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1=head1 NAME
2
3perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
4
5=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
8desperation):
9
10 (W) A warning (optional).
d1d15184 11 (D) A deprecation (enabled by default).
00eb3f2b 12 (S) A severe warning (enabled by default).
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13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
54310121 15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
cb1a09d0 16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
a0d0e21e 17
75b44862 18The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
64977eb6 19(W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
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20
21If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
22category is included with the classification letter in the description
466416ed 23below. E.g. C<(W closed)> means a warning in the C<closed> category.
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24
25Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
fa816bf3 26and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
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27to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
28of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
29
b7eceb5b 30Severe warnings are always enabled, unless they are explicitly disabled
e476b1b5 31with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
4438c4b7 32
748a9306 33Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
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34L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
36See L<warnings>.
a0d0e21e 37
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38The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
39lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
40denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
41ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
42letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
43letter.
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44
45=over 4
46
6df41af2 47=item accept() on closed socket %s
33633739 48
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49(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
50to check the return value of your socket() call? See
51L<perlfunc/accept>.
33633739 52
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53=item Aliasing via reference is experimental
54
55(S experimental::refaliasing) This warning is emitted if you use
56a reference constructor on the left-hand side of an assignment to
57alias one variable to another. Simply suppress the warning if you
58want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you are taking
59the risk of using an experimental feature which may change or be
60removed in a future Perl version:
61
62 no warnings "experimental::refaliasing";
63 use feature "refaliasing";
64 \$x = \$y;
65
04f74579 66=item '%c' allowed only after types %s in %s
ef54e1a4 67
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68(F) The modifiers '!', '<' and '>' are allowed in pack() or unpack() only
69after certain types. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
ef54e1a4 70
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71=item alpha->numify() is lossy
72
73(W numeric) An alpha version can not be numified without losing
74information.
75
6df41af2 76=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
43192e07 77
75b44862 78(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
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79keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
80one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
81subroutine is not imported.
43192e07 82
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83To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
84before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
85Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
86imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
43192e07 87
6df41af2 88To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
496a33f5 89on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
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90to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
91L<attributes>).
43192e07 92
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93=item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
94
95(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
96all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
97first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
98C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
99
6df41af2 100=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
43192e07 101
7c7af292 102(S ambiguous) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
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103you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
104a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
a0d0e21e 105
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106=item Ambiguous use of -%s resolved as -&%s()
107
108(S ambiguous) You wrote something like C<-foo>, which might be the
109string C<"-foo">, or a call to the function C<foo>, negated. If you meant
110the string, just write C<"-foo">. If you meant the function call,
111write C<-foo()>.
112
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113=item Ambiguous use of %c resolved as operator %c
114
7c7af292 115(S ambiguous) C<%>, C<&>, and C<*> are both infix operators (modulus,
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116bitwise and, and multiplication) I<and> initial special characters
117(denoting hashes, subroutines and typeglobs), and you said something
118like C<*foo * foo> that might be interpreted as either of them. We
119assumed you meant the infix operator, but please try to make it more
120clear -- in the example given, you might write C<*foo * foo()> if you
121really meant to multiply a glob by the result of calling a function.
d8225693 122
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123=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s} resolved to %c%s
124
125(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<@{foo}>, which might be
126asking for the variable C<@foo>, or it might be calling a function
127named foo, and dereferencing it as an array reference. If you wanted
1cecf2c0 128the variable, you can just write C<@foo>. If you wanted to call the
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129function, write C<@{foo()}> ... or you could just not have a variable
130and a function with the same name, and save yourself a lot of trouble.
131
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132=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s[...]} resolved to %c%s[...]
133
134=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s{...}} resolved to %c%s{...}
4da60377 135
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136(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<${foo[2]}> (where foo represents
137the name of a Perl keyword), which might be looking for element number
1382 of the array named C<@foo>, in which case please write C<$foo[2]>, or you
139might have meant to pass an anonymous arrayref to the function named
140foo, and then do a scalar deref on the value it returns. If you meant
141that, write C<${foo([2])}>.
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142
143In regular expressions, the C<${foo[2]}> syntax is sometimes necessary
144to disambiguate between array subscripts and character classes.
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145C</$length[2345]/>, for instance, will be interpreted as C<$length> followed
146by the character class C<[2345]>. If an array subscript is what you
147want, you can avoid the warning by changing C</${length[2345]}/> to the
148unsightly C</${\$length[2345]}/>, by renaming your array to something
149that does not coincide with a built-in keyword, or by simply turning
150off warnings with C<no warnings 'ambiguous';>.
4da60377 151
6df41af2 152=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
a0d0e21e 153
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154(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
155redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
156redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
c9f97d15 157
6df41af2 158=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
1028017a 159
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160(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
161redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
162into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
163though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
164which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
1028017a 165
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166 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
167 while (<STDIN>) {
168 print;
169 print OUT;
170 }
171 close OUT;
c9f97d15 172
6df41af2 173=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
eb6e2d6f 174
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175(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
176transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
be771a83 177one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
ac036724 178a scalar value (the length of an array, or the population info of a
179hash) and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
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180you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
181alternatives.
eb6e2d6f 182
6df41af2 183=item Arg too short for msgsnd
76cd736e 184
6df41af2 185(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
76cd736e 186
f86702cc 187=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 188
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189(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
190that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
191will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
a0d0e21e 192
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193Note that for the C<Inf> and C<NaN> (infinity and not-a-number) the
194definition of "numeric" is somewhat unusual: the strings themselves
195(like "Inf") are considered numeric, and anything following them is
196considered non-numeric.
197
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198=item Argument list not closed for PerlIO layer "%s"
199
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200(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O
201system you forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers
202take care of transforming data between external and internal
203representations.) Perl stopped parsing the layer list at this
204point and did not attempt to push this layer. If your program
205didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the
206result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
b4581f09 207
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208=item Argument "%s" treated as 0 in increment (++)
209
210(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to the C<++>
211operator which expects either a number or a string matching
212C</^[a-zA-Z]*[0-9]*\z/>. See L<perlop/Auto-increment and
213Auto-decrement> for details.
214
637494ac 215=item Array passed to stat will be coerced to a scalar%s
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216
217(W syntax) You called stat() on an array, but the array will be
218coerced to a scalar - the number of elements in the array.
219
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220=item A signature parameter must start with '$', '@' or '%'
221
222(F) Each subroutine signature parameter declaration must start with a valid
223sigil; for example:
224
225 sub foo ($a, $, $b = 1, @c) {}
226
227=item A slurpy parameter may not have a default value
228
229(F) Only scalar subroutine signature parameters may have a default value;
230for example:
231
232 sub foo ($a = 1) {} # legal
233 sub foo (@a = (1)) {} # invalid
234 sub foo (%a = (a => b)) {} # invalid
235
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236=item assertion botched: %s
237
21b5e840 238(X) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
a0d0e21e 239
0eacef8e 240=item Assertion %s failed: file "%s", line %d
a0d0e21e 241
21b5e840 242(X) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
a0d0e21e 243
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244=item Assigned value is not a reference
245
246(F) You tried to assign something that was not a reference to an lvalue
247reference (e.g., C<\$x = $y>). If you meant to make $x an alias to $y, use
248C<\$x = \$y>.
249
250=item Assigned value is not %s reference
251
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252(F) You tried to assign a reference to a reference constructor, but the
253two references were not of the same type. You cannot alias a scalar to
254an array, or an array to a hash; the two types must match.
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255
256 \$x = \@y; # error
257 \@x = \%y; # error
258 $y = [];
259 \$x = $y; # error; did you mean \$y?
260
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261=item Assigning non-zero to $[ is no longer possible
262
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263(F) When the "array_base" feature is disabled
264(e.g., and under C<use v5.16;>, and as of Perl 5.30)
7d345e3d 265the special variable C<$[>, which is deprecated, is now a fixed zero value.
82122228 266
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267=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
268
269(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
270must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
271know which context to supply to the right side.
272
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273=item Assuming NOT a POSIX class since %s in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
274
275(W regexp) You had something like these:
276
277 [[:alnum]]
278 [[:digit:xyz]
279
280They look like they might have been meant to be the POSIX classes
281C<[:alnum:]> or C<[:digit:]>. If so, they should be written:
282
283 [[:alnum:]]
284 [[:digit:]xyz]
285
286Since these aren't legal POSIX class specifications, but are legal
287bracketed character classes, Perl treats them as the latter. In the
288first example, it matches the characters C<":">, C<"[">, C<"a">, C<"l">,
289C<"m">, C<"n">, and C<"u">.
290
291If these weren't meant to be POSIX classes, this warning message is
292spurious, and can be suppressed by reordering things, such as
293
294 [[al:num]]
295
296or
297
298 [[:munla]]
299
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300=item <> at require-statement should be quotes
301
302(F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
303C<require 'file'>.
304
2393f1b9 305=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
1b1f1335 306
49293501 307(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
2393f1b9 308the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
49293501 309
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310=item Attempt to bless into a freed package
311
312(F) You wrote C<bless $foo> with one argument after somehow causing
313the current package to be freed. Perl cannot figure out what to
0c5a5b27 314do, so it throws up its hands in despair.
dcdfe746 315
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316=item Attempt to bless into a reference
317
318(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
57dedab9 319the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
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320supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
321
322 bless $self, $proto;
323
324when you intended
325
326 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
327
328If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
329of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
330example by:
331
332 bless $self, "$proto";
333
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334=item Attempt to clear deleted array
335
336(S debugging) An array was assigned to when it was being freed.
337Freed values are not supposed to be visible to Perl code. This
338can also happen if XS code calls C<av_clear> from a custom magic
339callback on the array.
340
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341=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
342
343(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
344which is not in its key set.
345
346=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
347
348(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
349declared readonly from a restricted hash.
350
de42a5a9 351=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%x
a0d0e21e 352
f84fe999 353(S internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
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354that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
355outside any of those arenas.
a0d0e21e 356
12578ffb 357=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string '%s'%s
bbce6d69 358
f84fe999 359(S internal) Perl maintains a reference-counted internal table of
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360strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
361strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
362of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
bbce6d69 363
7d5b40b4 364=item Attempt to free temp prematurely: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 365
f84fe999 366(S debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
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367free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
368SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
369free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
370try to free it.
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371
372=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
373
f84fe999 374(S internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
a0d0e21e 375
7d5b40b4 376=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 377
8f7e4d2c 378(S internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
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379see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
380earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
381This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
382that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
383mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
384corrupted.
a0d0e21e 385
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386=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
387
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388(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
389function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
390means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
391invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
392literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
393avoid this warning.
84902520 394
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395=item Attempt to reload %s aborted.
396
397(F) You tried to load a file with C<use> or C<require> that failed to
398compile once already. Perl will not try to compile this file again
399unless you delete its entry from %INC. See L<perlfunc/require> and
400L<perlvar/%INC>.
401
1b20cd17
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402=item Attempt to set length of freed array
403
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FC
404(W misc) You tried to set the length of an array which has
405been freed. You can do this by storing a reference to the
406scalar representing the last index of an array and later
407assigning through that reference. For example
1b20cd17
NC
408
409 $r = do {my @a; \$#a};
410 $$r = 503
411
b7a902f4 412=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
413
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414(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
415used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
416dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 417
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418=item Attribute prototype(%s) discards earlier prototype attribute in same sub
419
420(W misc) A sub was declared as sub foo : prototype(A) : prototype(B) {}, for
421example. Since each sub can only have one prototype, the earlier
422declaration(s) are discarded while the last one is applied.
423
ccce04a4
FC
424=item av_reify called on tied array
425
426(S debugging) This indicates that something went wrong and Perl got I<very>
427confused about C<@_> or C<@DB::args> being tied.
428
de42a5a9 429=item Bad arg length for %s, is %u, should be %d
a0d0e21e 430
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431(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
432or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 433S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
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434S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
435
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436=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
437
496a33f5 438(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
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439substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
440most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
441
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442=item Bad filehandle: %s
443
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444(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
445symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
446open(), or did it in another package.
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447
448=item Bad free() ignored
449
be771a83 450(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
fa816bf3 451been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 452setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 453
9ea8bc6d 454This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
6903afa2 455dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
be771a83 456which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 457
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458=item Badly placed ()'s
459
460(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
461of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
462Perl yourself.
463
a7cb8dae 464=item Bad name after %s
a0d0e21e 465
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466(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
467didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
468of quotes, so
a0d0e21e
LW
469
470 $var = 'myvar';
471 $sym = mypack::$var;
472
473is not the same as
474
475 $var = 'myvar';
476 $sym = "mypack::$var";
477
88e1f1a2
JV
478=item Bad plugin affecting keyword '%s'
479
480(F) An extension using the keyword plugin mechanism violated the
481plugin API.
482
4ad56ec9
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483=item Bad realloc() ignored
484
6903afa2
FC
485(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that
486had never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can
487be disabled by setting the environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 488
a0d0e21e
LW
489=item Bad symbol for array
490
491(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
492wasn't a symbol table entry.
493
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SP
494=item Bad symbol for dirhandle
495
496(P) An internal request asked to add a dirhandle entry to something
497that wasn't a symbol table entry.
498
a0d0e21e
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499=item Bad symbol for filehandle
500
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501(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
502that wasn't a symbol table entry.
a0d0e21e
LW
503
504=item Bad symbol for hash
505
506(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
507wasn't a symbol table entry.
508
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FC
509=item Bad symbol for scalar
510
511(P) An internal request asked to add a scalar entry to something that
512wasn't a symbol table entry.
513
34d09196
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514=item Bareword found in conditional
515
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516(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
517conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
518of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
34d09196
GS
519
520 open FOO || die;
521
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522It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
523a bareword:
34d09196
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524
525 use constant TYPO => 1;
526 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
527
528The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
529
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NC
530=item Bareword in require contains "%s"
531
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NC
532=item Bareword in require maps to disallowed filename "%s"
533
09eb1f39 534=item Bareword in require maps to empty filename
5bad2b39 535
a52f2cce 536(F) The bareword form of require has been invoked with a filename which could
d4e5761f 537not have been generated by a valid bareword permitted by the parser. You
a52f2cce
NC
538shouldn't be able to get this error from Perl code, but XS code may throw it
539if it passes an invalid module name to C<Perl_load_module>.
540
5bad2b39
DM
541=item Bareword in require must not start with a double-colon: "%s"
542
543(F) In C<require Bare::Word>, the bareword is not allowed to start with a
d4e5761f 544double-colon. Write C<require ::Foo::Bar> as C<require Foo::Bar> instead.
5bad2b39 545
6df41af2
GS
546=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
547
548(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
be771a83
GS
549subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
550symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
6df41af2
GS
551
552=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
553
be771a83
GS
554(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
555compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
556you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 557
0f2beabb
TC
558=item Bareword filehandle "%s" not allowed under 'no feature "bareword_filehandles"'
559
560(F) You attempted to use a bareword filehandle with the
561C<bareword_filehandles> feature disabled.
562
563Only the built-in handles C<STDIN>, C<STDOUT>, C<STDERR>, C<ARGV>,
564C<ARGVOUT> and C<DATA> can be used with the C<bareword_filehandles>
565feature disabled.
566
a0d0e21e
LW
567=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
568
be771a83
GS
569(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
570subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
571exited.
a0d0e21e 572
68dc0745 573=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
574
575(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
be771a83
GS
576implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
577occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
578be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
579depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 580
c782d7ee 581=item \%d better written as $%d
6df41af2 582
be771a83
GS
583(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
584The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
585substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
586because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
587there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 588
252aa082
JH
589=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
590
e476b1b5 591(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
592(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
593L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 594
69282e91 595=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 596
be771a83
GS
597(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
598check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 599
c289d2f7
JH
600=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
601
602(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
4dcecea4 603Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 604
c5a0f51a
JH
605=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
606
e476b1b5 607(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 608
043c750c 609=item Bizarre copy of %s
4633a7c4 610
be771a83 611(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
ab830aa0 612copiable.
4633a7c4 613
5a25739d
FC
614=item Bizarre SvTYPE [%d]
615
434f489b 616(P) When starting a new thread or returning values from a thread, Perl
5a25739d
FC
617encountered an invalid data type.
618
b927b7e9 619=item Both or neither range ends should be Unicode in regex; marked by
6e8a73f2 620S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b927b7e9
KW
621
622(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
623
624In a bracketed character class in a regular expression pattern, you
625had a range which has exactly one end of it specified using C<\N{}>, and
626the other end is specified using a non-portable mechanism. Perl treats
627the range as a Unicode range, that is, all the characters in it are
628considered to be the Unicode characters, and which may be different code
629points on some platforms Perl runs on. For example, C<[\N{U+06}-\x08]>
630is treated as if you had instead said C<[\N{U+06}-\N{U+08}]>, that is it
631matches the characters whose code points in Unicode are 6, 7, and 8.
632But that C<\x08> might indicate that you meant something different, so
633the warning gets raised.
634
f675dbe5
CB
635=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
636
be771a83
GS
637(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
638iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
639which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 640
cc4aa213
PE
641=item Built-in function '%s' is experimental
642
643(S experimental::builtin) A call is being made to a function in the
644C<builtin::> namespace, which is currently experimental. The existence
645or nature of the function may be subject to change in a future version
646of Perl.
647
a0d0e21e
LW
648=item Callback called exit
649
4929bf7b 650(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
a0d0e21e
LW
651exited by calling exit.
652
6df41af2 653=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 654
be771a83
GS
655(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
656parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
657that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
658early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
659subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
660checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
661function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
662the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 663
0c7df902
JH
664=item Cannot chr %f
665
666(F) You passed an invalid number (like an infinity or not-a-number) to C<chr>.
667
1b4d0d79
TC
668=item Cannot complete in-place edit of %s: %s
669
670(F) Your perl script appears to have changed directory while
671performing an in-place edit of a file specified by a relative path,
672and your system doesn't include the directory relative POSIX functions
673needed to handle that.
674
5dee29d4 675=item Cannot compress %f in pack
0c7df902 676
5dee29d4
JH
677(F) You tried compressing an infinity or not-a-number as an unsigned
678integer with BER, which makes no sense.
0c7df902 679
49704364 680=item Cannot compress integer in pack
0258719b 681
717feafc
JH
682(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress.
683The BER compressed integer format can only be used with positive
684integers, and you attempted to compress a very large number (> 1e308).
685See L<perlfunc/pack>.
0258719b 686
49704364 687=item Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
0258719b
NC
688
689(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
690format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
691
5c1f4d79
NC
692=item Cannot convert a reference to %s to typeglob
693
6903afa2
FC
694(F) You manipulated Perl's symbol table directly, stored a reference
695in it, then tried to access that symbol via conventional Perl syntax.
696The access triggers Perl to autovivify that typeglob, but it there is
697no legal conversion from that type of reference to a typeglob.
5c1f4d79 698
4040665a 699=item Cannot copy to %s
ba2fdce6
NC
700
701(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy a value to an internal type that cannot
4dcecea4 702be directly assigned to.
ba2fdce6 703
b5d97229
RGS
704=item Cannot find encoding "%s"
705
706(S io) You tried to apply an encoding that did not exist to a filehandle,
707either with open() or binmode().
708
714f94d1
FC
709=item Cannot open %s as a dirhandle: it is already open as a filehandle
710
711(F) You tried to use opendir() to associate a dirhandle to a symbol (glob
712or scalar) that already holds a filehandle. Since this idiom might render
713your code confusing, it was deprecated in Perl 5.10. As of Perl 5.28, it
714is a fatal error.
715
716=item Cannot open %s as a filehandle: it is already open as a dirhandle
717
718(F) You tried to use open() to associate a filehandle to a symbol (glob
719or scalar) that already holds a dirhandle. Since this idiom might render
720your code confusing, it was deprecated in Perl 5.10. As of Perl 5.28, it
721is a fatal error.
722
0c7df902
JH
723=item Cannot pack %f with '%c'
724
5dee29d4 725(F) You tried converting an infinity or not-a-number to an integer,
0c7df902
JH
726which makes no sense.
727
728=item Cannot printf %f with '%c'
729
730(F) You tried printing an infinity or not-a-number as a character (%c),
731which makes no sense. Maybe you meant '%s', or just stringifying it?
732
7355df7e
FC
733=item Cannot set tied @DB::args
734
735(F) C<caller> tried to set C<@DB::args>, but found it tied. Tying C<@DB::args>
736is not supported. (Before this error was added, it used to crash.)
737
ce65bc73
FC
738=item Cannot tie unreifiable array
739
740(P) You somehow managed to call C<tie> on an array that does not
741keep a reference count on its arguments and cannot be made to
742do so. Such arrays are not even supposed to be accessible to
743Perl code, but are only used internally.
744
26b0dc0c 745=item Cannot yet reorder sv_vcatpvfn() arguments from va_list
46e58bd2 746
26b0dc0c 747(F) Some XS code tried to use C<sv_vcatpvfn()> or a related function with a
46e58bd2 748format string that specifies explicit indexes for some of the elements, and
d4e5761f
FC
749using a C-style variable-argument list (a C<va_list>). This is not currently
750supported. XS authors wanting to do this must instead construct a C array
751of C<SV*> scalars containing the arguments.
46e58bd2 752
96ebfdd7
RK
753=item Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
754
755(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
756integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
757to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
758
483cd949 759=item Can't "%s" out of a "defer" block
f79e2ff9 760
483cd949 761(F) An attempt was made to jump out of the scope of a C<defer> block by using
f79e2ff9
PE
762a control-flow statement such as C<return>, C<goto> or a loop control. This is
763not permitted.
764
e5e291f5
PE
765=item Can't "%s" out of a "finally" block
766
767(F) Similar to above, but involving a C<finally> block at the end of a
768C<try>/C<catch> construction rather than a C<defer> block.
769
a0d0e21e
LW
770=item Can't bless non-reference value
771
772(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
773encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
774
7896dde7
Z
775=item Can't "break" in a loop topicalizer
776
777(F) You called C<break>, but you're in a C<foreach> block rather than
778a C<given> block. You probably meant to use C<next> or C<last>.
779
780=item Can't "break" outside a given block
781
782(F) You called C<break>, but you're not inside a C<given> block.
783
6df41af2
GS
784=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
785
786(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
787object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
788like this will reproduce the error:
6df41af2
GS
789
790 $BADREF = undef;
791 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
792 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
793
a0d0e21e
LW
794=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
795
54310121 796(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
be771a83
GS
797ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
798didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
799object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
800
801=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
802
803(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
804object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
805defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
72b5445b
GS
806Something like this will reproduce the error:
807
808 $BADREF = 42;
809 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
810 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
811
dfe378f1
FC
812=item Can't call mro_isa_changed_in() on anonymous symbol table
813
814(P) Perl got confused as to whether a hash was a plain hash or a
815symbol table hash when trying to update @ISA caches.
816
2bf7e7b2
FC
817=item Can't call mro_method_changed_in() on anonymous symbol table
818
819(F) An XS module tried to call C<mro_method_changed_in> on a hash that was
820not attached to the symbol table.
821
a0d0e21e
LW
822=item Can't chdir to %s
823
f703fc96 824(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but F</foo/bar> is not a directory
a0d0e21e
LW
825that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
826
22e74366 827=item Can't coerce %s to %s in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
828
829(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 830(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
a0d0e21e
LW
831say things like:
832
833 *foo += 1;
834
835You CAN say
836
837 $foo = *foo;
838 $foo += 1;
839
840but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
841
7896dde7 842=item Can't "continue" outside a when block
dc57907a 843
7896dde7
Z
844(F) You called C<continue>, but you're not inside a C<when>
845or C<default> block.
0d863452 846
a0d0e21e
LW
847=item Can't create pipe mailbox
848
be771a83
GS
849(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
850quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 851
eb64745e
GS
852=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
853
30c282f6
NC
854(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my", "our" or
855"state" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 856
7896dde7
Z
857=item Can't "default" outside a topicalizer
858
859(F) You have used a C<default> block that is neither inside a
860C<foreach> loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is
861issued on exit from the C<default> block, so you won't get the
862error if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
863
1e85b658
DM
864=item Can't determine class of operator %s, assuming BASEOP
865
866(S) This warning indicates something wrong in the internals of perl.
867Perl was trying to find the class (e.g. LISTOP) of a particular OP,
868and was unable to do so. This is likely to be due to a bug in the perl
869internals, or due to a bug in XS code which manipulates perl optrees.
870
a2162cd9
FC
871=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
872
873(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
874a file in /dev, a FIFO or an uneditable directory. The file was ignored.
875
876=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
877
878(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
879reason.
880
a2162cd9
FC
881=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
882
883(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
884characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
885inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
886
ab0b796c
KW
887=item Can't do %s("%s") on non-UTF-8 locale; resolved to "%s".
888
889(W locale) You are 1) running under "C<use locale>"; 2) the current
890locale is not a UTF-8 one; 3) you tried to do the designated case-change
891operation on the specified Unicode character; and 4) the result of this
892operation would mix Unicode and locale rules, which likely conflict.
893Mixing of different rule types is forbidden, so the operation was not
894done; instead the result is the indicated value, which is the best
895available that uses entirely Unicode rules. That turns out to almost
896always be the original character, unchanged.
897
898It is generally a bad idea to mix non-UTF-8 locales and Unicode, and
899this issue is one of the reasons why. This warning is raised when
900Unicode rules would normally cause the result of this operation to
901contain a character that is in the range specified by the locale,
9020..255, and hence is subject to the locale's rules, not Unicode's.
903
904If you are using locale purely for its characteristics related to things
905like its numeric and time formatting (and not C<LC_CTYPE>), consider
906using a restricted form of the locale pragma (see L<perllocale/The "use
907locale" pragma>) like "S<C<use locale ':not_characters'>>".
908
909Note that failed case-changing operations done as a result of
910case-insensitive C</i> regular expression matching will show up in this
911warning as having the C<fc> operation (as that is what the regular
912expression engine calls behind the scenes.)
913
a0d0e21e
LW
914=item Can't do waitpid with flags
915
be771a83
GS
916(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
917waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 918
a0d0e21e
LW
919=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
920
be771a83
GS
921(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
922point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
923line.
a0d0e21e 924
1109a392
MHM
925=item Can't %s %s-endian %ss on this platform
926
927(F) Your platform's byte-order is neither big-endian nor little-endian,
928or it has a very strange pointer size. Packing and unpacking big- or
929little-endian floating point values and pointers may not be possible.
930See L<perlfunc/pack>.
931
a0d0e21e
LW
932=item Can't exec "%s": %s
933
d1be9408 934(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
935named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
936permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
937C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
938architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
939can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
940#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
941
942=item Can't exec %s
943
be771a83
GS
944(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
945that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
946need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
947
948=item Can't execute %s
949
be771a83
GS
950(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
951found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 952
6df41af2 953=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 954
be771a83
GS
955(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
956is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2
GS
957
958=item Can't find label %s
959
be771a83
GS
960(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
961possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
962
963=item Can't find %s on PATH
964
be771a83
GS
965(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
966found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 967
6df41af2 968=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 969
be771a83
GS
970(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
971found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
972script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e
LW
973
974=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
975
be771a83
GS
976(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
977that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
978nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 979
fb73857a 980 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
981
97b3d10f 982If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have
b6b8cb97
FC
983included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag or there
984may not be a linebreak after it. A good programmer's editor will have
985a way to help you find these characters (or lack of characters). See
986L<perlop> for the full details on here-documents.
a0d0e21e 987
660a4616
TS
988=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s"
989
29f52644
KW
990=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
991
992(F) The named property which you specified via C<\p> or C<\P> is not one
993known to Perl. Perhaps you misspelled the name? See
e1b711da 994L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
29f52644
KW
995for a complete list of available official
996properties. If it is a
997L<user-defined property|perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties>
998it must have been defined by the time the regular expression is
999matched.
1000
1001If you didn't mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either
1002by C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, or
5f8ad6b6 1003until C<\E>).
660a4616 1004
b3647a36 1005=item Can't fork: %s
a0d0e21e 1006
be771a83
GS
1007(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
1008pipeline.
a0d0e21e 1009
b3647a36
SR
1010=item Can't fork, trying again in 5 seconds
1011
c973c02e 1012(W pipe) A fork in a piped open failed with EAGAIN and will be retried
b3647a36
SR
1013after five seconds.
1014
748a9306
LW
1015=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
1016
be771a83
GS
1017(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
1018between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
1019Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
1020the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
1021account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
1022the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
2fe2bdfd 1023the access-checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
be771a83
GS
1024the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
1025if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
1026because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
2fe2bdfd
FC
1027appears, the name lookup failed, and the access-checking routine gave up
1028and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access-checking
be771a83
GS
1029routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
1030shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
1031only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 1032
a0d0e21e
LW
1033=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
1034
be771a83
GS
1035(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
1036pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
1037
1038=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
1039
748a9306
LW
1040(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
1041mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 1042
6d90e983
FC
1043=item Can't "goto" into a binary or list expression
1044
1045(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a binary
1046or list expression. You can't get there from here. The reason for this
1047restriction is that the interpreter would get confused as to how many
1048arguments there are, resulting in stack corruption or crashes. This
1049error occurs in cases such as these:
1050
1051 goto F;
1052 print do { F: }; # Can't jump into the arguments to print
1053
1054 goto G;
1055 $x + do { G: $y }; # How is + supposed to get its first operand?
1056
483cd949 1057=item Can't "goto" into a "defer" block
315aa462 1058
caa9af33 1059(F) A C<goto> statement was executed to jump into the scope of a C<defer>
315aa462
PE
1060block. This is not permitted.
1061
a01f4640
FC
1062=item Can't "goto" into a "given" block
1063
1064(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a C<given>
1065block. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1066
6df41af2 1067=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 1068
be771a83
GS
1069(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
1070loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
1071
1072=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
1073
be771a83
GS
1074(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
1075a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
1076you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
1077See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 1078
5a25739d
FC
1079=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-%s
1080
1081(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
1082"string" or block.
1083
9850bf21 1084=item Can't goto subroutine from a sort sub (or similar callback)
cd299c6e 1085
9850bf21
RH
1086(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of the
1087comparison sub for a sort(), or from a similar callback (such
1088as the reduce() function in List::Util).
1089
6df41af2
GS
1090=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
1091
be771a83
GS
1092(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
1093subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
1094cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
1095routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 1096
0b5b802d
GS
1097=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
1098
be771a83
GS
1099(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
1100signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
1101signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
1102processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
1103situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
1104may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 1105
e2c0f81f
DG
1106=item Can't kill a non-numeric process ID
1107
1108(F) Process identifiers must be (signed) integers. It is a fatal error to
1109attempt to kill() an undefined, empty-string or otherwise non-numeric
1110process identifier.
1111
6df41af2 1112=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 1113
6df41af2 1114(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
1115except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
1116block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
1117block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
1118usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
1119inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
1120L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 1121
2c7d6b9c
RGS
1122=item Can't linearize anonymous symbol table
1123
1124(F) Perl tried to calculate the method resolution order (MRO) of a
1125package, but failed because the package stash has no name.
1126
b8170e59
JB
1127=item Can't load '%s' for module %s
1128
6903afa2
FC
1129(F) The module you tried to load failed to load a dynamic extension.
1130This may either mean that you upgraded your version of perl to one
1131that is incompatible with your old dynamic extensions (which is known
1132to happen between major versions of perl), or (more likely) that your
1133dynamic extension was built against an older version of the library
1134that is installed on your system. You may need to rebuild your old
1135dynamic extensions.
b8170e59 1136
748a9306
LW
1137=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
1138
2ba9eb46 1139(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
b7e4ecc1
FC
1140lexical variable using "my" or "state". This is not allowed. If you
1141want to localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with
1142the package name.
748a9306 1143
6df41af2 1144=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 1145
6df41af2
GS
1146(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
1147handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 1148pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 1149that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 1150
ea071790 1151=item Can't locate %s
ec889f3a 1152
fa816bf3
FC
1153(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be found.
