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1=head1 NAME
2
3perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
4
5=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
8desperation):
9
10 (W) A warning (optional).
d1d15184 11 (D) A deprecation (enabled by default).
00eb3f2b 12 (S) A severe warning (enabled by default).
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13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
54310121 15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
cb1a09d0 16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
a0d0e21e 17
75b44862 18The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
64977eb6 19(W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
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20
21If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
22category is included with the classification letter in the description
23below.
24
25Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
26and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
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
6df41af2 53=item Allocation too large: %lx
a0d0e21e 54
6df41af2 55(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
a0d0e21e 56
1109a392 57=item '%c' allowed only after types %s
ef54e1a4 58
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59(F) The modifiers '!', '<' and '>' are allowed in pack() or unpack() only
60after certain types. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
ef54e1a4 61
6df41af2 62=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
43192e07 63
75b44862 64(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
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65keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
66one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
67subroutine is not imported.
43192e07 68
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69To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
70before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
71Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
72imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
43192e07 73
6df41af2 74To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
496a33f5 75on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
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76to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
77L<attributes>).
43192e07 78
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79=item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
80
81(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
82all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
83first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
84C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
85
6df41af2 86=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
43192e07 87
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88(W ambiguous)(S) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
89you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
90a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
a0d0e21e 91
6df41af2 92=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
a0d0e21e 93
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94(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
95redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
96redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
c9f97d15 97
6df41af2 98=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
1028017a 99
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100(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
101redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
102into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
103though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
104which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
1028017a 105
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106 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
107 while (<STDIN>) {
108 print;
109 print OUT;
110 }
111 close OUT;
c9f97d15 112
6df41af2 113=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
eb6e2d6f 114
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115(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
116transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
be771a83 117one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
ac036724 118a scalar value (the length of an array, or the population info of a
119hash) and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
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120you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
121alternatives.
eb6e2d6f 122
6df41af2 123=item Args must match #! line
a0d0e21e 124
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125(F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
126with match the arguments specified on the #! line. Since some systems
127impose a one-argument limit on the #! line, try combining switches;
128for example, turn C<-w -U> into C<-wU>.
a0d0e21e 129
6df41af2 130=item Arg too short for msgsnd
76cd736e 131
6df41af2 132(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
76cd736e 133
b0fdf69e 134=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine
a0d0e21e 135
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136(F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element or a
137subroutine with an ampersand, such as:
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138
139 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 140 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
cc1c2e42 141 &do_something
a0d0e21e 142
8ea97a1e 143=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
5f05dabc 144
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145(F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
146such as:
5f05dabc 147
148 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 149 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
5f05dabc 150
8ea97a1e 151or a hash or array slice, such as:
5f05dabc 152
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153 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
154 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
5315574d 155
6df41af2 156=item %s argument is not a subroutine name
a0d0e21e 157
6df41af2 158(F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
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159name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
160error.
a0d0e21e 161
f86702cc 162=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 163
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164(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
165that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
166will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
a0d0e21e 167
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168=item Argument list not closed for PerlIO layer "%s"
169
170(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O system you
171forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers take care of transforming
172data between external and internal representations.) Perl stopped parsing
173the layer list at this point and did not attempt to push this layer.
174If your program didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be
175the result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
176
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177=item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
178
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179(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
180spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
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181
182=item assertion botched: %s
183
184(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
185
186=item Assertion failed: file "%s"
187
188(P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
189
190=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
191
192(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
193must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
194know which context to supply to the right side.
195
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196=item A thread exited while %d threads were running
197
4447dfc1 198(W threads)(S) When using threaded Perl, a thread (not necessarily the main
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199thread) exited while there were still other threads running.
200Usually it's a good idea to first collect the return values of the
201created threads by joining them, and only then exit from the main
202thread. See L<threads>.
203
2393f1b9 204=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
1b1f1335 205
49293501 206(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
2393f1b9 207the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
49293501 208
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209=item Attempt to bless into a reference
210
211(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
212the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
213supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
214
215 bless $self, $proto;
216
217when you intended
218
219 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
220
221If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
222of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
223example by:
224
225 bless $self, "$proto";
226
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227=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
228
229(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
230which is not in its key set.
231
232=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
233
234(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
235declared readonly from a restricted hash.
236
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237=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
238
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239(P internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
240that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
241outside any of those arenas.
a0d0e21e 242
54310121 243=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
bbce6d69 244
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245(P internal) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of
246strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
247strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
248of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
bbce6d69 249
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250=item Attempt to free temp prematurely
251
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252(W debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
253free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
254SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
255free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
256try to free it.
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257
258=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
259
e476b1b5 260(P internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
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261
262=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
263
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264(W internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
265see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
266earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
267This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
268that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
269mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
270corrupted.
a0d0e21e 271
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272=item Attempt to join self
273
274(F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
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275impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
276to move the join() to some other thread.
dcdda58d 277
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278=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
279
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280(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
281function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
282means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
283invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
284literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
285avoid this warning.
84902520 286
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287=item Attempt to reload %s aborted.
288
289(F) You tried to load a file with C<use> or C<require> that failed to
290compile once already. Perl will not try to compile this file again
291unless you delete its entry from %INC. See L<perlfunc/require> and
292L<perlvar/%INC>.
293
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294=item Attempt to set length of freed array
295
296(W) You tried to set the length of an array which has been freed. You
297can do this by storing a reference to the scalar representing the last index
298of an array and later assigning through that reference. For example
299
300 $r = do {my @a; \$#a};
301 $$r = 503
302
b7a902f4 303=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
304
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305(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
306used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
307dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 308
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309=item Attribute "locked" is deprecated
310
311(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragam to modify the "locked"
312attribute on a code reference. The :locked attribute is obsolete, has had no
313effect since 5005 threads were removed, and will be removed in the next major
314release of Perl 5.
315
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316=item Attribute "unique" is deprecated
317
318(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragam to modify the "unique"
b7a2910f 319attribute on an array, hash or scalar reference. The :unique attribute has
259976bd 320had no effect since Perl 5.8.8, and will be removed in the next major
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321release of Perl 5.
322
fe13d51d 323=item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %d
a0d0e21e 324
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325(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
326or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 327S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
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328S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
329
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330=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
331
496a33f5 332(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
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333substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
334most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
335
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336=item Bad filehandle: %s
337
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338(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
339symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
340open(), or did it in another package.
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341
342=item Bad free() ignored
343
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344(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
345been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 346setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 347
9ea8bc6d 348This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
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349dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
350which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 351
aa689395 352=item Bad hash
353
354(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
355
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356=item Badly placed ()'s
357
358(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
359of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
360Perl yourself.
361
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362=item Bad name after %s::
363
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364(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
365didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
366of quotes, so
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367
368 $var = 'myvar';
369 $sym = mypack::$var;
370
371is not the same as
372
373 $var = 'myvar';
374 $sym = "mypack::$var";
375
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376=item Bad plugin affecting keyword '%s'
377
378(F) An extension using the keyword plugin mechanism violated the
379plugin API.
380
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381=item Bad realloc() ignored
382
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383(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
384never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled
385by setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 386
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387=item Bad symbol for array
388
389(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
390wasn't a symbol table entry.
391
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392=item Bad symbol for dirhandle
393
394(P) An internal request asked to add a dirhandle entry to something
395that wasn't a symbol table entry.
396
397
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398=item Bad symbol for filehandle
399
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400(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
401that wasn't a symbol table entry.
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402
403=item Bad symbol for hash
404
405(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
406wasn't a symbol table entry.
407
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408=item Bareword found in conditional
409
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410(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
411conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
412of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
34d09196
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413
414 open FOO || die;
415
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416It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
417a bareword:
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418
419 use constant TYPO => 1;
420 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
421
422The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
423
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424=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
425
426(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
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427subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
428symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
6df41af2
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429
430=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
431
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432(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
433compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
434you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 435
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436=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
437
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438(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
439subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
440exited.
a0d0e21e 441
68dc0745 442=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
443
444(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
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445implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
446occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
447be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
448depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 449
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450=item \1 better written as $1
451
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452(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
453The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
454substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
455because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
456there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 457
252aa082
JH
458=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
459
e476b1b5 460(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
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JH
461(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
462L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 463
69282e91 464=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 465
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466(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
467check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 468
c289d2f7
JH
469=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
470
471(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
472Check you control flow and number of arguments.
473
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JH
474=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
475
e476b1b5 476(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 477
4633a7c4
LW
478=item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
479
be771a83 480(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
b45f050a 481copyable.
4633a7c4 482
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483=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
484
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485(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
486iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
487which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 488
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489=item Callback called exit
490
4929bf7b 491(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
a0d0e21e
LW
492exited by calling exit.
493
6df41af2 494=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 495
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496(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
497parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
498that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
499early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
500subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
501checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
502function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
503the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 504
49704364 505=item Cannot compress integer in pack
0258719b
NC
506
507(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress. The BER
508compressed integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you
509attempted to compress Infinity or a very large number (> 1e308).
510See L<perlfunc/pack>.
511
49704364 512=item Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
0258719b
NC
513
514(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
515format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
516
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NC
517=item Cannot convert a reference to %s to typeglob
518
519(F) You manipulated Perl's symbol table directly, stored a reference in it,
520then tried to access that symbol via conventional Perl syntax. The access
521triggers Perl to autovivify that typeglob, but it there is no legal conversion
522from that type of reference to a typeglob.
523
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NC
524=item Cannot copy to %s in %s
525
526(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy a value to an internal type that cannot
527be directly assigned not.
528
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529=item Cannot find encoding "%s"
530
531(S io) You tried to apply an encoding that did not exist to a filehandle,
532either with open() or binmode().
