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1=head1 NAME
2
3perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
4
5=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
8desperation):
9
10 (W) A warning (optional).
11 (D) A deprecation (optional).
e476b1b5 12 (S) A severe warning (default).
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13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
54310121 15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
cb1a09d0 16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
a0d0e21e 17
75b44862 18The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
64977eb6 19(W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
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20
21If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
22category is included with the classification letter in the description
23below.
24
25Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
26and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
27to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
28of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
29
30Default warnings are always enabled unless they are explicitly disabled
31with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
4438c4b7 32
748a9306 33Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
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34L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
36See L<warnings>.
a0d0e21e 37
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38The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
39lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
40denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
41ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
42letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
43letter.
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44
45=over 4
46
c133c03f
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47=item A thread exited while %d other threads were still running
48
49(W) When using threaded Perl, a thread (not necessarily the main
50thread) exited while there were still other threads running.
51Usually it's a good idea to first collect the return values of the
32419a4c 52created threads by joining them, and only then exit from the main
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53thread. See L<threads>.
54
6df41af2 55=item accept() on closed socket %s
33633739 56
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57(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
58to check the return value of your socket() call? See
59L<perlfunc/accept>.
33633739 60
6df41af2 61=item Allocation too large: %lx
a0d0e21e 62
6df41af2 63(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
a0d0e21e 64
f61d411c 65=item '!' allowed only after types %s
ef54e1a4 66
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67(F) The '!' is allowed in pack() and unpack() only after certain types.
68See L<perlfunc/pack>.
ef54e1a4 69
6df41af2 70=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
43192e07 71
75b44862 72(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
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73keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
74one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
75subroutine is not imported.
43192e07 76
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77To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
78before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
79Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
80imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
43192e07 81
6df41af2 82To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
496a33f5 83on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
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84to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
85L<attributes>).
43192e07 86
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87=item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
88
89(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
90all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
91first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
92C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
93
6df41af2 94=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
43192e07 95
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96(W ambiguous)(S) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
97you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
98a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
a0d0e21e 99
6df41af2 100=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
a0d0e21e 101
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102(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
103redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
104redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
c9f97d15 105
6df41af2 106=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
1028017a 107
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108(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
109redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
110into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
111though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
112which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
1028017a 113
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114 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
115 while (<STDIN>) {
116 print;
117 print OUT;
118 }
119 close OUT;
c9f97d15 120
6df41af2 121=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
eb6e2d6f 122
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123(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
124transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
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125one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
126a scalar value -- the length of an array, or the population info of a
127hash -- and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
128you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
129alternatives.
eb6e2d6f 130
6df41af2 131=item Args must match #! line
a0d0e21e 132
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133(F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
134with match the arguments specified on the #! line. Since some systems
135impose a one-argument limit on the #! line, try combining switches;
136for example, turn C<-w -U> into C<-wU>.
a0d0e21e 137
6df41af2 138=item Arg too short for msgsnd
76cd736e 139
6df41af2 140(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
76cd736e 141
8ea97a1e 142=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element
a0d0e21e 143
8ea97a1e 144(F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element, such as:
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145
146 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 147 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
a0d0e21e 148
8ea97a1e 149=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
5f05dabc 150
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151(F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
152such as:
5f05dabc 153
154 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 155 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
5f05dabc 156
8ea97a1e 157or a hash or array slice, such as:
5f05dabc 158
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159 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
160 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
5315574d 161
6df41af2 162=item %s argument is not a subroutine name
a0d0e21e 163
6df41af2 164(F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
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165name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
166error.
a0d0e21e 167
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168=item '%s' trapped by operation mask
169
170(F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
171disallowed. See L<Safe>.
172
f86702cc 173=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 174
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175(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
176that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
177will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
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178
179=item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
180
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181(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
182spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
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183
184=item assertion botched: %s
185
186(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
187
188=item Assertion failed: file "%s"
189
190(P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
191
192=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
193
194(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
195must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
196know which context to supply to the right side.
197
2393f1b9 198=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
1b1f1335 199
49293501 200(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
2393f1b9 201the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
49293501 202
2393f1b9 203=item Attempt to clear a restricted hash
49293501 204
2393f1b9 205(F) It is currently not allowed to clear a restricted hash, even if the
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206new hash would contain the same keys as before. This may change in
207the future.
208
2393f1b9 209=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
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210
211(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
2393f1b9 212declared readonly from a restricted hash.
49293501 213
2393f1b9 214=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
49293501 215
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216(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
217which is not in its key set.
1b1f1335 218
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219=item Attempt to bless into a reference
220
221(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
222the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
223supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
224
225 bless $self, $proto;
226
227when you intended
228
229 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
230
231If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
232of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
233example by:
234
235 bless $self, "$proto";
236
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237=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
238
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239(P internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
240that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
241outside any of those arenas.
a0d0e21e 242
54310121 243=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
bbce6d69 244
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245(P internal) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of
246strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
247strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
248of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
bbce6d69 249
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250=item Attempt to free temp prematurely
251
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252(W debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
253free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
254SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
255free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
256try to free it.
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257
258=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
259
e476b1b5 260(P internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
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261
262=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
263
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264(W internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
265see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
266earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
267This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
268that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
269mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
270corrupted.
a0d0e21e 271
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272=item Attempt to join self
273
274(F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
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275impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
276to move the join() to some other thread.
dcdda58d 277
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278=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
279
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280(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
281function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
282means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
283invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
284literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
285avoid this warning.
84902520 286
b7a902f4 287=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
288
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289(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
290used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
291dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 292
dc26df50 293=item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %s
a0d0e21e 294
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295(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
296or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 297S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
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298S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
299
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300=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
301
496a33f5 302(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
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303substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
304most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
305
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306=item Bad filehandle: %s
307
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308(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
309symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
310open(), or did it in another package.
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311
312=item Bad free() ignored
313
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314(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
315been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 316setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 317
9ea8bc6d 318This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
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319dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
320which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 321
aa689395 322=item Bad hash
323
324(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
325
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326=item Badly placed ()'s
327
328(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
329of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
330Perl yourself.
331
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332=item Bad name after %s::
333
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334(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
335didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
336of quotes, so
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337
338 $var = 'myvar';
339 $sym = mypack::$var;
340
341is not the same as
342
343 $var = 'myvar';
344 $sym = "mypack::$var";
345
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346=item Bad realloc() ignored
347
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348(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
349never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled
350by setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 351
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352=item Bad symbol for array
353
354(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
355wasn't a symbol table entry.
356
357=item Bad symbol for filehandle
358
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359(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
360that wasn't a symbol table entry.
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361
362=item Bad symbol for hash
363
364(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
365wasn't a symbol table entry.
366
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367=item Bareword found in conditional
368
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369(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
370conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
371of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
34d09196
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372
373 open FOO || die;
374
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375It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
376a bareword:
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377
378 use constant TYPO => 1;
379 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
380
381The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
382
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383=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
384
385(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
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386subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
387symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
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388
389=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
390
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391(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
392compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
393you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 394
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395=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
396
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397(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
398subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
399exited.
a0d0e21e 400
68dc0745 401=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
402
403(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
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404implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
405occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
406be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
407depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 408
6df41af2
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409=item \1 better written as $1
410
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411(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
412The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
413substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
414because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
415there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 416
252aa082
JH
417=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
418
e476b1b5 419(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
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420(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
421L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 422
69282e91 423=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 424
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425(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
426check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 427
c289d2f7
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428=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
429
430(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
431Check you control flow and number of arguments.
432
c5a0f51a
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433=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
434
e476b1b5 435(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 436
4633a7c4
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437=item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
438
be771a83 439(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
b45f050a 440copyable.
4633a7c4 441
6df41af2
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442=item B<-P> not allowed for setuid/setgid script
443
444(F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor by name,
445which provides a race condition that breaks security.
446
f675dbe5
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447=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
448
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449(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
450iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
451which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 452
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453=item Callback called exit
454
4929bf7b 455(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
a0d0e21e
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456exited by calling exit.
457
6df41af2 458=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 459
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460(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
461parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
462that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
463early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
464subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
465checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
466function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
467the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 468
0258719b
NC
469=item Can only compress unsigned integers
470
471(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
472integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
473to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
474
475=item Cannot compress integer
476
477(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress. The BER
478compressed integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you
479attempted to compress Infinity or a very large number (> 1e308).
480See L<perlfunc/pack>.
