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1=head1 NAME
2
3perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
4
5=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
8desperation):
9
10 (W) A warning (optional).
d1d15184 11 (D) A deprecation (enabled by default).
00eb3f2b 12 (S) A severe warning (enabled by default).
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13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
54310121 15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
cb1a09d0 16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
a0d0e21e 17
75b44862 18The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
64977eb6 19(W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
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20
21If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
22category is included with the classification letter in the description
466416ed 23below. E.g. C<(W closed)> means a warning in the C<closed> category.
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24
25Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
fa816bf3 26and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
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27to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
28of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
29
b7eceb5b 30Severe warnings are always enabled, unless they are explicitly disabled
e476b1b5 31with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
4438c4b7 32
748a9306 33Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
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34L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
36See L<warnings>.
a0d0e21e 37
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38The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
39lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
40denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
41ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
42letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
43letter.
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44
45=over 4
46
6df41af2 47=item accept() on closed socket %s
33633739 48
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49(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
50to check the return value of your socket() call? See
51L<perlfunc/accept>.
33633739 52
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53=item Aliasing via reference is experimental
54
55(S experimental::refaliasing) This warning is emitted if you use
56a reference constructor on the left-hand side of an assignment to
57alias one variable to another. Simply suppress the warning if you
58want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you are taking
59the risk of using an experimental feature which may change or be
60removed in a future Perl version:
61
62 no warnings "experimental::refaliasing";
63 use feature "refaliasing";
64 \$x = \$y;
65
de42a5a9 66=item Allocation too large: %x
a0d0e21e 67
6df41af2 68(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
a0d0e21e 69
04f74579 70=item '%c' allowed only after types %s in %s
ef54e1a4 71
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72(F) The modifiers '!', '<' and '>' are allowed in pack() or unpack() only
73after certain types. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
ef54e1a4 74
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75=item alpha->numify() is lossy
76
77(W numeric) An alpha version can not be numified without losing
78information.
79
6df41af2 80=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
43192e07 81
75b44862 82(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
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83keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
84one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
85subroutine is not imported.
43192e07 86
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87To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
88before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
89Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
90imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
43192e07 91
6df41af2 92To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
496a33f5 93on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
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94to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
95L<attributes>).
43192e07 96
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97=item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
98
99(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
100all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
101first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
102C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
103
6df41af2 104=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
43192e07 105
7c7af292 106(S ambiguous) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
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107you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
108a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
a0d0e21e 109
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110=item Ambiguous use of -%s resolved as -&%s()
111
112(S ambiguous) You wrote something like C<-foo>, which might be the
113string C<"-foo">, or a call to the function C<foo>, negated. If you meant
114the string, just write C<"-foo">. If you meant the function call,
115write C<-foo()>.
116
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117=item Ambiguous use of %c resolved as operator %c
118
7c7af292 119(S ambiguous) C<%>, C<&>, and C<*> are both infix operators (modulus,
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120bitwise and, and multiplication) I<and> initial special characters
121(denoting hashes, subroutines and typeglobs), and you said something
122like C<*foo * foo> that might be interpreted as either of them. We
123assumed you meant the infix operator, but please try to make it more
124clear -- in the example given, you might write C<*foo * foo()> if you
125really meant to multiply a glob by the result of calling a function.
d8225693 126
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127=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s} resolved to %c%s
128
129(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<@{foo}>, which might be
130asking for the variable C<@foo>, or it might be calling a function
131named foo, and dereferencing it as an array reference. If you wanted
1cecf2c0 132the variable, you can just write C<@foo>. If you wanted to call the
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133function, write C<@{foo()}> ... or you could just not have a variable
134and a function with the same name, and save yourself a lot of trouble.
135
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136=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s[...]} resolved to %c%s[...]
137
138=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s{...}} resolved to %c%s{...}
4da60377 139
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140(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<${foo[2]}> (where foo represents
141the name of a Perl keyword), which might be looking for element number
1422 of the array named C<@foo>, in which case please write C<$foo[2]>, or you
143might have meant to pass an anonymous arrayref to the function named
144foo, and then do a scalar deref on the value it returns. If you meant
145that, write C<${foo([2])}>.
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146
147In regular expressions, the C<${foo[2]}> syntax is sometimes necessary
148to disambiguate between array subscripts and character classes.
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149C</$length[2345]/>, for instance, will be interpreted as C<$length> followed
150by the character class C<[2345]>. If an array subscript is what you
151want, you can avoid the warning by changing C</${length[2345]}/> to the
152unsightly C</${\$length[2345]}/>, by renaming your array to something
153that does not coincide with a built-in keyword, or by simply turning
154off warnings with C<no warnings 'ambiguous';>.
4da60377 155
6df41af2 156=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
a0d0e21e 157
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158(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
159redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
160redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
c9f97d15 161
6df41af2 162=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
1028017a 163
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164(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
165redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
166into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
167though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
168which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
1028017a 169
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170 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
171 while (<STDIN>) {
172 print;
173 print OUT;
174 }
175 close OUT;
c9f97d15 176
6df41af2 177=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
eb6e2d6f 178
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179(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
180transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
be771a83 181one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
ac036724 182a scalar value (the length of an array, or the population info of a
183hash) and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
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184you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
185alternatives.
eb6e2d6f 186
6df41af2 187=item Arg too short for msgsnd
76cd736e 188
6df41af2 189(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
76cd736e 190
f86702cc 191=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 192
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193(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
194that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
195will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
a0d0e21e 196
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197Note that for the C<Inf> and C<NaN> (infinity and not-a-number) the
198definition of "numeric" is somewhat unusual: the strings themselves
199(like "Inf") are considered numeric, and anything following them is
200considered non-numeric.
201
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202=item Argument list not closed for PerlIO layer "%s"
203
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204(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O
205system you forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers
206take care of transforming data between external and internal
207representations.) Perl stopped parsing the layer list at this
208point and did not attempt to push this layer. If your program
209didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the
210result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
b4581f09 211
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212=item Argument "%s" treated as 0 in increment (++)
213
214(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to the C<++>
215operator which expects either a number or a string matching
216C</^[a-zA-Z]*[0-9]*\z/>. See L<perlop/Auto-increment and
217Auto-decrement> for details.
218
637494ac 219=item Array passed to stat will be coerced to a scalar%s
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220
221(W syntax) You called stat() on an array, but the array will be
222coerced to a scalar - the number of elements in the array.
223
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224=item A signature parameter must start with '$', '@' or '%'
225
226(F) Each subroutine signature parameter declaration must start with a valid
227sigil; for example:
228
229 sub foo ($a, $, $b = 1, @c) {}
230
231=item A slurpy parameter may not have a default value
232
233(F) Only scalar subroutine signature parameters may have a default value;
234for example:
235
236 sub foo ($a = 1) {} # legal
237 sub foo (@a = (1)) {} # invalid
238 sub foo (%a = (a => b)) {} # invalid
239
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240=item assertion botched: %s
241
21b5e840 242(X) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
a0d0e21e 243
0eacef8e 244=item Assertion %s failed: file "%s", line %d
a0d0e21e 245
21b5e840 246(X) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
a0d0e21e 247
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248=item Assigned value is not a reference
249
250(F) You tried to assign something that was not a reference to an lvalue
251reference (e.g., C<\$x = $y>). If you meant to make $x an alias to $y, use
252C<\$x = \$y>.
253
254=item Assigned value is not %s reference
255
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256(F) You tried to assign a reference to a reference constructor, but the
257two references were not of the same type. You cannot alias a scalar to
258an array, or an array to a hash; the two types must match.
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259
260 \$x = \@y; # error
261 \@x = \%y; # error
262 $y = [];
263 \$x = $y; # error; did you mean \$y?
264
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265=item Assigning non-zero to $[ is no longer possible
266
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267(F) When the "array_base" feature is disabled (e.g., under C<use v5.16;>)
268the special variable C<$[>, which is deprecated, is now a fixed zero value.
82122228 269
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270=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
271
272(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
273must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
274know which context to supply to the right side.
275
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276=item Assuming NOT a POSIX class since %s in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
277
278(W regexp) You had something like these:
279
280 [[:alnum]]
281 [[:digit:xyz]
282
283They look like they might have been meant to be the POSIX classes
284C<[:alnum:]> or C<[:digit:]>. If so, they should be written:
285
286 [[:alnum:]]
287 [[:digit:]xyz]
288
289Since these aren't legal POSIX class specifications, but are legal
290bracketed character classes, Perl treats them as the latter. In the
291first example, it matches the characters C<":">, C<"[">, C<"a">, C<"l">,
292C<"m">, C<"n">, and C<"u">.
293
294If these weren't meant to be POSIX classes, this warning message is
295spurious, and can be suppressed by reordering things, such as
296
297 [[al:num]]
298
299or
300
301 [[:munla]]
302
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303=item <> at require-statement should be quotes
304
305(F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
306C<require 'file'>.
307
2393f1b9 308=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
1b1f1335 309
49293501 310(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
2393f1b9 311the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
49293501 312
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313=item Attempt to bless into a freed package
314
315(F) You wrote C<bless $foo> with one argument after somehow causing
316the current package to be freed. Perl cannot figure out what to
317do, so it throws up in hands in despair.
318
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319=item Attempt to bless into a reference
320
321(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
57dedab9 322the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
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323supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
324
325 bless $self, $proto;
326
327when you intended
328
329 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
330
331If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
332of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
333example by:
334
335 bless $self, "$proto";
336
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337=item Attempt to clear deleted array
338
339(S debugging) An array was assigned to when it was being freed.
340Freed values are not supposed to be visible to Perl code. This
341can also happen if XS code calls C<av_clear> from a custom magic
342callback on the array.
343
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344=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
345
346(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
347which is not in its key set.
348
349=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
350
351(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
352declared readonly from a restricted hash.
353
de42a5a9 354=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%x
a0d0e21e 355
f84fe999 356(S internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
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357that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
358outside any of those arenas.
a0d0e21e 359
12578ffb 360=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string '%s'%s
bbce6d69 361
f84fe999 362(S internal) Perl maintains a reference-counted internal table of
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363strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
364strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
365of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
bbce6d69 366
7d5b40b4 367=item Attempt to free temp prematurely: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 368
f84fe999 369(S debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
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370free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
371SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
372free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
373try to free it.
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374
375=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
376
f84fe999 377(S internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
a0d0e21e 378
7d5b40b4 379=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar: SV 0x%x
a0d0e21e 380
8f7e4d2c 381(S internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
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382see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
383earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
384This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
385that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
386mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
387corrupted.
a0d0e21e 388
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389=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
390
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391(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
392function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
393means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
394invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
395literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
396avoid this warning.
84902520 397
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398=item Attempt to reload %s aborted.
399
400(F) You tried to load a file with C<use> or C<require> that failed to
401compile once already. Perl will not try to compile this file again
402unless you delete its entry from %INC. See L<perlfunc/require> and
403L<perlvar/%INC>.
404
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405=item Attempt to set length of freed array
406
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407(W misc) You tried to set the length of an array which has
408been freed. You can do this by storing a reference to the
409scalar representing the last index of an array and later
410assigning through that reference. For example
1b20cd17
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411
412 $r = do {my @a; \$#a};
413 $$r = 503
414
b7a902f4 415=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
416
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417(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
418used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
419dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 420
c32124fe
NC
421=item Attribute "locked" is deprecated
422
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423(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragma to modify the
424"locked" attribute on a code reference. The :locked attribute is
425obsolete, has had no effect since 5005 threads were removed, and
426will be removed in a future release of Perl 5.
c32124fe 427
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428=item Attribute prototype(%s) discards earlier prototype attribute in same sub
429
430(W misc) A sub was declared as sub foo : prototype(A) : prototype(B) {}, for
431example. Since each sub can only have one prototype, the earlier
432declaration(s) are discarded while the last one is applied.
433
f1a3ce43
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434=item Attribute "unique" is deprecated
435
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FC
436(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragma to modify
437the "unique" attribute on an array, hash or scalar reference.
438The :unique attribute has had no effect since Perl 5.8.8, and
439will be removed in a future release of Perl 5.
f1a3ce43 440
ccce04a4
FC
441=item av_reify called on tied array
442
443(S debugging) This indicates that something went wrong and Perl got I<very>
444confused about C<@_> or C<@DB::args> being tied.
445
de42a5a9 446=item Bad arg length for %s, is %u, should be %d
a0d0e21e 447
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448(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
449or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 450S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
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451S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
452
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453=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
454
496a33f5 455(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
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456substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
457most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
458
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459=item Bad filehandle: %s
460
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461(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
462symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
463open(), or did it in another package.
a0d0e21e
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464
465=item Bad free() ignored
466
be771a83 467(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
fa816bf3 468been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 469setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 470
9ea8bc6d 471This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
6903afa2 472dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
be771a83 473which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 474
aa689395 475=item Bad hash
476
477(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
478
6df41af2
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479=item Badly placed ()'s
480
481(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
482of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
483Perl yourself.
484
a7cb8dae 485=item Bad name after %s
a0d0e21e 486
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487(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
488didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
489of quotes, so
a0d0e21e
LW
490
491 $var = 'myvar';
492 $sym = mypack::$var;
493
494is not the same as
495
496 $var = 'myvar';
497 $sym = "mypack::$var";
498
88e1f1a2
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499=item Bad plugin affecting keyword '%s'
500
501(F) An extension using the keyword plugin mechanism violated the
502plugin API.
503
4ad56ec9
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504=item Bad realloc() ignored
505
6903afa2
FC
506(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that
507had never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can
508be disabled by setting the environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 509
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510=item Bad symbol for array
511
512(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
513wasn't a symbol table entry.
514
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515=item Bad symbol for dirhandle
516
517(P) An internal request asked to add a dirhandle entry to something
518that wasn't a symbol table entry.
519
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520=item Bad symbol for filehandle
521
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522(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
523that wasn't a symbol table entry.
a0d0e21e
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524
525=item Bad symbol for hash
526
527(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
528wasn't a symbol table entry.
529
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FC
530=item Bad symbol for scalar
531
532(P) An internal request asked to add a scalar entry to something that
533wasn't a symbol table entry.
534
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535=item Bareword found in conditional
536
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537(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
538conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
539of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
34d09196
GS
540
541 open FOO || die;
542
be771a83
GS
543It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
544a bareword:
34d09196
GS
545
546 use constant TYPO => 1;
547 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
548
549The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
550
a52f2cce
NC
551=item Bareword in require contains "%s"
552
a52f2cce
NC
553=item Bareword in require maps to disallowed filename "%s"
554
09eb1f39 555=item Bareword in require maps to empty filename
5bad2b39 556
a52f2cce 557(F) The bareword form of require has been invoked with a filename which could
d4e5761f 558not have been generated by a valid bareword permitted by the parser. You
a52f2cce
NC
559shouldn't be able to get this error from Perl code, but XS code may throw it
560if it passes an invalid module name to C<Perl_load_module>.
561
5bad2b39
DM
562=item Bareword in require must not start with a double-colon: "%s"
563
564(F) In C<require Bare::Word>, the bareword is not allowed to start with a
d4e5761f 565double-colon. Write C<require ::Foo::Bar> as C<require Foo::Bar> instead.
5bad2b39 566
6df41af2
GS
567=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
568
569(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
be771a83
GS
570subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
571symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
6df41af2
GS
572
573=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
574
be771a83
GS
575(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
576compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
577you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 578
a0d0e21e
LW
579=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
580
be771a83
GS
581(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
582subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
583exited.
a0d0e21e 584
68dc0745 585=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
586
587(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
be771a83
GS
588implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
589occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
590be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
591depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 592
c782d7ee 593=item \%d better written as $%d
6df41af2 594
be771a83
GS
595(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
596The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
597substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
598because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
599there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 600
252aa082
JH
601=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
602
e476b1b5 603(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
604(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
605L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 606
69282e91 607=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 608
be771a83
GS
609(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
610check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 611
c289d2f7
JH
612=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
613
614(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
4dcecea4 615Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 616
c5a0f51a
JH
617=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
618
e476b1b5 619(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 620
043c750c 621=item Bizarre copy of %s
4633a7c4 622
be771a83 623(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
ab830aa0 624copiable.
4633a7c4 625
5a25739d
FC
626=item Bizarre SvTYPE [%d]
627
434f489b 628(P) When starting a new thread or returning values from a thread, Perl
5a25739d
FC
629encountered an invalid data type.
630
b927b7e9 631=item Both or neither range ends should be Unicode in regex; marked by
6e8a73f2 632S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b927b7e9
KW
633
634(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
635
636In a bracketed character class in a regular expression pattern, you
637had a range which has exactly one end of it specified using C<\N{}>, and
638the other end is specified using a non-portable mechanism. Perl treats
639the range as a Unicode range, that is, all the characters in it are
640considered to be the Unicode characters, and which may be different code
641points on some platforms Perl runs on. For example, C<[\N{U+06}-\x08]>
642is treated as if you had instead said C<[\N{U+06}-\N{U+08}]>, that is it
643matches the characters whose code points in Unicode are 6, 7, and 8.
644But that C<\x08> might indicate that you meant something different, so
645the warning gets raised.
646
f675dbe5
CB
647=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
648
be771a83
GS
649(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
650iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
651which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 652
a0d0e21e
LW
653=item Callback called exit
654
4929bf7b 655(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
a0d0e21e
LW
656exited by calling exit.
657
6df41af2 658=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 659
be771a83
GS
660(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
661parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
662that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
663early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
664subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
665checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
666function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
667the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 668
56feebad
FC
669=item Calling POSIX::%s() is deprecated
670
671(D deprecated) You called a function whose use is deprecated. See
672the function's name in L<POSIX> for details.
673
0c7df902
JH
674=item Cannot chr %f
675
676(F) You passed an invalid number (like an infinity or not-a-number) to C<chr>.
677
5dee29d4 678=item Cannot compress %f in pack
0c7df902 679
5dee29d4
JH
680(F) You tried compressing an infinity or not-a-number as an unsigned
681integer with BER, which makes no sense.
0c7df902 682
49704364 683=item Cannot compress integer in pack
0258719b 684
717feafc
JH
685(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress.
686The BER compressed integer format can only be used with positive
687integers, and you attempted to compress a very large number (> 1e308).
688See L<perlfunc/pack>.
0258719b 689
49704364 690=item Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
0258719b
NC
691
692(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
693format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
694
5c1f4d79
NC
695=item Cannot convert a reference to %s to typeglob
696
6903afa2
FC
697(F) You manipulated Perl's symbol table directly, stored a reference
698in it, then tried to access that symbol via conventional Perl syntax.
699The access triggers Perl to autovivify that typeglob, but it there is
700no legal conversion from that type of reference to a typeglob.
5c1f4d79 701
4040665a 702=item Cannot copy to %s
ba2fdce6
NC
703
704(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy a value to an internal type that cannot
4dcecea4 705be directly assigned to.
ba2fdce6 706
b5d97229
RGS
707=item Cannot find encoding "%s"
708
709(S io) You tried to apply an encoding that did not exist to a filehandle,
710either with open() or binmode().
711
0c7df902
JH
712=item Cannot pack %f with '%c'
713
5dee29d4 714(F) You tried converting an infinity or not-a-number to an integer,
0c7df902
JH
715which makes no sense.
716
717=item Cannot printf %f with '%c'
718
719(F) You tried printing an infinity or not-a-number as a character (%c),
720which makes no sense. Maybe you meant '%s', or just stringifying it?
721
7355df7e
FC
722=item Cannot set tied @DB::args
723
724(F) C<caller> tried to set C<@DB::args>, but found it tied. Tying C<@DB::args>
725is not supported. (Before this error was added, it used to crash.)
726
ce65bc73
FC
727=item Cannot tie unreifiable array
728
729(P) You somehow managed to call C<tie> on an array that does not
730keep a reference count on its arguments and cannot be made to
731do so. Such arrays are not even supposed to be accessible to
732Perl code, but are only used internally.
733
46e58bd2
AC
734=item Cannot yet reorder sv_catpvfn() arguments from va_list
735
736(F) Some XS code tried to use C<sv_catpvfn()> or a related function with a
737format string that specifies explicit indexes for some of the elements, and
d4e5761f
FC
738using a C-style variable-argument list (a C<va_list>). This is not currently
739supported. XS authors wanting to do this must instead construct a C array
740of C<SV*> scalars containing the arguments.
46e58bd2 741
96ebfdd7
RK
742=item Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
743
744(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
745integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
746to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
747
a0d0e21e
LW
748=item Can't bless non-reference value
749
750(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
751encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
752
dc57907a
RGS
753=item Can't "break" in a loop topicalizer
754
0d863452 755(F) You called C<break>, but you're in a C<foreach> block rather than
6903afa2 756a C<given> block. You probably meant to use C<next> or C<last>.
0d863452
RH
757
758=item Can't "break" outside a given block
dc57907a 759
0d863452
RH
760(F) You called C<break>, but you're not inside a C<given> block.
761
6df41af2
GS
762=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
763
764(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
765object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
766like this will reproduce the error:
6df41af2
GS
767
768 $BADREF = undef;
769 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
770 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
771
a0d0e21e
LW
772=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
773
54310121 774(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
be771a83
GS
775ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
776didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
777object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
778
779=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
780
781(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
782object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
783defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
72b5445b
GS
784Something like this will reproduce the error:
785
786 $BADREF = 42;
787 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
788 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
789
dfe378f1
FC
790=item Can't call mro_isa_changed_in() on anonymous symbol table
791
792(P) Perl got confused as to whether a hash was a plain hash or a
793symbol table hash when trying to update @ISA caches.
794
2bf7e7b2
FC
795=item Can't call mro_method_changed_in() on anonymous symbol table
796
797(F) An XS module tried to call C<mro_method_changed_in> on a hash that was
798not attached to the symbol table.
799
a0d0e21e
LW
800=item Can't chdir to %s
801
f703fc96 802(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but F</foo/bar> is not a directory
a0d0e21e
LW
803that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
804
0545a864 805=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
104d25b7 806
be771a83
GS
807(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
808nosuid.
104d25b7 809
22e74366 810=item Can't coerce %s to %s in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
811
812(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 813(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
a0d0e21e
LW
814say things like:
815
816 *foo += 1;
817
818You CAN say
819
820 $foo = *foo;
821 $foo += 1;
822
823but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
824
0d863452 825=item Can't "continue" outside a when block
dc57907a 826
0d863452
RH
827(F) You called C<continue>, but you're not inside a C<when>
828or C<default> block.
829
a0d0e21e
LW
830=item Can't create pipe mailbox
831
be771a83
GS
832(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
833quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 834
eb64745e
GS
835=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
836
30c282f6
NC
837(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my", "our" or
838"state" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 839
fc7debfb
FC
840=item Can't "default" outside a topicalizer
841
842(F) You have used a C<default> block that is neither inside a
843C<foreach> loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is
844issued on exit from the C<default> block, so you won't get the
845error if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
846
a2162cd9
FC
847=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
848
849(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
850a file in /dev, a FIFO or an uneditable directory. The file was ignored.
851
852=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
853
854(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
855reason.
856
857=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
858
859(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
860reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
861C<-i.bak>, or some such.
862
863=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
864
865(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
866characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
867inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
868
ab0b796c
KW
869=item Can't do %s("%s") on non-UTF-8 locale; resolved to "%s".
870
871(W locale) You are 1) running under "C<use locale>"; 2) the current
872locale is not a UTF-8 one; 3) you tried to do the designated case-change
873operation on the specified Unicode character; and 4) the result of this
874operation would mix Unicode and locale rules, which likely conflict.
875Mixing of different rule types is forbidden, so the operation was not
876done; instead the result is the indicated value, which is the best
877available that uses entirely Unicode rules. That turns out to almost
878always be the original character, unchanged.
879
880It is generally a bad idea to mix non-UTF-8 locales and Unicode, and
881this issue is one of the reasons why. This warning is raised when
882Unicode rules would normally cause the result of this operation to
883contain a character that is in the range specified by the locale,
8840..255, and hence is subject to the locale's rules, not Unicode's.
885
886If you are using locale purely for its characteristics related to things
887like its numeric and time formatting (and not C<LC_CTYPE>), consider
888using a restricted form of the locale pragma (see L<perllocale/The "use
889locale" pragma>) like "S<C<use locale ':not_characters'>>".
890
891Note that failed case-changing operations done as a result of
892case-insensitive C</i> regular expression matching will show up in this
893warning as having the C<fc> operation (as that is what the regular
894expression engine calls behind the scenes.)
895
a0d0e21e
LW
896=item Can't do waitpid with flags
897
be771a83
GS
898(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
899waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 900
a0d0e21e
LW
901=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
902
be771a83
GS
903(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
904point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
905line.
a0d0e21e 906
1109a392
MHM
907=item Can't %s %s-endian %ss on this platform
908
909(F) Your platform's byte-order is neither big-endian nor little-endian,
910or it has a very strange pointer size. Packing and unpacking big- or
911little-endian floating point values and pointers may not be possible.
912See L<perlfunc/pack>.
913
a0d0e21e
LW
914=item Can't exec "%s": %s
915
d1be9408 916(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
917named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
918permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
919C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
920architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
921can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
922#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
923
924=item Can't exec %s
925
be771a83
GS
926(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
927that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
928need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
929
930=item Can't execute %s
931
be771a83
GS
932(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
933found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 934
6df41af2 935=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 936
be771a83
GS
937(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
938is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2
GS
939
940=item Can't find label %s
941
be771a83
GS
942(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
943possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
944
945=item Can't find %s on PATH
946
be771a83
GS
947(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
948found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 949
6df41af2 950=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 951
be771a83
GS
952(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
953found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
954script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e
LW
955
956=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
957
be771a83
GS
958(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
959that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
960nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 961
fb73857a 962 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
963
97b3d10f 964If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have
b6b8cb97
FC
965included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag or there
966may not be a linebreak after it. A good programmer's editor will have
967a way to help you find these characters (or lack of characters). See
968L<perlop> for the full details on here-documents.
a0d0e21e 969
660a4616
TS
970=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s"
971
29f52644
KW
972=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
973
974(F) The named property which you specified via C<\p> or C<\P> is not one
975known to Perl. Perhaps you misspelled the name? See
e1b711da 976L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
29f52644
KW
977for a complete list of available official
978properties. If it is a
979L<user-defined property|perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties>
980it must have been defined by the time the regular expression is
981matched.
982
983If you didn't mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either
984by C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, or
5f8ad6b6 985until C<\E>).
660a4616 986
b3647a36 987=item Can't fork: %s
a0d0e21e 988
be771a83
GS
989(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
990pipeline.
a0d0e21e 991
b3647a36
SR
992=item Can't fork, trying again in 5 seconds
993
c973c02e 994(W pipe) A fork in a piped open failed with EAGAIN and will be retried
b3647a36
SR
995after five seconds.
996
748a9306
LW
997=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
998
be771a83
GS
999(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
1000between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
1001Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
1002the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
1003account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
1004the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
2fe2bdfd 1005the access-checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
be771a83
GS
1006the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
1007if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
1008because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
2fe2bdfd
FC
1009appears, the name lookup failed, and the access-checking routine gave up
1010and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access-checking
be771a83
GS
1011routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
1012shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
1013only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 1014
a0d0e21e
LW
1015=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
1016
be771a83
GS
1017(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
1018pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
1019
1020=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
1021
748a9306
LW
1022(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
1023mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 1024
6df41af2 1025=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 1026
be771a83
GS
1027(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
1028loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
1029
1030=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
1031
be771a83
GS
1032(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
1033a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
1034you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
1035See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 1036
5a25739d
FC
1037=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-%s
1038
1039(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
1040"string" or block.
1041
9850bf21 1042=item Can't goto subroutine from a sort sub (or similar callback)
cd299c6e 1043
9850bf21
RH
1044(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of the
1045comparison sub for a sort(), or from a similar callback (such
1046as the reduce() function in List::Util).
1047
6df41af2
GS
1048=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
1049
be771a83
GS
1050(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
1051subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
1052cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
1053routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 1054
0b5b802d
GS
1055=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
1056
be771a83
GS
1057(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
1058signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
1059signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
1060processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
1061situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
1062may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 1063
e2c0f81f
DG
1064=item Can't kill a non-numeric process ID
1065
1066(F) Process identifiers must be (signed) integers. It is a fatal error to
1067attempt to kill() an undefined, empty-string or otherwise non-numeric
1068process identifier.
1069
6df41af2 1070=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 1071
6df41af2 1072(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
1073except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
1074block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
1075block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
1076usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
1077inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
1078L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 1079
2c7d6b9c
RGS
1080=item Can't linearize anonymous symbol table
1081
1082(F) Perl tried to calculate the method resolution order (MRO) of a
1083package, but failed because the package stash has no name.
1084
b8170e59
JB
1085=item Can't load '%s' for module %s
1086
6903afa2
FC
1087(F) The module you tried to load failed to load a dynamic extension.