533
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534=item Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
535
536(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
537integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
538to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
539
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540=item Can't bless non-reference value
541
542(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
543encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
544
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545=item Can't "break" in a loop topicalizer
546
0d863452
RH
547(F) You called C<break>, but you're in a C<foreach> block rather than
548a C<given> block. You probably meant to use C<next> or C<last>.
549
550=item Can't "break" outside a given block
dc57907a 551
0d863452
RH
552(F) You called C<break>, but you're not inside a C<given> block.
553
a0d0e21e
LW
554=item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
555
556(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
557functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
558in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
559
6df41af2
GS
560=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
561
562(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
563object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
564like this will reproduce the error:
6df41af2
GS
565
566 $BADREF = undef;
567 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
568 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
569
a0d0e21e
LW
570=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
571
54310121 572(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
be771a83
GS
573ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
574didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
575object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
576
577=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
578
579(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
580object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
581defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
72b5445b
GS
582Something like this will reproduce the error:
583
584 $BADREF = 42;
585 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
586 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
587
a0d0e21e
LW
588=item Can't chdir to %s
589
590(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
591that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
592
0545a864 593=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
104d25b7 594
be771a83
GS
595(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
596nosuid.
104d25b7 597
6df41af2
GS
598=item Can't coerce array into hash
599
600(F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the array has no
601information on how to map from keys to array indices. You can do that
602only with arrays that have a hash reference at index 0.
603
a0d0e21e
LW
604=item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
605
606(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 607(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
a0d0e21e
LW
608say things like:
609
610 *foo += 1;
611
612You CAN say
613
614 $foo = *foo;
615 $foo += 1;
616
617but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
618
619=item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
620
621(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 622(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
a0d0e21e
LW
623
624=item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
625
626(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 627(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
a0d0e21e 628
0d863452 629=item Can't "continue" outside a when block
dc57907a 630
0d863452
RH
631(F) You called C<continue>, but you're not inside a C<when>
632or C<default> block.
633
a0d0e21e
LW
634=item Can't create pipe mailbox
635
be771a83
GS
636(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
637quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 638
eb64745e 639=item Can't declare class for non-scalar %s in "%s"
a0d0e21e 640
2f7e735d 641(F) Currently, only scalar variables can be declared with a specific
30c282f6 642class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state" declaration. The semantics may be
2f7e735d 643extended for other types of variables in future.
eb64745e
GS
644
645=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
646
30c282f6
NC
647(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my", "our" or
648"state" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 649
6df41af2
GS
650=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
651
be771a83
GS
652(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
653a file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
6df41af2 654
a0d0e21e
LW
655=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
656
be771a83
GS
657(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
658reason.
a0d0e21e 659
54310121 660=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
a0d0e21e 661
be771a83
GS
662(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
663reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
664C<-i.bak>, or some such.
a0d0e21e 665
10f9c03d 666=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
a0d0e21e 667
e476b1b5 668(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
10f9c03d
CK
669characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
670inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
a0d0e21e 671
7253e4e3 672=item Can't do {n,m} with n > m in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 673
b45f050a 674(F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want your
7253e4e3 675regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. The <-- HERE shows in the
b45f050a 676regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 677
a0d0e21e
LW
678=item Can't do waitpid with flags
679
be771a83
GS
680(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
681waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 682
a0d0e21e
LW
683=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
684
be771a83
GS
685(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
686point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
687line.
a0d0e21e 688
1109a392
MHM
689=item Can't %s %s-endian %ss on this platform
690
691(F) Your platform's byte-order is neither big-endian nor little-endian,
692or it has a very strange pointer size. Packing and unpacking big- or
693little-endian floating point values and pointers may not be possible.
694See L<perlfunc/pack>.
695
a0d0e21e
LW
696=item Can't exec "%s": %s
697
d1be9408 698(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
699named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
700permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
701C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
702architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
703can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
704#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
705
706=item Can't exec %s
707
be771a83
GS
708(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
709that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
710need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
711
712=item Can't execute %s
713
be771a83
GS
714(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
715found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 716
6df41af2 717=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 718
be771a83
GS
719(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
720is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2 721
56ca2fc0
JH
722=item Can't find %s character property "%s"
723
724(F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
e1b711da
KW
725could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property?
726See L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
727for a complete list of available properties.
56ca2fc0 728
6df41af2
GS
729=item Can't find label %s
730
be771a83
GS
731(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
732possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
733
734=item Can't find %s on PATH
735
be771a83
GS
736(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
737found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 738
6df41af2 739=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 740
be771a83
GS
741(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
742found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
743script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e
LW
744
745=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
746
be771a83
GS
747(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
748that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
749nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 750
fb73857a 751 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
752
be771a83
GS
753If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have included
754unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good programmer's
755editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
a0d0e21e 756
660a4616
TS
757=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s"
758
759(F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode property (for
e1b711da
KW
760example C<\p{Lu}> matches all uppercase letters). If you did mean to use a
761Unicode property, see
762L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
763for a complete list of available properties.
660a4616
TS
764If you didn't mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either
765by C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, until
766possible C<\E>).
767
b3647a36 768=item Can't fork: %s
a0d0e21e 769
be771a83
GS
770(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
771pipeline.
a0d0e21e 772
b3647a36
SR
773=item Can't fork, trying again in 5 seconds
774
c973c02e 775(W pipe) A fork in a piped open failed with EAGAIN and will be retried
b3647a36
SR
776after five seconds.
777
748a9306
LW
778=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
779
be771a83
GS
780(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
781between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
782Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
783the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
784account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
785the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
786the access checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
787the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
788if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
789because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
790appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up
791and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking
792routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
793shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
794only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 795
a0d0e21e
LW
796=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
797
be771a83
GS
798(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
799pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
800
801=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
802
748a9306
LW
803(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
804mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 805
6df41af2 806=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 807
be771a83
GS
808(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
809loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
810
811=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
812
be771a83
GS
813(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
814a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
815you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
816See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 817
9850bf21 818=item Can't goto subroutine from a sort sub (or similar callback)
cd299c6e 819
9850bf21
RH
820(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of the
821comparison sub for a sort(), or from a similar callback (such
822as the reduce() function in List::Util).
823
c74ace89 824=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-%s
b150fb22 825
be771a83 826(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
c74ace89 827"string" or block.
b150fb22 828
6df41af2
GS
829=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
830
be771a83
GS
831(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
832subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
833cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
834routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 835
0b5b802d
GS
836=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
837
be771a83
GS
838(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
839signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
840signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
841processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
842situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
843may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 844
e2c0f81f
DG
845=item Can't kill a non-numeric process ID
846
847(F) Process identifiers must be (signed) integers. It is a fatal error to
848attempt to kill() an undefined, empty-string or otherwise non-numeric
849process identifier.
850
6df41af2 851=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 852
6df41af2 853(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
854except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
855block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
856block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
857usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
858inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
859L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 860
2c7d6b9c
RGS
861=item Can't linearize anonymous symbol table
862
863(F) Perl tried to calculate the method resolution order (MRO) of a
864package, but failed because the package stash has no name.
865
b8170e59
JB
866=item Can't load '%s' for module %s
867
868(F) The module you tried to load failed to load a dynamic extension. This
869may either mean that you upgraded your version of perl to one that is
870incompatible with your old dynamic extensions (which is known to happen
871between major versions of perl), or (more likely) that your dynamic
16d98ec5 872extension was built against an older version of the library that is
b8170e59
JB
873installed on your system. You may need to rebuild your old dynamic
874extensions.
875
748a9306
LW
876=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
877
2ba9eb46 878(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
30c282f6 879lexical variable using "my" or "state". This is not allowed. If you want to
748a9306
LW
880localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
881package name.
882
6df41af2 883=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 884
6df41af2
GS
885(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
886handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 887pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 888that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 889
ea071790 890=item Can't locate %s
ec889f3a
GS
891
892(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be
893found. Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC,
be771a83
GS
894unless the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you
895need to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where
896the extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
897to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
898L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 899
6df41af2
GS
900=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
901
be771a83
GS
902(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
903autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
904are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
905the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 906
b8170e59
JB
907=item Can't locate loadable object for module %s in @INC
908
909(F) The module you loaded is trying to load an external library, like
910for example, C<foo.so> or C<bar.dll>, but the L<DynaLoader> module was
911unable to locate this library. See L<DynaLoader>.
912
a0d0e21e
LW
913=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
914
915(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
916functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 917method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
918
919=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
920
be771a83
GS
921(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
922doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 923
2f7da168
RK
924=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
925
926(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
927e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
928
3e3baf6d
TB
929=item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
930
be771a83
GS
931(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
932VMS.
3e3baf6d 933
a0d0e21e
LW
934=item Can't modify %s in %s
935
be771a83
GS
936(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
937to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 938
54310121 939=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
a0d0e21e
LW
940
941(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
942a NULL.
943
6df41af2
GS
944=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
945
946(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
947such, see L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
948
5f05dabc 949=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 950
5f05dabc 951(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
952buffer.
953
6df41af2
GS
954=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
955
956(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
957there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
958count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
959grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
960though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
961once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 962
a0d0e21e
LW
963=item Can't open %s: %s
964
c47ff5f1 965(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e
DD
966filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
967switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
be771a83
GS
968is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named on
969the command line.
a0d0e21e 970
9a869a14
RGS
971=item Can't open a reference
972
973(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
974using the 3-arg open() syntax :
975
976 open FH, '>', $ref;
977
978but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
979open is not supported.
