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Remove the bogus "incorrect case" warning completely.
[perl5.git] / pod / perldiag.pod
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ed9aa3b7 1//depot/perl/pod/perldiag.pod#272 - edit change 14824 (text)
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2=head1 NAME
3
4perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
5
6=head1 DESCRIPTION
7
8These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
9desperation):
10
11 (W) A warning (optional).
12 (D) A deprecation (optional).
e476b1b5 13 (S) A severe warning (default).
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14 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
15 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
54310121 16 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
cb1a09d0 17 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
a0d0e21e 18
75b44862 19The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
64977eb6 20(W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
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21
22If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
23category is included with the classification letter in the description
24below.
25
26Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
27and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
28to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
29of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
30
31Default warnings are always enabled unless they are explicitly disabled
32with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
4438c4b7 33
748a9306 34Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
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35L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
36disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
37See L<warnings>.
a0d0e21e 38
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39The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
40lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
41denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
42ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
43letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
44letter.
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45
46=over 4
47
6df41af2 48=item accept() on closed socket %s
33633739 49
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50(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
51to check the return value of your socket() call? See
52L<perlfunc/accept>.
33633739 53
6df41af2 54=item Allocation too large: %lx
a0d0e21e 55
6df41af2 56(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
a0d0e21e 57
f61d411c 58=item '!' allowed only after types %s
ef54e1a4 59
f61d411c
JH
60(F) The '!' is allowed in pack() and unpack() only after certain types.
61See L<perlfunc/pack>.
ef54e1a4 62
6df41af2 63=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
43192e07 64
75b44862 65(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
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66keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
67one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
68subroutine is not imported.
43192e07 69
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70To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
71before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
72Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
73imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
43192e07 74
6df41af2 75To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
496a33f5 76on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
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77to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
78L<attributes>).
43192e07 79
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80=item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
81
82(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
83all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
84first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
85C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
86
6df41af2 87=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
43192e07 88
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89(W ambiguous)(S) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
90you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
91a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
a0d0e21e 92
6df41af2 93=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
a0d0e21e 94
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95(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
96redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
97redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
c9f97d15 98
6df41af2 99=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
1028017a 100
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101(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
102redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
103into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
104though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
105which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
1028017a 106
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107 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
108 while (<STDIN>) {
109 print;
110 print OUT;
111 }
112 close OUT;
c9f97d15 113
6df41af2 114=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
eb6e2d6f 115
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116(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
117transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
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118one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
119a scalar value -- the length of an array, or the population info of a
120hash -- and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
121you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
122alternatives.
eb6e2d6f 123
6df41af2 124=item Args must match #! line
a0d0e21e 125
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126(F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
127with match the arguments specified on the #! line. Since some systems
128impose a one-argument limit on the #! line, try combining switches;
129for example, turn C<-w -U> into C<-wU>.
a0d0e21e 130
6df41af2 131=item Arg too short for msgsnd
76cd736e 132
6df41af2 133(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
76cd736e 134
8ea97a1e 135=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element
a0d0e21e 136
8ea97a1e 137(F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element, such as:
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138
139 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 140 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
a0d0e21e 141
8ea97a1e 142=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
5f05dabc 143
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144(F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
145such as:
5f05dabc 146
147 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 148 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
5f05dabc 149
8ea97a1e 150or a hash or array slice, such as:
5f05dabc 151
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152 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
153 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
5315574d 154
6df41af2 155=item %s argument is not a subroutine name
a0d0e21e 156
6df41af2 157(F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
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158name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
159error.
a0d0e21e 160
f86702cc 161=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 162
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163(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
164that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
165will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
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166
167=item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
168
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169(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
170spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
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171
172=item assertion botched: %s
173
174(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
175
176=item Assertion failed: file "%s"
177
178(P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
179
180=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
181
182(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
183must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
184know which context to supply to the right side.
185
d496d686 186=item Attempt to access key '%_' in fixed hash
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187
188(F) A hash has been marked as READONLY at the C level to turn it
189into a "record" with a fixed set of keys. The failing code
190has attempted to get or set the value of a key which does not
191exist or to delete a key.
192
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193=item Attempt to bless into a reference
194
195(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
196the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
197supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
198
199 bless $self, $proto;
200
201when you intended
202
203 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
204
205If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
206of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
207example by:
208
209 bless $self, "$proto";
210
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211=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
212
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213(P internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
214that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
215outside any of those arenas.
a0d0e21e 216
54310121 217=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
bbce6d69 218
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219(P internal) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of
220strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
221strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
222of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
bbce6d69 223
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224=item Attempt to free temp prematurely
225
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226(W debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
227free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
228SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
229free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
230try to free it.
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231
232=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
233
e476b1b5 234(P internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
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235
236=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
237
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238(W internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
239see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
240earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
241This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
242that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
243mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
244corrupted.
a0d0e21e 245
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246=item Attempt to join self
247
248(F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
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249impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
250to move the join() to some other thread.
dcdda58d 251
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252=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
253
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254(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
255function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
256means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
257invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
258literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
259avoid this warning.
84902520 260
b7a902f4 261=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
262
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263(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
264used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
265dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 266
dc26df50 267=item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %s
a0d0e21e 268
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269(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
270or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 271S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
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272S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
273
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274=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
275
496a33f5 276(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
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277substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
278most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
279
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280=item Bad filehandle: %s
281
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282(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
283symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
284open(), or did it in another package.
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285
286=item Bad free() ignored
287
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288(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
289been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 290setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 291
9ea8bc6d 292This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
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293dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
294which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 295
aa689395 296=item Bad hash
297
298(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
299
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300=item Bad index while coercing array into hash
301
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302(F) The index looked up in the hash found as the 0'th element of a
303pseudo-hash is not legal. Index values must be at 1 or greater.
304See L<perlref>.
57079c46 305
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306=item Badly placed ()'s
307
308(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
309of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
310Perl yourself.
311
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312=item Bad name after %s::
313
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314(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
315didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
316of quotes, so
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317
318 $var = 'myvar';
319 $sym = mypack::$var;
320
321is not the same as
322
323 $var = 'myvar';
324 $sym = "mypack::$var";
325
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326=item Bad realloc() ignored
327
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328(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
329never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled
330by setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 331
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332=item Bad symbol for array
333
334(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
335wasn't a symbol table entry.
336
337=item Bad symbol for filehandle
338
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339(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
340that wasn't a symbol table entry.
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341
342=item Bad symbol for hash
343
344(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
345wasn't a symbol table entry.
346
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347=item Bareword found in conditional
348
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349(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
350conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
351of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
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GS
352
353 open FOO || die;
354
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355It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
356a bareword:
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357
358 use constant TYPO => 1;
359 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
360
361The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
362
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363=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
364
365(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
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366subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
367symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
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368
369=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
370
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371(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
372compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
373you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 374
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375=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
376
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377(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
378subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
379exited.
a0d0e21e 380
68dc0745 381=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
382
383(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
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384implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
385occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
386be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
387depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 388
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389=item \1 better written as $1
390
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391(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
392The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
393substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
394because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
395there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 396
252aa082
JH
397=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
398
e476b1b5 399(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
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JH
400(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
401L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 402
69282e91 403=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 404
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405(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
406check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 407
c289d2f7
JH
408=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
409
410(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
411Check you control flow and number of arguments.
412
c5a0f51a
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413=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
414
e476b1b5 415(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 416
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417=item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
418
be771a83 419(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
b45f050a 420copyable.
4633a7c4 421
6df41af2
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422=item B<-P> not allowed for setuid/setgid script
423
424(F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor by name,
425which provides a race condition that breaks security.
426
f675dbe5
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427=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
428
be771a83
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429(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
430iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
431which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 432
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433=item Callback called exit
434
4929bf7b 435(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
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436exited by calling exit.
437
6df41af2 438=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 439
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440(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
441parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
442that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
443early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
444subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
445checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
446function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
447the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 448
6df41af2 449=item / cannot take a count
a0d0e21e 450
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451(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
452you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
453L<perlfunc/pack>.
a0d0e21e
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454
455=item Can't bless non-reference value
456
457(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
458encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
459
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460=item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
461
462(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
463functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
464in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
465
6df41af2
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466=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
467
468(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
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469object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
470like this will reproduce the error:
6df41af2
GS
471
472 $BADREF = undef;
473 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
474 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
475
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476=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
477
54310121 478(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
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479ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
480didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
481object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
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482
483=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
484
485(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
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486object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
487defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
72b5445b
GS
488Something like this will reproduce the error:
489
490 $BADREF = 42;
491 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
492 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
493
a0d0e21e
LW
494=item Can't chdir to %s
495
496(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
497that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
498
0545a864 499=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
104d25b7 500
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501(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
502nosuid.
