
3734=item Missing ']' in prototype for %s : %s
3735
bfe11873 3736(W illegalproto) A grouping was started with C<[> but never closed with C<]>.
591f5ca2 3737
8767b1ab 3738=item Missing name in "%s sub"
6df41af2 3739
87444db5 3740(F) The syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
be771a83 3741they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
3742
3743=item Missing $ on loop variable
3744
be771a83
GS
3745(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
3746are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
3747can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 3748
cc507455 3749=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306 3750
56da5a46
RGS
3751(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3752"%s found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
748a9306 3753
33fe1955 3754=item Missing or undefined argument to %s
f51551f7 3755
33fe1955 3756(F) You tried to call require or do with no argument or with an undefined
f51551f7 3757value as an argument. Require expects either a package name or a
33fe1955
LM
3758file-specification as an argument; do expects a filename. See
3759L<perlfunc/require EXPR> and L<perlfunc/do EXPR>.
f51551f7 3760
e0e4a6e3 3761=item Missing right brace on \%c{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 3762
ff3f963a
KW
3763(F) Missing right brace in C<\x{...}>, C<\p{...}>, C<\P{...}>, or C<\N{...}>.
3764
605eee60 3765=item Missing right brace on \N{}
faad849d 3766
4a68bf9d 3767=item Missing right brace on \N{} or unescaped left brace after \N
ff3f963a 3768
d32207c9
FC
3769(F) C<\N> has two meanings.
3770
3771The traditional one has it followed by a name enclosed in braces,
3772meaning the character (or sequence of characters) given by that
fa816bf3 3773name. Thus C<\N{ASTERISK}> is another way of writing C<*>, valid in both
d32207c9
FC
3774double-quoted strings and regular expression patterns. In patterns,
3775it doesn't have the meaning an unescaped C<*> does.
3776
3777Starting in Perl 5.12.0, C<\N> also can have an additional meaning (only)
3778in patterns, namely to match a non-newline character. (This is short
3779for C<[^\n]>, and like C<.> but is not affected by the C</s> regex modifier.)
3780
3781This can lead to some ambiguities. When C<\N> is not followed immediately
3782by a left brace, Perl assumes the C<[^\n]> meaning. Also, if the braces
3783form a valid quantifier such as C<\N{3}> or C<\N{5,}>, Perl assumes that this
3784means to match the given quantity of non-newlines (in these examples,
37853; and 5 or more, respectively). In all other case, where there is a
3786C<\N{> and a matching C<}>, Perl assumes that a character name is desired.
3787
3788However, if there is no matching C<}>, Perl doesn't know if it was
3789mistakenly omitted, or if C<[^\n]{> was desired, and raises this error.
3790If you meant the former, add the right brace; if you meant the latter,
3791escape the brace with a backslash, like so: C<\N\{>
ab13f0c7 3792
d98d5fff 3793=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 3794
be771a83
GS
3795(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
3796ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
3797were last editing.
a0d0e21e 3798
6df41af2
GS
3799=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
3800
56da5a46
RGS
3801(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3802"%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
6df41af2
GS
3803the previous line just because you saw this message.
3804
a0d0e21e
LW
3805=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
3806
3807(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 3808constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
3809catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
3810
3811 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
3812 mod(2);
3813
3814Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
3815
c5674021
PDF
3816Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
3817is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
3818
b7e4ecc1
FC
3819 $x = 1;
3820 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
3821 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to
3822 } # modify the 2
c5674021 3823
7a4340ed 3824=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3825
3826(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
3827subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
3828backwards.
3829
7a4340ed 3830=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 3831
be771a83
GS
3832(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
3833couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
3834
3835=item Module name must be constant
3836
3837(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
3838
be98fb35 3839=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 3840
be98fb35
GS
3841(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
3842you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
3843about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 3844
fe13d51d 3845=item More than one argument to '%s' open
ed9aa3b7 3846
6903afa2 3847(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
ed9aa3b7
SG
3848can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
3849list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
3850See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
3851
85396b18
FC
3852=item mprotect for COW string %p %u failed with %d
3853
3854(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_COW (see
3855L<perlguts/"Copy on Write">), but a shared string buffer
3856could not be made read-only.
3857
92951bce
FC
3858=item mprotect for %p %u failed with %d
3859
85396b18
FC
3860(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS (see L<perlhacktips>),
3861but an op tree could not be made read-only.
3862
3863=item mprotect RW for COW string %p %u failed with %d
3864
3865(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_COW (see
3866L<perlguts/"Copy on Write">), but a read-only shared string
3867buffer could not be made mutable.
3868
92951bce
FC
3869=item mprotect RW for %p %u failed with %d
3870
3871(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS (see
85396b18
FC
3872L<perlhacktips>), but a read-only op tree could not be made
3873mutable before freeing the ops.
92951bce 3874
a0d0e21e
LW
3875=item msg%s not implemented
3876
3877(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
3878
3879=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
3880
75b44862
GS
3881(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
3882They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 3883
d3d9da4a
DM
3884=item Multiple slurpy parameters not allowed
3885
3886(F) In subroutine signatures, a slurpy parameter (C<@> or C<%>) must be
3887the last parameter, and there must not be more than one of them; for
3888example:
3889
3890 sub foo ($a, @b) {} # legal
3891 sub foo ($a, @b, %) {} # invalid
3892
49704364 3893=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
6df41af2 3894
49704364
WL
3895(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
3896follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
3897See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2 3898
c869951c 3899=item %s must not be a named sequence in transliteration operator
f4240379
KW
3900
3901(F) Transliteration (C<tr///> and C<y///>) transliterates individual
3902characters. But a named sequence by definition is more than an
dabde021 3903individual character, and hence doing this operation on it doesn't make
f4240379
KW
3904sense.
3905
6df41af2
GS
3906=item "my sub" not yet implemented
3907
be771a83
GS
3908(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
3909that yet.
6df41af2 3910
a21eb52b
FC
3911=item "my" subroutine %s can't be in a package
3912
3913(F) Lexically scoped subroutines aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
3914sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front.
3915
5a25739d
FC
3916=item "my %s" used in sort comparison
3917
3918(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
3919You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
3920sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
3921lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
3922name, or rename the lexical variable.
3923
fd1b7234 3924=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
6df41af2 3925
be771a83
GS
3926(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
3927sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
3928local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 3929
8149aa9f
FC
3930=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
3931
c59aba6c
FC
3932(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable
3933names. If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then
3934just mention it again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our>
08a33b6b 3935declaration is also provided for this purpose.
c59aba6c 3936
66a1f5ec
FC
3937NOTE: This warning detects package symbols that have been used
3938only once. This means lexical variables will never trigger this
3939warning. It also means that all of the package variables $c, @c,
3940%c, as well as *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or
c59aba6c
FC
3941format) are considered the same; if a program uses $c only once
3942but also uses any of the others it will not trigger this warning.
3943Symbols beginning with an underscore and symbols using special
3944identifiers (q.v. L<perldata>) are exempt from this warning.
8149aa9f 3945
e0e4a6e3 3946=item Need exactly 3 octal digits in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b
KW
3947
3948(F) Within S<C<(?[ ])>>, all constants interpreted as octal need to be
3949exactly 3 digits long. This helps catch some ambiguities. If your
3950constant is too short, add leading zeros, like
3951
3952 (?[ [ \078 ] ]) # Syntax error!
3953 (?[ [ \0078 ] ]) # Works
3954 (?[ [ \007 8 ] ]) # Clearer
3955
3956The maximum number this construct can express is C<\777>. If you
675fa9ff
FC
3957need a larger one, you need to use L<\o{}|perlrebackslash/Octal escapes> instead. If you meant
3958two separate things, you need to separate them:
0d0b4b3b
KW
3959
3960 (?[ [ \7776 ] ]) # Syntax error!
3961 (?[ [ \o{7776} ] ]) # One meaning
3962 (?[ [ \777 6 ] ]) # Another meaning
3963 (?[ [ \777 \006 ] ]) # Still another
3964
49704364
WL
3965=item Negative '/' count in unpack
3966
3967(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
3968negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3969
a0d0e21e
LW
3970=item Negative length
3971
be771a83
GS
3972(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
3973length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 3974
ed9aa3b7
SG
3975=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
3976
3977(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
3978greater than or equal to zero.
3979
b3211734
KW
3980=item Negative repeat count does nothing
3981
3982(W numeric) You tried to execute the
3983L<C<x>|perlop/Multiplicative Operators> repetition operator fewer than 0
3984times, which doesn't make sense.
3985
e0e4a6e3 3986=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3987
6903afa2 3988(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses.
e0e4a6e3 3989So things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The S<<-- HERE> shows
9e3ec65c 3990whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 3991
7253e4e3 3992Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 3993C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3994
6df41af2 3995=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 3996
be771a83
GS
3997(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
3998scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e 3999
2c7d6b9c
RGS
4000=item next::method/next::can/maybe::next::method cannot find enclosing method
4001
4002(F) C<next::method> needs to be called within the context of a
4003real method in a real package, and it could not find such a context.
4004See L<mro>.
4005
5a25739d 4006=item \N in a character class must be a named character: \N{...} in regex;
e0e4a6e3 4007marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5a25739d 4008
32a77fbe
FC
4009(F) The new (as of Perl 5.12) meaning of C<\N> as C<[^\n]> is not valid in a
4010bracketed character class, for the same reason that C<.> in a character
4011class loses its specialness: it matches almost everything, which is
4012probably not what you want.
5a25739d 4013
1a7108fe 4014=item \N{} here is restricted to one character in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
0b4ce96d 4015
f3ba6905
FC
4016(F) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a
4017multi-character sequence. Even though a character class is
4018supposed to match just one character of input, perl will match the
bc035eed
KW
4019whole thing correctly, except under certain conditions. These currently
4020are
4021
4022=over 4
4023
4024=item When the class is inverted (C<[^...]>)
4025
4026The mathematically logical behavior for what matches when inverting
f3ba6905 4027is very different from what people expect, so we have decided to
bc035eed
KW
4028forbid it.
4029
4030=item The escape is the beginning or final end point of a range
4031
4032Similarly unclear is what should be generated when the
f3ba6905 4033C<\N{...}> is used as one of the end points of the range, such as in
8f0cd35a
KW
4034
4035 [\x{41}-\N{ARABIC SEQUENCE YEH WITH HAMZA ABOVE WITH AE}]
4036
f3ba6905
FC
4037What is meant here is unclear, as the C<\N{...}> escape is a sequence
4038of code points, so this is made an error.
0b4ce96d 4039
bc035eed
KW
4040=item In a regex set
4041
4042The syntax S<C<(?[ ])>> in a regular expression yields a list of
4043single code points, none can be a sequence.
4044
4045=back
4046
a0d0e21e
LW
4047=item No %s allowed while running setuid
4048
be771a83
GS
4049(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
4050setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
4051will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
4052securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 4053
6651ba0b
FC
4054=item No code specified for -%c
4055
4056(F) Perl's B<-e> and B<-E> command-line options require an argument. If
4057you want to run an empty program, pass the empty string as a separate
4058argument or run a program consisting of a single 0 or 1:
4059
4060 perl -e ""
4061 perl -e0
4062 perl -e1
4063
a0d0e21e
LW
4064=item No comma allowed after %s
4065
6903afa2
FC
4066(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is
4067not allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
a0d0e21e
LW
4068Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
4069
6903afa2
FC
4070One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported
4071a constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
4072importing took place, it may for example be that your operating
4073system does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did
4074use an explicit import list for the constants you expect to see;
4075please see L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an
4076explicit import list would probably have caught this error earlier
4077it naturally does not remedy the fact that your operating system
4078still does not support that constant. Maybe you have a typo in
4079the constants of the symbol import list of B<use> or B<import> or in the
4080constant name at the line where this error was triggered?
0a753a76 4081
748a9306
LW
4082=item No command into which to pipe on command line
4083
be771a83
GS
4084(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4085redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
4086doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 4087
a0d0e21e
LW
4088=item No DB::DB routine defined
4089
be771a83 4090(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
f7af5ce1 4091for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
ccafdc96
RGS
4092module) didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
4093statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
4094
4095=item No dbm on this machine
4096
4097(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 4098supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e 4099
ccafdc96 4100=item No DB::sub routine defined
a0d0e21e 4101
ccafdc96
RGS
4102(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
4103for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
4104module) didn't define a C<DB::sub> routine to be called at the beginning
4105of each ordinary subroutine call.
a0d0e21e 4106
1ef28cc3
TC
4107=item No digits found for %s literal
4108
4109(F) No hexadecimal digits were found following C<0x> or no binary digits
4110were found following C<0b>.
4111
6651ba0b
FC
4112=item No directory specified for -I
4113
4114(F) The B<-I> command-line switch requires a directory name as part of the
4115I<same> argument. Use B<-Ilib>, for instance. B<-I lib> won't work.
4116
c47ff5f1 4117=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 4118
be771a83
GS
4119(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4120redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
4121find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 4122
49704364
WL
4123=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
4124
4125(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
6903afa2 4126matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 4127
c47ff5f1 4128=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 4129
be771a83
GS
4130(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4131redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
4132name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 4133
2c7d6b9c
RGS
4134=item No next::method '%s' found for %s
4135
4136(F) C<next::method> found no further instances of this method name
4137in the remaining packages of the MRO of this class. If you don't want
4138it throwing an exception, use C<maybe::next::method>
fa816bf3 4139or C<next::can>. See L<mro>.
2c7d6b9c 4140
02a7a248
JH
4141=item Non-finite repeat count does nothing
4142
4143(W numeric) You tried to execute the
8a737443
FC
4144L<C<x>|perlop/Multiplicative Operators> repetition operator C<Inf> (or
4145C<-Inf>) or C<NaN> times, which doesn't make sense.
02a7a248 4146
e0e4a6e3 4147=item Non-hex character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
4148
4149(F) In a regular expression, there was a non-hexadecimal character where
4150a hex one was expected, like
4151
4152 (?[ [ \xDG ] ])
4153 (?[ [ \x{DEKA} ] ])
4154
e0e4a6e3 4155=item Non-octal character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
4156
4157(F) In a regular expression, there was a non-octal character where
4158an octal one was expected, like
4159
4160 (?[ [ \o{1278} ] ])
4161
4162=item Non-octal character '%c'. Resolved as "%s"
4163
4164(W digit) In parsing an octal numeric constant, a character was
4165unexpectedly encountered that isn't octal. The resulting value
4166is as indicated.
4167
6df41af2
GS
4168=item "no" not allowed in expression
4169
be771a83
GS
4170(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
4171returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 4172
675fa9ff
FC
4173=item Non-string passed as bitmask
4174
4175(W misc) A number has been passed as a bitmask argument to select().
4176Use the vec() function to construct the file descriptor bitmasks for
4177select. See L<perlfunc/select>.
4178
c47ff5f1 4179=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 4180
be771a83
GS
4181(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4182redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
4183doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 4184
c47ff5f1 4185=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 4186
be771a83
GS
4187(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4188redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
4189find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 4190
8d9d0498
FC
4191=item No package name allowed for subroutine %s in "our"
4192
1ec3e8de
GS
4193=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
4194
8d9d0498
FC
4195(F) Fully qualified subroutine and variable names are not allowed in "our"
4196declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing rules.
4197Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 4198
a0d0e21e
LW
4199=item No Perl script found in input
4200
4201(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
4202with #! and containing the word "perl".
4203
4204=item No setregid available
4205
4206(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
4207your system.
4208
4209=item No setreuid available
4210
4211(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
4212your system.
4213
5a25739d
FC
4214=item No such class %s
4215
4216(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state"
4217declaration, but this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
4218
e75d1f10
RD
4219=item No such class field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
4220
b7e4ecc1
FC
4221(F) You tried to access a key from a hash through the indicated typed
4222variable but that key is not allowed by the package of the same type.
4223The indicated package has restricted the set of allowed keys using the
4224L<fields> pragma.
e75d1f10 4225
3c20a832
SP
4226=item No such hook: %s
4227
dc7e5945
FC
4228(F) You specified a signal hook that was not recognized by Perl.
4229Currently, Perl accepts C<__DIE__> and C<__WARN__> as valid signal hooks.
3c20a832 4230
6df41af2
GS
4231=item No such pipe open
4232
4233(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
4234close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
4235earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 4236
a0d0e21e
LW
4237=item No such signal: SIG%s
4238
be771a83
GS
4239(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
4240not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
4241names on your system.
a0d0e21e 4242
1532347b
KW
4243=item No Unicode property value wildcard matches:
4244
4245(W regexp) You specified a wildcard for a Unicode property value, but
4246there is no property value in the current Unicode release that matches
4247it. Check your spelling.
