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Fix list of constants to import to make this test pass
[perl5.git] / pod / perldiag.pod
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1=head1 NAME
2
3perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
4
5=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
8desperation):
9
10 (W) A warning (optional).
d1d15184 11 (D) A deprecation (enabled by default).
00eb3f2b 12 (S) A severe warning (enabled by default).
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13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
54310121 15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
cb1a09d0 16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
a0d0e21e 17
75b44862 18The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
64977eb6 19(W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
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20
21If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
22category is included with the classification letter in the description
23below.
24
25Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
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
b7eceb5b 30Severe warnings are always enabled, unless they are explicitly disabled
e476b1b5 31with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
4438c4b7 32
748a9306 33Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
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34L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
36See L<warnings>.
a0d0e21e 37
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38The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
39lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
40denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
41ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
42letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
43letter.
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44
45=over 4
46
6df41af2 47=item accept() on closed socket %s
33633739 48
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49(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
50to check the return value of your socket() call? See
51L<perlfunc/accept>.
33633739 52
6df41af2 53=item Allocation too large: %lx
a0d0e21e 54
6df41af2 55(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
a0d0e21e 56
1109a392 57=item '%c' allowed only after types %s
ef54e1a4 58
1109a392
MHM
59(F) The modifiers '!', '<' and '>' are allowed in pack() or unpack() only
60after certain types. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
ef54e1a4 61
6df41af2 62=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
43192e07 63
75b44862 64(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
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65keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
66one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
67subroutine is not imported.
43192e07 68
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69To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
70before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
71Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
72imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
43192e07 73
6df41af2 74To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
496a33f5 75on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
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76to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
77L<attributes>).
43192e07 78
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79=item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
80
81(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
82all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
83first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
84C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
85
6df41af2 86=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
43192e07 87
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88(W ambiguous)(S) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
89you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
90a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
a0d0e21e 91
6df41af2 92=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
a0d0e21e 93
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94(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
95redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
96redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
c9f97d15 97
6df41af2 98=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
1028017a 99
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100(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
101redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
102into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
103though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
104which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
1028017a 105
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106 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
107 while (<STDIN>) {
108 print;
109 print OUT;
110 }
111 close OUT;
c9f97d15 112
6df41af2 113=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
eb6e2d6f 114
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115(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
116transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
be771a83 117one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
ac036724 118a scalar value (the length of an array, or the population info of a
119hash) and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
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120you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
121alternatives.
eb6e2d6f 122
6df41af2 123=item Args must match #! line
a0d0e21e 124
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125(F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
126with match the arguments specified on the #! line. Since some systems
127impose a one-argument limit on the #! line, try combining switches;
128for example, turn C<-w -U> into C<-wU>.
a0d0e21e 129
6df41af2 130=item Arg too short for msgsnd
76cd736e 131
6df41af2 132(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
76cd736e 133
b0fdf69e 134=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine
a0d0e21e 135
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136(F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element or a
137subroutine with an ampersand, such as:
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138
139 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 140 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
cc1c2e42 141 &do_something
a0d0e21e 142
8ea97a1e 143=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
5f05dabc 144
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FC
145(F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
146such as:
5f05dabc 147
148 $foo{$bar}
cb4f522a 149 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
5f05dabc 150
8ea97a1e 151or a hash or array slice, such as:
5f05dabc 152
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153 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
154 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
5315574d 155
6df41af2 156=item %s argument is not a subroutine name
a0d0e21e 157
6df41af2 158(F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
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159name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
160error.
a0d0e21e 161
f86702cc 162=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
a0d0e21e 163
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164(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
165that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
166will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
a0d0e21e 167
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168=item Argument list not closed for PerlIO layer "%s"
169
170(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O system you
171forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers take care of transforming
172data between external and internal representations.) Perl stopped parsing
173the layer list at this point and did not attempt to push this layer.
174If your program didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be
175the result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
176
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177=item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
178
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179(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
180spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
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181
182=item assertion botched: %s
183
184(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
185
186=item Assertion failed: file "%s"
187
188(P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
189
190=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
191
192(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
193must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
194know which context to supply to the right side.
195
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196=item A thread exited while %d threads were running
197
4447dfc1 198(W threads)(S) When using threaded Perl, a thread (not necessarily the main
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199thread) exited while there were still other threads running.
200Usually it's a good idea to first collect the return values of the
201created threads by joining them, and only then exit from the main
202thread. See L<threads>.