1154Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC, unless
1155the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you need
1156to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where the
1157extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
be771a83
GS
1158to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
1159L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 1160
6df41af2
GS
1161=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
1162
be771a83
GS
1163(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
1164autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
1165are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
1166the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 1167
b8170e59
JB
1168=item Can't locate loadable object for module %s in @INC
1169
1170(F) The module you loaded is trying to load an external library, like
d70d8e57 1171for example, F<foo.so> or F<bar.dll>, but the L<DynaLoader> module was
b8170e59
JB
1172unable to locate this library. See L<DynaLoader>.
1173
a0d0e21e
LW
1174=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
1175
1176(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
1177functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 1178method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e 1179
8af56b9d
FC
1180=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s" (perhaps you forgot
1181to load "%s"?)
1182
1183(F) You called a method on a class that did not exist, and the method
1184could not be found in UNIVERSAL. This often means that a method
1185requires a package that has not been loaded.
1186
a0d0e21e
LW
1187=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
1188
be771a83
GS
1189(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
1190doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 1191
2f7da168
RK
1192=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
1193
1194(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
1195e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
1196
f4ad53f4 1197=item Can't make list assignment to %ENV on this system
3e3baf6d 1198
be771a83
GS
1199(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
1200VMS.
3e3baf6d 1201
cd40cd58
NC
1202=item Can't make loaded symbols global on this platform while loading %s
1203
ff9c1ae8 1204(S) A module passed the flag 0x01 to DynaLoader::dl_load_file() to request
cd40cd58
NC
1205that symbols from the stated file are made available globally within the
1206process, but that functionality is not available on this platform. Whilst
1207the module likely will still work, this may prevent the perl interpreter
1208from loading other XS-based extensions which need to link directly to
1209functions defined in the C or XS code in the stated file.
1210
a0d0e21e
LW
1211=item Can't modify %s in %s
1212
be771a83
GS
1213(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
1214to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 1215
0f948285 1216=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call of &%s
6df41af2 1217
8d9d0498
FC
1218=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call of &%s in %s
1219
6df41af2 1220(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
2fe2bdfd 1221such. See L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
6df41af2 1222
cf6e1fa1
FC
1223=item Can't modify reference to %s in %s assignment
1224
1225(F) Only a limited number of constructs can be used as the argument to a
1226reference constructor on the left-hand side of an assignment, and what
1227you used was not one of them. See L<perlref/Assigning to References>.
1228
1229=item Can't modify reference to localized parenthesized array in list
1230assignment
1231
1232(F) Assigning to C<\local(@array)> or C<\(local @array)> is not supported, as
1233it is not clear exactly what it should do. If you meant to make @array
1234refer to some other array, use C<\@array = \@other_array>. If you want to
1235make the elements of @array aliases of the scalars referenced on the
1236right-hand side, use C<\(@array) = @scalar_refs>.
1237
1238=item Can't modify reference to parenthesized hash in list assignment
1239
1240(F) Assigning to C<\(%hash)> is not supported. If you meant to make %hash
1241refer to some other hash, use C<\%hash = \%other_hash>. If you want to
1242make the elements of %hash into aliases of the scalars referenced on the
1243right-hand side, use a hash slice: C<\@hash{@keys} = @those_scalar_refs>.
1244
5f05dabc 1245=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 1246
5f05dabc 1247(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
1248buffer.
1249
6df41af2
GS
1250=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
1251
1252(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
1253there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
1254count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
1255grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1256though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
1257once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 1258
a0d0e21e
LW
1259=item Can't open %s: %s
1260
c47ff5f1 1261(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e 1262filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
46fa9b26
FC
1263switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually
1264this is because you don't have read permission for a file which
1265you named on the command line.
1266
1267(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-e> switch, but F</dev/null> (or
1268your operating system's equivalent) could not be opened.
a0d0e21e 1269
9a869a14
RGS
1270=item Can't open a reference
1271
1272(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
2fe2bdfd 1273using the 3-arg open() syntax:
9a869a14
RGS
1274
1275 open FH, '>', $ref;
1276
1277but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
1278open is not supported.
1279
a0d0e21e
LW
1280=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
1281
be771a83
GS
1282(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
1283You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
1284as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
1285">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 1286
748a9306
LW
1287=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
1288
be771a83
GS
1289(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1290redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
1291the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1292
1293=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
1294
be771a83
GS
1295(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1296redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
1297command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
1298
1299=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
1300
be771a83
GS
1301(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1302redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
1303the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1304
1305=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
1306
be771a83
GS
1307(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1308redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
1309for stdout.
748a9306 1310
3b1cf97d 1311=item Can't open perl script "%s": %s
a0d0e21e
LW
1312
1313(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
1314
fa3aa65a
JC
1315If you're debugging a script that uses #!, and normally relies on the
1316shell's $PATH search, the -S option causes perl to do that search, so
1317you don't have to type the path or C<`which $scriptname`>.
1318
6df41af2
GS
1319=item Can't read CRTL environ
1320
1321(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
1322from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
1323missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
1324or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
1325searched.
6df41af2 1326
f3106bc8
LM
1327=item Can't redeclare "%s" in "%s"
1328
1329(F) A "my", "our" or "state" declaration was found within another declaration,
1330such as C<my ($x, my($y), $z)> or C<our (my $x)>.
1331
6df41af2
GS
1332=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
1333
1334(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
1335there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
1336count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
1337or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1338though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
1339loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
1340
64977eb6 1341=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 1342
be771a83
GS
1343(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
1344file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
1345the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 1346
e0d4aead
TC
1347=item Can't rename in-place work file '%s' to '%s': %s
1348
1349(F) When closed implicitly, the temporary file for in-place editing
1350couldn't be renamed to the original filename.
1351
ecc6274e
FC
1352=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
1353
1354(F) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
1355probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
1356
748a9306
LW
1357=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
1358
be771a83
GS
1359(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
1360to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 1361
9415f659
KW
1362=item Can't represent character for Ox%X on this platform
1363
1364(F) There is a hard limit to how big a character code point can be due
1365to the fundamental properties of UTF-8, especially on EBCDIC
1366platforms. The given code point exceeds that. The only work-around is
1367to not use such a large code point.
1368
4f12ec0e
FC
1369=item Can't reset %ENV on this system
1370
1371(F) You called C<reset('E')> or similar, which tried to reset
1372all variables in the current package beginning with "E". In
1373the main package, that includes %ENV. Resetting %ENV is not
1374supported on some systems, notably VMS.
1375
fe13d51d 1376=item Can't resolve method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
6df41af2 1377
1fa582fa
FC
1378(F)(P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as
1379opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the
1380package. If the method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 1381
cd06dffe
GS
1382=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
1383
be771a83
GS
1384(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
1385temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
1386is not allowed.
cd06dffe 1387
96ebfdd7
RK
1388=item Can't return outside a subroutine
1389
1390(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1391there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1392
78f9721b
SM
1393=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
1394
6903afa2
FC
1395(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue
1396subroutine, but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl
1397think you meant to return only one value. You probably meant to
1398write parentheses around the call to the subroutine, which tell
1399Perl that the call should be in list context.
78f9721b 1400
a0d0e21e
LW
1401=item Can't take log of %g
1402
fb73857a 1403(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
6903afa2 1404negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
1405standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1406negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
1407
1408=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1409
1410(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 1411negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1412with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
1413
1414=item Can't undef active subroutine
1415
1416(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1417however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1418redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1419
ecc6274e
FC
1420=item Can't unweaken a nonreference
1421
1422(F) You attempted to unweaken something that was not a reference. Only
1423references can be unweakened.
1424
c81225bc 1425=item Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d
a0d0e21e 1426
be771a83
GS
1427(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1428into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1429specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1430indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e 1431
6651ba0b
FC
1432=item Can't use '%c' after -mname
1433
1434(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-m> switch, but you put something
1435other than "=" after the module name.
1436
1f1ec7b5
KW
1437=item Can't use a hash as a reference
1438
1439(F) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
66a1f5ec
FC
1440C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl
1441<= 5.22.0 used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't
1442have. This was deprecated in perl 5.6.1.
1f1ec7b5
KW
1443
1444=item Can't use an array as a reference
1445
1446(F) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
66a1f5ec
FC
1447C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.22.0
1448used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. This
1449was deprecated in perl 5.6.1.
1f1ec7b5 1450
1db89ea5
BS
1451=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1452
e27ad1f2 1453(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1db89ea5
BS
1454table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1455for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1456
96ebfdd7
RK
1457=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1458
1459(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1460be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1461
6df41af2
GS
1462=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1463
be771a83
GS
1464(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1465references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1466
90b75b61 1467=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63 1468
20561843 1469(F) The first time the C<%!> hash is used, perl automatically loads the
6903afa2 1470Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1d2dff63
GS
1471provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1472
1109a392
MHM
1473=item Can't use both '<' and '>' after type '%c' in %s
1474
1475(F) A type cannot be forced to have both big-endian and little-endian
1476byte-order at the same time, so this combination of modifiers is not
1477allowed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1478
e35475de
KW
1479=item Can't use 'defined(@array)' (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?)
1480
1481(F) defined() is not useful on arrays because it
1482checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
1483array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
1484
1485=item Can't use 'defined(%hash)' (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?)
1486
1487(F) C<defined()> is not usually right on hashes.
1488
1489Although C<defined %hash> is false on a plain not-yet-used hash, it
1490becomes true in several non-obvious circumstances, including iterators,
1491weak references, stash names, even remaining true after C<undef %hash>.
1492These things make C<defined %hash> fairly useless in practice, so it now
1493generates a fatal error.
1494
1495If a check for non-empty is what you wanted then just put it in boolean
1496context (see L<perldata/Scalar values>):
1497
1498 if (%hash) {
1499 # not empty
1500 }
1501
1502If you had C<defined %Foo::Bar::QUUX> to check whether such a package
1503variable exists then that's never really been reliable, and isn't
1504a good way to enquire about the features of a package, or whether
1505it's loaded, etc.
1506
6df41af2
GS
1507=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1508
c1f06047 1509(P) The parser got confused when trying to parse a C<foreach> loop.
6df41af2 1510
f27832e7 1511=item Can't use global %s in %s
6df41af2 1512
be771a83
GS
1513(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1514is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1515(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1516have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1517weren't.
1518
6d3b25aa
RGS
1519=item Can't use '%c' in a group with different byte-order in %s
1520
1521(F) You attempted to force a different byte-order on a type
1522that is already inside a group with a byte-order modifier.
1523For example you cannot force little-endianness on a type that
1524is inside a big-endian group.
1525
c07a80fd 1526=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1527
1528(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1529You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1530and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1531Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1532lexical variable.
1533
a0d0e21e
LW
1534=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1535
1536(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1537reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1538test the type of the reference, if need be.
1539
748a9306 1540=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1541
5e634d20
FC
1542=item Can't use string ("%s"...) as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1543
b41bf23f
FC
1544(F) You've told Perl to dereference a string, something which
1545C<use strict> blocks to prevent it happening accidentally. See
1546L<perlref/"Symbolic references">. This can be triggered by an C<@> or C<$>
1547in a double-quoted string immediately before interpolating a variable,
1548for example in C<"user @$twitter_id">, which says to treat the contents
1549of C<$twitter_id> as an array reference; use a C<\> to have a literal C<@>
1550symbol followed by the contents of C<$twitter_id>: C<"user \@$twitter_id">.
a0d0e21e 1551
748a9306
LW
1552=item Can't use subscript on %s
1553
1554(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1555subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
209e7cf1 1556didn't look like a hash or array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
748a9306 1557
6df41af2
GS
1558=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1559
75b44862
GS
1560(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1561creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1562backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1563expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1564value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1565instead.
6df41af2 1566
810b8aa5
GS
1567=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1568
1569(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1570references can be weakened.
1571
7896dde7
Z
1572=item Can't "when" outside a topicalizer
1573
1574(F) You have used a when() block that is neither inside a C<foreach>
1575loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is issued on exit
1576from the C<when> block, so you won't get the error if the match fails,
1577or if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
1578
5f05dabc 1579=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1580
be771a83
GS
1581(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1582with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1583Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1584
a04e6aad 1585=item Character following "\c" must be printable ASCII
f9d13529 1586
7357bd17 1587(F) In C<\cI<X>>, I<X> must be a printable (non-control) ASCII character.
17a3df4c 1588
727b6379 1589Note that ASCII characters that don't map to control characters are
7357bd17 1590discouraged, and will generate the warning (when enabled)
d4360efa 1591L</""\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"">.
f9d13529 1592
163a633c
KW
1593=item Character following \%c must be '{' or a single-character Unicode property name in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1594
1595(F) (In the above the C<%c> is replaced by either C<p> or C<P>.) You
1596specified something that isn't a legal Unicode property name. Most
1597Unicode properties are specified by C<\p{...}>. But if the name is a
1598single character one, the braces may be omitted.
1599
f337b084 1600=item Character in 'C' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1601
1602(W pack) You said
1603
1604 pack("C", $x)
1605
1606where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1607only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1608and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1609
1610 pack("C", $x & 255)
1611
1612If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1613instead.
1614
f337b084 1615=item Character in 'c' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1616
1617(W pack) You said
1618
1619 pack("c", $x)
1620
1621where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1622is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1623and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1624
1625 pack("c", $x & 255);
1626
1627If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1628instead.
1629
f337b084
TH
1630=item Character in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1631
1632(W unpack) You tried something like
1633
1634 unpack("H", "\x{2a1}")
1635
1a147d38 1636where the format expects to process a byte (a character with a value
6903afa2
FC
1637below 256), but a higher value was provided instead. Perl uses the
1638value modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
f337b084
TH
1639
1640 unpack("H", "\x{a1}")
1641
5a25739d
FC
1642=item Character in 'W' format wrapped in pack
1643
1644(W pack) You said
1645
1646 pack("U0W", $x)
1647
1648where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255. However, C<U0>-mode
1649expects all values to fall in the interval [0, 255], so Perl behaved
1650as if you meant:
1651
1652 pack("U0W", $x & 255)
1653
f337b084
TH
1654=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in pack
1655
1656(W pack) You tried something like
1657
1658 pack("u", "\x{1f3}b")
1659
1a147d38 1660where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1661value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1662uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1663
1664 pack("u", "\x{f3}b")
1665
1666=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1667
1668(W unpack) You tried something like
1669
1670 unpack("s", "\x{1f3}b")
1671
1a147d38 1672where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1673value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1674uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1675
1676 unpack("s", "\x{f3}b")
1677
8d9d0498
FC
1678=item charnames alias definitions may not contain a sequence of multiple
1679spaces; marked by S<<-- HERE> in %s
f51551f7
FC
1680
1681(F) You defined a character name which had multiple space characters
1682in a row. Change them to single spaces. Usually these names are
1683defined in the C<:alias> import argument to C<use charnames>, but they
1684could be defined by a translator installed into C<$^H{charnames}>. See
1685L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
1686
60121127
TC
1687=item chdir() on unopened filehandle %s
1688
1689(W unopened) You tried chdir() on a filehandle that was never opened.
1690
d4360efa 1691=item "\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"
f866a7cd 1692
d4360efa
S
1693(W syntax) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a way to specify
1694non-printable characters. You used it for a printable one, which
1695is better written as simply itself, perhaps preceded by a backslash
1696for non-word characters. Doing it the way you did is not portable
1697between ASCII and EBCDIC platforms.
f866a7cd 1698
6651ba0b
FC
1699=item Cloning substitution context is unimplemented
1700
1701(F) Creating a new thread inside the C<s///> operator is not supported.
1702
abc7ecad
SP
1703=item closedir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
1704
1705(W io) The dirhandle you tried to close is either closed or not really
1706a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
1707
5a25739d
FC
1708=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1709
1710(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1711
541ed3a9
FC
1712=item Closure prototype called
1713
1714(F) If a closure has attributes, the subroutine passed to an attribute
1715handler is the prototype that is cloned when a new closure is created.
1716This subroutine cannot be called.
1717
74d1b2e4
FC
1718=item \C no longer supported in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1719
1720(F) The \C character class used to allow a match of single byte
1721within a multi-byte utf-8 character, but was removed in v5.24 as
1722it broke encapsulation and its implementation was extremely buggy.
1723If you really need to process the individual bytes, you probably
1724want to convert your string to one where each underlying byte is
1725stored as a character, with utf8::encode().
1726
49704364
WL
1727=item Code missing after '/'
1728
6903afa2
FC
1729(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be
1730another template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 1731
c0236afe
KW
1732=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, and not portable
1733
dc4a6683 1734(S non_unicode portable) You had a code point that has never been in any
c0236afe 1735standard, so it is likely that languages other than Perl will NOT
dc4a6683
KW
1736understand it. This code point also will not fit in a 32-bit word on
1737ASCII platforms and therefore is non-portable between systems.
1738
1739At one time, it was legal in some standards to have code points up to
17400x7FFF_FFFF, but not higher, and this code point is higher.
c0236afe
KW
1741
1742Acceptance of these code points is a Perl extension, and you should
1743expect that nothing other than Perl can handle them; Perl itself on
1744EBCDIC platforms before v5.24 does not handle them.
1745
c0236afe
KW
1746Perl also makes no guarantees that the representation of these code
1747points won't change at some point in the future, say when machines
1748become available that have larger than a 64-bit word. At that time,
aaa9d2b4
KW
1749files containing any of these, written by an older Perl might require
1750conversion before being readable by a newer Perl.
c0236afe 1751
5a25739d
FC
1752=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, may not be portable
1753
2d88a86a 1754(S non_unicode) You had a code point above the Unicode maximum
1b64326b
FC
1755of U+10FFFF.
1756
c0236afe
KW
1757Perl allows strings to contain a superset of Unicode code points, but
1758these may not be accepted by other languages/systems. Further, even if
1759these languages/systems accept these large code points, they may have
1760chosen a different representation for them than the UTF-8-like one that
1761Perl has, which would mean files are not exchangeable between them and
1762Perl.
1763
1764On EBCDIC platforms, code points above 0x3FFF_FFFF have a different
1765representation in Perl v5.24 than before, so any file containing these
1766that was written before that version will require conversion before
1767being readable by a later Perl.
0876b9a0 1768
6df41af2
GS
1769=item %s: Command not found
1770
a892b81a 1771(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> or another shell
66a1f5ec
FC
1772instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1773Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
8f721816 1774
3bcfc7b3
LM
1775 #!/usr/bin/perl
1776
1777=item %s: command not found
1778
1779(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<bash> or another shell
1780instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1781Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
1782
1783 #!/usr/bin/perl
1784
1785=item %s: command not found: %s
1786
1787(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<zsh> or another shell
1788instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1789Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
1790
1791 #!/usr/bin/perl
6df41af2 1792
7a2e2cd6 1793=item Compilation failed in require
1794
1795(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1796Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1797encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1798
c3464db5
DD
1799=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1800
be771a83
GS
1801(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1802situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1803to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1804arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1805recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1806under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1807in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1808that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1809on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1810
69282e91 1811=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1812
be771a83
GS
1813(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1814to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1815L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1816
e21e7c6a
FC
1817=item Constant(%s): Call to &{$^H{%s}} did not return a defined value
1818
1819(F) The subroutine registered to handle constant overloading
1820(see L<overload>) or a custom charnames handler (see
1821L<charnames/CUSTOM TRANSLATORS>) returned an undefined value.
1822
1823=item Constant(%s): $^H{%s} is not defined
1824
1825(F) The parser found inconsistencies while attempting to define an
1826overloaded constant. Perhaps you forgot to load the corresponding
f738a371 1827L<overload> pragma?
e21e7c6a 1828
779c5bc9
GS
1829=item Constant is not %s reference
1830
1831(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83 1832is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
6903afa2 1833The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
be771a83 1834usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1835See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1836
30fc7a28 1837=item Constants from lexical variables potentially modified elsewhere are no longer permitted
0ac016fc 1838
30fc7a28 1839(F) You wrote something like
0ac016fc
FC
1840
1841 my $var;
1842 $sub = sub () { $var };
1843
1844but $var is referenced elsewhere and could be modified after the C<sub>
1845expression is evaluated. Either it is explicitly modified elsewhere
1846(C<$var = 3>) or it is passed to a subroutine or to an operator like
1847C<printf> or C<map>, which may or may not modify the variable.
1848
1849Traditionally, Perl has captured the value of the variable at that
1850point and turned the subroutine into a constant eligible for inlining.
1851In those cases where the variable can be modified elsewhere, this
1852breaks the behavior of closures, in which the subroutine captures
1853the variable itself, rather than its value, so future changes to the
1854variable are reflected in the subroutine's return value.
1855
30fc7a28 1856This usage was deprecated, and as of Perl 5.32 is no longer allowed,
9840d1d6 1857making it possible to change the behavior in the future.
0ac016fc
FC
1858
1859If you intended for the subroutine to be eligible for inlining, then
1860make sure the variable is not referenced elsewhere, possibly by
1861copying it:
1862
1863 my $var2 = $var;
1864 $sub = sub () { $var2 };
1865
1866If you do want this subroutine to be a closure that reflects future
1867changes to the variable that it closes over, add an explicit C<return>:
1868
1869 my $var;
1870 $sub = sub () { return $var };
1871
4cee8e80
CS
1872=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1873
aeb94125
FC
1874(W redefine)(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously
1875been eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions">
1876for commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1877
9607fc9c 1878=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1879
be771a83
GS
1880(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1881for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1882workarounds.
9607fc9c 1883
5a25739d
FC
1884=item Constant(%s) unknown
1885
1886(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting
1887to define an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the
1888character name specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you
3ee1a09c 1889forgot to load the corresponding L<overload> pragma?
5a25739d 1890
4a873d7a
FC
1891=item :const is experimental
1892
1893(S experimental::const_attr) The "const" attribute is experimental.
1894If you want to use the feature, disable the warning with C<no warnings
1895'experimental::const_attr'>, but know that in doing so you are taking
1896the risk that your code may break in a future Perl version.
1897
b77472f9
FC
1898=item :const is not permitted on named subroutines
1899
1900(F) The "const" attribute causes an anonymous subroutine to be run and
465068b9 1901its value captured at the time that it is cloned. Named subroutines are
b77472f9
FC
1902not cloned like this, so the attribute does not make sense on them.
1903
e7ea3e70
IZ
1904=item Copy method did not return a reference
1905
6903afa2 1906(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1907L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1908
4aaa4757
FC
1909=item &CORE::%s cannot be called directly
1910
1911(F) You tried to call a subroutine in the C<CORE::> namespace
8d605c0d 1912with C<&foo> syntax or through a reference. Some subroutines
4aaa4757
FC
1913in this package cannot yet be called that way, but must be
1914called as barewords. Something like this will work:
1915
1916 BEGIN { *shove = \&CORE::push; }
1917 shove @array, 1,2,3; # pushes on to @array
1918
6798c92b
GS
1919=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1920
1921(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1922
675fa9ff
FC
1923=item Corrupted regexp opcode %d > %d
1924
1925(P) This is either an error in Perl, or, if you're using
1926one, your L<custom regular expression engine|perlreapi>. If not the
8166b4e0 1927latter, report the problem to L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
675fa9ff 1928
a0d0e21e
LW
1929=item corrupted regexp pointers
1930
1931(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1932expression compiler gave it.
1933
1934=item corrupted regexp program
1935
be771a83
GS
1936(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1937valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1938
de42a5a9 1939=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%x at 0x%x
6df41af2
GS
1940
1941(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1942
49704364
WL
1943=item Count after length/code in unpack
1944
1945(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1946you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1947L<perlfunc/pack>.
1948
3f645a4e
FC
1949=item Declaring references is experimental
1950
1951(S experimental::declared_refs) This warning is emitted if you use
1952a reference constructor on the right-hand side of C<my>, C<state>, C<our>, or
1953C<local>. Simply suppress the warning if you want to use the feature, but
1954know that in doing so you are taking the risk of using an experimental
1955feature which may change or be removed in a future Perl version:
1956
1957 no warnings "experimental::declared_refs";
1958 use feature "declared_refs";
1959 $fooref = my \$foo;
1960
f2cccb4c
KW
1961=for comment
1962The following are used in lib/diagnostics.t for testing two =items that
1963share the same description. Changes here need to be propagated to there
1964
6651ba0b
FC
1965=item Deep recursion on anonymous subroutine
1966
a0d0e21e
LW
1967=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1968
be771a83
GS
1969(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1970100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1971infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1972which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1973
aad1d01f
NC
1974This threshold can be changed from 100, by recompiling the F<perl> binary,
1975setting the C pre-processor macro C<PERL_SUB_DEPTH_WARN> to the desired value.
1976
e0e4a6e3
FC
1977=item (?(DEFINE)....) does not allow branches in regex; marked by
1978S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
bcb95744 1979
6903afa2 1980(F) You used something like C<(?(DEFINE)...|..)> which is illegal. The
bcb95744
FC
1981most likely cause of this error is that you left out a parenthesis inside
1982of the C<....> part.
1983
6e8a73f2 1984The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
bcb95744
FC
1985discovered.
1986
62658f4d
PM
1987=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1988
1989(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1990there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1991
0ffcbc25
FC
1992=item delete argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
1993
4a0af295 1994(F) The argument to C<delete> must be either a hash or array element,
0ffcbc25
FC
1995such as:
1996
1997 $foo{$bar}
1998 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
1999
2000or a hash or array slice, such as:
2001
2002 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
39104754 2003 $ref->[12]->@{"susie", "queue"}
0ffcbc25 2004
cc0776d6
DIM
2005or a hash key/value or array index/value slice, such as:
2006
2007 %foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
39104754 2008 $ref->[12]->%{"susie", "queue"}
cc0776d6 2009
fc36a67e 2010=item Delimiter for here document is too long
2011
be771a83
GS
2012(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
2013long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
2014that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 2015
c437f7ac 2016=item Deprecated use of my() in false conditional. This will be a fatal error in Perl 5.30
6d3b25aa 2017
fa816bf3
FC
2018(D deprecated) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>. There
2019has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
6d3b25aa 2020not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
6903afa2 2021conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
fa816bf3 2022static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
6903afa2 2023relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
6d3b25aa 2024declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
36fb85f3 2025
6d3b25aa
RGS
2026 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
2027
2028becomes
2029
2030 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
2031
ea9d9ebc 2032Beginning with perl 5.10.0, you can also use C<state> variables to have
fa816bf3 2033lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
36fb85f3
RGS
2034
2035 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
2036
c437f7ac
A
2037This use of C<my()> in a false conditional has been deprecated since
2038Perl 5.10, and it will become a fatal error in Perl 5.30.
2039
500ab966
RGS
2040=item DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
2041
2042(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
6903afa2
FC
2043just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather
2044than to create a dangling reference.
500ab966 2045
3cdd684c
TP
2046=item Did not produce a valid header
2047
3de20fbe 2048See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 2049
6df41af2
GS
2050=item %s did not return a true value
2051
2052(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
2053it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
2054traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
2055do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
2056
cc507455 2057=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 2058
413ff9f6
FC
2059(W misc) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or
2060some such.
4633a7c4 2061
cc507455 2062=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 2063
52e3acf8 2064(W shadow) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
be771a83
GS
2065variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
2066seems superfluous.
33633739 2067
cc507455 2068=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 2069
be771a83
GS
2070(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
2071@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
2072carried away.
748a9306 2073
7e1af8bc 2074=item Died
5f05dabc 2075
2076(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
075b00aa 2077you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 2078
3cdd684c
TP
2079=item Document contains no data
2080
3de20fbe 2081See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 2082
62658f4d
PM
2083=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
2084
2085(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
943fc58e 2086define a C<$VERSION>.
62658f4d 2087
d3cdb721 2088=item '/' does not take a repeat count in %s
49704364
WL
2089
2090(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
2091See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2092
1c99110e 2093=item do "%s" failed, '.' is no longer in @INC; did you mean do "./%s"?
2a0461a3 2094
b28683c9 2095(D deprecated) Previously C< do "somefile"; > would search the current
1c99110e
DM
2096directory for the specified file. Since perl v5.26.0, F<.> has been
2097removed from C<@INC> by default, so this is no longer true. To search the
2098current directory (and only the current directory) you can write
2099C< do "./somefile"; >.
2a0461a3 2100
95cb0d72
FC
2101=item Don't know how to get file name
2102
2103(P) C<PerlIO_getname>, a perl internal I/O function specific to VMS, was
2104somehow called on another platform. This should not happen.
2105
4021c788 2106=item Don't know how to handle magic of type \%o
a0d0e21e
LW
2107
2108(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
2109
6df41af2
GS
2110=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
2111
56da5a46
RGS
2112(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2113"%s found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
6df41af2
GS
2114name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
2115because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
2116"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
2117something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
2118subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
2119"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 2120
d8ff3e95 2121=item dump() must be written as CORE::dump() as of Perl 5.30
ac206dc8 2122
d8ff3e95
JK
2123(F) You used the obsolete C<dump()> built-in function. That was deprecated in
2124Perl 5.8.0. As of Perl 5.30 it must be written in fully qualified format:
2125C<CORE::dump()>.
30b17cc1
A
2126
2127See L<perlfunc/dump>.
ac206dc8 2128
84d78eb7
YO
2129=item dump is not supported
2130
2131(F) Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.
2132
a0d0e21e
LW
2133=item Duplicate free() ignored
2134
be771a83
GS
2135(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
2136already been freed.
a0d0e21e 2137
1109a392
MHM
2138=item Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
2139
35f0cd76
FC
2140(W unpack) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a
2141type in a pack template. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1109a392 2142
e1d3ed99
TC
2143=item each on anonymous %s will always start from the beginning
2144
2145(W syntax) You called L<each|perlfunc/each> on an anonymous hash or
2146array. Since a new hash or array is created each time, each() will
2147restart iterating over your hash or array every time.
2148
4633a7c4
LW
2149=item elseif should be elsif
2150
fa816bf3
FC
2151(S syntax) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks
2152it's ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method
2153named "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
2154unlikely to be what you want.
2155
c30c479a
KW
2156=item Empty \%c in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2157
ccad8842
KW
2158=item Empty \%c{}
2159
e0e4a6e3 2160=item Empty \%c{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 2161
e750debb
KW
2162(F) You used something like C<\b{}>, C<\B{}>, C<\o{}>, C<\p>, C<\P>, or
2163C<\x> without specifying anything for it to operate on.
2164
2165Unfortunately, for backwards compatibility reasons, an empty C<\x> is
2166legal outside S<C<use re 'strict'>> and expands to a NUL character.
ab13f0c7 2167
d9a91485
KW
2168=item Empty (?) without any modifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2169
2170(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>>)
2171C<(?)> does nothing, so perhaps this is a typo.
2172
fd503f5c 2173=item ${^ENCODING} is no longer supported
a15a3d9b 2174
fd503f5c 2175(F) The special variable C<${^ENCODING}>, formerly used to implement
a15a3d9b
FC
2176the C<encoding> pragma, is no longer supported as of Perl 5.26.0.
2177
fd503f5c
DIM
2178Setting it to anything other than C<undef> is a fatal error as of Perl
21795.28.
ac641426 2180
85ab1d1d 2181=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 2182
85ab1d1d 2183(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
2184effective uids or gids failed.
2185
c038024b
RGS
2186=item %ENV is aliased to %s
2187
2188(F) You're running under taint mode, and the C<%ENV> variable has been
2189aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
6903afa2 2190program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
c038024b 2191
748a9306
LW
2192=item Error converting file specification %s
2193
5f05dabc 2194(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 2195specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
2196single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
2197an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
2198conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 2199
cac13810
KW
2200=item Error %s in expansion of %s
2201
2202(F) An error was encountered in handling a user-defined property
2203(L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties>). These are
2204programmer written subroutines, hence subject to errors that may
2205prevent them from compiling or running. The calls to these subs are
2206C<eval>'d, and if there is a failure, this message is raised, using the
2207contents of C<$@> from the failed C<eval>.