104d25b7 503
6df41af2
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504=item Can't coerce array into hash
505
506(F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the array has no
507information on how to map from keys to array indices. You can do that
508only with arrays that have a hash reference at index 0.
509
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510=item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
511
512(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 513(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
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LW
514say things like:
515
516 *foo += 1;
517
518You CAN say
519
520 $foo = *foo;
521 $foo += 1;
522
523but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
524
525=item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
526
527(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 528(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
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529
530=item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
531
532(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 533(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
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534
535=item Can't create pipe mailbox
536
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537(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
538quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 539
eb64745e 540=item Can't declare class for non-scalar %s in "%s"
a0d0e21e 541
2f7e735d
AMS
542(F) Currently, only scalar variables can be declared with a specific
543class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration. The semantics may be
544extended for other types of variables in future.
eb64745e
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545
546=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
547
548(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my" or
549"our" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 550
6df41af2
GS
551=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
552
be771a83
GS
553(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
554a file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
6df41af2 555
a0d0e21e
LW
556=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
557
be771a83
GS
558(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
559reason.
a0d0e21e 560
54310121 561=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
a0d0e21e 562
be771a83
GS
563(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
564reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
565C<-i.bak>, or some such.
a0d0e21e 566
10f9c03d 567=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
a0d0e21e 568
e476b1b5 569(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
10f9c03d
CK
570characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
571inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
a0d0e21e 572
7253e4e3 573=item Can't do {n,m} with n > m in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 574
b45f050a 575(F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want your
7253e4e3 576regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. The <-- HERE shows in the
b45f050a 577regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e
LW
578
579=item Can't do setegid!
580
be771a83
GS
581(P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
582suidperl.
a0d0e21e
LW
583
584=item Can't do seteuid!
585
586(P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
587
588=item Can't do setuid
589
be771a83
GS
590(F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to do
591setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the form
592sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides under
593the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines. If the
594file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask your
595sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
a0d0e21e
LW
596
597=item Can't do waitpid with flags
598
be771a83
GS
599(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
600waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 601
a0d0e21e
LW
602=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
603
be771a83
GS
604(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
605point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
606line.
a0d0e21e
LW
607
608=item Can't exec "%s": %s
609
d1be9408 610(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
611named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
612permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
613C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
614architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
615can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
616#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
617
618=item Can't exec %s
619
be771a83
GS
620(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
621that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
622need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
623
624=item Can't execute %s
625
be771a83
GS
626(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
627found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 628
6df41af2 629=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 630
be771a83
GS
631(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
632is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2 633
56ca2fc0
JH
634=item Can't find %s character property "%s"
635
636(F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
89d60977 637could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property
56ca2fc0
JH
638(remember that the names of character properties consist only of
639alphanumeric characters), or maybe you forgot the C<Is> or C<In> prefix?
640
6df41af2
GS
641=item Can't find label %s
642
be771a83
GS
643(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
644possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
645
646=item Can't find %s on PATH
647
be771a83
GS
648(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
649found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 650
6df41af2 651=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 652
be771a83
GS
653(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
654found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
655script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e
LW
656
657=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
658
be771a83
GS
659(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
660that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
661nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 662
fb73857a 663 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
664
be771a83
GS
665If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have included
666unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good programmer's
667editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
a0d0e21e 668
64977eb6 669=item Can't find %s property definition %s
0103b764 670
f91328b7
JH
671(F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode property for
672example \p{Lu} is all uppercase letters. Escape the C<\p>, either
673C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, until
674possible C<\E>).
0103b764 675
a0d0e21e
LW
676=item Can't fork
677
be771a83
GS
678(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
679pipeline.
a0d0e21e 680
748a9306
LW
681=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
682
be771a83
GS
683(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
684between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
685Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
686the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
687account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
688the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
689the access checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
690the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
691if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
692because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
693appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up
694and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking
695routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
696shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
697only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 698
a0d0e21e
LW
699=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
700
be771a83
GS
701(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
702pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
703
704=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
705
748a9306
LW
706(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
707mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 708
6df41af2 709=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 710
be771a83
GS
711(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
712loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
713
714=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
715
be771a83
GS
716(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
717a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
718you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
719See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 720
b150fb22
RH
721=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-string
722
be771a83
GS
723(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
724"string". (You can use it to jump out of an eval {BLOCK}, but you
725probably don't want to.)
b150fb22 726
6df41af2
GS
727=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
728
be771a83
GS
729(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
730subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
731cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
732routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 733
0b5b802d
GS
734=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
735
be771a83
GS
736(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
737signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
738signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
739processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
740situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
741may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 742
6df41af2 743=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 744
6df41af2 745(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
746except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
747block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
748block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
749usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
750inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
751L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 752
748a9306
LW
753=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
754
2ba9eb46 755(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
748a9306
LW
756lexical variable using "my". This is not allowed. If you want to
757localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
758package name.
759
0ebe0038
SM
760=item Can't localize pseudo-hash element
761
be771a83
GS
762(F) You said something like C<< local $ar->{'key'} >>, where $ar is a
763reference to a pseudo-hash. That hasn't been implemented yet, but you
764can get a similar effect by localizing the corresponding array element
765directly -- C<< local $ar->[$ar->[0]{'key'}] >>.
0ebe0038 766
6df41af2 767=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 768
6df41af2
GS
769(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
770handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 771pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 772that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 773
ec889f3a
GS
774=item Can't locate %s
775
776(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be
777found. Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC,
be771a83
GS
778unless the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you
779need to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where
780the extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
781to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
782L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 783
6df41af2
GS
784=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
785
be771a83
GS
786(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
787autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
788are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
789the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 790
a0d0e21e
LW
791=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
792
793(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
794functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 795method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e 796
c1899e02
GS
797=item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
798
799(F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
800"Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
801that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
802
a0d0e21e
LW
803=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
804
be771a83
GS
805(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
806doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 807
3e3baf6d
TB
808=item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
809
be771a83
GS
810(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
811VMS.
3e3baf6d 812
a0d0e21e
LW
813=item Can't modify %s in %s
814
be771a83
GS
815(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
816to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 817
54310121 818=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
a0d0e21e
LW
819
820(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
821a NULL.
822
6df41af2
GS
823=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
824
825(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
826such, see L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
827
5f05dabc 828=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 829
5f05dabc 830(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
831buffer.
832
6df41af2
GS
833=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
834
835(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
836there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
837count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
838grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
839though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
840once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 841
a0d0e21e
LW
842=item Can't open %s: %s
843
c47ff5f1 844(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e
DD
845filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
846switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
be771a83
GS
847is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named on
848the command line.
a0d0e21e
LW
849
850=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
851
be771a83
GS
852(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
853You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
854as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
855">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 856
748a9306
LW
857=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
858
be771a83
GS
859(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
860redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
861the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
862
863=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
864
be771a83
GS
865(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
866redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
867command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
868
869=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
870
be771a83
GS
871(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
872redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
873the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
874
875=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
876
be771a83
GS
877(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
878redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
879for stdout.
748a9306 880
584d69ec 881=item Can't open perl script%s: %s
a0d0e21e
LW
882
883(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
884
6df41af2
GS
885=item Can't read CRTL environ
886
887(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
888from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
889missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
890or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
891searched.
6df41af2 892
7bac28a0 893=item Can't redefine active sort subroutine %s
894
895(F) Perl optimizes the internal handling of sort subroutines and keeps
be771a83
GS
896pointers into them. You tried to redefine one such sort subroutine when
897it was currently active, which is not allowed. If you really want to do
7bac28a0 898this, you should write C<sort { &func } @x> instead of C<sort func @x>.
899
6df41af2
GS
900=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
901
902(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
903there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
904count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
905or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
906though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
907loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
908
64977eb6 909=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 910
be771a83
GS
911(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
912file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
913the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 914
a0d0e21e
LW
915=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
916
e476b1b5 917(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
10f9c03d 918probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
a0d0e21e 919
748a9306
LW
920=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
921
be771a83
GS
922(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
923to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 924
6df41af2
GS
925=item Can't resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
926
be771a83
GS
927(F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as opposed
928to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the package. If
929method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 930
a0d0e21e
LW
931=item Can't reswap uid and euid
932
be771a83
GS
933(P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
934suidperl.
a0d0e21e 935
cd06dffe
GS
936=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
937
be771a83
GS
938(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
939temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
940is not allowed.
cd06dffe 941
78f9721b
SM
942=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
943
944(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue subroutine,
945but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl think you meant
946to return only one value. You probably meant to write parentheses around
947the call to the subroutine, which tell Perl that the call should be in
948list context.