203
2393f1b9 204=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
1b1f1335 205
49293501 206(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
2393f1b9 207the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
49293501 208
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209=item Attempt to bless into a reference
210
211(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
212the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
213supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
214
215 bless $self, $proto;
216
217when you intended
218
219 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
220
221If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
222of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
223example by:
224
225 bless $self, "$proto";
226
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227=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
228
229(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
230which is not in its key set.
231
232=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
233
234(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
235declared readonly from a restricted hash.
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
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287=item Attempt to reload %s aborted.
288
289(F) You tried to load a file with C<use> or C<require> that failed to
290compile once already. Perl will not try to compile this file again
291unless you delete its entry from %INC. See L<perlfunc/require> and
292L<perlvar/%INC>.
293
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294=item Attempt to set length of freed array
295
296(W) You tried to set the length of an array which has been freed. You
297can do this by storing a reference to the scalar representing the last index
298of an array and later assigning through that reference. For example
299
300 $r = do {my @a; \$#a};
301 $$r = 503
302
b7a902f4 303=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
304
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305(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
306used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
307dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
b7a902f4 308
c32124fe
NC
309=item Attribute "locked" is deprecated
310
311(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragam to modify the "locked"
312attribute on a code reference. The :locked attribute is obsolete, has had no
313effect since 5005 threads were removed, and will be removed in the next major
314release of Perl 5.
315
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NC
316=item Attribute "unique" is deprecated
317
318(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragam to modify the "unique"
b7a2910f 319attribute on an array, hash or scalar reference. The :unique attribute has
259976bd 320had no effect since Perl 5.8.8, and will be removed in the next major
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NC
321release of Perl 5.
322
fe13d51d 323=item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %d
a0d0e21e 324
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325(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
326or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
5f05dabc 327S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
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328S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
329
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330=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
331
496a33f5 332(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
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333substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
334most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
335
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336=item Bad filehandle: %s
337
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338(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
339symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
340open(), or did it in another package.
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341
342=item Bad free() ignored
343
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344(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
345been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
9ea8bc6d 346setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
33c8a3fe 347
9ea8bc6d 348This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
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349dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
350which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
a0d0e21e 351
aa689395 352=item Bad hash
353
354(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
355
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356=item Badly placed ()'s
357
358(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
359of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
360Perl yourself.
361
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362=item Bad name after %s::
363
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364(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
365didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
366of quotes, so
a0d0e21e
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367
368 $var = 'myvar';
369 $sym = mypack::$var;
370
371is not the same as
372
373 $var = 'myvar';
374 $sym = "mypack::$var";
375
88e1f1a2
JV
376=item Bad plugin affecting keyword '%s'
377
378(F) An extension using the keyword plugin mechanism violated the
379plugin API.
380
4ad56ec9
IZ
381=item Bad realloc() ignored
382
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383(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
384never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled
385by setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
4ad56ec9 386
a0d0e21e
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387=item Bad symbol for array
388
389(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
390wasn't a symbol table entry.
391
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392=item Bad symbol for dirhandle
393
394(P) An internal request asked to add a dirhandle entry to something
395that wasn't a symbol table entry.
396
397
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398=item Bad symbol for filehandle
399
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400(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
401that wasn't a symbol table entry.
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402
403=item Bad symbol for hash
404
405(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
406wasn't a symbol table entry.
407
34d09196
GS
408=item Bareword found in conditional
409
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410(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
411conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
412of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
34d09196
GS
413
414 open FOO || die;
415
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416It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
417a bareword:
34d09196
GS
418
419 use constant TYPO => 1;
420 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
421
422The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
423
6df41af2
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424=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
425
426(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
be771a83
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427subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
428symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
6df41af2
GS
429
430=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
431
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432(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
433compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
434you need to predeclare a package?
6df41af2 435
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436=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
437
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438(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
439subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
440exited.
a0d0e21e 441
68dc0745 442=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
443
444(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
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GS
445implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
446occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
447be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
448depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
68dc0745 449
6df41af2
GS
450=item \1 better written as $1
451
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452(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
453The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
454substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
455because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
456there are more than 9 backreferences.
6df41af2 457
252aa082
JH
458=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
459
e476b1b5 460(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
461(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
462L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 463
69282e91 464=item bind() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 465
be771a83
GS
466(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
467check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
a0d0e21e 468
c289d2f7
JH
469=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
470
471(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
472Check you control flow and number of arguments.
473
c5a0f51a
JH
474=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
475
e476b1b5 476(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
c5a0f51a 477
4633a7c4
LW
478=item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
479
be771a83 480(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
b45f050a 481copyable.
4633a7c4 482
f675dbe5
CB
483=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
484
be771a83
GS
485(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
486iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
487which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
f675dbe5 488
a0d0e21e
LW
489=item Callback called exit
490
4929bf7b 491(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
a0d0e21e
LW
492exited by calling exit.
