This is a live mirror of the Perl 5 development currently hosted at https://github.com/perl/perl5
Add a section on committing to maintenance versions
[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).
00eb3f2b 12 (S) A severe warning (enabled by 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
b7eceb5b 30Severe warnings are always enabled, unless they are explicitly disabled
e476b1b5 31with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
4438c4b7 32
748a9306 33Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
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
b0fdf69e 134=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine
a0d0e21e 135
cc1c2e42
FC
136(F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element or a
137subroutine with an ampersand, such as:
a0d0e21e
LW
138
139 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 140 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
cc1c2e42 141 &do_something
a0d0e21e 142
8ea97a1e 143=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
5f05dabc 144
06e52bfa
FC
145(F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
146such as:
5f05dabc 147
148 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 149 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
5f05dabc 150
8ea97a1e 151or a hash or array slice, such as:
5f05dabc 152
6df41af2
GS
153 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
154 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
5315574d 155
6df41af2 156=item %s argument is not a subroutine name
a0d0e21e 157
6df41af2 158(F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
be771a83
GS
159name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
160error.
a0d0e21e 161
f86702cc 162=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 163
be771a83
GS
164(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
165that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
166will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
a0d0e21e 167
b4581f09
JH
168=item Argument list not closed for PerlIO layer "%s"
169
170(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O system you
171forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers take care of transforming
172data between external and internal representations.) Perl stopped parsing
173the layer list at this point and did not attempt to push this layer.
174If your program didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be
175the result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
176
a0d0e21e
LW
177=item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
178
75b44862
GS
179(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
180spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
a0d0e21e
LW
181
182=item assertion botched: %s
183
184(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
185
186=item Assertion failed: file "%s"
187
188(P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
189
190=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
191
192(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
193must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
194know which context to supply to the right side.
195
96ebfdd7
RK
196=item A thread exited while %d threads were running
197
4447dfc1 198(W threads)(S) When using threaded Perl, a thread (not necessarily the main
96ebfdd7
RK
199thread) exited while there were still other threads running.
200Usually it's a good idea to first collect the return values of the
201created threads by joining them, and only then exit from the main
202thread. See L<threads>.
203
2393f1b9 204=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
1b1f1335 205
49293501 206(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
2393f1b9 207the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
49293501 208
81689caa
HS
209=item Attempt to bless into a reference
210
211(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
212the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
213supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
214
215 bless $self, $proto;
216
217when you intended
218
219 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
220
221If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
222of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
223example by:
224
225 bless $self, "$proto";
226
96ebfdd7
RK
227=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
228
229(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
230which is not in its key set.
231
232=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
233
234(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
235declared readonly from a restricted hash.
236
a0d0e21e
LW
237=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
238
be771a83
GS
239(P internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
240that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
241outside any of those arenas.
a0d0e21e 242
54310121 243=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
bbce6d69 244
be771a83
GS
245(P internal) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of
246strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
247strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
248of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
bbce6d69 249
a0d0e21e
LW
250=item Attempt to free temp prematurely
251
be771a83
GS
252(W debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
253free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
254SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
255free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
256try to free it.
a0d0e21e
LW
257
258=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
259
e476b1b5 260(P internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
a0d0e21e
LW
261
262=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
263
be771a83
GS
264(W internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
265see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
266earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
267This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
268that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
269mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
270corrupted.
a0d0e21e 271
dcdda58d
GS
272=item Attempt to join self
273
274(F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
be771a83
GS
275impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
276to move the join() to some other thread.
dcdda58d 277
84902520
TB
278=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
279
be771a83
GS
280(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
281function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
282means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
283invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
284literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
285avoid this warning.
84902520 286
087b5369
RD
287=item Attempt to reload %s aborted.
288
289(F) You tried to load a file with C<use> or C<require> that failed to
290compile once already. Perl will not try to compile this file again
291unless you delete its entry from %INC. See L<perlfunc/require> and
292L<perlvar/%INC>.
293
1b20cd17
NC
294=item Attempt to set length of freed array
295
296(W) You tried to set the length of an array which has been freed. You
297can do this by storing a reference to the scalar representing the last index
298of an array and later assigning through that reference. For example
299
300 $r = do {my @a; \$#a};
301 $$r = 503
302
b7a902f4 303=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
304
be771a83
GS
305(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
306used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
307dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 308
dc26df50 309=item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %s
a0d0e21e 310
be771a83
GS
311(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
312or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 313S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
a0d0e21e
LW
314S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
315
7a95317d
GS
316=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
317
496a33f5 318(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
7a95317d
GS
319substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
320most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
321
a0d0e21e
LW
322=item Bad filehandle: %s
323
be771a83
GS
324(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
325symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
326open(), or did it in another package.
a0d0e21e
LW
327
328=item Bad free() ignored
329
be771a83
GS
330(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
331been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 332setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 333
9ea8bc6d 334This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
be771a83
GS
335dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
336which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 337
aa689395 338=item Bad hash
339
340(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
341
6df41af2
GS
342=item Badly placed ()'s
343
344(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
345of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
346Perl yourself.
347
a0d0e21e
LW
348=item Bad name after %s::
349
be771a83
GS
350(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
351didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
352of quotes, so
a0d0e21e
LW
353
354 $var = 'myvar';
355 $sym = mypack::$var;
356
357is not the same as
358
359 $var = 'myvar';
360 $sym = "mypack::$var";
361
4ad56ec9
IZ
362=item Bad realloc() ignored
363
be771a83
GS
364(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
365never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled
366by setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 367
a0d0e21e
LW
368=item Bad symbol for array
369
370(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
371wasn't a symbol table entry.
372
4df3f177
SP
373=item Bad symbol for dirhandle
374
375(P) An internal request asked to add a dirhandle entry to something
376that wasn't a symbol table entry.
377
378
a0d0e21e
LW
379=item Bad symbol for filehandle
380
be771a83
GS
381(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
382that wasn't a symbol table entry.
a0d0e21e
LW
383
384=item Bad symbol for hash
385
386(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
387wasn't a symbol table entry.
388
34d09196
GS
389=item Bareword found in conditional
390
be771a83
GS
391(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
392conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
393of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
34d09196
GS
394
395 open FOO || die;
396
be771a83
GS
397It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
398a bareword:
34d09196
GS
399
400 use constant TYPO => 1;
401 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
402
403The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
404
6df41af2
GS
405=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
406
407(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
be771a83
GS
408subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
409symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
6df41af2
GS
410
411=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
412
be771a83
GS
413(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
414compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
415you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 416
a0d0e21e
LW
417=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
418
be771a83
GS
419(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
420subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
421exited.
a0d0e21e 422
68dc0745 423=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
424
425(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
be771a83
GS
426implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
427occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
428be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
429depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 430
6df41af2
GS
431=item \1 better written as $1
432
be771a83
GS
433(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
434The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
435substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
436because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
437there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 438
252aa082
JH
439=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
440
e476b1b5 441(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
442(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
443L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 444
69282e91 445=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 446
be771a83
GS
447(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
448check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 449
c289d2f7
JH
450=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
451
452(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
453Check you control flow and number of arguments.
454
c5a0f51a
JH
455=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
456
e476b1b5 457(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 458
4633a7c4
LW
459=item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
460
be771a83 461(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
b45f050a 462copyable.
4633a7c4 463
f675dbe5
CB
464=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
465
be771a83
GS
466(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
467iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
468which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 469
a0d0e21e
LW
470=item Callback called exit
471
4929bf7b 472(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
a0d0e21e
LW
473exited by calling exit.
474
6df41af2 475=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 476
be771a83
GS
477(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
478parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
479that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
480early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
481subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
482checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
483function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
484the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 485
49704364 486=item Cannot compress integer in pack
0258719b
NC
487
488(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress. The BER
489compressed integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you
490attempted to compress Infinity or a very large number (> 1e308).
491See L<perlfunc/pack>.
492
49704364 493=item Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
0258719b
NC
494
495(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
496format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
497
5c1f4d79
NC
498=item Cannot convert a reference to %s to typeglob
499
500(F) You manipulated Perl's symbol table directly, stored a reference in it,
501then tried to access that symbol via conventional Perl syntax. The access
502triggers Perl to autovivify that typeglob, but it there is no legal conversion
503from that type of reference to a typeglob.
504
ba2fdce6
NC
505=item Cannot copy to %s in %s
506
507(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy a value to an internal type that cannot
508be directly assigned not.
509
96ebfdd7
RK
510=item Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
511
512(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
513integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
514to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
515
a0d0e21e
LW
516=item Can't bless non-reference value
517
518(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
519encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
520
dc57907a
RGS
521=item Can't "break" in a loop topicalizer
522
0d863452
RH
523(F) You called C<break>, but you're in a C<foreach> block rather than
524a C<given> block. You probably meant to use C<next> or C<last>.
525
526=item Can't "break" outside a given block
dc57907a 527
0d863452
RH
528(F) You called C<break>, but you're not inside a C<given> block.
529
a0d0e21e
LW
530=item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
531
532(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
533functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
534in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
535
6df41af2
GS
536=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
537
538(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
539object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
540like this will reproduce the error:
6df41af2
GS
541
542 $BADREF = undef;
543 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
544 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
545
a0d0e21e
LW
546=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
547
54310121 548(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
be771a83
GS
549ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
550didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
551object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
552
553=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
554
555(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
556object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
557defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
72b5445b
GS
558Something like this will reproduce the error:
559
560 $BADREF = 42;
561 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
562 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
563
a0d0e21e
LW
564=item Can't chdir to %s
565
566(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
567that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
568
0545a864 569=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
104d25b7 570
be771a83
GS
571(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
572nosuid.
104d25b7 573
6df41af2
GS
574=item Can't coerce array into hash
575
576(F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the array has no
577information on how to map from keys to array indices. You can do that
578only with arrays that have a hash reference at index 0.
579
a0d0e21e
LW
580=item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
581
582(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 583(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
a0d0e21e
LW
584say things like:
585
586 *foo += 1;
587
588You CAN say
589
590 $foo = *foo;
591 $foo += 1;
592
593but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
594
595=item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
596
597(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 598(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
a0d0e21e
LW
599
600=item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
601
602(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 603(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
a0d0e21e 604
0d863452 605=item Can't "continue" outside a when block
dc57907a 606
0d863452
RH
607(F) You called C<continue>, but you're not inside a C<when>
608or C<default> block.
609
a0d0e21e
LW
610=item Can't create pipe mailbox
611
be771a83
GS
612(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
613quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 614
eb64745e 615=item Can't declare class for non-scalar %s in "%s"
a0d0e21e 616
2f7e735d 617(F) Currently, only scalar variables can be declared with a specific
30c282f6 618class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state" declaration. The semantics may be
2f7e735d 619extended for other types of variables in future.
eb64745e
GS
620
621=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
622
30c282f6
NC
623(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my", "our" or
624"state" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 625
6df41af2
GS
626=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
627
be771a83
GS
628(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
629a file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
6df41af2 630
a0d0e21e
LW
631=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
632
be771a83
GS
633(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
634reason.
a0d0e21e 635
54310121 636=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
a0d0e21e 637
be771a83
GS
638(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
639reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
640C<-i.bak>, or some such.
a0d0e21e 641
10f9c03d 642=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
a0d0e21e 643
e476b1b5 644(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
10f9c03d
CK
645characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
646inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
a0d0e21e 647
7253e4e3 648=item Can't do {n,m} with n > m in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 649
b45f050a 650(F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want your
7253e4e3 651regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. The <-- HERE shows in the
b45f050a 652regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e
LW
653
654=item Can't do setegid!
655
be771a83
GS
656(P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
657suidperl.
a0d0e21e
LW
658
659=item Can't do seteuid!
660
661(P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
662
663=item Can't do setuid
664
be771a83
GS
665(F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to do
666setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the form
667sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides under
668the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines. If the
669file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask your
670sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
a0d0e21e
LW
671
672=item Can't do waitpid with flags
673
be771a83
GS
674(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
675waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 676
a0d0e21e
LW
677=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
678
be771a83
GS
679(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
680point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
681line.
a0d0e21e 682
1109a392
MHM
683=item Can't %s %s-endian %ss on this platform
684
685(F) Your platform's byte-order is neither big-endian nor little-endian,
686or it has a very strange pointer size. Packing and unpacking big- or
687little-endian floating point values and pointers may not be possible.
688See L<perlfunc/pack>.
689
a0d0e21e
LW
690=item Can't exec "%s": %s
691
d1be9408 692(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
693named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
694permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
695C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
696architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
697can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
698#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
699
700=item Can't exec %s
701
be771a83
GS
702(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
703that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
704need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
705
706=item Can't execute %s
707
be771a83
GS
708(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
709found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 710
6df41af2 711=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 712
be771a83
GS
713(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
714is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2 715
56ca2fc0
JH
716=item Can't find %s character property "%s"
717
718(F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
89d60977 719could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property
56ca2fc0
JH
720(remember that the names of character properties consist only of
721alphanumeric characters), or maybe you forgot the C<Is> or C<In> prefix?
722
6df41af2
GS
723=item Can't find label %s
724
be771a83
GS
725(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
726possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
727
728=item Can't find %s on PATH
729
be771a83
GS
730(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
731found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 732
6df41af2 733=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 734
be771a83
GS
735(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
736found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
737script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e
LW
738
739=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
740
be771a83
GS
741(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
742that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
743nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 744
fb73857a 745 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
746
be771a83
GS
747If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have included
748unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good programmer's
749editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
a0d0e21e 750
660a4616
TS
751=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s"
752
753(F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode property (for
754example C<\p{Lu}> is all uppercase letters). If you did mean to use a
755Unicode property, see L<perlunicode> for the list of known properties.
756If you didn't mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either
757by C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, until
758possible C<\E>).
759
a0d0e21e
LW
760=item Can't fork
761
be771a83
GS
762(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
763pipeline.
a0d0e21e 764
748a9306
LW
765=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
766
be771a83
GS
767(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
768between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
769Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
770the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
771account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
772the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
773the access checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
774the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
775if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
776because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
777appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up
778and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking
779routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
780shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
781only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 782
a0d0e21e
LW
783=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
784
be771a83
GS
785(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
786pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
787
788=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
789
748a9306
LW
790(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
791mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 792
6df41af2 793=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 794
be771a83
GS
795(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
796loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
797
798=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
799
be771a83
GS
800(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
801a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
802you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
803See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 804
9850bf21 805=item Can't goto subroutine from a sort sub (or similar callback)
cd299c6e 806
9850bf21
RH
807(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of the
808comparison sub for a sort(), or from a similar callback (such
809as the reduce() function in List::Util).
