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1=head1 NAME
2
3perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
4
5=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
8desperation):
9
10 (W) A warning (optional).
d1d15184 11 (D) A deprecation (enabled by default).
00eb3f2b 12 (S) A severe warning (enabled by default).
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13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
54310121 15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
cb1a09d0 16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
a0d0e21e 17
75b44862 18The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
64977eb6 19(W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
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20
21If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
22category is included with the classification letter in the description
23below.
24
25Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
fa816bf3 26and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
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27to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
28of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
29
b7eceb5b 30Severe warnings are always enabled, unless they are explicitly disabled
e476b1b5 31with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
4438c4b7 32
748a9306 33Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
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34L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
36See L<warnings>.
a0d0e21e 37
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38The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
39lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
40denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
41ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
42letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
43letter.
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44
45=over 4
46
6df41af2 47=item accept() on closed socket %s
33633739 48
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49(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
50to check the return value of your socket() call? See
51L<perlfunc/accept>.
33633739 52
de42a5a9 53=item Allocation too large: %x
a0d0e21e 54
6df41af2 55(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
a0d0e21e 56
1109a392 57=item '%c' allowed only after types %s
ef54e1a4 58
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59(F) The modifiers '!', '<' and '>' are allowed in pack() or unpack() only
60after certain types. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
ef54e1a4 61
6df41af2 62=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
43192e07 63
75b44862 64(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
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65keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
66one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
67subroutine is not imported.
43192e07 68
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69To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
70before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
71Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
72imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
43192e07 73
6df41af2 74To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
496a33f5 75on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
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76to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
77L<attributes>).
43192e07 78
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79=item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
80
81(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
82all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
83first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
84C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
85
6df41af2 86=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
43192e07 87
7c7af292 88(S ambiguous) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
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89you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
90a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
a0d0e21e 91
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92=item Ambiguous use of %c resolved as operator %c
93
7c7af292 94(S ambiguous) C<%>, C<&>, and C<*> are both infix operators (modulus,
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95bitwise and, and multiplication) I<and> initial special characters
96(denoting hashes, subroutines and typeglobs), and you said something
97like C<*foo * foo> that might be interpreted as either of them. We
98assumed you meant the infix operator, but please try to make it more
99clear -- in the example given, you might write C<*foo * foo()> if you
100really meant to multiply a glob by the result of calling a function.
d8225693 101
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102=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s} resolved to %c%s
103
104(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<@{foo}>, which might be
105asking for the variable C<@foo>, or it might be calling a function
106named foo, and dereferencing it as an array reference. If you wanted
1cecf2c0 107the variable, you can just write C<@foo>. If you wanted to call the
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108function, write C<@{foo()}> ... or you could just not have a variable
109and a function with the same name, and save yourself a lot of trouble.
110
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111=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s[...]} resolved to %c%s[...]
112
113=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s{...}} resolved to %c%s{...}
4da60377 114
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115(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<${foo[2]}> (where foo represents
116the name of a Perl keyword), which might be looking for element number
1172 of the array named C<@foo>, in which case please write C<$foo[2]>, or you
118might have meant to pass an anonymous arrayref to the function named
119foo, and then do a scalar deref on the value it returns. If you meant
120that, write C<${foo([2])}>.
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121
122In regular expressions, the C<${foo[2]}> syntax is sometimes necessary
123to disambiguate between array subscripts and character classes.
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124C</$length[2345]/>, for instance, will be interpreted as C<$length> followed
125by the character class C<[2345]>. If an array subscript is what you
126want, you can avoid the warning by changing C</${length[2345]}/> to the
127unsightly C</${\$length[2345]}/>, by renaming your array to something
128that does not coincide with a built-in keyword, or by simply turning
129off warnings with C<no warnings 'ambiguous';>.
4da60377 130
bdac9d71 131=item Ambiguous use of -%s resolved as -&%s()
397d0f13 132
7c7af292 133(S ambiguous) You wrote something like C<-foo>, which might be the
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134string C<"-foo">, or a call to the function C<foo>, negated. If you meant
135the string, just write C<"-foo">. If you meant the function call,
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136write C<-foo()>.
137
6df41af2 138=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
a0d0e21e 139
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140(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
141redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
142redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
c9f97d15 143
6df41af2 144=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
1028017a 145
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146(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
147redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
148into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
149though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
150which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
1028017a 151
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152 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
153 while (<STDIN>) {
154 print;
155 print OUT;
156 }
157 close OUT;
c9f97d15 158
6df41af2 159=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
eb6e2d6f 160
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161(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
162transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
be771a83 163one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
ac036724 164a scalar value (the length of an array, or the population info of a
165hash) and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
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166you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
167alternatives.
eb6e2d6f 168
6df41af2 169=item Arg too short for msgsnd
76cd736e 170
6df41af2 171(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
76cd736e 172
b0fdf69e 173=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine
a0d0e21e 174
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175(F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element or a
176subroutine with an ampersand, such as:
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177
178 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 179 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
cc1c2e42 180 &do_something
a0d0e21e 181
8ea97a1e 182=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
5f05dabc 183
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184(F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
185such as:
5f05dabc 186
187 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 188 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
5f05dabc 189
8ea97a1e 190or a hash or array slice, such as:
5f05dabc 191
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192 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
193 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
5315574d 194
6df41af2 195=item %s argument is not a subroutine name
a0d0e21e 196
6df41af2 197(F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
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198name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
199error.
a0d0e21e 200
f86702cc 201=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 202
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203(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
204that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
205will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
a0d0e21e 206
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207=item Argument list not closed for PerlIO layer "%s"
208
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209(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O
210system you forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers
211take care of transforming data between external and internal
212representations.) Perl stopped parsing the layer list at this
213point and did not attempt to push this layer. If your program
214didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the
215result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
b4581f09 216
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217=item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
218
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219(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
220spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
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221
222=item assertion botched: %s
223
21b5e840 224(X) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
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225
226=item Assertion failed: file "%s"
227
21b5e840 228(X) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
a0d0e21e 229
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230=item Assigning non-zero to $[ is no longer possible
231
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232(F) When the "array_base" feature is disabled (e.g., under C<use v5.16;>)
233the special variable C<$[>, which is deprecated, is now a fixed zero value.
82122228 234
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235=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
236
237(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
238must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
239know which context to supply to the right side.
240
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241=item A thread exited while %d threads were running
242
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243(W threads)(S) When using threaded Perl, a thread (not necessarily
244the main thread) exited while there were still other threads running.
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245Usually it's a good idea first to collect the return values of the
246created threads by joining them, and only then to exit from the main
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247thread. See L<threads>.
248
2393f1b9 249=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
1b1f1335 250
49293501 251(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
2393f1b9 252the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
49293501 253
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254=item Attempt to bless into a reference
255
256(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
57dedab9 257the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
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258supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
259
260 bless $self, $proto;
261
262when you intended
263
264 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
265
266If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
267of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
268example by:
269
270 bless $self, "$proto";
271
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272=item Attempt to clear deleted array
273
274(S debugging) An array was assigned to when it was being freed.
275Freed values are not supposed to be visible to Perl code. This
276can also happen if XS code calls C<av_clear> from a custom magic
277callback on the array.
278
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279=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
280
281(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
282which is not in its key set.
283
284=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
285
286(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
287declared readonly from a restricted hash.
288
de42a5a9 289=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%x
a0d0e21e 290
f84fe999 291(S internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
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292that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
293outside any of those arenas.
a0d0e21e 294
12578ffb 295=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string '%s'%s
bbce6d69 296
f84fe999 297(S internal) Perl maintains a reference-counted internal table of
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298strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
299strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
300of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
bbce6d69 301
7d5b40b4 302=item Attempt to free temp prematurely: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 303
f84fe999 304(S debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
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305free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
306SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
307free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
308try to free it.
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309
310=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
311
f84fe999 312(S internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
a0d0e21e 313
7d5b40b4 314=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 315
8f7e4d2c 316(S internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
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317see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
318earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
319This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
320that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
321mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
322corrupted.
a0d0e21e 323
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324=item Attempt to join self
325
326(F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
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327impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
328to move the join() to some other thread.
dcdda58d 329
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330=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
331
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332(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
333function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
334means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
335invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
336literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
337avoid this warning.
84902520 338
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339=item Attempt to reload %s aborted.
340
341(F) You tried to load a file with C<use> or C<require> that failed to
342compile once already. Perl will not try to compile this file again
343unless you delete its entry from %INC. See L<perlfunc/require> and
344L<perlvar/%INC>.
345
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346=item Attempt to set length of freed array
347
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348(W misc) You tried to set the length of an array which has
349been freed. You can do this by storing a reference to the
350scalar representing the last index of an array and later
351assigning through that reference. For example
1b20cd17
NC
352
353 $r = do {my @a; \$#a};
354 $$r = 503
355
b7a902f4 356=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
357
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358(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
359used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
360dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 361
c32124fe
NC
362=item Attribute "locked" is deprecated
363
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364(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragma to modify the
365"locked" attribute on a code reference. The :locked attribute is
366obsolete, has had no effect since 5005 threads were removed, and
367will be removed in a future release of Perl 5.
c32124fe 368
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369=item Attribute "unique" is deprecated
370
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371(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragma to modify
372the "unique" attribute on an array, hash or scalar reference.
373The :unique attribute has had no effect since Perl 5.8.8, and
374will be removed in a future release of Perl 5.
f1a3ce43 375
ccce04a4
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376=item av_reify called on tied array
377
378(S debugging) This indicates that something went wrong and Perl got I<very>
379confused about C<@_> or C<@DB::args> being tied.
380
de42a5a9 381=item Bad arg length for %s, is %u, should be %d
a0d0e21e 382
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383(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
384or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 385S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
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386S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
387
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388=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
389
496a33f5 390(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
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391substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
392most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
393
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394=item Bad filehandle: %s
395
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396(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
397symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
398open(), or did it in another package.
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399
400=item Bad free() ignored
401
be771a83 402(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
fa816bf3 403been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 404setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 405
9ea8bc6d 406This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
6903afa2 407dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
be771a83 408which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 409
aa689395 410=item Bad hash
411
412(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
413
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414=item Badly placed ()'s
415
416(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
417of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
418Perl yourself.
419
a7cb8dae 420=item Bad name after %s
a0d0e21e 421
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422(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
423didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
424of quotes, so
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425
426 $var = 'myvar';
427 $sym = mypack::$var;
428
429is not the same as
430
431 $var = 'myvar';
432 $sym = "mypack::$var";
433
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434=item Bad plugin affecting keyword '%s'
435
436(F) An extension using the keyword plugin mechanism violated the
437plugin API.
438
4ad56ec9
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439=item Bad realloc() ignored
440
6903afa2
FC
441(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that
442had never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can
443be disabled by setting the environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 444
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445=item Bad symbol for array
446
447(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
448wasn't a symbol table entry.
449
4df3f177
SP
450=item Bad symbol for dirhandle
451
452(P) An internal request asked to add a dirhandle entry to something
453that wasn't a symbol table entry.
454
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455=item Bad symbol for filehandle
456
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457(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
458that wasn't a symbol table entry.
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459
460=item Bad symbol for hash
461
462(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
463wasn't a symbol table entry.
464
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465=item Bareword found in conditional
466
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467(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
468conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
469of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
34d09196
GS
470
471 open FOO || die;
472
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473It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
474a bareword:
34d09196
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475
476 use constant TYPO => 1;
477 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
478
479The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
480
6df41af2
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481=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
482
483(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
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484subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
485symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
6df41af2
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486
487=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
488
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489(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
490compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
491you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 492
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493=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
494
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495(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
496subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
497exited.
a0d0e21e 498
68dc0745 499=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
500
501(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
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502implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
503occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
504be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
505depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 506
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507=item \1 better written as $1
508
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509(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
510The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
511substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
512because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
513there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 514
252aa082
JH
515=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
516
e476b1b5 517(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
518(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
519L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 520
69282e91 521=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 522
be771a83
GS
523(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
524check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 525
c289d2f7
JH
526=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
527
528(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
4dcecea4 529Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 530
f866a7cd
FC
531=item "\b{" is deprecated; use "\b\{" instead
532
533=item "\B{" is deprecated; use "\B\{" instead
534
535(W deprecated, regexp) Use of an unescaped "{" immediately following a
536C<\b> or C<\B> is now deprecated so as to reserve its use for Perl
537itself in a future release.
538
c5a0f51a
JH
539=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
540
e476b1b5 541(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 542
043c750c 543=item Bizarre copy of %s
4633a7c4 544
be771a83 545(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
4dcecea4 546copiable.
4633a7c4 547
f675dbe5
CB
548=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
549
be771a83
GS
550(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
551iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
552which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 553
7fcfef4d
FC
554=item Bizarre SvTYPE [%d]
555
556(P) When starting a new thread or return values from a thread, Perl
557encountered an invalid data type.
558
a0d0e21e
LW
559=item Callback called exit
560
4929bf7b 561(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
a0d0e21e
LW
562exited by calling exit.
563
6df41af2 564=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 565
be771a83
GS
566(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
567parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
568that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
569early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
570subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
571checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
572function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
573the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 574
49704364 575=item Cannot compress integer in pack
0258719b
NC
576
577(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress. The BER
578compressed integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you
579attempted to compress Infinity or a very large number (> 1e308).
580See L<perlfunc/pack>.
581
49704364 582=item Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
0258719b
NC
583
584(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
585format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
586
5c1f4d79
NC
587=item Cannot convert a reference to %s to typeglob
588
6903afa2
FC
589(F) You manipulated Perl's symbol table directly, stored a reference
590in it, then tried to access that symbol via conventional Perl syntax.
591The access triggers Perl to autovivify that typeglob, but it there is
592no legal conversion from that type of reference to a typeglob.
5c1f4d79 593
4040665a 594=item Cannot copy to %s
ba2fdce6
NC
595
596(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy a value to an internal type that cannot
4dcecea4 597be directly assigned to.
ba2fdce6 598
b5d97229
RGS
599=item Cannot find encoding "%s"
600
601(S io) You tried to apply an encoding that did not exist to a filehandle,
602either with open() or binmode().
603
7355df7e
FC
604=item Cannot set tied @DB::args
605
606(F) C<caller> tried to set C<@DB::args>, but found it tied. Tying C<@DB::args>
607is not supported. (Before this error was added, it used to crash.)
608
ce65bc73
FC
609=item Cannot tie unreifiable array
610
611(P) You somehow managed to call C<tie> on an array that does not
612keep a reference count on its arguments and cannot be made to
613do so. Such arrays are not even supposed to be accessible to
614Perl code, but are only used internally.
615
96ebfdd7
RK
616=item Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
617
618(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
619integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
620to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
621
a0d0e21e
LW
622=item Can't bless non-reference value
623
624(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
625encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
626
dc57907a
RGS
627=item Can't "break" in a loop topicalizer
628
0d863452 629(F) You called C<break>, but you're in a C<foreach> block rather than
6903afa2 630a C<given> block. You probably meant to use C<next> or C<last>.
0d863452
RH
631
632=item Can't "break" outside a given block
dc57907a 633
0d863452
RH
634(F) You called C<break>, but you're not inside a C<given> block.
635
6df41af2
GS
636=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
637
638(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
639object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
640like this will reproduce the error:
6df41af2
GS
641
642 $BADREF = undef;
643 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
644 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
645
a0d0e21e
LW
646=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
647
54310121 648(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
be771a83
GS
649ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
650didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
651object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
652
653=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
654
655(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
656object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
657defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
72b5445b
GS
658Something like this will reproduce the error:
659
660 $BADREF = 42;
661 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
662 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
663
a0d0e21e
LW
664=item Can't chdir to %s
665
666(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
667that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
668
0545a864 669=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
104d25b7 670
be771a83
GS
671(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
672nosuid.
104d25b7 673
22e74366 674=item Can't coerce %s to %s in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
675
676(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 677(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
a0d0e21e
LW
678say things like:
679
680 *foo += 1;
681
682You CAN say
683
684 $foo = *foo;
685 $foo += 1;
686
687but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
688
0d863452 689=item Can't "continue" outside a when block
dc57907a 690
0d863452
RH
691(F) You called C<continue>, but you're not inside a C<when>
692or C<default> block.
693
a0d0e21e
LW
694=item Can't create pipe mailbox
695
be771a83
GS
696(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
697quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 698
eb64745e
GS
699=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
700
30c282f6
NC
701(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my", "our" or
702"state" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 703
fc7debfb
FC
704=item Can't "default" outside a topicalizer
705
706(F) You have used a C<default> block that is neither inside a
707C<foreach> loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is
708issued on exit from the C<default> block, so you won't get the
709error if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
710
6df41af2
GS
711=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
712
be771a83
GS
713(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
714a file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
6df41af2 715
a0d0e21e
LW
716=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
717
be771a83
GS
718(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
719reason.
a0d0e21e 720
54310121 721=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
a0d0e21e 722
be771a83
GS
723(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
724reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
725C<-i.bak>, or some such.
a0d0e21e 726
10f9c03d 727=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
a0d0e21e 728
e476b1b5 729(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
10f9c03d
CK
730characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
731inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
a0d0e21e 732
a0d0e21e
LW
733=item Can't do waitpid with flags
734
be771a83
GS
735(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
736waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 737
a0d0e21e
LW
738=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
739
be771a83
GS
740(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
741point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
742line.
a0d0e21e 743
1109a392
MHM
744=item Can't %s %s-endian %ss on this platform
745
746(F) Your platform's byte-order is neither big-endian nor little-endian,
747or it has a very strange pointer size. Packing and unpacking big- or
748little-endian floating point values and pointers may not be possible.
749See L<perlfunc/pack>.
750
a0d0e21e
LW
751=item Can't exec "%s": %s
752
d1be9408 753(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
754named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
755permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
756C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
757architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
758can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
759#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
760
761=item Can't exec %s
762
be771a83
GS
763(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
764that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
765need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
766
767=item Can't execute %s
768
be771a83
GS
769(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
770found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 771
6df41af2 772=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 773
be771a83
GS
774(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
775is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2 776
56ca2fc0
JH
777=item Can't find %s character property "%s"
778
779(F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
6903afa2 780could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property?
e1b711da
KW
781See L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
782for a complete list of available properties.
56ca2fc0 783
6df41af2
GS
784=item Can't find label %s
785
be771a83
GS
786(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
787possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
788
789=item Can't find %s on PATH
790
be771a83
GS
791(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
792found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 793
6df41af2 794=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 795
be771a83
GS
796(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
797found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
798script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e
LW
799
800=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
801
be771a83
GS
802(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
803that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
804nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 805
fb73857a 806 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
807
97b3d10f 808If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have
b6b8cb97
FC
809included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag or there
810may not be a linebreak after it. A good programmer's editor will have
811a way to help you find these characters (or lack of characters). See
812L<perlop> for the full details on here-documents.
a0d0e21e 813
660a4616
TS
814=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s"
815
5f8ad6b6
FC
816(F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode
817property (for example C<\p{Lu}> matches all uppercase
fa816bf3 818letters). If you did mean to use a Unicode property, see
e1b711da 819L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
6903afa2 820for a complete list of available properties. If you didn't
fa816bf3
FC
821mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either by
822C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, or
5f8ad6b6 823until C<\E>).
660a4616 824
b3647a36 825=item Can't fork: %s
a0d0e21e 826
be771a83
GS
827(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
828pipeline.
a0d0e21e 829
b3647a36
SR
830=item Can't fork, trying again in 5 seconds
831
c973c02e 832(W pipe) A fork in a piped open failed with EAGAIN and will be retried
b3647a36
SR
833after five seconds.
834
748a9306
LW
835=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
836
be771a83
GS
837(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
838between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
839Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
840the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
841account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
842the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
2fe2bdfd 843the access-checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
be771a83
GS
844the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
845if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
846because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
2fe2bdfd
FC
847appears, the name lookup failed, and the access-checking routine gave up
848and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access-checking
be771a83
GS
849routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
850shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
851only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 852
a0d0e21e
LW
853=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
854
be771a83
GS
855(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
856pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
857
858=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
859
748a9306
LW
860(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
861mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 862
6df41af2 863=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 864
be771a83
GS
865(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
866loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
867
868=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
869
be771a83
GS
870(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
871a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
872you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
873See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 874
9850bf21 875=item Can't goto subroutine from a sort sub (or similar callback)
cd299c6e 876
9850bf21
RH
877(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of the
878comparison sub for a sort(), or from a similar callback (such
879as the reduce() function in List::Util).