493
6df41af2 494=item %s() called too early to check prototype
f675dbe5 495
be771a83
GS
496(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
497parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
498that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
499early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
500subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
501checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
502function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
503the warning. See L<perlsub>.
f675dbe5 504
49704364 505=item Cannot compress integer in pack
0258719b
NC
506
507(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress. The BER
508compressed integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you
509attempted to compress Infinity or a very large number (> 1e308).
510See L<perlfunc/pack>.
511
49704364 512=item Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
0258719b
NC
513
514(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
515format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
516
5c1f4d79
NC
517=item Cannot convert a reference to %s to typeglob
518
519(F) You manipulated Perl's symbol table directly, stored a reference in it,
520then tried to access that symbol via conventional Perl syntax. The access
521triggers Perl to autovivify that typeglob, but it there is no legal conversion
522from that type of reference to a typeglob.
523
ba2fdce6
NC
524=item Cannot copy to %s in %s
525
526(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy a value to an internal type that cannot
527be directly assigned not.
528
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RGS
529=item Cannot find encoding "%s"
530
531(S io) You tried to apply an encoding that did not exist to a filehandle,
532either with open() or binmode().
533
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RK
534=item Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
535
536(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
537integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
538to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
539
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540=item Can't bless non-reference value
541
542(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
543encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
544
dc57907a
RGS
545=item Can't "break" in a loop topicalizer
546
0d863452
RH
547(F) You called C<break>, but you're in a C<foreach> block rather than
548a C<given> block. You probably meant to use C<next> or C<last>.
549
550=item Can't "break" outside a given block
dc57907a 551
0d863452
RH
552(F) You called C<break>, but you're not inside a C<given> block.
553
a0d0e21e
LW
554=item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
555
556(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
557functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
558in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
559
6df41af2
GS
560=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
561
562(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
563object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
564like this will reproduce the error:
6df41af2
GS
565
566 $BADREF = undef;
567 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
568 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
569
a0d0e21e
LW
570=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
571
54310121 572(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
be771a83
GS
573ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
574didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
575object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
576
577=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
578
579(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
be771a83
GS
580object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
581defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
72b5445b
GS
582Something like this will reproduce the error:
583
584 $BADREF = 42;
585 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
586 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
587
a0d0e21e
LW
588=item Can't chdir to %s
589
590(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
591that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
592
0545a864 593=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
104d25b7 594
be771a83
GS
595(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
596nosuid.
104d25b7 597
6df41af2
GS
598=item Can't coerce array into hash
599
600(F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the array has no
601information on how to map from keys to array indices. You can do that
602only with arrays that have a hash reference at index 0.
603
a0d0e21e
LW
604=item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
605
606(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 607(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
a0d0e21e
LW
608say things like:
609
610 *foo += 1;
611
612You CAN say
613
614 $foo = *foo;
615 $foo += 1;
616
617but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
618
619=item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
620
621(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 622(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
a0d0e21e
LW
623
624=item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
625
626(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
55497cff 627(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
a0d0e21e 628
0d863452 629=item Can't "continue" outside a when block
dc57907a 630
0d863452
RH
631(F) You called C<continue>, but you're not inside a C<when>
632or C<default> block.
633
a0d0e21e
LW
634=item Can't create pipe mailbox
635
be771a83
GS
636(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
637quotas or other plumbing problems.
a0d0e21e 638
eb64745e 639=item Can't declare class for non-scalar %s in "%s"
a0d0e21e 640
2f7e735d 641(F) Currently, only scalar variables can be declared with a specific
30c282f6 642class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state" declaration. The semantics may be
2f7e735d 643extended for other types of variables in future.
eb64745e
GS
644
645=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
646
30c282f6
NC
647(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my", "our" or
648"state" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
a0d0e21e 649
6df41af2
GS
650=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
651
be771a83
GS
652(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
653a file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
6df41af2 654
a0d0e21e
LW
655=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
656
be771a83
GS
657(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
658reason.
a0d0e21e 659
54310121 660=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
a0d0e21e 661
be771a83
GS
662(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
663reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
664C<-i.bak>, or some such.
a0d0e21e 665
10f9c03d 666=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
a0d0e21e 667
e476b1b5 668(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
10f9c03d
CK
669characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
670inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
a0d0e21e 671
7253e4e3 672=item Can't do {n,m} with n > m in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 673
b45f050a 674(F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want your
7253e4e3 675regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. The <-- HERE shows in the
b45f050a 676regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 677
a0d0e21e
LW
678=item Can't do waitpid with flags
679
be771a83
GS
680(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
681waitpid() without flags is emulated.
a0d0e21e 682
a0d0e21e
LW
683=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
684
be771a83
GS
685(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
686point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
687line.
a0d0e21e 688
1109a392
MHM
689=item Can't %s %s-endian %ss on this platform
690
691(F) Your platform's byte-order is neither big-endian nor little-endian,
692or it has a very strange pointer size. Packing and unpacking big- or
693little-endian floating point values and pointers may not be possible.
