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perldiag: Correct various regexp msgs
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1=head1 NAME
2
3perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
4
5=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
8desperation):
9
10 (W) A warning (optional).
d1d15184 11 (D) A deprecation (enabled by default).
00eb3f2b 12 (S) A severe warning (enabled by default).
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13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
54310121 15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
cb1a09d0 16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
a0d0e21e 17
75b44862 18The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
64977eb6 19(W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
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20
21If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
22category is included with the classification letter in the description
23below.
24
25Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
fa816bf3 26and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
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27to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
28of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
29
b7eceb5b 30Severe warnings are always enabled, unless they are explicitly disabled
e476b1b5 31with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
4438c4b7 32
748a9306 33Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
4438c4b7
JH
34L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
36See L<warnings>.
a0d0e21e 37
6df41af2
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38The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
39lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
40denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
41ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
42letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
43letter.
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44
45=over 4
46
6df41af2 47=item accept() on closed socket %s
33633739 48
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49(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
50to check the return value of your socket() call? See
51L<perlfunc/accept>.
33633739 52
de42a5a9 53=item Allocation too large: %x
a0d0e21e 54
6df41af2 55(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
a0d0e21e 56
1109a392 57=item '%c' allowed only after types %s
ef54e1a4 58
1109a392
MHM
59(F) The modifiers '!', '<' and '>' are allowed in pack() or unpack() only
60after certain types. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
ef54e1a4 61
6df41af2 62=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
43192e07 63
75b44862 64(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
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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
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92=item Ambiguous use of %c resolved as operator %c
93
94(W ambiguous) C<%>, C<&>, and C<*> are both infix operators (modulus,
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95bitwise and, and multiplication) I<and> initial special characters
96(denoting hashes, subroutines and typeglobs), and you said something
97like C<*foo * foo> that might be interpreted as either of them. We
98assumed you meant the infix operator, but please try to make it more
99clear -- in the example given, you might write C<*foo * foo()> if you
100really meant to multiply a glob by the result of calling a function.
d8225693 101
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102=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s} resolved to %c%s
103
104(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<@{foo}>, which might be
105asking for the variable C<@foo>, or it might be calling a function
106named foo, and dereferencing it as an array reference. If you wanted
1cecf2c0 107the variable, you can just write C<@foo>. If you wanted to call the
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108function, write C<@{foo()}> ... or you could just not have a variable
109and a function with the same name, and save yourself a lot of trouble.
110
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111=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s[...]} resolved to %c%s[...]
112
113=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s{...}} resolved to %c%s{...}
4da60377 114
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115(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<${foo[2]}> (where foo represents
116the name of a Perl keyword), which might be looking for element number
1172 of the array named C<@foo>, in which case please write C<$foo[2]>, or you
118might have meant to pass an anonymous arrayref to the function named
119foo, and then do a scalar deref on the value it returns. If you meant
120that, write C<${foo([2])}>.
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121
122In regular expressions, the C<${foo[2]}> syntax is sometimes necessary
123to disambiguate between array subscripts and character classes.
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124C</$length[2345]/>, for instance, will be interpreted as C<$length> followed
125by the character class C<[2345]>. If an array subscript is what you
126want, you can avoid the warning by changing C</${length[2345]}/> to the
127unsightly C</${\$length[2345]}/>, by renaming your array to something
128that does not coincide with a built-in keyword, or by simply turning
129off warnings with C<no warnings 'ambiguous';>.
4da60377 130
bdac9d71 131=item Ambiguous use of -%s resolved as -&%s()
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132
133(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<-foo>, which might be the
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FC
134string C<"-foo">, or a call to the function C<foo>, negated. If you meant
135the string, just write C<"-foo">. If you meant the function call,
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136write C<-foo()>.
137
6df41af2 138=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
a0d0e21e 139
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140(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
141redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
142redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
c9f97d15 143
6df41af2 144=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
1028017a 145
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146(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
147redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
148into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
149though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
150which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
1028017a 151
6df41af2
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152 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
153 while (<STDIN>) {
154 print;
155 print OUT;
156 }
157 close OUT;
c9f97d15 158
6df41af2 159=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
eb6e2d6f 160
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161(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
162transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
be771a83 163one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
ac036724 164a scalar value (the length of an array, or the population info of a
165hash) and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
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166you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
167alternatives.
eb6e2d6f 168
6df41af2 169=item Arg too short for msgsnd
76cd736e 170
6df41af2 171(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
76cd736e 172
b0fdf69e 173=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine
a0d0e21e 174
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175(F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element or a
176subroutine with an ampersand, such as:
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177
178 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 179 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
cc1c2e42 180 &do_something
a0d0e21e 181
8ea97a1e 182=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
5f05dabc 183
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184(F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
185such as:
5f05dabc 186
187 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 188 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
5f05dabc 189
8ea97a1e 190or a hash or array slice, such as:
5f05dabc 191
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192 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
193 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
5315574d 194
6df41af2 195=item %s argument is not a subroutine name
a0d0e21e 196
6df41af2 197(F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
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198name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
199error.
a0d0e21e 200
f86702cc 201=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 202
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203(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
204that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
205will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
a0d0e21e 206
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207=item Argument list not closed for PerlIO layer "%s"
208
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209(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O
210system you forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers
211take care of transforming data between external and internal
212representations.) Perl stopped parsing the layer list at this
213point and did not attempt to push this layer. If your program
214didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the
215result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
b4581f09 216
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217=item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
218
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219(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
220spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
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221
222=item assertion botched: %s
223
21b5e840 224(X) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
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225
226=item Assertion failed: file "%s"
227
21b5e840 228(X) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
a0d0e21e 229
82122228
FC
230=item Assigning non-zero to $[ is no longer possible
231
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232(F) When the "array_base" feature is disabled (e.g., under C<use v5.16;>)
233the special variable C<$[>, which is deprecated, is now a fixed zero value.
82122228 234
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235=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
236
237(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
238must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
239know which context to supply to the right side.
240
96ebfdd7
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241=item A thread exited while %d threads were running
242
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243(W threads)(S) When using threaded Perl, a thread (not necessarily
244the main thread) exited while there were still other threads running.
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245Usually it's a good idea first to collect the return values of the
246created threads by joining them, and only then to exit from the main
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247thread. See L<threads>.
248
2393f1b9 249=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
1b1f1335 250
49293501 251(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
2393f1b9 252the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
49293501 253
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254=item Attempt to bless into a reference
255
256(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
57dedab9 257the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
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258supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
259
260 bless $self, $proto;
261
262when you intended
263
264 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
265
266If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
267of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
268example by:
269
270 bless $self, "$proto";
271
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272=item Attempt to clear deleted array
273
274(S debugging) An array was assigned to when it was being freed.
275Freed values are not supposed to be visible to Perl code. This
276can also happen if XS code calls C<av_clear> from a custom magic
277callback on the array.
278
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279=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
280
281(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
282which is not in its key set.
283
284=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
285
286(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
287declared readonly from a restricted hash.
288
de42a5a9 289=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%x
a0d0e21e 290
f84fe999 291(S internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
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292that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
293outside any of those arenas.
a0d0e21e 294
12578ffb 295=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string '%s'%s
bbce6d69 296
f84fe999 297(S internal) Perl maintains a reference-counted internal table of
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298strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
299strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
300of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
bbce6d69 301
7d5b40b4 302=item Attempt to free temp prematurely: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 303
f84fe999 304(S debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
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305free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
306SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
307free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
308try to free it.
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309
310=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
311
f84fe999 312(S internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
a0d0e21e 313
7d5b40b4 314=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 315
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316(W internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
317see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
318earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
319This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
320that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
321mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
322corrupted.
a0d0e21e 323
dcdda58d
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324=item Attempt to join self
325
326(F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
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327impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
328to move the join() to some other thread.
dcdda58d 329
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330=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
331
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332(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
333function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
334means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
335invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
336literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
337avoid this warning.
84902520 338
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339=item Attempt to reload %s aborted.
340
341(F) You tried to load a file with C<use> or C<require> that failed to
342compile once already. Perl will not try to compile this file again
343unless you delete its entry from %INC. See L<perlfunc/require> and
344L<perlvar/%INC>.
345
1b20cd17
NC
346=item Attempt to set length of freed array
347
348(W) You tried to set the length of an array which has been freed. You
349can do this by storing a reference to the scalar representing the last index
fa816bf3 350of an array and later assigning through that reference. For example
1b20cd17
NC
351
352 $r = do {my @a; \$#a};
353 $$r = 503
354
b7a902f4 355=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
356
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357(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
358used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
359dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 360
c32124fe
NC
361=item Attribute "locked" is deprecated
362
57dedab9
FC
363(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragma to modify the
364"locked" attribute on a code reference. The :locked attribute is
365obsolete, has had no effect since 5005 threads were removed, and
366will be removed in a future release of Perl 5.
c32124fe 367
f1a3ce43
NC
368=item Attribute "unique" is deprecated
369
57dedab9
FC
370(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragma to modify
371the "unique" attribute on an array, hash or scalar reference.
372The :unique attribute has had no effect since Perl 5.8.8, and
373will be removed in a future release of Perl 5.
f1a3ce43 374
ccce04a4
FC
375=item av_reify called on tied array
376
377(S debugging) This indicates that something went wrong and Perl got I<very>
378confused about C<@_> or C<@DB::args> being tied.
379
de42a5a9 380=item Bad arg length for %s, is %u, should be %d
a0d0e21e 381
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382(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
383or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 384S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
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385S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
386
7a95317d
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387=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
388
496a33f5 389(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
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390substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
391most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
392
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393=item Bad filehandle: %s
394
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395(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
396symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
397open(), or did it in another package.
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398
399=item Bad free() ignored
400
be771a83 401(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
fa816bf3 402been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 403setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 404
9ea8bc6d 405This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
6903afa2 406dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
be771a83 407which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 408
aa689395 409=item Bad hash
410
411(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
412
6df41af2
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413=item Badly placed ()'s
414
415(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
416of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
417Perl yourself.
418
a7cb8dae 419=item Bad name after %s
a0d0e21e 420
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421(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
422didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
423of quotes, so
a0d0e21e
LW
424
425 $var = 'myvar';
426 $sym = mypack::$var;
427
428is not the same as
429
430 $var = 'myvar';
431 $sym = "mypack::$var";
432
88e1f1a2
JV
433=item Bad plugin affecting keyword '%s'
434
435(F) An extension using the keyword plugin mechanism violated the
436plugin API.
437
4ad56ec9
IZ
438=item Bad realloc() ignored
439
6903afa2
FC
440(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that
441had never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can
442be disabled by setting the environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 443
a0d0e21e
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444=item Bad symbol for array
445
446(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
447wasn't a symbol table entry.
448
4df3f177
SP
449=item Bad symbol for dirhandle
450
451(P) An internal request asked to add a dirhandle entry to something
452that wasn't a symbol table entry.
453
a0d0e21e
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454=item Bad symbol for filehandle
455
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456(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
457that wasn't a symbol table entry.
a0d0e21e
LW
458
459=item Bad symbol for hash
460
461(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
462wasn't a symbol table entry.
463
34d09196
GS
464=item Bareword found in conditional
465
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466(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
467conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
468of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
34d09196
GS
469
470 open FOO || die;
471
be771a83
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472It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
473a bareword:
34d09196
GS
474
475 use constant TYPO => 1;
476 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
477
478The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
479
6df41af2
GS
480=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
481
482(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
be771a83
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483subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
484symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
6df41af2
GS
485
486=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
487
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488(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
489compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
490you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 491
a0d0e21e
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492=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
493
be771a83
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494(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
495subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
496exited.
a0d0e21e 497
68dc0745 498=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
499
500(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
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501implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
502occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
503be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
504depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 505
6df41af2
GS
506=item \1 better written as $1
507
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508(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
509The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
510substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
511because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
512there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 513
252aa082
JH
514=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
515
e476b1b5 516(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
517(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
518L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 519
69282e91 520=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 521
be771a83
GS
522(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
523check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 524
c289d2f7
JH
525=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
526
527(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
4dcecea4 528Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 529
f866a7cd
FC
530=item "\b{" is deprecated; use "\b\{" instead
531
532=item "\B{" is deprecated; use "\B\{" instead
533
534(W deprecated, regexp) Use of an unescaped "{" immediately following a
535C<\b> or C<\B> is now deprecated so as to reserve its use for Perl
536itself in a future release.
537
c5a0f51a
JH
538=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
539
e476b1b5 540(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 541
043c750c 542=item Bizarre copy of %s
4633a7c4 543
be771a83 544(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
4dcecea4 545copiable.
4633a7c4 546
f675dbe5
CB
547=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
548
be771a83
GS
549(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
550iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
551which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 552
7fcfef4d
FC
553=item Bizarre SvTYPE [%d]
554
555(P) When starting a new thread or return values from a thread, Perl
556encountered an invalid data type.
557
a0d0e21e
LW
558=item Callback called exit
559
4929bf7b 560(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
a0d0e21e
LW
561exited by calling exit.
562
6df41af2 563=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 564
be771a83
GS
565(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
566parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
567that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
568early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
569subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
570checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
571function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
572the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 573
49704364 574=item Cannot compress integer in pack
0258719b
NC
575
576(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress. The BER
577compressed integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you
578attempted to compress Infinity or a very large number (> 1e308).
579See L<perlfunc/pack>.
580
49704364 581=item Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
0258719b
NC
582
583(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
584format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
585
5c1f4d79
NC
586=item Cannot convert a reference to %s to typeglob
587
6903afa2
FC
588(F) You manipulated Perl's symbol table directly, stored a reference
589in it, then tried to access that symbol via conventional Perl syntax.
590The access triggers Perl to autovivify that typeglob, but it there is
591no legal conversion from that type of reference to a typeglob.
5c1f4d79 592
4040665a 593=item Cannot copy to %s
ba2fdce6
NC
594
595(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy a value to an internal type that cannot
4dcecea4 596be directly assigned to.
ba2fdce6 597
b5d97229
RGS
598=item Cannot find encoding "%s"
599
600(S io) You tried to apply an encoding that did not exist to a filehandle,
601either with open() or binmode().
602
7355df7e
FC
603=item Cannot set tied @DB::args
604
605(F) C<caller> tried to set C<@DB::args>, but found it tied. Tying C<@DB::args>
606is not supported. (Before this error was added, it used to crash.)
607
ce65bc73
FC
608=item Cannot tie unreifiable array
609
610(P) You somehow managed to call C<tie> on an array that does not
611keep a reference count on its arguments and cannot be made to
612do so. Such arrays are not even supposed to be accessible to
613Perl code, but are only used internally.
614
96ebfdd7
RK
615=item Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
616
617(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
618integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
619to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
620
a0d0e21e
LW
621=item Can't bless non-reference value
622
623(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
624encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
625
dc57907a
RGS
626=item Can't "break" in a loop topicalizer
627
0d863452 628(F) You called C<break>, but you're in a C<foreach> block rather than
6903afa2 629a C<given> block. You probably meant to use C<next> or C<last>.
0d863452
RH
630
631=item Can't "break" outside a given block
dc57907a 632
0d863452
RH
633(F) You called C<break>, but you're not inside a C<given> block.
634
6df41af2
GS
635=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
636
637(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
638object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
639like this will reproduce the error:
6df41af2
GS
640
641 $BADREF = undef;
642 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
643 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
644
a0d0e21e
LW
645=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
646
54310121 647(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
be771a83
GS
648ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
649didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
650object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
651
652=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
653
654(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
655object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
656defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
72b5445b
GS
657Something like this will reproduce the error:
658
659 $BADREF = 42;
660 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
661 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
662
a0d0e21e
LW
663=item Can't chdir to %s
664
665(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
666that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
667
0545a864 668=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
104d25b7 669
be771a83
GS
670(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
671nosuid.
104d25b7 672
22e74366 673=item Can't coerce %s to %s in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
674
675(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 676(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
a0d0e21e
LW
677say things like:
678
679 *foo += 1;
680
681You CAN say
682
683 $foo = *foo;
684 $foo += 1;
685
686but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
687
0d863452 688=item Can't "continue" outside a when block
dc57907a 689
0d863452
RH
690(F) You called C<continue>, but you're not inside a C<when>
691or C<default> block.
692
a0d0e21e
LW
693=item Can't create pipe mailbox
694
be771a83
GS
695(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
696quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 697
eb64745e
GS
698=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
699
30c282f6
NC
700(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my", "our" or
701"state" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 702
fc7debfb
FC
703=item Can't "default" outside a topicalizer
704
705(F) You have used a C<default> block that is neither inside a
706C<foreach> loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is
707issued on exit from the C<default> block, so you won't get the
708error if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
709
6df41af2
GS
710=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
711
be771a83
GS
712(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
713a file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
6df41af2 714
a0d0e21e
LW
715=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
716
be771a83
GS
717(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
718reason.
a0d0e21e 719
54310121 720=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
a0d0e21e 721
be771a83
GS
722(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
723reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
724C<-i.bak>, or some such.
a0d0e21e 725
10f9c03d 726=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
a0d0e21e 727
e476b1b5 728(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
10f9c03d
CK
729characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
730inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
a0d0e21e 731
7253e4e3 732=item Can't do {n,m} with n > m in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 733
6903afa2
FC
734(F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really
735want your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. The
736<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem
737was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 738
a0d0e21e
LW
739=item Can't do waitpid with flags
740
be771a83
GS
741(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
742waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 743
a0d0e21e
LW
744=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
745
be771a83
GS
746(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
747point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
748line.
a0d0e21e 749
1109a392
MHM
750=item Can't %s %s-endian %ss on this platform
751
752(F) Your platform's byte-order is neither big-endian nor little-endian,
753or it has a very strange pointer size. Packing and unpacking big- or
754little-endian floating point values and pointers may not be possible.
755See L<perlfunc/pack>.
756
a0d0e21e
LW
757=item Can't exec "%s": %s
758
d1be9408 759(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
760named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
761permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
762C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
763architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
764can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
765#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
766
767=item Can't exec %s
768
be771a83
GS
769(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
770that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
771need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
772
773=item Can't execute %s
774
be771a83
GS
775(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
776found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 777
6df41af2 778=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 779
be771a83
GS
780(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
781is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2 782
56ca2fc0
JH
783=item Can't find %s character property "%s"
784
785(F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
6903afa2 786could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property?
e1b711da
KW
787See L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
788for a complete list of available properties.
56ca2fc0 789
6df41af2
GS
790=item Can't find label %s
791
be771a83
GS
792(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
793possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
794
795=item Can't find %s on PATH
796
be771a83
GS
797(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
798found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 799
6df41af2 800=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 801
be771a83
GS
802(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
803found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
804script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e
LW
805
806=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
807
be771a83
GS
808(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
809that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
810nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 811
fb73857a 812 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
813
97b3d10f 814If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have
b6b8cb97
FC
815included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag or there
816may not be a linebreak after it. A good programmer's editor will have
817a way to help you find these characters (or lack of characters). See
818L<perlop> for the full details on here-documents.
a0d0e21e 819
660a4616
TS
820=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s"
821
5f8ad6b6
FC
822(F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode
823property (for example C<\p{Lu}> matches all uppercase
fa816bf3 824letters). If you did mean to use a Unicode property, see
e1b711da 825L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
6903afa2 826for a complete list of available properties. If you didn't
fa816bf3
FC
827mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either by
828C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, or
5f8ad6b6 829until C<\E>).
660a4616 830
b3647a36 831=item Can't fork: %s
a0d0e21e 832
be771a83
GS
833(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
834pipeline.
a0d0e21e 835
b3647a36
SR
836=item Can't fork, trying again in 5 seconds
837
c973c02e 838(W pipe) A fork in a piped open failed with EAGAIN and will be retried
b3647a36
SR
839after five seconds.