949
6df41af2
GS
950=item Can't return outside a subroutine
951
952(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
953there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
954
a0d0e21e
LW
955=item Can't stat script "%s"
956
be771a83
GS
957(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
958open already. Bizarre.
a0d0e21e
LW
959
960=item Can't swap uid and euid
961
be771a83
GS
962(P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
963suidperl.
a0d0e21e
LW
964
965=item Can't take log of %g
966
fb73857a 967(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
968negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
969standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
970negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
971
972=item Can't take sqrt of %g
973
974(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 975negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
976with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
977
978=item Can't undef active subroutine
979
980(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
981however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
982redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
983
984=item Can't unshift
985
986(F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
987as the main Perl stack.
988
989=item Can't upgrade that kind of scalar
990
be771a83
GS
991(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
992into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
993specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
994indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e
LW
995
996=item Can't upgrade to undef
997
be771a83
GS
998(P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the totem pole, in the scheme of
999upgradability. Upgrading to undef indicates an error in the code
1000calling sv_upgrade.
a0d0e21e 1001
6df41af2
GS
1002=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1003
1004(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1005be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1006
1db89ea5
BS
1007=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1008
1009(P) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1010table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1011for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1012
6df41af2
GS
1013=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1014
be771a83
GS
1015(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1016references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1017
90b75b61 1018=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63
GS
1019
1020(F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
1021Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1022provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1023
6df41af2
GS
1024=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1025
be771a83
GS
1026(F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1027foreach.
6df41af2
GS
1028
1029=item Can't use global %s in "my"
1030
be771a83
GS
1031(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1032is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1033(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1034have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1035weren't.
1036
c07a80fd 1037=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1038
1039(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1040You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1041and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1042Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1043lexical variable.
1044
a0d0e21e
LW
1045=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1046
1047(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1048reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1049test the type of the reference, if need be.
1050
748a9306 1051=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1052
be771a83
GS
1053(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1054references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 1055
748a9306
LW
1056=item Can't use subscript on %s
1057
1058(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1059subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
1060didn't look like an array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
1061
6df41af2
GS
1062=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1063
75b44862
GS
1064(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1065creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1066backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1067expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1068value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1069instead.
6df41af2 1070
810b8aa5
GS
1071=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1072
1073(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1074references can be weakened.
1075
5f05dabc 1076=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1077
be771a83
GS
1078(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1079with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1080Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1081
ac7cd81a
SC
1082=item Character in "C" format wrapped
1083
1084(W pack) You said
1085
1086 pack("C", $x)
1087
1088where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1089only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1090and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1091
1092 pack("C", $x & 255)
1093
1094If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1095instead.
1096
1097=item Character in "c" format wrapped
1098
1099(W pack) You said
1100
1101 pack("c", $x)
1102
1103where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1104is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1105and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1106
1107 pack("c", $x & 255);
1108
1109If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1110instead.
1111
9ddeeac9 1112=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 1113
e476b1b5 1114(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
a0d0e21e 1115
6df41af2
GS
1116=item %s: Command not found
1117
be771a83
GS
1118(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1119Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 1120
7a2e2cd6 1121=item Compilation failed in require
1122
1123(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1124Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1125encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1126
c3464db5
DD
1127=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1128
be771a83
GS
1129(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1130situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1131to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1132arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1133recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1134under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1135in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1136that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1137on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1138
69282e91 1139=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1140
be771a83
GS
1141(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1142to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1143L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1144
41ab332f 1145=item Constant(%s)%s: %s
6df41af2 1146
be771a83
GS
1147(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1148an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1149specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
1150corresponding C<overload> or C<charnames> pragma? See L<charnames> and
1151L<overload>.
6df41af2 1152
779c5bc9
GS
1153=item Constant is not %s reference
1154
1155(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83
GS
1156is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
1157The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
1158usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1159See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1160
4cee8e80
CS
1161=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1162
be771a83
GS
1163(S|W redefine) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been
1164eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for
1165commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1166
9607fc9c 1167=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1168
be771a83
GS
1169(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1170for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1171workarounds.
9607fc9c 1172
e7ea3e70
IZ
1173=item Copy method did not return a reference
1174
64977eb6 1175(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1176L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1177
6798c92b
GS
1178=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1179
1180(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1181
a0d0e21e
LW
1182=item corrupted regexp pointers
1183
1184(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1185expression compiler gave it.
1186
1187=item corrupted regexp program
1188
be771a83
GS
1189(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1190valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1191
6df41af2
GS
1192=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
1193
1194(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1195
1196=item C<-p> destination: %s
1197
1198(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
1199command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
1200redirected it with select().)
1201
1202=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
1203
1204(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
1205know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
1206
a0d0e21e
LW
1207=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1208
be771a83
GS
1209(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1210100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1211infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1212which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1213
f10b0346 1214=item defined(@array) is deprecated
69794302 1215
be771a83
GS
1216(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1217checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
64977eb6 1218array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1219
f10b0346 1220=item defined(%hash) is deprecated
69794302 1221
be771a83
GS
1222(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it
1223checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the hash
64977eb6 1224is empty, just use C<if (%hash) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1225
62658f4d
PM
1226=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1227
1228(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1229there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1230
fc36a67e 1231=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1232
be771a83
GS
1233(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1234long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1235that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 1236
3cdd684c
TP
1237=item Did not produce a valid header
1238
1239See Server error.
1240
6df41af2
GS
1241=item %s did not return a true value
1242
1243(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1244it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1245traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1246do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1247
cc507455 1248=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 1249
be771a83
GS
1250(W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some
1251such.
4633a7c4 1252
cc507455 1253=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 1254
be771a83
GS
1255(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1256variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1257seems superfluous.
33633739 1258
cc507455 1259=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 1260
be771a83
GS
1261(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1262@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1263carried away.
748a9306 1264
7e1af8bc 1265=item Died
5f05dabc 1266
1267(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1268you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
1269
3cdd684c
TP
1270=item Document contains no data
1271
1272See Server error.
1273
62658f4d
PM
1274=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1275
1276(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1277define a C<$VERSION.>
1278
a0d0e21e
LW
1279=item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1280
1281(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1282
1283=item do_study: out of memory
1284
1285(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1286
6df41af2
GS
1287=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1288
1289(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1290found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
1291name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1292because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
1293"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1294something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1295subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1296"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 1297
ac206dc8
RGS
1298=item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1299
1300(W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1301qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1302
a0d0e21e
LW
1303=item Duplicate free() ignored
1304
be771a83
GS
1305(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1306already been freed.
a0d0e21e 1307
4633a7c4
LW
1308=item elseif should be elsif
1309
be771a83
GS
1310(S) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's ugly.
1311Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method named
1312"elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
1313unlikely to be what you want.
1314
ab13f0c7
JH
1315=item Empty %s
1316
1317(F) Empty C<\p{}> or C<\P{}>.
1318
85ab1d1d 1319=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 1320
85ab1d1d 1321(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
1322effective uids or gids failed.
1323
748a9306
LW
1324=item Error converting file specification %s
1325
5f05dabc 1326(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 1327specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
1328single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1329an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1330conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 1331
e4d48cc9
GS
1332=item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
1333
be771a83
GS
1334(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1335expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1336is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 1337
e4d48cc9
GS
1338=item %s: Eval-group not allowed at run time
1339
be771a83
GS
1340(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1341C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
1342pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it
1343is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly
1344building the pattern from an interpolated string at run time and using
1345that in an eval(). See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 1346
6df41af2
GS
1347=item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
1348
be771a83
GS
1349(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1350assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1351pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 1352
fc36a67e 1353=item Excessively long <> operator
1354
1355(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1356Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1357filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1358variable and glob that.
1359
ed9aa3b7
SG
1360=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1361
1362(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented in MacPerl. See L<perlport>.
1363
f86702cc 1364=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors
a0d0e21e
LW
1365
1366(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1367
1368=item Exiting eval via %s
1369
be771a83
GS
1370(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1371goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
1372
1373=item Exiting format via %s
1374
be771a83
GS
1375(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1376goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1377
0a753a76 1378=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1379
be771a83
GS
1380(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1381sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1382loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 1383
a0d0e21e
LW
1384=item Exiting subroutine via %s
1385
be771a83
GS
1386(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1387as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
1388
1389=item Exiting substitution via %s
1390
be771a83
GS
1391(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1392as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1393
7b8d334a
GS
1394=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1395
be771a83
GS
1396(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1397the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1398usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1399e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 1400
6df41af2
GS
1401=item %s: Expression syntax
1402
be771a83
GS
1403(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1404Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
1405
1406=item %s failed--call queue aborted
1407
1408(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a CHECK, INIT, or
1409END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the queue of such
1410routines has been prematurely ended.
