This is a live mirror of the Perl 5 development currently hosted at https://github.com/perl/perl5
RE: [PATCH] Warning on pararameterless 'use IO' and doc update
[perl5.git] / pod / perldiag.pod
CommitLineData
a0d0e21e
LW
1=head1 NAME
2
3perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
4
5=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
8desperation):
9
10 (W) A warning (optional).
11 (D) A deprecation (optional).
e476b1b5 12 (S) A severe warning (default).
a0d0e21e
LW
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.
e476b1b5
GS
20
21If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
22category is included with the classification letter in the description
23below.
24
25Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
26and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
27to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
28of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
29
30Default warnings are always enabled unless they are explicitly disabled
31with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
4438c4b7 32
748a9306 33Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
4438c4b7
JH
34L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
36See L<warnings>.
a0d0e21e 37
6df41af2
GS
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.
a0d0e21e
LW
44
45=over 4
46
c133c03f
JH
47=item A thread exited while %d other threads were still running
48
49(W) When using threaded Perl, a thread (not necessarily the main
50thread) exited while there were still other threads running.
51Usually it's a good idea to first collect the return values of the
32419a4c 52created threads by joining them, and only then exit from the main
c133c03f
JH
53thread. See L<threads>.
54
6df41af2 55=item accept() on closed socket %s
33633739 56
be771a83
GS
57(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
58to check the return value of your socket() call? See
59L<perlfunc/accept>.
33633739 60
6df41af2 61=item Allocation too large: %lx
a0d0e21e 62
6df41af2 63(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
a0d0e21e 64
f61d411c 65=item '!' allowed only after types %s
ef54e1a4 66
f61d411c
JH
67(F) The '!' is allowed in pack() and unpack() only after certain types.
68See L<perlfunc/pack>.
ef54e1a4 69
6df41af2 70=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
43192e07 71
75b44862 72(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
be771a83
GS
73keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
74one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
75subroutine is not imported.
43192e07 76
6df41af2
GS
77To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
78before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
79Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
80imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
43192e07 81
6df41af2 82To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
496a33f5 83on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
be771a83
GS
84to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
85L<attributes>).
43192e07 86
c2e66d9e
GS
87=item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
88
89(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
90all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
91first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
92C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
93
6df41af2 94=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
43192e07 95
6df41af2
GS
96(W ambiguous)(S) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
97you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
98a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
a0d0e21e 99
6df41af2 100=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
a0d0e21e 101
be771a83
GS
102(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
103redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
104redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
c9f97d15 105
6df41af2 106=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
1028017a 107
be771a83
GS
108(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
109redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
110into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
111though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
112which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
1028017a 113
6df41af2
GS
114 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
115 while (<STDIN>) {
116 print;
117 print OUT;
118 }
119 close OUT;
c9f97d15 120
6df41af2 121=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
eb6e2d6f 122
496a33f5
SC
123(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
124transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
be771a83
GS
125one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
126a scalar value -- the length of an array, or the population info of a
127hash -- and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
128you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
129alternatives.
eb6e2d6f 130
6df41af2 131=item Args must match #! line
a0d0e21e 132
6df41af2
GS
133(F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
134with match the arguments specified on the #! line. Since some systems
135impose a one-argument limit on the #! line, try combining switches;
136for example, turn C<-w -U> into C<-wU>.
a0d0e21e 137
6df41af2 138=item Arg too short for msgsnd
76cd736e 139
6df41af2 140(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
76cd736e 141
8ea97a1e 142=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element
a0d0e21e 143
8ea97a1e 144(F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element, such as:
a0d0e21e
LW
145
146 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 147 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
a0d0e21e 148
8ea97a1e 149=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
5f05dabc 150
be771a83
GS
151(F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
152such as:
5f05dabc 153
154 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 155 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
5f05dabc 156
8ea97a1e 157or a hash or array slice, such as:
5f05dabc 158
6df41af2
GS
159 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
160 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
5315574d 161
6df41af2 162=item %s argument is not a subroutine name
a0d0e21e 163
6df41af2 164(F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
be771a83
GS
165name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
166error.
a0d0e21e 167
cb77fdf0
RGS
168=item '%s' trapped by operation mask
169
170(F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
171disallowed. See L<Safe>.
172
f86702cc 173=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 174
be771a83
GS
175(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
176that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
177will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
a0d0e21e
LW
178
179=item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
180
75b44862
GS
181(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
182spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
a0d0e21e
LW
183
184=item assertion botched: %s
185
186(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
187
188=item Assertion failed: file "%s"
189
190(P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
191
192=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
193
194(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
195must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
196know which context to supply to the right side.
197
2393f1b9 198=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
1b1f1335 199
49293501 200(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
2393f1b9 201the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
49293501 202
2393f1b9 203=item Attempt to clear a restricted hash
49293501 204
2393f1b9 205(F) It is currently not allowed to clear a restricted hash, even if the
49293501
MS
206new hash would contain the same keys as before. This may change in
207the future.
208
2393f1b9 209=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
49293501
MS
210
211(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
2393f1b9 212declared readonly from a restricted hash.
49293501 213
2393f1b9 214=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
49293501 215
2393f1b9
JH
216(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
217which is not in its key set.
1b1f1335 218
81689caa
HS
219=item Attempt to bless into a reference
220
221(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
222the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
223supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
224
225 bless $self, $proto;
226
227when you intended
228
229 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
230
231If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
232of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
233example by:
234
235 bless $self, "$proto";
236
a0d0e21e
LW
237=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
238
be771a83
GS
239(P internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
240that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
241outside any of those arenas.
a0d0e21e 242
54310121 243=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
bbce6d69 244
be771a83
GS
245(P internal) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of
246strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
247strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
248of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
bbce6d69 249
a0d0e21e
LW
250=item Attempt to free temp prematurely
251
be771a83
GS
252(W debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
253free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
254SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
255free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
256try to free it.
a0d0e21e
LW
257
258=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
259
e476b1b5 260(P internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
a0d0e21e
LW
261
262=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
263
be771a83
GS
264(W internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
265see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
266earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
267This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
268that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
269mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
270corrupted.
a0d0e21e 271
dcdda58d
GS
272=item Attempt to join self
273
274(F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
be771a83
GS
275impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
276to move the join() to some other thread.
dcdda58d 277
84902520
TB
278=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
279
be771a83
GS
280(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
281function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
282means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
283invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
284literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
285avoid this warning.
84902520 286
b7a902f4 287=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
288
be771a83
GS
289(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
290used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
291dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 292
dc26df50 293=item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %s
a0d0e21e 294
be771a83
GS
295(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
296or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 297S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
a0d0e21e
LW
298S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
299
7a95317d
GS
300=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
301
496a33f5 302(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
7a95317d
GS
303substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
304most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
305
a0d0e21e
LW
306=item Bad filehandle: %s
307
be771a83
GS
308(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
309symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
310open(), or did it in another package.
a0d0e21e
LW
311
312=item Bad free() ignored
313
be771a83
GS
314(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
315been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 316setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 317
9ea8bc6d 318This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
be771a83
GS
319dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
320which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 321
aa689395 322=item Bad hash
323
324(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
325
6df41af2
GS
326=item Badly placed ()'s
327
328(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
329of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
330Perl yourself.
331
a0d0e21e
LW
332=item Bad name after %s::
333
be771a83
GS
334(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
335didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
336of quotes, so
a0d0e21e
LW
337
338 $var = 'myvar';
339 $sym = mypack::$var;
340
341is not the same as
342
343 $var = 'myvar';
344 $sym = "mypack::$var";
345
4ad56ec9
IZ
346=item Bad realloc() ignored
347
be771a83
GS
348(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
349never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled
350by setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 351
a0d0e21e
LW
352=item Bad symbol for array
353
354(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
355wasn't a symbol table entry.
356
357=item Bad symbol for filehandle
358
be771a83
GS
359(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
360that wasn't a symbol table entry.
a0d0e21e
LW
361
362=item Bad symbol for hash
363
364(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
365wasn't a symbol table entry.
366
34d09196
GS
367=item Bareword found in conditional
368
be771a83
GS
369(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
370conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
371of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
34d09196
GS
372
373 open FOO || die;
374
be771a83
GS
375It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
376a bareword:
34d09196
GS
377
378 use constant TYPO => 1;
379 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
380
381The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
382
6df41af2
GS
383=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
384
385(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
be771a83
GS
386subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
387symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
6df41af2
GS
388
389=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
390
be771a83
GS
391(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
392compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
393you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 394
a0d0e21e
LW
395=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
396
be771a83
GS
397(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
398subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
399exited.
a0d0e21e 400
68dc0745 401=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
402
403(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
be771a83
GS
404implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
405occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
406be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
407depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 408
6df41af2
GS
409=item \1 better written as $1
410
be771a83
GS
411(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
412The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
413substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
414because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
415there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 416
252aa082
JH
417=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
418
e476b1b5 419(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
420(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
421L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 422
69282e91 423=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 424
be771a83
GS
425(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
426check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 427
c289d2f7
JH
428=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
429
430(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
431Check you control flow and number of arguments.