481
482=item Cannot compress negative numbers
483
484(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
485format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
486
6df41af2 487=item / cannot take a count
a0d0e21e 488
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489(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
490you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
491L<perlfunc/pack>.
a0d0e21e
LW
492
493=item Can't bless non-reference value
494
495(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
496encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
497
a0d0e21e
LW
498=item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
499
500(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
501functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
502in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
503
6df41af2
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504=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
505
506(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
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507object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
508like this will reproduce the error:
6df41af2
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509
510 $BADREF = undef;
511 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
512 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
513
a0d0e21e
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514=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
515
54310121 516(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
be771a83
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517ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
518didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
519object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
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520
521=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
522
523(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
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524object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
525defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
72b5445b
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526Something like this will reproduce the error:
527
528 $BADREF = 42;
529 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
530 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
531
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532=item Can't chdir to %s
533
534(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
535that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
536
0545a864 537=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
104d25b7 538
be771a83
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539(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
540nosuid.
104d25b7 541
6df41af2
GS
542=item Can't coerce array into hash
543
544(F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the array has no
545information on how to map from keys to array indices. You can do that
546only with arrays that have a hash reference at index 0.
547
a0d0e21e
LW
548=item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
549
550(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 551(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
a0d0e21e
LW
552say things like:
553
554 *foo += 1;
555
556You CAN say
557
558 $foo = *foo;
559 $foo += 1;
560
561but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
562
563=item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
564
565(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 566(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
a0d0e21e
LW
567
568=item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
569
570(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 571(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
a0d0e21e
LW
572
573=item Can't create pipe mailbox
574
be771a83
GS
575(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
576quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 577
eb64745e 578=item Can't declare class for non-scalar %s in "%s"
a0d0e21e 579
2f7e735d
AMS
580(F) Currently, only scalar variables can be declared with a specific
581class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration. The semantics may be
582extended for other types of variables in future.
eb64745e
GS
583
584=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
585
586(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my" or
587"our" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 588
6df41af2
GS
589=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
590
be771a83
GS
591(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
592a file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
6df41af2 593
a0d0e21e
LW
594=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
595
be771a83
GS
596(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
597reason.
a0d0e21e 598
54310121 599=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
a0d0e21e 600
be771a83
GS
601(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
602reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
603C<-i.bak>, or some such.
a0d0e21e 604
10f9c03d 605=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
a0d0e21e 606
e476b1b5 607(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
10f9c03d
CK
608characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
609inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
a0d0e21e 610
7253e4e3 611=item Can't do {n,m} with n > m in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 612
b45f050a 613(F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want your
7253e4e3 614regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. The <-- HERE shows in the
b45f050a 615regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e
LW
616
617=item Can't do setegid!
618
be771a83
GS
619(P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
620suidperl.
a0d0e21e
LW
621
622=item Can't do seteuid!
623
624(P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
625
626=item Can't do setuid
627
be771a83
GS
628(F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to do
629setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the form
630sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides under
631the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines. If the
632file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask your
633sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
a0d0e21e
LW
634
635=item Can't do waitpid with flags
636
be771a83
GS
637(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
638waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 639
a0d0e21e
LW
640=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
641
be771a83
GS
642(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
643point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
644line.
a0d0e21e
LW
645
646=item Can't exec "%s": %s
647
d1be9408 648(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
649named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
650permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
651C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
652architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
653can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
654#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
655
656=item Can't exec %s
657
be771a83
GS
658(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
659that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
660need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
661
662=item Can't execute %s
663
be771a83
GS
664(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
665found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 666
6df41af2 667=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 668
be771a83
GS
669(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
670is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2 671
56ca2fc0
JH
672=item Can't find %s character property "%s"
673
674(F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
89d60977 675could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property
56ca2fc0
JH
676(remember that the names of character properties consist only of
677alphanumeric characters), or maybe you forgot the C<Is> or C<In> prefix?
678
6df41af2
GS
679=item Can't find label %s
680
be771a83
GS
681(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
682possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
683
684=item Can't find %s on PATH
685
be771a83
GS
686(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
687found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 688
6df41af2 689=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 690
be771a83
GS
691(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
692found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
693script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e
LW
694
695=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
696
be771a83
GS
697(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
698that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
699nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 700
fb73857a 701 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
702
be771a83
GS
703If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have included
704unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good programmer's
705editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
a0d0e21e 706
64977eb6 707=item Can't find %s property definition %s
0103b764 708
77b96956
RGS
709(F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode property (for
710example C<\p{Lu}> is all uppercase letters). If you did mean to use a
bc45ce41
JH
711Unicode property, see L<perlunicode> for the list of known properties.
712If you didn't mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either
77b96956 713by C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, until
f91328b7 714possible C<\E>).
0103b764 715
a0d0e21e
LW
716=item Can't fork
717
be771a83
GS
718(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
719pipeline.
a0d0e21e 720
748a9306
LW
721=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
722
be771a83
GS
723(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
724between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
725Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
726the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
727account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
728the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
729the access checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
730the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
731if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
732because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
733appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up
734and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking
735routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
736shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
737only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 738
a0d0e21e
LW
739=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
740
be771a83
GS
741(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
742pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
743
744=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
745
748a9306
LW
746(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
747mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 748
6df41af2 749=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 750
be771a83
GS
751(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
752loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
753
754=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
755
be771a83
GS
756(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
757a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
758you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
759See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 760
b150fb22
RH
761=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-string
762
be771a83
GS
763(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
764"string". (You can use it to jump out of an eval {BLOCK}, but you
765probably don't want to.)
b150fb22 766
6df41af2
GS
767=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
768
be771a83
GS
769(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
770subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
771cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
772routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 773
0b5b802d
GS
774=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
775
be771a83
GS
776(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
777signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
778signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
779processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
780situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
781may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 782
6df41af2 783=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 784
6df41af2 785(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
786except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
787block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
788block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
789usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
790inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
791L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 792
748a9306
LW
793=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
794
2ba9eb46 795(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
748a9306
LW
796lexical variable using "my". This is not allowed. If you want to
797localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
798package name.
799
6df41af2 800=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 801
6df41af2
GS
802(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
803handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 804pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 805that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 806
ea071790 807=item Can't locate %s
ec889f3a
GS
808
809(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be
810found. Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC,
be771a83
GS
811unless the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you
812need to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where
813the extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
814to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
815L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 816
6df41af2
GS
817=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
818
be771a83
GS
819(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
820autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
821are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
822the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 823
a0d0e21e
LW
824=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
825
826(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
827functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 828method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e 829
d28b25d0
JH
830=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
831
832(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
3ad17c7e 833e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
d28b25d0 834
c1899e02
GS
835=item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
836
837(F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
838"Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
839that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
840
a0d0e21e
LW
841=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
842
be771a83
GS
843(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
844doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 845
3e3baf6d
TB
846=item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
847
be771a83
GS
848(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
849VMS.
3e3baf6d 850
a0d0e21e
LW
851=item Can't modify %s in %s
852
be771a83
GS
853(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
854to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 855
54310121 856=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
a0d0e21e
LW
857
858(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
859a NULL.
860
6df41af2
GS
861=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
862
863(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
864such, see L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
865
5f05dabc 866=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 867
5f05dabc 868(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
869buffer.
870
6df41af2
GS
871=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
872
873(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
874there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
875count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
876grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
877though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
878once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 879
a0d0e21e
LW
880=item Can't open %s: %s
881
c47ff5f1 882(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e
DD
883filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
884switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
be771a83
GS
885is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named on
886the command line.
a0d0e21e 887
9a869a14
RGS
888=item Can't open a reference
889
890(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
891using the 3-arg open() syntax :
892
893 open FH, '>', $ref;
894
895but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
896open is not supported.
897
a0d0e21e
LW
898=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
899
be771a83
GS
900(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
901You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
902as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
903">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 904
748a9306
LW
905=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
906
be771a83
GS
907(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
908redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
909the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
910
911=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
912
be771a83
GS
913(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
914redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
915command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
916
917=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
918
be771a83
GS
919(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
920redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
921the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
922
923=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
924
be771a83
GS
925(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
926redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
927for stdout.
748a9306 928
584d69ec 929=item Can't open perl script%s: %s
a0d0e21e
LW
930
931(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
932
6df41af2
GS
933=item Can't read CRTL environ
934
935(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
936from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
937missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
938or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
939searched.
6df41af2 940
7bac28a0 941=item Can't redefine active sort subroutine %s
942
943(F) Perl optimizes the internal handling of sort subroutines and keeps
be771a83
GS
944pointers into them. You tried to redefine one such sort subroutine when
945it was currently active, which is not allowed. If you really want to do
7bac28a0 946this, you should write C<sort { &func } @x> instead of C<sort func @x>.