810
c74ace89 811=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-%s
b150fb22 812
be771a83 813(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
c74ace89 814"string" or block.
b150fb22 815
6df41af2
GS
816=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
817
be771a83
GS
818(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
819subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
820cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
821routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 822
0b5b802d
GS
823=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
824
be771a83
GS
825(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
826signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
827signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
828processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
829situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
830may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 831
6df41af2 832=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 833
6df41af2 834(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
835except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
836block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
837block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
838usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
839inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
840L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 841
2c7d6b9c
RGS
842=item Can't linearize anonymous symbol table
843
844(F) Perl tried to calculate the method resolution order (MRO) of a
845package, but failed because the package stash has no name.
846
b8170e59
JB
847=item Can't load '%s' for module %s
848
849(F) The module you tried to load failed to load a dynamic extension. This
850may either mean that you upgraded your version of perl to one that is
851incompatible with your old dynamic extensions (which is known to happen
852between major versions of perl), or (more likely) that your dynamic
16d98ec5 853extension was built against an older version of the library that is
b8170e59
JB
854installed on your system. You may need to rebuild your old dynamic
855extensions.
856
748a9306
LW
857=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
858
2ba9eb46 859(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
30c282f6 860lexical variable using "my" or "state". This is not allowed. If you want to
748a9306
LW
861localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
862package name.
863
6df41af2 864=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 865
6df41af2
GS
866(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
867handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 868pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 869that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 870
ea071790 871=item Can't locate %s
ec889f3a
GS
872
873(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be
874found. Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC,
be771a83
GS
875unless the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you
876need to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where
877the extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
878to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
879L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 880
6df41af2
GS
881=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
882
be771a83
GS
883(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
884autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
885are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
886the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 887
b8170e59
JB
888=item Can't locate loadable object for module %s in @INC
889
890(F) The module you loaded is trying to load an external library, like
891for example, C<foo.so> or C<bar.dll>, but the L<DynaLoader> module was
892unable to locate this library. See L<DynaLoader>.
893
a0d0e21e
LW
894=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
895
896(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
897functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 898method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
899
900=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
901
be771a83
GS
902(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
903doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 904
2f7da168
RK
905=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
906
907(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
908e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
909
3e3baf6d
TB
910=item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
911
be771a83
GS
912(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
913VMS.
3e3baf6d 914
a0d0e21e
LW
915=item Can't modify %s in %s
916
be771a83
GS
917(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
918to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 919
54310121 920=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
a0d0e21e
LW
921
922(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
923a NULL.
924
6df41af2
GS
925=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
926
927(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
928such, see L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
929
5f05dabc 930=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 931
5f05dabc 932(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
933buffer.
934
6df41af2
GS
935=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
936
937(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
938there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
939count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
940grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
941though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
942once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 943
a0d0e21e
LW
944=item Can't open %s: %s
945
c47ff5f1 946(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e
DD
947filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
948switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
be771a83
GS
949is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named on
950the command line.
a0d0e21e 951
9a869a14
RGS
952=item Can't open a reference
953
954(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
955using the 3-arg open() syntax :
956
957 open FH, '>', $ref;
958
959but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
960open is not supported.
961
a0d0e21e
LW
962=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
963
be771a83
GS
964(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
965You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
966as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
967">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 968
748a9306
LW
969=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
970
be771a83
GS
971(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
972redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
973the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
974
975=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
976
be771a83
GS
977(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
978redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
979command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
980
981=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
982
be771a83
GS
983(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
984redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
985the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
986
987=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
988
be771a83
GS
989(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
990redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
991for stdout.
748a9306 992
2b8ca739 993=item Can't open perl script%s
a0d0e21e
LW
994
995(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
996
fa3aa65a
JC
997If you're debugging a script that uses #!, and normally relies on the
998shell's $PATH search, the -S option causes perl to do that search, so
999you don't have to type the path or C<`which $scriptname`>.
1000
6df41af2
GS
1001=item Can't read CRTL environ
1002
1003(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
1004from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
1005missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
1006or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
1007searched.
6df41af2 1008
6df41af2
GS
1009=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
1010
1011(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
1012there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
1013count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
1014or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1015though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
1016loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
1017
64977eb6 1018=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 1019
be771a83
GS
1020(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
1021file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
1022the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 1023
a0d0e21e
LW
1024=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
1025
e476b1b5 1026(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
10f9c03d 1027probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
a0d0e21e 1028
748a9306
LW
1029=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
1030
be771a83
GS
1031(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
1032to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 1033
6df41af2
GS
1034=item Can't resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
1035
be771a83
GS
1036(F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as opposed
1037to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the package. If
1038method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 1039
a0d0e21e
LW
1040=item Can't reswap uid and euid
1041
be771a83
GS
1042(P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
1043suidperl.
a0d0e21e 1044
cd06dffe
GS
1045=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
1046
be771a83
GS
1047(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
1048temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
1049is not allowed.
cd06dffe 1050
96ebfdd7
RK
1051=item Can't return outside a subroutine
1052
1053(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1054there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1055
78f9721b
SM
1056=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
1057
1058(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue subroutine,
1059but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl think you meant
1060to return only one value. You probably meant to write parentheses around
1061the call to the subroutine, which tell Perl that the call should be in
1062list context.
1063
a0d0e21e
LW
1064=item Can't stat script "%s"
1065
be771a83
GS
1066(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1067open already. Bizarre.
a0d0e21e
LW
1068
1069=item Can't swap uid and euid
1070
be771a83
GS
1071(P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
1072suidperl.
a0d0e21e
LW
1073
1074=item Can't take log of %g
1075
fb73857a 1076(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
1077negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
1078standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1079negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
1080
1081=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1082
1083(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 1084negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1085with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
1086
1087=item Can't undef active subroutine
1088
1089(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1090however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1091redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1092
1093=item Can't unshift
1094
1095(F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
1096as the main Perl stack.
1097
c81225bc 1098=item Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d
a0d0e21e 1099
be771a83
GS
1100(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1101into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1102specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1103indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e 1104
1db89ea5
BS
1105=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1106
e27ad1f2 1107(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1db89ea5
BS
1108table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1109for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1110
96ebfdd7
RK
1111=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1112
1113(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1114be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1115
6df41af2
GS
1116=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1117
be771a83
GS
1118(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1119references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1120
90b75b61 1121=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63
GS
1122
1123(F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
1124Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1125provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1126
1109a392
MHM
1127=item Can't use both '<' and '>' after type '%c' in %s
1128
1129(F) A type cannot be forced to have both big-endian and little-endian
1130byte-order at the same time, so this combination of modifiers is not
1131allowed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1132
6df41af2
GS
1133=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1134
be771a83
GS
1135(F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1136foreach.
6df41af2 1137
aab6a793 1138=item Can't use global %s in "%s"
6df41af2 1139
be771a83
GS
1140(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1141is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1142(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1143have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1144weren't.
1145
6d3b25aa
RGS
1146=item Can't use '%c' in a group with different byte-order in %s
1147
1148(F) You attempted to force a different byte-order on a type
1149that is already inside a group with a byte-order modifier.
1150For example you cannot force little-endianness on a type that
1151is inside a big-endian group.
1152
c07a80fd 1153=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1154
1155(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1156You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1157and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1158Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1159lexical variable.
1160
a0d0e21e
LW
1161=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1162
1163(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1164reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1165test the type of the reference, if need be.
1166
748a9306 1167=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1168
be771a83
GS
1169(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1170references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 1171
748a9306
LW
1172=item Can't use subscript on %s
1173
1174(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1175subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
209e7cf1 1176didn't look like a hash or array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
748a9306 1177
6df41af2
GS
1178=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1179
75b44862
GS
1180(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1181creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1182backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1183expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1184value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1185instead.
6df41af2 1186
0d863452 1187=item Can't use "when" outside a topicalizer
dc57907a 1188
0d863452
RH
1189(F) You have used a when() block that is neither inside a C<foreach>
1190loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is issued on exit
1191from the C<when> block, so you won't get the error if the match fails,
1192or if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
1193
810b8aa5
GS
1194=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1195
1196(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1197references can be weakened.
1198
5f05dabc 1199=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1200
be771a83
GS
1201(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1202with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1203Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1204
f337b084 1205=item Character in 'C' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1206
1207(W pack) You said
1208
1209 pack("C", $x)
1210
1211where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1212only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1213and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1214
1215 pack("C", $x & 255)
1216
1217If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1218instead.
1219
f337b084
TH
1220=item Character in 'W' format wrapped in pack
1221
1222(W pack) You said
1223
1224 pack("U0W", $x)
1225
1226where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255. However, C<U0>-mode expects
1227all values to fall in the interval [0, 255], so Perl behaved as if you
1228meant:
1229
1230 pack("U0W", $x & 255)
1231
1232=item Character in 'c' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1233
1234(W pack) You said
1235
1236 pack("c", $x)
1237
1238where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1239is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1240and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1241
1242 pack("c", $x & 255);
1243
1244If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1245instead.
1246
f337b084
TH
1247=item Character in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1248
1249(W unpack) You tried something like
1250
1251 unpack("H", "\x{2a1}")
1252
1a147d38 1253where the format expects to process a byte (a character with a value
f337b084
TH
1254below 256), but a higher value was provided instead. Perl uses the value
1255modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1256
1257 unpack("H", "\x{a1}")
1258
1259=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in pack
1260
1261(W pack) You tried something like
1262
1263 pack("u", "\x{1f3}b")
1264
1a147d38
YO
1265where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
1266value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1267uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1268
1269 pack("u", "\x{f3}b")
1270
1271=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1272
1273(W unpack) You tried something like
1274
1275 unpack("s", "\x{1f3}b")
1276
1a147d38
YO
1277where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
1278value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1279uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1280
1281 unpack("s", "\x{f3}b")
1282
96ebfdd7
RK
1283=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1284
1285(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1286
abc7ecad
SP
1287=item closedir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
1288
1289(W io) The dirhandle you tried to close is either closed or not really
1290a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
1291
49704364
WL
1292=item Code missing after '/'
1293
1294(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be another
1295template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1296
6df41af2
GS
1297=item %s: Command not found
1298
be771a83
GS
1299(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1300Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 1301
7a2e2cd6 1302=item Compilation failed in require
1303
1304(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1305Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1306encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1307
c3464db5
DD
1308=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1309
be771a83
GS
1310(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1311situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1312to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1313arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1314recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1315under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1316in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1317that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1318on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1319
38875929
DM
1320=item cond_broadcast() called on unlocked variable
1321
1322(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1323cond_broadcast() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_broadcast()
1324function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1325cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1326has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1327first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1328after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1329lock.
1330
38875929
DM
1331=item cond_signal() called on unlocked variable
1332
1333(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1334cond_signal() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_signal()
1335function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1336cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1337has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1338first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1339after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1340lock.
1341
69282e91 1342=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1343
be771a83
GS
1344(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1345to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1346L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1347
41ab332f 1348=item Constant(%s)%s: %s
6df41af2 1349
be771a83
GS
1350(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1351an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1352specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
1353corresponding C<overload> or C<charnames> pragma? See L<charnames> and
1354L<overload>.
6df41af2 1355
fc8cd66c
YO
1356=item Constant(%s)%s: %s in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1357
1a147d38
YO
1358(F) The parser found inconsistencies while attempting to find
1359the character name specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you
1360forgot to load the corresponding C<charnames> pragma?
fc8cd66c
YO
1361See L<charnames>.
1362
1363
779c5bc9
GS
1364=item Constant is not %s reference
1365
1366(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83
GS
1367is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
1368The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
1369usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1370See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1371
4cee8e80
CS
1372=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1373
bb028877 1374(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been
be771a83
GS
1375eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for
1376commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1377
9607fc9c 1378=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1379
be771a83
GS
1380(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1381for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1382workarounds.
9607fc9c 1383
e7ea3e70
IZ
1384=item Copy method did not return a reference
1385
64977eb6 1386(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1387L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1388
6798c92b
GS
1389=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1390
1391(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1392
a0d0e21e
LW
1393=item corrupted regexp pointers
1394
1395(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1396expression compiler gave it.
1397
1398=item corrupted regexp program
1399
be771a83
GS
1400(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1401valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1402
6df41af2
GS
1403=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
1404
1405(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1406
49704364
WL
1407=item Count after length/code in unpack
1408
1409(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1410you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1411L<perlfunc/pack>.
1412
a0d0e21e
LW
1413=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1414
be771a83
GS
1415(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1416100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1417infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1418which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1419
f10b0346 1420=item defined(@array) is deprecated
69794302 1421
be771a83
GS
1422(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1423checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
64977eb6 1424array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1425
f10b0346 1426=item defined(%hash) is deprecated
69794302 1427
be771a83
GS
1428(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it
1429checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the hash
64977eb6 1430is empty, just use C<if (%hash) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1431
62658f4d
PM
1432=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1433
1434(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1435there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1436
fc36a67e 1437=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1438
be771a83
GS
1439(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1440long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1441that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 1442
6d3b25aa
RGS
1443=item Deprecated use of my() in false conditional
1444
1445(D deprecated) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>.
1446There has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
1447not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
1448conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
1449static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
1450relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
1451declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
36fb85f3 1452
6d3b25aa
RGS
1453 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
1454
1455becomes
1456
1457 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
1458
36fb85f3
RGS
1459Beginning with perl 5.9.4, you can also use C<state> variables to
1460have lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
1461
1462 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
1463
500ab966
RGS
1464=item DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
1465
1466(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
1467just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather than
1468to create a dangling reference.
1469
3cdd684c
TP
1470=item Did not produce a valid header
1471
1472See Server error.
1473
6df41af2
GS
1474=item %s did not return a true value
1475
1476(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1477it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1478traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1479do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1480
cc507455 1481=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 1482
be771a83
GS
1483(W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some
1484such.
4633a7c4 1485
cc507455 1486=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 1487
be771a83
GS
1488(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1489variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1490seems superfluous.
33633739 1491
cc507455 1492=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 1493
be771a83
GS
1494(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1495@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1496carried away.
748a9306 1497
7e1af8bc 1498=item Died
5f05dabc 1499
1500(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1501you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
1502
3cdd684c
TP
1503=item Document contains no data
1504
1505See Server error.
1506
62658f4d
PM
1507=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1508
1509(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1510define a C<$VERSION.>
1511
49704364
WL
1512=item '/' does not take a repeat count
1513
1514(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
1515See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1516
a0d0e21e
LW
1517=item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1518
1519(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1520
1521=item do_study: out of memory
1522
1523(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1524
6df41af2
GS
1525=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1526
56da5a46
RGS
1527(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
1528"%s found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
6df41af2
GS
1529name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1530because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
1531"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1532something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1533subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1534"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 1535
ac206dc8
RGS
1536=item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1537
1538(W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1539qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1540
84d78eb7
YO
1541=item dump is not supported
1542
1543(F) Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.