840
748a9306
LW
841=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
842
be771a83
GS
843(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
844between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
845Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
846the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
847account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
848the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
2fe2bdfd 849the access-checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
be771a83
GS
850the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
851if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
852because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
2fe2bdfd
FC
853appears, the name lookup failed, and the access-checking routine gave up
854and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access-checking
be771a83
GS
855routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
856shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
857only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 858
a0d0e21e
LW
859=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
860
be771a83
GS
861(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
862pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
863
864=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
865
748a9306
LW
866(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
867mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 868
6df41af2 869=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 870
be771a83
GS
871(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
872loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
873
874=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
875
be771a83
GS
876(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
877a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
878you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
879See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 880
9850bf21 881=item Can't goto subroutine from a sort sub (or similar callback)
cd299c6e 882
9850bf21
RH
883(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of the
884comparison sub for a sort(), or from a similar callback (such
885as the reduce() function in List::Util).
886
c74ace89 887=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-%s
b150fb22 888
be771a83 889(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
c74ace89 890"string" or block.
b150fb22 891
6df41af2
GS
892=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
893
be771a83
GS
894(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
895subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
896cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
897routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 898
0b5b802d
GS
899=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
900
be771a83
GS
901(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
902signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
903signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
904processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
905situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
906may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 907
e2c0f81f
DG
908=item Can't kill a non-numeric process ID
909
910(F) Process identifiers must be (signed) integers. It is a fatal error to
911attempt to kill() an undefined, empty-string or otherwise non-numeric
912process identifier.
913
6df41af2 914=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 915
6df41af2 916(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
917except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
918block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
919block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
920usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
921inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
922L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 923
2c7d6b9c
RGS
924=item Can't linearize anonymous symbol table
925
926(F) Perl tried to calculate the method resolution order (MRO) of a
927package, but failed because the package stash has no name.
928
b8170e59
JB
929=item Can't load '%s' for module %s
930
6903afa2
FC
931(F) The module you tried to load failed to load a dynamic extension.
932This may either mean that you upgraded your version of perl to one
933that is incompatible with your old dynamic extensions (which is known
934to happen between major versions of perl), or (more likely) that your
935dynamic extension was built against an older version of the library
936that is installed on your system. You may need to rebuild your old
937dynamic extensions.
b8170e59 938
748a9306
LW
939=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
940
2ba9eb46 941(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
b7e4ecc1
FC
942lexical variable using "my" or "state". This is not allowed. If you
943want to localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with
944the package name.
748a9306 945
6df41af2 946=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 947
6df41af2
GS
948(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
949handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 950pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 951that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 952
ea071790 953=item Can't locate %s
ec889f3a 954
fa816bf3
FC
955(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be found.
956Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC, unless
957the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you need
958to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where the
959extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
be771a83
GS
960to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
961L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 962
6df41af2
GS
963=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
964
be771a83
GS
965(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
966autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
967are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
968the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 969
b8170e59
JB
970=item Can't locate loadable object for module %s in @INC
971
972(F) The module you loaded is trying to load an external library, like
d70d8e57 973for example, F<foo.so> or F<bar.dll>, but the L<DynaLoader> module was
b8170e59
JB
974unable to locate this library. See L<DynaLoader>.
975
a0d0e21e
LW
976=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
977
978(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
979functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 980method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
981
982=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
983
be771a83
GS
984(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
985doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 986
2f7da168
RK
987=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
988
989(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
990e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
991
f4ad53f4 992=item Can't make list assignment to %ENV on this system
3e3baf6d 993
be771a83
GS
994(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
995VMS.
3e3baf6d 996
a0d0e21e
LW
997=item Can't modify %s in %s
998
be771a83
GS
999(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
1000to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 1001
54310121 1002=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
a0d0e21e
LW
1003
1004(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
1005a NULL.
1006
6df41af2
GS
1007=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
1008
1009(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
2fe2bdfd 1010such. See L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
6df41af2 1011
5f05dabc 1012=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 1013
5f05dabc 1014(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
1015buffer.
1016
6df41af2
GS
1017=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
1018
1019(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
1020there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
1021count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
1022grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1023though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
1024once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 1025
46fa9b26
FC
1026=item Can't open %s
1027
1028(F) You tried to run a perl built with MAD support with
1029the PERL_XMLDUMP environment variable set, but the file
1030named by that variable could not be opened.
1031
a0d0e21e
LW
1032=item Can't open %s: %s
1033
c47ff5f1 1034(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e 1035filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
46fa9b26
FC
1036switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually
1037this is because you don't have read permission for a file which
1038you named on the command line.
1039
1040(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-e> switch, but F</dev/null> (or
1041your operating system's equivalent) could not be opened.
a0d0e21e 1042
9a869a14
RGS
1043=item Can't open a reference
1044
1045(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
2fe2bdfd 1046using the 3-arg open() syntax:
9a869a14
RGS
1047
1048 open FH, '>', $ref;
1049
1050but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
1051open is not supported.
1052
a0d0e21e
LW
1053=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
1054
be771a83
GS
1055(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
1056You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
1057as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
1058">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 1059
748a9306
LW
1060=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
1061
be771a83
GS
1062(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1063redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
1064the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1065
1066=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
1067
be771a83
GS
1068(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1069redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
1070command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
1071
1072=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
1073
be771a83
GS
1074(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1075redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
1076the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1077
1078=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
1079
be771a83
GS
1080(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1081redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
1082for stdout.
748a9306 1083
3b1cf97d 1084=item Can't open perl script "%s": %s
a0d0e21e
LW
1085
1086(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
1087
fa3aa65a
JC
1088If you're debugging a script that uses #!, and normally relies on the
1089shell's $PATH search, the -S option causes perl to do that search, so
1090you don't have to type the path or C<`which $scriptname`>.
1091
6df41af2
GS
1092=item Can't read CRTL environ
1093
1094(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
1095from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
1096missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
1097or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
1098searched.
6df41af2 1099
6df41af2
GS
1100=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
1101
1102(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
1103there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
1104count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
1105or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1106though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
1107loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
1108
64977eb6 1109=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 1110
be771a83
GS
1111(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
1112file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
1113the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 1114
a0d0e21e
LW
1115=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
1116
e476b1b5 1117(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
10f9c03d 1118probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
a0d0e21e 1119
748a9306
LW
1120=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
1121
be771a83
GS
1122(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
1123to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 1124
4f12ec0e
FC
1125=item Can't reset %ENV on this system
1126
1127(F) You called C<reset('E')> or similar, which tried to reset
1128all variables in the current package beginning with "E". In
1129the main package, that includes %ENV. Resetting %ENV is not
1130supported on some systems, notably VMS.
1131
fe13d51d 1132=item Can't resolve method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
6df41af2 1133
1fa582fa
FC
1134(F)(P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as
1135opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the
1136package. If the method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 1137
cd06dffe
GS
1138=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
1139
be771a83
GS
1140(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
1141temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
1142is not allowed.
cd06dffe 1143
96ebfdd7
RK
1144=item Can't return outside a subroutine
1145
1146(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1147there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1148
78f9721b
SM
1149=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
1150
6903afa2
FC
1151(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue
1152subroutine, but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl
1153think you meant to return only one value. You probably meant to
1154write parentheses around the call to the subroutine, which tell
1155Perl that the call should be in list context.
78f9721b 1156
a0d0e21e
LW
1157=item Can't stat script "%s"
1158
be771a83
GS
1159(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1160open already. Bizarre.
a0d0e21e 1161
a0d0e21e
LW
1162=item Can't take log of %g
1163
fb73857a 1164(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
6903afa2 1165negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
1166standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1167negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
1168
1169=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1170
1171(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 1172negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1173with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
1174
1175=item Can't undef active subroutine
1176
1177(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1178however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1179redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1180
c81225bc 1181=item Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d
a0d0e21e 1182
be771a83
GS
1183(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1184into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1185specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1186indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e 1187
6651ba0b
FC
1188=item Can't use '%c' after -mname
1189
1190(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-m> switch, but you put something
1191other than "=" after the module name.
1192
1db89ea5
BS
1193=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1194
e27ad1f2 1195(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1db89ea5
BS
1196table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1197for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1198
96ebfdd7
RK
1199=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1200
1201(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1202be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1203
6df41af2
GS
1204=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1205
be771a83
GS
1206(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1207references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1208
90b75b61 1209=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63 1210
20561843 1211(F) The first time the C<%!> hash is used, perl automatically loads the
6903afa2 1212Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1d2dff63
GS
1213provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1214
1109a392
MHM
1215=item Can't use both '<' and '>' after type '%c' in %s
1216
1217(F) A type cannot be forced to have both big-endian and little-endian
1218byte-order at the same time, so this combination of modifiers is not
1219allowed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1220
6df41af2
GS
1221=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1222
be771a83
GS
1223(F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1224foreach.
6df41af2 1225
aab6a793 1226=item Can't use global %s in "%s"
6df41af2 1227
be771a83
GS
1228(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1229is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1230(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1231have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1232weren't.
1233
6d3b25aa
RGS
1234=item Can't use '%c' in a group with different byte-order in %s
1235
1236(F) You attempted to force a different byte-order on a type
1237that is already inside a group with a byte-order modifier.
1238For example you cannot force little-endianness on a type that
1239is inside a big-endian group.
1240
c07a80fd 1241=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1242
1243(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1244You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1245and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1246Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1247lexical variable.
1248
a0d0e21e
LW
1249=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1250
1251(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1252reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1253test the type of the reference, if need be.
1254
748a9306 1255=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1256
b41bf23f
FC
1257(F) You've told Perl to dereference a string, something which
1258C<use strict> blocks to prevent it happening accidentally. See
1259L<perlref/"Symbolic references">. This can be triggered by an C<@> or C<$>
1260in a double-quoted string immediately before interpolating a variable,
1261for example in C<"user @$twitter_id">, which says to treat the contents
1262of C<$twitter_id> as an array reference; use a C<\> to have a literal C<@>
1263symbol followed by the contents of C<$twitter_id>: C<"user \@$twitter_id">.
a0d0e21e 1264
748a9306
LW
1265=item Can't use subscript on %s
1266
1267(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1268subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
209e7cf1 1269didn't look like a hash or array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
748a9306 1270
6df41af2
GS
1271=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1272
75b44862
GS
1273(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1274creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1275backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1276expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1277value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1278instead.
6df41af2 1279
810b8aa5
GS
1280=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1281
1282(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1283references can be weakened.
1284
fc7debfb
FC
1285=item Can't "when" outside a topicalizer
1286
1287(F) You have used a when() block that is neither inside a C<foreach>
1288loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is issued on exit
1289from the C<when> block, so you won't get the error if the match fails,
1290or if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
1291
5f05dabc 1292=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1293
be771a83
GS
1294(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1295with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1296Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1297
4a68bf9d 1298=item Character following "\c" must be ASCII
f9d13529 1299
1fa582fa 1300(F)(W deprecated, syntax) In C<\cI<X>>, I<X> must be an ASCII character.
79ef86ee 1301It is planned to make this fatal in all instances in Perl 5.18. In the
17a3df4c
KW
1302cases where it isn't fatal, the character this evaluates to is
1303derived by exclusive or'ing the code point of this character with 0x40.
1304
1305Note that non-alphabetic ASCII characters are discouraged here as well.
f9d13529 1306
f337b084 1307=item Character in 'C' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1308
1309(W pack) You said
1310
1311 pack("C", $x)
1312
1313where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1314only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1315and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1316
1317 pack("C", $x & 255)
1318
1319If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1320instead.
1321
f337b084
TH
1322=item Character in 'W' format wrapped in pack
1323
1324(W pack) You said
1325
1326 pack("U0W", $x)
1327
6903afa2
FC
1328where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255. However, C<U0>-mode
1329expects all values to fall in the interval [0, 255], so Perl behaved
1330as if you meant:
f337b084
TH
1331
1332 pack("U0W", $x & 255)
1333
1334=item Character in 'c' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1335
1336(W pack) You said
1337
1338 pack("c", $x)
1339
1340where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1341is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1342and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1343
1344 pack("c", $x & 255);
1345
1346If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1347instead.
1348
f337b084
TH
1349=item Character in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1350
1351(W unpack) You tried something like
1352
1353 unpack("H", "\x{2a1}")
1354
1a147d38 1355where the format expects to process a byte (a character with a value
6903afa2
FC
1356below 256), but a higher value was provided instead. Perl uses the
1357value modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
f337b084
TH
1358
1359 unpack("H", "\x{a1}")
1360
1361=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in pack
1362
1363(W pack) You tried something like
1364
1365 pack("u", "\x{1f3}b")
1366
1a147d38 1367where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1368value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1369uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1370
1371 pack("u", "\x{f3}b")
1372
1373=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1374
1375(W unpack) You tried something like
1376
1377 unpack("s", "\x{1f3}b")
1378
1a147d38 1379where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1380value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1381uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1382
1383 unpack("s", "\x{f3}b")
1384
f866a7cd
FC
1385=item "\c{" is deprecated and is more clearly written as ";"
1386
1387(D deprecated, syntax) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a way
1388to specify non-printable characters. You used it with a "{" which
1389evaluates to ";", which is printable. It is planned to remove the
79ef86ee 1390ability to specify a semi-colon this way in Perl 5.18. Just use a
f866a7cd
FC
1391semi-colon or a backslash-semi-colon without the "\c".
1392
1393=item "\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"
1394
1395(W syntax) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a way to specify
1396non-printable characters. You used it for a printable one, which is better
1397written as simply itself, perhaps preceded by a backslash for non-word
1398characters.
1399
6651ba0b
FC
1400=item Cloning substitution context is unimplemented
1401
1402(F) Creating a new thread inside the C<s///> operator is not supported.
1403
96ebfdd7
RK
1404=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1405
1406(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1407
abc7ecad
SP
1408=item closedir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
1409
1410(W io) The dirhandle you tried to close is either closed or not really
1411a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
1412
541ed3a9
FC
1413=item Closure prototype called
1414
1415(F) If a closure has attributes, the subroutine passed to an attribute
1416handler is the prototype that is cloned when a new closure is created.
1417This subroutine cannot be called.
1418
49704364
WL
1419=item Code missing after '/'
1420
6903afa2
FC
1421(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be
1422another template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 1423
0876b9a0
KW
1424=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, may not be portable
1425
c634fdd3 1426=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, all \p{} matches fail; all \P{} matches succeed
9ae3ac1a 1427
1b64326b
FC
1428(W utf8, non_unicode) You had a code point above the Unicode maximum
1429of U+10FFFF.
1430
1431Perl allows strings to contain a superset of Unicode code points, up
1432to the limit of what is storable in an unsigned integer on your system,
1433but these may not be accepted by other languages/systems. At one time,
1434it was legal in some standards to have code points up to 0x7FFF_FFFF,
1435but not higher. Code points above 0xFFFF_FFFF require larger than a
143632 bit word.
0876b9a0 1437
9ae3ac1a
KW
1438None of the Unicode or Perl-defined properties will match a non-Unicode
1439code point. For example,
1440
1441 chr(0x7FF_FFFF) =~ /\p{Any}/
1442
1443will not match, because the code point is not in Unicode. But
1444
1445 chr(0x7FF_FFFF) =~ /\P{Any}/
1446
1447will match.
1448
94b42e47
KW
1449This may be counterintuitive at times, as both these fail:
1450
1451 chr(0x110000) =~ \p{ASCII_Hex_Digit=True} # Fails.
1452 chr(0x110000) =~ \p{ASCII_Hex_Digit=False} # Also fails!
1453
1454and both these succeed:
1455
1456 chr(0x110000) =~ \P{ASCII_Hex_Digit=True} # Succeeds.
1457 chr(0x110000) =~ \P{ASCII_Hex_Digit=False} # Also succeeds!
1458
6df41af2
GS
1459=item %s: Command not found
1460
a892b81a
FC
1461(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> or another shell
1462shell instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script
1463into Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
8f721816
MM
1464
1465 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
6df41af2 1466
7a2e2cd6 1467=item Compilation failed in require
1468
1469(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1470Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1471encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1472
c3464db5
DD
1473=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1474
be771a83
GS
1475(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1476situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1477to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1478arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1479recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1480under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1481in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1482that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1483on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1484
38875929
DM
1485=item cond_broadcast() called on unlocked variable
1486
6903afa2
FC
1487(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to
1488call cond_broadcast() on a variable which wasn't locked.
1489The cond_broadcast() function is used to wake up another thread
1490that is waiting in a cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't
1491sent before the other thread has a chance to enter the wait, it
1492is usual for the signaling thread first to wait for a lock on
1493variable. This lock attempt will only succeed after the other
1494thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the lock.
38875929 1495
38875929
DM
1496=item cond_signal() called on unlocked variable
1497
6903afa2
FC
1498(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to
1499call cond_signal() on a variable which wasn't locked. The
1500cond_signal() function is used to wake up another thread that
1501is waiting in a cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't
1502sent before the other thread has a chance to enter the wait, it
1503is usual for the signaling thread first to wait for a lock on
1504variable. This lock attempt will only succeed after the other
1505thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the lock.
38875929 1506
69282e91 1507=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1508
be771a83
GS
1509(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1510to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1511L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1512
41ab332f 1513=item Constant(%s)%s: %s
6df41af2 1514
be771a83
GS
1515(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1516an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1517specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
fbb93542 1518corresponding L<overload> pragma?.
6df41af2 1519
fc8cd66c
YO
1520=item Constant(%s)%s: %s in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1521
1a147d38 1522(F) The parser found inconsistencies while attempting to find
fbb93542 1523the character name specified in the C<\N{...}> escape.
fc8cd66c 1524
779c5bc9
GS
1525=item Constant is not %s reference
1526
1527(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83 1528is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
6903afa2 1529The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
be771a83 1530usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1531See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1532
4cee8e80
CS
1533=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1534
aeb94125
FC
1535(W redefine)(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously
1536been eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions">
1537for commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1538
9607fc9c 1539=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1540
be771a83
GS
1541(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1542for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1543workarounds.
9607fc9c 1544
e7ea3e70
IZ
1545=item Copy method did not return a reference
1546
6903afa2 1547(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1548L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1549
4aaa4757
FC
1550=item &CORE::%s cannot be called directly
1551
1552(F) You tried to call a subroutine in the C<CORE::> namespace
8d605c0d 1553with C<&foo> syntax or through a reference. Some subroutines
4aaa4757
FC
1554in this package cannot yet be called that way, but must be
1555called as barewords. Something like this will work:
1556
1557 BEGIN { *shove = \&CORE::push; }
1558 shove @array, 1,2,3; # pushes on to @array
1559
6798c92b
GS
1560=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1561
1562(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1563
a0d0e21e
LW
1564=item corrupted regexp pointers
1565
1566(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1567expression compiler gave it.
1568
1569=item corrupted regexp program
1570
be771a83
GS
1571(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1572valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1573
de42a5a9 1574=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%x at 0x%x
6df41af2
GS
1575
1576(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1577
49704364
WL
1578=item Count after length/code in unpack
1579
1580(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1581you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1582L<perlfunc/pack>.
1583
6651ba0b
FC
1584=item Deep recursion on anonymous subroutine
1585
a0d0e21e
LW
1586=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1587
be771a83
GS
1588(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1589100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1590infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1591which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1592
aad1d01f
NC
1593This threshold can be changed from 100, by recompiling the F<perl> binary,
1594setting the C pre-processor macro C<PERL_SUB_DEPTH_WARN> to the desired value.
1595
f10b0346 1596=item defined(@array) is deprecated
69794302 1597
be771a83
GS
1598(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1599checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
64977eb6 1600array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1601
f10b0346 1602=item defined(%hash) is deprecated
69794302 1603
f0ec9725
KR
1604(D deprecated) C<defined()> is not usually right on hashes and has been
1605discouraged since 5.004.