880
c74ace89 881=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-%s
b150fb22 882
be771a83 883(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
c74ace89 884"string" or block.
b150fb22 885
6df41af2
GS
886=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
887
be771a83
GS
888(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
889subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
890cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
891routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 892
0b5b802d
GS
893=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
894
be771a83
GS
895(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
896signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
897signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
898processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
899situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
900may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 901
e2c0f81f
DG
902=item Can't kill a non-numeric process ID
903
904(F) Process identifiers must be (signed) integers. It is a fatal error to
905attempt to kill() an undefined, empty-string or otherwise non-numeric
906process identifier.
907
6df41af2 908=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 909
6df41af2 910(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
911except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
912block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
913block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
914usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
915inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
916L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 917
2c7d6b9c
RGS
918=item Can't linearize anonymous symbol table
919
920(F) Perl tried to calculate the method resolution order (MRO) of a
921package, but failed because the package stash has no name.
922
b8170e59
JB
923=item Can't load '%s' for module %s
924
6903afa2
FC
925(F) The module you tried to load failed to load a dynamic extension.
926This may either mean that you upgraded your version of perl to one
927that is incompatible with your old dynamic extensions (which is known
928to happen between major versions of perl), or (more likely) that your
929dynamic extension was built against an older version of the library
930that is installed on your system. You may need to rebuild your old
931dynamic extensions.
b8170e59 932
748a9306
LW
933=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
934
2ba9eb46 935(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
b7e4ecc1
FC
936lexical variable using "my" or "state". This is not allowed. If you
937want to localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with
938the package name.
748a9306 939
6df41af2 940=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 941
6df41af2
GS
942(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
943handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 944pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 945that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 946
ea071790 947=item Can't locate %s
ec889f3a 948
fa816bf3
FC
949(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be found.
950Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC, unless
951the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you need
952to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where the
953extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
be771a83
GS
954to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
955L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 956
6df41af2
GS
957=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
958
be771a83
GS
959(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
960autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
961are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
962the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 963
b8170e59
JB
964=item Can't locate loadable object for module %s in @INC
965
966(F) The module you loaded is trying to load an external library, like
d70d8e57 967for example, F<foo.so> or F<bar.dll>, but the L<DynaLoader> module was
b8170e59
JB
968unable to locate this library. See L<DynaLoader>.
969
a0d0e21e
LW
970=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
971
972(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
973functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 974method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
975
976=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
977
be771a83
GS
978(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
979doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 980
2f7da168
RK
981=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
982
983(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
984e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
985
f4ad53f4 986=item Can't make list assignment to %ENV on this system
3e3baf6d 987
be771a83
GS
988(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
989VMS.
3e3baf6d 990
a0d0e21e
LW
991=item Can't modify %s in %s
992
be771a83
GS
993(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
994to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 995
54310121 996=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
a0d0e21e
LW
997
998(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
999a NULL.
1000
6df41af2
GS
1001=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
1002
1003(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
2fe2bdfd 1004such. See L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
6df41af2 1005
5f05dabc 1006=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 1007
5f05dabc 1008(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
1009buffer.
1010
6df41af2
GS
1011=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
1012
1013(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
1014there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
1015count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
1016grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1017though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
1018once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 1019
46fa9b26
FC
1020=item Can't open %s
1021
1022(F) You tried to run a perl built with MAD support with
1023the PERL_XMLDUMP environment variable set, but the file
1024named by that variable could not be opened.
1025
a0d0e21e
LW
1026=item Can't open %s: %s
1027
c47ff5f1 1028(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e 1029filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
46fa9b26
FC
1030switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually
1031this is because you don't have read permission for a file which
1032you named on the command line.
1033
1034(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-e> switch, but F</dev/null> (or
1035your operating system's equivalent) could not be opened.
a0d0e21e 1036
9a869a14
RGS
1037=item Can't open a reference
1038
1039(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
2fe2bdfd 1040using the 3-arg open() syntax:
9a869a14
RGS
1041
1042 open FH, '>', $ref;
1043
1044but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
1045open is not supported.
1046
a0d0e21e
LW
1047=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
1048
be771a83
GS
1049(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
1050You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
1051as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
1052">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 1053
748a9306
LW
1054=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
1055
be771a83
GS
1056(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1057redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
1058the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1059
1060=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
1061
be771a83
GS
1062(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1063redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
1064command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
1065
1066=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
1067
be771a83
GS
1068(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1069redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
1070the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1071
1072=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
1073
be771a83
GS
1074(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1075redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
1076for stdout.
748a9306 1077
3b1cf97d 1078=item Can't open perl script "%s": %s
a0d0e21e
LW
1079
1080(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
1081
fa3aa65a
JC
1082If you're debugging a script that uses #!, and normally relies on the
1083shell's $PATH search, the -S option causes perl to do that search, so
1084you don't have to type the path or C<`which $scriptname`>.
1085
6df41af2
GS
1086=item Can't read CRTL environ
1087
1088(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
1089from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
1090missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
1091or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
1092searched.
6df41af2 1093
6df41af2
GS
1094=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
1095
1096(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
1097there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
1098count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
1099or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1100though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
1101loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
1102
64977eb6 1103=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 1104
be771a83
GS
1105(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
1106file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
1107the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 1108
a0d0e21e
LW
1109=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
1110
e476b1b5 1111(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
10f9c03d 1112probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
a0d0e21e 1113
748a9306
LW
1114=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
1115
be771a83
GS
1116(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
1117to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 1118
4f12ec0e
FC
1119=item Can't reset %ENV on this system
1120
1121(F) You called C<reset('E')> or similar, which tried to reset
1122all variables in the current package beginning with "E". In
1123the main package, that includes %ENV. Resetting %ENV is not
1124supported on some systems, notably VMS.
1125
fe13d51d 1126=item Can't resolve method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
6df41af2 1127
1fa582fa
FC
1128(F)(P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as
1129opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the
1130package. If the method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 1131
cd06dffe
GS
1132=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
1133
be771a83
GS
1134(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
1135temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
1136is not allowed.
cd06dffe 1137
96ebfdd7
RK
1138=item Can't return outside a subroutine
1139
1140(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1141there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1142
78f9721b
SM
1143=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
1144
6903afa2
FC
1145(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue
1146subroutine, but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl
1147think you meant to return only one value. You probably meant to
1148write parentheses around the call to the subroutine, which tell
1149Perl that the call should be in list context.
78f9721b 1150
a0d0e21e
LW
1151=item Can't stat script "%s"
1152
be771a83
GS
1153(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1154open already. Bizarre.
a0d0e21e 1155
a0d0e21e
LW
1156=item Can't take log of %g
1157
fb73857a 1158(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
6903afa2 1159negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
1160standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1161negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
1162
1163=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1164
1165(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 1166negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1167with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
1168
1169=item Can't undef active subroutine
1170
1171(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1172however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1173redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1174
c81225bc 1175=item Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d
a0d0e21e 1176
be771a83
GS
1177(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1178into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1179specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1180indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e 1181
6651ba0b
FC
1182=item Can't use '%c' after -mname
1183
1184(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-m> switch, but you put something
1185other than "=" after the module name.
1186
1db89ea5
BS
1187=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1188
e27ad1f2 1189(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1db89ea5
BS
1190table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1191for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1192
96ebfdd7
RK
1193=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1194
1195(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1196be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1197
6df41af2
GS
1198=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1199
be771a83
GS
1200(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1201references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1202
90b75b61 1203=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63 1204
20561843 1205(F) The first time the C<%!> hash is used, perl automatically loads the
6903afa2 1206Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1d2dff63
GS
1207provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1208
1109a392
MHM
1209=item Can't use both '<' and '>' after type '%c' in %s
1210
1211(F) A type cannot be forced to have both big-endian and little-endian
1212byte-order at the same time, so this combination of modifiers is not
1213allowed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1214
6df41af2
GS
1215=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1216
be771a83
GS
1217(F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1218foreach.
6df41af2 1219
aab6a793 1220=item Can't use global %s in "%s"
6df41af2 1221
be771a83
GS
1222(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1223is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1224(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1225have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1226weren't.
1227
6d3b25aa
RGS
1228=item Can't use '%c' in a group with different byte-order in %s
1229
1230(F) You attempted to force a different byte-order on a type
1231that is already inside a group with a byte-order modifier.
1232For example you cannot force little-endianness on a type that
1233is inside a big-endian group.
1234
c07a80fd 1235=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1236
1237(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1238You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1239and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1240Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1241lexical variable.
1242
a0d0e21e
LW
1243=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1244
1245(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1246reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1247test the type of the reference, if need be.
1248
748a9306 1249=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1250
b41bf23f
FC
1251(F) You've told Perl to dereference a string, something which
1252C<use strict> blocks to prevent it happening accidentally. See
1253L<perlref/"Symbolic references">. This can be triggered by an C<@> or C<$>
1254in a double-quoted string immediately before interpolating a variable,
1255for example in C<"user @$twitter_id">, which says to treat the contents
1256of C<$twitter_id> as an array reference; use a C<\> to have a literal C<@>
1257symbol followed by the contents of C<$twitter_id>: C<"user \@$twitter_id">.
a0d0e21e 1258
748a9306
LW
1259=item Can't use subscript on %s
1260
1261(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1262subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
209e7cf1 1263didn't look like a hash or array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
748a9306 1264
6df41af2
GS
1265=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1266
75b44862
GS
1267(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1268creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1269backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1270expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1271value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1272instead.
6df41af2 1273
810b8aa5
GS
1274=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1275
1276(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1277references can be weakened.
1278
fc7debfb
FC
1279=item Can't "when" outside a topicalizer
1280
1281(F) You have used a when() block that is neither inside a C<foreach>
1282loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is issued on exit
1283from the C<when> block, so you won't get the error if the match fails,
1284or if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
1285
5f05dabc 1286=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1287
be771a83
GS
1288(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1289with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1290Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1291
4a68bf9d 1292=item Character following "\c" must be ASCII
f9d13529 1293
1fa582fa 1294(F)(W deprecated, syntax) In C<\cI<X>>, I<X> must be an ASCII character.
79ef86ee 1295It is planned to make this fatal in all instances in Perl 5.18. In the
17a3df4c
KW
1296cases where it isn't fatal, the character this evaluates to is
1297derived by exclusive or'ing the code point of this character with 0x40.
1298
1299Note that non-alphabetic ASCII characters are discouraged here as well.
f9d13529 1300
f337b084 1301=item Character in 'C' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1302
1303(W pack) You said
1304
1305 pack("C", $x)
1306
1307where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1308only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1309and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1310
1311 pack("C", $x & 255)
1312
1313If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1314instead.
1315
f337b084
TH
1316=item Character in 'W' format wrapped in pack
1317
1318(W pack) You said
1319
1320 pack("U0W", $x)
1321
6903afa2
FC
1322where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255. However, C<U0>-mode
1323expects all values to fall in the interval [0, 255], so Perl behaved
1324as if you meant:
f337b084
TH
1325
1326 pack("U0W", $x & 255)
1327
1328=item Character in 'c' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1329
1330(W pack) You said
1331
1332 pack("c", $x)
1333
1334where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1335is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1336and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1337
1338 pack("c", $x & 255);
1339
1340If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1341instead.
1342
f337b084
TH
1343=item Character in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1344
1345(W unpack) You tried something like
1346
1347 unpack("H", "\x{2a1}")
1348
1a147d38 1349where the format expects to process a byte (a character with a value
6903afa2
FC
1350below 256), but a higher value was provided instead. Perl uses the
1351value modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
f337b084
TH
1352
1353 unpack("H", "\x{a1}")
1354
1355=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in pack
1356
1357(W pack) You tried something like
1358
1359 pack("u", "\x{1f3}b")
1360
1a147d38 1361where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1362value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1363uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1364
1365 pack("u", "\x{f3}b")
1366
1367=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1368
1369(W unpack) You tried something like
1370
1371 unpack("s", "\x{1f3}b")
1372
1a147d38 1373where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1374value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1375uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1376
1377 unpack("s", "\x{f3}b")
1378
f866a7cd
FC
1379=item "\c{" is deprecated and is more clearly written as ";"
1380
1381(D deprecated, syntax) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a way
1382to specify non-printable characters. You used it with a "{" which
1383evaluates to ";", which is printable. It is planned to remove the
79ef86ee 1384ability to specify a semi-colon this way in Perl 5.18. Just use a
f866a7cd
FC
1385semi-colon or a backslash-semi-colon without the "\c".
1386
1387=item "\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"
1388
1389(W syntax) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a way to specify
1390non-printable characters. You used it for a printable one, which is better
1391written as simply itself, perhaps preceded by a backslash for non-word
1392characters.
1393
6651ba0b
FC
1394=item Cloning substitution context is unimplemented
1395
1396(F) Creating a new thread inside the C<s///> operator is not supported.
1397
96ebfdd7
RK
1398=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1399
1400(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1401
abc7ecad
SP
1402=item closedir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
1403
1404(W io) The dirhandle you tried to close is either closed or not really
1405a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
1406
541ed3a9
FC
1407=item Closure prototype called
1408
1409(F) If a closure has attributes, the subroutine passed to an attribute
1410handler is the prototype that is cloned when a new closure is created.
1411This subroutine cannot be called.
1412
49704364
WL
1413=item Code missing after '/'
1414
6903afa2
FC
1415(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be
1416another template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 1417
0876b9a0
KW
1418=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, may not be portable
1419
c634fdd3 1420=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, all \p{} matches fail; all \P{} matches succeed
9ae3ac1a 1421
e2f4a215 1422(S utf8, non_unicode) You had a code point above the Unicode maximum
1b64326b
FC
1423of U+10FFFF.
1424
1425Perl allows strings to contain a superset of Unicode code points, up
1426to the limit of what is storable in an unsigned integer on your system,
1427but these may not be accepted by other languages/systems. At one time,
1428it was legal in some standards to have code points up to 0x7FFF_FFFF,
1429but not higher. Code points above 0xFFFF_FFFF require larger than a
143032 bit word.
0876b9a0 1431
9ae3ac1a
KW
1432None of the Unicode or Perl-defined properties will match a non-Unicode
1433code point. For example,
1434
1435 chr(0x7FF_FFFF) =~ /\p{Any}/
1436
1437will not match, because the code point is not in Unicode. But
1438
1439 chr(0x7FF_FFFF) =~ /\P{Any}/
1440
1441will match.
1442
94b42e47
KW
1443This may be counterintuitive at times, as both these fail:
1444
f9d4ccdc
FC
1445 chr(0x110000) =~ /\p{ASCII_Hex_Digit=True}/ # Fails.
1446 chr(0x110000) =~ /\p{ASCII_Hex_Digit=False}/ # Also fails!
94b42e47
KW
1447
1448and both these succeed:
1449
f9d4ccdc
FC
1450 chr(0x110000) =~ /\P{ASCII_Hex_Digit=True}/ # Succeeds.
1451 chr(0x110000) =~ /\P{ASCII_Hex_Digit=False}/ # Also succeeds!
94b42e47 1452
6df41af2
GS
1453=item %s: Command not found
1454
a892b81a
FC
1455(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> or another shell
1456shell instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script
1457into Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
8f721816
MM
1458
1459 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
6df41af2 1460
7a2e2cd6 1461=item Compilation failed in require
1462
1463(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1464Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1465encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1466
c3464db5
DD
1467=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1468
be771a83
GS
1469(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1470situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1471to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1472arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1473recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1474under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1475in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1476that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1477on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1478
38875929
DM
1479=item cond_broadcast() called on unlocked variable
1480
6903afa2
FC
1481(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to
1482call cond_broadcast() on a variable which wasn't locked.
1483The cond_broadcast() function is used to wake up another thread
1484that is waiting in a cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't
1485sent before the other thread has a chance to enter the wait, it
1486is usual for the signaling thread first to wait for a lock on
1487variable. This lock attempt will only succeed after the other
1488thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the lock.
38875929 1489
38875929
DM
1490=item cond_signal() called on unlocked variable
1491
6903afa2
FC
1492(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to
1493call cond_signal() on a variable which wasn't locked. The
1494cond_signal() function is used to wake up another thread that
1495is waiting in a cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't
1496sent before the other thread has a chance to enter the wait, it
1497is usual for the signaling thread first to wait for a lock on
1498variable. This lock attempt will only succeed after the other
1499thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the lock.
38875929 1500
69282e91 1501=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1502
be771a83
GS
1503(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1504to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1505L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1506
41ab332f 1507=item Constant(%s)%s: %s
6df41af2 1508
be771a83
GS
1509(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1510an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1511specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
fbb93542 1512corresponding L<overload> pragma?.
6df41af2 1513
fc8cd66c
YO
1514=item Constant(%s)%s: %s in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1515
1a147d38 1516(F) The parser found inconsistencies while attempting to find
fbb93542 1517the character name specified in the C<\N{...}> escape.
fc8cd66c 1518
779c5bc9
GS
1519=item Constant is not %s reference
1520
1521(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83 1522is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
6903afa2 1523The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
be771a83 1524usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1525See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1526
4cee8e80
CS
1527=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1528
aeb94125
FC
1529(W redefine)(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously
1530been eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions">
1531for commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1532
9607fc9c 1533=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1534
be771a83
GS
1535(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1536for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1537workarounds.
9607fc9c 1538
e7ea3e70
IZ
1539=item Copy method did not return a reference
1540
6903afa2 1541(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1542L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1543
4aaa4757
FC
1544=item &CORE::%s cannot be called directly
1545
1546(F) You tried to call a subroutine in the C<CORE::> namespace
8d605c0d 1547with C<&foo> syntax or through a reference. Some subroutines
4aaa4757
FC
1548in this package cannot yet be called that way, but must be
1549called as barewords. Something like this will work:
1550
1551 BEGIN { *shove = \&CORE::push; }
1552 shove @array, 1,2,3; # pushes on to @array
1553
6798c92b
GS
1554=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1555
1556(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1557
a0d0e21e
LW
1558=item corrupted regexp pointers
1559
1560(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1561expression compiler gave it.
1562
1563=item corrupted regexp program
1564
be771a83
GS
1565(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1566valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1567
de42a5a9 1568=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%x at 0x%x
6df41af2
GS
1569
1570(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1571
49704364
WL
1572=item Count after length/code in unpack
1573
1574(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1575you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1576L<perlfunc/pack>.
1577
6651ba0b
FC
1578=item Deep recursion on anonymous subroutine
1579
a0d0e21e
LW
1580=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1581
be771a83
GS
1582(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1583100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1584infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1585which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1586
aad1d01f
NC
1587This threshold can be changed from 100, by recompiling the F<perl> binary,
1588setting the C pre-processor macro C<PERL_SUB_DEPTH_WARN> to the desired value.
1589
f10b0346 1590=item defined(@array) is deprecated
69794302 1591
be771a83
GS
1592(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1593checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
64977eb6 1594array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1595
f10b0346 1596=item defined(%hash) is deprecated
69794302 1597
f0ec9725
KR
1598(D deprecated) C<defined()> is not usually right on hashes and has been
1599discouraged since 5.004.
1600
1601Although C<defined %hash> is false on a plain not-yet-used hash, it
1602becomes true in several non-obvious circumstances, including iterators,
1603weak references, stash names, even remaining true after C<undef %hash>.
1604These things make C<defined %hash> fairly useless in practice.
1605
1606If a check for non-empty is what you wanted then just put it in boolean
1607context (see L<perldata/Scalar values>):
16546e45
KR
1608
1609 if (%hash) {
1610 # not empty
1611 }
1612
f0ec9725
KR
1613If you had C<defined %Foo::Bar::QUUX> to check whether such a package
1614variable exists then that's never really been reliable, and isn't
1615a good way to enquire about the features of a package, or whether
1616it's loaded, etc.
1617
69794302 1618
bcb95744
FC
1619=item (?(DEFINE)....) does not allow branches in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1620
6903afa2 1621(F) You used something like C<(?(DEFINE)...|..)> which is illegal. The
bcb95744
FC
1622most likely cause of this error is that you left out a parenthesis inside
1623of the C<....> part.
