This is a live mirror of the Perl 5 development currently hosted at https://github.com/perl/perl5
Robin Houston points out a better way to replace
[perl5.git] / pod / perldiag.pod
CommitLineData
a0d0e21e
LW
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).
11 (D) A deprecation (optional).
e476b1b5 12 (S) A severe warning (default).
a0d0e21e
LW
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.
e476b1b5
GS
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
30Default warnings are always enabled unless they are explicitly disabled
31with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
4438c4b7 32
748a9306 33Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
4438c4b7
JH
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
6df41af2
GS
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.
a0d0e21e
LW
44
45=over 4
46
6df41af2 47=item accept() on closed socket %s
33633739 48
be771a83
GS
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
1109a392
MHM
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
be771a83
GS
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
6df41af2
GS
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
be771a83
GS
76to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
77L<attributes>).
43192e07 78
c2e66d9e
GS
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
6df41af2
GS
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
be771a83
GS
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
be771a83
GS
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
6df41af2
GS
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
496a33f5
SC
115(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
116transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
be771a83
GS
117one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
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
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
6df41af2
GS
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
8ea97a1e 134=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element
a0d0e21e 135
8ea97a1e 136(F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element, such as:
a0d0e21e
LW
137
138 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 139 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
a0d0e21e 140
8ea97a1e 141=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
5f05dabc 142
be771a83
GS
143(F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
144such as:
5f05dabc 145
146 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 147 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
5f05dabc 148
8ea97a1e 149or a hash or array slice, such as:
5f05dabc 150
6df41af2
GS
151 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
152 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
5315574d 153
6df41af2 154=item %s argument is not a subroutine name
a0d0e21e 155
6df41af2 156(F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
be771a83
GS
157name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
158error.
a0d0e21e 159
f86702cc 160=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 161
be771a83
GS
162(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
163that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
164will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
a0d0e21e 165
b4581f09
JH
166=item Argument list not closed for PerlIO layer "%s"
167
168(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O system you
169forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers take care of transforming
170data between external and internal representations.) Perl stopped parsing
171the layer list at this point and did not attempt to push this layer.
172If your program didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be
173the result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
174
a0d0e21e
LW
175=item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
176
75b44862
GS
177(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
178spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
a0d0e21e
LW
179
180=item assertion botched: %s
181
182(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
183
184=item Assertion failed: file "%s"
185
186(P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
187
188=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
189
190(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
191must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
192know which context to supply to the right side.
193
96ebfdd7
RK
194=item A thread exited while %d threads were running
195
4447dfc1 196(W threads)(S) When using threaded Perl, a thread (not necessarily the main
96ebfdd7
RK
197thread) exited while there were still other threads running.
198Usually it's a good idea to first collect the return values of the
199created threads by joining them, and only then exit from the main
200thread. See L<threads>.
201
2393f1b9 202=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
1b1f1335 203
49293501 204(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
2393f1b9 205the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
49293501 206
81689caa
HS
207=item Attempt to bless into a reference
208
209(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
210the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
211supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
212
213 bless $self, $proto;
214
215when you intended
216
217 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
218
219If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
220of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
221example by:
222
223 bless $self, "$proto";
224
96ebfdd7
RK
225=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
226
227(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
228which is not in its key set.
229
230=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
231
232(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
233declared readonly from a restricted hash.
234
a0d0e21e
LW
235=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
236
be771a83
GS
237(P internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
238that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
239outside any of those arenas.
a0d0e21e 240
54310121 241=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
bbce6d69 242
be771a83
GS
243(P internal) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of
244strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
245strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
246of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
bbce6d69 247
a0d0e21e
LW
248=item Attempt to free temp prematurely
249
be771a83
GS
250(W debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
251free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
252SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
253free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
254try to free it.
a0d0e21e
LW
255
256=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
257
e476b1b5 258(P internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
a0d0e21e
LW
259
260=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
261
be771a83
GS
262(W internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
263see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
264earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
265This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
266that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
267mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
268corrupted.
a0d0e21e 269
dcdda58d
GS
270=item Attempt to join self
271
272(F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
be771a83
GS
273impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
274to move the join() to some other thread.
dcdda58d 275
84902520
TB
276=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
277
be771a83
GS
278(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
279function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
280means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
281invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
282literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
283avoid this warning.
84902520 284
1b20cd17
NC
285=item Attempt to set length of freed array
286
287(W) You tried to set the length of an array which has been freed. You
288can do this by storing a reference to the scalar representing the last index
289of an array and later assigning through that reference. For example
290
291 $r = do {my @a; \$#a};
292 $$r = 503
293
b7a902f4 294=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
295
be771a83
GS
296(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
297used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
298dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 299
dc26df50 300=item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %s
a0d0e21e 301
be771a83
GS
302(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
303or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 304S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
a0d0e21e
LW
305S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
306
7a95317d
GS
307=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
308
496a33f5 309(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
7a95317d
GS
310substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
311most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
312
a0d0e21e
LW
313=item Bad filehandle: %s
314
be771a83
GS
315(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
316symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
317open(), or did it in another package.
a0d0e21e
LW
318
319=item Bad free() ignored
320
be771a83
GS
321(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
322been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 323setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 324
9ea8bc6d 325This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
be771a83
GS
326dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
327which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 328
aa689395 329=item Bad hash
330
331(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
332
6df41af2
GS
333=item Badly placed ()'s
334
335(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
336of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
337Perl yourself.
338
a0d0e21e
LW
339=item Bad name after %s::
340
be771a83
GS
341(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
342didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
343of quotes, so
a0d0e21e
LW
344
345 $var = 'myvar';
346 $sym = mypack::$var;
347
348is not the same as
349
350 $var = 'myvar';
351 $sym = "mypack::$var";
352
4ad56ec9
IZ
353=item Bad realloc() ignored
354
be771a83
GS
355(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
356never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled
357by setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 358
a0d0e21e
LW
359=item Bad symbol for array
360
361(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
362wasn't a symbol table entry.
363
364=item Bad symbol for filehandle
365
be771a83
GS
366(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
367that wasn't a symbol table entry.
a0d0e21e
LW
368
369=item Bad symbol for hash
370
371(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
372wasn't a symbol table entry.
373
34d09196
GS
374=item Bareword found in conditional
375
be771a83
GS
376(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
377conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
378of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
34d09196
GS
379
380 open FOO || die;
381
be771a83
GS
382It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
383a bareword:
34d09196
GS
384
385 use constant TYPO => 1;
386 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
387
388The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
389
6df41af2
GS
390=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
391
392(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
be771a83
GS
393subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
394symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
6df41af2
GS
395
396=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
397
be771a83
GS
398(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
399compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
400you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 401
a0d0e21e
LW
402=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
403
be771a83
GS
404(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
405subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
406exited.
a0d0e21e 407
68dc0745 408=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
409
410(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
be771a83
GS
411implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
412occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
413be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
414depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 415
6df41af2
GS
416=item \1 better written as $1
417
be771a83
GS
418(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
419The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
420substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
421because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
422there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 423
252aa082
JH
424=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
425
e476b1b5 426(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
427(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
428L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 429
69282e91 430=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 431
be771a83
GS
432(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
433check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 434
c289d2f7
JH
435=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
436
437(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
438Check you control flow and number of arguments.
439
c5a0f51a
JH
440=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
441
e476b1b5 442(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 443
4633a7c4
LW
444=item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
445
be771a83 446(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
b45f050a 447copyable.
4633a7c4 448
f675dbe5
CB
449=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
450
be771a83
GS
451(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
452iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
453which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 454
a0d0e21e
LW
455=item Callback called exit
456
4929bf7b 457(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
a0d0e21e
LW
458exited by calling exit.
459
6df41af2 460=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 461
be771a83
GS
462(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
463parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
464that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
465early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
466subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
467checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
468function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
469the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 470
49704364 471=item Cannot compress integer in pack
0258719b
NC
472
473(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress. The BER
474compressed integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you
475attempted to compress Infinity or a very large number (> 1e308).
476See L<perlfunc/pack>.
477
49704364 478=item Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
0258719b
NC
479
480(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
481format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
482
96ebfdd7
RK
483=item Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
484
485(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
486integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
487to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
488
a0d0e21e
LW
489=item Can't bless non-reference value
490
491(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
492encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
493
a0d0e21e
LW
494=item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
495
496(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
497functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
498in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
499
6df41af2
GS
500=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
501
502(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
503object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
504like this will reproduce the error:
6df41af2
GS
505
506 $BADREF = undef;
507 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
508 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
509
a0d0e21e
LW
510=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
511
54310121 512(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
be771a83
GS
513ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
514didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
515object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
516
517=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
518
519(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
520object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
521defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
72b5445b
GS
522Something like this will reproduce the error:
523
524 $BADREF = 42;
525 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
526 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
527
a0d0e21e
LW
528=item Can't chdir to %s
529
530(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
531that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
532
0545a864 533=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
104d25b7 534
be771a83
GS
535(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
536nosuid.
104d25b7 537
6df41af2
GS
538=item Can't coerce array into hash
539
540(F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the array has no
541information on how to map from keys to array indices. You can do that
542only with arrays that have a hash reference at index 0.
543
a0d0e21e
LW
544=item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
545
546(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 547(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
a0d0e21e
LW
548say things like:
549
550 *foo += 1;
551
552You CAN say
553
554 $foo = *foo;
555 $foo += 1;
556
557but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
558
559=item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
560
561(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 562(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
a0d0e21e
LW
563
564=item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
565
566(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 567(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
a0d0e21e
LW
568
569=item Can't create pipe mailbox
570
be771a83
GS
571(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
572quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 573
eb64745e 574=item Can't declare class for non-scalar %s in "%s"
a0d0e21e 575
2f7e735d
AMS
576(F) Currently, only scalar variables can be declared with a specific
577class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration. The semantics may be
578extended for other types of variables in future.
eb64745e
GS
579
580=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
581
582(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my" or
583"our" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 584
6df41af2
GS
585=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
586
be771a83
GS
587(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
588a file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
6df41af2 589
a0d0e21e
LW
590=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
591
be771a83
GS
592(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
593reason.
a0d0e21e 594
54310121 595=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
a0d0e21e 596
be771a83
GS
597(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
598reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
599C<-i.bak>, or some such.
a0d0e21e 600
10f9c03d 601=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
a0d0e21e 602
e476b1b5 603(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
10f9c03d
CK
604characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
605inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
a0d0e21e 606
7253e4e3 607=item Can't do {n,m} with n > m in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 608
b45f050a 609(F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want your
7253e4e3 610regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. The <-- HERE shows in the
b45f050a 611regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e
LW
612
613=item Can't do setegid!
614
be771a83
GS
615(P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
616suidperl.
a0d0e21e
LW
617
618=item Can't do seteuid!
619
620(P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
621
622=item Can't do setuid
623
be771a83
GS
624(F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to do
625setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the form
626sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides under
627the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines. If the
628file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask your
629sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
a0d0e21e
LW
630
631=item Can't do waitpid with flags
632
be771a83
GS
633(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
634waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 635
a0d0e21e
LW
636=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
637
be771a83
GS
638(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
639point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
640line.
a0d0e21e 641
1109a392
MHM
642=item Can't %s %s-endian %ss on this platform
643
644(F) Your platform's byte-order is neither big-endian nor little-endian,
645or it has a very strange pointer size. Packing and unpacking big- or
646little-endian floating point values and pointers may not be possible.
647See L<perlfunc/pack>.
648
a0d0e21e
LW
649=item Can't exec "%s": %s
650
d1be9408 651(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
652named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
653permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
654C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
655architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
656can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
657#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
658
659=item Can't exec %s
660
be771a83
GS
661(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
662that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
663need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
664
665=item Can't execute %s
666
be771a83
GS
667(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
668found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 669
6df41af2 670=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 671
be771a83
GS
672(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
673is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2 674
56ca2fc0
JH
675=item Can't find %s character property "%s"
676
677(F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
89d60977 678could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property
56ca2fc0
JH
679(remember that the names of character properties consist only of
680alphanumeric characters), or maybe you forgot the C<Is> or C<In> prefix?
681
6df41af2
GS
682=item Can't find label %s
683
be771a83
GS
684(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
685possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
686
687=item Can't find %s on PATH
688
be771a83
GS
689(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
690found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 691
6df41af2 692=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 693
be771a83
GS
694(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
695found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
696script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e
LW
697
698=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
699
be771a83
GS
700(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
701that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
702nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 703
fb73857a 704 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
705
be771a83
GS
706If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have included
707unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good programmer's
708editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
a0d0e21e 709
660a4616
TS
710=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s"
711
712(F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode property (for
713example C<\p{Lu}> is all uppercase letters). If you did mean to use a
714Unicode property, see L<perlunicode> for the list of known properties.
715If you didn't mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either
716by C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, until
717possible C<\E>).