1606
1607Although C<defined %hash> is false on a plain not-yet-used hash, it
1608becomes true in several non-obvious circumstances, including iterators,
1609weak references, stash names, even remaining true after C<undef %hash>.
1610These things make C<defined %hash> fairly useless in practice.
1611
1612If a check for non-empty is what you wanted then just put it in boolean
1613context (see L<perldata/Scalar values>):
16546e45
KR
1614
1615 if (%hash) {
1616 # not empty
1617 }
1618
f0ec9725
KR
1619If you had C<defined %Foo::Bar::QUUX> to check whether such a package
1620variable exists then that's never really been reliable, and isn't
1621a good way to enquire about the features of a package, or whether
1622it's loaded, etc.
1623
69794302 1624
bcb95744
FC
1625=item (?(DEFINE)....) does not allow branches in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1626
6903afa2 1627(F) You used something like C<(?(DEFINE)...|..)> which is illegal. The
bcb95744
FC
1628most likely cause of this error is that you left out a parenthesis inside
1629of the C<....> part.
1630
1631The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1632discovered.
1633
62658f4d
PM
1634=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1635
1636(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1637there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1638
fc36a67e 1639=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1640
be771a83
GS
1641(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1642long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1643that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 1644
4a68bf9d 1645=item Deprecated character in \N{...}; marked by <-- HERE in \N{%s<-- HERE %s
cb233ae3
KW
1646
1647(D deprecated) Just about anything is legal for the C<...> in C<\N{...}>.
5fca8acb
FC
1648But starting in 5.12, non-reasonable ones that don't look like names
1649are deprecated. A reasonable name begins with an alphabetic character
1650and continues with any combination of alphanumerics, dashes, spaces,
1651parentheses or colons.
cb233ae3 1652
6d3b25aa
RGS
1653=item Deprecated use of my() in false conditional
1654
fa816bf3
FC
1655(D deprecated) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>. There
1656has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
6d3b25aa 1657not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
6903afa2 1658conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
fa816bf3 1659static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
6903afa2 1660relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
6d3b25aa 1661declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
36fb85f3 1662
6d3b25aa
RGS
1663 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
1664
1665becomes
1666
1667 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
1668
fa816bf3
FC
1669Beginning with perl 5.9.4, you can also use C<state> variables to have
1670lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
36fb85f3
RGS
1671
1672 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
1673
500ab966
RGS
1674=item DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
1675
1676(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
6903afa2
FC
1677just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather
1678than to create a dangling reference.
500ab966 1679
3cdd684c
TP
1680=item Did not produce a valid header
1681
1682See Server error.
1683
6df41af2
GS
1684=item %s did not return a true value
1685
1686(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1687it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1688traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1689do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1690
cc507455 1691=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 1692
413ff9f6
FC
1693(W misc) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or
1694some such.
4633a7c4 1695
cc507455 1696=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 1697
be771a83
GS
1698(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1699variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1700seems superfluous.
33633739 1701
cc507455 1702=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 1703
be771a83
GS
1704(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1705@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1706carried away.
748a9306 1707
7e1af8bc 1708=item Died
5f05dabc 1709
1710(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
075b00aa 1711you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 1712
3cdd684c
TP
1713=item Document contains no data
1714
1715See Server error.
1716
62658f4d
PM
1717=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1718
1719(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1720define a C<$VERSION.>
1721
49704364
WL
1722=item '/' does not take a repeat count
1723
1724(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
1725See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1726
a0d0e21e
LW
1727=item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1728
1729(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1730
1731=item do_study: out of memory
1732
1733(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1734
6df41af2
GS
1735=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1736
56da5a46
RGS
1737(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
1738"%s found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
6df41af2
GS
1739name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1740because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
1741"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1742something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1743subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1744"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 1745
ac206dc8
RGS
1746=item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1747
1748(W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1749qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1750
84d78eb7
YO
1751=item dump is not supported
1752
1753(F) Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.
1754
a0d0e21e
LW
1755=item Duplicate free() ignored
1756
be771a83
GS
1757(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1758already been freed.
a0d0e21e 1759
1109a392
MHM
1760=item Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
1761
1762(W) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a type
1763in a pack template. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1764
4633a7c4
LW
1765=item elseif should be elsif
1766
fa816bf3
FC
1767(S syntax) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks
1768it's ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method
1769named "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
1770unlikely to be what you want.
1771
ab13f0c7
JH
1772=item Empty %s
1773
af6f566e 1774(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
6903afa2 1775described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
af6f566e 1776a regular expression without specifying the property name.
ab13f0c7 1777
85ab1d1d 1778=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 1779
85ab1d1d 1780(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
1781effective uids or gids failed.
1782
c038024b
RGS
1783=item %ENV is aliased to %s
1784
1785(F) You're running under taint mode, and the C<%ENV> variable has been
1786aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
6903afa2 1787program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
c038024b 1788
748a9306
LW
1789=item Error converting file specification %s
1790
5f05dabc 1791(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 1792specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
1793single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1794an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1795conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 1796
ad19ef22 1797=item Eval-group in insecure regular expression
e4d48cc9 1798
be771a83
GS
1799(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1800expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1801is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 1802
ad19ef22 1803=item Eval-group not allowed at runtime, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
e4d48cc9 1804
be771a83
GS
1805(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1806C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
f11307f5
FC
1807pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk,
1808it is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by using the
1809C<re 'eval'> pragma or by explicitly building the pattern from an
1810interpolated string at run time and using that in an eval(). See
1811L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 1812
ad19ef22 1813=item Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
6df41af2 1814
be771a83
GS
1815(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1816assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1817pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 1818
1a147d38
YO
1819=item EVAL without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1820
1821(F) You used a pattern that nested too many EVAL calls without consuming
6903afa2 1822any text. Restructure the pattern so that text is consumed.
1a147d38
YO
1823
1824The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1825discovered.
1826
fc36a67e 1827=item Excessively long <> operator
1828
1829(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1830Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1831filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1832variable and glob that.
1833
ed9aa3b7
SG
1834=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1835
af8bb25a 1836(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented on some systems, e.g., Symbian
6903afa2 1837OS. See L<perlport>.
ed9aa3b7 1838
fe13d51d 1839=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors.
a0d0e21e
LW
1840
1841(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1842
1843=item Exiting eval via %s
1844
be771a83
GS
1845(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1846goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
1847
1848=item Exiting format via %s
1849
9a2ff54b 1850(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 1851goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1852
0a753a76 1853=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1854
be771a83
GS
1855(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1856sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1857loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 1858
a0d0e21e
LW
1859=item Exiting subroutine via %s
1860
be771a83
GS
1861(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1862as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
1863
1864=item Exiting substitution via %s
1865
be771a83
GS
1866(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1867as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1868
7b8d334a
GS
1869=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1870
be771a83
GS
1871(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1872the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1873usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1874e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 1875
6df41af2
GS
1876=item %s: Expression syntax
1877
be771a83
GS
1878(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1879Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
1880
1881=item %s failed--call queue aborted
1882
3c10abe3
AG
1883(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a UNITCHECK,
1884CHECK, INIT, or END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the
1885queue of such routines has been prematurely ended.
6df41af2 1886
7253e4e3 1887=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
73b437c8 1888
be771a83 1889(W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3
RK
1890character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1891in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1892"-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1893problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 1894
1b1ee2ef 1895=item Fatal VMS error (status=%d) at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 1896
be771a83
GS
1897(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1898system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1899details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1900you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
1901
1902=item fcntl is not implemented
1903
1904(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1905PDP-11 or something?
1906
22846ab4
AB
1907=item FETCHSIZE returned a negative value
1908
1909(F) A tied array claimed to have a negative number of elements, which
1910is not possible.
1911
f337b084
TH
1912=item Field too wide in 'u' format in pack
1913
1914(W pack) Each line in an uuencoded string start with a length indicator
6903afa2
FC
1915which can't encode values above 63. So there is no point in asking for
1916a line length bigger than that. Perl will behave as if you specified
5c96f6f7 1917C<u63> as the format.
f337b084 1918
af8c498a 1919=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 1920
6c8d78fb
HS
1921(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
1922it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
1923"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
1924write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 1925
af8c498a 1926=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 1927
6c8d78fb
HS
1928(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
1929you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
89a1bda8
FC
1930with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with ">". If you intended only to
1931read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>. Another possibility
1932is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0 (also known as STDIN) for
1933output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
97828cef
RGS
1934
1935=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
1936
1937(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
6903afa2 1938as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
97828cef
RGS
1939previously.
1940
1941=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
1942
1943(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
fa816bf3 1944as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
1945
1946=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1947
1948(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
1949a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1950happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1951name.
a0d0e21e 1952
56e90b21
GS
1953=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1954
be771a83 1955(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 1956some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
1957filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1958same name?
56e90b21 1959
6df41af2
GS
1960=item Format not terminated
1961
1962(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1963to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1964
a0d0e21e
LW
1965=item Format %s redefined
1966
e476b1b5 1967(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
1968
1969 {
271595cc 1970 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
1971 eval "format NAME =...";
1972 }
1973
a0d0e21e
LW
1974=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1975
e476b1b5 1976(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
1977
1978 if ($foo = 123)
1979
1980when you meant
1981
1982 if ($foo == 123)
1983
1984(or something like that).
1985
6df41af2
GS
1986=item %s found where operator expected
1987
56da5a46
RGS
1988(S syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator.
1989If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
be771a83
GS
1990operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
1991operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 1992
a0d0e21e
LW
1993=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1994
1995(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1996
1997=item gethostent not implemented
1998
1999(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
2000because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
2001on the Internet.
2002
69282e91 2003=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2004
be771a83
GS
2005(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
2006socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 2007
748a9306
LW
2008=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
2009
2010(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
2011C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
2012
6df41af2
GS
2013=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
2014
be771a83
GS
2015(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
2016forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
2017L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
2018
2019=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
2020
a4edf47d 2021(F) You've said "use strict" or "use strict vars", which indicates
30c282f6 2022that all variables must either be lexically scoped (using "my" or "state"),
a4edf47d
GS
2023declared beforehand using "our", or explicitly qualified to say
2024which package the global variable is in (using "::").
6df41af2 2025
e476b1b5
GS
2026=item glob failed (%s)
2027
5ead438e 2028(S glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used
73c4e9dc
FC
2029for C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a C<glob>
2030pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
be771a83 2031nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
73c4e9dc
FC
2032resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell)
2033is broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables
2034in config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as
2035if it were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them
2036all empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
be771a83 2037think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 2038C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 2039
a0d0e21e
LW
2040=item Glob not terminated
2041
2042(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
2043a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
2044not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
2045earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 2046
bcd05b94 2047=item gmtime(%f) too large
8b56d6ff 2048
e9200be3 2049(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was larger than
fc003d4b 2050it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong
6903afa2 2051date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
fc003d4b
MS
2052not-a-number value).
2053
bcd05b94 2054=item gmtime(%f) too small
fc003d4b 2055
e9200be3 2056(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was smaller than
e7a1a147 2057it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong date.
8b56d6ff 2058
6df41af2 2059=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 2060
6df41af2
GS
2061(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
2062version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
2063
2064=item goto must have label
2065
2066(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
2067unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2068
6651ba0b
FC
2069=item Goto undefined subroutine%s
2070
2071(F) You tried to call a subroutine with C<goto &sub> syntax, but
2072the indicated subroutine hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
2073has since been undefined.
2074
49704364 2075=item ()-group starts with a count
18529408 2076
bca4a986
FC
2077(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is supposed to follow
2078something: a template character or a ()-group. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
18529408 2079
1f4f6bf1
YO
2080=item Group name must start with a non-digit word character in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2081
2082(F) Group names must follow the rules for perl identifiers, meaning
2083they must start with a non-digit word character. A common cause of
2084this error is using (?&0) instead of (?0). See L<perlre>.
2085
fe13d51d 2086=item %s had compilation errors.
6df41af2
GS
2087
2088(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
2089
a0d0e21e
LW
2090=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
2091
be771a83
GS
2092(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
2093to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
2094created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e
LW
2095
2096=item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
2097
be771a83
GS
2098(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
2099spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
a0d0e21e 2100
6df41af2
GS
2101=item %s has too many errors
2102
2103(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
2104Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
2105
252aa082
JH
2106=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
2107
e476b1b5 2108(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
2109(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2110L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 2111
8903cb82 2112=item Identifier too long
2113
2114(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 2115about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
2116names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
2117of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 2118
c3c41406 2119=item Ignoring zero length \N{} in character class
fc8cd66c 2120
20561843 2121(W) Named Unicode character escapes C<(\N{...})> may return a zero-length
6903afa2
FC
2122sequence. When such an escape is used in a character class its
2123behaviour is not well defined. Check that the correct escape has
fc8cd66c
YO
2124been used, and the correct charname handler is in scope.
2125
6df41af2 2126=item Illegal binary digit %s
f675dbe5 2127
6df41af2 2128(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
f675dbe5 2129
6df41af2 2130=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
a0d0e21e 2131
be771a83
GS
2132(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
2133binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
2134offending digit.
a0d0e21e 2135
6597eb22
FC
2136=item Illegal character after '_' in prototype for %s : %s
2137
2138(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
2139Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, \, and +.
2140
78d0fecf 2141=item Illegal character \%o (carriage return)
4fdae800 2142
d5898338 2143(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
be771a83
GS
2144would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
2145when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
2146version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
2147to your Perl administrator.
4fdae800 2148
d37a9538
ST
2149=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
2150
197afce1 2151(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
2e9cc7ef 2152Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, \, and +.
d37a9538 2153
904d85c5
RGS
2154=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
2155
2156(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
6903afa2 2157you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
904d85c5 2158
8e742a20
MHM
2159=item Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
2160
6903afa2 2161(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See L<perlsub>.
8e742a20 2162
a0d0e21e
LW
2163=item Illegal division by zero
2164
be771a83
GS
2165(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
2166your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
2167meaningless input.
a0d0e21e 2168
6df41af2
GS
2169=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
2170
be771a83
GS
2171(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
2172A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
2173number stopped before the illegal character.
6df41af2 2174
a0d0e21e
LW
2175=item Illegal modulus zero
2176
be771a83
GS
2177(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
2178numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 2179
6df41af2 2180=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 2181
6df41af2
GS
2182(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
2183two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4
GS
2184
2185=item Illegal octal digit %s
a0d0e21e 2186
d1be9408 2187(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 2188
399388f4 2189=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
748a9306 2190
d1be9408 2191(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
75b44862 2192Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
748a9306 2193
fe13d51d 2194=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: -%c
6ff81951 2195
6df41af2 2196(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
646ca9b2 2197following switches: B<-[CDIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 2198
6df41af2 2199=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 2200
75b44862 2201(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
2202internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
2203delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 2204
6df41af2 2205=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 2206
be771a83
GS
2207(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
2208name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
2209didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
2210ignored.
54310121 2211
6df41af2 2212=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 2213
be771a83
GS
2214(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
2215the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
2216system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
2217times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
2218would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 2219
be771a83
GS
2220Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
2221also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 2222
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2223=item Inconsistent hierarchy during C3 merge of class '%s': merging failed on parent '%s'
2224
2225(F) The method resolution order (MRO) of the given class is not
2226C3-consistent, and you have enabled the C3 MRO for this class. See the C3
2227documentation in L<mro> for more information.
2228
979699d9
JH
2229=item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
2230
2231(F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
2232Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
2233encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
2234
1a147d38
YO
2235=item Infinite recursion in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2236
2237(F) You used a pattern that references itself without consuming any input
6903afa2 2238text. You should check the pattern to ensure that recursive patterns
1a147d38
YO
2239either consume text or fail.
2240
2241The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2242discovered.
2243
6dbe9451
NC
2244=item Initialization of state variables in list context currently forbidden
2245
6903afa2
FC
2246(F) Currently the implementation of "state" only permits the
2247initialization of scalar variables in scalar context. Re-write
2248C<state ($a) = 42> as C<state $a = 42> to change from list to scalar
2249context. Constructions such as C<state (@a) = foo()> will be
2250supported in a future perl release.
6dbe9451 2251
a0d0e21e
LW
2252=item Insecure dependency in %s
2253
8b1a09fc 2254(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
2255The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
2256setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
2257tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
2258from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
2259such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
2260L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
2261
2262=item Insecure directory in %s
2263
be771a83
GS
2264(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2265setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
df98f984
RGS
2266the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
2267See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2268
62f468fc 2269=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2270
2271(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc 2272setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
332d5f78
SR
2273C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
2274supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
2275the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2276
0e9be77f
DM
2277=item Insecure user-defined property %s
2278
2279(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2280expression that contains a call to a user-defined character property
2281function, i.e. C<\p{IsFoo}> or C<\p{InFoo}>.
2282See L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties> and L<perlsec>.
2283
b9ef414d
FC
2284=item Integer overflow in format string for %s
2285
2286(F) The indexes and widths specified in the format string of C<printf()>
2287or C<sprintf()> are too large. The numbers must not overflow the size of
2288integers for your architecture.
2289
a7ae9550
GS
2290=item Integer overflow in %s number
2291
35928bc5 2292(S overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
2293either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
2294your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
2295On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
2296representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
22970b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
2298transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
2299internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
2300operations.
bbce6d69 2301
fc89ca81
FC
2302=item Integer overflow in srand
2303
2304(S overflow) The number you have passed to srand is too big to fit
2305in your architecture's integer representation. The number has been
2306replaced with the largest integer supported (0xFFFFFFFF on 32-bit
2307architectures). This means you may be getting less randomness than
2308you expect, because different random seeds above the maximum will
2309return the same sequence of random numbers.
2310
46314c13
JP
2311=item Integer overflow in version
2312
18da5252
FC
2313=item Integer overflow in version %d
2314
784d71ed
FC
2315(W overflow) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for
2316the size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
f084e84f 2317because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use an
784d71ed
FC
2318element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by trying
2319to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like 100/9.
46314c13 2320
7253e4e3 2321=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2322
2323(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
7253e4e3 2324The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a
JF
2325discovered.
2326
748a9306
LW
2327=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
2328
be771a83
GS
2329(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
2330you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
2331to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
2332L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
2333Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
2334terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 2335
7253e4e3 2336=item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2337
fa816bf3 2338(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
7253e4e3
RK
2339<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2340discovered.
a0d0e21e 2341
6df41af2
GS
2342=item %s (...) interpreted as function
2343
75b44862 2344(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 2345followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 2346operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 2347L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 2348
09bef843
SB
2349=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
2350
a4a4c9e2 2351(F) The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
09bef843
SB
2352by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
2353
2354=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
2355
a4a4c9e2 2356(F) The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
be771a83 2357recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2358
c635e13b 2359=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
2360
be771a83
GS
2361(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
2362L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 2363
9e08bc66
TS
2364=item Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2365
2366(W regexp) The numeric escape (for example C<\xHH>) of value < 256
2367didn't correspond to a single character through the conversion
2368from the encoding specified by the encoding pragma.
2369The escape was replaced with REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (U+FFFD) instead.
2370The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2371escape was discovered.
2372
8149aa9f
FC
2373=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...}
2374
aec0ef10
FC
2375=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...} in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2376
8149aa9f 2377(F) The character constant represented by C<...> is not a valid hexadecimal
74f8e9e3
FC
2378number. Either it is empty, or you tried to use a character other than
23790 - 9 or A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number.
8149aa9f 2380
6651ba0b
FC
2381=item Invalid module name %s with -%c option: contains single ':'
2382
2383(F) The module argument to perl's B<-m> and B<-M> command-line options
2384cannot contain single colons in the module name, but only in the
2385arguments after "=". In other words, B<-MFoo::Bar=:baz> is ok, but
2386B<-MFoo:Bar=baz> is not.