1088This may either mean that you upgraded your version of perl to one
1089that is incompatible with your old dynamic extensions (which is known
1090to happen between major versions of perl), or (more likely) that your
1091dynamic extension was built against an older version of the library
1092that is installed on your system. You may need to rebuild your old
1093dynamic extensions.
b8170e59 1094
748a9306
LW
1095=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
1096
2ba9eb46 1097(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
b7e4ecc1
FC
1098lexical variable using "my" or "state". This is not allowed. If you
1099want to localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with
1100the package name.
748a9306 1101
6df41af2 1102=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 1103
6df41af2
GS
1104(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
1105handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 1106pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 1107that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 1108
ea071790 1109=item Can't locate %s
ec889f3a 1110
fa816bf3
FC
1111(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be found.
1112Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC, unless
1113the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you need
1114to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where the
1115extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
be771a83
GS
1116to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
1117L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 1118
6df41af2
GS
1119=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
1120
be771a83
GS
1121(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
1122autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
1123are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
1124the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 1125
b8170e59
JB
1126=item Can't locate loadable object for module %s in @INC
1127
1128(F) The module you loaded is trying to load an external library, like
d70d8e57 1129for example, F<foo.so> or F<bar.dll>, but the L<DynaLoader> module was
b8170e59
JB
1130unable to locate this library. See L<DynaLoader>.
1131
a0d0e21e
LW
1132=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
1133
1134(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
1135functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 1136method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e 1137
8af56b9d
FC
1138=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s" (perhaps you forgot
1139to load "%s"?)
1140
1141(F) You called a method on a class that did not exist, and the method
1142could not be found in UNIVERSAL. This often means that a method
1143requires a package that has not been loaded.
1144
a0d0e21e
LW
1145=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
1146
be771a83
GS
1147(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
1148doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 1149
2f7da168
RK
1150=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
1151
1152(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
1153e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
1154
f4ad53f4 1155=item Can't make list assignment to %ENV on this system
3e3baf6d 1156
be771a83
GS
1157(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
1158VMS.
3e3baf6d 1159
cd40cd58
NC
1160=item Can't make loaded symbols global on this platform while loading %s
1161
ff9c1ae8 1162(S) A module passed the flag 0x01 to DynaLoader::dl_load_file() to request
cd40cd58
NC
1163that symbols from the stated file are made available globally within the
1164process, but that functionality is not available on this platform. Whilst
1165the module likely will still work, this may prevent the perl interpreter
1166from loading other XS-based extensions which need to link directly to
1167functions defined in the C or XS code in the stated file.
1168
a0d0e21e
LW
1169=item Can't modify %s in %s
1170
be771a83
GS
1171(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
1172to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 1173
54310121 1174=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
a0d0e21e
LW
1175
1176(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
1177a NULL.
1178
0f948285 1179=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call of &%s
6df41af2
GS
1180
1181(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
2fe2bdfd 1182such. See L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
6df41af2 1183
cf6e1fa1
FC
1184=item Can't modify reference to %s in %s assignment
1185
1186(F) Only a limited number of constructs can be used as the argument to a
1187reference constructor on the left-hand side of an assignment, and what
1188you used was not one of them. See L<perlref/Assigning to References>.
1189
1190=item Can't modify reference to localized parenthesized array in list
1191assignment
1192
1193(F) Assigning to C<\local(@array)> or C<\(local @array)> is not supported, as
1194it is not clear exactly what it should do. If you meant to make @array
1195refer to some other array, use C<\@array = \@other_array>. If you want to
1196make the elements of @array aliases of the scalars referenced on the
1197right-hand side, use C<\(@array) = @scalar_refs>.
1198
1199=item Can't modify reference to parenthesized hash in list assignment
1200
1201(F) Assigning to C<\(%hash)> is not supported. If you meant to make %hash
1202refer to some other hash, use C<\%hash = \%other_hash>. If you want to
1203make the elements of %hash into aliases of the scalars referenced on the
1204right-hand side, use a hash slice: C<\@hash{@keys} = @those_scalar_refs>.
1205
5f05dabc 1206=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 1207
5f05dabc 1208(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
1209buffer.
1210
6df41af2
GS
1211=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
1212
1213(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
1214there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
1215count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
1216grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1217though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
1218once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 1219
a0d0e21e
LW
1220=item Can't open %s: %s
1221
c47ff5f1 1222(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e 1223filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
46fa9b26
FC
1224switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually
1225this is because you don't have read permission for a file which
1226you named on the command line.
1227
1228(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-e> switch, but F</dev/null> (or
1229your operating system's equivalent) could not be opened.
a0d0e21e 1230
9a869a14
RGS
1231=item Can't open a reference
1232
1233(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
2fe2bdfd 1234using the 3-arg open() syntax:
9a869a14
RGS
1235
1236 open FH, '>', $ref;
1237
1238but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
1239open is not supported.
1240
a0d0e21e
LW
1241=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
1242
be771a83
GS
1243(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
1244You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
1245as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
1246">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 1247
748a9306
LW
1248=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
1249
be771a83
GS
1250(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1251redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
1252the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1253
1254=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
1255
be771a83
GS
1256(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1257redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
1258command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
1259
1260=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
1261
be771a83
GS
1262(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1263redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
1264the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1265
1266=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
1267
be771a83
GS
1268(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1269redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
1270for stdout.
748a9306 1271
3b1cf97d 1272=item Can't open perl script "%s": %s
a0d0e21e
LW
1273
1274(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
1275
fa3aa65a
JC
1276If you're debugging a script that uses #!, and normally relies on the
1277shell's $PATH search, the -S option causes perl to do that search, so
1278you don't have to type the path or C<`which $scriptname`>.
1279
6df41af2
GS
1280=item Can't read CRTL environ
1281
1282(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
1283from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
1284missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
1285or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
1286searched.
6df41af2 1287
f3106bc8
LM
1288=item Can't redeclare "%s" in "%s"
1289
1290(F) A "my", "our" or "state" declaration was found within another declaration,
1291such as C<my ($x, my($y), $z)> or C<our (my $x)>.
1292
6df41af2
GS
1293=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
1294
1295(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
1296there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
1297count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
1298or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1299though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
1300loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
1301
64977eb6 1302=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 1303
be771a83
GS
1304(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
1305file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
1306the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 1307
a0d0e21e
LW
1308=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
1309
e476b1b5 1310(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
10f9c03d 1311probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
a0d0e21e 1312
748a9306
LW
1313=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
1314
be771a83
GS
1315(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
1316to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 1317
9415f659
KW
1318=item Can't represent character for Ox%X on this platform
1319
1320(F) There is a hard limit to how big a character code point can be due
1321to the fundamental properties of UTF-8, especially on EBCDIC
1322platforms. The given code point exceeds that. The only work-around is
1323to not use such a large code point.
1324
4f12ec0e
FC
1325=item Can't reset %ENV on this system
1326
1327(F) You called C<reset('E')> or similar, which tried to reset
1328all variables in the current package beginning with "E". In
1329the main package, that includes %ENV. Resetting %ENV is not
1330supported on some systems, notably VMS.
1331
fe13d51d 1332=item Can't resolve method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
6df41af2 1333
1fa582fa
FC
1334(F)(P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as
1335opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the
1336package. If the method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 1337
cd06dffe
GS
1338=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
1339
be771a83
GS
1340(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
1341temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
1342is not allowed.
cd06dffe 1343
96ebfdd7
RK
1344=item Can't return outside a subroutine
1345
1346(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1347there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1348
78f9721b
SM
1349=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
1350
6903afa2
FC
1351(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue
1352subroutine, but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl
1353think you meant to return only one value. You probably meant to
1354write parentheses around the call to the subroutine, which tell
1355Perl that the call should be in list context.
78f9721b 1356
a0d0e21e
LW
1357=item Can't stat script "%s"
1358
be771a83
GS
1359(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1360open already. Bizarre.
a0d0e21e 1361
a0d0e21e
LW
1362=item Can't take log of %g
1363
fb73857a 1364(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
6903afa2 1365negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
1366standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1367negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
1368
1369=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1370
1371(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 1372negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1373with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
1374
1375=item Can't undef active subroutine
1376
1377(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1378however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1379redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1380
c81225bc 1381=item Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d
a0d0e21e 1382
be771a83
GS
1383(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1384into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1385specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1386indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e 1387
6651ba0b
FC
1388=item Can't use '%c' after -mname
1389
1390(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-m> switch, but you put something
1391other than "=" after the module name.
1392
1f1ec7b5
KW
1393=item Can't use a hash as a reference
1394
1395(F) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
66a1f5ec
FC
1396C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl
1397<= 5.22.0 used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't
1398have. This was deprecated in perl 5.6.1.
1f1ec7b5
KW
1399
1400=item Can't use an array as a reference
1401
1402(F) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
66a1f5ec
FC
1403C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.22.0
1404used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. This
1405was deprecated in perl 5.6.1.
1f1ec7b5 1406
1db89ea5
BS
1407=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1408
e27ad1f2 1409(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1db89ea5
BS
1410table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1411for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1412
96ebfdd7
RK
1413=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1414
1415(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1416be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1417
6df41af2
GS
1418=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1419
be771a83
GS
1420(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1421references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1422
90b75b61 1423=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63 1424
20561843 1425(F) The first time the C<%!> hash is used, perl automatically loads the
6903afa2 1426Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1d2dff63
GS
1427provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1428
1109a392
MHM
1429=item Can't use both '<' and '>' after type '%c' in %s
1430
1431(F) A type cannot be forced to have both big-endian and little-endian
1432byte-order at the same time, so this combination of modifiers is not
1433allowed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1434
e35475de
KW
1435=item Can't use 'defined(@array)' (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?)
1436
1437(F) defined() is not useful on arrays because it
1438checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
1439array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
1440
1441=item Can't use 'defined(%hash)' (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?)
1442
1443(F) C<defined()> is not usually right on hashes.
1444
1445Although C<defined %hash> is false on a plain not-yet-used hash, it
1446becomes true in several non-obvious circumstances, including iterators,
1447weak references, stash names, even remaining true after C<undef %hash>.
1448These things make C<defined %hash> fairly useless in practice, so it now
1449generates a fatal error.
1450
1451If a check for non-empty is what you wanted then just put it in boolean
1452context (see L<perldata/Scalar values>):
1453
1454 if (%hash) {
1455 # not empty
1456 }
1457
1458If you had C<defined %Foo::Bar::QUUX> to check whether such a package
1459variable exists then that's never really been reliable, and isn't
1460a good way to enquire about the features of a package, or whether
1461it's loaded, etc.
1462
6df41af2
GS
1463=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1464
c1f06047 1465(P) The parser got confused when trying to parse a C<foreach> loop.
6df41af2 1466
aab6a793 1467=item Can't use global %s in "%s"
6df41af2 1468
be771a83
GS
1469(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1470is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1471(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1472have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1473weren't.
1474
6d3b25aa
RGS
1475=item Can't use '%c' in a group with different byte-order in %s
1476
1477(F) You attempted to force a different byte-order on a type
1478that is already inside a group with a byte-order modifier.
1479For example you cannot force little-endianness on a type that
1480is inside a big-endian group.
1481
c07a80fd 1482=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1483
1484(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1485You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1486and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1487Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1488lexical variable.
1489
a0d0e21e
LW
1490=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1491
1492(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1493reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1494test the type of the reference, if need be.
1495
748a9306 1496=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1497
5e634d20
FC
1498=item Can't use string ("%s"...) as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1499
b41bf23f
FC
1500(F) You've told Perl to dereference a string, something which
1501C<use strict> blocks to prevent it happening accidentally. See
1502L<perlref/"Symbolic references">. This can be triggered by an C<@> or C<$>
1503in a double-quoted string immediately before interpolating a variable,
1504for example in C<"user @$twitter_id">, which says to treat the contents
1505of C<$twitter_id> as an array reference; use a C<\> to have a literal C<@>
1506symbol followed by the contents of C<$twitter_id>: C<"user \@$twitter_id">.
a0d0e21e 1507
748a9306
LW
1508=item Can't use subscript on %s
1509
1510(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1511subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
209e7cf1 1512didn't look like a hash or array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
748a9306 1513
6df41af2
GS
1514=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1515
75b44862
GS
1516(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1517creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1518backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1519expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1520value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1521instead.
6df41af2 1522
810b8aa5
GS
1523=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1524
1525(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1526references can be weakened.
1527
fc7debfb
FC
1528=item Can't "when" outside a topicalizer
1529
1530(F) You have used a when() block that is neither inside a C<foreach>
1531loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is issued on exit
1532from the C<when> block, so you won't get the error if the match fails,
1533or if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
1534
5f05dabc 1535=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1536
be771a83
GS
1537(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1538with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1539Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1540
a04e6aad 1541=item Character following "\c" must be printable ASCII
f9d13529 1542
7357bd17 1543(F) In C<\cI<X>>, I<X> must be a printable (non-control) ASCII character.
17a3df4c 1544
727b6379 1545Note that ASCII characters that don't map to control characters are
7357bd17 1546discouraged, and will generate the warning (when enabled)
727b6379 1547L</""\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"">.
f9d13529 1548
163a633c
KW
1549=item Character following \%c must be '{' or a single-character Unicode property name in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1550
1551(F) (In the above the C<%c> is replaced by either C<p> or C<P>.) You
1552specified something that isn't a legal Unicode property name. Most
1553Unicode properties are specified by C<\p{...}>. But if the name is a
1554single character one, the braces may be omitted.
1555
f337b084 1556=item Character in 'C' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1557
1558(W pack) You said
1559
1560 pack("C", $x)
1561
1562where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1563only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1564and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1565
1566 pack("C", $x & 255)
1567
1568If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1569instead.
1570
f337b084 1571=item Character in 'c' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1572
1573(W pack) You said
1574
1575 pack("c", $x)
1576
1577where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1578is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1579and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1580
1581 pack("c", $x & 255);
1582
1583If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1584instead.
1585
f337b084
TH
1586=item Character in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1587
1588(W unpack) You tried something like
1589
1590 unpack("H", "\x{2a1}")
1591
1a147d38 1592where the format expects to process a byte (a character with a value
6903afa2
FC
1593below 256), but a higher value was provided instead. Perl uses the
1594value modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
f337b084
TH
1595
1596 unpack("H", "\x{a1}")
1597
5a25739d
FC
1598=item Character in 'W' format wrapped in pack
1599
1600(W pack) You said
1601
1602 pack("U0W", $x)
1603
1604where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255. However, C<U0>-mode
1605expects all values to fall in the interval [0, 255], so Perl behaved
1606as if you meant:
1607
1608 pack("U0W", $x & 255)
1609
f337b084
TH
1610=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in pack
1611
1612(W pack) You tried something like
1613
1614 pack("u", "\x{1f3}b")
1615
1a147d38 1616where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1617value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1618uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1619
1620 pack("u", "\x{f3}b")
1621
1622=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1623
1624(W unpack) You tried something like
1625
1626 unpack("s", "\x{1f3}b")
1627
1a147d38 1628where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
6903afa2 1629value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1630uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1631
1632 unpack("s", "\x{f3}b")
1633
f51551f7
FC
1634=item charnames alias definitions may not contain a sequence of multiple spaces
1635
1636(F) You defined a character name which had multiple space characters
1637in a row. Change them to single spaces. Usually these names are
1638defined in the C<:alias> import argument to C<use charnames>, but they
1639could be defined by a translator installed into C<$^H{charnames}>. See
1640L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
1641
1642=item charnames alias definitions may not contain trailing white-space
1643
1644(F) You defined a character name which ended in a space
1645character. Remove the trailing space(s). Usually these names are
1646defined in the C<:alias> import argument to C<use charnames>, but they
1647could be defined by a translator installed into C<$^H{charnames}>.
1648See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
1649
60121127
TC
1650=item chdir() on unopened filehandle %s
1651
1652(W unopened) You tried chdir() on a filehandle that was never opened.
1653
f866a7cd
FC
1654=item "\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"
1655
1656(W syntax) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a way to specify
7ed0dd93
FC
1657non-printable characters. You used it for a printable one, which
1658is better written as simply itself, perhaps preceded by a backslash
1659for non-word characters. Doing it the way you did is not portable
1660between ASCII and EBCDIC platforms.
f866a7cd 1661
6651ba0b
FC
1662=item Cloning substitution context is unimplemented
1663
1664(F) Creating a new thread inside the C<s///> operator is not supported.
1665
abc7ecad
SP
1666=item closedir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
1667
1668(W io) The dirhandle you tried to close is either closed or not really
1669a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
1670
5a25739d
FC
1671=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1672
1673(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1674
541ed3a9
FC
1675=item Closure prototype called
1676
1677(F) If a closure has attributes, the subroutine passed to an attribute
1678handler is the prototype that is cloned when a new closure is created.
1679This subroutine cannot be called.
1680
74d1b2e4
FC
1681=item \C no longer supported in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1682
1683(F) The \C character class used to allow a match of single byte
1684within a multi-byte utf-8 character, but was removed in v5.24 as
1685it broke encapsulation and its implementation was extremely buggy.
1686If you really need to process the individual bytes, you probably
1687want to convert your string to one where each underlying byte is
1688stored as a character, with utf8::encode().
1689
49704364
WL
1690=item Code missing after '/'
1691
6903afa2
FC
1692(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be
1693another template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 1694
c0236afe
KW
1695=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, and not portable
1696
1697(S non_unicode) You had a code point that has never been in any
1698standard, so it is likely that languages other than Perl will NOT
1699understand it. At one time, it was legal in some standards to have code
1700points up to 0x7FFF_FFFF, but not higher, and this code point is higher.
1701
1702Acceptance of these code points is a Perl extension, and you should
1703expect that nothing other than Perl can handle them; Perl itself on
1704EBCDIC platforms before v5.24 does not handle them.
1705
1706Code points above 0xFFFF_FFFF require larger than a 32 bit word.
1707
1708Perl also makes no guarantees that the representation of these code
1709points won't change at some point in the future, say when machines
1710become available that have larger than a 64-bit word. At that time,
1711files written by an older Perl would require conversion before being
1712readable by a newer Perl.
1713
5a25739d
FC
1714=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, may not be portable
1715
2d88a86a 1716(S non_unicode) You had a code point above the Unicode maximum
1b64326b
FC
1717of U+10FFFF.
1718
c0236afe
KW
1719Perl allows strings to contain a superset of Unicode code points, but
1720these may not be accepted by other languages/systems. Further, even if
1721these languages/systems accept these large code points, they may have
1722chosen a different representation for them than the UTF-8-like one that
1723Perl has, which would mean files are not exchangeable between them and
1724Perl.
1725
1726On EBCDIC platforms, code points above 0x3FFF_FFFF have a different
1727representation in Perl v5.24 than before, so any file containing these
1728that was written before that version will require conversion before
1729being readable by a later Perl.
0876b9a0 1730
6df41af2
GS
1731=item %s: Command not found
1732
a892b81a 1733(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> or another shell
66a1f5ec
FC
1734instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1735Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
8f721816 1736
3bcfc7b3
LM
1737 #!/usr/bin/perl
1738
1739=item %s: command not found
1740
1741(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<bash> or another shell
1742instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1743Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
1744
1745 #!/usr/bin/perl
1746
1747=item %s: command not found: %s
1748
1749(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<zsh> or another shell
1750instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1751Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
1752
1753 #!/usr/bin/perl
6df41af2 1754
7a2e2cd6 1755=item Compilation failed in require
1756
1757(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1758Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1759encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1760
c3464db5
DD
1761=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1762
be771a83
GS
1763(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1764situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1765to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1766arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1767recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1768under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1769in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1770that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1771on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1772
69282e91 1773=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1774
be771a83
GS
1775(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1776to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1777L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1778
e21e7c6a
FC
1779=item Constant(%s): Call to &{$^H{%s}} did not return a defined value
1780
1781(F) The subroutine registered to handle constant overloading
1782(see L<overload>) or a custom charnames handler (see
1783L<charnames/CUSTOM TRANSLATORS>) returned an undefined value.
1784
1785=item Constant(%s): $^H{%s} is not defined
1786
1787(F) The parser found inconsistencies while attempting to define an
1788overloaded constant. Perhaps you forgot to load the corresponding
f738a371 1789L<overload> pragma?
e21e7c6a 1790
779c5bc9
GS
1791=item Constant is not %s reference
1792
1793(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83 1794is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
6903afa2 1795The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
be771a83 1796usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1797See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1798
0ac016fc
FC
1799=item Constants from lexical variables potentially modified elsewhere are
1800deprecated
1801
1802(D deprecated) You wrote something like
1803
1804 my $var;
1805 $sub = sub () { $var };
1806
1807but $var is referenced elsewhere and could be modified after the C<sub>
1808expression is evaluated. Either it is explicitly modified elsewhere
1809(C<$var = 3>) or it is passed to a subroutine or to an operator like
1810C<printf> or C<map>, which may or may not modify the variable.
1811
1812Traditionally, Perl has captured the value of the variable at that
1813point and turned the subroutine into a constant eligible for inlining.
1814In those cases where the variable can be modified elsewhere, this
1815breaks the behavior of closures, in which the subroutine captures
1816the variable itself, rather than its value, so future changes to the
1817variable are reflected in the subroutine's return value.
1818
1819This usage is deprecated, because the behavior is likely to change
1820in a future version of Perl.
1821
1822If you intended for the subroutine to be eligible for inlining, then
1823make sure the variable is not referenced elsewhere, possibly by
1824copying it:
1825
1826 my $var2 = $var;
1827 $sub = sub () { $var2 };
1828
1829If you do want this subroutine to be a closure that reflects future
1830changes to the variable that it closes over, add an explicit C<return>:
1831
1832 my $var;
1833 $sub = sub () { return $var };
1834
4cee8e80
CS
1835=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1836
aeb94125
FC
1837(W redefine)(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously
1838been eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions">
1839for commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1840
9607fc9c 1841=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1842
be771a83
GS
1843(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1844for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1845workarounds.
9607fc9c 1846
5a25739d
FC
1847=item Constant(%s) unknown
1848
1849(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting
1850to define an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the
1851character name specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you
3ee1a09c 1852forgot to load the corresponding L<overload> pragma?
5a25739d 1853
4a873d7a
FC
1854=item :const is experimental
1855
1856(S experimental::const_attr) The "const" attribute is experimental.
1857If you want to use the feature, disable the warning with C<no warnings
1858'experimental::const_attr'>, but know that in doing so you are taking
1859the risk that your code may break in a future Perl version.
1860
b77472f9
FC
1861=item :const is not permitted on named subroutines
1862
1863(F) The "const" attribute causes an anonymous subroutine to be run and
465068b9 1864its value captured at the time that it is cloned. Named subroutines are
b77472f9
FC
1865not cloned like this, so the attribute does not make sense on them.
1866
e7ea3e70
IZ
1867=item Copy method did not return a reference
1868
6903afa2 1869(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1870L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1871
4aaa4757
FC
1872=item &CORE::%s cannot be called directly
1873
1874(F) You tried to call a subroutine in the C<CORE::> namespace
8d605c0d 1875with C<&foo> syntax or through a reference. Some subroutines
4aaa4757
FC
1876in this package cannot yet be called that way, but must be
1877called as barewords. Something like this will work:
1878
1879 BEGIN { *shove = \&CORE::push; }
1880 shove @array, 1,2,3; # pushes on to @array
1881
6798c92b
GS
1882=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1883
1884(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1885
675fa9ff
FC
1886=item Corrupted regexp opcode %d > %d
1887
1888(P) This is either an error in Perl, or, if you're using
1889one, your L<custom regular expression engine|perlreapi>. If not the
1890latter, report the problem through the L<perlbug> utility.
1891
a0d0e21e
LW
1892=item corrupted regexp pointers
1893
1894(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1895expression compiler gave it.
1896
1897=item corrupted regexp program
1898
be771a83
GS
1899(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1900valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1901
de42a5a9 1902=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%x at 0x%x
6df41af2
GS
1903
1904(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1905
49704364
WL
1906=item Count after length/code in unpack
1907
1908(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1909you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1910L<perlfunc/pack>.
1911
3f645a4e
FC
1912=item Declaring references is experimental
1913
1914(S experimental::declared_refs) This warning is emitted if you use
1915a reference constructor on the right-hand side of C<my>, C<state>, C<our>, or
1916C<local>. Simply suppress the warning if you want to use the feature, but
1917know that in doing so you are taking the risk of using an experimental
1918feature which may change or be removed in a future Perl version:
1919
1920 no warnings "experimental::declared_refs";
1921 use feature "declared_refs";
1922 $fooref = my \$foo;
1923
f2cccb4c
KW
1924=for comment
1925The following are used in lib/diagnostics.t for testing two =items that
1926share the same description. Changes here need to be propagated to there
1927
6651ba0b
FC
1928=item Deep recursion on anonymous subroutine
1929
a0d0e21e
LW
1930=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1931
be771a83
GS
1932(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1933100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1934infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1935which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1936
aad1d01f
NC
1937This threshold can be changed from 100, by recompiling the F<perl> binary,
1938setting the C pre-processor macro C<PERL_SUB_DEPTH_WARN> to the desired value.
1939
e0e4a6e3
FC
1940=item (?(DEFINE)....) does not allow branches in regex; marked by
1941S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
bcb95744 1942
6903afa2 1943(F) You used something like C<(?(DEFINE)...|..)> which is illegal. The
bcb95744
FC
1944most likely cause of this error is that you left out a parenthesis inside
1945of the C<....> part.
1946
6e8a73f2 1947The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
bcb95744
FC
1948discovered.
1949
62658f4d
PM
1950=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1951
1952(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1953there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1954
36447869
FC
1955=item delete argument is index/value array slice, use array slice
1956
1957(F) You used index/value array slice syntax (C<%array[...]>) as
1958the argument to C<delete>. You probably meant C<@array[...]> with
1959an @ symbol instead.
1960
1961=item delete argument is key/value hash slice, use hash slice
1962
1963(F) You used key/value hash slice syntax (C<%hash{...}>) as the argument to
1964C<delete>. You probably meant C<@hash{...}> with an @ symbol instead.
1965
0ffcbc25
FC
1966=item delete argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
1967
4a0af295 1968(F) The argument to C<delete> must be either a hash or array element,
0ffcbc25
FC
1969such as:
1970
1971 $foo{$bar}
1972 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
1973
1974or a hash or array slice, such as:
1975
1976 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
1977 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
1978
fc36a67e 1979=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1980
be771a83
GS
1981(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1982long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1983that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 1984
6d3b25aa
RGS
1985=item Deprecated use of my() in false conditional
1986
fa816bf3
FC
1987(D deprecated) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>. There
1988has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
6d3b25aa 1989not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
6903afa2 1990conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
fa816bf3 1991static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
6903afa2 1992relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
6d3b25aa 1993declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
36fb85f3 1994
6d3b25aa
RGS
1995 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
1996
1997becomes
1998
1999 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
2000
ea9d9ebc 2001Beginning with perl 5.10.0, you can also use C<state> variables to have
fa816bf3 2002lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
36fb85f3
RGS
2003
2004 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
2005
500ab966
RGS
2006=item DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
2007
2008(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
6903afa2
FC
2009just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather
2010than to create a dangling reference.
500ab966 2011
3cdd684c
TP
2012=item Did not produce a valid header
2013
3de20fbe 2014See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 2015
6df41af2
GS
2016=item %s did not return a true value
2017
2018(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
2019it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
2020traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
2021do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
2022
cc507455 2023=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 2024
413ff9f6
FC
2025(W misc) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or
2026some such.
4633a7c4 2027
cc507455 2028=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 2029
be771a83
GS
2030(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
2031variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
2032seems superfluous.
33633739 2033
cc507455 2034=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 2035
be771a83
GS
2036(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
2037@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
2038carried away.
748a9306 2039
7e1af8bc 2040=item Died
5f05dabc 2041
2042(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
075b00aa 2043you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 2044
3cdd684c
TP
2045=item Document contains no data
2046
3de20fbe 2047See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 2048
62658f4d
PM
2049=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
2050
2051(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
943fc58e 2052define a C<$VERSION>.
62658f4d 2053
49704364
WL
2054=item '/' does not take a repeat count
2055
2056(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
2057See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2058
95cb0d72
FC
2059=item Don't know how to get file name
2060
2061(P) C<PerlIO_getname>, a perl internal I/O function specific to VMS, was
2062somehow called on another platform. This should not happen.
2063
4021c788 2064=item Don't know how to handle magic of type \%o
a0d0e21e
LW
2065
2066(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
2067
2068=item do_study: out of memory
2069
2070(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
2071
6df41af2
GS
2072=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
2073
56da5a46
RGS
2074(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2075"%s found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
6df41af2
GS
2076name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
2077because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
2078"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
2079something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
2080subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
2081"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 2082
ac206dc8
RGS
2083=item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
2084
2085(W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
2086qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
2087
84d78eb7
YO
2088=item dump is not supported
2089
2090(F) Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.
2091
a0d0e21e
LW
2092=item Duplicate free() ignored
2093
be771a83
GS
2094(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
2095already been freed.
a0d0e21e 2096
1109a392
MHM
2097=item Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
2098
35f0cd76
FC
2099(W unpack) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a
2100type in a pack template. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1109a392 2101
4633a7c4
LW
2102=item elseif should be elsif
2103
fa816bf3
FC
2104(S syntax) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks
2105it's ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method
2106named "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
2107unlikely to be what you want.