718
a0d0e21e
LW
719=item Can't fork
720
be771a83
GS
721(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
722pipeline.
a0d0e21e 723
748a9306
LW
724=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
725
be771a83
GS
726(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
727between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
728Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
729the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
730account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
731the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
732the access checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
733the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
734if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
735because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
736appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up
737and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking
738routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
739shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
740only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 741
a0d0e21e
LW
742=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
743
be771a83
GS
744(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
745pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
746
747=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
748
748a9306
LW
749(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
750mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 751
6df41af2 752=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 753
be771a83
GS
754(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
755loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
756
757=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
758
be771a83
GS
759(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
760a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
761you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
762See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 763
9850bf21 764=item Can't goto subroutine from a sort sub (or similar callback)
cd299c6e 765
9850bf21
RH
766(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of the
767comparison sub for a sort(), or from a similar callback (such
768as the reduce() function in List::Util).
769
c74ace89 770=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-%s
b150fb22 771
be771a83 772(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
c74ace89 773"string" or block.
b150fb22 774
6df41af2
GS
775=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
776
be771a83
GS
777(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
778subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
779cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
780routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 781
0b5b802d
GS
782=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
783
be771a83
GS
784(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
785signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
786signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
787processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
788situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
789may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 790
6df41af2 791=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 792
6df41af2 793(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
794except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
795block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
796block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
797usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
798inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
799L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 800
b8170e59
JB
801=item Can't load '%s' for module %s
802
803(F) The module you tried to load failed to load a dynamic extension. This
804may either mean that you upgraded your version of perl to one that is
805incompatible with your old dynamic extensions (which is known to happen
806between major versions of perl), or (more likely) that your dynamic
16d98ec5 807extension was built against an older version of the library that is
b8170e59
JB
808installed on your system. You may need to rebuild your old dynamic
809extensions.
810
748a9306
LW
811=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
812
2ba9eb46 813(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
748a9306
LW
814lexical variable using "my". This is not allowed. If you want to
815localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
816package name.
817
6df41af2 818=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 819
6df41af2
GS
820(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
821handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 822pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 823that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 824
ea071790 825=item Can't locate %s
ec889f3a
GS
826
827(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be
828found. Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC,
be771a83
GS
829unless the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you
830need to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where
831the extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
832to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
833L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 834
6df41af2
GS
835=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
836
be771a83
GS
837(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
838autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
839are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
840the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 841
b8170e59
JB
842=item Can't locate loadable object for module %s in @INC
843
844(F) The module you loaded is trying to load an external library, like
845for example, C<foo.so> or C<bar.dll>, but the L<DynaLoader> module was
846unable to locate this library. See L<DynaLoader>.
847
a0d0e21e
LW
848=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
849
850(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
851functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 852method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
853
854=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
855
be771a83
GS
856(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
857doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 858
2f7da168
RK
859=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
860
861(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
862e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
863
3e3baf6d
TB
864=item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
865
be771a83
GS
866(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
867VMS.
3e3baf6d 868
a0d0e21e
LW
869=item Can't modify %s in %s
870
be771a83
GS
871(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
872to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 873
54310121 874=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
a0d0e21e
LW
875
876(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
877a NULL.
878
6df41af2
GS
879=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
880
881(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
882such, see L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
883
5f05dabc 884=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 885
5f05dabc 886(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
887buffer.
888
6df41af2
GS
889=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
890
891(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
892there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
893count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
894grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
895though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
896once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 897
a0d0e21e
LW
898=item Can't open %s: %s
899
c47ff5f1 900(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e
DD
901filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
902switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
be771a83
GS
903is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named on
904the command line.
a0d0e21e 905
9a869a14
RGS
906=item Can't open a reference
907
908(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
909using the 3-arg open() syntax :
910
911 open FH, '>', $ref;
912
913but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
914open is not supported.
915
a0d0e21e
LW
916=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
917
be771a83
GS
918(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
919You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
920as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
921">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 922
748a9306
LW
923=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
924
be771a83
GS
925(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
926redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
927the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
928
929=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
930
be771a83
GS
931(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
932redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
933command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
934
935=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
936
be771a83
GS
937(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
938redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
939the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
940
941=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
942
be771a83
GS
943(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
944redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
945for stdout.
748a9306 946
2b8ca739 947=item Can't open perl script%s
a0d0e21e
LW
948
949(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
950
fa3aa65a
JC
951If you're debugging a script that uses #!, and normally relies on the
952shell's $PATH search, the -S option causes perl to do that search, so
953you don't have to type the path or C<`which $scriptname`>.
954
6df41af2
GS
955=item Can't read CRTL environ
956
957(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
958from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
959missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
960or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
961searched.
6df41af2 962
6df41af2
GS
963=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
964
965(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
966there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
967count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
968or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
969though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
970loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
971
64977eb6 972=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 973
be771a83
GS
974(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
975file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
976the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 977
a0d0e21e
LW
978=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
979
e476b1b5 980(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
10f9c03d 981probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
a0d0e21e 982
748a9306
LW
983=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
984
be771a83
GS
985(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
986to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 987
6df41af2
GS
988=item Can't resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
989
be771a83
GS
990(F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as opposed
991to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the package. If
992method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 993
a0d0e21e
LW
994=item Can't reswap uid and euid
995
be771a83
GS
996(P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
997suidperl.
a0d0e21e 998
cd06dffe
GS
999=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
1000
be771a83
GS
1001(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
1002temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
1003is not allowed.
cd06dffe 1004
96ebfdd7
RK
1005=item Can't return outside a subroutine
1006
1007(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1008there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1009
78f9721b
SM
1010=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
1011
1012(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue subroutine,
1013but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl think you meant
1014to return only one value. You probably meant to write parentheses around
1015the call to the subroutine, which tell Perl that the call should be in
1016list context.
1017
a0d0e21e
LW
1018=item Can't stat script "%s"
1019
be771a83
GS
1020(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1021open already. Bizarre.
a0d0e21e
LW
1022
1023=item Can't swap uid and euid
1024
be771a83
GS
1025(P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
1026suidperl.
a0d0e21e
LW
1027
1028=item Can't take log of %g
1029
fb73857a 1030(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
1031negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
1032standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1033negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
1034
1035=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1036
1037(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 1038negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1039with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
1040
1041=item Can't undef active subroutine
1042
1043(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1044however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1045redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1046
1047=item Can't unshift
1048
1049(F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
1050as the main Perl stack.
1051
1052=item Can't upgrade that kind of scalar
1053
be771a83
GS
1054(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1055into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1056specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1057indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e
LW
1058
1059=item Can't upgrade to undef
1060
be771a83
GS
1061(P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the totem pole, in the scheme of
1062upgradability. Upgrading to undef indicates an error in the code
1063calling sv_upgrade.
a0d0e21e 1064
1db89ea5
BS
1065=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1066
e27ad1f2 1067(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1db89ea5
BS
1068table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1069for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1070
96ebfdd7
RK
1071=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1072
1073(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1074be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1075
6df41af2
GS
1076=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1077
be771a83
GS
1078(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1079references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1080
90b75b61 1081=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63
GS
1082
1083(F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
1084Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1085provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1086
1109a392
MHM
1087=item Can't use both '<' and '>' after type '%c' in %s
1088
1089(F) A type cannot be forced to have both big-endian and little-endian
1090byte-order at the same time, so this combination of modifiers is not
1091allowed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1092
6df41af2
GS
1093=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1094
be771a83
GS
1095(F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1096foreach.
6df41af2
GS
1097
1098=item Can't use global %s in "my"
1099
be771a83
GS
1100(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1101is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1102(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1103have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1104weren't.
1105
6d3b25aa
RGS
1106=item Can't use '%c' in a group with different byte-order in %s
1107
1108(F) You attempted to force a different byte-order on a type
1109that is already inside a group with a byte-order modifier.
1110For example you cannot force little-endianness on a type that
1111is inside a big-endian group.
1112
c07a80fd 1113=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1114
1115(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1116You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1117and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1118Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1119lexical variable.
1120
a0d0e21e
LW
1121=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1122
1123(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1124reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1125test the type of the reference, if need be.
1126
748a9306 1127=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1128
be771a83
GS
1129(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1130references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 1131
748a9306
LW
1132=item Can't use subscript on %s
1133
1134(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1135subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
209e7cf1 1136didn't look like a hash or array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
748a9306 1137
6df41af2
GS
1138=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1139
75b44862
GS
1140(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1141creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1142backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1143expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1144value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1145instead.
6df41af2 1146
810b8aa5
GS
1147=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1148
1149(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1150references can be weakened.
1151
5f05dabc 1152=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1153
be771a83
GS
1154(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1155with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1156Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1157
f337b084 1158=item Character in 'C' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1159
1160(W pack) You said
1161
1162 pack("C", $x)
1163
1164where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1165only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1166and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1167
1168 pack("C", $x & 255)
1169
1170If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1171instead.
1172
f337b084
TH
1173=item Character in 'W' format wrapped in pack
1174
1175(W pack) You said
1176
1177 pack("U0W", $x)
1178
1179where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255. However, C<U0>-mode expects
1180all values to fall in the interval [0, 255], so Perl behaved as if you
1181meant:
1182
1183 pack("U0W", $x & 255)
1184
1185=item Character in 'c' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1186
1187(W pack) You said
1188
1189 pack("c", $x)
1190
1191where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1192is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1193and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1194
1195 pack("c", $x & 255);
1196
1197If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1198instead.
1199
f337b084
TH
1200=item Character in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1201
1202(W unpack) You tried something like
1203
1204 unpack("H", "\x{2a1}")
1205
1206where the format expects to process a byte (a character with a value
1207below 256), but a higher value was provided instead. Perl uses the value
1208modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1209
1210 unpack("H", "\x{a1}")
1211
1212=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in pack
1213
1214(W pack) You tried something like
1215
1216 pack("u", "\x{1f3}b")
1217
1218where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
1219value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
1220uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1221
1222 pack("u", "\x{f3}b")
1223
1224=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1225
1226(W unpack) You tried something like
1227
1228 unpack("s", "\x{1f3}b")
1229
1230where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
1231value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
1232uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1233
1234 unpack("s", "\x{f3}b")
1235
96ebfdd7
RK
1236=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1237
1238(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1239
49704364
WL
1240=item Code missing after '/'
1241
1242(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be another
1243template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1244
6df41af2
GS
1245=item %s: Command not found
1246
be771a83
GS
1247(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1248Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 1249
7a2e2cd6 1250=item Compilation failed in require
1251
1252(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1253Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1254encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1255
c3464db5
DD
1256=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1257
be771a83
GS
1258(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1259situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1260to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1261arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1262recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1263under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1264in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1265that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1266on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1267
38875929
DM
1268=item cond_broadcast() called on unlocked variable
1269
1270(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1271cond_broadcast() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_broadcast()
1272function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1273cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1274has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1275first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1276after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1277lock.
1278
38875929
DM
1279=item cond_signal() called on unlocked variable
1280
1281(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1282cond_signal() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_signal()
1283function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1284cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1285has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1286first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1287after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1288lock.
1289
69282e91 1290=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1291
be771a83
GS
1292(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1293to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1294L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1295
41ab332f 1296=item Constant(%s)%s: %s
6df41af2 1297
be771a83
GS
1298(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1299an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1300specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
1301corresponding C<overload> or C<charnames> pragma? See L<charnames> and
1302L<overload>.
6df41af2 1303
779c5bc9
GS
1304=item Constant is not %s reference
1305
1306(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83
GS
1307is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
1308The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
1309usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1310See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1311
4cee8e80
CS
1312=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1313
bb028877 1314(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been
be771a83
GS
1315eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for
1316commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1317
9607fc9c 1318=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1319
be771a83
GS
1320(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1321for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1322workarounds.
9607fc9c 1323
e7ea3e70
IZ
1324=item Copy method did not return a reference
1325
64977eb6 1326(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1327L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1328
6798c92b
GS
1329=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1330
1331(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1332
a0d0e21e
LW
1333=item corrupted regexp pointers
1334
1335(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1336expression compiler gave it.
1337
1338=item corrupted regexp program
1339
be771a83
GS
1340(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1341valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1342
6df41af2
GS
1343=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
1344
1345(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1346
49704364
WL
1347=item Count after length/code in unpack
1348
1349(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1350you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1351L<perlfunc/pack>.
1352
a0d0e21e
LW
1353=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1354
be771a83
GS
1355(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1356100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1357infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1358which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1359
f10b0346 1360=item defined(@array) is deprecated
69794302 1361
be771a83
GS
1362(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1363checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
64977eb6 1364array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1365
f10b0346 1366=item defined(%hash) is deprecated
69794302 1367
be771a83
GS
1368(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it
1369checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the hash
64977eb6 1370is empty, just use C<if (%hash) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1371
62658f4d
PM
1372=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1373
1374(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1375there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1376
fc36a67e 1377=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1378
be771a83
GS
1379(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1380long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1381that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 1382
6d3b25aa
RGS
1383=item Deprecated use of my() in false conditional
1384
1385(D deprecated) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>.
1386There has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
1387not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
1388conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
1389static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
1390relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
1391declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
1392
1393 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
1394
1395becomes
1396
1397 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
1398
500ab966
RGS
1399=item DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
1400
1401(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
1402just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather than
1403to create a dangling reference.
1404
3cdd684c
TP
1405=item Did not produce a valid header
1406
1407See Server error.
1408
6df41af2
GS
1409=item %s did not return a true value
1410
1411(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1412it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1413traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1414do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1415
cc507455 1416=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 1417
be771a83
GS
1418(W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some
1419such.