2387
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2388=item Invalid mro name: '%s'
2389
162a3e34
FC
2390(F) You tried to C<mro::set_mro("classname", "foo")> or C<use mro 'foo'>,
2391where C<foo> is not a valid method resolution order (MRO). Currently,
2392the only valid ones supported are C<dfs> and C<c3>, unless you have loaded
2393a module that is a MRO plugin. See L<mro> and L<perlmroapi>.
2c7d6b9c 2394
40e4140b
FC
2395=item Invalid negative number (%s) in chr
2396
2397(W utf8) You passed a negative number to C<chr>. Negative numbers are
2398not valid characters numbers, so it return the Unicode replacement
2399character (U+FFFD).
2400
6651ba0b
FC
2401=item invalid option -D%c, use -D'' to see choices
2402
2403(F) Perl was called with invalid debugger flags. Call perl with
2404the B<-D> option with no flags to see the list of acceptable values.
2405See also L<< perlrun/B<-D>I<letters> >>.
2406
7253e4e3 2407=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2408
2409(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
2410greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
2411C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
2412up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2413problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 2414
d1573ac7 2415=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
2416
2417(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
2418character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
2419
09bef843
SB
2420=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
2421
0120eecf 2422(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
2423elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
2424parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
2425See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2426
b4581f09
JH
2427=item Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
2428
2bfc5f71
FC
2429(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other
2430than a colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
b4581f09
JH
2431If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2432list was terminated too soon.
2433
2c86d456
DG
2434=item Invalid strict version format (%s)
2435
fa816bf3 2436(F) A version number did not meet the "strict" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
2437A "strict" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
2438decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
2439v-string with a leading 'v' character and at least three components.
a6485a24 2440The parenthesized text indicates which criteria were not met.
2c86d456
DG
2441See the L<version> module for more details on allowed version formats.
2442
49704364 2443=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
96e4d5b1 2444
49704364
WL
2445(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
2446See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6728c851 2447
49704364 2448(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
75b44862 2449silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 2450
2c86d456
DG
2451=item Invalid version format (%s)
2452
fa816bf3 2453(F) A version number did not meet the "lax" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
2454A "lax" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
2455decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
fa816bf3
FC
2456v-string. If the v-string has fewer than three components, it
2457must have a leading 'v' character. Otherwise, the leading 'v' is
2458optional. Both decimal and dotted-decimal versions may have a
2459trailing "alpha" component separated by an underscore character
2460after a fractional or dotted-decimal component. The parenthesized
2461text indicates which criteria were not met. See the L<version> module
2462for more details on allowed version formats.
46314c13 2463
798ae1b7
DG
2464=item Invalid version object
2465
fa816bf3
FC
2466(F) The internal structure of the version object was invalid.
2467Perhaps the internals were modified directly in some way or
2468an arbitrary reference was blessed into the "version" class.
798ae1b7 2469
a0d0e21e
LW
2470=item ioctl is not implemented
2471
2472(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
2473strange for a machine that supports C.
2474
c289d2f7
JH
2475=item ioctl() on unopened %s
2476
2477(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
34b6fd5e 2478Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 2479
fe13d51d 2480=item IO layers (like '%s') unavailable
363c40c4
SB
2481
2482(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
34b6fd5e 2483you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO, Perl must be configured
363c40c4
SB
2484with 'useperlio'.
2485
80cbd5ad
JH
2486=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
2487
2488(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
34b6fd5e 2489neither as a system call nor an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
80cbd5ad 2490
b4581f09
JH
2491=item $* is no longer supported
2492
a58ac25e 2493(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older
6903afa2 2494perls, has been removed as of 5.9.0 and is no longer supported. In
a58ac25e
FC
2495previous versions of perl the use of C<$*> enabled or disabled multi-line
2496matching within a string.
4fd19576
B
2497
2498Instead of using C<$*> you should use the C</m> (and maybe C</s>) regexp
6903afa2
FC
2499modifiers. You can enable C</m> for a lexical scope (even a whole file)
2500with C<use re '/m'>. (In older versions: when C<$*> was set to a true value
570dedd4 2501then all regular expressions behaved as if they were written using C</m>.)
b4581f09 2502
8ae1fe26
RGS
2503=item $# is no longer supported
2504
a58ac25e 2505(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$#>, deprecated in older
6903afa2 2506perls, has been removed as of 5.9.3 and is no longer supported. You
a58ac25e 2507should use the printf/sprintf functions instead.
8ae1fe26 2508
ccf3535a 2509=item '%s' is not a code reference
6ad11d81 2510
6903afa2
FC
2511(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of
2512overload::constant needs to be a code reference. Either
2513an anonymous subroutine, or a reference to a subroutine.
6ad11d81 2514
ccf3535a 2515=item '%s' is not an overloadable type
6ad11d81 2516
04a80ee0
RGS
2517(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
2518unaware of.
6ad11d81 2519
aec0ef10 2520=item Junk on end of regexp in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
2521
2522(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
2523
2524=item Label not found for "last %s"
2525
be771a83
GS
2526(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
2527of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2528L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2529
2530=item Label not found for "next %s"
2531
2532(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
2533that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2534L<perlfunc/last>.
2535
2536=item Label not found for "redo %s"
2537
2538(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
2539that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2540L<perlfunc/last>.
2541
85ab1d1d 2542=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 2543
85ab1d1d 2544(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
2545effective uids or gids failed.
2546
49704364
WL
2547=item length/code after end of string in unpack
2548
d7f8936a 2549(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an unpack
6903afa2
FC
2550length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
2551an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 2552
e508c8a4
MH
2553=item length() used on %s
2554
0d46a4e7
FC
2555(W syntax) You used length() on either an array or a hash when you
2556probably wanted a count of the items.
e508c8a4
MH
2557
2558Array size can be obtained by doing:
2559
2560 scalar(@array);
2561
2562The number of items in a hash can be obtained by doing:
2563
2564 scalar(keys %hash);
2565
f0e67a1d
Z
2566=item Lexing code attempted to stuff non-Latin-1 character into Latin-1 input
2567
2568(F) An extension is attempting to insert text into the current parse
6903afa2
FC
2569(using L<lex_stuff_pvn|perlapi/lex_stuff_pvn> or similar), but tried to insert a character that
2570couldn't be part of the current input. This is an inherent pitfall
2571of the stuffing mechanism, and one of the reasons to avoid it. Where
2572it is necessary to stuff, stuffing only plain ASCII is recommended.
f0e67a1d
Z
2573
2574=item Lexing code internal error (%s)
2575
2576(F) Lexing code supplied by an extension violated the lexer's API in a
2577detectable way.
2578
69282e91 2579=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2580
be771a83
GS
2581(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
2582to check the return value of your socket() call? See
2583L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 2584
6651ba0b
FC
2585=item List form of piped open not implemented
2586
2587(F) On some platforms, notably Windows, the three-or-more-arguments
2588form of C<open> does not support pipes, such as C<open($pipe, '|-', @args)>.
2589Use the two-argument C<open($pipe, '|prog arg1 arg2...')> form instead.
2590
bcd05b94 2591=item localtime(%f) too large
8b56d6ff 2592
e9200be3 2593(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was larger
fc003d4b 2594than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
6903afa2 2595wrong date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
fc003d4b
MS
2596not-a-number value).
2597
bcd05b94 2598=item localtime(%f) too small
fc003d4b 2599
e9200be3 2600(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was smaller
fc003d4b 2601than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
e7a1a147 2602wrong date.
8b56d6ff 2603
58e23c8d 2604=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
2605
2606(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
6903afa2 2607handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release.
2e50fd82 2608
b88df990
NC
2609=item Lost precision when %s %f by 1
2610
2611(W) The value you attempted to increment or decrement by one is too large
2612for the underlying floating point representation to store accurately,
6903afa2 2613hence the target of C<++> or C<--> is unchanged. Perl issues this warning
b88df990
NC
2614because it has already switched from integers to floating point when values
2615are too large for integers, and now even floating point is insufficient.
2616You may wish to switch to using L<Math::BigInt> explicitly.
2617
93fad930 2618=item lstat() on filehandle%s
2f7da168
RK
2619
2620(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
2621by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
2622instead on the filehandle.)
2623
345d70e3 2624=item lvalue attribute %s already-defined subroutine
bb3abb05 2625
345d70e3
FC
2626(W misc) Although L<attributes.pm|attributes> allows this, turning the lvalue
2627attribute on or off on a Perl subroutine that is already defined
2628does not always work properly. It may or may not do what you
2629want, depending on what code is inside the subroutine, with exact
2630details subject to change between Perl versions. Only do this
2631if you really know what you are doing.
bb3abb05 2632
885ef6f5
GG
2633=item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined
2634
345d70e3
FC
2635(W misc) Using the C<:lvalue> declarative syntax to make a Perl
2636subroutine an lvalue subroutine after it has been defined is
2637not permitted. To make the subroutine an lvalue subroutine,
2638add the lvalue attribute to the definition, or put the C<sub
2639foo :lvalue;> declaration before the definition.
2640
2641See also L<attributes.pm|attributes>.
885ef6f5 2642
2db62bbc 2643=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
49704364 2644
2db62bbc 2645(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
2646are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2647
2648=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
2649
2db62bbc 2650(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
2651are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2652
6df41af2
GS
2653=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
2654
2655(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
2656
2657 prefix1;prefix2
2658
2659or
6df41af2
GS
2660 prefix1 prefix2
2661
be771a83
GS
2662with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
2663a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
2664appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 2665"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 2666
2f758a16
ST
2667=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
2668
d37a9538
ST
2669(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
2670syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
2671obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
2672when the function is called.
2f758a16 2673
ba210ebe
JH
2674=item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
2675
4d6f11e5 2676(S utf8)(F) Perl detected a string that didn't comply with UTF-8
2575c402 2677encoding rules, even though it had the UTF8 flag on.
ba210ebe 2678
2575c402
JW
2679One possible cause is that you set the UTF8 flag yourself for data that
2680you thought to be in UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy
6903afa2 26818-bit data). To guard against this, you can use Encode::decode_utf8.
2575c402
JW
2682
2683If you use the C<:encoding(UTF-8)> PerlIO layer for input, invalid byte
2684sequences are handled gracefully, but if you use C<:utf8>, the flag is
2685set without validating the data, possibly resulting in this error
2686message.
2687
2688See also L<Encode/"Handling Malformed Data">.
901b21bf 2689
ff3f963a
KW
2690=item Malformed UTF-8 returned by \N
2691
2692(F) The charnames handler returned malformed UTF-8.
2693
4a5d3a93
FC
2694=item Malformed UTF-8 string in '%c' format in unpack
2695
2696(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2697rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2698
f337b084
TH
2699=item Malformed UTF-8 string in pack
2700
2701(F) You tried to pack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2702rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2703
2704=item Malformed UTF-8 string in unpack
2705
2706(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2707rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2708
4a5d3a93 2709=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
f337b084 2710
4a5d3a93
FC
2711(F) Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
2712doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
2713
2714=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2715
2716(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
2717regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
2718shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2719See L<perlre>.
f337b084 2720
de42a5a9 2721=item Maximal count of pending signals (%u) exceeded
2563cec5 2722
6903afa2 2723(F) Perl aborted due to too high a number of signals pending. This
2563cec5
IZ
2724usually indicates that your operating system tried to deliver signals
2725too fast (with a very high priority), starving the perl process from
2726resources it would need to reach a point where it can process signals
6903afa2 2727safely. (See L<perlipc/"Deferred Signals (Safe Signals)">.)
2563cec5 2728
25f58aea
PN
2729=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2730
2731(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
2732interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
2733"use" or "my".
2734
0d2487cd 2735=item '%' may not be used in pack
6df41af2
GS
2736
2737(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
2738checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
2739See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 2740
a0d0e21e
LW
2741=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
2742
2743(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 2744doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2745
3cdd684c
TP
2746=item Method %s not permitted
2747
2748See Server error.
2749
a0d0e21e
LW
2750=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
2751
2752(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
2753by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
2754ended earlier on the current line.
2755
2756=item Misplaced _ in number
2757
d4ced10d
JH
2758(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
2759separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 2760
7baa4690
HS
2761=item Missing argument in %s
2762
2763(W uninitialized) A printf-type format required more arguments than were
2764supplied.
2765
9e81e6a1
RGS
2766=item Missing argument to -%c
2767
2768(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2769immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
2770
ff3f963a 2771=item Missing braces on \N{}
423cee85 2772
aec0ef10
FC
2773=item Missing braces on \N{} in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2774
4a2d328f 2775(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
532cb70d
FC
2776double-quotish context. This can also happen when there is a space
2777(or comment) between the C<\N> and the C<{> in a regex with the C</x> modifier.
2778This modifier does not change the requirement that the brace immediately
2779follow the C<\N>.
423cee85 2780
f0a2b745
KW
2781=item Missing braces on \o{}
2782
2783(F) A C<\o> must be followed immediately by a C<{> in double-quotish context.
2784
a0d0e21e
LW
2785=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
2786
2787(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
2788"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
2789
06eaf0bc
GS
2790=item Missing command in piped open
2791
be771a83
GS
2792(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
2793C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
2794blank.
06eaf0bc 2795
961ce445
RGS
2796=item Missing control char name in \c
2797
2798(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
2799character name.
2800
6df41af2
GS
2801=item Missing name in "my sub"
2802
be771a83
GS
2803(F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
2804they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
2805
2806=item Missing $ on loop variable
2807
be771a83
GS
2808(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
2809are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
2810can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 2811
cc507455 2812=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306 2813
56da5a46
RGS
2814(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2815"%s found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
748a9306 2816
aec0ef10 2817=item Missing right brace on \%c{} in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 2818
ff3f963a
KW
2819(F) Missing right brace in C<\x{...}>, C<\p{...}>, C<\P{...}>, or C<\N{...}>.
2820
4a68bf9d 2821=item Missing right brace on \N{} or unescaped left brace after \N
ff3f963a 2822
d32207c9
FC
2823(F) C<\N> has two meanings.
2824
2825The traditional one has it followed by a name enclosed in braces,
2826meaning the character (or sequence of characters) given by that
fa816bf3 2827name. Thus C<\N{ASTERISK}> is another way of writing C<*>, valid in both
d32207c9
FC
2828double-quoted strings and regular expression patterns. In patterns,
2829it doesn't have the meaning an unescaped C<*> does.
2830
2831Starting in Perl 5.12.0, C<\N> also can have an additional meaning (only)
2832in patterns, namely to match a non-newline character. (This is short
2833for C<[^\n]>, and like C<.> but is not affected by the C</s> regex modifier.)
2834
2835This can lead to some ambiguities. When C<\N> is not followed immediately
2836by a left brace, Perl assumes the C<[^\n]> meaning. Also, if the braces
2837form a valid quantifier such as C<\N{3}> or C<\N{5,}>, Perl assumes that this
2838means to match the given quantity of non-newlines (in these examples,
28393; and 5 or more, respectively). In all other case, where there is a
2840C<\N{> and a matching C<}>, Perl assumes that a character name is desired.
2841
2842However, if there is no matching C<}>, Perl doesn't know if it was
2843mistakenly omitted, or if C<[^\n]{> was desired, and raises this error.
2844If you meant the former, add the right brace; if you meant the latter,
2845escape the brace with a backslash, like so: C<\N\{>
ab13f0c7 2846
d98d5fff 2847=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 2848
be771a83
GS
2849(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
2850ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
2851were last editing.
a0d0e21e 2852
6df41af2
GS
2853=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
2854
56da5a46
RGS
2855(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2856"%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
6df41af2
GS
2857the previous line just because you saw this message.
2858
a0d0e21e
LW
2859=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
2860
2861(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 2862constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
2863catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
2864
2865 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
2866 mod(2);
2867
2868Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
2869
c5674021
PDF
2870Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
2871is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
2872
b7e4ecc1
FC
2873 $x = 1;
2874 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
2875 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to
2876 } # modify the 2
c5674021 2877
7a4340ed 2878=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2879
2880(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
2881subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
2882backwards.
2883
7a4340ed 2884=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 2885
be771a83
GS
2886(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
2887couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
2888
2889=item Module name must be constant
2890
2891(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
2892
be98fb35 2893=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 2894
be98fb35
GS
2895(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
2896you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
2897about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 2898
fe13d51d 2899=item More than one argument to '%s' open
ed9aa3b7 2900
6903afa2 2901(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
ed9aa3b7
SG
2902can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
2903list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
2904See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
2905
a0d0e21e
LW
2906=item msg%s not implemented
2907
2908(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
2909
2910=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
2911
75b44862
GS
2912(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
2913They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 2914
49704364 2915=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
6df41af2 2916
49704364
WL
2917(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
2918follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
2919See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2920
2921=item "my sub" not yet implemented
2922
be771a83
GS
2923(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
2924that yet.
6df41af2 2925
fd1b7234 2926=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
6df41af2 2927
be771a83
GS
2928(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2929sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2930local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 2931
8149aa9f
FC
2932=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2933
2934(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
2935If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2936again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
2937provided for this purpose.
2938
2939NOTE: This warning detects symbols that have been used only once so $c, @c,
2940%c, *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or format) are considered
2941the same; if a program uses $c only once but also uses any of the others it
2942will not trigger this warning.
2943
aec0ef10 2944=item \N in a character class must be a named character: \N{...} in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
ff3f963a 2945
c3c41406 2946(F) The new (5.12) meaning of C<\N> as C<[^\n]> is not valid in a bracketed
f4e361c7
FC
2947character class, for the same reason that C<.> in a character class loses
2948its specialness: it matches almost everything, which is probably not
2949what you want.
c3c41406 2950
aec0ef10 2951=item \N{NAME} must be resolved by the lexer in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
c3c41406 2952
f4e361c7
FC
2953(F) When compiling a regex pattern, an unresolved named character or
2954sequence was encountered. This can happen in any of several ways that
2955bypass the lexer, such as using single-quotish context, or an extra
7fae04b9 2956backslash in double-quotish:
c3c41406
KW
2957
2958 $re = '\N{SPACE}'; # Wrong!
b09c05e6 2959 $re = "\\N{SPACE}"; # Wrong!
c3c41406
KW
2960 /$re/;
2961
b09c05e6 2962Instead, use double-quotes with a single backslash:
c3c41406
KW
2963
2964 $re = "\N{SPACE}"; # ok
2965 /$re/;
2966
2967The lexer can be bypassed as well by creating the pattern from smaller
2968components:
2969
2970 $re = '\N';
2971 /${re}{SPACE}/; # Wrong!
2972
2973It's not a good idea to split a construct in the middle like this, and it
2974doesn't work here. Instead use the solution above.
2975
2976Finally, the message also can happen under the C</x> regex modifier when the
2977C<\N> is separated by spaces from the C<{>, in which case, remove the spaces.
2978
2979 /\N {SPACE}/x; # Wrong!
2980 /\N{SPACE}/x; # ok
ff3f963a 2981
49704364
WL
2982=item Negative '/' count in unpack
2983
2984(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
2985negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2986
a0d0e21e
LW
2987=item Negative length
2988
be771a83
GS
2989(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
2990length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 2991
ed9aa3b7
SG
2992=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
2993
2994(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
2995greater than or equal to zero.
2996
7253e4e3 2997=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 2998
6903afa2
FC
2999(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses.
3000So things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the
3001regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 3002
7253e4e3 3003Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 3004C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3005
6df41af2 3006=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 3007
be771a83
GS
3008(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
3009scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e 3010
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3011=item next::method/next::can/maybe::next::method cannot find enclosing method
3012
3013(F) C<next::method> needs to be called within the context of a
3014real method in a real package, and it could not find such a context.
3015See L<mro>.
