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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).
11 (D) A deprecation (optional).
e476b1b5 12 (S) A severe warning (default).
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13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
54310121 15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
cb1a09d0 16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
a0d0e21e 17
75b44862 18The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
64977eb6 19(W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
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20
21If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
22category is included with the classification letter in the description
23below.
24
25Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
26and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
27to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
28of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
29
30Default warnings are always enabled unless they are explicitly disabled
31with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
4438c4b7 32
748a9306 33Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
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34L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
36See L<warnings>.
a0d0e21e 37
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38The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
39lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
40denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
41ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
42letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
43letter.
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44
45=over 4
46
6df41af2 47=item accept() on closed socket %s
33633739 48
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49(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
50to check the return value of your socket() call? See
51L<perlfunc/accept>.
33633739 52
6df41af2 53=item Allocation too large: %lx
a0d0e21e 54
6df41af2 55(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
a0d0e21e 56
f61d411c 57=item '!' allowed only after types %s
ef54e1a4 58
921106c8 59(F) The '!' is allowed in pack() or unpack() only after certain types.
f61d411c 60See L<perlfunc/pack>.
ef54e1a4 61
6df41af2 62=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
43192e07 63
75b44862 64(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
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65keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
66one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
67subroutine is not imported.
43192e07 68
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69To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
70before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
71Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
72imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
43192e07 73
6df41af2 74To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
496a33f5 75on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
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76to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
77L<attributes>).
43192e07 78
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79=item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
80
81(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
82all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
83first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
84C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
85
6df41af2 86=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
43192e07 87
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88(W ambiguous)(S) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
89you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
90a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
a0d0e21e 91
6df41af2 92=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
a0d0e21e 93
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94(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
95redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
96redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
c9f97d15 97
6df41af2 98=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
1028017a 99
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100(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
101redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
102into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
103though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
104which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
1028017a 105
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106 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
107 while (<STDIN>) {
108 print;
109 print OUT;
110 }
111 close OUT;
c9f97d15 112
6df41af2 113=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
eb6e2d6f 114
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115(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
116transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
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117one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
118a scalar value -- the length of an array, or the population info of a
119hash -- and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
120you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
121alternatives.
eb6e2d6f 122
6df41af2 123=item Args must match #! line
a0d0e21e 124
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125(F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
126with match the arguments specified on the #! line. Since some systems
127impose a one-argument limit on the #! line, try combining switches;
128for example, turn C<-w -U> into C<-wU>.
a0d0e21e 129
6df41af2 130=item Arg too short for msgsnd
76cd736e 131
6df41af2 132(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
76cd736e 133
8ea97a1e 134=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element
a0d0e21e 135
8ea97a1e 136(F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element, such as:
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137
138 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 139 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
a0d0e21e 140
8ea97a1e 141=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
5f05dabc 142
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143(F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
144such as:
5f05dabc 145
146 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 147 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
5f05dabc 148
8ea97a1e 149or a hash or array slice, such as:
5f05dabc 150
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151 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
152 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
5315574d 153
6df41af2 154=item %s argument is not a subroutine name
a0d0e21e 155
6df41af2 156(F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
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157name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
158error.
a0d0e21e 159
f86702cc 160=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 161
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162(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
163that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
164will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
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165
166=item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
167
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168(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
169spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
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170
171=item assertion botched: %s
172
173(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
174
175=item Assertion failed: file "%s"
176
177(P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
178
179=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
180
181(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
182must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
183know which context to supply to the right side.
184
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185=item A thread exited while %d threads were running
186
187(W) When using threaded Perl, a thread (not necessarily the main
188thread) exited while there were still other threads running.
189Usually it's a good idea to first collect the return values of the
190created threads by joining them, and only then exit from the main
191thread. See L<threads>.
192
2393f1b9 193=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
1b1f1335 194
49293501 195(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
2393f1b9 196the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
49293501 197
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198=item Attempt to bless into a reference
199
200(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
201the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
202supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
203
204 bless $self, $proto;
205
206when you intended
207
208 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
209
210If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
211of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
212example by:
213
214 bless $self, "$proto";
215
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216=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
217
218(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
219which is not in its key set.
220
221=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
222
223(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
224declared readonly from a restricted hash.
225
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226=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
227
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228(P internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
229that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
230outside any of those arenas.
a0d0e21e 231
54310121 232=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
bbce6d69 233
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234(P internal) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of
235strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
236strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
237of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
bbce6d69 238
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239=item Attempt to free temp prematurely
240
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241(W debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
242free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
243SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
244free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
245try to free it.
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246
247=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
248
e476b1b5 249(P internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
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250
251=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
252
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253(W internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
254see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
255earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
256This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
257that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
258mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
259corrupted.
a0d0e21e 260
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261=item Attempt to join self
262
263(F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
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264impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
265to move the join() to some other thread.
dcdda58d 266
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267=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
268
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269(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
270function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
271means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
272invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
273literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
274avoid this warning.
84902520 275
b7a902f4 276=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
277
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278(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
279used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
280dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 281
dc26df50 282=item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %s
a0d0e21e 283
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284(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
285or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 286S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
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287S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
288
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289=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
290
496a33f5 291(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
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292substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
293most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
294
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295=item Bad filehandle: %s
296
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297(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
298symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
299open(), or did it in another package.
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300
301=item Bad free() ignored
302
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303(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
304been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 305setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 306
9ea8bc6d 307This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
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308dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
309which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 310
aa689395 311=item Bad hash
312
313(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
314
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315=item Badly placed ()'s
316
317(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
318of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
319Perl yourself.
320
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321=item Bad name after %s::
322
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323(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
324didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
325of quotes, so
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326
327 $var = 'myvar';
328 $sym = mypack::$var;
329
330is not the same as
331
332 $var = 'myvar';
333 $sym = "mypack::$var";
334
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335=item Bad realloc() ignored
336
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337(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
338never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled
339by setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 340
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341=item Bad symbol for array
342
343(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
344wasn't a symbol table entry.
345
346=item Bad symbol for filehandle
347
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348(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
349that wasn't a symbol table entry.
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350
351=item Bad symbol for hash
352
353(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
354wasn't a symbol table entry.
355
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356=item Bareword found in conditional
357
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358(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
359conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
360of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
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361
362 open FOO || die;
363
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364It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
365a bareword:
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366
367 use constant TYPO => 1;
368 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
369
370The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
371
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372=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
373
374(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
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375subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
376symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
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377
378=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
379
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380(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
381compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
382you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 383
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384=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
385
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386(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
387subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
388exited.
a0d0e21e 389
68dc0745 390=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
391
392(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
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393implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
394occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
395be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
396depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 397
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398=item \1 better written as $1
399
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400(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
401The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
402substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
403because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
404there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 405
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406=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
407
e476b1b5 408(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
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409(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
410L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 411
69282e91 412=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 413
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414(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
415check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 416
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417=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
418
419(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
420Check you control flow and number of arguments.
421
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422=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
423
e476b1b5 424(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 425
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426=item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
427
be771a83 428(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
b45f050a 429copyable.
4633a7c4 430
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431=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
432
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433(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
434iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
435which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 436
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437=item Callback called exit
438
4929bf7b 439(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
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440exited by calling exit.
441
6df41af2 442=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 443
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444(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
445parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
446that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
447early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
448subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
449checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
450function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
451the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 452
49704364 453=item Cannot compress integer in pack
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454
455(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress. The BER
456compressed integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you
457attempted to compress Infinity or a very large number (> 1e308).
458See L<perlfunc/pack>.
459
49704364 460=item Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
0258719b
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461
462(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
463format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
464
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465=item Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
466
467(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
468integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
469to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
470
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471=item Can't bless non-reference value
472
473(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
474encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
475
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476=item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
477
478(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
479functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
480in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
481
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482=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
483
484(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
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485object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
486like this will reproduce the error:
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487
488 $BADREF = undef;
489 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
490 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
491
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492=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
493
54310121 494(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
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495ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
496didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
497object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
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498
499=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
500
501(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
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502object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
503defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
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504Something like this will reproduce the error:
505
506 $BADREF = 42;
507 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
508 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
509
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510=item Can't chdir to %s
511
512(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
513that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
514
0545a864 515=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
104d25b7 516
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517(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
518nosuid.
104d25b7 519
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520=item Can't coerce array into hash
521
522(F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the array has no
523information on how to map from keys to array indices. You can do that
524only with arrays that have a hash reference at index 0.
