This is a live mirror of the Perl 5 development currently hosted at https://github.com/perl/perl5
Update IO-Compress to CPAN version 2.040
[perl5.git] / pod / perllexwarn.pod
CommitLineData
0453d815 1=head1 NAME
d74e8afc 2X<warning, lexical> X<warnings> X<warning>
0453d815
PM
3
4perllexwarn - Perl Lexical Warnings
5
6=head1 DESCRIPTION
5a3e7812 7
00eb3f2b
RGS
8The C<use warnings> pragma enables to control precisely what warnings are
9to be enabled in which parts of a Perl program. It's a more flexible
10alternative for both the command line flag B<-w> and the equivalent Perl
11variable, C<$^W>.
0453d815 12
00eb3f2b 13This pragma works just like the C<strict> pragma.
0453d815 14This means that the scope of the warning pragma is limited to the
106325ad 15enclosing block. It also means that the pragma setting will not
0453d815
PM
16leak across files (via C<use>, C<require> or C<do>). This allows
17authors to independently define the degree of warning checks that will
18be applied to their module.
19
20By default, optional warnings are disabled, so any legacy code that
21doesn't attempt to control the warnings will work unchanged.
22
23All warnings are enabled in a block by either of these:
c47ff5f1 24
4358a253
SS
25 use warnings;
26 use warnings 'all';
c47ff5f1 27
0453d815
PM
28Similarly all warnings are disabled in a block by either of these:
29
4358a253
SS
30 no warnings;
31 no warnings 'all';
0453d815
PM
32
33For example, consider the code below:
34
4358a253
SS
35 use warnings;
36 my @a;
0453d815 37 {
4358a253
SS
38 no warnings;
39 my $b = @a[0];
0453d815 40 }
f1f33818 41 my $c = @a[0];
0453d815
PM
42
43The code in the enclosing block has warnings enabled, but the inner
f1f33818
PM
44block has them disabled. In this case that means the assignment to the
45scalar C<$c> will trip the C<"Scalar value @a[0] better written as $a[0]">
46warning, but the assignment to the scalar C<$b> will not.
0453d815
PM
47
48=head2 Default Warnings and Optional Warnings
49
50Before the introduction of lexical warnings, Perl had two classes of
51warnings: mandatory and optional.
52
53As its name suggests, if your code tripped a mandatory warning, you
54would get a warning whether you wanted it or not.
252aa082
JH
55For example, the code below would always produce an C<"isn't numeric">
56warning about the "2:".
0453d815 57
252aa082 58 my $a = "2:" + 3;
0453d815 59
0453d815
PM
60With the introduction of lexical warnings, mandatory warnings now become
61I<default> warnings. The difference is that although the previously
62mandatory warnings are still enabled by default, they can then be
63subsequently enabled or disabled with the lexical warning pragma. For
e476b1b5 64example, in the code below, an C<"isn't numeric"> warning will only
0453d815
PM
65be reported for the C<$a> variable.
66
252aa082 67 my $a = "2:" + 3;
4358a253 68 no warnings;
252aa082 69 my $b = "2:" + 3;
0453d815
PM
70
71Note that neither the B<-w> flag or the C<$^W> can be used to
72disable/enable default warnings. They are still mandatory in this case.
73
74=head2 What's wrong with B<-w> and C<$^W>
75
76Although very useful, the big problem with using B<-w> on the command
77line to enable warnings is that it is all or nothing. Take the typical
78scenario when you are writing a Perl program. Parts of the code you
79will write yourself, but it's very likely that you will make use of
80pre-written Perl modules. If you use the B<-w> flag in this case, you
81end up enabling warnings in pieces of code that you haven't written.
82
83Similarly, using C<$^W> to either disable or enable blocks of code is
84fundamentally flawed. For a start, say you want to disable warnings in
85a block of code. You might expect this to be enough to do the trick:
86
87 {
4358a253
SS
88 local ($^W) = 0;
89 my $a =+ 2;
90 my $b; chop $b;
0453d815
PM
91 }
92
93When this code is run with the B<-w> flag, a warning will be produced
ac036724 94for the C<$a> line: C<"Reversed += operator">.
0453d815
PM
95
96The problem is that Perl has both compile-time and run-time warnings. To
97disable compile-time warnings you need to rewrite the code like this:
98
99 {
100 BEGIN { $^W = 0 }
4358a253
SS
101 my $a =+ 2;
102 my $b; chop $b;
0453d815
PM
103 }
104
f1f33818 105The other big problem with C<$^W> is the way you can inadvertently
0453d815
PM
106change the warning setting in unexpected places in your code. For example,
107when the code below is run (without the B<-w> flag), the second call
108to C<doit> will trip a C<"Use of uninitialized value"> warning, whereas
109the first will not.