1544
a0d0e21e
LW
1545=item Duplicate free() ignored
1546
be771a83
GS
1547(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1548already been freed.
a0d0e21e 1549
1109a392
MHM
1550=item Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
1551
1552(W) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a type
1553in a pack template. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1554
4633a7c4
LW
1555=item elseif should be elsif
1556
56da5a46
RGS
1557(S syntax) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's
1558ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method named
be771a83 1559"elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
1560unlikely to be what you want.
1561
ab13f0c7
JH
1562=item Empty %s
1563
af6f566e
HS
1564(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
1565described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
1566a regular expression without specifying the property name.
ab13f0c7 1567
85ab1d1d 1568=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 1569
85ab1d1d 1570(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
1571effective uids or gids failed.
1572
c038024b
RGS
1573=item %ENV is aliased to %s
1574
1575(F) You're running under taint mode, and the C<%ENV> variable has been
1576aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
1577program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
1578
748a9306
LW
1579=item Error converting file specification %s
1580
5f05dabc 1581(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 1582specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
1583single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1584an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1585conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 1586
e4d48cc9
GS
1587=item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
1588
be771a83
GS
1589(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1590expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1591is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 1592
fc8f615e 1593=item %s: Eval-group not allowed at runtime, use re 'eval'
e4d48cc9 1594
be771a83
GS
1595(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1596C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
1597pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it
1598is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly
1599building the pattern from an interpolated string at run time and using
1600that in an eval(). See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 1601
6df41af2
GS
1602=item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
1603
be771a83
GS
1604(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1605assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1606pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 1607
1a147d38
YO
1608=item EVAL without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1609
1610(F) You used a pattern that nested too many EVAL calls without consuming
1611any text. Restructure the pattern so that text is consumed.
1612
1613The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1614discovered.
1615
fc36a67e 1616=item Excessively long <> operator
1617
1618(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1619Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1620filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1621variable and glob that.
1622
ed9aa3b7
SG
1623=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1624
1625(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented in MacPerl. See L<perlport>.
1626
f86702cc 1627=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors
a0d0e21e
LW
1628
1629(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1630
1631=item Exiting eval via %s
1632
be771a83
GS
1633(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1634goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
1635
1636=item Exiting format via %s
1637
9a2ff54b 1638(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 1639goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1640
0a753a76 1641=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1642
be771a83
GS
1643(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1644sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1645loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 1646
a0d0e21e
LW
1647=item Exiting subroutine via %s
1648
be771a83
GS
1649(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1650as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
1651
1652=item Exiting substitution via %s
1653
be771a83
GS
1654(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1655as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1656
7b8d334a
GS
1657=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1658
be771a83
GS
1659(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1660the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1661usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1662e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 1663
6df41af2
GS
1664=item %s: Expression syntax
1665
be771a83
GS
1666(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1667Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
1668
1669=item %s failed--call queue aborted
1670
3c10abe3
AG
1671(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a UNITCHECK,
1672CHECK, INIT, or END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the
1673queue of such routines has been prematurely ended.
6df41af2 1674
7253e4e3 1675=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
73b437c8 1676
be771a83 1677(W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3
RK
1678character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1679in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1680"-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1681problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 1682
748a9306 1683=item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 1684
be771a83
GS
1685(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1686system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1687details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1688you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
1689
1690=item fcntl is not implemented
1691
1692(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1693PDP-11 or something?
1694
22846ab4
AB
1695=item FETCHSIZE returned a negative value
1696
1697(F) A tied array claimed to have a negative number of elements, which
1698is not possible.
1699
f337b084
TH
1700=item Field too wide in 'u' format in pack
1701
1702(W pack) Each line in an uuencoded string start with a length indicator
1703which can't encode values above 63. So there is no point in asking for
1704a line length bigger than that. Perl will behave as if you specified
1705C<u63> as format.
1706
af8c498a 1707=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 1708
6c8d78fb
HS
1709(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
1710it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
1711"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
1712write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 1713
af8c498a 1714=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 1715
6c8d78fb
HS
1716(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
1717you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
be771a83
GS
1718with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you
1719intended only to read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>.
6c8d78fb
HS
1720Another possibility is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0
1721(also known as STDIN) for output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
97828cef
RGS
1722
1723=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
1724
1725(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
d7f8936a 1726as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
97828cef
RGS
1727previously.
1728
1729=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
1730
1731(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
d7f8936a 1732as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
1733
1734=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1735
1736(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
1737a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1738happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1739name.
a0d0e21e 1740
56e90b21
GS
1741=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1742
be771a83 1743(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 1744some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
1745filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1746same name?
56e90b21 1747
6df41af2
GS
1748=item Format not terminated
1749
1750(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1751to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1752
a0d0e21e
LW
1753=item Format %s redefined
1754
e476b1b5 1755(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
1756
1757 {
271595cc 1758 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
1759 eval "format NAME =...";
1760 }
1761
a0d0e21e
LW
1762=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1763
e476b1b5 1764(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
1765
1766 if ($foo = 123)
1767
1768when you meant
1769
1770 if ($foo == 123)
1771
1772(or something like that).
1773
6df41af2
GS
1774=item %s found where operator expected
1775
56da5a46
RGS
1776(S syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator.
1777If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
be771a83
GS
1778operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
1779operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 1780
a0d0e21e
LW
1781=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1782
1783(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1784
1785=item gethostent not implemented
1786
1787(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1788because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1789on the Internet.
1790
69282e91 1791=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1792
be771a83
GS
1793(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
1794socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 1795
748a9306
LW
1796=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1797
1798(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1799C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1800
6df41af2
GS
1801=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
1802
be771a83
GS
1803(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
1804forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
1805L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
1806
1807=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1808
a4edf47d 1809(F) You've said "use strict" or "use strict vars", which indicates
30c282f6 1810that all variables must either be lexically scoped (using "my" or "state"),
a4edf47d
GS
1811declared beforehand using "our", or explicitly qualified to say
1812which package the global variable is in (using "::").
6df41af2 1813
e476b1b5
GS
1814=item glob failed (%s)
1815
be771a83
GS
1816(W glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for
1817C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a
1818C<glob> pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
1819nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
1820resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell) is
1821broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables in
1822config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it
1823were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all
1824empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
1825think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 1826C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 1827
a0d0e21e
LW
1828=item Glob not terminated
1829
1830(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
1831a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
1832not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
1833earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 1834
6df41af2 1835=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 1836
6df41af2
GS
1837(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
1838version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
1839
1840=item goto must have label
1841
1842(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1843unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1844
49704364 1845=item ()-group starts with a count
18529408 1846
49704364 1847(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is
18529408 1848supposed to follow something: a template character or a ()-group.
49704364 1849 See L<perlfunc/pack>.
18529408 1850
6df41af2
GS
1851=item %s had compilation errors
1852
1853(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
1854
a0d0e21e
LW
1855=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1856
be771a83
GS
1857(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
1858to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
1859created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e
LW
1860
1861=item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1862
be771a83
GS
1863(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
1864spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
a0d0e21e 1865
6df41af2
GS
1866=item %s has too many errors
1867
1868(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
1869Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
1870
252aa082
JH
1871=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
1872
e476b1b5 1873(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
1874(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
1875L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 1876
8903cb82 1877=item Identifier too long
1878
1879(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 1880about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
1881names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
1882of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 1883
fc8cd66c
YO
1884=item Ignoring %s in character class in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1885
38a44b82 1886(W) Named Unicode character escapes (\N{...}) may return multi-char
fc8cd66c 1887or zero length sequences. When such an escape is used in a character class
1a147d38 1888its behaviour is not well defined. Check that the correct escape has
fc8cd66c
YO
1889been used, and the correct charname handler is in scope.
1890
6df41af2 1891=item Illegal binary digit %s
f675dbe5 1892
6df41af2 1893(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
f675dbe5 1894
6df41af2 1895=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
a0d0e21e 1896
be771a83
GS
1897(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
1898binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
1899offending digit.
a0d0e21e 1900
4fdae800 1901=item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1902
d5898338 1903(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
be771a83
GS
1904would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
1905when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
1906version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
1907to your Perl administrator.
4fdae800 1908
d37a9538
ST
1909=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
1910
420cdfc1 1911(W syntax) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration. Legal
d37a9538
ST
1912characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, and \.
1913
904d85c5
RGS
1914=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
1915
1916(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
1917you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
1918
8e742a20
MHM
1919=item Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
1920
1921(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See L<perlsub>.
1922
a0d0e21e
LW
1923=item Illegal division by zero
1924
be771a83
GS
1925(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
1926your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
1927meaningless input.
a0d0e21e 1928
6df41af2
GS
1929=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
1930
be771a83
GS
1931(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
1932A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
1933number stopped before the illegal character.
6df41af2 1934
a0d0e21e
LW
1935=item Illegal modulus zero
1936
be771a83
GS
1937(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
1938numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 1939
6df41af2 1940=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 1941
6df41af2
GS
1942(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
1943two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4
GS
1944
1945=item Illegal octal digit %s
a0d0e21e 1946
d1be9408 1947(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 1948
399388f4 1949=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
748a9306 1950
d1be9408 1951(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
75b44862 1952Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
748a9306 1953
6df41af2 1954=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: %s
6ff81951 1955
6df41af2 1956(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
646ca9b2 1957following switches: B<-[CDIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 1958
6df41af2 1959=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 1960
75b44862 1961(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
1962internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
1963delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 1964
6df41af2 1965=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 1966
be771a83
GS
1967(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
1968name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
1969didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
1970ignored.
54310121 1971
6df41af2 1972=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 1973
be771a83
GS
1974(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
1975the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
1976system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
1977times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
1978would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 1979
be771a83
GS
1980Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
1981also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 1982
2c7d6b9c
RGS
1983=item Inconsistent hierarchy during C3 merge of class '%s': merging failed on parent '%s'
1984
1985(F) The method resolution order (MRO) of the given class is not
1986C3-consistent, and you have enabled the C3 MRO for this class. See the C3
1987documentation in L<mro> for more information.
1988
979699d9
JH
1989=item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
1990
1991(F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
1992Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
1993encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
1994
1a147d38
YO
1995=item Infinite recursion in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1996
1997(F) You used a pattern that references itself without consuming any input
1998text. You should check the pattern to ensure that recursive patterns
1999either consume text or fail.
2000
2001The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2002discovered.
2003
6dbe9451
NC
2004=item Initialization of state variables in list context currently forbidden
2005
2006(F) Currently the implementation of "state" only permits the initialization
2007of scalar variables in scalar context. Re-write C<state ($a) = 42> as
2008C<state $a = 42> to change from list to scalar context. Constructions such
2009as C<state (@a) = foo()> will be supported in a future perl release.
2010
a0d0e21e
LW
2011=item Insecure dependency in %s
2012
8b1a09fc 2013(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
2014The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
2015setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
2016tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
2017from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
2018such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
2019L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
2020
2021=item Insecure directory in %s
2022
be771a83
GS
2023(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2024setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
df98f984
RGS
2025the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
2026See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2027
62f468fc 2028=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2029
2030(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc 2031setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
332d5f78
SR
2032C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
2033supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
2034the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2035
a7ae9550
GS
2036=item Integer overflow in %s number
2037
75b44862 2038(W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
2039either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
2040your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
2041On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
2042representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
20430b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
2044transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
2045internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
2046operations.
bbce6d69 2047
2fba7546
GA
2048=item Integer overflow in format string for %s
2049
0be96356
AL
2050(F) The indexes and widths specified in the format string of C<printf()>
2051or C<sprintf()> are too large. The numbers must not overflow the size of
2fba7546
GA
2052integers for your architecture.
2053
46314c13
JP
2054=item Integer overflow in version
2055
2056(F) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for the
2057size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
2058because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use a
2059element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by
2060trying to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like
2061100/9.
2062
7253e4e3 2063=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2064
2065(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
7253e4e3 2066The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a
JF
2067discovered.
2068
748a9306
LW
2069=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
2070
be771a83
GS
2071(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
2072you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
2073to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
2074L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
2075Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
2076terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 2077
7253e4e3 2078=item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2079
7253e4e3
RK
2080(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
2081<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2082discovered.
a0d0e21e 2083
6df41af2
GS
2084=item %s (...) interpreted as function
2085
75b44862 2086(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 2087followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 2088operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 2089L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 2090
09bef843
SB
2091=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
2092
2093The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
2094by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
2095
2096=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
2097
be771a83
GS
2098The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
2099recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2100
c635e13b 2101=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
2102
be771a83
GS
2103(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
2104L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 2105
9e08bc66
TS
2106=item Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2107
2108(W regexp) The numeric escape (for example C<\xHH>) of value < 256
2109didn't correspond to a single character through the conversion
2110from the encoding specified by the encoding pragma.
2111The escape was replaced with REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (U+FFFD) instead.
2112The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2113escape was discovered.
2114
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2115=item Invalid mro name: '%s'
2116
2117(F) You tried to C<mro::set_mro("classname", "foo")>
2118or C<use mro 'foo'>, where C<foo> is not a valid method resolution order (MRO).
2119(Currently, the only valid ones are C<dfs> and C<c3>). See L<mro>.
2120
7253e4e3 2121=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2122
2123(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
2124greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
2125C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
2126up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2127problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 2128
d1573ac7 2129=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
2130
2131(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
2132character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
2133
09bef843
SB
2134=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
2135
0120eecf 2136(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
2137elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
2138parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
2139See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2140
b4581f09
JH
2141=item Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
2142
2143(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other than a
2144colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
2145If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2146list was terminated too soon.
2147
49704364 2148=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
96e4d5b1 2149
49704364
WL
2150(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
2151See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2152(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
75b44862 2153silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 2154
46314c13
JP
2155=item Invalid version format (multiple underscores)
2156
2157(F) Versions may contain at most a single underscore, which signals
2158that the version is a beta release. See L<version> for the allowed
2159version formats.
2160
2161=item Invalid version format (underscores before decimal)
2162
2163(F) Versions may not contain decimals after the optional underscore.
2164See L<version> for the allowed version formats.
2165
a0d0e21e
LW
2166=item ioctl is not implemented
2167
2168(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
2169strange for a machine that supports C.
2170
c289d2f7
JH
2171=item ioctl() on unopened %s
2172
2173(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
2174Check you control flow and number of arguments.
2175
363c40c4
SB
2176=item IO layers (like "%s") unavailable
2177
2178(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
2179you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO Perl must be configured
2180with 'useperlio'.
2181
80cbd5ad
JH
2182=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
2183
2184(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
2185neither as a system call or an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
2186
b4581f09
JH
2187=item $* is no longer supported
2188
fafcdf9e 2189(S deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older perls, has
b4581f09
JH
2190been removed as of 5.9.0 and is no longer supported. You should use the
2191C<//m> and C<//s> regexp modifiers instead.
2192
8ae1fe26
RGS
2193=item $# is no longer supported
2194
fafcdf9e 2195(S deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$#>, deprecated in older perls, has
8ae1fe26
RGS
2196been removed as of 5.9.3 and is no longer supported. You should use the
2197printf/sprintf functions instead.