525
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526=item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
527
528(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 529(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
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530say things like:
531
532 *foo += 1;
533
534You CAN say
535
536 $foo = *foo;
537 $foo += 1;
538
539but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
540
541=item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
542
543(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 544(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
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545
546=item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
547
548(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 549(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
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550
551=item Can't create pipe mailbox
552
be771a83
GS
553(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
554quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 555
eb64745e 556=item Can't declare class for non-scalar %s in "%s"
a0d0e21e 557
2f7e735d
AMS
558(F) Currently, only scalar variables can be declared with a specific
559class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration. The semantics may be
560extended for other types of variables in future.
eb64745e
GS
561
562=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
563
564(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my" or
565"our" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 566
6df41af2
GS
567=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
568
be771a83
GS
569(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
570a file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
6df41af2 571
a0d0e21e
LW
572=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
573
be771a83
GS
574(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
575reason.
a0d0e21e 576
54310121 577=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
a0d0e21e 578
be771a83
GS
579(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
580reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
581C<-i.bak>, or some such.
a0d0e21e 582
10f9c03d 583=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
a0d0e21e 584
e476b1b5 585(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
10f9c03d
CK
586characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
587inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
a0d0e21e 588
7253e4e3 589=item Can't do {n,m} with n > m in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 590
b45f050a 591(F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want your
7253e4e3 592regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. The <-- HERE shows in the
b45f050a 593regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e
LW
594
595=item Can't do setegid!
596
be771a83
GS
597(P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
598suidperl.
a0d0e21e
LW
599
600=item Can't do seteuid!
601
602(P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
603
604=item Can't do setuid
605
be771a83
GS
606(F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to do
607setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the form
608sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides under
609the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines. If the
610file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask your
611sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
a0d0e21e
LW
612
613=item Can't do waitpid with flags
614
be771a83
GS
615(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
616waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 617
a0d0e21e
LW
618=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
619
be771a83
GS
620(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
621point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
622line.
a0d0e21e
LW
623
624=item Can't exec "%s": %s
625
d1be9408 626(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
627named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
628permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
629C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
630architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
631can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
632#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
633
634=item Can't exec %s
635
be771a83
GS
636(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
637that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
638need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
639
640=item Can't execute %s
641
be771a83
GS
642(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
643found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 644
6df41af2 645=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 646
be771a83
GS
647(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
648is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2 649
56ca2fc0
JH
650=item Can't find %s character property "%s"
651
652(F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
89d60977 653could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property
56ca2fc0
JH
654(remember that the names of character properties consist only of
655alphanumeric characters), or maybe you forgot the C<Is> or C<In> prefix?
656
6df41af2
GS
657=item Can't find label %s
658
be771a83
GS
659(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
660possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
661
662=item Can't find %s on PATH
663
be771a83
GS
664(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
665found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 666
6df41af2 667=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 668
be771a83
GS
669(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
670found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
671script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e 672
96ebfdd7
RK
673=item Can't find %s property definition %s
674
675(F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode property (for
676example C<\p{Lu}> is all uppercase letters). If you did mean to use a
677Unicode property, see L<perlunicode> for the list of known properties.
678If you didn't mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either
679by C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, until
680possible C<\E>).
681
a0d0e21e
LW
682=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
683
be771a83
GS
684(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
685that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
686nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 687
fb73857a 688 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
689
be771a83
GS
690If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have included
691unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good programmer's
692editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
a0d0e21e
LW
693
694=item Can't fork
695
be771a83
GS
696(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
697pipeline.
a0d0e21e 698
748a9306
LW
699=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
700
be771a83
GS
701(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
702between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
703Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
704the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
705account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
706the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
707the access checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
708the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
709if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
710because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
711appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up
712and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking
713routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
714shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
715only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 716
a0d0e21e
LW
717=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
718
be771a83
GS
719(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
720pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
721
722=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
723
748a9306
LW
724(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
725mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 726
6df41af2 727=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 728
be771a83
GS
729(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
730loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
731
732=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
733
be771a83
GS
734(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
735a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
736you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
737See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 738
b150fb22
RH
739=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-string
740
be771a83
GS
741(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
742"string". (You can use it to jump out of an eval {BLOCK}, but you
743probably don't want to.)
b150fb22 744
6df41af2
GS
745=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
746
be771a83
GS
747(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
748subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
749cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
750routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 751
0b5b802d
GS
752=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
753
be771a83
GS
754(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
755signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
756signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
757processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
758situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
759may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 760
6df41af2 761=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 762
6df41af2 763(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
764except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
765block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
766block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
767usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
768inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
769L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 770
748a9306
LW
771=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
772
2ba9eb46 773(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
748a9306
LW
774lexical variable using "my". This is not allowed. If you want to
775localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
776package name.
777
6df41af2 778=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 779
6df41af2
GS
780(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
781handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 782pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 783that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 784
ea071790 785=item Can't locate %s
ec889f3a
GS
786
787(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be
788found. Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC,
be771a83
GS
789unless the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you
790need to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where
791the extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
792to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
793L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 794
6df41af2
GS
795=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
796
be771a83
GS
797(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
798autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
799are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
800the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 801
a0d0e21e
LW
802=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
803
804(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
805functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 806method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
807
808=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
809
be771a83
GS
810(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
811doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 812
2f7da168
RK
813=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
814
815(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
816e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
817
3e3baf6d
TB
818=item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
819
be771a83
GS
820(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
821VMS.
3e3baf6d 822
a0d0e21e
LW
823=item Can't modify %s in %s
824
be771a83
GS
825(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
826to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 827
54310121 828=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
a0d0e21e
LW
829
830(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
831a NULL.
832
6df41af2
GS
833=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
834
835(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
836such, see L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
837
5f05dabc 838=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 839
5f05dabc 840(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
841buffer.
842
6df41af2
GS
843=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
844
845(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
846there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
847count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
848grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
849though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
850once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 851
a0d0e21e
LW
852=item Can't open %s: %s
853
c47ff5f1 854(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e
DD
855filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
856switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
be771a83
GS
857is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named on
858the command line.
a0d0e21e 859
9a869a14
RGS
860=item Can't open a reference
861
862(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
863using the 3-arg open() syntax :
864
865 open FH, '>', $ref;
866
867but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
868open is not supported.
869
a0d0e21e
LW
870=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
871
be771a83
GS
872(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
873You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
874as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
875">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 876
748a9306
LW
877=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
878
be771a83
GS
879(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
880redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
881the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
882
883=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
884
be771a83
GS
885(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
886redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
887command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
888
889=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
890
be771a83
GS
891(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
892redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
893the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
894
895=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
896
be771a83
GS
897(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
898redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
899for stdout.
748a9306 900
2b8ca739 901=item Can't open perl script%s
a0d0e21e
LW
902
903(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
904
126c71c8
YST
905=item Can't provide tied hash usage; use keys(%hash) to test if empty
906
907(F) When a hash is evaluated in scalar context, bucket usage is
908returned if the hash is populated, and false is returned if the hash
909is empty. Bucket usage is not currently available for tied hashes.
910To test if a hash is empty or populated, use keys(%hash) in scalar
911context instead.
912
6df41af2
GS
913=item Can't read CRTL environ
914
915(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
916from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
917missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
918or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
919searched.
6df41af2 920
7bac28a0 921=item Can't redefine active sort subroutine %s
922
923(F) Perl optimizes the internal handling of sort subroutines and keeps
be771a83
GS
924pointers into them. You tried to redefine one such sort subroutine when
925it was currently active, which is not allowed. If you really want to do
7bac28a0 926this, you should write C<sort { &func } @x> instead of C<sort func @x>.
927
6df41af2
GS
928=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
929
930(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
931there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
932count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
933or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
934though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
935loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
936
64977eb6 937=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 938
be771a83
GS
939(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
940file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
941the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 942
a0d0e21e
LW
943=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
944
e476b1b5 945(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
10f9c03d 946probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
a0d0e21e 947
748a9306
LW
948=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
949
be771a83
GS
950(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
951to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 952
6df41af2
GS
953=item Can't resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
954
be771a83
GS
955(F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as opposed
956to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the package. If
957method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 958
a0d0e21e
LW
959=item Can't reswap uid and euid
960
be771a83
GS
961(P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
962suidperl.
a0d0e21e 963
cd06dffe
GS
964=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
965
be771a83
GS
966(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
967temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
968is not allowed.
cd06dffe 969
96ebfdd7
RK
970=item Can't return outside a subroutine
971
972(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
973there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
974
78f9721b
SM
975=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
976
977(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue subroutine,
978but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl think you meant
979to return only one value. You probably meant to write parentheses around
980the call to the subroutine, which tell Perl that the call should be in
981list context.