4633a7c4 1420
cc507455 1421=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 1422
be771a83
GS
1423(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1424variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1425seems superfluous.
33633739 1426
cc507455 1427=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 1428
be771a83
GS
1429(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1430@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1431carried away.
748a9306 1432
7e1af8bc 1433=item Died
5f05dabc 1434
1435(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1436you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
1437
3cdd684c
TP
1438=item Document contains no data
1439
1440See Server error.
1441
62658f4d
PM
1442=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1443
1444(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1445define a C<$VERSION.>
1446
49704364
WL
1447=item '/' does not take a repeat count
1448
1449(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
1450See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1451
a0d0e21e
LW
1452=item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1453
1454(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1455
1456=item do_study: out of memory
1457
1458(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1459
6df41af2
GS
1460=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1461
56da5a46
RGS
1462(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
1463"%s found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
6df41af2
GS
1464name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1465because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
1466"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1467something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1468subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1469"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 1470
ac206dc8
RGS
1471=item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1472
1473(W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1474qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1475
a0d0e21e
LW
1476=item Duplicate free() ignored
1477
be771a83
GS
1478(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1479already been freed.
a0d0e21e 1480
1109a392
MHM
1481=item Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
1482
1483(W) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a type
1484in a pack template. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1485
4633a7c4
LW
1486=item elseif should be elsif
1487
56da5a46
RGS
1488(S syntax) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's
1489ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method named
be771a83 1490"elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
1491unlikely to be what you want.
1492
ab13f0c7
JH
1493=item Empty %s
1494
af6f566e
HS
1495(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
1496described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
1497a regular expression without specifying the property name.
ab13f0c7 1498
85ab1d1d 1499=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 1500
85ab1d1d 1501(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
1502effective uids or gids failed.
1503
c038024b
RGS
1504=item %ENV is aliased to %s
1505
1506(F) You're running under taint mode, and the C<%ENV> variable has been
1507aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
1508program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
1509
748a9306
LW
1510=item Error converting file specification %s
1511
5f05dabc 1512(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 1513specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
1514single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1515an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1516conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 1517
e4d48cc9
GS
1518=item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
1519
be771a83
GS
1520(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1521expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1522is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 1523
e4d48cc9
GS
1524=item %s: Eval-group not allowed at run time
1525
be771a83
GS
1526(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1527C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
1528pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it
1529is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly
1530building the pattern from an interpolated string at run time and using
1531that in an eval(). See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 1532
6df41af2
GS
1533=item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
1534
be771a83
GS
1535(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1536assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1537pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 1538
fc36a67e 1539=item Excessively long <> operator
1540
1541(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1542Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1543filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1544variable and glob that.
1545
ed9aa3b7
SG
1546=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1547
1548(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented in MacPerl. See L<perlport>.
1549
f86702cc 1550=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors
a0d0e21e
LW
1551
1552(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1553
1554=item Exiting eval via %s
1555
be771a83
GS
1556(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1557goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
1558
1559=item Exiting format via %s
1560
9a2ff54b 1561(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 1562goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1563
0a753a76 1564=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1565
be771a83
GS
1566(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1567sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1568loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 1569
a0d0e21e
LW
1570=item Exiting subroutine via %s
1571
be771a83
GS
1572(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1573as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
1574
1575=item Exiting substitution via %s
1576
be771a83
GS
1577(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1578as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1579
7b8d334a
GS
1580=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1581
be771a83
GS
1582(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1583the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1584usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1585e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 1586
6df41af2
GS
1587=item %s: Expression syntax
1588
be771a83
GS
1589(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1590Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
1591
1592=item %s failed--call queue aborted
1593
1594(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a CHECK, INIT, or
1595END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the queue of such
1596routines has been prematurely ended.
1597
7253e4e3 1598=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
73b437c8 1599
be771a83 1600(W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3
RK
1601character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1602in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1603"-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1604problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 1605
748a9306 1606=item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 1607
be771a83
GS
1608(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1609system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1610details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1611you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
1612
1613=item fcntl is not implemented
1614
1615(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1616PDP-11 or something?
1617
f337b084
TH
1618=item Field too wide in 'u' format in pack
1619
1620(W pack) Each line in an uuencoded string start with a length indicator
1621which can't encode values above 63. So there is no point in asking for
1622a line length bigger than that. Perl will behave as if you specified
1623C<u63> as format.
1624
af8c498a 1625=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 1626
6c8d78fb
HS
1627(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
1628it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
1629"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
1630write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 1631
af8c498a 1632=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 1633
6c8d78fb
HS
1634(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
1635you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
be771a83
GS
1636with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you
1637intended only to read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>.
6c8d78fb
HS
1638Another possibility is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0
1639(also known as STDIN) for output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
97828cef
RGS
1640
1641=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
1642
1643(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
d7f8936a 1644as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
97828cef
RGS
1645previously.
1646
1647=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
1648
1649(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
d7f8936a 1650as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
1651
1652=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1653
1654(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
1655a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1656happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1657name.
a0d0e21e 1658
56e90b21
GS
1659=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1660
be771a83 1661(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 1662some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
1663filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1664same name?
56e90b21 1665
6df41af2
GS
1666=item Format not terminated
1667
1668(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1669to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1670
a0d0e21e
LW
1671=item Format %s redefined
1672
e476b1b5 1673(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
1674
1675 {
271595cc 1676 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
1677 eval "format NAME =...";
1678 }
1679
a0d0e21e
LW
1680=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1681
e476b1b5 1682(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
1683
1684 if ($foo = 123)
1685
1686when you meant
1687
1688 if ($foo == 123)
1689
1690(or something like that).
1691
6df41af2
GS
1692=item %s found where operator expected
1693
56da5a46
RGS
1694(S syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator.
1695If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
be771a83
GS
1696operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
1697operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 1698
a0d0e21e
LW
1699=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1700
1701(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1702
1703=item gethostent not implemented
1704
1705(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1706because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1707on the Internet.
1708
69282e91 1709=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1710
be771a83
GS
1711(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
1712socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 1713
748a9306
LW
1714=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1715
1716(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1717C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1718
6df41af2
GS
1719=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
1720
be771a83
GS
1721(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
1722forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
1723L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
1724
1725=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1726
1727(F) You've said "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables
1728must either be lexically scoped (using "my"), declared beforehand using
1729"our", or explicitly qualified to say which package the global variable
1730is in (using "::").
1731
e476b1b5
GS
1732=item glob failed (%s)
1733
be771a83
GS
1734(W glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for
1735C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a
1736C<glob> pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
1737nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
1738resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell) is
1739broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables in
1740config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it
1741were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all
1742empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
1743think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 1744C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 1745
a0d0e21e
LW
1746=item Glob not terminated
1747
1748(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
1749a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
1750not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
1751earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 1752
6df41af2 1753=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 1754
6df41af2
GS
1755(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
1756version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
1757
1758=item goto must have label
1759
1760(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1761unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1762
49704364 1763=item ()-group starts with a count
18529408 1764
49704364 1765(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is
18529408 1766supposed to follow something: a template character or a ()-group.
49704364 1767 See L<perlfunc/pack>.
18529408 1768
6df41af2
GS
1769=item %s had compilation errors
1770
1771(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
1772
a0d0e21e
LW
1773=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1774
be771a83
GS
1775(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
1776to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
1777created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e
LW
1778
1779=item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1780
be771a83
GS
1781(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
1782spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
a0d0e21e 1783
6df41af2
GS
1784=item %s has too many errors
1785
1786(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
1787Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
1788
252aa082
JH
1789=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
1790
e476b1b5 1791(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
1792(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
1793L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 1794
8903cb82 1795=item Identifier too long
1796
1797(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 1798about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
1799names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
1800of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 1801
6df41af2 1802=item Illegal binary digit %s
f675dbe5 1803
6df41af2 1804(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
f675dbe5 1805
6df41af2 1806=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
a0d0e21e 1807
be771a83
GS
1808(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
1809binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
1810offending digit.
a0d0e21e 1811
4fdae800 1812=item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1813
d5898338 1814(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
be771a83
GS
1815would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
1816when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
1817version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
1818to your Perl administrator.
4fdae800 1819
d37a9538
ST
1820=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
1821
420cdfc1 1822(W syntax) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration. Legal
d37a9538
ST
1823characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, and \.
1824
904d85c5
RGS
1825=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
1826
1827(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
1828you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
1829
8e742a20
MHM
1830=item Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
1831
1832(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See L<perlsub>.
1833
a0d0e21e
LW
1834=item Illegal division by zero
1835
be771a83
GS
1836(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
1837your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
1838meaningless input.
a0d0e21e 1839
6df41af2
GS
1840=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
1841
be771a83
GS
1842(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
1843A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
1844number stopped before the illegal character.
6df41af2 1845
a0d0e21e
LW
1846=item Illegal modulus zero
1847
be771a83
GS
1848(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
1849numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 1850
6df41af2 1851=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 1852
6df41af2
GS
1853(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
1854two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4
GS
1855
1856=item Illegal octal digit %s
a0d0e21e 1857
d1be9408 1858(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 1859
399388f4 1860=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
748a9306 1861
d1be9408 1862(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
75b44862 1863Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
748a9306 1864
6df41af2 1865=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: %s
6ff81951 1866
6df41af2 1867(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
e4af53b0 1868following switches: B<-[CDIMUdmtwA]>.
6ff81951 1869
6df41af2 1870=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 1871
75b44862 1872(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
1873internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
1874delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 1875
6df41af2 1876=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 1877
be771a83
GS
1878(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
1879name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
1880didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
1881ignored.
54310121 1882
8fa7688f
SF
1883=item Impossible to activate assertion call
1884
1885(W assertions) You're calling an assertion function in a block that is
1886not under the control of the C<assertions> pragma.
1887
6df41af2 1888=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 1889
be771a83
GS
1890(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
1891the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
1892system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
1893times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
1894would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 1895
be771a83
GS
1896Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
1897also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 1898
979699d9
JH
1899=item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
1900
1901(F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
1902Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
1903encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
1904
a0d0e21e
LW
1905=item Insecure dependency in %s
1906
8b1a09fc 1907(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
1908The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
1909setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
1910tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
1911from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
1912such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
1913L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
1914
1915=item Insecure directory in %s
1916
be771a83
GS
1917(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1918setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
df98f984
RGS
1919the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
1920See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 1921
62f468fc 1922=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
1923
1924(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc 1925setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
332d5f78
SR
1926C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
1927supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
1928the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 1929
a7ae9550
GS
1930=item Integer overflow in %s number
1931
75b44862 1932(W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
1933either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
1934your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
1935On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
1936representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
19370b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
1938transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
1939internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
1940operations.
bbce6d69 1941
46314c13
JP
1942=item Integer overflow in version
1943
1944(F) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for the
1945size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
1946because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use a
1947element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by
1948trying to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like
1949100/9.
1950
7253e4e3 1951=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
1952
1953(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
7253e4e3 1954The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a
JF
1955discovered.
1956
748a9306
LW
1957=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
1958
be771a83
GS
1959(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
1960you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
1961to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
1962L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
1963Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
1964terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 1965
7253e4e3 1966=item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 1967
7253e4e3
RK
1968(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
1969<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1970discovered.
a0d0e21e 1971
6df41af2
GS
1972=item %s (...) interpreted as function
1973
75b44862 1974(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 1975followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 1976operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 1977L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 1978
09bef843
SB
1979=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
1980
1981The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
1982by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
1983
1984=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
1985
be771a83
GS
1986The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
1987recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 1988
c635e13b 1989=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
1990
be771a83
GS
1991(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
1992L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 1993
7253e4e3 1994=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
1995
1996(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
1997greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
1998C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
1999up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2000problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 2001
d1573ac7 2002=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
2003
2004(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
2005character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
2006
09bef843
SB
2007=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
2008
0120eecf 2009(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
2010elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
2011parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
2012See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2013
b4581f09
JH
2014=item Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
2015
2016(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other than a
2017colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
2018If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2019list was terminated too soon.
2020
49704364 2021=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
96e4d5b1 2022
49704364
WL
2023(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
2024See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2025(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
75b44862 2026silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 2027
46314c13
JP
2028=item Invalid version format (multiple underscores)
2029
2030(F) Versions may contain at most a single underscore, which signals
2031that the version is a beta release. See L<version> for the allowed
2032version formats.
2033
2034=item Invalid version format (underscores before decimal)
2035
2036(F) Versions may not contain decimals after the optional underscore.
2037See L<version> for the allowed version formats.
2038
a0d0e21e
LW
2039=item ioctl is not implemented
2040
2041(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
2042strange for a machine that supports C.
2043
c289d2f7
JH
2044=item ioctl() on unopened %s
2045
2046(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
2047Check you control flow and number of arguments.
2048
363c40c4
SB
2049=item IO layers (like "%s") unavailable
2050
2051(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
2052you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO Perl must be configured
2053with 'useperlio'.
2054
80cbd5ad
JH
2055=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
2056
2057(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
2058neither as a system call or an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
2059
b4581f09
JH
2060=item $* is no longer supported
2061
2062(D deprecated) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older perls, has
2063been removed as of 5.9.0 and is no longer supported. You should use the
2064C<//m> and C<//s> regexp modifiers instead.