947
6df41af2
GS
948=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
949
950(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
951there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
952count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
953or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
954though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
955loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
956
64977eb6 957=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 958
be771a83
GS
959(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
960file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
961the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 962
a0d0e21e
LW
963=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
964
e476b1b5 965(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
10f9c03d 966probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
a0d0e21e 967
748a9306
LW
968=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
969
be771a83
GS
970(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
971to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 972
6df41af2
GS
973=item Can't resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
974
be771a83
GS
975(F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as opposed
976to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the package. If
977method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 978
a0d0e21e
LW
979=item Can't reswap uid and euid
980
be771a83
GS
981(P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
982suidperl.
a0d0e21e 983
cd06dffe
GS
984=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
985
be771a83
GS
986(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
987temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
988is not allowed.
cd06dffe 989
78f9721b
SM
990=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
991
992(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue subroutine,
993but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl think you meant
994to return only one value. You probably meant to write parentheses around
995the call to the subroutine, which tell Perl that the call should be in
996list context.
997
6df41af2
GS
998=item Can't return outside a subroutine
999
1000(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1001there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1002
a0d0e21e
LW
1003=item Can't stat script "%s"
1004
be771a83
GS
1005(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1006open already. Bizarre.
a0d0e21e
LW
1007
1008=item Can't swap uid and euid
1009
be771a83
GS
1010(P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
1011suidperl.
a0d0e21e
LW
1012
1013=item Can't take log of %g
1014
fb73857a 1015(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
1016negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
1017standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1018negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
1019
1020=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1021
1022(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 1023negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1024with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
1025
1026=item Can't undef active subroutine
1027
1028(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1029however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1030redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1031
1032=item Can't unshift
1033
1034(F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
1035as the main Perl stack.
1036
1037=item Can't upgrade that kind of scalar
1038
be771a83
GS
1039(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1040into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1041specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1042indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e
LW
1043
1044=item Can't upgrade to undef
1045
be771a83
GS
1046(P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the totem pole, in the scheme of
1047upgradability. Upgrading to undef indicates an error in the code
1048calling sv_upgrade.
a0d0e21e 1049
6df41af2
GS
1050=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1051
1052(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1053be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1054
1db89ea5
BS
1055=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1056
1057(P) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1058table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1059for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1060
6df41af2
GS
1061=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1062
be771a83
GS
1063(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1064references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1065
90b75b61 1066=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63
GS
1067
1068(F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
1069Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1070provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1071
6df41af2
GS
1072=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1073
be771a83
GS
1074(F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1075foreach.
6df41af2
GS
1076
1077=item Can't use global %s in "my"
1078
be771a83
GS
1079(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1080is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1081(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1082have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1083weren't.
1084
c07a80fd 1085=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1086
1087(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1088You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1089and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1090Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1091lexical variable.
1092
a0d0e21e
LW
1093=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1094
1095(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1096reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1097test the type of the reference, if need be.
1098
748a9306 1099=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1100
be771a83
GS
1101(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1102references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 1103
748a9306
LW
1104=item Can't use subscript on %s
1105
1106(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1107subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
1108didn't look like an array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
1109
6df41af2
GS
1110=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1111
75b44862
GS
1112(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1113creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1114backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1115expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1116value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1117instead.
6df41af2 1118
810b8aa5
GS
1119=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1120
1121(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1122references can be weakened.
1123
5f05dabc 1124=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1125
be771a83
GS
1126(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1127with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1128Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1129
ac7cd81a
SC
1130=item Character in "C" format wrapped
1131
1132(W pack) You said
1133
1134 pack("C", $x)
1135
1136where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1137only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1138and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1139
1140 pack("C", $x & 255)
1141
1142If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1143instead.
1144
1145=item Character in "c" format wrapped
1146
1147(W pack) You said
1148
1149 pack("c", $x)
1150
1151where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1152is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1153and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1154
1155 pack("c", $x & 255);
1156
1157If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1158instead.
1159
9ddeeac9 1160=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 1161
e476b1b5 1162(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
a0d0e21e 1163
6df41af2
GS
1164=item %s: Command not found
1165
be771a83
GS
1166(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1167Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 1168
7a2e2cd6 1169=item Compilation failed in require
1170
1171(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1172Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1173encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1174
c3464db5
DD
1175=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1176
be771a83
GS
1177(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1178situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1179to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1180arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1181recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1182under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1183in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1184that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1185on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1186
38875929
DM
1187=item cond_broadcast() called on unlocked variable
1188
1189(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1190cond_broadcast() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_broadcast()
1191function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1192cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1193has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1194first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1195after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1196lock.
1197
1198
1199=item cond_signal() called on unlocked variable
1200
1201(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1202cond_signal() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_signal()
1203function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1204cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1205has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1206first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1207after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1208lock.
1209
69282e91 1210=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1211
be771a83
GS
1212(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1213to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1214L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1215
41ab332f 1216=item Constant(%s)%s: %s
6df41af2 1217
be771a83
GS
1218(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1219an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1220specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
1221corresponding C<overload> or C<charnames> pragma? See L<charnames> and
1222L<overload>.
6df41af2 1223
779c5bc9
GS
1224=item Constant is not %s reference
1225
1226(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83
GS
1227is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
1228The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
1229usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1230See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1231
4cee8e80
CS
1232=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1233
bb028877 1234(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been
be771a83
GS
1235eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for
1236commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1237
9607fc9c 1238=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1239
be771a83
GS
1240(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1241for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1242workarounds.
9607fc9c 1243
e7ea3e70
IZ
1244=item Copy method did not return a reference
1245
64977eb6 1246(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1247L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1248
6798c92b
GS
1249=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1250
1251(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1252
a0d0e21e
LW
1253=item corrupted regexp pointers
1254
1255(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1256expression compiler gave it.
1257
1258=item corrupted regexp program
1259
be771a83
GS
1260(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1261valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1262
6df41af2
GS
1263=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
1264
1265(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1266
1267=item C<-p> destination: %s
1268
1269(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
1270command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
1271redirected it with select().)
1272
1273=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
1274
1275(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
1276know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
1277
a0d0e21e
LW
1278=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1279
be771a83
GS
1280(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1281100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1282infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1283which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1284
f10b0346 1285=item defined(@array) is deprecated
69794302 1286
be771a83
GS
1287(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1288checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
64977eb6 1289array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1290
f10b0346 1291=item defined(%hash) is deprecated
69794302 1292
be771a83
GS
1293(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it
1294checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the hash
64977eb6 1295is empty, just use C<if (%hash) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1296
62658f4d
PM
1297=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1298
1299(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1300there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1301
fc36a67e 1302=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1303
be771a83
GS
1304(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1305long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1306that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 1307
3cdd684c
TP
1308=item Did not produce a valid header
1309
1310See Server error.
1311
6df41af2
GS
1312=item %s did not return a true value
1313
1314(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1315it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1316traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1317do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1318
cc507455 1319=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 1320
be771a83
GS
1321(W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some
1322such.
4633a7c4 1323
cc507455 1324=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 1325
be771a83
GS
1326(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1327variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1328seems superfluous.
33633739 1329
cc507455 1330=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 1331
be771a83
GS
1332(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1333@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1334carried away.
748a9306 1335
7e1af8bc 1336=item Died
5f05dabc 1337
1338(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1339you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
1340
3cdd684c
TP
1341=item Document contains no data
1342
1343See Server error.
1344
62658f4d
PM
1345=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1346
1347(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1348define a C<$VERSION.>
1349
a0d0e21e
LW
1350=item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1351
1352(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1353
1354=item do_study: out of memory
1355
1356(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1357
6df41af2
GS
1358=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1359
1360(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1361found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
1362name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1363because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
1364"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1365something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1366subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1367"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 1368
ac206dc8
RGS
1369=item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1370
1371(W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1372qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1373
a0d0e21e
LW
1374=item Duplicate free() ignored
1375
be771a83
GS
1376(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1377already been freed.
a0d0e21e 1378
4633a7c4
LW
1379=item elseif should be elsif
1380
be771a83
GS
1381(S) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's ugly.
1382Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method named
1383"elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
1384unlikely to be what you want.
1385
ab13f0c7
JH
1386=item Empty %s
1387
af6f566e
HS
1388(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
1389described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
1390a regular expression without specifying the property name.
ab13f0c7 1391
85ab1d1d 1392=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 1393
85ab1d1d 1394(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
1395effective uids or gids failed.