982
a0d0e21e
LW
983=item Can't stat script "%s"
984
be771a83
GS
985(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
986open already. Bizarre.
a0d0e21e
LW
987
988=item Can't swap uid and euid
989
be771a83
GS
990(P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
991suidperl.
a0d0e21e
LW
992
993=item Can't take log of %g
994
fb73857a 995(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
996negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
997standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
998negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
999
1000=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1001
1002(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 1003negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1004with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
1005
1006=item Can't undef active subroutine
1007
1008(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1009however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1010redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1011
1012=item Can't unshift
1013
1014(F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
1015as the main Perl stack.
1016
1017=item Can't upgrade that kind of scalar
1018
be771a83
GS
1019(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1020into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1021specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1022indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e
LW
1023
1024=item Can't upgrade to undef
1025
be771a83
GS
1026(P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the totem pole, in the scheme of
1027upgradability. Upgrading to undef indicates an error in the code
1028calling sv_upgrade.
a0d0e21e 1029
1db89ea5
BS
1030=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1031
e27ad1f2 1032(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1db89ea5
BS
1033table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1034for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1035
96ebfdd7
RK
1036=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1037
1038(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1039be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1040
6df41af2
GS
1041=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1042
be771a83
GS
1043(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1044references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1045
90b75b61 1046=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63
GS
1047
1048(F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
1049Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1050provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1051
6df41af2
GS
1052=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1053
be771a83
GS
1054(F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1055foreach.
6df41af2
GS
1056
1057=item Can't use global %s in "my"
1058
be771a83
GS
1059(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1060is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1061(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1062have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1063weren't.
1064
c07a80fd 1065=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1066
1067(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1068You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1069and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1070Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1071lexical variable.
1072
a0d0e21e
LW
1073=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1074
1075(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1076reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1077test the type of the reference, if need be.
1078
748a9306 1079=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1080
be771a83
GS
1081(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1082references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 1083
748a9306
LW
1084=item Can't use subscript on %s
1085
1086(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1087subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
1088didn't look like an array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
1089
6df41af2
GS
1090=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1091
75b44862
GS
1092(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1093creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1094backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1095expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1096value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1097instead.
6df41af2 1098
810b8aa5
GS
1099=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1100
1101(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1102references can be weakened.
1103
5f05dabc 1104=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1105
be771a83
GS
1106(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1107with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1108Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1109
49704364 1110=item Character in "C" format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1111
1112(W pack) You said
1113
1114 pack("C", $x)
1115
1116where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1117only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1118and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1119
1120 pack("C", $x & 255)
1121
1122If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1123instead.
1124
49704364 1125=item Character in "c" format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1126
1127(W pack) You said
1128
1129 pack("c", $x)
1130
1131where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1132is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1133and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1134
1135 pack("c", $x & 255);
1136
1137If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1138instead.
1139
96ebfdd7
RK
1140=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1141
1142(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1143
49704364
WL
1144=item Code missing after '/'
1145
1146(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be another
1147template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1148
6df41af2
GS
1149=item %s: Command not found
1150
be771a83
GS
1151(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1152Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 1153
7a2e2cd6 1154=item Compilation failed in require
1155
1156(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1157Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1158encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1159
c3464db5
DD
1160=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1161
be771a83
GS
1162(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1163situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1164to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1165arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1166recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1167under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1168in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1169that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1170on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1171
38875929
DM
1172=item cond_broadcast() called on unlocked variable
1173
1174(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1175cond_broadcast() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_broadcast()
1176function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1177cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1178has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1179first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1180after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1181lock.
1182
38875929
DM
1183=item cond_signal() called on unlocked variable
1184
1185(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1186cond_signal() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_signal()
1187function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1188cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1189has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1190first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1191after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1192lock.
1193
69282e91 1194=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1195
be771a83
GS
1196(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1197to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1198L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1199
41ab332f 1200=item Constant(%s)%s: %s
6df41af2 1201
be771a83
GS
1202(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1203an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1204specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
1205corresponding C<overload> or C<charnames> pragma? See L<charnames> and
1206L<overload>.
6df41af2 1207
779c5bc9
GS
1208=item Constant is not %s reference
1209
1210(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83
GS
1211is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
1212The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
1213usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1214See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1215
4cee8e80
CS
1216=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1217
bb028877 1218(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been
be771a83
GS
1219eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for
1220commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1221
9607fc9c 1222=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1223
be771a83
GS
1224(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1225for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1226workarounds.
9607fc9c 1227
e7ea3e70
IZ
1228=item Copy method did not return a reference
1229
64977eb6 1230(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1231L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1232
6798c92b
GS
1233=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1234
1235(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1236
a0d0e21e
LW
1237=item corrupted regexp pointers
1238
1239(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1240expression compiler gave it.
1241
1242=item corrupted regexp program
1243
be771a83
GS
1244(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1245valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1246
6df41af2
GS
1247=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
1248
1249(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1250
49704364
WL
1251=item Count after length/code in unpack
1252
1253(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1254you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1255L<perlfunc/pack>.
1256
a0d0e21e
LW
1257=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1258
be771a83
GS
1259(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1260100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1261infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1262which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1263
f10b0346 1264=item defined(@array) is deprecated
69794302 1265
be771a83
GS
1266(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1267checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
64977eb6 1268array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1269
f10b0346 1270=item defined(%hash) is deprecated
69794302 1271
be771a83
GS
1272(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it
1273checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the hash
64977eb6 1274is empty, just use C<if (%hash) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1275
62658f4d
PM
1276=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1277
1278(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1279there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1280
fc36a67e 1281=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1282
be771a83
GS
1283(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1284long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1285that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 1286
3cdd684c
TP
1287=item Did not produce a valid header
1288
1289See Server error.
1290
6df41af2
GS
1291=item %s did not return a true value
1292
1293(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1294it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1295traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1296do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1297
cc507455 1298=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 1299
be771a83
GS
1300(W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some
1301such.
4633a7c4 1302
cc507455 1303=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 1304
be771a83
GS
1305(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1306variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1307seems superfluous.
33633739 1308
cc507455 1309=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 1310
be771a83
GS
1311(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1312@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1313carried away.
748a9306 1314
7e1af8bc 1315=item Died
5f05dabc 1316
1317(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1318you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
1319
3cdd684c
TP
1320=item Document contains no data
1321
1322See Server error.
1323
62658f4d
PM
1324=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1325
1326(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1327define a C<$VERSION.>
1328
49704364
WL
1329=item '/' does not take a repeat count
1330
1331(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
1332See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1333
e944adae
JH
1334=item %s "\x%s" does not map to Unicode
1335
ffb866b1
JH
1336When reading in different encodings Perl tries to map everything
1337into Unicode characters. The bytes you read in are not legal in
1338this encoding, for example
e944adae
JH
1339
1340 utf8 "\xE4" does not map to Unicode
1341
ffb866b1 1342if you try to read in the a-diaereses Latin-1 as UTF-8.
e944adae 1343
a0d0e21e
LW
1344=item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1345
1346(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1347
1348=item do_study: out of memory
1349
1350(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1351
6df41af2
GS
1352=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1353
1354(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1355found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
1356name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1357because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
1358"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1359something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1360subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1361"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 1362
ac206dc8
RGS
1363=item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1364
1365(W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1366qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1367
a0d0e21e
LW
1368=item Duplicate free() ignored
1369
be771a83
GS
1370(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1371already been freed.
a0d0e21e 1372
4633a7c4
LW
1373=item elseif should be elsif
1374
be771a83
GS
1375(S) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's ugly.
1376Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method named
1377"elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
1378unlikely to be what you want.
1379
ab13f0c7
JH
1380=item Empty %s
1381
af6f566e
HS
1382(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
1383described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
1384a regular expression without specifying the property name.
ab13f0c7 1385
85ab1d1d 1386=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 1387
85ab1d1d 1388(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
1389effective uids or gids failed.
1390
748a9306
LW
1391=item Error converting file specification %s
1392
5f05dabc 1393(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 1394specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
1395single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1396an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1397conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 1398
e4d48cc9
GS
1399=item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
1400
be771a83
GS
1401(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1402expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1403is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 1404
e4d48cc9
GS
1405=item %s: Eval-group not allowed at run time
1406
be771a83
GS
1407(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1408C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
1409pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it
1410is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly
1411building the pattern from an interpolated string at run time and using
1412that in an eval(). See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 1413
6df41af2
GS
1414=item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
1415
be771a83
GS
1416(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1417assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1418pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 1419
fc36a67e 1420=item Excessively long <> operator
1421
1422(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1423Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1424filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1425variable and glob that.