1624
1625The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1626discovered.
1627
62658f4d
PM
1628=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1629
1630(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1631there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1632
fc36a67e 1633=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1634
be771a83
GS
1635(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1636long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1637that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 1638
4a68bf9d 1639=item Deprecated character in \N{...}; marked by <-- HERE in \N{%s<-- HERE %s
cb233ae3
KW
1640
1641(D deprecated) Just about anything is legal for the C<...> in C<\N{...}>.
5fca8acb
FC
1642But starting in 5.12, non-reasonable ones that don't look like names
1643are deprecated. A reasonable name begins with an alphabetic character
1644and continues with any combination of alphanumerics, dashes, spaces,
1645parentheses or colons.
cb233ae3 1646
6d3b25aa
RGS
1647=item Deprecated use of my() in false conditional
1648
fa816bf3
FC
1649(D deprecated) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>. There
1650has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
6d3b25aa 1651not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
6903afa2 1652conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
fa816bf3 1653static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
6903afa2 1654relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
6d3b25aa 1655declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
36fb85f3 1656
6d3b25aa
RGS
1657 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
1658
1659becomes
1660
1661 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
1662
fa816bf3
FC
1663Beginning with perl 5.9.4, you can also use C<state> variables to have
1664lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
36fb85f3
RGS
1665
1666 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
1667
500ab966
RGS
1668=item DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
1669
1670(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
6903afa2
FC
1671just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather
1672than to create a dangling reference.
500ab966 1673
3cdd684c
TP
1674=item Did not produce a valid header
1675
1676See Server error.
1677
6df41af2
GS
1678=item %s did not return a true value
1679
1680(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1681it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1682traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1683do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1684
cc507455 1685=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 1686
413ff9f6
FC
1687(W misc) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or
1688some such.
4633a7c4 1689
cc507455 1690=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 1691
be771a83
GS
1692(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1693variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1694seems superfluous.
33633739 1695
cc507455 1696=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 1697
be771a83
GS
1698(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1699@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1700carried away.
748a9306 1701
7e1af8bc 1702=item Died
5f05dabc 1703
1704(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
075b00aa 1705you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 1706
3cdd684c
TP
1707=item Document contains no data
1708
1709See Server error.
1710
62658f4d
PM
1711=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1712
1713(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1714define a C<$VERSION.>
1715
49704364
WL
1716=item '/' does not take a repeat count
1717
1718(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
1719See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1720
a0d0e21e
LW
1721=item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1722
1723(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1724
1725=item do_study: out of memory
1726
1727(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1728
6df41af2
GS
1729=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1730
56da5a46
RGS
1731(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
1732"%s found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
6df41af2
GS
1733name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1734because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
1735"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1736something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1737subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1738"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 1739
ac206dc8
RGS
1740=item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1741
1742(W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1743qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1744
84d78eb7
YO
1745=item dump is not supported
1746
1747(F) Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.
1748
a0d0e21e
LW
1749=item Duplicate free() ignored
1750
be771a83
GS
1751(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1752already been freed.
a0d0e21e 1753
1109a392
MHM
1754=item Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
1755
35f0cd76
FC
1756(W unpack) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a
1757type in a pack template. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1109a392 1758
4633a7c4
LW
1759=item elseif should be elsif
1760
fa816bf3
FC
1761(S syntax) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks
1762it's ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method
1763named "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
1764unlikely to be what you want.
1765
ab13f0c7
JH
1766=item Empty %s
1767
af6f566e 1768(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
6903afa2 1769described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
af6f566e 1770a regular expression without specifying the property name.
ab13f0c7 1771
85ab1d1d 1772=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 1773
85ab1d1d 1774(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
1775effective uids or gids failed.
1776
c038024b
RGS
1777=item %ENV is aliased to %s
1778
1779(F) You're running under taint mode, and the C<%ENV> variable has been
1780aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
6903afa2 1781program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
c038024b 1782
748a9306
LW
1783=item Error converting file specification %s
1784
5f05dabc 1785(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 1786specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
1787single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1788an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1789conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 1790
ad19ef22 1791=item Eval-group in insecure regular expression
e4d48cc9 1792
be771a83
GS
1793(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1794expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1795is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 1796
ad19ef22 1797=item Eval-group not allowed at runtime, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
e4d48cc9 1798
be771a83
GS
1799(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1800C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
f11307f5
FC
1801pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk,
1802it is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by using the
1803C<re 'eval'> pragma or by explicitly building the pattern from an
1804interpolated string at run time and using that in an eval(). See
1805L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 1806
ad19ef22 1807=item Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
6df41af2 1808
be771a83
GS
1809(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1810assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1811pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 1812
1a147d38
YO
1813=item EVAL without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1814
1815(F) You used a pattern that nested too many EVAL calls without consuming
6903afa2 1816any text. Restructure the pattern so that text is consumed.
1a147d38
YO
1817
1818The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1819discovered.
1820
fc36a67e 1821=item Excessively long <> operator
1822
1823(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1824Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1825filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1826variable and glob that.
1827
ed9aa3b7
SG
1828=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1829
af8bb25a 1830(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented on some systems, e.g., Symbian
6903afa2 1831OS. See L<perlport>.
ed9aa3b7 1832
fe13d51d 1833=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors.
a0d0e21e
LW
1834
1835(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1836
1837=item Exiting eval via %s
1838
be771a83
GS
1839(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1840goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
1841
1842=item Exiting format via %s
1843
9a2ff54b 1844(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 1845goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1846
0a753a76 1847=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1848
be771a83
GS
1849(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1850sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1851loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 1852
a0d0e21e
LW
1853=item Exiting subroutine via %s
1854
be771a83
GS
1855(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1856as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
1857
1858=item Exiting substitution via %s
1859
be771a83
GS
1860(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1861as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1862
e7d0b801
FC
1863=item Experimental "%s" subs not enabled
1864
1865(F) To use lexical subs, you must first enable them:
1866
f1d34ca8 1867 no warnings 'experimental::lexical_subs';
e7d0b801
FC
1868 use feature 'lexical_subs';
1869 my sub foo { ... }
1870
7b8d334a
GS
1871=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1872
be771a83
GS
1873(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1874the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1875usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1876e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 1877
6df41af2
GS
1878=item %s: Expression syntax
1879
be771a83
GS
1880(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1881Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
1882
1883=item %s failed--call queue aborted
1884
3c10abe3
AG
1885(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a UNITCHECK,
1886CHECK, INIT, or END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the
1887queue of such routines has been prematurely ended.
6df41af2 1888
7253e4e3 1889=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
73b437c8 1890
be771a83 1891(W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3
RK
1892character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1893in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1894"-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1895problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 1896
1b1ee2ef 1897=item Fatal VMS error (status=%d) at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 1898
be771a83
GS
1899(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1900system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1901details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1902you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
1903
1904=item fcntl is not implemented
1905
1906(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1907PDP-11 or something?
1908
22846ab4
AB
1909=item FETCHSIZE returned a negative value
1910
1911(F) A tied array claimed to have a negative number of elements, which
1912is not possible.
1913
f337b084
TH
1914=item Field too wide in 'u' format in pack
1915
1916(W pack) Each line in an uuencoded string start with a length indicator
6903afa2
FC
1917which can't encode values above 63. So there is no point in asking for
1918a line length bigger than that. Perl will behave as if you specified
5c96f6f7 1919C<u63> as the format.
f337b084 1920
af8c498a 1921=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 1922
6c8d78fb
HS
1923(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
1924it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
1925"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
1926write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 1927
af8c498a 1928=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 1929
6c8d78fb
HS
1930(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
1931you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
89a1bda8
FC
1932with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with ">". If you intended only to
1933read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>. Another possibility
1934is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0 (also known as STDIN) for
1935output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
97828cef
RGS
1936
1937=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
1938
1939(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
6903afa2 1940as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
97828cef
RGS
1941previously.
1942
1943=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
1944
1945(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
fa816bf3 1946as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
1947
1948=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1949
1950(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
1951a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1952happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1953name.
a0d0e21e 1954
56e90b21
GS
1955=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1956
be771a83 1957(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 1958some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
1959filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1960same name?
56e90b21 1961
6df41af2
GS
1962=item Format not terminated
1963
1964(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1965to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1966
a0d0e21e
LW
1967=item Format %s redefined
1968
e476b1b5 1969(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
1970
1971 {
271595cc 1972 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
1973 eval "format NAME =...";
1974 }
1975
a0d0e21e
LW
1976=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1977
e476b1b5 1978(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
1979
1980 if ($foo = 123)
1981
1982when you meant
1983
1984 if ($foo == 123)
1985
1986(or something like that).
1987
6df41af2
GS
1988=item %s found where operator expected
1989
56da5a46
RGS
1990(S syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator.
1991If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
be771a83
GS
1992operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
1993operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 1994
a0d0e21e
LW
1995=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1996
1997(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1998
1999=item gethostent not implemented
2000
2001(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
2002because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
2003on the Internet.
2004
69282e91 2005=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2006
be771a83
GS
2007(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
2008socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 2009
748a9306
LW
2010=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
2011
2012(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
2013C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
2014
6df41af2
GS
2015=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
2016
be771a83
GS
2017(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
2018forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
2019L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
2020
2021=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
2022
a4edf47d 2023(F) You've said "use strict" or "use strict vars", which indicates
30c282f6 2024that all variables must either be lexically scoped (using "my" or "state"),
a4edf47d
GS
2025declared beforehand using "our", or explicitly qualified to say
2026which package the global variable is in (using "::").
6df41af2 2027
e476b1b5
GS
2028=item glob failed (%s)
2029
5ead438e 2030(S glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used
73c4e9dc
FC
2031for C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a C<glob>
2032pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
be771a83 2033nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
73c4e9dc
FC
2034resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell)
2035is broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables
2036in config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as
2037if it were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them
2038all empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
be771a83 2039think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 2040C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 2041
a0d0e21e
LW
2042=item Glob not terminated
2043
2044(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
2045a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
2046not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
2047earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 2048
bcd05b94 2049=item gmtime(%f) too large
8b56d6ff 2050
e9200be3 2051(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was larger than
fc003d4b 2052it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong
6903afa2 2053date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
fc003d4b
MS
2054not-a-number value).
2055
bcd05b94 2056=item gmtime(%f) too small
fc003d4b 2057
e9200be3 2058(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was smaller than
e7a1a147 2059it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong date.
8b56d6ff 2060
6df41af2 2061=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 2062
6df41af2
GS
2063(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
2064version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
2065
2066=item goto must have label
2067
2068(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
2069unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2070
6651ba0b
FC
2071=item Goto undefined subroutine%s
2072
2073(F) You tried to call a subroutine with C<goto &sub> syntax, but
2074the indicated subroutine hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
2075has since been undefined.
2076
49704364 2077=item ()-group starts with a count
18529408 2078
bca4a986
FC
2079(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is supposed to follow
2080something: a template character or a ()-group. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
18529408 2081
1f4f6bf1
YO
2082=item Group name must start with a non-digit word character in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2083
2084(F) Group names must follow the rules for perl identifiers, meaning
2085they must start with a non-digit word character. A common cause of
2086this error is using (?&0) instead of (?0). See L<perlre>.
2087
fe13d51d 2088=item %s had compilation errors.
6df41af2
GS
2089
2090(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
2091
a0d0e21e
LW
2092=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
2093
be771a83
GS
2094(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
2095to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
2096created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e
LW
2097
2098=item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
2099
be771a83
GS
2100(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
2101spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
a0d0e21e 2102
6df41af2
GS
2103=item %s has too many errors
2104
2105(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
2106Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
2107
252aa082
JH
2108=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
2109
e476b1b5 2110(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
2111(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2112L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 2113
82f96200
JL
2114=item -i used with no filenames on the command line, reading from STDIN
2115
2116(S inplace) The C<-i> option was passed on the command line, indicating
2117that the script is intended to edit files inplace, but no files were
0421bbaa
FC
2118given. This is usually a mistake, since editing STDIN inplace doesn't
2119make sense, and can be confusing because it can make perl look like
2120it is hanging when it is really just trying to read from STDIN. You
2121should either pass a filename to edit, or remove C<-i> from the command
2122line. See L<perlrun> for more details.
82f96200 2123
8903cb82 2124=item Identifier too long
2125
2126(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 2127about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
2128names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
2129of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 2130
c3c41406 2131=item Ignoring zero length \N{} in character class
fc8cd66c 2132
20561843 2133(W) Named Unicode character escapes C<(\N{...})> may return a zero-length
6903afa2
FC
2134sequence. When such an escape is used in a character class its
2135behaviour is not well defined. Check that the correct escape has
fc8cd66c
YO
2136been used, and the correct charname handler is in scope.
2137
6df41af2 2138=item Illegal binary digit %s
f675dbe5 2139
6df41af2 2140(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
f675dbe5 2141
6df41af2 2142=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
a0d0e21e 2143
be771a83
GS
2144(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
2145binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
2146offending digit.
a0d0e21e 2147
6597eb22
FC
2148=item Illegal character after '_' in prototype for %s : %s
2149
2150(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
2151Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, \, and +.
2152
78d0fecf 2153=item Illegal character \%o (carriage return)
4fdae800 2154
d5898338 2155(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
be771a83
GS
2156would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
2157when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
2158version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
2159to your Perl administrator.
4fdae800 2160
d37a9538
ST
2161=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
2162
197afce1 2163(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
2e9cc7ef 2164Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, \, and +.
d37a9538 2165
904d85c5
RGS
2166=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
2167
2168(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
6903afa2 2169you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
904d85c5 2170
8e742a20
MHM
2171=item Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
2172
6903afa2 2173(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See L<perlsub>.
8e742a20 2174
a0d0e21e
LW
2175=item Illegal division by zero
2176
be771a83
GS
2177(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
2178your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
2179meaningless input.
a0d0e21e 2180
6df41af2
GS
2181=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
2182
be771a83
GS
2183(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
2184A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
2185number stopped before the illegal character.
6df41af2 2186
a0d0e21e
LW
2187=item Illegal modulus zero
2188
be771a83
GS
2189(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
2190numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 2191
6df41af2 2192=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 2193
6df41af2
GS
2194(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
2195two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4
GS
2196
2197=item Illegal octal digit %s
a0d0e21e 2198
d1be9408 2199(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 2200
399388f4 2201=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
748a9306 2202
d1be9408 2203(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
75b44862 2204Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
748a9306 2205
fe13d51d 2206=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: -%c
6ff81951 2207
6df41af2 2208(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
646ca9b2 2209following switches: B<-[CDIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 2210
6df41af2 2211=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 2212
75b44862 2213(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
2214internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
2215delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 2216
6df41af2 2217=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 2218
be771a83
GS
2219(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
2220name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
2221didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
2222ignored.
54310121 2223
6df41af2 2224=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 2225
be771a83
GS
2226(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
2227the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
2228system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
2229times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
2230would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 2231
be771a83
GS
2232Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
2233also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 2234
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2235=item Inconsistent hierarchy during C3 merge of class '%s': merging failed on parent '%s'
2236
2237(F) The method resolution order (MRO) of the given class is not
2238C3-consistent, and you have enabled the C3 MRO for this class. See the C3
2239documentation in L<mro> for more information.
2240
979699d9
JH
2241=item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
2242
2243(F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
2244Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
2245encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
2246
1a147d38
YO
2247=item Infinite recursion in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2248
2249(F) You used a pattern that references itself without consuming any input
6903afa2 2250text. You should check the pattern to ensure that recursive patterns
1a147d38
YO
2251either consume text or fail.
2252
2253The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2254discovered.
2255
6dbe9451
NC
2256=item Initialization of state variables in list context currently forbidden
2257
6903afa2
FC
2258(F) Currently the implementation of "state" only permits the
2259initialization of scalar variables in scalar context. Re-write
2260C<state ($a) = 42> as C<state $a = 42> to change from list to scalar
2261context. Constructions such as C<state (@a) = foo()> will be
2262supported in a future perl release.
6dbe9451 2263
a0d0e21e
LW
2264=item Insecure dependency in %s
2265
8b1a09fc 2266(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
2267The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
2268setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
2269tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
2270from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
2271such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
2272L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
2273
2274=item Insecure directory in %s
2275
be771a83
GS
2276(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2277setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
df98f984
RGS
2278the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
2279See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2280
62f468fc 2281=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2282
2283(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc 2284setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
332d5f78
SR
2285C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
2286supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
2287the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2288
0e9be77f
DM
2289=item Insecure user-defined property %s
2290
2291(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2292expression that contains a call to a user-defined character property
2293function, i.e. C<\p{IsFoo}> or C<\p{InFoo}>.
2294See L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties> and L<perlsec>.
2295
b9ef414d
FC
2296=item Integer overflow in format string for %s
2297
2298(F) The indexes and widths specified in the format string of C<printf()>
2299or C<sprintf()> are too large. The numbers must not overflow the size of
2300integers for your architecture.
2301
a7ae9550
GS
2302=item Integer overflow in %s number
2303
35928bc5 2304(S overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
2305either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
2306your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
2307On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
2308representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
23090b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
2310transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
2311internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
2312operations.
bbce6d69 2313
fc89ca81
FC
2314=item Integer overflow in srand
2315
2316(S overflow) The number you have passed to srand is too big to fit
2317in your architecture's integer representation. The number has been
2318replaced with the largest integer supported (0xFFFFFFFF on 32-bit
2319architectures). This means you may be getting less randomness than
2320you expect, because different random seeds above the maximum will
2321return the same sequence of random numbers.
2322
46314c13
JP
2323=item Integer overflow in version
2324
18da5252
FC
2325=item Integer overflow in version %d
2326
784d71ed
FC
2327(W overflow) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for
2328the size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
f084e84f 2329because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use an
784d71ed
FC
2330element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by trying
2331to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like 100/9.
46314c13 2332
7253e4e3 2333=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2334
2335(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
7253e4e3 2336The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a
JF
2337discovered.
2338
748a9306
LW
2339=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
2340
be771a83
GS
2341(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
2342you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
2343to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
2344L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
2345Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
2346terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 2347
7253e4e3 2348=item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2349
fa816bf3 2350(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
7253e4e3
RK
2351<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2352discovered.
a0d0e21e 2353
6df41af2
GS
2354=item %s (...) interpreted as function
2355
75b44862 2356(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 2357followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 2358operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 2359L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 2360
09bef843
SB
2361=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
2362
a4a4c9e2 2363(F) The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
09bef843
SB
2364by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
2365
2366=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
2367
a4a4c9e2 2368(F) The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
be771a83 2369recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2370
c635e13b 2371=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
2372
be771a83
GS
2373(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
2374L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 2375
9e08bc66
TS
2376=item Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2377
2378(W regexp) The numeric escape (for example C<\xHH>) of value < 256
2379didn't correspond to a single character through the conversion
2380from the encoding specified by the encoding pragma.
2381The escape was replaced with REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (U+FFFD) instead.
2382The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2383escape was discovered.
2384
8149aa9f
FC
2385=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...}
2386
aec0ef10
FC
2387=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...} in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2388
8149aa9f 2389(F) The character constant represented by C<...> is not a valid hexadecimal
74f8e9e3
FC
2390number. Either it is empty, or you tried to use a character other than
23910 - 9 or A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number.
8149aa9f 2392
6651ba0b
FC
2393=item Invalid module name %s with -%c option: contains single ':'
2394
2395(F) The module argument to perl's B<-m> and B<-M> command-line options
2396cannot contain single colons in the module name, but only in the
2397arguments after "=". In other words, B<-MFoo::Bar=:baz> is ok, but
2398B<-MFoo:Bar=baz> is not.
2399
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2400=item Invalid mro name: '%s'
2401
162a3e34
FC
2402(F) You tried to C<mro::set_mro("classname", "foo")> or C<use mro 'foo'>,
2403where C<foo> is not a valid method resolution order (MRO). Currently,
2404the only valid ones supported are C<dfs> and C<c3>, unless you have loaded
2405a module that is a MRO plugin. See L<mro> and L<perlmroapi>.
2c7d6b9c 2406
40e4140b
FC
2407=item Invalid negative number (%s) in chr
2408
2409(W utf8) You passed a negative number to C<chr>. Negative numbers are
2410not valid characters numbers, so it return the Unicode replacement
2411character (U+FFFD).