432
c5a0f51a
JH
433=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
434
e476b1b5 435(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 436
4633a7c4
LW
437=item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
438
be771a83 439(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
b45f050a 440copyable.
4633a7c4 441
6df41af2
GS
442=item B<-P> not allowed for setuid/setgid script
443
444(F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor by name,
445which provides a race condition that breaks security.
446
f675dbe5
CB
447=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
448
be771a83
GS
449(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
450iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
451which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 452
a0d0e21e
LW
453=item Callback called exit
454
4929bf7b 455(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
a0d0e21e
LW
456exited by calling exit.
457
6df41af2 458=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 459
be771a83
GS
460(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
461parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
462that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
463early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
464subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
465checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
466function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
467the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 468
0258719b
NC
469=item Can only compress unsigned integers
470
471(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
472integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
473to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
474
475=item Cannot compress integer
476
477(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress. The BER
478compressed integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you
479attempted to compress Infinity or a very large number (> 1e308).
480See L<perlfunc/pack>.
481
482=item Cannot compress negative numbers
483
484(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
485format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
486
6df41af2 487=item / cannot take a count
a0d0e21e 488
be771a83
GS
489(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
490you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
491L<perlfunc/pack>.
a0d0e21e
LW
492
493=item Can't bless non-reference value
494
495(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
496encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
497
a0d0e21e
LW
498=item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
499
500(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
501functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
502in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
503
6df41af2
GS
504=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
505
506(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
507object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
508like this will reproduce the error:
6df41af2
GS
509
510 $BADREF = undef;
511 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
512 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
513
a0d0e21e
LW
514=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
515
54310121 516(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
be771a83
GS
517ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
518didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
519object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
520
521=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
522
523(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
524object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
525defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
72b5445b
GS
526Something like this will reproduce the error:
527
528 $BADREF = 42;
529 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
530 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
531
a0d0e21e
LW
532=item Can't chdir to %s
533
534(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
535that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
536
0545a864 537=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
104d25b7 538
be771a83
GS
539(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
540nosuid.
104d25b7 541
6df41af2
GS
542=item Can't coerce array into hash
543
544(F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the array has no
545information on how to map from keys to array indices. You can do that
546only with arrays that have a hash reference at index 0.
547
a0d0e21e
LW
548=item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
549
550(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 551(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
a0d0e21e
LW
552say things like:
553
554 *foo += 1;
555
556You CAN say
557
558 $foo = *foo;
559 $foo += 1;
560
561but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
562
563=item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
564
565(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 566(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
a0d0e21e
LW
567
568=item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
569
570(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 571(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
a0d0e21e
LW
572
573=item Can't create pipe mailbox
574
be771a83
GS
575(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
576quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 577
eb64745e 578=item Can't declare class for non-scalar %s in "%s"
a0d0e21e 579
2f7e735d
AMS
580(F) Currently, only scalar variables can be declared with a specific
581class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration. The semantics may be
582extended for other types of variables in future.
eb64745e
GS
583
584=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
585
586(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my" or
587"our" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 588
6df41af2
GS
589=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
590
be771a83
GS
591(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
592a file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
6df41af2 593
a0d0e21e
LW
594=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
595
be771a83
GS
596(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
597reason.
a0d0e21e 598
54310121 599=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
a0d0e21e 600
be771a83
GS
601(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
602reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
603C<-i.bak>, or some such.
a0d0e21e 604
10f9c03d 605=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
a0d0e21e 606
e476b1b5 607(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
10f9c03d
CK
608characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
609inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
a0d0e21e 610
7253e4e3 611=item Can't do {n,m} with n > m in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 612
b45f050a 613(F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want your
7253e4e3 614regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. The <-- HERE shows in the
b45f050a 615regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e
LW
616
617=item Can't do setegid!
618
be771a83
GS
619(P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
620suidperl.
a0d0e21e
LW
621
622=item Can't do seteuid!
623
624(P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
625
626=item Can't do setuid
627
be771a83
GS
628(F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to do
629setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the form
630sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides under
631the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines. If the
632file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask your
633sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
a0d0e21e
LW
634
635=item Can't do waitpid with flags
636
be771a83
GS
637(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
638waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 639
a0d0e21e
LW
640=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
641
be771a83
GS
642(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
643point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
644line.
a0d0e21e
LW
645
646=item Can't exec "%s": %s
647
d1be9408 648(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
649named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
650permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
651C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
652architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
653can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
654#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
655
656=item Can't exec %s
657
be771a83
GS
658(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
659that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
660need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
661
662=item Can't execute %s
663
be771a83
GS
664(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
665found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 666
6df41af2 667=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 668
be771a83
GS
669(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
670is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2 671
56ca2fc0
JH
672=item Can't find %s character property "%s"
673
674(F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
89d60977 675could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property
56ca2fc0
JH
676(remember that the names of character properties consist only of
677alphanumeric characters), or maybe you forgot the C<Is> or C<In> prefix?
678
6df41af2
GS
679=item Can't find label %s
680
be771a83
GS
681(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
682possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
683
684=item Can't find %s on PATH
685
be771a83
GS
686(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
687found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 688
6df41af2 689=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 690
be771a83
GS
691(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
692found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
693script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e
LW
694
695=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
696
be771a83
GS
697(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
698that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
699nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 700
fb73857a 701 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
702
be771a83
GS
703If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have included
704unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good programmer's
705editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
a0d0e21e 706
64977eb6 707=item Can't find %s property definition %s
0103b764 708
77b96956
RGS
709(F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode property (for
710example C<\p{Lu}> is all uppercase letters). If you did mean to use a
bc45ce41
JH
711Unicode property, see L<perlunicode> for the list of known properties.
712If you didn't mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either
77b96956 713by C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, until
f91328b7 714possible C<\E>).
0103b764 715
a0d0e21e
LW
716=item Can't fork
717
be771a83
GS
718(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
719pipeline.
a0d0e21e 720
748a9306
LW
721=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
722
be771a83
GS
723(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
724between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
725Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
726the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
727account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
728the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
729the access checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
730the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
731if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
732because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
733appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up
734and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking
735routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
736shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
737only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 738
a0d0e21e
LW
739=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
740
be771a83
GS
741(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
742pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
743
744=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
745
748a9306
LW
746(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
747mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 748
6df41af2 749=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 750
be771a83
GS
751(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
752loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
753
754=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
755
be771a83
GS
756(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
757a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
758you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
759See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 760
b150fb22
RH
761=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-string
762
be771a83
GS
763(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
764"string". (You can use it to jump out of an eval {BLOCK}, but you
765probably don't want to.)
b150fb22 766
6df41af2
GS
767=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
768
be771a83
GS
769(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
770subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
771cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
772routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 773
0b5b802d
GS
774=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
775
be771a83
GS
776(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
777signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
778signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
779processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
780situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
781may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 782
6df41af2 783=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 784
6df41af2 785(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
786except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
787block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
788block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
789usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
790inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
791L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 792
748a9306
LW
793=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
794
2ba9eb46 795(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
748a9306
LW
796lexical variable using "my". This is not allowed. If you want to
797localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
798package name.
799
6df41af2 800=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 801
6df41af2
GS
802(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
803handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 804pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 805that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 806
ea071790 807=item Can't locate %s
ec889f3a
GS
808
809(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be
810found. Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC,
be771a83
GS
811unless the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you
812need to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where
813the extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
814to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
815L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 816
6df41af2
GS
817=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
818
be771a83
GS
819(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
820autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
821are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
822the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 823
a0d0e21e
LW
824=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
825
826(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
827functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 828method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e 829
d28b25d0
JH
830=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
831
832(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
3ad17c7e 833e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
d28b25d0 834
c1899e02
GS
835=item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
836
837(F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
838"Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
839that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
840
a0d0e21e
LW
841=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
842
be771a83
GS
843(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
844doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 845
3e3baf6d
TB
846=item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
847
be771a83
GS
848(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
849VMS.
3e3baf6d 850
a0d0e21e
LW
851=item Can't modify %s in %s
852
be771a83
GS
853(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
854to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 855
54310121 856=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
a0d0e21e
LW
857
858(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
859a NULL.
860
6df41af2
GS
861=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
862
863(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
864such, see L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
865
5f05dabc 866=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 867
5f05dabc 868(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
869buffer.