2198
6ad11d81
JH
2199=item `%s' is not a code reference
2200
04a80ee0
RGS
2201(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of overload::constant
2202needs to be a code reference. Either an anonymous subroutine, or a reference
6ad11d81
JH
2203to a subroutine.
2204
2205=item `%s' is not an overloadable type
2206
04a80ee0
RGS
2207(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
2208unaware of.
6ad11d81 2209
a0d0e21e
LW
2210=item junk on end of regexp
2211
2212(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
2213
2214=item Label not found for "last %s"
2215
be771a83
GS
2216(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
2217of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2218L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2219
2220=item Label not found for "next %s"
2221
2222(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
2223that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2224L<perlfunc/last>.
2225
2226=item Label not found for "redo %s"
2227
2228(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
2229that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2230L<perlfunc/last>.
2231
85ab1d1d 2232=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 2233
85ab1d1d 2234(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
2235effective uids or gids failed.
2236
49704364
WL
2237=item length/code after end of string in unpack
2238
d7f8936a 2239(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an unpack
49704364
WL
2240length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
2241an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2242
69282e91 2243=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2244
be771a83
GS
2245(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
2246to check the return value of your socket() call? See
2247L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 2248
58e23c8d 2249=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
2250
2251(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
58e23c8d 2252handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release.
2e50fd82 2253
b88df990
NC
2254=item Lost precision when %s %f by 1
2255
2256(W) The value you attempted to increment or decrement by one is too large
2257for the underlying floating point representation to store accurately,
2258hence the target of C<++> or C<--> is unchanged. Perl issues this warning
2259because it has already switched from integers to floating point when values
2260are too large for integers, and now even floating point is insufficient.
2261You may wish to switch to using L<Math::BigInt> explicitly.
2262
2f7da168
RK
2263=item lstat() on filehandle %s
2264
2265(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
2266by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
2267instead on the filehandle.)
2268
96ebfdd7
RK
2269=item Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented yet
2270
2271(F) Due to limitations in the current implementation, array and hash
2272values cannot be returned in subroutines used in lvalue context. See
2273L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
2274
49704364
WL
2275=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
2276
2277(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
2278are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2279
2280=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
2281
2282(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
2283are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2284
6df41af2
GS
2285=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
2286
2287(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
2288
2289 prefix1;prefix2
2290
2291or
6df41af2
GS
2292 prefix1 prefix2
2293
be771a83
GS
2294with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
2295a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
2296appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 2297"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 2298
2f758a16
ST
2299=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
2300
d37a9538
ST
2301(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
2302syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
2303obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
2304when the function is called.
2f758a16 2305
ba210ebe
JH
2306=item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
2307
2575c402
JW
2308(S utf8) (F) Perl detected a string that didn't comply with UTF-8
2309encoding rules, even though it had the UTF8 flag on.
ba210ebe 2310
2575c402
JW
2311One possible cause is that you set the UTF8 flag yourself for data that
2312you thought to be in UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy
23138-bit data). To guard against this, you can use Encode::decode_utf8.
2314
2315If you use the C<:encoding(UTF-8)> PerlIO layer for input, invalid byte
2316sequences are handled gracefully, but if you use C<:utf8>, the flag is
2317set without validating the data, possibly resulting in this error
2318message.
2319
2320See also L<Encode/"Handling Malformed Data">.
901b21bf 2321
dea0fc0b
JH
2322=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
2323
2324Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
2325doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
2326
f337b084
TH
2327=item Malformed UTF-8 string in pack
2328
2329(F) You tried to pack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2330rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2331
2332=item Malformed UTF-8 string in unpack
2333
2334(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2335rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2336
2337=item Malformed UTF-8 string in '%c' format in unpack
2338
2339(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2340rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2341
2563cec5
IZ
2342=item Maximal count of pending signals (%s) exceeded
2343
2344(F) Perl aborted due to a too important number of signals pending. This
2345usually indicates that your operating system tried to deliver signals
2346too fast (with a very high priority), starving the perl process from
2347resources it would need to reach a point where it can process signals
2348safely. (See L<perlipc/"Deferred Signals (Safe Signals)">.)
2349
49704364 2350=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2351
2352(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
7253e4e3
RK
2353regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
2354shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2355See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 2356
25f58aea
PN
2357=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2358
2359(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
2360interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
2361"use" or "my".
2362
49704364 2363=item % may not be used in pack
6df41af2
GS
2364
2365(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
2366checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
2367See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 2368
a0d0e21e
LW
2369=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
2370
2371(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 2372doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2373
3cdd684c
TP
2374=item Method %s not permitted
2375
2376See Server error.
2377
a0d0e21e
LW
2378=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
2379
2380(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
2381by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
2382ended earlier on the current line.
2383
2384=item Misplaced _ in number
2385
d4ced10d
JH
2386(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
2387separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 2388
9e81e6a1
RGS
2389=item Missing argument to -%c
2390
2391(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2392immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
2393
4a2d328f 2394=item Missing %sbrace%s on \N{}
423cee85 2395
4a2d328f 2396(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
423cee85
JH
2397double-quotish context.
2398
a0d0e21e
LW
2399=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
2400
2401(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
2402"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
2403
06eaf0bc
GS
2404=item Missing command in piped open
2405
be771a83
GS
2406(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
2407C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
2408blank.
06eaf0bc 2409
961ce445
RGS
2410=item Missing control char name in \c
2411
2412(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
2413character name.
2414
6df41af2
GS
2415=item Missing name in "my sub"
2416
be771a83
GS
2417(F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
2418they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
2419
2420=item Missing $ on loop variable
2421
be771a83
GS
2422(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
2423are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
2424can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 2425
cc507455 2426=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306 2427
56da5a46
RGS
2428(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2429"%s found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
748a9306 2430
ab13f0c7
JH
2431=item Missing right brace on %s
2432
2433(F) Missing right brace in C<\p{...}> or C<\P{...}>.
2434
d98d5fff 2435=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 2436
be771a83
GS
2437(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
2438ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
2439were last editing.
a0d0e21e 2440
6df41af2
GS
2441=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
2442
56da5a46
RGS
2443(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2444"%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
6df41af2
GS
2445the previous line just because you saw this message.
2446
a0d0e21e
LW
2447=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
2448
2449(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 2450constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
2451catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
2452
2453 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
2454 mod(2);
2455
2456Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
2457
c5674021
PDF
2458Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
2459is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
2460
2461 $x = 1;
2462 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
2463 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to modify the 2
64977eb6 2464 }
c5674021 2465
7a4340ed 2466=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2467
2468(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
2469subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
2470backwards.
2471
7a4340ed 2472=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 2473
be771a83
GS
2474(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
2475couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
2476
2477=item Module name must be constant
2478
2479(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
2480
be98fb35 2481=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 2482
be98fb35
GS
2483(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
2484you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
2485about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 2486
ed9aa3b7
SG
2487=item More than one argument to open
2488
2489(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
2490can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
2491list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
2492See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
2493
a0d0e21e
LW
2494=item msg%s not implemented
2495
2496(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
2497
2498=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
2499
75b44862
GS
2500(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
2501They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 2502
49704364 2503=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
6df41af2 2504
49704364
WL
2505(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
2506follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
2507See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2508
2509=item "my sub" not yet implemented
2510
be771a83
GS
2511(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
2512that yet.
6df41af2 2513
30c282f6 2514=item "%s" variable %s can't be in a package
6df41af2 2515
be771a83
GS
2516(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2517sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2518local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 2519
8b1a09fc 2520=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2521
e476b1b5 2522(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
be771a83
GS
2523If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2524again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
77ca0c92 2525provided for this purpose.
a0d0e21e 2526
64b374f4
FD
2527NOTE: This warning detects symbols that have been used only once so $c, @c,
2528%c, *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or format) are considered
2529the same; if a program uses $c only once but also uses any of the others it
2530will not trigger this warning.
2531
49704364
WL
2532=item Negative '/' count in unpack
2533
2534(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
2535negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2536
a0d0e21e
LW
2537=item Negative length
2538
be771a83
GS
2539(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
2540length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 2541
ed9aa3b7
SG
2542=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
2543
2544(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
2545greater than or equal to zero.
2546
7253e4e3 2547=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 2548
b45f050a 2549(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
7253e4e3 2550things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
b45f050a 2551expression about where the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 2552
7253e4e3 2553Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 2554C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 2555
6df41af2 2556=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 2557
be771a83
GS
2558(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
2559scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e 2560
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2561=item next::method/next::can/maybe::next::method cannot find enclosing method
2562
2563(F) C<next::method> needs to be called within the context of a
2564real method in a real package, and it could not find such a context.
2565See L<mro>.
2566
a0d0e21e
LW
2567=item No %s allowed while running setuid
2568
be771a83
GS
2569(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
2570setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
2571will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
2572securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2573
a0d0e21e
LW
2574=item No comma allowed after %s
2575
2576(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
2577allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
2578Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
2579
0a753a76 2580One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
2581constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
2582importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
2583does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
2584explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
2585L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
2586would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
2587remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
2588constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
2589list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
2590this error was triggered?
2591
748a9306
LW
2592=item No command into which to pipe on command line
2593
be771a83
GS
2594(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2595redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
2596doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 2597
a0d0e21e
LW
2598=item No DB::DB routine defined
2599
be771a83 2600(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
ccafdc96
RGS
2601for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
2602module) didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
2603statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
2604
2605=item No dbm on this machine
2606
2607(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 2608supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e 2609
ccafdc96 2610=item No DB::sub routine defined
a0d0e21e 2611
ccafdc96
RGS
2612(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
2613for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
2614module) didn't define a C<DB::sub> routine to be called at the beginning
2615of each ordinary subroutine call.
a0d0e21e 2616
96ebfdd7
RK
2617=item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
2618
2619(F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
2620
c47ff5f1 2621=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 2622
be771a83
GS
2623(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2624redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
2625find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 2626
49704364
WL
2627=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
2628
2629(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
2630matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2631
c47ff5f1 2632=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 2633
be771a83
GS
2634(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2635redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
2636name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 2637
6df41af2
GS
2638=item No #! line
2639
2640(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2641even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
2642
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2643=item No next::method '%s' found for %s
2644
2645(F) C<next::method> found no further instances of this method name
2646in the remaining packages of the MRO of this class. If you don't want
2647it throwing an exception, use C<maybe::next::method>
2648or C<next::can>. See L<mro>.
2649
6df41af2
GS
2650=item "no" not allowed in expression
2651
be771a83
GS
2652(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
2653returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 2654
c47ff5f1 2655=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 2656
be771a83
GS
2657(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2658redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
2659doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 2660
c47ff5f1 2661=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 2662
be771a83
GS
2663(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2664redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
2665find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 2666
1ec3e8de
GS
2667=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
2668
be771a83
GS
2669(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
2670declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
2671semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 2672
a0d0e21e
LW
2673=item No Perl script found in input
2674
2675(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
2676with #! and containing the word "perl".
2677
2678=item No setregid available
2679
2680(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
2681your system.
2682
2683=item No setreuid available
2684
2685(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
2686your system.
2687
6df41af2
GS
2688=item No %s specified for -%c
2689
2690(F) The indicated command line switch needs a mandatory argument, but
2691you haven't specified one.
2692
e75d1f10
RD
2693=item No such class field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
2694
2695(F) You tried to access a key from a hash through the indicated typed variable
2696but that key is not allowed by the package of the same type. The indicated
2697package has restricted the set of allowed keys using the L<fields> pragma.
2698
2c692339
RGS
2699=item No such class %s
2700
30c282f6 2701(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state" declaration, but
2c692339
RGS
2702this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
2703
3c20a832
SP
2704=item No such hook: %s
2705
2706(F) You specified a signal hook that was not recognized by Perl. Currently, Perl
2707accepts C<__DIE__> and C<__WARN__> as valid signal hooks
2708
6df41af2
GS
2709=item No such pipe open
2710
2711(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
2712close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
2713earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 2714
a0d0e21e
LW
2715=item No such signal: SIG%s
2716
be771a83
GS
2717(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
2718not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
2719names on your system.
a0d0e21e
LW
2720
2721=item Not a CODE reference
2722
2723(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2724subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
2725use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2726also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2727
2728=item Not a format reference
2729
2730(F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
2731format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
2732
2733=item Not a GLOB reference
2734
be771a83
GS
2735(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
2736symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
2737something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
2738kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2739
2740=item Not a HASH reference
2741
be771a83
GS
2742(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
2743reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
2744find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 2745
6df41af2
GS
2746=item Not an ARRAY reference
2747
be771a83
GS
2748(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
2749a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2750to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 2751
a0d0e21e
LW
2752=item Not a perl script
2753
2754(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2755even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
2756mention perl.
2757
2758=item Not a SCALAR reference
2759
be771a83
GS
2760(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
2761a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2762to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2763
2764=item Not a subroutine reference
2765
2766(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2767subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
2768use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2769also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 2770
e7ea3e70 2771=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
2772
2773(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 2774doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2775
a0d0e21e
LW
2776=item Not enough arguments for %s
2777
2778(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
2779
6df41af2
GS
2780=item Not enough format arguments
2781
be771a83
GS
2782(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
2783supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
2784
2785=item %s: not found
2786
be771a83
GS
2787(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
2788of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
2789yourself.
6df41af2
GS
2790
2791=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 2792
6df41af2
GS
2793(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
2794timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
2795to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
2796F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
2797need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e 2798
4ef2275c
GA
2799=item Non-string passed as bitmask
2800
2801(W misc) A number has been passed as a bitmask argument to select().
2802Use the vec() function to construct the file descriptor bitmasks for
2803select. See L<perlfunc/select>
2804
a0d0e21e
LW
2805=item Null filename used
2806
be771a83
GS
2807(F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
2808machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
a0d0e21e 2809
6df41af2
GS
2810=item NULL OP IN RUN
2811
be771a83
GS
2812(P debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
2813pointer.
6df41af2 2814
55497cff 2815=item Null picture in formline
2816
2817(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
2818specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
2819supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
2820
a0d0e21e
LW
2821=item Null realloc
2822
2823(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
2824
2825=item NULL regexp argument
2826
5f05dabc 2827(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
2828
2829=item NULL regexp parameter
2830
2831(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
2832
fc36a67e 2833=item Number too long
2834
be771a83 2835(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 2836about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
2837versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
2838the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
2839"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 2840
6df41af2
GS
2841=item Octal number in vector unsupported
2842
be771a83
GS
2843(F) Numbers with a leading C<0> are not currently allowed in vectors.
2844The octal number interpretation of such numbers may be supported in a
2845future version.
6df41af2 2846
252aa082
JH
2847=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
2848
75b44862 2849(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
2850(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2851L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082
JH
2852
2853See also L<perlport> for writing portable code.