2065
8ae1fe26
RGS
2066=item $# is no longer supported
2067
2068(D deprecated) The special variable C<$#>, deprecated in older perls, has
2069been removed as of 5.9.3 and is no longer supported. You should use the
2070printf/sprintf functions instead.
2071
6ad11d81
JH
2072=item `%s' is not a code reference
2073
04a80ee0
RGS
2074(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of overload::constant
2075needs to be a code reference. Either an anonymous subroutine, or a reference
6ad11d81
JH
2076to a subroutine.
2077
2078=item `%s' is not an overloadable type
2079
04a80ee0
RGS
2080(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
2081unaware of.
6ad11d81 2082
a0d0e21e
LW
2083=item junk on end of regexp
2084
2085(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
2086
2087=item Label not found for "last %s"
2088
be771a83
GS
2089(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
2090of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2091L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2092
2093=item Label not found for "next %s"
2094
2095(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
2096that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2097L<perlfunc/last>.
2098
2099=item Label not found for "redo %s"
2100
2101(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
2102that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2103L<perlfunc/last>.
2104
85ab1d1d 2105=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 2106
85ab1d1d 2107(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
2108effective uids or gids failed.
2109
49704364
WL
2110=item length/code after end of string in unpack
2111
d7f8936a 2112(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an unpack
49704364
WL
2113length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
2114an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2115
69282e91 2116=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2117
be771a83
GS
2118(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
2119to check the return value of your socket() call? See
2120L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 2121
49704364 2122=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
2123
2124(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
7253e4e3
RK
2125handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release. The <-- HERE
2126shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2e50fd82 2127
2f7da168
RK
2128=item lstat() on filehandle %s
2129
2130(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
2131by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
2132instead on the filehandle.)
2133
96ebfdd7
RK
2134=item Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented yet
2135
2136(F) Due to limitations in the current implementation, array and hash
2137values cannot be returned in subroutines used in lvalue context. See
2138L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
2139
49704364
WL
2140=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
2141
2142(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
2143are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2144
2145=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
2146
2147(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
2148are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2149
6df41af2
GS
2150=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
2151
2152(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
2153
2154 prefix1;prefix2
2155
2156or
6df41af2
GS
2157 prefix1 prefix2
2158
be771a83
GS
2159with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
2160a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
2161appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 2162"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 2163
2f758a16
ST
2164=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
2165
d37a9538
ST
2166(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
2167syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
2168obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
2169when the function is called.
2f758a16 2170
ba210ebe
JH
2171=item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
2172
987b48f0
RGS
2173(S utf8) (F) Perl detected something that didn't comply with UTF-8
2174encoding rules.
ba210ebe 2175
901b21bf
JH
2176One possible cause is that you read in data that you thought to be in
2177UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy 8-bit data). Another
2178possibility is careless use of utf8::upgrade().
2179
dea0fc0b
JH
2180=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
2181
2182Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
2183doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
2184
f337b084
TH
2185=item Malformed UTF-8 string in pack
2186
2187(F) You tried to pack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2188rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2189
2190=item Malformed UTF-8 string in unpack
2191
2192(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2193rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2194
2195=item Malformed UTF-8 string in '%c' format in unpack
2196
2197(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2198rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2199
49704364 2200=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2201
2202(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
7253e4e3
RK
2203regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
2204shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2205See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 2206
25f58aea
PN
2207=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2208
2209(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
2210interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
2211"use" or "my".
2212
49704364 2213=item % may not be used in pack
6df41af2
GS
2214
2215(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
2216checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
2217See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 2218
a0d0e21e
LW
2219=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
2220
2221(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 2222doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2223
3cdd684c
TP
2224=item Method %s not permitted
2225
2226See Server error.
2227
a0d0e21e
LW
2228=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
2229
2230(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
2231by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
2232ended earlier on the current line.
2233
2234=item Misplaced _ in number
2235
d4ced10d
JH
2236(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
2237separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 2238
9e81e6a1
RGS
2239=item Missing argument to -%c
2240
2241(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2242immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
2243
4a2d328f 2244=item Missing %sbrace%s on \N{}
423cee85 2245
4a2d328f 2246(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
423cee85
JH
2247double-quotish context.
2248
a0d0e21e
LW
2249=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
2250
2251(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
2252"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
2253
06eaf0bc
GS
2254=item Missing command in piped open
2255
be771a83
GS
2256(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
2257C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
2258blank.
06eaf0bc 2259
961ce445
RGS
2260=item Missing control char name in \c
2261
2262(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
2263character name.
2264
6df41af2
GS
2265=item Missing name in "my sub"
2266
be771a83
GS
2267(F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
2268they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
2269
2270=item Missing $ on loop variable
2271
be771a83
GS
2272(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
2273are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
2274can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 2275
cc507455 2276=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306 2277
56da5a46
RGS
2278(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2279"%s found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
748a9306 2280
ab13f0c7
JH
2281=item Missing right brace on %s
2282
2283(F) Missing right brace in C<\p{...}> or C<\P{...}>.
2284
d98d5fff 2285=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 2286
be771a83
GS
2287(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
2288ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
2289were last editing.
a0d0e21e 2290
6df41af2
GS
2291=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
2292
56da5a46
RGS
2293(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2294"%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
6df41af2
GS
2295the previous line just because you saw this message.
2296
a0d0e21e
LW
2297=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
2298
2299(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 2300constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
2301catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
2302
2303 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
2304 mod(2);
2305
2306Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
2307
c5674021
PDF
2308Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
2309is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
2310
2311 $x = 1;
2312 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
2313 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to modify the 2
64977eb6 2314 }
c5674021 2315
7a4340ed 2316=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2317
2318(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
2319subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
2320backwards.
2321
7a4340ed 2322=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 2323
be771a83
GS
2324(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
2325couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
2326
2327=item Module name must be constant
2328
2329(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
2330
be98fb35 2331=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 2332
be98fb35
GS
2333(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
2334you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
2335about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 2336
ed9aa3b7
SG
2337=item More than one argument to open
2338
2339(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
2340can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
2341list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
2342See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
2343
a0d0e21e
LW
2344=item msg%s not implemented
2345
2346(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
2347
2348=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
2349
75b44862
GS
2350(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
2351They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 2352
49704364 2353=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
6df41af2 2354
49704364
WL
2355(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
2356follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
2357See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2358
2359=item "my sub" not yet implemented
2360
be771a83
GS
2361(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
2362that yet.
6df41af2
GS
2363
2364=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
2365
be771a83
GS
2366(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2367sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2368local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 2369
8b1a09fc 2370=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2371
e476b1b5 2372(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
be771a83
GS
2373If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2374again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
77ca0c92 2375provided for this purpose.
a0d0e21e 2376
64b374f4
FD
2377NOTE: This warning detects symbols that have been used only once so $c, @c,
2378%c, *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or format) are considered
2379the same; if a program uses $c only once but also uses any of the others it
2380will not trigger this warning.
2381
49704364
WL
2382=item Negative '/' count in unpack
2383
2384(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
2385negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2386
a0d0e21e
LW
2387=item Negative length
2388
be771a83
GS
2389(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
2390length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 2391
ed9aa3b7
SG
2392=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
2393
2394(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
2395greater than or equal to zero.
2396
7253e4e3 2397=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 2398
b45f050a 2399(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
7253e4e3 2400things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
b45f050a 2401expression about where the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 2402
7253e4e3 2403Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 2404C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 2405
6df41af2 2406=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 2407
be771a83
GS
2408(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
2409scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e
LW
2410
2411=item No %s allowed while running setuid
2412
be771a83
GS
2413(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
2414setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
2415will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
2416securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2417
a0d0e21e
LW
2418=item No comma allowed after %s
2419
2420(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
2421allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
2422Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
2423
0a753a76 2424One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
2425constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
2426importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
2427does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
2428explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
2429L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
2430would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
2431remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
2432constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
2433list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
2434this error was triggered?
2435
748a9306
LW
2436=item No command into which to pipe on command line
2437
be771a83
GS
2438(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2439redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
2440doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 2441
a0d0e21e
LW
2442=item No DB::DB routine defined
2443
be771a83 2444(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
ccafdc96
RGS
2445for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
2446module) didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
2447statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
2448
2449=item No dbm on this machine
2450
2451(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 2452supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e 2453
ccafdc96 2454=item No DB::sub routine defined
a0d0e21e 2455
ccafdc96
RGS
2456(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
2457for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
2458module) didn't define a C<DB::sub> routine to be called at the beginning
2459of each ordinary subroutine call.
a0d0e21e 2460
96ebfdd7
RK
2461=item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
2462
2463(F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
2464
c47ff5f1 2465=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 2466
be771a83
GS
2467(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2468redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
2469find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 2470
49704364
WL
2471=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
2472
2473(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
2474matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2475
c47ff5f1 2476=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 2477
be771a83
GS
2478(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2479redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
2480name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 2481
6df41af2
GS
2482=item No #! line
2483
2484(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2485even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
2486
2487=item "no" not allowed in expression
2488
be771a83
GS
2489(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
2490returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 2491
c47ff5f1 2492=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 2493
be771a83
GS
2494(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2495redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
2496doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 2497
c47ff5f1 2498=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 2499
be771a83
GS
2500(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2501redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
2502find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 2503
1ec3e8de
GS
2504=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
2505
be771a83
GS
2506(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
2507declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
2508semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 2509
a0d0e21e
LW
2510=item No Perl script found in input
2511
2512(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
2513with #! and containing the word "perl".
2514
2515=item No setregid available
2516
2517(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
2518your system.
2519
2520=item No setreuid available
2521
2522(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
2523your system.
2524
6df41af2
GS
2525=item No %s specified for -%c
2526
2527(F) The indicated command line switch needs a mandatory argument, but
2528you haven't specified one.
2529
e75d1f10
RD
2530=item No such class field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
2531
2532(F) You tried to access a key from a hash through the indicated typed variable
2533but that key is not allowed by the package of the same type. The indicated
2534package has restricted the set of allowed keys using the L<fields> pragma.
2535
2c692339
RGS
2536=item No such class %s
2537
2538(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration, but
2539this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
2540
6df41af2
GS
2541=item No such pipe open
2542
2543(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
2544close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
2545earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 2546
a0d0e21e
LW
2547=item No such signal: SIG%s
2548
be771a83
GS
2549(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
2550not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
2551names on your system.
a0d0e21e
LW
2552
2553=item Not a CODE reference
2554
2555(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2556subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
2557use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2558also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2559
2560=item Not a format reference
2561
2562(F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
2563format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
2564
2565=item Not a GLOB reference
2566
be771a83
GS
2567(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
2568symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
2569something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
2570kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2571
2572=item Not a HASH reference
2573
be771a83
GS
2574(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
2575reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
2576find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 2577
6df41af2
GS
2578=item Not an ARRAY reference
2579
be771a83
GS
2580(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
2581a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2582to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 2583
a0d0e21e
LW
2584=item Not a perl script
2585
2586(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2587even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
2588mention perl.
2589
2590=item Not a SCALAR reference
2591
be771a83
GS
2592(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
2593a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2594to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2595
2596=item Not a subroutine reference
2597
2598(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2599subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
2600use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2601also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 2602
e7ea3e70 2603=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
2604
2605(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 2606doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2607
a0d0e21e
LW
2608=item Not enough arguments for %s
2609
2610(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
2611
6df41af2
GS
2612=item Not enough format arguments
2613
be771a83
GS
2614(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
2615supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
2616
2617=item %s: not found
2618
be771a83
GS
2619(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
2620of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
2621yourself.
6df41af2
GS
2622
2623=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 2624
6df41af2
GS
2625(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
2626timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
2627to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
2628F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
2629need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e 2630
4ef2275c
GA
2631=item Non-string passed as bitmask
2632
2633(W misc) A number has been passed as a bitmask argument to select().
2634Use the vec() function to construct the file descriptor bitmasks for
2635select. See L<perlfunc/select>
2636
a0d0e21e
LW
2637=item Null filename used
2638
be771a83
GS
2639(F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
2640machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
a0d0e21e 2641
6df41af2
GS
2642=item NULL OP IN RUN
2643
be771a83
GS
2644(P debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
2645pointer.
6df41af2 2646
55497cff 2647=item Null picture in formline
2648
2649(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
2650specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
2651supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
2652
a0d0e21e
LW
2653=item Null realloc
2654
2655(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
2656
2657=item NULL regexp argument
2658
5f05dabc 2659(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
2660
2661=item NULL regexp parameter
2662
2663(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
2664
fc36a67e 2665=item Number too long
2666
be771a83 2667(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 2668about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
2669versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
2670the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
2671"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 2672
6df41af2
GS
2673=item Octal number in vector unsupported
2674
be771a83
GS
2675(F) Numbers with a leading C<0> are not currently allowed in vectors.
2676The octal number interpretation of such numbers may be supported in a
2677future version.
6df41af2 2678
252aa082
JH
2679=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
2680
75b44862 2681(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
2682(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2683L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082
JH
2684
2685See also L<perlport> for writing portable code.