1411
7253e4e3 1412=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
73b437c8 1413
be771a83 1414(W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3
RK
1415character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1416in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1417"-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1418problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 1419
748a9306 1420=item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 1421
be771a83
GS
1422(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1423system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1424details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1425you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
1426
1427=item fcntl is not implemented
1428
1429(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1430PDP-11 or something?
1431
af8c498a 1432=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 1433
be771a83
GS
1434(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended it
1435to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or "+>"
1436or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to write
1437the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 1438
af8c498a 1439=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 1440
be771a83
GS
1441(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing. If
1442you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
1443with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you
1444intended only to read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e
LW
1445
1446=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1447
1448(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
1449a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1450happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1451name.
a0d0e21e
LW
1452
1453=item Final @ should be \@ or @name
1454
1455(F) You must now decide whether the final @ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
1456a literal "at" sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1457happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1458name.
a0d0e21e 1459
56e90b21
GS
1460=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1461
be771a83 1462(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 1463some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
1464filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1465same name?
56e90b21 1466
5cd5c422
RB
1467=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex;
1468
1469marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 1470
b45f050a 1471(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if you
7253e4e3
RK
1472meant it literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
1473where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2
GS
1474
1475=item Format not terminated
1476
1477(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1478to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1479
a0d0e21e
LW
1480=item Format %s redefined
1481
e476b1b5 1482(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
1483
1484 {
271595cc 1485 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
1486 eval "format NAME =...";
1487 }
1488
a0d0e21e
LW
1489=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1490
e476b1b5 1491(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
1492
1493 if ($foo = 123)
1494
1495when you meant
1496
1497 if ($foo == 123)
1498
1499(or something like that).
1500
6df41af2
GS
1501=item %s found where operator expected
1502
1503(S) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator. If it
be771a83
GS
1504sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
1505operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
1506operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 1507
a0d0e21e
LW
1508=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1509
1510(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1511
1512=item gethostent not implemented
1513
1514(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1515because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1516on the Internet.
1517
69282e91 1518=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1519
be771a83
GS
1520(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
1521socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 1522
748a9306
LW
1523=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1524
1525(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1526C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1527
6df41af2
GS
1528=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
1529
be771a83
GS
1530(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
1531forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
1532L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
1533
1534=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1535
1536(F) You've said "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables
1537must either be lexically scoped (using "my"), declared beforehand using
1538"our", or explicitly qualified to say which package the global variable
1539is in (using "::").
1540
e476b1b5
GS
1541=item glob failed (%s)
1542
be771a83
GS
1543(W glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for
1544C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a
1545C<glob> pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
1546nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
1547resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell) is
1548broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables in
1549config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it
1550were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all
1551empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
1552think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 1553C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 1554
a0d0e21e
LW
1555=item Glob not terminated
1556
1557(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
1558a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
1559not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
1560earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 1561
6df41af2 1562=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 1563
6df41af2
GS
1564(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
1565version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
1566
1567=item goto must have label
1568
1569(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1570unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1571
18529408
IZ
1572=item %s-group starts with a count
1573
1574(F) In pack/unpack a ()-group started with a count. A count is
1575supposed to follow something: a template character or a ()-group.
1576
6df41af2
GS
1577=item %s had compilation errors
1578
1579(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
1580
a0d0e21e
LW
1581=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1582
be771a83
GS
1583(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
1584to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
1585created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e
LW
1586
1587=item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1588
be771a83
GS
1589(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
1590spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
a0d0e21e 1591
6df41af2
GS
1592=item %s has too many errors
1593
1594(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
1595Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
1596
252aa082
JH
1597=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
1598
e476b1b5 1599(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
1600(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
1601L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 1602
8903cb82 1603=item Identifier too long
1604
1605(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 1606about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
1607names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
1608of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 1609
6df41af2 1610=item Illegal binary digit %s
f675dbe5 1611
6df41af2 1612(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
f675dbe5 1613
6df41af2 1614=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
a0d0e21e 1615
be771a83
GS
1616(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
1617binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
1618offending digit.
a0d0e21e 1619
4fdae800 1620=item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1621
d5898338 1622(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
be771a83
GS
1623would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
1624when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
1625version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
1626to your Perl administrator.
4fdae800 1627
d37a9538
ST
1628=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
1629
420cdfc1 1630(W syntax) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration. Legal
d37a9538
ST
1631characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, and \.
1632
a0d0e21e
LW
1633=item Illegal division by zero
1634
be771a83
GS
1635(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
1636your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
1637meaningless input.
a0d0e21e 1638
6df41af2
GS
1639=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
1640
be771a83
GS
1641(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
1642A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
1643number stopped before the illegal character.
6df41af2 1644
a0d0e21e
LW
1645=item Illegal modulus zero
1646
be771a83
GS
1647(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
1648numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 1649
6df41af2 1650=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 1651
6df41af2
GS
1652(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
1653two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4
GS
1654
1655=item Illegal octal digit %s
a0d0e21e 1656
d1be9408 1657(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 1658
399388f4 1659=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
748a9306 1660
d1be9408 1661(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
75b44862 1662Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
748a9306 1663
6df41af2 1664=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: %s
6ff81951 1665
6df41af2 1666(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
1c4db469 1667following switches: B<-[DIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 1668
6df41af2 1669=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 1670
75b44862 1671(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
1672internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
1673delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 1674
6df41af2 1675=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 1676
be771a83
GS
1677(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
1678name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
1679didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
1680ignored.
54310121 1681
6df41af2 1682=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 1683
be771a83
GS
1684(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
1685the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
1686system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
1687times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
1688would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 1689
be771a83
GS
1690Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
1691also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 1692
a0d0e21e
LW
1693=item Insecure dependency in %s
1694
8b1a09fc 1695(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
1696The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
1697setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
1698tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
1699from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
1700such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
1701L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
1702
1703=item Insecure directory in %s
1704
be771a83
GS
1705(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1706setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
1707the world. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 1708
62f468fc 1709=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
1710
1711(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc
MG
1712setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
1713C<$ENV{ENV}> or C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> are derived from data supplied (or
a0d0e21e
LW
1714potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set the path to a
1715known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
1716
a7ae9550
GS
1717=item Integer overflow in %s number
1718
75b44862 1719(W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
1720either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
1721your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
1722On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
1723representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
17240b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
1725transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
1726internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
1727operations.
bbce6d69 1728
7253e4e3 1729=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
1730
1731(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
7253e4e3 1732The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a
JF
1733discovered.
1734
748a9306
LW
1735=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
1736
be771a83
GS
1737(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
1738you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
1739to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
1740L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
1741Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
1742terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 1743
7253e4e3 1744=item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 1745
7253e4e3
RK
1746(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
1747<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1748discovered.
a0d0e21e 1749
6df41af2
GS
1750=item %s (...) interpreted as function
1751
75b44862 1752(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 1753followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 1754operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 1755L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 1756
09bef843
SB
1757=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
1758
1759The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
1760by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
1761
1762=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
1763
be771a83
GS
1764The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
1765recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 1766
c635e13b 1767=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
1768
be771a83
GS
1769(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
1770L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 1771
7253e4e3 1772=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
1773
1774(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
1775greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
1776C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
1777up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1778problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 1779
7253e4e3 1780=item Invalid [] range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
1781
1782(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
1783character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
1784
09bef843
SB
1785=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
1786
0120eecf 1787(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
1788elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
1789parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
1790See L<attributes>.
09bef843 1791
96e4d5b1 1792=item Invalid type in pack: '%s'
1793
8903cb82 1794(F) The given character is not a valid pack type. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
be771a83
GS
1795(W pack) The given character is not a valid pack type but used to be
1796silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 1797
1798=item Invalid type in unpack: '%s'
1799
be771a83
GS
1800(F) The given character is not a valid unpack type. See
1801L<perlfunc/unpack>.
75b44862
GS
1802(W unpack) The given character is not a valid unpack type but used to be
1803silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 1804
a0d0e21e
LW
1805=item ioctl is not implemented
1806
1807(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
1808strange for a machine that supports C.
1809
c289d2f7
JH
1810=item ioctl() on unopened %s
1811
1812(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
1813Check you control flow and number of arguments.