694See L<perlfunc/pack>.
695
a0d0e21e
LW
696=item Can't exec "%s": %s
697
d1be9408 698(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
be771a83
GS
699named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
700permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
701C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
702architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
703can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
704#! at all.)
a0d0e21e
LW
705
706=item Can't exec %s
707
be771a83
GS
708(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
709that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
710need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
a0d0e21e
LW
711
712=item Can't execute %s
713
be771a83
GS
714(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
715found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
2a92aaa0 716
6df41af2 717=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
2a92aaa0 718
be771a83
GS
719(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
720is no builtin with the name C<word>.
6df41af2 721
56ca2fc0
JH
722=item Can't find %s character property "%s"
723
724(F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
e1b711da
KW
725could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property?
726See L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
727for a complete list of available properties.
56ca2fc0 728
6df41af2
GS
729=item Can't find label %s
730
be771a83
GS
731(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
732possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2a92aaa0
GS
733
734=item Can't find %s on PATH
735
be771a83
GS
736(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
737found in the PATH.
a0d0e21e 738
6df41af2 739=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
a0d0e21e 740
be771a83
GS
741(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
742found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
743script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
a0d0e21e
LW
744
745=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
746
be771a83
GS
747(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
748that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
749nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
a0d0e21e 750
fb73857a 751 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
752
be771a83
GS
753If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have included
754unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good programmer's
755editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
a0d0e21e 756
660a4616
TS
757=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s"
758
759(F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode property (for
e1b711da
KW
760example C<\p{Lu}> matches all uppercase letters). If you did mean to use a
761Unicode property, see
762L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
763for a complete list of available properties.
660a4616
TS
764If you didn't mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either
765by C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, until
766possible C<\E>).
767
b3647a36 768=item Can't fork: %s
a0d0e21e 769
be771a83
GS
770(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
771pipeline.
a0d0e21e 772
b3647a36
SR
773=item Can't fork, trying again in 5 seconds
774
c973c02e 775(W pipe) A fork in a piped open failed with EAGAIN and will be retried
b3647a36
SR
776after five seconds.
777
748a9306
LW
778=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
779
be771a83
GS
780(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
781between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
782Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
783the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
784account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
785the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
786the access checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
787the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
788if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
789because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
790appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up
791and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking
792routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
793shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
794only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
748a9306 795
a0d0e21e
LW
796=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
797
be771a83
GS
798(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
799pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
a0d0e21e
LW
800
801=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
802
748a9306
LW
803(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
804mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
a0d0e21e 805
6df41af2 806=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
a0d0e21e 807
be771a83
GS
808(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
809loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2
GS
810
811=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
812
be771a83
GS
813(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
814a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
815you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
816See L<perlfunc/goto>.
a0d0e21e 817
9850bf21 818=item Can't goto subroutine from a sort sub (or similar callback)
cd299c6e 819
9850bf21
RH
820(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of the
821comparison sub for a sort(), or from a similar callback (such
822as the reduce() function in List::Util).
823
c74ace89 824=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-%s
b150fb22 825
be771a83 826(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
c74ace89 827"string" or block.
b150fb22 828
6df41af2
GS
829=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
830
be771a83
GS
831(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
832subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
833cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
834routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
6df41af2 835
0b5b802d
GS
836=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
837
be771a83
GS
838(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
839signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
840signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
841processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
842situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
843may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
0b5b802d 844
e2c0f81f
DG
845=item Can't kill a non-numeric process ID
846
847(F) Process identifiers must be (signed) integers. It is a fatal error to
848attempt to kill() an undefined, empty-string or otherwise non-numeric
849process identifier.
850
6df41af2 851=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
4633a7c4 852
6df41af2 853(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
be771a83
GS
854except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
855block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
856block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
857usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
858inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
859L<perlfunc/last>.
4633a7c4 860
2c7d6b9c
RGS
861=item Can't linearize anonymous symbol table
862
863(F) Perl tried to calculate the method resolution order (MRO) of a
864package, but failed because the package stash has no name.