2686
6ad11d81
JH
2687=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
2688
04a80ee0
RGS
2689(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
2690arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 2691
b21befc1
MG
2692=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
2693
2694(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2695which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
2696
1930e939 2697=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 2698
be771a83
GS
2699(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2700which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 2701
bbce6d69 2702=item Offset outside string
2703
2704(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with an offset
be771a83
GS
2705pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to imagine. The sole
2706exception to this is that C<sysread()>ing past the buffer will extend
2707the buffer and zero pad the new area.
bbce6d69 2708
c289d2f7 2709=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
2710
2711(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
2712never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
2713call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
2714
96ebfdd7
RK
2715=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
2716
2717(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
2718that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
2719
a0d0e21e
LW
2720=item oops: oopsAV
2721
e476b1b5 2722(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
2723
2724=item oops: oopsHV
2725
e476b1b5 2726(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 2727
a0288114 2728=item Operation "%s": no method found, %s
44a8e56a 2729
be771a83
GS
2730(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
2731handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
2732of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
2733C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 2734
748a9306
LW
2735=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
2736
be771a83
GS
2737(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
2738was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
2739use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
2740example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
2741"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 2742
6df41af2
GS
2743=item "our" variable %s redeclared
2744
be771a83
GS
2745(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
2746in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 2747
a80b8354
GS
2748=item Out of memory!
2749
2750(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
2751remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
2752no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 2753
19a52907
JH
2754At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
2755process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
2756C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
2757the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
2758and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
2759
6d3b25aa
RGS
2760=item Out of memory during %s extend
2761
2762(X) An attempt was made to extend an array, a list, or a string beyond
2763the largest possible memory allocation.
2764
6df41af2 2765=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 2766
6df41af2
GS
2767(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
2768remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
2769the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
2770possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 2771
1b979e0a 2772=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 2773
be771a83
GS
2774(X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
2775insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
2776request.
eff9c6e2
CS
2777
2778The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
2779depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
2780However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
2781emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
2782is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
2783where the failed request happened.
55497cff 2784
1b979e0a
IZ
2785=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
2786
2787(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
2788is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
2789C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 2790
6df41af2
GS
2791=item Out of memory for yacc stack
2792
be771a83
GS
2793(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
2794parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
2795otherwise.
6df41af2 2796
28be1210
TH
2797=item '.' outside of string in pack
2798
2799(F) The argument to a '.' in your template tried to move the working
2800position to before the start of the packed string being built.
2801
49704364 2802=item '@' outside of string in unpack
6df41af2 2803
49704364 2804(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6df41af2
GS
2805the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2806
f337b084
TH
2807=item '@' outside of string with malformed UTF-8 in unpack
2808
2809(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
2810the string being unpacked. The string being unpacked was also invalid
2811UTF-8. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2812
6df41af2
GS
2813=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
2814
be771a83
GS
2815(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
2816package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
2817some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
2818mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 2819
96ebfdd7
RK
2820=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
2821
2822(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
2823signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2824
a0d0e21e
LW
2825=item page overflow
2826
be771a83
GS
2827(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
2828page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 2829
6df41af2
GS
2830=item panic: %s
2831
2832(P) An internal error.
2833
c99a1475
NC
2834=item panic: attempt to call %s in %s
2835
2836(P) One of the file test operators entered a code branch that calls
2837an ACL related-function, but that function is not available on this
2838platform. Earlier checks mean that it should not be possible to
2839enter this branch on this platform.
2840
a0d0e21e
LW
2841=item panic: ck_grep
2842
2843(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
2844
2845=item panic: ck_split
2846
2847(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
2848
2849=item panic: corrupt saved stack index
2850
be771a83
GS
2851(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
2852there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 2853
810b8aa5
GS
2854=item panic: del_backref
2855
2856(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
2857reference.
2858
7619c85e
RG
2859=item panic: Devel::DProf inconsistent subroutine return
2860
2861(P) Devel::DProf called a subroutine that exited using goto(LABEL),
2862last(LABEL) or next(LABEL). Leaving that way a subroutine called from
2863an XSUB will lead very probably to a crash of the interpreter. This is
2864a bug that will hopefully one day get fixed.
2865
a0d0e21e
LW
2866=item panic: die %s
2867
2868(P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
2869it wasn't an eval context.
2870
a0d0e21e
LW
2871=item panic: do_subst
2872
be771a83
GS
2873(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
2874data.
a0d0e21e 2875
2269b42e 2876=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 2877
2269b42e 2878(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 2879data.
a0d0e21e 2880
c635e13b 2881=item panic: frexp
2882
2883(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
2884
a0d0e21e
LW
2885=item panic: goto
2886
2887(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
2888and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
2889
2890=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
2891
2892(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
2893
2894=item panic: INTERPCONCAT
2895
2896(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
2897
e446cec8
IZ
2898=item panic: kid popen errno read
2899
2900(F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
2901
a0d0e21e
LW
2902=item panic: last
2903
2904(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
2905it wasn't a block context.
2906
2907=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
2908
be771a83
GS
2909(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
2910scope.
a0d0e21e
LW
2911
2912=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
2913
2914(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
2915invalid enum on the top of it.
2916
810b8aa5
GS
2917=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
2918
2919(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
2920references to an object.
2921
6df41af2
GS
2922=item panic: malloc
2923
2924(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
2925
27d5b266
JH
2926=item panic: memory wrap
2927
2928(P) Something tried to allocate more memory than possible.
2929
a0d0e21e
LW
2930=item panic: null array
2931
2932(P) One of the internal array routines was passed a null AV pointer.
2933
2934=item panic: pad_alloc
2935
2936(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2937and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2938
2939=item panic: pad_free curpad
2940
2941(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2942and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2943
2944=item panic: pad_free po
2945
2946(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2947
2948=item panic: pad_reset curpad
2949
2950(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2951and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2952
2953=item panic: pad_sv po
2954
2955(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2956
2957=item panic: pad_swipe curpad
2958
2959(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2960and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2961
2962=item panic: pad_swipe po
2963
2964(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2965
2966=item panic: pp_iter
2967
2968(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
2969
96ebfdd7
RK
2970=item panic: pp_match%s
2971
2972(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
2973data.
2974
2269b42e
JH
2975=item panic: pp_split
2976
2977(P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
2978
a0d0e21e
LW
2979=item panic: realloc
2980
2981(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
2982
2983=item panic: restartop
2984
2985(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
2986didn't supply the destination.
2987
2988=item panic: return
2989
2990(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
2991then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
2992
2993=item panic: scan_num
2994
2995(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
2996
2997=item panic: sv_insert
2998
2999(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
3000was string.
3001
3002=item panic: top_env
3003
6224f72b 3004(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e 3005
65bca31a
NC
3006=item panic: unimplemented op %s (#%d) called
3007
3008(P) The compiler is screwed up and attempted to use an op that isn't permitted
3009at run time.
3010
dea0fc0b
JH
3011=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
3012
3013(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 3014to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 3015
2f7da168
RK
3016=item panic: yylex
3017
3018(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
3019
7b8d334a 3020=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
a0d0e21e 3021
e476b1b5 3022(W parenthesis) You said something like
a0d0e21e
LW
3023
3024 my $foo, $bar = @_;
3025
3026when you meant
3027
3028 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
3029
54884818 3030Remember that "my", "our", and "local" bind tighter than comma.
a0d0e21e 3031
96ebfdd7
RK
3032=item C<-p> destination: %s
3033
3034(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
3035command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
3036redirected it with select().)
3037
3038=item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
3039
3040(F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3041"Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
3042that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
3043
1109a392
MHM
3044=item Perl_my_%s() not available
3045
3046(F) Your platform has very uncommon byte-order and integer size,
3047so it was not possible to set up some or all fixed-width byte-order
3048conversion functions. This is only a problem when you're using the
3049'<' or '>' modifiers in (un)pack templates. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3050
6d3b25aa
RGS
3051=item Perl %s required--this is only version %s, stopped
3052
3053(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
3054recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
3055you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
3056
6df41af2
GS
3057=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
3058
3059(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 3060C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 3061
96ebfdd7
RK
3062=item PERL_SIGNALS illegal: "%s"
3063
3064See L<perlrun/PERL_SIGNALS> for legal values.
3065
6df41af2
GS
3066=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3067
3068(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
3069
3070 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3071 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
3072 LC_ALL = "En_US",
3073 LANG = (unset)
3074 are supported and installed on your system.
3075 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
3076
3077Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
3078settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
0ea6b70f
JH
3079This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
3080system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
3081locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
3082dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
3083Perl can and will use, the script will be run. Before you really fix
3084the problem, however, you will get the same error message each time
3085you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
3086L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
6df41af2 3087
a0d0e21e
LW
3088=item Permission denied
3089
3090(F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to no good.
3091
bd3fa61c 3092=item pid %x not a child
748a9306 3093
be771a83
GS
3094(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
3095process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
3096fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
748a9306 3097
49704364 3098=item 'P' must have an explicit size in unpack
3bf38418
WL
3099
3100(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
3101
96ebfdd7
RK
3102=item B<-P> not allowed for setuid/setgid script
3103
3104(F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor by name,
3105which provides a race condition that breaks security.
3106
3107=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3108
3109(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The <-- HERE
3110shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
3111Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
3112the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
3113not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
3114
3115=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
3116
3117(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
3118the BSD version, which takes a pid.
3119
49704364 3120=item POSIX syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 3121
9a0b3859 3122(W regexp) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
7253e4e3
RK
3123I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
3124/[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
3125implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and will
3126cause fatal errors. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3127where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 3128
49704364 3129=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3130
3131(F regexp) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
7253e4e3
RK
3132beginning with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
3133If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
3134expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
3135backslash: "\[." and ".\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
3136about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 3137
49704364 3138=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 3139
7253e4e3
RK
3140(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
3141with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
3142need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
3143character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
3144and "=\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
3145problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 3146
bbce6d69 3147=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
3148
e476b1b5 3149(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
75b44862 3150strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
be771a83
GS
3151literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
3152parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
bbce6d69 3153
774d564b 3154You probably wrote something like this:
3155
54310121 3156 @list = qw(
774d564b 3157 a # a comment
bbce6d69 3158 b # another comment
774d564b 3159 );
bbce6d69 3160
3161when you should have written this:
3162
774d564b 3163 @list = qw(
54310121 3164 a
3165 b
774d564b 3166 );
3167
3168If you really want comments, build your list the
3169old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
3170
3171 @list = (
3172 'a', # a comment
3173 'b', # another comment
3174 );
bbce6d69 3175
3176=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
3177
be771a83
GS
3178(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
3179commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
3180different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
3181frequently used.)
bbce6d69 3182
54310121 3183You probably wrote something like this:
bbce6d69 3184
774d564b 3185 qw! a, b, c !;
3186
3187which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
3188commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
bbce6d69 3189
774d564b 3190 qw! a b c !;
bbce6d69 3191
a0d0e21e
LW
3192=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
3193
3194(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
3195Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
3196end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
3197Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
3198
276b2a0c
RGS
3199=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %c operator
3200
3201(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
3202with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
3203
3204 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
3205
3206This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
3207higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
96a925ab
YST
3208really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, put the
3209parentheses explicitly and write C<$x & ($y == 0)>).
276b2a0c 3210
18623440
PS
3211=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
3212
3213(W ambiguous) You said something like `@foo' in a double-quoted string
32b0a12e
AMS
3214but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
3215literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
3216to the array you apparently lost track of.
18623440 3217
8cd79558
GS
3218=item pragma "attrs" is deprecated, use "sub NAME : ATTRS" instead
3219
a1063b2d 3220(D deprecated) You have written something like this:
8cd79558
GS
3221
3222 sub doit
3223 {
3224 use attrs qw(locked);
3225 }
3226
3227You should use the new declaration syntax instead.
3228
3229 sub doit : locked
3230 {
3231 ...
3232
3233The C<use attrs> pragma is now obsolete, and is only provided for
3234backward-compatibility. See L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes">.
3235
a0d0e21e
LW
3236=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
3237
e476b1b5 3238(S precedence) The old irregular construct
cb1a09d0 3239
a0d0e21e
LW
3240 open FOO || die;
3241
3242is now misinterpreted as
3243
3244 open(FOO || die);
3245
be771a83
GS
3246because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
3247list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
3248parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
3249of "||".
a0d0e21e 3250
3cdd684c
TP
3251=item Premature end of script headers
3252
3253See Server error.
3254
6df41af2
GS
3255=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
3256
be771a83 3257(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3258before now. Check your control flow.
6df41af2 3259
9a7dcd9c 3260=item print() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 3261
be771a83 3262(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3263before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 3264
6df41af2 3265=item Process terminated by SIG%s
a0d0e21e 3266
6df41af2
GS
3267(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
3268applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
3269port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
3270L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
fecfaeb8 3271in L<perlos2>.
a0d0e21e 3272
3fe9a6f1 3273=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4633a7c4 3274
9a0b3859 3275(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
be771a83 3276declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4633a7c4 3277
ed9aa3b7
SG
3278=item Prototype not terminated
3279
2a6fd447 3280(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
ed9aa3b7
SG
3281definition.