2208
2209Another possibility is that tainted data was encountered somewhere in
2210the chain of expanding the property. If so, the message wording will
2211indicate that this is the problem. See L</Insecure user-defined
2212property %s>.
2213
ad19ef22 2214=item Eval-group in insecure regular expression
e4d48cc9 2215
be771a83
GS
2216(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2217expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
2218is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 2219
ad19ef22 2220=item Eval-group not allowed at runtime, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
e4d48cc9 2221
be771a83
GS
2222(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
2223C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
f11307f5
FC
2224pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk,
2225it is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by using the
2226C<re 'eval'> pragma or by explicitly building the pattern from an
2227interpolated string at run time and using that in an eval(). See
2228L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 2229
ad19ef22 2230=item Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
6df41af2 2231
be771a83
GS
2232(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
2233assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
2234pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 2235
e0e4a6e3
FC
2236=item EVAL without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by
2237S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1a147d38
YO
2238
2239(F) You used a pattern that nested too many EVAL calls without consuming
6903afa2 2240any text. Restructure the pattern so that text is consumed.
1a147d38 2241
6e8a73f2 2242The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
2243discovered.
2244
fc36a67e 2245=item Excessively long <> operator
2246
2247(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
2248Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
2249filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
2250variable and glob that.
2251
ed9aa3b7
SG
2252=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
2253
822c8b4d
DIM
2254(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented on some systems, e.g.
2255Catamount. See L<perlport>.
ed9aa3b7 2256
c77da5ff 2257=item %sExecution of %s aborted due to compilation errors.
a0d0e21e
LW
2258
2259(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
2260
0ffcbc25
FC
2261=item exists argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine
2262
4a0af295 2263(F) The argument to C<exists> must be a hash or array element or a
0ffcbc25
FC
2264subroutine with an ampersand, such as:
2265
2266 $foo{$bar}
2267 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
2268 &do_something
2269
2270=item exists argument is not a subroutine name
2271
ccfc2567
FC
2272(F) The argument to C<exists> for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine name,
2273and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this error.
0ffcbc25 2274
a0d0e21e
LW
2275=item Exiting eval via %s
2276
be771a83
GS
2277(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
2278goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
2279
2280=item Exiting format via %s
2281
9a2ff54b 2282(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 2283goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 2284
0a753a76 2285=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
2286
be771a83
GS
2287(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
2288sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
2289loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 2290
a0d0e21e
LW
2291=item Exiting subroutine via %s
2292
be771a83
GS
2293(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
2294as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
2295
2296=item Exiting substitution via %s
2297
be771a83
GS
2298(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
2299as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 2300
e0e4a6e3 2301=item Expecting close bracket in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
c608e803 2302
675fa9ff 2303(F) You wrote something like
c608e803
KW
2304
2305 (?13
2306
2307to denote a capturing group of the form
2308L<C<(?I<PARNO>)>|perlre/(?PARNO) (?-PARNO) (?+PARNO) (?R) (?0)>,
2309but omitted the C<")">.
2310
d8d1dede
KW
2311=item Expecting interpolated extended charclass in regex; marked by <--
2312HERE in m/%s/
c9ffefcc 2313
d8d1dede
KW
2314(F) It looked like you were attempting to interpolate an
2315already-compiled extended character class, like so:
c9ffefcc 2316
d8d1dede
KW
2317 my $thai_or_lao = qr/(?[ \p{Thai} + \p{Lao} ])/;
2318 ...
2319 qr/(?[ \p{Digit} & $thai_or_lao ])/;
c9ffefcc 2320
d8d1dede
KW
2321But the marked code isn't syntactically correct to be such an
2322interpolated class.
27350048 2323
baabe3fb 2324=item Experimental aliasing via reference not enabled
1f8155a2 2325
baabe3fb 2326(F) To do aliasing via references, you must first enable the feature:
1f8155a2 2327
baabe3fb
FC
2328 no warnings "experimental::refaliasing";
2329 use feature "refaliasing";
1f8155a2
FC
2330 \$x = \$y;
2331
74d1b2e4
FC
2332=item Experimental %s on scalar is now forbidden
2333
2334(F) An experimental feature added in Perl 5.14 allowed C<each>, C<keys>,
2335C<push>, C<pop>, C<shift>, C<splice>, C<unshift>, and C<values> to be called with a
2336scalar argument. This experiment is considered unsuccessful, and
2337has been removed. The C<postderef> feature may meet your needs better.
2338
30d9c59b
Z
2339=item Experimental subroutine signatures not enabled
2340
2341(F) To use subroutine signatures, you must first enable them:
2342
caa35032 2343 no warnings "experimental::signatures";
30d9c59b
Z
2344 use feature "signatures";
2345 sub foo ($left, $right) { ... }
2346
7b8d334a
GS
2347=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
2348
be771a83
GS
2349(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
2350the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
2351usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
2352e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 2353
6df41af2
GS
2354=item %s: Expression syntax
2355
be771a83
GS
2356(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
2357Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
2358
2359=item %s failed--call queue aborted
2360
3c10abe3
AG
2361(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a UNITCHECK,
2362CHECK, INIT, or END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the
2363queue of such routines has been prematurely ended.
6df41af2 2364
e0d4aead 2365=item Failed to close in-place work file %s: %s
502aca56
TC
2366
2367(F) Closing an output file from in-place editing, as with the C<-i>
2368command-line switch, failed.
2369
e0e4a6e3 2370=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
73b437c8 2371
98d31c73 2372(W regexp)(F) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3 2373character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
3c6ca74a
FC
2374in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". In a C<(?[...])>
2375construct, this is an error, rather than a warning. Consider quoting
e0e4a6e3 2376the "-", "\-". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression
3c6ca74a 2377the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 2378
1b1ee2ef 2379=item Fatal VMS error (status=%d) at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 2380
be771a83
GS
2381(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
2382system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
2383details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
2384you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
2385
2386=item fcntl is not implemented
2387
2388(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
2389PDP-11 or something?
2390
22846ab4
AB
2391=item FETCHSIZE returned a negative value
2392
2393(F) A tied array claimed to have a negative number of elements, which
2394is not possible.
2395
f337b084
TH
2396=item Field too wide in 'u' format in pack
2397
d8b5cc61 2398(W pack) Each line in an uuencoded string starts with a length indicator
6903afa2
FC
2399which can't encode values above 63. So there is no point in asking for
2400a line length bigger than that. Perl will behave as if you specified
5c96f6f7 2401C<u63> as the format.
f337b084 2402
a0e213fc
A
2403=item File::Glob::glob() will disappear in perl 5.30. Use File::Glob::bsd_glob() instead.
2404
2405(D deprecated) C<< File::Glob >> has a function called C<< glob >>, which
2406just calls C<< bsd_glob >>. However, its prototype is different from the
2407prototype of C<< CORE::glob >>, and hence, C<< File::Glob::glob >> should
2408not be used.
2409
2410C<< File::Glob::glob() >> was deprecated in perl 5.8.0. A deprecation
2411message was issued from perl 5.26.0 onwards, and the function will
2412disappear in perl 5.30.0.
2413
2414Code using C<< File::Glob::glob() >> should call
2415C<< File::Glob::bsd_glob() >> instead.
2416
af8c498a 2417=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 2418
6c8d78fb
HS
2419(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
2420it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
2421"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
2422write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 2423
af8c498a 2424=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 2425
6c8d78fb
HS
2426(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
2427you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
89a1bda8
FC
2428with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with ">". If you intended only to
2429read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>. Another possibility
2430is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0 (also known as STDIN) for
2431output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
97828cef
RGS
2432
2433=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
2434
2435(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
6903afa2 2436as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
97828cef
RGS
2437previously.
2438
2439=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
2440
2441(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
fa816bf3 2442as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
2443
2444=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
2445
2446(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
2447a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
2448happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
2449name.
a0d0e21e 2450
f79e2ff9
PE
2451=item defer is experimental
2452
2453(S experimental::defer) The C<defer> block modifier is experimental. If you
2454want to use the feature, disable the warning with
2455C<no warnings 'experimental::defer'>, but know that in doing so you are taking
2456the risk that your code may break in a future Perl version.
2457
56e90b21
GS
2458=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
2459
be771a83 2460(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 2461some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
2462filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
2463same name?
56e90b21 2464
8f563184
NC
2465=item for my (...) is experimental
2466
2467(S experimental::for_list) This warning is emitted if you use C<for> to
4eb63851 2468iterate multiple values at a time. This syntax is currently experimental
8f563184
NC
2469and its behaviour may change in future releases of Perl.
2470
6df41af2
GS
2471=item Format not terminated
2472
2473(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
2474to the end of your file without finding such a line.
2475
a0d0e21e
LW
2476=item Format %s redefined
2477
e476b1b5 2478(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
2479
2480 {
271595cc 2481 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
2482 eval "format NAME =...";
2483 }
2484
a0d0e21e
LW
2485=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
2486
e476b1b5 2487(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
2488
2489 if ($foo = 123)
2490
2491when you meant
2492
2493 if ($foo == 123)
2494
2495(or something like that).
2496
6df41af2
GS
2497=item %s found where operator expected
2498
56da5a46
RGS
2499(S syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator.
2500If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
be771a83
GS
2501operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
2502operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 2503
a0d0e21e
LW
2504=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
2505
2506(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
2507
2508=item gethostent not implemented
2509
2510(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
2511because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
2512on the Internet.
2513
69282e91 2514=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2515
be771a83
GS
2516(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
2517socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 2518
748a9306
LW
2519=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
2520
2521(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
2522C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
2523
6df41af2
GS
2524=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
2525
be771a83
GS
2526(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
2527forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
2528L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
2529
0f539b13
BF
2530=item given is experimental
2531
7896dde7
Z
2532(S experimental::smartmatch) C<given> depends on smartmatch, which
2533is experimental, so its behavior may change or even be removed
2534in any future release of perl. See the explanation under
2535L<perlsyn/Experimental Details on given and when>.
0f539b13 2536
68567d27
FC
2537=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name (did you forget to
2538declare "my %s"?)
6df41af2 2539
a4edf47d 2540(F) You've said "use strict" or "use strict vars", which indicates
30c282f6 2541that all variables must either be lexically scoped (using "my" or "state"),
a4edf47d
GS
2542declared beforehand using "our", or explicitly qualified to say
2543which package the global variable is in (using "::").
6df41af2 2544
e476b1b5
GS
2545=item glob failed (%s)
2546
5ead438e 2547(S glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used
73c4e9dc
FC
2548for C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a C<glob>
2549pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
be771a83 2550nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
73c4e9dc
FC
2551resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell)
2552is broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables
2553in config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as
2554if it were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them
2555all empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
be771a83 2556think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 2557C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 2558
a0d0e21e
LW
2559=item Glob not terminated
2560
2561(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
2562a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
2563not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
2564earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 2565
b35b96b6
JH
2566=item gmtime(%f) failed
2567
2568(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that it could not handle:
2569too large, too small, or NaN. The returned value is C<undef>.
2570
bcd05b94 2571=item gmtime(%f) too large
8b56d6ff 2572
e9200be3 2573(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was larger than
fc003d4b 2574it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong
6903afa2 2575date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
fc003d4b
MS
2576not-a-number value).
2577
bcd05b94 2578=item gmtime(%f) too small
fc003d4b 2579
e9200be3 2580(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was smaller than
e7a1a147 2581it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong date.
8b56d6ff 2582
6df41af2 2583=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 2584
6df41af2
GS
2585(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
2586version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
2587
2588=item goto must have label
2589
2590(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
2591unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2592
6651ba0b
FC
2593=item Goto undefined subroutine%s
2594
2595(F) You tried to call a subroutine with C<goto &sub> syntax, but
2596the indicated subroutine hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
2597has since been undefined.
2598
6fbc9859 2599=item Group name must start with a non-digit word character in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 2600S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1f4f6bf1
YO
2601
2602(F) Group names must follow the rules for perl identifiers, meaning
f26c79ba
FC
2603they must start with a non-digit word character. A common cause of
2604this error is using (?&0) instead of (?0). See L<perlre>.
1f4f6bf1 2605
5a25739d
FC
2606=item ()-group starts with a count
2607
2608(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is supposed to follow
2609something: a template character or a ()-group. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2610
fe13d51d 2611=item %s had compilation errors.
6df41af2
GS
2612
2613(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
2614
a0d0e21e
LW
2615=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
2616
be771a83
GS
2617(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
2618to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
2619created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e 2620
6df41af2
GS
2621=item %s has too many errors
2622
2623(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
2624Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
2625
61e61fbc
JH
2626=item Hexadecimal float: exponent overflow
2627
d8f2b442 2628(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point has a larger exponent
61e61fbc
JH
2629than the floating point supports.
2630
2631=item Hexadecimal float: exponent underflow
2632
d8f2b442 2633(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point has a smaller exponent
b6d9b423
JH
2634than the floating point supports. With the IEEE 754 floating point,
2635this may also mean that the subnormals (formerly known as denormals)
2636are being used, which may or may not be an error.
61e61fbc 2637
5488d373 2638=item Hexadecimal float: internal error (%s)
cf4f6003
JH
2639
2640(F) Something went horribly bad in hexadecimal float handling.
2641
61e61fbc
JH
2642=item Hexadecimal float: mantissa overflow
2643
2644(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point literal had more bits in
2645the mantissa (the part between the 0x and the exponent, also known as
2646the fraction or the significand) than the floating point supports.
2647
40bca5ae
JH
2648=item Hexadecimal float: precision loss
2649
2650(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point had internally more
2651digits than could be output. This can be caused by unsupported
2652long double formats, or by 64-bit integers not being available
2653(needed to retrieve the digits under some configurations).
2654
2655=item Hexadecimal float: unsupported long double format
2656
2657(F) You have configured Perl to use long doubles but
d8f2b442 2658the internals of the long double format are unknown;
40bca5ae
JH
2659therefore the hexadecimal float output is impossible.
2660
252aa082
JH
2661=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
2662
e476b1b5 2663(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
2664(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2665L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 2666
8903cb82 2667=item Identifier too long
2668
2669(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 2670about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
2671names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
2672of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 2673
e0e4a6e3
FC
2674=item Ignoring zero length \N{} in character class in regex; marked by
2675S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
fc8cd66c 2676
f3ba6905 2677(W regexp) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a
0f44b2a5
FC
2678zero-length sequence. When such an escape is used in a character
2679class its behavior is not well defined. Check that the correct
2680escape has been used, and the correct charname handler is in scope.
fc8cd66c 2681
bcfb98ec 2682=item Illegal %s digit '%c' ignored
f675dbe5 2683
bcfb98ec
KW
2684(W digit) Here C<%s> is one of "binary", "octal", or "hex".
2685You may have tried to use a digit other than one that is legal for the
2686given type, such as only 0 and 1 for binary. For octals, this is raised
2687only if the illegal character is an '8' or '9'. For hex, 'A' - 'F' and
2688'a' - 'f' are legal.
2689Interpretation of the number stopped just before the offending digit or
2690character.
f675dbe5 2691
bcfb98ec 2692=item Illegal binary digit '%c'
a0d0e21e 2693
bcfb98ec 2694(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
a0d0e21e 2695
6597eb22
FC
2696=item Illegal character after '_' in prototype for %s : %s
2697
e4d150f1
FC
2698(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype
2699declaration. The '_' in a prototype must be followed by a ';',
2700indicating the rest of the parameters are optional, or one of '@'
2701or '%', since those two will accept 0 or more final parameters.
6597eb22 2702
b913d0b8
FC
2703=item Illegal character \%o (carriage return)
2704
2705(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as
2706it would any other whitespace, which means you should never see
2707this error when Perl was built using standard options. For some
2708reason, your version of Perl appears to have been built without
2709this support. Talk to your Perl administrator.
2710
bb6b75cd 2711=item Illegal character following sigil in a subroutine signature
d3d9da4a
DM
2712
2713(F) A parameter in a subroutine signature contained an unexpected character
d4e5761f
FC
2714following the C<$>, C<@> or C<%> sigil character. Normally the sigil
2715should be followed by the variable name or C<=> etc. Perhaps you are
d3d9da4a
DM
2716trying use a prototype while in the scope of C<use feature 'signatures'>?
2717For example:
2718
2719 sub foo ($$) {} # legal - a prototype
2720
2721 use feature 'signatures;
2722 sub foo ($$) {} # illegal - was expecting a signature
2723 sub foo ($a, $b)
2724 :prototype($$) {} # legal
2725
2726
d37a9538
ST
2727=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
2728
197afce1 2729(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
2e9cc7ef 2730Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, \, and +.
30d9c59b
Z
2731Perhaps you were trying to write a subroutine signature but didn't enable
2732that feature first (C<use feature 'signatures'>), so your signature was
2733instead interpreted as a bad prototype.
d37a9538 2734
904d85c5
RGS
2735=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
2736
2737(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
6903afa2 2738you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
904d85c5 2739
8e742a20
MHM
2740=item Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
2741
6903afa2 2742(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See L<perlsub>.
8e742a20 2743
a0d0e21e
LW
2744=item Illegal division by zero
2745
be771a83
GS
2746(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
2747your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
2748meaningless input.
a0d0e21e
LW
2749
2750=item Illegal modulus zero
2751
be771a83
GS
2752(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
2753numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 2754
6df41af2 2755=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 2756
6df41af2
GS
2757(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
2758two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4 2759
283151b7 2760=item Illegal octal digit '%c'
a0d0e21e 2761
d1be9408 2762(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 2763
ecc6274e
FC
2764=item Illegal operator following parameter in a subroutine signature
2765
2766(F) A parameter in a subroutine signature, was followed by something
2767other than C<=> introducing a default, C<,> or C<)>.
2768
2769 use feature 'signatures';
2770 sub foo ($=1) {} # legal
2771 sub foo ($a = 1) {} # legal
2772 sub foo ($a += 1) {} # illegal
2773 sub foo ($a == 1) {} # illegal
2774
e0e4a6e3 2775=item Illegal pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
c608e803 2776
675fa9ff 2777(F) You wrote something like
c608e803
KW
2778
2779 (?+foo)
2780
2781The C<"+"> is valid only when followed by digits, indicating a
2782capturing group. See
2783L<C<(?I<PARNO>)>|perlre/(?PARNO) (?-PARNO) (?+PARNO) (?R) (?0)>.
2784
375ed12a
JH
2785=item Illegal suidscript
2786
2787(F) The script run under suidperl was somehow illegal.
2788
fe13d51d 2789=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: -%c
6ff81951 2790
6df41af2 2791(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
646ca9b2 2792following switches: B<-[CDIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 2793
4003ea29
KW
2794=item Illegal user-defined property name
2795
2796(F) You specified a Unicode-like property name in a regular expression
2797pattern (using C<\p{}> or C<\P{}>) that Perl knows isn't an official
2798Unicode property, and was likely meant to be a user-defined property
2799name, but it can't be one of those, as they must begin with either C<In>
2800or C<Is>. Check the spelling. See also
2801L</Can't find Unicode property definition "%s">.
2802
6df41af2 2803=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 2804
75b44862 2805(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
2806internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
2807delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 2808
6df41af2 2809=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 2810
be771a83
GS
2811(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
2812name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
2813didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
2814ignored.
54310121 2815
6df41af2 2816=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 2817
be771a83
GS
2818(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
2819the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
2820system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
2821times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
2822would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 2823
be771a83
GS
2824Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
2825also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 2826
40151a41
PE
2827=item Implicit use of @_ in %s with signatured subroutine is experimental
2828
2829(S experimental::args_array_with_signatures) An expression that implicitly
2830involves the C<@_> arguments array was found in a subroutine that uses a
2831signature. This is experimental because the interaction between the
2832arguments array and parameter handling via signatures is not guaranteed
2833to remain stable in any future version of Perl, and such code should be
2834avoided.
2835
e0e4a6e3
FC
2836=item Incomplete expression within '(?[ ])' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
2837in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 2838
675fa9ff 2839(F) There was a syntax error within the C<(?[ ])>. This can happen if the
0d0b4b3b
KW
2840expression inside the construct was completely empty, or if there are
2841too many or few operands for the number of operators. Perl is not smart
2842enough to give you a more precise indication as to what is wrong.
2843
6fbc9859
MH
2844=item Inconsistent hierarchy during C3 merge of class '%s': merging failed on
2845parent '%s'
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2846
2847(F) The method resolution order (MRO) of the given class is not
2848C3-consistent, and you have enabled the C3 MRO for this class. See the C3
2849documentation in L<mro> for more information.
2850
cdd6375d
MH
2851=item Indentation on line %d of here-doc doesn't match delimiter
2852
2853(F) You have an indented here-document where one or more of its lines
2854have whitespace at the beginning that does not match the closing
2855delimiter.
2856
2857For example, line 2 below is wrong because it does not have at least
28582 spaces, but lines 1 and 3 are fine because they have at least 2:
2859
2860 if ($something) {
2861 print <<~EOF;
2862 Line 1
2863 Line 2 not
2864 Line 3
2865 EOF
2866 }
2867
2868Note that tabs and spaces are compared strictly, meaning 1 tab will
2869not match 8 spaces.
2870
6a2ed79a 2871=item Infinite recursion in regex
1a147d38
YO
2872
2873(F) You used a pattern that references itself without consuming any input
6903afa2 2874text. You should check the pattern to ensure that recursive patterns
1a147d38
YO
2875either consume text or fail.
2876
cac13810
KW
2877=item Infinite recursion in user-defined property
2878
2879(F) A user-defined property (L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character
2880Properties>) can depend on the definitions of other user-defined
2881properties. If the chain of dependencies leads back to this property,
2882infinite recursion would occur, were it not for the check that raised
2883this error.
2884
2885Restructure your property definitions to avoid this.
2886
714f94d1
FC
2887=item Infinite recursion via empty pattern
2888
2889(F) You tried to use the empty pattern inside of a regex code block,
2890for instance C</(?{ s!!! })/>, which resulted in re-executing
2891the same pattern, which is an infinite loop which is broken by
2892throwing an exception.
2893
f99042c8 2894=item Initialization of state variables in list currently forbidden
6dbe9451 2895
f99042c8
Z
2896(F) C<state> only permits initializing a single variable, specified
2897without parentheses. So C<state $a = 42> and C<state @a = qw(a b c)> are
2898allowed, but not C<state ($a) = 42> or C<(state $a) = 42>. To initialize
2899more than one C<state> variable, initialize them one at a time.
6dbe9451 2900
2186f873
FC
2901=item %%s[%s] in scalar context better written as $%s[%s]
2902
2903(W syntax) In scalar context, you've used an array index/value slice
2904(indicated by %) to select a single element of an array. Generally
2905it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
2906is that C<$foo[&bar]> always behaves like a scalar, both in the value it
2907returns and when evaluating its argument, while C<%foo[&bar]> provides
2908a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things if you're
2909expecting only one subscript. When called in list context, it also
2910returns the index (what C<&bar> returns) in addition to the value.
2911
2912=item %%s{%s} in scalar context better written as $%s{%s}
2913
2914(W syntax) In scalar context, you've used a hash key/value slice
2915(indicated by %) to select a single element of a hash. Generally it's
2916better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
2917is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves like a scalar, both in the value
2918it returns and when evaluating its argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> and
2919provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
2920if you're expecting only one subscript. When called in list context,
2921it also returns the key in addition to the value.
2922
a0d0e21e
LW
2923=item Insecure dependency in %s
2924
8b1a09fc 2925(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
2926The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
2927setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
2928tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
2929from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
2930such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
2931L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
2932
2933=item Insecure directory in %s
2934
be771a83
GS
2935(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2936setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
df98f984
RGS
2937the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
2938See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2939
62f468fc 2940=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2941
2942(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc 2943setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
332d5f78
SR
2944C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
2945supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
2946the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2947
0e9be77f
DM
2948=item Insecure user-defined property %s
2949
2950(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2951expression that contains a call to a user-defined character property
2952function, i.e. C<\p{IsFoo}> or C<\p{InFoo}>.
2953See L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties> and L<perlsec>.
2954
b9ef414d
FC
2955=item Integer overflow in format string for %s
2956
2957(F) The indexes and widths specified in the format string of C<printf()>
2958or C<sprintf()> are too large. The numbers must not overflow the size of
2959integers for your architecture.
2960
a7ae9550
GS
2961=item Integer overflow in %s number
2962
35928bc5 2963(S overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
2964either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
2965your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
2966On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
2967representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
29680b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
2969transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
2970internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
2971operations.
bbce6d69 2972
fc89ca81
FC
2973=item Integer overflow in srand
2974
2975(S overflow) The number you have passed to srand is too big to fit
2976in your architecture's integer representation. The number has been
2977replaced with the largest integer supported (0xFFFFFFFF on 32-bit
2978architectures). This means you may be getting less randomness than
2979you expect, because different random seeds above the maximum will
2980return the same sequence of random numbers.
2981
46314c13
JP
2982=item Integer overflow in version
2983
18da5252
FC
2984=item Integer overflow in version %d
2985
784d71ed
FC
2986(W overflow) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for
2987the size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
f084e84f 2988because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use an
784d71ed
FC
2989element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by trying
2990to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like 100/9.
46314c13 2991
e0e4a6e3 2992=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2993
2994(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
e0e4a6e3 2995The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
b45f050a
JF
2996discovered.
2997
748a9306
LW
2998=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
2999
be771a83
GS
3000(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
3001you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
3002to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
3003L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
3004Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
3005terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 3006
870978ae
FC
3007=item internal %<num>p might conflict with future printf extensions
3008
3009(S internal) Perl's internal routine that handles C<printf> and C<sprintf>
3010formatting follows a slightly different set of rules when called from
3011C or XS code. Specifically, formats consisting of digits followed
3012by "p" (e.g., "%7p") are reserved for future use. If you see this
3013message, then an XS module tried to call that routine with one such
3014reserved format.
3015
e0e4a6e3 3016=item Internal urp in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 3017
fa816bf3 3018(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
e0e4a6e3 3019S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
7253e4e3 3020discovered.
a0d0e21e 3021
6df41af2
GS
3022=item %s (...) interpreted as function
3023
75b44862 3024(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 3025followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 3026operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 3027L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 3028
f51551f7
FC
3029=item In '(?...)', the '(' and '?' must be adjacent in regex;
3030marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3031
3032(F) The two-character sequence C<"(?"> in this context in a regular
3033expression pattern should be an indivisible token, with nothing
3034intervening between the C<"("> and the C<"?">, but you separated them
3035with whitespace.
3036
d9790612 3037=item In '(*...)', the '(' and '*' must be adjacent in regex;
edf23316
FC
3038marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3039
d9790612 3040(F) The two-character sequence C<"(*"> in this context in a regular
edf23316 3041expression pattern should be an indivisible token, with nothing
d9790612
KW
3042intervening between the C<"("> and the C<"*">, but you separated them.
3043Fix the pattern and retry.
edf23316 3044
09bef843
SB
3045=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
3046
a4a4c9e2 3047(F) The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
09bef843
SB
3048by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
3049
3050=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
3051
a4a4c9e2 3052(F) The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
be771a83 3053recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 3054
e0e4a6e3
FC
3055=item Invalid character in charnames alias definition; marked by
3056S<<-- HERE> in '%s
225fb84f
KW
3057
3058(F) You tried to create a custom alias for a character name, with
3059the C<:alias> option to C<use charnames> and the specified character in
3060the indicated name isn't valid. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
3061
c8028aa6
TC
3062=item Invalid \0 character in %s for %s: %s\0%s
3063
fa3234e3
FC
3064(W syscalls) Embedded \0 characters in pathnames or other system call
3065arguments produce a warning as of 5.20. The parts after the \0 were
3066formerly ignored by system calls.
c8028aa6 3067
e0e4a6e3 3068=item Invalid character in \N{...}; marked by S<<-- HERE> in \N{%s}
a690c7c4
FC
3069
3070(F) Only certain characters are valid for character names. The
3071indicated one isn't. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
3072
c635e13b 3073=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
3074
be771a83
GS
3075(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
3076L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 3077
e0e4a6e3
FC
3078=item Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regex; marked by
3079S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9e08bc66 3080
98d31c73 3081(W regexp)(F) The numeric escape (for example C<\xHH>) of value < 256
9e08bc66
TS
3082didn't correspond to a single character through the conversion
3083from the encoding specified by the encoding pragma.
98d31c73
FC
3084The escape was replaced with REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (U+FFFD)
3085instead, except within S<C<(?[ ])>>, where it is a fatal error.
e0e4a6e3 3086The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
9e08bc66
TS
3087escape was discovered.
3088
8149aa9f
FC
3089=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...}
3090
e0e4a6e3
FC
3091=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...} in regex; marked by
3092S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 3093
8149aa9f 3094(F) The character constant represented by C<...> is not a valid hexadecimal
74f8e9e3
FC
3095number. Either it is empty, or you tried to use a character other than
30960 - 9 or A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number.
8149aa9f 3097
6651ba0b
FC
3098=item Invalid module name %s with -%c option: contains single ':'
3099
3100(F) The module argument to perl's B<-m> and B<-M> command-line options
3101cannot contain single colons in the module name, but only in the
3102arguments after "=". In other words, B<-MFoo::Bar=:baz> is ok, but
3103B<-MFoo:Bar=baz> is not.
3104
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3105=item Invalid mro name: '%s'
3106
162a3e34
FC
3107(F) You tried to C<mro::set_mro("classname", "foo")> or C<use mro 'foo'>,
3108where C<foo> is not a valid method resolution order (MRO). Currently,
3109the only valid ones supported are C<dfs> and C<c3>, unless you have loaded
3110a module that is a MRO plugin. See L<mro> and L<perlmroapi>.
2c7d6b9c 3111
40e4140b
FC
3112=item Invalid negative number (%s) in chr
3113
3114(W utf8) You passed a negative number to C<chr>. Negative numbers are
abc0aa9d 3115not valid character numbers, so it returns the Unicode replacement
40e4140b
FC
3116character (U+FFFD).
3117
74d1b2e4
FC
3118=item Invalid number '%s' for -C option.
3119
3120(F) You supplied a number to the -C option that either has extra leading
3121zeroes or overflows perl's unsigned integer representation.
3122
6651ba0b
FC
3123=item invalid option -D%c, use -D'' to see choices
3124
8ff21bfe
FC
3125(S debugging) Perl was called with invalid debugger flags. Call perl
3126with the B<-D> option with no flags to see the list of acceptable values.
982c4ecb 3127See also L<perlrun/-Dletters>.
6651ba0b 3128
6e8a73f2 3129=item Invalid quantifier in {,} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
35cd12d1
HS
3130
3131(F) The pattern looks like a {min,max} quantifier, but the min or max
3132could not be parsed as a valid number - either it has leading zeroes,
3133or it represents too big a number to cope with. The S<<-- HERE> shows
3134where in the regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3135
e0e4a6e3 3136=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
3137
3138(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
3139greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
3140C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
e0e4a6e3 3141up to C<ff>. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
7253e4e3 3142problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 3143
d1573ac7 3144=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
3145
3146(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
3147character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
3148
daa74010
KW
3149=item Invalid reference to group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3150
3151(F) The capture group you specified can't possibly exist because the
3152number you used is not within the legal range of possible values for
3153this machine.
3154
09bef843
SB
3155=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
3156
0120eecf 3157(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
3158elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
3159parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
3160See L<attributes>.
09bef843 3161
b4581f09
JH
3162=item Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
3163
2bfc5f71
FC
3164(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other
3165than a colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
b4581f09
JH
3166If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
3167list was terminated too soon.
3168
2c86d456
DG
3169=item Invalid strict version format (%s)
3170
fa816bf3 3171(F) A version number did not meet the "strict" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
3172A "strict" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
3173decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
3174v-string with a leading 'v' character and at least three components.
a6485a24 3175The parenthesized text indicates which criteria were not met.
2c86d456
DG
3176See the L<version> module for more details on allowed version formats.