2108
c30c479a
KW
2109=item Empty \%c in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2110
e0e4a6e3 2111=item Empty \%c{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 2112
af6f566e 2113(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
6903afa2 2114described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
af6f566e 2115a regular expression without specifying the property name.
ab13f0c7 2116
a15a3d9b
FC
2117=item ${^ENCODING} is no longer supported
2118
2119(D deprecated) The special variable C<${^ENCODING}>, formerly used to implement
2120the C<encoding> pragma, is no longer supported as of Perl 5.26.0.
2121
85ab1d1d 2122=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 2123
85ab1d1d 2124(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
2125effective uids or gids failed.
2126
c038024b
RGS
2127=item %ENV is aliased to %s
2128
2129(F) You're running under taint mode, and the C<%ENV> variable has been
2130aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
6903afa2 2131program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
c038024b 2132
748a9306
LW
2133=item Error converting file specification %s
2134
5f05dabc 2135(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 2136specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
2137single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
2138an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
2139conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 2140
ad19ef22 2141=item Eval-group in insecure regular expression
e4d48cc9 2142
be771a83
GS
2143(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2144expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
2145is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 2146
ad19ef22 2147=item Eval-group not allowed at runtime, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
e4d48cc9 2148
be771a83
GS
2149(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
2150C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
f11307f5
FC
2151pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk,
2152it is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by using the
2153C<re 'eval'> pragma or by explicitly building the pattern from an
2154interpolated string at run time and using that in an eval(). See
2155L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 2156
ad19ef22 2157=item Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
6df41af2 2158
be771a83
GS
2159(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
2160assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
2161pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 2162
e0e4a6e3
FC
2163=item EVAL without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by
2164S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1a147d38
YO
2165
2166(F) You used a pattern that nested too many EVAL calls without consuming
6903afa2 2167any text. Restructure the pattern so that text is consumed.
1a147d38 2168
6e8a73f2 2169The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
2170discovered.
2171
fc36a67e 2172=item Excessively long <> operator
2173
2174(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
2175Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
2176filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
2177variable and glob that.
2178
ed9aa3b7
SG
2179=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
2180
af8bb25a 2181(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented on some systems, e.g., Symbian
6903afa2 2182OS. See L<perlport>.
ed9aa3b7 2183
fe13d51d 2184=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors.
a0d0e21e
LW
2185
2186(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
2187
0ffcbc25
FC
2188=item exists argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine
2189
4a0af295 2190(F) The argument to C<exists> must be a hash or array element or a
0ffcbc25
FC
2191subroutine with an ampersand, such as:
2192
2193 $foo{$bar}
2194 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
2195 &do_something
2196
2197=item exists argument is not a subroutine name
2198
ccfc2567
FC
2199(F) The argument to C<exists> for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine name,
2200and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this error.
0ffcbc25 2201
a0d0e21e
LW
2202=item Exiting eval via %s
2203
be771a83
GS
2204(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
2205goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
2206
2207=item Exiting format via %s
2208
9a2ff54b 2209(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 2210goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 2211
0a753a76 2212=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
2213
be771a83
GS
2214(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
2215sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
2216loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 2217
a0d0e21e
LW
2218=item Exiting subroutine via %s
2219
be771a83
GS
2220(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
2221as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
2222
2223=item Exiting substitution via %s
2224
be771a83
GS
2225(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
2226as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 2227
e0e4a6e3 2228=item Expecting close bracket in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
c608e803 2229
675fa9ff 2230(F) You wrote something like
c608e803
KW
2231
2232 (?13
2233
2234to denote a capturing group of the form
2235L<C<(?I<PARNO>)>|perlre/(?PARNO) (?-PARNO) (?+PARNO) (?R) (?0)>,
2236but omitted the C<")">.
2237
e0e4a6e3 2238=item Expecting '(?flags:(?[...' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
27350048 2239
8b6fbf55
FC
2240(F) The C<(?[...])> extended character class regular expression construct
2241only allows character classes (including character class escapes like
2242C<\d>), operators, and parentheses. The one exception is C<(?flags:...)>
2243containing at least one flag and exactly one C<(?[...])> construct.
27350048
FC
2244This allows a regular expression containing just C<(?[...])> to be
2245interpolated. If you see this error message, then you probably
2246have some other C<(?...)> construct inside your character class. See
2247L<perlrecharclass/Extended Bracketed Character Classes>.
2248
baabe3fb 2249=item Experimental aliasing via reference not enabled
1f8155a2 2250
baabe3fb 2251(F) To do aliasing via references, you must first enable the feature:
1f8155a2 2252
baabe3fb
FC
2253 no warnings "experimental::refaliasing";
2254 use feature "refaliasing";
1f8155a2
FC
2255 \$x = \$y;
2256
74d1b2e4
FC
2257=item Experimental %s on scalar is now forbidden
2258
2259(F) An experimental feature added in Perl 5.14 allowed C<each>, C<keys>,
2260C<push>, C<pop>, C<shift>, C<splice>, C<unshift>, and C<values> to be called with a
2261scalar argument. This experiment is considered unsuccessful, and
2262has been removed. The C<postderef> feature may meet your needs better.
2263
30d9c59b
Z
2264=item Experimental subroutine signatures not enabled
2265
2266(F) To use subroutine signatures, you must first enable them:
2267
caa35032 2268 no warnings "experimental::signatures";
30d9c59b
Z
2269 use feature "signatures";
2270 sub foo ($left, $right) { ... }
2271
7b8d334a
GS
2272=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
2273
be771a83
GS
2274(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
2275the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
2276usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
2277e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 2278
6df41af2
GS
2279=item %s: Expression syntax
2280
be771a83
GS
2281(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
2282Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
2283
2284=item %s failed--call queue aborted
2285
3c10abe3
AG
2286(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a UNITCHECK,
2287CHECK, INIT, or END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the
2288queue of such routines has been prematurely ended.
6df41af2 2289
502aca56
TC
2290=item Failed to close in-place edit file %s: %s
2291
2292(F) Closing an output file from in-place editing, as with the C<-i>
2293command-line switch, failed.
2294
e0e4a6e3 2295=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
73b437c8 2296
98d31c73 2297(W regexp)(F) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3 2298character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
3c6ca74a
FC
2299in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". In a C<(?[...])>
2300construct, this is an error, rather than a warning. Consider quoting
e0e4a6e3 2301the "-", "\-". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression
3c6ca74a 2302the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 2303
1b1ee2ef 2304=item Fatal VMS error (status=%d) at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 2305
be771a83
GS
2306(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
2307system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
2308details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
2309you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
2310
2311=item fcntl is not implemented
2312
2313(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
2314PDP-11 or something?
2315
22846ab4
AB
2316=item FETCHSIZE returned a negative value
2317
2318(F) A tied array claimed to have a negative number of elements, which
2319is not possible.
2320
f337b084
TH
2321=item Field too wide in 'u' format in pack
2322
d8b5cc61 2323(W pack) Each line in an uuencoded string starts with a length indicator
6903afa2
FC
2324which can't encode values above 63. So there is no point in asking for
2325a line length bigger than that. Perl will behave as if you specified
5c96f6f7 2326C<u63> as the format.
f337b084 2327
af8c498a 2328=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 2329
6c8d78fb
HS
2330(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
2331it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
2332"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
2333write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 2334
af8c498a 2335=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 2336
6c8d78fb
HS
2337(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
2338you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
89a1bda8
FC
2339with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with ">". If you intended only to
2340read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>. Another possibility
2341is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0 (also known as STDIN) for
2342output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
97828cef
RGS
2343
2344=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
2345
2346(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
6903afa2 2347as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
97828cef
RGS
2348previously.
2349
2350=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
2351
2352(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
fa816bf3 2353as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
2354
2355=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
2356
2357(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
2358a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
2359happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
2360name.
a0d0e21e 2361
56e90b21
GS
2362=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
2363
be771a83 2364(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 2365some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
2366filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
2367same name?
56e90b21 2368
6df41af2
GS
2369=item Format not terminated
2370
2371(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
2372to the end of your file without finding such a line.
2373
a0d0e21e
LW
2374=item Format %s redefined
2375
e476b1b5 2376(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
2377
2378 {
271595cc 2379 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
2380 eval "format NAME =...";
2381 }
2382
a0d0e21e
LW
2383=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
2384
e476b1b5 2385(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
2386
2387 if ($foo = 123)
2388
2389when you meant
2390
2391 if ($foo == 123)
2392
2393(or something like that).
2394
6df41af2
GS
2395=item %s found where operator expected
2396
56da5a46
RGS
2397(S syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator.
2398If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
be771a83
GS
2399operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
2400operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 2401
a0d0e21e
LW
2402=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
2403
2404(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
2405
2406=item gethostent not implemented
2407
2408(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
2409because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
2410on the Internet.
2411
69282e91 2412=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2413
be771a83
GS
2414(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
2415socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 2416
748a9306
LW
2417=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
2418
2419(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
2420C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
2421
6df41af2
GS
2422=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
2423
be771a83
GS
2424(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
2425forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
2426L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
2427
0f539b13
BF
2428=item given is experimental
2429
675fa9ff
FC
2430(S experimental::smartmatch) C<given> depends on smartmatch, which
2431is experimental, so its behavior may change or even be removed
2432in any future release of perl. See the explanation under
2433L<perlsyn/Experimental Details on given and when>.
0f539b13 2434
68567d27
FC
2435=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name (did you forget to
2436declare "my %s"?)
6df41af2 2437
a4edf47d 2438(F) You've said "use strict" or "use strict vars", which indicates
30c282f6 2439that all variables must either be lexically scoped (using "my" or "state"),
a4edf47d
GS
2440declared beforehand using "our", or explicitly qualified to say
2441which package the global variable is in (using "::").
6df41af2 2442
e476b1b5
GS
2443=item glob failed (%s)
2444
5ead438e 2445(S glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used
73c4e9dc
FC
2446for C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a C<glob>
2447pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
be771a83 2448nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
73c4e9dc
FC
2449resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell)
2450is broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables
2451in config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as
2452if it were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them
2453all empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
be771a83 2454think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 2455C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 2456
a0d0e21e
LW
2457=item Glob not terminated
2458
2459(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
2460a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
2461not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
2462earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 2463
b35b96b6
JH
2464=item gmtime(%f) failed
2465
2466(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that it could not handle:
2467too large, too small, or NaN. The returned value is C<undef>.
2468
bcd05b94 2469=item gmtime(%f) too large
8b56d6ff 2470
e9200be3 2471(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was larger than
fc003d4b 2472it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong
6903afa2 2473date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
fc003d4b
MS
2474not-a-number value).
2475
bcd05b94 2476=item gmtime(%f) too small
fc003d4b 2477
e9200be3 2478(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was smaller than
e7a1a147 2479it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong date.
8b56d6ff 2480
6df41af2 2481=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 2482
6df41af2
GS
2483(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
2484version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
2485
2486=item goto must have label
2487
2488(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
2489unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2490
6651ba0b
FC
2491=item Goto undefined subroutine%s
2492
2493(F) You tried to call a subroutine with C<goto &sub> syntax, but
2494the indicated subroutine hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
2495has since been undefined.
2496
6fbc9859 2497=item Group name must start with a non-digit word character in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 2498S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1f4f6bf1
YO
2499
2500(F) Group names must follow the rules for perl identifiers, meaning
f26c79ba
FC
2501they must start with a non-digit word character. A common cause of
2502this error is using (?&0) instead of (?0). See L<perlre>.
1f4f6bf1 2503
5a25739d
FC
2504=item ()-group starts with a count
2505
2506(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is supposed to follow
2507something: a template character or a ()-group. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2508
fe13d51d 2509=item %s had compilation errors.
6df41af2
GS
2510
2511(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
2512
a0d0e21e
LW
2513=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
2514
be771a83
GS
2515(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
2516to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
2517created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e 2518
6df41af2
GS
2519=item %s has too many errors
2520
2521(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
2522Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
2523
61e61fbc
JH
2524=item Hexadecimal float: exponent overflow
2525
d8f2b442 2526(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point has a larger exponent
61e61fbc
JH
2527than the floating point supports.
2528
2529=item Hexadecimal float: exponent underflow
2530
d8f2b442 2531(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point has a smaller exponent
b6d9b423
JH
2532than the floating point supports. With the IEEE 754 floating point,
2533this may also mean that the subnormals (formerly known as denormals)
2534are being used, which may or may not be an error.
61e61fbc 2535
5488d373 2536=item Hexadecimal float: internal error (%s)
cf4f6003
JH
2537
2538(F) Something went horribly bad in hexadecimal float handling.
2539
61e61fbc
JH
2540=item Hexadecimal float: mantissa overflow
2541
2542(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point literal had more bits in
2543the mantissa (the part between the 0x and the exponent, also known as
2544the fraction or the significand) than the floating point supports.
2545
40bca5ae
JH
2546=item Hexadecimal float: precision loss
2547
2548(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point had internally more
2549digits than could be output. This can be caused by unsupported
2550long double formats, or by 64-bit integers not being available
2551(needed to retrieve the digits under some configurations).
2552
2553=item Hexadecimal float: unsupported long double format
2554
2555(F) You have configured Perl to use long doubles but
d8f2b442 2556the internals of the long double format are unknown;
40bca5ae
JH
2557therefore the hexadecimal float output is impossible.
2558
252aa082
JH
2559=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
2560
e476b1b5 2561(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
2562(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2563L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 2564
8903cb82 2565=item Identifier too long
2566
2567(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 2568about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
2569names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
2570of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 2571
e0e4a6e3
FC
2572=item Ignoring zero length \N{} in character class in regex; marked by
2573S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
fc8cd66c 2574
f3ba6905 2575(W regexp) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a
0f44b2a5
FC
2576zero-length sequence. When such an escape is used in a character
2577class its behavior is not well defined. Check that the correct
2578escape has been used, and the correct charname handler is in scope.
fc8cd66c 2579
6df41af2 2580=item Illegal binary digit %s
f675dbe5 2581
6df41af2 2582(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
f675dbe5 2583
6df41af2 2584=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
a0d0e21e 2585
be771a83
GS
2586(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
2587binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
2588offending digit.
a0d0e21e 2589
6597eb22
FC
2590=item Illegal character after '_' in prototype for %s : %s
2591
e4d150f1
FC
2592(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype
2593declaration. The '_' in a prototype must be followed by a ';',
2594indicating the rest of the parameters are optional, or one of '@'
2595or '%', since those two will accept 0 or more final parameters.
6597eb22 2596
b913d0b8
FC
2597=item Illegal character \%o (carriage return)
2598
2599(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as
2600it would any other whitespace, which means you should never see
2601this error when Perl was built using standard options. For some
2602reason, your version of Perl appears to have been built without
2603this support. Talk to your Perl administrator.
2604
bb6b75cd 2605=item Illegal character following sigil in a subroutine signature
d3d9da4a
DM
2606
2607(F) A parameter in a subroutine signature contained an unexpected character
d4e5761f
FC
2608following the C<$>, C<@> or C<%> sigil character. Normally the sigil
2609should be followed by the variable name or C<=> etc. Perhaps you are
d3d9da4a
DM
2610trying use a prototype while in the scope of C<use feature 'signatures'>?
2611For example:
2612
2613 sub foo ($$) {} # legal - a prototype
2614
2615 use feature 'signatures;
2616 sub foo ($$) {} # illegal - was expecting a signature
2617 sub foo ($a, $b)
2618 :prototype($$) {} # legal
2619
2620
d37a9538
ST
2621=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
2622
197afce1 2623(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
2e9cc7ef 2624Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, \, and +.
30d9c59b
Z
2625Perhaps you were trying to write a subroutine signature but didn't enable
2626that feature first (C<use feature 'signatures'>), so your signature was
2627instead interpreted as a bad prototype.
d37a9538 2628
904d85c5
RGS
2629=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
2630
2631(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
6903afa2 2632you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
904d85c5 2633
8e742a20
MHM
2634=item Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
2635
6903afa2 2636(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See L<perlsub>.
8e742a20 2637
a0d0e21e
LW
2638=item Illegal division by zero
2639
be771a83
GS
2640(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
2641your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
2642meaningless input.
a0d0e21e 2643
6df41af2
GS
2644=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
2645
be771a83
GS
2646(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
2647A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
2648number stopped before the illegal character.
6df41af2 2649
a0d0e21e
LW
2650=item Illegal modulus zero
2651
be771a83
GS
2652(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
2653numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 2654
6df41af2 2655=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 2656
6df41af2
GS
2657(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
2658two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4
GS
2659
2660=item Illegal octal digit %s
a0d0e21e 2661
d1be9408 2662(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 2663
399388f4 2664=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
748a9306 2665
d1be9408 2666(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
75b44862 2667Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
748a9306 2668
e0e4a6e3 2669=item Illegal pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
c608e803 2670
675fa9ff 2671(F) You wrote something like
c608e803
KW
2672
2673 (?+foo)
2674
2675The C<"+"> is valid only when followed by digits, indicating a
2676capturing group. See
2677L<C<(?I<PARNO>)>|perlre/(?PARNO) (?-PARNO) (?+PARNO) (?R) (?0)>.
2678
375ed12a
JH
2679=item Illegal suidscript
2680
2681(F) The script run under suidperl was somehow illegal.
2682
fe13d51d 2683=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: -%c
6ff81951 2684
6df41af2 2685(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
646ca9b2 2686following switches: B<-[CDIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 2687
4003ea29
KW
2688=item Illegal user-defined property name
2689
2690(F) You specified a Unicode-like property name in a regular expression
2691pattern (using C<\p{}> or C<\P{}>) that Perl knows isn't an official
2692Unicode property, and was likely meant to be a user-defined property
2693name, but it can't be one of those, as they must begin with either C<In>
2694or C<Is>. Check the spelling. See also
2695L</Can't find Unicode property definition "%s">.
2696
6df41af2 2697=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 2698
75b44862 2699(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
2700internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
2701delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 2702
6df41af2 2703=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 2704
be771a83
GS
2705(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
2706name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
2707didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
2708ignored.
54310121 2709
6df41af2 2710=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 2711
be771a83
GS
2712(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
2713the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
2714system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
2715times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
2716would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 2717
be771a83
GS
2718Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
2719also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 2720
e0e4a6e3
FC
2721=item Incomplete expression within '(?[ ])' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
2722in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 2723
675fa9ff 2724(F) There was a syntax error within the C<(?[ ])>. This can happen if the
0d0b4b3b
KW
2725expression inside the construct was completely empty, or if there are
2726too many or few operands for the number of operators. Perl is not smart
2727enough to give you a more precise indication as to what is wrong.
2728
6fbc9859
MH
2729=item Inconsistent hierarchy during C3 merge of class '%s': merging failed on
2730parent '%s'
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2731
2732(F) The method resolution order (MRO) of the given class is not
2733C3-consistent, and you have enabled the C3 MRO for this class. See the C3
2734documentation in L<mro> for more information.
2735
cdd6375d
MH
2736=item Indentation on line %d of here-doc doesn't match delimiter
2737
2738(F) You have an indented here-document where one or more of its lines
2739have whitespace at the beginning that does not match the closing
2740delimiter.
2741
2742For example, line 2 below is wrong because it does not have at least
27432 spaces, but lines 1 and 3 are fine because they have at least 2:
2744
2745 if ($something) {
2746 print <<~EOF;
2747 Line 1
2748 Line 2 not
2749 Line 3
2750 EOF
2751 }
2752
2753Note that tabs and spaces are compared strictly, meaning 1 tab will
2754not match 8 spaces.
2755
6a2ed79a 2756=item Infinite recursion in regex
1a147d38
YO
2757
2758(F) You used a pattern that references itself without consuming any input
6903afa2 2759text. You should check the pattern to ensure that recursive patterns
1a147d38
YO
2760either consume text or fail.
2761
6dbe9451
NC
2762=item Initialization of state variables in list context currently forbidden
2763
dca6023d 2764(F) C<state> only permits initializing a single scalar variable, in scalar
4c9eaea6
FC
2765context. So C<state $a = 42> is allowed, but not C<state ($a) = 42>. To apply
2766state semantics to a hash or array, store a hash or array reference in a
2767scalar variable.
6dbe9451 2768
2186f873
FC
2769=item %%s[%s] in scalar context better written as $%s[%s]
2770
2771(W syntax) In scalar context, you've used an array index/value slice
2772(indicated by %) to select a single element of an array. Generally
2773it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
2774is that C<$foo[&bar]> always behaves like a scalar, both in the value it
2775returns and when evaluating its argument, while C<%foo[&bar]> provides
2776a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things if you're
2777expecting only one subscript. When called in list context, it also
2778returns the index (what C<&bar> returns) in addition to the value.
2779
2780=item %%s{%s} in scalar context better written as $%s{%s}
2781
2782(W syntax) In scalar context, you've used a hash key/value slice
2783(indicated by %) to select a single element of a hash. Generally it's
2784better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
2785is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves like a scalar, both in the value
2786it returns and when evaluating its argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> and
2787provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
2788if you're expecting only one subscript. When called in list context,
2789it also returns the key in addition to the value.
2790
a0d0e21e
LW
2791=item Insecure dependency in %s
2792
8b1a09fc 2793(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
2794The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
2795setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
2796tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
2797from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
2798such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
2799L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
2800
2801=item Insecure directory in %s
2802
be771a83
GS
2803(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2804setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
df98f984
RGS
2805the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
2806See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2807
62f468fc 2808=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2809
2810(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc 2811setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
332d5f78
SR
2812C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
2813supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
2814the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2815
0e9be77f
DM
2816=item Insecure user-defined property %s
2817
2818(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2819expression that contains a call to a user-defined character property
2820function, i.e. C<\p{IsFoo}> or C<\p{InFoo}>.
2821See L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties> and L<perlsec>.
2822
b9ef414d
FC
2823=item Integer overflow in format string for %s
2824
2825(F) The indexes and widths specified in the format string of C<printf()>
2826or C<sprintf()> are too large. The numbers must not overflow the size of
2827integers for your architecture.
2828
a7ae9550
GS
2829=item Integer overflow in %s number
2830
35928bc5 2831(S overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
2832either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
2833your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
2834On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
2835representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
28360b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
2837transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
2838internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
2839operations.
bbce6d69 2840
fc89ca81
FC
2841=item Integer overflow in srand
2842
2843(S overflow) The number you have passed to srand is too big to fit
2844in your architecture's integer representation. The number has been
2845replaced with the largest integer supported (0xFFFFFFFF on 32-bit
2846architectures). This means you may be getting less randomness than
2847you expect, because different random seeds above the maximum will
2848return the same sequence of random numbers.
2849
46314c13
JP
2850=item Integer overflow in version
2851
18da5252
FC
2852=item Integer overflow in version %d
2853
784d71ed
FC
2854(W overflow) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for
2855the size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
f084e84f 2856because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use an
784d71ed
FC
2857element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by trying
2858to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like 100/9.
46314c13 2859
e0e4a6e3 2860=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2861
2862(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
e0e4a6e3 2863The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
b45f050a
JF
2864discovered.
2865
748a9306
LW
2866=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
2867
be771a83
GS
2868(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
2869you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
2870to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
2871L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
2872Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
2873terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 2874
870978ae
FC
2875=item internal %<num>p might conflict with future printf extensions
2876
2877(S internal) Perl's internal routine that handles C<printf> and C<sprintf>
2878formatting follows a slightly different set of rules when called from
2879C or XS code. Specifically, formats consisting of digits followed
2880by "p" (e.g., "%7p") are reserved for future use. If you see this
2881message, then an XS module tried to call that routine with one such
2882reserved format.
2883
e0e4a6e3 2884=item Internal urp in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 2885
fa816bf3 2886(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
e0e4a6e3 2887S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
7253e4e3 2888discovered.
a0d0e21e 2889
6df41af2
GS
2890=item %s (...) interpreted as function
2891
75b44862 2892(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 2893followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 2894operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 2895L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 2896
f51551f7
FC
2897=item In '(?...)', the '(' and '?' must be adjacent in regex;
2898marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2899
2900(F) The two-character sequence C<"(?"> in this context in a regular
2901expression pattern should be an indivisible token, with nothing
2902intervening between the C<"("> and the C<"?">, but you separated them
2903with whitespace.
2904
09bef843
SB
2905=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
2906
a4a4c9e2 2907(F) The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
09bef843
SB
2908by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
2909
2910=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
2911
a4a4c9e2 2912(F) The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
be771a83 2913recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2914
e0e4a6e3
FC
2915=item Invalid character in charnames alias definition; marked by
2916S<<-- HERE> in '%s
225fb84f
KW
2917
2918(F) You tried to create a custom alias for a character name, with
2919the C<:alias> option to C<use charnames> and the specified character in
2920the indicated name isn't valid. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
2921
c8028aa6
TC
2922=item Invalid \0 character in %s for %s: %s\0%s
2923
fa3234e3
FC
2924(W syscalls) Embedded \0 characters in pathnames or other system call
2925arguments produce a warning as of 5.20. The parts after the \0 were
2926formerly ignored by system calls.
c8028aa6 2927
e0e4a6e3 2928=item Invalid character in \N{...}; marked by S<<-- HERE> in \N{%s}
a690c7c4
FC
2929
2930(F) Only certain characters are valid for character names. The
2931indicated one isn't. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
2932
c635e13b 2933=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
2934
be771a83
GS
2935(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
2936L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 2937
e0e4a6e3
FC
2938=item Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regex; marked by
2939S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9e08bc66 2940
98d31c73 2941(W regexp)(F) The numeric escape (for example C<\xHH>) of value < 256
9e08bc66
TS
2942didn't correspond to a single character through the conversion
2943from the encoding specified by the encoding pragma.
98d31c73
FC
2944The escape was replaced with REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (U+FFFD)
2945instead, except within S<C<(?[ ])>>, where it is a fatal error.
e0e4a6e3 2946The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
9e08bc66
TS
2947escape was discovered.
2948
8149aa9f
FC
2949=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...}
2950
e0e4a6e3
FC
2951=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...} in regex; marked by
2952S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 2953
8149aa9f 2954(F) The character constant represented by C<...> is not a valid hexadecimal
74f8e9e3
FC
2955number. Either it is empty, or you tried to use a character other than
29560 - 9 or A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number.
8149aa9f 2957
6651ba0b
FC
2958=item Invalid module name %s with -%c option: contains single ':'
2959
2960(F) The module argument to perl's B<-m> and B<-M> command-line options
2961cannot contain single colons in the module name, but only in the
2962arguments after "=". In other words, B<-MFoo::Bar=:baz> is ok, but
2963B<-MFoo:Bar=baz> is not.
2964
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2965=item Invalid mro name: '%s'
2966
162a3e34
FC
2967(F) You tried to C<mro::set_mro("classname", "foo")> or C<use mro 'foo'>,
2968where C<foo> is not a valid method resolution order (MRO). Currently,
2969the only valid ones supported are C<dfs> and C<c3>, unless you have loaded
2970a module that is a MRO plugin. See L<mro> and L<perlmroapi>.
2c7d6b9c 2971
40e4140b
FC
2972=item Invalid negative number (%s) in chr
2973
2974(W utf8) You passed a negative number to C<chr>. Negative numbers are
abc0aa9d 2975not valid character numbers, so it returns the Unicode replacement
40e4140b
FC
2976character (U+FFFD).
2977
74d1b2e4
FC
2978=item Invalid number '%s' for -C option.
2979
2980(F) You supplied a number to the -C option that either has extra leading
2981zeroes or overflows perl's unsigned integer representation.
2982
6651ba0b
FC
2983=item invalid option -D%c, use -D'' to see choices
2984
8ff21bfe
FC
2985(S debugging) Perl was called with invalid debugger flags. Call perl
2986with the B<-D> option with no flags to see the list of acceptable values.
982c4ecb 2987See also L<perlrun/-Dletters>.
6651ba0b 2988
6e8a73f2 2989=item Invalid quantifier in {,} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
35cd12d1
HS
2990
2991(F) The pattern looks like a {min,max} quantifier, but the min or max
2992could not be parsed as a valid number - either it has leading zeroes,
2993or it represents too big a number to cope with. The S<<-- HERE> shows
2994where in the regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2995
e0e4a6e3 2996=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2997
2998(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
2999greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
3000C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
e0e4a6e3 3001up to C<ff>. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
7253e4e3 3002problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 3003
d1573ac7 3004=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
3005
3006(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
3007character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
3008
09bef843
SB
3009=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
3010
0120eecf 3011(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
3012elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
3013parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
3014See L<attributes>.
09bef843 3015
b4581f09
JH
3016=item Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
3017
2bfc5f71
FC
3018(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other
3019than a colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
b4581f09
JH
3020If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
3021list was terminated too soon.
3022
2c86d456
DG
3023=item Invalid strict version format (%s)
3024
fa816bf3 3025(F) A version number did not meet the "strict" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
3026A "strict" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
3027decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
3028v-string with a leading 'v' character and at least three components.
a6485a24 3029The parenthesized text indicates which criteria were not met.