980
a0d0e21e
LW
981=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
982
be771a83
GS
983(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
984You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
985as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
986">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 987
748a9306
LW
988=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
989
be771a83
GS
990(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
991redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
992the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
993
994=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
995
be771a83
GS
996(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
997redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
998command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
999
1000=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
1001
be771a83
GS
1002(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1003redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
1004the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1005
1006=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
1007
be771a83
GS
1008(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1009redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
1010for stdout.
748a9306 1011
2b8ca739 1012=item Can't open perl script%s
a0d0e21e
LW
1013
1014(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
1015
fa3aa65a
JC
1016If you're debugging a script that uses #!, and normally relies on the
1017shell's $PATH search, the -S option causes perl to do that search, so
1018you don't have to type the path or C<`which $scriptname`>.
1019
6df41af2
GS
1020=item Can't read CRTL environ
1021
1022(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
1023from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
1024missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
1025or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
1026searched.
6df41af2 1027
6df41af2
GS
1028=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
1029
1030(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
1031there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
1032count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
1033or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1034though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
1035loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
1036
64977eb6 1037=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 1038
be771a83
GS
1039(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
1040file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
1041the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 1042
a0d0e21e
LW
1043=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
1044
e476b1b5 1045(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
10f9c03d 1046probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
a0d0e21e 1047
748a9306
LW
1048=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
1049
be771a83
GS
1050(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
1051to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 1052
fe13d51d 1053=item Can't resolve method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
6df41af2 1054
be771a83
GS
1055(F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as opposed
1056to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the package. If
1057method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 1058
cd06dffe
GS
1059=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
1060
be771a83
GS
1061(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
1062temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
1063is not allowed.
cd06dffe 1064
96ebfdd7
RK
1065=item Can't return outside a subroutine
1066
1067(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1068there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1069
78f9721b
SM
1070=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
1071
1072(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue subroutine,
1073but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl think you meant
1074to return only one value. You probably meant to write parentheses around
1075the call to the subroutine, which tell Perl that the call should be in
1076list context.
1077
a0d0e21e
LW
1078=item Can't stat script "%s"
1079
be771a83
GS
1080(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1081open already. Bizarre.
a0d0e21e 1082
a0d0e21e
LW
1083=item Can't take log of %g
1084
fb73857a 1085(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
1086negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
1087standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1088negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
1089
1090=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1091
1092(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 1093negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1094with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
1095
1096=item Can't undef active subroutine
1097
1098(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1099however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1100redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1101
1102=item Can't unshift
1103
1104(F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
1105as the main Perl stack.
1106
c81225bc 1107=item Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d
a0d0e21e 1108
be771a83
GS
1109(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1110into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1111specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1112indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e 1113
1db89ea5
BS
1114=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1115
e27ad1f2 1116(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1db89ea5
BS
1117table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1118for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1119
96ebfdd7
RK
1120=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1121
1122(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1123be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1124
6df41af2
GS
1125=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1126
be771a83
GS
1127(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1128references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1129
90b75b61 1130=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63
GS
1131
1132(F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
1133Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1134provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1135
1109a392
MHM
1136=item Can't use both '<' and '>' after type '%c' in %s
1137
1138(F) A type cannot be forced to have both big-endian and little-endian
1139byte-order at the same time, so this combination of modifiers is not
1140allowed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1141
6df41af2
GS
1142=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1143
be771a83
GS
1144(F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1145foreach.
6df41af2 1146
aab6a793 1147=item Can't use global %s in "%s"
6df41af2 1148
be771a83
GS
1149(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1150is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1151(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1152have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1153weren't.
1154
6d3b25aa
RGS
1155=item Can't use '%c' in a group with different byte-order in %s
1156
1157(F) You attempted to force a different byte-order on a type
1158that is already inside a group with a byte-order modifier.
1159For example you cannot force little-endianness on a type that
1160is inside a big-endian group.
1161
28ccebc4
RGS
1162=item Can't use keyword '%s' as a label
1163
1164(F) You attempted to use a reserved keyword, such as C<print> or C<BEGIN>,
1165as a statement label. This is disallowed since Perl 5.11.0.
1166
c07a80fd 1167=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1168
1169(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1170You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1171and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1172Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1173lexical variable.
1174
a0d0e21e
LW
1175=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1176
1177(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1178reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1179test the type of the reference, if need be.
1180
748a9306 1181=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1182
be771a83
GS
1183(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1184references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 1185
748a9306
LW
1186=item Can't use subscript on %s
1187
1188(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1189subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
209e7cf1 1190didn't look like a hash or array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
748a9306 1191
6df41af2
GS
1192=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1193
75b44862
GS
1194(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1195creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1196backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1197expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1198value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1199instead.
6df41af2 1200
0d863452 1201=item Can't use "when" outside a topicalizer
dc57907a 1202
0d863452
RH
1203(F) You have used a when() block that is neither inside a C<foreach>
1204loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is issued on exit
1205from the C<when> block, so you won't get the error if the match fails,
1206or if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
1207
810b8aa5
GS
1208=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1209
1210(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1211references can be weakened.
1212
5f05dabc 1213=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1214
be771a83
GS
1215(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1216with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1217Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1218
f337b084 1219=item Character in 'C' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1220
1221(W pack) You said
1222
1223 pack("C", $x)
1224
1225where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1226only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1227and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1228
1229 pack("C", $x & 255)
1230
1231If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1232instead.
1233
f337b084
TH
1234=item Character in 'W' format wrapped in pack
1235
1236(W pack) You said
1237
1238 pack("U0W", $x)
1239
1240where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255. However, C<U0>-mode expects
1241all values to fall in the interval [0, 255], so Perl behaved as if you
1242meant:
1243
1244 pack("U0W", $x & 255)
1245
1246=item Character in 'c' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1247
1248(W pack) You said
1249
1250 pack("c", $x)
1251
1252where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1253is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1254and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1255
1256 pack("c", $x & 255);
1257
1258If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1259instead.
1260
f337b084
TH
1261=item Character in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1262
1263(W unpack) You tried something like
1264
1265 unpack("H", "\x{2a1}")
1266
1a147d38 1267where the format expects to process a byte (a character with a value
f337b084
TH
1268below 256), but a higher value was provided instead. Perl uses the value
1269modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1270
1271 unpack("H", "\x{a1}")
1272
1273=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in pack
1274
1275(W pack) You tried something like
1276
1277 pack("u", "\x{1f3}b")
1278
1a147d38
YO
1279where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
1280value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1281uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1282
1283 pack("u", "\x{f3}b")
1284
1285=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1286
1287(W unpack) You tried something like
1288
1289 unpack("s", "\x{1f3}b")
1290
1a147d38
YO
1291where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
1292value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1293uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1294
1295 unpack("s", "\x{f3}b")
1296
96ebfdd7
RK
1297=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1298
1299(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1300
abc7ecad
SP
1301=item closedir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
1302
1303(W io) The dirhandle you tried to close is either closed or not really
1304a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
1305
49704364
WL
1306=item Code missing after '/'
1307
1308(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be another
1309template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1310
6df41af2
GS
1311=item %s: Command not found
1312
be771a83
GS
1313(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1314Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 1315
7a2e2cd6 1316=item Compilation failed in require
1317
1318(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1319Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1320encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1321
c3464db5
DD
1322=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1323
be771a83
GS
1324(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1325situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1326to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1327arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1328recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1329under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1330in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1331that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1332on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1333
38875929
DM
1334=item cond_broadcast() called on unlocked variable
1335
1336(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1337cond_broadcast() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_broadcast()
1338function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1339cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1340has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1341first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1342after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1343lock.
1344
38875929
DM
1345=item cond_signal() called on unlocked variable
1346
1347(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1348cond_signal() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_signal()
1349function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1350cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1351has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1352first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1353after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1354lock.
1355
69282e91 1356=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1357
be771a83
GS
1358(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1359to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1360L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1361
41ab332f 1362=item Constant(%s)%s: %s
6df41af2 1363
be771a83
GS
1364(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1365an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1366specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
1367corresponding C<overload> or C<charnames> pragma? See L<charnames> and
1368L<overload>.
6df41af2 1369
fc8cd66c
YO
1370=item Constant(%s)%s: %s in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1371
1a147d38
YO
1372(F) The parser found inconsistencies while attempting to find
1373the character name specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you
1374forgot to load the corresponding C<charnames> pragma?
fc8cd66c
YO
1375See L<charnames>.
1376
1377
779c5bc9
GS
1378=item Constant is not %s reference
1379
1380(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83
GS
1381is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
1382The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
1383usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1384See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1385
4cee8e80
CS
1386=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1387
bb028877 1388(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been
be771a83
GS
1389eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for
1390commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1391
9607fc9c 1392=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1393
be771a83
GS
1394(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1395for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1396workarounds.
9607fc9c 1397
e7ea3e70
IZ
1398=item Copy method did not return a reference
1399
64977eb6 1400(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1401L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1402
6798c92b
GS
1403=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1404
1405(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1406
a0d0e21e
LW
1407=item corrupted regexp pointers
1408
1409(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1410expression compiler gave it.
1411
1412=item corrupted regexp program
1413
be771a83
GS
1414(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1415valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1416
6df41af2
GS
1417=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
1418
1419(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1420
49704364
WL
1421=item Count after length/code in unpack
1422
1423(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1424you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1425L<perlfunc/pack>.
1426
a0d0e21e
LW
1427=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1428
be771a83
GS
1429(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1430100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1431infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1432which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1433
aad1d01f
NC
1434This threshold can be changed from 100, by recompiling the F<perl> binary,
1435setting the C pre-processor macro C<PERL_SUB_DEPTH_WARN> to the desired value.