865
b8170e59
JB
866=item Can't load '%s' for module %s
867
868(F) The module you tried to load failed to load a dynamic extension. This
869may either mean that you upgraded your version of perl to one that is
870incompatible with your old dynamic extensions (which is known to happen
871between major versions of perl), or (more likely) that your dynamic
16d98ec5 872extension was built against an older version of the library that is
b8170e59
JB
873installed on your system. You may need to rebuild your old dynamic
874extensions.
875
748a9306
LW
876=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
877
2ba9eb46 878(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
30c282f6 879lexical variable using "my" or "state". This is not allowed. If you want to
748a9306
LW
880localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
881package name.
882
6df41af2 883=item Can't localize through a reference
4727527e 884
6df41af2
GS
885(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
886handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
be771a83 887pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
64977eb6 888that $ref will still be a reference.
4727527e 889
ea071790 890=item Can't locate %s
ec889f3a
GS
891
892(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be
893found. Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC,
be771a83
GS
894unless the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you
895need to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where
896the extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
897to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
898L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
a0d0e21e 899
6df41af2
GS
900=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
901
be771a83
GS
902(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
903autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
904are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
905the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
6df41af2 906
b8170e59
JB
907=item Can't locate loadable object for module %s in @INC
908
909(F) The module you loaded is trying to load an external library, like
910for example, C<foo.so> or C<bar.dll>, but the L<DynaLoader> module was
911unable to locate this library. See L<DynaLoader>.
912
a0d0e21e
LW
913=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
914
915(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
916functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
2ba9eb46 917method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
a0d0e21e
LW
918
919=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
920
be771a83
GS
921(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
922doesn't seem to exist.
a0d0e21e 923
2f7da168
RK
924=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
925
926(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
927e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
928
3e3baf6d
TB
929=item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
930
be771a83
GS
931(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
932VMS.
3e3baf6d 933
a0d0e21e
LW
934=item Can't modify %s in %s
935
be771a83
GS
936(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
937to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
a0d0e21e 938
54310121 939=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
a0d0e21e
LW
940
941(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
942a NULL.
943
6df41af2
GS
944=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
945
946(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
947such, see L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
948
5f05dabc 949=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
a0d0e21e 950
5f05dabc 951(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
a0d0e21e
LW
952buffer.
953
6df41af2
GS
954=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
955
956(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
957there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
be771a83
GS
958count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
959grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
960though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
961once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
6df41af2 962
a0d0e21e
LW
963=item Can't open %s: %s
964
c47ff5f1 965(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
08e9d68e
DD
966filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
967switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
be771a83
GS
968is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named on
969the command line.
a0d0e21e 970
9a869a14
RGS
971=item Can't open a reference
972
973(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
974using the 3-arg open() syntax :
975
976 open FH, '>', $ref;
977
978but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
979open is not supported.
980
a0d0e21e
LW
981=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
982
be771a83
GS
983(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
984You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
985as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
986">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
a0d0e21e 987
748a9306
LW
988=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
989
be771a83
GS
990(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
991redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
992the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
993
994=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
995
be771a83
GS
996(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
997redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
998command line for reading.
748a9306
LW
999
1000=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
1001
be771a83
GS
1002(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1003redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
1004the command line for writing.
748a9306
LW
1005
1006=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
1007
be771a83
GS
1008(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1009redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
1010for stdout.
748a9306 1011
2b8ca739 1012=item Can't open perl script%s
a0d0e21e
LW
1013
1014(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
1015
fa3aa65a
JC
1016If you're debugging a script that uses #!, and normally relies on the
1017shell's $PATH search, the -S option causes perl to do that search, so
1018you don't have to type the path or C<`which $scriptname`>.
1019
6df41af2
GS
1020=item Can't read CRTL environ
1021
1022(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
1023from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
1024missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
be771a83
GS
1025or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
1026searched.
6df41af2 1027
6df41af2
GS
1028=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
1029
1030(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
1031there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
1032count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
1033or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1034though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
1035loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
1036
64977eb6 1037=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
10f9c03d 1038
be771a83
GS
1039(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
1040file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
1041the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
10f9c03d 1042
a0d0e21e
LW
1043=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
1044
e476b1b5 1045(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
10f9c03d 1046probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
a0d0e21e 1047
748a9306
LW
1048=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
1049
be771a83
GS
1050(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
1051to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
748a9306 1052
fe13d51d 1053=item Can't resolve method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
6df41af2 1054
be771a83
GS
1055(F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as opposed
1056to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the package. If
1057method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
6df41af2 1058
cd06dffe
GS
1059=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
1060
be771a83
GS
1061(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
1062temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
1063is not allowed.
cd06dffe 1064
96ebfdd7
RK
1065=item Can't return outside a subroutine
1066
1067(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1068there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1069
78f9721b
SM
1070=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
1071
1072(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue subroutine,
1073but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl think you meant
1074to return only one value. You probably meant to write parentheses around
1075the call to the subroutine, which tell Perl that the call should be in
1076list context.