2412
6651ba0b
FC
2413=item invalid option -D%c, use -D'' to see choices
2414
8ff21bfe
FC
2415(S debugging) Perl was called with invalid debugger flags. Call perl
2416with the B<-D> option with no flags to see the list of acceptable values.
0341637c 2417See also L<perlrun/B<-D>I<letters>>.
6651ba0b 2418
7253e4e3 2419=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2420
2421(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
2422greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
2423C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
2424up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2425problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 2426
d1573ac7 2427=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
2428
2429(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
2430character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
2431
09bef843
SB
2432=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
2433
0120eecf 2434(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
2435elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
2436parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
2437See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2438
b4581f09
JH
2439=item Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
2440
2bfc5f71
FC
2441(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other
2442than a colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
b4581f09
JH
2443If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2444list was terminated too soon.
2445
2c86d456
DG
2446=item Invalid strict version format (%s)
2447
fa816bf3 2448(F) A version number did not meet the "strict" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
2449A "strict" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
2450decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
2451v-string with a leading 'v' character and at least three components.
a6485a24 2452The parenthesized text indicates which criteria were not met.
2c86d456
DG
2453See the L<version> module for more details on allowed version formats.
2454
49704364 2455=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
96e4d5b1 2456
49704364
WL
2457(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
2458See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6728c851 2459
49704364 2460(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
75b44862 2461silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 2462
2c86d456
DG
2463=item Invalid version format (%s)
2464
fa816bf3 2465(F) A version number did not meet the "lax" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
2466A "lax" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
2467decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
fa816bf3
FC
2468v-string. If the v-string has fewer than three components, it
2469must have a leading 'v' character. Otherwise, the leading 'v' is
2470optional. Both decimal and dotted-decimal versions may have a
2471trailing "alpha" component separated by an underscore character
2472after a fractional or dotted-decimal component. The parenthesized
2473text indicates which criteria were not met. See the L<version> module
2474for more details on allowed version formats.
46314c13 2475
798ae1b7
DG
2476=item Invalid version object
2477
fa816bf3
FC
2478(F) The internal structure of the version object was invalid.
2479Perhaps the internals were modified directly in some way or
2480an arbitrary reference was blessed into the "version" class.
798ae1b7 2481
a0d0e21e
LW
2482=item ioctl is not implemented
2483
2484(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
2485strange for a machine that supports C.
2486
c289d2f7
JH
2487=item ioctl() on unopened %s
2488
2489(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
34b6fd5e 2490Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 2491
fe13d51d 2492=item IO layers (like '%s') unavailable
363c40c4
SB
2493
2494(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
34b6fd5e 2495you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO, Perl must be configured
363c40c4
SB
2496with 'useperlio'.
2497
80cbd5ad
JH
2498=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
2499
2500(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
34b6fd5e 2501neither as a system call nor an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
80cbd5ad 2502
b4581f09
JH
2503=item $* is no longer supported
2504
a58ac25e 2505(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older
6903afa2 2506perls, has been removed as of 5.9.0 and is no longer supported. In
a58ac25e
FC
2507previous versions of perl the use of C<$*> enabled or disabled multi-line
2508matching within a string.
4fd19576
B
2509
2510Instead of using C<$*> you should use the C</m> (and maybe C</s>) regexp
6903afa2
FC
2511modifiers. You can enable C</m> for a lexical scope (even a whole file)
2512with C<use re '/m'>. (In older versions: when C<$*> was set to a true value
570dedd4 2513then all regular expressions behaved as if they were written using C</m>.)
b4581f09 2514
8ae1fe26
RGS
2515=item $# is no longer supported
2516
a58ac25e 2517(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$#>, deprecated in older
6903afa2 2518perls, has been removed as of 5.9.3 and is no longer supported. You
a58ac25e 2519should use the printf/sprintf functions instead.
8ae1fe26 2520
ccf3535a 2521=item '%s' is not a code reference
6ad11d81 2522
6903afa2
FC
2523(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of
2524overload::constant needs to be a code reference. Either
2525an anonymous subroutine, or a reference to a subroutine.
6ad11d81 2526
ccf3535a 2527=item '%s' is not an overloadable type
6ad11d81 2528
04a80ee0
RGS
2529(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
2530unaware of.
6ad11d81 2531
aec0ef10 2532=item Junk on end of regexp in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
2533
2534(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
2535
2536=item Label not found for "last %s"
2537
be771a83
GS
2538(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
2539of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2540L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2541
2542=item Label not found for "next %s"
2543
2544(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
2545that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2546L<perlfunc/last>.
2547
2548=item Label not found for "redo %s"
2549
2550(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
2551that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2552L<perlfunc/last>.
2553
85ab1d1d 2554=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 2555
85ab1d1d 2556(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
2557effective uids or gids failed.
2558
49704364
WL
2559=item length/code after end of string in unpack
2560
d7f8936a 2561(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an unpack
6903afa2
FC
2562length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
2563an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 2564
e508c8a4
MH
2565=item length() used on %s
2566
0d46a4e7
FC
2567(W syntax) You used length() on either an array or a hash when you
2568probably wanted a count of the items.
e508c8a4
MH
2569
2570Array size can be obtained by doing:
2571
2572 scalar(@array);
2573
2574The number of items in a hash can be obtained by doing:
2575
2576 scalar(keys %hash);
2577
f0e67a1d
Z
2578=item Lexing code attempted to stuff non-Latin-1 character into Latin-1 input
2579
2580(F) An extension is attempting to insert text into the current parse
6903afa2
FC
2581(using L<lex_stuff_pvn|perlapi/lex_stuff_pvn> or similar), but tried to insert a character that
2582couldn't be part of the current input. This is an inherent pitfall
2583of the stuffing mechanism, and one of the reasons to avoid it. Where
2584it is necessary to stuff, stuffing only plain ASCII is recommended.
f0e67a1d
Z
2585
2586=item Lexing code internal error (%s)
2587
2588(F) Lexing code supplied by an extension violated the lexer's API in a
2589detectable way.
2590
69282e91 2591=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2592
be771a83
GS
2593(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
2594to check the return value of your socket() call? See
2595L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 2596
6651ba0b
FC
2597=item List form of piped open not implemented
2598
2599(F) On some platforms, notably Windows, the three-or-more-arguments
2600form of C<open> does not support pipes, such as C<open($pipe, '|-', @args)>.
2601Use the two-argument C<open($pipe, '|prog arg1 arg2...')> form instead.
2602
bcd05b94 2603=item localtime(%f) too large
8b56d6ff 2604
e9200be3 2605(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was larger
fc003d4b 2606than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
6903afa2 2607wrong date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
fc003d4b
MS
2608not-a-number value).
2609
bcd05b94 2610=item localtime(%f) too small
fc003d4b 2611
e9200be3 2612(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was smaller
fc003d4b 2613than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
e7a1a147 2614wrong date.
8b56d6ff 2615
58e23c8d 2616=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
2617
2618(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
6903afa2 2619handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release.
2e50fd82 2620
b88df990
NC
2621=item Lost precision when %s %f by 1
2622
e63e8a91
FC
2623(W imprecision) The value you attempted to increment or decrement by one
2624is too large for the underlying floating point representation to store
2625accurately, hence the target of C<++> or C<--> is unchanged. Perl issues this
2626warning because it has already switched from integers to floating point
2627when values are too large for integers, and now even floating point is
2628insufficient. You may wish to switch to using L<Math::BigInt> explicitly.
b88df990 2629
93fad930 2630=item lstat() on filehandle%s
2f7da168
RK
2631
2632(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
2633by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
2634instead on the filehandle.)
2635
345d70e3 2636=item lvalue attribute %s already-defined subroutine
bb3abb05 2637
345d70e3
FC
2638(W misc) Although L<attributes.pm|attributes> allows this, turning the lvalue
2639attribute on or off on a Perl subroutine that is already defined
2640does not always work properly. It may or may not do what you
2641want, depending on what code is inside the subroutine, with exact
2642details subject to change between Perl versions. Only do this
2643if you really know what you are doing.
bb3abb05 2644
885ef6f5
GG
2645=item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined
2646
345d70e3
FC
2647(W misc) Using the C<:lvalue> declarative syntax to make a Perl
2648subroutine an lvalue subroutine after it has been defined is
2649not permitted. To make the subroutine an lvalue subroutine,
2650add the lvalue attribute to the definition, or put the C<sub
2651foo :lvalue;> declaration before the definition.
2652
2653See also L<attributes.pm|attributes>.
885ef6f5 2654
2db62bbc 2655=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
49704364 2656
2db62bbc 2657(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
2658are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2659
2660=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
2661
2db62bbc 2662(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
2663are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2664
6df41af2
GS
2665=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
2666
2667(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
2668
2669 prefix1;prefix2
2670
2671or
6df41af2
GS
2672 prefix1 prefix2
2673
be771a83
GS
2674with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
2675a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
2676appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 2677"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 2678
2f758a16
ST
2679=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
2680
d37a9538
ST
2681(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
2682syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
2683obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
2684when the function is called.
2f758a16 2685
ba210ebe
JH
2686=item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
2687
4d6f11e5 2688(S utf8)(F) Perl detected a string that didn't comply with UTF-8
2575c402 2689encoding rules, even though it had the UTF8 flag on.
ba210ebe 2690
2575c402
JW
2691One possible cause is that you set the UTF8 flag yourself for data that
2692you thought to be in UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy
6903afa2 26938-bit data). To guard against this, you can use Encode::decode_utf8.
2575c402
JW
2694
2695If you use the C<:encoding(UTF-8)> PerlIO layer for input, invalid byte
2696sequences are handled gracefully, but if you use C<:utf8>, the flag is
2697set without validating the data, possibly resulting in this error
2698message.
2699
2700See also L<Encode/"Handling Malformed Data">.
901b21bf 2701
ff3f963a
KW
2702=item Malformed UTF-8 returned by \N
2703
2704(F) The charnames handler returned malformed UTF-8.
2705
4a5d3a93
FC
2706=item Malformed UTF-8 string in '%c' format in unpack
2707
2708(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2709rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2710
f337b084
TH
2711=item Malformed UTF-8 string in pack
2712
2713(F) You tried to pack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2714rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2715
2716=item Malformed UTF-8 string in unpack
2717
2718(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2719rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2720
4a5d3a93 2721=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
f337b084 2722
4a5d3a93
FC
2723(F) Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
2724doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
2725
2726=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2727
2728(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
2729regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
2730shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2731See L<perlre>.
f337b084 2732
de42a5a9 2733=item Maximal count of pending signals (%u) exceeded
2563cec5 2734
6903afa2 2735(F) Perl aborted due to too high a number of signals pending. This
2563cec5
IZ
2736usually indicates that your operating system tried to deliver signals
2737too fast (with a very high priority), starving the perl process from
2738resources it would need to reach a point where it can process signals
6903afa2 2739safely. (See L<perlipc/"Deferred Signals (Safe Signals)">.)
2563cec5 2740
25f58aea
PN
2741=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2742
2743(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
2744interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
2745"use" or "my".
2746
0d2487cd 2747=item '%' may not be used in pack
6df41af2
GS
2748
2749(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
2750checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
2751See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 2752
a0d0e21e
LW
2753=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
2754
2755(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 2756doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2757
3cdd684c
TP
2758=item Method %s not permitted
2759
2760See Server error.
2761
a0d0e21e
LW
2762=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
2763
2764(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
2765by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
2766ended earlier on the current line.
2767
2768=item Misplaced _ in number
2769
d4ced10d
JH
2770(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
2771separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 2772
7baa4690
HS
2773=item Missing argument in %s
2774
2775(W uninitialized) A printf-type format required more arguments than were
2776supplied.
2777
9e81e6a1
RGS
2778=item Missing argument to -%c
2779
2780(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2781immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
2782
ff3f963a 2783=item Missing braces on \N{}
423cee85 2784
aec0ef10
FC
2785=item Missing braces on \N{} in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2786
4a2d328f 2787(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
532cb70d
FC
2788double-quotish context. This can also happen when there is a space
2789(or comment) between the C<\N> and the C<{> in a regex with the C</x> modifier.
2790This modifier does not change the requirement that the brace immediately
2791follow the C<\N>.
423cee85 2792
f0a2b745
KW
2793=item Missing braces on \o{}
2794
2795(F) A C<\o> must be followed immediately by a C<{> in double-quotish context.
2796
a0d0e21e
LW
2797=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
2798
2799(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
2800"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
2801
06eaf0bc
GS
2802=item Missing command in piped open
2803
be771a83
GS
2804(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
2805C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
2806blank.
06eaf0bc 2807
961ce445
RGS
2808=item Missing control char name in \c
2809
2810(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
2811character name.
2812
8767b1ab 2813=item Missing name in "%s sub"
6df41af2 2814
be771a83
GS
2815(F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
2816they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
2817
2818=item Missing $ on loop variable
2819
be771a83
GS
2820(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
2821are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
2822can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 2823
cc507455 2824=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306 2825
56da5a46
RGS
2826(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2827"%s found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
748a9306 2828
aec0ef10 2829=item Missing right brace on \%c{} in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 2830
ff3f963a
KW
2831(F) Missing right brace in C<\x{...}>, C<\p{...}>, C<\P{...}>, or C<\N{...}>.
2832
4a68bf9d 2833=item Missing right brace on \N{} or unescaped left brace after \N
ff3f963a 2834
d32207c9
FC
2835(F) C<\N> has two meanings.
2836
2837The traditional one has it followed by a name enclosed in braces,
2838meaning the character (or sequence of characters) given by that
fa816bf3 2839name. Thus C<\N{ASTERISK}> is another way of writing C<*>, valid in both
d32207c9
FC
2840double-quoted strings and regular expression patterns. In patterns,
2841it doesn't have the meaning an unescaped C<*> does.
2842
2843Starting in Perl 5.12.0, C<\N> also can have an additional meaning (only)
2844in patterns, namely to match a non-newline character. (This is short
2845for C<[^\n]>, and like C<.> but is not affected by the C</s> regex modifier.)
2846
2847This can lead to some ambiguities. When C<\N> is not followed immediately
2848by a left brace, Perl assumes the C<[^\n]> meaning. Also, if the braces
2849form a valid quantifier such as C<\N{3}> or C<\N{5,}>, Perl assumes that this
2850means to match the given quantity of non-newlines (in these examples,
28513; and 5 or more, respectively). In all other case, where there is a
2852C<\N{> and a matching C<}>, Perl assumes that a character name is desired.
2853
2854However, if there is no matching C<}>, Perl doesn't know if it was
2855mistakenly omitted, or if C<[^\n]{> was desired, and raises this error.
2856If you meant the former, add the right brace; if you meant the latter,
2857escape the brace with a backslash, like so: C<\N\{>
ab13f0c7 2858
d98d5fff 2859=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 2860
be771a83
GS
2861(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
2862ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
2863were last editing.
a0d0e21e 2864
6df41af2
GS
2865=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
2866
56da5a46
RGS
2867(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2868"%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
6df41af2
GS
2869the previous line just because you saw this message.
2870
a0d0e21e
LW
2871=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
2872
2873(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 2874constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
2875catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
2876
2877 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
2878 mod(2);
2879
2880Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
2881
c5674021
PDF
2882Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
2883is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
2884
b7e4ecc1
FC
2885 $x = 1;
2886 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
2887 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to
2888 } # modify the 2
c5674021 2889
7a4340ed 2890=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2891
2892(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
2893subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
2894backwards.
2895
7a4340ed 2896=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 2897
be771a83
GS
2898(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
2899couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
2900
2901=item Module name must be constant
2902
2903(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
2904
be98fb35 2905=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 2906
be98fb35
GS
2907(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
2908you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
2909about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 2910
fe13d51d 2911=item More than one argument to '%s' open
ed9aa3b7 2912
6903afa2 2913(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
ed9aa3b7
SG
2914can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
2915list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
2916See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
2917
a0d0e21e
LW
2918=item msg%s not implemented
2919
2920(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
2921
2922=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
2923
75b44862
GS
2924(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
2925They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 2926
49704364 2927=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
6df41af2 2928
49704364
WL
2929(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
2930follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
2931See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2932
2933=item "my sub" not yet implemented
2934
be771a83
GS
2935(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
2936that yet.
6df41af2 2937
fd1b7234 2938=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
6df41af2 2939
be771a83
GS
2940(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2941sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2942local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 2943
8149aa9f
FC
2944=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2945
2946(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
2947If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2948again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
2949provided for this purpose.
2950
2951NOTE: This warning detects symbols that have been used only once so $c, @c,
2952%c, *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or format) are considered
2953the same; if a program uses $c only once but also uses any of the others it
2954will not trigger this warning.
2955
aec0ef10 2956=item \N in a character class must be a named character: \N{...} in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
ff3f963a 2957
c3c41406 2958(F) The new (5.12) meaning of C<\N> as C<[^\n]> is not valid in a bracketed
f4e361c7
FC
2959character class, for the same reason that C<.> in a character class loses
2960its specialness: it matches almost everything, which is probably not
2961what you want.
c3c41406 2962
aec0ef10 2963=item \N{NAME} must be resolved by the lexer in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
c3c41406 2964
f4e361c7
FC
2965(F) When compiling a regex pattern, an unresolved named character or
2966sequence was encountered. This can happen in any of several ways that
2967bypass the lexer, such as using single-quotish context, or an extra
7fae04b9 2968backslash in double-quotish:
c3c41406
KW
2969
2970 $re = '\N{SPACE}'; # Wrong!
b09c05e6 2971 $re = "\\N{SPACE}"; # Wrong!
c3c41406
KW
2972 /$re/;
2973
b09c05e6 2974Instead, use double-quotes with a single backslash:
c3c41406
KW
2975
2976 $re = "\N{SPACE}"; # ok
2977 /$re/;
2978
2979The lexer can be bypassed as well by creating the pattern from smaller
2980components:
2981
2982 $re = '\N';
2983 /${re}{SPACE}/; # Wrong!
2984
2985It's not a good idea to split a construct in the middle like this, and it
2986doesn't work here. Instead use the solution above.
2987
2988Finally, the message also can happen under the C</x> regex modifier when the
2989C<\N> is separated by spaces from the C<{>, in which case, remove the spaces.
2990
2991 /\N {SPACE}/x; # Wrong!
2992 /\N{SPACE}/x; # ok
ff3f963a 2993
49704364
WL
2994=item Negative '/' count in unpack
2995
2996(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
2997negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2998
a0d0e21e
LW
2999=item Negative length
3000
be771a83
GS
3001(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
3002length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 3003
ed9aa3b7
SG
3004=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
3005
3006(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
3007greater than or equal to zero.
3008
7253e4e3 3009=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3010
6903afa2
FC
3011(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses.
3012So things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the
3013regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 3014
7253e4e3 3015Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 3016C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3017
6df41af2 3018=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 3019
be771a83
GS
3020(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
3021scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e 3022
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3023=item next::method/next::can/maybe::next::method cannot find enclosing method
3024
3025(F) C<next::method> needs to be called within the context of a
3026real method in a real package, and it could not find such a context.
3027See L<mro>.
3028
a0d0e21e
LW
3029=item No %s allowed while running setuid
3030
be771a83
GS
3031(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
3032setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
3033will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
3034securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 3035
6651ba0b
FC
3036=item No code specified for -%c
3037
3038(F) Perl's B<-e> and B<-E> command-line options require an argument. If
3039you want to run an empty program, pass the empty string as a separate
3040argument or run a program consisting of a single 0 or 1:
3041
3042 perl -e ""
3043 perl -e0
3044 perl -e1
3045
a0d0e21e
LW
3046=item No comma allowed after %s
3047
6903afa2
FC
3048(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is
3049not allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
a0d0e21e
LW
3050Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
3051
6903afa2
FC
3052One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported
3053a constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
3054importing took place, it may for example be that your operating
3055system does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did
3056use an explicit import list for the constants you expect to see;
3057please see L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an
3058explicit import list would probably have caught this error earlier
3059it naturally does not remedy the fact that your operating system
3060still does not support that constant. Maybe you have a typo in
3061the constants of the symbol import list of B<use> or B<import> or in the
3062constant name at the line where this error was triggered?