1436
f10b0346 1437=item defined(@array) is deprecated
69794302 1438
be771a83
GS
1439(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1440checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
64977eb6 1441array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1442
f10b0346 1443=item defined(%hash) is deprecated
69794302 1444
be771a83
GS
1445(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it
1446checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the hash
64977eb6 1447is empty, just use C<if (%hash) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1448
62658f4d
PM
1449=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1450
1451(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1452there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1453
fc36a67e 1454=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1455
be771a83
GS
1456(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1457long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1458that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 1459
6d3b25aa
RGS
1460=item Deprecated use of my() in false conditional
1461
1462(D deprecated) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>.
1463There has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
1464not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
1465conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
1466static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
1467relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
1468declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
36fb85f3 1469
6d3b25aa
RGS
1470 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
1471
1472becomes
1473
1474 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
1475
36fb85f3
RGS
1476Beginning with perl 5.9.4, you can also use C<state> variables to
1477have lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
1478
1479 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
1480
500ab966
RGS
1481=item DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
1482
1483(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
1484just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather than
1485to create a dangling reference.
1486
3cdd684c
TP
1487=item Did not produce a valid header
1488
1489See Server error.
1490
6df41af2
GS
1491=item %s did not return a true value
1492
1493(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1494it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1495traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1496do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1497
cc507455 1498=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 1499
be771a83
GS
1500(W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some
1501such.
4633a7c4 1502
cc507455 1503=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 1504
be771a83
GS
1505(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1506variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1507seems superfluous.
33633739 1508
cc507455 1509=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 1510
be771a83
GS
1511(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1512@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1513carried away.
748a9306 1514
7e1af8bc 1515=item Died
5f05dabc 1516
1517(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1518you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
1519
3cdd684c
TP
1520=item Document contains no data
1521
1522See Server error.
1523
62658f4d
PM
1524=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1525
1526(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1527define a C<$VERSION.>
1528
49704364
WL
1529=item '/' does not take a repeat count
1530
1531(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
1532See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1533
a0d0e21e
LW
1534=item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1535
1536(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1537
1538=item do_study: out of memory
1539
1540(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1541
6df41af2
GS
1542=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1543
56da5a46
RGS
1544(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
1545"%s found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
6df41af2
GS
1546name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1547because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
1548"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1549something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1550subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1551"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 1552
ac206dc8
RGS
1553=item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1554
1555(W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1556qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1557
84d78eb7
YO
1558=item dump is not supported
1559
1560(F) Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.
1561
a0d0e21e
LW
1562=item Duplicate free() ignored
1563
be771a83
GS
1564(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1565already been freed.
a0d0e21e 1566
1109a392
MHM
1567=item Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
1568
1569(W) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a type
1570in a pack template. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1571
4633a7c4
LW
1572=item elseif should be elsif
1573
56da5a46
RGS
1574(S syntax) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's
1575ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method named
be771a83 1576"elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
1577unlikely to be what you want.
1578
ab13f0c7
JH
1579=item Empty %s
1580
af6f566e
HS
1581(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
1582described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
1583a regular expression without specifying the property name.
ab13f0c7 1584
85ab1d1d 1585=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 1586
85ab1d1d 1587(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
1588effective uids or gids failed.
1589
c038024b
RGS
1590=item %ENV is aliased to %s
1591
1592(F) You're running under taint mode, and the C<%ENV> variable has been
1593aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
1594program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
1595
748a9306
LW
1596=item Error converting file specification %s
1597
5f05dabc 1598(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 1599specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
1600single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1601an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1602conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 1603
e4d48cc9
GS
1604=item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
1605
be771a83
GS
1606(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1607expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1608is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 1609
fc8f615e 1610=item %s: Eval-group not allowed at runtime, use re 'eval'
e4d48cc9 1611
be771a83
GS
1612(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1613C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
1614pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it
1615is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly
1616building the pattern from an interpolated string at run time and using
1617that in an eval(). See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 1618
6df41af2
GS
1619=item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
1620
be771a83
GS
1621(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1622assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1623pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 1624
1a147d38
YO
1625=item EVAL without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1626
1627(F) You used a pattern that nested too many EVAL calls without consuming
1628any text. Restructure the pattern so that text is consumed.
1629
1630The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1631discovered.
1632
fc36a67e 1633=item Excessively long <> operator
1634
1635(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1636Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1637filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1638variable and glob that.
1639
ed9aa3b7
SG
1640=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1641
1642(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented in MacPerl. See L<perlport>.
1643
fe13d51d 1644=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors.
a0d0e21e
LW
1645
1646(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1647
1648=item Exiting eval via %s
1649
be771a83
GS
1650(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1651goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
1652
1653=item Exiting format via %s
1654
9a2ff54b 1655(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 1656goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1657
0a753a76 1658=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1659
be771a83
GS
1660(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1661sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1662loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 1663
a0d0e21e
LW
1664=item Exiting subroutine via %s
1665
be771a83
GS
1666(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1667as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
1668
1669=item Exiting substitution via %s
1670
be771a83
GS
1671(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1672as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1673
7b8d334a
GS
1674=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1675
be771a83
GS
1676(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1677the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1678usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1679e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 1680
6df41af2
GS
1681=item %s: Expression syntax
1682
be771a83
GS
1683(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1684Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
1685
1686=item %s failed--call queue aborted
1687
3c10abe3
AG
1688(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a UNITCHECK,
1689CHECK, INIT, or END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the
1690queue of such routines has been prematurely ended.
6df41af2 1691
7253e4e3 1692=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
73b437c8 1693
be771a83 1694(W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3
RK
1695character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1696in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1697"-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1698problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 1699
748a9306 1700=item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 1701
be771a83
GS
1702(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1703system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1704details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1705you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
1706
1707=item fcntl is not implemented
1708
1709(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1710PDP-11 or something?
1711
22846ab4
AB
1712=item FETCHSIZE returned a negative value
1713
1714(F) A tied array claimed to have a negative number of elements, which
1715is not possible.
1716
f337b084
TH
1717=item Field too wide in 'u' format in pack
1718
1719(W pack) Each line in an uuencoded string start with a length indicator
1720which can't encode values above 63. So there is no point in asking for
1721a line length bigger than that. Perl will behave as if you specified
1722C<u63> as format.
1723
af8c498a 1724=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 1725
6c8d78fb
HS
1726(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
1727it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
1728"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
1729write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 1730
af8c498a 1731=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 1732
6c8d78fb
HS
1733(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
1734you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
be771a83
GS
1735with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you
1736intended only to read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>.
6c8d78fb
HS
1737Another possibility is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0
1738(also known as STDIN) for output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
97828cef
RGS
1739
1740=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
1741
1742(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
d7f8936a 1743as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
97828cef
RGS
1744previously.
1745
1746=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
1747
1748(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
d7f8936a 1749as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
1750
1751=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1752
1753(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
1754a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1755happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1756name.
a0d0e21e 1757
56e90b21
GS
1758=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1759
be771a83 1760(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 1761some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
1762filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1763same name?
56e90b21 1764
6df41af2
GS
1765=item Format not terminated
1766
1767(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1768to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1769
a0d0e21e
LW
1770=item Format %s redefined
1771
e476b1b5 1772(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
1773
1774 {
271595cc 1775 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
1776 eval "format NAME =...";
1777 }
1778
a0d0e21e
LW
1779=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1780
e476b1b5 1781(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
1782
1783 if ($foo = 123)
1784
1785when you meant
1786
1787 if ($foo == 123)
1788
1789(or something like that).
1790
6df41af2
GS
1791=item %s found where operator expected
1792
56da5a46
RGS
1793(S syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator.
1794If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
be771a83
GS
1795operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
1796operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 1797
a0d0e21e
LW
1798=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1799
1800(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1801
1802=item gethostent not implemented
1803
1804(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1805because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1806on the Internet.
1807
69282e91 1808=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1809
be771a83
GS
1810(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
1811socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 1812
748a9306
LW
1813=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1814
1815(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1816C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1817
6df41af2
GS
1818=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
1819
be771a83
GS
1820(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
1821forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
1822L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
1823
1824=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1825
a4edf47d 1826(F) You've said "use strict" or "use strict vars", which indicates
30c282f6 1827that all variables must either be lexically scoped (using "my" or "state"),
a4edf47d
GS
1828declared beforehand using "our", or explicitly qualified to say
1829which package the global variable is in (using "::").
6df41af2 1830
e476b1b5
GS
1831=item glob failed (%s)
1832
be771a83
GS
1833(W glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for
1834C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a
1835C<glob> pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
1836nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
1837resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell) is
1838broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables in
1839config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it
1840were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all
1841empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
1842think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 1843C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 1844
a0d0e21e
LW
1845=item Glob not terminated
1846
1847(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
1848a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
1849not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
1850earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 1851
8b56d6ff
FC
1852=item gmtime(%.0f) too large
1853
fc003d4b
MS
1854(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with an number that was larger than
1855it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong
1856date. This warning is also triggered with nan (the special
1857not-a-number value).
1858
1859=item gmtime(%.0f) too small
1860
1861(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with an number that was smaller than
1862it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong
1863date. This warning is also triggered with nan (the special
1864not-a-number value).
8b56d6ff 1865
6df41af2 1866=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 1867
6df41af2
GS
1868(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
1869version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
1870
1871=item goto must have label
1872
1873(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1874unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1875
49704364 1876=item ()-group starts with a count
18529408 1877
49704364 1878(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is
18529408 1879supposed to follow something: a template character or a ()-group.
49704364 1880 See L<perlfunc/pack>.