1077
a0d0e21e
LW
1078=item Can't stat script "%s"
1079
be771a83
GS
1080(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1081open already. Bizarre.
a0d0e21e 1082
a0d0e21e
LW
1083=item Can't take log of %g
1084
fb73857a 1085(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
1086negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
be771a83
GS
1087standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1088negative numbers.
a0d0e21e
LW
1089
1090=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1091
1092(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
fb73857a 1093negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1094with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
a0d0e21e
LW
1095
1096=item Can't undef active subroutine
1097
1098(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1099however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1100redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1101
1102=item Can't unshift
1103
1104(F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
1105as the main Perl stack.
1106
c81225bc 1107=item Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d
a0d0e21e 1108
be771a83
GS
1109(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1110into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1111specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1112indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
a0d0e21e 1113
1db89ea5
BS
1114=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1115
e27ad1f2 1116(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1db89ea5
BS
1117table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1118for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1119
96ebfdd7
RK
1120=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1121
1122(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1123be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1124
6df41af2
GS
1125=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1126
be771a83
GS
1127(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1128references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 1129
90b75b61 1130=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1d2dff63
GS
1131
1132(F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
1133Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1134provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1135
1109a392
MHM
1136=item Can't use both '<' and '>' after type '%c' in %s
1137
1138(F) A type cannot be forced to have both big-endian and little-endian
1139byte-order at the same time, so this combination of modifiers is not
1140allowed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1141
6df41af2
GS
1142=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1143
be771a83
GS
1144(F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1145foreach.
6df41af2 1146
aab6a793 1147=item Can't use global %s in "%s"
6df41af2 1148
be771a83
GS
1149(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1150is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1151(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1152have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
6df41af2
GS
1153weren't.
1154
6d3b25aa
RGS
1155=item Can't use '%c' in a group with different byte-order in %s
1156
1157(F) You attempted to force a different byte-order on a type
1158that is already inside a group with a byte-order modifier.
1159For example you cannot force little-endianness on a type that
1160is inside a big-endian group.
1161
c07a80fd 1162=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1163
1164(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
c47ff5f1 1165You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
c07a80fd 1166and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1167Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1168lexical variable.
1169
a0d0e21e
LW
1170=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1171
1172(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1173reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1174test the type of the reference, if need be.
1175
748a9306 1176=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
a0d0e21e 1177
be771a83
GS
1178(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1179references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 1180
748a9306
LW
1181=item Can't use subscript on %s
1182
1183(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1184subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
209e7cf1 1185didn't look like a hash or array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
748a9306 1186
6df41af2
GS
1187=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1188
75b44862
GS
1189(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1190creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1191backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
be771a83
GS
1192expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1193value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1194instead.
6df41af2 1195
0d863452 1196=item Can't use "when" outside a topicalizer
dc57907a 1197
0d863452
RH
1198(F) You have used a when() block that is neither inside a C<foreach>
1199loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is issued on exit
1200from the C<when> block, so you won't get the error if the match fails,
1201or if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
1202
810b8aa5
GS
1203=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1204
1205(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1206references can be weakened.
1207
5f05dabc 1208=item Can't x= to read-only value
a0d0e21e 1209
be771a83
GS
1210(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1211with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
a0d0e21e
LW
1212Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1213
4a68bf9d 1214=item Character following "\c" must be ASCII
f9d13529
KW
1215
1216(F) In C<\cI<X>>, I<X> must be an ASCII character.
1217
f337b084 1218=item Character in 'C' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1219
1220(W pack) You said
1221
1222 pack("C", $x)
1223
1224where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1225only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1226and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1227
1228 pack("C", $x & 255)
1229
1230If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1231instead.
1232
f337b084
TH
1233=item Character in 'W' format wrapped in pack
1234
1235(W pack) You said
1236
1237 pack("U0W", $x)
1238
1239where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255. However, C<U0>-mode expects
1240all values to fall in the interval [0, 255], so Perl behaved as if you
1241meant:
1242
1243 pack("U0W", $x & 255)
1244
1245=item Character in 'c' format wrapped in pack
ac7cd81a
SC
1246
1247(W pack) You said
1248
1249 pack("c", $x)
1250
1251where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1252is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1253and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1254
1255 pack("c", $x & 255);
1256
1257If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1258instead.