1426
ed9aa3b7
SG
1427=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1428
1429(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented in MacPerl. See L<perlport>.
1430
f86702cc 1431=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors
a0d0e21e
LW
1432
1433(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1434
1435=item Exiting eval via %s
1436
be771a83
GS
1437(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1438goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
1439
1440=item Exiting format via %s
1441
9a2ff54b 1442(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 1443goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1444
0a753a76 1445=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1446
be771a83
GS
1447(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1448sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1449loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 1450
a0d0e21e
LW
1451=item Exiting subroutine via %s
1452
be771a83
GS
1453(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1454as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
1455
1456=item Exiting substitution via %s
1457
be771a83
GS
1458(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1459as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1460
7b8d334a
GS
1461=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1462
be771a83
GS
1463(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1464the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1465usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1466e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 1467
6df41af2
GS
1468=item %s: Expression syntax
1469
be771a83
GS
1470(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1471Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
1472
1473=item %s failed--call queue aborted
1474
1475(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a CHECK, INIT, or
1476END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the queue of such
1477routines has been prematurely ended.
1478
7253e4e3 1479=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
73b437c8 1480
be771a83 1481(W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3
RK
1482character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1483in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1484"-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1485problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 1486
748a9306 1487=item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 1488
be771a83
GS
1489(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1490system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1491details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1492you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
1493
1494=item fcntl is not implemented
1495
1496(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1497PDP-11 or something?
1498
af8c498a 1499=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 1500
6c8d78fb
HS
1501(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
1502it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
1503"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
1504write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 1505
af8c498a 1506=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 1507
6c8d78fb
HS
1508(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
1509you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
be771a83
GS
1510with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you
1511intended only to read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>.
6c8d78fb
HS
1512Another possibility is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0
1513(also known as STDIN) for output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
97828cef
RGS
1514
1515=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
1516
1517(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
1518as STDOUT or STDERR. This occured because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
1519previously.
1520
1521=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
1522
1523(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
1524as STDIN. This occured because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
1525
1526=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1527
1528(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
1529a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1530happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1531name.
a0d0e21e 1532
56e90b21
GS
1533=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1534
be771a83 1535(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 1536some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
1537filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1538same name?
56e90b21 1539
6df41af2
GS
1540=item Format not terminated
1541
1542(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1543to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1544
a0d0e21e
LW
1545=item Format %s redefined
1546
e476b1b5 1547(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
1548
1549 {
271595cc 1550 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
1551 eval "format NAME =...";
1552 }
1553
a0d0e21e
LW
1554=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1555
e476b1b5 1556(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
1557
1558 if ($foo = 123)
1559
1560when you meant
1561
1562 if ($foo == 123)
1563
1564(or something like that).
1565
6df41af2
GS
1566=item %s found where operator expected
1567
1568(S) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator. If it
be771a83
GS
1569sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
1570operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
1571operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 1572
a0d0e21e
LW
1573=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1574
1575(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1576
1577=item gethostent not implemented
1578
1579(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1580because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1581on the Internet.
1582
69282e91 1583=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1584
be771a83
GS
1585(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
1586socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 1587
748a9306
LW
1588=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1589
1590(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1591C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1592
6df41af2
GS
1593=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
1594
be771a83
GS
1595(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
1596forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
1597L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
1598
1599=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1600
1601(F) You've said "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables
1602must either be lexically scoped (using "my"), declared beforehand using
1603"our", or explicitly qualified to say which package the global variable
1604is in (using "::").
1605
e476b1b5
GS
1606=item glob failed (%s)
1607
be771a83
GS
1608(W glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for
1609C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a
1610C<glob> pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
1611nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
1612resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell) is
1613broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables in
1614config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it
1615were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all
1616empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
1617think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 1618C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 1619
a0d0e21e
LW
1620=item Glob not terminated
1621
1622(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
1623a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
1624not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
1625earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 1626
6df41af2 1627=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 1628
6df41af2
GS
1629(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
1630version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
1631
1632=item goto must have label
1633
1634(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1635unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1636
49704364 1637=item ()-group starts with a count
18529408 1638
49704364 1639(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is
18529408 1640supposed to follow something: a template character or a ()-group.
49704364 1641 See L<perlfunc/pack>.
18529408 1642
6df41af2
GS
1643=item %s had compilation errors
1644
1645(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
1646
a0d0e21e
LW
1647=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1648
be771a83
GS
1649(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
1650to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
1651created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e 1652
9b332a20 1653=item $* is no longer supported
f02c194e
RGS
1654
1655(D deprecated) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older perls, has
1656been removed as of 5.9.0 and is no longer supported. You should use the
1657C<//m> and C<//s> regexp modifiers instead.
1658
a0d0e21e
LW
1659=item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1660
be771a83
GS
1661(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
1662spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
a0d0e21e 1663
6df41af2
GS
1664=item %s has too many errors
1665
1666(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
1667Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
1668
252aa082
JH
1669=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
1670
e476b1b5 1671(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
1672(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
1673L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 1674
8903cb82 1675=item Identifier too long
1676
1677(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 1678about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
1679names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
1680of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 1681
6df41af2 1682=item Illegal binary digit %s
f675dbe5 1683
6df41af2 1684(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
f675dbe5 1685
6df41af2 1686=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
a0d0e21e 1687
be771a83
GS
1688(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
1689binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
1690offending digit.
a0d0e21e 1691
4fdae800 1692=item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1693
d5898338 1694(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
be771a83
GS
1695would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
1696when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
1697version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
1698to your Perl administrator.
4fdae800 1699
d37a9538
ST
1700=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
1701
420cdfc1 1702(W syntax) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration. Legal
d37a9538
ST
1703characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, and \.
1704
904d85c5
RGS
1705=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
1706
1707(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
1708you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
1709
a0d0e21e
LW
1710=item Illegal division by zero
1711
be771a83
GS
1712(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
1713your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
1714meaningless input.
a0d0e21e 1715
6df41af2
GS
1716=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
1717
be771a83
GS
1718(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
1719A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
1720number stopped before the illegal character.
6df41af2 1721
a0d0e21e
LW
1722=item Illegal modulus zero
1723
be771a83
GS
1724(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
1725numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 1726
6df41af2 1727=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 1728
6df41af2
GS
1729(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
1730two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4
GS
1731
1732=item Illegal octal digit %s
a0d0e21e 1733
d1be9408 1734(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 1735
399388f4 1736=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
748a9306 1737
d1be9408 1738(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
75b44862 1739Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
748a9306 1740
6df41af2 1741=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: %s
6ff81951 1742
6df41af2 1743(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
1c4db469 1744following switches: B<-[DIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 1745
6df41af2 1746=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 1747
75b44862 1748(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
1749internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
1750delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 1751
6df41af2 1752=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 1753
be771a83
GS
1754(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
1755name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
1756didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
1757ignored.
54310121 1758
8fa7688f
SF
1759=item Impossible to activate assertion call
1760
1761(W assertions) You're calling an assertion function in a block that is
1762not under the control of the C<assertions> pragma.
1763
6df41af2 1764=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 1765
be771a83
GS
1766(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
1767the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
1768system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
1769times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
1770would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 1771
be771a83
GS
1772Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
1773also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 1774
979699d9
JH
1775=item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
1776
1777(F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
1778Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
1779encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
1780
a0d0e21e
LW
1781=item Insecure dependency in %s
1782
8b1a09fc 1783(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
1784The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
1785setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
1786tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
1787from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
1788such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
1789L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
1790
1791=item Insecure directory in %s
1792
be771a83
GS
1793(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1794setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
1795the world. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 1796
62f468fc 1797=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
1798
1799(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc 1800setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
332d5f78
SR
1801C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
1802supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
1803the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 1804
a7ae9550
GS
1805=item Integer overflow in %s number
1806
75b44862 1807(W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
1808either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
1809your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
1810On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
1811representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
18120b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
1813transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
1814internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
1815operations.
bbce6d69 1816
46314c13
JP
1817=item Integer overflow in version
1818
1819(F) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for the
1820size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
1821because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use a
1822element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by
1823trying to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like
1824100/9.
1825
7253e4e3 1826=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
1827
1828(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
7253e4e3 1829The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a
JF
1830discovered.