18529408 1881
fe13d51d 1882=item %s had compilation errors.
6df41af2
GS
1883
1884(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
1885
a0d0e21e
LW
1886=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1887
be771a83
GS
1888(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
1889to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
1890created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e
LW
1891
1892=item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1893
be771a83
GS
1894(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
1895spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
a0d0e21e 1896
6df41af2
GS
1897=item %s has too many errors
1898
1899(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
1900Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
1901
252aa082
JH
1902=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
1903
e476b1b5 1904(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
1905(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
1906L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 1907
8903cb82 1908=item Identifier too long
1909
1910(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 1911about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
1912names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
1913of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 1914
ff3f963a 1915=item Ignoring zero length \N{} in character class"
fc8cd66c 1916
ff3f963a
KW
1917(W) Named Unicode character escapes (\N{...}) may return a
1918zero length sequence. When such an escape is used in a character class
1a147d38 1919its behaviour is not well defined. Check that the correct escape has
fc8cd66c
YO
1920been used, and the correct charname handler is in scope.
1921
6df41af2 1922=item Illegal binary digit %s
f675dbe5 1923
6df41af2 1924(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
f675dbe5 1925
6df41af2 1926=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
a0d0e21e 1927
be771a83
GS
1928(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
1929binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
1930offending digit.
a0d0e21e 1931
4fdae800 1932=item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1933
d5898338 1934(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
be771a83
GS
1935would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
1936when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
1937version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
1938to your Perl administrator.
4fdae800 1939
d37a9538
ST
1940=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
1941
197afce1
MT
1942(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
1943Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, and \.
d37a9538 1944
904d85c5
RGS
1945=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
1946
1947(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
1948you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
1949
8e742a20
MHM
1950=item Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
1951
1952(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See L<perlsub>.
1953
a0d0e21e
LW
1954=item Illegal division by zero
1955
be771a83
GS
1956(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
1957your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
1958meaningless input.
a0d0e21e 1959
6df41af2
GS
1960=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
1961
be771a83
GS
1962(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
1963A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
1964number stopped before the illegal character.
6df41af2 1965
a0d0e21e
LW
1966=item Illegal modulus zero
1967
be771a83
GS
1968(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
1969numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 1970
6df41af2 1971=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 1972
6df41af2
GS
1973(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
1974two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4
GS
1975
1976=item Illegal octal digit %s
a0d0e21e 1977
d1be9408 1978(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 1979
399388f4 1980=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
748a9306 1981
d1be9408 1982(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
75b44862 1983Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
748a9306 1984
fe13d51d 1985=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: -%c
6ff81951 1986
6df41af2 1987(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
646ca9b2 1988following switches: B<-[CDIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 1989
6df41af2 1990=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 1991
75b44862 1992(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
1993internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
1994delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 1995
6df41af2 1996=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 1997
be771a83
GS
1998(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
1999name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
2000didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
2001ignored.
54310121 2002
6df41af2 2003=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 2004
be771a83
GS
2005(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
2006the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
2007system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
2008times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
2009would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 2010
be771a83
GS
2011Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
2012also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 2013
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2014=item Inconsistent hierarchy during C3 merge of class '%s': merging failed on parent '%s'
2015
2016(F) The method resolution order (MRO) of the given class is not
2017C3-consistent, and you have enabled the C3 MRO for this class. See the C3
2018documentation in L<mro> for more information.
2019
979699d9
JH
2020=item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
2021
2022(F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
2023Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
2024encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
2025
1a147d38
YO
2026=item Infinite recursion in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2027
2028(F) You used a pattern that references itself without consuming any input
2029text. You should check the pattern to ensure that recursive patterns
2030either consume text or fail.
2031
2032The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2033discovered.
2034
6dbe9451
NC
2035=item Initialization of state variables in list context currently forbidden
2036
2037(F) Currently the implementation of "state" only permits the initialization
2038of scalar variables in scalar context. Re-write C<state ($a) = 42> as
2039C<state $a = 42> to change from list to scalar context. Constructions such
2040as C<state (@a) = foo()> will be supported in a future perl release.
2041
a0d0e21e
LW
2042=item Insecure dependency in %s
2043
8b1a09fc 2044(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
2045The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
2046setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
2047tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
2048from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
2049such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
2050L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
2051
2052=item Insecure directory in %s
2053
be771a83
GS
2054(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2055setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
df98f984
RGS
2056the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
2057See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2058
62f468fc 2059=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2060
2061(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc 2062setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
332d5f78
SR
2063C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
2064supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
2065the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2066
a7ae9550
GS
2067=item Integer overflow in %s number
2068
75b44862 2069(W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
2070either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
2071your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
2072On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
2073representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
20740b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
2075transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
2076internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
2077operations.
bbce6d69 2078
2fba7546
GA
2079=item Integer overflow in format string for %s
2080
0be96356
AL
2081(F) The indexes and widths specified in the format string of C<printf()>
2082or C<sprintf()> are too large. The numbers must not overflow the size of
2fba7546
GA
2083integers for your architecture.
2084
46314c13
JP
2085=item Integer overflow in version
2086
2087(F) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for the
2088size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
2089because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use a
2090element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by
2091trying to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like
2092100/9.
2093
7253e4e3 2094=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2095
2096(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
7253e4e3 2097The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a
JF
2098discovered.
2099
748a9306
LW
2100=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
2101
be771a83
GS
2102(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
2103you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
2104to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
2105L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
2106Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
2107terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 2108
7253e4e3 2109=item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2110
7253e4e3
RK
2111(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
2112<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2113discovered.
a0d0e21e 2114
6df41af2
GS
2115=item %s (...) interpreted as function
2116
75b44862 2117(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 2118followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 2119operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 2120L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 2121
09bef843
SB
2122=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
2123
2124The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
2125by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
2126
2127=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
2128
be771a83
GS
2129The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
2130recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2131
c635e13b 2132=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
2133
be771a83
GS
2134(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
2135L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 2136
9e08bc66
TS
2137=item Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2138
2139(W regexp) The numeric escape (for example C<\xHH>) of value < 256
2140didn't correspond to a single character through the conversion
2141from the encoding specified by the encoding pragma.
2142The escape was replaced with REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (U+FFFD) instead.
2143The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2144escape was discovered.
2145
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2146=item Invalid mro name: '%s'
2147
2148(F) You tried to C<mro::set_mro("classname", "foo")>
2149or C<use mro 'foo'>, where C<foo> is not a valid method resolution order (MRO).
2150(Currently, the only valid ones are C<dfs> and C<c3>). See L<mro>.
2151
7253e4e3 2152=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2153
2154(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
2155greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
2156C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
2157up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2158problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 2159
d1573ac7 2160=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
2161
2162(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
2163character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
2164
09bef843
SB
2165=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
2166
0120eecf 2167(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
2168elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
2169parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
2170See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2171
b4581f09
JH
2172=item Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
2173
2174(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other than a
2175colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
2176If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2177list was terminated too soon.
2178
49704364 2179=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
96e4d5b1 2180
49704364
WL
2181(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
2182See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2183(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
75b44862 2184silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 2185
46314c13
JP
2186=item Invalid version format (multiple underscores)
2187
2188(F) Versions may contain at most a single underscore, which signals
2189that the version is a beta release. See L<version> for the allowed
2190version formats.
2191
2192=item Invalid version format (underscores before decimal)
2193
2194(F) Versions may not contain decimals after the optional underscore.
2195See L<version> for the allowed version formats.
2196
a0d0e21e
LW
2197=item ioctl is not implemented
2198
2199(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
2200strange for a machine that supports C.
2201
c289d2f7
JH
2202=item ioctl() on unopened %s
2203
2204(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
2205Check you control flow and number of arguments.
2206
fe13d51d 2207=item IO layers (like '%s') unavailable
363c40c4
SB
2208
2209(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
2210you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO Perl must be configured
2211with 'useperlio'.
2212
80cbd5ad
JH
2213=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
2214
2215(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
2216neither as a system call or an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
2217
b4581f09
JH
2218=item $* is no longer supported
2219
d1d15184 2220(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older perls, has
4fd19576
B
2221been removed as of 5.9.0 and is no longer supported. In previous versions of perl the use of
2222C<$*> enabled or disabled multi-line matching within a string.
2223
2224Instead of using C<$*> you should use the C</m> (and maybe C</s>) regexp
2225modifiers. (In older versions: when C<$*> was set to a true value then all regular
2226expressions behaved as if they were written using C</m>.)
b4581f09 2227
8ae1fe26
RGS
2228=item $# is no longer supported
2229
d1d15184 2230(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$#>, deprecated in older perls, has
8ae1fe26
RGS
2231been removed as of 5.9.3 and is no longer supported. You should use the
2232printf/sprintf functions instead.
2233
6ad11d81
JH
2234=item `%s' is not a code reference
2235
04a80ee0
RGS
2236(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of overload::constant
2237needs to be a code reference. Either an anonymous subroutine, or a reference
6ad11d81
JH
2238to a subroutine.
2239
2240=item `%s' is not an overloadable type
2241
04a80ee0
RGS
2242(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
2243unaware of.
6ad11d81 2244
a0d0e21e
LW
2245=item junk on end of regexp
2246
2247(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
2248
2249=item Label not found for "last %s"
2250
be771a83
GS
2251(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
2252of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2253L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2254
2255=item Label not found for "next %s"
2256
2257(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
2258that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2259L<perlfunc/last>.
2260
2261=item Label not found for "redo %s"
2262
2263(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
2264that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2265L<perlfunc/last>.
2266
85ab1d1d 2267=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 2268
85ab1d1d 2269(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
2270effective uids or gids failed.