110
111 sub doit
112 {
4358a253 113 my $b; chop $b;
0453d815
PM
114 }
115
4358a253 116 doit();
0453d815
PM
117
118 {
4358a253 119 local ($^W) = 1;
0453d815
PM
120 doit()
121 }
122
123This is a side-effect of C<$^W> being dynamically scoped.
124
125Lexical warnings get around these limitations by allowing finer control
126over where warnings can or can't be tripped.
127
128=head2 Controlling Warnings from the Command Line
129
130There are three Command Line flags that can be used to control when
131warnings are (or aren't) produced:
132
133=over 5
134
135=item B<-w>
d74e8afc 136X<-w>
0453d815
PM
137
138This is the existing flag. If the lexical warnings pragma is B<not>
139used in any of you code, or any of the modules that you use, this flag
140will enable warnings everywhere. See L<Backward Compatibility> for
141details of how this flag interacts with lexical warnings.
142
143=item B<-W>
d74e8afc 144X<-W>
c47ff5f1 145
0453d815
PM
146If the B<-W> flag is used on the command line, it will enable all warnings
147throughout the program regardless of whether warnings were disabled
4438c4b7 148locally using C<no warnings> or C<$^W =0>. This includes all files that get
0453d815
PM
149included via C<use>, C<require> or C<do>.
150Think of it as the Perl equivalent of the "lint" command.
151
152=item B<-X>
d74e8afc 153X<-X>
0453d815
PM
154
155Does the exact opposite to the B<-W> flag, i.e. it disables all warnings.
156
157=back
158
159=head2 Backward Compatibility
160
161If you are used with working with a version of Perl prior to the
162introduction of lexically scoped warnings, or have code that uses both
163lexical warnings and C<$^W>, this section will describe how they interact.
164
165How Lexical Warnings interact with B<-w>/C<$^W>:
5a3e7812 166
0453d815
PM
167=over 5
168
169=item 1.
170
171If none of the three command line flags (B<-w>, B<-W> or B<-X>) that
e476b1b5
GS
172control warnings is used and neither C<$^W> or the C<warnings> pragma
173are used, then default warnings will be enabled and optional warnings
174disabled.
0453d815
PM
175This means that legacy code that doesn't attempt to control the warnings
176will work unchanged.
177
178=item 2.
179
ac036724 180The B<-w> flag just sets the global C<$^W> variable as in 5.005. This
0453d815
PM
181means that any legacy code that currently relies on manipulating C<$^W>
182to control warning behavior will still work as is.
183
184=item 3.
c47ff5f1 185
0453d815
PM
186Apart from now being a boolean, the C<$^W> variable operates in exactly
187the same horrible uncontrolled global way, except that it cannot
188disable/enable default warnings.
189
190=item 4.
c47ff5f1 191
e476b1b5 192If a piece of code is under the control of the C<warnings> pragma,
0453d815
PM
193both the C<$^W> variable and the B<-w> flag will be ignored for the
194scope of the lexical warning.
195
196=item 5.
c47ff5f1 197
0453d815
PM
198The only way to override a lexical warnings setting is with the B<-W>
199or B<-X> command line flags.
200
201=back
202
106325ad 203The combined effect of 3 & 4 is that it will allow code which uses
e476b1b5 204the C<warnings> pragma to control the warning behavior of $^W-type
0453d815
PM
205code (using a C<local $^W=0>) if it really wants to, but not vice-versa.
206
0453d815 207=head2 Category Hierarchy
d74e8afc 208X<warning, categories>
c47ff5f1 209
e476b1b5
GS
210A hierarchy of "categories" have been defined to allow groups of warnings
211to be enabled/disabled in isolation.