0a753a76 3063
748a9306
LW
3064=item No command into which to pipe on command line
3065
be771a83
GS
3066(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3067redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
3068doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 3069
a0d0e21e
LW
3070=item No DB::DB routine defined
3071
be771a83 3072(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
f7af5ce1 3073for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
ccafdc96
RGS
3074module) didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
3075statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
3076
3077=item No dbm on this machine
3078
3079(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 3080supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e 3081
ccafdc96 3082=item No DB::sub routine defined
a0d0e21e 3083
ccafdc96
RGS
3084(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
3085for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
3086module) didn't define a C<DB::sub> routine to be called at the beginning
3087of each ordinary subroutine call.
a0d0e21e 3088
6651ba0b
FC
3089=item No directory specified for -I
3090
3091(F) The B<-I> command-line switch requires a directory name as part of the
3092I<same> argument. Use B<-Ilib>, for instance. B<-I lib> won't work.
3093
c47ff5f1 3094=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 3095
be771a83
GS
3096(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3097redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
3098find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 3099
49704364
WL
3100=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
3101
3102(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
6903afa2 3103matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 3104
c47ff5f1 3105=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 3106
be771a83
GS
3107(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3108redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
3109name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 3110
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3111=item No next::method '%s' found for %s
3112
3113(F) C<next::method> found no further instances of this method name
3114in the remaining packages of the MRO of this class. If you don't want
3115it throwing an exception, use C<maybe::next::method>
fa816bf3 3116or C<next::can>. See L<mro>.
2c7d6b9c 3117
6df41af2
GS
3118=item "no" not allowed in expression
3119
be771a83
GS
3120(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
3121returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 3122
c47ff5f1 3123=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 3124
be771a83
GS
3125(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3126redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
3127doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 3128
c47ff5f1 3129=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 3130
be771a83
GS
3131(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3132redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
3133find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 3134
1ec3e8de
GS
3135=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
3136
be771a83
GS
3137(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
3138declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
3139semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 3140
a0d0e21e
LW
3141=item No Perl script found in input
3142
3143(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
3144with #! and containing the word "perl".
3145
3146=item No setregid available
3147
3148(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
3149your system.
3150
3151=item No setreuid available
3152
3153(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
3154your system.
3155
e75d1f10
RD
3156=item No such class field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
3157
b7e4ecc1
FC
3158(F) You tried to access a key from a hash through the indicated typed
3159variable but that key is not allowed by the package of the same type.
3160The indicated package has restricted the set of allowed keys using the
3161L<fields> pragma.
e75d1f10 3162
2c692339
RGS
3163=item No such class %s
3164
dc7e5945
FC
3165(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state"
3166declaration, but this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
2c692339 3167
3c20a832
SP
3168=item No such hook: %s
3169
dc7e5945
FC
3170(F) You specified a signal hook that was not recognized by Perl.
3171Currently, Perl accepts C<__DIE__> and C<__WARN__> as valid signal hooks.
3c20a832 3172
6df41af2
GS
3173=item No such pipe open
3174
3175(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
3176close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
3177earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 3178
a0d0e21e
LW
3179=item No such signal: SIG%s
3180
be771a83
GS
3181(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
3182not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
3183names on your system.
a0d0e21e
LW
3184
3185=item Not a CODE reference
3186
3187(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
3188subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
3189use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
3190also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 3191
a0d0e21e
LW
3192=item Not a GLOB reference
3193
be771a83
GS
3194(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
3195symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
3196something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
3197kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
3198
3199=item Not a HASH reference
3200
be771a83
GS
3201(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
3202reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
3203find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 3204
6df41af2
GS
3205=item Not an ARRAY reference
3206
be771a83
GS
3207(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
3208a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
3209to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 3210
d4fc4415
FC
3211=item Not an unblessed ARRAY reference
3212
3213(F) You passed a reference to a blessed array to C<push>, C<shift> or
3214another array function. These only accept unblessed array references
3215or arrays beginning explicitly with C<@>.
3216
a0d0e21e
LW
3217=item Not a SCALAR reference
3218
be771a83
GS
3219(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
3220a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
3221to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
3222
3223=item Not a subroutine reference
3224
3225(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
3226subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
3227use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
3228also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 3229
e7ea3e70 3230=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
3231
3232(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 3233doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 3234
a0d0e21e
LW
3235=item Not enough arguments for %s
3236
3237(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
3238
6df41af2
GS
3239=item Not enough format arguments
3240
be771a83
GS
3241(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
3242supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
3243
3244=item %s: not found
3245
be771a83
GS
3246(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
3247of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
3248yourself.
6df41af2
GS
3249
3250=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 3251
6df41af2
GS
3252(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
3253timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
3254to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
3255F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
3256need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e 3257
f0a2b745
KW
3258=item Non-octal character '%c'. Resolved as "%s"
3259
fa816bf3
FC
3260(W digit) In parsing an octal numeric constant, a character was
3261unexpectedly encountered that isn't octal. The resulting value
3262is as indicated.
f0a2b745 3263
4ef2275c
GA
3264=item Non-string passed as bitmask
3265
3266(W misc) A number has been passed as a bitmask argument to select().
3267Use the vec() function to construct the file descriptor bitmasks for
6903afa2 3268select. See L<perlfunc/select>.
4ef2275c 3269
a0d0e21e
LW
3270=item Null filename used
3271
be771a83
GS
3272(F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
3273machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
a0d0e21e 3274
6df41af2
GS
3275=item NULL OP IN RUN
3276
f84fe999 3277(S debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
be771a83 3278pointer.
6df41af2 3279
55497cff 3280=item Null picture in formline
3281
3282(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
3283specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
3284supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
3285
a0d0e21e
LW
3286=item Null realloc
3287
3288(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
3289
3290=item NULL regexp argument
3291
5f05dabc 3292(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
3293
3294=item NULL regexp parameter
3295
3296(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
3297
fc36a67e 3298=item Number too long
3299
be771a83 3300(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 3301about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
3302versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
3303the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
3304"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 3305
f0a2b745
KW
3306=item Number with no digits
3307
1043934d 3308(F) Perl was looking for a number but found nothing that looked like
6903afa2 3309a number. This happens, for example with C<\o{}>, with no number between
1043934d 3310the braces.
f0a2b745 3311
271c8bde
FC
3312=item "my %s" used in sort comparison
3313
3314(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
3315You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
3316sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
3317lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
3318name, or rename the lexical variable.
3319
252aa082
JH
3320=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
3321
75b44862 3322(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
3323(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
3324L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 3325
6ad11d81
JH
3326=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
3327
04a80ee0 3328(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
6903afa2 3329arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 3330
b21befc1
MG
3331=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
3332
3333(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
3334which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
3335
1930e939 3336=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 3337
be771a83
GS
3338(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
3339which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 3340
bbce6d69 3341=item Offset outside string
3342
1fa582fa 3343(F)(W layer) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv/seek operation
42bc49da 3344with an offset pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to
f5a7294f
JH
3345imagine. The sole exceptions to this are that zero padding will
3346take place when going past the end of the string when either
3347C<sysread()>ing a file, or when seeking past the end of a scalar opened
1a7a2554
MB
3348for I/O (in anticipation of future reads and to imitate the behaviour
3349with real files).
bbce6d69 3350
c289d2f7 3351=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
3352
3353(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
3354never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
3355call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
3356
96ebfdd7
RK
3357=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
3358
3359(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
3360that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
3361
a0d0e21e
LW
3362=item oops: oopsAV
3363
e476b1b5 3364(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
3365
3366=item oops: oopsHV
3367
e476b1b5 3368(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 3369
abc718f2
RGS
3370=item Opening dirhandle %s also as a file
3371
713e2616 3372(D io, deprecated) You used open() to associate a filehandle to
abc718f2
RGS
3373a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a dirhandle.
3374Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
3375and is deprecated.
3376
3377=item Opening filehandle %s also as a directory
3378
28038637 3379(D io, deprecated) You used opendir() to associate a dirhandle to
abc718f2
RGS
3380a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a filehandle.
3381Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
3382and is deprecated.
3383
a0288114 3384=item Operation "%s": no method found, %s
44a8e56a 3385
be771a83
GS
3386(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
3387handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
3388of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
e4aad80d 3389the C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 3390
5ff1373f 3391=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for non-Unicode code point 0x%X
9ae3ac1a 3392
3fc8aa03 3393(S utf8, non_unicode) You performed an operation requiring Unicode
73c4e9dc
FC
3394semantics on a code point that is not in Unicode, so what it should do
3395is not defined. Perl has chosen to have it do nothing, and warn you.
9ae3ac1a
KW
3396
3397If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
3398matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
3399
3400If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 3401C<no warnings 'non_unicode';>.
9ae3ac1a 3402
5ff1373f 3403=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
9ae3ac1a 3404
3fc8aa03 3405(S utf8, surrogate) You performed an operation requiring Unicode
73c4e9dc
FC
3406semantics on a Unicode surrogate. Unicode frowns upon the use of
3407surrogates for anything but storing strings in UTF-16, but semantics
3408are (reluctantly) defined for the surrogates, and they are to do
3409nothing for this operation. Because the use of surrogates can be
3410dangerous, Perl warns.
9ae3ac1a
KW
3411
3412If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
3413matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
3414
3415If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 3416C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9ae3ac1a 3417
748a9306
LW
3418=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
3419
be771a83
GS
3420(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
3421was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
3422use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
3423example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
3424"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 3425
6df41af2
GS
3426=item "our" variable %s redeclared
3427
be771a83
GS
3428(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
3429in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 3430
a80b8354
GS
3431=item Out of memory!
3432
3433(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
3434remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
3435no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 3436
19a52907
JH
3437At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
3438process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
3439C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
3440the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
3441and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
3442
6d3b25aa
RGS
3443=item Out of memory during %s extend
3444
3445(X) An attempt was made to extend an array, a list, or a string beyond
3446the largest possible memory allocation.
3447
6df41af2 3448=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 3449
6df41af2 3450(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
6903afa2 3451remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
3452the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
3453possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 3454
1b979e0a 3455=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 3456
1fa582fa 3457(X)(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
be771a83
GS
3458insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
3459request.
eff9c6e2
CS
3460
3461The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
3462depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
3463However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
3464emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
3465is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
3466where the failed request happened.
55497cff 3467
1b979e0a
IZ
3468=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
3469
3470(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
3471is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
3472C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 3473
6df41af2
GS
3474=item Out of memory for yacc stack
3475
be771a83
GS
3476(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
3477parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
3478otherwise.
6df41af2 3479
28be1210
TH
3480=item '.' outside of string in pack
3481
3482(F) The argument to a '.' in your template tried to move the working
3483position to before the start of the packed string being built.
3484
49704364 3485=item '@' outside of string in unpack
6df41af2 3486
49704364 3487(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6df41af2
GS
3488the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3489
f337b084
TH
3490=item '@' outside of string with malformed UTF-8 in unpack
3491
3492(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6903afa2 3493the string being unpacked. The string being unpacked was also invalid
fa816bf3 3494UTF-8. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
f337b084 3495
7778d804
FC
3496=item overload arg '%s' is invalid
3497
3498(W overload) The L<overload> pragma was passed an argument it did not
3499recognize. Did you mistype an operator?
3500
7cb0cfe6
BM
3501=item Overloaded dereference did not return a reference
3502
3503(F) An object with an overloaded dereference operator was dereferenced,
6903afa2 3504but the overloaded operation did not return a reference. See
7cb0cfe6
BM
3505L<overload>.
3506
3507=item Overloaded qr did not return a REGEXP
3508
3509(F) An object with a C<qr> overload was used as part of a match, but the
6903afa2 3510overloaded operation didn't return a compiled regexp. See L<overload>.
7cb0cfe6 3511
6df41af2
GS
3512=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
3513
be771a83
GS
3514(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
3515package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
3516some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
3517mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 3518
96ebfdd7
RK
3519=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
3520
3521(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3522signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3523
a0d0e21e
LW
3524=item page overflow
3525
be771a83
GS
3526(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
3527page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 3528
6df41af2
GS
3529=item panic: %s
3530
3531(P) An internal error.
3532
c99a1475
NC
3533=item panic: attempt to call %s in %s
3534
3535(P) One of the file test operators entered a code branch that calls
3536an ACL related-function, but that function is not available on this
3537platform. Earlier checks mean that it should not be possible to
3538enter this branch on this platform.
3539
d5e473ac
SH
3540=item panic: child pseudo-process was never scheduled
3541
3542(P) A child pseudo-process in the ithreads implementation on Windows
3543was not scheduled within the time period allowed and therefore was not
3544able to initialize properly.
3545
5637ef5b 3546=item panic: ck_grep, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3547
3548(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
3549
5637ef5b 3550=item panic: ck_split, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3551
3552(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
3553
5637ef5b 3554=item panic: corrupt saved stack index %ld
a0d0e21e 3555
be771a83
GS
3556(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
3557there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 3558
810b8aa5
GS
3559=item panic: del_backref
3560
3561(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
3562reference.
3563
a0d0e21e
LW
3564=item panic: die %s
3565
3566(P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
3567it wasn't an eval context.
3568
a0d0e21e
LW
3569=item panic: do_subst
3570
be771a83
GS
3571(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
3572data.
a0d0e21e 3573
2269b42e 3574=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 3575
2269b42e 3576(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 3577data.
a0d0e21e 3578
b7f7fd0b
NC
3579=item panic: fold_constants JMPENV_PUSH returned %d
3580
10203f38 3581(P) While attempting folding constants an exception other than an C<eval>
b7f7fd0b
NC
3582failure was caught.
3583
c635e13b 3584=item panic: frexp
3585
3586(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
3587
5637ef5b 3588=item panic: goto, type=%u, ix=%ld
a0d0e21e
LW
3589
3590(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
3591and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
3592
b0d55c99
FC
3593=item panic: gp_free failed to free glob pointer
3594
3595(P) The internal routine used to clear a typeglob's entries tried
6903afa2
FC
3596repeatedly, but each time something re-created entries in the glob.
3597Most likely the glob contains an object with a reference back to
3598the glob and a destructor that adds a new object to the glob.
b0d55c99 3599
5637ef5b 3600=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3601
3602(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
3603
5637ef5b 3604=item panic: INTERPCONCAT, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3605
3606(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
3607
e446cec8
IZ
3608=item panic: kid popen errno read
3609
3610(F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
3611
5637ef5b 3612=item panic: last, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3613
3614(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
3615it wasn't a block context.
3616
3617=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
3618
be771a83
GS
3619(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
3620scope.
a0d0e21e 3621
5637ef5b 3622=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency %u
a0d0e21e
LW
3623
3624(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
3625invalid enum on the top of it.
3626
810b8aa5
GS
3627=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
3628
3629(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
3630references to an object.
3631
5637ef5b 3632=item panic: malloc, %s
6df41af2
GS
3633
3634(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
3635
27d5b266
JH
3636=item panic: memory wrap
3637
3638(P) Something tried to allocate more memory than possible.
3639
5637ef5b 3640=item panic: pad_alloc, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
3641
3642(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3643and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3644
5637ef5b 3645=item panic: pad_free curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
3646
3647(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3648and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3649
3650=item panic: pad_free po
3651
3652(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3653
5637ef5b 3654=item panic: pad_reset curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
3655
3656(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3657and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3658
3659=item panic: pad_sv po
3660
3661(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3662
5637ef5b 3663=item panic: pad_swipe curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
3664
3665(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3666and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3667
3668=item panic: pad_swipe po
3669
3670(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3671
5637ef5b 3672=item panic: pp_iter, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3673
3674(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
3675
96ebfdd7
RK
3676=item panic: pp_match%s
3677
3678(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
3679data.
3680
5637ef5b 3681=item panic: pp_split, pm=%p, s=%p
2269b42e
JH
3682
3683(P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
3684
5637ef5b 3685=item panic: realloc, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3686
3687(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
3688
ccfb6d2e
FC
3689=item panic: reference miscount on nsv in sv_replace() (%d != 1)
3690
3691(P) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
3692reference count other than 1.
3693
5637ef5b 3694=item panic: restartop in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3695
3696(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
3697didn't supply the destination.
3698
5637ef5b 3699=item panic: return, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3700
3701(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
3702then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
3703
5637ef5b 3704=item panic: scan_num, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3705
3706(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
3707
d24ca0c5
DM
3708=item panic: Sequence (?{...}): no code block found
3709
3710(P) while compiling a pattern that has embedded (?{}) or (??{}) code
3711blocks, perl couldn't locate the code block that should have already been
3712seen and compiled by perl before control passed to the regex compiler.
3713
6c65d5f9
NC
3714=item panic: sv_chop %s
3715
3716(P) The sv_chop() routine was passed a position that is not within the
3717scalar's string buffer.
3718
5637ef5b 3719=item panic: sv_insert, midend=%p, bigend=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
3720
3721(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
3722was string.
3723
ad49ad39
NC
3724=item panic: strxfrm() gets absurd - a => %u, ab => %u
3725
3726(P) The interpreter's sanity check of the C function strxfrm() failed.
3727In your current locale the returned transformation of the string "ab" is
3728shorter than that of the string "a", which makes no sense.
3729
a0d0e21e
LW
3730=item panic: top_env
3731
6224f72b 3732(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e 3733
65bca31a
NC
3734=item panic: unimplemented op %s (#%d) called
3735
a1efa96e
FC
3736(P) The compiler is screwed up and attempted to use an op that isn't
3737permitted at run time.
65bca31a 3738
dea0fc0b
JH
3739=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
3740
3741(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 3742to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 3743
e0ea5e2d
NC
3744=item panic: utf16_to_utf8_reversed: odd bytelen
3745
3746(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8_reversed with an odd (as opposed
3747to even) byte length.
3748
5637ef5b 3749=item panic: yylex, %s
2f7da168
RK
3750
3751(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
3752
28ac2b49
Z
3753=item Parsing code internal error (%s)
3754
3755(F) Parsing code supplied by an extension violated the parser's API in
3756a detectable way.
3757
1a147d38
YO
3758=item Pattern subroutine nesting without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3759
3760(F) You used a pattern that uses too many nested subpattern calls without
6903afa2
FC
3761consuming any text. Restructure the pattern so text is consumed before
3762the nesting limit is exceeded.
1a147d38
YO
3763
3764The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3765discovered.
3766
7b8d334a 3767=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
a0d0e21e 3768
e476b1b5 3769(W parenthesis) You said something like
a0d0e21e
LW
3770
3771 my $foo, $bar = @_;
3772
3773when you meant
3774
3775 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
3776
30c282f6 3777Remember that "my", "our", "local" and "state" bind tighter than comma.
a0d0e21e 3778
96ebfdd7
RK
3779=item C<-p> destination: %s
3780
3781(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
3782command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
3783redirected it with select().)
3784
3785=item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
3786
3787(F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3788"Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
3789that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
3790
801eb083 3791=item Perl folding rules are not up-to-date for 0x%x; please use the perlbug utility to report
d50a4f90
KW
3792
3793(W regex, deprecated) You used a regular expression with
3794case-insensitive matching, and there is a bug in Perl in which the
3795built-in regular expression folding rules are not accurate. This may
3796lead to incorrect results. Please report this as a bug using the
3797"perlbug" utility. (This message is marked deprecated, so that it by
3798default will be turned-on.)
3799
1109a392
MHM
3800=item Perl_my_%s() not available
3801
3802(F) Your platform has very uncommon byte-order and integer size,
3803so it was not possible to set up some or all fixed-width byte-order
3804conversion functions. This is only a problem when you're using the
3805'<' or '>' modifiers in (un)pack templates. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3806
6651ba0b
FC
3807=item Perl %s required (did you mean %s?)--this is only %s, stopped
3808
3809(F) The code you are trying to run has asked for a newer version of
3810Perl than you are running. Perhaps C<use 5.10> was written instead
3811of C<use 5.010> or C<use v5.10>. Without the leading C<v>, the number is
3812interpreted as a decimal, with every three digits after the
3813decimal point representing a part of the version number. So 5.10
3814is equivalent to v5.100.
3815
6d3b25aa
RGS
3816=item Perl %s required--this is only version %s, stopped
3817
3818(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
3819recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
3820you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
3821
6df41af2
GS
3822=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
3823
fa816bf3 3824(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 3825C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 3826
96ebfdd7
RK
3827=item PERL_SIGNALS illegal: "%s"
3828
806b6d07 3829(X) See L<perlrun/PERL_SIGNALS> for legal values.