2271
49704364
WL
2272=item length/code after end of string in unpack
2273
d7f8936a 2274(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an unpack
49704364
WL
2275length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
2276an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2277
f0e67a1d
Z
2278=item Lexing code attempted to stuff non-Latin-1 character into Latin-1 input
2279
2280(F) An extension is attempting to insert text into the current parse
2281(using L<lex_stuff_pvn_flags|perlapi/lex_stuff_pvn_flags> or similar), but
2282tried to insert a character that couldn't be part of the current input.
2283This is an inherent pitfall of the stuffing mechanism, and one of the
2284reasons to avoid it. Where it is necessary to stuff, stuffing only
2285plain ASCII is recommended.
2286
2287=item Lexing code internal error (%s)
2288
2289(F) Lexing code supplied by an extension violated the lexer's API in a
2290detectable way.
2291
69282e91 2292=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2293
be771a83
GS
2294(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
2295to check the return value of your socket() call? See
2296L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 2297
8b56d6ff
FC
2298=item localtime(%.0f) too large
2299
fc003d4b
MS
2300(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with an number that was larger
2301than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
2302wrong date. This warning is also triggered with nan (the special
2303not-a-number value).
2304
2305=item localtime(%.0f) too small
2306
2307(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with an number that was smaller
2308than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
2309wrong date. This warning is also triggered with nan (the special
2310not-a-number value).
8b56d6ff 2311
58e23c8d 2312=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
2313
2314(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
58e23c8d 2315handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release.
2e50fd82 2316
b88df990
NC
2317=item Lost precision when %s %f by 1
2318
2319(W) The value you attempted to increment or decrement by one is too large
2320for the underlying floating point representation to store accurately,
2321hence the target of C<++> or C<--> is unchanged. Perl issues this warning
2322because it has already switched from integers to floating point when values
2323are too large for integers, and now even floating point is insufficient.
2324You may wish to switch to using L<Math::BigInt> explicitly.
2325
2f7da168
RK
2326=item lstat() on filehandle %s
2327
2328(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
2329by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
2330instead on the filehandle.)
2331
885ef6f5
GG
2332=item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined
2333
963d9ce9 2334(W misc) Making a subroutine an lvalue subroutine after it has been defined
885ef6f5
GG
2335by declaring the subroutine with a lvalue attribute is not
2336possible. To make the the subroutine a lvalue subroutine add the
2337lvalue attribute to the definition, or put the the declaration before
2338the definition.
2339
96ebfdd7
RK
2340=item Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented yet
2341
2342(F) Due to limitations in the current implementation, array and hash
2343values cannot be returned in subroutines used in lvalue context. See
2344L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
2345
49704364
WL
2346=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
2347
2348(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
2349are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2350
2351=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
2352
2353(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
2354are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2355
6df41af2
GS
2356=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
2357
2358(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
2359
2360 prefix1;prefix2
2361
2362or
6df41af2
GS
2363 prefix1 prefix2
2364
be771a83
GS
2365with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
2366a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
2367appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 2368"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 2369
2f758a16
ST
2370=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
2371
d37a9538
ST
2372(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
2373syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
2374obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
2375when the function is called.
2f758a16 2376
ba210ebe
JH
2377=item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
2378
2575c402
JW
2379(S utf8) (F) Perl detected a string that didn't comply with UTF-8
2380encoding rules, even though it had the UTF8 flag on.
ba210ebe 2381
2575c402
JW
2382One possible cause is that you set the UTF8 flag yourself for data that
2383you thought to be in UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy
23848-bit data). To guard against this, you can use Encode::decode_utf8.
2385
2386If you use the C<:encoding(UTF-8)> PerlIO layer for input, invalid byte
2387sequences are handled gracefully, but if you use C<:utf8>, the flag is
2388set without validating the data, possibly resulting in this error
2389message.
2390
2391See also L<Encode/"Handling Malformed Data">.
901b21bf 2392
dea0fc0b
JH
2393=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
2394
183097aa 2395(F) Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
dea0fc0b
JH
2396doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
2397
ff3f963a
KW
2398=item Malformed UTF-8 returned by \N
2399
2400(F) The charnames handler returned malformed UTF-8.
2401
f337b084
TH
2402=item Malformed UTF-8 string in pack
2403
2404(F) You tried to pack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2405rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2406
2407=item Malformed UTF-8 string in unpack
2408
2409(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2410rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2411
2412=item Malformed UTF-8 string in '%c' format in unpack
2413
2414(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2415rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2416
fe13d51d 2417=item Maximal count of pending signals (%d) exceeded
2563cec5 2418
fe13d51d 2419(F) Perl aborted due to a too high number of signals pending. This
2563cec5
IZ
2420usually indicates that your operating system tried to deliver signals
2421too fast (with a very high priority), starving the perl process from
2422resources it would need to reach a point where it can process signals
2423safely. (See L<perlipc/"Deferred Signals (Safe Signals)">.)
2424
49704364 2425=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2426
2427(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
7253e4e3
RK
2428regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
2429shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2430See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 2431
25f58aea
PN
2432=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2433
2434(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
2435interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
2436"use" or "my".
2437
49704364 2438=item % may not be used in pack
6df41af2
GS
2439
2440(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
2441checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
2442See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 2443
a0d0e21e
LW
2444=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
2445
2446(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 2447doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2448
3cdd684c
TP
2449=item Method %s not permitted
2450
2451See Server error.
2452
a0d0e21e
LW
2453=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
2454
2455(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
2456by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
2457ended earlier on the current line.
2458
2459=item Misplaced _ in number
2460
d4ced10d
JH
2461(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
2462separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 2463
7baa4690
HS
2464=item Missing argument in %s
2465
2466(W uninitialized) A printf-type format required more arguments than were
2467supplied.
2468
9e81e6a1
RGS
2469=item Missing argument to -%c
2470
2471(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2472immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
2473
ff3f963a 2474=item Missing braces on \N{}
423cee85 2475
4a2d328f 2476(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
423cee85
JH
2477double-quotish context.
2478
a0d0e21e
LW
2479=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
2480
2481(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
2482"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
2483
06eaf0bc
GS
2484=item Missing command in piped open
2485
be771a83
GS
2486(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
2487C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
2488blank.
06eaf0bc 2489
961ce445
RGS
2490=item Missing control char name in \c
2491
2492(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
2493character name.
2494
6df41af2
GS
2495=item Missing name in "my sub"
2496
be771a83
GS
2497(F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
2498they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
2499
2500=item Missing $ on loop variable
2501
be771a83
GS
2502(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
2503are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
2504can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 2505
cc507455 2506=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306 2507
56da5a46
RGS
2508(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2509"%s found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
748a9306 2510
ab13f0c7
JH
2511=item Missing right brace on %s
2512
ff3f963a
KW
2513(F) Missing right brace in C<\x{...}>, C<\p{...}>, C<\P{...}>, or C<\N{...}>.
2514
0a96133f 2515=item Missing right brace on \\N{} or unescaped left brace after \\N
ff3f963a 2516
0a96133f
KW
2517(F)
2518C<\N> has two meanings.
2519
2520The traditional one has it followed by a name enclosed
2521in braces, meaning the character (or sequence of characters) given by that name.
ff3f963a 2522Thus C<\N{ASTERISK}> is another way of writing C<*>, valid in both
0a96133f
KW
2523double-quoted strings and regular expression patterns. In patterns, it doesn't
2524have the meaning an unescaped C<*> does.
ff3f963a 2525
0a96133f
KW
2526Starting in Perl 5.12.0, C<\N> also can have an additional meaning (only) in
2527patterns, namely to match a non-newline character. (This is like C<.> but is
2528not affected by the C</s> modifier.)
ff3f963a
KW
2529
2530This can lead to some ambiguities. When C<\N> is not followed immediately by a
2531left brace, Perl assumes the "match non-newline character" meaning. Also, if
2532the braces form a valid quantifier such as C<\N{3}> or C<\N{5,}>, Perl assumes
2533that this means to match the given quantity of non-newlines (in these examples,
0a96133f 25343; and 5 or more, respectively). In all other case, where there is a C<\N{>
ff3f963a
KW
2535and a matching C<}>, Perl assumes that a character name is desired.
2536
2537However, if there is no matching C<}>, Perl doesn't know if it was mistakenly
0a96133f
KW
2538omitted, or if "match non-newline" followed by "match a C<{>" was desired, and
2539raises this error. If you meant the former, add the right brace; if you meant
2540the latter, escape the brace with a backslash, like so: C<\N\{>
ab13f0c7 2541
d98d5fff 2542=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 2543
be771a83
GS
2544(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
2545ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
2546were last editing.
a0d0e21e 2547
6df41af2
GS
2548=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
2549
56da5a46
RGS
2550(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2551"%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
6df41af2
GS
2552the previous line just because you saw this message.
2553
a0d0e21e
LW
2554=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
2555
2556(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 2557constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
2558catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
2559
2560 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
2561 mod(2);
2562
2563Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
2564
c5674021
PDF
2565Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
2566is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
2567
2568 $x = 1;
2569 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
2570 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to modify the 2
64977eb6 2571 }
c5674021 2572
7a4340ed 2573=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2574
2575(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
2576subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
2577backwards.
2578
7a4340ed 2579=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 2580
be771a83
GS
2581(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
2582couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
2583
2584=item Module name must be constant
2585
2586(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
2587
be98fb35 2588=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 2589
be98fb35
GS
2590(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
2591you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
2592about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 2593
fe13d51d 2594=item More than one argument to '%s' open
ed9aa3b7
SG
2595
2596(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
2597can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
2598list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
2599See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
2600
a0d0e21e
LW
2601=item msg%s not implemented
2602
2603(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
2604
2605=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
2606
75b44862
GS
2607(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
2608They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 2609
49704364 2610=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
6df41af2 2611
49704364
WL
2612(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
2613follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
2614See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2615
2616=item "my sub" not yet implemented
2617
be771a83
GS
2618(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
2619that yet.