212
213The current hierarchy is:
214
215 all -+
216 |
e476b1b5
GS
217 +- closure
218 |
12bcd1a6
PM
219 +- deprecated
220 |
e476b1b5
GS
221 +- exiting
222 |
223 +- glob
224 |
225 +- io -----------+
226 | |
227 | +- closed
228 | |
229 | +- exec
230 | |
99ef548b
PM
231 | +- layer
232 | |
e476b1b5
GS
233 | +- newline
234 | |
235 | +- pipe
236 | |
237 | +- unopened
238 |
b88df990
NC
239 +- imprecision
240 |
e476b1b5
GS
241 +- misc
242 |
243 +- numeric
244 |
245 +- once
246 |
247 +- overflow
248 |
249 +- pack
250 |
251 +- portable
252 |
253 +- recursion
254 |
255 +- redefine
256 |
257 +- regexp
258 |
259 +- severe -------+
260 | |
261 | +- debugging
262 | |
263 | +- inplace
264 | |
265 | +- internal
266 | |
267 | +- malloc
268 |
269 +- signal
270 |
271 +- substr
272 |
273 +- syntax -------+
274 | |
275 | +- ambiguous
276 | |
277 | +- bareword
278 | |
e476b1b5
GS
279 | +- digit
280 | |
197afce1
MT
281 | +- illegalproto
282 | |
e476b1b5
GS
283 | +- parenthesis
284 | |
285 | +- precedence
286 | |
287 | +- printf
288 | |
289 | +- prototype
290 | |
291 | +- qw
292 | |
293 | +- reserved
294 | |
295 | +- semicolon
296 |
297 +- taint
298 |
38875929
DM
299 +- threads
300 |
e476b1b5
GS
301 +- uninitialized
302 |
303 +- unpack
304 |
305 +- untie
306 |
8457b38f
KW
307 +- utf8----------+
308 | |
309 | +- surrogate
310 | |
311 | +- non_unicode
312 | |
313 | +- nonchar
e476b1b5
GS
314 |
315 +- void
0453d815 316
4438c4b7
JH
317Just like the "strict" pragma any of these categories can be combined
318
4358a253
SS
319 use warnings qw(void redefine);
320 no warnings qw(io syntax untie);
4438c4b7
JH
321
322Also like the "strict" pragma, if there is more than one instance of the
e476b1b5 323C<warnings> pragma in a given scope the cumulative effect is additive.
4438c4b7 324
4358a253 325 use warnings qw(void); # only "void" warnings enabled
4438c4b7 326 ...
4358a253 327 use warnings qw(io); # only "void" & "io" warnings enabled
4438c4b7 328 ...
4358a253 329 no warnings qw(void); # only "io" warnings enabled
4438c4b7 330
e476b1b5
GS
331To determine which category a specific warning has been assigned to see
332L<perldiag>.
0453d815 333
12bcd1a6
PM
334Note: In Perl 5.6.1, the lexical warnings category "deprecated" was a
335sub-category of the "syntax" category. It is now a top-level category
336in its own right.
337
338
0453d815 339=head2 Fatal Warnings
d74e8afc 340X<warning, fatal>
c47ff5f1 341
0453d815 342The presence of the word "FATAL" in the category list will escalate any
e476b1b5 343warnings detected from the categories specified in the lexical scope
f1f33818
PM
344into fatal errors. In the code below, the use of C<time>, C<length>
345and C<join> can all produce a C<"Useless use of xxx in void context">
346warning.
4438c4b7 347
4358a253 348 use warnings;
cea6626f 349
4358a253 350 time;
cea6626f 351
0453d815 352 {
4358a253
SS
353 use warnings FATAL => qw(void);
354 length "abc";
0453d815 355 }
cea6626f 356
4358a253 357 join "", 1,2,3;
cea6626f 358
4358a253 359 print "done\n";
f1f33818
PM
360
361When run it produces this output
362
363 Useless use of time in void context at fatal line 3.
364 Useless use of length in void context at fatal line 7.
365
366The scope where C<length> is used has escalated the C<void> warnings
367category into a fatal error, so the program terminates immediately it
368encounters the warning.
c47ff5f1 369
6e9af7e4
PM
370To explicitly turn off a "FATAL" warning you just disable the warning
371it is associated with. So, for example, to disable the "void" warning
372in the example above, either of these will do the trick:
08540116
PM
373
374 no warnings qw(void);
375 no warnings FATAL => qw(void);
0453d815 376
6e9af7e4
PM
377If you want to downgrade a warning that has been escalated into a fatal
378error back to a normal warning, you can use the "NONFATAL" keyword. For
379example, the code below will promote all warnings into fatal errors,
380except for those in the "syntax" category.
381
382 use warnings FATAL => 'all', NONFATAL => 'syntax';
383
e476b1b5 384=head2 Reporting Warnings from a Module
d74e8afc 385X<warning, reporting> X<warning, registering>
e476b1b5 386
d3a7d8c7
GS
387The C<warnings> pragma provides a number of functions that are useful for
388module authors. These are used when you want to report a module-specific
7e6d00f8 389warning to a calling module has enabled warnings via the C<warnings>
d3a7d8c7 390pragma.
e476b1b5 391
d3a7d8c7 392Consider the module C<MyMod::Abc> below.
e476b1b5 393
d3a7d8c7 394 package MyMod::Abc;
e476b1b5 395
d3a7d8c7
GS
396 use warnings::register;
397
398 sub open {
4358a253 399 my $path = shift;
7ddf7bb5 400 if ($path !~ m#^/#) {
2359510d 401 warnings::warn("changing relative path to /var/abc")
7ddf7bb5 402 if warnings::enabled();
2359510d 403 $path = "/var/abc/$path";
d3a7d8c7
GS
404 }
405 }
406
4358a253 407 1;
d3a7d8c7
GS
408
409The call to C<warnings::register> will create a new warnings category
c901ad27 410called "MyMod::Abc", i.e. the new category name matches the current
7e6d00f8
PM
411package name. The C<open> function in the module will display a warning
412message if it gets given a relative path as a parameter. This warnings
413will only be displayed if the code that uses C<MyMod::Abc> has actually
414enabled them with the C<warnings> pragma like below.
d3a7d8c7
GS
415
416 use MyMod::Abc;
417 use warnings 'MyMod::Abc';
418 ...