3016
a0d0e21e
LW
3017=item No %s allowed while running setuid
3018
be771a83
GS
3019(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
3020setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
3021will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
3022securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 3023
6651ba0b
FC
3024=item No code specified for -%c
3025
3026(F) Perl's B<-e> and B<-E> command-line options require an argument. If
3027you want to run an empty program, pass the empty string as a separate
3028argument or run a program consisting of a single 0 or 1:
3029
3030 perl -e ""
3031 perl -e0
3032 perl -e1
3033
a0d0e21e
LW
3034=item No comma allowed after %s
3035
6903afa2
FC
3036(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is
3037not allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
a0d0e21e
LW
3038Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
3039
6903afa2
FC
3040One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported
3041a constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
3042importing took place, it may for example be that your operating
3043system does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did
3044use an explicit import list for the constants you expect to see;
3045please see L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an
3046explicit import list would probably have caught this error earlier
3047it naturally does not remedy the fact that your operating system
3048still does not support that constant. Maybe you have a typo in
3049the constants of the symbol import list of B<use> or B<import> or in the
3050constant name at the line where this error was triggered?
0a753a76 3051
748a9306
LW
3052=item No command into which to pipe on command line
3053
be771a83
GS
3054(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3055redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
3056doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 3057
a0d0e21e
LW
3058=item No DB::DB routine defined
3059
be771a83 3060(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
f7af5ce1 3061for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
ccafdc96
RGS
3062module) didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
3063statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
3064
3065=item No dbm on this machine
3066
3067(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 3068supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e 3069
ccafdc96 3070=item No DB::sub routine defined
a0d0e21e 3071
ccafdc96
RGS
3072(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
3073for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
3074module) didn't define a C<DB::sub> routine to be called at the beginning
3075of each ordinary subroutine call.
a0d0e21e 3076
6651ba0b
FC
3077=item No directory specified for -I
3078
3079(F) The B<-I> command-line switch requires a directory name as part of the
3080I<same> argument. Use B<-Ilib>, for instance. B<-I lib> won't work.
3081
c47ff5f1 3082=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 3083
be771a83
GS
3084(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3085redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
3086find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 3087
49704364
WL
3088=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
3089
3090(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
6903afa2 3091matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 3092
c47ff5f1 3093=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 3094
be771a83
GS
3095(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3096redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
3097name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 3098
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3099=item No next::method '%s' found for %s
3100
3101(F) C<next::method> found no further instances of this method name
3102in the remaining packages of the MRO of this class. If you don't want
3103it throwing an exception, use C<maybe::next::method>
fa816bf3 3104or C<next::can>. See L<mro>.
2c7d6b9c 3105
6df41af2
GS
3106=item "no" not allowed in expression
3107
be771a83
GS
3108(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
3109returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 3110
c47ff5f1 3111=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 3112
be771a83
GS
3113(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3114redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
3115doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 3116
c47ff5f1 3117=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 3118
be771a83
GS
3119(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3120redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
3121find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 3122
1ec3e8de
GS
3123=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
3124
be771a83
GS
3125(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
3126declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
3127semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 3128
a0d0e21e
LW
3129=item No Perl script found in input
3130
3131(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
3132with #! and containing the word "perl".
3133
3134=item No setregid available
3135
3136(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
3137your system.
3138
3139=item No setreuid available
3140
3141(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
3142your system.
3143
e75d1f10
RD
3144=item No such class field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
3145
b7e4ecc1
FC
3146(F) You tried to access a key from a hash through the indicated typed
3147variable but that key is not allowed by the package of the same type.
3148The indicated package has restricted the set of allowed keys using the
3149L<fields> pragma.
e75d1f10 3150
2c692339
RGS
3151=item No such class %s
3152
dc7e5945
FC
3153(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state"
3154declaration, but this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
2c692339 3155
3c20a832
SP
3156=item No such hook: %s
3157
dc7e5945
FC
3158(F) You specified a signal hook that was not recognized by Perl.
3159Currently, Perl accepts C<__DIE__> and C<__WARN__> as valid signal hooks.
3c20a832 3160
6df41af2
GS
3161=item No such pipe open
3162
3163(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
3164close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
3165earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 3166
a0d0e21e
LW
3167=item No such signal: SIG%s
3168
be771a83
GS
3169(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
3170not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
3171names on your system.
a0d0e21e
LW
3172
3173=item Not a CODE reference
3174
3175(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
3176subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
3177use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
3178also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 3179
a0d0e21e
LW
3180=item Not a GLOB reference
3181
be771a83
GS
3182(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
3183symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
3184something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
3185kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
3186
3187=item Not a HASH reference
3188
be771a83
GS
3189(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
3190reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
3191find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 3192
6df41af2
GS
3193=item Not an ARRAY reference
3194
be771a83
GS
3195(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
3196a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
3197to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 3198
d4fc4415
FC
3199=item Not an unblessed ARRAY reference
3200
3201(F) You passed a reference to a blessed array to C<push>, C<shift> or
3202another array function. These only accept unblessed array references
3203or arrays beginning explicitly with C<@>.
3204
a0d0e21e
LW
3205=item Not a SCALAR reference
3206
be771a83
GS
3207(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
3208a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
3209to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
3210
3211=item Not a subroutine reference
3212
3213(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
3214subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
3215use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
3216also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 3217
e7ea3e70 3218=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
3219
3220(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 3221doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 3222
a0d0e21e
LW
3223=item Not enough arguments for %s
3224
3225(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
3226
6df41af2
GS
3227=item Not enough format arguments
3228
be771a83
GS
3229(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
3230supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
3231
3232=item %s: not found
3233
be771a83
GS
3234(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
3235of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
3236yourself.
6df41af2
GS
3237
3238=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 3239
6df41af2
GS
3240(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
3241timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
3242to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
3243F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
3244need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e 3245
f0a2b745
KW
3246=item Non-octal character '%c'. Resolved as "%s"
3247
fa816bf3
FC
3248(W digit) In parsing an octal numeric constant, a character was
3249unexpectedly encountered that isn't octal. The resulting value
3250is as indicated.
f0a2b745 3251
4ef2275c
GA
3252=item Non-string passed as bitmask
3253
3254(W misc) A number has been passed as a bitmask argument to select().
3255Use the vec() function to construct the file descriptor bitmasks for
6903afa2 3256select. See L<perlfunc/select>.
4ef2275c 3257
a0d0e21e
LW
3258=item Null filename used
3259
be771a83
GS
3260(F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
3261machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
a0d0e21e 3262
6df41af2
GS
3263=item NULL OP IN RUN
3264
f84fe999 3265(S debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
be771a83 3266pointer.
6df41af2 3267
55497cff 3268=item Null picture in formline
3269
3270(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
3271specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
3272supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
3273
a0d0e21e
LW
3274=item Null realloc
3275
3276(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
3277
3278=item NULL regexp argument
3279
5f05dabc 3280(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
3281
3282=item NULL regexp parameter
3283
3284(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
3285
fc36a67e 3286=item Number too long
3287
be771a83 3288(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 3289about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
3290versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
3291the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
3292"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 3293
f0a2b745
KW
3294=item Number with no digits
3295
1043934d 3296(F) Perl was looking for a number but found nothing that looked like
6903afa2 3297a number. This happens, for example with C<\o{}>, with no number between
1043934d 3298the braces.
f0a2b745 3299
252aa082
JH
3300=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
3301
75b44862 3302(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
3303(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
3304L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 3305
6ad11d81
JH
3306=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
3307
04a80ee0 3308(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
6903afa2 3309arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 3310
b21befc1
MG
3311=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
3312
3313(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
3314which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
3315
1930e939 3316=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 3317
be771a83
GS
3318(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
3319which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 3320
bbce6d69 3321=item Offset outside string
3322
1fa582fa 3323(F)(W layer) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv/seek operation
42bc49da 3324with an offset pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to
f5a7294f
JH
3325imagine. The sole exceptions to this are that zero padding will
3326take place when going past the end of the string when either
3327C<sysread()>ing a file, or when seeking past the end of a scalar opened
1a7a2554
MB
3328for I/O (in anticipation of future reads and to imitate the behaviour
3329with real files).
bbce6d69 3330
c289d2f7 3331=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
3332
3333(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
3334never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
3335call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
3336
96ebfdd7
RK
3337=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
3338
3339(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
3340that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
3341
a0d0e21e
LW
3342=item oops: oopsAV
3343
e476b1b5 3344(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
3345
3346=item oops: oopsHV
3347
e476b1b5 3348(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 3349
abc718f2
RGS
3350=item Opening dirhandle %s also as a file
3351
a4a4c9e2 3352(W io, deprecated) You used open() to associate a filehandle to
abc718f2
RGS
3353a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a dirhandle.
3354Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
3355and is deprecated.
3356
3357=item Opening filehandle %s also as a directory
3358
a4a4c9e2 3359(W io, deprecated) You used opendir() to associate a dirhandle to
abc718f2
RGS
3360a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a filehandle.
3361Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
3362and is deprecated.
3363
a0288114 3364=item Operation "%s": no method found, %s
44a8e56a 3365
be771a83
GS
3366(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
3367handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
3368of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
e4aad80d 3369the C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 3370
5ff1373f 3371=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for non-Unicode code point 0x%X
9ae3ac1a 3372
8457b38f 3373(W utf8, non_unicode) You performed an operation requiring Unicode
73c4e9dc
FC
3374semantics on a code point that is not in Unicode, so what it should do
3375is not defined. Perl has chosen to have it do nothing, and warn you.
9ae3ac1a
KW
3376
3377If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
3378matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
3379
3380If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 3381C<no warnings 'non_unicode';>.
9ae3ac1a 3382
5ff1373f 3383=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
9ae3ac1a 3384
8457b38f 3385(W utf8, surrogate) You performed an operation requiring Unicode
73c4e9dc
FC
3386semantics on a Unicode surrogate. Unicode frowns upon the use of
3387surrogates for anything but storing strings in UTF-16, but semantics
3388are (reluctantly) defined for the surrogates, and they are to do
3389nothing for this operation. Because the use of surrogates can be
3390dangerous, Perl warns.
9ae3ac1a
KW
3391
3392If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
3393matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
3394
3395If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 3396C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9ae3ac1a 3397
748a9306
LW
3398=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
3399
be771a83
GS
3400(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
3401was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
3402use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
3403example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
3404"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 3405
6df41af2
GS
3406=item "our" variable %s redeclared
3407
be771a83
GS
3408(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
3409in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 3410
a80b8354
GS
3411=item Out of memory!
3412
3413(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
3414remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
3415no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 3416
19a52907
JH
3417At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
3418process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
3419C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
3420the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
3421and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
3422
6d3b25aa
RGS
3423=item Out of memory during %s extend
3424
3425(X) An attempt was made to extend an array, a list, or a string beyond
3426the largest possible memory allocation.
3427
6df41af2 3428=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 3429
6df41af2 3430(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
6903afa2 3431remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
3432the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
3433possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 3434
1b979e0a 3435=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 3436
1fa582fa 3437(X)(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
be771a83
GS
3438insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
3439request.
eff9c6e2
CS
3440
3441The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
3442depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
3443However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
3444emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
3445is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
3446where the failed request happened.
55497cff 3447
1b979e0a
IZ
3448=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
3449
3450(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
3451is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
3452C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 3453
6df41af2
GS
3454=item Out of memory for yacc stack
3455
be771a83
GS
3456(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
3457parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
3458otherwise.
6df41af2 3459
28be1210
TH
3460=item '.' outside of string in pack
3461
3462(F) The argument to a '.' in your template tried to move the working
3463position to before the start of the packed string being built.
3464
49704364 3465=item '@' outside of string in unpack
6df41af2 3466
49704364 3467(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6df41af2
GS
3468the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3469
f337b084
TH
3470=item '@' outside of string with malformed UTF-8 in unpack
3471
3472(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6903afa2 3473the string being unpacked. The string being unpacked was also invalid
fa816bf3 3474UTF-8. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
f337b084 3475
7778d804
FC
3476=item overload arg '%s' is invalid
3477
3478(W overload) The L<overload> pragma was passed an argument it did not
3479recognize. Did you mistype an operator?
3480
7cb0cfe6
BM
3481=item Overloaded dereference did not return a reference
3482
3483(F) An object with an overloaded dereference operator was dereferenced,
6903afa2 3484but the overloaded operation did not return a reference. See
7cb0cfe6
BM
3485L<overload>.
3486
3487=item Overloaded qr did not return a REGEXP
3488
3489(F) An object with a C<qr> overload was used as part of a match, but the
6903afa2 3490overloaded operation didn't return a compiled regexp. See L<overload>.
7cb0cfe6 3491
6df41af2
GS
3492=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
3493
be771a83
GS
3494(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
3495package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
3496some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
3497mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 3498
96ebfdd7
RK
3499=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
3500
3501(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3502signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3503
a0d0e21e
LW
3504=item page overflow
3505
be771a83
GS
3506(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
3507page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 3508
6df41af2
GS
3509=item panic: %s
3510
3511(P) An internal error.
3512
c99a1475
NC
3513=item panic: attempt to call %s in %s
3514
3515(P) One of the file test operators entered a code branch that calls
3516an ACL related-function, but that function is not available on this
3517platform. Earlier checks mean that it should not be possible to
3518enter this branch on this platform.
3519
5637ef5b 3520=item panic: ck_grep, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3521
3522(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
3523
5637ef5b 3524=item panic: ck_split, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3525
3526(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
3527
5637ef5b 3528=item panic: corrupt saved stack index %ld
a0d0e21e 3529
be771a83
GS
3530(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
3531there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 3532
810b8aa5
GS
3533=item panic: del_backref
3534
3535(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
3536reference.
3537
a0d0e21e
LW
3538=item panic: die %s
3539
3540(P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
3541it wasn't an eval context.
3542
a0d0e21e
LW
3543=item panic: do_subst
3544
be771a83
GS
3545(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
3546data.
a0d0e21e 3547
2269b42e 3548=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 3549
2269b42e 3550(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 3551data.
a0d0e21e 3552
b7f7fd0b
NC
3553=item panic: fold_constants JMPENV_PUSH returned %d
3554
10203f38 3555(P) While attempting folding constants an exception other than an C<eval>
b7f7fd0b
NC
3556failure was caught.
3557
c635e13b 3558=item panic: frexp
3559
3560(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
3561
5637ef5b 3562=item panic: goto, type=%u, ix=%ld
a0d0e21e
LW
3563
3564(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
3565and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
3566
b0d55c99
FC
3567=item panic: gp_free failed to free glob pointer
3568
3569(P) The internal routine used to clear a typeglob's entries tried
6903afa2
FC
3570repeatedly, but each time something re-created entries in the glob.
3571Most likely the glob contains an object with a reference back to
3572the glob and a destructor that adds a new object to the glob.
b0d55c99 3573
5637ef5b 3574=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3575
3576(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
3577
5637ef5b 3578=item panic: INTERPCONCAT, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3579
3580(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
3581
e446cec8
IZ
3582=item panic: kid popen errno read
3583
3584(F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
3585
5637ef5b 3586=item panic: last, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3587
3588(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
3589it wasn't a block context.
3590
3591=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
3592
be771a83
GS
3593(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
3594scope.
a0d0e21e 3595
5637ef5b 3596=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency %u
a0d0e21e
LW
3597
3598(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
3599invalid enum on the top of it.
3600
810b8aa5
GS
3601=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
3602
3603(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
3604references to an object.
3605
5637ef5b 3606=item panic: malloc, %s
6df41af2
GS
3607
3608(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
3609
27d5b266
JH
3610=item panic: memory wrap
3611
3612(P) Something tried to allocate more memory than possible.
3613
5637ef5b 3614=item panic: pad_alloc, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
3615
3616(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3617and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3618
5637ef5b 3619=item panic: pad_free curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
3620
3621(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3622and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3623
3624=item panic: pad_free po
3625
3626(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3627
5637ef5b 3628=item panic: pad_reset curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
3629
3630(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3631and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3632
3633=item panic: pad_sv po
3634
3635(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3636
5637ef5b 3637=item panic: pad_swipe curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
3638
3639(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3640and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3641
3642=item panic: pad_swipe po
3643
3644(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3645
5637ef5b 3646=item panic: pp_iter, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3647
3648(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
3649
96ebfdd7
RK
3650=item panic: pp_match%s
3651
3652(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
3653data.
3654
5637ef5b 3655=item panic: pp_split, pm=%p, s=%p
2269b42e
JH
3656
3657(P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
3658
5637ef5b 3659=item panic: realloc, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3660
3661(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
3662
ccfb6d2e
FC
3663=item panic: reference miscount on nsv in sv_replace() (%d != 1)
3664
3665(P) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
3666reference count other than 1.
3667
5637ef5b 3668=item panic: restartop in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3669
3670(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
3671didn't supply the destination.
3672
5637ef5b 3673=item panic: return, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
3674
3675(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
3676then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
3677
5637ef5b 3678=item panic: scan_num, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3679
3680(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
3681
d24ca0c5
DM
3682=item panic: Sequence (?{...}): no code block found
3683
3684(P) while compiling a pattern that has embedded (?{}) or (??{}) code
3685blocks, perl couldn't locate the code block that should have already been
3686seen and compiled by perl before control passed to the regex compiler.
3687
6c65d5f9
NC
3688=item panic: sv_chop %s
3689
3690(P) The sv_chop() routine was passed a position that is not within the
3691scalar's string buffer.
3692
5637ef5b 3693=item panic: sv_insert, midend=%p, bigend=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
3694
3695(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
3696was string.
3697
ad49ad39
NC
3698=item panic: strxfrm() gets absurd - a => %u, ab => %u
3699
3700(P) The interpreter's sanity check of the C function strxfrm() failed.
3701In your current locale the returned transformation of the string "ab" is
3702shorter than that of the string "a", which makes no sense.
3703
a0d0e21e
LW
3704=item panic: top_env
3705
6224f72b 3706(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e 3707
65bca31a
NC
3708=item panic: unimplemented op %s (#%d) called
3709
a1efa96e
FC
3710(P) The compiler is screwed up and attempted to use an op that isn't
3711permitted at run time.
65bca31a 3712
dea0fc0b
JH
3713=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
3714
3715(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 3716to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 3717
e0ea5e2d
NC
3718=item panic: utf16_to_utf8_reversed: odd bytelen
3719
3720(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8_reversed with an odd (as opposed
3721to even) byte length.
3722
5637ef5b 3723=item panic: yylex, %s
2f7da168
RK
3724
3725(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
3726
28ac2b49
Z
3727=item Parsing code internal error (%s)
3728
3729(F) Parsing code supplied by an extension violated the parser's API in
3730a detectable way.
3731
1a147d38
YO
3732=item Pattern subroutine nesting without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3733
3734(F) You used a pattern that uses too many nested subpattern calls without
6903afa2
FC
3735consuming any text. Restructure the pattern so text is consumed before
3736the nesting limit is exceeded.
1a147d38
YO
3737
3738The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3739discovered.
3740
7b8d334a 3741=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
a0d0e21e 3742
e476b1b5 3743(W parenthesis) You said something like
a0d0e21e
LW
3744
3745 my $foo, $bar = @_;
3746
3747when you meant
3748
3749 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
3750
30c282f6 3751Remember that "my", "our", "local" and "state" bind tighter than comma.
a0d0e21e 3752
96ebfdd7
RK
3753=item C<-p> destination: %s
3754
3755(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
3756command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
3757redirected it with select().)
3758
3759=item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
3760
3761(F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3762"Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
3763that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
3764
801eb083 3765=item Perl folding rules are not up-to-date for 0x%x; please use the perlbug utility to report
d50a4f90
KW
3766
3767(W regex, deprecated) You used a regular expression with
3768case-insensitive matching, and there is a bug in Perl in which the
3769built-in regular expression folding rules are not accurate. This may
3770lead to incorrect results. Please report this as a bug using the
3771"perlbug" utility. (This message is marked deprecated, so that it by
3772default will be turned-on.)