4248
a0d0e21e
LW
4249=item Not a CODE reference
4250
4251(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
4252subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
4253use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
4254also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4255
a0d0e21e
LW
4256=item Not a GLOB reference
4257
be771a83
GS
4258(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
4259symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
4260something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
4261kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4262
4263=item Not a HASH reference
4264
be771a83
GS
4265(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
4266reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
4267find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4268
b913d0b8
FC
4269=item '#' not allowed immediately following a sigil in a subroutine signature
4270
4271(F) In a subroutine signature definition, a comment following a sigil
dabde021 4272(C<$>, C<@> or C<%>), needs to be separated by whitespace or a comma etc., in
b913d0b8
FC
4273particular to avoid confusion with the C<$#> variable. For example:
4274
4275 # bad
4276 sub f ($# ignore first arg
4277 , $b) {}
4278 # good
4279 sub f ($, # ignore first arg
4280 $b) {}
4281
6df41af2
GS
4282=item Not an ARRAY reference
4283
be771a83
GS
4284(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
4285a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
4286to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 4287
a0d0e21e
LW
4288=item Not a SCALAR reference
4289
be771a83
GS
4290(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
4291a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
4292to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4293
4294=item Not a subroutine reference
4295
4296(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
4297subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
4298use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
4299also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4300
e7ea3e70 4301=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
4302
4303(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 4304doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 4305
a0d0e21e
LW
4306=item Not enough arguments for %s
4307
4308(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
4309
6df41af2
GS
4310=item Not enough format arguments
4311
be771a83
GS
4312(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
4313supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
4314
4315=item %s: not found
4316
be771a83
GS
4317(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
4318of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
4319yourself.
6df41af2
GS
4320
4321=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 4322
6df41af2
GS
4323(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
4324timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
4325to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
4326F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
4327need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e 4328
6df41af2
GS
4329=item NULL OP IN RUN
4330
f84fe999 4331(S debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
be771a83 4332pointer.
6df41af2 4333
55497cff 4334=item Null picture in formline
4335
4336(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
4337specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
4338supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
4339
a0d0e21e
LW
4340=item Null realloc
4341
4342(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
4343
4344=item NULL regexp argument
4345
5f05dabc 4346(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
4347
4348=item NULL regexp parameter
4349
4350(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
4351
fc36a67e 4352=item Number too long
4353
be771a83 4354(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 4355about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
4356versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
4357the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
4358"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 4359
f0a2b745
KW
4360=item Number with no digits
4361
1043934d 4362(F) Perl was looking for a number but found nothing that looked like
6903afa2 4363a number. This happens, for example with C<\o{}>, with no number between
1043934d 4364the braces.
f0a2b745 4365
027471cf
TC
4366=item Numeric format result too large
4367
4368(F) The length of the result of a numeric format supplied to sprintf()
4369or printf() would have been too large for the underlying C function to
4370report. This limit is typically 2GB.
4371
252aa082
JH
4372=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
4373
75b44862 4374(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
4375(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
4376L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 4377
ac7609e4 4378=item Odd name/value argument for subroutine '%s'
30d9c59b
Z
4379
4380(F) A subroutine using a slurpy hash parameter in its signature
4381received an odd number of arguments to populate the hash. It requires
4382the arguments to be paired, with the same number of keys as values.
35e5ce67 4383The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault.
30d9c59b 4384
ac7609e4
AC
4385The message attempts to include the name of the called subroutine. If the
4386subroutine has been aliased, the subroutine's original name will be shown,
4387regardless of what name the caller used.
4388
6ad11d81
JH
4389=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
4390
04a80ee0 4391(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
6903afa2 4392arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 4393
b21befc1
MG
4394=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
4395
4396(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
4397which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
4398
1930e939 4399=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 4400
be771a83
GS
4401(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
4402which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 4403
bbce6d69 4404=item Offset outside string
4405
1fa582fa 4406(F)(W layer) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv/seek operation
42bc49da 4407with an offset pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to
f5a7294f
JH
4408imagine. The sole exceptions to this are that zero padding will
4409take place when going past the end of the string when either
4410C<sysread()>ing a file, or when seeking past the end of a scalar opened
0f44b2a5 4411for I/O (in anticipation of future reads and to imitate the behavior
1a7a2554 4412with real files).
bbce6d69 4413
2cb35ee0
FC
4414=item Old package separator used in string
4415
4416(W syntax) You used the old package separator, "'", in a variable
4417named inside a double-quoted string; e.g., C<"In $name's house">. This
4418is equivalent to C<"In $name::s house">. If you meant the former, put
4419a backslash before the apostrophe (C<"In $name\'s house">).
4420
c289d2f7 4421=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
4422
4423(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
4424never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
4425call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
4426
96ebfdd7
RK
4427=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
4428
4429(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
4430that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
4431
a0d0e21e
LW
4432=item oops: oopsAV
4433
e476b1b5 4434(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
4435
4436=item oops: oopsHV
4437
e476b1b5 4438(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 4439
e0e4a6e3
FC
4440=item Operand with no preceding operator in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
4441m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 4442
675fa9ff 4443(F) You wrote something like
0d0b4b3b
KW
4444
4445 (?[ \p{Digit} \p{Thai} ])
4446
4447There are two operands, but no operator giving how you want to combine
4448them.
4449
a0288114 4450=item Operation "%s": no method found, %s
44a8e56a 4451
be771a83
GS
4452(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
4453handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
4454of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
e4aad80d 4455the C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 4456
5ff1373f 4457=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for non-Unicode code point 0x%X
9ae3ac1a 4458
52d1f2c9 4459(S non_unicode) You performed an operation requiring Unicode rules
b5af3ad2
FC
4460on a code point that is not in Unicode, so what it should do is not
4461defined. Perl has chosen to have it do nothing, and warn you.
9ae3ac1a
KW
4462
4463If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
4464matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
4465
4466If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 4467C<no warnings 'non_unicode';>.
9ae3ac1a 4468
5ff1373f 4469=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
9ae3ac1a 4470
4c2e59a0 4471(S surrogate) You performed an operation requiring Unicode
52d1f2c9 4472rules on a Unicode surrogate. Unicode frowns upon the use
ad94bb39 4473of surrogates for anything but storing strings in UTF-16, but
52d1f2c9 4474rules are (reluctantly) defined for the surrogates, and
ad94bb39
FC
4475they are to do nothing for this operation. Because the use of
4476surrogates can be dangerous, Perl warns.
9ae3ac1a
KW
4477
4478If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
4479matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
4480
4481If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 4482C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9ae3ac1a 4483
748a9306
LW
4484=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
4485
be771a83
GS
4486(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
4487was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
4488use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
4489example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
4490"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 4491
30d9c59b
Z
4492=item Optional parameter lacks default expression
4493
4494(F) In a subroutine signature, you wrote something like "$a =", making a
4495named optional parameter without a default value. A nameless optional
4496parameter is permitted to have no default value, but a named one must
4497have a specific default. You probably want "$a = undef".
4498
6df41af2
GS
4499=item "our" variable %s redeclared
4500
52e3acf8 4501(W shadow) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
be771a83 4502in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 4503
a80b8354
GS
4504=item Out of memory!
4505
4506(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
4507remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
4508no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 4509
19a52907
JH
4510At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
4511process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
4512C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
4513the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
4514and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
4515
6d3b25aa
RGS
4516=item Out of memory during %s extend
4517
4518(X) An attempt was made to extend an array, a list, or a string beyond
4519the largest possible memory allocation.
4520
6df41af2 4521=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 4522
6df41af2 4523(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
6903afa2 4524remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
4525the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
4526possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 4527
1b979e0a 4528=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 4529
1fa582fa 4530(X)(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
be771a83
GS
4531insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
4532request.
eff9c6e2
CS
4533
4534The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
4535depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
4536However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
4537emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
4538is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
4539where the failed request happened.
55497cff 4540
1b979e0a
IZ
4541=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
4542
4543(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
4544is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
4545C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 4546
6df41af2
GS
4547=item Out of memory for yacc stack
4548
be771a83
GS
4549(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
4550parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
4551otherwise.
6df41af2 4552
28be1210
TH
4553=item '.' outside of string in pack
4554
4555(F) The argument to a '.' in your template tried to move the working
4556position to before the start of the packed string being built.
4557
49704364 4558=item '@' outside of string in unpack
6df41af2 4559
49704364 4560(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6df41af2
GS
4561the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4562
f337b084
TH
4563=item '@' outside of string with malformed UTF-8 in unpack
4564
4565(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6903afa2 4566the string being unpacked. The string being unpacked was also invalid
fa816bf3 4567UTF-8. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
f337b084 4568
7778d804
FC
4569=item overload arg '%s' is invalid
4570
4571(W overload) The L<overload> pragma was passed an argument it did not
4572recognize. Did you mistype an operator?
4573
7cb0cfe6
BM
4574=item Overloaded dereference did not return a reference
4575
4576(F) An object with an overloaded dereference operator was dereferenced,
6903afa2 4577but the overloaded operation did not return a reference. See
7cb0cfe6
BM
4578L<overload>.
4579
4580=item Overloaded qr did not return a REGEXP
4581
4582(F) An object with a C<qr> overload was used as part of a match, but the
6903afa2 4583overloaded operation didn't return a compiled regexp. See L<overload>.
7cb0cfe6 4584
6df41af2
GS
4585=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
4586
be771a83
GS
4587(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
4588package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
4589some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
4590mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 4591
96ebfdd7
RK
4592=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
4593
4594(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
4595signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4596
a0d0e21e
LW
4597=item page overflow
4598
be771a83
GS
4599(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
4600page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 4601
6df41af2
GS
4602=item panic: %s
4603
4604(P) An internal error.
4605
c99a1475
NC
4606=item panic: attempt to call %s in %s
4607
4608(P) One of the file test operators entered a code branch that calls
4609an ACL related-function, but that function is not available on this
4610platform. Earlier checks mean that it should not be possible to
4611enter this branch on this platform.
4612
d5e473ac
SH
4613=item panic: child pseudo-process was never scheduled
4614
4615(P) A child pseudo-process in the ithreads implementation on Windows
4616was not scheduled within the time period allowed and therefore was not
4617able to initialize properly.
4618
5637ef5b 4619=item panic: ck_grep, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4620
4621(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
4622
5637ef5b 4623=item panic: corrupt saved stack index %ld
a0d0e21e 4624
be771a83
GS
4625(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
4626there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 4627
810b8aa5
GS
4628=item panic: del_backref
4629
4630(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
4631reference.
4632
a0d0e21e
LW
4633=item panic: do_subst
4634
be771a83
GS
4635(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
4636data.
a0d0e21e 4637
2269b42e 4638=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 4639
2269b42e 4640(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 4641data.
a0d0e21e 4642
b7f7fd0b
NC
4643=item panic: fold_constants JMPENV_PUSH returned %d
4644
10203f38 4645(P) While attempting folding constants an exception other than an C<eval>
b7f7fd0b
NC
4646failure was caught.
4647
255abbe7 4648=item panic: frexp: %f
c635e13b 4649
4650(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
4651
5637ef5b 4652=item panic: goto, type=%u, ix=%ld
a0d0e21e
LW
4653
4654(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
4655and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
4656
b0d55c99
FC
4657=item panic: gp_free failed to free glob pointer
4658
4659(P) The internal routine used to clear a typeglob's entries tried
6903afa2
FC
4660repeatedly, but each time something re-created entries in the glob.
4661Most likely the glob contains an object with a reference back to
4662the glob and a destructor that adds a new object to the glob.
b0d55c99 4663
5637ef5b 4664=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4665
4666(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
4667
5637ef5b 4668=item panic: INTERPCONCAT, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4669
4670(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
4671
e446cec8
IZ
4672=item panic: kid popen errno read
4673
1f91b9f5 4674(F) A forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
e446cec8 4675
5637ef5b 4676=item panic: last, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4677
4678(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
4679it wasn't a block context.
4680
4681=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
4682
be771a83
GS
4683(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
4684scope.
a0d0e21e 4685
5637ef5b 4686=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency %u
a0d0e21e
LW
4687
4688(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
4689invalid enum on the top of it.
4690
810b8aa5
GS
4691=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
4692
4693(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
4694references to an object.
4695
5637ef5b 4696=item panic: malloc, %s
6df41af2
GS
4697
4698(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
4699
27d5b266
JH
4700=item panic: memory wrap
4701
46f9c2c2
FC
4702(P) Something tried to allocate either more memory than possible or a
4703negative amount.
27d5b266 4704
5637ef5b 4705=item panic: pad_alloc, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4706
4707(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4708and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4709
5637ef5b 4710=item panic: pad_free curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4711
4712(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4713and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4714
4715=item panic: pad_free po
4716
c1bd5aaa 4717(P) A zero scratch pad offset was detected internally. An attempt was
61a9f070 4718made to free a target that had not been allocated to begin with.
a0d0e21e 4719
5637ef5b 4720=item panic: pad_reset curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4721
4722(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4723and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4724
4725=item panic: pad_sv po
4726
61a9f070
FC
4727(P) A zero scratch pad offset was detected internally. Most likely
4728an operator needed a target but that target had not been allocated
4729for whatever reason.
a0d0e21e 4730
5637ef5b 4731=item panic: pad_swipe curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4732
4733(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4734and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4735
4736=item panic: pad_swipe po
4737
4738(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
4739
5637ef5b 4740=item panic: pp_iter, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4741
4742(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
4743
96ebfdd7
RK
4744=item panic: pp_match%s
4745
4746(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
4747data.
4748
5637ef5b 4749=item panic: realloc, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4750
4751(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
4752
ccfb6d2e
FC
4753=item panic: reference miscount on nsv in sv_replace() (%d != 1)
4754
4755(P) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
4756reference count other than 1.
4757
5637ef5b 4758=item panic: restartop in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4759
4760(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
4761didn't supply the destination.
4762
5637ef5b 4763=item panic: return, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4764
4765(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
4766then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
4767
5637ef5b 4768=item panic: scan_num, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4769
4770(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
4771
4599db5f 4772=item panic: Sequence (?{...}): no code block found in regex m/%s/
d24ca0c5 4773
1f91b9f5 4774(P) While compiling a pattern that has embedded (?{}) or (??{}) code
d24ca0c5
DM
4775blocks, perl couldn't locate the code block that should have already been
4776seen and compiled by perl before control passed to the regex compiler.
4777
5a25739d
FC
4778=item panic: strxfrm() gets absurd - a => %u, ab => %u
4779
4780(P) The interpreter's sanity check of the C function strxfrm() failed.
4781In your current locale the returned transformation of the string "ab"
4782is shorter than that of the string "a", which makes no sense.
4783
6c65d5f9
NC
4784=item panic: sv_chop %s
4785
4786(P) The sv_chop() routine was passed a position that is not within the
4787scalar's string buffer.
4788
5637ef5b 4789=item panic: sv_insert, midend=%p, bigend=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4790
4791(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
4792was string.
4793
4794=item panic: top_env
4795
6224f72b 4796(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e 4797
65bca31a
NC
4798=item panic: unimplemented op %s (#%d) called
4799
a1efa96e
FC
4800(P) The compiler is screwed up and attempted to use an op that isn't
4801permitted at run time.
65bca31a 4802
01bbc29f
FC
4803=item panic: unknown OA_*: %x
4804
4805(P) The internal routine that handles arguments to C<&CORE::foo()>
4806subroutine calls was unable to determine what type of arguments
4807were expected.
4808
dea0fc0b
JH
4809=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
4810
4811(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 4812to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 4813
e0ea5e2d
NC
4814=item panic: utf16_to_utf8_reversed: odd bytelen
4815
4816(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8_reversed with an odd (as opposed
4817to even) byte length.
4818
5637ef5b 4819=item panic: yylex, %s
2f7da168
RK
4820
4821(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
4822
78181aa9
KW
4823=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
4824
4825(W parenthesis) You said something like
4826
4827 my $foo, $bar = @_;
4828
4829when you meant
4830
4831 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
4832
4833Remember that "my", "our", "local" and "state" bind tighter than comma.
4834
28ac2b49
Z
4835=item Parsing code internal error (%s)
4836
4837(F) Parsing code supplied by an extension violated the parser's API in
4838a detectable way.
4839
b9bd8d8c 4840=item Pattern subroutine nesting without pos change exceeded limit in regex
1a147d38
YO
4841
4842(F) You used a pattern that uses too many nested subpattern calls without
6903afa2
FC
4843consuming any text. Restructure the pattern so text is consumed before
4844the nesting limit is exceeded.
1a147d38 4845
96ebfdd7
RK
4846=item C<-p> destination: %s
4847
4848(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
4849command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
4850redirected it with select().)