3177
49704364 3178=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
96e4d5b1 3179
49704364
WL
3180(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
3181See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6728c851 3182
49704364 3183(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
75b44862 3184silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 3185
2c86d456
DG
3186=item Invalid version format (%s)
3187
fa816bf3 3188(F) A version number did not meet the "lax" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
3189A "lax" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
3190decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
fa816bf3
FC
3191v-string. If the v-string has fewer than three components, it
3192must have a leading 'v' character. Otherwise, the leading 'v' is
3193optional. Both decimal and dotted-decimal versions may have a
3194trailing "alpha" component separated by an underscore character
3195after a fractional or dotted-decimal component. The parenthesized
3196text indicates which criteria were not met. See the L<version> module
3197for more details on allowed version formats.
46314c13 3198
798ae1b7
DG
3199=item Invalid version object
3200
fa816bf3
FC
3201(F) The internal structure of the version object was invalid.
3202Perhaps the internals were modified directly in some way or
3203an arbitrary reference was blessed into the "version" class.
798ae1b7 3204
cd209d9d 3205=item In '(*VERB...)', the '(' and '*' must be adjacent in regex;
e0e4a6e3 3206marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff 3207
cc06e157
KW
3208=item Inverting a character class which contains a multi-character
3209sequence is illegal in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3210
3211(F) You wrote something like
3212
3213 qr/\P{name=KATAKANA LETTER AINU P}/
3214 qr/[^\p{name=KATAKANA LETTER AINU P}]/
3215
3216This name actually evaluates to a sequence of two Katakana characters,
3217not just a single one, and it is illegal to try to take the complement
3218of a sequence. (Mathematically it would mean any sequence of characters
3219from 0 to infinity in length that weren't these two in a row, and that
3220is likely not of any real use.)
3221
edf23316
FC
3222(F) The two-character sequence C<"(*"> in this context in a regular
3223expression pattern should be an indivisible token, with nothing
3224intervening between the C<"("> and the C<"*">, but you separated them.
675fa9ff 3225
a0d0e21e
LW
3226=item ioctl is not implemented
3227
3228(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
3229strange for a machine that supports C.
3230
c289d2f7
JH
3231=item ioctl() on unopened %s
3232
3233(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
34b6fd5e 3234Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 3235
fe13d51d 3236=item IO layers (like '%s') unavailable
363c40c4
SB
3237
3238(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
34b6fd5e 3239you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO, Perl must be configured
363c40c4
SB
3240with 'useperlio'.
3241
80cbd5ad
JH
3242=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
3243
3244(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
34b6fd5e 3245neither as a system call nor an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
80cbd5ad 3246
6e8a73f2 3247=item '%s' is an unknown bound type in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
64935bc6
KW
3248
3249(F) You used C<\b{...}> or C<\B{...}> and the C<...> is not known to
3250Perl. The current valid ones are given in
3251L<perlrebackslash/\b{}, \b, \B{}, \B>.
3252
ac3afc4b
YO
3253=item %s is forbidden - matches null string many times in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
3254m/%s/
3255
3256(F) The pattern you've specified might cause the regular expression to
3257infinite loop so it is forbidden. The S<<-- HERE>
3258shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
3259See L<perlre>.
3260
1ed4b776 3261=item %s() isn't allowed on :utf8 handles
74d1b2e4 3262
1ed4b776
TC
3263(F) The sysread(), recv(), syswrite() and send() operators are
3264not allowed on handles that have the C<:utf8> layer, either explicitly, or
74d1b2e4
FC
3265implicitly, eg., with the C<:encoding(UTF-16LE)> layer.
3266
1ed4b776
TC
3267Previously sysread() and recv() currently use only the C<:utf8> flag for the stream,
3268ignoring the actual layers. Since sysread() and recv() did no UTF-8
74d1b2e4
FC
3269validation they can end up creating invalidly encoded scalars.
3270
1ed4b776
TC
3271Similarly, syswrite() and send() used only the C<:utf8> flag, otherwise ignoring
3272any layers. If the flag is set, both wrote the value UTF-8 encoded, even if
74d1b2e4
FC
3273the layer is some different encoding, such as the example above.
3274
3275Ideally, all of these operators would completely ignore the C<:utf8> state,
3276working only with bytes, but this would result in silently breaking existing
1972ac5c
A
3277code.
3278
d4360efa 3279=item "%s" is more clearly written simply as "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
acdfc3b6 3280
d4360efa 3281(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
30b17cc1 3282
3f673807
FC
3283You specified a character that has the given plainer way of writing it, and
3284which is also portable to platforms running with different character sets.
acdfc3b6 3285
dcb414ac 3286=item $* is no longer supported as of Perl 5.30
a678626e 3287
dcb414ac
JK
3288(F) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older perls, was removed in
32895.10.0, is no longer supported and is a fatal error as of Perl 5.30. In
a678626e
A
3290previous versions of perl the use of C<$*> enabled or disabled multi-line
3291matching within a string.
3292
3293Instead of using C<$*> you should use the C</m> (and maybe C</s>) regexp
3294modifiers. You can enable C</m> for a lexical scope (even a whole file)
3295with C<use re '/m'>. (In older versions: when C<$*> was set to a true value
3296then all regular expressions behaved as if they were written using C</m>.)
3297
37398dc1
A
3298Use of this variable will be a fatal error in Perl 5.30.
3299
dcb414ac 3300=item $# is no longer supported as of Perl 5.30
a678626e 3301
dcb414ac
JK
3302(F) The special variable C<$#>, deprecated in older perls, was removed as of
33035.10.0, is no longer supported and is a fatal error as of Perl 5.30. You
a678626e
A
3304should use the printf/sprintf functions instead.
3305
ccf3535a 3306=item '%s' is not a code reference
6ad11d81 3307
6903afa2
FC
3308(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of
3309overload::constant needs to be a code reference. Either
3310an anonymous subroutine, or a reference to a subroutine.
6ad11d81 3311
ccf3535a 3312=item '%s' is not an overloadable type
6ad11d81 3313
04a80ee0
RGS
3314(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
3315unaware of.
6ad11d81 3316
6a2e756f
PE
3317=item '%s' is not recognised as a builtin function
3318
3319(F) An attempt was made to C<use> the L<builtin> pragma module to create
3320a lexical alias for an unknown function name.
3321
813e85a0
PE
3322=item isa is experimental
3323
3324(S experimental::isa) This warning is emitted if you use the (C<isa>)
3325operator. This operator is currently experimental and its behaviour may
3326change in future releases of Perl.
3327
5a25739d
FC
3328=item -i used with no filenames on the command line, reading from STDIN
3329
3330(S inplace) The C<-i> option was passed on the command line, indicating
3331that the script is intended to edit files in place, but no files were
3332given. This is usually a mistake, since editing STDIN in place doesn't
3333make sense, and can be confusing because it can make perl look like
3334it is hanging when it is really just trying to read from STDIN. You
3335should either pass a filename to edit, or remove C<-i> from the command
028611fa 3336line. See L<perlrun|perlrun/-i[extension]> for more details.
5a25739d 3337
aec0ef10 3338=item Junk on end of regexp in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
3339
3340(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
3341
105c827d
TC
3342=item \K not permitted in lookahead/lookbehind in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3343
64a5950a 3344(F) Your regular expression used C<\K> in a lookahead or lookbehind
55afc783
TC
3345assertion, which currently isn't permitted.
3346
3347This may change in the future, see L<Support \K in
3348lookarounds|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/18134>.
105c827d 3349
a0d0e21e
LW
3350=item Label not found for "last %s"
3351
be771a83
GS
3352(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
3353of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3354L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
3355
3356=item Label not found for "next %s"
3357
3358(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
3359that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3360L<perlfunc/last>.
3361
3362=item Label not found for "redo %s"
3363
3364(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
3365that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3366L<perlfunc/last>.
3367
85ab1d1d 3368=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 3369
85ab1d1d 3370(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
3371effective uids or gids failed.
3372
49704364
WL
3373=item length/code after end of string in unpack
3374
d7f8936a 3375(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an unpack
6903afa2
FC
3376length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
3377an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 3378
25e26107 3379=item length() used on %s (did you mean "scalar(%s)"?)
e508c8a4 3380
0d46a4e7
FC
3381(W syntax) You used length() on either an array or a hash when you
3382probably wanted a count of the items.
e508c8a4
MH
3383
3384Array size can be obtained by doing:
3385
3386 scalar(@array);
3387
3388The number of items in a hash can be obtained by doing:
3389
3390 scalar(keys %hash);
3391
f0e67a1d
Z
3392=item Lexing code attempted to stuff non-Latin-1 character into Latin-1 input
3393
d4fe7078
RS
3394(F) An extension is attempting to insert text into the current parse
3395(using L<lex_stuff_pvn|perlapi/lex_stuff_pvn> or similar), but tried to insert a character that
3396couldn't be part of the current input. This is an inherent pitfall
3397of the stuffing mechanism, and one of the reasons to avoid it. Where
6903afa2 3398it is necessary to stuff, stuffing only plain ASCII is recommended.
f0e67a1d
Z
3399
3400=item Lexing code internal error (%s)
3401
3402(F) Lexing code supplied by an extension violated the lexer's API in a
3403detectable way.
3404
69282e91 3405=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 3406
be771a83
GS
3407(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
3408to check the return value of your socket() call? See
3409L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 3410
6651ba0b
FC
3411=item List form of piped open not implemented
3412
3413(F) On some platforms, notably Windows, the three-or-more-arguments
3414form of C<open> does not support pipes, such as C<open($pipe, '|-', @args)>.
3415Use the two-argument C<open($pipe, '|prog arg1 arg2...')> form instead.
3416
2a6971a9
KW
3417=item Literal vertical space in [] is illegal except under /x in regex;
3418marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3419
3420(F) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
3421
3422Likely you forgot the C</x> modifier or there was a typo in the pattern.
3423For example, did you really mean to match a form-feed? If so, all the
3424ASCII vertical space control characters are representable by escape
3425sequences which won't present such a jarring appearance as your pattern
3426does when displayed.
3427
3428 \r carriage return
3429 \f form feed
3430 \n line feed
3431 \cK vertical tab
3432
7b6e25e4 3433=item %s: loadable library and perl binaries are mismatched (got %s handshake key %p, needed %p)
dc6bb7ba
FC
3434
3435(P) A dynamic loading library C<.so> or C<.dll> was being loaded into the
3436process that was built against a different build of perl than the
3437said library was compiled against. Reinstalling the XS module will
3438likely fix this error.
3439
8b7358b9 3440=item Locale '%s' contains (at least) the following characters which
f03e1e3a 3441have unexpected meanings: %s The Perl program will use the expected
8b7358b9
KW
3442meanings
3443
3444(W locale) You are using the named UTF-8 locale. UTF-8 locales are
578a6a87
KW
3445expected to have very particular behavior, which most do. This message
3446arises when perl found some departures from the expectations, and is
3447notifying you that the expected behavior overrides these differences.
3448In some cases the differences are caused by the locale definition being
3449defective, but the most common causes of this warning are when there are
3450ambiguities and conflicts in following the Standard, and the locale has
3451chosen an approach that differs from Perl's.
3452
3453One of these is because that, contrary to the claims, Unicode is not
a2d13ee0
FC
3454completely locale insensitive. Turkish and some related languages
3455have two types of C<"I"> characters. One is dotted in both upper- and
578a6a87
KW
3456lowercase, and the other is dotless in both cases. Unicode allows a
3457locale to use either the Turkish rules, or the rules used in all other
3458instances, where there is only one type of C<"I">, which is dotless in
3459the uppercase, and dotted in the lower. The perl core does not (yet)
3460handle the Turkish case, and this message warns you of that. Instead,
8b7358b9
KW
3461the L<Unicode::Casing> module allows you to mostly implement the Turkish
3462casing rules.
3463
578a6a87
KW
3464The other common cause is for the characters
3465
3466 $ + < = > ^ ` | ~
3467
f1460a66 3468These are problematic. The C standard says that these should be
578a6a87 3469considered punctuation in the C locale (and the POSIX standard defers to
a2d13ee0
FC
3470the C standard), and Unicode is generally considered a superset of
3471the C locale. But Unicode has added an extra category, "Symbol", and
578a6a87
KW
3472classifies these particular characters as being symbols. Most UTF-8
3473locales have them treated as punctuation, so that L<ispunct(2)> returns
a2d13ee0
FC
3474non-zero for them. But a few locales have it return 0. Perl takes
3475the first approach, not using C<ispunct()> at all (see L<Note [5] in
3476perlrecharclass|perlrecharclass/[5]>), and this message is raised to notify you that you
3477are getting Perl's approach, not the locale's.
8b7358b9 3478
8c6180a9
KW
3479=item Locale '%s' may not work well.%s
3480
780fcc9f 3481(W locale) You are using the named locale, which is a non-UTF-8 one, and
dae67c56
KW
3482which perl has determined is not fully compatible with what it can
3483handle. The second C<%s> gives a reason.
8c6180a9
KW
3484
3485By far the most common reason is that the locale has characters in it
3486that are represented by more than one byte. The only such locales that
3487Perl can handle are the UTF-8 locales. Most likely the specified locale
3488is a non-UTF-8 one for an East Asian language such as Chinese or
3489Japanese. If the locale is a superset of ASCII, the ASCII portion of it
780fcc9f 3490may work in Perl.
8c6180a9
KW
3491
3492Some essentially obsolete locales that aren't supersets of ASCII, mainly
3493those in ISO 646 or other 7-bit locales, such as ASMO 449, can also have
3494problems, depending on what portions of the ASCII character set get
3495changed by the locale and are also used by the program.
3496The warning message lists the determinable conflicting characters.
3497
780fcc9f
KW
3498Note that not all incompatibilities are found.
3499
3500If this happens to you, there's not much you can do except switch to use a
3501different locale or use L<Encode> to translate from the locale into
3502UTF-8; if that's impracticable, you have been warned that some things
3503may break.
3504
3505This message is output once each time a bad locale is switched into
3506within the scope of C<S<use locale>>, or on the first possibly-affected
3507operation if the C<S<use locale>> inherits a bad one. It is not raised
3508for any operations from the L<POSIX> module.
3509
a2162cd9
FC
3510=item localtime(%f) failed
3511
3512(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that it could not handle:
3513too large, too small, or NaN. The returned value is C<undef>.
3514
3515=item localtime(%f) too large
3516
3517(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was larger
3518than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
3519wrong date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
3520not-a-number value).
3521
3522=item localtime(%f) too small
3523
3524(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was smaller
3525than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
3526wrong date.
3527
58e23c8d 3528=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3529
3530(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
6903afa2 3531handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release.
2e50fd82 3532
b88df990
NC
3533=item Lost precision when %s %f by 1
3534
b12f49e1
TK
3535(W imprecision) You attempted to increment or decrement a value by one,
3536but the result is too large for the underlying floating point
3537representation to store accurately. Hence, the target of C<++> or C<-->
3538is increased or decreased by quite different value than one, such as
3539zero (I<i.e.> the target is unchanged) or two, due to rounding.
3540Perl issues this
e63e8a91
FC
3541warning because it has already switched from integers to floating point
3542when values are too large for integers, and now even floating point is
3543insufficient. You may wish to switch to using L<Math::BigInt> explicitly.
b88df990 3544
93fad930 3545=item lstat() on filehandle%s
2f7da168
RK
3546
3547(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
3548by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
3549instead on the filehandle.)
3550
345d70e3 3551=item lvalue attribute %s already-defined subroutine
bb3abb05 3552
345d70e3
FC
3553(W misc) Although L<attributes.pm|attributes> allows this, turning the lvalue
3554attribute on or off on a Perl subroutine that is already defined
3555does not always work properly. It may or may not do what you
3556want, depending on what code is inside the subroutine, with exact
3557details subject to change between Perl versions. Only do this
3558if you really know what you are doing.
bb3abb05 3559
885ef6f5
GG
3560=item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined
3561
345d70e3
FC
3562(W misc) Using the C<:lvalue> declarative syntax to make a Perl
3563subroutine an lvalue subroutine after it has been defined is
3564not permitted. To make the subroutine an lvalue subroutine,
3565add the lvalue attribute to the definition, or put the C<sub
3566foo :lvalue;> declaration before the definition.
3567
3568See also L<attributes.pm|attributes>.
885ef6f5 3569
6f1b3ab0
FC
3570=item Magical list constants are not supported
3571
3572(F) You assigned a magical array to a stash element, and then tried
3573to use the subroutine from the same slot. You are asking Perl to do
3574something it cannot do, details subject to change between Perl versions.
3575
2db62bbc 3576=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
49704364 3577
2db62bbc 3578(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
3579are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3580
3581=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
3582
2db62bbc 3583(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
3584are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3585
6df41af2
GS
3586=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
3587
3588(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
3589
3590 prefix1;prefix2
3591
3592or
6df41af2
GS
3593 prefix1 prefix2
3594
be771a83
GS
3595with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
3596a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
3597appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 3598"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 3599
2f758a16
ST
3600=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
3601
d37a9538
ST
3602(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
3603syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
3604obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
3605when the function is called.
30d9c59b
Z
3606Perhaps the function's author was trying to write a subroutine signature
3607but didn't enable that feature first (C<use feature 'signatures'>),
3608so the signature was instead interpreted as a bad prototype.
2f758a16 3609
2b5e7bc2 3610=item Malformed UTF-8 character%s
ba210ebe 3611
7cf8d05d
KW
3612(S utf8)(F) Perl detected a string that should be UTF-8, but didn't
3613comply with UTF-8 encoding rules, or represents a code point whose
3614ordinal integer value doesn't fit into the word size of the current
3615platform (overflows). Details as to the exact malformation are given in
3616the variable, C<%s>, part of the message.
ba210ebe 3617
2575c402 3618One possible cause is that you set the UTF8 flag yourself for data that
3f673807
FC
3619you thought to be in UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy 8-bit
3620data). To guard against this, you can use C<Encode::decode('UTF-8', ...)>.
2575c402
JW
3621
3622If you use the C<:encoding(UTF-8)> PerlIO layer for input, invalid byte
3f673807
FC
3623sequences are handled gracefully, but if you use C<:utf8>, the flag is set
3624without validating the data, possibly resulting in this error message.
2575c402
JW
3625
3626See also L<Encode/"Handling Malformed Data">.
901b21bf 3627
bde9e88d 3628=item Malformed UTF-8 returned by \N{%s} immediately after '%s'
ff3f963a
KW
3629
3630(F) The charnames handler returned malformed UTF-8.
3631
714f94d1
FC
3632=item Malformed UTF-8 string in "%s"
3633
3634(F) This message indicates a bug either in the Perl core or in XS
3635code. Such code was trying to find out if a character, allegedly
3636stored internally encoded as UTF-8, was of a given type, such as
3637being punctuation or a digit. But the character was not encoded
3638in legal UTF-8. The C<%s> is replaced by a string that can be used
3639by knowledgeable people to determine what the type being checked
3640against was.
3641
3642Passing malformed strings was deprecated in Perl 5.18, and
3643became fatal in Perl 5.26.
3644
4a5d3a93
FC
3645=item Malformed UTF-8 string in '%c' format in unpack
3646
3647(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3648rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3649
f337b084
TH
3650=item Malformed UTF-8 string in pack
3651
3652(F) You tried to pack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3653rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3654
3655=item Malformed UTF-8 string in unpack
3656
3657(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3658rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3659
4a5d3a93 3660=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
f337b084 3661
4a5d3a93
FC
3662(F) Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
3663doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
3664
30d9c59b
Z
3665=item Mandatory parameter follows optional parameter
3666
3667(F) In a subroutine signature, you wrote something like "$a = undef,
3668$b", making an earlier parameter optional and a later one mandatory.
3669Parameters are filled from left to right, so it's impossible for the
3670caller to omit an earlier one and pass a later one. If you want to act
3671as if the parameters are filled from right to left, declare the rightmost
3672optional and then shuffle the parameters around in the subroutine's body.
3673
2d88a86a
KW
3674=item Matched non-Unicode code point 0x%X against Unicode property; may
3675not be portable
3676
3677(S non_unicode) Perl allows strings to contain a superset of
3678Unicode code points; each code point may be as large as what is storable
0202c428 3679in a signed integer on your system, but these may not be accepted by
2d88a86a
KW
3680other languages/systems. This message occurs when you matched a string
3681containing such a code point against a regular expression pattern, and
3682the code point was matched against a Unicode property, C<\p{...}> or
3683C<\P{...}>. Unicode properties are only defined on Unicode code points,
3684so the result of this match is undefined by Unicode, but Perl (starting
3685in v5.20) treats non-Unicode code points as if they were typical
3686unassigned Unicode ones, and matched this one accordingly. Whether a
3687given property matches these code points or not is specified in
3688L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>.
3689
3690This message is suppressed (unless it has been made fatal) if it is
3691immaterial to the results of the match if the code point is Unicode or
3692not. For example, the property C<\p{ASCII_Hex_Digit}> only can match
3693the 22 characters C<[0-9A-Fa-f]>, so obviously all other code points,
3694Unicode or not, won't match it. (And C<\P{ASCII_Hex_Digit}> will match
3695every code point except these 22.)
3696
3697Getting this message indicates that the outcome of the match arguably
3698should have been the opposite of what actually happened. If you think
3699that is the case, you may wish to make the C<non_unicode> warnings
3700category fatal; if you agree with Perl's decision, you may wish to turn
3701off this category.
3702
3703See L<perlunicode/Beyond Unicode code points> for more information.
3704
e0e4a6e3
FC
3705=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
3706m/%s/
4a5d3a93
FC
3707
3708(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
e0e4a6e3 3709regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The S<<-- HERE>
9e3ec65c 3710shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
4a5d3a93 3711See L<perlre>.
f337b084 3712
de42a5a9 3713=item Maximal count of pending signals (%u) exceeded
2563cec5 3714
6903afa2 3715(F) Perl aborted due to too high a number of signals pending. This
2563cec5
IZ
3716usually indicates that your operating system tried to deliver signals
3717too fast (with a very high priority), starving the perl process from
3718resources it would need to reach a point where it can process signals
6903afa2 3719safely. (See L<perlipc/"Deferred Signals (Safe Signals)">.)
2563cec5 3720
25f58aea
PN
3721=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
3722
3723(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
3724interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
3725"use" or "my".
3726
0d2487cd 3727=item '%' may not be used in pack
6df41af2
GS
3728
3729(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
3730checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
3731See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 3732
a0d0e21e
LW
3733=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
3734
3735(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 3736doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 3737
3cdd684c
TP
3738=item Method %s not permitted
3739
3de20fbe 3740See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 3741
a0d0e21e
LW
3742=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
3743
3744(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
3745by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
3746ended earlier on the current line.
3747
3748=item Misplaced _ in number
3749
d4ced10d
JH
3750(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
3751separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 3752
0ea23158
DM
3753=item Missing argument for %n in %s
3754
3755(F) A C<%n> was used in a format string with no corresponding argument for
3756perl to write the current string length to.
3757
7baa4690
HS
3758=item Missing argument in %s
3759
3664866e
AB
3760(W missing) You called a function with fewer arguments than other
3761arguments you supplied indicated would be needed.
3762
3763Currently only emitted when a printf-type format required more
3764arguments than were supplied, but might be used in the future for
3765other cases where we can statically determine that arguments to
3766functions are missing, e.g. for the L<perlfunc/pack> function.
7baa4690 3767
9e81e6a1
RGS
3768=item Missing argument to -%c
3769
3770(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
3771immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
3772
ff3f963a 3773=item Missing braces on \N{}
423cee85 3774
e0e4a6e3 3775=item Missing braces on \N{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 3776
4a2d328f 3777(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
532cb70d
FC
3778double-quotish context. This can also happen when there is a space
3779(or comment) between the C<\N> and the C<{> in a regex with the C</x> modifier.
3780This modifier does not change the requirement that the brace immediately
3781follow the C<\N>.
423cee85 3782
f0a2b745
KW
3783=item Missing braces on \o{}
3784
3785(F) A C<\o> must be followed immediately by a C<{> in double-quotish context.
3786
a0d0e21e
LW
3787=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
3788
3789(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
3790"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
3791
06eaf0bc
GS
3792=item Missing command in piped open
3793
be771a83
GS
3794(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
3795C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
3796blank.
06eaf0bc 3797
961ce445
RGS
3798=item Missing control char name in \c
3799
3800(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
3801character name.
3802
591f5ca2
FC
3803=item Missing ']' in prototype for %s : %s
3804
bfe11873 3805(W illegalproto) A grouping was started with C<[> but never closed with C<]>.
591f5ca2 3806
8767b1ab 3807=item Missing name in "%s sub"
6df41af2 3808
87444db5 3809(F) The syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
be771a83 3810they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
3811
3812=item Missing $ on loop variable
3813
be771a83
GS
3814(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
3815are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
3816can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 3817
cc507455 3818=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306 3819
56da5a46
RGS
3820(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3821"%s found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
748a9306 3822
33fe1955 3823=item Missing or undefined argument to %s
f51551f7 3824
33fe1955 3825(F) You tried to call require or do with no argument or with an undefined
f51551f7 3826value as an argument. Require expects either a package name or a
33fe1955
LM
3827file-specification as an argument; do expects a filename. See
3828L<perlfunc/require EXPR> and L<perlfunc/do EXPR>.
f51551f7 3829
e0e4a6e3 3830=item Missing right brace on \%c{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 3831
ff3f963a
KW
3832(F) Missing right brace in C<\x{...}>, C<\p{...}>, C<\P{...}>, or C<\N{...}>.
3833
605eee60 3834=item Missing right brace on \N{}
faad849d 3835
4a68bf9d 3836=item Missing right brace on \N{} or unescaped left brace after \N
ff3f963a 3837
d32207c9
FC
3838(F) C<\N> has two meanings.
3839
3840The traditional one has it followed by a name enclosed in braces,
3841meaning the character (or sequence of characters) given by that
fa816bf3 3842name. Thus C<\N{ASTERISK}> is another way of writing C<*>, valid in both
d32207c9
FC
3843double-quoted strings and regular expression patterns. In patterns,
3844it doesn't have the meaning an unescaped C<*> does.
3845
3846Starting in Perl 5.12.0, C<\N> also can have an additional meaning (only)
3847in patterns, namely to match a non-newline character. (This is short
3848for C<[^\n]>, and like C<.> but is not affected by the C</s> regex modifier.)
3849
3850This can lead to some ambiguities. When C<\N> is not followed immediately
3851by a left brace, Perl assumes the C<[^\n]> meaning. Also, if the braces
3852form a valid quantifier such as C<\N{3}> or C<\N{5,}>, Perl assumes that this
3853means to match the given quantity of non-newlines (in these examples,
38543; and 5 or more, respectively). In all other case, where there is a
3855C<\N{> and a matching C<}>, Perl assumes that a character name is desired.
3856
3857However, if there is no matching C<}>, Perl doesn't know if it was
3858mistakenly omitted, or if C<[^\n]{> was desired, and raises this error.
3859If you meant the former, add the right brace; if you meant the latter,
3860escape the brace with a backslash, like so: C<\N\{>
ab13f0c7 3861
d98d5fff 3862=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 3863
be771a83
GS
3864(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
3865ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
3866were last editing.
a0d0e21e 3867
6df41af2
GS
3868=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
3869
56da5a46
RGS
3870(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3871"%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
6df41af2
GS
3872the previous line just because you saw this message.
3873
a0d0e21e
LW
3874=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
3875
3876(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 3877constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
3878catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
3879
3880 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
3881 mod(2);
3882
3883Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
3884
c5674021
PDF
3885Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
3886is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
3887
b7e4ecc1
FC
3888 $x = 1;
3889 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
3890 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to
3891 } # modify the 2
c5674021 3892
02e314e7
TC
3893L<PerlIO::scalar> will also produce this message as a warning if you
3894attempt to open a read-only scalar for writing.
3895
7a4340ed 3896=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3897
3898(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
3899subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
3900backwards.
3901
7a4340ed 3902=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 3903
be771a83
GS
3904(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
3905couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
3906
3907=item Module name must be constant
3908
3909(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
3910
be98fb35 3911=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 3912
be98fb35 3913(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
028611fa
DB
3914you omitted the name of the module. Consult
3915L<perlrun|perlrun/-m[-]module> for full details about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 3916
fe13d51d 3917=item More than one argument to '%s' open
ed9aa3b7 3918
6903afa2 3919(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
ed9aa3b7
SG
3920can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
3921list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
3922See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
3923
85396b18
FC
3924=item mprotect for COW string %p %u failed with %d
3925
3926(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_COW (see
3927L<perlguts/"Copy on Write">), but a shared string buffer
3928could not be made read-only.
3929
92951bce
FC
3930=item mprotect for %p %u failed with %d
3931
85396b18
FC
3932(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS (see L<perlhacktips>),
3933but an op tree could not be made read-only.
3934
3935=item mprotect RW for COW string %p %u failed with %d
3936
3937(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_COW (see
3938L<perlguts/"Copy on Write">), but a read-only shared string
3939buffer could not be made mutable.
3940
92951bce
FC
3941=item mprotect RW for %p %u failed with %d
3942
3943(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS (see
85396b18
FC
3944L<perlhacktips>), but a read-only op tree could not be made
3945mutable before freeing the ops.
92951bce 3946
a0d0e21e
LW
3947=item msg%s not implemented
3948
3949(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
3950
1ad5a39c
TC
3951=item Multidimensional hash lookup is disabled
3952
3953(F) You supplied a list of subscripts to a hash lookup under
3954C<< no feature "multidimensional"; >>, eg:
3955
3956 $z = $foo{$x, $y};
3957
3958which by default acts like:
3959
3960 $z = $foo{join($;, $x, $y)};
3961
a0d0e21e
LW
3962=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
3963
75b44862
GS
3964(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
3965They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 3966
d3d9da4a
DM
3967=item Multiple slurpy parameters not allowed
3968
3969(F) In subroutine signatures, a slurpy parameter (C<@> or C<%>) must be
3970the last parameter, and there must not be more than one of them; for
3971example:
3972
3973 sub foo ($a, @b) {} # legal
3974 sub foo ($a, @b, %) {} # invalid
3975
49704364 3976=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
6df41af2 3977
49704364
WL
3978(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
3979follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
3980See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2 3981
c869951c 3982=item %s must not be a named sequence in transliteration operator
f4240379
KW
3983
3984(F) Transliteration (C<tr///> and C<y///>) transliterates individual
3985characters. But a named sequence by definition is more than an
dabde021 3986individual character, and hence doing this operation on it doesn't make
f4240379
KW
3987sense.
3988
6df41af2
GS
3989=item "my sub" not yet implemented
3990
be771a83
GS
3991(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
3992that yet.
6df41af2 3993
a21eb52b
FC
3994=item "my" subroutine %s can't be in a package
3995
3996(F) Lexically scoped subroutines aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
3997sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front.
3998
5a25739d
FC
3999=item "my %s" used in sort comparison
4000
4001(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
4002You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
4003sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
4004lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
4005name, or rename the lexical variable.
4006
fd1b7234 4007=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
6df41af2 4008
be771a83
GS
4009(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
4010sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
4011local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 4012
8149aa9f
FC
4013=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
4014
c59aba6c
FC
4015(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable
4016names. If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then
4017just mention it again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our>
08a33b6b 4018declaration is also provided for this purpose.
c59aba6c 4019
66a1f5ec
FC
4020NOTE: This warning detects package symbols that have been used
4021only once. This means lexical variables will never trigger this
4022warning. It also means that all of the package variables $c, @c,
4023%c, as well as *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or
c59aba6c
FC
4024format) are considered the same; if a program uses $c only once
4025but also uses any of the others it will not trigger this warning.
4026Symbols beginning with an underscore and symbols using special
4027identifiers (q.v. L<perldata>) are exempt from this warning.
8149aa9f 4028
e0e4a6e3 4029=item Need exactly 3 octal digits in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b
KW
4030
4031(F) Within S<C<(?[ ])>>, all constants interpreted as octal need to be
4032exactly 3 digits long. This helps catch some ambiguities. If your
4033constant is too short, add leading zeros, like
4034
4035 (?[ [ \078 ] ]) # Syntax error!