870
6df41af2
GS
871=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
872
873(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
874there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
875count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
876grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
877though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
878once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 879
a0d0e21e
LW
880=item Can't open %s: %s
881
c47ff5f1 882(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e
DD
883filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
884switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
be771a83
GS
885is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named on
886the command line.
a0d0e21e 887
9a869a14
RGS
888=item Can't open a reference
889
890(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
891using the 3-arg open() syntax :
892
893 open FH, '>', $ref;
894
895but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
896open is not supported.
897
a0d0e21e
LW
898=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
899
be771a83
GS
900(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
901You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
902as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
903">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 904
748a9306
LW
905=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
906
be771a83
GS
907(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
908redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
909the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
910
911=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
912
be771a83
GS
913(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
914redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
915command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
916
917=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
918
be771a83
GS
919(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
920redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
921the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
922
923=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
924
be771a83
GS
925(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
926redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
927for stdout.
748a9306 928
584d69ec 929=item Can't open perl script%s: %s
a0d0e21e
LW
930
931(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
932
6df41af2
GS
933=item Can't read CRTL environ
934
935(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
936from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
937missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
938or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
939searched.
6df41af2 940
7bac28a0 941=item Can't redefine active sort subroutine %s
942
943(F) Perl optimizes the internal handling of sort subroutines and keeps
be771a83
GS
944pointers into them. You tried to redefine one such sort subroutine when
945it was currently active, which is not allowed. If you really want to do
7bac28a0 946this, you should write C<sort { &func } @x> instead of C<sort func @x>.
947
6df41af2
GS
948=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
949
950(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
951there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
952count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
953or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
954though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
955loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
956
64977eb6 957=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 958
be771a83
GS
959(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
960file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
961the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 962
a0d0e21e
LW
963=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
964
e476b1b5 965(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
10f9c03d 966probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
a0d0e21e 967
748a9306
LW
968=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
969
be771a83
GS
970(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
971to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 972
6df41af2
GS
973=item Can't resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
974
be771a83
GS
975(F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as opposed
976to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the package. If
977method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 978
a0d0e21e
LW
979=item Can't reswap uid and euid
980
be771a83
GS
981(P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
982suidperl.
a0d0e21e 983
cd06dffe
GS
984=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
985
be771a83
GS
986(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
987temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
988is not allowed.
cd06dffe 989
78f9721b
SM
990=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
991
992(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue subroutine,
993but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl think you meant
994to return only one value. You probably meant to write parentheses around
995the call to the subroutine, which tell Perl that the call should be in
996list context.
997
6df41af2
GS
998=item Can't return outside a subroutine
999
1000(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1001there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1002
a0d0e21e
LW
1003=item Can't stat script "%s"
1004
be771a83
GS
1005(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1006open already. Bizarre.
a0d0e21e
LW
1007
1008=item Can't swap uid and euid
1009
be771a83
GS
1010(P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
1011suidperl.
a0d0e21e
LW
1012
1013=item Can't take log of %g
1014
fb73857a 1015(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
1016negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
1017standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1018negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
1019
1020=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1021
1022(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 1023negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1024with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
1025
1026=item Can't undef active subroutine
1027
1028(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1029however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1030redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1031
1032=item Can't unshift
1033
1034(F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
1035as the main Perl stack.
1036
1037=item Can't upgrade that kind of scalar
1038
be771a83
GS
1039(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1040into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1041specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1042indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e
LW
1043
1044=item Can't upgrade to undef
1045
be771a83
GS
1046(P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the totem pole, in the scheme of
1047upgradability. Upgrading to undef indicates an error in the code
1048calling sv_upgrade.
a0d0e21e 1049
6df41af2
GS
1050=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1051
1052(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1053be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1054
1db89ea5
BS
1055=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1056
1057(P) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1058table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1059for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1060
6df41af2
GS
1061=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1062
be771a83
GS
1063(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1064references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1065
90b75b61 1066=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63
GS
1067
1068(F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
1069Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1070provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1071
6df41af2
GS
1072=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1073
be771a83
GS
1074(F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1075foreach.
6df41af2
GS
1076
1077=item Can't use global %s in "my"
1078
be771a83
GS
1079(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1080is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1081(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1082have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1083weren't.
1084
c07a80fd 1085=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1086
1087(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1088You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1089and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1090Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1091lexical variable.
1092
a0d0e21e
LW
1093=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1094
1095(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1096reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1097test the type of the reference, if need be.
1098
748a9306 1099=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1100
be771a83
GS
1101(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1102references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 1103
748a9306
LW
1104=item Can't use subscript on %s
1105
1106(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1107subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
1108didn't look like an array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
1109
6df41af2
GS
1110=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1111
75b44862
GS
1112(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1113creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1114backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1115expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1116value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1117instead.
6df41af2 1118
810b8aa5
GS
1119=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1120
1121(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1122references can be weakened.
1123
5f05dabc 1124=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1125
be771a83
GS
1126(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1127with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1128Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1129
ac7cd81a
SC
1130=item Character in "C" format wrapped
1131
1132(W pack) You said
1133
1134 pack("C", $x)
1135
1136where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1137only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1138and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1139
1140 pack("C", $x & 255)
1141
1142If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1143instead.
1144
1145=item Character in "c" format wrapped
1146
1147(W pack) You said
1148
1149 pack("c", $x)
1150
1151where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1152is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1153and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1154
1155 pack("c", $x & 255);
1156
1157If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1158instead.
1159
9ddeeac9 1160=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 1161
e476b1b5 1162(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
a0d0e21e 1163
6df41af2
GS
1164=item %s: Command not found
1165
be771a83
GS
1166(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1167Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 1168
7a2e2cd6 1169=item Compilation failed in require
1170
1171(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1172Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1173encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1174
c3464db5
DD
1175=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1176
be771a83
GS
1177(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1178situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1179to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1180arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1181recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1182under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1183in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1184that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1185on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1186
38875929
DM
1187=item cond_broadcast() called on unlocked variable
1188
1189(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1190cond_broadcast() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_broadcast()
1191function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1192cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1193has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1194first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1195after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1196lock.
1197
1198
1199=item cond_signal() called on unlocked variable
1200
1201(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1202cond_signal() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_signal()
1203function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1204cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1205has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1206first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1207after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1208lock.
1209
69282e91 1210=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1211
be771a83
GS
1212(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1213to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1214L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1215
41ab332f 1216=item Constant(%s)%s: %s
6df41af2 1217
be771a83
GS
1218(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1219an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1220specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
1221corresponding C<overload> or C<charnames> pragma? See L<charnames> and
1222L<overload>.
6df41af2 1223
779c5bc9
GS
1224=item Constant is not %s reference
1225
1226(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83
GS
1227is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
1228The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
1229usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1230See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1231
4cee8e80
CS
1232=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1233
bb028877 1234(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been
be771a83
GS
1235eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for
1236commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1237
9607fc9c 1238=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1239
be771a83
GS
1240(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1241for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1242workarounds.
9607fc9c 1243
e7ea3e70
IZ
1244=item Copy method did not return a reference
1245
64977eb6 1246(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1247L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1248
6798c92b
GS
1249=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1250
1251(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1252
a0d0e21e
LW
1253=item corrupted regexp pointers
1254
1255(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1256expression compiler gave it.
1257
1258=item corrupted regexp program
1259
be771a83
GS
1260(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1261valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1262
6df41af2
GS
1263=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
1264
1265(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1266
1267=item C<-p> destination: %s
1268
1269(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
1270command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
1271redirected it with select().)
1272
1273=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
1274
1275(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
1276know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
1277
a0d0e21e
LW
1278=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1279
be771a83
GS
1280(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1281100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1282infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1283which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1284
f10b0346 1285=item defined(@array) is deprecated
69794302 1286
be771a83
GS
1287(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1288checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
64977eb6 1289array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1290
f10b0346 1291=item defined(%hash) is deprecated
69794302 1292
be771a83
GS
1293(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it
1294checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the hash
64977eb6 1295is empty, just use C<if (%hash) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1296
62658f4d
PM
1297=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1298
1299(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1300there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1301
fc36a67e 1302=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1303
be771a83
GS
1304(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1305long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1306that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 1307
3cdd684c
TP
1308=item Did not produce a valid header
1309
1310See Server error.
1311
6df41af2
GS
1312=item %s did not return a true value
1313
1314(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1315it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1316traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1317do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1318
cc507455 1319=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 1320
be771a83
GS
1321(W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some
1322such.
4633a7c4 1323
cc507455 1324=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 1325
be771a83
GS
1326(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1327variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1328seems superfluous.
33633739 1329
cc507455 1330=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 1331
be771a83
GS
1332(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1333@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1334carried away.