2854
6ad11d81
JH
2855=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
2856
04a80ee0
RGS
2857(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
2858arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 2859
b21befc1
MG
2860=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
2861
2862(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2863which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
2864
1930e939 2865=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 2866
be771a83
GS
2867(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2868which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 2869
bbce6d69 2870=item Offset outside string
2871
42bc49da
JH
2872(F, W layer) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv/seek operation
2873with an offset pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to
f5a7294f
JH
2874imagine. The sole exceptions to this are that zero padding will
2875take place when going past the end of the string when either
2876C<sysread()>ing a file, or when seeking past the end of a scalar opened
1a7a2554
MB
2877for I/O (in anticipation of future reads and to imitate the behaviour
2878with real files).
bbce6d69 2879
c289d2f7 2880=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
2881
2882(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
2883never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
2884call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
2885
96ebfdd7
RK
2886=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
2887
2888(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
2889that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
2890
a0d0e21e
LW
2891=item oops: oopsAV
2892
e476b1b5 2893(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
2894
2895=item oops: oopsHV
2896
e476b1b5 2897(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 2898
abc718f2
RGS
2899=item Opening dirhandle %s also as a file
2900
2901(W io deprecated) You used open() to associate a filehandle to
2902a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a dirhandle.
2903Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
2904and is deprecated.
2905
2906=item Opening filehandle %s also as a directory
2907
2908(W io deprecated) You used opendir() to associate a dirhandle to
2909a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a filehandle.
2910Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
2911and is deprecated.
2912
a0288114 2913=item Operation "%s": no method found, %s
44a8e56a 2914
be771a83
GS
2915(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
2916handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
2917of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
2918C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 2919
748a9306
LW
2920=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
2921
be771a83
GS
2922(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
2923was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
2924use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
2925example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
2926"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 2927
6df41af2
GS
2928=item "our" variable %s redeclared
2929
be771a83
GS
2930(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
2931in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 2932
a80b8354
GS
2933=item Out of memory!
2934
2935(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
2936remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
2937no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 2938
19a52907
JH
2939At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
2940process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
2941C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
2942the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
2943and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
2944
6d3b25aa
RGS
2945=item Out of memory during %s extend
2946
2947(X) An attempt was made to extend an array, a list, or a string beyond
2948the largest possible memory allocation.
2949
6df41af2 2950=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 2951
6df41af2
GS
2952(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
2953remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
2954the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
2955possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 2956
1b979e0a 2957=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 2958
be771a83
GS
2959(X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
2960insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
2961request.
eff9c6e2
CS
2962
2963The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
2964depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
2965However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
2966emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
2967is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
2968where the failed request happened.
55497cff 2969
1b979e0a
IZ
2970=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
2971
2972(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
2973is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
2974C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 2975
6df41af2
GS
2976=item Out of memory for yacc stack
2977
be771a83
GS
2978(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
2979parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
2980otherwise.
6df41af2 2981
28be1210
TH
2982=item '.' outside of string in pack
2983
2984(F) The argument to a '.' in your template tried to move the working
2985position to before the start of the packed string being built.
2986
49704364 2987=item '@' outside of string in unpack
6df41af2 2988
49704364 2989(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6df41af2
GS
2990the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2991
f337b084
TH
2992=item '@' outside of string with malformed UTF-8 in unpack
2993
2994(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
2995the string being unpacked. The string being unpacked was also invalid
2996UTF-8. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2997
6df41af2
GS
2998=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
2999
be771a83
GS
3000(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
3001package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
3002some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
3003mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 3004
96ebfdd7
RK
3005=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
3006
3007(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3008signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3009
a0d0e21e
LW
3010=item page overflow
3011
be771a83
GS
3012(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
3013page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 3014
6df41af2
GS
3015=item panic: %s
3016
3017(P) An internal error.
3018
c99a1475
NC
3019=item panic: attempt to call %s in %s
3020
3021(P) One of the file test operators entered a code branch that calls
3022an ACL related-function, but that function is not available on this
3023platform. Earlier checks mean that it should not be possible to
3024enter this branch on this platform.
3025
a0d0e21e
LW
3026=item panic: ck_grep
3027
3028(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
3029
3030=item panic: ck_split
3031
3032(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
3033
3034=item panic: corrupt saved stack index
3035
be771a83
GS
3036(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
3037there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 3038
810b8aa5
GS
3039=item panic: del_backref
3040
3041(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
3042reference.
3043
7619c85e
RG
3044=item panic: Devel::DProf inconsistent subroutine return
3045
3046(P) Devel::DProf called a subroutine that exited using goto(LABEL),
3047last(LABEL) or next(LABEL). Leaving that way a subroutine called from
3048an XSUB will lead very probably to a crash of the interpreter. This is
3049a bug that will hopefully one day get fixed.
3050
a0d0e21e
LW
3051=item panic: die %s
3052
3053(P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
3054it wasn't an eval context.
3055
a0d0e21e
LW
3056=item panic: do_subst
3057
be771a83
GS
3058(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
3059data.
a0d0e21e 3060
2269b42e 3061=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 3062
2269b42e 3063(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 3064data.
a0d0e21e 3065
b7f7fd0b
NC
3066=item panic: fold_constants JMPENV_PUSH returned %d
3067
10203f38 3068(P) While attempting folding constants an exception other than an C<eval>
b7f7fd0b
NC
3069failure was caught.
3070
c635e13b 3071=item panic: frexp
3072
3073(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
3074
a0d0e21e
LW
3075=item panic: goto
3076
3077(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
3078and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
3079
23976bdd
NC
3080=item panic: hfreeentries failed to free hash
3081
3082(P) The internal routine used to clear a hashes entries tried repeatedly,
3083but each time something added more entries to the hash. Most likely the hash
3084contains an object with a reference back to the hash and a destructor that
3085adds a new object to the hash.
3086
a0d0e21e
LW
3087=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
3088
3089(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
3090
3091=item panic: INTERPCONCAT
3092
3093(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
3094
e446cec8
IZ
3095=item panic: kid popen errno read
3096
3097(F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
3098
a0d0e21e
LW
3099=item panic: last
3100
3101(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
3102it wasn't a block context.
3103
3104=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
3105
be771a83
GS
3106(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
3107scope.
a0d0e21e
LW
3108
3109=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
3110
3111(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
3112invalid enum on the top of it.
3113
810b8aa5
GS
3114=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
3115
3116(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
3117references to an object.
3118
6df41af2
GS
3119=item panic: malloc
3120
3121(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
3122
27d5b266
JH
3123=item panic: memory wrap
3124
3125(P) Something tried to allocate more memory than possible.
3126
a0d0e21e
LW
3127=item panic: pad_alloc
3128
3129(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3130and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3131
3132=item panic: pad_free curpad
3133
3134(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3135and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3136
3137=item panic: pad_free po
3138
3139(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3140
3141=item panic: pad_reset curpad
3142
3143(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3144and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3145
3146=item panic: pad_sv po
3147
3148(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3149
3150=item panic: pad_swipe curpad
3151
3152(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3153and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3154
3155=item panic: pad_swipe po
3156
3157(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3158
3159=item panic: pp_iter
3160
3161(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
3162
96ebfdd7
RK
3163=item panic: pp_match%s
3164
3165(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
3166data.
3167
2269b42e
JH
3168=item panic: pp_split
3169
3170(P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
3171
a0d0e21e
LW
3172=item panic: realloc
3173
3174(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
3175
3176=item panic: restartop
3177
3178(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
3179didn't supply the destination.
3180
3181=item panic: return
3182
3183(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
3184then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
3185
3186=item panic: scan_num
3187
3188(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
3189
6c65d5f9
NC
3190=item panic: sv_chop %s
3191
3192(P) The sv_chop() routine was passed a position that is not within the
3193scalar's string buffer.
3194
a0d0e21e
LW
3195=item panic: sv_insert
3196
3197(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
3198was string.
3199
3200=item panic: top_env
3201
6224f72b 3202(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e 3203
65bca31a
NC
3204=item panic: unimplemented op %s (#%d) called
3205
3206(P) The compiler is screwed up and attempted to use an op that isn't permitted
3207at run time.
3208
dea0fc0b
JH
3209=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
3210
3211(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 3212to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 3213
2f7da168
RK
3214=item panic: yylex
3215
3216(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
3217
1a147d38
YO
3218=item Pattern subroutine nesting without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3219
3220(F) You used a pattern that uses too many nested subpattern calls without
3221consuming any text. Restructure the pattern so text is consumed before the
3222nesting limit is exceeded.
3223
3224The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3225discovered.
3226
7b8d334a 3227=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
a0d0e21e 3228
e476b1b5 3229(W parenthesis) You said something like
a0d0e21e
LW
3230
3231 my $foo, $bar = @_;
3232
3233when you meant
3234
3235 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
3236
30c282f6 3237Remember that "my", "our", "local" and "state" bind tighter than comma.
a0d0e21e 3238
96ebfdd7
RK
3239=item C<-p> destination: %s
3240
3241(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
3242command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
3243redirected it with select().)
3244
3245=item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
3246
3247(F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3248"Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
3249that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
3250
1109a392
MHM
3251=item Perl_my_%s() not available
3252
3253(F) Your platform has very uncommon byte-order and integer size,
3254so it was not possible to set up some or all fixed-width byte-order
3255conversion functions. This is only a problem when you're using the
3256'<' or '>' modifiers in (un)pack templates. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3257
6d3b25aa
RGS
3258=item Perl %s required--this is only version %s, stopped
3259
3260(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
3261recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
3262you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
3263
6df41af2
GS
3264=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
3265
3266(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 3267C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 3268
96ebfdd7
RK
3269=item PERL_SIGNALS illegal: "%s"
3270
3271See L<perlrun/PERL_SIGNALS> for legal values.
3272
6df41af2
GS
3273=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3274
3275(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
3276
3277 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3278 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
3279 LC_ALL = "En_US",
3280 LANG = (unset)
3281 are supported and installed on your system.
3282 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
3283
3284Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
3285settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
0ea6b70f
JH
3286This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
3287system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
3288locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
3289dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
3290Perl can and will use, the script will be run. Before you really fix
3291the problem, however, you will get the same error message each time
3292you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
3293L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
6df41af2 3294
a0d0e21e
LW
3295=item Permission denied
3296
3297(F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to no good.
3298
bd3fa61c 3299=item pid %x not a child
748a9306 3300
be771a83
GS
3301(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
3302process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
3303fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
748a9306 3304
49704364 3305=item 'P' must have an explicit size in unpack
3bf38418
WL
3306
3307(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
3308
96ebfdd7
RK
3309=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3310
3311(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The <-- HERE
3312shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
3313Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
3314the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
3315not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
3316
3317=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
3318
3319(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
3320the BSD version, which takes a pid.
3321
49704364 3322=item POSIX syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 3323
9a0b3859 3324(W regexp) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
7253e4e3
RK
3325I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
3326/[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
3327implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and will
3328cause fatal errors. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3329where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 3330
49704364 3331=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3332
3333(F regexp) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
7253e4e3
RK
3334beginning with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
3335If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
3336expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
3337backslash: "\[." and ".\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
3338about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 3339
49704364 3340=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 3341
7253e4e3
RK
3342(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
3343with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
3344need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
3345character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
3346and "=\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
3347problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 3348
bbce6d69 3349=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
3350
e476b1b5 3351(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
75b44862 3352strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
be771a83
GS
3353literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
3354parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
bbce6d69 3355
774d564b 3356You probably wrote something like this:
3357
54310121 3358 @list = qw(
774d564b 3359 a # a comment
bbce6d69 3360 b # another comment
774d564b 3361 );
bbce6d69 3362
3363when you should have written this:
3364
774d564b 3365 @list = qw(
54310121 3366 a
3367 b
774d564b 3368 );
3369
3370If you really want comments, build your list the
3371old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
3372
3373 @list = (
3374 'a', # a comment
3375 'b', # another comment
3376 );
bbce6d69 3377
3378=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
3379
be771a83
GS
3380(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
3381commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
3382different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
3383frequently used.)
bbce6d69 3384
54310121 3385You probably wrote something like this:
bbce6d69 3386
774d564b 3387 qw! a, b, c !;
3388
3389which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
3390commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
bbce6d69 3391
774d564b 3392 qw! a b c !;
bbce6d69 3393
a0d0e21e
LW
3394=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
3395
3396(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
3397Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
3398end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
3399Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
3400
276b2a0c
RGS
3401=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %c operator
3402
3403(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
3404with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
3405
3406 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
3407
3408This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
3409higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
96a925ab
YST
3410really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, put the
3411parentheses explicitly and write C<$x & ($y == 0)>).
276b2a0c 3412
18623440
PS
3413=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
3414
3415(W ambiguous) You said something like `@foo' in a double-quoted string
32b0a12e
AMS
3416but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
3417literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
3418to the array you apparently lost track of.
18623440 3419
77772344
B
3420=item Possible unintended interpolation of $\ in regex
3421
3422(W ambiguous) You said something like C<m/$\/> in a regex.
3423The regex C<m/foo$\s+bar/m> translates to: match the word 'foo', the output
3424record separartor (see L<perlvar/$\>) and the letter 's' (one time or more)
3425followed by the word 'bar'.
3426
3427If this is what you intended then you can silence the warning by using
3428C<m/${\}/> (for example: C<m/foo${\}s+bar/>).
3429
3430If instead you intended to match the word 'foo' at the end of the line
3431followed by whitespace and the word 'bar' on the next line then you can use
3432C<m/$(?)\/> (for example: C<m/foo$(?)\s+bar/>).
3433
8cd79558
GS
3434=item pragma "attrs" is deprecated, use "sub NAME : ATTRS" instead
3435
a1063b2d 3436(D deprecated) You have written something like this:
8cd79558
GS
3437
3438 sub doit
3439 {
3440 use attrs qw(locked);
3441 }
3442
3443You should use the new declaration syntax instead.
3444
3445 sub doit : locked
3446 {
3447 ...
3448
3449The C<use attrs> pragma is now obsolete, and is only provided for
3450backward-compatibility. See L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes">.
3451
a0d0e21e
LW
3452=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
3453
e476b1b5 3454(S precedence) The old irregular construct
cb1a09d0 3455
a0d0e21e
LW
3456 open FOO || die;
3457
3458is now misinterpreted as
3459
3460 open(FOO || die);
3461
be771a83
GS
3462because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
3463list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
3464parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
3465of "||".
a0d0e21e 3466
3cdd684c
TP
3467=item Premature end of script headers
3468
3469See Server error.
3470
6df41af2
GS
3471=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
3472
be771a83 3473(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3474before now. Check your control flow.
6df41af2 3475
9a7dcd9c 3476=item print() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 3477
be771a83 3478(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3479before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 3480
6df41af2 3481=item Process terminated by SIG%s
a0d0e21e 3482
6df41af2
GS
3483(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
3484applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
3485port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
3486L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
fecfaeb8 3487in L<perlos2>.
a0d0e21e 3488
327323c1
RGS
3489=item Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s
3490
3491(W syntax) A character follows % or @ in a prototype. This is useless,
3492since % and @ gobble the rest of the subroutine arguments.