1814
80cbd5ad
JH
1815=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
1816
1817(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
1818neither as a system call or an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
1819
6ad11d81
JH
1820=item `%s' is not a code reference
1821
04a80ee0
RGS
1822(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of overload::constant
1823needs to be a code reference. Either an anonymous subroutine, or a reference
6ad11d81
JH
1824to a subroutine.
1825
1826=item `%s' is not an overloadable type
1827
04a80ee0
RGS
1828(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
1829unaware of.
6ad11d81 1830
a0d0e21e
LW
1831=item junk on end of regexp
1832
1833(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
1834
1835=item Label not found for "last %s"
1836
be771a83
GS
1837(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
1838of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1839L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
1840
1841=item Label not found for "next %s"
1842
1843(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
1844that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1845L<perlfunc/last>.
1846
1847=item Label not found for "redo %s"
1848
1849(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
1850that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1851L<perlfunc/last>.
1852
85ab1d1d 1853=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 1854
85ab1d1d 1855(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
1856effective uids or gids failed.
1857
69282e91 1858=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1859
be771a83
GS
1860(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
1861to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1862L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 1863
5d3e98de
RGS
1864=item lstat() on filehandle %s
1865
1866(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
1867by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
1868instead on the filehandle.)
1869
cd06dffe
GS
1870=item Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented yet
1871
1872(F) Due to limitations in the current implementation, array and hash
be771a83
GS
1873values cannot be returned in subroutines used in lvalue context. See
1874L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
cd06dffe 1875
5cd5c422
RB
1876=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex;
1877
1878marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
1879
1880(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
7253e4e3
RK
1881handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release. The <-- HERE
1882shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2e50fd82 1883
6df41af2
GS
1884=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
1885
1886(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
1887
1888 prefix1;prefix2
1889
1890or
6df41af2
GS
1891 prefix1 prefix2
1892
be771a83
GS
1893with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
1894a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
1895appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 1896"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 1897
2f758a16
ST
1898=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
1899
d37a9538
ST
1900(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
1901syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
1902obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
1903when the function is called.
2f758a16 1904
ba210ebe
JH
1905=item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
1906
1907Perl detected something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding rules.
1908
dea0fc0b
JH
1909=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
1910
1911Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
1912doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
1913
5cd5c422
RB
1914=item %s matches null string many times in regex;
1915
1916marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
1917
1918(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
7253e4e3
RK
1919regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
1920shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
1921See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 1922
25f58aea
PN
1923=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
1924
1925(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
1926interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
1927"use" or "my".
1928
6df41af2
GS
1929=item % may only be used in unpack
1930
1931(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
1932checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
1933See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 1934
a0d0e21e
LW
1935=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
1936
1937(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 1938doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 1939
3cdd684c
TP
1940=item Method %s not permitted
1941
1942See Server error.
1943
a0d0e21e
LW
1944=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
1945
1946(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
1947by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
1948ended earlier on the current line.
1949
1950=item Misplaced _ in number
1951
d4ced10d
JH
1952(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
1953separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 1954
4a2d328f 1955=item Missing %sbrace%s on \N{}
423cee85 1956
4a2d328f 1957(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
423cee85
JH
1958double-quotish context.
1959
a0d0e21e
LW
1960=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
1961
1962(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
1963"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
1964
06eaf0bc
GS
1965=item Missing command in piped open
1966
be771a83
GS
1967(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
1968C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
1969blank.
06eaf0bc 1970
6df41af2
GS
1971=item Missing name in "my sub"
1972
be771a83
GS
1973(F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
1974they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
1975
1976=item Missing $ on loop variable
1977
be771a83
GS
1978(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
1979are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
1980can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 1981
cc507455 1982=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306
LW
1983
1984(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1985found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
1986
ab13f0c7
JH
1987=item Missing right brace on %s
1988
1989(F) Missing right brace in C<\p{...}> or C<\P{...}>.
1990
d98d5fff 1991=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 1992
be771a83
GS
1993(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
1994ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
1995were last editing.
a0d0e21e 1996
6df41af2
GS
1997=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
1998
1999(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
2000found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
2001the previous line just because you saw this message.
2002
a0d0e21e
LW
2003=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
2004
2005(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 2006constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
2007catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
2008
2009 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
2010 mod(2);
2011
2012Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
2013
c5674021
PDF
2014Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
2015is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
2016
2017 $x = 1;
2018 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
2019 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to modify the 2
64977eb6 2020 }
c5674021 2021
7a4340ed 2022=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2023
2024(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
2025subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
2026backwards.
2027
7a4340ed 2028=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 2029
be771a83
GS
2030(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
2031couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
2032
2033=item Module name must be constant
2034
2035(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
2036
be98fb35 2037=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 2038
be98fb35
GS
2039(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
2040you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
2041about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 2042
ed9aa3b7
SG
2043=item More than one argument to open
2044
2045(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
2046can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
2047list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
2048See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
2049
a0d0e21e
LW
2050=item msg%s not implemented
2051
2052(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
2053
2054=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
2055
75b44862
GS
2056(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
2057They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 2058
6df41af2 2059=item / must be followed by a*, A* or Z*
09bef843 2060
6df41af2 2061(F) You had a pack template indicating a counted-length string,
be771a83
GS
2062Currently the only things that can have their length counted are a*, A*
2063or Z*. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2064
2065=item / must be followed by a, A or Z
2066
be771a83
GS
2067(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, which
2068must be followed by one of the letters a, A or Z to indicate what sort
2069of string is to be unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2070
2071=item / must follow a numeric type
2072
be771a83
GS
2073(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '#', but this did not
2074follow some numeric unpack specification. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2075
2076=item "my sub" not yet implemented
2077
be771a83
GS
2078(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
2079that yet.
6df41af2
GS
2080
2081=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
2082
be771a83
GS
2083(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2084sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2085local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 2086
8b1a09fc 2087=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2088
e476b1b5 2089(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
be771a83
GS
2090If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2091again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
77ca0c92 2092provided for this purpose.
a0d0e21e
LW
2093
2094=item Negative length
2095
be771a83
GS
2096(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
2097length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 2098
ed9aa3b7
SG
2099=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
2100
2101(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
2102greater than or equal to zero.
2103
7253e4e3 2104=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 2105
b45f050a 2106(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
7253e4e3 2107things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
b45f050a 2108expression about where the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 2109
7253e4e3 2110Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 2111C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 2112
6df41af2 2113=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 2114
be771a83
GS
2115(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
2116scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e
LW
2117
2118=item No %s allowed while running setuid
2119
be771a83
GS
2120(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
2121setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
2122will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
2123securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2124
2125=item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
2126
2127(F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
2128
2129=item No comma allowed after %s
2130
2131(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
2132allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
2133Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
2134
0a753a76 2135One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
2136constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
2137importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
2138does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
2139explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
2140L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
2141would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
2142remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
2143constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
2144list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
2145this error was triggered?
2146
748a9306
LW
2147=item No command into which to pipe on command line
2148
be771a83
GS
2149(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2150redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
2151doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 2152
a0d0e21e
LW
2153=item No DB::DB routine defined
2154
be771a83
GS
2155(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
2156for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof) didn't
2157define a routine to be called at the beginning of each statement. Which
2158is odd, because the file should have been required automatically, and
2159should have blown up the require if it didn't parse right.
a0d0e21e
LW
2160
2161=item No dbm on this machine
2162
2163(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 2164supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2165
2166=item No DBsub routine
2167
2168(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
2169but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
2170didn't define a DB::sub routine to be called at the beginning of each
2171ordinary subroutine call.
2172
c47ff5f1 2173=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 2174
be771a83
GS
2175(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2176redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
2177find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 2178
c47ff5f1 2179=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 2180
be771a83
GS
2181(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2182redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
2183name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 2184
6df41af2
GS
2185=item No #! line
2186
2187(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2188even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
2189
2190=item "no" not allowed in expression
2191
be771a83
GS
2192(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
2193returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 2194
c47ff5f1 2195=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 2196
be771a83
GS
2197(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2198redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
2199doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 2200
c47ff5f1 2201=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 2202
be771a83
GS
2203(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2204redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
2205find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 2206
1ec3e8de
GS
2207=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
2208
be771a83
GS
2209(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
2210declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
2211semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 2212
a0d0e21e
LW
2213=item No Perl script found in input
2214
2215(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
2216with #! and containing the word "perl".
2217
2218=item No setregid available
2219
2220(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
2221your system.
2222
2223=item No setreuid available
2224
2225(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
2226your system.