96ebfdd7 3830
6651ba0b
FC
3831=item Perls since %s too modern--this is %s, stopped
3832
3833(F) The code you are trying to run claims it will not run
3834on the version of Perl you are using because it is too new.
3835Maybe the code needs to be updated, or maybe it is simply
3836wrong and the version check should just be removed.
3837
6df41af2
GS
3838=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3839
3840(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
3841
3842 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3843 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
3844 LC_ALL = "En_US",
3845 LANG = (unset)
3846 are supported and installed on your system.
3847 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
3848
3849Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
3850settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
0ea6b70f
JH
3851This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
3852system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
3853locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
3854dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
4b07a369
FC
3855Perl can and will use, and the script will be run. Before you really
3856fix the problem, however, you will get the same error message each
3857time you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
0ea6b70f 3858L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
6df41af2 3859
bd3fa61c 3860=item pid %x not a child
748a9306 3861
be771a83
GS
3862(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
3863process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
3864fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
748a9306 3865
49704364 3866=item 'P' must have an explicit size in unpack
3bf38418
WL
3867
3868(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
3869
96ebfdd7
RK
3870=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3871
3872(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The <-- HERE
3873shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
3874Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
3875the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
3876not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
3877
3878=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
3879
3880(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
3881the BSD version, which takes a pid.
3882
49704364 3883=item POSIX syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 3884
9a0b3859 3885(W regexp) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
7253e4e3
RK
3886I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
3887/[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
3888implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and will
3889cause fatal errors. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3890where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 3891
49704364 3892=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3893
3894(F regexp) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
7253e4e3
RK
3895beginning with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
3896If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
3897expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
3898backslash: "\[." and ".\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
3899about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 3900
49704364 3901=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 3902
7253e4e3
RK
3903(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
3904with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
3905need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
3906character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
3907and "=\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
3908problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 3909
bbce6d69 3910=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
3911
e476b1b5 3912(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
75b44862 3913strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
be771a83
GS
3914literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
3915parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
bbce6d69 3916
774d564b 3917You probably wrote something like this:
3918
54310121 3919 @list = qw(
774d564b 3920 a # a comment
bbce6d69 3921 b # another comment
774d564b 3922 );
bbce6d69 3923
3924when you should have written this:
3925
774d564b 3926 @list = qw(
54310121 3927 a
3928 b
774d564b 3929 );
3930
3931If you really want comments, build your list the
3932old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
3933
3934 @list = (
3935 'a', # a comment
3936 'b', # another comment
3937 );
bbce6d69 3938
3939=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
3940
be771a83
GS
3941(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
3942commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
3943different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
3944frequently used.)
bbce6d69 3945
54310121 3946You probably wrote something like this:
bbce6d69 3947
774d564b 3948 qw! a, b, c !;
3949
3950which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
3951commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
bbce6d69 3952
774d564b 3953 qw! a b c !;
bbce6d69 3954
a0d0e21e
LW
3955=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
3956
3957(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
3958Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
3959end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
3960Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
3961
276b2a0c
RGS
3962=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %c operator
3963
3964(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
3965with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
3966
3967 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
3968
3969This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
6903afa2 3970higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
96a925ab
YST
3971really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, put the
3972parentheses explicitly and write C<$x & ($y == 0)>).
276b2a0c 3973
77772344
B
3974=item Possible unintended interpolation of $\ in regex
3975
3976(W ambiguous) You said something like C<m/$\/> in a regex.
3977The regex C<m/foo$\s+bar/m> translates to: match the word 'foo', the output
8ddb446c 3978record separator (see L<perlvar/$\>) and the letter 's' (one time or more)
77772344
B
3979followed by the word 'bar'.
3980
3981If this is what you intended then you can silence the warning by using
3982C<m/${\}/> (for example: C<m/foo${\}s+bar/>).
3983
3984If instead you intended to match the word 'foo' at the end of the line
3985followed by whitespace and the word 'bar' on the next line then you can use
3986C<m/$(?)\/> (for example: C<m/foo$(?)\s+bar/>).
3987
e5035638
FC
3988=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
3989
ccf3535a 3990(W ambiguous) You said something like '@foo' in a double-quoted string
6903afa2 3991but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
e5035638
FC
3992literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
3993to the array you apparently lost track of.
3994
a0d0e21e
LW
3995=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
3996
e476b1b5 3997(S precedence) The old irregular construct
cb1a09d0 3998
a0d0e21e
LW
3999 open FOO || die;
4000
4001is now misinterpreted as
4002
4003 open(FOO || die);
4004
be771a83
GS
4005because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
4006list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
4007parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
4008of "||".
a0d0e21e 4009
3cdd684c
TP
4010=item Premature end of script headers
4011
4012See Server error.
4013
6df41af2
GS
4014=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
4015
be771a83 4016(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4017before now. Check your control flow.
6df41af2 4018
9a7dcd9c 4019=item print() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 4020
be771a83 4021(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4022before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 4023
6df41af2 4024=item Process terminated by SIG%s
a0d0e21e 4025
6df41af2
GS
4026(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
4027applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
4028port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
4029L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
fecfaeb8 4030in L<perlos2>.
a0d0e21e 4031
327323c1
RGS
4032=item Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s
4033
fa816bf3
FC
4034(W illegalproto) A character follows % or @ in a prototype. This is
4035useless, since % and @ gobble the rest of the subroutine arguments.
327323c1 4036
3fe9a6f1 4037=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4633a7c4 4038
9a0b3859 4039(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
be771a83 4040declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4633a7c4 4041
ed9aa3b7
SG
4042=item Prototype not terminated
4043
2a6fd447 4044(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
ed9aa3b7
SG
4045definition.
4046
f9eb106c
FC
4047=item \p{} uses Unicode rules, not locale rules
4048
4049(W) You compiled a regular expression that contained a Unicode property
4050match (C<\p> or C<\P>), but the regular expression is also being told to
4051use the run-time locale, not Unicode. Instead, use a POSIX character
4052class, which should know about the locale's rules.
4053(See L<perlrecharclass/POSIX Character Classes>.)
4054
4055Even if the run-time locale is ISO 8859-1 (Latin1), which is a subset of
4056Unicode, some properties will give results that are not valid for that
4057subset.
4058
4059Here are a couple of examples to help you see what's going on. If the
4060locale is ISO 8859-7, the character at code point 0xD7 is the "GREEK
4061CAPITAL LETTER CHI". But in Unicode that code point means the
4062"MULTIPLICATION SIGN" instead, and C<\p> always uses the Unicode
4063meaning. That means that C<\p{Alpha}> won't match, but C<[[:alpha:]]>
4064should. Only in the Latin1 locale are all the characters in the same
4065positions as they are in Unicode. But, even here, some properties give
4066incorrect results. An example is C<\p{Changes_When_Uppercased}> which
4067is true for "LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH DIAERESIS", but since the upper
4068case of that character is not in Latin1, in that locale it doesn't
4069change when upper cased.
4070
96ebfdd7
RK
4071=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4072
6903afa2
FC
4073(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if
4074you meant it literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
4075about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
96ebfdd7 4076
49704364 4077=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 4078
6903afa2
FC
4079(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of
4080the {min,max} construct. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
4081about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9baa0206 4082
49704364 4083=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 4084
b45f050a
JF
4085(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
4086it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
4087quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
4088"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
4089C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
9baa0206 4090
7253e4e3
RK
4091The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4092discovered.
4093
31c15ce5
KW
4094=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex
4095
4096(W regexp) Minima should be less than or equal to maxima. If you really
4097want your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}.
4098
89ea2908
GA
4099=item Range iterator outside integer range
4100
4101(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
4102are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
be771a83
GS
4103One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
4104by prepending "0" to your numbers.
89ea2908 4105
3b7fbd4a
SP
4106=item readdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4107
1a147d38 4108(W io) The dirhandle you're reading from is either closed or not really
3b7fbd4a
SP
4109a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4110
96ebfdd7
RK
4111=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
4112
4113(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
4114before now. Check your control flow.
4115
b5fe5ca2
SR
4116=item read() on closed filehandle %s
4117
4118(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
4119
4120=item read() on unopened filehandle %s
4121
4122(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
4123
de42a5a9 4124=item Reallocation too large: %x
6df41af2
GS
4125
4126(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
4127
4ad56ec9
IZ
4128=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
4129
be771a83
GS
4130(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
4131already been freed.
4ad56ec9 4132
a0d0e21e
LW
4133=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
4134
be771a83
GS
4135(F debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
4136the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
a0d0e21e
LW
4137which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
4138
6651ba0b
FC
4139=item Recursive call to Perl_load_module in PerlIO_find_layer
4140
4141(P) It is currently not permitted to load modules when creating
4142a filehandle inside an %INC hook. This can happen with C<open my
4143$fh, '<', \$scalar>, which implicitly loads PerlIO::scalar. Try
4144loading PerlIO::scalar explicitly first.
4145
3e0ccd42 4146=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
a0d0e21e 4147
2c7d6b9c
RGS
4148(F) While calculating the method resolution order (MRO) of a package, Perl
4149believes it found an infinite loop in the C<@ISA> hierarchy. This is a
4150crude check that bails out after 100 levels of C<@ISA> depth.
a0d0e21e 4151
12605ff9
FC
4152=item refcnt_dec: fd %d%s
4153
2e0cfa16
FC
4154=item refcnt: fd %d%s
4155
12605ff9
FC
4156=item refcnt_inc: fd %d%s
4157
fa816bf3 4158(P) Perl's I/O implementation failed an internal consistency check. If
2e0cfa16
FC
4159you see this message, something is very wrong.
4160
1930e939
TP
4161=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
4162
be771a83 4163(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
6903afa2
FC
4164with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This
4165usually means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant
4166to use parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
7b8d334a
GS
4167
4168 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
4169 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
4170 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
4171 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
4172
810b8aa5
GS
4173=item Reference is already weak
4174
e476b1b5 4175(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
810b8aa5
GS
4176Doing so has no effect.
4177
aec0ef10 4178=item Reference to invalid group 0 in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b72d83b2 4179
6903afa2
FC
4180(F) You used C<\g0> or similar in a regular expression. You may refer
4181to capturing parentheses only with strictly positive integers
4182(normal backreferences) or with strictly negative integers (relative
4183backreferences). Using 0 does not make sense.
b72d83b2 4184
49704364 4185=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
4186
4187(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
6903afa2 4188not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If
bbaee129
FC
4189you wanted to have the character with ordinal 7 inserted into the regular
4190expression, prepend zeroes to make it three digits long: C<\007>
9baa0206 4191
7253e4e3 4192The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a 4193discovered.
9baa0206 4194
1a147d38
YO
4195=item Reference to nonexistent named group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4196
4197(F) You used something like C<\k'NAME'> or C<< \k<NAME> >> in your regular
9381611c 4198expression, but there is no corresponding named capturing parentheses
6903afa2 4199such as C<(?'NAME'...)> or C<< (?<NAME>...) >>. Check if the name has been
9381611c 4200spelled correctly both in the backreference and the declaration.
1a147d38
YO
4201
4202The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4203discovered.
4204
bcb95744 4205=item Reference to nonexistent or unclosed group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1a147d38 4206
bcb95744
FC
4207(F) You used something like C<\g{-7}> in your regular expression, but there
4208are not at least seven sets of closed capturing parentheses in the
4209expression before where the C<\g{-7}> was located.
1a147d38
YO
4210
4211The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4212discovered.
4213
a0d0e21e
LW
4214=item regexp memory corruption
4215
4216(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
4217expression compiler gave it.
4218
ff3f26d2
KW
4219=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may appear a maximum of twice
4220
3955e1a9
KW
4221=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may not appear twice
4222
f6a766d5 4223(F syntax, regexp) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
ff3f26d2 4224of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
3955e1a9 4225
aec0ef10 4226=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear after the "-" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9442e3b8 4227
f8b5bc72
FC
4228(F) Turning off the given modifier has the side effect of turning on
4229another one. Perl currently doesn't allow this. Reword the regular
9442e3b8
KW
4230expression to use the modifier you want to turn on (and place it before
4231the minus), instead of the one you want to turn off.
4232
3955e1a9
KW
4233=item Regexp modifiers "/%c" and "/%c" are mutually exclusive
4234
f6a766d5 4235(F syntax, regexp) The regular expression pattern had more than one of these
3955e1a9
KW
4236mutually exclusive modifiers. Retain only the modifier that is
4237supposed to be there.
4238
aec0ef10 4239=item Regexp out of space in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4240
be771a83
GS
4241(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
4242earlier.
a0d0e21e 4243
a1b95068
WL
4244=item Repeated format line will never terminate (~~ and @# incompatible)
4245
d7f8936a 4246(F) Your format contains the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence and a
a1b95068 4247numeric field that will never go blank so that the repetition never
6903afa2 4248terminates. You might use ^# instead. See L<perlform>.
a1b95068 4249
b08e453b
RB
4250=item Replacement list is longer than search list
4251
4252(W misc) You have used a replacement list that is longer than the
fa816bf3 4253search list. So the additional elements in the replacement list
b08e453b
RB
4254are meaningless.
4255
a0d0e21e
LW
4256=item Reversed %s= operator
4257
be771a83 4258(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
964742a1 4259always come last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
a0d0e21e 4260
abc7ecad
SP
4261=item rewinddir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4262
4263(W io) The dirhandle you tried to do a rewinddir() on is either closed or not
4264really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4265
96ebfdd7
RK
4266=item Scalars leaked: %d
4267
7bd1381d 4268(S internal) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping
4f5966a5
FC
4269of scalars: not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time
4270Perl exited. What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which
4271is of course bad, especially if the Perl program is intended to be
4272long-running.
96ebfdd7 4273
a0d0e21e
LW
4274=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
4275
be771a83
GS
4276(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
4277single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
4278value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
4279behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
4280argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
4281and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
4282if you're expecting only one subscript.
a0d0e21e 4283
748a9306 4284On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5f05dabc 4285element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
748a9306
LW
4286Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
4287L<perlref>.
4288
a6006777 4289=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
4290
75b44862 4291(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
be771a83
GS
4292element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
4293(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
4294like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
4295argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
4296and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
4297if you're expecting only one subscript.
4298
4299On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
4300as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
4301not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
a6006777 4302L<perlref>.
4303
a0d0e21e
LW
4304=item Search pattern not terminated
4305
4306(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
4307construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 4308Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 4309
0cb1bcd7 4310Note that since Perl 5.9.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
5d9c98cd
JH
4311construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
4312in Perl 5.9.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
4313misparsed by pre-5.9.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
4314
25c09cbf
SF
4315=item Search pattern not terminated or ternary operator parsed as search pattern
4316
4317(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a C<?PATTERN?>
4318construct.
4319
4320The question mark is also used as part of the ternary operator (as in
4321C<foo ? 0 : 1>) leading to some ambiguous constructions being wrongly
6903afa2 4322parsed. One way to disambiguate the parsing is to put parentheses around
25c09cbf
SF
4323the conditional expression, i.e. C<(foo) ? 0 : 1>.
4324
abc7ecad
SP
4325=item seekdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4326
4327(W io) The dirhandle you are doing a seekdir() on is either closed or not
4328really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4329
3257ea4f
FC
4330=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
4331
4332(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
4333filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
4334
a0d0e21e
LW
4335=item select not implemented
4336
4337(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
4338
ae21d580 4339=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
68a4a7e4 4340
ae21d580
JH
4341(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
4342the current implementation.
68a4a7e4 4343
6df41af2 4344=item Semicolon seems to be missing
a0d0e21e 4345
75b44862
GS
4346(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
4347semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
a0d0e21e
LW
4348
4349=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
4350
be771a83
GS
4351(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
4352scalar that had previously been marked as free.
a0d0e21e 4353
6df41af2 4354=item sem%s not implemented
a0d0e21e 4355
6df41af2 4356(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
a0d0e21e 4357
69282e91 4358=item send() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 4359
be771a83 4360(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4361before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 4362
7253e4e3 4363=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
7b8d334a 4364
6903afa2
FC
4365(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The
4366<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4367discovered. See L<perlre>.
1b1626e4 4368
49704364 4369=item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4370
6903afa2
FC
4371(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
4372but has not yet been written. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
4373expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4374
49704364 4375=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4376
7253e4e3
RK
4377(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense. The
4378<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
fb85c044
KW
4379discovered. This happens when using the C<(?^...)> construct to tell
4380Perl to use the default regular expression modifiers, and you
9442e3b8 4381redundantly specify a default modifier. For other
9de15fec 4382causes, see L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 4383
4a68bf9d 4384=item Sequence \%s... not terminated in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1f1031fe
YO
4385
4386(F) The regular expression expects a mandatory argument following the escape
4387sequence and this has been omitted or incorrectly written.
4388
aec0ef10 4389=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
4390
4391(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
aec0ef10 4392parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. See
7253e4e3 4393L<perlre>.
6df41af2 4394
9da1dd8f
DM
4395=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated with ')'
4396
be149b43
DM
4397(F) The end of the perl code contained within the {...} must be
4398followed immediately by a ')'.
9da1dd8f 4399
d7201950 4400=item Z<>500 Server error
6df41af2
GS
4401
4402See Server error.
4403
a5f75d66
AD
4404=item Server error
4405
6903afa2
FC
4406(A) This is the error message generally seen in a browser window
4407when trying to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The
4408actual error text varies widely from server to server. The most
4409frequently-seen variants are "500 Server error", "Method (something)
4410not permitted", "Document contains no data", "Premature end of script
4411headers", and "Did not produce a valid header".
9607fc9c 4412
4413B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
4414
6903afa2
FC
4415You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by
4416the user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the
4417user account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment
4418variables (like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't
4419in a location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or
4420less. Please see the following for more information:
9607fc9c 4421
06a5f41f
JH
4422 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
4423 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
4424 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
a5f75d66 4425
be94a901
GS
4426You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
4427
a0d0e21e
LW
4428=item setegid() not implemented
4429
be771a83
GS
4430(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
4431support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
4432didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
4433
4434=item seteuid() not implemented
4435
be771a83
GS
4436(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
4437support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
4438didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 4439
81777298
GS
4440=item setpgrp can't take arguments
4441
be771a83
GS
4442(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
4443arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
4444group ID.
81777298 4445
a0d0e21e
LW
4446=item setrgid() not implemented
4447
be771a83
GS
4448(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
4449support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
4450didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
4451
4452=item setruid() not implemented
4453
be771a83
GS
4454(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
4455support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
4456didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 4457
6df41af2
GS
4458=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
4459
be771a83
GS
4460(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
4461forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
4462L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
4463
a0d0e21e
LW
4464=item shm%s not implemented
4465
4466(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
4467
984200d0
YST
4468=item !=~ should be !~
4469
4470(W syntax) The non-matching operator is !~, not !=~. !=~ will be
4471interpreted as the != (numeric not equal) and ~ (1's complement)
4472operators: probably not what you intended.
4473
6df41af2
GS
4474=item <> should be quotes
4475
4476(F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
4477C<require 'file'>.
4478
4479=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
4480
4481(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
be771a83
GS
4482as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
4483result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
4484probably not what you had in mind.
6df41af2 4485
69282e91 4486=item shutdown() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 4487
75b44862
GS
4488(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
4489superfluous.
a0d0e21e 4490
f86702cc 4491=item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
a0d0e21e 4492
be771a83
GS
4493(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
4494Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
a0d0e21e 4495
efc859fb
FC
4496=item Slab leaked from cv %p
4497
4498(S) If you see this message, then something is seriously wrong with the
4499internal bookkeeping of op trees. An op tree needed to be freed after
4500a compilation error, but could not be found, so it was leaked instead.
4501
3b9aea04
SH
4502=item sleep(%u) too large
4503
4504(W overflow) You called C<sleep> with a number that was larger than
4505it can reliably handle and C<sleep> probably slept for less time than
4506requested.
4507
229c18ce
RGS
4508=item Smart matching a non-overloaded object breaks encapsulation
4509
4510(F) You should not use the C<~~> operator on an object that does not
4511overload it: Perl refuses to use the object's underlying structure for
4512the smart match.