4851
0ae4a328
FC
4852=item Perl API version %s of %s does not match %s
4853
d792985a 4854(F) The XS module in question was compiled against a different incompatible
0ae4a328
FC
4855version of Perl than the one that has loaded the XS module.
4856
8954b91a 4857=item Perl folding rules are not up-to-date for 0x%X; please use the perlbug
e0e4a6e3 4858utility to report; in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
d50a4f90 4859
6014bd26
JK
4860(S regexp) You used a regular expression with case-insensitive matching,
4861and there is a bug in Perl in which the built-in regular expression
4862folding rules are not accurate. This may lead to incorrect results.
8166b4e0 4863Please report this as a bug to L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
d50a4f90 4864
f51551f7
FC
4865=item PerlIO layer ':win32' is experimental
4866
4867(S experimental::win32_perlio) The C<:win32> PerlIO layer is
4868experimental. If you want to take the risk of using this layer,
4869simply disable this warning:
4870
4871 no warnings "experimental::win32_perlio";
4872
1109a392
MHM
4873=item Perl_my_%s() not available
4874
4875(F) Your platform has very uncommon byte-order and integer size,
4876so it was not possible to set up some or all fixed-width byte-order
4877conversion functions. This is only a problem when you're using the
4878'<' or '>' modifiers in (un)pack templates. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4879
6651ba0b
FC
4880=item Perl %s required (did you mean %s?)--this is only %s, stopped
4881
4882(F) The code you are trying to run has asked for a newer version of
4883Perl than you are running. Perhaps C<use 5.10> was written instead
4884of C<use 5.010> or C<use v5.10>. Without the leading C<v>, the number is
4885interpreted as a decimal, with every three digits after the
4886decimal point representing a part of the version number. So 5.10
4887is equivalent to v5.100.
4888
6903f24f 4889=item Perl %s required--this is only %s, stopped
6d3b25aa
RGS
4890
4891(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
4892recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
4893you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
4894
6df41af2
GS
4895=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
4896
fa816bf3 4897(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 4898C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 4899
96ebfdd7
RK
4900=item PERL_SIGNALS illegal: "%s"
4901
806b6d07 4902(X) See L<perlrun/PERL_SIGNALS> for legal values.
96ebfdd7 4903
6651ba0b
FC
4904=item Perls since %s too modern--this is %s, stopped
4905
4906(F) The code you are trying to run claims it will not run
4907on the version of Perl you are using because it is too new.
4908Maybe the code needs to be updated, or maybe it is simply
4909wrong and the version check should just be removed.
4910
675fa9ff
FC
4911=item perl: warning: Non hex character in '$ENV{PERL_HASH_SEED}', seed only partially set
4912
ff9c1ae8 4913(S) PERL_HASH_SEED should match /^\s*(?:0x)?[0-9a-fA-F]+\s*\z/ but it
675fa9ff
FC
4914contained a non hex character. This could mean you are not using the
4915hash seed you think you are.
6a5b4183 4916
6df41af2
GS
4917=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
4918
4919(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
4920
4921 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
4922 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
4923 LC_ALL = "En_US",
4924 LANG = (unset)
4925 are supported and installed on your system.
4926 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
4927
4928Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
4929settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
0ea6b70f
JH
4930This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
4931system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
4932locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
4933dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
4b07a369
FC
4934Perl can and will use, and the script will be run. Before you really
4935fix the problem, however, you will get the same error message each
4936time you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
0ea6b70f 4937L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
6df41af2 4938
6a5b4183
YO
4939=item perl: warning: strange setting in '$ENV{PERL_PERTURB_KEYS}': '%s'
4940
ff9c1ae8 4941(S) Perl was run with the environment variable PERL_PERTURB_KEYS defined
675fa9ff 4942but containing an unexpected value. The legal values of this setting
6a5b4183
YO
4943are as follows.
4944
4945 Numeric | String | Result
4946 --------+---------------+-----------------------------------------
4947 0 | NO | Disables key traversal randomization
4948 1 | RANDOM | Enables full key traversal randomization
555bd962
BG
4949 2 | DETERMINISTIC | Enables repeatable key traversal
4950 | | randomization
6a5b4183
YO
4951
4952Both numeric and string values are accepted, but note that string values are
675fa9ff 4953case sensitive. The default for this setting is "RANDOM" or 1.
aac486f1 4954
bd3fa61c 4955=item pid %x not a child
748a9306 4956
be771a83
GS
4957(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
4958process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
4959fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
748a9306 4960
49704364 4961=item 'P' must have an explicit size in unpack
3bf38418
WL
4962
4963(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
4964
6e8a73f2 4965=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
96ebfdd7 4966
e0e4a6e3 4967(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The S<<-- HERE>
9e3ec65c 4968shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
96ebfdd7
RK
4969Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
4970the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
4971not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
4972
4973=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
4974
4975(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
4976the BSD version, which takes a pid.
4977
46d34d0e 4978=item POSIX syntax [%c %c] belongs inside character classes%s in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 4979S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 4980
46d34d0e
KW
4981(W regexp) Perl thinks that you intended to write a POSIX character
4982class, but didn't use enough brackets. These POSIX class constructs [:
4983:], [= =], and [. .] go I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of
4984the construct, for example: C<qr/[012[:alpha:]345]/>. What the regular
4985expression pattern compiled to is probably not what you were intending.
4986For example, C<qr/[:alpha:]/> compiles to a regular bracketed character
4987class consisting of the four characters C<":">, C<"a">, C<"l">,
4988C<"h">, and C<"p">. To specify the POSIX class, it should have been
4989written C<qr/[[:alpha:]]/>.
4990
4991Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
9e3ec65c 4992implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and
e0e4a6e3 4993will cause fatal errors. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 4994expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4995
46d34d0e
KW
4996If the specification of the class was not completely valid, the message
4997indicates that.
4998
6fbc9859 4999=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 5000S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 5001
a125938c
FC
5002(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
5003with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
5004need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
5005character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[."
e0e4a6e3 5006and ".\]". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
a125938c 5007problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5008
6fbc9859 5009=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 5010S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 5011
7253e4e3
RK
5012(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
5013with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
5014need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
5015character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
e0e4a6e3 5016and "=\]". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
7253e4e3 5017problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5018
bbce6d69 5019=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
5020
e476b1b5 5021(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
75b44862 5022strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
be771a83
GS
5023literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
5024parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
bbce6d69 5025
774d564b 5026You probably wrote something like this:
5027
54310121 5028 @list = qw(
774d564b 5029 a # a comment
bbce6d69 5030 b # another comment
774d564b 5031 );
bbce6d69 5032
5033when you should have written this:
5034
774d564b 5035 @list = qw(
54310121 5036 a
5037 b
774d564b 5038 );
5039
5040If you really want comments, build your list the
5041old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
5042
5043 @list = (
5044 'a', # a comment
5045 'b', # another comment
5046 );
bbce6d69 5047
5048=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
5049
be771a83
GS
5050(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
5051commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
5052different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
5053frequently used.)
bbce6d69 5054
54310121 5055You probably wrote something like this:
bbce6d69 5056
774d564b 5057 qw! a, b, c !;
5058
5059which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
5060commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
bbce6d69 5061
774d564b 5062 qw! a b c !;
bbce6d69 5063
a0d0e21e
LW
5064=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
5065
5066(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
5067Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
5068end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
5069Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
5070
9da2d046
NT
5071=item Possible precedence issue with control flow operator
5072
5073(W syntax) There is a possible problem with the mixing of a control
5074flow operator (e.g. C<return>) and a low-precedence operator like
5075C<or>. Consider:
5076
5077 sub { return $a or $b; }
5078
5079This is parsed as:
5080
5081 sub { (return $a) or $b; }
5082
5083Which is effectively just:
5084
5085 sub { return $a; }
5086
5087Either use parentheses or the high-precedence variant of the operator.
5088
5089Note this may be also triggered for constructs like:
5090
5091 sub { 1 if die; }
5092
8823cb89 5093=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %s operator
a690c7c4
FC
5094
5095(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
5096with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
5097
5098 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
5099
5100This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
5101higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
5102really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, put the
5103parentheses explicitly and write C<$x & ($y == 0)>).
5104
77772344
B
5105=item Possible unintended interpolation of $\ in regex
5106
5107(W ambiguous) You said something like C<m/$\/> in a regex.
5108The regex C<m/foo$\s+bar/m> translates to: match the word 'foo', the output
8ddb446c 5109record separator (see L<perlvar/$\>) and the letter 's' (one time or more)
77772344
B
5110followed by the word 'bar'.
5111
5112If this is what you intended then you can silence the warning by using
5113C<m/${\}/> (for example: C<m/foo${\}s+bar/>).
5114
5115If instead you intended to match the word 'foo' at the end of the line
5116followed by whitespace and the word 'bar' on the next line then you can use
5117C<m/$(?)\/> (for example: C<m/foo$(?)\s+bar/>).
5118
e5035638
FC
5119=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
5120
ccf3535a 5121(W ambiguous) You said something like '@foo' in a double-quoted string
6903afa2 5122but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
e5035638
FC
5123literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
5124to the array you apparently lost track of.
5125
a0d0e21e
LW
5126=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
5127
e476b1b5 5128(S precedence) The old irregular construct
cb1a09d0 5129
a0d0e21e
LW
5130 open FOO || die;
5131
5132is now misinterpreted as
5133
5134 open(FOO || die);
5135
be771a83
GS
5136because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
5137list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
5138parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
5139of "||".
a0d0e21e 5140
3cdd684c
TP
5141=item Premature end of script headers
5142
3de20fbe 5143See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 5144
6df41af2
GS
5145=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
5146
be771a83 5147(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5148before now. Check your control flow.
6df41af2 5149
9a7dcd9c 5150=item print() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 5151
be771a83 5152(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5153before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5154
6df41af2 5155=item Process terminated by SIG%s
a0d0e21e 5156
6df41af2
GS
5157(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
5158applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
5159port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
5160L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
fecfaeb8 5161in L<perlos2>.
a0d0e21e 5162
327323c1
RGS
5163=item Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s
5164
fa816bf3
FC
5165(W illegalproto) A character follows % or @ in a prototype. This is
5166useless, since % and @ gobble the rest of the subroutine arguments.
327323c1 5167
3fe9a6f1 5168=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4633a7c4 5169
9a0b3859 5170(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
be771a83 5171declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4633a7c4 5172
ed9aa3b7
SG
5173=item Prototype not terminated
5174
2a6fd447 5175(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
ed9aa3b7
SG
5176definition.
5177
eedb00fa
PM
5178=item Prototype '%s' overridden by attribute 'prototype(%s)' in %s
5179
5180(W prototype) A prototype was declared in both the parentheses after
5181the sub name and via the prototype attribute. The prototype in
5182parentheses is useless, since it will be replaced by the prototype
5183from the attribute before it's ever used.
5184
6e8a73f2 5185=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
96ebfdd7 5186
6903afa2 5187(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if
e0e4a6e3 5188you meant it literally. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 5189expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
96ebfdd7 5190
6e8a73f2 5191=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9baa0206 5192
6903afa2 5193(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of
e0e4a6e3 5194the {min,max} construct. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 5195expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9baa0206 5196
675fa9ff
FC
5197=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex
5198
e0e4a6e3
FC
5199=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex; marked by
5200S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
5201
5202(W regexp) Minima should be less than or equal to maxima. If you really
5203want your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}.
5204
e1729dc6 5205=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression in regex m/%s/
9baa0206 5206
b45f050a
JF
5207(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
5208it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
5209quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
5210"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
5211C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
9baa0206 5212
89ea2908
GA
5213=item Range iterator outside integer range
5214
5215(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
5216are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
be771a83
GS
5217One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
5218by prepending "0" to your numbers.
89ea2908 5219
ad513756 5220=item Ranges of ASCII printables should be some subset of "0-9", "A-Z", or
6e8a73f2 5221"a-z" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ad513756
FC
5222
5223(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
5224
5225Stricter rules help to find typos and other errors. Perhaps you didn't
5226even intend a range here, if the C<"-"> was meant to be some other
5227character, or should have been escaped (like C<"\-">). If you did
5228intend a range, the one that was used is not portable between ASCII and
5229EBCDIC platforms, and doesn't have an obvious meaning to a casual
5230reader.
5231
5232 [3-7] # OK; Obvious and portable
5233 [d-g] # OK; Obvious and portable
5234 [A-Y] # OK; Obvious and portable
5235 [A-z] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5236 [a-Z] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5237 [%-.] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5238 [\x41-Z] # WRONG; Not portable; not obvious to non-geek
5239
5240(You can force portability by specifying a Unicode range, which means that
5241the endpoints are specified by
5242L<C<\N{...}>|perlrecharclass/Character Ranges>, but the meaning may
5243still not be obvious.)
5244The stricter rules require that ranges that start or stop with an ASCII
5245character that is not a control have all their endpoints be the literal
5246character, and not some escape sequence (like C<"\x41">), and the ranges
5247must be all digits, or all uppercase letters, or all lowercase letters.
5248
5249=item Ranges of digits should be from the same group in regex; marked by
6e8a73f2 5250S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ad513756
FC
5251
5252(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
5253
5254Stricter rules help to find typos and other errors. You included a
5255range, and at least one of the end points is a decimal digit. Under the
5256stricter rules, when this happens, both end points should be digits in
5257the same group of 10 consecutive digits.
5258
3b7fbd4a
SP
5259=item readdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5260
1a147d38 5261(W io) The dirhandle you're reading from is either closed or not really
3b7fbd4a
SP
5262a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5263
96ebfdd7
RK
5264=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
5265
5266(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
5267before now. Check your control flow.
5268
b5fe5ca2
SR
5269=item read() on closed filehandle %s
5270
5271(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
5272
5273=item read() on unopened filehandle %s
5274
5275(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
5276
de42a5a9 5277=item Reallocation too large: %x
6df41af2
GS
5278
5279(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
5280
4ad56ec9
IZ
5281=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
5282
be771a83
GS
5283(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
5284already been freed.
4ad56ec9 5285
a0d0e21e
LW
5286=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
5287
19b29141 5288(S debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
be771a83 5289the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
a0d0e21e
LW
5290which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
5291
6651ba0b
FC
5292=item Recursive call to Perl_load_module in PerlIO_find_layer
5293
5294(P) It is currently not permitted to load modules when creating
5295a filehandle inside an %INC hook. This can happen with C<open my
5296$fh, '<', \$scalar>, which implicitly loads PerlIO::scalar. Try
5297loading PerlIO::scalar explicitly first.
5298
3e0ccd42 5299=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
a0d0e21e 5300
2c7d6b9c
RGS
5301(F) While calculating the method resolution order (MRO) of a package, Perl
5302believes it found an infinite loop in the C<@ISA> hierarchy. This is a
5303crude check that bails out after 100 levels of C<@ISA> depth.
a0d0e21e 5304
f51551f7
FC
5305=item Redundant argument in %s
5306
5307(W redundant) You called a function with more arguments than other
3617dbb6 5308arguments you supplied indicated would be needed. Currently only
f51551f7
FC
5309emitted when a printf-type format required fewer arguments than were
5310supplied, but might be used in the future for e.g. L<perlfunc/pack>.
5311
12605ff9
FC
5312=item refcnt_dec: fd %d%s
5313
2e0cfa16
FC
5314=item refcnt: fd %d%s
5315
12605ff9
FC
5316=item refcnt_inc: fd %d%s
5317
fa816bf3 5318(P) Perl's I/O implementation failed an internal consistency check. If
2e0cfa16
FC
5319you see this message, something is very wrong.
5320
1930e939
TP
5321=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
5322
be771a83 5323(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
6903afa2
FC
5324with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This
5325usually means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant
5326to use parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
7b8d334a
GS
5327
5328 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
5329 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
5330 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
5331 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
5332
810b8aa5
GS
5333=item Reference is already weak
5334
e476b1b5 5335(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
810b8aa5
GS
5336Doing so has no effect.
5337
ae2cf9f6
DIM
5338=item Reference is not weak
5339
5340(W misc) You have attempted to unweaken a reference that is not weak.
5341Doing so has no effect.
5342
e0e4a6e3 5343=item Reference to invalid group 0 in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b72d83b2 5344
6903afa2
FC
5345(F) You used C<\g0> or similar in a regular expression. You may refer
5346to capturing parentheses only with strictly positive integers
5347(normal backreferences) or with strictly negative integers (relative
5348backreferences). Using 0 does not make sense.
b72d83b2 5349
e0e4a6e3
FC
5350=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5351m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
5352
5353(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
6903afa2 5354not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If
bbaee129
FC
5355you wanted to have the character with ordinal 7 inserted into the regular
5356expression, prepend zeroes to make it three digits long: C<\007>
9baa0206 5357
6e8a73f2 5358The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
b45f050a 5359discovered.