748a9306 1335
7e1af8bc 1336=item Died
5f05dabc 1337
1338(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1339you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
1340
3cdd684c
TP
1341=item Document contains no data
1342
1343See Server error.
1344
62658f4d
PM
1345=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1346
1347(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1348define a C<$VERSION.>
1349
a0d0e21e
LW
1350=item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1351
1352(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1353
1354=item do_study: out of memory
1355
1356(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1357
6df41af2
GS
1358=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1359
1360(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1361found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
1362name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1363because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
1364"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1365something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1366subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1367"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 1368
ac206dc8
RGS
1369=item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1370
1371(W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1372qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1373
a0d0e21e
LW
1374=item Duplicate free() ignored
1375
be771a83
GS
1376(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1377already been freed.
a0d0e21e 1378
4633a7c4
LW
1379=item elseif should be elsif
1380
be771a83
GS
1381(S) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's ugly.
1382Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method named
1383"elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
1384unlikely to be what you want.
1385
ab13f0c7
JH
1386=item Empty %s
1387
af6f566e
HS
1388(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
1389described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
1390a regular expression without specifying the property name.
ab13f0c7 1391
85ab1d1d 1392=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 1393
85ab1d1d 1394(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
1395effective uids or gids failed.
1396
748a9306
LW
1397=item Error converting file specification %s
1398
5f05dabc 1399(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 1400specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
1401single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1402an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1403conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 1404
e4d48cc9
GS
1405=item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
1406
be771a83
GS
1407(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1408expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1409is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 1410
e4d48cc9
GS
1411=item %s: Eval-group not allowed at run time
1412
be771a83
GS
1413(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1414C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
1415pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it
1416is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly
1417building the pattern from an interpolated string at run time and using
1418that in an eval(). See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 1419
6df41af2
GS
1420=item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
1421
be771a83
GS
1422(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1423assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1424pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 1425
fc36a67e 1426=item Excessively long <> operator
1427
1428(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1429Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1430filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1431variable and glob that.
1432
ed9aa3b7
SG
1433=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1434
1435(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented in MacPerl. See L<perlport>.
1436
f86702cc 1437=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors
a0d0e21e
LW
1438
1439(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1440
1441=item Exiting eval via %s
1442
be771a83
GS
1443(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1444goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
1445
1446=item Exiting format via %s
1447
9a2ff54b 1448(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 1449goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1450
0a753a76 1451=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1452
be771a83
GS
1453(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1454sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1455loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 1456
a0d0e21e
LW
1457=item Exiting subroutine via %s
1458
be771a83
GS
1459(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1460as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
1461
1462=item Exiting substitution via %s
1463
be771a83
GS
1464(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1465as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1466
7b8d334a
GS
1467=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1468
be771a83
GS
1469(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1470the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1471usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1472e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 1473
6df41af2
GS
1474=item %s: Expression syntax
1475
be771a83
GS
1476(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1477Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
1478
1479=item %s failed--call queue aborted
1480
1481(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a CHECK, INIT, or
1482END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the queue of such
1483routines has been prematurely ended.
1484
7253e4e3 1485=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
73b437c8 1486
be771a83 1487(W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3
RK
1488character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1489in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1490"-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1491problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 1492
748a9306 1493=item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 1494
be771a83
GS
1495(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1496system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1497details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1498you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
1499
1500=item fcntl is not implemented
1501
1502(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1503PDP-11 or something?
1504
af8c498a 1505=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 1506
be771a83
GS
1507(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended it
1508to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or "+>"
1509or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to write
1510the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 1511
af8c498a 1512=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 1513
2a6fd447
NIS
1514(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing.
1515If you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
be771a83
GS
1516with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you
1517intended only to read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>.
97828cef
RGS
1518
1519=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
1520
1521(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
1522as STDOUT or STDERR. This occured because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
1523previously.
1524
1525=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
1526
1527(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
1528as STDIN. This occured because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
1529
1530=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1531
1532(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
1533a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1534happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1535name.
a0d0e21e
LW
1536
1537=item Final @ should be \@ or @name
1538
1539(F) You must now decide whether the final @ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
1540a literal "at" sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1541happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1542name.
a0d0e21e 1543
56e90b21
GS
1544=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1545
be771a83 1546(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 1547some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
1548filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1549same name?
56e90b21 1550
5cd5c422
RB
1551=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex;
1552
1553marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 1554
b45f050a 1555(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if you
7253e4e3
RK
1556meant it literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
1557where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2
GS
1558
1559=item Format not terminated
1560
1561(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1562to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1563
a0d0e21e
LW
1564=item Format %s redefined
1565
e476b1b5 1566(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
1567
1568 {
271595cc 1569 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
1570 eval "format NAME =...";
1571 }
1572
a0d0e21e
LW
1573=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1574
e476b1b5 1575(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
1576
1577 if ($foo = 123)
1578
1579when you meant
1580
1581 if ($foo == 123)
1582
1583(or something like that).
1584
6df41af2
GS
1585=item %s found where operator expected
1586
1587(S) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator. If it
be771a83
GS
1588sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
1589operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
1590operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 1591
a0d0e21e
LW
1592=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1593
1594(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1595
1596=item gethostent not implemented
1597
1598(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1599because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1600on the Internet.
1601
69282e91 1602=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1603
be771a83
GS
1604(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
1605socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 1606
748a9306
LW
1607=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1608
1609(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1610C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1611
6df41af2
GS
1612=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
1613
be771a83
GS
1614(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
1615forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
1616L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
1617
1618=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1619
1620(F) You've said "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables
1621must either be lexically scoped (using "my"), declared beforehand using
1622"our", or explicitly qualified to say which package the global variable
1623is in (using "::").
1624
e476b1b5
GS
1625=item glob failed (%s)
1626
be771a83
GS
1627(W glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for
1628C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a
1629C<glob> pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
1630nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
1631resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell) is
1632broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables in
1633config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it
1634were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all
1635empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
1636think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 1637C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 1638
a0d0e21e
LW
1639=item Glob not terminated
1640
1641(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
1642a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
1643not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
1644earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 1645
6df41af2 1646=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 1647
6df41af2
GS
1648(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
1649version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
1650
1651=item goto must have label
1652
1653(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1654unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1655
18529408
IZ
1656=item %s-group starts with a count
1657
1658(F) In pack/unpack a ()-group started with a count. A count is
1659supposed to follow something: a template character or a ()-group.
1660
6df41af2
GS
1661=item %s had compilation errors
1662
1663(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
1664
a0d0e21e
LW
1665=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1666
be771a83
GS
1667(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
1668to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
1669created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e
LW
1670
1671=item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1672
be771a83
GS
1673(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
1674spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
a0d0e21e 1675
6df41af2
GS
1676=item %s has too many errors
1677
1678(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
1679Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
1680
252aa082
JH
1681=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
1682
e476b1b5 1683(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
1684(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
1685L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 1686
8903cb82 1687=item Identifier too long
1688
1689(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 1690about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
1691names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
1692of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 1693
6df41af2 1694=item Illegal binary digit %s
f675dbe5 1695
6df41af2 1696(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
f675dbe5 1697
6df41af2 1698=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
a0d0e21e 1699
be771a83
GS
1700(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
1701binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
1702offending digit.
a0d0e21e 1703
4fdae800 1704=item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1705
d5898338 1706(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
be771a83
GS
1707would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
1708when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
1709version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
1710to your Perl administrator.
4fdae800 1711
d37a9538
ST
1712=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
1713
420cdfc1 1714(W syntax) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration. Legal
d37a9538
ST
1715characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, and \.
1716
a0d0e21e
LW
1717=item Illegal division by zero
1718
be771a83
GS
1719(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
1720your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
1721meaningless input.
a0d0e21e 1722
6df41af2
GS
1723=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
1724
be771a83
GS
1725(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
1726A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
1727number stopped before the illegal character.
6df41af2 1728
a0d0e21e
LW
1729=item Illegal modulus zero
1730
be771a83
GS
1731(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
1732numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 1733
6df41af2 1734=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 1735
6df41af2
GS
1736(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
1737two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4
GS
1738
1739=item Illegal octal digit %s
a0d0e21e 1740
d1be9408 1741(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 1742
399388f4 1743=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
748a9306 1744
d1be9408 1745(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
75b44862 1746Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
748a9306 1747
6df41af2 1748=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: %s
6ff81951 1749
6df41af2 1750(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
1c4db469 1751following switches: B<-[DIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 1752
6df41af2 1753=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 1754
75b44862 1755(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
1756internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
1757delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 1758
6df41af2 1759=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 1760
be771a83
GS
1761(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
1762name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
1763didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
1764ignored.