3773
1109a392
MHM
3774=item Perl_my_%s() not available
3775
3776(F) Your platform has very uncommon byte-order and integer size,
3777so it was not possible to set up some or all fixed-width byte-order
3778conversion functions. This is only a problem when you're using the
3779'<' or '>' modifiers in (un)pack templates. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3780
6651ba0b
FC
3781=item Perl %s required (did you mean %s?)--this is only %s, stopped
3782
3783(F) The code you are trying to run has asked for a newer version of
3784Perl than you are running. Perhaps C<use 5.10> was written instead
3785of C<use 5.010> or C<use v5.10>. Without the leading C<v>, the number is
3786interpreted as a decimal, with every three digits after the
3787decimal point representing a part of the version number. So 5.10
3788is equivalent to v5.100.
3789
6d3b25aa
RGS
3790=item Perl %s required--this is only version %s, stopped
3791
3792(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
3793recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
3794you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
3795
6df41af2
GS
3796=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
3797
fa816bf3 3798(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 3799C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 3800
96ebfdd7
RK
3801=item PERL_SIGNALS illegal: "%s"
3802
3803See L<perlrun/PERL_SIGNALS> for legal values.
3804
6651ba0b
FC
3805=item Perls since %s too modern--this is %s, stopped
3806
3807(F) The code you are trying to run claims it will not run
3808on the version of Perl you are using because it is too new.
3809Maybe the code needs to be updated, or maybe it is simply
3810wrong and the version check should just be removed.
3811
6df41af2
GS
3812=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3813
3814(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
3815
3816 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3817 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
3818 LC_ALL = "En_US",
3819 LANG = (unset)
3820 are supported and installed on your system.
3821 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
3822
3823Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
3824settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
0ea6b70f
JH
3825This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
3826system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
3827locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
3828dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
4b07a369
FC
3829Perl can and will use, and the script will be run. Before you really
3830fix the problem, however, you will get the same error message each
3831time you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
0ea6b70f 3832L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
6df41af2 3833
bd3fa61c 3834=item pid %x not a child
748a9306 3835
be771a83
GS
3836(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
3837process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
3838fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
748a9306 3839
49704364 3840=item 'P' must have an explicit size in unpack
3bf38418
WL
3841
3842(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
3843
96ebfdd7
RK
3844=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3845
3846(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The <-- HERE
3847shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
3848Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
3849the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
3850not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
3851
3852=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
3853
3854(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
3855the BSD version, which takes a pid.
3856
49704364 3857=item POSIX syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 3858
9a0b3859 3859(W regexp) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
7253e4e3
RK
3860I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
3861/[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
3862implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and will
3863cause fatal errors. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3864where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 3865
49704364 3866=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3867
3868(F regexp) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
7253e4e3
RK
3869beginning with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
3870If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
3871expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
3872backslash: "\[." and ".\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
3873about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 3874
49704364 3875=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 3876
7253e4e3
RK
3877(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
3878with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
3879need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
3880character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
3881and "=\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
3882problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 3883
bbce6d69 3884=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
3885
e476b1b5 3886(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
75b44862 3887strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
be771a83
GS
3888literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
3889parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
bbce6d69 3890
774d564b 3891You probably wrote something like this:
3892
54310121 3893 @list = qw(
774d564b 3894 a # a comment
bbce6d69 3895 b # another comment
774d564b 3896 );
bbce6d69 3897
3898when you should have written this:
3899
774d564b 3900 @list = qw(
54310121 3901 a
3902 b
774d564b 3903 );
3904
3905If you really want comments, build your list the
3906old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
3907
3908 @list = (
3909 'a', # a comment
3910 'b', # another comment
3911 );
bbce6d69 3912
3913=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
3914
be771a83
GS
3915(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
3916commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
3917different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
3918frequently used.)
bbce6d69 3919
54310121 3920You probably wrote something like this:
bbce6d69 3921
774d564b 3922 qw! a, b, c !;
3923
3924which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
3925commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
bbce6d69 3926
774d564b 3927 qw! a b c !;
bbce6d69 3928
a0d0e21e
LW
3929=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
3930
3931(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
3932Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
3933end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
3934Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
3935
276b2a0c
RGS
3936=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %c operator
3937
3938(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
3939with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
3940
3941 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
3942
3943This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
6903afa2 3944higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
96a925ab
YST
3945really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, put the
3946parentheses explicitly and write C<$x & ($y == 0)>).
276b2a0c 3947
77772344
B
3948=item Possible unintended interpolation of $\ in regex
3949
3950(W ambiguous) You said something like C<m/$\/> in a regex.
3951The regex C<m/foo$\s+bar/m> translates to: match the word 'foo', the output
8ddb446c 3952record separator (see L<perlvar/$\>) and the letter 's' (one time or more)
77772344
B
3953followed by the word 'bar'.
3954
3955If this is what you intended then you can silence the warning by using
3956C<m/${\}/> (for example: C<m/foo${\}s+bar/>).
3957
3958If instead you intended to match the word 'foo' at the end of the line
3959followed by whitespace and the word 'bar' on the next line then you can use
3960C<m/$(?)\/> (for example: C<m/foo$(?)\s+bar/>).
3961
e5035638
FC
3962=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
3963
ccf3535a 3964(W ambiguous) You said something like '@foo' in a double-quoted string
6903afa2 3965but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
e5035638
FC
3966literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
3967to the array you apparently lost track of.
3968
a0d0e21e
LW
3969=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
3970
e476b1b5 3971(S precedence) The old irregular construct
cb1a09d0 3972
a0d0e21e
LW
3973 open FOO || die;
3974
3975is now misinterpreted as
3976
3977 open(FOO || die);
3978
be771a83
GS
3979because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
3980list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
3981parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
3982of "||".
a0d0e21e 3983
3cdd684c
TP
3984=item Premature end of script headers
3985
3986See Server error.
3987
6df41af2
GS
3988=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
3989
be771a83 3990(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3991before now. Check your control flow.
6df41af2 3992
9a7dcd9c 3993=item print() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 3994
be771a83 3995(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3996before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 3997
6df41af2 3998=item Process terminated by SIG%s
a0d0e21e 3999
6df41af2
GS
4000(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
4001applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
4002port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
4003L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
fecfaeb8 4004in L<perlos2>.
a0d0e21e 4005
327323c1
RGS
4006=item Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s
4007
fa816bf3
FC
4008(W illegalproto) A character follows % or @ in a prototype. This is
4009useless, since % and @ gobble the rest of the subroutine arguments.
327323c1 4010
3fe9a6f1 4011=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4633a7c4 4012
9a0b3859 4013(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
be771a83 4014declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4633a7c4 4015
ed9aa3b7
SG
4016=item Prototype not terminated
4017
2a6fd447 4018(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
ed9aa3b7
SG
4019definition.
4020
f9eb106c
FC
4021=item \p{} uses Unicode rules, not locale rules
4022
4023(W) You compiled a regular expression that contained a Unicode property
4024match (C<\p> or C<\P>), but the regular expression is also being told to
4025use the run-time locale, not Unicode. Instead, use a POSIX character
4026class, which should know about the locale's rules.
4027(See L<perlrecharclass/POSIX Character Classes>.)
4028
4029Even if the run-time locale is ISO 8859-1 (Latin1), which is a subset of
4030Unicode, some properties will give results that are not valid for that
4031subset.
4032
4033Here are a couple of examples to help you see what's going on. If the
4034locale is ISO 8859-7, the character at code point 0xD7 is the "GREEK
4035CAPITAL LETTER CHI". But in Unicode that code point means the
4036"MULTIPLICATION SIGN" instead, and C<\p> always uses the Unicode
4037meaning. That means that C<\p{Alpha}> won't match, but C<[[:alpha:]]>
4038should. Only in the Latin1 locale are all the characters in the same
4039positions as they are in Unicode. But, even here, some properties give
4040incorrect results. An example is C<\p{Changes_When_Uppercased}> which
4041is true for "LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH DIAERESIS", but since the upper
4042case of that character is not in Latin1, in that locale it doesn't
4043change when upper cased.
4044
96ebfdd7
RK
4045=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4046
6903afa2
FC
4047(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if
4048you meant it literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
4049about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
96ebfdd7 4050
49704364 4051=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 4052
6903afa2
FC
4053(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of
4054the {min,max} construct. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
4055about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9baa0206 4056
49704364 4057=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 4058
b45f050a
JF
4059(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
4060it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
4061quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
4062"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
4063C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
9baa0206 4064
7253e4e3
RK
4065The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4066discovered.
4067
89ea2908
GA
4068=item Range iterator outside integer range
4069
4070(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
4071are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
be771a83
GS
4072One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
4073by prepending "0" to your numbers.
89ea2908 4074
3b7fbd4a
SP
4075=item readdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4076
1a147d38 4077(W io) The dirhandle you're reading from is either closed or not really
3b7fbd4a
SP
4078a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4079
96ebfdd7
RK
4080=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
4081
4082(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
4083before now. Check your control flow.
4084
b5fe5ca2
SR
4085=item read() on closed filehandle %s
4086
4087(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
4088
4089=item read() on unopened filehandle %s
4090
4091(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
4092
de42a5a9 4093=item Reallocation too large: %x
6df41af2
GS
4094
4095(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
4096
4ad56ec9
IZ
4097=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
4098
be771a83
GS
4099(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
4100already been freed.
4ad56ec9 4101
a0d0e21e
LW
4102=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
4103
be771a83
GS
4104(F debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
4105the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
a0d0e21e
LW
4106which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
4107
6651ba0b
FC
4108=item Recursive call to Perl_load_module in PerlIO_find_layer
4109
4110(P) It is currently not permitted to load modules when creating
4111a filehandle inside an %INC hook. This can happen with C<open my
4112$fh, '<', \$scalar>, which implicitly loads PerlIO::scalar. Try
4113loading PerlIO::scalar explicitly first.
4114
3e0ccd42 4115=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
a0d0e21e 4116
2c7d6b9c
RGS
4117(F) While calculating the method resolution order (MRO) of a package, Perl
4118believes it found an infinite loop in the C<@ISA> hierarchy. This is a
4119crude check that bails out after 100 levels of C<@ISA> depth.
a0d0e21e 4120
12605ff9
FC
4121=item refcnt_dec: fd %d%s
4122
2e0cfa16
FC
4123=item refcnt: fd %d%s
4124
12605ff9
FC
4125=item refcnt_inc: fd %d%s
4126
fa816bf3 4127(P) Perl's I/O implementation failed an internal consistency check. If
2e0cfa16
FC
4128you see this message, something is very wrong.
4129
1930e939
TP
4130=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
4131
be771a83 4132(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
6903afa2
FC
4133with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This
4134usually means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant
4135to use parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
7b8d334a
GS
4136
4137 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
4138 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
4139 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
4140 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
4141
810b8aa5
GS
4142=item Reference is already weak
4143
e476b1b5 4144(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
810b8aa5
GS
4145Doing so has no effect.
4146
aec0ef10 4147=item Reference to invalid group 0 in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b72d83b2 4148
6903afa2
FC
4149(F) You used C<\g0> or similar in a regular expression. You may refer
4150to capturing parentheses only with strictly positive integers
4151(normal backreferences) or with strictly negative integers (relative
4152backreferences). Using 0 does not make sense.
b72d83b2 4153
49704364 4154=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
4155
4156(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
6903afa2 4157not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If
bbaee129
FC
4158you wanted to have the character with ordinal 7 inserted into the regular
4159expression, prepend zeroes to make it three digits long: C<\007>
9baa0206 4160
7253e4e3 4161The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a 4162discovered.
9baa0206 4163
1a147d38
YO
4164=item Reference to nonexistent named group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4165
4166(F) You used something like C<\k'NAME'> or C<< \k<NAME> >> in your regular
9381611c 4167expression, but there is no corresponding named capturing parentheses
6903afa2 4168such as C<(?'NAME'...)> or C<< (?<NAME>...) >>. Check if the name has been
9381611c 4169spelled correctly both in the backreference and the declaration.
1a147d38
YO
4170
4171The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4172discovered.
4173
bcb95744 4174=item Reference to nonexistent or unclosed group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1a147d38 4175
bcb95744
FC
4176(F) You used something like C<\g{-7}> in your regular expression, but there
4177are not at least seven sets of closed capturing parentheses in the
4178expression before where the C<\g{-7}> was located.
1a147d38
YO
4179
4180The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4181discovered.
4182
a0d0e21e
LW
4183=item regexp memory corruption
4184
4185(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
4186expression compiler gave it.
4187
ff3f26d2
KW
4188=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may appear a maximum of twice
4189
3955e1a9
KW
4190=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may not appear twice
4191
f6a766d5 4192(F syntax, regexp) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
ff3f26d2 4193of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
3955e1a9 4194
aec0ef10 4195=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear after the "-" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9442e3b8
KW
4196
4197(F regexp) Turning off the given modifier has the side effect of turning
4198on another one. Perl currently doesn't allow this. Reword the regular
4199expression to use the modifier you want to turn on (and place it before
4200the minus), instead of the one you want to turn off.
4201
3955e1a9
KW
4202=item Regexp modifiers "/%c" and "/%c" are mutually exclusive
4203
f6a766d5 4204(F syntax, regexp) The regular expression pattern had more than one of these
3955e1a9
KW
4205mutually exclusive modifiers. Retain only the modifier that is
4206supposed to be there.
4207
aec0ef10 4208=item Regexp out of space in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4209
be771a83
GS
4210(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
4211earlier.
a0d0e21e 4212
a1b95068
WL
4213=item Repeated format line will never terminate (~~ and @# incompatible)
4214
d7f8936a 4215(F) Your format contains the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence and a
a1b95068 4216numeric field that will never go blank so that the repetition never
6903afa2 4217terminates. You might use ^# instead. See L<perlform>.
a1b95068 4218
b08e453b
RB
4219=item Replacement list is longer than search list
4220
4221(W misc) You have used a replacement list that is longer than the
fa816bf3 4222search list. So the additional elements in the replacement list
b08e453b
RB
4223are meaningless.
4224
a0d0e21e
LW
4225=item Reversed %s= operator
4226
be771a83 4227(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
964742a1 4228always come last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
a0d0e21e 4229
abc7ecad
SP
4230=item rewinddir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4231
4232(W io) The dirhandle you tried to do a rewinddir() on is either closed or not
4233really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4234
96ebfdd7
RK
4235=item Scalars leaked: %d
4236
4237(P) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping of scalars:
4238not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time Perl exited.
4239What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which is of course bad,
4240especially if the Perl program is intended to be long-running.
4241
a0d0e21e
LW
4242=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
4243
be771a83
GS
4244(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
4245single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
4246value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
4247behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
4248argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
4249and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
4250if you're expecting only one subscript.
a0d0e21e 4251
748a9306 4252On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5f05dabc 4253element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
748a9306
LW
4254Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
4255L<perlref>.
4256
a6006777 4257=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
4258
75b44862 4259(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
be771a83
GS
4260element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
4261(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
4262like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
4263argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
4264and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
4265if you're expecting only one subscript.
4266
4267On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
4268as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
4269not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
a6006777 4270L<perlref>.
4271
a0d0e21e
LW
4272=item Search pattern not terminated
4273
4274(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
4275construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 4276Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 4277
0cb1bcd7 4278Note that since Perl 5.9.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
5d9c98cd
JH
4279construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
4280in Perl 5.9.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
4281misparsed by pre-5.9.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
4282
25c09cbf
SF
4283=item Search pattern not terminated or ternary operator parsed as search pattern
4284
4285(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a C<?PATTERN?>
4286construct.
4287
4288The question mark is also used as part of the ternary operator (as in
4289C<foo ? 0 : 1>) leading to some ambiguous constructions being wrongly
6903afa2 4290parsed. One way to disambiguate the parsing is to put parentheses around
25c09cbf
SF
4291the conditional expression, i.e. C<(foo) ? 0 : 1>.
4292
abc7ecad
SP
4293=item seekdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4294
4295(W io) The dirhandle you are doing a seekdir() on is either closed or not
4296really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4297
3257ea4f
FC
4298=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
4299
4300(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
4301filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
4302
a0d0e21e
LW
4303=item select not implemented
4304
4305(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
4306
ae21d580 4307=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
68a4a7e4 4308
ae21d580
JH
4309(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
4310the current implementation.
68a4a7e4 4311
6df41af2 4312=item Semicolon seems to be missing
a0d0e21e 4313
75b44862
GS
4314(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
4315semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
a0d0e21e
LW
4316
4317=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
4318
be771a83
GS
4319(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
4320scalar that had previously been marked as free.
a0d0e21e 4321
6df41af2 4322=item sem%s not implemented
a0d0e21e 4323
6df41af2 4324(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
a0d0e21e 4325
69282e91 4326=item send() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 4327
be771a83 4328(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4329before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 4330
7253e4e3 4331=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
7b8d334a 4332
6903afa2
FC
4333(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The
4334<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4335discovered. See L<perlre>.
1b1626e4 4336
49704364 4337=item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4338
6903afa2
FC
4339(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
4340but has not yet been written. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
4341expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4342
49704364 4343=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4344
7253e4e3
RK
4345(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense. The
4346<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
fb85c044
KW
4347discovered. This happens when using the C<(?^...)> construct to tell
4348Perl to use the default regular expression modifiers, and you
9442e3b8 4349redundantly specify a default modifier. For other
9de15fec 4350causes, see L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 4351
4a68bf9d 4352=item Sequence \%s... not terminated in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1f1031fe
YO
4353
4354(F) The regular expression expects a mandatory argument following the escape
4355sequence and this has been omitted or incorrectly written.
4356
aec0ef10 4357=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
4358
4359(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
aec0ef10 4360parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. See
7253e4e3 4361L<perlre>.
6df41af2 4362
9da1dd8f
DM
4363=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated with ')'
4364
be149b43
DM
4365(F) The end of the perl code contained within the {...} must be
4366followed immediately by a ')'.
9da1dd8f 4367
d7201950 4368=item Z<>500 Server error
6df41af2
GS
4369
4370See Server error.
4371
a5f75d66
AD
4372=item Server error
4373
6903afa2
FC
4374(A) This is the error message generally seen in a browser window
4375when trying to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The
4376actual error text varies widely from server to server. The most
4377frequently-seen variants are "500 Server error", "Method (something)
4378not permitted", "Document contains no data", "Premature end of script
4379headers", and "Did not produce a valid header".
9607fc9c 4380
4381B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
4382
6903afa2
FC
4383You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by
4384the user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the
4385user account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment
4386variables (like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't
4387in a location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or
4388less. Please see the following for more information:
9607fc9c 4389
06a5f41f
JH
4390 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
4391 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
4392 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
a5f75d66 4393
be94a901
GS
4394You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
4395
a0d0e21e
LW
4396=item setegid() not implemented
4397
be771a83
GS
4398(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
4399support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
4400didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
4401
4402=item seteuid() not implemented
4403
be771a83
GS
4404(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
4405support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
4406didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 4407
81777298
GS
4408=item setpgrp can't take arguments
4409
be771a83
GS
4410(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
4411arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
4412group ID.
81777298 4413
a0d0e21e
LW
4414=item setrgid() not implemented
4415
be771a83
GS
4416(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
4417support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
4418didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
4419
4420=item setruid() not implemented
4421
be771a83
GS
4422(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
4423support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
4424didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 4425
6df41af2
GS
4426=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
4427
be771a83
GS
4428(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
4429forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
4430L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
4431
a0d0e21e
LW
4432=item shm%s not implemented
4433
4434(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
4435
984200d0
YST
4436=item !=~ should be !~
4437
4438(W syntax) The non-matching operator is !~, not !=~. !=~ will be
4439interpreted as the != (numeric not equal) and ~ (1's complement)
4440operators: probably not what you intended.
4441
6df41af2
GS
4442=item <> should be quotes
4443
4444(F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
4445C<require 'file'>.