4036 (?[ [ \0078 ] ]) # Works
4037 (?[ [ \007 8 ] ]) # Clearer
4038
4039The maximum number this construct can express is C<\777>. If you
675fa9ff
FC
4040need a larger one, you need to use L<\o{}|perlrebackslash/Octal escapes> instead. If you meant
4041two separate things, you need to separate them:
0d0b4b3b
KW
4042
4043 (?[ [ \7776 ] ]) # Syntax error!
4044 (?[ [ \o{7776} ] ]) # One meaning
4045 (?[ [ \777 6 ] ]) # Another meaning
4046 (?[ [ \777 \006 ] ]) # Still another
4047
49704364
WL
4048=item Negative '/' count in unpack
4049
4050(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
4051negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4052
a0d0e21e
LW
4053=item Negative length
4054
be771a83
GS
4055(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
4056length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 4057
ed9aa3b7
SG
4058=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
4059
4060(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
4061greater than or equal to zero.
4062
b3211734
KW
4063=item Negative repeat count does nothing
4064
4065(W numeric) You tried to execute the
4066L<C<x>|perlop/Multiplicative Operators> repetition operator fewer than 0
4067times, which doesn't make sense.
4068
e0e4a6e3 4069=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4070
6903afa2 4071(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses.
e0e4a6e3 4072So things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The S<<-- HERE> shows
9e3ec65c 4073whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 4074
7253e4e3 4075Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 4076C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 4077
6df41af2 4078=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 4079
be771a83
GS
4080(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
4081scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e 4082
2c7d6b9c
RGS
4083=item next::method/next::can/maybe::next::method cannot find enclosing method
4084
4085(F) C<next::method> needs to be called within the context of a
4086real method in a real package, and it could not find such a context.
4087See L<mro>.
4088
5a25739d 4089=item \N in a character class must be a named character: \N{...} in regex;
e0e4a6e3 4090marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5a25739d 4091
32a77fbe
FC
4092(F) The new (as of Perl 5.12) meaning of C<\N> as C<[^\n]> is not valid in a
4093bracketed character class, for the same reason that C<.> in a character
4094class loses its specialness: it matches almost everything, which is
4095probably not what you want.
5a25739d 4096
1a7108fe 4097=item \N{} here is restricted to one character in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
0b4ce96d 4098
f3ba6905
FC
4099(F) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a
4100multi-character sequence. Even though a character class is
4101supposed to match just one character of input, perl will match the
bc035eed
KW
4102whole thing correctly, except under certain conditions. These currently
4103are
4104
4105=over 4
4106
4107=item When the class is inverted (C<[^...]>)
4108
4109The mathematically logical behavior for what matches when inverting
f3ba6905 4110is very different from what people expect, so we have decided to
bc035eed
KW
4111forbid it.
4112
4113=item The escape is the beginning or final end point of a range
4114
4115Similarly unclear is what should be generated when the
f3ba6905 4116C<\N{...}> is used as one of the end points of the range, such as in
8f0cd35a
KW
4117
4118 [\x{41}-\N{ARABIC SEQUENCE YEH WITH HAMZA ABOVE WITH AE}]
4119
f3ba6905
FC
4120What is meant here is unclear, as the C<\N{...}> escape is a sequence
4121of code points, so this is made an error.
0b4ce96d 4122
bc035eed
KW
4123=item In a regex set
4124
4125The syntax S<C<(?[ ])>> in a regular expression yields a list of
4126single code points, none can be a sequence.
4127
4128=back
4129
a0d0e21e
LW
4130=item No %s allowed while running setuid
4131
be771a83
GS
4132(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
4133setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
4134will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
4135securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 4136
6651ba0b
FC
4137=item No code specified for -%c
4138
4139(F) Perl's B<-e> and B<-E> command-line options require an argument. If
4140you want to run an empty program, pass the empty string as a separate
4141argument or run a program consisting of a single 0 or 1:
4142
4143 perl -e ""
4144 perl -e0
4145 perl -e1
4146
a0d0e21e
LW
4147=item No comma allowed after %s
4148
6903afa2
FC
4149(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is
4150not allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
a0d0e21e
LW
4151Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
4152
6903afa2
FC
4153One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported
4154a constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
4155importing took place, it may for example be that your operating
4156system does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did
4157use an explicit import list for the constants you expect to see;
4158please see L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an
4159explicit import list would probably have caught this error earlier
4160it naturally does not remedy the fact that your operating system
4161still does not support that constant. Maybe you have a typo in
4162the constants of the symbol import list of B<use> or B<import> or in the
4163constant name at the line where this error was triggered?
0a753a76 4164
748a9306
LW
4165=item No command into which to pipe on command line
4166
be771a83
GS
4167(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4168redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
4169doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 4170
a0d0e21e
LW
4171=item No DB::DB routine defined
4172
be771a83 4173(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
f7af5ce1 4174for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
ccafdc96
RGS
4175module) didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
4176statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
4177
4178=item No dbm on this machine
4179
4180(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 4181supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e 4182
ccafdc96 4183=item No DB::sub routine defined
a0d0e21e 4184
ccafdc96
RGS
4185(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
4186for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
4187module) didn't define a C<DB::sub> routine to be called at the beginning
4188of each ordinary subroutine call.
a0d0e21e 4189
1ef28cc3
TC
4190=item No digits found for %s literal
4191
4192(F) No hexadecimal digits were found following C<0x> or no binary digits
4193were found following C<0b>.
4194
6651ba0b
FC
4195=item No directory specified for -I
4196
4197(F) The B<-I> command-line switch requires a directory name as part of the
4198I<same> argument. Use B<-Ilib>, for instance. B<-I lib> won't work.
4199
c47ff5f1 4200=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 4201
be771a83
GS
4202(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4203redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
4204find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 4205
49704364
WL
4206=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
4207
4208(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
6903afa2 4209matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 4210
c47ff5f1 4211=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 4212
be771a83
GS
4213(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4214redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
4215name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 4216
2c7d6b9c
RGS
4217=item No next::method '%s' found for %s
4218
4219(F) C<next::method> found no further instances of this method name
4220in the remaining packages of the MRO of this class. If you don't want
4221it throwing an exception, use C<maybe::next::method>
fa816bf3 4222or C<next::can>. See L<mro>.
2c7d6b9c 4223
02a7a248
JH
4224=item Non-finite repeat count does nothing
4225
4226(W numeric) You tried to execute the
8a737443
FC
4227L<C<x>|perlop/Multiplicative Operators> repetition operator C<Inf> (or
4228C<-Inf>) or C<NaN> times, which doesn't make sense.
02a7a248 4229
e0e4a6e3 4230=item Non-hex character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
4231
4232(F) In a regular expression, there was a non-hexadecimal character where
4233a hex one was expected, like
4234
4235 (?[ [ \xDG ] ])
4236 (?[ [ \x{DEKA} ] ])
4237
8d1e72f0
KW
4238=item Non-hex character '%c' terminates \x early. Resolved as "%s"
4239
4240(W digit) In parsing a hexadecimal numeric constant, a character was
4241unexpectedly encountered that isn't hexadecimal. The resulting value
4242is as indicated.
4243
4244Note that, within braces, every character starting with the first
4245non-hexadecimal up to the ending brace is ignored.
4246
e0e4a6e3 4247=item Non-octal character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
4248
4249(F) In a regular expression, there was a non-octal character where
4250an octal one was expected, like
4251
4252 (?[ [ \o{1278} ] ])
4253
8d1e72f0 4254=item Non-octal character '%c' terminates \o early. Resolved as "%s"
675fa9ff
FC
4255
4256(W digit) In parsing an octal numeric constant, a character was
4257unexpectedly encountered that isn't octal. The resulting value
4258is as indicated.
4259
fcc04d73
KW
4260When not using C<\o{...}>, you wrote something like C<\08>, or C<\179>
4261in a double-quotish string. The resolution is as indicated, with all
4262but the last digit treated as a single character, specified in octal.
4263The last digit is the next character in the string. To tell Perl that
4264this is indeed what you want, you can use the C<\o{ }> syntax, or use
4265exactly three digits to specify the octal for the character.
4266
8d1e72f0
KW
4267Note that, within braces, every character starting with the first
4268non-octal up to the ending brace is ignored.
4269
6df41af2
GS
4270=item "no" not allowed in expression
4271
be771a83
GS
4272(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
4273returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 4274
675fa9ff
FC
4275=item Non-string passed as bitmask
4276
4277(W misc) A number has been passed as a bitmask argument to select().
4278Use the vec() function to construct the file descriptor bitmasks for
4279select. See L<perlfunc/select>.
4280
c47ff5f1 4281=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 4282
be771a83
GS
4283(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4284redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
4285doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 4286
c47ff5f1 4287=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 4288
be771a83
GS
4289(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4290redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
4291find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 4292
8d9d0498
FC
4293=item No package name allowed for subroutine %s in "our"
4294
1ec3e8de
GS
4295=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
4296
8d9d0498
FC
4297(F) Fully qualified subroutine and variable names are not allowed in "our"
4298declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing rules.
4299Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 4300
a0d0e21e
LW
4301=item No Perl script found in input
4302
4303(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
4304with #! and containing the word "perl".
4305
4306=item No setregid available
4307
4308(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
4309your system.
4310
4311=item No setreuid available
4312
4313(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
4314your system.
4315
5a25739d
FC
4316=item No such class %s
4317
4318(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state"
4319declaration, but this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
4320
e75d1f10
RD
4321=item No such class field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
4322
b7e4ecc1
FC
4323(F) You tried to access a key from a hash through the indicated typed
4324variable but that key is not allowed by the package of the same type.
4325The indicated package has restricted the set of allowed keys using the
4326L<fields> pragma.
e75d1f10 4327
3c20a832
SP
4328=item No such hook: %s
4329
dc7e5945
FC
4330(F) You specified a signal hook that was not recognized by Perl.
4331Currently, Perl accepts C<__DIE__> and C<__WARN__> as valid signal hooks.
3c20a832 4332
6df41af2
GS
4333=item No such pipe open
4334
4335(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
4336close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
4337earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 4338
a0d0e21e
LW
4339=item No such signal: SIG%s
4340
be771a83
GS
4341(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
4342not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
4343names on your system.
a0d0e21e 4344
1532347b
KW
4345=item No Unicode property value wildcard matches:
4346
4347(W regexp) You specified a wildcard for a Unicode property value, but
4348there is no property value in the current Unicode release that matches
4349it. Check your spelling.
4350
a0d0e21e
LW
4351=item Not a CODE reference
4352
4353(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
4354subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
4355use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
4356also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4357
a0d0e21e
LW
4358=item Not a GLOB reference
4359
be771a83
GS
4360(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
4361symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
4362something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
4363kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4364
4365=item Not a HASH reference
4366
be771a83
GS
4367(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
4368reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
4369find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4370
b913d0b8
FC
4371=item '#' not allowed immediately following a sigil in a subroutine signature
4372
4373(F) In a subroutine signature definition, a comment following a sigil
dabde021 4374(C<$>, C<@> or C<%>), needs to be separated by whitespace or a comma etc., in
b913d0b8
FC
4375particular to avoid confusion with the C<$#> variable. For example:
4376
4377 # bad
4378 sub f ($# ignore first arg
4379 , $b) {}
4380 # good
4381 sub f ($, # ignore first arg
4382 $b) {}
4383
6df41af2
GS
4384=item Not an ARRAY reference
4385
be771a83
GS
4386(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
4387a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
4388to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 4389
a0d0e21e
LW
4390=item Not a SCALAR reference
4391
be771a83
GS
4392(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
4393a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
4394to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4395
4396=item Not a subroutine reference
4397
4398(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
4399subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
4400use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
4401also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4402
e7ea3e70 4403=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
4404
4405(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 4406doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 4407
a0d0e21e
LW
4408=item Not enough arguments for %s
4409
4410(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
4411
6df41af2
GS
4412=item Not enough format arguments
4413
be771a83
GS
4414(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
4415supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
4416
4417=item %s: not found
4418
be771a83
GS
4419(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
4420of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
4421yourself.
6df41af2
GS
4422
4423=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 4424
6df41af2
GS
4425(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
4426timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
4427to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
4428F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
4429need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e 4430
6df41af2
GS
4431=item NULL OP IN RUN
4432
f84fe999 4433(S debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
be771a83 4434pointer.
6df41af2 4435
55497cff 4436=item Null picture in formline
4437
4438(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
4439specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
4440supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
4441
a0d0e21e
LW
4442=item NULL regexp parameter
4443
4444(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
4445
fc36a67e 4446=item Number too long
4447
be771a83 4448(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 4449about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
4450versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
4451the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
4452"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 4453
f0a2b745
KW
4454=item Number with no digits
4455
1043934d 4456(F) Perl was looking for a number but found nothing that looked like
6903afa2 4457a number. This happens, for example with C<\o{}>, with no number between
1043934d 4458the braces.
f0a2b745 4459
027471cf
TC
4460=item Numeric format result too large
4461
4462(F) The length of the result of a numeric format supplied to sprintf()
4463or printf() would have been too large for the underlying C function to
4464report. This limit is typically 2GB.
4465
60267e1d
YO
4466=item Numeric variables with more than one digit may not start with '0'
4467
4468(F) The only numeric variable which is allowed to start with a 0 is C<$0>,
4469and you mentioned a variable that starts with 0 that has more than one
4470digit. You probably want to remove the leading 0, or if the intent was
4471to express a variable name in octal you should convert to decimal.
4472
252aa082
JH
4473=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
4474
75b44862 4475(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
4476(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
4477L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 4478
ac7609e4 4479=item Odd name/value argument for subroutine '%s'
30d9c59b
Z
4480
4481(F) A subroutine using a slurpy hash parameter in its signature
4482received an odd number of arguments to populate the hash. It requires
4483the arguments to be paired, with the same number of keys as values.
35e5ce67 4484The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault.
30d9c59b 4485
ac7609e4
AC
4486The message attempts to include the name of the called subroutine. If the
4487subroutine has been aliased, the subroutine's original name will be shown,
4488regardless of what name the caller used.
4489
6ad11d81
JH
4490=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
4491
04a80ee0 4492(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
6903afa2 4493arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 4494
b21befc1
MG
4495=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
4496
4497(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
4498which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
4499
1930e939 4500=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 4501
be771a83
GS
4502(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
4503which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 4504
bbce6d69 4505=item Offset outside string
4506
1fa582fa 4507(F)(W layer) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv/seek operation
42bc49da 4508with an offset pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to
f5a7294f
JH
4509imagine. The sole exceptions to this are that zero padding will
4510take place when going past the end of the string when either
4511C<sysread()>ing a file, or when seeking past the end of a scalar opened
0f44b2a5 4512for I/O (in anticipation of future reads and to imitate the behavior
1a7a2554 4513with real files).
bbce6d69 4514
2cb35ee0
FC
4515=item Old package separator used in string
4516
4517(W syntax) You used the old package separator, "'", in a variable
4518named inside a double-quoted string; e.g., C<"In $name's house">. This
4519is equivalent to C<"In $name::s house">. If you meant the former, put
4520a backslash before the apostrophe (C<"In $name\'s house">).
4521
c289d2f7 4522=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
4523
4524(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
4525never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
4526call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
4527
96ebfdd7
RK
4528=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
4529
4530(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
4531that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
4532
a0d0e21e
LW
4533=item oops: oopsAV
4534
e476b1b5 4535(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
4536
4537=item oops: oopsHV
4538
e476b1b5 4539(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 4540
e0e4a6e3
FC
4541=item Operand with no preceding operator in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
4542m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 4543
675fa9ff 4544(F) You wrote something like
0d0b4b3b
KW
4545
4546 (?[ \p{Digit} \p{Thai} ])
4547
4548There are two operands, but no operator giving how you want to combine
4549them.
4550
a0288114 4551=item Operation "%s": no method found, %s
44a8e56a 4552
be771a83
GS
4553(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
4554handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
4555of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
e4aad80d 4556the C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 4557
5ff1373f 4558=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for non-Unicode code point 0x%X
9ae3ac1a 4559
52d1f2c9 4560(S non_unicode) You performed an operation requiring Unicode rules
b5af3ad2
FC
4561on a code point that is not in Unicode, so what it should do is not
4562defined. Perl has chosen to have it do nothing, and warn you.
9ae3ac1a
KW
4563
4564If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
4565matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
4566
4567If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 4568C<no warnings 'non_unicode';>.
9ae3ac1a 4569
5ff1373f 4570=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
9ae3ac1a 4571
4c2e59a0 4572(S surrogate) You performed an operation requiring Unicode
52d1f2c9 4573rules on a Unicode surrogate. Unicode frowns upon the use
ad94bb39 4574of surrogates for anything but storing strings in UTF-16, but
52d1f2c9 4575rules are (reluctantly) defined for the surrogates, and
ad94bb39
FC
4576they are to do nothing for this operation. Because the use of
4577surrogates can be dangerous, Perl warns.
9ae3ac1a
KW
4578
4579If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
4580matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
4581
4582If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 4583C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9ae3ac1a 4584
748a9306
LW
4585=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
4586
be771a83
GS
4587(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
4588was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
4589use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
4590example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
4591"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 4592
30d9c59b
Z
4593=item Optional parameter lacks default expression
4594
4595(F) In a subroutine signature, you wrote something like "$a =", making a
4596named optional parameter without a default value. A nameless optional
4597parameter is permitted to have no default value, but a named one must
4598have a specific default. You probably want "$a = undef".
4599
6df41af2
GS
4600=item "our" variable %s redeclared
4601
52e3acf8 4602(W shadow) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
be771a83 4603in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 4604
a80b8354
GS
4605=item Out of memory!
4606
4607(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
4608remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
4609no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 4610
19a52907
JH
4611At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
4612process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
4613C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
4614the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
4615and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
4616
6d3b25aa
RGS
4617=item Out of memory during %s extend
4618
4619(X) An attempt was made to extend an array, a list, or a string beyond
4620the largest possible memory allocation.
4621
6df41af2 4622=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 4623
6df41af2 4624(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
6903afa2 4625remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
4626the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
4627possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 4628
1b979e0a 4629=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 4630
1fa582fa 4631(X)(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
be771a83
GS
4632insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
4633request.
eff9c6e2
CS
4634
4635The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
4636depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
4637However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
4638emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
4639is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
4640where the failed request happened.
55497cff 4641
1b979e0a
IZ
4642=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
4643
4644(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
4645is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
4646C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 4647
6df41af2
GS
4648=item Out of memory for yacc stack
4649
be771a83
GS
4650(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
4651parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
4652otherwise.
6df41af2 4653
28be1210
TH
4654=item '.' outside of string in pack
4655
4656(F) The argument to a '.' in your template tried to move the working
4657position to before the start of the packed string being built.
4658
49704364 4659=item '@' outside of string in unpack
6df41af2 4660
49704364 4661(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6df41af2
GS
4662the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4663
f337b084
TH
4664=item '@' outside of string with malformed UTF-8 in unpack
4665
4666(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6903afa2 4667the string being unpacked. The string being unpacked was also invalid
fa816bf3 4668UTF-8. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
f337b084 4669
7778d804
FC
4670=item overload arg '%s' is invalid
4671
4672(W overload) The L<overload> pragma was passed an argument it did not
4673recognize. Did you mistype an operator?
4674
7cb0cfe6
BM
4675=item Overloaded dereference did not return a reference
4676
4677(F) An object with an overloaded dereference operator was dereferenced,
6903afa2 4678but the overloaded operation did not return a reference. See
7cb0cfe6
BM
4679L<overload>.
4680
4681=item Overloaded qr did not return a REGEXP
4682
4683(F) An object with a C<qr> overload was used as part of a match, but the
6903afa2 4684overloaded operation didn't return a compiled regexp. See L<overload>.
7cb0cfe6 4685
6df41af2
GS
4686=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
4687
be771a83
GS
4688(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
4689package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
4690some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
4691mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 4692
96ebfdd7
RK
4693=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
4694
4695(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
4696signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4697
a0d0e21e
LW
4698=item page overflow
4699
be771a83
GS
4700(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
4701page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 4702
6df41af2
GS
4703=item panic: %s
4704
4705(P) An internal error.
4706
c99a1475
NC
4707=item panic: attempt to call %s in %s
4708
4709(P) One of the file test operators entered a code branch that calls
4710an ACL related-function, but that function is not available on this
4711platform. Earlier checks mean that it should not be possible to
4712enter this branch on this platform.
4713
d5e473ac
SH
4714=item panic: child pseudo-process was never scheduled
4715
4716(P) A child pseudo-process in the ithreads implementation on Windows
4717was not scheduled within the time period allowed and therefore was not
4718able to initialize properly.
4719
5637ef5b 4720=item panic: ck_grep, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4721
4722(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
4723
5637ef5b 4724=item panic: corrupt saved stack index %ld
a0d0e21e 4725
be771a83
GS
4726(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
4727there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 4728
810b8aa5
GS
4729=item panic: del_backref
4730
4731(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
4732reference.
4733
b7f7fd0b
NC
4734=item panic: fold_constants JMPENV_PUSH returned %d
4735
10203f38 4736(P) While attempting folding constants an exception other than an C<eval>
b7f7fd0b
NC
4737failure was caught.
4738
255abbe7 4739=item panic: frexp: %f
c635e13b 4740
4741(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
4742
5637ef5b 4743=item panic: goto, type=%u, ix=%ld
a0d0e21e
LW
4744
4745(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
4746and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
4747
b0d55c99
FC
4748=item panic: gp_free failed to free glob pointer
4749
4750(P) The internal routine used to clear a typeglob's entries tried
6903afa2
FC
4751repeatedly, but each time something re-created entries in the glob.
4752Most likely the glob contains an object with a reference back to
4753the glob and a destructor that adds a new object to the glob.
b0d55c99 4754
5637ef5b 4755=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4756
4757(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
4758
5637ef5b 4759=item panic: INTERPCONCAT, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4760
4761(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
4762
e446cec8
IZ
4763=item panic: kid popen errno read
4764
1f91b9f5 4765(F) A forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
e446cec8 4766
5637ef5b 4767=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency %u
a0d0e21e
LW
4768
4769(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
4770invalid enum on the top of it.
4771
810b8aa5
GS
4772=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
4773
4774(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
4775references to an object.
4776
5637ef5b 4777=item panic: malloc, %s
6df41af2
GS
4778
4779(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
4780
27d5b266
JH
4781=item panic: memory wrap
4782
46f9c2c2
FC
4783(P) Something tried to allocate either more memory than possible or a
4784negative amount.
27d5b266 4785
6ce22ce7
NC
4786=item panic: newFORLOOP, %s
4787
4788(P) The parser failed an internal consistency check while trying to parse
4789a C<foreach> loop.
4790
5637ef5b 4791=item panic: pad_alloc, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4792
4793(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4794and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4795
5637ef5b 4796=item panic: pad_free curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4797
4798(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4799and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4800
4801=item panic: pad_free po
4802
c1bd5aaa 4803(P) A zero scratch pad offset was detected internally. An attempt was
61a9f070 4804made to free a target that had not been allocated to begin with.
a0d0e21e 4805
5637ef5b 4806=item panic: pad_reset curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4807
4808(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4809and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4810
4811=item panic: pad_sv po
4812
61a9f070
FC
4813(P) A zero scratch pad offset was detected internally. Most likely
4814an operator needed a target but that target had not been allocated
4815for whatever reason.
a0d0e21e 4816
5637ef5b 4817=item panic: pad_swipe curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4818
4819(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4820and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4821
4822=item panic: pad_swipe po
4823
4824(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
4825
5637ef5b 4826=item panic: pp_iter, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4827
4828(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
4829
96ebfdd7
RK
4830=item panic: pp_match%s
4831
4832(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
4833data.
4834
5637ef5b 4835=item panic: realloc, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4836
4837(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
4838
ccfb6d2e
FC
4839=item panic: reference miscount on nsv in sv_replace() (%d != 1)
4840
4841(P) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
4842reference count other than 1.
4843
5637ef5b 4844=item panic: restartop in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4845
4846(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
4847didn't supply the destination.
4848
5637ef5b 4849=item panic: return, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4850
4851(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
4852then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
4853
5637ef5b 4854=item panic: scan_num, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4855
4856(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
4857
4599db5f 4858=item panic: Sequence (?{...}): no code block found in regex m/%s/
d24ca0c5 4859
1f91b9f5 4860(P) While compiling a pattern that has embedded (?{}) or (??{}) code
d24ca0c5
DM
4861blocks, perl couldn't locate the code block that should have already been
4862seen and compiled by perl before control passed to the regex compiler.
4863
6c65d5f9
NC
4864=item panic: sv_chop %s
4865
4866(P) The sv_chop() routine was passed a position that is not within the
4867scalar's string buffer.
4868
5637ef5b 4869=item panic: sv_insert, midend=%p, bigend=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4870
4871(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
4872was string.
4873
4874=item panic: top_env
4875
6224f72b 4876(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e 4877
7ebc59cd
NC
4878=item panic: unexpected constant lvalue entersub entry via type/targ %d:%d
4879
4880(P) When compiling a subroutine call in lvalue context, Perl failed an
4881internal consistency check. It encountered a malformed op tree.
4882
65bca31a
NC
4883=item panic: unimplemented op %s (#%d) called
4884
a1efa96e
FC
4885(P) The compiler is screwed up and attempted to use an op that isn't
4886permitted at run time.
65bca31a 4887
01bbc29f
FC
4888=item panic: unknown OA_*: %x
4889
4890(P) The internal routine that handles arguments to C<&CORE::foo()>
4891subroutine calls was unable to determine what type of arguments
4892were expected.
4893
dea0fc0b
JH
4894=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
4895
4896(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 4897to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 4898
e0ea5e2d
NC
4899=item panic: utf16_to_utf8_reversed: odd bytelen
4900
4901(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8_reversed with an odd (as opposed
4902to even) byte length.
4903
5637ef5b 4904=item panic: yylex, %s
2f7da168
RK
4905
4906(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
4907
78181aa9
KW
4908=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
4909
4910(W parenthesis) You said something like
4911
4912 my $foo, $bar = @_;
4913
4914when you meant
4915
4916 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
4917
4918Remember that "my", "our", "local" and "state" bind tighter than comma.
4919
28ac2b49
Z
4920=item Parsing code internal error (%s)
4921
4922(F) Parsing code supplied by an extension violated the parser's API in
4923a detectable way.
4924
b9bd8d8c 4925=item Pattern subroutine nesting without pos change exceeded limit in regex
1a147d38
YO
4926
4927(F) You used a pattern that uses too many nested subpattern calls without
6903afa2
FC
4928consuming any text. Restructure the pattern so text is consumed before
4929the nesting limit is exceeded.
1a147d38 4930
96ebfdd7
RK
4931=item C<-p> destination: %s
4932
4933(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
4934command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
4935redirected it with select().)
4936
0ae4a328
FC
4937=item Perl API version %s of %s does not match %s
4938
d792985a 4939(F) The XS module in question was compiled against a different incompatible
0ae4a328
FC
4940version of Perl than the one that has loaded the XS module.
4941
8954b91a 4942=item Perl folding rules are not up-to-date for 0x%X; please use the perlbug
e0e4a6e3 4943utility to report; in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
d50a4f90 4944
6014bd26
JK
4945(S regexp) You used a regular expression with case-insensitive matching,
4946and there is a bug in Perl in which the built-in regular expression
4947folding rules are not accurate. This may lead to incorrect results.
8166b4e0 4948Please report this as a bug to L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
d50a4f90 4949
1109a392
MHM
4950=item Perl_my_%s() not available
4951
4952(F) Your platform has very uncommon byte-order and integer size,
4953so it was not possible to set up some or all fixed-width byte-order
4954conversion functions. This is only a problem when you're using the
4955'<' or '>' modifiers in (un)pack templates. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4956
6651ba0b
FC
4957=item Perl %s required (did you mean %s?)--this is only %s, stopped
4958
4959(F) The code you are trying to run has asked for a newer version of
4960Perl than you are running. Perhaps C<use 5.10> was written instead
4961of C<use 5.010> or C<use v5.10>. Without the leading C<v>, the number is
4962interpreted as a decimal, with every three digits after the
4963decimal point representing a part of the version number. So 5.10
4964is equivalent to v5.100.
4965
6903f24f 4966=item Perl %s required--this is only %s, stopped
6d3b25aa
RGS
4967
4968(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
4969recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
4970you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
4971
6df41af2
GS
4972=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
4973
fa816bf3 4974(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 4975C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 4976
96ebfdd7
RK
4977=item PERL_SIGNALS illegal: "%s"
4978
806b6d07 4979(X) See L<perlrun/PERL_SIGNALS> for legal values.
96ebfdd7 4980
6651ba0b
FC
4981=item Perls since %s too modern--this is %s, stopped
4982
4983(F) The code you are trying to run claims it will not run
4984on the version of Perl you are using because it is too new.
4985Maybe the code needs to be updated, or maybe it is simply
4986wrong and the version check should just be removed.
4987
675fa9ff
FC
4988=item perl: warning: Non hex character in '$ENV{PERL_HASH_SEED}', seed only partially set
4989
ff9c1ae8 4990(S) PERL_HASH_SEED should match /^\s*(?:0x)?[0-9a-fA-F]+\s*\z/ but it
675fa9ff
FC
4991contained a non hex character. This could mean you are not using the
4992hash seed you think you are.
6a5b4183 4993
6df41af2
GS
4994=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
4995
4996(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
4997
4998 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
4999 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
5000 LC_ALL = "En_US",
5001 LANG = (unset)
5002 are supported and installed on your system.
5003 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
5004
5005Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
5006settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
0ea6b70f
JH
5007This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
5008system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
5009locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
5010dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
4b07a369
FC
5011Perl can and will use, and the script will be run. Before you really
5012fix the problem, however, you will get the same error message each
5013time you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
0ea6b70f 5014L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
6df41af2 5015
6a5b4183
YO
5016=item perl: warning: strange setting in '$ENV{PERL_PERTURB_KEYS}': '%s'
5017
ff9c1ae8 5018(S) Perl was run with the environment variable PERL_PERTURB_KEYS defined
675fa9ff 5019but containing an unexpected value. The legal values of this setting
6a5b4183
YO
5020are as follows.
5021
5022 Numeric | String | Result
5023 --------+---------------+-----------------------------------------
5024 0 | NO | Disables key traversal randomization
5025 1 | RANDOM | Enables full key traversal randomization
555bd962
BG
5026 2 | DETERMINISTIC | Enables repeatable key traversal
5027 | | randomization
6a5b4183
YO
5028
5029Both numeric and string values are accepted, but note that string values are
675fa9ff 5030case sensitive. The default for this setting is "RANDOM" or 1.
aac486f1 5031
bd3fa61c 5032=item pid %x not a child
748a9306 5033
be771a83
GS
5034(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
5035process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
5036fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
748a9306 5037
49704364 5038=item 'P' must have an explicit size in unpack
3bf38418
WL
5039
5040(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
5041
6e8a73f2 5042=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
96ebfdd7 5043
e0e4a6e3 5044(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The S<<-- HERE>
9e3ec65c 5045shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
96ebfdd7
RK
5046Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
5047the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
5048not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
5049
5050=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
5051
5052(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
5053the BSD version, which takes a pid.
5054
46d34d0e 5055=item POSIX syntax [%c %c] belongs inside character classes%s in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 5056S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 5057
46d34d0e
KW
5058(W regexp) Perl thinks that you intended to write a POSIX character
5059class, but didn't use enough brackets. These POSIX class constructs [:
5060:], [= =], and [. .] go I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of
5061the construct, for example: C<qr/[012[:alpha:]345]/>. What the regular
5062expression pattern compiled to is probably not what you were intending.
5063For example, C<qr/[:alpha:]/> compiles to a regular bracketed character
5064class consisting of the four characters C<":">, C<"a">, C<"l">,
5065C<"h">, and C<"p">. To specify the POSIX class, it should have been
5066written C<qr/[[:alpha:]]/>.