9baa0206 5360
e0e4a6e3
FC
5361=item Reference to nonexistent named group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
5362in m/%s/
1a147d38
YO
5363
5364(F) You used something like C<\k'NAME'> or C<< \k<NAME> >> in your regular
9381611c 5365expression, but there is no corresponding named capturing parentheses
6903afa2 5366such as C<(?'NAME'...)> or C<< (?<NAME>...) >>. Check if the name has been
9381611c 5367spelled correctly both in the backreference and the declaration.
1a147d38 5368
6e8a73f2 5369The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
5370discovered.
5371
e0e4a6e3
FC
5372=item Reference to nonexistent or unclosed group in regex; marked by
5373S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1a147d38 5374
bcb95744
FC
5375(F) You used something like C<\g{-7}> in your regular expression, but there
5376are not at least seven sets of closed capturing parentheses in the
5377expression before where the C<\g{-7}> was located.
1a147d38 5378
6e8a73f2 5379The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
5380discovered.
5381
a0d0e21e
LW
5382=item regexp memory corruption
5383
5384(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
5385expression compiler gave it.
5386
ff3f26d2
KW
5387=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may appear a maximum of twice
5388
4d910168 5389=item Regexp modifier "%c" may appear a maximum of twice in regex; marked
e0e4a6e3 5390by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4d910168 5391
ce170e67 5392(F) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
ff3f26d2 5393of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
3955e1a9 5394
6fbc9859
MH
5395=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear after the "-" in regex; marked by <--
5396HERE in m/%s/
9442e3b8 5397
f8b5bc72
FC
5398(F) Turning off the given modifier has the side effect of turning on
5399another one. Perl currently doesn't allow this. Reword the regular
9442e3b8
KW
5400expression to use the modifier you want to turn on (and place it before
5401the minus), instead of the one you want to turn off.
5402
591f5ca2
FC
5403=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may not appear twice
5404
4d910168
FC
5405=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear twice in regex; marked by <--
5406HERE in m/%s/
5407
ce170e67 5408(F) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
591f5ca2
FC
5409of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
5410
3955e1a9
KW
5411=item Regexp modifiers "/%c" and "/%c" are mutually exclusive
5412
4d910168 5413=item Regexp modifiers "%c" and "%c" are mutually exclusive in regex;
e0e4a6e3 5414marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4d910168 5415
ce170e67 5416(F) The regular expression pattern had more than one of these
3955e1a9
KW
5417mutually exclusive modifiers. Retain only the modifier that is
5418supposed to be there.
5419
aec0ef10 5420=item Regexp out of space in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5421
be771a83
GS
5422(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
5423earlier.
a0d0e21e 5424
a7f533cb 5425=item Repeated format line will never terminate (~~ and @#)
a1b95068 5426
d7f8936a 5427(F) Your format contains the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence and a
a1b95068 5428numeric field that will never go blank so that the repetition never
6903afa2 5429terminates. You might use ^# instead. See L<perlform>.
a1b95068 5430
b08e453b
RB
5431=item Replacement list is longer than search list
5432
5433(W misc) You have used a replacement list that is longer than the
fa816bf3 5434search list. So the additional elements in the replacement list
b08e453b
RB
5435are meaningless.
5436
d9790612
KW
5437=item '(*%s' requires a terminating ':' in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5438
5439(F) You used a construct that needs a colon and pattern argument.
5440Supply these or check that you are using the right construct.
5441
5e0a247b
KW
5442=item '%s' resolved to '\o{%s}%d'
5443
5444(W misc, regexp) You wrote something like C<\08>, or C<\179> in a
5445double-quotish string. All but the last digit is treated as a single
5446character, specified in octal. The last digit is the next character in
5447the string. To tell Perl that this is indeed what you want, you can use
5448the C<\o{ }> syntax, or use exactly three digits to specify the octal
5449for the character.
5450
a0d0e21e
LW
5451=item Reversed %s= operator
5452
be771a83 5453(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
964742a1 5454always come last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
a0d0e21e 5455
abc7ecad
SP
5456=item rewinddir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5457
1b303a7d
FC
5458(W io) The dirhandle you tried to do a rewinddir() on is either closed
5459or not really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
abc7ecad 5460
96ebfdd7
RK
5461=item Scalars leaked: %d
5462
7bd1381d 5463(S internal) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping
4f5966a5
FC
5464of scalars: not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time
5465Perl exited. What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which
5466is of course bad, especially if the Perl program is intended to be
5467long-running.
96ebfdd7 5468
a0d0e21e
LW
5469=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
5470
be771a83
GS
5471(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
5472single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
5473value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
5474behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
5475argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
5476and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
5477if you're expecting only one subscript.
a0d0e21e 5478
748a9306 5479On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5f05dabc 5480element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
748a9306
LW
5481Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
5482L<perlref>.
5483
a6006777 5484=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
5485
75b44862 5486(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
be771a83
GS
5487element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
5488(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
5489like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
5490argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
5491and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
5492if you're expecting only one subscript.
5493
5494On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
5495as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
5496not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
a6006777 5497L<perlref>.
5498
a0d0e21e
LW
5499=item Search pattern not terminated
5500
5501(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
5502construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5503Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 5504
ea9d9ebc 5505Note that since Perl 5.10.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
5d9c98cd 5506construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
ea9d9ebc
FC
5507in Perl 5.10.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
5508misparsed by pre-5.10.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
5d9c98cd 5509
abc7ecad
SP
5510=item seekdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5511
5512(W io) The dirhandle you are doing a seekdir() on is either closed or not
5513really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5514
3257ea4f
FC
5515=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
5516
5517(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
5518filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
5519
a0d0e21e
LW
5520=item select not implemented
5521
5522(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
5523
ae21d580 5524=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
68a4a7e4 5525
ae21d580
JH
5526(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
5527the current implementation.
68a4a7e4 5528
6df41af2 5529=item Semicolon seems to be missing
a0d0e21e 5530
75b44862
GS
5531(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
5532semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
a0d0e21e
LW
5533
5534=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
5535
be771a83
GS
5536(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
5537scalar that had previously been marked as free.
a0d0e21e 5538
6df41af2 5539=item sem%s not implemented
a0d0e21e 5540
6df41af2 5541(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
a0d0e21e 5542
69282e91 5543=item send() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 5544
be771a83 5545(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5546before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5547
0ae4a328
FC
5548=item Sequence "\c{" invalid
5549
5550(F) These three characters may not appear in sequence in a
5551double-quotish context. This message is raised only on non-ASCII
5552platforms (a different error message is output on ASCII ones). If you
5553were intending to specify a control character with this sequence, you'll
5554have to use a different way to specify it.
5555
e0e4a6e3 5556=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
7b8d334a 5557
6903afa2 5558(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The
e0e4a6e3 5559S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
6903afa2 5560discovered. See L<perlre>.
1b1626e4 5561
e0e4a6e3
FC
5562=item Sequence (?%c...) not implemented in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5563m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5564
6903afa2 5565(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
e0e4a6e3 5566but has not yet been written. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
9e3ec65c 5567regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5568
e0e4a6e3
FC
5569=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5570m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5571
d921c7bf 5572(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense.
e0e4a6e3 5573The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
d921c7bf 5574discovered. This may happen when using the C<(?^...)> construct to tell
fb85c044 5575Perl to use the default regular expression modifiers, and you
9442e3b8 5576redundantly specify a default modifier. For other
9de15fec 5577causes, see L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 5578
aec0ef10 5579=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
5580
5581(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
aec0ef10 5582parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. See
7253e4e3 5583L<perlre>.
6df41af2 5584
07ea66ee
FC
5585=item Sequence (?&... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5586m/%s/
5587
5588(F) A named reference of the form C<(?&...)> was missing the final
5589closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
5590in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5591
e0e4a6e3 5592=item Sequence (?%c... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
4599db5f
FC
5593in m/%s/
5594
5595(F) A named group of the form C<(?'...')> or C<< (?<...>) >> was missing the final
e0e4a6e3 5596closing quote or angle bracket. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
4599db5f
FC
5597regular expression the problem was discovered.
5598
e0e4a6e3 5599=item Sequence (?(%c... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
4599db5f
FC
5600in m/%s/
5601
5602(F) A named reference of the form C<(?('...')...)> or C<< (?(<...>)...) >> was
5603missing the final closing quote or angle bracket after the name. The
e0e4a6e3 5604S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
4599db5f
FC
5605discovered.
5606
5b9ce456
KW
5607=item Sequence (?... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5608m/%s/
5609
5610(F) There was no matching closing parenthesis for the '('. The
5611S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
5612discovered.
5613
e0e4a6e3
FC
5614=item Sequence \%s... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5615m/%s/
5a25739d
FC
5616
5617(F) The regular expression expects a mandatory argument following the escape
5618sequence and this has been omitted or incorrectly written.
5619
9da1dd8f
DM
5620=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated with ')'
5621
be149b43
DM
5622(F) The end of the perl code contained within the {...} must be
5623followed immediately by a ')'.
9da1dd8f 5624
74d1b2e4 5625=item Sequence (?PE<gt>... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4599db5f 5626
74d1b2e4 5627(F) A named reference of the form C<(?PE<gt>...)> was missing the final
cfbef7dc
KW
5628closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
5629in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5630
5631=item Sequence (?PE<lt>... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5632
5633(F) A named group of the form C<(?PE<lt>...E<gt>')> was missing the final
5634closing angle bracket. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
5635regular expression the problem was discovered.
5636
74d1b2e4
FC
5637=item Sequence ?P=... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5638m/%s/
cfbef7dc 5639
74d1b2e4 5640(F) A named reference of the form C<(?P=...)> was missing the final
e0e4a6e3 5641closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
4599db5f
FC
5642in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5643
5644=item Sequence (?R) not terminated in regex m/%s/
5645
5646(F) An C<(?R)> or C<(?0)> sequence in a regular expression was missing the
5647final parenthesis.
5648
3de20fbe 5649=item Z<>500 Server error
a5f75d66 5650
6903afa2
FC
5651(A) This is the error message generally seen in a browser window
5652when trying to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The
5653actual error text varies widely from server to server. The most
5654frequently-seen variants are "500 Server error", "Method (something)
5655not permitted", "Document contains no data", "Premature end of script
5656headers", and "Did not produce a valid header".
9607fc9c 5657
5658B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
5659
6903afa2
FC
5660You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by
5661the user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the
5662user account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment
5663variables (like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't
5664in a location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or
5665less. Please see the following for more information:
9607fc9c 5666
71c89d21 5667 https://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
06a5f41f
JH
5668 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
5669 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
a5f75d66 5670
be94a901
GS
5671You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
5672
a0d0e21e
LW
5673=item setegid() not implemented
5674
be771a83
GS
5675(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
5676support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5677didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
5678
5679=item seteuid() not implemented
5680
be771a83
GS
5681(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
5682support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5683didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 5684
81777298
GS
5685=item setpgrp can't take arguments
5686
be771a83
GS
5687(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
5688arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
5689group ID.
81777298 5690
a0d0e21e
LW
5691=item setrgid() not implemented
5692
be771a83
GS
5693(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
5694support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5695didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
5696
5697=item setruid() not implemented
5698
be771a83
GS
5699(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
5700support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5701didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 5702
6df41af2
GS
5703=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
5704
be771a83
GS
5705(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
5706forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
5707L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
5708
520b6fb6 5709=item Setting $/ to a reference to %s is forbidden
6da34ecb 5710
3f673807
FC
5711(F) You assigned a reference to a scalar to C<$/> where the referenced item is
5712not a positive integer. In older perls this B<appeared> to work the same as
5713setting it to C<undef> but was in fact internally different, less efficient
5714and with very bad luck could have resulted in your file being split by a
5715stringified form of the reference.
6da34ecb 5716
ea9d9ebc 5717In Perl 5.20.0 this was changed so that it would be B<exactly> the same as
3f673807 5718setting C<$/> to undef, with the exception that this warning would be thrown.
6da34ecb 5719
3f673807
FC
5720You are recommended to change your code to set C<$/> to C<undef> explicitly if
5721you wish to slurp the file. As of Perl 5.28 assigning C<$/> to a reference
5722to an integer which isn't positive is a fatal error.
6da34ecb 5723
ee0ba734 5724=item Setting $/ to %s reference is forbidden
a48e4205
FC
5725
5726(F) You tried to assign a reference to a non integer to C<$/>. In older
5727Perls this would have behaved similarly to setting it to a reference to
5728a positive integer, where the integer was the address of the reference.
5729As of Perl 5.20.0 this is a fatal error, to allow future versions of Perl
5730to use non-integer refs for more interesting purposes.
5731
a0d0e21e
LW
5732=item shm%s not implemented
5733
5734(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
5735
984200d0
YST
5736=item !=~ should be !~
5737
5738(W syntax) The non-matching operator is !~, not !=~. !=~ will be
5739interpreted as the != (numeric not equal) and ~ (1's complement)
5740operators: probably not what you intended.
5741
6df41af2
GS
5742=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
5743
5744(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
be771a83
GS
5745as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
5746result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
5747probably not what you had in mind.
6df41af2 5748
69282e91 5749=item shutdown() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 5750
75b44862
GS
5751(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
5752superfluous.
a0d0e21e 5753
f86702cc 5754=item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
a0d0e21e 5755
be771a83
GS
5756(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
5757Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
a0d0e21e 5758
efc859fb
FC
5759=item Slab leaked from cv %p
5760
5761(S) If you see this message, then something is seriously wrong with the
5762internal bookkeeping of op trees. An op tree needed to be freed after
5763a compilation error, but could not be found, so it was leaked instead.
5764
3b9aea04
SH
5765=item sleep(%u) too large
5766
5767(W overflow) You called C<sleep> with a number that was larger than
5768it can reliably handle and C<sleep> probably slept for less time than
5769requested.
5770
30d9c59b
Z
5771=item Slurpy parameter not last
5772
5773(F) In a subroutine signature, you put something after a slurpy (array or
5774hash) parameter. The slurpy parameter takes all the available arguments,
5775so there can't be any left to fill later parameters.
5776
7896dde7
Z
5777=item Smart matching a non-overloaded object breaks encapsulation
5778
5779(F) You should not use the C<~~> operator on an object that does not
5780overload it: Perl refuses to use the object's underlying structure
5781for the smart match.
5782
0f539b13
BF
5783=item Smartmatch is experimental
5784
5785(S experimental::smartmatch) This warning is emitted if you
5786use the smartmatch (C<~~>) operator. This is currently an experimental
5787feature, and its details are subject to change in future releases of
7896dde7
Z
5788Perl. Particularly, its current behavior is noticed for being
5789unnecessarily complex and unintuitive, and is very likely to be
5790overhauled.
0f539b13 5791
b02f3645
AC
5792=item Sorry, hash keys must be smaller than 2**31 bytes
5793
5794(F) You tried to create a hash containing a very large key, where "very
5795large" means that it needs at least 2 gigabytes to store. Unfortunately,
5796Perl doesn't yet handle such large hash keys. You should
5797reconsider your design to avoid hashing such a long string directly.
5798
714f94d1
FC
5799=item sort is now a reserved word
5800
5801(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
5802But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
5803
f1c31c52
FC
5804=item Source filters apply only to byte streams
5805
5806(F) You tried to activate a source filter (usually by loading a
5807source filter module) within a string passed to C<eval>. This is
5808not permitted under the C<unicode_eval> feature. Consider using
5809C<evalbytes> instead. See L<feature>.
5810
8cbc2e3b
JH
5811=item splice() offset past end of array
5812
5813(W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
fa816bf3
FC
5814the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the
5815end of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want,
5816try explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset.
5817See L<perlfunc/splice>.
8cbc2e3b 5818
a0d0e21e
LW
5819=item Split loop
5820
be771a83
GS
5821(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
5822iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
6903afa2 5823happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
a0d0e21e 5824
a0d0e21e
LW
5825=item Statement unlikely to be reached
5826
be771a83
GS
5827(W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
5828die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
5829unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
5830instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
5831a block by itself.
a0d0e21e 5832
a21eb52b
FC
5833=item "state" subroutine %s can't be in a package
5834
5835(F) Lexically scoped subroutines aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
5836sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front.
5837
a2e39214
FC
5838=item "state %s" used in sort comparison
5839
5840(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
5841You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
5842sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
5843lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
5844name, or rename the lexical variable.
5845
5a25739d
FC
5846=item "state" variable %s can't be in a package
5847
5848(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
5849sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
5850local() if you want to localize a package variable.
5851
9ddeeac9 5852=item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
6df41af2 5853
355b1299
JH
5854(W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
5855was either never opened or has since been closed.