1831
748a9306
LW
1832=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
1833
be771a83
GS
1834(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
1835you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
1836to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
1837L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
1838Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
1839terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 1840
7253e4e3 1841=item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 1842
7253e4e3
RK
1843(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
1844<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1845discovered.
a0d0e21e 1846
6df41af2
GS
1847=item %s (...) interpreted as function
1848
75b44862 1849(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 1850followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 1851operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 1852L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 1853
09bef843
SB
1854=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
1855
1856The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
1857by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
1858
1859=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
1860
be771a83
GS
1861The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
1862recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 1863
c635e13b 1864=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
1865
be771a83
GS
1866(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
1867L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 1868
7253e4e3 1869=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
1870
1871(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
1872greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
1873C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
1874up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1875problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 1876
d1573ac7 1877=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
1878
1879(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
1880character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
1881
09bef843
SB
1882=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
1883
0120eecf 1884(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
1885elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
1886parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
1887See L<attributes>.
09bef843 1888
49704364 1889=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
96e4d5b1 1890
49704364
WL
1891(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
1892See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1893(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
75b44862 1894silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 1895
46314c13
JP
1896=item Invalid version format (multiple underscores)
1897
1898(F) Versions may contain at most a single underscore, which signals
1899that the version is a beta release. See L<version> for the allowed
1900version formats.
1901
1902=item Invalid version format (underscores before decimal)
1903
1904(F) Versions may not contain decimals after the optional underscore.
1905See L<version> for the allowed version formats.
1906
a0d0e21e
LW
1907=item ioctl is not implemented
1908
1909(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
1910strange for a machine that supports C.
1911
c289d2f7
JH
1912=item ioctl() on unopened %s
1913
1914(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
1915Check you control flow and number of arguments.
1916
363c40c4
SB
1917=item IO layers (like "%s") unavailable
1918
1919(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
1920you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO Perl must be configured
1921with 'useperlio'.
1922
80cbd5ad
JH
1923=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
1924
1925(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
1926neither as a system call or an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
1927
6ad11d81
JH
1928=item `%s' is not a code reference
1929
04a80ee0
RGS
1930(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of overload::constant
1931needs to be a code reference. Either an anonymous subroutine, or a reference
6ad11d81
JH
1932to a subroutine.
1933
1934=item `%s' is not an overloadable type
1935
04a80ee0
RGS
1936(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
1937unaware of.
6ad11d81 1938
a0d0e21e
LW
1939=item junk on end of regexp
1940
1941(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
1942
1943=item Label not found for "last %s"
1944
be771a83
GS
1945(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
1946of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1947L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
1948
1949=item Label not found for "next %s"
1950
1951(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
1952that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1953L<perlfunc/last>.
1954
1955=item Label not found for "redo %s"
1956
1957(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
1958that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1959L<perlfunc/last>.
1960
85ab1d1d 1961=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 1962
85ab1d1d 1963(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
1964effective uids or gids failed.
1965
49704364
WL
1966=item length/code after end of string in unpack
1967
1968(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was alread used up when an unpack
1969length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
1970an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1971
69282e91 1972=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1973
be771a83
GS
1974(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
1975to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1976L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 1977
49704364 1978=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
1979
1980(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
7253e4e3
RK
1981handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release. The <-- HERE
1982shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2e50fd82 1983
2f7da168
RK
1984=item lstat() on filehandle %s
1985
1986(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
1987by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
1988instead on the filehandle.)
1989
96ebfdd7
RK
1990=item Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented yet
1991
1992(F) Due to limitations in the current implementation, array and hash
1993values cannot be returned in subroutines used in lvalue context. See
1994L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
1995
49704364
WL
1996=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
1997
1998(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
1999are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2000
2001=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
2002
2003(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
2004are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2005
6df41af2
GS
2006=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
2007
2008(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
2009
2010 prefix1;prefix2
2011
2012or
6df41af2
GS
2013 prefix1 prefix2
2014
be771a83
GS
2015with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
2016a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
2017appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 2018"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 2019
2f758a16
ST
2020=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
2021
d37a9538
ST
2022(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
2023syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
2024obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
2025when the function is called.
2f758a16 2026
ba210ebe
JH
2027=item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
2028
2029Perl detected something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding rules.
2030
901b21bf
JH
2031One possible cause is that you read in data that you thought to be in
2032UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy 8-bit data). Another
2033possibility is careless use of utf8::upgrade().
2034
dea0fc0b
JH
2035=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
2036
2037Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
2038doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
2039
49704364 2040=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2041
2042(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
7253e4e3
RK
2043regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
2044shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2045See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 2046
25f58aea
PN
2047=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2048
2049(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
2050interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
2051"use" or "my".
2052
49704364 2053=item % may not be used in pack
6df41af2
GS
2054
2055(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
2056checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
2057See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 2058
a0d0e21e
LW
2059=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
2060
2061(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 2062doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2063
3cdd684c
TP
2064=item Method %s not permitted
2065
2066See Server error.
2067
a0d0e21e
LW
2068=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
2069
2070(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
2071by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
2072ended earlier on the current line.
2073
2074=item Misplaced _ in number
2075
d4ced10d
JH
2076(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
2077separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 2078
4a2d328f 2079=item Missing %sbrace%s on \N{}
423cee85 2080
4a2d328f 2081(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
423cee85
JH
2082double-quotish context.
2083
a0d0e21e
LW
2084=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
2085
2086(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
2087"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
2088
06eaf0bc
GS
2089=item Missing command in piped open
2090
be771a83
GS
2091(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
2092C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
2093blank.
06eaf0bc 2094
961ce445
RGS
2095=item Missing control char name in \c
2096
2097(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
2098character name.
2099
6df41af2
GS
2100=item Missing name in "my sub"
2101
be771a83
GS
2102(F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
2103they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
2104
2105=item Missing $ on loop variable
2106
be771a83
GS
2107(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
2108are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
2109can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 2110
cc507455 2111=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306
LW
2112
2113(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
2114found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
2115
ab13f0c7
JH
2116=item Missing right brace on %s
2117
2118(F) Missing right brace in C<\p{...}> or C<\P{...}>.
2119
d98d5fff 2120=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 2121
be771a83
GS
2122(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
2123ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
2124were last editing.
a0d0e21e 2125
6df41af2
GS
2126=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
2127
2128(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
2129found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
2130the previous line just because you saw this message.
2131
a0d0e21e
LW
2132=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
2133
2134(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 2135constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
2136catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
2137
2138 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
2139 mod(2);
2140
2141Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
2142
c5674021
PDF
2143Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
2144is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
2145
2146 $x = 1;
2147 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
2148 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to modify the 2
64977eb6 2149 }
c5674021 2150
7a4340ed 2151=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2152
2153(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
2154subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
2155backwards.
2156
7a4340ed 2157=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 2158
be771a83
GS
2159(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
2160couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
2161
2162=item Module name must be constant
2163
2164(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
2165
be98fb35 2166=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 2167
be98fb35
GS
2168(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
2169you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
2170about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 2171
ed9aa3b7
SG
2172=item More than one argument to open
2173
2174(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
2175can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
2176list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
2177See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
2178
a0d0e21e
LW
2179=item msg%s not implemented
2180
2181(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
2182
2183=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
2184
75b44862
GS
2185(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
2186They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 2187
49704364 2188=item '/' must be followed by 'a*', 'A*' or 'Z*'
09bef843 2189
6df41af2 2190(F) You had a pack template indicating a counted-length string,
be771a83
GS
2191Currently the only things that can have their length counted are a*, A*
2192or Z*. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2 2193
49704364 2194=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
6df41af2 2195
49704364
WL
2196(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
2197follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
2198See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2199
2200=item "my sub" not yet implemented
2201
be771a83
GS
2202(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
2203that yet.
6df41af2
GS
2204
2205=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
2206
be771a83
GS
2207(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2208sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2209local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 2210
8b1a09fc 2211=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2212
e476b1b5 2213(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
be771a83
GS
2214If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2215again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
77ca0c92 2216provided for this purpose.
a0d0e21e 2217
64b374f4
FD
2218NOTE: This warning detects symbols that have been used only once so $c, @c,
2219%c, *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or format) are considered
2220the same; if a program uses $c only once but also uses any of the others it
2221will not trigger this warning.
2222
49704364
WL
2223=item Negative '/' count in unpack
2224
2225(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
2226negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2227
a0d0e21e
LW
2228=item Negative length
2229
be771a83
GS
2230(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
2231length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 2232
ed9aa3b7
SG
2233=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
2234
2235(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
2236greater than or equal to zero.