6df41af2 2620
30c282f6 2621=item "%s" variable %s can't be in a package
6df41af2 2622
be771a83
GS
2623(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2624sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2625local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 2626
ff3f963a
KW
2627=item \\N in a character class must be a named character: \\N{...}
2628
2629The new (5.12) meaning of C<\N> to match non-newlines is not valid in a
2630bracketed character class, for the same reason that C<.> in a character class
2631loses its specialness: it matches almost everything, which is probably not what
2632you want.
2633
8b1a09fc 2634=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2635
e476b1b5 2636(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
be771a83
GS
2637If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2638again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
77ca0c92 2639provided for this purpose.
a0d0e21e 2640
64b374f4
FD
2641NOTE: This warning detects symbols that have been used only once so $c, @c,
2642%c, *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or format) are considered
2643the same; if a program uses $c only once but also uses any of the others it
2644will not trigger this warning.
2645
ff3f963a
KW
2646=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \\N{U+...}
2647
2648(F) The character constant represented by C<...> is not a valid hexadecimal
2649number.
2650
49704364
WL
2651=item Negative '/' count in unpack
2652
2653(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
2654negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2655
a0d0e21e
LW
2656=item Negative length
2657
be771a83
GS
2658(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
2659length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 2660
ed9aa3b7
SG
2661=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
2662
2663(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
2664greater than or equal to zero.
2665
7253e4e3 2666=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 2667
b45f050a 2668(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
7253e4e3 2669things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
b45f050a 2670expression about where the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 2671
7253e4e3 2672Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 2673C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 2674
6df41af2 2675=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 2676
be771a83
GS
2677(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
2678scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e 2679
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2680=item next::method/next::can/maybe::next::method cannot find enclosing method
2681
2682(F) C<next::method> needs to be called within the context of a
2683real method in a real package, and it could not find such a context.
2684See L<mro>.
2685
a0d0e21e
LW
2686=item No %s allowed while running setuid
2687
be771a83
GS
2688(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
2689setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
2690will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
2691securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2692
a0d0e21e
LW
2693=item No comma allowed after %s
2694
2695(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
2696allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
2697Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
2698
0a753a76 2699One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
2700constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
2701importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
2702does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
2703explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
2704L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
2705would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
2706remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
2707constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
2708list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
2709this error was triggered?
2710
748a9306
LW
2711=item No command into which to pipe on command line
2712
be771a83
GS
2713(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2714redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
2715doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 2716
a0d0e21e
LW
2717=item No DB::DB routine defined
2718
be771a83 2719(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
ccafdc96
RGS
2720for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
2721module) didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
2722statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
2723
2724=item No dbm on this machine
2725
2726(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 2727supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e 2728
ccafdc96 2729=item No DB::sub routine defined
a0d0e21e 2730
ccafdc96
RGS
2731(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
2732for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
2733module) didn't define a C<DB::sub> routine to be called at the beginning
2734of each ordinary subroutine call.
a0d0e21e 2735
96ebfdd7
RK
2736=item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
2737
2738(F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
2739
c47ff5f1 2740=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 2741
be771a83
GS
2742(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2743redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
2744find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 2745
49704364
WL
2746=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
2747
2748(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
2749matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2750
c47ff5f1 2751=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 2752
be771a83
GS
2753(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2754redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
2755name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 2756
6df41af2
GS
2757=item No #! line
2758
2759(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2760even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
2761
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2762=item No next::method '%s' found for %s
2763
2764(F) C<next::method> found no further instances of this method name
2765in the remaining packages of the MRO of this class. If you don't want
2766it throwing an exception, use C<maybe::next::method>
2767or C<next::can>. See L<mro>.
2768
6df41af2
GS
2769=item "no" not allowed in expression
2770
be771a83
GS
2771(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
2772returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 2773
c47ff5f1 2774=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 2775
be771a83
GS
2776(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2777redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
2778doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 2779
c47ff5f1 2780=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 2781
be771a83
GS
2782(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2783redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
2784find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 2785
1ec3e8de
GS
2786=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
2787
be771a83
GS
2788(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
2789declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
2790semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 2791
a0d0e21e
LW
2792=item No Perl script found in input
2793
2794(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
2795with #! and containing the word "perl".
2796
2797=item No setregid available
2798
2799(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
2800your system.
2801
2802=item No setreuid available
2803
2804(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
2805your system.
2806
6df41af2
GS
2807=item No %s specified for -%c
2808
2809(F) The indicated command line switch needs a mandatory argument, but
2810you haven't specified one.
2811
e75d1f10
RD
2812=item No such class field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
2813
2814(F) You tried to access a key from a hash through the indicated typed variable
2815but that key is not allowed by the package of the same type. The indicated
2816package has restricted the set of allowed keys using the L<fields> pragma.
2817
2c692339
RGS
2818=item No such class %s
2819
30c282f6 2820(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state" declaration, but
2c692339
RGS
2821this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
2822
3c20a832
SP
2823=item No such hook: %s
2824
2825(F) You specified a signal hook that was not recognized by Perl. Currently, Perl
2826accepts C<__DIE__> and C<__WARN__> as valid signal hooks
2827
6df41af2
GS
2828=item No such pipe open
2829
2830(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
2831close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
2832earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 2833
a0d0e21e
LW
2834=item No such signal: SIG%s
2835
be771a83
GS
2836(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
2837not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
2838names on your system.
a0d0e21e
LW
2839
2840=item Not a CODE reference
2841
2842(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2843subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
2844use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2845also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2846
2847=item Not a format reference
2848
2849(F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
2850format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
2851
2852=item Not a GLOB reference
2853
be771a83
GS
2854(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
2855symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
2856something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
2857kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2858
2859=item Not a HASH reference
2860
be771a83
GS
2861(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
2862reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
2863find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 2864
6df41af2
GS
2865=item Not an ARRAY reference
2866
be771a83
GS
2867(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
2868a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2869to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 2870
a0d0e21e
LW
2871=item Not a perl script
2872
2873(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2874even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
2875mention perl.
2876
2877=item Not a SCALAR reference
2878
be771a83
GS
2879(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
2880a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2881to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2882
2883=item Not a subroutine reference
2884
2885(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2886subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
2887use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2888also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 2889
e7ea3e70 2890=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
2891
2892(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 2893doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2894
a0d0e21e
LW
2895=item Not enough arguments for %s
2896
2897(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
2898
6df41af2
GS
2899=item Not enough format arguments
2900
be771a83
GS
2901(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
2902supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
2903
2904=item %s: not found
2905
be771a83
GS
2906(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
2907of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
2908yourself.
6df41af2
GS
2909
2910=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 2911
6df41af2
GS
2912(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
2913timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
2914to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
2915F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
2916need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e 2917
4ef2275c
GA
2918=item Non-string passed as bitmask
2919
2920(W misc) A number has been passed as a bitmask argument to select().
2921Use the vec() function to construct the file descriptor bitmasks for
2922select. See L<perlfunc/select>
2923
a0d0e21e
LW
2924=item Null filename used
2925
be771a83
GS
2926(F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
2927machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
a0d0e21e 2928
6df41af2
GS
2929=item NULL OP IN RUN
2930
be771a83
GS
2931(P debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
2932pointer.
6df41af2 2933
55497cff 2934=item Null picture in formline
2935
2936(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
2937specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
2938supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
2939
a0d0e21e
LW
2940=item Null realloc
2941
2942(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
2943
2944=item NULL regexp argument
2945
5f05dabc 2946(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
2947
2948=item NULL regexp parameter
2949
2950(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
2951
fc36a67e 2952=item Number too long
2953
be771a83 2954(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 2955about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
2956versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
2957the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
2958"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 2959
6df41af2
GS
2960=item Octal number in vector unsupported
2961
be771a83
GS
2962(F) Numbers with a leading C<0> are not currently allowed in vectors.
2963The octal number interpretation of such numbers may be supported in a
2964future version.
6df41af2 2965
252aa082
JH
2966=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
2967
75b44862 2968(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
2969(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2970L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082
JH
2971
2972See also L<perlport> for writing portable code.
2973
6ad11d81
JH
2974=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
2975
04a80ee0
RGS
2976(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
2977arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 2978
b21befc1
MG
2979=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
2980
2981(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2982which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
2983
1930e939 2984=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 2985
be771a83
GS
2986(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2987which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 2988
bbce6d69 2989=item Offset outside string
2990
42bc49da
JH
2991(F, W layer) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv/seek operation
2992with an offset pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to
f5a7294f
JH
2993imagine. The sole exceptions to this are that zero padding will
2994take place when going past the end of the string when either
2995C<sysread()>ing a file, or when seeking past the end of a scalar opened
1a7a2554
MB
2996for I/O (in anticipation of future reads and to imitate the behaviour
2997with real files).
bbce6d69 2998
c289d2f7 2999=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
3000
3001(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
3002never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
3003call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
3004
96ebfdd7
RK
3005=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
3006
3007(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
3008that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
3009
a0d0e21e
LW
3010=item oops: oopsAV
3011
e476b1b5 3012(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
3013
3014=item oops: oopsHV
3015
e476b1b5 3016(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 3017
abc718f2
RGS
3018=item Opening dirhandle %s also as a file
3019
3020(W io deprecated) You used open() to associate a filehandle to
3021a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a dirhandle.
3022Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
3023and is deprecated.