3282
96ebfdd7
RK
3283=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3284
3285(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if you
3286meant it literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3287where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3288
49704364 3289=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 3290
b45f050a 3291(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of the
7253e4e3 3292{min,max} construct. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where
b45f050a 3293the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9baa0206 3294
49704364 3295=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 3296
b45f050a
JF
3297(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
3298it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
3299quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
3300"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
3301C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
9baa0206 3302
7253e4e3
RK
3303The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3304discovered.
3305
89ea2908
GA
3306=item Range iterator outside integer range
3307
3308(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
3309are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
be771a83
GS
3310One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
3311by prepending "0" to your numbers.
89ea2908 3312
96ebfdd7
RK
3313=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
3314
3315(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
3316before now. Check your control flow.
3317
b5fe5ca2
SR
3318=item read() on closed filehandle %s
3319
3320(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
3321
3322=item read() on unopened filehandle %s
3323
3324(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
3325
6df41af2
GS
3326=item Reallocation too large: %lx
3327
3328(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
3329
4ad56ec9
IZ
3330=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
3331
be771a83
GS
3332(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
3333already been freed.
4ad56ec9 3334
a0d0e21e
LW
3335=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
3336
be771a83
GS
3337(F debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
3338the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
a0d0e21e
LW
3339which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
3340
3e0ccd42 3341=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
a0d0e21e
LW
3342
3343(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably indicates
3344an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
3345
7a4340ed 3346=item Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method %s
3e0ccd42 3347
be771a83
GS
3348(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were encountered while invoking
3349a method. Probably indicates an unintended loop in your inheritance
3350hierarchy.
3e0ccd42 3351
1930e939
TP
3352=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
3353
be771a83
GS
3354(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
3355with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This usually
3356means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant to use
3357parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
7b8d334a
GS
3358
3359 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
3360 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
3361 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
3362 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
3363
810b8aa5
GS
3364=item Reference is already weak
3365
e476b1b5 3366(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
810b8aa5
GS
3367Doing so has no effect.
3368
a0d0e21e
LW
3369=item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
3370
be771a83
GS
3371(W internal) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with
3372a reference count of other than 1.
a0d0e21e 3373
49704364 3374=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3375
3376(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
3377not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If you
3378wanted to have the character with value 7 inserted into the regular expression,
3379prepend a zero to make the number at least two digits: C<\07>
9baa0206 3380
7253e4e3 3381The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a 3382discovered.
9baa0206 3383
a0d0e21e
LW
3384=item regexp memory corruption
3385
3386(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
3387expression compiler gave it.
3388
b45f050a 3389=item Regexp out of space
a0d0e21e 3390
be771a83
GS
3391(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
3392earlier.
a0d0e21e 3393
a1b95068
WL
3394=item Repeated format line will never terminate (~~ and @# incompatible)
3395
d7f8936a 3396(F) Your format contains the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence and a
a1b95068
WL
3397numeric field that will never go blank so that the repetition never
3398terminates. You might use ^# instead. See L<perlform>.
3399
a0d0e21e
LW
3400=item Reversed %s= operator
3401
be771a83
GS
3402(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
3403always comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
a0d0e21e
LW
3404
3405=item Runaway format
3406
3407(F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence, but it
3408produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th line looked exactly like the
3409199th line. Apparently you didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust
3410themselves, either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
3411shifting or popping (for array variables). See L<perlform>.
3412
96ebfdd7
RK
3413=item Scalars leaked: %d
3414
3415(P) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping of scalars:
3416not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time Perl exited.
3417What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which is of course bad,
3418especially if the Perl program is intended to be long-running.
3419
a0d0e21e
LW
3420=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
3421
be771a83
GS
3422(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
3423single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
3424value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
3425behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3426argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3427and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3428if you're expecting only one subscript.
a0d0e21e 3429
748a9306 3430On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5f05dabc 3431element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
748a9306
LW
3432Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
3433L<perlref>.
3434
a6006777 3435=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
3436
75b44862 3437(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
be771a83
GS
3438element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
3439(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
3440like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3441argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3442and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3443if you're expecting only one subscript.
3444
3445On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
3446as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
3447not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
a6006777 3448L<perlref>.
3449
a0d0e21e
LW
3450=item Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl
3451
54310121 3452(F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script without a setuid
3453or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much sense.
a0d0e21e
LW
3454
3455=item Search pattern not terminated
3456
3457(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
3458construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 3459Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 3460
0cb1bcd7 3461Note that since Perl 5.9.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
5d9c98cd
JH
3462construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
3463in Perl 5.9.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
3464misparsed by pre-5.9.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
3465
25c09cbf
SF
3466=item Search pattern not terminated or ternary operator parsed as search pattern
3467
3468(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a C<?PATTERN?>
3469construct.
3470
3471The question mark is also used as part of the ternary operator (as in
3472C<foo ? 0 : 1>) leading to some ambiguous constructions being wrongly
3473parsed. One way to disambiguate the parsing is to put parentheses around
3474the conditional expression, i.e. C<(foo) ? 0 : 1>.
3475
9ddeeac9 3476=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
a0d0e21e 3477
be771a83
GS
3478(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
3479filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
a0d0e21e
LW
3480
3481=item select not implemented
3482
3483(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
3484
ae21d580 3485=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
68a4a7e4 3486
ae21d580
JH
3487(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
3488the current implementation.
68a4a7e4 3489
6df41af2 3490=item Semicolon seems to be missing
a0d0e21e 3491
75b44862
GS
3492(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
3493semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
a0d0e21e
LW
3494
3495=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
3496
be771a83
GS
3497(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
3498scalar that had previously been marked as free.
a0d0e21e 3499
6df41af2 3500=item sem%s not implemented
a0d0e21e 3501
6df41af2 3502(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
a0d0e21e 3503
69282e91 3504=item send() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 3505
be771a83 3506(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3507before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 3508
7253e4e3 3509=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
7b8d334a 3510
7253e4e3 3511(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The <-- HERE
b45f050a 3512shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
be771a83 3513L<perlre>.
1b1626e4 3514
49704364 3515=item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3516
b45f050a 3517(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved but
7253e4e3 3518has not yet been written. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
b45f050a
JF
3519where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3520
49704364 3521=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3522
7253e4e3
RK
3523(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense. The
3524<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3525discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3526
49704364 3527=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
3528
3529(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
7253e4e3
RK
3530parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. The <-- HERE shows in
3531the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3532L<perlre>.
6df41af2 3533
96ebfdd7
RK
3534=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated or not {}-balanced in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3535
3536(F) If the contents of a (?{...}) clause contains braces, they must balance
3537for Perl to properly detect the end of the clause. The <-- HERE shows in
3538the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3539L<perlre>.
3540
6df41af2
GS
3541=item 500 Server error
3542
3543See Server error.
3544
a5f75d66
AD
3545=item Server error
3546
3cdd684c 3547This is the error message generally seen in a browser window when trying
be771a83
GS
3548to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The actual error text
3549varies widely from server to server. The most frequently-seen variants
3550are "500 Server error", "Method (something) not permitted", "Document
3551contains no data", "Premature end of script headers", and "Did not
3552produce a valid header".
9607fc9c 3553
3554B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
3555
be771a83
GS
3556You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by the
3557user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the user
3558account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment variables
3559(like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't in a
3560location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or less.
3561Please see the following for more information:
9607fc9c 3562
06a5f41f
JH
3563 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
3564 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
3565 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
a5f75d66 3566
be94a901
GS
3567You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
3568
a0d0e21e
LW
3569=item setegid() not implemented
3570
be771a83
GS
3571(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
3572support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3573didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
3574
3575=item seteuid() not implemented
3576
be771a83
GS
3577(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
3578support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3579didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 3580
81777298
GS
3581=item setpgrp can't take arguments
3582
be771a83
GS
3583(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
3584arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
3585group ID.
81777298 3586
a0d0e21e
LW
3587=item setrgid() not implemented
3588
be771a83
GS
3589(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
3590support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3591didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
3592
3593=item setruid() not implemented
3594
be771a83
GS
3595(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
3596support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3597didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 3598
6df41af2
GS
3599=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
3600
be771a83
GS
3601(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
3602forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
3603L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
3604
a0d0e21e
LW
3605=item Setuid/gid script is writable by world
3606
be771a83
GS
3607(F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that is writable by the
3608world, because the world might have written on it already.
a0d0e21e 3609
d504a7a1
RGS
3610=item Setuid script not plain file
3611
3612(F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that isn't read from a file,
3613but from a socket, a pipe or another device.
3614
a0d0e21e
LW
3615=item shm%s not implemented
3616
3617(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
3618
984200d0
YST
3619=item !=~ should be !~
3620
3621(W syntax) The non-matching operator is !~, not !=~. !=~ will be
3622interpreted as the != (numeric not equal) and ~ (1's complement)
3623operators: probably not what you intended.
3624
6df41af2
GS
3625=item <> should be quotes
3626
3627(F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
3628C<require 'file'>.
3629
3630=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
3631
3632(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
be771a83
GS
3633as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
3634result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
3635probably not what you had in mind.
6df41af2 3636
69282e91 3637=item shutdown() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 3638
75b44862
GS
3639(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
3640superfluous.
a0d0e21e 3641
f86702cc 3642=item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
a0d0e21e 3643
be771a83
GS
3644(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
3645Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
a0d0e21e
LW
3646
3647=item sort is now a reserved word
3648
3649(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
3650But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
3651
3652=item Sort subroutine didn't return a numeric value
3653
3654(F) A sort comparison routine must return a number. You probably blew
c47ff5f1 3655it by not using C<< <=> >> or C<cmp>, or by not using them correctly.
a0d0e21e
LW
3656See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3657
3658=item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
3659
3660(F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
3661or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3662
8cbc2e3b
JH
3663=item splice() offset past end of array
3664
3665(W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
3666the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the end
3667of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want, try
3668explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset. See
3669L<perlfunc/splice>.
3670
a0d0e21e
LW
3671=item Split loop
3672
be771a83
GS
3673(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
3674iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
3675happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
a0d0e21e 3676
a0d0e21e
LW
3677=item Statement unlikely to be reached
3678
be771a83
GS
3679(W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
3680die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
3681unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
3682instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
3683a block by itself.
a0d0e21e 3684
9ddeeac9 3685=item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
6df41af2 3686
355b1299
JH
3687(W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
3688was either never opened or has since been closed.
6df41af2 3689
f46d83d8 3690=item Stub found while resolving method "%s" overloading "%s"
e7ea3e70 3691
be771a83
GS
3692(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
3693stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
3694C<can> may break this.
e7ea3e70 3695
a0d0e21e
LW
3696=item Subroutine %s redefined
3697
e476b1b5 3698(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
3699
3700 {
271595cc 3701 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
3702 eval "sub name { ... }";
3703 }
3704
3705=item Substitution loop
3706
be771a83
GS
3707(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
3708shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
3709is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
5f05dabc 3710L<perlop/"Quote and Quote-like Operators">.
a0d0e21e
LW
3711
3712=item Substitution pattern not terminated
3713
d1be9408 3714(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 3715construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 3716Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
3717
3718=item Substitution replacement not terminated
3719
d1be9408 3720(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 3721construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 3722Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
3723
3724=item substr outside of string
3725
be771a83
GS
3726(W substr),(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
3727a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
3728length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
3729substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
3730assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
a0d0e21e 3731
f86702cc 3732=item suidperl is no longer needed since %s
a0d0e21e 3733
be771a83
GS
3734(F) Your Perl was compiled with B<-D>SETUID_SCRIPTS_ARE_SECURE_NOW, but
3735a version of the setuid emulator somehow got run anyway.
a0d0e21e 3736
bf1320bf
RGS
3737=item sv_upgrade from type %d down to type %d
3738
3739(P) Perl tried to force the upgrade an SV to a type which was actually
3740inferior to its current type.
3741
49704364 3742=item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3743
3744(F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most two
3745branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or both to
3746contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose it in
3747clustering parentheses:
3748
3749 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
3750
7253e4e3 3751The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a
JF
3752discovered. See L<perlre>.
3753
49704364 3754=item Switch condition not recognized in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3755
3756(F) If the argument to the (?(...)if-clause|else-clause) construct is a
7253e4e3 3757number, it can be only a number. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
b45f050a
JF
3758about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3759
85ab1d1d
JH
3760=item switching effective %s is not implemented
3761
be771a83
GS
3762(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
3763and effective uids or gids.
85ab1d1d 3764
2f7da168
RK
3765=item %s syntax
3766
3767(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
3768
a0d0e21e
LW
3769=item syntax error
3770
3771(F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
3772
3773 A keyword is misspelled.
3774 A semicolon is missing.
3775 A comma is missing.
3776 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
3777 An opening or closing brace is missing.
3778 A closing quote is missing.
3779
3780Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
3781error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
3782The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
3783it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
5f05dabc 3784before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
a0d0e21e
LW
3785Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
3786the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
3787C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
be771a83
GS
3788if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20
3789questions>.
a0d0e21e 3790
cb1a09d0
AD
3791=item syntax error at line %d: `%s' unexpected
3792
be771a83
GS
3793(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
3794of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
3795yourself.
cb1a09d0 3796
25f58aea
PN
3797=item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
3798
3799(F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
3800a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
3801or "my $var" or "our $var".