2237
7253e4e3 2238=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 2239
b45f050a 2240(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
7253e4e3 2241things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
b45f050a 2242expression about where the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 2243
7253e4e3 2244Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 2245C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 2246
6df41af2 2247=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 2248
be771a83
GS
2249(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
2250scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e 2251
dca6e23f
RB
2252=item Newline in left-justified string for %s
2253
2254(W printf) There is a newline in a string to be left justified by
2255C<printf> or C<sprintf>.
2256
2257The padding spaces will appear after the newline, which is probably not
2258what you wanted. Usually you should remove the newline from the string
2259and put formatting characters in the C<sprintf> format.
2260
a0d0e21e
LW
2261=item No %s allowed while running setuid
2262
be771a83
GS
2263(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
2264setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
2265will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
2266securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2267
a0d0e21e
LW
2268=item No comma allowed after %s
2269
2270(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
2271allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
2272Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
2273
0a753a76 2274One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
2275constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
2276importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
2277does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
2278explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
2279L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
2280would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
2281remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
2282constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
2283list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
2284this error was triggered?
2285
748a9306
LW
2286=item No command into which to pipe on command line
2287
be771a83
GS
2288(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2289redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
2290doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 2291
a0d0e21e
LW
2292=item No DB::DB routine defined
2293
be771a83
GS
2294(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
2295for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof) didn't
2296define a routine to be called at the beginning of each statement. Which
2297is odd, because the file should have been required automatically, and
2298should have blown up the require if it didn't parse right.
a0d0e21e
LW
2299
2300=item No dbm on this machine
2301
2302(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 2303supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2304
2305=item No DBsub routine
2306
2307(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
2308but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
2309didn't define a DB::sub routine to be called at the beginning of each
2310ordinary subroutine call.
2311
96ebfdd7
RK
2312=item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
2313
2314(F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
2315
c47ff5f1 2316=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 2317
be771a83
GS
2318(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2319redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
2320find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 2321
49704364
WL
2322=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
2323
2324(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
2325matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2326
c47ff5f1 2327=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 2328
be771a83
GS
2329(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2330redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
2331name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 2332
6df41af2
GS
2333=item No #! line
2334
2335(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2336even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
2337
2338=item "no" not allowed in expression
2339
be771a83
GS
2340(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
2341returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 2342
c47ff5f1 2343=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 2344
be771a83
GS
2345(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2346redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
2347doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 2348
c47ff5f1 2349=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 2350
be771a83
GS
2351(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2352redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
2353find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 2354
1ec3e8de
GS
2355=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
2356
be771a83
GS
2357(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
2358declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
2359semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 2360
a0d0e21e
LW
2361=item No Perl script found in input
2362
2363(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
2364with #! and containing the word "perl".
2365
2366=item No setregid available
2367
2368(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
2369your system.
2370
2371=item No setreuid available
2372
2373(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
2374your system.
2375
a67e862a 2376=item No space allowed after -%c
a0d0e21e 2377
be771a83
GS
2378(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2379immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
a0d0e21e 2380
6df41af2
GS
2381=item No %s specified for -%c
2382
2383(F) The indicated command line switch needs a mandatory argument, but
2384you haven't specified one.
2385
2c692339
RGS
2386=item No such class %s
2387
2388(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration, but
2389this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
2390
6df41af2
GS
2391=item No such pipe open
2392
2393(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
2394close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
2395earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 2396
a0d0e21e
LW
2397=item No such signal: SIG%s
2398
be771a83
GS
2399(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
2400not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
2401names on your system.
a0d0e21e
LW
2402
2403=item Not a CODE reference
2404
2405(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2406subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
2407use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2408also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2409
2410=item Not a format reference
2411
2412(F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
2413format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
2414
2415=item Not a GLOB reference
2416
be771a83
GS
2417(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
2418symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
2419something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
2420kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2421
2422=item Not a HASH reference
2423
be771a83
GS
2424(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
2425reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
2426find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 2427
6df41af2
GS
2428=item Not an ARRAY reference
2429
be771a83
GS
2430(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
2431a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2432to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 2433
a0d0e21e
LW
2434=item Not a perl script
2435
2436(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2437even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
2438mention perl.
2439
2440=item Not a SCALAR reference
2441
be771a83
GS
2442(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
2443a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2444to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2445
2446=item Not a subroutine reference
2447
2448(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2449subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
2450use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2451also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 2452
e7ea3e70 2453=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
2454
2455(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 2456doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2457
a0d0e21e
LW
2458=item Not enough arguments for %s
2459
2460(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
2461
6df41af2
GS
2462=item Not enough format arguments
2463
be771a83
GS
2464(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
2465supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
2466
2467=item %s: not found
2468
be771a83
GS
2469(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
2470of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
2471yourself.
6df41af2
GS
2472
2473=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 2474
6df41af2
GS
2475(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
2476timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
2477to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
2478F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
2479need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e
LW
2480
2481=item Null filename used
2482
be771a83
GS
2483(F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
2484machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
a0d0e21e 2485
6df41af2
GS
2486=item NULL OP IN RUN
2487
be771a83
GS
2488(P debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
2489pointer.
6df41af2 2490
55497cff 2491=item Null picture in formline
2492
2493(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
2494specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
2495supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
2496
a0d0e21e
LW
2497=item Null realloc
2498
2499(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
2500
2501=item NULL regexp argument
2502
5f05dabc 2503(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
2504
2505=item NULL regexp parameter
2506
2507(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
2508
fc36a67e 2509=item Number too long
2510
be771a83 2511(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 2512about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
2513versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
2514the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
2515"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 2516
6df41af2
GS
2517=item Octal number in vector unsupported
2518
be771a83
GS
2519(F) Numbers with a leading C<0> are not currently allowed in vectors.
2520The octal number interpretation of such numbers may be supported in a
2521future version.
6df41af2 2522
252aa082
JH
2523=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
2524
75b44862 2525(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
2526(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2527L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082
JH
2528
2529See also L<perlport> for writing portable code.
2530
6ad11d81
JH
2531=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
2532
04a80ee0
RGS
2533(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
2534arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 2535
b21befc1
MG
2536=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
2537
2538(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2539which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
2540
1930e939 2541=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 2542
be771a83
GS
2543(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2544which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 2545
bbce6d69 2546=item Offset outside string
2547
2548(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with an offset
be771a83
GS
2549pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to imagine. The sole
2550exception to this is that C<sysread()>ing past the buffer will extend
2551the buffer and zero pad the new area.
bbce6d69 2552
c289d2f7 2553=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
2554
2555(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
2556never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
2557call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
2558
96ebfdd7
RK
2559=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
2560
2561(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
2562that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
2563
a0d0e21e
LW
2564=item oops: oopsAV
2565
e476b1b5 2566(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
2567
2568=item oops: oopsHV
2569
e476b1b5 2570(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 2571
56f7f34b 2572=item Operation `%s': no method found, %s
44a8e56a 2573
be771a83
GS
2574(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
2575handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
2576of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
2577C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 2578
748a9306
LW
2579=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
2580
be771a83
GS
2581(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
2582was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
2583use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
2584example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
2585"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 2586
6df41af2
GS
2587=item "our" variable %s redeclared
2588
be771a83
GS
2589(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
2590in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 2591
a80b8354
GS
2592=item Out of memory!
2593
2594(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
2595remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
2596no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 2597
19a52907
JH
2598At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
2599process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
2600C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
2601the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
2602and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
2603
6df41af2 2604=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 2605
6df41af2
GS
2606(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
2607remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
2608the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
2609possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 2610
1b979e0a 2611=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 2612
be771a83
GS
2613(X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
2614insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
2615request.
eff9c6e2
CS
2616
2617The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
2618depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
2619However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
2620emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
2621is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
2622where the failed request happened.
55497cff 2623
1b979e0a
IZ
2624=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
2625
2626(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
2627is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
2628C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 2629
6df41af2
GS
2630=item Out of memory for yacc stack
2631
be771a83
GS
2632(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
2633parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
2634otherwise.
6df41af2 2635
49704364 2636=item '@' outside of string in unpack
6df41af2 2637
49704364 2638(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6df41af2
GS
2639the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2640
2641=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
2642
be771a83
GS
2643(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
2644package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
2645some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
2646mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 2647
96ebfdd7
RK
2648=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
2649
2650(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
2651signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2652
a0d0e21e
LW
2653=item page overflow
2654
be771a83
GS
2655(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
2656page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 2657
6df41af2
GS
2658=item panic: %s
2659
2660(P) An internal error.