419 abc::open("../fred.txt");
420
421It is also possible to test whether the pre-defined warnings categories are
422set in the calling module with the C<warnings::enabled> function. Consider
423this snippet of code:
424
425 package MyMod::Abc;
426
427 sub open {
7e6d00f8 428 warnings::warnif("deprecated",
4358a253
SS
429 "open is deprecated, use new instead");
430 new(@_);
e476b1b5 431 }
6bc102ca 432
e476b1b5
GS
433 sub new
434 ...
4358a253 435 1;
e476b1b5
GS
436
437The function C<open> has been deprecated, so code has been included to
438display a warning message whenever the calling module has (at least) the
439"deprecated" warnings category enabled. Something like this, say.
440
441 use warnings 'deprecated';
d3a7d8c7 442 use MyMod::Abc;
e476b1b5 443 ...
4358a253 444 MyMod::Abc::open($filename);
e476b1b5 445
7e6d00f8
PM
446Either the C<warnings::warn> or C<warnings::warnif> function should be
447used to actually display the warnings message. This is because they can
448make use of the feature that allows warnings to be escalated into fatal
449errors. So in this case
e476b1b5 450
d3a7d8c7
GS
451 use MyMod::Abc;
452 use warnings FATAL => 'MyMod::Abc';
e476b1b5 453 ...
d3a7d8c7 454 MyMod::Abc::open('../fred.txt');
e476b1b5 455
7e6d00f8 456the C<warnings::warnif> function will detect this and die after
d3a7d8c7 457displaying the warning message.
e476b1b5 458
7e6d00f8
PM
459The three warnings functions, C<warnings::warn>, C<warnings::warnif>
460and C<warnings::enabled> can optionally take an object reference in place
461of a category name. In this case the functions will use the class name
462of the object as the warnings category.
463
464Consider this example:
465
4358a253 466 package Original;
7e6d00f8 467
4358a253
SS
468 no warnings;
469 use warnings::register;
7e6d00f8
PM
470
471 sub new
472 {
4358a253
SS
473 my $class = shift;
474 bless [], $class;
7e6d00f8
PM
475 }
476
477 sub check
478 {
4358a253
SS
479 my $self = shift;
480 my $value = shift;
7e6d00f8
PM
481
482 if ($value % 2 && warnings::enabled($self))
483 { warnings::warn($self, "Odd numbers are unsafe") }
484 }
485
486 sub doit
487 {
4358a253
SS
488 my $self = shift;
489 my $value = shift;
490 $self->check($value);
7e6d00f8
PM
491 # ...
492 }
493
4358a253 494 1;
7e6d00f8 495
4358a253 496 package Derived;
7e6d00f8 497
4358a253
SS
498 use warnings::register;
499 use Original;
500 our @ISA = qw( Original );
7e6d00f8
PM
501 sub new
502 {
4358a253
SS
503 my $class = shift;
504 bless [], $class;
7e6d00f8
PM
505 }
506
13a2d996 507
4358a253 508 1;
7e6d00f8
PM
509
510The code below makes use of both modules, but it only enables warnings from
511C<Derived>.
512
4358a253
SS
513 use Original;
514 use Derived;
7e6d00f8 515 use warnings 'Derived';
63acfd00 516 my $a = Original->new();
4358a253 517 $a->doit(1);
63acfd00 518 my $b = Derived->new();
4358a253 519 $a->doit(1);
7e6d00f8
PM
520
521When this code is run only the C<Derived> object, C<$b>, will generate
522a warning.
523
524 Odd numbers are unsafe at main.pl line 7
525
526Notice also that the warning is reported at the line where the object is first
527used.
528
572bfd36
RS
529When registering new categories of warning, you can supply more names to
530warnings::register like this:
531
532 package MyModule;
533 use warnings::register qw(format precision);
534
535 ...
536
537 warnings::warnif('MyModule::format', '...');
538
0453d815
PM
539=head1 SEE ALSO
540
e476b1b5 541L<warnings>, L<perldiag>.
c47ff5f1 542
0453d815 543=head1 AUTHOR
c47ff5f1 544
0453d815 545Paul Marquess