54310121 1765
6df41af2 1766=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 1767
be771a83
GS
1768(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
1769the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
1770system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
1771times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
1772would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 1773
be771a83
GS
1774Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
1775also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 1776
979699d9
JH
1777=item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
1778
1779(F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
1780Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
1781encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
1782
a0d0e21e
LW
1783=item Insecure dependency in %s
1784
8b1a09fc 1785(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
1786The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
1787setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
1788tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
1789from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
1790such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
1791L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
1792
1793=item Insecure directory in %s
1794
be771a83
GS
1795(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1796setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
1797the world. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 1798
62f468fc 1799=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
1800
1801(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc
MG
1802setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
1803C<$ENV{ENV}> or C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> are derived from data supplied (or
a0d0e21e
LW
1804potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set the path to a
1805known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
1806
a7ae9550
GS
1807=item Integer overflow in %s number
1808
75b44862 1809(W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
1810either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
1811your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
1812On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
1813representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
18140b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
1815transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
1816internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
1817operations.
bbce6d69 1818
46314c13
JP
1819=item Integer overflow in version
1820
1821(F) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for the
1822size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
1823because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use a
1824element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by
1825trying to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like
1826100/9.
1827
7253e4e3 1828=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
1829
1830(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
7253e4e3 1831The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a
JF
1832discovered.
1833
748a9306
LW
1834=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
1835
be771a83
GS
1836(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
1837you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
1838to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
1839L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
1840Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
1841terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 1842
7253e4e3 1843=item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 1844
7253e4e3
RK
1845(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
1846<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1847discovered.
a0d0e21e 1848
6df41af2
GS
1849=item %s (...) interpreted as function
1850
75b44862 1851(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 1852followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 1853operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 1854L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 1855
09bef843
SB
1856=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
1857
1858The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
1859by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
1860
1861=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
1862
be771a83
GS
1863The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
1864recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 1865
c635e13b 1866=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
1867
be771a83
GS
1868(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
1869L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 1870
7253e4e3 1871=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
1872
1873(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
1874greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
1875C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
1876up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1877problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 1878
d1573ac7 1879=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
1880
1881(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
1882character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
1883
09bef843
SB
1884=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
1885
0120eecf 1886(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
1887elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
1888parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
1889See L<attributes>.
09bef843 1890
96e4d5b1 1891=item Invalid type in pack: '%s'
1892
8903cb82 1893(F) The given character is not a valid pack type. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
be771a83
GS
1894(W pack) The given character is not a valid pack type but used to be
1895silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 1896
1897=item Invalid type in unpack: '%s'
1898
be771a83
GS
1899(F) The given character is not a valid unpack type. See
1900L<perlfunc/unpack>.
75b44862
GS
1901(W unpack) The given character is not a valid unpack type but used to be
1902silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 1903
46314c13
JP
1904=item Invalid version format (multiple underscores)
1905
1906(F) Versions may contain at most a single underscore, which signals
1907that the version is a beta release. See L<version> for the allowed
1908version formats.
1909
1910=item Invalid version format (underscores before decimal)
1911
1912(F) Versions may not contain decimals after the optional underscore.
1913See L<version> for the allowed version formats.
1914
a0d0e21e
LW
1915=item ioctl is not implemented
1916
1917(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
1918strange for a machine that supports C.
1919
c289d2f7
JH
1920=item ioctl() on unopened %s
1921
1922(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
1923Check you control flow and number of arguments.
1924
80cbd5ad
JH
1925=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
1926
1927(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
1928neither as a system call or an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
1929
6ad11d81
JH
1930=item `%s' is not a code reference
1931
04a80ee0
RGS
1932(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of overload::constant
1933needs to be a code reference. Either an anonymous subroutine, or a reference
6ad11d81
JH
1934to a subroutine.
1935
1936=item `%s' is not an overloadable type
1937
04a80ee0
RGS
1938(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
1939unaware of.
6ad11d81 1940
a0d0e21e
LW
1941=item junk on end of regexp
1942
1943(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
1944
1945=item Label not found for "last %s"
1946
be771a83
GS
1947(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
1948of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1949L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
1950
1951=item Label not found for "next %s"
1952
1953(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
1954that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1955L<perlfunc/last>.
1956
1957=item Label not found for "redo %s"
1958
1959(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
1960that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1961L<perlfunc/last>.
1962
85ab1d1d 1963=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 1964
85ab1d1d 1965(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
1966effective uids or gids failed.
1967
69282e91 1968=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1969
be771a83
GS
1970(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
1971to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1972L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 1973
5d3e98de
RGS
1974=item lstat() on filehandle %s
1975
1976(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
1977by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
1978instead on the filehandle.)
1979
cd06dffe
GS
1980=item Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented yet
1981
1982(F) Due to limitations in the current implementation, array and hash
be771a83
GS
1983values cannot be returned in subroutines used in lvalue context. See
1984L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
cd06dffe 1985
5cd5c422
RB
1986=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex;
1987
1988marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
1989
1990(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
7253e4e3
RK
1991handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release. The <-- HERE
1992shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2e50fd82 1993
6df41af2
GS
1994=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
1995
1996(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
1997
1998 prefix1;prefix2
1999
2000or
6df41af2
GS
2001 prefix1 prefix2
2002
be771a83
GS
2003with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
2004a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
2005appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 2006"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 2007
2f758a16
ST
2008=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
2009
d37a9538
ST
2010(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
2011syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
2012obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
2013when the function is called.
2f758a16 2014
ba210ebe
JH
2015=item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
2016
2017Perl detected something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding rules.
2018
901b21bf
JH
2019One possible cause is that you read in data that you thought to be in
2020UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy 8-bit data). Another
2021possibility is careless use of utf8::upgrade().
2022
dea0fc0b
JH
2023=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
2024
2025Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
2026doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
2027
5cd5c422
RB
2028=item %s matches null string many times in regex;
2029
2030marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2031
2032(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
7253e4e3
RK
2033regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
2034shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2035See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 2036
25f58aea
PN
2037=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2038
2039(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
2040interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
2041"use" or "my".
2042
6df41af2
GS
2043=item % may only be used in unpack
2044
2045(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
2046checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
2047See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 2048
a0d0e21e
LW
2049=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
2050
2051(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 2052doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2053
3cdd684c
TP
2054=item Method %s not permitted
2055
2056See Server error.
2057
a0d0e21e
LW
2058=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
2059
2060(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
2061by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
2062ended earlier on the current line.
2063
2064=item Misplaced _ in number
2065
d4ced10d
JH
2066(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
2067separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 2068
4a2d328f 2069=item Missing %sbrace%s on \N{}
423cee85 2070
4a2d328f 2071(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
423cee85
JH
2072double-quotish context.
2073
a0d0e21e
LW
2074=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
2075
2076(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
2077"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
2078
06eaf0bc
GS
2079=item Missing command in piped open
2080
be771a83
GS
2081(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
2082C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
2083blank.
06eaf0bc 2084
6df41af2
GS
2085=item Missing name in "my sub"
2086
be771a83
GS
2087(F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
2088they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
2089
2090=item Missing $ on loop variable
2091
be771a83
GS
2092(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
2093are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
2094can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 2095
cc507455 2096=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306
LW
2097
2098(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
2099found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
2100
ab13f0c7
JH
2101=item Missing right brace on %s
2102
2103(F) Missing right brace in C<\p{...}> or C<\P{...}>.
2104
d98d5fff 2105=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 2106
be771a83
GS
2107(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
2108ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
2109were last editing.
a0d0e21e 2110
6df41af2
GS
2111=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
2112
2113(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
2114found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
2115the previous line just because you saw this message.
2116
a0d0e21e
LW
2117=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
2118
2119(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 2120constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
2121catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
2122
2123 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
2124 mod(2);
2125
2126Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
2127
c5674021
PDF
2128Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
2129is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
2130
2131 $x = 1;
2132 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
2133 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to modify the 2
64977eb6 2134 }
c5674021 2135
7a4340ed 2136=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2137
2138(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
2139subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
2140backwards.
2141
7a4340ed 2142=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 2143
be771a83
GS
2144(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
2145couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
2146
2147=item Module name must be constant
2148
2149(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
2150
be98fb35 2151=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 2152
be98fb35
GS
2153(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
2154you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
2155about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 2156
ed9aa3b7
SG
2157=item More than one argument to open
2158
2159(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
2160can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
2161list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
2162See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
2163
a0d0e21e
LW
2164=item msg%s not implemented
2165
2166(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
2167
2168=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
2169
75b44862
GS
2170(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
2171They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 2172
6df41af2 2173=item / must be followed by a*, A* or Z*
09bef843 2174
6df41af2 2175(F) You had a pack template indicating a counted-length string,
be771a83
GS
2176Currently the only things that can have their length counted are a*, A*
2177or Z*. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2178
2179=item / must be followed by a, A or Z
2180
be771a83
GS
2181(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, which
2182must be followed by one of the letters a, A or Z to indicate what sort
2183of string is to be unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2184
2185=item / must follow a numeric type
2186
be771a83
GS
2187(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '#', but this did not
2188follow some numeric unpack specification. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2189
2190=item "my sub" not yet implemented
2191
be771a83
GS
2192(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
2193that yet.