2227
a67e862a 2228=item No space allowed after -%c
a0d0e21e 2229
be771a83
GS
2230(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2231immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
a0d0e21e 2232
6df41af2
GS
2233=item No %s specified for -%c
2234
2235(F) The indicated command line switch needs a mandatory argument, but
2236you haven't specified one.
2237
2c692339
RGS
2238=item No such class %s
2239
2240(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration, but
2241this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
2242
6df41af2
GS
2243=item No such pipe open
2244
2245(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
2246close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
2247earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 2248
88e9b055 2249=item No such pseudo-hash field "%s"
57079c46 2250
88e9b055 2251(F) You tried to access an array as a hash, but the field name used is
57079c46
GA
2252not defined. The hash at index 0 should map all valid field names to
2253array indices for that to work.
2254
88e9b055 2255=item No such pseudo-hash field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
f1192cee 2256
be771a83
GS
2257(F) You tried to access a field of a typed variable where the type does
2258not know about the field name. The field names are looked up in the
2259%FIELDS hash in the type package at compile time. The %FIELDS hash is
2260%usually set up with the 'fields' pragma.
f1192cee 2261
a0d0e21e
LW
2262=item No such signal: SIG%s
2263
be771a83
GS
2264(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
2265not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
2266names on your system.
a0d0e21e
LW
2267
2268=item Not a CODE reference
2269
2270(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2271subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
2272use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2273also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2274
2275=item Not a format reference
2276
2277(F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
2278format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
2279
2280=item Not a GLOB reference
2281
be771a83
GS
2282(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
2283symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
2284something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
2285kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2286
2287=item Not a HASH reference
2288
be771a83
GS
2289(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
2290reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
2291find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 2292
6df41af2
GS
2293=item Not an ARRAY reference
2294
be771a83
GS
2295(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
2296a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2297to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 2298
a0d0e21e
LW
2299=item Not a perl script
2300
2301(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2302even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
2303mention perl.
2304
2305=item Not a SCALAR reference
2306
be771a83
GS
2307(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
2308a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2309to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2310
2311=item Not a subroutine reference
2312
2313(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2314subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
2315use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2316also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 2317
e7ea3e70 2318=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
2319
2320(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 2321doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2322
a0d0e21e
LW
2323=item Not enough arguments for %s
2324
2325(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
2326
6df41af2
GS
2327=item Not enough format arguments
2328
be771a83
GS
2329(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
2330supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
2331
2332=item %s: not found
2333
be771a83
GS
2334(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
2335of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
2336yourself.
6df41af2 2337
206947d2
IZ
2338=item %s not allowed in length fields
2339
2340(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]> only if
2341C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes. Redesign
2342the template.
2343
6df41af2 2344=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 2345
6df41af2
GS
2346(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
2347timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
2348to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
2349F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
2350need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e
LW
2351
2352=item Null filename used
2353
be771a83
GS
2354(F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
2355machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
a0d0e21e 2356
6df41af2
GS
2357=item NULL OP IN RUN
2358
be771a83
GS
2359(P debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
2360pointer.
6df41af2 2361
55497cff 2362=item Null picture in formline
2363
2364(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
2365specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
2366supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
2367
a0d0e21e
LW
2368=item Null realloc
2369
2370(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
2371
2372=item NULL regexp argument
2373
5f05dabc 2374(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
2375
2376=item NULL regexp parameter
2377
2378(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
2379
fc36a67e 2380=item Number too long
2381
be771a83 2382(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 2383about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
2384versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
2385the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
2386"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 2387
6df41af2
GS
2388=item Octal number in vector unsupported
2389
be771a83
GS
2390(F) Numbers with a leading C<0> are not currently allowed in vectors.
2391The octal number interpretation of such numbers may be supported in a
2392future version.
6df41af2 2393
252aa082
JH
2394=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
2395
75b44862 2396(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
2397(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2398L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082
JH
2399
2400See also L<perlport> for writing portable code.
2401
6ad11d81
JH
2402=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
2403
04a80ee0
RGS
2404(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
2405arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 2406
b21befc1
MG
2407=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
2408
2409(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2410which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
2411
1930e939 2412=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 2413
be771a83
GS
2414(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2415which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 2416
bbce6d69 2417=item Offset outside string
2418
2419(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with an offset
be771a83
GS
2420pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to imagine. The sole
2421exception to this is that C<sysread()>ing past the buffer will extend
2422the buffer and zero pad the new area.
bbce6d69 2423
9ddeeac9
JH
2424=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
2425
2426(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
c289d2f7 2427that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
9ddeeac9 2428
c289d2f7 2429=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
2430
2431(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
2432never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
2433call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
2434
a0d0e21e
LW
2435=item oops: oopsAV
2436
e476b1b5 2437(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
2438
2439=item oops: oopsHV
2440
e476b1b5 2441(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 2442
56f7f34b 2443=item Operation `%s': no method found, %s
44a8e56a 2444
be771a83
GS
2445(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
2446handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
2447of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
2448C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 2449
748a9306
LW
2450=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
2451
be771a83
GS
2452(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
2453was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
2454use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
2455example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
2456"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 2457
6df41af2
GS
2458=item "our" variable %s redeclared
2459
be771a83
GS
2460(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
2461in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 2462
a80b8354
GS
2463=item Out of memory!
2464
2465(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
2466remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
2467no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 2468
6df41af2 2469=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 2470
6df41af2
GS
2471(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
2472remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
2473the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
2474possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 2475
1b979e0a 2476=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 2477
be771a83
GS
2478(X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
2479insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
2480request.
eff9c6e2
CS
2481
2482The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
2483depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
2484However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
2485emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
2486is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
2487where the failed request happened.
55497cff 2488
1b979e0a
IZ
2489=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
2490
2491(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
2492is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
2493C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 2494
6df41af2
GS
2495=item Out of memory for yacc stack
2496
be771a83
GS
2497(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
2498parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
2499otherwise.
6df41af2
GS
2500
2501=item @ outside of string
2502
2503(F) You had a pack template that specified an absolute position outside
2504the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2505
2506=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
2507
be771a83
GS
2508(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
2509package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
2510some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
2511mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 2512
a0d0e21e
LW
2513=item page overflow
2514
be771a83
GS
2515(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
2516page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 2517
6df41af2
GS
2518=item panic: %s
2519
2520(P) An internal error.
2521
a0d0e21e
LW
2522=item panic: ck_grep
2523
2524(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
2525
2526=item panic: ck_split
2527
2528(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
2529
2530=item panic: corrupt saved stack index
2531
be771a83
GS
2532(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
2533there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 2534
810b8aa5
GS
2535=item panic: del_backref
2536
2537(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
2538reference.
2539
a0d0e21e
LW
2540=item panic: die %s
2541
2542(P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
2543it wasn't an eval context.
2544
290deeac 2545=item panic: pp_match%s
a0d0e21e 2546
be771a83
GS
2547(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
2548data.
a0d0e21e 2549
a0d0e21e
LW
2550=item panic: do_subst
2551
be771a83
GS
2552(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
2553data.
a0d0e21e 2554
2269b42e 2555=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 2556
2269b42e 2557(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 2558data.
a0d0e21e 2559
c635e13b 2560=item panic: frexp
2561
2562(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
2563
a0d0e21e
LW
2564=item panic: goto
2565
2566(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
2567and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
2568
2569=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
2570
2571(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
2572
2573=item panic: INTERPCONCAT
2574
2575(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
2576
e446cec8
IZ
2577=item panic: kid popen errno read
2578
2579(F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
2580
a0d0e21e
LW
2581=item panic: last
2582
2583(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
2584it wasn't a block context.
2585
2586=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
2587
be771a83
GS
2588(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
2589scope.
a0d0e21e
LW
2590
2591=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
2592
2593(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
2594invalid enum on the top of it.
2595
810b8aa5
GS
2596=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
2597
2598(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
2599references to an object.
2600
6df41af2
GS
2601=item panic: malloc
2602
2603(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
2604
a0d0e21e
LW
2605=item panic: mapstart
2606
2607(P) The compiler is screwed up with respect to the map() function.
2608
2609=item panic: null array
2610
2611(P) One of the internal array routines was passed a null AV pointer.
2612
2613=item panic: pad_alloc
2614
2615(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2616and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2617
2618=item panic: pad_free curpad
2619
2620(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2621and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2622
2623=item panic: pad_free po
2624
2625(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2626
2627=item panic: pad_reset curpad
2628
2629(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2630and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2631
2632=item panic: pad_sv po
2633
2634(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2635
2636=item panic: pad_swipe curpad
2637
2638(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2639and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2640
2641=item panic: pad_swipe po
2642
2643(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2644
2645=item panic: pp_iter
2646
2647(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
2648
2269b42e
JH
2649=item panic: pp_split
2650
2651(P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
2652
a0d0e21e
LW
2653=item panic: realloc
2654
2655(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
2656
2657=item panic: restartop
2658
2659(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
2660didn't supply the destination.