2c86d456
DG
3030See the L<version> module for more details on allowed version formats.
3031
49704364 3032=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
96e4d5b1 3033
49704364
WL
3034(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
3035See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6728c851 3036
49704364 3037(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
75b44862 3038silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 3039
2c86d456
DG
3040=item Invalid version format (%s)
3041
fa816bf3 3042(F) A version number did not meet the "lax" criteria for versions.
2c86d456
DG
3043A "lax" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
3044decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
fa816bf3
FC
3045v-string. If the v-string has fewer than three components, it
3046must have a leading 'v' character. Otherwise, the leading 'v' is
3047optional. Both decimal and dotted-decimal versions may have a
3048trailing "alpha" component separated by an underscore character
3049after a fractional or dotted-decimal component. The parenthesized
3050text indicates which criteria were not met. See the L<version> module
3051for more details on allowed version formats.
46314c13 3052
798ae1b7
DG
3053=item Invalid version object
3054
fa816bf3
FC
3055(F) The internal structure of the version object was invalid.
3056Perhaps the internals were modified directly in some way or
3057an arbitrary reference was blessed into the "version" class.
798ae1b7 3058
cd209d9d 3059=item In '(*VERB...)', the '(' and '*' must be adjacent in regex;
e0e4a6e3 3060marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff 3061
cd209d9d 3062(F) The two-character sequence C<"(*"> in
675fa9ff
FC
3063this context in a regular expression pattern should be an
3064indivisible token, with nothing intervening between the C<"(">
cd209d9d 3065and the C<"*">, but you separated them.
675fa9ff 3066
a0d0e21e
LW
3067=item ioctl is not implemented
3068
3069(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
3070strange for a machine that supports C.
3071
c289d2f7
JH
3072=item ioctl() on unopened %s
3073
3074(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
34b6fd5e 3075Check your control flow and number of arguments.
c289d2f7 3076
fe13d51d 3077=item IO layers (like '%s') unavailable
363c40c4
SB
3078
3079(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
34b6fd5e 3080you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO, Perl must be configured
363c40c4
SB
3081with 'useperlio'.
3082
80cbd5ad
JH
3083=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
3084
3085(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
34b6fd5e 3086neither as a system call nor an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
80cbd5ad 3087
6e8a73f2 3088=item '%s' is an unknown bound type in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
64935bc6
KW
3089
3090(F) You used C<\b{...}> or C<\B{...}> and the C<...> is not known to
3091Perl. The current valid ones are given in
3092L<perlrebackslash/\b{}, \b, \B{}, \B>.
3093
74d1b2e4
FC
3094=item %s() is deprecated on :utf8 handles
3095
dd6d5da4 3096(D deprecated) The sysread(), recv(), syswrite() and send() operators are
74d1b2e4
FC
3097deprecated on handles that have the C<:utf8> layer, either explicitly, or
3098implicitly, eg., with the C<:encoding(UTF-16LE)> layer.
3099
3100Both sysread() and recv() currently use only the C<:utf8> flag for the stream,
3101ignoring the actual layers. Since sysread() and recv() do no UTF-8
3102validation they can end up creating invalidly encoded scalars.
3103
3104Similarly, syswrite() and send() use only the C<:utf8> flag, otherwise ignoring
3105any layers. If the flag is set, both write the value UTF-8 encoded, even if
3106the layer is some different encoding, such as the example above.
3107
3108Ideally, all of these operators would completely ignore the C<:utf8> state,
3109working only with bytes, but this would result in silently breaking existing
3110code. To avoid this a future version of perl will throw an exception when
3111any of sysread(), recv(), syswrite() or send() are called on handle with the
3112C<:utf8> layer.
3113
6e8a73f2 3114=item "%s" is more clearly written simply as "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
acdfc3b6
KW
3115
3116(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
3117
3118You specified a character that has the given plainer way of writing it,
3119and which is also portable to platforms running with different character
3120sets.
3121
4f650b80 3122=item $* is no longer supported
b4581f09 3123
4f650b80 3124(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older
ea9d9ebc 3125perls, has been removed as of 5.10.0 and is no longer supported. In
4f650b80
NC
3126previous versions of perl the use of C<$*> enabled or disabled multi-line
3127matching within a string.
4fd19576
B
3128
3129Instead of using C<$*> you should use the C</m> (and maybe C</s>) regexp
6903afa2
FC
3130modifiers. You can enable C</m> for a lexical scope (even a whole file)
3131with C<use re '/m'>. (In older versions: when C<$*> was set to a true value
570dedd4 3132then all regular expressions behaved as if they were written using C</m>.)
b4581f09 3133
8ae1fe26
RGS
3134=item $# is no longer supported
3135
a58ac25e 3136(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$#>, deprecated in older
ea9d9ebc 3137perls, has been removed as of 5.10.0 and is no longer supported. You
a58ac25e 3138should use the printf/sprintf functions instead.
8ae1fe26 3139
ccf3535a 3140=item '%s' is not a code reference
6ad11d81 3141
6903afa2
FC
3142(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of
3143overload::constant needs to be a code reference. Either
3144an anonymous subroutine, or a reference to a subroutine.
6ad11d81 3145
ccf3535a 3146=item '%s' is not an overloadable type
6ad11d81 3147
04a80ee0
RGS
3148(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
3149unaware of.
6ad11d81 3150
5a25739d
FC
3151=item -i used with no filenames on the command line, reading from STDIN
3152
3153(S inplace) The C<-i> option was passed on the command line, indicating
3154that the script is intended to edit files in place, but no files were
3155given. This is usually a mistake, since editing STDIN in place doesn't
3156make sense, and can be confusing because it can make perl look like
3157it is hanging when it is really just trying to read from STDIN. You
3158should either pass a filename to edit, or remove C<-i> from the command
3159line. See L<perlrun> for more details.
3160
aec0ef10 3161=item Junk on end of regexp in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
3162
3163(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
3164
3165=item Label not found for "last %s"
3166
be771a83
GS
3167(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
3168of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3169L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
3170
3171=item Label not found for "next %s"
3172
3173(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
3174that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3175L<perlfunc/last>.
3176
3177=item Label not found for "redo %s"
3178
3179(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
3180that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
3181L<perlfunc/last>.
3182
85ab1d1d 3183=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 3184
85ab1d1d 3185(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
3186effective uids or gids failed.
3187
49704364
WL
3188=item length/code after end of string in unpack
3189
d7f8936a 3190(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an unpack
6903afa2
FC
3191length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
3192an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 3193
25e26107 3194=item length() used on %s (did you mean "scalar(%s)"?)
e508c8a4 3195
0d46a4e7
FC
3196(W syntax) You used length() on either an array or a hash when you
3197probably wanted a count of the items.
e508c8a4
MH
3198
3199Array size can be obtained by doing:
3200
3201 scalar(@array);
3202
3203The number of items in a hash can be obtained by doing:
3204
3205 scalar(keys %hash);
3206
f0e67a1d
Z
3207=item Lexing code attempted to stuff non-Latin-1 character into Latin-1 input
3208
d4fe7078
RS
3209(F) An extension is attempting to insert text into the current parse
3210(using L<lex_stuff_pvn|perlapi/lex_stuff_pvn> or similar), but tried to insert a character that
3211couldn't be part of the current input. This is an inherent pitfall
3212of the stuffing mechanism, and one of the reasons to avoid it. Where
6903afa2 3213it is necessary to stuff, stuffing only plain ASCII is recommended.
f0e67a1d
Z
3214
3215=item Lexing code internal error (%s)
3216
3217(F) Lexing code supplied by an extension violated the lexer's API in a
3218detectable way.
3219
69282e91 3220=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 3221
be771a83
GS
3222(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
3223to check the return value of your socket() call? See
3224L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 3225
6651ba0b
FC
3226=item List form of piped open not implemented
3227
3228(F) On some platforms, notably Windows, the three-or-more-arguments
3229form of C<open> does not support pipes, such as C<open($pipe, '|-', @args)>.
3230Use the two-argument C<open($pipe, '|prog arg1 arg2...')> form instead.
3231
dc6bb7ba
FC
3232=item %s: loadable library and perl binaries are mismatched (got handshake key %p, needed %p)
3233
3234(P) A dynamic loading library C<.so> or C<.dll> was being loaded into the
3235process that was built against a different build of perl than the
3236said library was compiled against. Reinstalling the XS module will
3237likely fix this error.
3238
8c6180a9
KW
3239=item Locale '%s' may not work well.%s
3240
780fcc9f 3241(W locale) You are using the named locale, which is a non-UTF-8 one, and
dae67c56
KW
3242which perl has determined is not fully compatible with what it can
3243handle. The second C<%s> gives a reason.
8c6180a9
KW
3244
3245By far the most common reason is that the locale has characters in it
3246that are represented by more than one byte. The only such locales that
3247Perl can handle are the UTF-8 locales. Most likely the specified locale
3248is a non-UTF-8 one for an East Asian language such as Chinese or
3249Japanese. If the locale is a superset of ASCII, the ASCII portion of it
780fcc9f 3250may work in Perl.
8c6180a9
KW
3251
3252Some essentially obsolete locales that aren't supersets of ASCII, mainly
3253those in ISO 646 or other 7-bit locales, such as ASMO 449, can also have
3254problems, depending on what portions of the ASCII character set get
3255changed by the locale and are also used by the program.
3256The warning message lists the determinable conflicting characters.
3257
780fcc9f
KW
3258Note that not all incompatibilities are found.
3259
3260If this happens to you, there's not much you can do except switch to use a
3261different locale or use L<Encode> to translate from the locale into
3262UTF-8; if that's impracticable, you have been warned that some things
3263may break.
3264
3265This message is output once each time a bad locale is switched into
3266within the scope of C<S<use locale>>, or on the first possibly-affected
3267operation if the C<S<use locale>> inherits a bad one. It is not raised
3268for any operations from the L<POSIX> module.
3269
a2162cd9
FC
3270=item localtime(%f) failed
3271
3272(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that it could not handle:
3273too large, too small, or NaN. The returned value is C<undef>.
3274
3275=item localtime(%f) too large
3276
3277(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was larger
3278than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
3279wrong date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
3280not-a-number value).
3281
3282=item localtime(%f) too small
3283
3284(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was smaller
3285than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
3286wrong date.
3287
58e23c8d 3288=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3289
3290(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
6903afa2 3291handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release.
2e50fd82 3292
b88df990
NC
3293=item Lost precision when %s %f by 1
3294
e63e8a91
FC
3295(W imprecision) The value you attempted to increment or decrement by one
3296is too large for the underlying floating point representation to store
3297accurately, hence the target of C<++> or C<--> is unchanged. Perl issues this
3298warning because it has already switched from integers to floating point
3299when values are too large for integers, and now even floating point is
3300insufficient. You may wish to switch to using L<Math::BigInt> explicitly.
b88df990 3301
93fad930 3302=item lstat() on filehandle%s
2f7da168
RK
3303
3304(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
3305by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
3306instead on the filehandle.)
3307
345d70e3 3308=item lvalue attribute %s already-defined subroutine
bb3abb05 3309
345d70e3
FC
3310(W misc) Although L<attributes.pm|attributes> allows this, turning the lvalue
3311attribute on or off on a Perl subroutine that is already defined
3312does not always work properly. It may or may not do what you
3313want, depending on what code is inside the subroutine, with exact
3314details subject to change between Perl versions. Only do this
3315if you really know what you are doing.
bb3abb05 3316
885ef6f5
GG
3317=item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined
3318
345d70e3
FC
3319(W misc) Using the C<:lvalue> declarative syntax to make a Perl
3320subroutine an lvalue subroutine after it has been defined is
3321not permitted. To make the subroutine an lvalue subroutine,
3322add the lvalue attribute to the definition, or put the C<sub
3323foo :lvalue;> declaration before the definition.
3324
3325See also L<attributes.pm|attributes>.
885ef6f5 3326
6f1b3ab0
FC
3327=item Magical list constants are not supported
3328
3329(F) You assigned a magical array to a stash element, and then tried
3330to use the subroutine from the same slot. You are asking Perl to do
3331something it cannot do, details subject to change between Perl versions.
3332
2db62bbc 3333=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
49704364 3334
2db62bbc 3335(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
3336are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3337
3338=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
3339
2db62bbc 3340(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
49704364
WL
3341are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3342
6df41af2
GS
3343=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
3344
3345(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
3346
3347 prefix1;prefix2
3348
3349or
6df41af2
GS
3350 prefix1 prefix2
3351
be771a83
GS
3352with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
3353a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
3354appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 3355"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 3356
2f758a16
ST
3357=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
3358
d37a9538
ST
3359(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
3360syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
3361obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
3362when the function is called.
30d9c59b
Z
3363Perhaps the function's author was trying to write a subroutine signature
3364but didn't enable that feature first (C<use feature 'signatures'>),
3365so the signature was instead interpreted as a bad prototype.
2f758a16 3366
2b5e7bc2 3367=item Malformed UTF-8 character%s
ba210ebe 3368
7cf8d05d
KW
3369(S utf8)(F) Perl detected a string that should be UTF-8, but didn't
3370comply with UTF-8 encoding rules, or represents a code point whose
3371ordinal integer value doesn't fit into the word size of the current
3372platform (overflows). Details as to the exact malformation are given in
3373the variable, C<%s>, part of the message.
ba210ebe 3374
2575c402
JW
3375One possible cause is that you set the UTF8 flag yourself for data that
3376you thought to be in UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy
6903afa2 33778-bit data). To guard against this, you can use Encode::decode_utf8.
2575c402
JW
3378
3379If you use the C<:encoding(UTF-8)> PerlIO layer for input, invalid byte
3380sequences are handled gracefully, but if you use C<:utf8>, the flag is
3381set without validating the data, possibly resulting in this error
3382message.
3383
3384See also L<Encode/"Handling Malformed Data">.
901b21bf 3385
107160e2
KW
3386=item Malformed UTF-8 character immediately after '%s'
3387
3388(F) You said C<use utf8>, but the program file doesn't comply with UTF-8
3389encoding rules. The message prints out the properly encoded characters
3390just before the first bad one. If C<utf8> warnings are enabled, a
3391warning is generated that gives more details about the type of
3392malformation.
3393
bde9e88d 3394=item Malformed UTF-8 returned by \N{%s} immediately after '%s'
ff3f963a
KW
3395
3396(F) The charnames handler returned malformed UTF-8.
3397
4a5d3a93
FC
3398=item Malformed UTF-8 string in '%c' format in unpack
3399
3400(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3401rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3402
f337b084
TH
3403=item Malformed UTF-8 string in pack
3404
3405(F) You tried to pack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3406rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3407
3408=item Malformed UTF-8 string in unpack
3409
3410(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3411rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3412
4a5d3a93 3413=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
f337b084 3414
4a5d3a93
FC
3415(F) Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
3416doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
3417
30d9c59b
Z
3418=item Mandatory parameter follows optional parameter
3419
3420(F) In a subroutine signature, you wrote something like "$a = undef,
3421$b", making an earlier parameter optional and a later one mandatory.
3422Parameters are filled from left to right, so it's impossible for the
3423caller to omit an earlier one and pass a later one. If you want to act
3424as if the parameters are filled from right to left, declare the rightmost
3425optional and then shuffle the parameters around in the subroutine's body.
3426
2d88a86a
KW
3427=item Matched non-Unicode code point 0x%X against Unicode property; may
3428not be portable
3429
3430(S non_unicode) Perl allows strings to contain a superset of
3431Unicode code points; each code point may be as large as what is storable
3432in an unsigned integer on your system, but these may not be accepted by
3433other languages/systems. This message occurs when you matched a string
3434containing such a code point against a regular expression pattern, and
3435the code point was matched against a Unicode property, C<\p{...}> or
3436C<\P{...}>. Unicode properties are only defined on Unicode code points,
3437so the result of this match is undefined by Unicode, but Perl (starting
3438in v5.20) treats non-Unicode code points as if they were typical
3439unassigned Unicode ones, and matched this one accordingly. Whether a
3440given property matches these code points or not is specified in
3441L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>.
3442
3443This message is suppressed (unless it has been made fatal) if it is
3444immaterial to the results of the match if the code point is Unicode or
3445not. For example, the property C<\p{ASCII_Hex_Digit}> only can match
3446the 22 characters C<[0-9A-Fa-f]>, so obviously all other code points,
3447Unicode or not, won't match it. (And C<\P{ASCII_Hex_Digit}> will match
3448every code point except these 22.)
3449
3450Getting this message indicates that the outcome of the match arguably
3451should have been the opposite of what actually happened. If you think
3452that is the case, you may wish to make the C<non_unicode> warnings
3453category fatal; if you agree with Perl's decision, you may wish to turn
3454off this category.
3455
3456See L<perlunicode/Beyond Unicode code points> for more information.
3457
e0e4a6e3
FC
3458=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
3459m/%s/
4a5d3a93
FC
3460
3461(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
e0e4a6e3 3462regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The S<<-- HERE>
9e3ec65c 3463shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
4a5d3a93 3464See L<perlre>.
f337b084 3465
de42a5a9 3466=item Maximal count of pending signals (%u) exceeded
2563cec5 3467
6903afa2 3468(F) Perl aborted due to too high a number of signals pending. This
2563cec5
IZ
3469usually indicates that your operating system tried to deliver signals
3470too fast (with a very high priority), starving the perl process from
3471resources it would need to reach a point where it can process signals
6903afa2 3472safely. (See L<perlipc/"Deferred Signals (Safe Signals)">.)
2563cec5 3473
25f58aea
PN
3474=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
3475
3476(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
3477interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
3478"use" or "my".
3479
0d2487cd 3480=item '%' may not be used in pack
6df41af2
GS
3481
3482(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
3483checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
3484See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 3485
a0d0e21e
LW
3486=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
3487
3488(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 3489doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 3490
3cdd684c
TP
3491=item Method %s not permitted
3492
3de20fbe 3493See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 3494
a0d0e21e
LW
3495=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
3496
3497(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
3498by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
3499ended earlier on the current line.
3500
3501=item Misplaced _ in number
3502
d4ced10d
JH
3503(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
3504separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 3505
7baa4690
HS
3506=item Missing argument in %s
3507
3664866e
AB
3508(W missing) You called a function with fewer arguments than other
3509arguments you supplied indicated would be needed.
3510
3511Currently only emitted when a printf-type format required more
3512arguments than were supplied, but might be used in the future for
3513other cases where we can statically determine that arguments to
3514functions are missing, e.g. for the L<perlfunc/pack> function.
7baa4690 3515
9e81e6a1
RGS
3516=item Missing argument to -%c
3517
3518(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
3519immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
3520
ff3f963a 3521=item Missing braces on \N{}
423cee85 3522
e0e4a6e3 3523=item Missing braces on \N{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 3524
4a2d328f 3525(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
532cb70d
FC
3526double-quotish context. This can also happen when there is a space
3527(or comment) between the C<\N> and the C<{> in a regex with the C</x> modifier.
3528This modifier does not change the requirement that the brace immediately
3529follow the C<\N>.
423cee85 3530
f0a2b745
KW
3531=item Missing braces on \o{}
3532
3533(F) A C<\o> must be followed immediately by a C<{> in double-quotish context.
3534
a0d0e21e
LW
3535=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
3536
3537(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
3538"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
3539
06eaf0bc
GS
3540=item Missing command in piped open
3541
be771a83
GS
3542(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
3543C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
3544blank.
06eaf0bc 3545
961ce445
RGS
3546=item Missing control char name in \c
3547
3548(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
3549character name.
3550
591f5ca2
FC
3551=item Missing ']' in prototype for %s : %s
3552
bfe11873 3553(W illegalproto) A grouping was started with C<[> but never closed with C<]>.
591f5ca2 3554
8767b1ab 3555=item Missing name in "%s sub"
6df41af2 3556
87444db5 3557(F) The syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
be771a83 3558they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
3559
3560=item Missing $ on loop variable
3561
be771a83
GS
3562(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
3563are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
3564can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 3565
cc507455 3566=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306 3567
56da5a46
RGS
3568(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3569"%s found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
748a9306 3570
33fe1955 3571=item Missing or undefined argument to %s
f51551f7 3572
33fe1955 3573(F) You tried to call require or do with no argument or with an undefined
f51551f7 3574value as an argument. Require expects either a package name or a
33fe1955
LM
3575file-specification as an argument; do expects a filename. See
3576L<perlfunc/require EXPR> and L<perlfunc/do EXPR>.
f51551f7 3577
e0e4a6e3 3578=item Missing right brace on \%c{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ab13f0c7 3579
ff3f963a
KW
3580(F) Missing right brace in C<\x{...}>, C<\p{...}>, C<\P{...}>, or C<\N{...}>.
3581
605eee60 3582=item Missing right brace on \N{}
faad849d 3583
4a68bf9d 3584=item Missing right brace on \N{} or unescaped left brace after \N
ff3f963a 3585
d32207c9
FC
3586(F) C<\N> has two meanings.
3587
3588The traditional one has it followed by a name enclosed in braces,
3589meaning the character (or sequence of characters) given by that
fa816bf3 3590name. Thus C<\N{ASTERISK}> is another way of writing C<*>, valid in both
d32207c9
FC
3591double-quoted strings and regular expression patterns. In patterns,
3592it doesn't have the meaning an unescaped C<*> does.
3593
3594Starting in Perl 5.12.0, C<\N> also can have an additional meaning (only)
3595in patterns, namely to match a non-newline character. (This is short
3596for C<[^\n]>, and like C<.> but is not affected by the C</s> regex modifier.)
3597
3598This can lead to some ambiguities. When C<\N> is not followed immediately
3599by a left brace, Perl assumes the C<[^\n]> meaning. Also, if the braces
3600form a valid quantifier such as C<\N{3}> or C<\N{5,}>, Perl assumes that this
3601means to match the given quantity of non-newlines (in these examples,
36023; and 5 or more, respectively). In all other case, where there is a
3603C<\N{> and a matching C<}>, Perl assumes that a character name is desired.
3604
3605However, if there is no matching C<}>, Perl doesn't know if it was
3606mistakenly omitted, or if C<[^\n]{> was desired, and raises this error.
3607If you meant the former, add the right brace; if you meant the latter,
3608escape the brace with a backslash, like so: C<\N\{>
ab13f0c7 3609
d98d5fff 3610=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 3611
be771a83
GS
3612(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
3613ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
3614were last editing.
a0d0e21e 3615
6df41af2
GS
3616=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
3617
56da5a46
RGS
3618(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3619"%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
6df41af2
GS
3620the previous line just because you saw this message.
3621
a0d0e21e
LW
3622=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
3623
3624(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 3625constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
3626catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
3627
3628 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
3629 mod(2);
3630
3631Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
3632
c5674021
PDF
3633Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
3634is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
3635
b7e4ecc1
FC
3636 $x = 1;
3637 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
3638 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to
3639 } # modify the 2
c5674021 3640
7a4340ed 3641=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
3642
3643(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
3644subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
3645backwards.
3646
7a4340ed 3647=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 3648
be771a83
GS
3649(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
3650couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
3651
3652=item Module name must be constant
3653
3654(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
3655
be98fb35 3656=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 3657
be98fb35
GS
3658(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
3659you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
3660about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 3661
fe13d51d 3662=item More than one argument to '%s' open
ed9aa3b7 3663
6903afa2 3664(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
ed9aa3b7
SG
3665can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
3666list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
3667See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
3668
85396b18
FC
3669=item mprotect for COW string %p %u failed with %d
3670
3671(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_COW (see
3672L<perlguts/"Copy on Write">), but a shared string buffer
3673could not be made read-only.
3674
92951bce
FC
3675=item mprotect for %p %u failed with %d
3676
85396b18
FC
3677(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS (see L<perlhacktips>),
3678but an op tree could not be made read-only.
3679
3680=item mprotect RW for COW string %p %u failed with %d
3681
3682(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_COW (see
3683L<perlguts/"Copy on Write">), but a read-only shared string
3684buffer could not be made mutable.
3685
92951bce
FC
3686=item mprotect RW for %p %u failed with %d
3687
3688(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS (see
85396b18
FC
3689L<perlhacktips>), but a read-only op tree could not be made
3690mutable before freeing the ops.
92951bce 3691
a0d0e21e
LW
3692=item msg%s not implemented
3693
3694(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
3695
3696=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
3697
75b44862
GS
3698(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
3699They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 3700
d3d9da4a
DM
3701=item Multiple slurpy parameters not allowed
3702
3703(F) In subroutine signatures, a slurpy parameter (C<@> or C<%>) must be
3704the last parameter, and there must not be more than one of them; for
3705example:
3706
3707 sub foo ($a, @b) {} # legal
3708 sub foo ($a, @b, %) {} # invalid
3709
49704364 3710=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
6df41af2 3711
49704364
WL
3712(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
3713follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
3714See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2 3715
c869951c 3716=item %s must not be a named sequence in transliteration operator
f4240379
KW
3717
3718(F) Transliteration (C<tr///> and C<y///>) transliterates individual
3719characters. But a named sequence by definition is more than an
3720individual charater, and hence doing this operation on it doesn't make
3721sense.
3722
6df41af2
GS
3723=item "my sub" not yet implemented
3724
be771a83
GS
3725(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
3726that yet.
6df41af2 3727
a21eb52b
FC
3728=item "my" subroutine %s can't be in a package
3729
3730(F) Lexically scoped subroutines aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
3731sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front.
3732
5a25739d
FC
3733=item "my %s" used in sort comparison
3734
3735(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
3736You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
3737sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
3738lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
3739name, or rename the lexical variable.
3740
fd1b7234 3741=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
6df41af2 3742
be771a83
GS
3743(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
3744sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
3745local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 3746
8149aa9f
FC
3747=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
3748
c59aba6c
FC
3749(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable
3750names. If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then
3751just mention it again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our>
08a33b6b 3752declaration is also provided for this purpose.
c59aba6c 3753
66a1f5ec
FC
3754NOTE: This warning detects package symbols that have been used
3755only once. This means lexical variables will never trigger this
3756warning. It also means that all of the package variables $c, @c,
3757%c, as well as *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or
c59aba6c
FC
3758format) are considered the same; if a program uses $c only once
3759but also uses any of the others it will not trigger this warning.
3760Symbols beginning with an underscore and symbols using special
3761identifiers (q.v. L<perldata>) are exempt from this warning.
8149aa9f 3762
e0e4a6e3 3763=item Need exactly 3 octal digits in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b
KW
3764
3765(F) Within S<C<(?[ ])>>, all constants interpreted as octal need to be
3766exactly 3 digits long. This helps catch some ambiguities. If your
3767constant is too short, add leading zeros, like
3768
3769 (?[ [ \078 ] ]) # Syntax error!
3770 (?[ [ \0078 ] ]) # Works
3771 (?[ [ \007 8 ] ]) # Clearer
3772
3773The maximum number this construct can express is C<\777>. If you
675fa9ff
FC
3774need a larger one, you need to use L<\o{}|perlrebackslash/Octal escapes> instead. If you meant
3775two separate things, you need to separate them:
0d0b4b3b
KW
3776
3777 (?[ [ \7776 ] ]) # Syntax error!
3778 (?[ [ \o{7776} ] ]) # One meaning
3779 (?[ [ \777 6 ] ]) # Another meaning
3780 (?[ [ \777 \006 ] ]) # Still another
3781
49704364
WL
3782=item Negative '/' count in unpack
3783
3784(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
3785negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3786
a0d0e21e
LW
3787=item Negative length
3788
be771a83
GS
3789(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
3790length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 3791
ed9aa3b7
SG
3792=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
3793
3794(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
3795greater than or equal to zero.
3796
b3211734
KW
3797=item Negative repeat count does nothing
3798
3799(W numeric) You tried to execute the
3800L<C<x>|perlop/Multiplicative Operators> repetition operator fewer than 0
3801times, which doesn't make sense.
3802
e0e4a6e3 3803=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3804
6903afa2 3805(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses.
e0e4a6e3 3806So things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The S<<-- HERE> shows
9e3ec65c 3807whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 3808
7253e4e3 3809Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 3810C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3811
6df41af2 3812=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 3813
be771a83
GS
3814(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
3815scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e 3816
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3817=item next::method/next::can/maybe::next::method cannot find enclosing method
3818
3819(F) C<next::method> needs to be called within the context of a
3820real method in a real package, and it could not find such a context.
3821See L<mro>.
3822
5a25739d 3823=item \N in a character class must be a named character: \N{...} in regex;
e0e4a6e3 3824marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5a25739d 3825
32a77fbe
FC
3826(F) The new (as of Perl 5.12) meaning of C<\N> as C<[^\n]> is not valid in a
3827bracketed character class, for the same reason that C<.> in a character
3828class loses its specialness: it matches almost everything, which is
3829probably not what you want.