6df41af2
GS
2194
2195=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
2196
be771a83
GS
2197(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2198sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2199local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 2200
8b1a09fc 2201=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2202
e476b1b5 2203(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
be771a83
GS
2204If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2205again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
77ca0c92 2206provided for this purpose.
a0d0e21e
LW
2207
2208=item Negative length
2209
be771a83
GS
2210(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
2211length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 2212
ed9aa3b7
SG
2213=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
2214
2215(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
2216greater than or equal to zero.
2217
7253e4e3 2218=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 2219
b45f050a 2220(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
7253e4e3 2221things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
b45f050a 2222expression about where the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 2223
7253e4e3 2224Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 2225C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 2226
6df41af2 2227=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 2228
be771a83
GS
2229(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
2230scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e
LW
2231
2232=item No %s allowed while running setuid
2233
be771a83
GS
2234(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
2235setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
2236will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
2237securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2238
2239=item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
2240
2241(F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
2242
2243=item No comma allowed after %s
2244
2245(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
2246allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
2247Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
2248
0a753a76 2249One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
2250constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
2251importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
2252does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
2253explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
2254L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
2255would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
2256remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
2257constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
2258list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
2259this error was triggered?
2260
748a9306
LW
2261=item No command into which to pipe on command line
2262
be771a83
GS
2263(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2264redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
2265doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 2266
a0d0e21e
LW
2267=item No DB::DB routine defined
2268
be771a83
GS
2269(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
2270for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof) didn't
2271define a routine to be called at the beginning of each statement. Which
2272is odd, because the file should have been required automatically, and
2273should have blown up the require if it didn't parse right.
a0d0e21e
LW
2274
2275=item No dbm on this machine
2276
2277(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 2278supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2279
2280=item No DBsub routine
2281
2282(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
2283but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
2284didn't define a DB::sub routine to be called at the beginning of each
2285ordinary subroutine call.
2286
c47ff5f1 2287=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 2288
be771a83
GS
2289(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2290redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
2291find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 2292
c47ff5f1 2293=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 2294
be771a83
GS
2295(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2296redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
2297name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 2298
6df41af2
GS
2299=item No #! line
2300
2301(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2302even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
2303
2304=item "no" not allowed in expression
2305
be771a83
GS
2306(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
2307returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 2308
c47ff5f1 2309=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 2310
be771a83
GS
2311(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2312redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
2313doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 2314
c47ff5f1 2315=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 2316
be771a83
GS
2317(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2318redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
2319find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 2320
1ec3e8de
GS
2321=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
2322
be771a83
GS
2323(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
2324declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
2325semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 2326
a0d0e21e
LW
2327=item No Perl script found in input
2328
2329(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
2330with #! and containing the word "perl".
2331
2332=item No setregid available
2333
2334(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
2335your system.
2336
2337=item No setreuid available
2338
2339(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
2340your system.
2341
a67e862a 2342=item No space allowed after -%c
a0d0e21e 2343
be771a83
GS
2344(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2345immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
a0d0e21e 2346
6df41af2
GS
2347=item No %s specified for -%c
2348
2349(F) The indicated command line switch needs a mandatory argument, but
2350you haven't specified one.
2351
2c692339
RGS
2352=item No such class %s
2353
2354(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration, but
2355this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
2356
6df41af2
GS
2357=item No such pipe open
2358
2359(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
2360close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
2361earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 2362
a0d0e21e
LW
2363=item No such signal: SIG%s
2364
be771a83
GS
2365(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
2366not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
2367names on your system.
a0d0e21e
LW
2368
2369=item Not a CODE reference
2370
2371(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2372subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
2373use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2374also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2375
2376=item Not a format reference
2377
2378(F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
2379format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
2380
2381=item Not a GLOB reference
2382
be771a83
GS
2383(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
2384symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
2385something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
2386kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2387
2388=item Not a HASH reference
2389
be771a83
GS
2390(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
2391reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
2392find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 2393
6df41af2
GS
2394=item Not an ARRAY reference
2395
be771a83
GS
2396(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
2397a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2398to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 2399
a0d0e21e
LW
2400=item Not a perl script
2401
2402(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2403even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
2404mention perl.
2405
2406=item Not a SCALAR reference
2407
be771a83
GS
2408(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
2409a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2410to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2411
2412=item Not a subroutine reference
2413
2414(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2415subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
2416use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2417also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 2418
e7ea3e70 2419=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
2420
2421(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 2422doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2423
a0d0e21e
LW
2424=item Not enough arguments for %s
2425
2426(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
2427
6df41af2
GS
2428=item Not enough format arguments
2429
be771a83
GS
2430(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
2431supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
2432
2433=item %s: not found
2434
be771a83
GS
2435(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
2436of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
2437yourself.
6df41af2 2438
206947d2
IZ
2439=item %s not allowed in length fields
2440
2441(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]> only if
2442C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes. Redesign
2443the template.
2444
6df41af2 2445=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 2446
6df41af2
GS
2447(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
2448timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
2449to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
2450F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
2451need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e
LW
2452
2453=item Null filename used
2454
be771a83
GS
2455(F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
2456machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
a0d0e21e 2457
6df41af2
GS
2458=item NULL OP IN RUN
2459
be771a83
GS
2460(P debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
2461pointer.
6df41af2 2462
55497cff 2463=item Null picture in formline
2464
2465(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
2466specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
2467supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
2468
a0d0e21e
LW
2469=item Null realloc
2470
2471(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
2472
2473=item NULL regexp argument
2474
5f05dabc 2475(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
2476
2477=item NULL regexp parameter
2478
2479(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
2480
fc36a67e 2481=item Number too long
2482
be771a83 2483(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 2484about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
2485versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
2486the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
2487"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 2488
6df41af2
GS
2489=item Octal number in vector unsupported
2490
be771a83
GS
2491(F) Numbers with a leading C<0> are not currently allowed in vectors.
2492The octal number interpretation of such numbers may be supported in a
2493future version.
6df41af2 2494
252aa082
JH
2495=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
2496
75b44862 2497(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
2498(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2499L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082
JH
2500
2501See also L<perlport> for writing portable code.
2502
6ad11d81
JH
2503=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
2504
04a80ee0
RGS
2505(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
2506arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 2507
b21befc1
MG
2508=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
2509
2510(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2511which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
2512
1930e939 2513=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 2514
be771a83
GS
2515(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2516which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 2517
bbce6d69 2518=item Offset outside string
2519
2520(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with an offset
be771a83
GS
2521pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to imagine. The sole
2522exception to this is that C<sysread()>ing past the buffer will extend
2523the buffer and zero pad the new area.
bbce6d69 2524
9ddeeac9
JH
2525=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
2526
2527(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
c289d2f7 2528that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
9ddeeac9 2529
c289d2f7 2530=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
2531
2532(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
2533never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
2534call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
2535
a0d0e21e
LW
2536=item oops: oopsAV
2537
e476b1b5 2538(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
2539
2540=item oops: oopsHV
2541
e476b1b5 2542(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 2543
56f7f34b 2544=item Operation `%s': no method found, %s
44a8e56a 2545
be771a83
GS
2546(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
2547handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
2548of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
2549C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 2550
748a9306
LW
2551=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
2552
be771a83
GS
2553(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
2554was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
2555use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
2556example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
2557"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 2558
6df41af2
GS
2559=item "our" variable %s redeclared
2560
be771a83
GS
2561(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
2562in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 2563
a80b8354
GS
2564=item Out of memory!
2565
2566(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
2567remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
2568no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 2569
6df41af2 2570=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 2571
6df41af2
GS
2572(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
2573remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
2574the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
2575possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 2576
1b979e0a 2577=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 2578
be771a83
GS
2579(X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
2580insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
2581request.
eff9c6e2
CS
2582
2583The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
2584depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
2585However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
2586emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
2587is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
2588where the failed request happened.
55497cff 2589
1b979e0a
IZ
2590=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
2591
2592(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
2593is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
2594C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 2595
6df41af2
GS
2596=item Out of memory for yacc stack
2597
be771a83
GS
2598(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
2599parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
2600otherwise.
6df41af2
GS
2601
2602=item @ outside of string
2603
2604(F) You had a pack template that specified an absolute position outside
2605the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2606
2607=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
2608
be771a83
GS
2609(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
2610package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
2611some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
2612mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 2613
a0d0e21e
LW
2614=item page overflow
2615
be771a83
GS
2616(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
2617page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 2618
6df41af2
GS
2619=item panic: %s
2620
2621(P) An internal error.