2661
2662=item panic: return
2663
2664(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
2665then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
2666
2667=item panic: scan_num
2668
2669(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
2670
2671=item panic: sv_insert
2672
2673(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
2674was string.
2675
2676=item panic: top_env
2677
6224f72b 2678(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e
LW
2679
2680=item panic: yylex
2681
2682(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
2683
dea0fc0b
JH
2684=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
2685
2686(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 2687to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 2688
7b8d334a 2689=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
a0d0e21e 2690
e476b1b5 2691(W parenthesis) You said something like
a0d0e21e
LW
2692
2693 my $foo, $bar = @_;
2694
2695when you meant
2696
2697 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
2698
54884818 2699Remember that "my", "our", and "local" bind tighter than comma.
a0d0e21e 2700
75b44862 2701=item Perl %s required--this is only version %s, stopped
a0d0e21e 2702
be771a83
GS
2703(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
2704recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
2705you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
a0d0e21e 2706
6df41af2
GS
2707=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
2708
2709(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 2710C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2
GS
2711
2712=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2713
2714(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
2715
2716 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2717 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
2718 LC_ALL = "En_US",
2719 LANG = (unset)
2720 are supported and installed on your system.
2721 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
2722
2723Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
2724settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
0ea6b70f
JH
2725This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
2726system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
2727locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
2728dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
2729Perl can and will use, the script will be run. Before you really fix
2730the problem, however, you will get the same error message each time
2731you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
2732L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
6df41af2 2733
bccbfa77
NC
2734=item perlio: argument list not closed for layer "%s"
2735
64977eb6 2736(S) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O system you forgot
bccbfa77 2737the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers take care of transforming
64977eb6
NC
2738data between external and internal representations.) Perl stopped parsing
2739the layer list at this point and did not attempt to push this layer.
2740If your program didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be
2741the result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2742
2743=item perlio: invalid separator character %s in attribute list
2744
2745(S) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other than a
d1be9408 2746colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
64977eb6
NC
2747If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2748list was terminated too soon.
bccbfa77 2749
ef0f9817
DD
2750=item perlio: unknown layer "%s"
2751
2752(S) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
2753system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
2754internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
2755are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
2756explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
2757value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2758
a0d0e21e
LW
2759=item Permission denied
2760
2761(F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to no good.
2762
bd3fa61c 2763=item pid %x not a child
748a9306 2764
be771a83
GS
2765(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
2766process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
2767fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
748a9306 2768
3bf38418
WL
2769=item P must have an explicit size
2770
2771(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
2772
5cd5c422
RB
2773=item POSIX syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes in regex;
2774
2775marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2776
9a0b3859 2777(W regexp) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
7253e4e3
RK
2778I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
2779/[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
2780implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and will
2781cause fatal errors. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
2782where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 2783
5cd5c422
RB
2784=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex;
2785
2786marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
2787
2788(F regexp) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
7253e4e3
RK
2789beginning with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
2790If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
2791expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
2792backslash: "\[." and ".\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
2793about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 2794
5cd5c422
RB
2795=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex;
2796
2797marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2798
7253e4e3
RK
2799(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
2800with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
2801need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
2802character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
2803and "=\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2804problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 2805
5cd5c422
RB
2806=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex;
2807
2808marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2809
7253e4e3
RK
2810(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The <-- HERE
2811shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
80feea45
JH
2812Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
2813the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
2814not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 2815
a0d0e21e
LW
2816=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
2817
81777298 2818(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
a0d0e21e
LW
2819the BSD version, which takes a pid.
2820
bbce6d69 2821=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
2822
e476b1b5 2823(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
75b44862 2824strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
be771a83
GS
2825literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
2826parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
bbce6d69 2827
774d564b 2828You probably wrote something like this:
2829
54310121 2830 @list = qw(
774d564b 2831 a # a comment
bbce6d69 2832 b # another comment
774d564b 2833 );
bbce6d69 2834
2835when you should have written this:
2836
774d564b 2837 @list = qw(
54310121 2838 a
2839 b
774d564b 2840 );
2841
2842If you really want comments, build your list the
2843old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
2844
2845 @list = (
2846 'a', # a comment
2847 'b', # another comment
2848 );
bbce6d69 2849
2850=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
2851
be771a83
GS
2852(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
2853commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
2854different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
2855frequently used.)
bbce6d69 2856
54310121 2857You probably wrote something like this:
bbce6d69 2858
774d564b 2859 qw! a, b, c !;
2860
2861which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
2862commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
bbce6d69 2863
774d564b 2864 qw! a b c !;
bbce6d69 2865
a0d0e21e
LW
2866=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
2867
2868(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
2869Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
2870end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
2871Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
2872
18623440
PS
2873=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
2874
2875(W ambiguous) You said something like `@foo' in a double-quoted string
32b0a12e
AMS
2876but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
2877literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
2878to the array you apparently lost track of.
18623440 2879
6df41af2
GS
2880=item Possible Y2K bug: %s
2881
2882(W y2k) You are concatenating the number 19 with another number, which
2883could be a potential Year 2000 problem.
2884
8cd79558
GS
2885=item pragma "attrs" is deprecated, use "sub NAME : ATTRS" instead
2886
a1063b2d 2887(D deprecated) You have written something like this:
8cd79558
GS
2888
2889 sub doit
2890 {
2891 use attrs qw(locked);
2892 }
2893
2894You should use the new declaration syntax instead.
2895
2896 sub doit : locked
2897 {
2898 ...
2899
2900The C<use attrs> pragma is now obsolete, and is only provided for
2901backward-compatibility. See L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes">.
2902
a0d0e21e
LW
2903=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
2904
e476b1b5 2905(S precedence) The old irregular construct
cb1a09d0 2906
a0d0e21e
LW
2907 open FOO || die;
2908
2909is now misinterpreted as
2910
2911 open(FOO || die);
2912
be771a83
GS
2913because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
2914list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
2915parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
2916of "||".
a0d0e21e 2917
3cdd684c
TP
2918=item Premature end of script headers
2919
2920See Server error.
2921
6df41af2
GS
2922=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
2923
be771a83 2924(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 2925before now. Check your control flow.
6df41af2 2926
9a7dcd9c 2927=item print() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 2928
be771a83 2929(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 2930before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 2931
6df41af2 2932=item Process terminated by SIG%s
a0d0e21e 2933
6df41af2
GS
2934(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
2935applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
2936port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
2937L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
fecfaeb8 2938in L<perlos2>.
a0d0e21e 2939
3fe9a6f1 2940=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4633a7c4 2941
9a0b3859 2942(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
be771a83 2943declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4633a7c4 2944
ed9aa3b7
SG
2945=item Prototype not terminated
2946
2947(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
2948definition.
2949
5cd5c422
RB
2950=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex;
2951
2952marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 2953
b45f050a 2954(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of the
7253e4e3 2955{min,max} construct. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where
b45f050a 2956the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9baa0206 2957
5cd5c422
RB
2958=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression;
2959
2960marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 2961
b45f050a
JF
2962(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
2963it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
2964quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
2965"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
2966C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
9baa0206 2967
7253e4e3
RK
2968The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2969discovered.
2970
89ea2908
GA
2971=item Range iterator outside integer range
2972
2973(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
2974are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
be771a83
GS
2975One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
2976by prepending "0" to your numbers.
89ea2908 2977
9a7dcd9c 2978=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 2979
75b44862 2980(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 2981before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 2982
6df41af2
GS
2983=item Reallocation too large: %lx
2984
2985(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
2986
4ad56ec9
IZ
2987=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
2988
be771a83
GS
2989(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
2990already been freed.
4ad56ec9 2991
a0d0e21e
LW
2992=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
2993
be771a83
GS
2994(F debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
2995the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
a0d0e21e
LW
2996which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
2997
3e0ccd42 2998=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
a0d0e21e
LW
2999
3000(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably indicates
3001an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
3002
7a4340ed 3003=item Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method %s
3e0ccd42 3004
be771a83
GS
3005(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were encountered while invoking
3006a method. Probably indicates an unintended loop in your inheritance
3007hierarchy.
3e0ccd42 3008
1930e939
TP
3009=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
3010
be771a83
GS
3011(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
3012with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This usually
3013means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant to use
3014parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
7b8d334a
GS
3015
3016 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
3017 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
3018 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
3019 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
3020
810b8aa5
GS
3021=item Reference is already weak
3022
e476b1b5 3023(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
810b8aa5
GS
3024Doing so has no effect.