3024
3025=item Opening filehandle %s also as a directory
3026
3027(W io deprecated) You used opendir() to associate a dirhandle to
3028a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a filehandle.
3029Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
3030and is deprecated.
3031
a0288114 3032=item Operation "%s": no method found, %s
44a8e56a 3033
be771a83
GS
3034(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
3035handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
3036of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
3037C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 3038
748a9306
LW
3039=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
3040
be771a83
GS
3041(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
3042was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
3043use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
3044example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
3045"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 3046
6df41af2
GS
3047=item "our" variable %s redeclared
3048
be771a83
GS
3049(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
3050in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 3051
a80b8354
GS
3052=item Out of memory!
3053
3054(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
3055remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
3056no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 3057
19a52907
JH
3058At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
3059process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
3060C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
3061the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
3062and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
3063
6d3b25aa
RGS
3064=item Out of memory during %s extend
3065
3066(X) An attempt was made to extend an array, a list, or a string beyond
3067the largest possible memory allocation.
3068
6df41af2 3069=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 3070
6df41af2
GS
3071(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
3072remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
3073the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
3074possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 3075
1b979e0a 3076=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 3077
be771a83
GS
3078(X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
3079insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
3080request.
eff9c6e2
CS
3081
3082The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
3083depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
3084However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
3085emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
3086is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
3087where the failed request happened.
55497cff 3088
1b979e0a
IZ
3089=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
3090
3091(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
3092is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
3093C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 3094
6df41af2
GS
3095=item Out of memory for yacc stack
3096
be771a83
GS
3097(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
3098parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
3099otherwise.
6df41af2 3100
28be1210
TH
3101=item '.' outside of string in pack
3102
3103(F) The argument to a '.' in your template tried to move the working
3104position to before the start of the packed string being built.
3105
49704364 3106=item '@' outside of string in unpack
6df41af2 3107
49704364 3108(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6df41af2
GS
3109the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3110
f337b084
TH
3111=item '@' outside of string with malformed UTF-8 in unpack
3112
3113(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
3114the string being unpacked. The string being unpacked was also invalid
3115UTF-8. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3116
7cb0cfe6
BM
3117=item Overloaded dereference did not return a reference
3118
3119(F) An object with an overloaded dereference operator was dereferenced,
3120but the overloaded operation did not return a reference. See
3121L<overload>.
3122
3123=item Overloaded qr did not return a REGEXP
3124
3125(F) An object with a C<qr> overload was used as part of a match, but the
3126overloaded operation didn't return a compiled regexp. See L<overload>.
3127
6df41af2
GS
3128=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
3129
be771a83
GS
3130(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
3131package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
3132some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
3133mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 3134
96ebfdd7
RK
3135=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
3136
3137(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3138signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3139
a0d0e21e
LW
3140=item page overflow
3141
be771a83
GS
3142(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
3143page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 3144
6df41af2
GS
3145=item panic: %s
3146
3147(P) An internal error.
3148
c99a1475
NC
3149=item panic: attempt to call %s in %s
3150
3151(P) One of the file test operators entered a code branch that calls
3152an ACL related-function, but that function is not available on this
3153platform. Earlier checks mean that it should not be possible to
3154enter this branch on this platform.
3155
a0d0e21e
LW
3156=item panic: ck_grep
3157
3158(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
3159
3160=item panic: ck_split
3161
3162(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
3163
3164=item panic: corrupt saved stack index
3165
be771a83
GS
3166(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
3167there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 3168
810b8aa5
GS
3169=item panic: del_backref
3170
3171(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
3172reference.
3173
7619c85e
RG
3174=item panic: Devel::DProf inconsistent subroutine return
3175
3176(P) Devel::DProf called a subroutine that exited using goto(LABEL),
3177last(LABEL) or next(LABEL). Leaving that way a subroutine called from
3178an XSUB will lead very probably to a crash of the interpreter. This is
3179a bug that will hopefully one day get fixed.
3180
a0d0e21e
LW
3181=item panic: die %s
3182
3183(P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
3184it wasn't an eval context.
3185
a0d0e21e
LW
3186=item panic: do_subst
3187
be771a83
GS
3188(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
3189data.
a0d0e21e 3190
2269b42e 3191=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 3192
2269b42e 3193(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 3194data.
a0d0e21e 3195
b7f7fd0b
NC
3196=item panic: fold_constants JMPENV_PUSH returned %d
3197
10203f38 3198(P) While attempting folding constants an exception other than an C<eval>
b7f7fd0b
NC
3199failure was caught.
3200
c635e13b 3201=item panic: frexp
3202
3203(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
3204
a0d0e21e
LW
3205=item panic: goto
3206
3207(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
3208and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
3209
23976bdd
NC
3210=item panic: hfreeentries failed to free hash
3211
3212(P) The internal routine used to clear a hashes entries tried repeatedly,
3213but each time something added more entries to the hash. Most likely the hash
3214contains an object with a reference back to the hash and a destructor that
3215adds a new object to the hash.
3216
a0d0e21e
LW
3217=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
3218
3219(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
3220
3221=item panic: INTERPCONCAT
3222
3223(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
3224
e446cec8
IZ
3225=item panic: kid popen errno read
3226
3227(F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
3228
a0d0e21e
LW
3229=item panic: last
3230
3231(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
3232it wasn't a block context.
3233
3234=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
3235
be771a83
GS
3236(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
3237scope.
a0d0e21e
LW
3238
3239=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
3240
3241(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
3242invalid enum on the top of it.
3243
810b8aa5
GS
3244=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
3245
3246(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
3247references to an object.
3248
6df41af2
GS
3249=item panic: malloc
3250
3251(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
3252
27d5b266
JH
3253=item panic: memory wrap
3254
3255(P) Something tried to allocate more memory than possible.
3256
a0d0e21e
LW
3257=item panic: pad_alloc
3258
3259(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3260and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3261
3262=item panic: pad_free curpad
3263
3264(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3265and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3266
3267=item panic: pad_free po
3268
3269(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3270
3271=item panic: pad_reset curpad
3272
3273(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3274and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3275
3276=item panic: pad_sv po
3277
3278(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3279
3280=item panic: pad_swipe curpad
3281
3282(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3283and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3284
3285=item panic: pad_swipe po
3286
3287(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3288
3289=item panic: pp_iter
3290
3291(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
3292
96ebfdd7
RK
3293=item panic: pp_match%s
3294
3295(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
3296data.
3297
2269b42e
JH
3298=item panic: pp_split
3299
3300(P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
3301
a0d0e21e
LW
3302=item panic: realloc
3303
3304(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
3305
3306=item panic: restartop
3307
3308(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
3309didn't supply the destination.
3310
3311=item panic: return
3312
3313(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
3314then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
3315
3316=item panic: scan_num
3317
3318(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
3319
6c65d5f9
NC
3320=item panic: sv_chop %s
3321
3322(P) The sv_chop() routine was passed a position that is not within the
3323scalar's string buffer.
3324
a0d0e21e
LW
3325=item panic: sv_insert
3326
3327(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
3328was string.
3329
3330=item panic: top_env
3331
6224f72b 3332(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e 3333
65bca31a
NC
3334=item panic: unimplemented op %s (#%d) called
3335
3336(P) The compiler is screwed up and attempted to use an op that isn't permitted
3337at run time.
3338
dea0fc0b
JH
3339=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
3340
3341(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 3342to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 3343
e0ea5e2d
NC
3344=item panic: utf16_to_utf8_reversed: odd bytelen
3345
3346(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8_reversed with an odd (as opposed
3347to even) byte length.
3348
2f7da168
RK
3349=item panic: yylex
3350
3351(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
3352
1a147d38
YO
3353=item Pattern subroutine nesting without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3354
3355(F) You used a pattern that uses too many nested subpattern calls without
3356consuming any text. Restructure the pattern so text is consumed before the
3357nesting limit is exceeded.
3358
3359The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3360discovered.
3361
7b8d334a 3362=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
a0d0e21e 3363
e476b1b5 3364(W parenthesis) You said something like
a0d0e21e
LW
3365
3366 my $foo, $bar = @_;
3367
3368when you meant
3369
3370 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
3371
30c282f6 3372Remember that "my", "our", "local" and "state" bind tighter than comma.
a0d0e21e 3373
96ebfdd7
RK
3374=item C<-p> destination: %s
3375
3376(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
3377command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
3378redirected it with select().)
3379
3380=item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
3381
3382(F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3383"Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
3384that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
3385
1109a392
MHM
3386=item Perl_my_%s() not available
3387
3388(F) Your platform has very uncommon byte-order and integer size,
3389so it was not possible to set up some or all fixed-width byte-order
3390conversion functions. This is only a problem when you're using the
3391'<' or '>' modifiers in (un)pack templates. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3392
879d0c72
NC
3393=item Perl_pmflag() is deprecated, and will be removed from the XS API
3394
3395(D deprecated) XS code called the C function C<Perl_pmflag>. This was part of
3396Perl's listed public API for extending or embedding the perl interpreter. It has
3397now been removed from the public API, and will be removed in a future release,
3398hence XS code should be re-written not to use it.
3399
6d3b25aa
RGS
3400=item Perl %s required--this is only version %s, stopped
3401
3402(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
3403recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
3404you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
3405
6df41af2
GS
3406=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
3407
3408(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 3409C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 3410
96ebfdd7
RK
3411=item PERL_SIGNALS illegal: "%s"
3412
3413See L<perlrun/PERL_SIGNALS> for legal values.
3414
6df41af2
GS
3415=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3416
3417(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
3418
3419 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3420 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
3421 LC_ALL = "En_US",
3422 LANG = (unset)