2622
a0d0e21e
LW
2623=item panic: ck_grep
2624
2625(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
2626
2627=item panic: ck_split
2628
2629(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
2630
2631=item panic: corrupt saved stack index
2632
be771a83
GS
2633(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
2634there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 2635
810b8aa5
GS
2636=item panic: del_backref
2637
2638(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
2639reference.
2640
a0d0e21e
LW
2641=item panic: die %s
2642
2643(P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
2644it wasn't an eval context.
2645
290deeac 2646=item panic: pp_match%s
a0d0e21e 2647
be771a83
GS
2648(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
2649data.
a0d0e21e 2650
a0d0e21e
LW
2651=item panic: do_subst
2652
be771a83
GS
2653(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
2654data.
a0d0e21e 2655
2269b42e 2656=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 2657
2269b42e 2658(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 2659data.
a0d0e21e 2660
c635e13b 2661=item panic: frexp
2662
2663(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
2664
a0d0e21e
LW
2665=item panic: goto
2666
2667(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
2668and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
2669
2670=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
2671
2672(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
2673
2674=item panic: INTERPCONCAT
2675
2676(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
2677
e446cec8
IZ
2678=item panic: kid popen errno read
2679
2680(F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
2681
a0d0e21e
LW
2682=item panic: last
2683
2684(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
2685it wasn't a block context.
2686
2687=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
2688
be771a83
GS
2689(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
2690scope.
a0d0e21e
LW
2691
2692=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
2693
2694(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
2695invalid enum on the top of it.
2696
810b8aa5
GS
2697=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
2698
2699(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
2700references to an object.
2701
6df41af2
GS
2702=item panic: malloc
2703
2704(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
2705
a0d0e21e
LW
2706=item panic: mapstart
2707
2708(P) The compiler is screwed up with respect to the map() function.
2709
2710=item panic: null array
2711
2712(P) One of the internal array routines was passed a null AV pointer.
2713
2714=item panic: pad_alloc
2715
2716(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2717and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2718
2719=item panic: pad_free curpad
2720
2721(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2722and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2723
2724=item panic: pad_free po
2725
2726(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2727
2728=item panic: pad_reset curpad
2729
2730(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2731and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2732
2733=item panic: pad_sv po
2734
2735(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2736
2737=item panic: pad_swipe curpad
2738
2739(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2740and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2741
2742=item panic: pad_swipe po
2743
2744(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2745
2746=item panic: pp_iter
2747
2748(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
2749
2269b42e
JH
2750=item panic: pp_split
2751
2752(P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
2753
a0d0e21e
LW
2754=item panic: realloc
2755
2756(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
2757
2758=item panic: restartop
2759
2760(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
2761didn't supply the destination.
2762
2763=item panic: return
2764
2765(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
2766then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
2767
2768=item panic: scan_num
2769
2770(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
2771
2772=item panic: sv_insert
2773
2774(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
2775was string.
2776
2777=item panic: top_env
2778
6224f72b 2779(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e
LW
2780
2781=item panic: yylex
2782
2783(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
2784
dea0fc0b
JH
2785=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
2786
2787(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 2788to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 2789
7b8d334a 2790=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
a0d0e21e 2791
e476b1b5 2792(W parenthesis) You said something like
a0d0e21e
LW
2793
2794 my $foo, $bar = @_;
2795
2796when you meant
2797
2798 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
2799
54884818 2800Remember that "my", "our", and "local" bind tighter than comma.
a0d0e21e 2801
75b44862 2802=item Perl %s required--this is only version %s, stopped
a0d0e21e 2803
be771a83
GS
2804(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
2805recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
2806you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
a0d0e21e 2807
6df41af2
GS
2808=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
2809
2810(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 2811C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2
GS
2812
2813=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2814
2815(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
2816
2817 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2818 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
2819 LC_ALL = "En_US",
2820 LANG = (unset)
2821 are supported and installed on your system.
2822 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
2823
2824Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
2825settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
0ea6b70f
JH
2826This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
2827system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
2828locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
2829dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
2830Perl can and will use, the script will be run. Before you really fix
2831the problem, however, you will get the same error message each time
2832you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
2833L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
6df41af2 2834
bccbfa77
NC
2835=item perlio: argument list not closed for layer "%s"
2836
d7133549
RGS
2837(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O system you
2838forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers take care of transforming
64977eb6
NC
2839data between external and internal representations.) Perl stopped parsing
2840the layer list at this point and did not attempt to push this layer.
2841If your program didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be
2842the result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2843
d7133549 2844=item perlio: invalid separator character %s in layer specification list %s
64977eb6 2845
d7133549 2846(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other than a
d1be9408 2847colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
64977eb6
NC
2848If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2849list was terminated too soon.
bccbfa77 2850
ef0f9817
DD
2851=item perlio: unknown layer "%s"
2852
d7133549 2853(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
ef0f9817
DD
2854system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
2855internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
2856are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
2857explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
2858value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2859
a0d0e21e
LW
2860=item Permission denied
2861
2862(F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to no good.
2863
bd3fa61c 2864=item pid %x not a child
748a9306 2865
be771a83
GS
2866(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
2867process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
2868fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
748a9306 2869
3bf38418
WL
2870=item P must have an explicit size
2871
2872(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
2873
5cd5c422
RB
2874=item POSIX syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes in regex;
2875
2876marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2877
9a0b3859 2878(W regexp) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
7253e4e3
RK
2879I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
2880/[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
2881implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and will
2882cause fatal errors. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
2883where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 2884
5cd5c422
RB
2885=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex;
2886
2887marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
2888
2889(F regexp) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
7253e4e3
RK
2890beginning with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
2891If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
2892expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
2893backslash: "\[." and ".\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
2894about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 2895
5cd5c422
RB
2896=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex;
2897
2898marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2899
7253e4e3
RK
2900(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
2901with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
2902need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
2903character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
2904and "=\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2905problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 2906
5cd5c422
RB
2907=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex;
2908
2909marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2910
7253e4e3
RK
2911(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The <-- HERE
2912shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
80feea45
JH
2913Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
2914the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
2915not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 2916
a0d0e21e
LW
2917=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
2918
81777298 2919(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
a0d0e21e
LW
2920the BSD version, which takes a pid.
2921
bbce6d69 2922=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
2923
e476b1b5 2924(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
75b44862 2925strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
be771a83
GS
2926literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
2927parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
bbce6d69 2928
774d564b 2929You probably wrote something like this:
2930
54310121 2931 @list = qw(
774d564b 2932 a # a comment
bbce6d69 2933 b # another comment
774d564b 2934 );
bbce6d69 2935
2936when you should have written this:
2937
774d564b 2938 @list = qw(
54310121 2939 a
2940 b
774d564b 2941 );
2942
2943If you really want comments, build your list the
2944old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
2945
2946 @list = (
2947 'a', # a comment
2948 'b', # another comment
2949 );
bbce6d69 2950
2951=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
2952
be771a83
GS
2953(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
2954commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
2955different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
2956frequently used.)
bbce6d69 2957
54310121 2958You probably wrote something like this:
bbce6d69 2959
774d564b 2960 qw! a, b, c !;
2961
2962which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
2963commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
bbce6d69 2964
774d564b 2965 qw! a b c !;
bbce6d69 2966
a0d0e21e
LW
2967=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
2968
2969(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
2970Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
2971end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
2972Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
2973
276b2a0c
RGS
2974=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %c operator
2975
2976(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
2977with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
2978
2979 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
2980
2981This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
2982higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
2983really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, write
2984C<$x & ($y == 0 ? 1 : 0)>).
2985
18623440
PS
2986=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
2987
2988(W ambiguous) You said something like `@foo' in a double-quoted string
32b0a12e
AMS
2989but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
2990literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
2991to the array you apparently lost track of.
18623440 2992
6df41af2
GS
2993=item Possible Y2K bug: %s
2994
2995(W y2k) You are concatenating the number 19 with another number, which
2996could be a potential Year 2000 problem.
2997
8cd79558
GS
2998=item pragma "attrs" is deprecated, use "sub NAME : ATTRS" instead
2999
a1063b2d 3000(D deprecated) You have written something like this:
8cd79558
GS
3001
3002 sub doit
3003 {
3004 use attrs qw(locked);
3005 }
3006
3007You should use the new declaration syntax instead.
3008
3009 sub doit : locked
3010 {
3011 ...
3012
3013The C<use attrs> pragma is now obsolete, and is only provided for
3014backward-compatibility. See L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes">.