3025
a0d0e21e
LW
3026=item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
3027
be771a83
GS
3028(W internal) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with
3029a reference count of other than 1.
a0d0e21e 3030
5cd5c422
RB
3031=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex;
3032
3033marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3034
3035(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
3036not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If you
3037wanted to have the character with value 7 inserted into the regular expression,
3038prepend a zero to make the number at least two digits: C<\07>
9baa0206 3039
7253e4e3 3040The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a 3041discovered.
9baa0206 3042
a0d0e21e
LW
3043=item regexp memory corruption
3044
3045(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
3046expression compiler gave it.
3047
b45f050a 3048=item Regexp out of space
a0d0e21e 3049
be771a83
GS
3050(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
3051earlier.
a0d0e21e 3052
7a95317d
GS
3053=item Repeat count in pack overflows
3054
be771a83
GS
3055(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3056signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
7a95317d
GS
3057
3058=item Repeat count in unpack overflows
3059
be771a83
GS
3060(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3061signed integers. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
7a95317d 3062
a0d0e21e
LW
3063=item Reversed %s= operator
3064
be771a83
GS
3065(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
3066always comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
a0d0e21e
LW
3067
3068=item Runaway format
3069
3070(F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence, but it
3071produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th line looked exactly like the
3072199th line. Apparently you didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust
3073themselves, either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
3074shifting or popping (for array variables). See L<perlform>.
3075
3076=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
3077
be771a83
GS
3078(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
3079single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
3080value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
3081behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3082argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3083and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3084if you're expecting only one subscript.
a0d0e21e 3085
748a9306 3086On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5f05dabc 3087element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
748a9306
LW
3088Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
3089L<perlref>.
3090
a6006777 3091=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
3092
75b44862 3093(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
be771a83
GS
3094element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
3095(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
3096like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3097argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3098and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3099if you're expecting only one subscript.
3100
3101On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
3102as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
3103not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
a6006777 3104L<perlref>.
3105
3e2f796a
NIS
3106=item Scalars leaked: %d
3107
3108(P) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping of scalars:
3109not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time Perl exited.
3110What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which is of course bad,
3111especially if the Perl program is intended to be long-running.
3112
a0d0e21e
LW
3113=item Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl
3114
54310121 3115(F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script without a setuid
3116or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much sense.
a0d0e21e
LW
3117
3118=item Search pattern not terminated
3119
3120(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
3121construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 3122Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 3123
9ddeeac9 3124=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
a0d0e21e 3125
be771a83
GS
3126(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
3127filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
a0d0e21e
LW
3128
3129=item select not implemented
3130
3131(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
3132
ae21d580 3133=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
68a4a7e4 3134
ae21d580
JH
3135(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
3136the current implementation.
68a4a7e4 3137
6df41af2 3138=item Semicolon seems to be missing
a0d0e21e 3139
75b44862
GS
3140(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
3141semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
a0d0e21e
LW
3142
3143=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
3144
be771a83
GS
3145(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
3146scalar that had previously been marked as free.
a0d0e21e 3147
6df41af2 3148=item sem%s not implemented
a0d0e21e 3149
6df41af2 3150(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
a0d0e21e 3151
69282e91 3152=item send() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 3153
be771a83 3154(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3155before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 3156
7253e4e3 3157=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
7b8d334a 3158
7253e4e3 3159(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The <-- HERE
b45f050a 3160shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
be771a83 3161L<perlre>.
1b1626e4 3162
5cd5c422
RB
3163=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated or not {}-balanced in regex;
3164
3165marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3166
3167(F) If the contents of a (?{...}) clause contains braces, they must balance
7253e4e3
RK
3168for Perl to properly detect the end of the clause. The <-- HERE shows in
3169the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3170L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3171
5cd5c422
RB
3172=item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented in regex;
3173
3174marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3175
b45f050a 3176(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved but
7253e4e3 3177has not yet been written. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
b45f050a
JF
3178where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3179
5cd5c422
RB
3180=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex;
3181
3182marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3183
7253e4e3
RK
3184(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense. The
3185<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3186discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3187
5cd5c422
RB
3188=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex;
3189
3190marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
3191
3192(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
7253e4e3
RK
3193parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. The <-- HERE shows in
3194the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3195L<perlre>.
6df41af2
GS
3196
3197=item 500 Server error
3198
3199See Server error.
3200
a5f75d66
AD
3201=item Server error
3202
3cdd684c 3203This is the error message generally seen in a browser window when trying
be771a83
GS
3204to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The actual error text
3205varies widely from server to server. The most frequently-seen variants
3206are "500 Server error", "Method (something) not permitted", "Document
3207contains no data", "Premature end of script headers", and "Did not
3208produce a valid header".
9607fc9c 3209
3210B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
3211
be771a83
GS
3212You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by the
3213user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the user
3214account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment variables
3215(like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't in a
3216location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or less.
3217Please see the following for more information:
9607fc9c 3218
06a5f41f
JH
3219 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
3220 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
3221 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
a5f75d66 3222
be94a901
GS
3223You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
3224
a0d0e21e
LW
3225=item setegid() not implemented
3226
be771a83
GS
3227(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
3228support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3229didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
3230
3231=item seteuid() not implemented
3232
be771a83
GS
3233(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
3234support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3235didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 3236
81777298
GS
3237=item setpgrp can't take arguments
3238
be771a83
GS
3239(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
3240arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
3241group ID.
81777298 3242
a0d0e21e
LW
3243=item setrgid() not implemented
3244
be771a83
GS
3245(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
3246support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3247didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
3248
3249=item setruid() not implemented
3250
be771a83
GS
3251(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
3252support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3253didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 3254
6df41af2
GS
3255=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
3256
be771a83
GS
3257(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
3258forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
3259L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
3260
a0d0e21e
LW
3261=item Setuid/gid script is writable by world
3262
be771a83
GS
3263(F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that is writable by the
3264world, because the world might have written on it already.
a0d0e21e
LW
3265
3266=item shm%s not implemented
3267
3268(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
3269
6df41af2
GS
3270=item <> should be quotes
3271
3272(F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
3273C<require 'file'>.
3274
3275=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
3276
3277(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
be771a83
GS
3278as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
3279result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
3280probably not what you had in mind.
6df41af2 3281
69282e91 3282=item shutdown() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 3283
75b44862
GS
3284(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
3285superfluous.
a0d0e21e 3286
f86702cc 3287=item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
a0d0e21e 3288
be771a83
GS
3289(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
3290Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
a0d0e21e
LW
3291
3292=item sort is now a reserved word
3293
3294(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
3295But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
3296
3297=item Sort subroutine didn't return a numeric value
3298
3299(F) A sort comparison routine must return a number. You probably blew
c47ff5f1 3300it by not using C<< <=> >> or C<cmp>, or by not using them correctly.
a0d0e21e
LW
3301See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3302
3303=item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
3304
3305(F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
3306or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3307
8cbc2e3b
JH
3308=item splice() offset past end of array
3309
3310(W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
3311the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the end
3312of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want, try
3313explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset. See
3314L<perlfunc/splice>.
3315
a0d0e21e
LW
3316=item Split loop
3317
be771a83
GS
3318(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
3319iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
3320happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
a0d0e21e 3321
a0d0e21e
LW
3322=item Statement unlikely to be reached
3323
be771a83
GS
3324(W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
3325die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
3326unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
3327instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
3328a block by itself.
a0d0e21e 3329
9ddeeac9 3330=item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
6df41af2 3331
355b1299
JH
3332(W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
3333was either never opened or has since been closed.
6df41af2 3334
7a4340ed 3335=item Stub found while resolving method `%s' overloading %s
e7ea3e70 3336
be771a83
GS
3337(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
3338stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
3339C<can> may break this.
e7ea3e70 3340
a0d0e21e
LW
3341=item Subroutine %s redefined
3342
e476b1b5 3343(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
3344
3345 {
271595cc 3346 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
3347 eval "sub name { ... }";
3348 }
3349
3350=item Substitution loop
3351
be771a83
GS
3352(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
3353shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
3354is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
5f05dabc 3355L<perlop/"Quote and Quote-like Operators">.
a0d0e21e
LW
3356
3357=item Substitution pattern not terminated
3358
d1be9408 3359(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 3360construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 3361Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e
LW
3362
3363=item Substitution replacement not terminated
3364
d1be9408 3365(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
a0d0e21e 3366construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 3367Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.