6df41af2 5856
5a25739d
FC
5857=item Strings with code points over 0xFF may not be mapped into in-memory file handles
5858
5859(W utf8) You tried to open a reference to a scalar for read or append
5860where the scalar contained code points over 0xFF. In-memory files
5861model on-disk files and can only contain bytes.
5862
fe13d51d 5863=item Stub found while resolving method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
e7ea3e70 5864
be771a83
GS
5865(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
5866stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
5867C<can> may break this.
e7ea3e70 5868
a8c56356
DM
5869=item Subroutine attributes must come before the signature
5870
5871(F) When subroutine signatures are enabled, any subroutine attributes must
5872come before the signature. Note that this order was the opposite in
3b980406 5873versions 5.22..5.26. So:
a8c56356 5874
3b980406
Z
5875 sub foo :lvalue ($a, $b) { ... } # 5.20 and 5.28 +
5876 sub foo ($a, $b) :lvalue { ... } # 5.22 .. 5.26
a8c56356 5877
4e85e1b4
FC
5878=item Subroutine "&%s" is not available
5879
5880(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
5881attempting to capture an outer lexical subroutine that is not currently
5882available. This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the lexical
c387a7d0
FC
5883subroutine may be declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has
5884not yet been created. (Remember that named subs are created at compile
5885time, while anonymous subs are created at run-time.) For example,
4e85e1b4
FC
5886
5887 sub { my sub a {...} sub f { \&a } }
5888
c387a7d0 5889At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current "a" sub,
4e85e1b4
FC
5890since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely, the
5891following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by now
5892been created and is live:
5893
5894 sub { my sub a {...} eval 'sub f { \&a }' }->();
5895
c387a7d0
FC
5896The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a lexical subroutine
5897that has gone out of scope, for example,
4e85e1b4
FC
5898
5899 sub f {
5900 my sub a {...}
5901 sub { eval '\&a' }
5902 }
5903 f()->();
5904
5905Here, when the '\&a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
5906being executed, so its &a is not available for capture.
5907
4eb94d7c
FC
5908=item "%s" subroutine &%s masks earlier declaration in same %s
5909
52e3acf8 5910(W shadow) A "my" or "state" subroutine has been redeclared in the
4eb94d7c
FC
5911current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to
5912the previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error.
5913Note that the earlier subroutine will still exist until the end of
20d33786 5914the scope or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
4eb94d7c 5915
9d92fedb
FC
5916=item Subroutine %s redefined
5917
5918(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
5919
5920 {
5921 no warnings 'redefine';
5922 eval "sub name { ... }";
5923 }
5924
2a9203e9
FC
5925=item Subroutine "%s" will not stay shared
5926
5927(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a "my"
5928subroutine defined in an outer named subroutine.
5929
5930When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of the outer
5931subroutine's lexical subroutine as it was before and during the *first*
5932call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
5933outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
5934longer share a common value for the lexical subroutine. In other words,
5935it will no longer be shared. This will especially make a difference
5936if the lexical subroutines accesses lexical variables declared in its
5937surrounding scope.
5938
5939This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
5940anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
5941reference lexical subroutines in outer subroutines are created, they
5942are automatically rebound to the current values of such lexical subs.
5943
a0d0e21e
LW
5944=item Substitution loop
5945
be771a83
GS
5946(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
5947shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
5948is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
5d44bfff 5949L<perlop/"Regexp Quote-Like Operators">.
a0d0e21e
LW
5950
5951=item Substitution pattern not terminated
5952
d1be9408 5953(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 5954construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5955Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
5956
5957=item Substitution replacement not terminated
5958
d1be9408 5959(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 5960construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5961Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
5962
5963=item substr outside of string
5964
8a9eb13d 5965(W substr)(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
be771a83
GS
5966a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
5967length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
5968substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
5969assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
a0d0e21e 5970
bf1320bf
RGS
5971=item sv_upgrade from type %d down to type %d
5972
9d277376 5973(P) Perl tried to force the upgrade of an SV to a type which was actually
bf1320bf
RGS
5974inferior to its current type.
5975
6fbc9859 5976=item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 5977S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 5978
fa816bf3
FC
5979(F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most
5980two branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or
5981both to contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose
5982it in clustering parentheses:
b45f050a
JF
5983
5984 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
5985
e0e4a6e3 5986The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem
fa816bf3 5987was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5988
e0e4a6e3
FC
5989=item Switch condition not recognized in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5990m/%s/
b45f050a 5991
9f57786a
FC
5992(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
5993is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5994
5995 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
5996 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
5997 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
5998 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
5999 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
6000 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
6001 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
6002 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
6003 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
6004
6e8a73f2 6005The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9f57786a 6006discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 6007
a1244175
FC
6008=item Switch (?(condition)... not terminated in regex; marked by
6009S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6010
99775d13
FC
6011(F) You omitted to close a (?(condition)...) block somewhere
6012in the pattern. Add a closing parenthesis in the appropriate
6013position. See L<perlre>.
a1244175 6014
85ab1d1d
JH
6015=item switching effective %s is not implemented
6016
be771a83
GS
6017(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
6018and effective uids or gids.
85ab1d1d 6019
a0d0e21e
LW
6020=item syntax error
6021
6022(F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
6023
6024 A keyword is misspelled.
6025 A semicolon is missing.
6026 A comma is missing.
6027 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
6028 An opening or closing brace is missing.
6029 A closing quote is missing.
6030
6031Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
6032error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
6033The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
6034it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
5f05dabc 6035before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
a0d0e21e
LW
6036Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
6037the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
6038C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
524e9188 6039if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
a0d0e21e 6040
ccf3535a 6041=item syntax error at line %d: '%s' unexpected
cb1a09d0 6042
be771a83
GS
6043(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
6044of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
6045yourself.
cb1a09d0 6046
25f58aea
PN
6047=item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
6048
6049(F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
6050a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
6051or "my $var" or "our $var".
6052
19a498a4 6053=item Syntax error in (?[...]) in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6054
6055(F) Perl could not figure out what you meant inside this construct; this
6056notifies you that it is giving up trying.
6057
591f5ca2
FC
6058=item %s syntax OK
6059
6060(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
6061
b5fe5ca2
SR
6062=item sysread() on closed filehandle %s
6063
6064(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
6065
6066=item sysread() on unopened filehandle %s
6067
6068(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
6069
6087ac44 6070=item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
a0d0e21e 6071
6087ac44
JH
6072(F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
6073"shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
6074machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
6075unconfigured. Consult your system support.
a0d0e21e 6076
69282e91 6077=item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 6078
be771a83 6079(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 6080before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 6081
96ebfdd7
RK
6082=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
6083
6084(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
6085know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
6086
fc36a67e 6087=item Target of goto is too deeply nested
6088
be771a83
GS
6089(F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
6090for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
fc36a67e 6091
abc7ecad
SP
6092=item telldir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
6093
6094(W io) The dirhandle you tried to telldir() is either closed or not really
6095a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
6096
c2771421
FC
6097=item tell() on unopened filehandle
6098
6099(W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
6100was either never opened or has since been closed.
6101
67b16946 6102=item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia.
a0d0e21e
LW
6103
6104(F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
6105probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
8b1a09fc 6106think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
a0d0e21e
LW
6107will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
6108will deny it.
6109
3f645a4e
FC
6110=item The experimental declared_refs feature is not enabled
6111
6112(F) To declare references to variables, as in C<my \%x>, you must first enable
6113the feature:
6114
6115 no warnings "experimental::declared_refs";
6116 use feature "declared_refs";
6117
675fa9ff
FC
6118=item The %s function is unimplemented
6119
6120(F) The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture,
6121according to the probings of Configure.
6122
21c34e97
KW
6123=item The private_use feature is experimental
6124
6125(S experimental::private_use) This feature is actually a hook for future
6126use.
6127
0d0b4b3b
KW
6128=item The regex_sets feature is experimental
6129
6130(S experimental::regex_sets) This warning is emitted if you
6131use the syntax S<C<(?[ ])>> in a regular expression.
6132The details of this feature are subject to change.
27169d38 6133If you want to use it, but know that in doing so you
0d0b4b3b
KW
6134are taking the risk of using an experimental feature which may
6135change in a future Perl version, you can do this to silence the
6136warning:
6137
6138 no warnings "experimental::regex_sets";
6139
30d9c59b
Z
6140=item The signatures feature is experimental
6141
6142(S experimental::signatures) This warning is emitted if you unwrap a
6143subroutine's arguments using a signature. Simply suppress the warning
6144if you want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you are taking
6145the risk of using an experimental feature which may change or be removed
6146in a future Perl version:
6147
6148 no warnings "experimental::signatures";
6149 use feature "signatures";
6150 sub foo ($left, $right) { ... }
6151
5e1c7ca2 6152=item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
a0d0e21e 6153
be771a83
GS
6154(F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
6155linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
6156past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
6157instead.
a0d0e21e 6158
1532347b
KW
6159=item The Unicode property wildcards feature is experimental
6160
6161(S experimental::uniprop_wildcards) This feature is experimental
6162and its behavior may in any future release of perl. See
6163L<perlunicode/Wildcards in Property Values>.
6164
371fce9b
DM
6165=item The 'unique' attribute may only be applied to 'our' variables
6166
1108974d 6167(F) This attribute was never supported on C<my> or C<sub> declarations.
371fce9b 6168
437784d6 6169=item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
f675dbe5
CB
6170
6171=item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
6172
75b44862 6173(W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
be771a83
GS
6174element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
6175wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
6176need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
6177F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
6178target of the change to
f675dbe5
CB
6179%ENV which produced the warning.
6180
6a5b4183
YO
6181=item This Perl has not been built with support for randomized hash key traversal but something called Perl_hv_rand_set().
6182
6183(F) Something has attempted to use an internal API call which
6184depends on Perl being compiled with the default support for randomized hash
f26c79ba 6185key traversal, but this Perl has been compiled without it. You should
6a5b4183
YO
6186report this warning to the relevant upstream party, or recompile perl
6187with default options.
6188
1f692f6a
JK
6189=item This use of my() in false conditional is no longer allowed
6190
6191(F) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>. There
6192has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
6193not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
6194conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
6195static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
6196relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
6197declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
6198
6199 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
6200
6201becomes
6202
6203 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
6204
6205Beginning with perl 5.10.0, you can also use C<state> variables to have
6206lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
6207
6208 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
6209
6210This use of C<my()> in a false conditional was deprecated beginning in
6211Perl 5.10 and became a fatal error in Perl 5.30.
6212
a0d0e21e
LW
6213=item times not implemented
6214
be771a83
GS
6215(F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
6216suspect you're not running on Unix.
a0d0e21e 6217
6d3b25aa
RGS
6218=item "-T" is on the #! line, it must also be used on the command line
6219
b7e4ecc1
FC
6220(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains
6221the B<-T> option (or the B<-t> option), but Perl was not invoked with
6222B<-T> in its command line. This is an error because, by the time
6223Perl discovers a B<-T> in a script, it's too late to properly taint
6224everything from the environment. So Perl gives up.
6d3b25aa
RGS
6225
6226If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
b7e4ecc1
FC
6227mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be
6228fixed by editing the #! line so that the B<-%c> option is a part of
6229Perl's first argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -%c> to C<perl -%c -n>.
6d3b25aa
RGS
6230
6231If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
fe13d51d 6232B<-%c> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -%c scriptname>.
6d3b25aa 6233
3a2263fe
RGS
6234=item To%s: illegal mapping '%s'
6235
6236(F) You tried to define a customized To-mapping for lc(), lcfirst,
6237uc(), or ucfirst() (or their string-inlined versions), but you
6238specified an illegal mapping.
6239See L<perlunicode/"User-Defined Character Properties">.
6240
49704364
WL
6241=item Too deeply nested ()-groups
6242
1a147d38 6243(F) Your template contains ()-groups with a ridiculously deep nesting level.
49704364 6244
a0d0e21e
LW
6245=item Too few args to syscall
6246
6247(F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
6248system call to call, silly dilly.
6249
ac7609e4 6250=item Too few arguments for subroutine '%s'
bb6b75cd 6251
3f673807
FC
6252(F) A subroutine using a signature fewer arguments than required by the
6253signature. The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault.
bb6b75cd 6254
3f673807
FC
6255The message attempts to include the name of the called subroutine. If
6256the subroutine has been aliased, the subroutine's original name will be
6257shown, regardless of what name the caller used.
ac7609e4 6258
96ebfdd7
RK
6259=item Too late for "-%s" option
6260
6261(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
4ba71d51
FC
6262B<-M>, B<-m> or B<-C> option.
6263
6903afa2
FC
6264In the case of B<-M> and B<-m>, this is an error because those options
6265are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
4ba71d51 6266
6903afa2
FC
6267The B<-C> option only works if it is specified on the command line as
6268well (with the same sequence of letters or numbers following). Either
6269specify this option on the command line, or, if your system supports
6270it, make your script executable and run it directly instead of passing
6271it to perl.
96ebfdd7 6272
ddda08b7
GS
6273=item Too late to run %s block
6274
6275(W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
6276when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
be771a83
GS
6277loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
6278instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
6279BEGIN block.
ddda08b7 6280
a0d0e21e
LW
6281=item Too many args to syscall
6282
5f05dabc 6283(F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
a0d0e21e
LW
6284
6285=item Too many arguments for %s
6286
6287(F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
6288
ac7609e4 6289=item Too many arguments for subroutine '%s'
bb6b75cd 6290
3f673807
FC
6291(F) A subroutine using a signature received more arguments than permitted
6292by the signature. The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault.
bb6b75cd 6293
ac7609e4
AC
6294The message attempts to include the name of the called subroutine. If the
6295subroutine has been aliased, the subroutine's original name will be shown,
6296regardless of what name the caller used.
bb6b75cd 6297
6ef7fe53
KW
6298=item Too many nested open parens in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6299
6300(F) You have exceeded the number of open C<"("> parentheses that haven't
6301been matched by corresponding closing ones. This limit prevents eating
6302up too much memory. It is initially set to 1000, but may be changed by
6303setting C<${^RE_COMPILE_RECURSION_LIMIT}> to some other value. This may
6304need to be done in a BEGIN block before the regular expression pattern
6305is compiled.
6306
6df41af2
GS
6307=item Too many )'s
6308
49704364
WL
6309(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6310Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6311
8c40cb74
NC
6312=item Too many ('s
6313
be771a83
GS
6314(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6315Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 6316
7253e4e3 6317=item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 6318
be771a83
GS
6319(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
6320Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 6321
2c268ad5 6322=item Transliteration pattern not terminated
a0d0e21e
LW
6323
6324(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
fb73857a 6325or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
6326C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 6327
2c268ad5 6328=item Transliteration replacement not terminated
a0d0e21e 6329
6a36df5d
YST
6330(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr///, tr[][],
6331y/// or y[][] construct.
a0d0e21e 6332
96ebfdd7
RK
6333=item '%s' trapped by operation mask
6334
6335(F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
6903afa2 6336disallowed. See L<Safe>.
96ebfdd7 6337
a0d0e21e
LW
6338=item truncate not implemented
6339
6340(F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
6341Configure knows about.
6342
19c481f4
FC
6343=item Type of arg %d to &CORE::%s must be %s
6344
6345(F) The subroutine in question in the CORE package requires its argument
6346to be a hard reference to data of the specified type. Overloading is
6347ignored, so a reference to an object that is not the specified type, but
6348nonetheless has overloading to handle it, will still not be accepted.
6349
a0d0e21e
LW
6350=item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
6351
6352(F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
8b1a09fc 6353certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
6354%NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
a0d0e21e
LW
6355{EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
6356
eec2d3df
GS
6357=item umask not implemented
6358
be771a83
GS
6359(F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
6360use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
a0d0e21e
LW
6361
6362=item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
6363
c632e777 6364(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6365many execution contexts were entered and left.
a0d0e21e
LW
6366
6367=item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
6368
4a983e45 6369(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6370many values were temporarily localized.
a0d0e21e
LW
6371
6372=item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
6373
090cebb2 6374(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6375many blocks were entered and left.
a0d0e21e 6376
6651ba0b
FC
6377=item Unbalanced string table refcount: (%d) for "%s"
6378
31ff3bd2 6379(S internal) On exit, Perl found some strings remaining in the shared
6651ba0b
FC
6380string table used for copy on write and for hash keys. The entries
6381should have been freed, so this indicates a bug somewhere.
6382
a0d0e21e
LW
6383=item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
6384
2092d7c1 6385(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6386many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
a0d0e21e
LW
6387
6388=item Undefined format "%s" called
6389
6390(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
6391another package? See L<perlform>.
6392
6393=item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
6394
be771a83
GS
6395(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
6396Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e
LW
6397
6398=item Undefined subroutine &%s called
6399
be771a83
GS
6400(F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
6401since been undefined.
a0d0e21e
LW
6402
6403=item Undefined subroutine called
6404
6405(F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
6406or if it was, it has since been undefined.