3015
a0d0e21e
LW
3016=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
3017
e476b1b5 3018(S precedence) The old irregular construct
cb1a09d0 3019
a0d0e21e
LW
3020 open FOO || die;
3021
3022is now misinterpreted as
3023
3024 open(FOO || die);
3025
be771a83
GS
3026because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
3027list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
3028parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
3029of "||".
a0d0e21e 3030
3cdd684c
TP
3031=item Premature end of script headers
3032
3033See Server error.
3034
6df41af2
GS
3035=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
3036
be771a83 3037(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3038before now. Check your control flow.
6df41af2 3039
9a7dcd9c 3040=item print() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 3041
be771a83 3042(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3043before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 3044
6df41af2 3045=item Process terminated by SIG%s
a0d0e21e 3046
6df41af2
GS
3047(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
3048applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
3049port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
3050L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
fecfaeb8 3051in L<perlos2>.
a0d0e21e 3052
3fe9a6f1 3053=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4633a7c4 3054
9a0b3859 3055(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
be771a83 3056declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4633a7c4 3057
ed9aa3b7
SG
3058=item Prototype not terminated
3059
2a6fd447 3060(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
ed9aa3b7
SG
3061definition.
3062
5cd5c422
RB
3063=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex;
3064
3065marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 3066
b45f050a 3067(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of the
7253e4e3 3068{min,max} construct. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where
b45f050a 3069the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9baa0206 3070
5cd5c422
RB
3071=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression;
3072
3073marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 3074
b45f050a
JF
3075(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
3076it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
3077quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
3078"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
3079C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
9baa0206 3080
7253e4e3
RK
3081The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3082discovered.
3083
89ea2908
GA
3084=item Range iterator outside integer range
3085
3086(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
3087are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
be771a83
GS
3088One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
3089by prepending "0" to your numbers.
89ea2908 3090
9a7dcd9c 3091=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 3092
75b44862 3093(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3094before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 3095
6df41af2
GS
3096=item Reallocation too large: %lx
3097
3098(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
3099
4ad56ec9
IZ
3100=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
3101
be771a83
GS
3102(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
3103already been freed.
4ad56ec9 3104
a0d0e21e
LW
3105=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
3106
be771a83
GS
3107(F debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
3108the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
a0d0e21e
LW
3109which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
3110
3e0ccd42 3111=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
a0d0e21e
LW
3112
3113(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably indicates
3114an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
3115
7a4340ed 3116=item Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method %s
3e0ccd42 3117
be771a83
GS
3118(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were encountered while invoking
3119a method. Probably indicates an unintended loop in your inheritance
3120hierarchy.
3e0ccd42 3121
1930e939
TP
3122=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
3123
be771a83
GS
3124(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
3125with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This usually
3126means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant to use
3127parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
7b8d334a
GS
3128
3129 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
3130 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
3131 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
3132 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
3133
810b8aa5
GS
3134=item Reference is already weak
3135
e476b1b5 3136(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
810b8aa5
GS
3137Doing so has no effect.
3138
a0d0e21e
LW
3139=item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
3140
be771a83
GS
3141(W internal) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with
3142a reference count of other than 1.
a0d0e21e 3143
5cd5c422
RB
3144=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex;
3145
3146marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3147
3148(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
3149not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If you
3150wanted to have the character with value 7 inserted into the regular expression,
3151prepend a zero to make the number at least two digits: C<\07>
9baa0206 3152
7253e4e3 3153The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a 3154discovered.
9baa0206 3155
a0d0e21e
LW
3156=item regexp memory corruption
3157
3158(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
3159expression compiler gave it.
3160
b45f050a 3161=item Regexp out of space
a0d0e21e 3162
be771a83
GS
3163(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
3164earlier.
a0d0e21e 3165
7a95317d
GS
3166=item Repeat count in pack overflows
3167
be771a83
GS
3168(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3169signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
7a95317d
GS
3170
3171=item Repeat count in unpack overflows
3172
be771a83
GS
3173(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3174signed integers. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
7a95317d 3175
a0d0e21e
LW
3176=item Reversed %s= operator
3177
be771a83
GS
3178(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
3179always comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
a0d0e21e
LW
3180
3181=item Runaway format
3182
3183(F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence, but it
3184produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th line looked exactly like the
3185199th line. Apparently you didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust
3186themselves, either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
3187shifting or popping (for array variables). See L<perlform>.
3188
3189=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
3190
be771a83
GS
3191(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
3192single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
3193value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
3194behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3195argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3196and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3197if you're expecting only one subscript.
a0d0e21e 3198
748a9306 3199On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5f05dabc 3200element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
748a9306
LW
3201Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
3202L<perlref>.
3203
a6006777 3204=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
3205
75b44862 3206(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
be771a83
GS
3207element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
3208(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
3209like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3210argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3211and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3212if you're expecting only one subscript.
3213
3214On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
3215as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
3216not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
a6006777 3217L<perlref>.
3218
3e2f796a
NIS
3219=item Scalars leaked: %d
3220
3221(P) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping of scalars:
3222not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time Perl exited.
3223What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which is of course bad,
3224especially if the Perl program is intended to be long-running.
3225
a0d0e21e
LW
3226=item Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl
3227
54310121 3228(F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script without a setuid
3229or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much sense.
a0d0e21e
LW
3230
3231=item Search pattern not terminated
3232
3233(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
3234construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 3235Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 3236
9ddeeac9 3237=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
a0d0e21e 3238
be771a83
GS
3239(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
3240filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
a0d0e21e
LW
3241
3242=item select not implemented
3243
3244(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
3245
ae21d580 3246=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
68a4a7e4 3247
ae21d580
JH
3248(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
3249the current implementation.
68a4a7e4 3250
6df41af2 3251=item Semicolon seems to be missing
a0d0e21e 3252
75b44862
GS
3253(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
3254semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
a0d0e21e
LW
3255
3256=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
3257
be771a83
GS
3258(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
3259scalar that had previously been marked as free.
a0d0e21e 3260
6df41af2 3261=item sem%s not implemented
a0d0e21e 3262
6df41af2 3263(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
a0d0e21e 3264
69282e91 3265=item send() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 3266
be771a83 3267(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3268before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 3269
7253e4e3 3270=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
7b8d334a 3271
7253e4e3 3272(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The <-- HERE
b45f050a 3273shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
be771a83 3274L<perlre>.
1b1626e4 3275
5cd5c422
RB
3276=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated or not {}-balanced in regex;
3277
3278marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3279
3280(F) If the contents of a (?{...}) clause contains braces, they must balance
7253e4e3
RK
3281for Perl to properly detect the end of the clause. The <-- HERE shows in
3282the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3283L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3284
5cd5c422
RB
3285=item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented in regex;
3286
3287marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3288
b45f050a 3289(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved but
7253e4e3 3290has not yet been written. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
b45f050a
JF
3291where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3292
5cd5c422
RB
3293=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex;
3294
3295marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3296
7253e4e3
RK
3297(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense. The
3298<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3299discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3300
5cd5c422
RB
3301=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex;
3302
3303marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
3304
3305(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
7253e4e3
RK
3306parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. The <-- HERE shows in
3307the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3308L<perlre>.
6df41af2
GS
3309
3310=item 500 Server error
3311
3312See Server error.
3313
a5f75d66
AD
3314=item Server error
3315
3cdd684c 3316This is the error message generally seen in a browser window when trying
be771a83
GS
3317to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The actual error text
3318varies widely from server to server. The most frequently-seen variants
3319are "500 Server error", "Method (something) not permitted", "Document
3320contains no data", "Premature end of script headers", and "Did not
3321produce a valid header".
9607fc9c 3322
3323B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
3324
be771a83
GS
3325You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by the
3326user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the user
3327account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment variables
3328(like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't in a
3329location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or less.
3330Please see the following for more information:
9607fc9c 3331
06a5f41f
JH
3332 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
3333 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
3334 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
a5f75d66 3335
be94a901
GS
3336You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
3337
a0d0e21e
LW
3338=item setegid() not implemented
3339
be771a83
GS
3340(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
3341support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3342didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
3343
3344=item seteuid() not implemented
3345
be771a83
GS
3346(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
3347support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3348didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 3349
81777298
GS
3350=item setpgrp can't take arguments
3351
be771a83
GS
3352(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
3353arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
3354group ID.
81777298 3355
a0d0e21e
LW
3356=item setrgid() not implemented
3357
be771a83
GS
3358(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
3359support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3360didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
3361
3362=item setruid() not implemented
3363
be771a83
GS
3364(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
3365support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3366didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 3367
6df41af2
GS
3368=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
3369
be771a83
GS
3370(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
3371forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
3372L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
3373
a0d0e21e
LW
3374=item Setuid/gid script is writable by world
3375
be771a83
GS
3376(F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that is writable by the
3377