1396
748a9306
LW
1397=item Error converting file specification %s
1398
5f05dabc 1399(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 1400specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
1401single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1402an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1403conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 1404
e4d48cc9
GS
1405=item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
1406
be771a83
GS
1407(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1408expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1409is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 1410
e4d48cc9
GS
1411=item %s: Eval-group not allowed at run time
1412
be771a83
GS
1413(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1414C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
1415pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it
1416is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly
1417building the pattern from an interpolated string at run time and using
1418that in an eval(). See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 1419
6df41af2
GS
1420=item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
1421
be771a83
GS
1422(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1423assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1424pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 1425
fc36a67e 1426=item Excessively long <> operator
1427
1428(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1429Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1430filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1431variable and glob that.
1432
ed9aa3b7
SG
1433=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1434
1435(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented in MacPerl. See L<perlport>.
1436
f86702cc 1437=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors
a0d0e21e
LW
1438
1439(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1440
1441=item Exiting eval via %s
1442
be771a83
GS
1443(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1444goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
1445
1446=item Exiting format via %s
1447
9a2ff54b 1448(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 1449goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1450
0a753a76 1451=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1452
be771a83
GS
1453(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1454sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1455loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 1456
a0d0e21e
LW
1457=item Exiting subroutine via %s
1458
be771a83
GS
1459(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1460as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
1461
1462=item Exiting substitution via %s
1463
be771a83
GS
1464(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1465as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1466
7b8d334a
GS
1467=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1468
be771a83
GS
1469(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1470the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1471usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1472e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 1473
6df41af2
GS
1474=item %s: Expression syntax
1475
be771a83
GS
1476(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1477Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
1478
1479=item %s failed--call queue aborted
1480
1481(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a CHECK, INIT, or
1482END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the queue of such
1483routines has been prematurely ended.
1484
7253e4e3 1485=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
73b437c8 1486
be771a83 1487(W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3
RK
1488character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1489in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1490"-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1491problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 1492
748a9306 1493=item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 1494
be771a83
GS
1495(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1496system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1497details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1498you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
1499
1500=item fcntl is not implemented
1501
1502(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1503PDP-11 or something?
1504
af8c498a 1505=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 1506
6c8d78fb
HS
1507(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
1508it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
1509"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
1510write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 1511
af8c498a 1512=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 1513
6c8d78fb
HS
1514(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
1515you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
be771a83
GS
1516with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you
1517intended only to read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>.
6c8d78fb
HS
1518Another possibility is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0
1519(also known as STDIN) for output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
97828cef
RGS
1520
1521=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
1522
1523(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
1524as STDOUT or STDERR. This occured because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
1525previously.
1526
1527=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
1528
1529(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
1530as STDIN. This occured because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
1531
1532=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1533
1534(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
1535a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1536happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1537name.
a0d0e21e
LW
1538
1539=item Final @ should be \@ or @name
1540
1541(F) You must now decide whether the final @ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
1542a literal "at" sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1543happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1544name.
a0d0e21e 1545
56e90b21
GS
1546=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1547
be771a83 1548(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 1549some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
1550filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1551same name?
56e90b21 1552
5cd5c422
RB
1553=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex;
1554
1555marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2 1556
b45f050a 1557(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if you
7253e4e3
RK
1558meant it literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
1559where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2
GS
1560
1561=item Format not terminated
1562
1563(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1564to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1565
a0d0e21e
LW
1566=item Format %s redefined
1567
e476b1b5 1568(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
1569
1570 {
271595cc 1571 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
1572 eval "format NAME =...";
1573 }
1574
a0d0e21e
LW
1575=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1576
e476b1b5 1577(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
1578
1579 if ($foo = 123)
1580
1581when you meant
1582
1583 if ($foo == 123)
1584
1585(or something like that).
1586
6df41af2
GS
1587=item %s found where operator expected
1588
1589(S) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator. If it
be771a83
GS
1590sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
1591operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
1592operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 1593
a0d0e21e
LW
1594=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1595
1596(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1597
1598=item gethostent not implemented
1599
1600(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1601because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1602on the Internet.
1603
69282e91 1604=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1605
be771a83
GS
1606(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
1607socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 1608
748a9306
LW
1609=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1610
1611(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1612C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1613
6df41af2
GS
1614=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
1615
be771a83
GS
1616(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
1617forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
1618L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
1619
1620=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1621
1622(F) You've said "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables
1623must either be lexically scoped (using "my"), declared beforehand using
1624"our", or explicitly qualified to say which package the global variable
1625is in (using "::").
1626
e476b1b5
GS
1627=item glob failed (%s)
1628
be771a83
GS
1629(W glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for
1630C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a
1631C<glob> pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
1632nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
1633resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell) is
1634broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables in
1635config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it
1636were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all
1637empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
1638think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 1639C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 1640
a0d0e21e
LW
1641=item Glob not terminated
1642
1643(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
1644a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
1645not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
1646earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 1647
6df41af2 1648=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 1649
6df41af2
GS
1650(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
1651version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
1652
1653=item goto must have label
1654
1655(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1656unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1657
18529408
IZ
1658=item %s-group starts with a count
1659
1660(F) In pack/unpack a ()-group started with a count. A count is
1661supposed to follow something: a template character or a ()-group.
1662
6df41af2
GS
1663=item %s had compilation errors
1664
1665(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
1666
a0d0e21e
LW
1667=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1668
be771a83
GS
1669(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
1670to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
1671created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e
LW
1672
1673=item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1674
be771a83
GS
1675(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
1676spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
a0d0e21e 1677
6df41af2
GS
1678=item %s has too many errors
1679
1680(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
1681Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
1682
252aa082
JH
1683=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
1684
e476b1b5 1685(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
1686(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
1687L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 1688
8903cb82 1689=item Identifier too long
1690
1691(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 1692about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
1693names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
1694of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 1695
6df41af2 1696=item Illegal binary digit %s
f675dbe5 1697
6df41af2 1698(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
f675dbe5 1699
6df41af2 1700=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
a0d0e21e 1701
be771a83
GS
1702(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
1703binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
1704offending digit.
a0d0e21e 1705
4fdae800 1706=item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1707
d5898338 1708(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
be771a83
GS
1709would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
1710when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
1711version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
1712to your Perl administrator.
4fdae800 1713
d37a9538
ST
1714=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
1715
420cdfc1 1716(W syntax) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration. Legal
d37a9538
ST
1717characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, and \.
1718
904d85c5
RGS
1719=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
1720
1721(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
1722you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
1723
a0d0e21e
LW
1724=item Illegal division by zero
1725
be771a83
GS
1726(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
1727your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
1728meaningless input.
a0d0e21e 1729
6df41af2
GS
1730=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
1731
be771a83
GS
1732(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
1733A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
1734number stopped before the illegal character.
6df41af2 1735
a0d0e21e
LW
1736=item Illegal modulus zero
1737
be771a83
GS
1738(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
1739numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 1740
6df41af2 1741=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 1742
6df41af2
GS
1743(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
1744two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4
GS
1745
1746=item Illegal octal digit %s
a0d0e21e 1747
d1be9408 1748(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 1749
399388f4 1750=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
748a9306 1751
d1be9408 1752(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
75b44862 1753Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
748a9306 1754
6df41af2 1755=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: %s
6ff81951 1756
6df41af2 1757(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
1c4db469 1758following switches: B<-[DIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 1759
6df41af2 1760=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 1761
75b44862 1762(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
1763internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
1764delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 1765
6df41af2 1766=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 1767
be771a83
GS
1768(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
1769name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
1770didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
1771ignored.
54310121 1772
6df41af2 1773=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 1774
be771a83
GS
1775(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
1776the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
1777system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
1778times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
1779would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 1780
be771a83
GS
1781Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
1782also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 1783
979699d9
JH
1784=item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
1785
1786(F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
1787Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
1788encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
1789
a0d0e21e
LW
1790=item Insecure dependency in %s
1791
8b1a09fc 1792(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
1793The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
1794setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
1795tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
1796from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
1797such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
1798L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
1799
1800=item Insecure directory in %s
1801
be771a83
GS
1802(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1803setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
1804the world. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 1805
62f468fc 1806=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
1807
1808(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc
MG
1809setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
1810C<$ENV{ENV}> or C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> are derived from data supplied (or
a0d0e21e
LW
1811potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set the path to a
1812known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
1813
a7ae9550
GS
1814=item Integer overflow in %s number
1815
75b44862 1816(W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
1817either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
1818your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
1819On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
1820representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
18210b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
1822transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
1823internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
1824operations.
bbce6d69 1825
46314c13
JP
1826=item Integer overflow in version
1827
1828(F) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for the
1829size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
1830because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use a
1831element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by
1832trying to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like
1833100/9.