5a25739d 3830
022a330c 3831=item \N{} in inverted character class or as a range end-point is restricted to one character in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
0b4ce96d 3832
f3ba6905
FC
3833(F) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a
3834multi-character sequence. Even though a character class is
3835supposed to match just one character of input, perl will match the
3836whole thing correctly, except when the class is inverted (C<[^...]>),
3837or the escape is the beginning or final end point of a range. The
3838mathematically logical behavior for what matches when inverting
3839is very different from what people expect, so we have decided to
3840forbid it. Similarly unclear is what should be generated when the
3841C<\N{...}> is used as one of the end points of the range, such as in
8f0cd35a
KW
3842
3843 [\x{41}-\N{ARABIC SEQUENCE YEH WITH HAMZA ABOVE WITH AE}]
3844
f3ba6905
FC
3845What is meant here is unclear, as the C<\N{...}> escape is a sequence
3846of code points, so this is made an error.
0b4ce96d 3847
e0e4a6e3
FC
3848=item \N{NAME} must be resolved by the lexer in regex; marked by
3849S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5a25739d
FC
3850
3851(F) When compiling a regex pattern, an unresolved named character or
3852sequence was encountered. This can happen in any of several ways that
3853bypass the lexer, such as using single-quotish context, or an extra
3854backslash in double-quotish:
3855
3856 $re = '\N{SPACE}'; # Wrong!
3857 $re = "\\N{SPACE}"; # Wrong!
3858 /$re/;
3859
3860Instead, use double-quotes with a single backslash:
3861
3862 $re = "\N{SPACE}"; # ok
3863 /$re/;
3864
3865The lexer can be bypassed as well by creating the pattern from smaller
3866components:
3867
3868 $re = '\N';
3869 /${re}{SPACE}/; # Wrong!
3870
3871It's not a good idea to split a construct in the middle like this, and
3872it doesn't work here. Instead use the solution above.
3873
3874Finally, the message also can happen under the C</x> regex modifier when the
3875C<\N> is separated by spaces from the C<{>, in which case, remove the spaces.
3876
3877 /\N {SPACE}/x; # Wrong!
3878 /\N{SPACE}/x; # ok
3879
a0d0e21e
LW
3880=item No %s allowed while running setuid
3881
be771a83
GS
3882(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
3883setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
3884will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
3885securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 3886
6651ba0b
FC
3887=item No code specified for -%c
3888
3889(F) Perl's B<-e> and B<-E> command-line options require an argument. If
3890you want to run an empty program, pass the empty string as a separate
3891argument or run a program consisting of a single 0 or 1:
3892
3893 perl -e ""
3894 perl -e0
3895 perl -e1
3896
a0d0e21e
LW
3897=item No comma allowed after %s
3898
6903afa2
FC
3899(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is
3900not allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
a0d0e21e
LW
3901Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
3902
6903afa2
FC
3903One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported
3904a constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
3905importing took place, it may for example be that your operating
3906system does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did
3907use an explicit import list for the constants you expect to see;
3908please see L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an
3909explicit import list would probably have caught this error earlier
3910it naturally does not remedy the fact that your operating system
3911still does not support that constant. Maybe you have a typo in
3912the constants of the symbol import list of B<use> or B<import> or in the
3913constant name at the line where this error was triggered?
0a753a76 3914
748a9306
LW
3915=item No command into which to pipe on command line
3916
be771a83
GS
3917(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3918redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
3919doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 3920
a0d0e21e
LW
3921=item No DB::DB routine defined
3922
be771a83 3923(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
f7af5ce1 3924for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
ccafdc96
RGS
3925module) didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
3926statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
3927
3928=item No dbm on this machine
3929
3930(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 3931supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e 3932
ccafdc96 3933=item No DB::sub routine defined
a0d0e21e 3934
ccafdc96
RGS
3935(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
3936for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
3937module) didn't define a C<DB::sub> routine to be called at the beginning
3938of each ordinary subroutine call.
a0d0e21e 3939
6651ba0b
FC
3940=item No directory specified for -I
3941
3942(F) The B<-I> command-line switch requires a directory name as part of the
3943I<same> argument. Use B<-Ilib>, for instance. B<-I lib> won't work.
3944
c47ff5f1 3945=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 3946
be771a83
GS
3947(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3948redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
3949find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 3950
49704364
WL
3951=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
3952
3953(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
6903afa2 3954matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
49704364 3955
c47ff5f1 3956=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 3957
be771a83
GS
3958(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3959redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
3960name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 3961
2c7d6b9c
RGS
3962=item No next::method '%s' found for %s
3963
3964(F) C<next::method> found no further instances of this method name
3965in the remaining packages of the MRO of this class. If you don't want
3966it throwing an exception, use C<maybe::next::method>
fa816bf3 3967or C<next::can>. See L<mro>.
2c7d6b9c 3968
02a7a248
JH
3969=item Non-finite repeat count does nothing
3970
3971(W numeric) You tried to execute the
8a737443
FC
3972L<C<x>|perlop/Multiplicative Operators> repetition operator C<Inf> (or
3973C<-Inf>) or C<NaN> times, which doesn't make sense.
02a7a248 3974
e0e4a6e3 3975=item Non-hex character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
3976
3977(F) In a regular expression, there was a non-hexadecimal character where
3978a hex one was expected, like
3979
3980 (?[ [ \xDG ] ])
3981 (?[ [ \x{DEKA} ] ])
3982
e0e4a6e3 3983=item Non-octal character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
3984
3985(F) In a regular expression, there was a non-octal character where
3986an octal one was expected, like
3987
3988 (?[ [ \o{1278} ] ])
3989
3990=item Non-octal character '%c'. Resolved as "%s"
3991
3992(W digit) In parsing an octal numeric constant, a character was
3993unexpectedly encountered that isn't octal. The resulting value
3994is as indicated.
3995
6df41af2
GS
3996=item "no" not allowed in expression
3997
be771a83
GS
3998(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
3999returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 4000
675fa9ff
FC
4001=item Non-string passed as bitmask
4002
4003(W misc) A number has been passed as a bitmask argument to select().
4004Use the vec() function to construct the file descriptor bitmasks for
4005select. See L<perlfunc/select>.
4006
c47ff5f1 4007=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 4008
be771a83
GS
4009(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4010redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
4011doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 4012
c47ff5f1 4013=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 4014
be771a83
GS
4015(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
4016redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
4017find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 4018
1ec3e8de
GS
4019=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
4020
be771a83
GS
4021(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
4022declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
52d1f2c9 4023rules. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 4024
a0d0e21e
LW
4025=item No Perl script found in input
4026
4027(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
4028with #! and containing the word "perl".
4029
4030=item No setregid available
4031
4032(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
4033your system.
4034
4035=item No setreuid available
4036
4037(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
4038your system.
4039
5a25739d
FC
4040=item No such class %s
4041
4042(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state"
4043declaration, but this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
4044
e75d1f10
RD
4045=item No such class field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
4046
b7e4ecc1
FC
4047(F) You tried to access a key from a hash through the indicated typed
4048variable but that key is not allowed by the package of the same type.
4049The indicated package has restricted the set of allowed keys using the
4050L<fields> pragma.
e75d1f10 4051
3c20a832
SP
4052=item No such hook: %s
4053
dc7e5945
FC
4054(F) You specified a signal hook that was not recognized by Perl.
4055Currently, Perl accepts C<__DIE__> and C<__WARN__> as valid signal hooks.
3c20a832 4056
6df41af2
GS
4057=item No such pipe open
4058
4059(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
4060close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
4061earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 4062
a0d0e21e
LW
4063=item No such signal: SIG%s
4064
be771a83
GS
4065(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
4066not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
4067names on your system.
a0d0e21e
LW
4068
4069=item Not a CODE reference
4070
4071(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
4072subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
4073use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
4074also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4075
a0d0e21e
LW
4076=item Not a GLOB reference
4077
be771a83
GS
4078(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
4079symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
4080something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
4081kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4082
4083=item Not a HASH reference
4084
be771a83
GS
4085(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
4086reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
4087find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4088
b913d0b8
FC
4089=item '#' not allowed immediately following a sigil in a subroutine signature
4090
4091(F) In a subroutine signature definition, a comment following a sigil
4092(C<$>, C<@> or C<%>), needs to be separated by whitespace or a commma etc., in
4093particular to avoid confusion with the C<$#> variable. For example:
4094
4095 # bad
4096 sub f ($# ignore first arg
4097 , $b) {}
4098 # good
4099 sub f ($, # ignore first arg
4100 $b) {}
4101
6df41af2
GS
4102=item Not an ARRAY reference
4103
be771a83
GS
4104(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
4105a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
4106to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 4107
a0d0e21e
LW
4108=item Not a SCALAR reference
4109
be771a83
GS
4110(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
4111a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
4112to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
4113
4114=item Not a subroutine reference
4115
4116(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
4117subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
4118use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
4119also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 4120
e7ea3e70 4121=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
4122
4123(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 4124doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 4125
a0d0e21e
LW
4126=item Not enough arguments for %s
4127
4128(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
4129
6df41af2
GS
4130=item Not enough format arguments
4131
be771a83
GS
4132(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
4133supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
4134
4135=item %s: not found
4136
be771a83
GS
4137(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
4138of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
4139yourself.
6df41af2 4140
e0e4a6e3 4141=item (?[...]) not valid in locale in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
4142
4143(F) C<(?[...])> cannot be used within the scope of a C<S<use locale>> or with
4144an C</l> regular expression modifier, as that would require deferring
4145to run-time the calculation of what it should evaluate to, and it is
4146regex compile-time only.
4147
6df41af2 4148=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 4149
6df41af2
GS
4150(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
4151timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
4152to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
4153F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
4154need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e 4155
6df41af2
GS
4156=item NULL OP IN RUN
4157
f84fe999 4158(S debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
be771a83 4159pointer.
6df41af2 4160
55497cff 4161=item Null picture in formline
4162
4163(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
4164specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
4165supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
4166
a0d0e21e
LW
4167=item Null realloc
4168
4169(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
4170
4171=item NULL regexp argument
4172
5f05dabc 4173(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
4174
4175=item NULL regexp parameter
4176
4177(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
4178
fc36a67e 4179=item Number too long
4180
be771a83 4181(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 4182about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
4183versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
4184the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
4185"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 4186
f0a2b745
KW
4187=item Number with no digits
4188
1043934d 4189(F) Perl was looking for a number but found nothing that looked like
6903afa2 4190a number. This happens, for example with C<\o{}>, with no number between
1043934d 4191the braces.
f0a2b745 4192
252aa082
JH
4193=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
4194
75b44862 4195(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
4196(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
4197L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 4198
30d9c59b
Z
4199=item Odd name/value argument for subroutine
4200
4201(F) A subroutine using a slurpy hash parameter in its signature
4202received an odd number of arguments to populate the hash. It requires
4203the arguments to be paired, with the same number of keys as values.
4204The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault. Inconveniently,
4205this error will be reported at the location of the subroutine, not that
4206of the caller.
4207
6ad11d81
JH
4208=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
4209
04a80ee0 4210(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
6903afa2 4211arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 4212
b21befc1
MG
4213=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
4214
4215(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
4216which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
4217
1930e939 4218=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 4219
be771a83
GS
4220(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
4221which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 4222
bbce6d69 4223=item Offset outside string
4224
1fa582fa 4225(F)(W layer) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv/seek operation
42bc49da 4226with an offset pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to
f5a7294f
JH
4227imagine. The sole exceptions to this are that zero padding will
4228take place when going past the end of the string when either
4229C<sysread()>ing a file, or when seeking past the end of a scalar opened
0f44b2a5 4230for I/O (in anticipation of future reads and to imitate the behavior
1a7a2554 4231with real files).
bbce6d69 4232
c289d2f7 4233=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
4234
4235(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
4236never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
4237call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
4238
96ebfdd7
RK
4239=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
4240
4241(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
4242that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
4243
a0d0e21e
LW
4244=item oops: oopsAV
4245
e476b1b5 4246(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
4247
4248=item oops: oopsHV
4249
e476b1b5 4250(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 4251
abc718f2
RGS
4252=item Opening dirhandle %s also as a file
4253
713e2616 4254(D io, deprecated) You used open() to associate a filehandle to
abc718f2
RGS
4255a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a dirhandle.
4256Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
4257and is deprecated.
4258
4259=item Opening filehandle %s also as a directory
4260
28038637 4261(D io, deprecated) You used opendir() to associate a dirhandle to
abc718f2
RGS
4262a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a filehandle.
4263Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
4264and is deprecated.
4265
e0e4a6e3
FC
4266=item Operand with no preceding operator in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
4267m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 4268
675fa9ff 4269(F) You wrote something like
0d0b4b3b
KW
4270
4271 (?[ \p{Digit} \p{Thai} ])
4272
4273There are two operands, but no operator giving how you want to combine
4274them.
4275
a0288114 4276=item Operation "%s": no method found, %s
44a8e56a 4277
be771a83
GS
4278(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
4279handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
4280of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
e4aad80d 4281the C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 4282
5ff1373f 4283=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for non-Unicode code point 0x%X
9ae3ac1a 4284
52d1f2c9 4285(S non_unicode) You performed an operation requiring Unicode rules
b5af3ad2
FC
4286on a code point that is not in Unicode, so what it should do is not
4287defined. Perl has chosen to have it do nothing, and warn you.
9ae3ac1a
KW
4288
4289If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
4290matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
4291
4292If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 4293C<no warnings 'non_unicode';>.
9ae3ac1a 4294
5ff1373f 4295=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
9ae3ac1a 4296
4c2e59a0 4297(S surrogate) You performed an operation requiring Unicode
52d1f2c9 4298rules on a Unicode surrogate. Unicode frowns upon the use
ad94bb39 4299of surrogates for anything but storing strings in UTF-16, but
52d1f2c9 4300rules are (reluctantly) defined for the surrogates, and
ad94bb39
FC
4301they are to do nothing for this operation. Because the use of
4302surrogates can be dangerous, Perl warns.
9ae3ac1a
KW
4303
4304If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
4305matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
4306
4307If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
8457b38f 4308C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9ae3ac1a 4309
748a9306
LW
4310=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
4311
be771a83
GS
4312(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
4313was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
4314use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
4315example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
4316"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 4317
30d9c59b
Z
4318=item Optional parameter lacks default expression
4319
4320(F) In a subroutine signature, you wrote something like "$a =", making a
4321named optional parameter without a default value. A nameless optional
4322parameter is permitted to have no default value, but a named one must
4323have a specific default. You probably want "$a = undef".
4324
6df41af2
GS
4325=item "our" variable %s redeclared
4326
be771a83
GS
4327(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
4328in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 4329
a80b8354
GS
4330=item Out of memory!
4331
4332(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
4333remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
4334no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 4335
19a52907
JH
4336At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
4337process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
4338C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
4339the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
4340and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
4341
6d3b25aa
RGS
4342=item Out of memory during %s extend
4343
4344(X) An attempt was made to extend an array, a list, or a string beyond
4345the largest possible memory allocation.
4346
6df41af2 4347=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 4348
6df41af2 4349(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
6903afa2 4350remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
4351the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
4352possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 4353
1b979e0a 4354=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 4355
1fa582fa 4356(X)(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
be771a83
GS
4357insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
4358request.
eff9c6e2
CS
4359
4360The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
4361depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
4362However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
4363emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
4364is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
4365where the failed request happened.
55497cff 4366
1b979e0a
IZ
4367=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
4368
4369(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
4370is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
4371C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 4372
6df41af2
GS
4373=item Out of memory for yacc stack
4374
be771a83
GS
4375(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
4376parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
4377otherwise.
6df41af2 4378
28be1210
TH
4379=item '.' outside of string in pack
4380
4381(F) The argument to a '.' in your template tried to move the working
4382position to before the start of the packed string being built.
4383
49704364 4384=item '@' outside of string in unpack
6df41af2 4385
49704364 4386(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6df41af2
GS
4387the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4388
f337b084
TH
4389=item '@' outside of string with malformed UTF-8 in unpack
4390
4391(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6903afa2 4392the string being unpacked. The string being unpacked was also invalid
fa816bf3 4393UTF-8. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
f337b084 4394
7778d804
FC
4395=item overload arg '%s' is invalid
4396
4397(W overload) The L<overload> pragma was passed an argument it did not
4398recognize. Did you mistype an operator?
4399
7cb0cfe6
BM
4400=item Overloaded dereference did not return a reference
4401
4402(F) An object with an overloaded dereference operator was dereferenced,
6903afa2 4403but the overloaded operation did not return a reference. See
7cb0cfe6
BM
4404L<overload>.
4405
4406=item Overloaded qr did not return a REGEXP
4407
4408(F) An object with a C<qr> overload was used as part of a match, but the
6903afa2 4409overloaded operation didn't return a compiled regexp. See L<overload>.
7cb0cfe6 4410
6df41af2
GS
4411=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
4412
be771a83
GS
4413(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
4414package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
4415some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
4416mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 4417
96ebfdd7
RK
4418=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
4419
4420(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
4421signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4422
a0d0e21e
LW
4423=item page overflow
4424
be771a83
GS
4425(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
4426page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 4427
6df41af2
GS
4428=item panic: %s
4429
4430(P) An internal error.
4431
c99a1475
NC
4432=item panic: attempt to call %s in %s
4433
4434(P) One of the file test operators entered a code branch that calls
4435an ACL related-function, but that function is not available on this
4436platform. Earlier checks mean that it should not be possible to
4437enter this branch on this platform.
4438
d5e473ac
SH
4439=item panic: child pseudo-process was never scheduled
4440
4441(P) A child pseudo-process in the ithreads implementation on Windows
4442was not scheduled within the time period allowed and therefore was not
4443able to initialize properly.
4444
5637ef5b 4445=item panic: ck_grep, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4446
4447(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
4448
5637ef5b 4449=item panic: corrupt saved stack index %ld
a0d0e21e 4450
be771a83
GS
4451(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
4452there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 4453
810b8aa5
GS
4454=item panic: del_backref
4455
4456(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
4457reference.
4458
a0d0e21e
LW
4459=item panic: do_subst
4460
be771a83
GS
4461(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
4462data.
a0d0e21e 4463
2269b42e 4464=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 4465
2269b42e 4466(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 4467data.
a0d0e21e 4468
b7f7fd0b
NC
4469=item panic: fold_constants JMPENV_PUSH returned %d
4470
10203f38 4471(P) While attempting folding constants an exception other than an C<eval>
b7f7fd0b
NC
4472failure was caught.
4473
255abbe7 4474=item panic: frexp: %f
c635e13b 4475
4476(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
4477
5637ef5b 4478=item panic: goto, type=%u, ix=%ld
a0d0e21e
LW
4479
4480(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
4481and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
4482
b0d55c99
FC
4483=item panic: gp_free failed to free glob pointer
4484
4485(P) The internal routine used to clear a typeglob's entries tried
6903afa2
FC
4486repeatedly, but each time something re-created entries in the glob.
4487Most likely the glob contains an object with a reference back to
4488the glob and a destructor that adds a new object to the glob.
b0d55c99 4489
5637ef5b 4490=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4491
4492(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
4493
5637ef5b 4494=item panic: INTERPCONCAT, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4495
4496(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
4497
e446cec8
IZ
4498=item panic: kid popen errno read
4499
1f91b9f5 4500(F) A forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
e446cec8 4501
5637ef5b 4502=item panic: last, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4503
4504(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
4505it wasn't a block context.
4506
4507=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
4508
be771a83
GS
4509(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
4510scope.
a0d0e21e 4511
5637ef5b 4512=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency %u
a0d0e21e
LW
4513
4514(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
4515invalid enum on the top of it.
4516
810b8aa5
GS
4517=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
4518
4519(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
4520references to an object.
4521
5637ef5b 4522=item panic: malloc, %s
6df41af2
GS
4523
4524(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
4525
27d5b266
JH
4526=item panic: memory wrap
4527
46f9c2c2
FC
4528(P) Something tried to allocate either more memory than possible or a
4529negative amount.
27d5b266 4530
5637ef5b 4531=item panic: pad_alloc, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4532
4533(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4534and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4535
5637ef5b 4536=item panic: pad_free curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4537
4538(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4539and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4540
4541=item panic: pad_free po
4542
c1bd5aaa 4543(P) A zero scratch pad offset was detected internally. An attempt was
61a9f070 4544made to free a target that had not been allocated to begin with.
a0d0e21e 4545
5637ef5b 4546=item panic: pad_reset curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4547
4548(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4549and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4550
4551=item panic: pad_sv po
4552
61a9f070
FC
4553(P) A zero scratch pad offset was detected internally. Most likely
4554an operator needed a target but that target had not been allocated
4555for whatever reason.
a0d0e21e 4556
5637ef5b 4557=item panic: pad_swipe curpad, %p!=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4558
4559(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4560and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4561
4562=item panic: pad_swipe po
4563
4564(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
4565
5637ef5b 4566=item panic: pp_iter, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4567
4568(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
4569
96ebfdd7
RK
4570=item panic: pp_match%s
4571
4572(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
4573data.
4574
5637ef5b 4575=item panic: realloc, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4576
4577(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
4578
ccfb6d2e
FC
4579=item panic: reference miscount on nsv in sv_replace() (%d != 1)
4580
4581(P) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
4582reference count other than 1.
4583
5637ef5b 4584=item panic: restartop in %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4585
4586(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
4587didn't supply the destination.
4588
5637ef5b 4589=item panic: return, type=%u
a0d0e21e
LW
4590
4591(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
4592then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
4593
5637ef5b 4594=item panic: scan_num, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
4595
4596(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
4597
4599db5f 4598=item panic: Sequence (?{...}): no code block found in regex m/%s/
d24ca0c5 4599
1f91b9f5 4600(P) While compiling a pattern that has embedded (?{}) or (??{}) code
d24ca0c5
DM
4601blocks, perl couldn't locate the code block that should have already been
4602seen and compiled by perl before control passed to the regex compiler.
4603
5a25739d
FC
4604=item panic: strxfrm() gets absurd - a => %u, ab => %u
4605
4606(P) The interpreter's sanity check of the C function strxfrm() failed.
4607In your current locale the returned transformation of the string "ab"
4608is shorter than that of the string "a", which makes no sense.
4609
6c65d5f9
NC
4610=item panic: sv_chop %s
4611
4612(P) The sv_chop() routine was passed a position that is not within the
4613scalar's string buffer.
4614
5637ef5b 4615=item panic: sv_insert, midend=%p, bigend=%p
a0d0e21e
LW
4616
4617(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
4618was string.
4619
4620=item panic: top_env
4621
6224f72b 4622(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e 4623
65bca31a
NC
4624=item panic: unimplemented op %s (#%d) called
4625
a1efa96e
FC
4626(P) The compiler is screwed up and attempted to use an op that isn't
4627permitted at run time.
65bca31a 4628
01bbc29f
FC
4629=item panic: unknown OA_*: %x
4630
4631(P) The internal routine that handles arguments to C<&CORE::foo()>
4632subroutine calls was unable to determine what type of arguments
4633were expected.
4634
dea0fc0b
JH
4635=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
4636
4637(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 4638to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 4639
e0ea5e2d
NC
4640=item panic: utf16_to_utf8_reversed: odd bytelen
4641
4642(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8_reversed with an odd (as opposed
4643to even) byte length.
4644
5637ef5b 4645=item panic: yylex, %s
2f7da168
RK
4646
4647(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
4648
78181aa9
KW
4649=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
4650
4651(W parenthesis) You said something like
4652
4653 my $foo, $bar = @_;
4654
4655when you meant
4656
4657 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
4658
4659Remember that "my", "our", "local" and "state" bind tighter than comma.
4660
28ac2b49
Z
4661=item Parsing code internal error (%s)
4662
4663(F) Parsing code supplied by an extension violated the parser's API in
4664a detectable way.
4665
b9bd8d8c 4666=item Pattern subroutine nesting without pos change exceeded limit in regex
1a147d38
YO
4667
4668(F) You used a pattern that uses too many nested subpattern calls without
6903afa2
FC
4669consuming any text. Restructure the pattern so text is consumed before
4670the nesting limit is exceeded.
1a147d38 4671
96ebfdd7
RK
4672=item C<-p> destination: %s
4673
4674(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
4675command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
4676redirected it with select().)
4677
0ae4a328
FC
4678=item Perl API version %s of %s does not match %s
4679
d792985a 4680(F) The XS module in question was compiled against a different incompatible
0ae4a328
FC
4681version of Perl than the one that has loaded the XS module.
4682
8954b91a 4683=item Perl folding rules are not up-to-date for 0x%X; please use the perlbug
e0e4a6e3 4684utility to report; in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
d50a4f90 4685
6014bd26
JK
4686(S regexp) You used a regular expression with case-insensitive matching,
4687and there is a bug in Perl in which the built-in regular expression
4688folding rules are not accurate. This may lead to incorrect results.
4689Please report this as a bug using the L<perlbug> utility.
d50a4f90 4690
f51551f7
FC
4691=item PerlIO layer ':win32' is experimental
4692
4693(S experimental::win32_perlio) The C<:win32> PerlIO layer is
4694experimental. If you want to take the risk of using this layer,
4695simply disable this warning:
4696
4697 no warnings "experimental::win32_perlio";
4698
1109a392
MHM
4699=item Perl_my_%s() not available
4700
4701(F) Your platform has very uncommon byte-order and integer size,
4702so it was not possible to set up some or all fixed-width byte-order
4703conversion functions. This is only a problem when you're using the
4704'<' or '>' modifiers in (un)pack templates. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4705
6651ba0b
FC
4706=item Perl %s required (did you mean %s?)--this is only %s, stopped
4707
4708(F) The code you are trying to run has asked for a newer version of
4709Perl than you are running. Perhaps C<use 5.10> was written instead
4710of C<use 5.010> or C<use v5.10>. Without the leading C<v>, the number is
4711interpreted as a decimal, with every three digits after the
4712decimal point representing a part of the version number. So 5.10
4713is equivalent to v5.100.
4714
6903f24f 4715=item Perl %s required--this is only %s, stopped
6d3b25aa
RGS
4716
4717(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
4718recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
4719you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
4720
6df41af2
GS
4721=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
4722
fa816bf3 4723(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 4724C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 4725
96ebfdd7
RK
4726=item PERL_SIGNALS illegal: "%s"
4727
806b6d07 4728(X) See L<perlrun/PERL_SIGNALS> for legal values.
96ebfdd7 4729
6651ba0b
FC
4730=item Perls since %s too modern--this is %s, stopped
4731
4732(F) The code you are trying to run claims it will not run
4733on the version of Perl you are using because it is too new.
4734Maybe the code needs to be updated, or maybe it is simply
4735wrong and the version check should just be removed.
4736
675fa9ff
FC
4737=item perl: warning: Non hex character in '$ENV{PERL_HASH_SEED}', seed only partially set
4738
ff9c1ae8 4739(S) PERL_HASH_SEED should match /^\s*(?:0x)?[0-9a-fA-F]+\s*\z/ but it
675fa9ff
FC
4740contained a non hex character. This could mean you are not using the
4741hash seed you think you are.
6a5b4183 4742
6df41af2
GS
4743=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
4744
4745(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
4746
4747 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
4748 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
4749 LC_ALL = "En_US",
4750 LANG = (unset)
4751 are supported and installed on your system.
4752 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
4753
4754Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
4755settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
0ea6b70f
JH
4756This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
4757system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
4758locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
4759dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
4b07a369
FC
4760Perl can and will use, and the script will be run. Before you really
4761fix the problem, however, you will get the same error message each
4762time you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
0ea6b70f 4763L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
6df41af2 4764
6a5b4183
YO
4765=item perl: warning: strange setting in '$ENV{PERL_PERTURB_KEYS}': '%s'
4766
ff9c1ae8 4767(S) Perl was run with the environment variable PERL_PERTURB_KEYS defined
675fa9ff 4768but containing an unexpected value. The legal values of this setting
6a5b4183
YO
4769are as follows.
4770
4771 Numeric | String | Result
4772 --------+---------------+-----------------------------------------
4773 0 | NO | Disables key traversal randomization
4774 1 | RANDOM | Enables full key traversal randomization
555bd962
BG
4775 2 | DETERMINISTIC | Enables repeatable key traversal
4776 | | randomization
6a5b4183
YO
4777
4778Both numeric and string values are accepted, but note that string values are
675fa9ff 4779case sensitive. The default for this setting is "RANDOM" or 1.
aac486f1 4780
bd3fa61c 4781=item pid %x not a child
748a9306 4782
be771a83
GS
4783(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
4784process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
4785fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
748a9306 4786
49704364 4787=item 'P' must have an explicit size in unpack
3bf38418
WL
4788
4789(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
4790
6e8a73f2 4791=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
96ebfdd7 4792
e0e4a6e3 4793(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The S<<-- HERE>
9e3ec65c 4794shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
96ebfdd7
RK
4795Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
4796the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
4797not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
4798
4799=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
4800
4801(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
4802the BSD version, which takes a pid.
4803
46d34d0e 4804=item POSIX syntax [%c %c] belongs inside character classes%s in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 4805S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 4806
46d34d0e
KW
4807(W regexp) Perl thinks that you intended to write a POSIX character
4808class, but didn't use enough brackets. These POSIX class constructs [:
4809:], [= =], and [. .] go I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of
4810the construct, for example: C<qr/[012[:alpha:]345]/>. What the regular
4811expression pattern compiled to is probably not what you were intending.