3802
b5fe5ca2
SR
3803=item sysread() on closed filehandle %s
3804
3805(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
3806
3807=item sysread() on unopened filehandle %s
3808
3809(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
3810
6087ac44 3811=item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
a0d0e21e 3812
6087ac44
JH
3813(F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
3814"shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
3815machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
3816unconfigured. Consult your system support.
a0d0e21e 3817
69282e91 3818=item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 3819
be771a83 3820(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3821before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 3822
96ebfdd7
RK
3823=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
3824
3825(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
3826know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
3827
fc36a67e 3828=item Target of goto is too deeply nested
3829
be771a83
GS
3830(F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
3831for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
fc36a67e 3832
9ddeeac9 3833=item tell() on unopened filehandle
a0d0e21e 3834
be771a83
GS
3835(W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
3836was either never opened or has since been closed.
a0d0e21e 3837
a0d0e21e
LW
3838=item That use of $[ is unsupported
3839
be771a83
GS
3840(F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted
3841as a compiler directive. You may say only one of
a0d0e21e
LW
3842
3843 $[ = 0;
3844 $[ = 1;
3845 ...
3846 local $[ = 0;
3847 local $[ = 1;
3848 ...
3849
be771a83
GS
3850This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out
3851from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[>.
a0d0e21e 3852
f86702cc 3853=item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia
a0d0e21e
LW
3854
3855(F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
3856probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
8b1a09fc 3857think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
a0d0e21e
LW
3858will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
3859will deny it.
3860
6df41af2
GS
3861=item The %s function is unimplemented
3862
3863The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture, according
3864to the probings of Configure.
3865
5e1c7ca2 3866=item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
a0d0e21e 3867
be771a83
GS
3868(F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
3869linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
3870past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
3871instead.
a0d0e21e 3872
371fce9b
DM
3873=item The 'unique' attribute may only be applied to 'our' variables
3874
3875(F) Currently this attribute is not supported on C<my> or C<sub>
3876declarations. See L<perlfunc/our>.
3877
437784d6 3878=item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
f675dbe5
CB
3879
3880=item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
3881
75b44862 3882(W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
be771a83
GS
3883element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
3884wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
3885need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
3886F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
3887target of the change to
f675dbe5
CB
3888%ENV which produced the warning.
3889
6b3c7930
JH
3890=item thread failed to start: %s
3891
4447dfc1 3892(W threads)(S) The entry point function of threads->create() failed for some reason.
6b3c7930 3893
a0d0e21e
LW
3894=item times not implemented
3895
be771a83
GS
3896(F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
3897suspect you're not running on Unix.
a0d0e21e 3898
6d3b25aa
RGS
3899=item "-T" is on the #! line, it must also be used on the command line
3900
3901(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
3902B<-T> option, but Perl was not invoked with B<-T> in its command line.
3903This is an error because, by the time Perl discovers a B<-T> in a
3904script, it's too late to properly taint everything from the environment.
3905So Perl gives up.
3906
3907If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
3908mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be fixed by
3909editing the #! line so that the B<-T> option is a part of Perl's first
3910argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -T> to C<perl -T -n>.
3911
3912If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
3913B<-T> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -T scriptname>.
3914
3a2263fe
RGS
3915=item To%s: illegal mapping '%s'
3916
3917(F) You tried to define a customized To-mapping for lc(), lcfirst,
3918uc(), or ucfirst() (or their string-inlined versions), but you
3919specified an illegal mapping.
3920See L<perlunicode/"User-Defined Character Properties">.
3921
49704364
WL
3922=item Too deeply nested ()-groups
3923
3924(F) Your template contains ()-groups with a ridiculously deep nesting level.
3925
a0d0e21e
LW
3926=item Too few args to syscall
3927
3928(F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
3929system call to call, silly dilly.
3930
96ebfdd7
RK
3931=item Too late for "-%s" option
3932
3933(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
3ffe3ee4 3934B<-M>, B<-m> or B<-C> option. This is an error because those options
96ebfdd7
RK
3935are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
3936
ddda08b7
GS
3937=item Too late to run %s block
3938
3939(W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
3940when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
be771a83
GS
3941loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
3942instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
3943BEGIN block.
ddda08b7 3944
a0d0e21e
LW
3945=item Too many args to syscall
3946
5f05dabc 3947(F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
a0d0e21e
LW
3948
3949=item Too many arguments for %s
3950
3951(F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
3952
6df41af2
GS
3953=item Too many )'s
3954
49704364
WL
3955(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
3956Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
3957
8c40cb74
NC
3958=item Too many ('s
3959
be771a83
GS
3960(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
3961Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 3962
7253e4e3 3963=item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3964
be771a83
GS
3965(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
3966Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3967
2c268ad5 3968=item Transliteration pattern not terminated
a0d0e21e
LW
3969
3970(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
fb73857a 3971or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
3972C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 3973
2c268ad5 3974=item Transliteration replacement not terminated
a0d0e21e 3975
6a36df5d
YST
3976(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr///, tr[][],
3977y/// or y[][] construct.
a0d0e21e 3978
96ebfdd7
RK
3979=item '%s' trapped by operation mask
3980
3981(F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
3982disallowed. See L<Safe>.
3983
a0d0e21e
LW
3984=item truncate not implemented
3985
3986(F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
3987Configure knows about.
3988
3989=item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
3990
3991(F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
8b1a09fc 3992certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
3993%NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
a0d0e21e
LW
3994{EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
3995
eec2d3df
GS
3996=item umask not implemented
3997
be771a83
GS
3998(F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
3999use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
a0d0e21e 4000
4633a7c4
LW
4001=item Unable to create sub named "%s"
4002
4003(F) You attempted to create or access a subroutine with an illegal name.
4004
a0d0e21e
LW
4005=item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
4006
be771a83
GS
4007(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
4008many execution contexts were entered and left.
a0d0e21e
LW
4009
4010=item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
4011
be771a83
GS
4012(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
4013many values were temporarily localized.
a0d0e21e
LW
4014
4015=item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
4016
be771a83
GS
4017(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
4018many blocks were entered and left.
a0d0e21e
LW
4019
4020=item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
4021
be771a83
GS
4022(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
4023many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
a0d0e21e
LW
4024
4025=item Undefined format "%s" called
4026
4027(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
4028another package? See L<perlform>.
4029
4030=item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
4031
be771a83
GS
4032(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
4033Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4034
4035=item Undefined subroutine &%s called
4036
be771a83
GS
4037(F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
4038since been undefined.
a0d0e21e
LW
4039
4040=item Undefined subroutine called
4041
4042(F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
4043or if it was, it has since been undefined.
4044
4045=item Undefined subroutine in sort
4046
be771a83
GS
4047(F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
4048to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e 4049
4633a7c4
LW
4050=item Undefined top format "%s" called
4051
4052(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
4053another package? See L<perlform>.
4054
20408e3c
GS
4055=item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
4056
be771a83
GS
4057(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
4058C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
4059C<undef *foo>.
20408e3c 4060
6df41af2
GS
4061=item %s: Undefined variable
4062
be771a83
GS
4063(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
4064Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 4065
a0d0e21e
LW
4066=item unexec of %s into %s failed!
4067
4068(F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
4069representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
4070
3d401ffb
JH
4071=item Unicode character %s is illegal
4072
507b9800
JH
4073(W utf8) Certain Unicode characters have been designated off-limits by
4074the Unicode standard and should not be generated. If you really know
4075what you are doing you can turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'utf8';>.
b45f050a 4076
a0d0e21e
LW
4077=item Unknown BYTEORDER
4078
be771a83
GS
4079(F) There are no byte-swapping functions for a machine with this byte
4080order.
a0d0e21e 4081
6170680b
IZ
4082=item Unknown open() mode '%s'
4083
437784d6 4084(F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
c47ff5f1 4085of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
488dad83 4086C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
6170680b 4087
b4581f09
JH
4088=item Unknown PerlIO layer "%s"
4089
4090(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
4091system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
4092internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
4093are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
4094explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
4095value of the environment variable PERLIO.
4096
f675dbe5
CB
4097=item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
4098
4099(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
4100iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
4101data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
4102subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
a05d7ebb 4103
2f7da168
RK
4104=item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
4105
4106You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
4107
96ebfdd7
RK
4108=item Unknown switch condition (?(%.2s in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4109
4110(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
4111is not known. The condition may be lookahead or lookbehind (the condition
4112is true if the lookahead or lookbehind is true), a (?{...}) construct (the
4113condition is true if the code evaluates to a true value), or a number (the
4114condition is true if the set of capturing parentheses named by the number
4115matched).
4116
4117The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4118discovered. See L<perlre>.
4119
a05d7ebb
JH
4120=item Unknown Unicode option letter '%c'
4121
4122You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
4123of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
4124
4125=item Unknown Unicode option value %x
4126
4127You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
4128of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
f675dbe5 4129
3d1a39c8
RGS
4130=item Unknown warnings category '%s'
4131
4132(F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
4133category that is unknown to perl at this point.
4134
4135Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a module
4136(e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have imported this module
4137first.
4138
7253e4e3 4139=item unmatched [ in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 4140
380a0633 4141(F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
be771a83 4142include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
7253e4e3
RK
4143first. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem
4144was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 4145
7253e4e3 4146=item unmatched ( in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
4147
4148(F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
7253e4e3
RK
4149expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding the
4150matching parenthesis. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
4151where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 4152
d98d5fff 4153=item Unmatched right %s bracket
a0d0e21e 4154
be771a83
GS
4155(F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
4156ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
4157general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
4158you were last editing.
a0d0e21e 4159
a0d0e21e
LW
4160=item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
4161
be771a83
GS
4162(W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
4163reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
4164somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
4165subroutine.
a0d0e21e 4166
54310121 4167=item Unrecognized character %s
a0d0e21e 4168
54310121 4169(F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
4170in your Perl script (or eval). Perhaps you tried to run a compressed
4171script, a binary program, or a directory as a Perl program.
a0d0e21e 4172
6df41af2
GS
4173=item /%s/: Unrecognized escape \\%c in character class passed through
4174
be771a83
GS
4175(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
4176recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
4177understood literally.
6df41af2 4178
2f7da168
RK
4179=item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through
4180
4181(W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
4182recognized by Perl.
4183
49704364 4184=item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 4185
be771a83 4186(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b45f050a
JF
4187recognized by Perl. This combination appears in an interpolated variable or
4188a C<'>-delimited regular expression. The character was understood
7253e4e3
RK
4189literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
4190escape was discovered.
6df41af2 4191
a0d0e21e
LW
4192=item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
4193
be771a83
GS
4194(F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
4195recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
4196on your system.
a0d0e21e 4197
90248788 4198=item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
a0d0e21e 4199
be771a83
GS
4200(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
4201think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
4202bad switch on your behalf.)
a0d0e21e
LW
4203
4204=item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
4205
be771a83
GS
4206(W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
4207operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
5b3eff12 4208PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4209
4210=item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
4211
4212(F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
4213
6df41af2
GS
4214=item Unsupported function %s
4215
4216(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
4217At least, Configure doesn't think so.
4218
54310121 4219=item Unsupported function fork
4220
4221(F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
4222
be771a83
GS
4223Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
4224of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
4225changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
54310121 4226
7aa207d6 4227=item Unsupported script encoding %s
b250498f
GS
4228
4229(F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
7aa207d6 4230declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot read.
b250498f 4231
a0d0e21e
LW
4232=item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
4233
4234(F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
4235least that's what Configure thought.
4236
6df41af2 4237=item Unterminated attribute list
a0d0e21e 4238
be771a83
GS
4239(F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
4240start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
4241block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
4242attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
a0d0e21e 4243
09bef843
SB
4244=item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
4245
be771a83
GS
4246(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
4247an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
09bef843
SB
4248character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
4249character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
4250
f1991046
GS
4251=item Unterminated compressed integer
4252
4253(F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
4254compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
4255See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4256
6df41af2 4257=item Unterminated <> operator
09bef843 4258
6df41af2 4259(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
4260a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
4261not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
4262earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
09bef843 4263
6df41af2 4264=item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
a0d0e21e 4265
be771a83
GS
4266(W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
4267still valid when C<untie> was called.
a0d0e21e 4268
8e11cd2b
JC
4269=item Usage: POSIX::%s(%s)
4270
4271(F) You called a POSIX function with incorrect arguments.
4272See L<POSIX/FUNCTIONS> for more information.
4273
4274=item Usage: Win32::%s(%s)
4275
4276(F) You called a Win32 function with incorrect arguments.
4277See L<Win32> for more information.
4278
96ebfdd7 4279=item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 4280
96ebfdd7
RK
4281(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
4282meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 4283
96ebfdd7 4284 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
4285
4286must be written as
4287
96ebfdd7 4288 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
4289
4290The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
4291where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4292
b4581f09
JH
4293=item Useless localization of %s
4294
4295(W syntax) The localization of lvalues such as C<local($x=10)> is
4296legal, but in fact the local() currently has no effect. This may change at
4297some point in the future, but in the meantime such code is discouraged.