1834
7253e4e3 1835=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
1836
1837(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
7253e4e3 1838The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a
JF
1839discovered.
1840
748a9306
LW
1841=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
1842
be771a83
GS
1843(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
1844you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
1845to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
1846L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
1847Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
1848terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 1849
7253e4e3 1850=item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 1851
7253e4e3
RK
1852(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
1853<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1854discovered.
a0d0e21e 1855
6df41af2
GS
1856=item %s (...) interpreted as function
1857
75b44862 1858(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 1859followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 1860operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 1861L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 1862
09bef843
SB
1863=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
1864
1865The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
1866by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
1867
1868=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
1869
be771a83
GS
1870The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
1871recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 1872
c635e13b 1873=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
1874
be771a83
GS
1875(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
1876L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 1877
7253e4e3 1878=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
1879
1880(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
1881greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
1882C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
1883up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1884problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 1885
d1573ac7 1886=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
1887
1888(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
1889character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
1890
09bef843
SB
1891=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
1892
0120eecf 1893(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
1894elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
1895parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
1896See L<attributes>.
09bef843 1897
96e4d5b1 1898=item Invalid type in pack: '%s'
1899
8903cb82 1900(F) The given character is not a valid pack type. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
be771a83
GS
1901(W pack) The given character is not a valid pack type but used to be
1902silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 1903
1904=item Invalid type in unpack: '%s'
1905
be771a83
GS
1906(F) The given character is not a valid unpack type. See
1907L<perlfunc/unpack>.
75b44862
GS
1908(W unpack) The given character is not a valid unpack type but used to be
1909silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 1910
46314c13
JP
1911=item Invalid version format (multiple underscores)
1912
1913(F) Versions may contain at most a single underscore, which signals
1914that the version is a beta release. See L<version> for the allowed
1915version formats.
1916
1917=item Invalid version format (underscores before decimal)
1918
1919(F) Versions may not contain decimals after the optional underscore.
1920See L<version> for the allowed version formats.
1921
a0d0e21e
LW
1922=item ioctl is not implemented
1923
1924(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
1925strange for a machine that supports C.
1926
c289d2f7
JH
1927=item ioctl() on unopened %s
1928
1929(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
1930Check you control flow and number of arguments.
1931
80cbd5ad
JH
1932=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
1933
1934(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
1935neither as a system call or an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
1936
6ad11d81
JH
1937=item `%s' is not a code reference
1938
04a80ee0
RGS
1939(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of overload::constant
1940needs to be a code reference. Either an anonymous subroutine, or a reference
6ad11d81
JH
1941to a subroutine.
1942
1943=item `%s' is not an overloadable type
1944
04a80ee0
RGS
1945(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
1946unaware of.
6ad11d81 1947
a0d0e21e
LW
1948=item junk on end of regexp
1949
1950(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
1951
1952=item Label not found for "last %s"
1953
be771a83
GS
1954(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
1955of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1956L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
1957
1958=item Label not found for "next %s"
1959
1960(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
1961that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1962L<perlfunc/last>.
1963
1964=item Label not found for "redo %s"
1965
1966(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
1967that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1968L<perlfunc/last>.
1969
85ab1d1d 1970=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 1971
85ab1d1d 1972(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
1973effective uids or gids failed.
1974
69282e91 1975=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1976
be771a83
GS
1977(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
1978to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1979L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 1980
5d3e98de
RGS
1981=item lstat() on filehandle %s
1982
1983(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
1984by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
1985instead on the filehandle.)
1986
cd06dffe
GS
1987=item Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented yet
1988
1989(F) Due to limitations in the current implementation, array and hash
be771a83
GS
1990values cannot be returned in subroutines used in lvalue context. See
1991L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
cd06dffe 1992
5cd5c422
RB
1993=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex;
1994
1995marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
1996
1997(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
7253e4e3
RK
1998handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release. The <-- HERE
1999shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2e50fd82 2000
6df41af2
GS
2001=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
2002
2003(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
2004
2005 prefix1;prefix2
2006
2007or
6df41af2
GS
2008 prefix1 prefix2
2009
be771a83
GS
2010with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
2011a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
2012appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 2013"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 2014
2f758a16
ST
2015=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
2016
d37a9538
ST
2017(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
2018syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
2019obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
2020when the function is called.
2f758a16 2021
ba210ebe
JH
2022=item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
2023
2024Perl detected something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding rules.
2025
901b21bf
JH
2026One possible cause is that you read in data that you thought to be in
2027UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy 8-bit data). Another
2028possibility is careless use of utf8::upgrade().
2029
dea0fc0b
JH
2030=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
2031
2032Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
2033doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
2034
5cd5c422
RB
2035=item %s matches null string many times in regex;
2036
2037marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2038
2039(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
7253e4e3
RK
2040regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
2041shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2042See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 2043
25f58aea
PN
2044=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2045
2046(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
2047interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
2048"use" or "my".
2049
6df41af2
GS
2050=item % may only be used in unpack
2051
2052(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
2053checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
2054See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 2055
a0d0e21e
LW
2056=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
2057
2058(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 2059doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2060
3cdd684c
TP
2061=item Method %s not permitted
2062
2063See Server error.
2064
a0d0e21e
LW
2065=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
2066
2067(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
2068by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
2069ended earlier on the current line.
2070
2071=item Misplaced _ in number
2072
d4ced10d
JH
2073(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
2074separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 2075
4a2d328f 2076=item Missing %sbrace%s on \N{}
423cee85 2077
4a2d328f 2078(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
423cee85
JH
2079double-quotish context.
2080
a0d0e21e
LW
2081=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
2082
2083(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
2084"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
2085
06eaf0bc
GS
2086=item Missing command in piped open
2087
be771a83
GS
2088(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
2089C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
2090blank.
06eaf0bc 2091
6df41af2
GS
2092=item Missing name in "my sub"
2093
be771a83
GS
2094(F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
2095they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
2096
2097=item Missing $ on loop variable
2098
be771a83
GS
2099(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
2100are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
2101can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 2102
cc507455 2103=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306
LW
2104
2105(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
2106found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
2107
ab13f0c7
JH
2108=item Missing right brace on %s
2109
2110(F) Missing right brace in C<\p{...}> or C<\P{...}>.
2111
d98d5fff 2112=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 2113
be771a83
GS
2114(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
2115ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
2116were last editing.
a0d0e21e 2117
6df41af2
GS
2118=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
2119
2120(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
2121found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
2122the previous line just because you saw this message.
2123
a0d0e21e
LW
2124=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
2125
2126(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 2127constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
2128catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
2129
2130 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
2131 mod(2);
2132
2133Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
2134
c5674021
PDF
2135Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
2136is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
2137
2138 $x = 1;
2139 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
2140 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to modify the 2
64977eb6 2141 }
c5674021 2142
7a4340ed 2143=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2144
2145(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
2146subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
2147backwards.
2148
7a4340ed 2149=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 2150
be771a83
GS
2151(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
2152couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
2153
2154=item Module name must be constant
2155
2156(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
2157
be98fb35 2158=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 2159
be98fb35
GS
2160(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
2161you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
2162about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 2163
ed9aa3b7
SG
2164=item More than one argument to open
2165
2166(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
2167can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
2168list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
2169See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
2170
a0d0e21e
LW
2171=item msg%s not implemented
2172
2173(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
2174
2175=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
2176
75b44862
GS
2177(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
2178They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 2179
6df41af2 2180=item / must be followed by a*, A* or Z*
09bef843 2181
6df41af2 2182(F) You had a pack template indicating a counted-length string,
be771a83
GS
2183Currently the only things that can have their length counted are a*, A*
2184or Z*. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2185
2186=item / must be followed by a, A or Z
2187
be771a83
GS
2188(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, which
2189must be followed by one of the letters a, A or Z to indicate what sort
2190of string is to be unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2191
2192=item / must follow a numeric type
2193
be771a83
GS
2194(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '#', but this did not
2195follow some numeric unpack specification. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2196
2197=item "my sub" not yet implemented
2198
be771a83
GS
2199(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
2200that yet.
6df41af2
GS
2201
2202=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
2203
be771a83
GS
2204(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2205sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2206local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 2207
8b1a09fc 2208=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2209
e476b1b5 2210(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
be771a83
GS
2211If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2212again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
77ca0c92 2213provided for this purpose.
a0d0e21e
LW
2214
2215=item Negative length
2216
be771a83
GS
2217(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
2218length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 2219
ed9aa3b7
SG
2220=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
2221
2222(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
2223greater than or equal to zero.