5067
5068Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
9e3ec65c 5069implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and
e0e4a6e3 5070will cause fatal errors. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 5071expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5072
46d34d0e
KW
5073If the specification of the class was not completely valid, the message
5074indicates that.
5075
6fbc9859 5076=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 5077S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 5078
a125938c
FC
5079(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
5080with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
5081need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
5082character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[."
e0e4a6e3 5083and ".\]". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
a125938c 5084problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5085
6fbc9859 5086=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 5087S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 5088
7253e4e3
RK
5089(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
5090with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
5091need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
5092character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
e0e4a6e3 5093and "=\]". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
7253e4e3 5094problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5095
bbce6d69 5096=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
5097
e476b1b5 5098(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
75b44862 5099strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
be771a83
GS
5100literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
5101parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
bbce6d69 5102
774d564b 5103You probably wrote something like this:
5104
54310121 5105 @list = qw(
774d564b 5106 a # a comment
bbce6d69 5107 b # another comment
774d564b 5108 );
bbce6d69 5109
5110when you should have written this:
5111
774d564b 5112 @list = qw(
54310121 5113 a
5114 b
774d564b 5115 );
5116
5117If you really want comments, build your list the
5118old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
5119
5120 @list = (
5121 'a', # a comment
5122 'b', # another comment
5123 );
bbce6d69 5124
5125=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
5126
be771a83
GS
5127(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
5128commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
5129different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
5130frequently used.)
bbce6d69 5131
54310121 5132You probably wrote something like this:
bbce6d69 5133
774d564b 5134 qw! a, b, c !;
5135
5136which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
5137commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
bbce6d69 5138
774d564b 5139 qw! a b c !;
bbce6d69 5140
a0d0e21e
LW
5141=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
5142
5143(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
5144Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
5145end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
5146Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
5147
9da2d046
NT
5148=item Possible precedence issue with control flow operator
5149
5150(W syntax) There is a possible problem with the mixing of a control
5151flow operator (e.g. C<return>) and a low-precedence operator like
5152C<or>. Consider:
5153
5154 sub { return $a or $b; }
5155
5156This is parsed as:
5157
5158 sub { (return $a) or $b; }
5159
5160Which is effectively just:
5161
5162 sub { return $a; }
5163
5164Either use parentheses or the high-precedence variant of the operator.
5165
5166Note this may be also triggered for constructs like:
5167
5168 sub { 1 if die; }
5169
8823cb89 5170=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %s operator
a690c7c4
FC
5171
5172(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
5173with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
5174
5175 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
5176
5177This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
5178higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
5179really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, put the
5180parentheses explicitly and write C<$x & ($y == 0)>).
5181
77772344
B
5182=item Possible unintended interpolation of $\ in regex
5183
5184(W ambiguous) You said something like C<m/$\/> in a regex.
5185The regex C<m/foo$\s+bar/m> translates to: match the word 'foo', the output
8ddb446c 5186record separator (see L<perlvar/$\>) and the letter 's' (one time or more)
77772344
B
5187followed by the word 'bar'.
5188
5189If this is what you intended then you can silence the warning by using
5190C<m/${\}/> (for example: C<m/foo${\}s+bar/>).
5191
5192If instead you intended to match the word 'foo' at the end of the line
5193followed by whitespace and the word 'bar' on the next line then you can use
5194C<m/$(?)\/> (for example: C<m/foo$(?)\s+bar/>).
5195
e5035638
FC
5196=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
5197
ccf3535a 5198(W ambiguous) You said something like '@foo' in a double-quoted string
6903afa2 5199but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
e5035638
FC
5200literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
5201to the array you apparently lost track of.
5202
a0d0e21e
LW
5203=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
5204
e476b1b5 5205(S precedence) The old irregular construct
cb1a09d0 5206
a0d0e21e
LW
5207 open FOO || die;
5208
5209is now misinterpreted as
5210
5211 open(FOO || die);
5212
be771a83
GS
5213because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
5214list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
5215parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
5216of "||".
a0d0e21e 5217
3cdd684c
TP
5218=item Premature end of script headers
5219
3de20fbe 5220See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 5221
6df41af2
GS
5222=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
5223
be771a83 5224(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5225before now. Check your control flow.
6df41af2 5226
9a7dcd9c 5227=item print() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 5228
be771a83 5229(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5230before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5231
6df41af2 5232=item Process terminated by SIG%s
a0d0e21e 5233
6df41af2
GS
5234(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
5235applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
5236port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
5237L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
fecfaeb8 5238in L<perlos2>.
a0d0e21e 5239
327323c1
RGS
5240=item Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s
5241
fa816bf3
FC
5242(W illegalproto) A character follows % or @ in a prototype. This is
5243useless, since % and @ gobble the rest of the subroutine arguments.
327323c1 5244
3fe9a6f1 5245=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4633a7c4 5246
9a0b3859 5247(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
be771a83 5248declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4633a7c4 5249
ed9aa3b7
SG
5250=item Prototype not terminated
5251
2a6fd447 5252(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
ed9aa3b7
SG
5253definition.
5254
eedb00fa
PM
5255=item Prototype '%s' overridden by attribute 'prototype(%s)' in %s
5256
5257(W prototype) A prototype was declared in both the parentheses after
5258the sub name and via the prototype attribute. The prototype in
5259parentheses is useless, since it will be replaced by the prototype
5260from the attribute before it's ever used.
5261
6e8a73f2 5262=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
96ebfdd7 5263
6903afa2 5264(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if
e0e4a6e3 5265you meant it literally. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 5266expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
96ebfdd7 5267
6e8a73f2 5268=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9baa0206 5269
6903afa2 5270(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of
e0e4a6e3 5271the {min,max} construct. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 5272expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9baa0206 5273
675fa9ff
FC
5274=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex
5275
e0e4a6e3
FC
5276=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex; marked by
5277S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
5278
5279(W regexp) Minima should be less than or equal to maxima. If you really
5280want your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}.
5281
e1729dc6 5282=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression in regex m/%s/
9baa0206 5283
b45f050a
JF
5284(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
5285it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
5286quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
5287"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
5288C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
9baa0206 5289
89ea2908
GA
5290=item Range iterator outside integer range
5291
5292(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
5293are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
be771a83
GS
5294One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
5295by prepending "0" to your numbers.
89ea2908 5296
ad513756 5297=item Ranges of ASCII printables should be some subset of "0-9", "A-Z", or
6e8a73f2 5298"a-z" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ad513756
FC
5299
5300(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
5301
5302Stricter rules help to find typos and other errors. Perhaps you didn't
5303even intend a range here, if the C<"-"> was meant to be some other
5304character, or should have been escaped (like C<"\-">). If you did
5305intend a range, the one that was used is not portable between ASCII and
5306EBCDIC platforms, and doesn't have an obvious meaning to a casual
5307reader.
5308
5309 [3-7] # OK; Obvious and portable
5310 [d-g] # OK; Obvious and portable
5311 [A-Y] # OK; Obvious and portable
5312 [A-z] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5313 [a-Z] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5314 [%-.] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5315 [\x41-Z] # WRONG; Not portable; not obvious to non-geek
5316
5317(You can force portability by specifying a Unicode range, which means that
5318the endpoints are specified by
5319L<C<\N{...}>|perlrecharclass/Character Ranges>, but the meaning may
5320still not be obvious.)
5321The stricter rules require that ranges that start or stop with an ASCII
5322character that is not a control have all their endpoints be the literal
5323character, and not some escape sequence (like C<"\x41">), and the ranges
5324must be all digits, or all uppercase letters, or all lowercase letters.
5325
5326=item Ranges of digits should be from the same group in regex; marked by
6e8a73f2 5327S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ad513756
FC
5328
5329(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
5330
5331Stricter rules help to find typos and other errors. You included a
5332range, and at least one of the end points is a decimal digit. Under the
5333stricter rules, when this happens, both end points should be digits in
5334the same group of 10 consecutive digits.
5335
3b7fbd4a
SP
5336=item readdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5337
1a147d38 5338(W io) The dirhandle you're reading from is either closed or not really
3b7fbd4a
SP
5339a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5340
96ebfdd7
RK
5341=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
5342
5343(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
5344before now. Check your control flow.
5345
7766c834
JK
5346=item readline() on unopened filehandle %s
5347
5348(W unopened) The filehandle you're reading from was never opened. Check your
5349control flow.
5350
b5fe5ca2
SR
5351=item read() on closed filehandle %s
5352
5353(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
5354
5355=item read() on unopened filehandle %s
5356
5357(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
5358
4ad56ec9
IZ
5359=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
5360
be771a83
GS
5361(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
5362already been freed.
4ad56ec9 5363
a0d0e21e
LW
5364=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
5365
19b29141 5366(S debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
be771a83 5367the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
a0d0e21e
LW
5368which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
5369
6651ba0b
FC
5370=item Recursive call to Perl_load_module in PerlIO_find_layer
5371
5372(P) It is currently not permitted to load modules when creating
5373a filehandle inside an %INC hook. This can happen with C<open my
5374$fh, '<', \$scalar>, which implicitly loads PerlIO::scalar. Try
5375loading PerlIO::scalar explicitly first.
5376
3e0ccd42 5377=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
a0d0e21e 5378
2c7d6b9c
RGS
5379(F) While calculating the method resolution order (MRO) of a package, Perl
5380believes it found an infinite loop in the C<@ISA> hierarchy. This is a
5381crude check that bails out after 100 levels of C<@ISA> depth.
a0d0e21e 5382
f51551f7
FC
5383=item Redundant argument in %s
5384
5385(W redundant) You called a function with more arguments than other
3617dbb6 5386arguments you supplied indicated would be needed. Currently only
f51551f7
FC
5387emitted when a printf-type format required fewer arguments than were
5388supplied, but might be used in the future for e.g. L<perlfunc/pack>.
5389
12605ff9
FC
5390=item refcnt_dec: fd %d%s
5391
2e0cfa16
FC
5392=item refcnt: fd %d%s
5393
12605ff9
FC
5394=item refcnt_inc: fd %d%s
5395
fa816bf3 5396(P) Perl's I/O implementation failed an internal consistency check. If
2e0cfa16
FC
5397you see this message, something is very wrong.
5398
1930e939
TP
5399=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
5400
be771a83 5401(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
6903afa2
FC
5402with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This
5403usually means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant
5404to use parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
7b8d334a
GS
5405
5406 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
5407 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
5408 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
5409 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
5410
810b8aa5
GS
5411=item Reference is already weak
5412
e476b1b5 5413(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
810b8aa5
GS
5414Doing so has no effect.
5415
ae2cf9f6
DIM
5416=item Reference is not weak
5417
5418(W misc) You have attempted to unweaken a reference that is not weak.
5419Doing so has no effect.
5420
e0e4a6e3 5421=item Reference to invalid group 0 in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b72d83b2 5422
6903afa2
FC
5423(F) You used C<\g0> or similar in a regular expression. You may refer
5424to capturing parentheses only with strictly positive integers
5425(normal backreferences) or with strictly negative integers (relative
5426backreferences). Using 0 does not make sense.
b72d83b2 5427
e0e4a6e3
FC
5428=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5429m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
5430
5431(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
6903afa2 5432not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If
bbaee129
FC
5433you wanted to have the character with ordinal 7 inserted into the regular
5434expression, prepend zeroes to make it three digits long: C<\007>
9baa0206 5435
6e8a73f2 5436The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
b45f050a 5437discovered.
9baa0206 5438
e0e4a6e3
FC
5439=item Reference to nonexistent named group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
5440in m/%s/
1a147d38
YO
5441
5442(F) You used something like C<\k'NAME'> or C<< \k<NAME> >> in your regular
9381611c 5443expression, but there is no corresponding named capturing parentheses
6903afa2 5444such as C<(?'NAME'...)> or C<< (?<NAME>...) >>. Check if the name has been
9381611c 5445spelled correctly both in the backreference and the declaration.
1a147d38 5446
6e8a73f2 5447The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
5448discovered.
5449
e0e4a6e3
FC
5450=item Reference to nonexistent or unclosed group in regex; marked by
5451S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1a147d38 5452
bcb95744
FC
5453(F) You used something like C<\g{-7}> in your regular expression, but there
5454are not at least seven sets of closed capturing parentheses in the
5455expression before where the C<\g{-7}> was located.
1a147d38 5456
6e8a73f2 5457The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
5458discovered.
5459
a0d0e21e
LW
5460=item regexp memory corruption
5461
5462(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
5463expression compiler gave it.
5464
ff3f26d2
KW
5465=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may appear a maximum of twice
5466
4d910168 5467=item Regexp modifier "%c" may appear a maximum of twice in regex; marked
e0e4a6e3 5468by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4d910168 5469
ce170e67 5470(F) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
ff3f26d2 5471of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
3955e1a9 5472
6fbc9859
MH
5473=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear after the "-" in regex; marked by <--
5474HERE in m/%s/
9442e3b8 5475
f8b5bc72
FC
5476(F) Turning off the given modifier has the side effect of turning on
5477another one. Perl currently doesn't allow this. Reword the regular
9442e3b8
KW
5478expression to use the modifier you want to turn on (and place it before
5479the minus), instead of the one you want to turn off.
5480
591f5ca2
FC
5481=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may not appear twice
5482
4d910168
FC
5483=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear twice in regex; marked by <--
5484HERE in m/%s/
5485
ce170e67 5486(F) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
591f5ca2
FC
5487of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
5488
3955e1a9
KW
5489=item Regexp modifiers "/%c" and "/%c" are mutually exclusive
5490
4d910168 5491=item Regexp modifiers "%c" and "%c" are mutually exclusive in regex;
e0e4a6e3 5492marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4d910168 5493
ce170e67 5494(F) The regular expression pattern had more than one of these
3955e1a9
KW
5495mutually exclusive modifiers. Retain only the modifier that is
5496supposed to be there.
5497
aec0ef10 5498=item Regexp out of space in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5499
be771a83
GS
5500(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
5501earlier.
a0d0e21e 5502
a7f533cb 5503=item Repeated format line will never terminate (~~ and @#)
a1b95068 5504
d7f8936a 5505(F) Your format contains the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence and a
a1b95068 5506numeric field that will never go blank so that the repetition never
6903afa2 5507terminates. You might use ^# instead. See L<perlform>.
a1b95068 5508
b08e453b
RB
5509=item Replacement list is longer than search list
5510
5511(W misc) You have used a replacement list that is longer than the
fa816bf3 5512search list. So the additional elements in the replacement list
b08e453b
RB
5513are meaningless.
5514
d9790612
KW
5515=item '(*%s' requires a terminating ':' in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5516
5517(F) You used a construct that needs a colon and pattern argument.
5518Supply these or check that you are using the right construct.
5519
5e0a247b
KW
5520=item '%s' resolved to '\o{%s}%d'
5521
fcc04d73
KW
5522As of Perl 5.32, this message is no longer generated. Instead, see
5523L</Non-octal character '%c' terminates \o early. Resolved as "%s">.
5e0a247b
KW
5524(W misc, regexp) You wrote something like C<\08>, or C<\179> in a
5525double-quotish string. All but the last digit is treated as a single
5526character, specified in octal. The last digit is the next character in
5527the string. To tell Perl that this is indeed what you want, you can use
5528the C<\o{ }> syntax, or use exactly three digits to specify the octal
5529for the character.
5530
a0d0e21e
LW
5531=item Reversed %s= operator
5532
be771a83 5533(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
964742a1 5534always come last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
a0d0e21e 5535
abc7ecad
SP
5536=item rewinddir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5537
1b303a7d
FC
5538(W io) The dirhandle you tried to do a rewinddir() on is either closed
5539or not really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
abc7ecad 5540
96ebfdd7
RK
5541=item Scalars leaked: %d
5542
7bd1381d 5543(S internal) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping
4f5966a5
FC
5544of scalars: not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time
5545Perl exited. What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which
5546is of course bad, especially if the Perl program is intended to be
5547long-running.
96ebfdd7 5548
a0d0e21e
LW
5549=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
5550
be771a83
GS
5551(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
5552single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
5553value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
5554behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
5555argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
5556and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
5557if you're expecting only one subscript.
a0d0e21e 5558
748a9306 5559On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5f05dabc 5560element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
748a9306
LW
5561Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
5562L<perlref>.
5563
a6006777 5564=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
5565
75b44862 5566(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
be771a83
GS
5567element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
5568(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
5569like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
5570argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
5571and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
5572if you're expecting only one subscript.
5573
5574On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
5575as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
5576not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
a6006777 5577L<perlref>.
5578
a0d0e21e
LW
5579=item Search pattern not terminated
5580
5581(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
5582construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5583Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 5584
ea9d9ebc 5585Note that since Perl 5.10.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
5d9c98cd 5586construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
ea9d9ebc
FC
5587in Perl 5.10.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
5588misparsed by pre-5.10.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
5d9c98cd 5589
abc7ecad
SP
5590=item seekdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5591
5592(W io) The dirhandle you are doing a seekdir() on is either closed or not
5593really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5594
3257ea4f
FC
5595=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
5596
5597(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
5598filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
5599
a0d0e21e
LW
5600=item select not implemented
5601
5602(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
5603
ae21d580 5604=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
68a4a7e4 5605
ae21d580
JH
5606(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
5607the current implementation.
68a4a7e4 5608
6df41af2 5609=item Semicolon seems to be missing
a0d0e21e 5610
75b44862
GS
5611(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
5612semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
a0d0e21e
LW
5613
5614=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
5615
be771a83
GS
5616(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
5617scalar that had previously been marked as free.
a0d0e21e 5618
6df41af2 5619=item sem%s not implemented
a0d0e21e 5620
6df41af2 5621(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
a0d0e21e 5622
69282e91 5623=item send() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 5624
be771a83 5625(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5626before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5627
0ae4a328
FC
5628=item Sequence "\c{" invalid
5629
5630(F) These three characters may not appear in sequence in a
5631double-quotish context. This message is raised only on non-ASCII
5632platforms (a different error message is output on ASCII ones). If you
5633were intending to specify a control character with this sequence, you'll
5634have to use a different way to specify it.
5635
e0e4a6e3 5636=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
7b8d334a 5637
6903afa2 5638(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The
e0e4a6e3 5639S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
6903afa2 5640discovered. See L<perlre>.
1b1626e4 5641
e0e4a6e3
FC
5642=item Sequence (?%c...) not implemented in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5643m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5644
6903afa2 5645(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
e0e4a6e3 5646but has not yet been written. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
9e3ec65c 5647regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5648
e0e4a6e3
FC
5649=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5650m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5651
d921c7bf 5652(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense.
e0e4a6e3 5653The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
d921c7bf 5654discovered. This may happen when using the C<(?^...)> construct to tell
fb85c044 5655Perl to use the default regular expression modifiers, and you
9442e3b8 5656redundantly specify a default modifier. For other
9de15fec 5657causes, see L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 5658
aec0ef10 5659=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
5660
5661(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
aec0ef10 5662parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. See
7253e4e3 5663L<perlre>.
6df41af2 5664
07ea66ee
FC
5665=item Sequence (?&... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5666m/%s/
5667
5668(F) A named reference of the form C<(?&...)> was missing the final
5669closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
5670in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5671
e0e4a6e3 5672=item Sequence (?%c... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
4599db5f
FC
5673in m/%s/
5674
5675(F) A named group of the form C<(?'...')> or C<< (?<...>) >> was missing the final
e0e4a6e3 5676closing quote or angle bracket. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
4599db5f
FC
5677regular expression the problem was discovered.
5678
e0e4a6e3 5679=item Sequence (?(%c... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
4599db5f
FC
5680in m/%s/
5681
5682(F) A named reference of the form C<(?('...')...)> or C<< (?(<...>)...) >> was
5683missing the final closing quote or angle bracket after the name. The
e0e4a6e3 5684S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
4599db5f
FC
5685discovered.
5686
5b9ce456
KW
5687=item Sequence (?... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5688m/%s/
5689
5690(F) There was no matching closing parenthesis for the '('. The
5691S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
5692discovered.
5693
e0e4a6e3
FC
5694=item Sequence \%s... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5695m/%s/
5a25739d
FC
5696
5697(F) The regular expression expects a mandatory argument following the escape
5698sequence and this has been omitted or incorrectly written.
5699
9da1dd8f
DM
5700=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated with ')'
5701
be149b43
DM
5702(F) The end of the perl code contained within the {...} must be
5703followed immediately by a ')'.
9da1dd8f 5704
74d1b2e4 5705=item Sequence (?PE<gt>... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4599db5f 5706
74d1b2e4 5707(F) A named reference of the form C<(?PE<gt>...)> was missing the final
cfbef7dc
KW
5708closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
5709in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5710
5711=item Sequence (?PE<lt>... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5712
5713(F) A named group of the form C<(?PE<lt>...E<gt>')> was missing the final
5714closing angle bracket. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
5715regular expression the problem was discovered.
5716
74d1b2e4
FC
5717=item Sequence ?P=... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5718m/%s/
cfbef7dc 5719
74d1b2e4 5720(F) A named reference of the form C<(?P=...)> was missing the final
e0e4a6e3 5721closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
4599db5f
FC
5722in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5723
5724=item Sequence (?R) not terminated in regex m/%s/
5725
5726(F) An C<(?R)> or C<(?0)> sequence in a regular expression was missing the
5727final parenthesis.
5728
3de20fbe 5729=item Z<>500 Server error
a5f75d66 5730
6903afa2
FC
5731(A) This is the error message generally seen in a browser window
5732when trying to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The
5733actual error text varies widely from server to server. The most
5734frequently-seen variants are "500 Server error", "Method (something)
5735not permitted", "Document contains no data", "Premature end of script
5736headers", and "Did not produce a valid header".
9607fc9c 5737
5738B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
5739
6903afa2
FC
5740You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by
5741the user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the
5742user account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment
5743variables (like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't
5744in a location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or
5745less. Please see the following for more information:
9607fc9c 5746
71c89d21 5747 https://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
06a5f41f
JH
5748 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
5749 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
a5f75d66 5750
be94a901
GS
5751You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
5752
a0d0e21e
LW
5753=item setegid() not implemented
5754
be771a83
GS
5755(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
5756support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5757didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
5758
5759=item seteuid() not implemented
5760
be771a83
GS
5761(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
5762support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5763didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 5764
81777298
GS
5765=item setpgrp can't take arguments
5766
be771a83
GS
5767(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
5768arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
5769group ID.
81777298 5770
a0d0e21e
LW
5771=item setrgid() not implemented
5772
be771a83
GS
5773(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
5774support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5775didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
5776
5777=item setruid() not implemented
5778
be771a83
GS
5779(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
5780support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5781didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 5782
6df41af2
GS
5783=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
5784
be771a83
GS
5785(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
5786forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
5787L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
5788
520b6fb6 5789=item Setting $/ to a reference to %s is forbidden
6da34ecb 5790
3f673807
FC
5791(F) You assigned a reference to a scalar to C<$/> where the referenced item is
5792not a positive integer. In older perls this B<appeared> to work the same as
5793setting it to C<undef> but was in fact internally different, less efficient
5794and with very bad luck could have resulted in your file being split by a
5795stringified form of the reference.
6da34ecb 5796
ea9d9ebc 5797In Perl 5.20.0 this was changed so that it would be B<exactly> the same as
3f673807 5798setting C<$/> to undef, with the exception that this warning would be thrown.
6da34ecb 5799
3f673807
FC
5800You are recommended to change your code to set C<$/> to C<undef> explicitly if
5801you wish to slurp the file. As of Perl 5.28 assigning C<$/> to a reference
5802to an integer which isn't positive is a fatal error.
6da34ecb 5803
ee0ba734 5804=item Setting $/ to %s reference is forbidden
a48e4205
FC
5805
5806(F) You tried to assign a reference to a non integer to C<$/>. In older
5807Perls this would have behaved similarly to setting it to a reference to
5808a positive integer, where the integer was the address of the reference.
5809As of Perl 5.20.0 this is a fatal error, to allow future versions of Perl
5810to use non-integer refs for more interesting purposes.
5811
a0d0e21e
LW
5812=item shm%s not implemented
5813
5814(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
5815
984200d0
YST
5816=item !=~ should be !~
5817
5818(W syntax) The non-matching operator is !~, not !=~. !=~ will be
5819interpreted as the != (numeric not equal) and ~ (1's complement)
5820operators: probably not what you intended.
5821
6df41af2
GS
5822=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
5823
5824(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
be771a83
GS
5825as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
5826result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
5827probably not what you had in mind.
6df41af2 5828
69282e91 5829=item shutdown() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 5830
75b44862
GS
5831(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
5832superfluous.
a0d0e21e 5833
f86702cc 5834=item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
a0d0e21e 5835
be771a83
GS
5836(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
5837Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
a0d0e21e 5838
efc859fb
FC
5839=item Slab leaked from cv %p
5840
5841(S) If you see this message, then something is seriously wrong with the
5842internal bookkeeping of op trees. An op tree needed to be freed after
5843a compilation error, but could not be found, so it was leaked instead.
5844
3b9aea04
SH
5845=item sleep(%u) too large
5846
5847(W overflow) You called C<sleep> with a number that was larger than
5848it can reliably handle and C<sleep> probably slept for less time than
5849requested.
5850
30d9c59b
Z
5851=item Slurpy parameter not last
5852
5853(F) In a subroutine signature, you put something after a slurpy (array or
5854hash) parameter. The slurpy parameter takes all the available arguments,
5855so there can't be any left to fill later parameters.
5856
7896dde7
Z
5857=item Smart matching a non-overloaded object breaks encapsulation
5858
5859(F) You should not use the C<~~> operator on an object that does not
5860overload it: Perl refuses to use the object's underlying structure
5861for the smart match.
5862
0f539b13
BF
5863=item Smartmatch is experimental
5864
5865(S experimental::smartmatch) This warning is emitted if you
5866use the smartmatch (C<~~>) operator. This is currently an experimental
5867feature, and its details are subject to change in future releases of
7896dde7
Z
5868Perl. Particularly, its current behavior is noticed for being
5869unnecessarily complex and unintuitive, and is very likely to be
5870overhauled.
0f539b13 5871
b02f3645
AC
5872=item Sorry, hash keys must be smaller than 2**31 bytes
5873
5874(F) You tried to create a hash containing a very large key, where "very
5875large" means that it needs at least 2 gigabytes to store. Unfortunately,
5876Perl doesn't yet handle such large hash keys. You should
5877reconsider your design to avoid hashing such a long string directly.
5878
714f94d1
FC
5879=item sort is now a reserved word
5880
5881(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
5882But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
5883
f1c31c52
FC
5884=item Source filters apply only to byte streams
5885
5886(F) You tried to activate a source filter (usually by loading a
5887source filter module) within a string passed to C<eval>. This is
5888not permitted under the C<unicode_eval> feature. Consider using
5889C<evalbytes> instead. See L<feature>.
5890
8cbc2e3b
JH
5891=item splice() offset past end of array
5892
5893(W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
fa816bf3
FC
5894the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the
5895end of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want,
5896try explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset.
5897See L<perlfunc/splice>.
8cbc2e3b 5898
a0d0e21e
LW
5899=item Split loop
5900
be771a83
GS
5901(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
5902iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
6903afa2 5903happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
a0d0e21e 5904
a0d0e21e
LW
5905=item Statement unlikely to be reached
5906
be771a83
GS
5907(W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
5908die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
5909unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
5910instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
5911a block by itself.
a0d0e21e 5912
a21eb52b
FC
5913=item "state" subroutine %s can't be in a package
5914
5915(F) Lexically scoped subroutines aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
5916sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front.
5917
a2e39214
FC
5918=item "state %s" used in sort comparison
5919
5920(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
5921You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
5922sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
5923lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
5924name, or rename the lexical variable.
5925
5a25739d
FC
5926=item "state" variable %s can't be in a package
5927
5928(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
5929sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
5930local() if you want to localize a package variable.
5931
9ddeeac9 5932=item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
6df41af2 5933
355b1299
JH
5934(W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
5935was either never opened or has since been closed.
6df41af2 5936
5a25739d
FC
5937=item Strings with code points over 0xFF may not be mapped into in-memory file handles
5938
5939(W utf8) You tried to open a reference to a scalar for read or append
5940where the scalar contained code points over 0xFF. In-memory files
5941model on-disk files and can only contain bytes.
5942
fe13d51d 5943=item Stub found while resolving method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
e7ea3e70 5944
be771a83
GS
5945(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
5946stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
5947C<can> may break this.
e7ea3e70 5948
a8c56356
DM
5949=item Subroutine attributes must come before the signature
5950
5951(F) When subroutine signatures are enabled, any subroutine attributes must
5952come before the signature. Note that this order was the opposite in
3b980406 5953versions 5.22..5.26. So:
a8c56356 5954
3b980406
Z
5955 sub foo :lvalue ($a, $b) { ... } # 5.20 and 5.28 +
5956 sub foo ($a, $b) :lvalue { ... } # 5.22 .. 5.26
a8c56356 5957
4e85e1b4
FC
5958=item Subroutine "&%s" is not available
5959
5960(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
5961attempting to capture an outer lexical subroutine that is not currently
5962available. This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the lexical
c387a7d0
FC
5963subroutine may be declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has
5964not yet been created. (Remember that named subs are created at compile
5965time, while anonymous subs are created at run-time.) For example,
4e85e1b4
FC
5966
5967 sub { my sub a {...} sub f { \&a } }
5968
c387a7d0 5969At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current "a" sub,
4e85e1b4
FC
5970since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely, the
5971following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by now
5972been created and is live:
5973
5974 sub { my sub a {...} eval 'sub f { \&a }' }->();
5975
c387a7d0
FC
5976The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a lexical subroutine
5977that has gone out of scope, for example,
4e85e1b4
FC
5978
5979 sub f {
5980 my sub a {...}
5981 sub { eval '\&a' }
5982 }
5983 f()->();
5984
5985Here, when the '\&a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
5986being executed, so its &a is not available for capture.
5987
4eb94d7c
FC
5988=item "%s" subroutine &%s masks earlier declaration in same %s
5989
52e3acf8 5990(W shadow) A "my" or "state" subroutine has been redeclared in the
4eb94d7c
FC
5991current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to
5992the previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error.
5993Note that the earlier subroutine will still exist until the end of
20d33786 5994the scope or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
4eb94d7c 5995
9d92fedb
FC
5996=item Subroutine %s redefined
5997
5998(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
5999
6000 {
6001 no warnings 'redefine';
6002 eval "sub name { ... }";
6003 }
6004
2a9203e9
FC
6005=item Subroutine "%s" will not stay shared
6006
6007(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a "my"
6008subroutine defined in an outer named subroutine.
6009
6010When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of the outer
6011subroutine's lexical subroutine as it was before and during the *first*
6012call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
6013outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
6014longer share a common value for the lexical subroutine. In other words,
6015it will no longer be shared. This will especially make a difference
6016if the lexical subroutines accesses lexical variables declared in its
6017surrounding scope.
6018
6019This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
6020anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
6021reference lexical subroutines in outer subroutines are created, they
6022are automatically rebound to the current values of such lexical subs.
6023
a0d0e21e
LW
6024=item Substitution loop
6025
be771a83
GS
6026(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
6027shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
6028is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
5d44bfff 6029L<perlop/"Regexp Quote-Like Operators">.
a0d0e21e
LW
6030
6031=item Substitution pattern not terminated
6032
d1be9408 6033(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 6034construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 6035Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
6036
6037=item Substitution replacement not terminated
6038
d1be9408 6039(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 6040construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 6041Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
6042
6043=item substr outside of string
6044
8a9eb13d 6045(W substr)(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
be771a83
GS
6046a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
6047length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
6048substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
6049assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
a0d0e21e 6050
bf1320bf
RGS
6051=item sv_upgrade from type %d down to type %d
6052
9d277376 6053(P) Perl tried to force the upgrade of an SV to a type which was actually
bf1320bf
RGS
6054inferior to its current type.