2661
a0d0e21e
LW
2662=item panic: ck_grep
2663
2664(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
2665
2666=item panic: ck_split
2667
2668(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
2669
2670=item panic: corrupt saved stack index
2671
be771a83
GS
2672(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
2673there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 2674
810b8aa5
GS
2675=item panic: del_backref
2676
2677(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
2678reference.
2679
7619c85e
RG
2680=item panic: Devel::DProf inconsistent subroutine return
2681
2682(P) Devel::DProf called a subroutine that exited using goto(LABEL),
2683last(LABEL) or next(LABEL). Leaving that way a subroutine called from
2684an XSUB will lead very probably to a crash of the interpreter. This is
2685a bug that will hopefully one day get fixed.
2686
a0d0e21e
LW
2687=item panic: die %s
2688
2689(P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
2690it wasn't an eval context.
2691
a0d0e21e
LW
2692=item panic: do_subst
2693
be771a83
GS
2694(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
2695data.
a0d0e21e 2696
2269b42e 2697=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 2698
2269b42e 2699(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 2700data.
a0d0e21e 2701
c635e13b 2702=item panic: frexp
2703
2704(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
2705
a0d0e21e
LW
2706=item panic: goto
2707
2708(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
2709and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
2710
2711=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
2712
2713(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
2714
2715=item panic: INTERPCONCAT
2716
2717(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
2718
e446cec8
IZ
2719=item panic: kid popen errno read
2720
2721(F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
2722
a0d0e21e
LW
2723=item panic: last
2724
2725(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
2726it wasn't a block context.
2727
2728=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
2729
be771a83
GS
2730(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
2731scope.
a0d0e21e
LW
2732
2733=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
2734
2735(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
2736invalid enum on the top of it.
2737
810b8aa5
GS
2738=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
2739
2740(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
2741references to an object.
2742
6df41af2
GS
2743=item panic: malloc
2744
2745(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
2746
a0d0e21e
LW
2747=item panic: mapstart
2748
2749(P) The compiler is screwed up with respect to the map() function.
2750
2751=item panic: null array
2752
2753(P) One of the internal array routines was passed a null AV pointer.
2754
2755=item panic: pad_alloc
2756
2757(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2758and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2759
2760=item panic: pad_free curpad
2761
2762(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2763and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2764
2765=item panic: pad_free po
2766
2767(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2768
2769=item panic: pad_reset curpad
2770
2771(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2772and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2773
2774=item panic: pad_sv po
2775
2776(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2777
2778=item panic: pad_swipe curpad
2779
2780(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2781and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2782
2783=item panic: pad_swipe po
2784
2785(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2786
2787=item panic: pp_iter
2788
2789(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
2790
96ebfdd7
RK
2791=item panic: pp_match%s
2792
2793(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
2794data.
2795
2269b42e
JH
2796=item panic: pp_split
2797
2798(P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
2799
a0d0e21e
LW
2800=item panic: realloc
2801
2802(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
2803
2804=item panic: restartop
2805
2806(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
2807didn't supply the destination.
2808
2809=item panic: return
2810
2811(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
2812then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
2813
2814=item panic: scan_num
2815
2816(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
2817
2818=item panic: sv_insert
2819
2820(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
2821was string.
2822
2823=item panic: top_env
2824
6224f72b 2825(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e 2826
dea0fc0b
JH
2827=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
2828
2829(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 2830to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 2831
2f7da168
RK
2832=item panic: yylex
2833
2834(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
2835
7b8d334a 2836=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
a0d0e21e 2837
e476b1b5 2838(W parenthesis) You said something like
a0d0e21e
LW
2839
2840 my $foo, $bar = @_;
2841
2842when you meant
2843
2844 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
2845
54884818 2846Remember that "my", "our", and "local" bind tighter than comma.
a0d0e21e 2847
96ebfdd7
RK
2848=item C<-p> destination: %s
2849
2850(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
2851command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
2852redirected it with select().)
2853
2854=item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
2855
2856(F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2857"Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
2858that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
2859
2860=item perlio: argument list not closed for layer "%s"
2861
2862(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O system you
2863forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers take care of transforming
2864data between external and internal representations.) Perl stopped parsing
2865the layer list at this point and did not attempt to push this layer.
2866If your program didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be
2867the result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2868
2869=item perlio: invalid separator character %s in layer specification list %s
2870
2871(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other than a
2872colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
2873If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2874list was terminated too soon.
2875
2876=item perlio: unknown layer "%s"
2877
2878(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
2879system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
2880internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
2881are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
2882explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
2883value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2884
75b44862 2885=item Perl %s required--this is only version %s, stopped
a0d0e21e 2886
be771a83
GS
2887(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
2888recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
2889you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
a0d0e21e 2890
6df41af2
GS
2891=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
2892
2893(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 2894C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 2895
96ebfdd7
RK
2896=item PERL_SIGNALS illegal: "%s"
2897
2898See L<perlrun/PERL_SIGNALS> for legal values.
2899
6df41af2
GS
2900=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2901
2902(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
2903
2904 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2905 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
2906 LC_ALL = "En_US",
2907 LANG = (unset)
2908 are supported and installed on your system.
2909 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
2910
2911Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
2912settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
0ea6b70f
JH
2913This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
2914system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
2915locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
2916dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
2917Perl can and will use, the script will be run. Before you really fix
2918the problem, however, you will get the same error message each time
2919you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
2920L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
6df41af2 2921
a0d0e21e
LW
2922=item Permission denied
2923
2924(F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to no good.
2925
bd3fa61c 2926=item pid %x not a child
748a9306 2927
be771a83
GS
2928(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
2929process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
2930fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
748a9306 2931
49704364 2932=item 'P' must have an explicit size in unpack
3bf38418
WL
2933
2934(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
2935
96ebfdd7
RK
2936=item B<-P> not allowed for setuid/setgid script
2937
2938(F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor by name,
2939which provides a race condition that breaks security.
2940
2941=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2942
2943(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The <-- HERE
2944shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2945Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
2946the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
2947not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
2948
2949=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
2950
2951(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
2952the BSD version, which takes a pid.
2953
49704364 2954=item POSIX syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2955
9a0b3859 2956(W regexp) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
7253e4e3
RK
2957I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
2958/[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
2959implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and will
2960cause fatal errors. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
2961where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 2962
49704364 2963=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
2964
2965(F regexp) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
7253e4e3
RK
2966beginning with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
2967If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
2968expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
2969backslash: "\[." and ".\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
2970about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 2971
49704364 2972=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2973
7253e4e3
RK
2974(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
2975with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
2976need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
2977character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
2978and "=\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2979problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 2980
bbce6d69 2981=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
2982
e476b1b5 2983(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
75b44862 2984strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
be771a83
GS
2985literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
2986parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
bbce6d69 2987
774d564b 2988You probably wrote something like this:
2989
54310121 2990 @list = qw(
774d564b 2991 a # a comment
bbce6d69 2992 b # another comment
774d564b 2993 );
bbce6d69 2994
2995when you should have written this:
2996
774d564b 2997 @list = qw(
54310121 2998 a
2999 b
774d564b 3000 );
3001
3002If you really want comments, build your list the
3003old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
3004
3005 @list = (
3006 'a', # a comment
3007 'b', # another comment
3008 );
bbce6d69 3009
3010=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
3011
be771a83
GS
3012(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
3013commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
3014different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
3015frequently used.)
bbce6d69 3016
54310121 3017You probably wrote something like this:
bbce6d69 3018
774d564b 3019 qw! a, b, c !;
3020
3021which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
3022commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
bbce6d69 3023
774d564b 3024 qw! a b c !;
bbce6d69 3025
a0d0e21e
LW
3026=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
3027
3028(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
3029Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
3030end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
3031Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
3032
276b2a0c
RGS
3033=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %c operator
3034
3035(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
3036with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
3037
3038 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
3039
3040This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
3041higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
96a925ab
YST
3042really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, put the
3043parentheses explicitly and write C<$x & ($y == 0)>).
276b2a0c 3044
18623440
PS
3045=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
3046
3047(W ambiguous) You said something like `@foo' in a double-quoted string
32b0a12e
AMS
3048but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
3049literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
3050to the array you apparently lost track of.
18623440 3051
6df41af2
GS
3052=item Possible Y2K bug: %s
3053
3054(W y2k) You are concatenating the number 19 with another number, which
3055could be a potential Year 2000 problem.