1259
f337b084
TH
1260=item Character in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1261
1262(W unpack) You tried something like
1263
1264 unpack("H", "\x{2a1}")
1265
1a147d38 1266where the format expects to process a byte (a character with a value
f337b084
TH
1267below 256), but a higher value was provided instead. Perl uses the value
1268modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1269
1270 unpack("H", "\x{a1}")
1271
1272=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in pack
1273
1274(W pack) You tried something like
1275
1276 pack("u", "\x{1f3}b")
1277
1a147d38
YO
1278where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
1279value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1280uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1281
1282 pack("u", "\x{f3}b")
1283
1284=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1285
1286(W unpack) You tried something like
1287
1288 unpack("s", "\x{1f3}b")
1289
1a147d38
YO
1290where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
1291value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
f337b084
TH
1292uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1293
1294 unpack("s", "\x{f3}b")
1295
96ebfdd7
RK
1296=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1297
1298(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1299
abc7ecad
SP
1300=item closedir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
1301
1302(W io) The dirhandle you tried to close is either closed or not really
1303a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
1304
49704364
WL
1305=item Code missing after '/'
1306
1307(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be another
1308template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1309
6df41af2
GS
1310=item %s: Command not found
1311
be771a83
GS
1312(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1313Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2 1314
7a2e2cd6 1315=item Compilation failed in require
1316
1317(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
be771a83
GS
1318Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1319encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
7a2e2cd6 1320
c3464db5
DD
1321=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1322
be771a83
GS
1323(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1324situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1325to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1326arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1327recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1328under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1329in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
c2e66d9e 1330that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
be771a83 1331on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
c3464db5 1332
38875929
DM
1333=item cond_broadcast() called on unlocked variable
1334
1335(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1336cond_broadcast() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_broadcast()
1337function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1338cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1339has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1340first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1341after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1342lock.
1343
38875929
DM
1344=item cond_signal() called on unlocked variable
1345
1346(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1347cond_signal() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_signal()
1348function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1349cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1350has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1351first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1352after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1353lock.
1354
69282e91 1355=item connect() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1356
be771a83
GS
1357(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1358to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1359L<perlfunc/connect>.
a0d0e21e 1360
41ab332f 1361=item Constant(%s)%s: %s
6df41af2 1362
be771a83
GS
1363(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1364an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1365specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
1366corresponding C<overload> or C<charnames> pragma? See L<charnames> and
1367L<overload>.
6df41af2 1368
fc8cd66c
YO
1369=item Constant(%s)%s: %s in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1370
1a147d38
YO
1371(F) The parser found inconsistencies while attempting to find
1372the character name specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you
1373forgot to load the corresponding C<charnames> pragma?
fc8cd66c
YO
1374See L<charnames>.
1375
1376
779c5bc9
GS
1377=item Constant is not %s reference
1378
1379(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
be771a83
GS
1380is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
1381The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
1382usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
779c5bc9
GS
1383See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1384
4cee8e80
CS
1385=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1386
bb028877 1387(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been
be771a83
GS
1388eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for
1389commentary and workarounds.
4cee8e80 1390
9607fc9c 1391=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1392
be771a83
GS
1393(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1394for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1395workarounds.
9607fc9c 1396
e7ea3e70
IZ
1397=item Copy method did not return a reference
1398
64977eb6 1399(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
13a2d996 1400L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
e7ea3e70 1401
6798c92b
GS
1402=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1403
1404(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1405
a0d0e21e
LW
1406=item corrupted regexp pointers
1407
1408(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1409expression compiler gave it.
1410
1411=item corrupted regexp program
1412
be771a83
GS
1413(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1414valid magic number.
a0d0e21e 1415
6df41af2
GS
1416=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
1417
1418(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1419
49704364
WL
1420=item Count after length/code in unpack
1421
1422(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1423you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1424L<perlfunc/pack>.
1425
1408fb84 1426=item "\c%c" more clearly written simply as "%s"
f9d13529
KW
1427
1428(D deprecated) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a way to specify
1429non-printable characters. You used it for a printable one, which is better
1408fb84
KW
1430written as simply itself, perhaps preceded by a backslash for non-word
1431characters. This message may not remain as Deprecated beyond 5.13.
f9d13529 1432
a0d0e21e
LW
1433=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1434
be771a83
GS
1435(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1436100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1437infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1438which case it indicates something else.
a0d0e21e 1439
aad1d01f
NC
1440This threshold can be changed from 100, by recompiling the F<perl> binary,
1441setting the C pre-processor macro C<PERL_SUB_DEPTH_WARN> to the desired value.