6407
6408=item Undefined subroutine in sort
6409
be771a83
GS
6410(F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
6411to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e 6412
4633a7c4
LW
6413=item Undefined top format "%s" called
6414
6415(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
6416another package? See L<perlform>.
6417
20408e3c
GS
6418=item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
6419
be771a83
GS
6420(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
6421C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
6422C<undef *foo>.
20408e3c 6423
6df41af2
GS
6424=item %s: Undefined variable
6425
be771a83
GS
6426(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6427Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 6428
76416d1a
KW
6429=item Unescaped left brace in regex is passed through in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6430
6431(W regexp) The simple rule to remember, if you want to
6432match a literal C<"{"> character (U+007B C<LEFT CURLY BRACKET>) in a
6433regular expression pattern, is to escape each literal instance of it in
6434some way. Generally easiest is to precede it with a backslash, like
6435C<"\{"> or enclose it in square brackets (C<"[{]">). If the pattern
6436delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace (C<"}">) should
6437also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for example,
6438
6439 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
6440
6441Forcing literal C<"{"> characters to be escaped will enable the Perl
6442language to be extended in various ways in future releases. To avoid
6443needlessly breaking existing code, the restriction is is not enforced in
6444contexts where there are unlikely to ever be extensions that could
6445conflict with the use there of C<"{"> as a literal. Those that are
6446not potentially ambiguous do not warn; those that are do raise a
6447non-deprecation warning.
6448
6449In this release of Perl, some literal uses of C<"{"> are fatal, and some
6450still just deprecated. This is because of an oversight: some uses of a
6451literal C<"{"> that should have raised a deprecation warning starting in
6452v5.20 did not warn until v5.26. By making the already-warned uses fatal
6453now, some of the planned extensions can be made to the language sooner.
6454The cases which are still allowed will be fatal in Perl 5.32.
6455
6456The contexts where no warnings or errors are raised are:
6457
6458=over 4
6459
6460=item *
6461
6462as the first character in a pattern, or following C<"^"> indicating to
6463anchor the match to the beginning of a line.
6464
6465=item *
6466
6467as the first character following a C<"|"> indicating alternation.
6468
6469=item *
6470
6471as the first character in a parenthesized grouping like
6472
6473 /foo({bar)/
6474 /foo(?:{bar)/
6475
6476=item *
6477
6478as the first character following a quantifier
6479
6480 /\s*{/
6481
6482=back
6483
6484=for comment
6485The text of the message above is duplicated below to allow splain (and
6486'use diagnostics') to work. Since one is deprecated, and one not, khw
6487thinks they can't be combined as one message.
8e84dec2 6488
0367231c
KW
6489=item Unescaped left brace in regex is deprecated here (and will be fatal in Perl 5.32), passed through in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6490
8e84dec2 6491(D deprecated, regexp) The simple rule to remember, if you want to
21792e61 6492match a literal C<"{"> character (U+007B C<LEFT CURLY BRACKET>) in a
8e84dec2
KW
6493regular expression pattern, is to escape each literal instance of it in
6494some way. Generally easiest is to precede it with a backslash, like
21792e61
KW
6495C<"\{"> or enclose it in square brackets (C<"[{]">). If the pattern
6496delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace (C<"}">) should
8e84dec2
KW
6497also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for example,
6498
6499 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
6500
21792e61 6501Forcing literal C<"{"> characters to be escaped will enable the Perl
8e84dec2
KW
6502language to be extended in various ways in future releases. To avoid
6503needlessly breaking existing code, the restriction is is not enforced in
6504contexts where there are unlikely to ever be extensions that could
76416d1a
KW
6505conflict with the use there of C<"{"> as a literal. Those that are
6506not potentially ambiguous do not warn; those that are do raise a
6507non-deprecation warning.
8e84dec2 6508
21792e61 6509In this release of Perl, some literal uses of C<"{"> are fatal, and some
8e84dec2 6510still just deprecated. This is because of an oversight: some uses of a
21792e61 6511literal C<"{"> that should have raised a deprecation warning starting in
8e84dec2
KW
6512v5.20 did not warn until v5.26. By making the already-warned uses fatal
6513now, some of the planned extensions can be made to the language sooner.
76416d1a 6514The cases which are still allowed will be fatal in Perl 5.32.
8e84dec2
KW
6515
6516The contexts where no warnings or errors are raised are:
6517
6518=over 4
6519
6520=item *
6521
21792e61 6522as the first character in a pattern, or following C<"^"> indicating to
8e84dec2
KW
6523anchor the match to the beginning of a line.
6524
6525=item *
6526
21792e61 6527as the first character following a C<"|"> indicating alternation.
8e84dec2
KW
6528
6529=item *
6530
6531as the first character in a parenthesized grouping like
6532
6533 /foo({bar)/
6534 /foo(?:{bar)/
6535
6536=item *
6537
6538as the first character following a quantifier
6539
6540 /\s*{/
6541
6542=back
6543
6544=for comment
6545The text of the message above is duplicated below to allow splain (and
6546'use diagnostics') to work. Since one is fatal, and one not, they can't
76416d1a
KW
6547be combined as one message. Perhaps perldiag could be enhanced to
6548handle this case.
8e84dec2
KW
6549
6550=item Unescaped left brace in regex is illegal here in regex;
6e8a73f2 6551marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
412f55bb 6552
8e84dec2
KW
6553(F) The simple rule to remember, if you want to
6554match a literal C<"{"> character (U+007B C<LEFT CURLY BRACKET>) in a
6555regular expression pattern, is to escape each literal instance of it in
6556some way. Generally easiest is to precede it with a backslash, like
6557C<"\{"> or enclose it in square brackets (C<"[{]">). If the pattern
6558delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace (C<"}">) should
6559also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for example,
6560
6561 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
6562
6563Forcing literal C<"{"> characters to be escaped will enable the Perl
6564language to be extended in various ways in future releases. To avoid
6565needlessly breaking existing code, the restriction is is not enforced in
6566contexts where there are unlikely to ever be extensions that could
76416d1a
KW
6567conflict with the use there of C<"{"> as a literal. Those that are
6568not potentially ambiguous do not warn; those that are do raise a
6569non-deprecation warning.
8e84dec2
KW
6570
6571In this release of Perl, some literal uses of C<"{"> are fatal, and some
6572still just deprecated. This is because of an oversight: some uses of a
6573literal C<"{"> that should have raised a deprecation warning starting in
6574v5.20 did not warn until v5.26. By making the already-warned uses fatal
6575now, some of the planned extensions can be made to the language sooner.
76416d1a 6576The cases which are still allowed will be fatal in Perl 5.32.
8e84dec2
KW
6577
6578The contexts where no warnings or errors are raised are:
6579
6580=over 4
6581
6582=item *
6583
6584as the first character in a pattern, or following C<"^"> indicating to
6585anchor the match to the beginning of a line.
6586
6587=item *
6588
6589as the first character following a C<"|"> indicating alternation.
6590
6591=item *
6592
6593as the first character in a parenthesized grouping like
6594
6595 /foo({bar)/
6596 /foo(?:{bar)/
6597
6598=item *
6599
6600as the first character following a quantifier
412f55bb 6601
8e84dec2 6602 /\s*{/
412f55bb 6603
8e84dec2 6604=back
1656665e 6605
a4368cc3
KW
6606=item Unescaped literal '%c' in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6607
6608(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>>)
6609
6610Within the scope of C<S<use re 'strict'>> in a regular expression
6611pattern, you included an unescaped C<}> or C<]> which was interpreted
6612literally. These two characters are sometimes metacharacters, and
6613sometimes literals, depending on what precedes them in the
6614pattern. This is unlike the similar C<)> which is always a
6615metacharacter unless escaped.
6616
6617This action at a distance, perhaps a large distance, can lead to Perl
6618silently misinterpreting what you meant, so when you specify that you
6619want extra checking by C<S<use re 'strict'>>, this warning is generated.
6620If you meant the character as a literal, simply confirm that to Perl by
6621preceding the character with a backslash, or make it into a bracketed
6622character class (like C<[}]>). If you meant it as closing a
6623corresponding C<[> or C<{>, you'll need to look back through the pattern
6624to find out why that isn't happening.
6625
a0d0e21e
LW
6626=item unexec of %s into %s failed!
6627
6628(F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
6629representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
6630
e0e4a6e3
FC
6631=item Unexpected binary operator '%c' with no preceding operand in regex;
6632marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6633
675fa9ff 6634(F) You had something like this:
0d0b4b3b
KW
6635
6636 (?[ | \p{Digit} ])
6637
6638where the C<"|"> is a binary operator with an operand on the right, but
6639no operand on the left.
6640
e0e4a6e3 6641=item Unexpected character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6642
675fa9ff 6643(F) You had something like this:
0d0b4b3b
KW
6644
6645 (?[ z ])
6646
6647Within C<(?[ ])>, no literal characters are allowed unless they are
6648within an inner pair of square brackets, like
6649
6650 (?[ [ z ] ])
6651
6652Another possibility is that you forgot a backslash. Perl isn't smart
6653enough to figure out what you really meant.
6654
6651ba0b
FC
6655=item Unexpected constant lvalue entersub entry via type/targ %d:%d
6656
6657(P) When compiling a subroutine call in lvalue context, Perl failed an
6658internal consistency check. It encountered a malformed op tree.
6659
6c341f67
TC
6660=item Unexpected exit %u
6661
6662(S) exit() was called or the script otherwise finished gracefully when
6663C<PERL_EXIT_WARN> was set in C<PL_exit_flags>.
6664
878ce265 6665=item Unexpected exit failure %d
6c341f67
TC
6666
6667(S) An uncaught die() was called when C<PERL_EXIT_WARN> was set in
6668C<PL_exit_flags>.
6669
e0e4a6e3 6670=item Unexpected ')' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6671
6672(F) You had something like this:
6673
6674 (?[ ( \p{Digit} + ) ])
6675
6676The C<")"> is out-of-place. Something apparently was supposed to
6677be combined with the digits, or the C<"+"> shouldn't be there, or
6678something like that. Perl can't figure out what was intended.
6679
c9ffefcc
FC
6680=item Unexpected ']' with no following ')' in (?[... in regex; marked by
6681<-- HERE in m/%s/
6682
6683(F) While parsing an extended character class a ']' character was
6684encountered at a point in the definition where the only legal use of
6685']' is to close the character class definition as part of a '])', you
6686may have forgotten the close paren, or otherwise confused the parser.
6687
e0e4a6e3
FC
6688=item Unexpected '(' with no preceding operator in regex; marked by
6689S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6690
6691(F) You had something like this:
6692
6693 (?[ \p{Digit} ( \p{Lao} + \p{Thai} ) ])
6694
6695There should be an operator before the C<"(">, as there's
6696no indication as to how the digits are to be combined
6697with the characters in the Lao and Thai scripts.
6698
ba707cdc 6699=item Unicode non-character U+%X is not recommended for open interchange
0876b9a0 6700
4c2e59a0 6701(S nonchar) Certain codepoints, such as U+FFFE and U+FFFF, are
66a1f5ec
FC
6702defined by the Unicode standard to be non-characters. Those
6703are legal codepoints, but are reserved for internal use; so,
6704applications shouldn't attempt to exchange them. An application
6705may not be expecting any of these characters at all, and receiving
6706them may lead to bugs. If you know what you are doing you can
6707turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'nonchar';>.
6708
6709This is not really a "severe" error, but it is supposed to be
6710raised by default even if warnings are not enabled, and currently
6711the only way to do that in Perl is to mark it as serious.
6a807e21 6712
1532347b
KW
6713=item Unicode property wildcard not terminated
6714
6715(F) A Unicode property wildcard looks like a delimited regular
6716expression pattern (all within the braces of the enclosing C<\p{...}>.
6717The closing delimtter to match the opening one was not found. If the
6718opening one is escaped by preceding it with a backslash, the closing one
6719must also be so escaped.
6720
c794c51b
FC
6721=item Unicode surrogate U+%X is illegal in UTF-8
6722
4c2e59a0 6723(S surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
c794c51b
FC
6724not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
6725U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
6726internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
6727available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
6728problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
6729came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 6730off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
c794c51b 6731
dcfe9e74
KW
6732=item Unknown charname '%s'
6733
6734(F) The name you used inside C<\N{}> is unknown to Perl. Check the
6735spelling. You can say C<use charnames ":loose"> to not have to be
6736so precise about spaces, hyphens, and capitalization on standard Unicode
6737names. (Any custom aliases that have been created must be specified
6738exactly, regardless of whether C<:loose> is used or not.) This error may
6739also happen if the C<\N{}> is not in the scope of the corresponding
6740C<S<use charnames>>.
6741
d9790612
KW
6742=item Unknown '(*...)' construct '%s' in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6743
6744(F) The C<(*> was followed by something that the regular expression
6745compiler does not recognize. Check your spelling.
6746
04177465
FC
6747=item Unknown error
6748
6749(P) Perl was about to print an error message in C<$@>, but the C<$@> variable
6750did not exist, even after an attempt to create it.
6751
7bb2ffc8
KW
6752=item Unknown locale category %d; can't set it to %s
6753
6754(W locale) You used a locale category that perl doesn't recognize, so it
6755cannot carry out your request. Check that you are using a valid
6756category. If so, see L<perllocale/Multi-threaded> for advice on
6757reporting this as a bug, and for modifying perl locally to accommodate
6758your needs.
6759
6170680b
IZ
6760=item Unknown open() mode '%s'
6761
437784d6 6762(F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
c47ff5f1 6763of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
488dad83 6764C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
6170680b 6765
b4581f09
JH
6766=item Unknown PerlIO layer "%s"
6767
6768(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
6769system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
6770internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
6771are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
6772explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
6773value of the environment variable PERLIO.
6774
f675dbe5
CB
6775=item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
6776
6777(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
6778iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
6779data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
6780subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
a05d7ebb 6781
283151b7 6782=item Unknown regexp modifier "/%s"
0da72d5e
KW
6783
6784(F) Alphanumerics immediately following the closing delimiter
6785of a regular expression pattern are interpreted by Perl as modifier
6786flags for the regex. One of the ones you specified is invalid. One way
6787this can happen is if you didn't put in white space between the end of
6788the regex and a following alphanumeric operator:
6789
6790 if ($a =~ /foo/and $bar == 3) { ... }
6791
6792The C<"a"> is a valid modifier flag, but the C<"n"> is not, and raises
6793this error. Likely what was meant instead was:
6794
6795 if ($a =~ /foo/ and $bar == 3) { ... }
6796
5a25739d
FC
6797=item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
6798
6799(W) You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
6800
e0e4a6e3
FC
6801=item Unknown switch condition (?(...)) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6802m/%s/
96ebfdd7
RK
6803
6804(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
6903afa2 6805is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5fecf430 6806
e7206367
KW
6807 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
6808 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
6809 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
6810 (*pla:...) (*plb:...) true if subpattern matches; also
6811 (*positive_lookahead:...)
6812 (*positive_lookbehind:...)
6813 (*nla:...) (*nlb:...) true if subpattern fails to match; also
6814 (*negative_lookahead:...)
6815 (*negative_lookbehind:...)
6816 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
6817 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
6818 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2,
6819 etc.
6820 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
6821 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
96ebfdd7 6822
6e8a73f2 6823The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
96ebfdd7
RK
6824discovered. See L<perlre>.
6825
a05d7ebb
JH
6826=item Unknown Unicode option letter '%c'
6827
a4a4c9e2 6828(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb
JH
6829of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
6830
64187737 6831=item Unknown Unicode option value %d
a05d7ebb 6832
a4a4c9e2 6833(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb 6834of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
f675dbe5 6835
e0e4a6e3 6836=item Unknown verb pattern '%s' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1
YO
6837
6838(F) You either made a typo or have incorrectly put a C<*> quantifier
6839after an open brace in your pattern. Check the pattern and review
6840L<perlre> for details on legal verb patterns.
6841
c2771421
FC
6842=item Unknown warnings category '%s'
6843
6903afa2 6844(F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
c2771421
FC
6845category that is unknown to perl at this point.