6055
6fbc9859 6056=item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 6057S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 6058
fa816bf3
FC
6059(F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most
6060two branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or
6061both to contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose
6062it in clustering parentheses:
b45f050a
JF
6063
6064 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
6065
e0e4a6e3 6066The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem
fa816bf3 6067was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 6068
e0e4a6e3
FC
6069=item Switch condition not recognized in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6070m/%s/
b45f050a 6071
9f57786a
FC
6072(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
6073is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
6074
6075 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
6076 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
6077 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
6078 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
6079 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
6080 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
6081 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
6082 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
6083 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
6084
6e8a73f2 6085The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9f57786a 6086discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 6087
a1244175
FC
6088=item Switch (?(condition)... not terminated in regex; marked by
6089S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6090
99775d13
FC
6091(F) You omitted to close a (?(condition)...) block somewhere
6092in the pattern. Add a closing parenthesis in the appropriate
6093position. See L<perlre>.
a1244175 6094
85ab1d1d
JH
6095=item switching effective %s is not implemented
6096
be771a83
GS
6097(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
6098and effective uids or gids.
85ab1d1d 6099
a0d0e21e
LW
6100=item syntax error
6101
6102(F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
6103
6104 A keyword is misspelled.
6105 A semicolon is missing.
6106 A comma is missing.
6107 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
6108 An opening or closing brace is missing.
6109 A closing quote is missing.
6110
6111Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
6112error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
6113The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
6114it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
5f05dabc 6115before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
a0d0e21e
LW
6116Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
6117the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
6118C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
524e9188 6119if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
a0d0e21e 6120
ccf3535a 6121=item syntax error at line %d: '%s' unexpected
cb1a09d0 6122
be771a83
GS
6123(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
6124of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
6125yourself.
cb1a09d0 6126
25f58aea
PN
6127=item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
6128
6129(F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
6130a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
6131or "my $var" or "our $var".
6132
19a498a4 6133=item Syntax error in (?[...]) in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6134
6135(F) Perl could not figure out what you meant inside this construct; this
6136notifies you that it is giving up trying.
6137
591f5ca2
FC
6138=item %s syntax OK
6139
6140(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
6141
b5fe5ca2
SR
6142=item sysread() on closed filehandle %s
6143
6144(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
6145
6146=item sysread() on unopened filehandle %s
6147
6148(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
6149
6087ac44 6150=item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
a0d0e21e 6151
6087ac44
JH
6152(F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
6153"shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
6154machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
6155unconfigured. Consult your system support.
a0d0e21e 6156
69282e91 6157=item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 6158
be771a83 6159(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 6160before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 6161
96ebfdd7
RK
6162=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
6163
6164(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
6165know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
6166
fc36a67e 6167=item Target of goto is too deeply nested
6168
be771a83
GS
6169(F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
6170for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
fc36a67e 6171
abc7ecad
SP
6172=item telldir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
6173
6174(W io) The dirhandle you tried to telldir() is either closed or not really
6175a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
6176
c2771421
FC
6177=item tell() on unopened filehandle
6178
6179(W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
6180was either never opened or has since been closed.
6181
67b16946 6182=item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia.
a0d0e21e
LW
6183
6184(F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
6185probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
8b1a09fc 6186think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
a0d0e21e
LW
6187will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
6188will deny it.
6189
3f645a4e
FC
6190=item The experimental declared_refs feature is not enabled
6191
6192(F) To declare references to variables, as in C<my \%x>, you must first enable
6193the feature:
6194
6195 no warnings "experimental::declared_refs";
6196 use feature "declared_refs";
6197
675fa9ff
FC
6198=item The %s function is unimplemented
6199
6200(F) The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture,
6201according to the probings of Configure.
6202
21c34e97
KW
6203=item The private_use feature is experimental
6204
6205(S experimental::private_use) This feature is actually a hook for future
6206use.
6207
0d0b4b3b
KW
6208=item The regex_sets feature is experimental
6209
6210(S experimental::regex_sets) This warning is emitted if you
6211use the syntax S<C<(?[ ])>> in a regular expression.
6212The details of this feature are subject to change.
27169d38 6213If you want to use it, but know that in doing so you
0d0b4b3b
KW
6214are taking the risk of using an experimental feature which may
6215change in a future Perl version, you can do this to silence the
6216warning:
6217
6218 no warnings "experimental::regex_sets";
6219
30d9c59b
Z
6220=item The signatures feature is experimental
6221
6222(S experimental::signatures) This warning is emitted if you unwrap a
6223subroutine's arguments using a signature. Simply suppress the warning
6224if you want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you are taking
6225the risk of using an experimental feature which may change or be removed
6226in a future Perl version:
6227
6228 no warnings "experimental::signatures";
6229 use feature "signatures";
6230 sub foo ($left, $right) { ... }
6231
5e1c7ca2 6232=item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
a0d0e21e 6233
be771a83
GS
6234(F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
6235linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
6236past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
6237instead.
a0d0e21e 6238
1532347b
KW
6239=item The Unicode property wildcards feature is experimental
6240
6241(S experimental::uniprop_wildcards) This feature is experimental
6242and its behavior may in any future release of perl. See
6243L<perlunicode/Wildcards in Property Values>.
6244
371fce9b
DM
6245=item The 'unique' attribute may only be applied to 'our' variables
6246
1108974d 6247(F) This attribute was never supported on C<my> or C<sub> declarations.
371fce9b 6248
437784d6 6249=item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
f675dbe5
CB
6250
6251=item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
6252
75b44862 6253(W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
be771a83
GS
6254element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
6255wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
6256need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
6257F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
6258target of the change to
f675dbe5
CB
6259%ENV which produced the warning.
6260
6a5b4183
YO
6261=item This Perl has not been built with support for randomized hash key traversal but something called Perl_hv_rand_set().
6262
6263(F) Something has attempted to use an internal API call which
6264depends on Perl being compiled with the default support for randomized hash
f26c79ba 6265key traversal, but this Perl has been compiled without it. You should
6a5b4183
YO
6266report this warning to the relevant upstream party, or recompile perl
6267with default options.
6268
1f692f6a
JK
6269=item This use of my() in false conditional is no longer allowed
6270
6271(F) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>. There
6272has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
6273not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
6274conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
6275static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
6276relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
6277declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
6278
6279 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
6280
6281becomes
6282
6283 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
6284
6285Beginning with perl 5.10.0, you can also use C<state> variables to have
6286lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
6287
6288 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
6289
6290This use of C<my()> in a false conditional was deprecated beginning in
6291Perl 5.10 and became a fatal error in Perl 5.30.
6292
cac13810
KW
6293=item Timeout waiting for another thread to define \p{%s}
6294
6295(F) The first time a user-defined property
6296(L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties>) is used, its
6297definition is looked up and converted into an internal form for more
6298efficient handling in subsequent uses. There could be a race if two or
6299more threads tried to do this processing nearly simultaneously.
6300Instead, a critical section is created around this task, locking out all
6301but one thread from doing it. This message indicates that the thread
6302that is doing the conversion is taking an unexpectedly long time. The
6303timeout exists solely to prevent deadlock; it's long enough that the
6304system was likely thrashing and about to crash. There is no real remedy but
6305rebooting.
6306
a0d0e21e
LW
6307=item times not implemented
6308
be771a83
GS
6309(F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
6310suspect you're not running on Unix.
a0d0e21e 6311
6d3b25aa
RGS
6312=item "-T" is on the #! line, it must also be used on the command line
6313
b7e4ecc1
FC
6314(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains
6315the B<-T> option (or the B<-t> option), but Perl was not invoked with
6316B<-T> in its command line. This is an error because, by the time
6317Perl discovers a B<-T> in a script, it's too late to properly taint
6318everything from the environment. So Perl gives up.
6d3b25aa
RGS
6319
6320If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
b7e4ecc1
FC
6321mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be
6322fixed by editing the #! line so that the B<-%c> option is a part of
6323Perl's first argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -%c> to C<perl -%c -n>.
6d3b25aa
RGS
6324
6325If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
fe13d51d 6326B<-%c> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -%c scriptname>.
6d3b25aa 6327
3a2263fe
RGS
6328=item To%s: illegal mapping '%s'
6329
6330(F) You tried to define a customized To-mapping for lc(), lcfirst,
6331uc(), or ucfirst() (or their string-inlined versions), but you
6332specified an illegal mapping.
6333See L<perlunicode/"User-Defined Character Properties">.
6334
49704364
WL
6335=item Too deeply nested ()-groups
6336
1a147d38 6337(F) Your template contains ()-groups with a ridiculously deep nesting level.
49704364 6338
a0d0e21e
LW
6339=item Too few args to syscall
6340
6341(F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
6342system call to call, silly dilly.
6343
0f14f058 6344=item Too few arguments for subroutine '%s' (got %d; expected %d)
bb6b75cd 6345
3f673807
FC
6346(F) A subroutine using a signature fewer arguments than required by the
6347signature. The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault.
bb6b75cd 6348
3f673807
FC
6349The message attempts to include the name of the called subroutine. If
6350the subroutine has been aliased, the subroutine's original name will be
0f14f058
FG
6351shown, regardless of what name the caller used. It will also indicate the
6352number of arguments given and the number expected.
6353
6354=item Too few arguments for subroutine '%s' (got %d; expected at least %d)
6355
6356Similar to the previous message but for subroutines that accept a variable
6357number of arguments.
ac7609e4 6358
96ebfdd7
RK
6359=item Too late for "-%s" option
6360
6361(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
4ba71d51
FC
6362B<-M>, B<-m> or B<-C> option.
6363
6903afa2
FC
6364In the case of B<-M> and B<-m>, this is an error because those options
6365are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
4ba71d51 6366
6903afa2
FC
6367The B<-C> option only works if it is specified on the command line as
6368well (with the same sequence of letters or numbers following). Either
6369specify this option on the command line, or, if your system supports
6370it, make your script executable and run it directly instead of passing
6371it to perl.
96ebfdd7 6372
ddda08b7
GS
6373=item Too late to run %s block
6374
6375(W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
6376when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
be771a83
GS
6377loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
6378instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
6379BEGIN block.
ddda08b7 6380
a0d0e21e
LW
6381=item Too many args to syscall
6382
5f05dabc 6383(F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
a0d0e21e
LW
6384
6385=item Too many arguments for %s
6386
6387(F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
6388
0f14f058 6389=item Too many arguments for subroutine '%s' (got %d; expected %d)
bb6b75cd 6390
3f673807
FC
6391(F) A subroutine using a signature received more arguments than permitted
6392by the signature. The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault.
bb6b75cd 6393
ac7609e4
AC
6394The message attempts to include the name of the called subroutine. If the
6395subroutine has been aliased, the subroutine's original name will be shown,
0f14f058
FG
6396regardless of what name the caller used. It will also indicate the number
6397of arguments given and the number expected.
6398
6399=item Too many arguments for subroutine '%s' (got %d; expected at most %d)
6400
6401Similar to the previous message but for subroutines that accept a variable
6402number of arguments.
bb6b75cd 6403
6ef7fe53
KW
6404=item Too many nested open parens in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6405
6406(F) You have exceeded the number of open C<"("> parentheses that haven't
6407been matched by corresponding closing ones. This limit prevents eating
6408up too much memory. It is initially set to 1000, but may be changed by
6409setting C<${^RE_COMPILE_RECURSION_LIMIT}> to some other value. This may
6410need to be done in a BEGIN block before the regular expression pattern
6411is compiled.
6412
6df41af2
GS
6413=item Too many )'s
6414
49704364
WL
6415(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6416Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6417
8c40cb74
NC
6418=item Too many ('s
6419
be771a83
GS
6420(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6421Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 6422
7253e4e3 6423=item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 6424
be771a83
GS
6425(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
6426Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 6427
2c268ad5 6428=item Transliteration pattern not terminated
a0d0e21e
LW
6429
6430(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
fb73857a 6431or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
6432C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 6433
2c268ad5 6434=item Transliteration replacement not terminated
a0d0e21e 6435
6a36df5d
YST
6436(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr///, tr[][],
6437y/// or y[][] construct.
a0d0e21e 6438
96ebfdd7
RK
6439=item '%s' trapped by operation mask
6440
6441(F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
6903afa2 6442disallowed. See L<Safe>.
96ebfdd7 6443
a0d0e21e
LW
6444=item truncate not implemented
6445
6446(F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
6447Configure knows about.
6448
a1325b90
PE
6449=item try/catch is experimental
6450
6451(S experimental::try) This warning is emitted if you use the C<try> and
6452C<catch> syntax. This syntax is currently experimental and its behaviour may
6453change in future releases of Perl.
6454
01f2495a
PE
6455=item try/catch/finally is experimental
6456
6457(S experimental::try) This warning is emitted if you use the C<try> and
6458C<catch> syntax with a C<finally> block. This syntax is currently experimental
6459and its behaviour may change in future releases of Perl.
6460
19c481f4
FC
6461=item Type of arg %d to &CORE::%s must be %s
6462
6463(F) The subroutine in question in the CORE package requires its argument
6464to be a hard reference to data of the specified type. Overloading is
6465ignored, so a reference to an object that is not the specified type, but
6466nonetheless has overloading to handle it, will still not be accepted.
6467
a0d0e21e
LW
6468=item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
6469
6470(F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
8b1a09fc 6471certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
6472%NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
a0d0e21e
LW
6473{EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
6474
eec2d3df
GS
6475=item umask not implemented
6476
be771a83
GS
6477(F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
6478use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
a0d0e21e
LW
6479
6480=item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
6481
c632e777 6482(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6483many execution contexts were entered and left.
a0d0e21e
LW
6484
6485=item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
6486
4a983e45 6487(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6488many values were temporarily localized.
a0d0e21e
LW
6489
6490=item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
6491
090cebb2 6492(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6493many blocks were entered and left.
a0d0e21e 6494
6651ba0b
FC
6495=item Unbalanced string table refcount: (%d) for "%s"
6496
31ff3bd2 6497(S internal) On exit, Perl found some strings remaining in the shared
6651ba0b
FC
6498string table used for copy on write and for hash keys. The entries
6499should have been freed, so this indicates a bug somewhere.
6500
a0d0e21e
LW
6501=item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
6502
2092d7c1 6503(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6504many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
a0d0e21e
LW
6505
6506=item Undefined format "%s" called
6507
6508(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
6509another package? See L<perlform>.
6510
6511=item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
6512
be771a83
GS
6513(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
6514Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e
LW
6515
6516=item Undefined subroutine &%s called
6517
be771a83
GS
6518(F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
6519since been undefined.
a0d0e21e
LW
6520
6521=item Undefined subroutine called
6522
6523(F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
6524or if it was, it has since been undefined.
6525
6526=item Undefined subroutine in sort
6527
be771a83
GS
6528(F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
6529to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e 6530
4633a7c4
LW
6531=item Undefined top format "%s" called
6532
6533(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
6534another package? See L<perlform>.
6535
20408e3c
GS
6536=item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
6537
be771a83
GS
6538(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
6539C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
6540C<undef *foo>.
20408e3c 6541
6df41af2
GS
6542=item %s: Undefined variable
6543
be771a83
GS
6544(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6545Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 6546
f50fa03b
KW
6547=item Unescaped left brace in regex is illegal here in regex;
6548marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
76416d1a 6549
f50fa03b 6550(F) The simple rule to remember, if you want to
76416d1a
KW
6551match a literal C<"{"> character (U+007B C<LEFT CURLY BRACKET>) in a
6552regular expression pattern, is to escape each literal instance of it in
6553some way. Generally easiest is to precede it with a backslash, like
6554C<"\{"> or enclose it in square brackets (C<"[{]">). If the pattern
6555delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace (C<"}">) should
6556also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for example,
6557
6558 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
6559
c217aa7e 6560Forcing literal C<"{"> characters to be escaped enables the Perl
76416d1a 6561language to be extended in various ways in future releases. To avoid
a3815e44 6562needlessly breaking existing code, the restriction is not enforced in
76416d1a
KW
6563contexts where there are unlikely to ever be extensions that could
6564conflict with the use there of C<"{"> as a literal. Those that are
f50fa03b
KW
6565not potentially ambiguous do not warn; those that are do raise a
6566non-deprecation warning.
8e84dec2
KW
6567
6568The contexts where no warnings or errors are raised are:
6569
6570=over 4
6571
6572=item *
6573
21792e61 6574as the first character in a pattern, or following C<"^"> indicating to
8e84dec2
KW
6575anchor the match to the beginning of a line.
6576
6577=item *
6578
21792e61 6579as the first character following a C<"|"> indicating alternation.
8e84dec2
KW
6580
6581=item *
6582
6583as the first character in a parenthesized grouping like
6584
6585 /foo({bar)/
6586 /foo(?:{bar)/
6587
6588=item *
6589
6590as the first character following a quantifier
6591
6592 /\s*{/
6593
6594=back
6595
6596=for comment
f50fa03b
KW
6597The text of the message above is mostly duplicated below (with changes)
6598to allow splain (and 'use diagnostics') to work. Since one is fatal,
6599and one not, they can't be combined as one message. Perhaps perldiag
6600could be enhanced to handle this case.
8e84dec2 6601
f50fa03b 6602=item Unescaped left brace in regex is passed through in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
412f55bb 6603
f50fa03b 6604(W regexp) The simple rule to remember, if you want to
8e84dec2
KW
6605match a literal C<"{"> character (U+007B C<LEFT CURLY BRACKET>) in a
6606regular expression pattern, is to escape each literal instance of it in
6607some way. Generally easiest is to precede it with a backslash, like
6608C<"\{"> or enclose it in square brackets (C<"[{]">). If the pattern
6609delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace (C<"}">) should
6610also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for example,
6611
6612 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
6613
c217aa7e 6614Forcing literal C<"{"> characters to be escaped enables the Perl
8e84dec2 6615language to be extended in various ways in future releases. To avoid
a3815e44 6616needlessly breaking existing code, the restriction is not enforced in
8e84dec2 6617contexts where there are unlikely to ever be extensions that could
76416d1a 6618conflict with the use there of C<"{"> as a literal. Those that are
f50fa03b
KW
6619not potentially ambiguous do not warn; those that are raise this
6620warning. This makes sure that an inadvertent typo doesn't silently
6621cause the pattern to compile to something unintended.
8e84dec2 6622
8e84dec2
KW
6623The contexts where no warnings or errors are raised are:
6624
6625=over 4
6626
6627=item *
6628
6629as the first character in a pattern, or following C<"^"> indicating to
6630anchor the match to the beginning of a line.
6631
6632=item *
6633
6634as the first character following a C<"|"> indicating alternation.
6635
6636=item *
6637
6638as the first character in a parenthesized grouping like
6639
6640 /foo({bar)/
6641 /foo(?:{bar)/
6642
6643=item *
6644
6645as the first character following a quantifier
412f55bb 6646
8e84dec2 6647 /\s*{/
412f55bb 6648
8e84dec2 6649=back
1656665e 6650
a4368cc3
KW
6651=item Unescaped literal '%c' in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6652
6653(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>>)
6654
6655Within the scope of C<S<use re 'strict'>> in a regular expression
6656pattern, you included an unescaped C<}> or C<]> which was interpreted
6657literally. These two characters are sometimes metacharacters, and
6658sometimes literals, depending on what precedes them in the
6659pattern. This is unlike the similar C<)> which is always a
6660metacharacter unless escaped.
6661
6662This action at a distance, perhaps a large distance, can lead to Perl
6663silently misinterpreting what you meant, so when you specify that you
6664want extra checking by C<S<use re 'strict'>>, this warning is generated.
6665If you meant the character as a literal, simply confirm that to Perl by
6666preceding the character with a backslash, or make it into a bracketed
6667character class (like C<[}]>). If you meant it as closing a
6668corresponding C<[> or C<{>, you'll need to look back through the pattern
6669to find out why that isn't happening.
6670
a0d0e21e
LW
6671=item unexec of %s into %s failed!
6672
6673(F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
6674representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
6675
e0e4a6e3
FC
6676=item Unexpected binary operator '%c' with no preceding operand in regex;
6677marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6678
675fa9ff 6679(F) You had something like this:
0d0b4b3b
KW
6680
6681 (?[ | \p{Digit} ])
6682
6683where the C<"|"> is a binary operator with an operand on the right, but
6684no operand on the left.
6685
e0e4a6e3 6686=item Unexpected character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6687
675fa9ff 6688(F) You had something like this:
0d0b4b3b
KW
6689
6690 (?[ z ])
6691
6692Within C<(?[ ])>, no literal characters are allowed unless they are
6693within an inner pair of square brackets, like
6694
6695 (?[ [ z ] ])
6696
6697Another possibility is that you forgot a backslash. Perl isn't smart
6698enough to figure out what you really meant.
6699
6c341f67
TC
6700=item Unexpected exit %u
6701
6702(S) exit() was called or the script otherwise finished gracefully when
6703C<PERL_EXIT_WARN> was set in C<PL_exit_flags>.
6704
878ce265 6705=item Unexpected exit failure %d
6c341f67
TC
6706
6707(S) An uncaught die() was called when C<PERL_EXIT_WARN> was set in
6708C<PL_exit_flags>.
6709
e0e4a6e3 6710=item Unexpected ')' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6711
6712(F) You had something like this:
6713
6714 (?[ ( \p{Digit} + ) ])
6715
6716The C<")"> is out-of-place. Something apparently was supposed to
6717be combined with the digits, or the C<"+"> shouldn't be there, or
6718something like that. Perl can't figure out what was intended.
6719
c9ffefcc
FC
6720=item Unexpected ']' with no following ')' in (?[... in regex; marked by
6721<-- HERE in m/%s/
6722
6723(F) While parsing an extended character class a ']' character was
6724encountered at a point in the definition where the only legal use of
6725']' is to close the character class definition as part of a '])', you
6726may have forgotten the close paren, or otherwise confused the parser.
6727
e0e4a6e3
FC
6728=item Unexpected '(' with no preceding operator in regex; marked by
6729S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6730
6731(F) You had something like this:
6732
6733 (?[ \p{Digit} ( \p{Lao} + \p{Thai} ) ])
6734
6735There should be an operator before the C<"(">, as there's
6736no indication as to how the digits are to be combined
6737with the characters in the Lao and Thai scripts.
6738
ba707cdc 6739=item Unicode non-character U+%X is not recommended for open interchange
0876b9a0 6740
4c2e59a0 6741(S nonchar) Certain codepoints, such as U+FFFE and U+FFFF, are
66a1f5ec
FC
6742defined by the Unicode standard to be non-characters. Those
6743are legal codepoints, but are reserved for internal use; so,
6744applications shouldn't attempt to exchange them. An application
6745may not be expecting any of these characters at all, and receiving
6746them may lead to bugs. If you know what you are doing you can
6747turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'nonchar';>.
6748
6749This is not really a "severe" error, but it is supposed to be
6750raised by default even if warnings are not enabled, and currently
6751the only way to do that in Perl is to mark it as serious.
6a807e21 6752
1532347b
KW
6753=item Unicode property wildcard not terminated
6754
6755(F) A Unicode property wildcard looks like a delimited regular
6756expression pattern (all within the braces of the enclosing C<\p{...}>.
6757The closing delimtter to match the opening one was not found. If the
6758opening one is escaped by preceding it with a backslash, the closing one
6759must also be so escaped.
6760
42fd8c63
KW
6761=item Unicode string properties are not implemented in (?[...]) in
6762regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6763
6764(F) A Unicode string property is one which expands to a sequence of
6765multiple characters. An example is C<\p{name=KATAKANA LETTER AINU P}>,
6766which is comprised of the sequence C<\N{KATAKANA LETTER SMALL H}>
6767followed by C<\N{COMBINING KATAKANA-HIRAGANA SEMI-VOICED SOUND MARK}>.
6768Extended character classes, C<(?[...])> currently cannot handle these.
6769
c794c51b
FC
6770=item Unicode surrogate U+%X is illegal in UTF-8
6771
4c2e59a0 6772(S surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
c794c51b
FC
6773not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
6774U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
6775internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
6776available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
6777problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
6778came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 6779off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
c794c51b 6780
dcfe9e74
KW
6781=item Unknown charname '%s'
6782
6783(F) The name you used inside C<\N{}> is unknown to Perl. Check the
6784spelling. You can say C<use charnames ":loose"> to not have to be
6785so precise about spaces, hyphens, and capitalization on standard Unicode
6786names. (Any custom aliases that have been created must be specified
6787exactly, regardless of whether C<:loose> is used or not.) This error may
6788also happen if the C<\N{}> is not in the scope of the corresponding
6789C<S<use charnames>>.
6790
d9790612
KW
6791=item Unknown '(*...)' construct '%s' in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6792
6793(F) The C<(*> was followed by something that the regular expression
6794compiler does not recognize. Check your spelling.
6795
04177465
FC
6796=item Unknown error
6797
6798(P) Perl was about to print an error message in C<$@>, but the C<$@> variable
6799did not exist, even after an attempt to create it.
6800
7bb2ffc8
KW
6801=item Unknown locale category %d; can't set it to %s
6802
6803(W locale) You used a locale category that perl doesn't recognize, so it
6804cannot carry out your request. Check that you are using a valid
6805category. If so, see L<perllocale/Multi-threaded> for advice on
6806reporting this as a bug, and for modifying perl locally to accommodate
6807your needs.
6808
6170680b
IZ
6809=item Unknown open() mode '%s'
6810
437784d6 6811(F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
c47ff5f1 6812of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
488dad83 6813C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
6170680b 6814
b4581f09
JH
6815=item Unknown PerlIO layer "%s"
6816
6817(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
6818system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
6819internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
6820are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
6821explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
6822value of the environment variable PERLIO.
6823
f675dbe5
CB
6824=item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
6825
6826(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
6827iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
6828data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
6829subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
a05d7ebb 6830
283151b7 6831=item Unknown regexp modifier "/%s"
0da72d5e
KW
6832
6833(F) Alphanumerics immediately following the closing delimiter
6834of a regular expression pattern are interpreted by Perl as modifier
6835flags for the regex. One of the ones you specified is invalid. One way
6836this can happen is if you didn't put in white space between the end of
6837the regex and a following alphanumeric operator:
6838
6839 if ($a =~ /foo/and $bar == 3) { ... }
6840
6841The C<"a"> is a valid modifier flag, but the C<"n"> is not, and raises
6842this error. Likely what was meant instead was:
6843
6844 if ($a =~ /foo/ and $bar == 3) { ... }
6845
5a25739d
FC
6846=item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
6847
6848(W) You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
6849
e0e4a6e3
FC
6850=item Unknown switch condition (?(...)) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6851m/%s/
96ebfdd7
RK
6852
6853(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
6903afa2 6854is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5fecf430 6855
e7206367
KW
6856 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
6857 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
6858 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
6859 (*pla:...) (*plb:...) true if subpattern matches; also
6860 (*positive_lookahead:...)
6861 (*positive_lookbehind:...)
6862 (*nla:...) (*nlb:...) true if subpattern fails to match; also
6863 (*negative_lookahead:...)
6864 (*negative_lookbehind:...)
6865 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
6866 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
6867 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2,
6868 etc.
6869 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
6870 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
96ebfdd7 6871
6e8a73f2 6872The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
96ebfdd7
RK
6873discovered. See L<perlre>.
6874
a05d7ebb
JH
6875=item Unknown Unicode option letter '%c'
6876
028611fa
DB
6877(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See
6878L<perlrun|perlrun/-C [numberE<sol>list]> documentation of the C<-C> switch
6879for the list of known options.
a05d7ebb 6880
64187737 6881=item Unknown Unicode option value %d
a05d7ebb 6882
028611fa
DB
6883(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See
6884L<perlrun|perlrun/-C [numberE<sol>list]> documentation of the C<-C> switch
6885for the list of known options.
f675dbe5 6886
cac13810
KW
6887=item Unknown user-defined property name \p{%s}
6888
6889(F) You specified to use a property within the C<\p{...}> which was a
6890syntactically valid user-defined property, but no definition was found
6891for it by the time one was required to proceed. Check your spelling.
6892See L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties>.
6893
e0e4a6e3 6894=item Unknown verb pattern '%s' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1
YO
6895
6896(F) You either made a typo or have incorrectly put a C<*> quantifier
6897after an open brace in your pattern. Check the pattern and review
6898L<perlre> for details on legal verb patterns.
6899
c2771421
FC
6900=item Unknown warnings category '%s'
6901
6903afa2 6902(F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
c2771421
FC
6903category that is unknown to perl at this point.
6904
14ef4c80
FC
6905Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a
6906module (e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have loaded this
6907module first.
c2771421 6908
e0e4a6e3 6909=item Unmatched [ in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6910
6903afa2 6911(F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
be771a83 6912include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
e0e4a6e3 6913first. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
6903afa2 6914problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 6915
e0e4a6e3 6916=item Unmatched ( in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 6917
e0e4a6e3 6918=item Unmatched ) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
6919
6920(F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
6903afa2 6921expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
e0e4a6e3 6922the matching parenthesis. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
9e3ec65c 6923regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 6924
d98d5fff 6925=item Unmatched right %s bracket
a0d0e21e 6926
be771a83
GS
6927(F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
6928ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
6929general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
6930you were last editing.
a0d0e21e 6931
a0d0e21e
LW
6932=item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
6933
be771a83
GS
6934(W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
6935reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
6936somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
6937subroutine.
a0d0e21e 6938
e0e4a6e3
FC
6939=item Unrecognized character %s; marked by S<<-- HERE> after %s near column
6940%d
a0d0e21e 6941
54310121 6942(F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
1b303a7d
FC
6943in your Perl script (or eval) near the specified column. Perhaps you
6944tried to run a compressed script, a binary program, or a directory as
6945a Perl program.
a0d0e21e 6946
e0e4a6e3
FC
6947=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class in regex; marked by
6948S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6949
675fa9ff
FC
6950(F) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
6951recognized by Perl inside character classes. This is a fatal
6952error when the character class is used within C<(?[ ])>.
0d0b4b3b 6953
6fbc9859 6954=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class passed through in regex;
e0e4a6e3 6955marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6956
be771a83
GS
6957(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
6958recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
b224edc1 6959understood literally, but this may change in a future version of Perl.
e0e4a6e3 6960The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
2628b4e0 6961escape was discovered.
6df41af2 6962
4a68bf9d 6963=item Unrecognized escape \%c passed through
2f7da168 6964
2628b4e0 6965(W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b224edc1
KW
6966recognized by Perl. The character was understood literally, but this may
6967change in a future version of Perl.
2f7da168 6968
e0e4a6e3
FC
6969=item Unrecognized escape \%s passed through in regex; marked by
6970S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6971
be771a83 6972(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b7e4ecc1 6973recognized by Perl. The character(s) were understood literally, but
e0e4a6e3 6974this may change in a future version of Perl. The S<<-- HERE> shows
9e3ec65c 6975whereabouts in the regular expression the escape was discovered.
6df41af2 6976
a0d0e21e
LW
6977=item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
6978
be771a83
GS
6979(F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
6980recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
6981on your system.
a0d0e21e 6982
90248788 6983=item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
a0d0e21e 6984
be771a83
GS
6985(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
6986think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
6987bad switch on your behalf.)
a0d0e21e
LW
6988
6989=item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
6990
be771a83
GS
6991(W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
6992operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
5b3eff12 6993PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
a0d0e21e
LW
6994
6995=item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
6996
6997(F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
6998
6df41af2
GS
6999=item Unsupported function %s
7000
7001(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
7002At least, Configure doesn't think so.
7003
54310121 7004=item Unsupported function fork
7005
7006(F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
7007
be771a83 7008Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
6903afa2 7009of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
be771a83 7010changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
54310121 7011
7aa207d6 7012=item Unsupported script encoding %s
b250498f
GS
7013
7014(F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
7aa207d6 7015declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot read.
b250498f 7016
a0d0e21e
LW
7017=item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
7018
7019(F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
7020least that's what Configure thought.