2224
7253e4e3 2225=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 2226
b45f050a 2227(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
7253e4e3 2228things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
b45f050a 2229expression about where the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 2230
7253e4e3 2231Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 2232C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 2233
6df41af2 2234=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 2235
be771a83
GS
2236(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
2237scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e
LW
2238
2239=item No %s allowed while running setuid
2240
be771a83
GS
2241(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
2242setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
2243will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
2244securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2245
2246=item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
2247
2248(F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
2249
2250=item No comma allowed after %s
2251
2252(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
2253allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
2254Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
2255
0a753a76 2256One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
2257constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
2258importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
2259does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
2260explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
2261L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
2262would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
2263remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
2264constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
2265list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
2266this error was triggered?
2267
748a9306
LW
2268=item No command into which to pipe on command line
2269
be771a83
GS
2270(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2271redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
2272doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 2273
a0d0e21e
LW
2274=item No DB::DB routine defined
2275
be771a83
GS
2276(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
2277for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof) didn't
2278define a routine to be called at the beginning of each statement. Which
2279is odd, because the file should have been required automatically, and
2280should have blown up the require if it didn't parse right.
a0d0e21e
LW
2281
2282=item No dbm on this machine
2283
2284(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 2285supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2286
2287=item No DBsub routine
2288
2289(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
2290but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
2291didn't define a DB::sub routine to be called at the beginning of each
2292ordinary subroutine call.
2293
c47ff5f1 2294=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 2295
be771a83
GS
2296(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2297redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
2298find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 2299
c47ff5f1 2300=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 2301
be771a83
GS
2302(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2303redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
2304name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 2305
6df41af2
GS
2306=item No #! line
2307
2308(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2309even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
2310
2311=item "no" not allowed in expression
2312
be771a83
GS
2313(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
2314returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 2315
c47ff5f1 2316=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 2317
be771a83
GS
2318(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2319redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
2320doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 2321
c47ff5f1 2322=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 2323
be771a83
GS
2324(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2325redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
2326find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 2327
1ec3e8de
GS
2328=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
2329
be771a83
GS
2330(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
2331declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
2332semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 2333
a0d0e21e
LW
2334=item No Perl script found in input
2335
2336(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
2337with #! and containing the word "perl".
2338
2339=item No setregid available
2340
2341(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
2342your system.
2343
2344=item No setreuid available
2345
2346(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
2347your system.
2348
a67e862a 2349=item No space allowed after -%c
a0d0e21e 2350
be771a83
GS
2351(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2352immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
a0d0e21e 2353
6df41af2
GS
2354=item No %s specified for -%c
2355
2356(F) The indicated command line switch needs a mandatory argument, but
2357you haven't specified one.
2358
2c692339
RGS
2359=item No such class %s
2360
2361(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration, but
2362this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
2363
6df41af2
GS
2364=item No such pipe open
2365
2366(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
2367close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
2368earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 2369
a0d0e21e
LW
2370=item No such signal: SIG%s
2371
be771a83
GS
2372(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
2373not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
2374names on your system.
a0d0e21e
LW
2375
2376=item Not a CODE reference
2377
2378(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2379subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
2380use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2381also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2382
2383=item Not a format reference
2384
2385(F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
2386format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
2387
2388=item Not a GLOB reference
2389
be771a83
GS
2390(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
2391symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
2392something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
2393kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2394
2395=item Not a HASH reference
2396
be771a83
GS
2397(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
2398reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
2399find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 2400
6df41af2
GS
2401=item Not an ARRAY reference
2402
be771a83
GS
2403(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
2404a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2405to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 2406
a0d0e21e
LW
2407=item Not a perl script
2408
2409(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2410even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
2411mention perl.
2412
2413=item Not a SCALAR reference
2414
be771a83
GS
2415(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
2416a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2417to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2418
2419=item Not a subroutine reference
2420
2421(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2422subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
2423use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2424also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 2425
e7ea3e70 2426=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
2427
2428(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 2429doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2430
a0d0e21e
LW
2431=item Not enough arguments for %s
2432
2433(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
2434
6df41af2
GS
2435=item Not enough format arguments
2436
be771a83
GS
2437(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
2438supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
2439
2440=item %s: not found
2441
be771a83
GS
2442(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
2443of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
2444yourself.
6df41af2 2445
206947d2
IZ
2446=item %s not allowed in length fields
2447
2448(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]> only if
2449C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes. Redesign
2450the template.
2451
6df41af2 2452=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 2453
6df41af2
GS
2454(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
2455timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
2456to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
2457F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
2458need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e
LW
2459
2460=item Null filename used
2461
be771a83
GS
2462(F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
2463machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
a0d0e21e 2464
6df41af2
GS
2465=item NULL OP IN RUN
2466
be771a83
GS
2467(P debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
2468pointer.
6df41af2 2469
55497cff 2470=item Null picture in formline
2471
2472(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
2473specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
2474supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
2475
a0d0e21e
LW
2476=item Null realloc
2477
2478(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
2479
2480=item NULL regexp argument
2481
5f05dabc 2482(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
2483
2484=item NULL regexp parameter
2485
2486(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
2487
fc36a67e 2488=item Number too long
2489
be771a83 2490(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 2491about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
2492versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
2493the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
2494"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 2495
6df41af2
GS
2496=item Octal number in vector unsupported
2497
be771a83
GS
2498(F) Numbers with a leading C<0> are not currently allowed in vectors.
2499The octal number interpretation of such numbers may be supported in a
2500future version.
6df41af2 2501
252aa082
JH
2502=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
2503
75b44862 2504(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
2505(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2506L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082
JH
2507
2508See also L<perlport> for writing portable code.
2509
6ad11d81
JH
2510=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
2511
04a80ee0
RGS
2512(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
2513arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 2514
b21befc1
MG
2515=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
2516
2517(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2518which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
2519
1930e939 2520=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 2521
be771a83
GS
2522(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2523which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 2524
bbce6d69 2525=item Offset outside string
2526
2527(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with an offset
be771a83
GS
2528pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to imagine. The sole
2529exception to this is that C<sysread()>ing past the buffer will extend
2530the buffer and zero pad the new area.
bbce6d69 2531
9ddeeac9
JH
2532=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
2533
2534(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
c289d2f7 2535that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
9ddeeac9 2536
c289d2f7 2537=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
2538
2539(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
2540never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
2541call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
2542
a0d0e21e
LW
2543=item oops: oopsAV
2544
e476b1b5 2545(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
2546
2547=item oops: oopsHV
2548
e476b1b5 2549(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 2550
56f7f34b 2551=item Operation `%s': no method found, %s
44a8e56a 2552
be771a83
GS
2553(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
2554handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
2555of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
2556C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 2557
748a9306
LW
2558=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
2559
be771a83
GS
2560(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
2561was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
2562use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
2563example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
2564"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 2565
6df41af2
GS
2566=item "our" variable %s redeclared
2567
be771a83
GS
2568(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
2569in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 2570
a80b8354
GS
2571=item Out of memory!
2572
2573(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
2574remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
2575no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 2576
6df41af2 2577=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 2578
6df41af2
GS
2579(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
2580remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
2581the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
2582possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 2583
1b979e0a 2584=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 2585
be771a83
GS
2586(X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
2587insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
2588request.
eff9c6e2
CS
2589
2590The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
2591depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
2592However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
2593emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
2594is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
2595where the failed request happened.
55497cff 2596
1b979e0a
IZ
2597=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
2598
2599(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
2600is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
2601C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 2602
6df41af2
GS
2603=item Out of memory for yacc stack
2604
be771a83
GS
2605(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
2606parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
2607otherwise.
6df41af2
GS
2608
2609=item @ outside of string
2610
2611(F) You had a pack template that specified an absolute position outside
2612the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2613
2614=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
2615
be771a83
GS
2616(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
2617package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
2618some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
2619mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 2620
a0d0e21e
LW
2621=item page overflow
2622
be771a83
GS
2623(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
2624page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 2625
6df41af2
GS
2626=item panic: %s
2627
2628(P) An internal error.
2629
a0d0e21e
LW
2630=item panic: ck_grep
2631
2632(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
2633
2634=item panic: ck_split
2635
2636(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
2637
2638=item panic: corrupt saved stack index
2639
be771a83
GS
2640(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
2641there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 2642
810b8aa5
GS
2643=item panic: del_backref
2644
2645(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
2646reference.
2647
a0d0e21e
LW
2648=item panic: die %s
2649
2650(P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
2651it wasn't an eval context.