6846
14ef4c80
FC
6847Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a
6848module (e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have loaded this
6849module first.
c2771421 6850
e0e4a6e3 6851=item Unmatched [ in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6852
6903afa2 6853(F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
be771a83 6854include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
e0e4a6e3 6855first. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
6903afa2 6856problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 6857
e0e4a6e3 6858=item Unmatched ( in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 6859
e0e4a6e3 6860=item Unmatched ) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
6861
6862(F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
6903afa2 6863expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
e0e4a6e3 6864the matching parenthesis. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
9e3ec65c 6865regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 6866
d98d5fff 6867=item Unmatched right %s bracket
a0d0e21e 6868
be771a83
GS
6869(F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
6870ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
6871general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
6872you were last editing.
a0d0e21e 6873
a0d0e21e
LW
6874=item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
6875
be771a83
GS
6876(W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
6877reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
6878somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
6879subroutine.
a0d0e21e 6880
e0e4a6e3
FC
6881=item Unrecognized character %s; marked by S<<-- HERE> after %s near column
6882%d
a0d0e21e 6883
54310121 6884(F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
1b303a7d
FC
6885in your Perl script (or eval) near the specified column. Perhaps you
6886tried to run a compressed script, a binary program, or a directory as
6887a Perl program.
a0d0e21e 6888
e0e4a6e3
FC
6889=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class in regex; marked by
6890S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6891
675fa9ff
FC
6892(F) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
6893recognized by Perl inside character classes. This is a fatal
6894error when the character class is used within C<(?[ ])>.
0d0b4b3b 6895
6fbc9859 6896=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class passed through in regex;
e0e4a6e3 6897marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6898
be771a83
GS
6899(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
6900recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
b224edc1 6901understood literally, but this may change in a future version of Perl.
e0e4a6e3 6902The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
2628b4e0 6903escape was discovered.
6df41af2 6904
4a68bf9d 6905=item Unrecognized escape \%c passed through
2f7da168 6906
2628b4e0 6907(W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b224edc1
KW
6908recognized by Perl. The character was understood literally, but this may
6909change in a future version of Perl.
2f7da168 6910
e0e4a6e3
FC
6911=item Unrecognized escape \%s passed through in regex; marked by
6912S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6913
be771a83 6914(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b7e4ecc1 6915recognized by Perl. The character(s) were understood literally, but
e0e4a6e3 6916this may change in a future version of Perl. The S<<-- HERE> shows
9e3ec65c 6917whereabouts in the regular expression the escape was discovered.
6df41af2 6918
a0d0e21e
LW
6919=item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
6920
be771a83
GS
6921(F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
6922recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
6923on your system.
a0d0e21e 6924
90248788 6925=item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
a0d0e21e 6926
be771a83
GS
6927(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
6928think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
6929bad switch on your behalf.)
a0d0e21e
LW
6930
6931=item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
6932
be771a83
GS
6933(W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
6934operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
5b3eff12 6935PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
a0d0e21e
LW
6936
6937=item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
6938
6939(F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
6940
6df41af2
GS
6941=item Unsupported function %s
6942
6943(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
6944At least, Configure doesn't think so.
6945
54310121 6946=item Unsupported function fork
6947
6948(F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
6949
be771a83 6950Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
6903afa2 6951of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
be771a83 6952changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
54310121 6953
7aa207d6 6954=item Unsupported script encoding %s
b250498f
GS
6955
6956(F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
7aa207d6 6957declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot read.
b250498f 6958
a0d0e21e
LW
6959=item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
6960
6961(F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
6962least that's what Configure thought.
6963
d9790612
KW
6964=item Unterminated '(*...' argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6965
6966(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*...:...)> but did not terminate
6967the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
6968
6df41af2 6969=item Unterminated attribute list
a0d0e21e 6970
be771a83
GS
6971(F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
6972start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
6973block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
6974attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
a0d0e21e 6975
09bef843
SB
6976=item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
6977
be771a83
GS
6978(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
6979an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
09bef843
SB
6980character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
6981character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
6982
f1991046
GS
6983=item Unterminated compressed integer
6984
6985(F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
6986compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
6987See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6988
d9790612
KW
6989=item Unterminated '(*...' construct in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6990
6991(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*...)> but did not terminate
6992the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
6993
6f2d7fc9
FC
6994=item Unterminated delimiter for here document
6995
6996(F) This message occurs when a here document label has an initial
6997quotation mark but the final quotation mark is missing. Perhaps
6998you wrote:
6999
7000 <<"foo
7001
7002instead of:
7003
7004 <<"foo"
7005
e0e4a6e3 7006=item Unterminated \g... pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
779fedd7 7007
e0e4a6e3 7008=item Unterminated \g{...} pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2bf803e2 7009
5364049c
KW
7010(F) In a regular expression, you had a C<\g> that wasn't followed by a
7011proper group reference. In the case of C<\g{>, the closing brace is
7012missing; otherwise the C<\g> must be followed by an integer. Fix the
7013pattern and retry.
e2e6a0f1 7014
6df41af2 7015=item Unterminated <> operator
09bef843 7016
6df41af2 7017(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
7018a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
7019not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
7020earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
09bef843 7021
e0e4a6e3
FC
7022=item Unterminated verb pattern argument in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
7023m/%s/
905fe053
FC
7024
7025(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB:ARG)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 7026the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 7027
e0e4a6e3 7028=item Unterminated verb pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
905fe053
FC
7029
7030(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 7031the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 7032
6df41af2 7033=item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
a0d0e21e 7034
be771a83
GS
7035(W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
7036still valid when C<untie> was called.
a0d0e21e 7037
8e11cd2b
JC
7038=item Usage: POSIX::%s(%s)
7039
7040(F) You called a POSIX function with incorrect arguments.
7041See L<POSIX/FUNCTIONS> for more information.
7042
7043=item Usage: Win32::%s(%s)
7044
7045(F) You called a Win32 function with incorrect arguments.
7046See L<Win32> for more information.
7047
89474f50
FC
7048=item $[ used in %s (did you mean $] ?)
7049
7050(W syntax) You used C<$[> in a comparison, such as:
7051
7052 if ($[ > 5.006) {
7053 ...
7054 }
7055
7056You probably meant to use C<$]> instead. C<$[> is the base for indexing
7057arrays. C<$]> is the Perl version number in decimal.
7058
6da34ecb
FC
7059=item Use "%s" instead of "%s"
7060
7061(F) The second listed construct is no longer legal. Use the first one
7062instead.
7063
8fe85e3f
FC
7064=item Useless assignment to a temporary
7065
7066(W misc) You assigned to an lvalue subroutine, but what
7067the subroutine returned was a temporary scalar about to
7068be discarded, so the assignment had no effect.
7069
e0e4a6e3
FC
7070=item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex; marked by
7071S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 7072
96ebfdd7
RK
7073(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
7074meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 7075
96ebfdd7 7076 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
7077
7078must be written as
7079
96ebfdd7 7080 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5 7081
6e8a73f2 7082The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9e3ec65c 7083discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 7084
b4581f09
JH
7085=item Useless localization of %s
7086
6903afa2
FC
7087(W syntax) The localization of lvalues such as C<local($x=10)> is legal,
7088but in fact the local() currently has no effect. This may change at
b4581f09
JH
7089some point in the future, but in the meantime such code is discouraged.
7090
e0e4a6e3
FC
7091=item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
7092m/%s/
9d1d55b5 7093
96ebfdd7
RK
7094(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
7095meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 7096
96ebfdd7 7097 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
7098
7099must be written as
7100
96ebfdd7 7101 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5 7102
6e8a73f2 7103The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9e3ec65c 7104discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 7105
3108f4df
FC
7106=item Useless use of attribute "const"
7107
796b6530 7108(W misc) The C<const> attribute has no effect except
3108f4df
FC
7109on anonymous closure prototypes. You applied it to
7110a subroutine via L<attributes.pm|attributes>. This is only useful
7111inside an attribute handler for an anonymous subroutine.
7112
b08e453b
RB
7113=item Useless use of /d modifier in transliteration operator
7114
7115(W misc) You have used the /d modifier where the searchlist has the
6903afa2 7116same length as the replacelist. See L<perlop> for more information
b08e453b
RB
7117about the /d modifier.
7118
820438b1
FC
7119=item Useless use of \E
7120
7121(W misc) You have a \E in a double-quotish string without a C<\U>,
7122C<\L> or C<\Q> preceding it.
7123
4fa6dd16
KW
7124=item Useless use of greediness modifier '%c' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
7125
7126(W regexp) You specified something like these:
7127
7128 qr/a{3}?/
7129 qr/b{1,1}+/
7130
7131The C<"?"> and C<"+"> don't have any effect, as they modify whether to
7132match more or fewer when there is a choice, and by specifying to match
7133exactly a given numer, there is no room left for a choice.
7134
6df41af2 7135=item Useless use of %s in void context
a0d0e21e 7136
75b44862 7137(W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
be771a83
GS
7138nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
7139value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
7140often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
7141to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
7142get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
7143said
a0d0e21e 7144
6df41af2 7145 $one, $two = 1, 2;
748a9306 7146
6df41af2
GS
7147when you meant to say
7148
7149 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
7150
7151Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
7152reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
7153example, if you say
7154
7155 $array = (1,2);
7156
7157when you should have said
7158
7159 $array = [1,2];
7160
7161The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
7162while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
7163a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
7164throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
7165L<perlref> for more on this.
7166
65191a1e
BS
7167This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
7168since they are often used in statements like
7169
4358a253 7170 1 while sub_with_side_effects();
65191a1e
BS
7171
7172String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
7173about.
7174
e0e4a6e3 7175=item Useless use of (?-p) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
7176
7177(W regexp) The C<p> modifier cannot be turned off once set. Trying to do
7178so is futile.
7179
6df41af2
GS
7180=item Useless use of "re" pragma
7181
6903afa2 7182(W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
6df41af2 7183
a801c63c
RGS
7184=item Useless use of sort in scalar context
7185
7186(W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
7187
7188 my $x = sort @y;
7189
7190This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
7191
de4864e4
JH
7192=item Useless use of %s with no values
7193
f87c3213 7194(W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
6903afa2
FC
7195apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
7196usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
de4864e4 7197possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
6903afa2 7198if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
de4864e4
JH
7199you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
7200
6df41af2
GS
7201=item "use" not allowed in expression
7202
be771a83
GS
7203(F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
7204returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
748a9306 7205
c6e25b09 7206=item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is forbidden
4633a7c4 7207
3f673807
FC
7208(F) You are now required to use the explicitly quoted form if you wish
7209to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
83ce3e12 7210
3f673807
FC
7211Use of a bare terminator was deprecated in Perl 5.000, and is a fatal
7212error as of Perl 5.28.
e5aa3f0b 7213
64e578a2
MJD
7214=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
7215
7216(W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
7217modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
7218
4ac733c9
MJD
7219=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
7220
7221(W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
7222use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
7223used. (This may change in the future.)
7224
fb7e7255
KW
7225=item Use of code point 0x%s is not allowed; the permissible max is 0x%x
7226
7227=item Use of code point 0x%s is not allowed; the permissible max is 0x%x
7228in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
113b8661
A
7229
7230(F) You used a code point that is not allowed, because it is too large.
7231Unicode only allows code points up to 0x10FFFF, but Perl allows much
7232larger ones. Earlier versions of Perl allowed code points above IV_MAX
7233(0x7FFFFFF on 32-bit platforms, 0x7FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF on 64-bit platforms),
7234however, this could possibly break the perl interpreter in some constructs,
7235including causing it to hang in a few cases.
2d212e86
KW
7236
7237If your code is to run on various platforms, keep in mind that the upper
7238limit depends on the platform. It is much larger on 64-bit word sizes
7239than 32-bit ones.
7240
fcdb3ac1 7241The use of out of range code points was deprecated in Perl 5.24, and
113b8661 7242became a fatal error in Perl 5.28.
fcdb3ac1 7243
675fa9ff
FC
7244=item Use of each() on hash after insertion without resetting hash iterator results in undefined behavior
7245
f26c79ba
FC
7246(S internal) The behavior of C<each()> after insertion is undefined;
7247it may skip items, or visit items more than once. Consider using
7248C<keys()> instead of C<each()>.
675fa9ff 7249
2dc78664 7250=item Use of := for an empty attribute list is not allowed
036e1e65 7251
2dc78664
NC
7252(F) The construction C<my $x := 42> used to parse as equivalent to
7253C<my $x : = 42> (applying an empty attribute list to C<$x>).
7254This construct was deprecated in 5.12.0, and has now been made a syntax
7255error, so C<:=> can be reclaimed as a new operator in the future.
7256
7257If you need an empty attribute list, for example in a code generator, add
7258a space before the C<=>.
036e1e65 7259
fafdadbd
KW
7260=item Use of %s for non-UTF-8 locale is wrong. Assuming a UTF-8 locale
7261
7262(W locale) You are matching a regular expression using locale rules,
7263and the specified construct was encountered. This construct is only
7264valid for UTF-8 locales, which the current locale isn't. This doesn't
7265make sense. Perl will continue, assuming a Unicode (UTF-8) locale, but
7266the results are likely to be wrong.
7267
b6c83531 7268=item Use of freed value in iteration
2f7da168 7269
b6c83531
JH
7270(F) Perhaps you modified the iterated array within the loop?
7271This error is typically caused by code like the following:
2f7da168
RK
7272
7273 @a = (3,4);
7274 @a = () for (1,2,@a);
7275
7276You are not supposed to modify arrays while they are being iterated over.
7277For speed and efficiency reasons, Perl internally does not do full
7278reference-counting of iterated items, hence deleting such an item in the
7279middle of an iteration causes Perl to see a freed value.
7280
96ebfdd7 7281=item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
35ae6b54 7282
96ebfdd7
RK
7283(W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
7284operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
7285repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
35ae6b54 7286
dc6e8de0 7287=item Use of "goto" to jump into a construct is deprecated
0b98bec9
RGS
7288
7289(D deprecated) Using C<goto> to jump from an outer scope into an inner
7290scope is deprecated and should be avoided.
7291
dc6e8de0 7292This was deprecated in Perl 5.12.
9fc8eee0 7293
600c10ce
KW
7294=item Use of '%s' in \p{} or \P{} is deprecated because: %s
7295
7296(D deprecated) Certain properties are deprecated by Unicode, and may
7297eventually be removed from the Standard, at which time Perl will follow
7298along. In the meantime, this message is raised to notify you.
7299
64278e8c
A
7300=item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s::%s() is no longer allowed
7301
7302(F) As an accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines were looked up as
7303methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy), even when the subroutines to be
7304autoloaded were called as plain functions (e.g. C<Foo::bar()>), not as
7305methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or C<< $obj->bar() >>).
7306
7307This was deprecated in Perl 5.004, and was made fatal in Perl 5.28.
d9d53e86 7308
6df41af2
GS
7309=item Use of %s in printf format not supported
7310
7311(F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
7312only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
7313
5840701a 7314=item Use of -l on filehandle%s
5a7abfcc
FC
7315
7316(W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
7317it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
7318The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
7319
1f1cc344 7320=item Use of reference "%s" as array index
d804643f 7321
77b96956 7322(W misc) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
1f1cc344
JH
7323isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
7324to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
d804643f 7325
64977eb6 7326If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
1f1cc344 7327C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
54e0f05c 7328however, because you can overload the numification and stringification
c69ca1d4 7329operators and then you presumably know what you are doing.
d804643f 7330
87e05d1a 7331=item Use of strings with code points over 0xFF as arguments to %s
5d09ee1c 7332operator is not allowed
87e05d1a 7333
3f673807
FC
7334(F) You tried to use one of the string bitwise operators (C<&> or C<|> or C<^> or
7335C<~>) on a string containing a code point over 0xFF. The string bitwise
7336operators treat their operands as strings of bytes, and values beyond
73370xFF are nonsensical in this context.
87e05d1a 7338
c8b94fe0 7339Certain instances became fatal in Perl 5.28; others in perl 5.32.
ecbcbef0 7340
da5a0da2 7341=item Use of strings with code points over 0xFF as arguments to vec is forbidden
315f3fc1 7342
da5a0da2 7343(F) You tried to use L<C<vec>|perlfunc/vec EXPR,OFFSET,BITS>
315f3fc1
KW
7344on a string containing a code point over 0xFF, which is nonsensical here.
7345
da5a0da2 7346This became fatal in Perl 5.32.
315f3fc1 7347
bbd7eb8a
RD
7348=item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
7349
159f47d9 7350(W taint, deprecated) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
bbd7eb8a
RD
7351arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
7352but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
7353arguments. See L<perlsec>.