4812For example, C<qr/[:alpha:]/> compiles to a regular bracketed character
4813class consisting of the four characters C<":">, C<"a">, C<"l">,
4814C<"h">, and C<"p">. To specify the POSIX class, it should have been
4815written C<qr/[[:alpha:]]/>.
4816
4817Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
9e3ec65c 4818implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and
e0e4a6e3 4819will cause fatal errors. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 4820expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4821
46d34d0e
KW
4822If the specification of the class was not completely valid, the message
4823indicates that.
4824
6fbc9859 4825=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 4826S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 4827
a125938c
FC
4828(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
4829with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
4830need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
4831character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[."
e0e4a6e3 4832and ".\]". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
a125938c 4833problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4834
6fbc9859 4835=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 4836S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 4837
7253e4e3
RK
4838(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
4839with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
4840need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
4841character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
e0e4a6e3 4842and "=\]". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
7253e4e3 4843problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 4844
bbce6d69 4845=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
4846
e476b1b5 4847(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
75b44862 4848strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
be771a83
GS
4849literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
4850parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
bbce6d69 4851
774d564b 4852You probably wrote something like this:
4853
54310121 4854 @list = qw(
774d564b 4855 a # a comment
bbce6d69 4856 b # another comment
774d564b 4857 );
bbce6d69 4858
4859when you should have written this:
4860
774d564b 4861 @list = qw(
54310121 4862 a
4863 b
774d564b 4864 );
4865
4866If you really want comments, build your list the
4867old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
4868
4869 @list = (
4870 'a', # a comment
4871 'b', # another comment
4872 );
bbce6d69 4873
4874=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
4875
be771a83
GS
4876(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
4877commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
4878different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
4879frequently used.)
bbce6d69 4880
54310121 4881You probably wrote something like this:
bbce6d69 4882
774d564b 4883 qw! a, b, c !;
4884
4885which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
4886commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
bbce6d69 4887
774d564b 4888 qw! a b c !;
bbce6d69 4889
a0d0e21e
LW
4890=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
4891
4892(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
4893Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
4894end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
4895Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
4896
9da2d046
NT
4897=item Possible precedence issue with control flow operator
4898
4899(W syntax) There is a possible problem with the mixing of a control
4900flow operator (e.g. C<return>) and a low-precedence operator like
4901C<or>. Consider:
4902
4903 sub { return $a or $b; }
4904
4905This is parsed as:
4906
4907 sub { (return $a) or $b; }
4908
4909Which is effectively just:
4910
4911 sub { return $a; }
4912
4913Either use parentheses or the high-precedence variant of the operator.
4914
4915Note this may be also triggered for constructs like:
4916
4917 sub { 1 if die; }
4918
8823cb89 4919=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %s operator
a690c7c4
FC
4920
4921(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
4922with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
4923
4924 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
4925
4926This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
4927higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
4928really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, put the
4929parentheses explicitly and write C<$x & ($y == 0)>).
4930
77772344
B
4931=item Possible unintended interpolation of $\ in regex
4932
4933(W ambiguous) You said something like C<m/$\/> in a regex.
4934The regex C<m/foo$\s+bar/m> translates to: match the word 'foo', the output
8ddb446c 4935record separator (see L<perlvar/$\>) and the letter 's' (one time or more)
77772344
B
4936followed by the word 'bar'.
4937
4938If this is what you intended then you can silence the warning by using
4939C<m/${\}/> (for example: C<m/foo${\}s+bar/>).
4940
4941If instead you intended to match the word 'foo' at the end of the line
4942followed by whitespace and the word 'bar' on the next line then you can use
4943C<m/$(?)\/> (for example: C<m/foo$(?)\s+bar/>).
4944
e5035638
FC
4945=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
4946
ccf3535a 4947(W ambiguous) You said something like '@foo' in a double-quoted string
6903afa2 4948but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
e5035638
FC
4949literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
4950to the array you apparently lost track of.
4951
a0d0e21e
LW
4952=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
4953
e476b1b5 4954(S precedence) The old irregular construct
cb1a09d0 4955
a0d0e21e
LW
4956 open FOO || die;
4957
4958is now misinterpreted as
4959
4960 open(FOO || die);
4961
be771a83
GS
4962because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
4963list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
4964parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
4965of "||".
a0d0e21e 4966
3cdd684c
TP
4967=item Premature end of script headers
4968
3de20fbe 4969See L</500 Server error>.
3cdd684c 4970
6df41af2
GS
4971=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
4972
be771a83 4973(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4974before now. Check your control flow.
6df41af2 4975
9a7dcd9c 4976=item print() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 4977
be771a83 4978(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 4979before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 4980
6df41af2 4981=item Process terminated by SIG%s
a0d0e21e 4982
6df41af2
GS
4983(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
4984applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
4985port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
4986L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
fecfaeb8 4987in L<perlos2>.
a0d0e21e 4988
327323c1
RGS
4989=item Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s
4990
fa816bf3
FC
4991(W illegalproto) A character follows % or @ in a prototype. This is
4992useless, since % and @ gobble the rest of the subroutine arguments.
327323c1 4993
3fe9a6f1 4994=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4633a7c4 4995
9a0b3859 4996(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
be771a83 4997declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4633a7c4 4998
ed9aa3b7
SG
4999=item Prototype not terminated
5000
2a6fd447 5001(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
ed9aa3b7
SG
5002definition.
5003
eedb00fa
PM
5004=item Prototype '%s' overridden by attribute 'prototype(%s)' in %s
5005
5006(W prototype) A prototype was declared in both the parentheses after
5007the sub name and via the prototype attribute. The prototype in
5008parentheses is useless, since it will be replaced by the prototype
5009from the attribute before it's ever used.
5010
6e8a73f2 5011=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
96ebfdd7 5012
6903afa2 5013(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if
e0e4a6e3 5014you meant it literally. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 5015expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
96ebfdd7 5016
6e8a73f2 5017=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9baa0206 5018
6903afa2 5019(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of
e0e4a6e3 5020the {min,max} construct. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
9e3ec65c 5021expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9baa0206 5022
675fa9ff
FC
5023=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex
5024
e0e4a6e3
FC
5025=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex; marked by
5026S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
5027
5028(W regexp) Minima should be less than or equal to maxima. If you really
5029want your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}.
5030
e1729dc6 5031=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression in regex m/%s/
9baa0206 5032
b45f050a
JF
5033(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
5034it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
5035quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
5036"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
5037C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
9baa0206 5038
89ea2908
GA
5039=item Range iterator outside integer range
5040
5041(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
5042are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
be771a83
GS
5043One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
5044by prepending "0" to your numbers.
89ea2908 5045
ad513756 5046=item Ranges of ASCII printables should be some subset of "0-9", "A-Z", or
6e8a73f2 5047"a-z" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ad513756
FC
5048
5049(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
5050
5051Stricter rules help to find typos and other errors. Perhaps you didn't
5052even intend a range here, if the C<"-"> was meant to be some other
5053character, or should have been escaped (like C<"\-">). If you did
5054intend a range, the one that was used is not portable between ASCII and
5055EBCDIC platforms, and doesn't have an obvious meaning to a casual
5056reader.
5057
5058 [3-7] # OK; Obvious and portable
5059 [d-g] # OK; Obvious and portable
5060 [A-Y] # OK; Obvious and portable
5061 [A-z] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5062 [a-Z] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5063 [%-.] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
5064 [\x41-Z] # WRONG; Not portable; not obvious to non-geek
5065
5066(You can force portability by specifying a Unicode range, which means that
5067the endpoints are specified by
5068L<C<\N{...}>|perlrecharclass/Character Ranges>, but the meaning may
5069still not be obvious.)
5070The stricter rules require that ranges that start or stop with an ASCII
5071character that is not a control have all their endpoints be the literal
5072character, and not some escape sequence (like C<"\x41">), and the ranges
5073must be all digits, or all uppercase letters, or all lowercase letters.
5074
5075=item Ranges of digits should be from the same group in regex; marked by
6e8a73f2 5076S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ad513756
FC
5077
5078(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
5079
5080Stricter rules help to find typos and other errors. You included a
5081range, and at least one of the end points is a decimal digit. Under the
5082stricter rules, when this happens, both end points should be digits in
5083the same group of 10 consecutive digits.
5084
3b7fbd4a
SP
5085=item readdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5086
1a147d38 5087(W io) The dirhandle you're reading from is either closed or not really
3b7fbd4a
SP
5088a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5089
96ebfdd7
RK
5090=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
5091
5092(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
5093before now. Check your control flow.
5094
b5fe5ca2
SR
5095=item read() on closed filehandle %s
5096
5097(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
5098
5099=item read() on unopened filehandle %s
5100
5101(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
5102
de42a5a9 5103=item Reallocation too large: %x
6df41af2
GS
5104
5105(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
5106
4ad56ec9
IZ
5107=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
5108
be771a83
GS
5109(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
5110already been freed.
4ad56ec9 5111
a0d0e21e
LW
5112=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
5113
19b29141 5114(S debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
be771a83 5115the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
a0d0e21e
LW
5116which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
5117
6651ba0b
FC
5118=item Recursive call to Perl_load_module in PerlIO_find_layer
5119
5120(P) It is currently not permitted to load modules when creating
5121a filehandle inside an %INC hook. This can happen with C<open my
5122$fh, '<', \$scalar>, which implicitly loads PerlIO::scalar. Try
5123loading PerlIO::scalar explicitly first.
5124
3e0ccd42 5125=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
a0d0e21e 5126
2c7d6b9c
RGS
5127(F) While calculating the method resolution order (MRO) of a package, Perl
5128believes it found an infinite loop in the C<@ISA> hierarchy. This is a
5129crude check that bails out after 100 levels of C<@ISA> depth.
a0d0e21e 5130
f51551f7
FC
5131=item Redundant argument in %s
5132
5133(W redundant) You called a function with more arguments than other
3617dbb6 5134arguments you supplied indicated would be needed. Currently only
f51551f7
FC
5135emitted when a printf-type format required fewer arguments than were
5136supplied, but might be used in the future for e.g. L<perlfunc/pack>.
5137
12605ff9
FC
5138=item refcnt_dec: fd %d%s
5139
2e0cfa16
FC
5140=item refcnt: fd %d%s
5141
12605ff9
FC
5142=item refcnt_inc: fd %d%s
5143
fa816bf3 5144(P) Perl's I/O implementation failed an internal consistency check. If
2e0cfa16
FC
5145you see this message, something is very wrong.
5146
1930e939
TP
5147=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
5148
be771a83 5149(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
6903afa2
FC
5150with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This
5151usually means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant
5152to use parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
7b8d334a
GS
5153
5154 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
5155 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
5156 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
5157 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
5158
810b8aa5
GS
5159=item Reference is already weak
5160
e476b1b5 5161(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
810b8aa5
GS
5162Doing so has no effect.
5163
e0e4a6e3 5164=item Reference to invalid group 0 in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b72d83b2 5165
6903afa2
FC
5166(F) You used C<\g0> or similar in a regular expression. You may refer
5167to capturing parentheses only with strictly positive integers
5168(normal backreferences) or with strictly negative integers (relative
5169backreferences). Using 0 does not make sense.
b72d83b2 5170
e0e4a6e3
FC
5171=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5172m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
5173
5174(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
6903afa2 5175not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If
bbaee129
FC
5176you wanted to have the character with ordinal 7 inserted into the regular
5177expression, prepend zeroes to make it three digits long: C<\007>
9baa0206 5178
6e8a73f2 5179The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
b45f050a 5180discovered.
9baa0206 5181
e0e4a6e3
FC
5182=item Reference to nonexistent named group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
5183in m/%s/
1a147d38
YO
5184
5185(F) You used something like C<\k'NAME'> or C<< \k<NAME> >> in your regular
9381611c 5186expression, but there is no corresponding named capturing parentheses
6903afa2 5187such as C<(?'NAME'...)> or C<< (?<NAME>...) >>. Check if the name has been
9381611c 5188spelled correctly both in the backreference and the declaration.
1a147d38 5189
6e8a73f2 5190The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
5191discovered.
5192
e0e4a6e3
FC
5193=item Reference to nonexistent or unclosed group in regex; marked by
5194S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1a147d38 5195
bcb95744
FC
5196(F) You used something like C<\g{-7}> in your regular expression, but there
5197are not at least seven sets of closed capturing parentheses in the
5198expression before where the C<\g{-7}> was located.
1a147d38 5199
6e8a73f2 5200The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1a147d38
YO
5201discovered.
5202
a0d0e21e
LW
5203=item regexp memory corruption
5204
5205(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
5206expression compiler gave it.
5207
ff3f26d2
KW
5208=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may appear a maximum of twice
5209
4d910168 5210=item Regexp modifier "%c" may appear a maximum of twice in regex; marked
e0e4a6e3 5211by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4d910168 5212
ce170e67 5213(F) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
ff3f26d2 5214of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
3955e1a9 5215
6fbc9859
MH
5216=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear after the "-" in regex; marked by <--
5217HERE in m/%s/
9442e3b8 5218
f8b5bc72
FC
5219(F) Turning off the given modifier has the side effect of turning on
5220another one. Perl currently doesn't allow this. Reword the regular
9442e3b8
KW
5221expression to use the modifier you want to turn on (and place it before
5222the minus), instead of the one you want to turn off.
5223
591f5ca2
FC
5224=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may not appear twice
5225
4d910168
FC
5226=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear twice in regex; marked by <--
5227HERE in m/%s/
5228
ce170e67 5229(F) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
591f5ca2
FC
5230of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
5231
3955e1a9
KW
5232=item Regexp modifiers "/%c" and "/%c" are mutually exclusive
5233
4d910168 5234=item Regexp modifiers "%c" and "%c" are mutually exclusive in regex;
e0e4a6e3 5235marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4d910168 5236
ce170e67 5237(F) The regular expression pattern had more than one of these
3955e1a9
KW
5238mutually exclusive modifiers. Retain only the modifier that is
5239supposed to be there.
5240
aec0ef10 5241=item Regexp out of space in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5242
be771a83
GS
5243(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
5244earlier.
a0d0e21e 5245
a7f533cb 5246=item Repeated format line will never terminate (~~ and @#)
a1b95068 5247
d7f8936a 5248(F) Your format contains the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence and a
a1b95068 5249numeric field that will never go blank so that the repetition never
6903afa2 5250terminates. You might use ^# instead. See L<perlform>.
a1b95068 5251
b08e453b
RB
5252=item Replacement list is longer than search list
5253
5254(W misc) You have used a replacement list that is longer than the
fa816bf3 5255search list. So the additional elements in the replacement list
b08e453b
RB
5256are meaningless.
5257
5e0a247b
KW
5258=item '%s' resolved to '\o{%s}%d'
5259
5260(W misc, regexp) You wrote something like C<\08>, or C<\179> in a
5261double-quotish string. All but the last digit is treated as a single
5262character, specified in octal. The last digit is the next character in
5263the string. To tell Perl that this is indeed what you want, you can use
5264the C<\o{ }> syntax, or use exactly three digits to specify the octal
5265for the character.
5266
a0d0e21e
LW
5267=item Reversed %s= operator
5268
be771a83 5269(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
964742a1 5270always come last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
a0d0e21e 5271
abc7ecad
SP
5272=item rewinddir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5273
1b303a7d
FC
5274(W io) The dirhandle you tried to do a rewinddir() on is either closed
5275or not really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
abc7ecad 5276
96ebfdd7
RK
5277=item Scalars leaked: %d
5278
7bd1381d 5279(S internal) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping
4f5966a5
FC
5280of scalars: not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time
5281Perl exited. What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which
5282is of course bad, especially if the Perl program is intended to be
5283long-running.
96ebfdd7 5284
a0d0e21e
LW
5285=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
5286
be771a83
GS
5287(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
5288single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
5289value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
5290behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
5291argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
5292and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
5293if you're expecting only one subscript.
a0d0e21e 5294
748a9306 5295On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5f05dabc 5296element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
748a9306
LW
5297Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
5298L<perlref>.
5299
a6006777 5300=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
5301
75b44862 5302(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
be771a83
GS
5303element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
5304(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
5305like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
5306argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
5307and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
5308if you're expecting only one subscript.
5309
5310On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
5311as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
5312not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
a6006777 5313L<perlref>.
5314
a0d0e21e
LW
5315=item Search pattern not terminated
5316
5317(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
5318construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5319Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 5320
ea9d9ebc 5321Note that since Perl 5.10.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
5d9c98cd 5322construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
ea9d9ebc
FC
5323in Perl 5.10.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
5324misparsed by pre-5.10.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
5d9c98cd 5325
abc7ecad
SP
5326=item seekdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5327
5328(W io) The dirhandle you are doing a seekdir() on is either closed or not
5329really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5330
3257ea4f
FC
5331=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
5332
5333(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
5334filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
5335
a0d0e21e
LW
5336=item select not implemented
5337
5338(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
5339
ae21d580 5340=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
68a4a7e4 5341
ae21d580
JH
5342(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
5343the current implementation.
68a4a7e4 5344
6df41af2 5345=item Semicolon seems to be missing
a0d0e21e 5346
75b44862
GS
5347(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
5348semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
a0d0e21e
LW
5349
5350=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
5351
be771a83
GS
5352(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
5353scalar that had previously been marked as free.
a0d0e21e 5354
6df41af2 5355=item sem%s not implemented
a0d0e21e 5356
6df41af2 5357(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
a0d0e21e 5358
69282e91 5359=item send() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 5360
be771a83 5361(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5362before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5363
0ae4a328
FC
5364=item Sequence "\c{" invalid
5365
5366(F) These three characters may not appear in sequence in a
5367double-quotish context. This message is raised only on non-ASCII
5368platforms (a different error message is output on ASCII ones). If you
5369were intending to specify a control character with this sequence, you'll
5370have to use a different way to specify it.
5371
e0e4a6e3 5372=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
7b8d334a 5373
6903afa2 5374(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The
e0e4a6e3 5375S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
6903afa2 5376discovered. See L<perlre>.
1b1626e4 5377
e0e4a6e3
FC
5378=item Sequence (?%c...) not implemented in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5379m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5380
6903afa2 5381(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
e0e4a6e3 5382but has not yet been written. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
9e3ec65c 5383regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5384
e0e4a6e3
FC
5385=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5386m/%s/
a0d0e21e 5387
d921c7bf 5388(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense.
e0e4a6e3 5389The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
d921c7bf 5390discovered. This may happen when using the C<(?^...)> construct to tell
fb85c044 5391Perl to use the default regular expression modifiers, and you
9442e3b8 5392redundantly specify a default modifier. For other
9de15fec 5393causes, see L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 5394
aec0ef10 5395=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
5396
5397(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
aec0ef10 5398parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. See
7253e4e3 5399L<perlre>.
6df41af2 5400
07ea66ee
FC
5401=item Sequence (?&... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5402m/%s/
5403
5404(F) A named reference of the form C<(?&...)> was missing the final
5405closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
5406in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5407
e0e4a6e3 5408=item Sequence (?%c... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
4599db5f
FC
5409in m/%s/
5410
5411(F) A named group of the form C<(?'...')> or C<< (?<...>) >> was missing the final
e0e4a6e3 5412closing quote or angle bracket. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
4599db5f
FC
5413regular expression the problem was discovered.
5414
e0e4a6e3 5415=item Sequence (?(%c... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
4599db5f
FC
5416in m/%s/
5417
5418(F) A named reference of the form C<(?('...')...)> or C<< (?(<...>)...) >> was
5419missing the final closing quote or angle bracket after the name. The
e0e4a6e3 5420S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
4599db5f
FC
5421discovered.
5422
5b9ce456
KW
5423=item Sequence (?... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5424m/%s/
5425
5426(F) There was no matching closing parenthesis for the '('. The
5427S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
5428discovered.
5429
e0e4a6e3
FC
5430=item Sequence \%s... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5431m/%s/
5a25739d
FC
5432
5433(F) The regular expression expects a mandatory argument following the escape
5434sequence and this has been omitted or incorrectly written.
5435
9da1dd8f
DM
5436=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated with ')'
5437
be149b43
DM
5438(F) The end of the perl code contained within the {...} must be
5439followed immediately by a ')'.
9da1dd8f 5440
74d1b2e4 5441=item Sequence (?PE<gt>... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4599db5f 5442
74d1b2e4 5443(F) A named reference of the form C<(?PE<gt>...)> was missing the final
cfbef7dc
KW
5444closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
5445in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5446
5447=item Sequence (?PE<lt>... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5448
5449(F) A named group of the form C<(?PE<lt>...E<gt>')> was missing the final
5450closing angle bracket. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
5451regular expression the problem was discovered.
5452
74d1b2e4
FC
5453=item Sequence ?P=... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5454m/%s/
cfbef7dc 5455
74d1b2e4 5456(F) A named reference of the form C<(?P=...)> was missing the final
e0e4a6e3 5457closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
4599db5f
FC
5458in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5459
5460=item Sequence (?R) not terminated in regex m/%s/
5461
5462(F) An C<(?R)> or C<(?0)> sequence in a regular expression was missing the
5463final parenthesis.
5464
3de20fbe 5465=item Z<>500 Server error
a5f75d66 5466
6903afa2
FC
5467(A) This is the error message generally seen in a browser window
5468when trying to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The
5469actual error text varies widely from server to server. The most
5470frequently-seen variants are "500 Server error", "Method (something)
5471not permitted", "Document contains no data", "Premature end of script
5472headers", and "Did not produce a valid header".
9607fc9c 5473
5474B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
5475
6903afa2
FC
5476You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by
5477the user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the
5478user account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment
5479variables (like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't
5480in a location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or
5481less. Please see the following for more information:
9607fc9c 5482
06a5f41f
JH
5483 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
5484 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
5485 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
a5f75d66 5486
be94a901
GS
5487You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
5488
a0d0e21e
LW
5489=item setegid() not implemented
5490
be771a83
GS
5491(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
5492support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5493didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
5494
5495=item seteuid() not implemented
5496
be771a83
GS
5497(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
5498support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5499didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 5500
81777298
GS
5501=item setpgrp can't take arguments
5502
be771a83
GS
5503(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
5504arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
5505group ID.
81777298 5506
a0d0e21e
LW
5507=item setrgid() not implemented
5508
be771a83
GS
5509(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
5510support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5511didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
5512
5513=item setruid() not implemented
5514
be771a83
GS
5515(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
5516support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5517didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 5518
6df41af2
GS
5519=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
5520
be771a83
GS
5521(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
5522forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
5523L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
5524
5302cd27
FC
5525=item Setting ${^ENCODING} is deprecated
5526
8cf4cf11 5527(D deprecated) You assigned a non-C<undef> value to C<${^ENCODING}>.
5302cd27
FC
5528This is deprecated; see C<L<perlvar/${^ENCODING}>> for details.
5529
6da34ecb
FC
5530=item Setting $/ to a reference to %s as a form of slurp is deprecated, treating as undef
5531
ddc3d23f 5532(D deprecated) You assigned a reference to a scalar to C<$/> where the
eedc0d19 5533referenced item is not a positive integer. In older perls this B<appeared>
6da34ecb
FC
5534to work the same as setting it to C<undef> but was in fact internally
5535different, less efficient and with very bad luck could have resulted in
5536your file being split by a stringified form of the reference.
5537
ea9d9ebc 5538In Perl 5.20.0 this was changed so that it would be B<exactly> the same as
6da34ecb
FC
5539setting C<$/> to undef, with the exception that this warning would be
5540thrown.
5541
eedc0d19 5542You are recommended to change your code to set C<$/> to C<undef> explicitly
d4e5761f 5543if you wish to slurp the file. In future versions of Perl assigning
eedc0d19 5544a reference to will throw a fatal error.
6da34ecb 5545
ee0ba734 5546=item Setting $/ to %s reference is forbidden
a48e4205
FC
5547
5548(F) You tried to assign a reference to a non integer to C<$/>. In older
5549Perls this would have behaved similarly to setting it to a reference to
5550a positive integer, where the integer was the address of the reference.
5551As of Perl 5.20.0 this is a fatal error, to allow future versions of Perl
5552to use non-integer refs for more interesting purposes.
5553
a0d0e21e
LW
5554=item shm%s not implemented
5555
5556(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
5557
984200d0
YST
5558=item !=~ should be !~
5559
5560(W syntax) The non-matching operator is !~, not !=~. !=~ will be
5561interpreted as the != (numeric not equal) and ~ (1's complement)
5562operators: probably not what you intended.
5563
6df41af2
GS
5564=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
5565
5566(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
be771a83
GS
5567as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
5568result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
5569probably not what you had in mind.
6df41af2 5570
69282e91 5571=item shutdown() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 5572
75b44862
GS
5573(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
5574superfluous.
a0d0e21e 5575
f86702cc 5576=item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
a0d0e21e 5577
be771a83
GS
5578(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
5579Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
a0d0e21e 5580
efc859fb
FC
5581=item Slab leaked from cv %p
5582
5583(S) If you see this message, then something is seriously wrong with the
5584internal bookkeeping of op trees. An op tree needed to be freed after
5585a compilation error, but could not be found, so it was leaked instead.
5586
3b9aea04
SH
5587=item sleep(%u) too large
5588
5589(W overflow) You called C<sleep> with a number that was larger than
5590it can reliably handle and C<sleep> probably slept for less time than
5591requested.
5592
30d9c59b
Z
5593=item Slurpy parameter not last
5594
5595(F) In a subroutine signature, you put something after a slurpy (array or
5596hash) parameter. The slurpy parameter takes all the available arguments,
5597so there can't be any left to fill later parameters.
5598
675fa9ff
FC
5599=item Smart matching a non-overloaded object breaks encapsulation
5600
5601(F) You should not use the C<~~> operator on an object that does not
5602overload it: Perl refuses to use the object's underlying structure
5603for the smart match.
5604
0f539b13
BF
5605=item Smartmatch is experimental
5606
5607(S experimental::smartmatch) This warning is emitted if you
5608use the smartmatch (C<~~>) operator. This is currently an experimental
5609feature, and its details are subject to change in future releases of
5610Perl. Particularly, its current behavior is noticed for being
5611unnecessarily complex and unintuitive, and is very likely to be
5612overhauled.
5613
a0d0e21e
LW
5614=item sort is now a reserved word
5615
5616(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
5617But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
5618
f1c31c52
FC
5619=item Source filters apply only to byte streams
5620
5621(F) You tried to activate a source filter (usually by loading a
5622source filter module) within a string passed to C<eval>. This is
5623not permitted under the C<unicode_eval> feature. Consider using
5624C<evalbytes> instead. See L<feature>.
5625
8cbc2e3b
JH
5626=item splice() offset past end of array
5627
5628(W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
fa816bf3
FC
5629the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the
5630end of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want,
5631try explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset.
5632See L<perlfunc/splice>.
8cbc2e3b 5633
a0d0e21e
LW
5634=item Split loop
5635
be771a83
GS
5636(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
5637iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
6903afa2 5638happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
a0d0e21e 5639
a0d0e21e
LW
5640=item Statement unlikely to be reached
5641
be771a83
GS
5642(W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
5643die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
5644unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
5645instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
5646a block by itself.
a0d0e21e 5647
a21eb52b
FC
5648=item "state" subroutine %s can't be in a package
5649
5650(F) Lexically scoped subroutines aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
5651sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front.
5652
a2e39214
FC
5653=item "state %s" used in sort comparison
5654
5655(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
5656You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
5657sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
5658lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
5659name, or rename the lexical variable.
5660
5a25739d
FC
5661=item "state" variable %s can't be in a package
5662
5663(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
5664sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
5665local() if you want to localize a package variable.
5666
9ddeeac9 5667=item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
6df41af2 5668
355b1299
JH
5669(W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
5670was either never opened or has since been closed.
6df41af2 5671
5a25739d
FC
5672=item Strings with code points over 0xFF may not be mapped into in-memory file handles
5673
5674(W utf8) You tried to open a reference to a scalar for read or append
5675where the scalar contained code points over 0xFF. In-memory files
5676model on-disk files and can only contain bytes.
5677
fe13d51d 5678=item Stub found while resolving method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
e7ea3e70 5679
be771a83
GS
5680(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
5681stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
5682C<can> may break this.
e7ea3e70 5683
4e85e1b4
FC
5684=item Subroutine "&%s" is not available
5685
5686(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
5687attempting to capture an outer lexical subroutine that is not currently
5688available. This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the lexical
c387a7d0
FC
5689subroutine may be declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has
5690not yet been created. (Remember that named subs are created at compile
5691time, while anonymous subs are created at run-time.) For example,
4e85e1b4
FC
5692
5693 sub { my sub a {...} sub f { \&a } }
5694
c387a7d0 5695At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current "a" sub,
4e85e1b4
FC
5696since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely, the
5697following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by now
5698been created and is live:
5699
5700 sub { my sub a {...} eval 'sub f { \&a }' }->();
5701
c387a7d0
FC
5702The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a lexical subroutine
5703that has gone out of scope, for example,
4e85e1b4
FC
5704
5705 sub f {
5706 my sub a {...}
5707 sub { eval '\&a' }
5708 }
5709 f()->();
5710
5711Here, when the '\&a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
5712being executed, so its &a is not available for capture.