3056
8cd79558
GS
3057=item pragma "attrs" is deprecated, use "sub NAME : ATTRS" instead
3058
a1063b2d 3059(D deprecated) You have written something like this:
8cd79558
GS
3060
3061 sub doit
3062 {
3063 use attrs qw(locked);
3064 }
3065
3066You should use the new declaration syntax instead.
3067
3068 sub doit : locked
3069 {
3070 ...
3071
3072The C<use attrs> pragma is now obsolete, and is only provided for
3073backward-compatibility. See L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes">.
3074
a0d0e21e
LW
3075=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
3076
e476b1b5 3077(S precedence) The old irregular construct
cb1a09d0 3078
a0d0e21e
LW
3079 open FOO || die;
3080
3081is now misinterpreted as
3082
3083 open(FOO || die);
3084
be771a83
GS
3085because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
3086list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
3087parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
3088of "||".
a0d0e21e 3089
3cdd684c
TP
3090=item Premature end of script headers
3091
3092See Server error.
3093
6df41af2
GS
3094=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
3095
be771a83 3096(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3097before now. Check your control flow.
6df41af2 3098
9a7dcd9c 3099=item print() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 3100
be771a83 3101(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3102before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 3103
6df41af2 3104=item Process terminated by SIG%s
a0d0e21e 3105
6df41af2
GS
3106(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
3107applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
3108port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
3109L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
fecfaeb8 3110in L<perlos2>.
a0d0e21e 3111
3fe9a6f1 3112=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4633a7c4 3113
9a0b3859 3114(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
be771a83 3115declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4633a7c4 3116
ed9aa3b7
SG
3117=item Prototype not terminated
3118
2a6fd447 3119(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
ed9aa3b7
SG
3120definition.
3121
96ebfdd7
RK
3122=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3123
3124(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if you
3125meant it literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3126where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3127
49704364 3128=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 3129
b45f050a 3130(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of the
7253e4e3 3131{min,max} construct. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where
b45f050a 3132the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9baa0206 3133
49704364 3134=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 3135
b45f050a
JF
3136(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
3137it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
3138quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
3139"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
3140C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
9baa0206 3141
7253e4e3
RK
3142The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3143discovered.
3144
89ea2908
GA
3145=item Range iterator outside integer range
3146
3147(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
3148are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
be771a83
GS
3149One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
3150by prepending "0" to your numbers.
89ea2908 3151
96ebfdd7
RK
3152=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
3153
3154(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
3155before now. Check your control flow.
3156
b5fe5ca2
SR
3157=item read() on closed filehandle %s
3158
3159(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
3160
3161=item read() on unopened filehandle %s
3162
3163(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
3164
6df41af2
GS
3165=item Reallocation too large: %lx
3166
3167(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
3168
4ad56ec9
IZ
3169=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
3170
be771a83
GS
3171(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
3172already been freed.
4ad56ec9 3173
a0d0e21e
LW
3174=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
3175
be771a83
GS
3176(F debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
3177the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
a0d0e21e
LW
3178which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
3179
3e0ccd42 3180=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
a0d0e21e
LW
3181
3182(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably indicates
3183an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
3184
7a4340ed 3185=item Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method %s
3e0ccd42 3186
be771a83
GS
3187(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were encountered while invoking
3188a method. Probably indicates an unintended loop in your inheritance
3189hierarchy.
3e0ccd42 3190
1930e939
TP
3191=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
3192
be771a83
GS
3193(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
3194with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This usually
3195means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant to use
3196parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
7b8d334a
GS
3197
3198 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
3199 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
3200 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
3201 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
3202
810b8aa5
GS
3203=item Reference is already weak
3204
e476b1b5 3205(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
810b8aa5
GS
3206Doing so has no effect.
3207
a0d0e21e
LW
3208=item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
3209
be771a83
GS
3210(W internal) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with
3211a reference count of other than 1.
a0d0e21e 3212
49704364 3213=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3214
3215(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
3216not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If you
3217wanted to have the character with value 7 inserted into the regular expression,
3218prepend a zero to make the number at least two digits: C<\07>
9baa0206 3219
7253e4e3 3220The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a 3221discovered.
9baa0206 3222
a0d0e21e
LW
3223=item regexp memory corruption
3224
3225(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
3226expression compiler gave it.
3227
b45f050a 3228=item Regexp out of space
a0d0e21e 3229
be771a83
GS
3230(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
3231earlier.
a0d0e21e 3232
a0d0e21e
LW
3233=item Reversed %s= operator
3234
be771a83
GS
3235(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
3236always comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
a0d0e21e
LW
3237
3238=item Runaway format
3239
3240(F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence, but it
3241produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th line looked exactly like the
3242199th line. Apparently you didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust
3243themselves, either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
3244shifting or popping (for array variables). See L<perlform>.
3245
96ebfdd7
RK
3246=item Scalars leaked: %d
3247
3248(P) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping of scalars:
3249not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time Perl exited.
3250What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which is of course bad,
3251especially if the Perl program is intended to be long-running.
3252
a0d0e21e
LW
3253=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
3254
be771a83
GS
3255(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
3256single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
3257value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
3258behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3259argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3260and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3261if you're expecting only one subscript.
a0d0e21e 3262
748a9306 3263On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5f05dabc 3264element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
748a9306
LW
3265Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
3266L<perlref>.
3267
a6006777 3268=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
3269
75b44862 3270(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
be771a83
GS
3271element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
3272(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
3273like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3274argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3275and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3276if you're expecting only one subscript.
3277
3278On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
3279as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
3280not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
a6006777 3281L<perlref>.
3282
a0d0e21e
LW
3283=item Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl
3284
54310121 3285(F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script without a setuid
3286or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much sense.
a0d0e21e
LW
3287
3288=item Search pattern not terminated
3289
3290(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
3291construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 3292Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 3293
0cb1bcd7 3294Note that since Perl 5.9.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
5d9c98cd
JH
3295construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
3296in Perl 5.9.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
3297misparsed by pre-5.9.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
3298
9ddeeac9 3299=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
a0d0e21e 3300
be771a83
GS
3301(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
3302filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
a0d0e21e
LW
3303
3304=item select not implemented
3305
3306(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
3307
ae21d580 3308=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
68a4a7e4 3309
ae21d580
JH
3310(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
3311the current implementation.
68a4a7e4 3312
6df41af2 3313=item Semicolon seems to be missing
a0d0e21e 3314
75b44862
GS
3315(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
3316semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
a0d0e21e
LW
3317
3318=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
3319
be771a83
GS
3320(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
3321scalar that had previously been marked as free.
a0d0e21e 3322
6df41af2 3323=item sem%s not implemented
a0d0e21e 3324
6df41af2 3325(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
a0d0e21e 3326
69282e91 3327=item send() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 3328
be771a83 3329(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3330before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 3331
7253e4e3 3332=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
7b8d334a 3333
7253e4e3 3334(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The <-- HERE
b45f050a 3335shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
be771a83 3336L<perlre>.
1b1626e4 3337
49704364 3338=item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3339
b45f050a 3340(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved but
7253e4e3 3341has not yet been written. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
b45f050a
JF
3342where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3343
49704364 3344=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3345
7253e4e3
RK
3346(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense. The
3347<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3348discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3349
49704364 3350=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
3351
3352(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
7253e4e3
RK
3353parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. The <-- HERE shows in
3354the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3355L<perlre>.
6df41af2 3356
96ebfdd7
RK
3357=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated or not {}-balanced in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3358
3359(F) If the contents of a (?{...}) clause contains braces, they must balance
3360for Perl to properly detect the end of the clause. The <-- HERE shows in
3361the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3362L<perlre>.
3363
6df41af2
GS
3364=item 500 Server error
3365
3366See Server error.
3367
a5f75d66
AD
3368=item Server error
3369
3cdd684c 3370This is the error message generally seen in a browser window when trying
be771a83
GS
3371to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The actual error text
3372varies widely from server to server. The most frequently-seen variants
3373are "500 Server error", "Method (something) not permitted", "Document
3374contains no data", "Premature end of script headers", and "Did not
3375produce a valid header".
9607fc9c 3376
3377B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
3378
be771a83
GS
3379You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by the
3380user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the user
3381account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment variables
3382(like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't in a
3383location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or less.
3384Please see the following for more information:
9607fc9c 3385
06a5f41f
JH
3386 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
3387 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
3388 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
a5f75d66 3389
be94a901
GS
3390You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
3391
a0d0e21e
LW
3392=item setegid() not implemented
3393
be771a83
GS
3394(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
3395support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3396didn't think so.
<