7354
94749a5e 7355=item Use of unassigned code point or non-standalone grapheme for a
823c3b2d 7356delimiter is not allowed
94749a5e 7357
823c3b2d 7358(F)
94749a5e
KW
7359A grapheme is what appears to a native-speaker of a language to be a
7360character. In Unicode (and hence Perl) a grapheme may actually be
7361several adjacent characters that together form a complete grapheme. For
7362example, there can be a base character, like "R" and an accent, like a
7363circumflex "^", that appear when displayed to be a single character with
7364the circumflex hovering over the "R". Perl currently allows things like
7365that circumflex to be delimiters of strings, patterns, I<etc>. When
7366displayed, the circumflex would look like it belongs to the character
7367just to the left of it. In order to move the language to be able to
823c3b2d 7368accept graphemes as delimiters, we cannot allow the use of
94749a5e
KW
7369delimiters which aren't graphemes by themselves. Also, a delimiter must
7370already be assigned (or known to be never going to be assigned) to try
7371to future-proof code, for otherwise code that works today would fail to
7372compile if the currently unassigned delimiter ends up being something
7373that isn't a stand-alone grapheme. Because Unicode is never going to
7374assign
7375L<non-character code points|perlunicode/Noncharacter code points>, nor
7376L<code points that are above the legal Unicode maximum|
7377perlunicode/Beyond Unicode code points>, those can be delimiters, and
823c3b2d 7378their use is legal.
94749a5e 7379
cc95b072 7380=item Use of uninitialized value%s
a0d0e21e 7381
be771a83
GS
7382(W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
7383defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
7384To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
a0d0e21e 7385
6903afa2
FC
7386To help you figure out what was undefined, perl will try to tell you
7387the name of the variable (if any) that was undefined. In some cases
7388it cannot do this, so it also tells you what operation you used the
7389undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your program
50a39ba4 7390and the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily appear
6903afa2
FC
7391literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is usually
7392optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to the
7393C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in
7394your program.
e5be4a53 7395
67cdf558
KW
7396=item "use re 'strict'" is experimental
7397
7398(S experimental::re_strict) The things that are different when a regular
7399expression pattern is compiled under C<'strict'> are subject to change
7400in future Perl releases in incompatible ways. This means that a pattern
7401that compiles today may not in a future Perl release. This warning is
7402to alert you to that risk.
7403
e0e4a6e3
FC
7404=item Use \x{...} for more than two hex characters in regex; marked by
7405S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
7406
7407(F) In a regular expression, you said something like
7408
7409 (?[ [ \xBEEF ] ])
7410
7411Perl isn't sure if you meant this
7412
7413 (?[ [ \x{BEEF} ] ])
7414
7415or if you meant this
7416
7417 (?[ [ \x{BE} E F ] ])
7418
7419You need to add either braces or blanks to disambiguate.
7420
6fbc9859 7421=item Using just the first character returned by \N{} in character class in
e0e4a6e3 7422regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ff3f963a 7423
f3ba6905
FC
7424(W regexp) Named Unicode character escapes C<(\N{...})> may return
7425a multi-character sequence. Even though a character class is
7426supposed to match just one character of input, perl will match
7427the whole thing correctly, except when the class is inverted
7428(C<[^...]>), or the escape is the beginning or final end point of
7429a range. For these, what should happen isn't clear at all. In
7430these circumstances, Perl discards all but the first character
7431of the returned sequence, which is not likely what you want.
ff3f963a 7432
6e8a73f2 7433=item Using /u for '%s' instead of /%s in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
64935bc6
KW
7434
7435(W regexp) You used a Unicode boundary (C<\b{...}> or C<\B{...}>) in a
7436portion of a regular expression where the character set modifiers C</a>
7437or C</aa> are in effect. These two modifiers indicate an ASCII
33f0d962 7438interpretation, and this doesn't make sense for a Unicode definition.
64935bc6
KW
7439The generated regular expression will compile so that the boundary uses
7440all of Unicode. No other portion of the regular expression is affected.
7441
c794c51b
FC
7442=item Using !~ with %s doesn't make sense
7443
7444(F) Using the C<!~> operator with C<s///r>, C<tr///r> or C<y///r> is
0f44b2a5 7445currently reserved for future use, as the exact behavior has not
6903afa2 7446been decided. (Simply returning the boolean opposite of the
c794c51b 7447modified string is usually not particularly useful.)
0876b9a0 7448
949cf498
KW
7449=item UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
7450
4c2e59a0 7451(S surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
949cf498
KW
7452not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
7453U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
7454internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
7455available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
7456problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
7457came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 7458off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9466bab6 7459
68dc0745 7460=item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
a6006777 7461
75b44862 7462(W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
be771a83
GS
7463C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
7464can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
7465false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
7466constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
7467C<defined> operator.
a6006777 7468
f675dbe5
CB
7469=item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
7470
be771a83
GS
7471(W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
7472%ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
7473longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
74741024 characters.
f675dbe5 7475
b5c19bd7 7476=item Variable "%s" is not available
44a8e56a 7477
b5c19bd7
DM
7478(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
7479attempting to capture an outer lexical that is not currently available.
6903afa2 7480This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the outer lexical may be
b5c19bd7
DM
7481declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has not yet been created.
7482(Remember that named subs are created at compile time, while anonymous
6903afa2 7483subs are created at run-time.) For example,
44a8e56a 7484
b5c19bd7 7485 sub { my $a; sub f { $a } }
44a8e56a 7486
b5c19bd7 7487At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current value of $a,
6903afa2 7488since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely,
b5c19bd7
DM
7489the following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by
7490now been created and is live:
be771a83 7491
b5c19bd7
DM
7492 sub { my $a; eval 'sub f { $a }' }->();
7493
7494The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a variable that has
7495gone out of scope, for example,
7496
7497 sub f {
7498 my $a;
7499 sub { eval '$a' }
7500 }
7501 f()->();
7502
1b303a7d
FC
7503Here, when the '$a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
7504being executed, so its $a is not available for capture.
44a8e56a 7505
b4581f09
JH
7506=item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
7507
120b0f81 7508(S misc) With "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable
413ff9f6 7509that you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
b4581f09
JH
7510something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
7511that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
7512front of your variable.
7513
aec0ef10 7514=item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex m/%s/
b4581f09 7515
2abbd513
KW
7516(F) B<This message no longer should be raised as of Perl 5.30.> It is
7517retained in this document as a convenience for people using an earlier
7518Perl version.
7519
7520In Perl 5.30 and earlier, lookbehind is allowed
7521only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
d0a29c36
KW
7522known at compile time. For positive lookbehind, you can use the C<\K>
7523regex construct as a way to get the equivalent functionality. See
a8f2f5fa 7524L<(?<=pattern) and \K in perlre|perlre/\K>.
d0a29c36 7525
754dd754
KW
7526Starting in Perl 5.18, there are non-obvious Unicode rules under C</i>
7527that can match variably, but which you might not think could. For
7528example, the substring C<"ss"> can match the single character LATIN
7529SMALL LETTER SHARP S. Here's a complete list of the current ones
7530affecting ASCII characters:
7531
7532 ASCII
7533 sequence Matches single letter under /i
7534 FF U+FB00 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FF
7535 FFI U+FB03 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FFI
7536 FFL U+FB04 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FFL
7537 FI U+FB01 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FI
7538 FL U+FB02 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FL
7539 SS U+00DF LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S
7540 U+1E9E LATIN CAPITAL LETTER SHARP S
7541 ST U+FB06 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE ST
7542 U+FB05 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE LONG S T
7543
7544This list is subject to change, but is quite unlikely to.
7545Each ASCII sequence can be any combination of upper- and lowercase.
7546
7547You can avoid this by using a bracketed character class in the
7548lookbehind assertion, like
7549
7550 (?<![sS]t)
7551 (?<![fF]f[iI])
7552
7553This fools Perl into not matching the ligatures.
7554
7555Another option for Perls starting with 5.16, if you only care about
7556ASCII matches, is to add the C</aa> modifier to the regex. This will
7557exclude all these non-obvious matches, thus getting rid of this message.
7558You can also say
7559
7560 use if $] ge 5.016, re => '/aa';
7561
d0a29c36
KW
7562to apply C</aa> to all regular expressions compiled within its scope.
7563See L<re>.
b4581f09
JH
7564
7565=item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
7566
52e3acf8 7567(W shadow) A "my", "our" or "state" variable has been redeclared in the
b9cc85ad
FC
7568current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the
7569previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note
7570that the earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope
20d33786 7571or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
b4581f09 7572
6df41af2
GS
7573=item Variable syntax
7574
7575(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
7576of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
7577Perl yourself.
7578
44a8e56a 7579=item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
7580
be771a83 7581(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
b5c19bd7 7582lexical variable defined in an outer named subroutine.
44a8e56a 7583
b5c19bd7 7584When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of
be771a83
GS
7585the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
7586call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
7587outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
7588longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
7589variable will no longer be shared.
44a8e56a 7590
44a8e56a 7591This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
7592anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
b5c19bd7 7593reference variables in outer subroutines are created, they
be771a83 7594are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
44a8e56a 7595
6651ba0b
FC
7596=item vector argument not supported with alpha versions
7597
8b6051f1 7598(S printf) The %vd (s)printf format does not support version objects
6651ba0b
FC
7599with alpha parts.
7600
e0e4a6e3
FC
7601=item Verb pattern '%s' has a mandatory argument in regex; marked by
7602S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1 7603
6903afa2
FC
7604(F) You used a verb pattern that requires an argument. Supply an
7605argument or check that you are using the right verb.
e2e6a0f1 7606
e0e4a6e3
FC
7607=item Verb pattern '%s' may not have an argument in regex; marked by
7608S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1 7609
6903afa2 7610(F) You used a verb pattern that is not allowed an argument. Remove the
e2e6a0f1
YO
7611argument or check that you are using the right verb.
7612
9c88bb56 7613=item Version control conflict marker
397c43d8
LM
7614
7615(F) The parser found a line starting with C<E<lt><<<<<<>,
d4e5761f 7616C<E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>>, or C<=======>. These may be left by a
397c43d8
LM
7617version control system to mark conflicts after a failed merge operation.
7618
084610c0
GS
7619=item Version number must be a constant number
7620
7621(P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
7622its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
7623the version number.
7624
808ee47e
SP
7625=item Version string '%s' contains invalid data; ignoring: '%s'
7626
32e998fd
RGS
7627(W misc) The version string contains invalid characters at the end, which
7628are being ignored.
808ee47e 7629
7e1af8bc 7630=item Warning: something's wrong
5f05dabc 7631
7632(W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
ec8bb14c 7633you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 7634
f86702cc 7635=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
a0d0e21e 7636
be771a83
GS
7637(S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
7638the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
7639space.
a0d0e21e 7640
96d7c888
FC
7641=item Warning: unable to close filehandle properly: %s
7642
7643=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly: %s
7644
ab7ca7ed
AP
7645(S io) There were errors during the implicit close() done on a filehandle
7646when its reference count reached zero while it was still open, e.g.:
cc4d3128
DM
7647
7648 {
7649 open my $fh, '>', $file or die "open: '$file': $!\n";
7650 print $fh $data or die "print: $!";
7651 } # implicit close here
7652
95032a5b
AP
7653Because various errors may only be detected by close() (e.g. buffering could
7654allow the C<print> in this example to return true even when the disk is full),
d4e5761f
FC
7655it is dangerous to ignore its result. So when it happens implicitly, perl
7656will signal errors by warning.
cc4d3128 7657
ab7ca7ed
AP
7658B<Prior to version 5.22.0, perl ignored such errors>, so the common idiom shown
7659above was liable to cause B<silent data loss>.
96d7c888 7660
5f05dabc 7661=item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
a0d0e21e 7662
be771a83
GS
7663(S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
7664looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
7665term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
7666function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
a0d0e21e
LW
7667
7668 rand + 5;
7669
7670you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
7671
7672 rand() + 5;
7673
7674but in actual fact, you got
7675
7676 rand(+5);
7677
5f05dabc 7678So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
a0d0e21e 7679
7896dde7 7680=item when is experimental
0f539b13 7681
7896dde7
Z
7682(S experimental::smartmatch) C<when> depends on smartmatch, which is
7683experimental. Additionally, it has several special cases that may
7684not be immediately obvious, and their behavior may change or
7685even be removed in any future release of perl. See the explanation
7686under L<perlsyn/Experimental Details on given and when>.
0f539b13 7687
4b3603a4
JH
7688=item Wide character in %s
7689
479b791b
KW
7690(S utf8) Perl met a wide character (ordinal >255) when it wasn't
7691expecting one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print).
7692
7693If this warning does come from I/O, the easiest
7694way to quiet it is simply to add the C<:utf8> layer, I<e.g.>,
7695S<C<binmode STDOUT, ':utf8'>>. Another way to turn off the warning is
7696to add S<C<no warnings 'utf8';>> but that is often closer to
cd28123a
JH
7697cheating. In general, you are supposed to explicitly mark the
7698filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
4b3603a4 7699
479b791b
KW
7700If the warning comes from other than I/O, this diagnostic probably
7701indicates that incorrect results are being obtained. You should examine
7702your code to determine how a wide character is getting to an operation
7703that doesn't handle them.
7704
613abc6d
KW
7705=item Wide character (U+%X) in %s
7706
7707(W locale) While in a single-byte locale (I<i.e.>, a non-UTF-8
7708one), a multi-byte character was encountered. Perl considers this
50ea4745 7709character to be the specified Unicode code point. Combining non-UTF-8
613abc6d
KW
7710locales and Unicode is dangerous. Almost certainly some characters
7711will have two different representations. For example, in the ISO 8859-7
7712(Greek) locale, the code point 0xC3 represents a Capital Gamma. But so
7713also does 0x393. This will make string comparisons unreliable.
7714
7715You likely need to figure out how this multi-byte character got mixed up
7716with your single-byte locale (or perhaps you thought you had a UTF-8
7717locale, but Perl disagrees).
7718
49704364
WL
7719=item Within []-length '%c' not allowed
7720
fa816bf3
FC
7721(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]>
7722only if C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes that
7723can be determined from the template alone. This is not possible if
7724it contains any of the codes @, /, U, u, w or a *-length. Redesign
7725the template.
49704364 7726
448aac91
MM
7727=item While trying to resolve method call %s->%s() can not locate package "%s" yet it is mentioned in @%s::ISA (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
7728
ece464a3 7729(W syntax) It is possible that the C<@ISA> contains a misspelled or never loaded
448aac91 7730package name, which can result in perl choosing an unexpected parent
ece464a3 7731class's method to resolve the method call. If this is deliberate you
448aac91
MM
7732can do something like
7733
7734 @Missing::Package::ISA = ();
7735
7736to silence the warnings, otherwise you should correct the package name, or
7737ensure that the package is loaded prior to the method call.
7738
74d1b2e4
FC
7739=item %s() with negative argument
7740
7741(S misc) Certain operations make no sense with negative arguments.
7742Warning is given and the operation is not done.
7743
9a7dcd9c 7744=item write() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 7745
be771a83 7746(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 7747before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 7748
9ae3ac1a 7749=item %s "\x%X" does not map to Unicode
b4581f09 7750
27f95370
FC
7751(S utf8) When reading in different encodings, Perl tries to
7752map everything into Unicode characters. The bytes you read
7753in are not legal in this encoding. For example
b4581f09
JH
7754
7755 utf8 "\xE4" does not map to Unicode
7756
7757if you try to read in the a-diaereses Latin-1 as UTF-8.
7758
49704364 7759=item 'X' outside of string
a0d0e21e 7760
49704364
WL
7761(F) You had a (un)pack template that specified a relative position before
7762the beginning of the string being (un)packed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
a0d0e21e 7763
49704364 7764=item 'x' outside of string in unpack
a0d0e21e
LW
7765
7766(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
7767the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
7768
a0d0e21e
LW
7769=item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
7770
5f05dabc 7771(F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
a0d0e21e 7772sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
b5145c7d
Z
7773about what you want. There is a vulnerability anywhere that you have a
7774set-id script, and to close it you need to remove the set-id bit from
7775the script that you're attempting to run. To actually run the script
7776set-id, your best bet is to put a set-id C wrapper around your script.
a0d0e21e
LW
7777
7778=item You need to quote "%s"
7779
be771a83
GS
7780(W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
7781Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
7782which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
7783assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
7784what you want, put an & in front.)
a0d0e21e 7785
6cfd5ea7
JH
7786=item Your random numbers are not that random
7787
50a39ba4 7788(F) When trying to initialize the random seed for hashes, Perl could
6cfd5ea7
JH
7789not get any randomness out of your system. This usually indicates
7790Something Very Wrong.
7791
e0e4a6e3 7792=item Zero length \N{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
8a5a438d 7793
f3ba6905 7794(F) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a zero-length
8a5a438d 7795sequence. Such an escape was used in an extended character class, i.e.
fe0a3646
KW
7796C<(?[...])>, or under C<use re 'strict'>, which is not permitted. Check
7797that the correct escape has been used, and the correct charnames handler
7798is in scope. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
7799expression the problem was discovered.
8a5a438d 7800
a0d0e21e
LW
7801=back
7802
00eb3f2b
RGS
7803=head1 SEE ALSO
7804
44ecbbd8 7805L<warnings>, L<diagnostics>.
00eb3f2b 7806
56e90b21 7807=cut