7021
d9790612
KW
7022=item Unterminated '(*...' argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
7023
7024(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*...:...)> but did not terminate
7025the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
7026
6df41af2 7027=item Unterminated attribute list
a0d0e21e 7028
be771a83
GS
7029(F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
7030start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
7031block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
7032attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
a0d0e21e 7033
09bef843
SB
7034=item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
7035
be771a83
GS
7036(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
7037an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
09bef843
SB
7038character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
7039character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
7040
f1991046
GS
7041=item Unterminated compressed integer
7042
7043(F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
7044compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
7045See L<perlfunc/pack>.
7046
d9790612
KW
7047=item Unterminated '(*...' construct in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
7048
7049(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*...)> but did not terminate
7050the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
7051
6f2d7fc9
FC
7052=item Unterminated delimiter for here document
7053
7054(F) This message occurs when a here document label has an initial
7055quotation mark but the final quotation mark is missing. Perhaps
7056you wrote:
7057
7058 <<"foo
7059
7060instead of:
7061
7062 <<"foo"
7063
e0e4a6e3 7064=item Unterminated \g... pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
779fedd7 7065
e0e4a6e3 7066=item Unterminated \g{...} pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2bf803e2 7067
5364049c
KW
7068(F) In a regular expression, you had a C<\g> that wasn't followed by a
7069proper group reference. In the case of C<\g{>, the closing brace is
7070missing; otherwise the C<\g> must be followed by an integer. Fix the
7071pattern and retry.
e2e6a0f1 7072
6df41af2 7073=item Unterminated <> operator
09bef843 7074
6df41af2 7075(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
7076a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
7077not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
7078earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
09bef843 7079
e0e4a6e3
FC
7080=item Unterminated verb pattern argument in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
7081m/%s/
905fe053
FC
7082
7083(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB:ARG)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 7084the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 7085
e0e4a6e3 7086=item Unterminated verb pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
905fe053
FC
7087
7088(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 7089the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 7090
6df41af2 7091=item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
a0d0e21e 7092
be771a83
GS
7093(W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
7094still valid when C<untie> was called.
a0d0e21e 7095
8e11cd2b
JC
7096=item Usage: POSIX::%s(%s)
7097
7098(F) You called a POSIX function with incorrect arguments.
7099See L<POSIX/FUNCTIONS> for more information.
7100
7101=item Usage: Win32::%s(%s)
7102
7103(F) You called a Win32 function with incorrect arguments.
7104See L<Win32> for more information.
7105
89474f50
FC
7106=item $[ used in %s (did you mean $] ?)
7107
7108(W syntax) You used C<$[> in a comparison, such as:
7109
7110 if ($[ > 5.006) {
7111 ...
7112 }
7113
7114You probably meant to use C<$]> instead. C<$[> is the base for indexing
7115arrays. C<$]> is the Perl version number in decimal.
7116
6da34ecb
FC
7117=item Use "%s" instead of "%s"
7118
7119(F) The second listed construct is no longer legal. Use the first one
7120instead.
7121
8fe85e3f
FC
7122=item Useless assignment to a temporary
7123
7124(W misc) You assigned to an lvalue subroutine, but what
7125the subroutine returned was a temporary scalar about to
7126be discarded, so the assignment had no effect.
7127
e0e4a6e3
FC
7128=item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex; marked by
7129S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 7130
96ebfdd7
RK
7131(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
7132meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 7133
96ebfdd7 7134 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
7135
7136must be written as
7137
96ebfdd7 7138 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5 7139
6e8a73f2 7140The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9e3ec65c 7141discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 7142
b4581f09
JH
7143=item Useless localization of %s
7144
6903afa2
FC
7145(W syntax) The localization of lvalues such as C<local($x=10)> is legal,
7146but in fact the local() currently has no effect. This may change at
b4581f09
JH
7147some point in the future, but in the meantime such code is discouraged.
7148
e0e4a6e3
FC
7149=item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
7150m/%s/
9d1d55b5 7151
96ebfdd7
RK
7152(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
7153meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 7154
96ebfdd7 7155 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
7156
7157must be written as
7158
96ebfdd7 7159 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5 7160
6e8a73f2 7161The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9e3ec65c 7162discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 7163
3108f4df
FC
7164=item Useless use of attribute "const"
7165
796b6530 7166(W misc) The C<const> attribute has no effect except
3108f4df
FC
7167on anonymous closure prototypes. You applied it to
7168a subroutine via L<attributes.pm|attributes>. This is only useful
7169inside an attribute handler for an anonymous subroutine.
7170
b08e453b
RB
7171=item Useless use of /d modifier in transliteration operator
7172
7173(W misc) You have used the /d modifier where the searchlist has the
6903afa2 7174same length as the replacelist. See L<perlop> for more information
b08e453b
RB
7175about the /d modifier.
7176
820438b1
FC
7177=item Useless use of \E
7178
7179(W misc) You have a \E in a double-quotish string without a C<\U>,
7180C<\L> or C<\Q> preceding it.
7181
4fa6dd16
KW
7182=item Useless use of greediness modifier '%c' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
7183
7184(W regexp) You specified something like these:
7185
7186 qr/a{3}?/
7187 qr/b{1,1}+/
7188
7189The C<"?"> and C<"+"> don't have any effect, as they modify whether to
7190match more or fewer when there is a choice, and by specifying to match
a53cc5a4 7191exactly a given number, there is no room left for a choice.
4fa6dd16 7192
6df41af2 7193=item Useless use of %s in void context
a0d0e21e 7194
75b44862 7195(W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
be771a83
GS
7196nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
7197value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
7198often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
7199to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
7200get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
7201said
a0d0e21e 7202
6df41af2 7203 $one, $two = 1, 2;
748a9306 7204
6df41af2
GS
7205when you meant to say
7206
7207 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
7208
7209Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
7210reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
7211example, if you say
7212
7213 $array = (1,2);
7214
7215when you should have said
7216
7217 $array = [1,2];
7218
7219The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
7220while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
7221a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
7222throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
7223L<perlref> for more on this.
7224
65191a1e
BS
7225This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
7226since they are often used in statements like
7227
4358a253 7228 1 while sub_with_side_effects();
65191a1e
BS
7229
7230String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
7231about.
7232
e0e4a6e3 7233=item Useless use of (?-p) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
7234
7235(W regexp) The C<p> modifier cannot be turned off once set. Trying to do
7236so is futile.
7237
6df41af2
GS
7238=item Useless use of "re" pragma
7239
6903afa2 7240(W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
6df41af2 7241
a801c63c
RGS
7242=item Useless use of sort in scalar context
7243
7244(W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
7245
7246 my $x = sort @y;
7247
7248This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
7249
de4864e4
JH
7250=item Useless use of %s with no values
7251
f87c3213 7252(W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
6903afa2
FC
7253apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
7254usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
de4864e4 7255possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
6903afa2 7256if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
de4864e4
JH
7257you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
7258
6df41af2
GS
7259=item "use" not allowed in expression
7260
be771a83
GS
7261(F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
7262returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
748a9306 7263
40151a41
PE
7264=item Use of @_ in %s with signatured subroutine is experimental
7265
7266(S experimental::args_array_with_signatures) An expression involving the
7267C<@_> arguments array was found in a subroutine that uses a signature.
7268This is experimental because the interaction between the arguments
7269array and parameter handling via signatures is not guaranteed to remain
7270stable in any future version of Perl, and such code should be avoided.
7271
c6e25b09 7272=item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is forbidden
4633a7c4 7273
3f673807
FC
7274(F) You are now required to use the explicitly quoted form if you wish
7275to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
83ce3e12 7276
3f673807
FC
7277Use of a bare terminator was deprecated in Perl 5.000, and is a fatal
7278error as of Perl 5.28.
e5aa3f0b 7279
64e578a2
MJD
7280=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
7281
7282(W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
7283modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
7284
4ac733c9
MJD
7285=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
7286
7287(W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
7288use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
7289used. (This may change in the future.)
7290
5b5e2c03 7291=item Use of code point 0x%s is not allowed; the permissible max is 0x%X
fb7e7255 7292
5b5e2c03 7293=item Use of code point 0x%s is not allowed; the permissible max is 0x%X
fb7e7255 7294in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
113b8661
A
7295
7296(F) You used a code point that is not allowed, because it is too large.
7297Unicode only allows code points up to 0x10FFFF, but Perl allows much
7298larger ones. Earlier versions of Perl allowed code points above IV_MAX
7299(0x7FFFFFF on 32-bit platforms, 0x7FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF on 64-bit platforms),
7300however, this could possibly break the perl interpreter in some constructs,
7301including causing it to hang in a few cases.
2d212e86
KW
7302
7303If your code is to run on various platforms, keep in mind that the upper
7304limit depends on the platform. It is much larger on 64-bit word sizes
7305than 32-bit ones.
7306
fcdb3ac1 7307The use of out of range code points was deprecated in Perl 5.24, and
113b8661 7308became a fatal error in Perl 5.28.
fcdb3ac1 7309
675fa9ff
FC
7310=item Use of each() on hash after insertion without resetting hash iterator results in undefined behavior
7311
f26c79ba
FC
7312(S internal) The behavior of C<each()> after insertion is undefined;
7313it may skip items, or visit items more than once. Consider using
7314C<keys()> instead of C<each()>.
675fa9ff 7315
2dc78664 7316=item Use of := for an empty attribute list is not allowed
036e1e65 7317
2dc78664
NC
7318(F) The construction C<my $x := 42> used to parse as equivalent to
7319C<my $x : = 42> (applying an empty attribute list to C<$x>).
7320This construct was deprecated in 5.12.0, and has now been made a syntax
7321error, so C<:=> can be reclaimed as a new operator in the future.
7322
7323If you need an empty attribute list, for example in a code generator, add
7324a space before the C<=>.
036e1e65 7325
fafdadbd
KW
7326=item Use of %s for non-UTF-8 locale is wrong. Assuming a UTF-8 locale
7327
7328(W locale) You are matching a regular expression using locale rules,
7329and the specified construct was encountered. This construct is only
7330valid for UTF-8 locales, which the current locale isn't. This doesn't
7331make sense. Perl will continue, assuming a Unicode (UTF-8) locale, but
7332the results are likely to be wrong.
7333
b6c83531 7334=item Use of freed value in iteration
2f7da168 7335
b6c83531
JH
7336(F) Perhaps you modified the iterated array within the loop?
7337This error is typically caused by code like the following:
2f7da168
RK
7338
7339 @a = (3,4);
7340 @a = () for (1,2,@a);
7341
7342You are not supposed to modify arrays while they are being iterated over.
7343For speed and efficiency reasons, Perl internally does not do full
7344reference-counting of iterated items, hence deleting such an item in the
7345middle of an iteration causes Perl to see a freed value.
7346
96ebfdd7 7347=item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
35ae6b54 7348
96ebfdd7
RK
7349(W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
7350operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
7351repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
35ae6b54 7352
dc6e8de0 7353=item Use of "goto" to jump into a construct is deprecated
0b98bec9
RGS
7354
7355(D deprecated) Using C<goto> to jump from an outer scope into an inner
7356scope is deprecated and should be avoided.
7357
dc6e8de0 7358This was deprecated in Perl 5.12.
9fc8eee0 7359
600c10ce
KW
7360=item Use of '%s' in \p{} or \P{} is deprecated because: %s
7361
7362(D deprecated) Certain properties are deprecated by Unicode, and may
7363eventually be removed from the Standard, at which time Perl will follow
7364along. In the meantime, this message is raised to notify you.
7365
64278e8c
A
7366=item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s::%s() is no longer allowed
7367
7368(F) As an accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines were looked up as
7369methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy), even when the subroutines to be
7370autoloaded were called as plain functions (e.g. C<Foo::bar()>), not as
7371methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or C<< $obj->bar() >>).
7372
7373This was deprecated in Perl 5.004, and was made fatal in Perl 5.28.
d9d53e86 7374
6df41af2
GS
7375=item Use of %s in printf format not supported
7376
7377(F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
7378only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
7379
4829f32d
KW
7380=item Use of %s is not allowed in Unicode property wildcard
7381subpatterns in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
7382
7383(F) You were using a wildcard subpattern a Unicode property value, and
7384the subpattern contained something that is illegal. Not all regular
7385expression capabilities are legal in such subpatterns, and this is one.
7386Rewrite your subppattern to not use the offending construct.
7387See L<perlunicode/Wildcards in Property Values>.
7388
5840701a 7389=item Use of -l on filehandle%s
5a7abfcc
FC
7390
7391(W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
7392it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
7393The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
7394
1f1cc344 7395=item Use of reference "%s" as array index
d804643f 7396
77b96956 7397(W misc) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
1f1cc344
JH
7398isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
7399to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
d804643f 7400
64977eb6 7401If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
1f1cc344 7402C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
54e0f05c 7403however, because you can overload the numification and stringification
c69ca1d4 7404operators and then you presumably know what you are doing.
d804643f 7405
87e05d1a 7406=item Use of strings with code points over 0xFF as arguments to %s
5d09ee1c 7407operator is not allowed
87e05d1a 7408
3f673807
FC
7409(F) You tried to use one of the string bitwise operators (C<&> or C<|> or C<^> or
7410C<~>) on a string containing a code point over 0xFF. The string bitwise
7411operators treat their operands as strings of bytes, and values beyond
74120xFF are nonsensical in this context.
87e05d1a 7413
c8b94fe0 7414Certain instances became fatal in Perl 5.28; others in perl 5.32.
ecbcbef0 7415
da5a0da2 7416=item Use of strings with code points over 0xFF as arguments to vec is forbidden
315f3fc1 7417
da5a0da2 7418(F) You tried to use L<C<vec>|perlfunc/vec EXPR,OFFSET,BITS>
315f3fc1
KW
7419on a string containing a code point over 0xFF, which is nonsensical here.
7420
da5a0da2 7421This became fatal in Perl 5.32.
315f3fc1 7422
bbd7eb8a
RD
7423=item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
7424
159f47d9 7425(W taint, deprecated) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
bbd7eb8a
RD
7426arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
7427but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
7428arguments. See L<perlsec>.
7429
94749a5e 7430=item Use of unassigned code point or non-standalone grapheme for a
823c3b2d 7431delimiter is not allowed
94749a5e 7432
823c3b2d 7433(F)
94749a5e
KW
7434A grapheme is what appears to a native-speaker of a language to be a
7435character. In Unicode (and hence Perl) a grapheme may actually be
7436several adjacent characters that together form a complete grapheme. For
7437example, there can be a base character, like "R" and an accent, like a
7438circumflex "^", that appear when displayed to be a single character with
7439the circumflex hovering over the "R". Perl currently allows things like
7440that circumflex to be delimiters of strings, patterns, I<etc>. When
7441displayed, the circumflex would look like it belongs to the character
7442just to the left of it. In order to move the language to be able to
823c3b2d 7443accept graphemes as delimiters, we cannot allow the use of
94749a5e
KW
7444delimiters which aren't graphemes by themselves. Also, a delimiter must
7445already be assigned (or known to be never going to be assigned) to try
7446to future-proof code, for otherwise code that works today would fail to
7447compile if the currently unassigned delimiter ends up being something
7448that isn't a stand-alone grapheme. Because Unicode is never going to
7449assign
7450L<non-character code points|perlunicode/Noncharacter code points>, nor
7451L<code points that are above the legal Unicode maximum|
7452perlunicode/Beyond Unicode code points>, those can be delimiters, and
823c3b2d 7453their use is legal.
94749a5e 7454
cc95b072 7455=item Use of uninitialized value%s
a0d0e21e 7456
be771a83
GS
7457(W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
7458defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
7459To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
a0d0e21e 7460
6903afa2
FC
7461To help you figure out what was undefined, perl will try to tell you
7462the name of the variable (if any) that was undefined. In some cases
7463it cannot do this, so it also tells you what operation you used the
7464undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your program
50a39ba4 7465and the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily appear
6903afa2
FC
7466literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is usually
7467optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to the
7468C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in
7469your program.
e5be4a53 7470
67cdf558
KW
7471=item "use re 'strict'" is experimental
7472
7473(S experimental::re_strict) The things that are different when a regular
7474expression pattern is compiled under C<'strict'> are subject to change
7475in future Perl releases in incompatible ways. This means that a pattern
7476that compiles today may not in a future Perl release. This warning is
7477to alert you to that risk.
7478
e0e4a6e3
FC
7479=item Use \x{...} for more than two hex characters in regex; marked by
7480S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
7481
7482(F) In a regular expression, you said something like
7483
7484 (?[ [ \xBEEF ] ])
7485
7486Perl isn't sure if you meant this
7487
7488 (?[ [ \x{BEEF} ] ])
7489
7490or if you meant this
7491
7492 (?[ [ \x{BE} E F ] ])
7493
7494You need to add either braces or blanks to disambiguate.
7495
6fbc9859 7496=item Using just the first character returned by \N{} in character class in
e0e4a6e3 7497regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ff3f963a 7498
f3ba6905
FC
7499(W regexp) Named Unicode character escapes C<(\N{...})> may return
7500a multi-character sequence. Even though a character class is
7501supposed to match just one character of input, perl will match
7502the whole thing correctly, except when the class is inverted
7503(C<[^...]>), or the escape is the beginning or final end point of
7504a range. For these, what should happen isn't clear at all. In
7505these circumstances, Perl discards all but the first character
7506of the returned sequence, which is not likely what you want.
ff3f963a 7507
42fd8c63
KW
7508=item Using just the single character results returned by \p{} in
7509(?[...]) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
7510
7511(W regexp) Extended character classes currently cannot handle operands
7512that evaluate to more than one character. These are removed from the
7513results of the expansion of the C<\p{}>.
7514
7515This situation can happen, for example, in
7516
7517 (?[ \p{name=/KATAKANA/} ])
7518
7519"KATAKANA LETTER AINU P" is a legal Unicode name (technically a "named
7520sequence"), but it is actually two characters. The above expression
7521with match only the Unicode names containing KATAKANA that represent
7522single characters.
7523
6e8a73f2 7524=item Using /u for '%s' instead of /%s in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
64935bc6
KW
7525
7526(W regexp) You used a Unicode boundary (C<\b{...}> or C<\B{...}>) in a
7527portion of a regular expression where the character set modifiers C</a>
7528or C</aa> are in effect. These two modifiers indicate an ASCII
33f0d962 7529interpretation, and this doesn't make sense for a Unicode definition.
64935bc6
KW
7530The generated regular expression will compile so that the boundary uses
7531all of Unicode. No other portion of the regular expression is affected.
7532
c794c51b
FC
7533=item Using !~ with %s doesn't make sense
7534
7535(F) Using the C<!~> operator with C<s///r>, C<tr///r> or C<y///r> is
0f44b2a5 7536currently reserved for future use, as the exact behavior has not
6903afa2 7537been decided. (Simply returning the boolean opposite of the
c794c51b 7538modified string is usually not particularly useful.)
0876b9a0 7539
949cf498
KW
7540=item UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
7541
4c2e59a0 7542(S surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
949cf498
KW
7543not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
7544U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
7545internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
7546available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
7547problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
7548came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 7549off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9466bab6 7550
68dc0745 7551=item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
a6006777 7552
75b44862 7553(W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
be771a83
GS
7554C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
7555can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
7556false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
7557constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
7558C<defined> operator.
a6006777 7559
f675dbe5
CB
7560=item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
7561
be771a83
GS
7562(W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
7563%ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
7564longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
75651024 characters.
f675dbe5 7566
b5c19bd7 7567=item Variable "%s" is not available
44a8e56a 7568
b5c19bd7
DM
7569(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
7570attempting to capture an outer lexical that is not currently available.
6903afa2 7571This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the outer lexical may be
b5c19bd7
DM
7572declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has not yet been created.
7573(Remember that named subs are created at compile time, while anonymous
6903afa2 7574subs are created at run-time.) For example,
44a8e56a 7575
b5c19bd7 7576 sub { my $a; sub f { $a } }
44a8e56a 7577
b5c19bd7 7578At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current value of $a,
6903afa2 7579since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely,
b5c19bd7
DM
7580the following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by
7581now been created and is live:
be771a83 7582
b5c19bd7
DM
7583 sub { my $a; eval 'sub f { $a }' }->();
7584
7585The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a variable that has
7586gone out of scope, for example,
7587
7588 sub f {
7589 my $a;
7590 sub { eval '$a' }
7591 }
7592 f()->();
7593
1b303a7d
FC
7594Here, when the '$a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
7595being executed, so its $a is not available for capture.
44a8e56a 7596
b4581f09
JH
7597=item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
7598
120b0f81 7599(S misc) With "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable
413ff9f6 7600that you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
b4581f09
JH
7601something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
7602that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
35a7430a
C
7603front of your variable. It is also possible you used an "our" variable
7604whose scope has ended.
b4581f09 7605
aec0ef10 7606=item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex m/%s/
b4581f09 7607
2abbd513
KW
7608(F) B<This message no longer should be raised as of Perl 5.30.> It is
7609retained in this document as a convenience for people using an earlier
7610Perl version.
7611
7612In Perl 5.30 and earlier, lookbehind is allowed
7613only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
d0a29c36
KW
7614known at compile time. For positive lookbehind, you can use the C<\K>
7615regex construct as a way to get the equivalent functionality. See
a8f2f5fa 7616L<(?<=pattern) and \K in perlre|perlre/\K>.
d0a29c36 7617
754dd754
KW
7618Starting in Perl 5.18, there are non-obvious Unicode rules under C</i>
7619that can match variably, but which you might not think could. For
7620example, the substring C<"ss"> can match the single character LATIN
7621SMALL LETTER SHARP S. Here's a complete list of the current ones
7622affecting ASCII characters:
7623
7624 ASCII
7625 sequence Matches single letter under /i
7626 FF U+FB00 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FF
7627 FFI U+FB03 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FFI
7628 FFL U+FB04 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FFL
7629 FI U+FB01 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FI
7630 FL U+FB02 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FL
7631 SS U+00DF LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S
7632 U+1E9E LATIN CAPITAL LETTER SHARP S
7633 ST U+FB06 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE ST
7634 U+FB05 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE LONG S T
7635
7636This list is subject to change, but is quite unlikely to.
7637Each ASCII sequence can be any combination of upper- and lowercase.
7638
7639You can avoid this by using a bracketed character class in the
7640lookbehind assertion, like
7641
7642 (?<![sS]t)
7643 (?<![fF]f[iI])
7644
7645This fools Perl into not matching the ligatures.
7646
7647Another option for Perls starting with 5.16, if you only care about
7648ASCII matches, is to add the C</aa> modifier to the regex. This will
7649exclude all these non-obvious matches, thus getting rid of this message.
7650You can also say
7651
7652 use if $] ge 5.016, re => '/aa';
7653
d0a29c36
KW
7654to apply C</aa> to all regular expressions compiled within its scope.
7655See L<re>.
b4581f09
JH
7656
7657=item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
7658
52e3acf8 7659(W shadow) A "my", "our" or "state" variable has been redeclared in the
b9cc85ad
FC
7660current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the
7661previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note
7662that the earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope
20d33786 7663or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
b4581f09 7664
6df41af2
GS
7665=item Variable syntax
7666
7667(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
7668of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
7669Perl yourself.
7670
44a8e56a 7671=item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
7672
be771a83 7673(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
b5c19bd7 7674lexical variable defined in an outer named subroutine.
44a8e56a 7675
b5c19bd7 7676When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of
be771a83
GS
7677the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
7678call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
7679outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
7680longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
7681variable will no longer be shared.
44a8e56a 7682
44a8e56a 7683This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
7684anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
b5c19bd7 7685reference variables in outer subroutines are created, they
be771a83 7686are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
44a8e56a 7687
6651ba0b
FC
7688=item vector argument not supported with alpha versions
7689
8b6051f1 7690(S printf) The %vd (s)printf format does not support version objects
6651ba0b
FC
7691with alpha parts.
7692
e0e4a6e3
FC
7693=item Verb pattern '%s' has a mandatory argument in regex; marked by
7694S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1 7695
6903afa2
FC
7696(F) You used a verb pattern that requires an argument. Supply an
7697argument or check that you are using the right verb.
e2e6a0f1 7698
e0e4a6e3
FC
7699=item Verb pattern '%s' may not have an argument in regex; marked by
7700S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1 7701
6903afa2 7702(F) You used a verb pattern that is not allowed an argument. Remove the
e2e6a0f1
YO
7703argument or check that you are using the right verb.
7704
9c88bb56 7705=item Version control conflict marker
397c43d8
LM
7706
7707(F) The parser found a line starting with C<E<lt><<<<<<>,
d4e5761f 7708C<E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>>, or C<=======>. These may be left by a
397c43d8
LM
7709version control system to mark conflicts after a failed merge operation.
7710
084610c0
GS
7711=item Version number must be a constant number
7712
7713(P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
7714its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
7715the version number.
7716
808ee47e
SP
7717=item Version string '%s' contains invalid data; ignoring: '%s'
7718
32e998fd
RGS
7719(W misc) The version string contains invalid characters at the end, which
7720are being ignored.
808ee47e 7721
7e1af8bc 7722=item Warning: something's wrong
5f05dabc 7723
7724(W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
ec8bb14c 7725you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 7726
f86702cc 7727=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
a0d0e21e 7728
be771a83
GS
7729(S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
7730the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
7731space.
a0d0e21e 7732
96d7c888
FC
7733=item Warning: unable to close filehandle properly: %s
7734
7735=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly: %s
7736
ab7ca7ed
AP
7737(S io) There were errors during the implicit close() done on a filehandle
7738when its reference count reached zero while it was still open, e.g.:
cc4d3128
DM
7739
7740 {
7741 open my $fh, '>', $file or die "open: '$file': $!\n";
7742 print $fh $data or die "print: $!";
7743 } # implicit close here
7744
95032a5b
AP
7745Because various errors may only be detected by close() (e.g. buffering could
7746allow the C<print> in this example to return true even when the disk is full),
d4e5761f
FC
7747it is dangerous to ignore its result. So when it happens implicitly, perl
7748will signal errors by warning.
cc4d3128 7749
ab7ca7ed
AP
7750B<Prior to version 5.22.0, perl ignored such errors>, so the common idiom shown
7751above was liable to cause B<silent data loss>.
96d7c888 7752
5f05dabc 7753=item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
a0d0e21e 7754
be771a83
GS
7755(S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
7756looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
7757term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
7758function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
a0d0e21e
LW
7759
7760 rand + 5;
7761
7762you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
7763
7764 rand() + 5;
7765
7766but in actual fact, you got
7767
7768 rand(+5);
7769
5f05dabc 7770So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
a0d0e21e 7771
7896dde7 7772=item when is experimental
0f539b13 7773
7896dde7
Z
7774(S experimental::smartmatch) C<when> depends on smartmatch, which is
7775experimental. Additionally, it has several special cases that may
7776not be immediately obvious, and their behavior may change or
7777even be removed in any future release of perl. See the explanation
7778under L<perlsyn/Experimental Details on given and when>.
0f539b13 7779
4b3603a4
JH
7780=item Wide character in %s
7781
479b791b
KW
7782(S utf8) Perl met a wide character (ordinal >255) when it wasn't
7783expecting one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print).
7784
7785If this warning does come from I/O, the easiest
7786way to quiet it is simply to add the C<:utf8> layer, I<e.g.>,
7787S<C<binmode STDOUT, ':utf8'>>. Another way to turn off the warning is
7788to add S<C<no warnings 'utf8';>> but that is often closer to
cd28123a
JH
7789cheating. In general, you are supposed to explicitly mark the
7790filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
4b3603a4 7791
479b791b
KW
7792If the warning comes from other than I/O, this diagnostic probably
7793indicates that incorrect results are being obtained. You should examine
7794your code to determine how a wide character is getting to an operation
7795that doesn't handle them.
7796
613abc6d
KW
7797=item Wide character (U+%X) in %s
7798
7799(W locale) While in a single-byte locale (I<i.e.>, a non-UTF-8
7800one), a multi-byte character was encountered. Perl considers this
50ea4745 7801character to be the specified Unicode code point. Combining non-UTF-8
613abc6d
KW
7802locales and Unicode is dangerous. Almost certainly some characters
7803will have two different representations. For example, in the ISO 8859-7
7804(Greek) locale, the code point 0xC3 represents a Capital Gamma. But so
7805also does 0x393. This will make string comparisons unreliable.
7806
7807You likely need to figure out how this multi-byte character got mixed up
7808with your single-byte locale (or perhaps you thought you had a UTF-8
7809locale, but Perl disagrees).
7810
49704364
WL
7811=item Within []-length '%c' not allowed
7812
fa816bf3
FC
7813(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]>
7814only if C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes that
7815can be determined from the template alone. This is not possible if
7816it contains any of the codes @, /, U, u, w or a *-length. Redesign
7817the template.
49704364 7818
448aac91
MM
7819=item While trying to resolve method call %s->%s() can not locate package "%s" yet it is mentioned in @%s::ISA (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
7820
ece464a3 7821(W syntax) It is possible that the C<@ISA> contains a misspelled or never loaded
448aac91 7822package name, which can result in perl choosing an unexpected parent
ece464a3 7823class's method to resolve the method call. If this is deliberate you
448aac91
MM
7824can do something like
7825
7826 @Missing::Package::ISA = ();
7827
7828to silence the warnings, otherwise you should correct the package name, or
7829ensure that the package is loaded prior to the method call.
7830
74d1b2e4
FC
7831=item %s() with negative argument
7832
7833(S misc) Certain operations make no sense with negative arguments.
7834Warning is given and the operation is not done.
7835
9a7dcd9c 7836=item write() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 7837
be771a83 7838(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 7839before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 7840
9ae3ac1a 7841=item %s "\x%X" does not map to Unicode
b4581f09 7842
27f95370
FC
7843(S utf8) When reading in different encodings, Perl tries to
7844map everything into Unicode characters. The bytes you read
7845in are not legal in this encoding. For example
b4581f09
JH
7846
7847 utf8 "\xE4" does not map to Unicode
7848
7849if you try to read in the a-diaereses Latin-1 as UTF-8.
7850
49704364 7851=item 'X' outside of string
a0d0e21e 7852
49704364
WL
7853(F) You had a (un)pack template that specified a relative position before
7854the beginning of the string being (un)packed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
a0d0e21e 7855
49704364 7856=item 'x' outside of string in unpack
a0d0e21e
LW
7857
7858(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
7859the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
7860
a0d0e21e
LW
7861=item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
7862
5f05dabc 7863(F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
a0d0e21e 7864sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
b5145c7d
Z
7865about what you want. There is a vulnerability anywhere that you have a
7866set-id script, and to close it you need to remove the set-id bit from
7867the script that you're attempting to run. To actually run the script
7868set-id, your best bet is to put a set-id C wrapper around your script.
a0d0e21e
LW
7869
7870=item You need to quote "%s"
7871
be771a83
GS
7872(W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
7873Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
7874which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
7875assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
7876what you want, put an & in front.)
a0d0e21e 7877
6cfd5ea7
JH
7878=item Your random numbers are not that random
7879
50a39ba4 7880(F) When trying to initialize the random seed for hashes, Perl could
6cfd5ea7
JH
7881not get any randomness out of your system. This usually indicates
7882Something Very Wrong.
7883
e0e4a6e3 7884=item Zero length \N{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
8a5a438d 7885
f3ba6905 7886(F) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a zero-length
8a5a438d 7887sequence. Such an escape was used in an extended character class, i.e.
fe0a3646
KW
7888C<(?[...])>, or under C<use re 'strict'>, which is not permitted. Check
7889that the correct escape has been used, and the correct charnames handler
7890is in scope. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
7891expression the problem was discovered.
8a5a438d 7892
a0d0e21e
LW
7893=back
7894
00eb3f2b
RGS
7895=head1 SEE ALSO
7896
44ecbbd8 7897L<warnings>, L<diagnostics>.
00eb3f2b 7898
56e90b21 7899=cut