2652
290deeac 2653=item panic: pp_match%s
a0d0e21e 2654
be771a83
GS
2655(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
2656data.
a0d0e21e 2657
a0d0e21e
LW
2658=item panic: do_subst
2659
be771a83
GS
2660(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
2661data.
a0d0e21e 2662
2269b42e 2663=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 2664
2269b42e 2665(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 2666data.
a0d0e21e 2667
c635e13b 2668=item panic: frexp
2669
2670(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
2671
a0d0e21e
LW
2672=item panic: goto
2673
2674(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
2675and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
2676
2677=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
2678
2679(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
2680
2681=item panic: INTERPCONCAT
2682
2683(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
2684
e446cec8
IZ
2685=item panic: kid popen errno read
2686
2687(F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
2688
a0d0e21e
LW
2689=item panic: last
2690
2691(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
2692it wasn't a block context.
2693
2694=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
2695
be771a83
GS
2696(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
2697scope.
a0d0e21e
LW
2698
2699=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
2700
2701(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
2702invalid enum on the top of it.
2703
810b8aa5
GS
2704=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
2705
2706(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
2707references to an object.
2708
6df41af2
GS
2709=item panic: malloc
2710
2711(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
2712
a0d0e21e
LW
2713=item panic: mapstart
2714
2715(P) The compiler is screwed up with respect to the map() function.
2716
2717=item panic: null array
2718
2719(P) One of the internal array routines was passed a null AV pointer.
2720
2721=item panic: pad_alloc
2722
2723(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2724and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2725
2726=item panic: pad_free curpad
2727
2728(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2729and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2730
2731=item panic: pad_free po
2732
2733(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2734
2735=item panic: pad_reset curpad
2736
2737(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2738and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2739
2740=item panic: pad_sv po
2741
2742(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2743
2744=item panic: pad_swipe curpad
2745
2746(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2747and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2748
2749=item panic: pad_swipe po
2750
2751(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2752
2753=item panic: pp_iter
2754
2755(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
2756
2269b42e
JH
2757=item panic: pp_split
2758
2759(P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
2760
a0d0e21e
LW
2761=item panic: realloc
2762
2763(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
2764
2765=item panic: restartop
2766
2767(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
2768didn't supply the destination.
2769
2770=item panic: return
2771
2772(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
2773then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
2774
2775=item panic: scan_num
2776
2777(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
2778
2779=item panic: sv_insert
2780
2781(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
2782was string.
2783
2784=item panic: top_env
2785
6224f72b 2786(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e
LW
2787
2788=item panic: yylex
2789
2790(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
2791
dea0fc0b
JH
2792=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
2793
2794(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 2795to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 2796
7b8d334a 2797=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
a0d0e21e 2798
e476b1b5 2799(W parenthesis) You said something like
a0d0e21e
LW
2800
2801 my $foo, $bar = @_;
2802
2803when you meant
2804
2805 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
2806
54884818 2807Remember that "my", "our", and "local" bind tighter than comma.
a0d0e21e 2808
75b44862 2809=item Perl %s required--this is only version %s, stopped
a0d0e21e 2810
be771a83
GS
2811(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
2812recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
2813you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
a0d0e21e 2814
6df41af2
GS
2815=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
2816
2817(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
fecfaeb8 2818C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2
GS
2819
2820=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2821
2822(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
2823
2824 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2825 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
2826 LC_ALL = "En_US",
2827 LANG = (unset)
2828 are supported and installed on your system.
2829 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
2830
2831Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
2832settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
0ea6b70f
JH
2833This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
2834system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
2835locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
2836dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
2837Perl can and will use, the script will be run. Before you really fix
2838the problem, however, you will get the same error message each time
2839you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
2840L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
6df41af2 2841
bccbfa77
NC
2842=item perlio: argument list not closed for layer "%s"
2843
d7133549
RGS
2844(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O system you
2845forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers take care of transforming
64977eb6
NC
2846data between external and internal representations.) Perl stopped parsing
2847the layer list at this point and did not attempt to push this layer.
2848If your program didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be
2849the result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2850
d7133549 2851=item perlio: invalid separator character %s in layer specification list %s
64977eb6 2852
d7133549 2853(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other than a
d1be9408 2854colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
64977eb6
NC
2855If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2856list was terminated too soon.
bccbfa77 2857
ef0f9817
DD
2858=item perlio: unknown layer "%s"
2859
d7133549 2860(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
ef0f9817
DD
2861system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
2862internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
2863are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
2864explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
2865value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2866
a0d0e21e
LW
2867=item Permission denied
2868
2869(F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to no good.
2870
bd3fa61c 2871=item pid %x not a child
748a9306 2872
be771a83
GS
2873(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
2874process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
2875fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
748a9306 2876
3bf38418
WL
2877=item P must have an explicit size
2878
2879(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
2880
5cd5c422
RB
2881=item POSIX syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes in regex;
2882
2883marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2884
9a0b3859 2885(W regexp) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
7253e4e3
RK
2886I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
2887/[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
2888implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and will
2889cause fatal errors. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
2890where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 2891
5cd5c422
RB
2892=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex;
2893
2894marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
2895
2896(F regexp) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
7253e4e3
RK
2897beginning with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
2898If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
2899expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
2900backslash: "\[." and ".\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
2901about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 2902
5cd5c422
RB
2903=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex;
2904
2905marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2906
7253e4e3
RK
2907(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
2908with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
2909need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
2910character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
2911and "=\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2912problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 2913
5cd5c422
RB
2914=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex;
2915
2916marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2917
7253e4e3
RK
2918(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The <-- HERE
2919shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
80feea45
JH
2920Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
2921the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
2922not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
b45f050a 2923
a0d0e21e
LW
2924=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
2925
81777298 2926(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
a0d0e21e
LW
2927the BSD version, which takes a pid.
2928
bbce6d69 2929=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
2930
e476b1b5 2931(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
75b44862 2932strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
be771a83
GS
2933literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
2934parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
bbce6d69 2935
774d564b 2936You probably wrote something like this:
2937
54310121 2938 @list = qw(
774d564b 2939 a # a comment
bbce6d69 2940 b # another comment
774d564b 2941 );
bbce6d69 2942
2943when you should have written this:
2944
774d564b 2945 @list = qw(
54310121 2946 a
2947 b
774d564b 2948 );
2949
2950If you really want comments, build your list the
2951old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
2952
2953 @list = (
2954 'a', # a comment
2955 'b', # another comment
2956 );
bbce6d69 2957
2958=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
2959
be771a83
GS
2960(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
2961commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
2962different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
2963frequently used.)
bbce6d69 2964
54310121 2965You probably wrote something like this:
bbce6d69 2966
774d564b 2967 qw! a, b, c !;
2968
2969which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
2970commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
bbce6d69 2971
774d564b 2972 qw! a b c !;
bbce6d69 2973
a0d0e21e
LW
2974=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
2975
2976(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
2977Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
2978end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
2979Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
2980
276b2a0c
RGS
2981=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %c operator
2982
2983(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
2984with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
2985
2986 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
2987
2988This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
2989higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
2990really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, write
2991C<$x & ($y == 0 ? 1 : 0)>).
2992
18623440
PS
2993=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
2994
2995(W ambiguous) You said something like `@foo' in a double-quoted string
32b0a12e
AMS
2996but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
2997literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
2998to the array you apparently lost track of.
18623440 2999
6df41af2
GS
3000=item Possible Y2K bug: %s
3001
3002(W y2k) You are concatenating the number 19 with another number, which
3003could be a potential Year 2000 problem.
3004
8cd79558
GS
3005=item pragma "attrs" is deprecated, use "sub NAME : ATTRS" instead
3006
a1063b2d 3007(D deprecated) You have written something like this:
8cd79558
GS
3008
3009 sub doit
3010 {
3011 use attrs qw(locked);
3012 }
3013
3014You should use the new declaration syntax instead.
3015
3016 sub doit : locked
3017 {
3018 ...
3019
3020The C<use attrs> pragma is now obsolete, and is only provided for
3021backward-compatibility. See L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes">.
3022
a0d0e21e
LW
3023=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
3024
e476b1b5 3025(S precedence) The old irregular construct
cb1a09d0 3026
a0d0e21e
LW
3027 open FOO || die;
3028
3029is now misinterpreted as
3030
3031 open(FOO || die);
3032
be771a83
GS
3033because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
3034list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
3035parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
3036of "||".
a0d0e21e 3037
3cdd684c
TP
3038=item Premature end of script headers
3039
3040See Server error.