5713
4eb94d7c
FC
5714=item "%s" subroutine &%s masks earlier declaration in same %s
5715
5716(W misc) A "my" or "state" subroutine has been redeclared in the
5717current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to
5718the previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error.
5719Note that the earlier subroutine will still exist until the end of
20d33786 5720the scope or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
4eb94d7c 5721
9d92fedb
FC
5722=item Subroutine %s redefined
5723
5724(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
5725
5726 {
5727 no warnings 'redefine';
5728 eval "sub name { ... }";
5729 }
5730
2a9203e9
FC
5731=item Subroutine "%s" will not stay shared
5732
5733(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a "my"
5734subroutine defined in an outer named subroutine.
5735
5736When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of the outer
5737subroutine's lexical subroutine as it was before and during the *first*
5738call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
5739outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
5740longer share a common value for the lexical subroutine. In other words,
5741it will no longer be shared. This will especially make a difference
5742if the lexical subroutines accesses lexical variables declared in its
5743surrounding scope.
5744
5745This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
5746anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
5747reference lexical subroutines in outer subroutines are created, they
5748are automatically rebound to the current values of such lexical subs.
5749
a0d0e21e
LW
5750=item Substitution loop
5751
be771a83
GS
5752(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
5753shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
5754is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
5d44bfff 5755L<perlop/"Regexp Quote-Like Operators">.
a0d0e21e
LW
5756
5757=item Substitution pattern not terminated
5758
d1be9408 5759(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 5760construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5761Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
5762
5763=item Substitution replacement not terminated
5764
d1be9408 5765(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 5766construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 5767Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
5768
5769=item substr outside of string
5770
8a9eb13d 5771(W substr)(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
be771a83
GS
5772a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
5773length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
5774substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
5775assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
a0d0e21e 5776
bf1320bf
RGS
5777=item sv_upgrade from type %d down to type %d
5778
9d277376 5779(P) Perl tried to force the upgrade of an SV to a type which was actually
bf1320bf
RGS
5780inferior to its current type.
5781
05a40652
FC
5782=item SWASHNEW didn't return an HV ref
5783
5784(P) Something went wrong internally when Perl was trying to look up
5785Unicode characters.
5786
6fbc9859 5787=item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex; marked by
e0e4a6e3 5788S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
b45f050a 5789
fa816bf3
FC
5790(F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most
5791two branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or
5792both to contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose
5793it in clustering parentheses:
b45f050a
JF
5794
5795 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
5796
e0e4a6e3 5797The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem
fa816bf3 5798was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5799
e0e4a6e3
FC
5800=item Switch condition not recognized in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5801m/%s/
b45f050a 5802
9f57786a
FC
5803(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
5804is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5805
5806 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
5807 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
5808 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
5809 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
5810 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
5811 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
5812 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
5813 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
5814 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
5815
6e8a73f2 5816The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9f57786a 5817discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 5818
a1244175
FC
5819=item Switch (?(condition)... not terminated in regex; marked by
5820S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5821
99775d13
FC
5822(F) You omitted to close a (?(condition)...) block somewhere
5823in the pattern. Add a closing parenthesis in the appropriate
5824position. See L<perlre>.
a1244175 5825
85ab1d1d
JH
5826=item switching effective %s is not implemented
5827
be771a83
GS
5828(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
5829and effective uids or gids.
85ab1d1d 5830
a0d0e21e
LW
5831=item syntax error
5832
5833(F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
5834
5835 A keyword is misspelled.
5836 A semicolon is missing.
5837 A comma is missing.
5838 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
5839 An opening or closing brace is missing.
5840 A closing quote is missing.
5841
5842Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
5843error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
5844The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
5845it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
5f05dabc 5846before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
a0d0e21e
LW
5847Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
5848the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
5849C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
524e9188 5850if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
a0d0e21e 5851
ccf3535a 5852=item syntax error at line %d: '%s' unexpected
cb1a09d0 5853
be771a83
GS
5854(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
5855of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
5856yourself.
cb1a09d0 5857
25f58aea
PN
5858=item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
5859
5860(F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
5861a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
5862or "my $var" or "our $var".
5863
675fa9ff
FC
5864=item Syntax error in (?[...]) in regex m/%s/
5865
5866(F) Perl could not figure out what you meant inside this construct; this
5867notifies you that it is giving up trying.
5868
591f5ca2
FC
5869=item %s syntax OK
5870
5871(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
5872
b5fe5ca2
SR
5873=item sysread() on closed filehandle %s
5874
5875(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
5876
5877=item sysread() on unopened filehandle %s
5878
5879(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
5880
6087ac44 5881=item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
a0d0e21e 5882
6087ac44
JH
5883(F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
5884"shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
5885machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
5886unconfigured. Consult your system support.
a0d0e21e 5887
69282e91 5888=item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 5889
be771a83 5890(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 5891before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 5892
96ebfdd7
RK
5893=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
5894
5895(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
5896know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
5897
fc36a67e 5898=item Target of goto is too deeply nested
5899
be771a83
GS
5900(F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
5901for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
fc36a67e 5902
abc7ecad
SP
5903=item telldir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5904
5905(W io) The dirhandle you tried to telldir() is either closed or not really
5906a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5907
c2771421
FC
5908=item tell() on unopened filehandle
5909
5910(W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
5911was either never opened or has since been closed.
5912
b82b06b8
FC
5913=item That use of $[ is unsupported
5914
5915(F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted
5916as a compiler directive. You may say only one of
5917
5918 $[ = 0;
5919 $[ = 1;
5920 ...
5921 local $[ = 0;
5922 local $[ = 1;
5923 ...
5924
5925This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out
5926from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[> and L<arybase>.
5927
a6eb74ec
FC
5928=item The bitwise feature is experimental
5929
5930(S experimental::bitwise) This warning is emitted if you use bitwise
5931operators (C<& | ^ ~ &. |. ^. ~.>) with the "bitwise" feature enabled.
5932Simply suppress the warning if you want to use the feature, but know
5933that in doing so you are taking the risk of using an experimental
5934feature which may change or be removed in a future Perl version:
5935
5936 no warnings "experimental::bitwise";
5937 use feature "bitwise";
5938 $x |.= $y;
5939
67b16946 5940=item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia.
a0d0e21e
LW
5941
5942(F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
5943probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
8b1a09fc 5944think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
a0d0e21e
LW
5945will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
5946will deny it.
5947
3f645a4e
FC
5948=item The experimental declared_refs feature is not enabled
5949
5950(F) To declare references to variables, as in C<my \%x>, you must first enable
5951the feature:
5952
5953 no warnings "experimental::declared_refs";
5954 use feature "declared_refs";
5955
675fa9ff
FC
5956=item The %s function is unimplemented
5957
5958(F) The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture,
5959according to the probings of Configure.
5960
0d0b4b3b
KW
5961=item The regex_sets feature is experimental
5962
5963(S experimental::regex_sets) This warning is emitted if you
5964use the syntax S<C<(?[ ])>> in a regular expression.
5965The details of this feature are subject to change.
5966if you want to use it, but know that in doing so you
5967are taking the risk of using an experimental feature which may
5968change in a future Perl version, you can do this to silence the
5969warning:
5970
5971 no warnings "experimental::regex_sets";
5972
30d9c59b
Z
5973=item The signatures feature is experimental
5974
5975(S experimental::signatures) This warning is emitted if you unwrap a
5976subroutine's arguments using a signature. Simply suppress the warning
5977if you want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you are taking
5978the risk of using an experimental feature which may change or be removed
5979in a future Perl version:
5980
5981 no warnings "experimental::signatures";
5982 use feature "signatures";
5983 sub foo ($left, $right) { ... }
5984
5e1c7ca2 5985=item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
a0d0e21e 5986
be771a83
GS
5987(F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
5988linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
5989past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
5990instead.
a0d0e21e 5991
371fce9b
DM
5992=item The 'unique' attribute may only be applied to 'our' variables
5993
1108974d 5994(F) This attribute was never supported on C<my> or C<sub> declarations.
371fce9b 5995
437784d6 5996=item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
f675dbe5
CB
5997
5998=item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
5999
75b44862 6000(W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
be771a83
GS
6001element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
6002wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
6003need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
6004F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
6005target of the change to
f675dbe5
CB
6006%ENV which produced the warning.
6007
6a5b4183
YO
6008=item This Perl has not been built with support for randomized hash key traversal but something called Perl_hv_rand_set().
6009
6010(F) Something has attempted to use an internal API call which
6011depends on Perl being compiled with the default support for randomized hash
f26c79ba 6012key traversal, but this Perl has been compiled without it. You should
6a5b4183
YO
6013report this warning to the relevant upstream party, or recompile perl
6014with default options.
6015
a0d0e21e
LW
6016=item times not implemented
6017
be771a83
GS
6018(F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
6019suspect you're not running on Unix.
a0d0e21e 6020
6d3b25aa
RGS
6021=item "-T" is on the #! line, it must also be used on the command line
6022
b7e4ecc1
FC
6023(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains
6024the B<-T> option (or the B<-t> option), but Perl was not invoked with
6025B<-T> in its command line. This is an error because, by the time
6026Perl discovers a B<-T> in a script, it's too late to properly taint
6027everything from the environment. So Perl gives up.
6d3b25aa
RGS
6028
6029If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
b7e4ecc1
FC
6030mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be
6031fixed by editing the #! line so that the B<-%c> option is a part of
6032Perl's first argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -%c> to C<perl -%c -n>.
6d3b25aa
RGS
6033
6034If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
fe13d51d 6035B<-%c> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -%c scriptname>.
6d3b25aa 6036
3a2263fe
RGS
6037=item To%s: illegal mapping '%s'
6038
6039(F) You tried to define a customized To-mapping for lc(), lcfirst,
6040uc(), or ucfirst() (or their string-inlined versions), but you
6041specified an illegal mapping.
6042See L<perlunicode/"User-Defined Character Properties">.
6043
49704364
WL
6044=item Too deeply nested ()-groups
6045
1a147d38 6046(F) Your template contains ()-groups with a ridiculously deep nesting level.
49704364 6047
a0d0e21e
LW
6048=item Too few args to syscall
6049
6050(F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
6051system call to call, silly dilly.
6052
bb6b75cd
DM
6053=item Too few arguments for subroutine
6054
6055(F) A subroutine using a signature received too few arguments than
6056required by the signature. The caller of the subroutine is presumably
6057at fault.
6058
96ebfdd7
RK
6059=item Too late for "-%s" option
6060
6061(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
4ba71d51
FC
6062B<-M>, B<-m> or B<-C> option.
6063
6903afa2
FC
6064In the case of B<-M> and B<-m>, this is an error because those options
6065are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
4ba71d51 6066
6903afa2
FC
6067The B<-C> option only works if it is specified on the command line as
6068well (with the same sequence of letters or numbers following). Either
6069specify this option on the command line, or, if your system supports
6070it, make your script executable and run it directly instead of passing
6071it to perl.
96ebfdd7 6072
ddda08b7
GS
6073=item Too late to run %s block
6074
6075(W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
6076when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
be771a83
GS
6077loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
6078instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
6079BEGIN block.
ddda08b7 6080
a0d0e21e
LW
6081=item Too many args to syscall
6082
5f05dabc 6083(F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
a0d0e21e
LW
6084
6085=item Too many arguments for %s
6086
6087(F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
6088
bb6b75cd
DM
6089=item Too many arguments for subroutine
6090
6091(F) A subroutine using a signature received too many arguments than
6092required by the signature. The caller of the subroutine is presumably
6093at fault.
6094
6095
6df41af2
GS
6096=item Too many )'s
6097
49704364
WL
6098(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6099Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6100
8c40cb74
NC
6101=item Too many ('s
6102
be771a83
GS
6103(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6104Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 6105
7253e4e3 6106=item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
a0d0e21e 6107
be771a83
GS
6108(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
6109Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 6110
2c268ad5 6111=item Transliteration pattern not terminated
a0d0e21e
LW
6112
6113(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
fb73857a 6114or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
6115C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 6116
2c268ad5 6117=item Transliteration replacement not terminated
a0d0e21e 6118
6a36df5d
YST
6119(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr///, tr[][],
6120y/// or y[][] construct.
a0d0e21e 6121
96ebfdd7
RK
6122=item '%s' trapped by operation mask
6123
6124(F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
6903afa2 6125disallowed. See L<Safe>.
96ebfdd7 6126
a0d0e21e
LW
6127=item truncate not implemented
6128
6129(F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
6130Configure knows about.
6131
19c481f4
FC
6132=item Type of arg %d to &CORE::%s must be %s
6133
6134(F) The subroutine in question in the CORE package requires its argument
6135to be a hard reference to data of the specified type. Overloading is
6136ignored, so a reference to an object that is not the specified type, but
6137nonetheless has overloading to handle it, will still not be accepted.
6138
a0d0e21e
LW
6139=item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
6140
6141(F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
8b1a09fc 6142certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
6143%NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
a0d0e21e
LW
6144{EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
6145
eec2d3df
GS
6146=item umask not implemented
6147
be771a83
GS
6148(F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
6149use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
a0d0e21e
LW
6150
6151=item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
6152
c632e777 6153(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6154many execution contexts were entered and left.
a0d0e21e
LW
6155
6156=item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
6157
4a983e45 6158(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6159many values were temporarily localized.
a0d0e21e
LW
6160
6161=item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
6162
090cebb2 6163(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6164many blocks were entered and left.
a0d0e21e 6165
6651ba0b
FC
6166=item Unbalanced string table refcount: (%d) for "%s"
6167
31ff3bd2 6168(S internal) On exit, Perl found some strings remaining in the shared
6651ba0b
FC
6169string table used for copy on write and for hash keys. The entries
6170should have been freed, so this indicates a bug somewhere.
6171
a0d0e21e
LW
6172=item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
6173
2092d7c1 6174(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
be771a83 6175many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
a0d0e21e
LW
6176
6177=item Undefined format "%s" called
6178
6179(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
6180another package? See L<perlform>.
6181
6182=item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
6183
be771a83
GS
6184(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
6185Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e
LW
6186
6187=item Undefined subroutine &%s called
6188
be771a83
GS
6189(F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
6190since been undefined.
a0d0e21e
LW
6191
6192=item Undefined subroutine called
6193
6194(F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
6195or if it was, it has since been undefined.
6196
6197=item Undefined subroutine in sort
6198
be771a83
GS
6199(F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
6200to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
a0d0e21e 6201
4633a7c4
LW
6202=item Undefined top format "%s" called
6203
6204(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
6205another package? See L<perlform>.
6206
20408e3c
GS
6207=item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
6208
be771a83
GS
6209(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
6210C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
6211C<undef *foo>.
20408e3c 6212
6df41af2
GS
6213=item %s: Undefined variable
6214
be771a83
GS
6215(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6216Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 6217
8e84dec2
KW
6218=item Unescaped left brace in regex is deprecated here, passed through in
6219regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6220
6221(D deprecated, regexp) The simple rule to remember, if you want to
6222match a literal C<"{"> character (U+007B C<LEFT CURLY BRACKET>) in a
6223regular expression pattern, is to escape each literal instance of it in
6224some way. Generally easiest is to precede it with a backslash, like
6225C<"\{"> or enclose it in square brackets (C<"[{]">). If the pattern
6226delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace (C<"}">) should
6227also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for example,
6228
6229 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
6230
6231Forcing literal C<"{"> characters to be escaped will enable the Perl
6232language to be extended in various ways in future releases. To avoid
6233needlessly breaking existing code, the restriction is is not enforced in
6234contexts where there are unlikely to ever be extensions that could
6235conflict with the use there of C<"{"> as a literal.
6236
6237In this release of Perl, some literal uses of C<"{"> are fatal, and some
6238still just deprecated. This is because of an oversight: some uses of a
6239literal C<"{"> that should have raised a deprecation warning starting in
6240v5.20 did not warn until v5.26. By making the already-warned uses fatal
6241now, some of the planned extensions can be made to the language sooner.
6242
6243The contexts where no warnings or errors are raised are:
6244
6245=over 4
6246
6247=item *
6248
6249as the first character in a pattern, or following C<"^"> indicating to
6250anchor the match to the beginning of a line.
6251
6252=item *
6253
6254as the first character following a C<"|"> indicating alternation.
6255
6256=item *
6257
6258as the first character in a parenthesized grouping like
6259
6260 /foo({bar)/
6261 /foo(?:{bar)/
6262
6263=item *
6264
6265as the first character following a quantifier
6266
6267 /\s*{/
6268
6269=back
6270
6271=for comment
6272The text of the message above is duplicated below to allow splain (and
6273'use diagnostics') to work. Since one is fatal, and one not, they can't
6274be combined as one message. And since the non-fatal one is temporary,
6275there's no real need to enhance perldiag to handle this transient case.
6276
6277=item Unescaped left brace in regex is illegal here in regex;
6e8a73f2 6278marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
412f55bb 6279
8e84dec2
KW
6280(F) The simple rule to remember, if you want to
6281match a literal C<"{"> character (U+007B C<LEFT CURLY BRACKET>) in a
6282regular expression pattern, is to escape each literal instance of it in
6283some way. Generally easiest is to precede it with a backslash, like
6284C<"\{"> or enclose it in square brackets (C<"[{]">). If the pattern
6285delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace (C<"}">) should
6286also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for example,
6287
6288 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
6289
6290Forcing literal C<"{"> characters to be escaped will enable the Perl
6291language to be extended in various ways in future releases. To avoid
6292needlessly breaking existing code, the restriction is is not enforced in
6293contexts where there are unlikely to ever be extensions that could
6294conflict with the use there of C<"{"> as a literal.
6295
6296In this release of Perl, some literal uses of C<"{"> are fatal, and some
6297still just deprecated. This is because of an oversight: some uses of a
6298literal C<"{"> that should have raised a deprecation warning starting in
6299v5.20 did not warn until v5.26. By making the already-warned uses fatal
6300now, some of the planned extensions can be made to the language sooner.
6301
6302The contexts where no warnings or errors are raised are:
6303
6304=over 4
6305
6306=item *
6307
6308as the first character in a pattern, or following C<"^"> indicating to
6309anchor the match to the beginning of a line.
6310
6311=item *
6312
6313as the first character following a C<"|"> indicating alternation.
6314
6315=item *
6316
6317as the first character in a parenthesized grouping like
6318
6319 /foo({bar)/
6320 /foo(?:{bar)/
6321
6322=item *
6323
6324as the first character following a quantifier
412f55bb 6325
8e84dec2 6326 /\s*{/
412f55bb 6327
8e84dec2 6328=back
1656665e 6329
a0d0e21e
LW
6330=item unexec of %s into %s failed!
6331
6332(F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
6333representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
6334
e0e4a6e3
FC
6335=item Unexpected binary operator '%c' with no preceding operand in regex;
6336marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6337
675fa9ff 6338(F) You had something like this:
0d0b4b3b
KW
6339
6340 (?[ | \p{Digit} ])
6341
6342where the C<"|"> is a binary operator with an operand on the right, but
6343no operand on the left.
6344
e0e4a6e3 6345=item Unexpected character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6346
675fa9ff 6347(F) You had something like this:
0d0b4b3b
KW
6348
6349 (?[ z ])
6350
6351Within C<(?[ ])>, no literal characters are allowed unless they are
6352within an inner pair of square brackets, like
6353
6354 (?[ [ z ] ])
6355
6356Another possibility is that you forgot a backslash. Perl isn't smart
6357enough to figure out what you really meant.
6358
6651ba0b
FC
6359=item Unexpected constant lvalue entersub entry via type/targ %d:%d
6360
6361(P) When compiling a subroutine call in lvalue context, Perl failed an
6362internal consistency check. It encountered a malformed op tree.
6363
6c341f67
TC
6364=item Unexpected exit %u
6365
6366(S) exit() was called or the script otherwise finished gracefully when
6367C<PERL_EXIT_WARN> was set in C<PL_exit_flags>.
6368
878ce265 6369=item Unexpected exit failure %d
6c341f67
TC
6370
6371(S) An uncaught die() was called when C<PERL_EXIT_WARN> was set in
6372C<PL_exit_flags>.
6373
e0e4a6e3 6374=item Unexpected ')' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6375
6376(F) You had something like this:
6377
6378 (?[ ( \p{Digit} + ) ])
6379
6380The C<")"> is out-of-place. Something apparently was supposed to
6381be combined with the digits, or the C<"+"> shouldn't be there, or
6382something like that. Perl can't figure out what was intended.
6383
e0e4a6e3
FC
6384=item Unexpected '(' with no preceding operator in regex; marked by
6385S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6386
6387(F) You had something like this:
6388
6389 (?[ \p{Digit} ( \p{Lao} + \p{Thai} ) ])
6390
6391There should be an operator before the C<"(">, as there's
6392no indication as to how the digits are to be combined
6393with the characters in the Lao and Thai scripts.
6394
ba707cdc 6395=item Unicode non-character U+%X is not recommended for open interchange
0876b9a0 6396
4c2e59a0 6397(S nonchar) Certain codepoints, such as U+FFFE and U+FFFF, are
66a1f5ec
FC
6398defined by the Unicode standard to be non-characters. Those
6399are legal codepoints, but are reserved for internal use; so,
6400applications shouldn't attempt to exchange them. An application
6401may not be expecting any of these characters at all, and receiving
6402them may lead to bugs. If you know what you are doing you can
6403turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'nonchar';>.
6404
6405This is not really a "severe" error, but it is supposed to be
6406raised by default even if warnings are not enabled, and currently
6407the only way to do that in Perl is to mark it as serious.
6a807e21 6408
c794c51b
FC
6409=item Unicode surrogate U+%X is illegal in UTF-8
6410
4c2e59a0 6411(S surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
c794c51b
FC
6412not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
6413U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
6414internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
6415available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
6416problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
6417came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 6418off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
c794c51b 6419
dcfe9e74
KW
6420=item Unknown charname '%s'
6421
6422(F) The name you used inside C<\N{}> is unknown to Perl. Check the
6423spelling. You can say C<use charnames ":loose"> to not have to be
6424so precise about spaces, hyphens, and capitalization on standard Unicode
6425names. (Any custom aliases that have been created must be specified
6426exactly, regardless of whether C<:loose> is used or not.) This error may
6427also happen if the C<\N{}> is not in the scope of the corresponding
6428C<S<use charnames>>.
6429
09eb1f39
FC
6430=item Unknown charname '' is deprecated
6431
6432(D deprecated) You had a C<\N{}> with nothing between the braces. This
6433usage is deprecated, and will be made a syntax error in a future Perl
6434version.
6435
04177465
FC
6436=item Unknown error
6437
6438(P) Perl was about to print an error message in C<$@>, but the C<$@> variable
6439did not exist, even after an attempt to create it.
6440
6170680b
IZ
6441=item Unknown open() mode '%s'
6442
437784d6 6443(F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
c47ff5f1 6444of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
488dad83 6445C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
6170680b 6446
b4581f09
JH
6447=item Unknown PerlIO layer "%s"
6448
6449(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
6450system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
6451internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
6452are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
6453explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
6454value of the environment variable PERLIO.
6455
f675dbe5
CB
6456=item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
6457
6458(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
6459iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
6460data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
6461subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
a05d7ebb 6462
0da72d5e
KW
6463=item Unknown regex modifier "%s"
6464
6465(F) Alphanumerics immediately following the closing delimiter
6466of a regular expression pattern are interpreted by Perl as modifier
6467flags for the regex. One of the ones you specified is invalid. One way
6468this can happen is if you didn't put in white space between the end of
6469the regex and a following alphanumeric operator:
6470
6471 if ($a =~ /foo/and $bar == 3) { ... }
6472
6473The C<"a"> is a valid modifier flag, but the C<"n"> is not, and raises
6474this error. Likely what was meant instead was:
6475
6476 if ($a =~ /foo/ and $bar == 3) { ... }
6477
5a25739d
FC
6478=item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
6479
6480(W) You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
6481
e0e4a6e3
FC
6482=item Unknown switch condition (?(...)) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6483m/%s/
96ebfdd7
RK
6484
6485(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
6903afa2 6486is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5fecf430 6487
674f6ed9
FC
6488 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
6489 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
6490 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
6491 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
6492 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
6493 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
6494 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
6495 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
6496 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
96ebfdd7 6497
6e8a73f2 6498The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
96ebfdd7
RK
6499discovered. See L<perlre>.
6500
a05d7ebb
JH
6501=item Unknown Unicode option letter '%c'
6502
a4a4c9e2 6503(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb
JH
6504of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
6505
64187737 6506=item Unknown Unicode option value %d
a05d7ebb 6507
a4a4c9e2 6508(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
a05d7ebb 6509of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
f675dbe5 6510
e0e4a6e3 6511=item Unknown verb pattern '%s' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1
YO
6512
6513(F) You either made a typo or have incorrectly put a C<*> quantifier
6514after an open brace in your pattern. Check the pattern and review
6515L<perlre> for details on legal verb patterns.
6516
c2771421
FC
6517=item Unknown warnings category '%s'
6518
6903afa2 6519(F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
c2771421
FC
6520category that is unknown to perl at this point.
6521
14ef4c80
FC
6522Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a
6523module (e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have loaded this
6524module first.
c2771421 6525
e0e4a6e3 6526=item Unmatched [ in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6527
6903afa2 6528(F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
be771a83 6529include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
e0e4a6e3 6530first. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
6903afa2 6531problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 6532
e0e4a6e3 6533=item Unmatched ( in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
aec0ef10 6534
e0e4a6e3 6535=item Unmatched ) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
a0d0e21e
LW
6536
6537(F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
6903afa2 6538expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
e0e4a6e3 6539the matching parenthesis. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
9e3ec65c 6540regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 6541
d98d5fff 6542=item Unmatched right %s bracket
a0d0e21e 6543
be771a83
GS
6544(F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
6545ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
6546general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
6547you were last editing.
a0d0e21e 6548
a0d0e21e
LW
6549=item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
6550
be771a83
GS
6551(W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
6552reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
6553somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
6554subroutine.
a0d0e21e 6555
e0e4a6e3
FC
6556=item Unrecognized character %s; marked by S<<-- HERE> after %s near column
6557%d
a0d0e21e 6558
54310121 6559(F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
1b303a7d
FC
6560in your Perl script (or eval) near the specified column. Perhaps you
6561tried to run a compressed script, a binary program, or a directory as
6562a Perl program.
a0d0e21e 6563
e0e4a6e3
FC
6564=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class in regex; marked by
6565S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
0d0b4b3b 6566
675fa9ff
FC
6567(F) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
6568recognized by Perl inside character classes. This is a fatal
6569error when the character class is used within C<(?[ ])>.
0d0b4b3b 6570
6fbc9859 6571=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class passed through in regex;
e0e4a6e3 6572marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6573
be771a83
GS
6574(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
6575recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
b224edc1 6576understood literally, but this may change in a future version of Perl.
e0e4a6e3 6577The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
2628b4e0 6578escape was discovered.
6df41af2 6579
4a68bf9d 6580=item Unrecognized escape \%c passed through
2f7da168 6581
2628b4e0 6582(W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b224edc1
KW
6583recognized by Perl. The character was understood literally, but this may
6584change in a future version of Perl.
2f7da168 6585
e0e4a6e3
FC
6586=item Unrecognized escape \%s passed through in regex; marked by
6587S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6df41af2 6588
be771a83 6589(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
b7e4ecc1 6590recognized by Perl. The character(s) were understood literally, but
e0e4a6e3 6591this may change in a future version of Perl. The S<<-- HERE> shows
9e3ec65c 6592whereabouts in the regular expression the escape was discovered.
6df41af2 6593
a0d0e21e
LW
6594=item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
6595
be771a83
GS
6596(F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
6597recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
6598on your system.
a0d0e21e 6599
90248788 6600=item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
a0d0e21e 6601
be771a83
GS
6602(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
6603think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
6604bad switch on your behalf.)
a0d0e21e
LW
6605
6606=item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
6607
be771a83
GS
6608(W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
6609operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
5b3eff12 6610PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
a0d0e21e
LW
6611
6612=item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
6613
6614(F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
6615
6df41af2
GS
6616=item Unsupported function %s
6617
6618(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
6619At least, Configure doesn't think so.
6620
54310121 6621=item Unsupported function fork
6622
6623(F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
6624
be771a83 6625Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
6903afa2 6626of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
be771a83 6627changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
54310121 6628
7aa207d6 6629=item Unsupported script encoding %s
b250498f
GS
6630
6631(F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
7aa207d6 6632declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot read.
b250498f 6633
a0d0e21e
LW
6634=item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
6635
6636(F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
6637least that's what Configure thought.