4446
4447=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
4448
4449(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
be771a83
GS
4450as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
4451result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
4452probably not what you had in mind.
6df41af2 4453
69282e91 4454=item shutdown() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 4455
75b44862
GS
4456(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
4457superfluous.
a0d0e21e 4458
f86702cc 4459=item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
a0d0e21e 4460
be771a83
GS
4461(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
4462Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
a0d0e21e 4463
229c18ce
RGS
4464=item Smart matching a non-overloaded object breaks encapsulation
4465
4466(F) You should not use the C<~~> operator on an object that does not
4467overload it: Perl refuses to use the object's underlying structure for
4468the smart match.
4469
a0d0e21e
LW
4470=item sort is now a reserved word
4471
4472(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
4473But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
4474
a0d0e21e
LW
4475=item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
4476
4477(F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
4478or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
4479
f1c31c52
FC
4480=item Source filters apply only to byte streams
4481
4482(F) You tried to activate a source filter (usually by loading a
4483source filter module) within a string passed to C<eval>. This is
4484not permitted under the C<unicode_eval> feature. Consider using
4485C<evalbytes> instead. See L<feature>.
4486
8cbc2e3b
JH
4487=item splice() offset past end of array
4488
4489(W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
fa816bf3
FC
4490the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the
4491end of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want,
4492try explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset.
4493See L<perlfunc/splice>.
8cbc2e3b 4494
a0d0e21e
LW
4495=item Split loop
4496
be771a83
GS
4497(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
4498iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
6903afa2 4499happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
a0d0e21e 4500
a0d0e21e
LW
4501=item Statement unlikely to be reached
4502
be771a83
GS
4503(W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
4504die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
4505unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
4506instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
4507a block by itself.
a0d0e21e 4508
fd1b7234
FC
4509=item "state" variable %s can't be in a package
4510
4511(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
4512sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
4513local() if you want to localize a package variable.
4514
9ddeeac9 4515=item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
6df41af2 4516
355b1299
JH
4517(W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
4518was either never opened or has since been closed.
6df41af2 4519
fe13d51d 4520=item Stub found while resolving method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
e7ea3e70 4521
be771a83
GS
4522(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
4523stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
4524C<can> may break this.
e7ea3e70 4525
a0d0e21e
LW
4526=item Subroutine %s redefined
4527
e476b1b5 4528(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
4529
4530 {
271595cc 4531 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
4532 eval "sub name { ... }";
4533 }
4534
4535=item Substitution loop
4536
be771a83
GS
4537(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
4538shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
4539is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
5d44bfff 4540L<perlop/"Regexp Quote-Like Operators">.
a0d0e21e
LW
4541
4542=item Substitution pattern not terminated
4543
d1be9408 4544(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 4545construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 4546Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
4547
4548=item Substitution replacement not terminated
4549
d1be9408 4550(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 4551construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 4552Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
4553
4554=item substr outside of string
4555
8a9eb13d 4556(W substr)(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
be771a83
GS
4557a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
4558length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
4559substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
4560assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
a0d0e21e 4561
bf1320bf
RGS
4562=item sv_upgrade from type %d down to type %d
4563
9d277376 4564(P) Perl tried to force the upgrade of an SV to a type which was actually
bf1320bf
RGS
4565inferior to its current type.
4566
49704364 4567=item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 4568
fa816bf3
FC
4569(F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most
4570two branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or
4571both to contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose
4572it in clustering parentheses:
b45f050a
JF
4573
4574 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
4575
fa816bf3
FC
4576The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem
4577was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4578
49704364 4579=item Switch condition not recognized in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 4580
39ef1de7 4581(F) If the argument to the (?(...)if-clause|else-clause) construct is
fa816bf3 4582a number, it can be only a number. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
6903afa2 4583expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4584
85ab1d1d
JH
4585=item switching effective %s is not implemented
4586
be771a83
GS
4587(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
4588and effective uids or gids.
85ab1d1d 4589
ae7df085 4590=item %s syntax OK
2f7da168
RK
4591
4592(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
4593
a0d0e21e
LW
4594=item syntax error
4595
4596(F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
4597
4598 A keyword is misspelled.
4599 A semicolon is missing.
4600 A comma is missing.
4601 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
4602 An opening or closing brace is missing.
4603 A closing quote is missing.
4604
4605Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
4606error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
4607The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
4608it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
5f05dabc 4609before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
a0d0e21e
LW
4610Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
4611the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
4612C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
524e9188 4613if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
a0d0e21e 4614
ccf3535a 4615=item syntax error at line %d: '%s' unexpected
cb1a09d0 4616
be771a83
GS
4617(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
4618of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
4619yourself.
cb1a09d0 4620
25f58aea
PN
4621=item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
4622
4623(F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
4624a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
4625or "my $var" or "our $var".
4626
b5fe5ca2
SR
4627=item sysread() on closed filehandle %s
4628
4629(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
4630
4631=item sysread() on unopened filehandle %s
4632
4633(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
4634
6087ac44 4635=item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
a0d0e21e 4636
6087ac44
JH
4637(F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
4638"shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
4639machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
4640unconfigured. Consult your system support.
a0d0e21e 4641
69282e91 4642=item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 4643
be771a83 4644(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4645before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 4646
96ebfdd7
RK
4647=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
4648
4649(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
4650know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
4651
fc36a67e 4652=item Target of goto is too deeply nested
4653
be771a83
GS
4654(F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
4655for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
fc36a67e 4656
abc7ecad
SP
4657=item telldir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4658
4659(W io) The dirhandle you tried to telldir() is either closed or not really
4660a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4661
c2771421
FC
4662=item tell() on unopened filehandle
4663
4664(W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
4665was either never opened or has since been closed.
4666
b82b06b8
FC
4667=item That use of $[ is unsupported
4668
4669(F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted
4670as a compiler directive. You may say only one of
4671
4672 $[ = 0;
4673 $[ = 1;
4674 ...
4675 local $[ = 0;
4676 local $[ = 1;
4677 ...
4678
4679This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out
4680from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[> and L<arybase>.
4681
f86702cc 4682=item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia
a0d0e21e
LW
4683
4684(F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
4685probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
8b1a09fc 4686think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
a0d0e21e
LW
4687will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
4688will deny it.
4689
6df41af2
GS
4690=item The %s function is unimplemented
4691
a4a4c9e2 4692(F) The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture, according
6df41af2
GS
4693to the probings of Configure.
4694
5e1c7ca2 4695=item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
a0d0e21e 4696
be771a83
GS
4697(F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
4698linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
4699past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
4700instead.
a0d0e21e 4701
371fce9b
DM
4702=item The 'unique' attribute may only be applied to 'our' variables
4703
1108974d 4704(F) This attribute was never supported on C<my> or C<sub> declarations.
371fce9b 4705
437784d6 4706=item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
f675dbe5
CB
4707
4708=item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
4709
75b44862 4710(W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
be771a83
GS
4711element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
4712wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
4713need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
4714F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
4715target of the change to
f675dbe5
CB
4716%ENV which produced the warning.
4717
6b3c7930
JH
4718=item thread failed to start: %s
4719
4447dfc1 4720(W threads)(S) The entry point function of threads->create() failed for some reason.
6b3c7930 4721
a0d0e21e
LW
4722=item times not implemented
4723
be771a83
GS
4724(F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
4725suspect you're not running on Unix.
a0d0e21e 4726
6d3b25aa
RGS
4727=item "-T" is on the #! line, it must also be used on the command line
4728
b7e4ecc1
FC
4729(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains
4730the B<-T> option (or the B<-t> option), but Perl was not invoked with
4731B<-T> in its command line. This is an error because, by the time
4732Perl discovers a B<-T> in a script, it's too late to properly taint
4733everything from the environment. So Perl gives up.
6d3b25aa
RGS
4734
4735If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
b7e4ecc1
FC
4736mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be
4737fixed by editing the #! line so that the B<-%c> option is a part of
4738Perl's first argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -%c> to C<perl -%c -n>.
6d3b25aa
RGS
4739
4740If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
fe13d51d 4741B<-%c> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -%c scriptname>.
6d3b25aa 4742
3a2263fe
RGS
4743=item To%s: illegal mapping '%s'
4744
4745(F) You tried to define a customized To-mapping for lc(), lcfirst,
4746uc(), or ucfirst() (or their string-inlined versions), but you
4747specified an illegal mapping.
4748See L<perlunicode/"User-Defined Character Properties">.
4749
49704364
WL
4750=item Too deeply nested ()-groups
4751
1a147d38 4752(F) Your template contains ()-groups with a ridiculously deep nesting level.
49704364 4753
a0d0e21e
LW
4754=item Too few args to syscall
4755
4756(F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
4757system call to call, silly dilly.
4758
96ebfdd7
RK
4759=item Too late for "-%s" option
4760
4761(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
4ba71d51
FC
4762B<-M>, B<-m> or B<-C> option.
4763
6903afa2
FC
4764In the case of B<-M> and B<-m>, this is an error because those options
4765are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
4ba71d51 4766
6903afa2
FC
4767The B<-C> option only works if it is specified on the command line as
4768well (with the same sequence of letters or numbers following). Either
4769specify this option on the command line, or, if your system supports
4770it, make your script executable and run it directly instead of passing
4771it to perl.
96ebfdd7 4772
ddda08b7
GS
4773=item Too late to run %s block
4774
4775(W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
4776when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
be771a83
GS
4777loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
4778instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
4779BEGIN block.
ddda08b7 4780
a0d0e21e
LW
4781=item Too many args to syscall
4782
5f05dabc 4783(F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
a0d0e21e
LW
4784
4785=item Too many arguments for %s
4786
4787(F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
4788
6df41af2
GS
4789=item Too many )'s
4790
49704364
WL
4791(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
4792Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
4793
8c40cb74
NC
4794=item Too many ('s
4795
be771a83
GS
4796(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
4797Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 4798
7253e4e3 4799=item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 4800
be771a83
GS
4801(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
4802Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 4803
2c268ad5 4804=item Transliteration pattern not terminated
a0d0e21e
LW
4805
4806(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
fb73857a 4807or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
4808C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 4809
2c268ad5 4810=item Transliteration replacement not terminated
a0d0e21e 4811
6a36df5d
YST
4812(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr///, tr[][],
4813y/// or y[][] construct.
a0d0e21e 4814
96ebfdd7
RK
4815=item '%s' trapped by operation mask
4816
4817(F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
6903afa2 4818disallowed. See L<Safe>.
96ebfdd7 4819
a0d0e21e
LW
4820=item truncate not implemented
4821
4822(F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
4823Configure knows about.
4824
19c481f4
FC
4825=item Type of arg %d to &CORE::%s must be %s
4826
4827(F) The subroutine in question in the CORE package requires its argument
4828to be a hard reference to data of the specified type. Overloading is
4829ignored, so a reference to an object that is not the specified type, but
4830nonetheless has overloading to handle it, will still not be accepted.
4831
a0d0e21e
LW
4832=item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
4833
4834(F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
8b1a09fc 4835certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
4836%NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
a0d0e21e
LW
4837{EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
4838
7ac5715b 4839=item Type of argument to %s must be unblessed hashref or arrayref
cba5a3b0 4840
7ac5715b
FC
4841(F) You called C<keys>, C<values> or C<each> with a scalar argument that
4842was not a reference to an unblessed hash or array.
cba5a3b0 4843
eec2d3df
GS
4844=item umask not implemented
4845
be771a83
GS
4846(F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
4847use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
a0d0e21e
LW
4848
4849=item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
4850
be771a83
GS
4851(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
4852many execution contexts were entered and left.
a0d0e21e
LW
4853
4854=item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
4855
be771a83
GS
4856(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
4857many values were temporarily localized.
a0d0e21e
LW
4858
4859=item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
4860
be771a83
GS
4861(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
4862many blocks were entered and left.
a0d0e21e 4863
6651ba0b
FC
4864=item Unbalanced string table refcount: (%d) for "%s"
4865
4866(W internal) On exit, Perl found some strings remaining in the shared
4867string table used for copy on write and for hash keys. The entries
4868should have been freed, so this indicates a bug somewhere.
4869
a0d0e21e
LW
4870=item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
4871
be771a83
GS
4872(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
4873many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
a0d0e21e
LW
4874
4875=item Undefined format "%s" called
4876
4877(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
4878another package? See L<perlform>.
4879
4880=item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
4881
be771a83
GS
4882(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
4883Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4884
4885=item Undefined subroutine &%s called
4886
be771a83
GS
4887(F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
4888since been undefined.
a0d0e21e
LW
4889
4890=item Undefined subroutine called
4891
4892(F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
4893or if it was, it has since been undefined.
4894
4895=item Undefined subroutine in sort
4896
be771a83
GS
4897(F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
4898to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e 4899
4633a7c4
LW
4900=item Undefined top format "%s" called
4901
4902(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
4903another package? See L<perlform>.
4904
20408e3c
GS
4905=item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
4906
be771a83
GS
4907(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
4908C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
4909C<undef *foo>.
20408e3c 4910
6df41af2
GS
4911=item %s: Undefined variable
4912
be771a83
GS
4913(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
4914Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 4915
2a53d331
KW
4916=item Unescaped left brace in regex is deprecated, passed through
4917
4918(D) You used a literal C<"{"> character in a regular expression pattern.
4919You should change to use C<"\{"> instead, because a future version of
4920Perl (tentatively v5.20) will consider this to be a syntax error. If
4921the pattern delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace
4922(C<"}">) should also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for
4923example,
4924
4925 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
4926
a0d0e21e
LW
4927=item unexec of %s into %s failed!
4928
4929(F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
4930representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
4931
6651ba0b
FC
4932=item Unexpected constant lvalue entersub entry via type/targ %d:%d
4933
4934(P) When compiling a subroutine call in lvalue context, Perl failed an
4935internal consistency check. It encountered a malformed op tree.
4936
0876b9a0
KW
4937=item Unicode non-character U+%X is illegal for open interchange
4938
8457b38f 4939(W utf8, nonchar) Certain codepoints, such as U+FFFE and U+FFFF, are
6903afa2
FC
4940defined by the Unicode standard to be non-characters. Those are
4941legal codepoints, but are reserved for internal use; so, applications
4942shouldn't attempt to exchange them. If you know what you are doing
4943you can turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'nonchar';>.
b45f050a 4944
c794c51b
FC
4945=item Unicode surrogate U+%X is illegal in UTF-8
4946
8457b38f 4947(W utf8, surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
c794c51b
FC
4948not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
4949U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
4950internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
4951available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
4952problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
4953came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 4954off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
c794c51b 4955
a0d0e21e
LW
4956=item Unknown BYTEORDER
4957
be771a83
GS
4958(F) There are no byte-swapping functions for a machine with this byte
4959order.
a0d0e21e 4960
04177465
FC
4961=item Unknown error
4962
4963(P) Perl was about to print an error message in C<$@>, but the C<$@> variable
4964did not exist, even after an attempt to create it.
4965
6170680b
IZ
4966=item Unknown open() mode '%s'
4967
437784d6 4968(F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
c47ff5f1 4969of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
488dad83 4970C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
6170680b 4971
b4581f09
JH
4972=item Unknown PerlIO layer "%s"
4973
4974(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
4975system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
4976internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
4977are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
4978explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
4979value of the environment variable PERLIO.
4980
f675dbe5
CB
4981=item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
4982
4983(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
4984iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
4985data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
4986subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
a05d7ebb 4987
2f7da168
RK
4988=item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
4989
a4a4c9e2 4990(W) You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
2f7da168 4991
0da72d5e
KW
4992=item Unknown regex modifier "%s"
4993
4994(F) Alphanumerics immediately following the closing delimiter
4995of a regular expression pattern are interpreted by Perl as modifier
4996flags for the regex. One of the ones you specified is invalid. One way
4997this can happen is if you didn't put in white space between the end of
4998the regex and a following alphanumeric operator:
4999
5000 if ($a =~ /foo/and $bar == 3) { ... }
5001
5002The C<"a"> is a valid modifier flag, but the C<"n"> is not, and raises
5003this error. Likely what was meant instead was:
5004
5005 if ($a =~ /foo/ and $bar == 3) { ... }
5006
bcd05b94 5007=item Unknown switch condition (?(%s in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
96ebfdd7
RK
5008
5009(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
6903afa2 5010is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5fecf430 5011
674f6ed9
FC
5012 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
5013 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
5014 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
5015 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
5016 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
5017 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
5018 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
5019 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
5020 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
96ebfdd7
RK
5021
5022The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
5023discovered. See L<perlre>.
5024
a05d7ebb
JH
5025=item Unknown Unicode option letter '%c'
5026
a4a4c9e2 5027(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb
JH
5028of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
5029
5030=item Unknown Unicode option value %x
5031
a4a4c9e2 5032(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb 5033of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
f675dbe5 5034
e2e6a0f1
YO
5035=item Unknown verb pattern '%s' in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5036
5037(F) You either made a typo or have incorrectly put a C<*> quantifier
5038after an open brace in your pattern. Check the pattern and review
5039L<perlre> for details on legal verb patterns.
5040
c2771421
FC
5041=item Unknown warnings category '%s'
5042
6903afa2 5043(F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
c2771421
FC
5044category that is unknown to perl at this point.
5045
14ef4c80
FC
5046Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a
5047module (e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have loaded this
5048module first.
c2771421 5049
aec0ef10 5050=item Unmatched [ in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 5051
6903afa2 5052(F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
be771a83 5053include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
6903afa2
FC
5054first. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
5055problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 5056
aec0ef10
FC
5057=item Unmatched ( in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5058
5059=item Unmatched ) in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
5060
5061(F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
6903afa2
FC
5062expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
5063the matching parenthesis. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
5064about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 5065
d98d5fff 5066=item Unmatched right %s bracket
a0d0e21e 5067
be771a83
GS
5068(F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
5069ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
5070general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
5071you were last editing.
a0d0e21e 5072
a0d0e21e
LW
5073=item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
5074
be771a83
GS
5075(W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
5076reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
5077somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
5078subroutine.
a0d0e21e 5079
b1fc3636 5080=item Unrecognized character %s; marked by <-- HERE after %s near column %d
a0d0e21e 5081
54310121 5082(F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
b1fc3636 5083in your Perl script (or eval) near the specified column. Perhaps you tried
356c7adf 5084to run a compressed script, a binary program, or a directory as a Perl program.
a0d0e21e 5085
4a68bf9d 5086=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class passed through in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 5087
be771a83
GS
5088(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
5089recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
b224edc1 5090understood literally, but this may change in a future version of Perl.
2628b4e0
TS
5091The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
5092escape was discovered.
6df41af2 5093
4a68bf9d 5094=item Unrecognized escape \%c passed through
2f7da168 5095
2628b4e0 5096(W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b224edc1
KW
5097recognized by Perl. The character was understood literally, but this may
5098change in a future version of Perl.
2f7da168 5099
216bfc0a 5100=item Unrecognized escape \%s passed through in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 5101
be771a83 5102(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b7e4ecc1
FC
5103recognized by Perl. The character(s) were understood literally, but
5104this may change in a future version of Perl. The <-- HERE shows in
5105the regular expression about where the escape was discovered.
6df41af2 5106
a0d0e21e
LW
5107=item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
5108
be771a83
GS
5109(F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
5110recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
5111on your system.
a0d0e21e 5112
90248788 5113=item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
a0d0e21e 5114
be771a83
GS
5115(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
5116think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
5117bad switch on your behalf.)
a0d0e21e
LW
5118
5119=item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
5120
be771a83
GS
5121(W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
5122operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
5b3eff12 5123PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
a0d0e21e
LW
5124
5125=item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
5126
5127(F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
5128
6df41af2
GS
5129=item Unsupported function %s
5130
5131(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
5132At least, Configure doesn't think so.