3041
6df41af2
GS
3042=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
3043
be771a83 3044(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3045before now. Check your control flow.
6df41af2 3046
9a7dcd9c 3047=item print() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 3048
be771a83 3049(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3050before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 3051
6df41af2 3052=item Process terminated by SIG%s
a0d0e21e 3053
6df41af2
GS
3054(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
3055applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
3056port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
3057L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
fecfaeb8 3058in L<perlos2>.
a0d0e21e 3059
3fe9a6f1 3060=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4633a7c4 3061
9a0b3859 3062(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
be771a83 3063declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4633a7c4 3064
ed9aa3b7
SG
3065=item Prototype not terminated
3066
2a6fd447 3067(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
ed9aa3b7
SG
3068definition.
3069
5cd5c422
RB
3070=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex;
3071
3072marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 3073
b45f050a 3074(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of the
7253e4e3 3075{min,max} construct. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where
b45f050a 3076the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
9baa0206 3077
5cd5c422
RB
3078=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression;
3079
3080marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
9baa0206 3081
b45f050a
JF
3082(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
3083it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
3084quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
3085"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
3086C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
9baa0206 3087
7253e4e3
RK
3088The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3089discovered.
3090
89ea2908
GA
3091=item Range iterator outside integer range
3092
3093(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
3094are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
be771a83
GS
3095One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
3096by prepending "0" to your numbers.
89ea2908 3097
b5fe5ca2
SR
3098=item read() on closed filehandle %s
3099
3100(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
3101
3102=item read() on unopened filehandle %s
3103
3104(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
3105
9a7dcd9c 3106=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
a0d0e21e 3107
75b44862 3108(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3109before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 3110
6df41af2
GS
3111=item Reallocation too large: %lx
3112
3113(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
3114
4ad56ec9
IZ
3115=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
3116
be771a83
GS
3117(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
3118already been freed.
4ad56ec9 3119
a0d0e21e
LW
3120=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
3121
be771a83
GS
3122(F debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
3123the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
a0d0e21e
LW
3124which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
3125
3e0ccd42 3126=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
a0d0e21e
LW
3127
3128(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably indicates
3129an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
3130
7a4340ed 3131=item Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method %s
3e0ccd42 3132
be771a83
GS
3133(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were encountered while invoking
3134a method. Probably indicates an unintended loop in your inheritance
3135hierarchy.
3e0ccd42 3136
1930e939
TP
3137=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
3138
be771a83
GS
3139(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
3140with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This usually
3141means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant to use
3142parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
7b8d334a
GS
3143
3144 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
3145 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
3146 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
3147 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
3148
810b8aa5
GS
3149=item Reference is already weak
3150
e476b1b5 3151(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
810b8aa5
GS
3152Doing so has no effect.
3153
a0d0e21e
LW
3154=item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
3155
be771a83
GS
3156(W internal) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with
3157a reference count of other than 1.
a0d0e21e 3158
5cd5c422
RB
3159=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex;
3160
3161marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3162
3163(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
3164not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If you
3165wanted to have the character with value 7 inserted into the regular expression,
3166prepend a zero to make the number at least two digits: C<\07>
9baa0206 3167
7253e4e3 3168The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a 3169discovered.
9baa0206 3170
a0d0e21e
LW
3171=item regexp memory corruption
3172
3173(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
3174expression compiler gave it.
3175
b45f050a 3176=item Regexp out of space
a0d0e21e 3177
be771a83
GS
3178(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
3179earlier.
a0d0e21e 3180
7a95317d
GS
3181=item Repeat count in pack overflows
3182
be771a83
GS
3183(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3184signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
7a95317d
GS
3185
3186=item Repeat count in unpack overflows
3187
be771a83
GS
3188(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3189signed integers. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
7a95317d 3190
a0d0e21e
LW
3191=item Reversed %s= operator
3192
be771a83
GS
3193(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
3194always comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
a0d0e21e
LW
3195
3196=item Runaway format
3197
3198(F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence, but it
3199produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th line looked exactly like the
3200199th line. Apparently you didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust
3201themselves, either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
3202shifting or popping (for array variables). See L<perlform>.
3203
3204=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
3205
be771a83
GS
3206(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
3207single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
3208value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
3209behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3210argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3211and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3212if you're expecting only one subscript.
a0d0e21e 3213
748a9306 3214On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5f05dabc 3215element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
748a9306
LW
3216Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
3217L<perlref>.
3218
a6006777 3219=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
3220
75b44862 3221(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
be771a83
GS
3222element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
3223(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
3224like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3225argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3226and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3227if you're expecting only one subscript.
3228
3229On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
3230as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
3231not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
a6006777 3232L<perlref>.
3233
3e2f796a
NIS
3234=item Scalars leaked: %d
3235
3236(P) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping of scalars:
3237not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time Perl exited.
3238What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which is of course bad,
3239especially if the Perl program is intended to be long-running.
3240
a0d0e21e
LW
3241=item Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl
3242
54310121 3243(F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script without a setuid
3244or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much sense.
a0d0e21e
LW
3245
3246=item Search pattern not terminated
3247
3248(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
3249construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
fb73857a 3250Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
a0d0e21e 3251
0cb1bcd7 3252Note that since Perl 5.9.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
5d9c98cd
JH
3253construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
3254in Perl 5.9.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
3255misparsed by pre-5.9.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
3256
9ddeeac9 3257=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
a0d0e21e 3258
be771a83
GS
3259(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
3260filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
a0d0e21e
LW
3261
3262=item select not implemented
3263
3264(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
3265
ae21d580 3266=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
68a4a7e4 3267
ae21d580
JH
3268(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
3269the current implementation.
68a4a7e4 3270
6df41af2 3271=item Semicolon seems to be missing
a0d0e21e 3272
75b44862
GS
3273(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
3274semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
a0d0e21e
LW
3275
3276=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
3277
be771a83
GS
3278(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
3279scalar that had previously been marked as free.
a0d0e21e 3280
6df41af2 3281=item sem%s not implemented
a0d0e21e 3282
6df41af2 3283(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
a0d0e21e 3284
69282e91 3285=item send() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 3286
be771a83 3287(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
c289d2f7 3288before now. Check your control flow.
a0d0e21e 3289
7253e4e3 3290=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
7b8d334a 3291
7253e4e3 3292(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The <-- HERE
b45f050a 3293shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
be771a83 3294L<perlre>.
1b1626e4 3295
5cd5c422
RB
3296=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated or not {}-balanced in regex;
3297
3298marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
3299
3300(F) If the contents of a (?{...}) clause contains braces, they must balance
7253e4e3
RK
3301for Perl to properly detect the end of the clause. The <-- HERE shows in
3302the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3303L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3304
5cd5c422
RB
3305=item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented in regex;
3306
3307marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3308
b45f050a 3309(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved but
7253e4e3 3310has not yet been written. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
b45f050a
JF
3311where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3312
5cd5c422
RB
3313=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex;
3314
3315marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 3316
7253e4e3
RK
3317(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense. The
3318<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3319discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 3320
5cd5c422
RB
3321=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex;
3322
3323marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
3324
3325(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
7253e4e3
RK
3326parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. The <-- HERE shows in
3327the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3328L<perlre>.
6df41af2
GS
3329
3330=item 500 Server error
3331
3332See Server error.
3333
a5f75d66
AD
3334=item Server error
3335
3cdd684c 3336This is the error message generally seen in a browser window when trying
be771a83
GS
3337to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The actual error text
3338varies widely from server to server. The most frequently-seen variants
3339are "500 Server error", "Method (something) not permitted", "Document
3340contains no data", "Premature end of script headers", and "Did not
3341produce a valid header".
9607fc9c 3342
3343B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
3344
be771a83
GS
3345You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by the
3346user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the user
3347account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment variables
3348(like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't in a
3349location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or less.
3350Please see the following for more information:
9607fc9c 3351
06a5f41f
JH
3352 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
3353 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
3354 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
a5f75d66 3355
be94a901
GS
3356You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
3357
a0d0e21e
LW
3358=item setegid() not implemented
3359
be771a83
GS
3360(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
3361support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3362didn't think so.
a0d0e21e
LW
3363
3364=item seteuid() not implemented
3365
be771a83
GS
3366(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
3367support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3368didn't think so.
a0d0e21e 3369
81777298
GS
3370=item setpgrp can't take arguments
3371
be771a83
GS
3372(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
3373arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
3374group ID.
81777298 3375
a0d0e21e
LW
3376=item setrgid() not implemented
3377
be771a83
GS
3378(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
3379