4298
96ebfdd7 4299=item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 4300
96ebfdd7
RK
4301(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
4302meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 4303
96ebfdd7 4304 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
4305
4306must be written as
4307
96ebfdd7 4308 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
4309
4310The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
4311where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4312
6df41af2 4313=item Useless use of %s in void context
a0d0e21e 4314
75b44862 4315(W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
be771a83
GS
4316nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
4317value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
4318often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
4319to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
4320get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
4321said
a0d0e21e 4322
6df41af2 4323 $one, $two = 1, 2;
748a9306 4324
6df41af2
GS
4325when you meant to say
4326
4327 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
4328
4329Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
4330reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
4331example, if you say
4332
4333 $array = (1,2);
4334
4335when you should have said
4336
4337 $array = [1,2];
4338
4339The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
4340while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
4341a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
4342throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
4343L<perlref> for more on this.
4344
65191a1e
BS
4345This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
4346since they are often used in statements like
4347
4358a253 4348 1 while sub_with_side_effects();
65191a1e
BS
4349
4350String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
4351about.
4352
6df41af2
GS
4353=item Useless use of "re" pragma
4354
4355(W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
4356
a801c63c
RGS
4357=item Useless use of sort in scalar context
4358
4359(W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
4360
4361 my $x = sort @y;
4362
4363This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
4364
de4864e4
JH
4365=item Useless use of %s with no values
4366
f87c3213 4367(W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
de4864e4
JH
4368apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
4369usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
4370possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
4371if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
4372you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
4373
6df41af2
GS
4374=item "use" not allowed in expression
4375
be771a83
GS
4376(F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
4377returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
748a9306 4378
c47ff5f1 4379=item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is deprecated
4633a7c4 4380
be771a83
GS
4381(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted form
4382if you wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
4633a7c4 4383
96ebfdd7
RK
4384=item Use of chdir('') or chdir(undef) as chdir() deprecated
4385
4386(D deprecated) chdir() with no arguments is documented to change to
4387$ENV{HOME} or $ENV{LOGDIR}. chdir(undef) and chdir('') share this
4388behavior, but that has been deprecated. In future versions they
4389will simply fail.
4390
4391Be careful to check that what you pass to chdir() is defined and not
4392blank, else you might find yourself in your home directory.
4393
64e578a2
MJD
4394=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
4395
4396(W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
4397modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
4398
4ac733c9
MJD
4399=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
4400
4401(W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
4402use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
4403used. (This may change in the future.)
4404
b6c83531 4405=item Use of freed value in iteration
2f7da168 4406
b6c83531
JH
4407(F) Perhaps you modified the iterated array within the loop?
4408This error is typically caused by code like the following:
2f7da168
RK
4409
4410 @a = (3,4);
4411 @a = () for (1,2,@a);
4412
4413You are not supposed to modify arrays while they are being iterated over.
4414For speed and efficiency reasons, Perl internally does not do full
4415reference-counting of iterated items, hence deleting such an item in the
4416middle of an iteration causes Perl to see a freed value.
4417
39b99f21 4418=item Use of *glob{FILEHANDLE} is deprecated
4419
4420(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the shorter *glob{IO} form
4421to access the filehandle slot within a typeglob.
4422
96ebfdd7 4423=item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
35ae6b54 4424
96ebfdd7
RK
4425(W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
4426operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
4427repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
35ae6b54 4428
a0d0e21e
LW
4429=item Use of implicit split to @_ is deprecated
4430
be771a83
GS
4431(D deprecated) It makes a lot of work for the compiler when you clobber
4432a subroutine's argument list, so it's better if you assign the results
4433of a split() explicitly to an array (or list).
a0d0e21e 4434
dc848c6f 4435=item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
4436
be771a83
GS
4437(D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines
4438are looked up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy) even when the
4439subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain functions (e.g.
4440C<Foo::bar()>), not as methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or C<<
4441$obj->bar() >>).
dc848c6f 4442
be771a83
GS
4443This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup only for
4444methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base of existing
4445code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl
4446currently issues an optional warning when non-methods use inherited
4447C<AUTOLOAD>s.
dc848c6f 4448
4449The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
be771a83
GS
4450non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used
4451to depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class
4452named C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during
4453startup.
dc848c6f 4454
be771a83
GS
4455In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);>
4456you should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
7b8d334a 4457C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
fb73857a 4458
6df41af2
GS
4459=item Use of %s in printf format not supported
4460
4461(F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
4462only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
4463
6df41af2
GS
4464=item Use of %s is deprecated
4465
75b44862 4466(D deprecated) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use,
be771a83
GS
4467generally because there's a better way to do it, and also because the
4468old way has bad side effects.
6df41af2 4469
96ebfdd7
RK
4470=item Use of -l on filehandle %s
4471
4472(W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
4473it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
4474The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
4475
4476=item Use of "package" with no arguments is deprecated
4477
4478(D deprecated) You used the C<package> keyword without specifying a package
4479name. So no namespace is current at all. Using this can cause many
4480otherwise reasonable constructs to fail in baffling ways. C<use strict;>
4481instead.
4482
1f1cc344 4483=item Use of reference "%s" as array index
d804643f 4484
77b96956 4485(W misc) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
1f1cc344
JH
4486isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
4487to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
d804643f 4488
64977eb6 4489If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
1f1cc344
JH
4490C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
4491either, because you can overload the numification and stringification
4492operators and then you assumedly know what you are doing.
d804643f 4493
85b81015
LW
4494=item Use of reserved word "%s" is deprecated
4495
be771a83
GS
4496(D deprecated) The indicated bareword is a reserved word. Future
4497versions of perl may use it as a keyword, so you're better off either
4498explicitly quoting the word in a manner appropriate for its context of
4499use, or using a different name altogether. The warning can be
4500suppressed for subroutine names by either adding a C<&> prefix, or using
4501a package qualifier, e.g. C<&our()>, or C<Foo::our()>.
85b81015 4502
bbd7eb8a
RD
4503=item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
4504
159f47d9 4505(W taint, deprecated) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
bbd7eb8a
RD
4506arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
4507but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
4508arguments. See L<perlsec>.
4509
cc95b072 4510=item Use of uninitialized value%s
a0d0e21e 4511
be771a83
GS
4512(W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
4513defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
4514To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
a0d0e21e 4515
29489e7c
DM
4516To help you figure out what was undefined, perl will try to tell you the
4517name of the variable (if any) that was undefined. In some cases it cannot
4518do this, so it also tells you what operation you used the undefined value
4519in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your program and the operation
4520displayed in the warning may not necessarily appear literally in your
4521program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is usually optimized into C<"that "
4522. $foo>, and the warning will refer to the C<concatenation (.)> operator,
4523even though there is no C<.> in your program.
e5be4a53 4524
a1063b2d
RH
4525=item Using a hash as a reference is deprecated
4526
496a33f5 4527(D deprecated) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
1b1f1335
NIS
4528C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1
4529used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated, and will
496a33f5 4530be removed in a future version.
a1063b2d
RH
4531
4532=item Using an array as a reference is deprecated
4533
496a33f5 4534(D deprecated) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
1b1f1335
NIS
4535C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1 used to
4536allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated, and will be
496a33f5 4537removed in a future version.
a1063b2d 4538
9466bab6
JH
4539=item UTF-16 surrogate %s
4540
507b9800
JH
4541(W utf8) You tried to generate half of an UTF-16 surrogate by
4542requesting a Unicode character between the code points 0xD800 and
45430xDFFF (inclusive). That range is reserved exclusively for the use of
4544UTF-16 encoding (by having two 16-bit UCS-2 characters); but Perl
4545encodes its characters in UTF-8, so what you got is a very illegal
4546character. If you really know what you are doing you can turn off
4547this warning by C<no warnings 'utf8';>.
9466bab6 4548
68dc0745 4549=item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
a6006777 4550
75b44862 4551(W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
be771a83
GS
4552C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
4553can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
4554false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
4555constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
4556C<defined> operator.
a6006777 4557
f675dbe5
CB
4558=item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
4559
be771a83
GS
4560(W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
4561%ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
4562longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
45631024 characters.
f675dbe5 4564
b5c19bd7 4565=item Variable "%s" is not available
44a8e56a 4566
b5c19bd7
DM
4567(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
4568attempting to capture an outer lexical that is not currently available.
42c13b56 4569This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the outer lexical may be
b5c19bd7
DM
4570declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has not yet been created.
4571(Remember that named subs are created at compile time, while anonymous
42c13b56 4572subs are created at run-time.) For example,
44a8e56a 4573
b5c19bd7 4574 sub { my $a; sub f { $a } }
44a8e56a 4575
b5c19bd7
DM
4576At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current value of $a,
4577since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely,
4578the following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by
4579now been created and is live:
be771a83 4580
b5c19bd7
DM
4581 sub { my $a; eval 'sub f { $a }' }->();
4582
4583The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a variable that has
4584gone out of scope, for example,
4585
4586 sub f {
4587 my $a;
4588 sub { eval '$a' }
4589 }
4590 f()->();
4591
4592Here, when the '$a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently being
4593executed, so its $a is not available for capture.
44a8e56a 4594
b4581f09
JH
4595=item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
4596
4597(F) While "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable that
4598you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
4599something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
4600that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
4601front of your variable.
4602
4603=item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4604
4605(F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
4606known at compile time. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
4607where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4608
4609=item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
4610
4611(W misc) A "my" or "our" variable has been redeclared in the current
4612scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the previous
4613instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note that the
4614earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope or until
4615all closure referents to it are destroyed.
4616
6df41af2
GS
4617=item Variable syntax
4618
4619(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
4620of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
4621Perl yourself.
4622
44a8e56a 4623=item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
4624
be771a83 4625(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
b5c19bd7 4626lexical variable defined in an outer named subroutine.
44a8e56a 4627
b5c19bd7 4628When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of
be771a83
GS
4629the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
4630call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
4631outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
4632longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
4633variable will no longer be shared.
44a8e56a 4634
44a8e56a 4635This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
4636anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
b5c19bd7 4637reference variables in outer subroutines are created, they
be771a83 4638are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
44a8e56a 4639
084610c0
GS
4640=item Version number must be a constant number
4641
4642(P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
4643its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
4644the version number.
4645
68d932c8
JH
4646=item v-string in use/require is non-portable
4647
77b96956 4648(W portable) The use of v-strings is non-portable to older, pre-5.6, Perls.
68d932c8
JH
4649If you want your scripts to be backward portable, use the floating
4650point version number: for example, instead of C<use 5.6.1> say
4651C<use 5.006_001>. This of course won't help: the older Perls
4652won't suddenly start understanding newer features, but at least
4653they will show a sensible error message indicating the required
4654minimum version.
4655
7e1af8bc 4656=item Warning: something's wrong
5f05dabc 4657
4658(W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
4659you called it with no args and C<$_> was empty.
4660
f86702cc 4661=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
a0d0e21e 4662
be771a83
GS
4663(S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
4664the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
4665space.
a0d0e21e 4666
5f05dabc 4667=item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
a0d0e21e 4668
be771a83
GS
4669(S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
4670looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
4671term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
4672function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
a0d0e21e
LW
4673
4674 rand + 5;
4675
4676you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
4677
4678 rand() + 5;
4679
4680but in actual fact, you got
4681
4682 rand(+5);
4683
5f05dabc 4684So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
a0d0e21e 4685
4b3603a4
JH
4686=item Wide character in %s
4687
62961d2e 4688(W utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting
cd28123a
JH
4689one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print). The easiest
4690way to quiet this warning is simply to add the C<:utf8> layer to the
4691output, e.g. C<binmode STDOUT, ':utf8'>. Another way to turn off the
4692warning is to add C<no warnings 'utf8';> but that is often closer to
4693cheating. In general, you are supposed to explicitly mark the
4694filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
4b3603a4 4695
49704364
WL
4696=item Within []-length '%c' not allowed
4697
4698(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]> only if
4699C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes that can be
4700determined from the template alone. This is not possible if it contains an
4701of the codes @, /, U, u, w or a *-length. Redesign the template.
4702
9a7dcd9c 4703=item write() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 4704
be771a83 4705(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4706before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 4707
b4581f09
JH
4708=item %s "\x%s" does not map to Unicode
4709
4710When reading in different encodings Perl tries to map everything
4711into Unicode characters. The bytes you read in are not legal in
4712this encoding, for example
4713
4714 utf8 "\xE4" does not map to Unicode
4715
4716if you try to read in the a-diaereses Latin-1 as UTF-8.
4717
49704364 4718=item 'X' outside of string
a0d0e21e 4719
49704364
WL
4720(F) You had a (un)pack template that specified a relative position before
4721the beginning of the string being (un)packed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
a0d0e21e 4722
49704364 4723=item 'x' outside of string in unpack
a0d0e21e
LW
4724
4725(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
4726the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4727
a0d0e21e
LW
4728=item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
4729
5f05dabc 4730(F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
a0d0e21e 4731sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
1b1f1335 4732about what you want. Your best bet is to put a setuid C wrapper around
496a33f5 4733your script.
a0d0e21e
LW
4734
4735=item You need to quote "%s"
4736
be771a83
GS
4737(W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
4738Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
4739which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
4740assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
4741what you want, put an & in front.)
a0d0e21e 4742
6cfd5ea7
JH
4743=item Your random numbers are not that random
4744
4745(F) When trying to initialise the random seed for hashes, Perl could
4746not get any randomness out of your system. This usually indicates
4747Something Very Wrong.
4748
a0d0e21e
LW
4749=back
4750
56e90b21 4751=cut