3493
3fe9a6f1 3494=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4633a7c4 3495
9a0b3859 3496(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
be771a83 3497declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4633a7c4 3498
ed9aa3b7
SG
3499=item Prototype not terminated
3500
2a6fd447 3501(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
ed9aa3b7
SG
3502definition.
3503
96ebfdd7
RK
3504=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3505
3506(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if you
3507meant it literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3508where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3509
49704364 3510=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 3511
b45f050a 3512(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of the
7253e4e3 3513{min,max} construct. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where
b45f050a 3514the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9baa0206 3515
49704364 3516=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 3517
b45f050a
JF
3518(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
3519it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
3520quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
3521"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
3522C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
9baa0206 3523
7253e4e3
RK
3524The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3525discovered.
3526
89ea2908
GA
3527=item Range iterator outside integer range
3528
3529(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
3530are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
be771a83
GS
3531One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
3532by prepending "0" to your numbers.
89ea2908 3533
3b7fbd4a
SP
3534=item readdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
3535
1a147d38 3536(W io) The dirhandle you're reading from is either closed or not really
3b7fbd4a
SP
3537a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
3538
96ebfdd7
RK
3539=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
3540
3541(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
3542before now. Check your control flow.
3543
b5fe5ca2
SR
3544=item read() on closed filehandle %s
3545
3546(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
3547
3548=item read() on unopened filehandle %s
3549
3550(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
3551
6df41af2
GS
3552=item Reallocation too large: %lx
3553
3554(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
3555
4ad56ec9
IZ
3556=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
3557
be771a83
GS
3558(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
3559already been freed.
4ad56ec9 3560
a0d0e21e
LW
3561=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
3562
be771a83
GS
3563(F debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
3564the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
a0d0e21e
LW
3565which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
3566
3e0ccd42 3567=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
a0d0e21e 3568
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3569(F) While calculating the method resolution order (MRO) of a package, Perl
3570believes it found an infinite loop in the C<@ISA> hierarchy. This is a
3571crude check that bails out after 100 levels of C<@ISA> depth.
a0d0e21e 3572
7a4340ed 3573=item Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method %s
3e0ccd42 3574
be771a83
GS
3575(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were encountered while invoking
3576a method. Probably indicates an unintended loop in your inheritance
3577hierarchy.
3e0ccd42 3578
1930e939
TP
3579=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
3580
be771a83
GS
3581(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
3582with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This usually
3583means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant to use
3584parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
7b8d334a
GS
3585
3586 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
3587 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
3588 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
3589 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
3590
810b8aa5
GS
3591=item Reference is already weak
3592
e476b1b5 3593(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
810b8aa5
GS
3594Doing so has no effect.
3595
a0d0e21e
LW
3596=item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
3597
be771a83
GS
3598(W internal) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with
3599a reference count of other than 1.
a0d0e21e 3600
b72d83b2
RGS
3601=item Reference to invalid group 0
3602
3603(F) You used C<\g0> or similar in a regular expression. You may refer to
3604capturing parentheses only with strictly positive integers (normal
353c6505 3605backreferences) or with strictly negative integers (relative
b72d83b2
RGS
3606backreferences), but using 0 does not make sense.
3607
49704364 3608=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3609
3610(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
3611not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If you
3612wanted to have the character with value 7 inserted into the regular expression,
3613prepend a zero to make the number at least two digits: C<\07>
9baa0206 3614
7253e4e3 3615The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a 3616discovered.
9baa0206 3617
c74340f9
YO
3618=item Reference to nonexistent or unclosed group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3619
2bf803e2 3620(F) You used something like C<\g{-7}> in your regular expression, but there are
c74340f9 3621not at least seven sets of closed capturing parentheses in the expression before
2bf803e2 3622where the C<\g{-7}> was located.
c74340f9
YO
3623
3624The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3625discovered.
3626
1a147d38
YO
3627=item Reference to nonexistent named group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3628
3629(F) You used something like C<\k'NAME'> or C<< \k<NAME> >> in your regular
3630expression, but there is no corresponding named capturing parentheses such
3631as C<(?'NAME'...)> or C<(?<NAME>...). Check if the name has been spelled
3632correctly both in the backreference and the declaration.
3633
3634The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3635discovered.
3636
3637=item (?(DEFINE)....) does not allow branches in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3638
3639(F) You used something like C<(?(DEFINE)...|..)> which is illegal. The
3640most likely cause of this error is that you left out a parenthesis inside
3641of the C<....> part.
3642
3643The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3644discovered.
3645
a0d0e21e
LW
3646=item regexp memory corruption
3647
3648(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
3649expression compiler gave it.
3650
b45f050a 3651=item Regexp out of space
a0d0e21e 3652
be771a83
GS
3653(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
3654earlier.
a0d0e21e 3655
a1b95068
WL
3656=item Repeated format line will never terminate (~~ and @# incompatible)
3657
d7f8936a 3658(F) Your format contains the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence and a
a1b95068
WL
3659numeric field that will never go blank so that the repetition never
3660terminates. You might use ^# instead. See L<perlform>.
3661
b08e453b
RB
3662=item Replacement list is longer than search list
3663
3664(W misc) You have used a replacement list that is longer than the
3665search list. So the additional elements in the replacement list
3666are meaningless.
3667
a0d0e21e
LW
3668=item Reversed %s= operator
3669
be771a83
GS
3670(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
3671always comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
a0d0e21e 3672
abc7ecad
SP
3673=item rewinddir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
3674
3675(W io) The dirhandle you tried to do a rewinddir() on is either closed or not
3676really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
3677
a0d0e21e
LW
3678=item Runaway format
3679
3680(F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence, but it
3681produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th line looked exactly like the
3682199th line. Apparently you didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust
3683themselves, either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
3684shifting or popping (for array variables). See L<perlform>.
3685
96ebfdd7
RK
3686=item Scalars leaked: %d
3687
3688(P) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping of scalars:
3689not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time Perl exited.
3690What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which is of course bad,
3691especially if the Perl program is intended to be long-running.
3692
a0d0e21e
LW
3693=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
3694
be771a83
GS
3695(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
3696single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
3697value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
3698behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3699argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3700and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3701if you're expecting only one subscript.
a0d0e21e 3702
748a9306 3703On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5f05dabc 3704element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
748a9306
LW
3705Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
3706L<perlref>.
3707
a6006777 3708=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
3709
75b44862 3710(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
be771a83
GS
3711element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
3712(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
3713like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3714argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3715and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3716if you're expecting only one subscript.
3717
3718On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
3719as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
3720not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
a6006777 3721L<perlref>.
3722
a0d0e21e
LW
3723=item Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl
3724
54310121 3725(F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script without a setuid
3726or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much sense.
a0d0e21e
LW
3727
3728=item Search pattern not terminated
3729
3730(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
3731construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 3732Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 3733
0cb1bcd7 3734Note that since Perl 5.9.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
5d9c98cd
JH
3735construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
3736in Perl 5.9.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
3737misparsed by pre-5.9.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
3738
25c09cbf
SF
3739=item Search pattern not terminated or ternary operator parsed as search pattern
3740
3741(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a C<?PATTERN?>
3742construct.
3743
3744The question mark is also used as part of the ternary operator (as in
3745C<foo ? 0 : 1>) leading to some ambiguous constructions being wrongly
3746parsed. One way to disambiguate the parsing is to put parentheses around
3747the conditional expression, i.e. C<(foo) ? 0 : 1>.
3748
9ddeeac9 3749=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
a0d0e21e 3750
be771a83
GS
3751(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
3752filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
a0d0e21e 3753
abc7ecad
SP
3754=item seekdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
3755
3756(W io) The dirhandle you are doing a seekdir() on is either closed or not
3757really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
3758
a0d0e21e
LW
3759=item select not implemented
3760
3761(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
3762
ae21d580 3763=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
68a4a7e4 3764
ae21d580
JH
3765(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
3766the current implementation.
68a4a7e4 3767
6df41af2 3768=item Semicolon seems to be missing
a0d0e21e 3769
75b44862
GS
3770(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
3771semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
a0d0e21e
LW
3772
3773=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
3774
be771a83
GS
3775(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
3776scalar that had previously been marked as free.
a0d0e21e 3777
6df41af2 3778=item sem%s not implemented
a0d0e21e 3779
6df41af2 3780(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
a0d0e21e 3781
69282e91 3782=item send() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 3783
be771a83 3784(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3785before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 3786
7253e4e3 3787=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
7b8d334a 3788
7253e4e3 3789(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The <-- HERE
b45f050a 3790shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
be771a83 3791L<perlre>.
1b1626e4 3792
49704364 3793=item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3794
b45f050a 3795(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved but
7253e4e3 3796has not yet been written. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
b45f050a
JF
3797where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3798
49704364 3799=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3800
7253e4e3
RK
3801(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense. The
3802<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3803discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3804
1f1031fe
YO
3805=item Sequence \\%s... not terminated in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3806
3807(F) The regular expression expects a mandatory argument following the escape
3808sequence and this has been omitted or incorrectly written.
3809
49704364 3810=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
3811
3812(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
7253e4e3
RK
3813parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. The <-- HERE shows in
3814the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3815L<perlre>.
6df41af2 3816
96ebfdd7
RK
3817=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated or not {}-balanced in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3818
3819(F) If the contents of a (?{...}) clause contains braces, they must balance
3820for Perl to properly detect the end of the clause. The <-- HERE shows in
3821the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3822L<perlre>.
3823
6df41af2
GS
3824=item 500 Server error
3825
3826See Server error.
3827
a5f75d66
AD
3828=item Server error
3829
3cdd684c 3830This is the error message generally seen in a browser window when trying
be771a83
GS
3831to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The actual error text
3832varies widely from server to server. The most frequently-seen variants
3833are "500 Server error", "Method (something) not permitted", "Document
3834contains no data", "Premature end of script headers", and "Did not
3835produce a valid header".
9607fc9c 3836
3837B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
3838
be771a83
GS
3839You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by the
3840user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the user
3841account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment variables
3842(like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't in a
3843location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or less.
3844Please see the following for more information:
9607fc9c 3845
06a5f41f
JH
3846 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
3847 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
3848 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
a5f75d66 3849
be94a901
GS
3850You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
3851
a0d0e21e
LW
3852=item setegid() not implemented
3853
be771a83
GS
3854(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
3855support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3856didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
3857
3858=item seteuid() not implemented
3859
be771a83
GS
3860(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
3861support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3862didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 3863
81777298
GS
3864=item setpgrp can't take arguments
3865
be771a83
GS
3866(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
3867arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
3868group ID.
81777298 3869
a0d0e21e
LW
3870=item setrgid() not implemented
3871
be771a83
GS
3872(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
3873support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3874didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
3875
3876=item setruid() not implemented
3877
be771a83
GS
3878(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
3879support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3880didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 3881
6df41af2
GS
3882=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
3883
be771a83
GS
3884(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
3885forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
3886L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
3887
a0d0e21e
LW
3888=item Setuid/gid script is writable by world
3889
be771a83
GS
3890(F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that is writable by the
3891world, because the world might have written on it already.
a0d0e21e 3892
d504a7a1
RGS
3893=item Setuid script not plain file
3894
3895(F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that isn't read from a file,
3896but from a socket, a pipe or another device.
3897
a0d0e21e
LW
3898=item shm%s not implemented
3899
3900(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
3901
984200d0
YST
3902=item !=~ should be !~
3903
3904(W syntax) The non-matching operator is !~, not !=~. !=~ will be
3905interpreted as the != (numeric not equal) and ~ (1's complement)
3906operators: probably not what you intended.
3907
6df41af2
GS
3908=item <> should be quotes
3909
3910(F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
3911C<require 'file'>.
3912
3913=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
3914
3915(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
be771a83
GS
3916as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
3917result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
3918probably not what you had in mind.
6df41af2 3919
69282e91 3920=item shutdown() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 3921
75b44862
GS
3922(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
3923superfluous.
a0d0e21e 3924
f86702cc 3925=item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
a0d0e21e 3926
be771a83
GS
3927(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
3928Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
a0d0e21e
LW
3929
3930=item sort is now a reserved word
3931
3932(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
3933But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
3934
3935=item Sort subroutine didn't return a numeric value
3936
3937(F) A sort comparison routine must return a number. You probably blew
c47ff5f1 3938it by not using C<< <=> >> or C<cmp>, or by not using them correctly.
a0d0e21e
LW
3939See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3940
3941=item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
3942
3943(F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
3944or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3945
8cbc2e3b
JH
3946=item splice() offset past end of array
3947
3948(W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
3949the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the end
3950of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want, try
3951explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset. See
3952L<perlfunc/splice>.
3953
a0d0e21e
LW
3954=item Split loop
3955
be771a83
GS
3956(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
3957iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
3958happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
a0d0e21e 3959
a0d0e21e
LW
3960=item Statement unlikely to be reached
3961
be771a83
GS
3962(W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
3963die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
3964unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
3965instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
3966a block by itself.
a0d0e21e 3967
9ddeeac9 3968=item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
6df41af2 3969
355b1299
JH
3970(W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
3971was either never opened or has since been closed.
6df41af2 3972
f46d83d8 3973=item Stub found while resolving method "%s" overloading "%s"
e7ea3e70 3974
be771a83
GS
3975(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
3976stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
3977C<can> may break this.
e7ea3e70 3978
a0d0e21e
LW
3979=item Subroutine %s redefined
3980
e476b1b5 3981(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
3982
3983 {
271595cc 3984 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
3985 eval "sub name { ... }";
3986 }
3987
3988=item Substitution loop
3989
be771a83
GS
3990(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
3991shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
3992is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
5d44bfff 3993L<perlop/"Regexp Quote-Like Operators">.
a0d0e21e
LW
3994
3995=item Substitution pattern not terminated
3996
d1be9408 3997(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 3998construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 3999Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
4000
4001=item Substitution replacement not terminated
4002
d1be9408 4003(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 4004construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 4005Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
4006
4007=item substr outside of string
4008
be771a83
GS
4009(W substr),(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
4010a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
4011length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
4012substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
4013assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
a0d0e21e 4014
f86702cc 4015=item suidperl is no longer needed since %s
a0d0e21e 4016
be771a83
GS
4017(F) Your Perl was compiled with B<-D>SETUID_SCRIPTS_ARE_SECURE_NOW, but
4018a version of the setuid emulator somehow got run anyway.
a0d0e21e 4019
bf1320bf
RGS
4020=item sv_upgrade from type %d down to type %d
4021
4022(P) Perl tried to force the upgrade an SV to a type which was actually
4023inferior to its current type.
4024
49704364 4025=item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
4026
4027(F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most two
4028branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or both to
4029contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose it in
4030clustering parentheses:
4031
4032 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
4033
7253e4e3 4034The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a
JF
4035discovered. See L<perlre>.