4513
a0d0e21e
LW
4514=item sort is now a reserved word
4515
4516(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
4517But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
4518
a0d0e21e
LW
4519=item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
4520
4521(F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
4522or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
4523
f1c31c52
FC
4524=item Source filters apply only to byte streams
4525
4526(F) You tried to activate a source filter (usually by loading a
4527source filter module) within a string passed to C<eval>. This is
4528not permitted under the C<unicode_eval> feature. Consider using
4529C<evalbytes> instead. See L<feature>.
4530
8cbc2e3b
JH
4531=item splice() offset past end of array
4532
4533(W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
fa816bf3
FC
4534the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the
4535end of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want,
4536try explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset.
4537See L<perlfunc/splice>.
8cbc2e3b 4538
a0d0e21e
LW
4539=item Split loop
4540
be771a83
GS
4541(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
4542iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
6903afa2 4543happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
a0d0e21e 4544
a0d0e21e
LW
4545=item Statement unlikely to be reached
4546
be771a83
GS
4547(W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
4548die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
4549unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
4550instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
4551a block by itself.
a0d0e21e 4552
fd1b7234
FC
4553=item "state" variable %s can't be in a package
4554
4555(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
4556sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
4557local() if you want to localize a package variable.
4558
a2e39214
FC
4559=item "state %s" used in sort comparison
4560
4561(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
4562You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
4563sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
4564lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
4565name, or rename the lexical variable.
4566
9ddeeac9 4567=item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
6df41af2 4568
355b1299
JH
4569(W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
4570was either never opened or has since been closed.
6df41af2 4571
fe13d51d 4572=item Stub found while resolving method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
e7ea3e70 4573
be771a83
GS
4574(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
4575stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
4576C<can> may break this.
e7ea3e70 4577
4e85e1b4
FC
4578=item Subroutine "&%s" is not available
4579
4580(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
4581attempting to capture an outer lexical subroutine that is not currently
4582available. This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the lexical
4583subroutine may be declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has not
4584yet been created. (Remember that named subs are created at compile time,
4585while anonymous subs are created at run-time.) For example,
4586
4587 sub { my sub a {...} sub f { \&a } }
4588
4589At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current the "a" sub,
4590since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely, the
4591following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by now
4592been created and is live:
4593
4594 sub { my sub a {...} eval 'sub f { \&a }' }->();
4595
4596The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a variable that has
4597gone out of scope, for example,
4598
4599 sub f {
4600 my sub a {...}
4601 sub { eval '\&a' }
4602 }
4603 f()->();
4604
4605Here, when the '\&a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
4606being executed, so its &a is not available for capture.
4607
4eb94d7c
FC
4608=item "%s" subroutine &%s masks earlier declaration in same %s
4609
4610(W misc) A "my" or "state" subroutine has been redeclared in the
4611current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to
4612the previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error.
4613Note that the earlier subroutine will still exist until the end of
20d33786 4614the scope or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
4eb94d7c 4615
a0d0e21e
LW
4616=item Subroutine %s redefined
4617
e476b1b5 4618(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
4619
4620 {
271595cc 4621 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
4622 eval "sub name { ... }";
4623 }
4624
4625=item Substitution loop
4626
be771a83
GS
4627(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
4628shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
4629is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
5d44bfff 4630L<perlop/"Regexp Quote-Like Operators">.
a0d0e21e
LW
4631
4632=item Substitution pattern not terminated
4633
d1be9408 4634(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 4635construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 4636Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
4637
4638=item Substitution replacement not terminated
4639
d1be9408 4640(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 4641construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 4642Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
4643
4644=item substr outside of string
4645
8a9eb13d 4646(W substr)(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
be771a83
GS
4647a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
4648length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
4649substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
4650assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
a0d0e21e 4651
bf1320bf
RGS
4652=item sv_upgrade from type %d down to type %d
4653
9d277376 4654(P) Perl tried to force the upgrade of an SV to a type which was actually
bf1320bf
RGS
4655inferior to its current type.
4656
49704364 4657=item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 4658
fa816bf3
FC
4659(F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most
4660two branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or
4661both to contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose
4662it in clustering parentheses:
b45f050a
JF
4663
4664 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
4665
fa816bf3
FC
4666The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem
4667was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4668
49704364 4669=item Switch condition not recognized in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 4670
39ef1de7 4671(F) If the argument to the (?(...)if-clause|else-clause) construct is
fa816bf3 4672a number, it can be only a number. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
6903afa2 4673expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4674
85ab1d1d
JH
4675=item switching effective %s is not implemented
4676
be771a83
GS
4677(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
4678and effective uids or gids.
85ab1d1d 4679
ae7df085 4680=item %s syntax OK
2f7da168
RK
4681
4682(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
4683
a0d0e21e
LW
4684=item syntax error
4685
4686(F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
4687
4688 A keyword is misspelled.
4689 A semicolon is missing.
4690 A comma is missing.
4691 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
4692 An opening or closing brace is missing.
4693 A closing quote is missing.
4694
4695Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
4696error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
4697The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
4698it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
5f05dabc 4699before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
a0d0e21e
LW
4700Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
4701the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
4702C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
524e9188 4703if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
a0d0e21e 4704
ccf3535a 4705=item syntax error at line %d: '%s' unexpected
cb1a09d0 4706
be771a83
GS
4707(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
4708of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
4709yourself.
cb1a09d0 4710
25f58aea
PN
4711=item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
4712
4713(F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
4714a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
4715or "my $var" or "our $var".
4716
b5fe5ca2
SR
4717=item sysread() on closed filehandle %s
4718
4719(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
4720
4721=item sysread() on unopened filehandle %s
4722
4723(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
4724
6087ac44 4725=item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
a0d0e21e 4726
6087ac44
JH
4727(F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
4728"shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
4729machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
4730unconfigured. Consult your system support.
a0d0e21e 4731
69282e91 4732=item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 4733
be771a83 4734(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4735before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 4736
96ebfdd7
RK
4737=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
4738
4739(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
4740know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
4741
fc36a67e 4742=item Target of goto is too deeply nested
4743
be771a83
GS
4744(F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
4745for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
fc36a67e 4746
abc7ecad
SP
4747=item telldir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4748
4749(W io) The dirhandle you tried to telldir() is either closed or not really
4750a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4751
c2771421
FC
4752=item tell() on unopened filehandle
4753
4754(W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
4755was either never opened or has since been closed.
4756
b82b06b8
FC
4757=item That use of $[ is unsupported
4758
4759(F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted
4760as a compiler directive. You may say only one of
4761
4762 $[ = 0;
4763 $[ = 1;
4764 ...
4765 local $[ = 0;
4766 local $[ = 1;
4767 ...
4768
4769This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out
4770from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[> and L<arybase>.
4771
f86702cc 4772=item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia
a0d0e21e
LW
4773
4774(F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
4775probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
8b1a09fc 4776think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
a0d0e21e
LW
4777will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
4778will deny it.
4779
ebd25686
FC
4780=item The %s feature is experimental
4781
4782(S experimental) This warning is emitted if you enable an experimental
4783feature via C<use feature>. Simply suppress the warning if you want
4784to use the feature, but know that in doing so you are taking the risk
4785of using an experimental feature which may change or be removed in a
4786future Perl version:
4787
f1d34ca8 4788 no warnings "experimental::lexical_subs";
ebd25686
FC
4789 use feature "lexical_subs";
4790
6df41af2
GS
4791=item The %s function is unimplemented
4792
a4a4c9e2 4793(F) The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture, according
6df41af2
GS
4794to the probings of Configure.
4795
5e1c7ca2 4796=item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
a0d0e21e 4797
be771a83
GS
4798(F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
4799linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
4800past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
4801instead.
a0d0e21e 4802
371fce9b
DM
4803=item The 'unique' attribute may only be applied to 'our' variables
4804
1108974d 4805(F) This attribute was never supported on C<my> or C<sub> declarations.
371fce9b 4806
437784d6 4807=item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
f675dbe5
CB
4808
4809=item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
4810
75b44862 4811(W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
be771a83
GS
4812element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
4813wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
4814need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
4815F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
4816target of the change to
f675dbe5
CB
4817%ENV which produced the warning.
4818
6b3c7930
JH
4819=item thread failed to start: %s
4820
4447dfc1 4821(W threads)(S) The entry point function of threads->create() failed for some reason.
6b3c7930 4822
a0d0e21e
LW
4823=item times not implemented
4824
be771a83
GS
4825(F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
4826suspect you're not running on Unix.
a0d0e21e 4827
6d3b25aa
RGS
4828=item "-T" is on the #! line, it must also be used on the command line
4829
b7e4ecc1
FC
4830(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains
4831the B<-T> option (or the B<-t> option), but Perl was not invoked with
4832B<-T> in its command line. This is an error because, by the time
4833Perl discovers a B<-T> in a script, it's too late to properly taint
4834everything from the environment. So Perl gives up.
6d3b25aa
RGS
4835
4836If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
b7e4ecc1
FC
4837mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be
4838fixed by editing the #! line so that the B<-%c> option is a part of
4839Perl's first argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -%c> to C<perl -%c -n>.
6d3b25aa
RGS
4840
4841If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
fe13d51d 4842B<-%c> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -%c scriptname>.
6d3b25aa 4843
3a2263fe
RGS
4844=item To%s: illegal mapping '%s'
4845
4846(F) You tried to define a customized To-mapping for lc(), lcfirst,
4847uc(), or ucfirst() (or their string-inlined versions), but you
4848specified an illegal mapping.
4849See L<perlunicode/"User-Defined Character Properties">.
4850
49704364
WL
4851=item Too deeply nested ()-groups
4852
1a147d38 4853(F) Your template contains ()-groups with a ridiculously deep nesting level.
49704364 4854
a0d0e21e
LW
4855=item Too few args to syscall
4856
4857(F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
4858system call to call, silly dilly.
4859
96ebfdd7
RK
4860=item Too late for "-%s" option
4861
4862(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
4ba71d51
FC
4863B<-M>, B<-m> or B<-C> option.
4864
6903afa2
FC
4865In the case of B<-M> and B<-m>, this is an error because those options
4866are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
4ba71d51 4867
6903afa2
FC
4868The B<-C> option only works if it is specified on the command line as
4869well (with the same sequence of letters or numbers following). Either
4870specify this option on the command line, or, if your system supports
4871it, make your script executable and run it directly instead of passing
4872it to perl.
96ebfdd7 4873
ddda08b7
GS
4874=item Too late to run %s block
4875
4876(W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
4877when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
be771a83
GS
4878loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
4879instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
4880BEGIN block.
ddda08b7 4881
a0d0e21e
LW
4882=item Too many args to syscall
4883
5f05dabc 4884(F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
a0d0e21e
LW
4885
4886=item Too many arguments for %s
4887
4888(F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
4889
6df41af2
GS
4890=item Too many )'s
4891
49704364
WL
4892(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
4893Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
4894
8c40cb74
NC
4895=item Too many ('s
4896
be771a83
GS
4897(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
4898Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 4899
7253e4e3 4900=item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4901
be771a83
GS
4902(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
4903Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 4904
2c268ad5 4905=item Transliteration pattern not terminated
a0d0e21e
LW
4906
4907(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
fb73857a 4908or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
4909C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 4910
2c268ad5 4911=item Transliteration replacement not terminated
a0d0e21e 4912
6a36df5d
YST
4913(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr///, tr[][],
4914y/// or y[][] construct.
a0d0e21e 4915
96ebfdd7
RK
4916=item '%s' trapped by operation mask
4917
4918(F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
6903afa2 4919disallowed. See L<Safe>.
96ebfdd7 4920
a0d0e21e
LW
4921=item truncate not implemented
4922
4923(F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
4924Configure knows about.
4925
19c481f4
FC
4926=item Type of arg %d to &CORE::%s must be %s
4927
4928(F) The subroutine in question in the CORE package requires its argument
4929to be a hard reference to data of the specified type. Overloading is
4930ignored, so a reference to an object that is not the specified type, but
4931nonetheless has overloading to handle it, will still not be accepted.
4932
a0d0e21e
LW
4933=item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
4934
4935(F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
8b1a09fc 4936certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
4937%NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
a0d0e21e
LW
4938{EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
4939
7ac5715b 4940=item Type of argument to %s must be unblessed hashref or arrayref
cba5a3b0 4941
7ac5715b
FC
4942(F) You called C<keys>, C<values> or C<each> with a scalar argument that
4943was not a reference to an unblessed hash or array.
cba5a3b0 4944
eec2d3df
GS
4945=item umask not implemented
4946
be771a83
GS
4947(F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
4948use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
a0d0e21e
LW
4949
4950=item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
4951
c632e777 4952(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 4953many execution contexts were entered and left.
a0d0e21e
LW
4954
4955=item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
4956
4a983e45 4957(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 4958many values were temporarily localized.
a0d0e21e
LW
4959
4960=item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
4961
090cebb2 4962(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 4963many blocks were entered and left.
a0d0e21e 4964
6651ba0b
FC
4965=item Unbalanced string table refcount: (%d) for "%s"
4966
31ff3bd2 4967(S internal) On exit, Perl found some strings remaining in the shared
6651ba0b
FC
4968string table used for copy on write and for hash keys. The entries
4969should have been freed, so this indicates a bug somewhere.
4970
a0d0e21e
LW
4971=item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
4972
2092d7c1 4973(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 4974many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
a0d0e21e
LW
4975
4976=item Undefined format "%s" called
4977
4978(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
4979another package? See L<perlform>.
4980
4981=item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
4982
be771a83
GS
4983(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
4984Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4985
4986=item Undefined subroutine &%s called
4987
be771a83
GS
4988(F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
4989since been undefined.
a0d0e21e
LW
4990
4991=item Undefined subroutine called
4992
4993(F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
4994or if it was, it has since been undefined.
4995
4996=item Undefined subroutine in sort
4997
be771a83
GS
4998(F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
4999to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e 5000
4633a7c4
LW
5001=item Undefined top format "%s" called
5002
5003(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
5004another package? See L<perlform>.
5005
20408e3c
GS
5006=item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
5007
be771a83
GS
5008(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
5009C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
5010C<undef *foo>.
20408e3c 5011
6df41af2
GS
5012=item %s: Undefined variable
5013
be771a83
GS
5014(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
5015Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 5016
2a53d331
KW
5017=item Unescaped left brace in regex is deprecated, passed through
5018
5019(D) You used a literal C<"{"> character in a regular expression pattern.
5020You should change to use C<"\{"> instead, because a future version of
5021Perl (tentatively v5.20) will consider this to be a syntax error. If
5022the pattern delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace
5023(C<"}">) should also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for
5024example,
5025
5026 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
5027
a0d0e21e
LW
5028=item unexec of %s into %s failed!
5029
5030(F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
5031representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
5032
6651ba0b
FC
5033=item Unexpected constant lvalue entersub entry via type/targ %d:%d
5034
5035(P) When compiling a subroutine call in lvalue context, Perl failed an
5036internal consistency check. It encountered a malformed op tree.
5037
0876b9a0
KW
5038=item Unicode non-character U+%X is illegal for open interchange
5039
e2f7b30e 5040(S utf8, nonchar) Certain codepoints, such as U+FFFE and U+FFFF, are
6903afa2
FC
5041defined by the Unicode standard to be non-characters. Those are
5042legal codepoints, but are reserved for internal use; so, applications
5043shouldn't attempt to exchange them. If you know what you are doing
5044you can turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'nonchar';>.
b45f050a 5045
c794c51b
FC
5046=item Unicode surrogate U+%X is illegal in UTF-8
5047
d2bb714f 5048(S utf8, surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
c794c51b
FC
5049not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
5050U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
5051internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
5052available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
5053problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
5054came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 5055off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
c794c51b 5056
a0d0e21e
LW
5057=item Unknown BYTEORDER
5058
be771a83
GS
5059(F) There are no byte-swapping functions for a machine with this byte
5060order.
a0d0e21e 5061
04177465
FC
5062=item Unknown error
5063
5064(P) Perl was about to print an error message in C<$@>, but the C<$@> variable
5065did not exist, even after an attempt to create it.
5066
6170680b
IZ
5067=item Unknown open() mode '%s'
5068
437784d6 5069(F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
c47ff5f1 5070of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
488dad83 5071C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
6170680b 5072
b4581f09
JH
5073=item Unknown PerlIO layer "%s"
5074
5075(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
5076system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
5077internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
5078are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
5079explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
5080value of the environment variable PERLIO.
5081
f675dbe5
CB
5082=item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
5083
5084(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
5085iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
5086data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
5087subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
a05d7ebb 5088
2f7da168
RK
5089=item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
5090
a4a4c9e2 5091(W) You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
2f7da168 5092
0da72d5e
KW
5093=item Unknown regex modifier "%s"
5094
5095(F) Alphanumerics immediately following the closing delimiter
5096of a regular expression pattern are interpreted by Perl as modifier
5097flags for the regex. One of the ones you specified is invalid. One way
5098this can happen is if you didn't put in white space between the end of
5099the regex and a following alphanumeric operator:
5100
5101 if ($a =~ /foo/and $bar == 3) { ... }
5102
5103The C<"a"> is a valid modifier flag, but the C<"n"> is not, and raises
5104this error. Likely what was meant instead was:
5105
5106 if ($a =~ /foo/ and $bar == 3) { ... }
5107
bcd05b94 5108=item Unknown switch condition (?(%s in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
96ebfdd7
RK
5109
5110(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
6903afa2 5111is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5fecf430 5112
674f6ed9
FC
5113 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
5114 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
5115 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
5116 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
5117 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
5118 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
5119 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
5120 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
5121 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
96ebfdd7
RK
5122
5123The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
5124discovered. See L<perlre>.
5125
a05d7ebb
JH
5126=item Unknown Unicode option letter '%c'
5127
a4a4c9e2 5128(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb
JH
5129of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
5130
5131=item Unknown Unicode option value %x
5132
a4a4c9e2 5133(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb 5134of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
f675dbe5 5135
e2e6a0f1
YO
5136=item Unknown verb pattern '%s' in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5137
5138(F) You either made a typo or have incorrectly put a C<*> quantifier
5139after an open brace in your pattern. Check the pattern and review
5140L<perlre> for details on legal verb patterns.
5141
c2771421
FC
5142=item Unknown warnings category '%s'
5143
6903afa2 5144(F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
c2771421
FC
5145category that is unknown to perl at this point.
5146
14ef4c80
FC
5147Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a
5148module (e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have loaded this
5149module first.
c2771421 5150
aec0ef10 5151=item Unmatched [ in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 5152
6903afa2 5153(F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
be771a83 5154include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
6903afa2
FC
5155first. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
5156problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 5157
aec0ef10
FC
5158=item Unmatched ( in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5159
5160=item Unmatched ) in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
5161
5162(F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
6903afa2
FC
5163expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
5164the matching parenthesis. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
5165about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 5166
d98d5fff 5167=item Unmatched right %s bracket
a0d0e21e 5168
be771a83
GS
5169(F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
5170ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
5171general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
5172you were last editing.
a0d0e21e 5173
a0d0e21e
LW
5174=item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
5175
be771a83
GS
5176(W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
5177reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
5178somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
5179subroutine.
a0d0e21e 5180
b1fc3636 5181=item Unrecognized character %s; marked by <-- HERE after %s near column %d
a0d0e21e 5182
54310121 5183(F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
b1fc3636 5184in your Perl script (or eval) near the specified column. Perhaps you tried
356c7adf 5185to run a compressed script, a binary program, or a directory as a Perl program.
a0d0e21e 5186
4a68bf9d 5187=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class passed through in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 5188
be771a83
GS
5189(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
5190recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
b224edc1 5191understood literally, but this may change in a future version of Perl.
2628b4e0
TS
5192The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
5193escape was discovered.
6df41af2 5194
4a68bf9d 5195=item Unrecognized escape \%c passed through
2f7da168 5196
2628b4e0 5197(W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b224edc1
KW
5198recognized by Perl. The character was understood literally, but this may
5199change in a future version of Perl.
2f7da168 5200
216bfc0a 5201=item Unrecognized escape \%s passed through in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 5202
be771a83 5203(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b7e4ecc1
FC
5204recognized by Perl. The character(s) were understood literally, but
5205this may change in a future version of Perl. The <-- HERE shows in
5206the regular expression about where the escape was discovered.