5133
54310121 5134=item Unsupported function fork
5135
5136(F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
5137
be771a83 5138Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
6903afa2 5139of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
be771a83 5140changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
54310121 5141
7aa207d6 5142=item Unsupported script encoding %s
b250498f
GS
5143
5144(F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
7aa207d6 5145declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot read.
b250498f 5146
a0d0e21e
LW
5147=item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
5148
5149(F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
5150least that's what Configure thought.
5151
6df41af2 5152=item Unterminated attribute list
a0d0e21e 5153
be771a83
GS
5154(F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
5155start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
5156block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
5157attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
a0d0e21e 5158
09bef843
SB
5159=item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
5160
be771a83
GS
5161(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
5162an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
09bef843
SB
5163character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
5164character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
5165
f1991046
GS
5166=item Unterminated compressed integer
5167
5168(F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
5169compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
5170See L<perlfunc/pack>.
5171
2bf803e2
YO
5172=item Unterminated \g{...} pattern in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5173
5174(F) You missed a close brace on a \g{..} pattern (group reference) in
fa816bf3 5175a regular expression. Fix the pattern and retry.
e2e6a0f1 5176
6df41af2 5177=item Unterminated <> operator
09bef843 5178
6df41af2 5179(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
5180a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
5181not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
5182earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
09bef843 5183
905fe053
FC
5184=item Unterminated verb pattern argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5185
5186(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB:ARG)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 5187the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053
FC
5188
5189=item Unterminated verb pattern in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5190
5191(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 5192the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 5193
6df41af2 5194=item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
a0d0e21e 5195
be771a83
GS
5196(W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
5197still valid when C<untie> was called.
a0d0e21e 5198
8e11cd2b
JC
5199=item Usage: POSIX::%s(%s)
5200
5201(F) You called a POSIX function with incorrect arguments.
5202See L<POSIX/FUNCTIONS> for more information.
5203
5204=item Usage: Win32::%s(%s)
5205
5206(F) You called a Win32 function with incorrect arguments.
5207See L<Win32> for more information.
5208
89474f50
FC
5209=item $[ used in %s (did you mean $] ?)
5210
5211(W syntax) You used C<$[> in a comparison, such as:
5212
5213 if ($[ > 5.006) {
5214 ...
5215 }
5216
5217You probably meant to use C<$]> instead. C<$[> is the base for indexing
5218arrays. C<$]> is the Perl version number in decimal.
5219
8fe85e3f
FC
5220=item Useless assignment to a temporary
5221
5222(W misc) You assigned to an lvalue subroutine, but what
5223the subroutine returned was a temporary scalar about to
5224be discarded, so the assignment had no effect.
5225
96ebfdd7 5226=item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 5227
96ebfdd7
RK
5228(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
5229meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 5230
96ebfdd7 5231 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
5232
5233must be written as
5234
96ebfdd7 5235 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
5236
5237The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
6903afa2 5238where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 5239
b4581f09
JH
5240=item Useless localization of %s
5241
6903afa2
FC
5242(W syntax) The localization of lvalues such as C<local($x=10)> is legal,
5243but in fact the local() currently has no effect. This may change at
b4581f09
JH
5244some point in the future, but in the meantime such code is discouraged.
5245
96ebfdd7 5246=item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 5247
96ebfdd7
RK
5248(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
5249meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 5250
96ebfdd7 5251 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
5252
5253must be written as
5254
96ebfdd7 5255 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
5256
5257The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
6903afa2 5258where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 5259
b08e453b
RB
5260=item Useless use of /d modifier in transliteration operator
5261
5262(W misc) You have used the /d modifier where the searchlist has the
6903afa2 5263same length as the replacelist. See L<perlop> for more information
b08e453b
RB
5264about the /d modifier.
5265
820438b1
FC
5266=item Useless use of \E
5267
5268(W misc) You have a \E in a double-quotish string without a C<\U>,
5269C<\L> or C<\Q> preceding it.
5270
6df41af2 5271=item Useless use of %s in void context
a0d0e21e 5272
75b44862 5273(W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
be771a83
GS
5274nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
5275value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
5276often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
5277to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
5278get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
5279said
a0d0e21e 5280
6df41af2 5281 $one, $two = 1, 2;
748a9306 5282
6df41af2
GS
5283when you meant to say
5284
5285 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
5286
5287Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
5288reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
5289example, if you say
5290
5291 $array = (1,2);
5292
5293when you should have said
5294
5295 $array = [1,2];
5296
5297The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
5298while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
5299a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
5300throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
5301L<perlref> for more on this.
5302
65191a1e
BS
5303This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
5304since they are often used in statements like
5305
4358a253 5306 1 while sub_with_side_effects();
65191a1e
BS
5307
5308String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
5309about.
5310
6df41af2
GS
5311=item Useless use of "re" pragma
5312
6903afa2 5313(W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
6df41af2 5314
a801c63c
RGS
5315=item Useless use of sort in scalar context
5316
5317(W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
5318
5319 my $x = sort @y;
5320
5321This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
5322
de4864e4
JH
5323=item Useless use of %s with no values
5324
f87c3213 5325(W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
6903afa2
FC
5326apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
5327usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
de4864e4 5328possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
6903afa2 5329if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
de4864e4
JH
5330you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
5331
6df41af2
GS
5332=item "use" not allowed in expression
5333
be771a83
GS
5334(F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
5335returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
748a9306 5336
36b2db7e
FC
5337=item Use of assignment to $[ is deprecated
5338
5339(D deprecated) The C<$[> variable (index of the first element in an array)
6903afa2 5340is deprecated. See L<perlvar/"$[">.
36b2db7e 5341
c47ff5f1 5342=item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is deprecated
4633a7c4 5343
8ab8f082 5344(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted
83ce3e12
RGS
5345form if you wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
5346
5347=item Use of comma-less variable list is deprecated
5348
8ab8f082 5349(D deprecated) The values you give to a format should be
83ce3e12 5350separated by commas, not just aligned on a line.
4633a7c4 5351
96ebfdd7
RK
5352=item Use of chdir('') or chdir(undef) as chdir() deprecated
5353
5354(D deprecated) chdir() with no arguments is documented to change to
5355$ENV{HOME} or $ENV{LOGDIR}. chdir(undef) and chdir('') share this
5356behavior, but that has been deprecated. In future versions they
5357will simply fail.
5358
5359Be careful to check that what you pass to chdir() is defined and not
5360blank, else you might find yourself in your home directory.
5361
64e578a2
MJD
5362=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
5363
5364(W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
5365modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
5366
4ac733c9
MJD
5367=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
5368
5369(W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
5370use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
5371used. (This may change in the future.)
5372
2dc78664 5373=item Use of := for an empty attribute list is not allowed
036e1e65 5374
2dc78664
NC
5375(F) The construction C<my $x := 42> used to parse as equivalent to
5376C<my $x : = 42> (applying an empty attribute list to C<$x>).
5377This construct was deprecated in 5.12.0, and has now been made a syntax
5378error, so C<:=> can be reclaimed as a new operator in the future.
5379
5380If you need an empty attribute list, for example in a code generator, add
5381a space before the C<=>.
036e1e65 5382
b6c83531 5383=item Use of freed value in iteration
2f7da168 5384
b6c83531
JH
5385(F) Perhaps you modified the iterated array within the loop?
5386This error is typically caused by code like the following:
2f7da168
RK
5387
5388 @a = (3,4);
5389 @a = () for (1,2,@a);
5390
5391You are not supposed to modify arrays while they are being iterated over.
5392For speed and efficiency reasons, Perl internally does not do full
5393reference-counting of iterated items, hence deleting such an item in the
5394middle of an iteration causes Perl to see a freed value.
5395
39b99f21 5396=item Use of *glob{FILEHANDLE} is deprecated
5397
5398(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the shorter *glob{IO} form
5399to access the filehandle slot within a typeglob.
5400
96ebfdd7 5401=item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
35ae6b54 5402
96ebfdd7
RK
5403(W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
5404operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
5405repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
35ae6b54 5406
0b98bec9
RGS
5407=item Use of "goto" to jump into a construct is deprecated
5408
5409(D deprecated) Using C<goto> to jump from an outer scope into an inner
5410scope is deprecated and should be avoided.
5411
dc848c6f 5412=item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
5413
1da25648
FC
5414(D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD>
5415subroutines are looked up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy)
5416even when the subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain
5417functions (e.g. C<Foo::bar()>), not as methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or
5418C<< $obj->bar() >>).
dc848c6f 5419
be771a83
GS
5420This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup only for
5421methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base of existing
5422code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl
5423currently issues an optional warning when non-methods use inherited
5424C<AUTOLOAD>s.
dc848c6f 5425
5426The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
be771a83
GS
5427non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used
5428to depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class
5429named C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during
5430startup.
dc848c6f 5431
be771a83
GS
5432In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);>
5433you should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
7b8d334a 5434C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
fb73857a 5435
6df41af2
GS
5436=item Use of %s in printf format not supported
5437
5438(F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
5439only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
5440
6df41af2
GS
5441=item Use of %s is deprecated
5442
75b44862 5443(D deprecated) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use,
be771a83
GS
5444generally because there's a better way to do it, and also because the
5445old way has bad side effects.
6df41af2 5446
5a7abfcc
FC
5447=item Use of -l on filehandle %s
5448
5449(W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
5450it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
5451The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
5452
7c7df812
FC
5453=item Use of %s on a handle without * is deprecated
5454
22d6fc57 5455(D deprecated) You used C<tie>, C<tied> or C<untie> on a scalar but that scalar
fa816bf3 5456happens to hold a typeglob, which means its filehandle will be tied. If
22d6fc57
FC
5457you mean to tie a handle, use an explicit * as in C<tie *$handle>.
5458
5459This was a long-standing bug that was removed in Perl 5.16, as there was
5460no way to tie the scalar itself when it held a typeglob, and no way to
5461untie a scalar that had had a typeglob assigned to it. If you see this
5462message, you must be using an older version.
7c7df812 5463
905fe053
FC
5464=item Use of ?PATTERN? without explicit operator is deprecated
5465
5466(D deprecated) You have written something like C<?\w?>, for a regular
5467expression that matches only once. Starting this term directly with
5468the question mark delimiter is now deprecated, so that the question mark
5469will be available for use in new operators in the future. Write C<m?\w?>
5470instead, explicitly using the C<m> operator: the question mark delimiter
5471still invokes match-once behaviour.
5472
1f1cc344 5473=item Use of reference "%s" as array index
d804643f 5474
77b96956 5475(W misc) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
1f1cc344
JH
5476isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
5477to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
d804643f 5478
64977eb6 5479If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
1f1cc344 5480C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
54e0f05c 5481however, because you can overload the numification and stringification
c69ca1d4 5482operators and then you presumably know what you are doing.
d804643f 5483
85b81015
LW
5484=item Use of reserved word "%s" is deprecated
5485
be771a83
GS
5486(D deprecated) The indicated bareword is a reserved word. Future
5487versions of perl may use it as a keyword, so you're better off either
5488explicitly quoting the word in a manner appropriate for its context of
5489use, or using a different name altogether. The warning can be
5490suppressed for subroutine names by either adding a C<&> prefix, or using
5491a package qualifier, e.g. C<&our()>, or C<Foo::our()>.
85b81015 5492
bbd7eb8a
RD
5493=item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
5494
159f47d9 5495(W taint, deprecated) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
bbd7eb8a
RD
5496arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
5497but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
5498arguments. See L<perlsec>.
5499
cc95b072 5500=item Use of uninitialized value%s
a0d0e21e 5501
be771a83
GS
5502(W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
5503defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
5504To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
a0d0e21e 5505
6903afa2
FC
5506To help you figure out what was undefined, perl will try to tell you
5507the name of the variable (if any) that was undefined. In some cases
5508it cannot do this, so it also tells you what operation you used the
5509undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your program
5510anid the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily appear
5511literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is usually
5512optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to the
5513C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in
5514your program.
e5be4a53 5515
a1063b2d
RH
5516=item Using a hash as a reference is deprecated
5517
496a33f5 5518(D deprecated) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
1b1f1335 5519C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1
6903afa2
FC
5520used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now
5521deprecated, and will be removed in a future version.
a1063b2d
RH
5522
5523=item Using an array as a reference is deprecated
5524
496a33f5 5525(D deprecated) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
1b1f1335 5526C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1 used to
6903afa2
FC
5527allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated,
5528and will be removed in a future version.
a1063b2d 5529
ff3f963a
KW
5530=item Using just the first character returned by \N{} in character class
5531
5532(W) A charnames handler may return a sequence of more than one character.
5533Currently all but the first one are discarded when used in a regular
5534expression pattern bracketed character class.
5535
c794c51b
FC
5536=item Using !~ with %s doesn't make sense
5537
5538(F) Using the C<!~> operator with C<s///r>, C<tr///r> or C<y///r> is
5539currently reserved for future use, as the exact behaviour has not
6903afa2 5540been decided. (Simply returning the boolean opposite of the
c794c51b 5541modified string is usually not particularly useful.)
0876b9a0 5542
949cf498
KW
5543=item UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
5544
8457b38f 5545(W utf8, surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
949cf498
KW
5546not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
5547U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
5548internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
5549available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
5550problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
5551came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 5552off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9466bab6 5553
68dc0745 5554=item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
a6006777 5555
75b44862 5556(W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
be771a83
GS
5557C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
5558can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
5559false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
5560constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
5561C<defined> operator.
a6006777 5562
f675dbe5
CB
5563=item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
5564
be771a83
GS
5565(W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
5566%ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
5567longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
55681024 characters.
f675dbe5 5569
b5c19bd7 5570=item Variable "%s" is not available
44a8e56a 5571
b5c19bd7
DM
5572(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
5573attempting to capture an outer lexical that is not currently available.
6903afa2 5574This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the outer lexical may be
b5c19bd7
DM
5575declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has not yet been created.
5576(Remember that named subs are created at compile time, while anonymous
6903afa2 5577subs are created at run-time.) For example,
44a8e56a 5578
b5c19bd7 5579 sub { my $a; sub f { $a } }
44a8e56a 5580
b5c19bd7 5581At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current value of $a,
6903afa2 5582since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely,
b5c19bd7
DM
5583the following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by
5584now been created and is live:
be771a83 5585
b5c19bd7
DM
5586 sub { my $a; eval 'sub f { $a }' }->();
5587
5588The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a variable that has
5589gone out of scope, for example,
5590
5591 sub f {
5592 my $a;
5593 sub { eval '$a' }
5594 }
5595 f()->();
5596
5597Here, when the '$a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently being
5598executed, so its $a is not available for capture.
44a8e56a 5599
b4581f09
JH
5600=item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
5601
413ff9f6
FC
5602(W misc) With "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable
5603that you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
b4581f09
JH
5604something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
5605that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
5606front of your variable.
5607
aec0ef10 5608=item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex m/%s/
b4581f09
JH
5609
5610(F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
58e23c8d 5611known at compile time. See L<perlre>.
b4581f09
JH
5612
5613=item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
5614
b9cc85ad
FC
5615(W misc) A "my", "our" or "state" variable has been redeclared in the
5616current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the
5617previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note
5618that the earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope
5619or until all closure referents to it are destroyed.
b4581f09 5620
6df41af2
GS
5621=item Variable syntax
5622
5623(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
5624of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
5625Perl yourself.
5626
44a8e56a 5627=item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
5628
be771a83 5629(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
b5c19bd7 5630lexical variable defined in an outer named subroutine.
44a8e56a 5631
b5c19bd7 5632When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of
be771a83
GS
5633the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
5634call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
5635outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
5636longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
5637variable will no longer be shared.
44a8e56a 5638
44a8e56a 5639This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
5640anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
b5c19bd7 5641reference variables in outer subroutines are created, they
be771a83 5642are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
44a8e56a 5643
6651ba0b
FC
5644=item vector argument not supported with alpha versions
5645
5646(W internal) The %vd (s)printf format does not support version objects
5647with alpha parts.
5648
e2e6a0f1
YO
5649=item Verb pattern '%s' has a mandatory argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5650
6903afa2
FC
5651(F) You used a verb pattern that requires an argument. Supply an
5652argument or check that you are using the right verb.
e2e6a0f1
YO
5653
5654=item Verb pattern '%s' may not have an argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5655
6903afa2 5656(F) You used a verb pattern that is not allowed an argument. Remove the
e2e6a0f1
YO
5657argument or check that you are using the right verb.
5658
084610c0
GS
5659=item Version number must be a constant number
5660
5661(P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
5662its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
5663the version number.
5664
808ee47e
SP
5665=item Version string '%s' contains invalid data; ignoring: '%s'
5666
32e998fd
RGS
5667(W misc) The version string contains invalid characters at the end, which
5668are being ignored.
808ee47e 5669
7e1af8bc 5670=item Warning: something's wrong
5f05dabc 5671
5672(W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
ec8bb14c 5673you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 5674
f86702cc 5675=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
a0d0e21e 5676
be771a83
GS
5677(S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
5678the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
5679space.
a0d0e21e 5680
5f05dabc 5681=item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
a0d0e21e 5682
be771a83
GS
5683(S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
5684looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
5685term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
5686function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
a0d0e21e
LW
5687
5688 rand + 5;
5689
5690you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
5691
5692 rand() + 5;
5693
5694but in actual fact, you got
5695
5696 rand(+5);
5697
5f05dabc 5698So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
a0d0e21e 5699
4b3603a4
JH
5700=item Wide character in %s
5701
c8f79457 5702(S utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting
cd28123a
JH
5703one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print). The easiest
5704way to quiet this warning is simply to add the C<:utf8> layer to the
5705output, e.g. C<binmode STDOUT, ':utf8'>. Another way to turn off the
5706warning is to add C<no warnings 'utf8';> but that is often closer to
5707cheating. In general, you are supposed to explicitly mark the
5708filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
4b3603a4 5709
49704364
WL
5710=item Within []-length '%c' not allowed
5711
fa816bf3
FC
5712(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]>
5713only if C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes that
5714can be determined from the template alone. This is not possible if
5715it contains any of the codes @, /, U, u, w or a *-length. Redesign
5716the template.
49704364 5717
9a7dcd9c 5718=item write() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 5719
be771a83 5720(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5721before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5722
9ae3ac1a 5723=item %s "\x%X" does not map to Unicode
b4581f09 5724
a4a4c9e2 5725(F) When reading in different encodings Perl tries to map everything
b4581f09
JH
5726into Unicode characters. The bytes you read in are not legal in
5727this encoding, for example
5728
5729 utf8 "\xE4" does not map to Unicode
5730
5731if you try to read in the a-diaereses Latin-1 as UTF-8.
5732
49704364 5733=item 'X' outside of string
a0d0e21e 5734
49704364
WL
5735(F) You had a (un)pack template that specified a relative position before
5736the beginning of the string being (un)packed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
a0d0e21e 5737
49704364 5738=item 'x' outside of string in unpack
a0d0e21e
LW
5739
5740(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
5741the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
5742
a0d0e21e
LW
5743=item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
5744
5f05dabc 5745(F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
a0d0e21e 5746sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
1b1f1335 5747about what you want. Your best bet is to put a setuid C wrapper around
496a33f5 5748your script.
a0d0e21e
LW
5749
5750=item You need to quote "%s"
5751
be771a83
GS
5752(W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
5753Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
5754which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
5755assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
5756what you want, put an & in front.)
a0d0e21e 5757
6cfd5ea7
JH
5758=item Your random numbers are not that random
5759
5760(F) When trying to initialise the random seed for hashes, Perl could
5761not get any randomness out of your system. This usually indicates
5762Something Very Wrong.
5763
a0d0e21e
LW
5764=back
5765
00eb3f2b
RGS
5766=head1 SEE ALSO
5767
ed3f9c4f 5768L<warnings>, L<perllexwarn>, L<diagnostics>.
00eb3f2b 5769
56e90b21 5770=cut