4036
49704364 4037=item Switch condition not recognized in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
4038
4039(F) If the argument to the (?(...)if-clause|else-clause) construct is a
7253e4e3 4040number, it can be only a number. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
b45f050a
JF
4041about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4042
85ab1d1d
JH
4043=item switching effective %s is not implemented
4044
be771a83
GS
4045(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
4046and effective uids or gids.
85ab1d1d 4047
2f7da168
RK
4048=item %s syntax
4049
4050(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
4051
a0d0e21e
LW
4052=item syntax error
4053
4054(F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
4055
4056 A keyword is misspelled.
4057 A semicolon is missing.
4058 A comma is missing.
4059 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
4060 An opening or closing brace is missing.
4061 A closing quote is missing.
4062
4063Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
4064error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
4065The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
4066it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
5f05dabc 4067before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
a0d0e21e
LW
4068Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
4069the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
4070C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
be771a83
GS
4071if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20
4072questions>.
a0d0e21e 4073
cb1a09d0
AD
4074=item syntax error at line %d: `%s' unexpected
4075
be771a83
GS
4076(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
4077of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
4078yourself.
cb1a09d0 4079
25f58aea
PN
4080=item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
4081
4082(F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
4083a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
4084or "my $var" or "our $var".
4085
b5fe5ca2
SR
4086=item sysread() on closed filehandle %s
4087
4088(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
4089
4090=item sysread() on unopened filehandle %s
4091
4092(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
4093
6087ac44 4094=item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
a0d0e21e 4095
6087ac44
JH
4096(F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
4097"shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
4098machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
4099unconfigured. Consult your system support.
a0d0e21e 4100
69282e91 4101=item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 4102
be771a83 4103(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4104before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 4105
96ebfdd7
RK
4106=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
4107
4108(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
4109know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
4110
fc36a67e 4111=item Target of goto is too deeply nested
4112
be771a83
GS
4113(F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
4114for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
fc36a67e 4115
9ddeeac9 4116=item tell() on unopened filehandle
a0d0e21e 4117
be771a83
GS
4118(W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
4119was either never opened or has since been closed.
a0d0e21e 4120
abc7ecad
SP
4121=item telldir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4122
4123(W io) The dirhandle you tried to telldir() is either closed or not really
4124a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4125
a0d0e21e
LW
4126=item That use of $[ is unsupported
4127
be771a83
GS
4128(F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted
4129as a compiler directive. You may say only one of
a0d0e21e
LW
4130
4131 $[ = 0;
4132 $[ = 1;
4133 ...
4134 local $[ = 0;
4135 local $[ = 1;
4136 ...
4137
be771a83
GS
4138This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out
4139from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[>.
a0d0e21e 4140
f86702cc 4141=item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia
a0d0e21e
LW
4142
4143(F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
4144probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
8b1a09fc 4145think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
a0d0e21e
LW
4146will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
4147will deny it.
4148
6df41af2
GS
4149=item The %s function is unimplemented
4150
4151The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture, according
4152to the probings of Configure.
4153
5e1c7ca2 4154=item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
a0d0e21e 4155
be771a83
GS
4156(F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
4157linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
4158past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
4159instead.
a0d0e21e 4160
371fce9b
DM
4161=item The 'unique' attribute may only be applied to 'our' variables
4162
1108974d 4163(F) This attribute was never supported on C<my> or C<sub> declarations.
371fce9b 4164
437784d6 4165=item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
f675dbe5
CB
4166
4167=item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
4168
75b44862 4169(W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
be771a83
GS
4170element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
4171wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
4172need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
4173F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
4174target of the change to
f675dbe5
CB
4175%ENV which produced the warning.
4176
6b3c7930
JH
4177=item thread failed to start: %s
4178
4447dfc1 4179(W threads)(S) The entry point function of threads->create() failed for some reason.
6b3c7930 4180
a0d0e21e
LW
4181=item times not implemented
4182
be771a83
GS
4183(F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
4184suspect you're not running on Unix.
a0d0e21e 4185
6d3b25aa
RGS
4186=item "-T" is on the #! line, it must also be used on the command line
4187
4188(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
4189B<-T> option, but Perl was not invoked with B<-T> in its command line.
4190This is an error because, by the time Perl discovers a B<-T> in a
4191script, it's too late to properly taint everything from the environment.
4192So Perl gives up.
4193
4194If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
4195mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be fixed by
4196editing the #! line so that the B<-T> option is a part of Perl's first
4197argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -T> to C<perl -T -n>.
4198
4199If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
4200B<-T> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -T scriptname>.
4201
3a2263fe
RGS
4202=item To%s: illegal mapping '%s'
4203
4204(F) You tried to define a customized To-mapping for lc(), lcfirst,
4205uc(), or ucfirst() (or their string-inlined versions), but you
4206specified an illegal mapping.
4207See L<perlunicode/"User-Defined Character Properties">.
4208
49704364
WL
4209=item Too deeply nested ()-groups
4210
1a147d38 4211(F) Your template contains ()-groups with a ridiculously deep nesting level.
49704364 4212
a0d0e21e
LW
4213=item Too few args to syscall
4214
4215(F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
4216system call to call, silly dilly.
4217
96ebfdd7
RK
4218=item Too late for "-%s" option
4219
4220(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
3ffe3ee4 4221B<-M>, B<-m> or B<-C> option. This is an error because those options
96ebfdd7
RK
4222are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
4223
ddda08b7
GS
4224=item Too late to run %s block
4225
4226(W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
4227when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
be771a83
GS
4228loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
4229instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
4230BEGIN block.
ddda08b7 4231
a0d0e21e
LW
4232=item Too many args to syscall
4233
5f05dabc 4234(F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
a0d0e21e
LW
4235
4236=item Too many arguments for %s
4237
4238(F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
4239
6df41af2
GS
4240=item Too many )'s
4241
49704364
WL
4242(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
4243Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
4244
8c40cb74
NC
4245=item Too many ('s
4246
be771a83
GS
4247(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
4248Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 4249
7253e4e3 4250=item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4251
be771a83
GS
4252(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
4253Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 4254
2c268ad5 4255=item Transliteration pattern not terminated
a0d0e21e
LW
4256
4257(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
fb73857a 4258or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
4259C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 4260
2c268ad5 4261=item Transliteration replacement not terminated
a0d0e21e 4262
6a36df5d
YST
4263(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr///, tr[][],
4264y/// or y[][] construct.
a0d0e21e 4265
96ebfdd7
RK
4266=item '%s' trapped by operation mask
4267
4268(F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
4269disallowed. See L<Safe>.
4270
a0d0e21e
LW
4271=item truncate not implemented
4272
4273(F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
4274Configure knows about.
4275
4276=item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
4277
4278(F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
8b1a09fc 4279certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
4280%NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
a0d0e21e
LW
4281{EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
4282
eec2d3df
GS
4283=item umask not implemented
4284
be771a83
GS
4285(F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
4286use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
a0d0e21e 4287
4633a7c4
LW
4288=item Unable to create sub named "%s"
4289
4290(F) You attempted to create or access a subroutine with an illegal name.
4291
a0d0e21e
LW
4292=item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
4293
be771a83
GS
4294(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
4295many execution contexts were entered and left.
a0d0e21e
LW
4296
4297=item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
4298
be771a83
GS
4299(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
4300many values were temporarily localized.
a0d0e21e
LW
4301
4302=item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
4303
be771a83
GS
4304(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
4305many blocks were entered and left.
a0d0e21e
LW
4306
4307=item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
4308
be771a83
GS
4309(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
4310many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
a0d0e21e
LW
4311
4312=item Undefined format "%s" called
4313
4314(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
4315another package? See L<perlform>.
4316
4317=item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
4318
be771a83
GS
4319(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
4320Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4321
4322=item Undefined subroutine &%s called
4323
be771a83
GS
4324(F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
4325since been undefined.
a0d0e21e
LW
4326
4327=item Undefined subroutine called
4328
4329(F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
4330or if it was, it has since been undefined.
4331
4332=item Undefined subroutine in sort
4333
be771a83
GS
4334(F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
4335to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e 4336
4633a7c4
LW
4337=item Undefined top format "%s" called
4338
4339(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
4340another package? See L<perlform>.
4341
20408e3c
GS
4342=item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
4343
be771a83
GS
4344(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
4345C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
4346C<undef *foo>.
20408e3c 4347
6df41af2
GS
4348=item %s: Undefined variable
4349
be771a83
GS
4350(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
4351Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 4352
a0d0e21e
LW
4353=item unexec of %s into %s failed!
4354
4355(F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
4356representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
4357
3d401ffb
JH
4358=item Unicode character %s is illegal
4359
507b9800
JH
4360(W utf8) Certain Unicode characters have been designated off-limits by
4361the Unicode standard and should not be generated. If you really know
4362what you are doing you can turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'utf8';>.
b45f050a 4363
a0d0e21e
LW
4364=item Unknown BYTEORDER
4365
be771a83
GS
4366(F) There are no byte-swapping functions for a machine with this byte
4367order.
a0d0e21e 4368
6170680b
IZ
4369=item Unknown open() mode '%s'
4370
437784d6 4371(F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
c47ff5f1 4372of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
488dad83 4373C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
6170680b 4374
b4581f09
JH
4375=item Unknown PerlIO layer "%s"
4376
4377(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
4378system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
4379internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
4380are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
4381explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
4382value of the environment variable PERLIO.
4383
f675dbe5
CB
4384=item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
4385
4386(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
4387iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
4388data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
4389subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
a05d7ebb 4390
2f7da168
RK
4391=item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
4392
4393You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
4394
96ebfdd7
RK
4395=item Unknown switch condition (?(%.2s in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4396
4397(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
4398is not known. The condition may be lookahead or lookbehind (the condition
4399is true if the lookahead or lookbehind is true), a (?{...}) construct (the
4400condition is true if the code evaluates to a true value), or a number (the
4401condition is true if the set of capturing parentheses named by the number
4402matched).
4403
4404The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4405discovered. See L<perlre>.
4406
a05d7ebb
JH
4407=item Unknown Unicode option letter '%c'
4408
4409You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
4410of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
4411
4412=item Unknown Unicode option value %x
4413
4414You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
4415of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
f675dbe5 4416
3d1a39c8
RGS
4417=item Unknown warnings category '%s'
4418
4419(F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
4420category that is unknown to perl at this point.
4421
4422Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a module
4423(e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have imported this module
e2e6a0f1
YO
4424
4425=item Unknown verb pattern '%s' in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4426
4427(F) You either made a typo or have incorrectly put a C<*> quantifier
4428after an open brace in your pattern. Check the pattern and review
4429L<perlre> for details on legal verb patterns.
4430
3d1a39c8
RGS
4431first.
4432
7253e4e3 4433=item unmatched [ in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 4434
380a0633 4435(F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
be771a83 4436include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
7253e4e3
RK
4437first. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem
4438was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 4439
7253e4e3 4440=item unmatched ( in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
4441
4442(F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
7253e4e3
RK
4443expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding the
4444matching parenthesis. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
4445where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 4446
d98d5fff 4447=item Unmatched right %s bracket
a0d0e21e 4448
be771a83
GS
4449(F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
4450ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
4451general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
4452you were last editing.
a0d0e21e 4453
a0d0e21e
LW
4454=item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
4455
be771a83
GS
4456(W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
4457reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
4458somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
4459subroutine.
a0d0e21e 4460
356c7adf 4461=item Unrecognized character %s in column %d
a0d0e21e 4462
54310121 4463(F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
356c7adf
CJ
4464in your Perl script (or eval) at the specified column. Perhaps you tried
4465to run a compressed script, a binary program, or a directory as a Perl program.
a0d0e21e 4466
2628b4e0 4467=item Unrecognized escape \\%c in character class passed through in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 4468
be771a83
GS
4469(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
4470recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
4471understood literally.
2628b4e0
TS
4472The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
4473escape was discovered.
6df41af2 4474
2f7da168
RK
4475=item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through
4476
2628b4e0
TS
4477(W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
4478recognized by Perl. The character was understood literally.
2f7da168 4479
49704364 4480=item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 4481
be771a83 4482(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
2628b4e0
TS
4483recognized by Perl. The character was understood literally.
4484The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
7253e4e3 4485escape was discovered.
6df41af2 4486
a0d0e21e
LW
4487=item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
4488
be771a83
GS
4489(F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
4490recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
4491on your system.
a0d0e21e 4492
90248788 4493=item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
a0d0e21e 4494
be771a83
GS
4495(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
4496think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
4497bad switch on your behalf.)
a0d0e21e
LW
4498
4499=item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
4500
be771a83
GS
4501(W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
4502operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
5b3eff12 4503PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4504
4505=item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
4506
4507(F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
4508
6df41af2
GS
4509=item Unsupported function %s
4510
4511(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
4512At least, Configure doesn't think so.
4513
54310121 4514=item Unsupported function fork
4515
4516(F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
4517
be771a83
GS
4518Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
4519of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
4520changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
54310121 4521
7aa207d6 4522=item Unsupported script encoding %s
b250498f
GS
4523
4524(F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
7aa207d6 4525declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot read.
b250498f 4526
a0d0e21e
LW
4527=item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
4528
4529(F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
4530least that's what Configure thought.
4531
6df41af2 4532=item Unterminated attribute list
a0d0e21e 4533
be771a83
GS
4534(F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
4535start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
4536block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
4537attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
a0d0e21e 4538
09bef843
SB
4539=item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
4540
be771a83
GS
4541(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
4542an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
09bef843
SB
4543character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
4544character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
4545
f1991046
GS
4546=item Unterminated compressed integer
4547
4548(F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
4549compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
4550See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4551
e2e6a0f1
YO
4552=item Unterminated verb pattern in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4553
4554(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB)> but did not terminate
4555the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
4556
4557=item Unterminated verb pattern argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4558
4559(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB:ARG)> but did not terminate
4560the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
4561
2bf803e2
YO
4562=item Unterminated \g{...} pattern in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4563
4564(F) You missed a close brace on a \g{..} pattern (group reference) in
4565a regular expression. Fix the pattern and retry.
e2e6a0f1 4566
6df41af2 4567=item Unterminated <> operator
09bef843 4568
6df41af2 4569(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
4570a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
4571not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
4572earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
09bef843 4573
6df41af2 4574=item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
a0d0e21e 4575
be771a83
GS
4576(W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
4577still valid when C<untie> was called.
a0d0e21e 4578
8e11cd2b
JC
4579=item Usage: POSIX::%s(%s)
4580
4581(F) You called a POSIX function with incorrect arguments.
4582See L<POSIX/FUNCTIONS> for more information.
4583
4584=item Usage: Win32::%s(%s)
4585
4586(F) You called a Win32 function with incorrect arguments.
4587See L<Win32> for more information.