6df41af2 5207
a0d0e21e
LW
5208=item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
5209
be771a83
GS
5210(F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
5211recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
5212on your system.
a0d0e21e 5213
90248788 5214=item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
a0d0e21e 5215
be771a83
GS
5216(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
5217think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
5218bad switch on your behalf.)
a0d0e21e
LW
5219
5220=item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
5221
be771a83
GS
5222(W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
5223operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
5b3eff12 5224PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
a0d0e21e
LW
5225
5226=item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
5227
5228(F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
5229
6df41af2
GS
5230=item Unsupported function %s
5231
5232(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
5233At least, Configure doesn't think so.
5234
54310121 5235=item Unsupported function fork
5236
5237(F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
5238
be771a83 5239Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
6903afa2 5240of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
be771a83 5241changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
54310121 5242
7aa207d6 5243=item Unsupported script encoding %s
b250498f
GS
5244
5245(F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
7aa207d6 5246declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot read.
b250498f 5247
a0d0e21e
LW
5248=item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
5249
5250(F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
5251least that's what Configure thought.
5252
6df41af2 5253=item Unterminated attribute list
a0d0e21e 5254
be771a83
GS
5255(F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
5256start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
5257block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
5258attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
a0d0e21e 5259
09bef843
SB
5260=item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
5261
be771a83
GS
5262(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
5263an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
09bef843
SB
5264character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
5265character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
5266
f1991046
GS
5267=item Unterminated compressed integer
5268
5269(F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
5270compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
5271See L<perlfunc/pack>.
5272
6f2d7fc9
FC
5273=item Unterminated delimiter for here document
5274
5275(F) This message occurs when a here document label has an initial
5276quotation mark but the final quotation mark is missing. Perhaps
5277you wrote:
5278
5279 <<"foo
5280
5281instead of:
5282
5283 <<"foo"
5284
2bf803e2
YO
5285=item Unterminated \g{...} pattern in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5286
5287(F) You missed a close brace on a \g{..} pattern (group reference) in
fa816bf3 5288a regular expression. Fix the pattern and retry.
e2e6a0f1 5289
6df41af2 5290=item Unterminated <> operator
09bef843 5291
6df41af2 5292(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
5293a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
5294not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
5295earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
09bef843 5296
905fe053
FC
5297=item Unterminated verb pattern argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5298
5299(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB:ARG)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 5300the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053
FC
5301
5302=item Unterminated verb pattern in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5303
5304(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 5305the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 5306
6df41af2 5307=item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
a0d0e21e 5308
be771a83
GS
5309(W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
5310still valid when C<untie> was called.
a0d0e21e 5311
8e11cd2b
JC
5312=item Usage: POSIX::%s(%s)
5313
5314(F) You called a POSIX function with incorrect arguments.
5315See L<POSIX/FUNCTIONS> for more information.
5316
5317=item Usage: Win32::%s(%s)
5318
5319(F) You called a Win32 function with incorrect arguments.
5320See L<Win32> for more information.
5321
89474f50
FC
5322=item $[ used in %s (did you mean $] ?)
5323
5324(W syntax) You used C<$[> in a comparison, such as:
5325
5326 if ($[ > 5.006) {
5327 ...
5328 }
5329
5330You probably meant to use C<$]> instead. C<$[> is the base for indexing
5331arrays. C<$]> is the Perl version number in decimal.
5332
8fe85e3f
FC
5333=item Useless assignment to a temporary
5334
5335(W misc) You assigned to an lvalue subroutine, but what
5336the subroutine returned was a temporary scalar about to
5337be discarded, so the assignment had no effect.
5338
96ebfdd7 5339=item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 5340
96ebfdd7
RK
5341(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
5342meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 5343
96ebfdd7 5344 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
5345
5346must be written as
5347
96ebfdd7 5348 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
5349
5350The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
6903afa2 5351where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 5352
b4581f09
JH
5353=item Useless localization of %s
5354
6903afa2
FC
5355(W syntax) The localization of lvalues such as C<local($x=10)> is legal,
5356but in fact the local() currently has no effect. This may change at
b4581f09
JH
5357some point in the future, but in the meantime such code is discouraged.
5358
96ebfdd7 5359=item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 5360
96ebfdd7
RK
5361(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
5362meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 5363
96ebfdd7 5364 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
5365
5366must be written as
5367
96ebfdd7 5368 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
5369
5370The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
6903afa2 5371where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 5372
b08e453b
RB
5373=item Useless use of /d modifier in transliteration operator
5374
5375(W misc) You have used the /d modifier where the searchlist has the
6903afa2 5376same length as the replacelist. See L<perlop> for more information
b08e453b
RB
5377about the /d modifier.
5378
820438b1
FC
5379=item Useless use of \E
5380
5381(W misc) You have a \E in a double-quotish string without a C<\U>,
5382C<\L> or C<\Q> preceding it.
5383
6df41af2 5384=item Useless use of %s in void context
a0d0e21e 5385
75b44862 5386(W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
be771a83
GS
5387nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
5388value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
5389often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
5390to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
5391get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
5392said
a0d0e21e 5393
6df41af2 5394 $one, $two = 1, 2;
748a9306 5395
6df41af2
GS
5396when you meant to say
5397
5398 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
5399
5400Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
5401reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
5402example, if you say
5403
5404 $array = (1,2);
5405
5406when you should have said
5407
5408 $array = [1,2];
5409
5410The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
5411while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
5412a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
5413throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
5414L<perlref> for more on this.
5415
65191a1e
BS
5416This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
5417since they are often used in statements like
5418
4358a253 5419 1 while sub_with_side_effects();
65191a1e
BS
5420
5421String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
5422about.
5423
6df41af2
GS
5424=item Useless use of "re" pragma
5425
6903afa2 5426(W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
6df41af2 5427
a801c63c
RGS
5428=item Useless use of sort in scalar context
5429
5430(W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
5431
5432 my $x = sort @y;
5433
5434This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
5435
de4864e4
JH
5436=item Useless use of %s with no values
5437
f87c3213 5438(W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
6903afa2
FC
5439apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
5440usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
de4864e4 5441possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
6903afa2 5442if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
de4864e4
JH
5443you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
5444
6df41af2
GS
5445=item "use" not allowed in expression
5446
be771a83
GS
5447(F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
5448returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
748a9306 5449
36b2db7e
FC
5450=item Use of assignment to $[ is deprecated
5451
5452(D deprecated) The C<$[> variable (index of the first element in an array)
6903afa2 5453is deprecated. See L<perlvar/"$[">.
36b2db7e 5454
c47ff5f1 5455=item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is deprecated
4633a7c4 5456
8ab8f082 5457(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted
83ce3e12
RGS
5458form if you wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
5459
5460=item Use of comma-less variable list is deprecated
5461
8ab8f082 5462(D deprecated) The values you give to a format should be
83ce3e12 5463separated by commas, not just aligned on a line.
4633a7c4 5464
96ebfdd7
RK
5465=item Use of chdir('') or chdir(undef) as chdir() deprecated
5466
5467(D deprecated) chdir() with no arguments is documented to change to
5468$ENV{HOME} or $ENV{LOGDIR}. chdir(undef) and chdir('') share this
5469behavior, but that has been deprecated. In future versions they
5470will simply fail.
5471
5472Be careful to check that what you pass to chdir() is defined and not
5473blank, else you might find yourself in your home directory.
5474
64e578a2
MJD
5475=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
5476
5477(W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
5478modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
5479
4ac733c9
MJD
5480=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
5481
5482(W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
5483use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
5484used. (This may change in the future.)
5485
2dc78664 5486=item Use of := for an empty attribute list is not allowed
036e1e65 5487
2dc78664
NC
5488(F) The construction C<my $x := 42> used to parse as equivalent to
5489C<my $x : = 42> (applying an empty attribute list to C<$x>).
5490This construct was deprecated in 5.12.0, and has now been made a syntax
5491error, so C<:=> can be reclaimed as a new operator in the future.
5492
5493If you need an empty attribute list, for example in a code generator, add
5494a space before the C<=>.
036e1e65 5495
b6c83531 5496=item Use of freed value in iteration
2f7da168 5497
b6c83531
JH
5498(F) Perhaps you modified the iterated array within the loop?
5499This error is typically caused by code like the following:
2f7da168
RK
5500
5501 @a = (3,4);
5502 @a = () for (1,2,@a);
5503
5504You are not supposed to modify arrays while they are being iterated over.
5505For speed and efficiency reasons, Perl internally does not do full
5506reference-counting of iterated items, hence deleting such an item in the
5507middle of an iteration causes Perl to see a freed value.
5508
39b99f21 5509=item Use of *glob{FILEHANDLE} is deprecated
5510
5511(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the shorter *glob{IO} form
5512to access the filehandle slot within a typeglob.
5513
96ebfdd7 5514=item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
35ae6b54 5515
96ebfdd7
RK
5516(W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
5517operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
5518repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
35ae6b54 5519
0b98bec9
RGS
5520=item Use of "goto" to jump into a construct is deprecated
5521
5522(D deprecated) Using C<goto> to jump from an outer scope into an inner
5523scope is deprecated and should be avoided.
5524
dc848c6f 5525=item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
5526
1da25648
FC
5527(D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD>
5528subroutines are looked up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy)
5529even when the subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain
5530functions (e.g. C<Foo::bar()>), not as methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or
5531C<< $obj->bar() >>).
dc848c6f 5532
be771a83
GS
5533This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup only for
5534methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base of existing
5535code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl
5536currently issues an optional warning when non-methods use inherited
5537C<AUTOLOAD>s.
dc848c6f 5538
5539The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
be771a83
GS
5540non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used
5541to depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class
5542named C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during
5543startup.
dc848c6f 5544
be771a83
GS
5545In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);>
5546you should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
7b8d334a 5547C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
fb73857a 5548
6df41af2
GS
5549=item Use of %s in printf format not supported
5550
5551(F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
5552only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
5553
6df41af2
GS
5554=item Use of %s is deprecated
5555
75b44862 5556(D deprecated) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use,
be771a83
GS
5557generally because there's a better way to do it, and also because the
5558old way has bad side effects.
6df41af2 5559
5a7abfcc
FC
5560=item Use of -l on filehandle %s
5561
5562(W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
5563it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
5564The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
5565
7c7df812
FC
5566=item Use of %s on a handle without * is deprecated
5567
22d6fc57 5568(D deprecated) You used C<tie>, C<tied> or C<untie> on a scalar but that scalar
fa816bf3 5569happens to hold a typeglob, which means its filehandle will be tied. If
22d6fc57
FC
5570you mean to tie a handle, use an explicit * as in C<tie *$handle>.
5571
5572This was a long-standing bug that was removed in Perl 5.16, as there was
5573no way to tie the scalar itself when it held a typeglob, and no way to
5574untie a scalar that had had a typeglob assigned to it. If you see this
5575message, you must be using an older version.
7c7df812 5576
905fe053
FC
5577=item Use of ?PATTERN? without explicit operator is deprecated
5578
5579(D deprecated) You have written something like C<?\w?>, for a regular
5580expression that matches only once. Starting this term directly with
5581the question mark delimiter is now deprecated, so that the question mark
5582will be available for use in new operators in the future. Write C<m?\w?>
5583instead, explicitly using the C<m> operator: the question mark delimiter
5584still invokes match-once behaviour.
5585
1f1cc344 5586=item Use of reference "%s" as array index
d804643f 5587
77b96956 5588(W misc) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
1f1cc344
JH
5589isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
5590to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
d804643f 5591
64977eb6 5592If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
1f1cc344 5593C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
54e0f05c 5594however, because you can overload the numification and stringification
c69ca1d4 5595operators and then you presumably know what you are doing.
d804643f 5596
bbd7eb8a
RD
5597=item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
5598
159f47d9 5599(W taint, deprecated) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
bbd7eb8a
RD
5600arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
5601but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
5602arguments. See L<perlsec>.
5603
cc95b072 5604=item Use of uninitialized value%s
a0d0e21e 5605
be771a83
GS
5606(W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
5607defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
5608To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
a0d0e21e 5609
6903afa2
FC
5610To help you figure out what was undefined, perl will try to tell you
5611the name of the variable (if any) that was undefined. In some cases
5612it cannot do this, so it also tells you what operation you used the
5613undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your program
5614anid the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily appear
5615literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is usually
5616optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to the
5617C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in
5618your program.
e5be4a53 5619
a1063b2d
RH
5620=item Using a hash as a reference is deprecated
5621
496a33f5 5622(D deprecated) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
1b1f1335 5623C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1
6903afa2
FC
5624used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now
5625deprecated, and will be removed in a future version.
a1063b2d
RH
5626
5627=item Using an array as a reference is deprecated
5628
496a33f5 5629(D deprecated) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
1b1f1335 5630C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1 used to
6903afa2
FC
5631allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated,
5632and will be removed in a future version.
a1063b2d 5633
ff3f963a
KW
5634=item Using just the first character returned by \N{} in character class
5635
5636(W) A charnames handler may return a sequence of more than one character.
5637Currently all but the first one are discarded when used in a regular
5638expression pattern bracketed character class.
5639
c794c51b
FC
5640=item Using !~ with %s doesn't make sense
5641
5642(F) Using the C<!~> operator with C<s///r>, C<tr///r> or C<y///r> is
5643currently reserved for future use, as the exact behaviour has not
6903afa2 5644been decided. (Simply returning the boolean opposite of the
c794c51b 5645modified string is usually not particularly useful.)
0876b9a0 5646
949cf498
KW
5647=item UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
5648
968342a3 5649(S utf8, surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
949cf498
KW
5650not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
5651U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
5652internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
5653available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
5654problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
5655came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 5656off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9466bab6 5657
68dc0745 5658=item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
a6006777 5659
75b44862 5660(W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
be771a83
GS
5661C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
5662can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
5663false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
5664constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
5665C<defined> operator.
a6006777 5666
f675dbe5
CB
5667=item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
5668
be771a83
GS
5669(W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
5670%ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
5671longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
56721024 characters.
f675dbe5 5673
b5c19bd7 5674=item Variable "%s" is not available
44a8e56a 5675
b5c19bd7
DM
5676(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
5677attempting to capture an outer lexical that is not currently available.
6903afa2 5678This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the outer lexical may be
b5c19bd7
DM
5679declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has not yet been created.
5680(Remember that named subs are created at compile time, while anonymous
6903afa2 5681subs are created at run-time.) For example,
44a8e56a 5682
b5c19bd7 5683 sub { my $a; sub f { $a } }
44a8e56a 5684
b5c19bd7 5685At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current value of $a,
6903afa2 5686since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely,
b5c19bd7
DM
5687the following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by
5688now been created and is live:
be771a83 5689
b5c19bd7
DM
5690 sub { my $a; eval 'sub f { $a }' }->();
5691
5692The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a variable that has
5693gone out of scope, for example,
5694
5695 sub f {
5696 my $a;
5697 sub { eval '$a' }
5698 }
5699 f()->();
5700
5701Here, when the '$a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently being
5702executed, so its $a is not available for capture.
44a8e56a 5703
b4581f09
JH
5704=item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
5705
120b0f81 5706(S misc) With "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable
413ff9f6 5707that you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
b4581f09
JH
5708something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
5709that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
5710front of your variable.
5711
aec0ef10 5712=item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex m/%s/
b4581f09
JH
5713
5714(F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
58e23c8d 5715known at compile time. See L<perlre>.
b4581f09
JH
5716
5717=item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
5718
b9cc85ad
FC
5719(W misc) A "my", "our" or "state" variable has been redeclared in the
5720current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the
5721previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note
5722that the earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope
20d33786 5723or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
b4581f09 5724
6df41af2
GS
5725=item Variable syntax
5726
5727(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
5728of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
5729Perl yourself.
5730
44a8e56a 5731=item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
5732
be771a83 5733(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
b5c19bd7 5734lexical variable defined in an outer named subroutine.
44a8e56a 5735
b5c19bd7 5736When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of
be771a83
GS
5737the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
5738call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
5739outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
5740longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
5741variable will no longer be shared.
44a8e56a 5742
44a8e56a 5743This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
5744anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
b5c19bd7 5745reference variables in outer subroutines are created, they
be771a83 5746are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
44a8e56a 5747
6651ba0b
FC
5748=item vector argument not supported with alpha versions
5749
8b6051f1 5750(S printf) The %vd (s)printf format does not support version objects
6651ba0b
FC
5751with alpha parts.
5752
e2e6a0f1
YO
5753=item Verb pattern '%s' has a mandatory argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5754
6903afa2
FC
5755(F) You used a verb pattern that requires an argument. Supply an
5756argument or check that you are using the right verb.
e2e6a0f1
YO
5757
5758=item Verb pattern '%s' may not have an argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5759
6903afa2 5760(F) You used a verb pattern that is not allowed an argument. Remove the
e2e6a0f1
YO
5761argument or check that you are using the right verb.
5762
084610c0
GS
5763=item Version number must be a constant number
5764
5765(P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
5766its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
5767the version number.
5768
808ee47e
SP
5769=item Version string '%s' contains invalid data; ignoring: '%s'
5770
32e998fd
RGS
5771(W misc) The version string contains invalid characters at the end, which
5772are being ignored.
808ee47e 5773
7e1af8bc 5774=item Warning: something's wrong
5f05dabc 5775
5776(W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
ec8bb14c 5777you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 5778
f86702cc 5779=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
a0d0e21e 5780
be771a83
GS
5781(S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
5782the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
5783space.
a0d0e21e 5784
5f05dabc 5785=item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
a0d0e21e 5786
be771a83
GS
5787(S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
5788looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
5789term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
5790function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
a0d0e21e
LW
5791
5792 rand + 5;
5793
5794you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
5795
5796 rand() + 5;
5797
5798but in actual fact, you got
5799
5800 rand(+5);
5801
5f05dabc 5802So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
a0d0e21e 5803
4b3603a4
JH
5804=item Wide character in %s
5805
c8f79457 5806(S utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting
cd28123a
JH
5807one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print). The easiest
5808way to quiet this warning is simply to add the C<:utf8> layer to the
5809output, e.g. C<binmode STDOUT, ':utf8'>. Another way to turn off the
5810warning is to add C<no warnings 'utf8';> but that is often closer to
5811cheating. In general, you are supposed to explicitly mark the
5812filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
4b3603a4 5813
49704364
WL
5814=item Within []-length '%c' not allowed
5815
fa816bf3
FC
5816(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]>
5817only if C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes that
5818can be determined from the template alone. This is not possible if
5819it contains any of the codes @, /, U, u, w or a *-length. Redesign
5820the template.
49704364 5821
9a7dcd9c 5822=item write() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 5823
be771a83 5824(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5825before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5826
9ae3ac1a 5827=item %s "\x%X" does not map to Unicode
b4581f09 5828
a4a4c9e2 5829(F) When reading in different encodings Perl tries to map everything
b4581f09
JH
5830into Unicode characters. The bytes you read in are not legal in
5831this encoding, for example
5832
5833 utf8 "\xE4" does not map to Unicode
5834
5835if you try to read in the a-diaereses Latin-1 as UTF-8.
5836
49704364 5837=item 'X' outside of string
a0d0e21e 5838
49704364
WL
5839(F) You had a (un)pack template that specified a relative position before
5840the beginning of the string being (un)packed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
a0d0e21e 5841
49704364 5842=item 'x' outside of string in unpack
a0d0e21e
LW
5843
5844(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
5845the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
5846
a0d0e21e
LW
5847=item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
5848
5f05dabc 5849(F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
a0d0e21e 5850sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
1b1f1335 5851about what you want. Your best bet is to put a setuid C wrapper around
496a33f5 5852your script.
a0d0e21e
LW
5853
5854=item You need to quote "%s"
5855
be771a83
GS
5856(W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
5857Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
5858which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
5859assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
5860what you want, put an & in front.)
a0d0e21e 5861
6cfd5ea7
JH
5862=item Your random numbers are not that random
5863
5864(F) When trying to initialise the random seed for hashes, Perl could
5865not get any randomness out of your system. This usually indicates
5866Something Very Wrong.
5867
a0d0e21e
LW
5868=back
5869
00eb3f2b
RGS
5870=head1 SEE ALSO
5871
ed3f9c4f 5872L<warnings>, L<perllexwarn>, L<diagnostics>.
00eb3f2b 5873
56e90b21 5874=cut