6638
6df41af2 6639=item Unterminated attribute list
a0d0e21e 6640
be771a83
GS
6641(F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
6642start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
6643block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
6644attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
a0d0e21e 6645
09bef843
SB
6646=item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
6647
be771a83
GS
6648(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
6649an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
09bef843
SB
6650character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
6651character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
6652
f1991046
GS
6653=item Unterminated compressed integer
6654
6655(F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
6656compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
6657See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6658
6f2d7fc9
FC
6659=item Unterminated delimiter for here document
6660
6661(F) This message occurs when a here document label has an initial
6662quotation mark but the final quotation mark is missing. Perhaps
6663you wrote:
6664
6665 <<"foo
6666
6667instead of:
6668
6669 <<"foo"
6670
e0e4a6e3 6671=item Unterminated \g... pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
779fedd7 6672
e0e4a6e3 6673=item Unterminated \g{...} pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2bf803e2 6674
5364049c
KW
6675(F) In a regular expression, you had a C<\g> that wasn't followed by a
6676proper group reference. In the case of C<\g{>, the closing brace is
6677missing; otherwise the C<\g> must be followed by an integer. Fix the
6678pattern and retry.
e2e6a0f1 6679
6df41af2 6680=item Unterminated <> operator
09bef843 6681
6df41af2 6682(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
6683a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
6684not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
6685earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
09bef843 6686
e0e4a6e3
FC
6687=item Unterminated verb pattern argument in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6688m/%s/
905fe053
FC
6689
6690(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB:ARG)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 6691the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 6692
e0e4a6e3 6693=item Unterminated verb pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
905fe053
FC
6694
6695(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB)> but did not terminate
6903afa2 6696the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
905fe053 6697
6df41af2 6698=item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
a0d0e21e 6699
be771a83
GS
6700(W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
6701still valid when C<untie> was called.
a0d0e21e 6702
8e11cd2b
JC
6703=item Usage: POSIX::%s(%s)
6704
6705(F) You called a POSIX function with incorrect arguments.
6706See L<POSIX/FUNCTIONS> for more information.
6707
6708=item Usage: Win32::%s(%s)
6709
6710(F) You called a Win32 function with incorrect arguments.
6711See L<Win32> for more information.
6712
89474f50
FC
6713=item $[ used in %s (did you mean $] ?)
6714
6715(W syntax) You used C<$[> in a comparison, such as:
6716
6717 if ($[ > 5.006) {
6718 ...
6719 }
6720
6721You probably meant to use C<$]> instead. C<$[> is the base for indexing
6722arrays. C<$]> is the Perl version number in decimal.
6723
6da34ecb
FC
6724=item Use "%s" instead of "%s"
6725
6726(F) The second listed construct is no longer legal. Use the first one
6727instead.
6728
8fe85e3f
FC
6729=item Useless assignment to a temporary
6730
6731(W misc) You assigned to an lvalue subroutine, but what
6732the subroutine returned was a temporary scalar about to
6733be discarded, so the assignment had no effect.
6734
e0e4a6e3
FC
6735=item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex; marked by
6736S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
9d1d55b5 6737
96ebfdd7
RK
6738(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
6739meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 6740
96ebfdd7 6741 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
6742
6743must be written as
6744
96ebfdd7 6745 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5 6746
6e8a73f2 6747The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9e3ec65c 6748discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 6749
b4581f09
JH
6750=item Useless localization of %s
6751
6903afa2
FC
6752(W syntax) The localization of lvalues such as C<local($x=10)> is legal,
6753but in fact the local() currently has no effect. This may change at
b4581f09
JH
6754some point in the future, but in the meantime such code is discouraged.
6755
e0e4a6e3
FC
6756=item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6757m/%s/
9d1d55b5 6758
96ebfdd7
RK
6759(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
6760meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
9d1d55b5 6761
96ebfdd7 6762 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
9d1d55b5
JP
6763
6764must be written as
6765
96ebfdd7 6766 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
9d1d55b5 6767
6e8a73f2 6768The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
9e3ec65c 6769discovered. See L<perlre>.
9d1d55b5 6770
3108f4df
FC
6771=item Useless use of attribute "const"
6772
796b6530 6773(W misc) The C<const> attribute has no effect except
3108f4df
FC
6774on anonymous closure prototypes. You applied it to
6775a subroutine via L<attributes.pm|attributes>. This is only useful
6776inside an attribute handler for an anonymous subroutine.
6777
b08e453b
RB
6778=item Useless use of /d modifier in transliteration operator
6779
6780(W misc) You have used the /d modifier where the searchlist has the
6903afa2 6781same length as the replacelist. See L<perlop> for more information
b08e453b
RB
6782about the /d modifier.
6783
820438b1
FC
6784=item Useless use of \E
6785
6786(W misc) You have a \E in a double-quotish string without a C<\U>,
6787C<\L> or C<\Q> preceding it.
6788
4fa6dd16
KW
6789=item Useless use of greediness modifier '%c' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6790
6791(W regexp) You specified something like these:
6792
6793 qr/a{3}?/
6794 qr/b{1,1}+/
6795
6796The C<"?"> and C<"+"> don't have any effect, as they modify whether to
6797match more or fewer when there is a choice, and by specifying to match
6798exactly a given numer, there is no room left for a choice.
6799
6df41af2 6800=item Useless use of %s in void context
a0d0e21e 6801
75b44862 6802(W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
be771a83
GS
6803nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
6804value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
6805often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
6806to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
6807get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
6808said
a0d0e21e 6809
6df41af2 6810 $one, $two = 1, 2;
748a9306 6811
6df41af2
GS
6812when you meant to say
6813
6814 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
6815
6816Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
6817reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
6818example, if you say
6819
6820 $array = (1,2);
6821
6822when you should have said
6823
6824 $array = [1,2];
6825
6826The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
6827while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
6828a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
6829throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
6830L<perlref> for more on this.
6831
65191a1e
BS
6832This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
6833since they are often used in statements like
6834
4358a253 6835 1 while sub_with_side_effects();
65191a1e
BS
6836
6837String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
6838about.
6839
e0e4a6e3 6840=item Useless use of (?-p) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
6841
6842(W regexp) The C<p> modifier cannot be turned off once set. Trying to do
6843so is futile.
6844
6df41af2
GS
6845=item Useless use of "re" pragma
6846
6903afa2 6847(W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
6df41af2 6848
a801c63c
RGS
6849=item Useless use of sort in scalar context
6850
6851(W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
6852
6853 my $x = sort @y;
6854
6855This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
6856
de4864e4
JH
6857=item Useless use of %s with no values
6858
f87c3213 6859(W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
6903afa2
FC
6860apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
6861usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
de4864e4 6862possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
6903afa2 6863if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
de4864e4
JH
6864you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
6865
6df41af2
GS
6866=item "use" not allowed in expression
6867
be771a83
GS
6868(F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
6869returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
748a9306 6870
36b2db7e
FC
6871=item Use of assignment to $[ is deprecated
6872
6873(D deprecated) The C<$[> variable (index of the first element in an array)
6903afa2 6874is deprecated. See L<perlvar/"$[">.
36b2db7e 6875
c47ff5f1 6876=item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is deprecated
4633a7c4 6877
8ab8f082 6878(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted
1b303a7d
FC
6879form if you wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the
6880here-document.
83ce3e12 6881
64e578a2
MJD
6882=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
6883
6884(W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
6885modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
6886
4ac733c9
MJD
6887=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
6888
6889(W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
6890use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
6891used. (This may change in the future.)
6892
2d212e86
KW
6893=item Use of code point 0x%s is deprecated; the permissible max is 0x%s
6894
6895(D deprecated) You used a code point that will not be allowed in a
6896future perl version, because it is too large. Unicode only allows code
6897points up to 0x10FFFF, but Perl allows much larger ones. However, the
6898largest possible ones break the perl interpreter in some constructs,
6899including causing it to hang in a few cases. The known problem areas
6900are in C<tr///>, regular expression pattern matching using quantifiers,
904cefa8
KW
6901as quote delimiters in C<qI<X>...I<X>> (where I<X> is the C<chr()> of a large
6902code point), and as the upper limits in loops.
6903There may be other breakages as well. If you get this warning, and
6904things aren't working correctly, you probably have found one of these.
2d212e86
KW
6905
6906If your code is to run on various platforms, keep in mind that the upper
6907limit depends on the platform. It is much larger on 64-bit word sizes
6908than 32-bit ones.
6909
591f5ca2
FC
6910=item Use of comma-less variable list is deprecated
6911
6912(D deprecated) The values you give to a format should be
6913separated by commas, not just aligned on a line.
6914
675fa9ff
FC
6915=item Use of each() on hash after insertion without resetting hash iterator results in undefined behavior
6916
f26c79ba
FC
6917(S internal) The behavior of C<each()> after insertion is undefined;
6918it may skip items, or visit items more than once. Consider using
6919C<keys()> instead of C<each()>.
675fa9ff 6920
5585e758 6921=item Infinite recursion via empty pattern
794826f4
YO
6922
6923(F) You tried to use the empty pattern inside of a regex code block,
5585e758
YO
6924for instance C</(?{ s!!! })/>, which resulted in re-executing
6925the same pattern, which is an infinite loop which is broken by
6926throwing an exception.
794826f4 6927
2dc78664 6928=item Use of := for an empty attribute list is not allowed
036e1e65 6929
2dc78664
NC
6930(F) The construction C<my $x := 42> used to parse as equivalent to
6931C<my $x : = 42> (applying an empty attribute list to C<$x>).
6932This construct was deprecated in 5.12.0, and has now been made a syntax
6933error, so C<:=> can be reclaimed as a new operator in the future.
6934
6935If you need an empty attribute list, for example in a code generator, add
6936a space before the C<=>.
036e1e65 6937
fafdadbd
KW
6938=item Use of %s for non-UTF-8 locale is wrong. Assuming a UTF-8 locale
6939
6940(W locale) You are matching a regular expression using locale rules,
6941and the specified construct was encountered. This construct is only
6942valid for UTF-8 locales, which the current locale isn't. This doesn't
6943make sense. Perl will continue, assuming a Unicode (UTF-8) locale, but
6944the results are likely to be wrong.
6945
b6c83531 6946=item Use of freed value in iteration
2f7da168 6947
b6c83531
JH
6948(F) Perhaps you modified the iterated array within the loop?
6949This error is typically caused by code like the following:
2f7da168
RK
6950
6951 @a = (3,4);
6952 @a = () for (1,2,@a);
6953
6954You are not supposed to modify arrays while they are being iterated over.
6955For speed and efficiency reasons, Perl internally does not do full
6956reference-counting of iterated items, hence deleting such an item in the
6957middle of an iteration causes Perl to see a freed value.
6958
39b99f21 6959=item Use of *glob{FILEHANDLE} is deprecated
6960
6961(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the shorter *glob{IO} form
6962to access the filehandle slot within a typeglob.
6963
96ebfdd7 6964=item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
35ae6b54 6965
96ebfdd7
RK
6966(W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
6967operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
6968repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
35ae6b54 6969
0b98bec9
RGS
6970=item Use of "goto" to jump into a construct is deprecated
6971
6972(D deprecated) Using C<goto> to jump from an outer scope into an inner
6973scope is deprecated and should be avoided.
6974
dc848c6f 6975=item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
6976
1da25648
FC
6977(D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD>
6978subroutines are looked up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy)
6979even when the subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain
6980functions (e.g. C<Foo::bar()>), not as methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or
6981C<< $obj->bar() >>).
dc848c6f 6982
be771a83
GS
6983This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup only for
6984methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base of existing
6985code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl
6986currently issues an optional warning when non-methods use inherited
6987C<AUTOLOAD>s.
dc848c6f 6988
6989The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
be771a83
GS
6990non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used
6991to depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class
6992named C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during
6993startup.
dc848c6f 6994
be771a83
GS
6995In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);>
6996you should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
7b8d334a 6997C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
a23209c7 6998
6df41af2
GS
6999=item Use of %s in printf format not supported
7000
7001(F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
7002only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
7003
6df41af2
GS
7004=item Use of %s is deprecated
7005
75b44862 7006(D deprecated) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use,
be771a83
GS
7007generally because there's a better way to do it, and also because the
7008old way has bad side effects.
6df41af2 7009
5840701a 7010=item Use of -l on filehandle%s
5a7abfcc
FC
7011
7012(W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
7013it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
7014The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
7015
7c7df812
FC
7016=item Use of %s on a handle without * is deprecated
7017
22d6fc57 7018(D deprecated) You used C<tie>, C<tied> or C<untie> on a scalar but that scalar
fa816bf3 7019happens to hold a typeglob, which means its filehandle will be tied. If
22d6fc57
FC
7020you mean to tie a handle, use an explicit * as in C<tie *$handle>.
7021
7022This was a long-standing bug that was removed in Perl 5.16, as there was
7023no way to tie the scalar itself when it held a typeglob, and no way to
7024untie a scalar that had had a typeglob assigned to it. If you see this
7025message, you must be using an older version.
7c7df812 7026
1f1cc344 7027=item Use of reference "%s" as array index
d804643f 7028
77b96956 7029(W misc) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
1f1cc344
JH
7030isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
7031to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
d804643f 7032
64977eb6 7033If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
1f1cc344 7034C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
54e0f05c 7035however, because you can overload the numification and stringification
c69ca1d4 7036operators and then you presumably know what you are doing.
d804643f 7037
4055dbce
RS
7038=item Use of state $_ is experimental
7039
7040(S experimental::lexical_topic) Lexical $_ is an experimental feature and
7041its behavior may change or even be removed in any future release of perl.
7042See the explanation under L<perlvar/$_>.
7043
87e05d1a
KW
7044=item Use of strings with code points over 0xFF as arguments to %s
7045operator is deprecated
7046
7047(D deprecated) You tried to use one of the string bitwise operators
7048(C<&> or C<|> or C<^> or C<~>) on a string containing a code point over
70490xFF. The string bitwise operators treat their operands as strings of
7050bytes, and values beyond 0xFF are nonsensical in this context.
7051
bbd7eb8a
RD
7052=item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
7053
159f47d9 7054(W taint, deprecated) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
bbd7eb8a
RD
7055arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
7056but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
7057arguments. See L<perlsec>.
7058
94749a5e
KW
7059=item Use of unassigned code point or non-standalone grapheme for a
7060delimiter will be a fatal error starting in Perl v5.30
7061
7062(D deprecated)
7063A grapheme is what appears to a native-speaker of a language to be a
7064character. In Unicode (and hence Perl) a grapheme may actually be
7065several adjacent characters that together form a complete grapheme. For
7066example, there can be a base character, like "R" and an accent, like a
7067circumflex "^", that appear when displayed to be a single character with
7068the circumflex hovering over the "R". Perl currently allows things like
7069that circumflex to be delimiters of strings, patterns, I<etc>. When
7070displayed, the circumflex would look like it belongs to the character
7071just to the left of it. In order to move the language to be able to
7072accept graphemes as delimiters, we have to deprecate the use of
7073delimiters which aren't graphemes by themselves. Also, a delimiter must
7074already be assigned (or known to be never going to be assigned) to try
7075to future-proof code, for otherwise code that works today would fail to
7076compile if the currently unassigned delimiter ends up being something
7077that isn't a stand-alone grapheme. Because Unicode is never going to
7078assign
7079L<non-character code points|perlunicode/Noncharacter code points>, nor
7080L<code points that are above the legal Unicode maximum|
7081perlunicode/Beyond Unicode code points>, those can be delimiters, and
7082their use won't raise this warning.
7083
cc95b072 7084=item Use of uninitialized value%s
a0d0e21e 7085
be771a83
GS
7086(W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
7087defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
7088To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
a0d0e21e 7089
6903afa2
FC
7090To help you figure out what was undefined, perl will try to tell you
7091the name of the variable (if any) that was undefined. In some cases
7092it cannot do this, so it also tells you what operation you used the
7093undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your program
50a39ba4 7094and the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily appear
6903afa2
FC
7095literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is usually
7096optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to the
7097C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in
7098your program.
e5be4a53 7099
67cdf558
KW
7100=item "use re 'strict'" is experimental
7101
7102(S experimental::re_strict) The things that are different when a regular
7103expression pattern is compiled under C<'strict'> are subject to change
7104in future Perl releases in incompatible ways. This means that a pattern
7105that compiles today may not in a future Perl release. This warning is
7106to alert you to that risk.
7107
e0e4a6e3
FC
7108=item Use \x{...} for more than two hex characters in regex; marked by
7109S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
675fa9ff
FC
7110
7111(F) In a regular expression, you said something like
7112
7113 (?[ [ \xBEEF ] ])
7114
7115Perl isn't sure if you meant this
7116
7117 (?[ [ \x{BEEF} ] ])
7118
7119or if you meant this
7120
7121 (?[ [ \x{BE} E F ] ])
7122
7123You need to add either braces or blanks to disambiguate.
7124
6fbc9859 7125=item Using just the first character returned by \N{} in character class in
e0e4a6e3 7126regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
ff3f963a 7127
f3ba6905
FC
7128(W regexp) Named Unicode character escapes C<(\N{...})> may return
7129a multi-character sequence. Even though a character class is
7130supposed to match just one character of input, perl will match
7131the whole thing correctly, except when the class is inverted
7132(C<[^...]>), or the escape is the beginning or final end point of
7133a range. For these, what should happen isn't clear at all. In
7134these circumstances, Perl discards all but the first character
7135of the returned sequence, which is not likely what you want.
ff3f963a 7136
6e8a73f2 7137=item Using /u for '%s' instead of /%s in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
64935bc6
KW
7138
7139(W regexp) You used a Unicode boundary (C<\b{...}> or C<\B{...}>) in a
7140portion of a regular expression where the character set modifiers C</a>
7141or C</aa> are in effect. These two modifiers indicate an ASCII
0308b42c 7142interpretation, and this doesn't make sense for a Unicode defintion.
64935bc6
KW
7143The generated regular expression will compile so that the boundary uses
7144all of Unicode. No other portion of the regular expression is affected.
7145
c794c51b
FC
7146=item Using !~ with %s doesn't make sense
7147
7148(F) Using the C<!~> operator with C<s///r>, C<tr///r> or C<y///r> is
0f44b2a5 7149currently reserved for future use, as the exact behavior has not
6903afa2 7150been decided. (Simply returning the boolean opposite of the
c794c51b 7151modified string is usually not particularly useful.)
0876b9a0 7152
949cf498
KW
7153=item UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
7154
4c2e59a0 7155(S surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
949cf498
KW
7156not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
7157U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
7158internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
7159available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
7160problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
7161came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
8457b38f 7162off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
9466bab6 7163
68dc0745 7164=item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
a6006777 7165
75b44862 7166(W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
be771a83
GS
7167C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
7168can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
7169false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
7170constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
7171C<defined> operator.
a6006777 7172
f675dbe5
CB
7173=item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
7174
be771a83
GS
7175(W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
7176%ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
7177longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
71781024 characters.
f675dbe5 7179
b5c19bd7 7180=item Variable "%s" is not available
44a8e56a 7181
b5c19bd7
DM
7182(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
7183attempting to capture an outer lexical that is not currently available.
6903afa2 7184This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the outer lexical may be
b5c19bd7
DM
7185declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has not yet been created.
7186(Remember that named subs are created at compile time, while anonymous
6903afa2 7187subs are created at run-time.) For example,
44a8e56a 7188
b5c19bd7 7189 sub { my $a; sub f { $a } }
44a8e56a 7190
b5c19bd7 7191At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current value of $a,
6903afa2 7192since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely,
b5c19bd7
DM
7193the following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by
7194now been created and is live:
be771a83 7195
b5c19bd7
DM
7196 sub { my $a; eval 'sub f { $a }' }->();
7197
7198The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a variable that has
7199gone out of scope, for example,
7200
7201 sub f {
7202 my $a;
7203 sub { eval '$a' }
7204 }
7205 f()->();
7206
1b303a7d
FC
7207Here, when the '$a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
7208being executed, so its $a is not available for capture.
44a8e56a 7209
b4581f09
JH
7210=item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
7211
120b0f81 7212(S misc) With "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable
413ff9f6 7213that you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
b4581f09
JH
7214something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
7215that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
7216front of your variable.
7217
aec0ef10 7218=item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex m/%s/
b4581f09
JH
7219
7220(F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
d0a29c36
KW
7221known at compile time. For positive lookbehind, you can use the C<\K>
7222regex construct as a way to get the equivalent functionality. See
a8f2f5fa 7223L<(?<=pattern) and \K in perlre|perlre/\K>.
d0a29c36
KW
7224
7225There are non-obvious Unicode rules under C</i> that can match variably,
7226but which you might not think could. For example, the substring C<"ss">
7227can match the single character LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S. There are
7228other sequences of ASCII characters that can match single ligature
7229characters, such as LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FFI matching C<qr/ffi/i>.
7230Starting in Perl v5.16, if you only care about ASCII matches, adding the
7231C</aa> modifier to the regex will exclude all these non-obvious matches,
7232thus getting rid of this message. You can also say C<S<use re qw(/aa)>>
7233to apply C</aa> to all regular expressions compiled within its scope.
7234See L<re>.
b4581f09
JH
7235
7236=item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
7237
b9cc85ad
FC
7238(W misc) A "my", "our" or "state" variable has been redeclared in the
7239current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the
7240previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note
7241that the earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope
20d33786 7242or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
b4581f09 7243
6df41af2
GS
7244=item Variable syntax
7245
7246(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
7247of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
7248Perl yourself.
7249
44a8e56a 7250=item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
7251
be771a83 7252(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
b5c19bd7 7253lexical variable defined in an outer named subroutine.
44a8e56a 7254
b5c19bd7 7255When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of
be771a83
GS
7256the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
7257call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
7258outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
7259longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
7260variable will no longer be shared.
44a8e56a 7261
44a8e56a 7262This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
7263anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
b5c19bd7 7264reference variables in outer subroutines are created, they
be771a83 7265are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
44a8e56a 7266
6651ba0b
FC
7267=item vector argument not supported with alpha versions
7268
8b6051f1 7269(S printf) The %vd (s)printf format does not support version objects
6651ba0b
FC
7270with alpha parts.
7271
e0e4a6e3
FC
7272=item Verb pattern '%s' has a mandatory argument in regex; marked by
7273S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1 7274
6903afa2
FC
7275(F) You used a verb pattern that requires an argument. Supply an
7276argument or check that you are using the right verb.
e2e6a0f1 7277
e0e4a6e3
FC
7278=item Verb pattern '%s' may not have an argument in regex; marked by
7279S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
e2e6a0f1 7280
6903afa2 7281(F) You used a verb pattern that is not allowed an argument. Remove the
e2e6a0f1
YO
7282argument or check that you are using the right verb.
7283
9c88bb56 7284=item Version control conflict marker
397c43d8
LM
7285
7286(F) The parser found a line starting with C<E<lt><<<<<<>,
d4e5761f 7287C<E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>E<gt>>, or C<=======>. These may be left by a
397c43d8
LM
7288version control system to mark conflicts after a failed merge operation.
7289
084610c0
GS
7290=item Version number must be a constant number
7291
7292(P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
7293its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
7294the version number.
7295
808ee47e
SP
7296=item Version string '%s' contains invalid data; ignoring: '%s'
7297
32e998fd
RGS
7298(W misc) The version string contains invalid characters at the end, which
7299are being ignored.
808ee47e 7300
7e1af8bc 7301=item Warning: something's wrong
5f05dabc 7302
7303(W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
ec8bb14c 7304you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5f05dabc 7305
f86702cc 7306=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
a0d0e21e 7307
be771a83
GS
7308(S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
7309the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
7310space.
a0d0e21e 7311
96d7c888
FC
7312=item Warning: unable to close filehandle properly: %s
7313
7314=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly: %s
7315
ab7ca7ed
AP
7316(S io) There were errors during the implicit close() done on a filehandle
7317when its reference count reached zero while it was still open, e.g.:
cc4d3128
DM
7318
7319 {
7320 open my $fh, '>', $file or die "open: '$file': $!\n";
7321 print $fh $data or die "print: $!";
7322 } # implicit close here
7323
95032a5b
AP
7324Because various errors may only be detected by close() (e.g. buffering could
7325allow the C<print> in this example to return true even when the disk is full),
d4e5761f
FC
7326it is dangerous to ignore its result. So when it happens implicitly, perl
7327will signal errors by warning.
cc4d3128 7328
ab7ca7ed
AP
7329B<Prior to version 5.22.0, perl ignored such errors>, so the common idiom shown
7330above was liable to cause B<silent data loss>.
96d7c888 7331
5f05dabc 7332=item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
a0d0e21e 7333
be771a83
GS
7334(S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
7335looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
7336term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
7337function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
a0d0e21e
LW
7338
7339 rand + 5;
7340
7341you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
7342
7343 rand() + 5;
7344
7345but in actual fact, you got
7346
7347 rand(+5);
7348
5f05dabc 7349So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
a0d0e21e 7350
0f539b13
BF
7351=item when is experimental
7352
7353(S experimental::smartmatch) C<when> depends on smartmatch, which is
7354experimental. Additionally, it has several special cases that may
7355not be immediately obvious, and their behavior may change or
675fa9ff
FC
7356even be removed in any future release of perl. See the explanation
7357under L<perlsyn/Experimental Details on given and when>.
0f539b13 7358
4b3603a4
JH
7359=item Wide character in %s
7360
c8f79457 7361(S utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting
cd28123a
JH
7362one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print). The easiest
7363way to quiet this warning is simply to add the C<:utf8> layer to the
7364output, e.g. C<binmode STDOUT, ':utf8'>. Another way to turn off the
7365warning is to add C<no warnings 'utf8';> but that is often closer to
7366cheating. In general, you are supposed to explicitly mark the
7367filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
4b3603a4 7368
613abc6d
KW
7369=item Wide character (U+%X) in %s
7370
7371(W locale) While in a single-byte locale (I<i.e.>, a non-UTF-8
7372one), a multi-byte character was encountered. Perl considers this
50ea4745 7373character to be the specified Unicode code point. Combining non-UTF-8
613abc6d
KW
7374locales and Unicode is dangerous. Almost certainly some characters
7375will have two different representations. For example, in the ISO 8859-7
7376(Greek) locale, the code point 0xC3 represents a Capital Gamma. But so
7377also does 0x393. This will make string comparisons unreliable.
7378
7379You likely need to figure out how this multi-byte character got mixed up
7380with your single-byte locale (or perhaps you thought you had a UTF-8
7381locale, but Perl disagrees).
7382
49704364
WL
7383=item Within []-length '%c' not allowed
7384
fa816bf3
FC
7385(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]>
7386only if C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes that
7387can be determined from the template alone. This is not possible if
7388it contains any of the codes @, /, U, u, w or a *-length. Redesign
7389the template.
49704364 7390
74d1b2e4
FC
7391=item %s() with negative argument
7392
7393(S misc) Certain operations make no sense with negative arguments.
7394Warning is given and the operation is not done.
7395
9a7dcd9c 7396=item write() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 7397
be771a83 7398(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 7399before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 7400
9ae3ac1a 7401=item %s "\x%X" does not map to Unicode
b4581f09 7402
27f95370
FC
7403(S utf8) When reading in different encodings, Perl tries to
7404map everything into Unicode characters. The bytes you read
7405in are not legal in this encoding. For example
b4581f09
JH
7406
7407 utf8 "\xE4" does not map to Unicode
7408
7409if you try to read in the a-diaereses Latin-1 as UTF-8.
7410
49704364 7411=item 'X' outside of string
a0d0e21e 7412
49704364
WL
7413(F) You had a (un)pack template that specified a relative position before
7414the beginning of the string being (un)packed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
a0d0e21e 7415
49704364 7416=item 'x' outside of string in unpack
a0d0e21e
LW
7417
7418(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
7419the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
7420
a0d0e21e
LW
7421=item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
7422
5f05dabc 7423(F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
a0d0e21e 7424sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
1b1f1335 7425about what you want. Your best bet is to put a setuid C wrapper around
496a33f5 7426your script.
a0d0e21e
LW
7427
7428=item You need to quote "%s"
7429
be771a83
GS
7430(W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
7431Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
7432which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
7433assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
7434what you want, put an & in front.)
a0d0e21e 7435
6cfd5ea7
JH
7436=item Your random numbers are not that random
7437
50a39ba4 7438(F) When trying to initialize the random seed for hashes, Perl could
6cfd5ea7
JH
7439not get any randomness out of your system. This usually indicates
7440Something Very Wrong.
7441
e0e4a6e3 7442=item Zero length \N{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
8a5a438d 7443
f3ba6905 7444(F) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a zero-length
8a5a438d 7445sequence. Such an escape was used in an extended character class, i.e.
fe0a3646
KW
7446C<(?[...])>, or under C<use re 'strict'>, which is not permitted. Check
7447that the correct escape has been used, and the correct charnames handler
7448is in scope. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
7449expression the problem was discovered.
8a5a438d 7450
a0d0e21e
LW
7451=back
7452
00eb3f2b
RGS
7453=head1 SEE ALSO
7454
44ecbbd8 7455L<warnings>, L<diagnostics>.
00eb3f2b 7456
56e90b21 7457=cut