4588
96ebfdd7 4589=item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 4590
96ebfdd7
RK
4591(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
4592meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 4593
96ebfdd7 4594 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
4595
4596must be written as
4597
96ebfdd7 4598 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
4599
4600The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
4601where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4602
b4581f09
JH
4603=item Useless localization of %s
4604
4605(W syntax) The localization of lvalues such as C<local($x=10)> is
4606legal, but in fact the local() currently has no effect. This may change at
4607some point in the future, but in the meantime such code is discouraged.
4608
96ebfdd7 4609=item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 4610
96ebfdd7
RK
4611(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
4612meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 4613
96ebfdd7 4614 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
4615
4616must be written as
4617
96ebfdd7 4618 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
4619
4620The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
4621where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4622
b08e453b
RB
4623=item Useless use of /d modifier in transliteration operator
4624
4625(W misc) You have used the /d modifier where the searchlist has the
4626same length as the replacelist. See L<perlop> for more information
4627about the /d modifier.
4628
6df41af2 4629=item Useless use of %s in void context
a0d0e21e 4630
75b44862 4631(W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
be771a83
GS
4632nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
4633value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
4634often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
4635to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
4636get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
4637said
a0d0e21e 4638
6df41af2 4639 $one, $two = 1, 2;
748a9306 4640
6df41af2
GS
4641when you meant to say
4642
4643 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
4644
4645Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
4646reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
4647example, if you say
4648
4649 $array = (1,2);
4650
4651when you should have said
4652
4653 $array = [1,2];
4654
4655The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
4656while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
4657a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
4658throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
4659L<perlref> for more on this.
4660
65191a1e
BS
4661This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
4662since they are often used in statements like
4663
4358a253 4664 1 while sub_with_side_effects();
65191a1e
BS
4665
4666String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
4667about.
4668
6df41af2
GS
4669=item Useless use of "re" pragma
4670
4671(W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
4672
a801c63c
RGS
4673=item Useless use of sort in scalar context
4674
4675(W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
4676
4677 my $x = sort @y;
4678
4679This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
4680
de4864e4
JH
4681=item Useless use of %s with no values
4682
f87c3213 4683(W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
de4864e4
JH
4684apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
4685usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
4686possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
4687if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
4688you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
4689
6df41af2
GS
4690=item "use" not allowed in expression
4691
be771a83
GS
4692(F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
4693returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
748a9306 4694
c47ff5f1 4695=item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is deprecated
4633a7c4 4696
83ce3e12
RGS
4697(D deprecated, W syntax) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted
4698form if you wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
4699
4700=item Use of comma-less variable list is deprecated
4701
4702(D deprecated, W syntax) The values you give to a format should be
4703separated by commas, not just aligned on a line.
4633a7c4 4704
96ebfdd7
RK
4705=item Use of chdir('') or chdir(undef) as chdir() deprecated
4706
4707(D deprecated) chdir() with no arguments is documented to change to
4708$ENV{HOME} or $ENV{LOGDIR}. chdir(undef) and chdir('') share this
4709behavior, but that has been deprecated. In future versions they
4710will simply fail.
4711
4712Be careful to check that what you pass to chdir() is defined and not
4713blank, else you might find yourself in your home directory.
4714
64e578a2
MJD
4715=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
4716
4717(W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
4718modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
4719
4ac733c9
MJD
4720=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
4721
4722(W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
4723use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
4724used. (This may change in the future.)
4725
b6c83531 4726=item Use of freed value in iteration
2f7da168 4727
b6c83531
JH
4728(F) Perhaps you modified the iterated array within the loop?
4729This error is typically caused by code like the following:
2f7da168
RK
4730
4731 @a = (3,4);
4732 @a = () for (1,2,@a);
4733
4734You are not supposed to modify arrays while they are being iterated over.
4735For speed and efficiency reasons, Perl internally does not do full
4736reference-counting of iterated items, hence deleting such an item in the
4737middle of an iteration causes Perl to see a freed value.
4738
39b99f21 4739=item Use of *glob{FILEHANDLE} is deprecated
4740
4741(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the shorter *glob{IO} form
4742to access the filehandle slot within a typeglob.
4743
96ebfdd7 4744=item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
35ae6b54 4745
96ebfdd7
RK
4746(W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
4747operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
4748repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
35ae6b54 4749
a0d0e21e
LW
4750=item Use of implicit split to @_ is deprecated
4751
83ce3e12
RGS
4752(D deprecated, W syntax) It makes a lot of work for the compiler when you
4753clobber a subroutine's argument list, so it's better if you assign the results
be771a83 4754of a split() explicitly to an array (or list).
a0d0e21e 4755
dc848c6f 4756=item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
4757
be771a83
GS
4758(D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines
4759are looked up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy) even when the
4760subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain functions (e.g.
4761C<Foo::bar()>), not as methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or C<<
4762$obj->bar() >>).
dc848c6f 4763
be771a83
GS
4764This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup only for
4765methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base of existing
4766code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl
4767currently issues an optional warning when non-methods use inherited
4768C<AUTOLOAD>s.
dc848c6f 4769
4770The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
be771a83
GS
4771non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used
4772to depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class
4773named C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during
4774startup.
dc848c6f 4775
be771a83
GS
4776In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);>
4777you should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
7b8d334a 4778C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
fb73857a 4779
6df41af2
GS
4780=item Use of %s in printf format not supported
4781
4782(F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
4783only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
4784
6df41af2
GS
4785=item Use of %s is deprecated
4786
75b44862 4787(D deprecated) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use,
be771a83
GS
4788generally because there's a better way to do it, and also because the
4789old way has bad side effects.
6df41af2 4790
96ebfdd7
RK
4791=item Use of -l on filehandle %s
4792
4793(W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
4794it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
4795The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
4796
4797=item Use of "package" with no arguments is deprecated
4798
4799(D deprecated) You used the C<package> keyword without specifying a package
4800name. So no namespace is current at all. Using this can cause many
4801otherwise reasonable constructs to fail in baffling ways. C<use strict;>
4802instead.
4803
1f1cc344 4804=item Use of reference "%s" as array index
d804643f 4805
77b96956 4806(W misc) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
1f1cc344
JH
4807isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
4808to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
d804643f 4809
64977eb6 4810If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
1f1cc344
JH
4811C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
4812either, because you can overload the numification and stringification
353c6505 4813operators and then you assumably know what you are doing.
d804643f 4814
85b81015
LW
4815=item Use of reserved word "%s" is deprecated
4816
be771a83
GS
4817(D deprecated) The indicated bareword is a reserved word. Future
4818versions of perl may use it as a keyword, so you're better off either
4819explicitly quoting the word in a manner appropriate for its context of
4820use, or using a different name altogether. The warning can be
4821suppressed for subroutine names by either adding a C<&> prefix, or using
4822a package qualifier, e.g. C<&our()>, or C<Foo::our()>.
85b81015 4823
bbd7eb8a
RD
4824=item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
4825
159f47d9 4826(W taint, deprecated) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
bbd7eb8a
RD
4827arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
4828but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
4829arguments. See L<perlsec>.
4830
cc95b072 4831=item Use of uninitialized value%s
a0d0e21e 4832
be771a83
GS
4833(W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
4834defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
4835To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
a0d0e21e 4836
29489e7c
DM
4837To help you figure out what was undefined, perl will try to tell you the
4838name of the variable (if any) that was undefined. In some cases it cannot
4839do this, so it also tells you what operation you used the undefined value
4840in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your program and the operation
4841displayed in the warning may not necessarily appear literally in your
4842program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is usually optimized into C<"that "
4843. $foo>, and the warning will refer to the C<concatenation (.)> operator,
4844even though there is no C<.> in your program.
e5be4a53 4845
a1063b2d
RH
4846=item Using a hash as a reference is deprecated
4847
496a33f5 4848(D deprecated) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
1b1f1335
NIS
4849C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1
4850used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated, and will
496a33f5 4851be removed in a future version.
a1063b2d
RH
4852
4853=item Using an array as a reference is deprecated
4854
496a33f5 4855(D deprecated) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
1b1f1335
NIS
4856C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1 used to
4857allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated, and will be
496a33f5 4858removed in a future version.
a1063b2d 4859
9466bab6
JH
4860=item UTF-16 surrogate %s
4861
507b9800
JH
4862(W utf8) You tried to generate half of an UTF-16 surrogate by
4863requesting a Unicode character between the code points 0xD800 and
48640xDFFF (inclusive). That range is reserved exclusively for the use of
4865UTF-16 encoding (by having two 16-bit UCS-2 characters); but Perl
4866encodes its characters in UTF-8, so what you got is a very illegal
4867character. If you really know what you are doing you can turn off
4868this warning by C<no warnings 'utf8';>.
9466bab6 4869
68dc0745 4870=item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
a6006777 4871
75b44862 4872(W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
be771a83
GS
4873C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
4874can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
4875false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
4876constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
4877C<defined> operator.
a6006777 4878
f675dbe5
CB
4879=item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
4880
be771a83
GS
4881(W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
4882%ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
4883longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
48841024 characters.
f675dbe5 4885
b5c19bd7 4886=item Variable "%s" is not available
44a8e56a 4887
b5c19bd7
DM
4888(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
4889attempting to capture an outer lexical that is not currently available.
42c13b56 4890This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the outer lexical may be
b5c19bd7
DM
4891declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has not yet been created.
4892(Remember that named subs are created at compile time, while anonymous
42c13b56 4893subs are created at run-time.) For example,
44a8e56a 4894
b5c19bd7 4895 sub { my $a; sub f { $a } }
44a8e56a 4896
b5c19bd7
DM
4897At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current value of $a,
4898since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely,
4899the following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by
4900now been created and is live:
be771a83 4901
b5c19bd7
DM
4902 sub { my $a; eval 'sub f { $a }' }->();
4903
4904The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a variable that has
4905gone out of scope, for example,
4906
4907 sub f {
4908 my $a;
4909 sub { eval '$a' }
4910 }
4911 f()->();
4912
4913Here, when the '$a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently being
4914executed, so its $a is not available for capture.
44a8e56a 4915
b4581f09
JH
4916=item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
4917
4918(F) While "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable that
4919you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
4920something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
4921that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
4922front of your variable.
4923
58e23c8d 4924=item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in m/%s/
b4581f09
JH
4925
4926(F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
58e23c8d 4927known at compile time. See L<perlre>.
b4581f09
JH
4928
4929=item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
4930
30c282f6 4931(W misc) A "my", "our" or "state" variable has been redeclared in the current
b4581f09
JH
4932scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the previous
4933instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note that the
4934earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope or until
4935all closure referents to it are destroyed.
4936
6df41af2
GS
4937=item Variable syntax
4938
4939(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
4940of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
4941Perl yourself.
4942
44a8e56a 4943=item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
4944
be771a83 4945(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
b5c19bd7 4946lexical variable defined in an outer named subroutine.
44a8e56a 4947
b5c19bd7 4948When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of
be771a83
GS
4949the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
4950call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
4951outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
4952longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
4953variable will no longer be shared.
44a8e56a 4954
44a8e56a 4955This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
4956anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
b5c19bd7 4957reference variables in outer subroutines are created, they
be771a83 4958are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
44a8e56a 4959
e2e6a0f1
YO
4960=item Verb pattern '%s' has a mandatory argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4961
4962(F) You used a verb pattern that requires an argument. Supply an argument
4963or check that you are using the right verb.
4964
4965=item Verb pattern '%s' may not have an argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4966
4967(F) You used a verb pattern that is not allowed an argument. Remove the
4968argument or check that you are using the right verb.
4969
084610c0
GS
4970=item Version number must be a constant number
4971
4972(P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
4973its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
4974the version number.
4975
808ee47e
SP
4976=item Version string '%s' contains invalid data; ignoring: '%s'
4977
32e998fd
RGS
4978(W misc) The version string contains invalid characters at the end, which
4979are being ignored.
808ee47e 4980
7e1af8bc 4981=item Warning: something's wrong
5f05dabc 4982
4983(W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
ec8bb14c 4984you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 4985
f86702cc 4986=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
a0d0e21e 4987
be771a83
GS
4988(S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
4989the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
4990space.
a0d0e21e 4991
5f05dabc 4992=item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
a0d0e21e 4993
be771a83
GS
4994(S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
4995looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
4996term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
4997function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
a0d0e21e
LW
4998
4999 rand + 5;
5000
5001you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
5002
5003 rand() + 5;
5004
5005but in actual fact, you got
5006
5007 rand(+5);
5008
5f05dabc 5009So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
a0d0e21e 5010
4b3603a4
JH
5011=item Wide character in %s
5012
62961d2e 5013(W utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting
cd28123a
JH
5014one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print). The easiest
5015way to quiet this warning is simply to add the C<:utf8> layer to the
5016output, e.g. C<binmode STDOUT, ':utf8'>. Another way to turn off the
5017warning is to add C<no warnings 'utf8';> but that is often closer to
5018cheating. In general, you are supposed to explicitly mark the
5019filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
4b3603a4 5020
49704364
WL
5021=item Within []-length '%c' not allowed
5022
5023(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]> only if
5024C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes that can be
5025determined from the template alone. This is not possible if it contains an
5026of the codes @, /, U, u, w or a *-length. Redesign the template.
5027
9a7dcd9c 5028=item write() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 5029
be771a83 5030(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5031before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5032
b4581f09
JH
5033=item %s "\x%s" does not map to Unicode
5034
5035When reading in different encodings Perl tries to map everything
5036into Unicode characters. The bytes you read in are not legal in
5037this encoding, for example
5038
5039 utf8 "\xE4" does not map to Unicode
5040
5041if you try to read in the a-diaereses Latin-1 as UTF-8.
5042
49704364 5043=item 'X' outside of string
a0d0e21e 5044
49704364
WL
5045(F) You had a (un)pack template that specified a relative position before
5046the beginning of the string being (un)packed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
a0d0e21e 5047
49704364 5048=item 'x' outside of string in unpack
a0d0e21e
LW
5049
5050(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
5051the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
5052
a0d0e21e
LW
5053=item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
5054
5f05dabc 5055(F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
a0d0e21e 5056sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
1b1f1335 5057about what you want. Your best bet is to put a setuid C wrapper around
496a33f5 5058your script.
a0d0e21e
LW
5059
5060=item You need to quote "%s"
5061
be771a83
GS
5062(W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
5063Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
5064which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
5065assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
5066what you want, put an & in front.)
a0d0e21e 5067
6cfd5ea7
JH
5068=item Your random numbers are not that random
5069
5070(F) When trying to initialise the random seed for hashes, Perl could
5071not get any randomness out of your system. This usually indicates
5072Something Very Wrong.
5073
a0d0e21e
LW
5074=back
5075
00eb3f2b
RGS
5076=head1 SEE ALSO
5077
5078L<warnings>, L<perllexwarn>.
5079
56e90b21 5080=cut