1442
f10b0346 1443=item defined(@array) is deprecated
69794302 1444
be771a83
GS
1445(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1446checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
64977eb6 1447array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1448
f10b0346 1449=item defined(%hash) is deprecated
69794302 1450
be771a83
GS
1451(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it
1452checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the hash
64977eb6 1453is empty, just use C<if (%hash) { # not empty }> for example.
69794302 1454
62658f4d
PM
1455=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1456
1457(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1458there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1459
fc36a67e 1460=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1461
be771a83
GS
1462(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1463long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1464that triggers this error.
fc36a67e 1465
4a68bf9d 1466=item Deprecated character in \N{...}; marked by <-- HERE in \N{%s<-- HERE %s
cb233ae3
KW
1467
1468(D deprecated) Just about anything is legal for the C<...> in C<\N{...}>.
1469But starting in 5.12, non-reasonable ones that don't look like names are
1470deprecated. A reasonable name begins with an alphabetic character and
1471continues with any combination of alphanumerics, dashes, spaces, parentheses or
1472colons.
1473
6d3b25aa
RGS
1474=item Deprecated use of my() in false conditional
1475
1476(D deprecated) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>.
1477There has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
1478not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
1479conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
1480static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
1481relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
1482declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
36fb85f3 1483
6d3b25aa
RGS
1484 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
1485
1486becomes
1487
1488 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
1489
36fb85f3
RGS
1490Beginning with perl 5.9.4, you can also use C<state> variables to
1491have lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
1492
1493 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
1494
500ab966
RGS
1495=item DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
1496
1497(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
1498just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather than
1499to create a dangling reference.
1500
3cdd684c
TP
1501=item Did not produce a valid header
1502
1503See Server error.
1504
6df41af2
GS
1505=item %s did not return a true value
1506
1507(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1508it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1509traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1510do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1511
cc507455 1512=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
4633a7c4 1513
413ff9f6
FC
1514(W misc) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or
1515some such.
4633a7c4 1516
cc507455 1517=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
33633739 1518
be771a83
GS
1519(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1520variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1521seems superfluous.
33633739 1522
cc507455 1523=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
a0d0e21e 1524
be771a83
GS
1525(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1526@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1527carried away.
748a9306 1528
7e1af8bc 1529=item Died
5f05dabc 1530
1531(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1532you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
1533
3cdd684c
TP
1534=item Document contains no data
1535
1536See Server error.
1537
62658f4d
PM
1538=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1539
1540(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1541define a C<$VERSION.>
1542
49704364
WL
1543=item '/' does not take a repeat count
1544
1545(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
1546See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1547
a0d0e21e
LW
1548=item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1549
1550(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1551
1552=item do_study: out of memory
1553
1554(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1555
6df41af2
GS
1556=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1557
56da5a46
RGS
1558(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
1559"%s found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
6df41af2
GS
1560name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1561because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
be771a83
GS
1562"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1563something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1564subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1565"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
6df41af2 1566
ac206dc8
RGS
1567=item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1568
1569(W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1570qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1571
84d78eb7
YO
1572=item dump is not supported
1573
1574(F) Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.
1575
a0d0e21e
LW
1576=item Duplicate free() ignored
1577
be771a83
GS
1578(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1579already been freed.
a0d0e21e 1580
1109a392
MHM
1581=item Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
1582
1583(W) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a type
1584in a pack template. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1585
4633a7c4
LW
1586=item elseif should be elsif
1587
56da5a46
RGS
1588(S syntax) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's
1589ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method named
be771a83 1590"elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
4633a7c4
LW
1591unlikely to be what you want.
1592
ab13f0c7
JH
1593=item Empty %s
1594
af6f566e
HS
1595(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
1596described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
1597a regular expression without specifying the property name.
ab13f0c7 1598
85ab1d1d 1599=item entering effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 1600
85ab1d1d 1601(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
1602effective uids or gids failed.
1603
c038024b
RGS
1604=item %ENV is aliased to %s
1605
1606(F) You're running under taint mode, and the C<%ENV> variable has been
1607aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
1608program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
1609
748a9306
LW
1610=item Error converting file specification %s
1611
5f05dabc 1612(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
748a9306 1613specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
be771a83
GS
1614single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1615an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1616conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
748a9306 1617
e4d48cc9
GS
1618=item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
1619
be771a83
GS
1620(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1621expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1622is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
e4d48cc9 1623
fc8f615e 1624=item %s: Eval-group not allowed at runtime, use re 'eval'
e4d48cc9 1625
be771a83
GS
1626(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1627C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
1628pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it
1629is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly
1630building the pattern from an interpolated string at run time and using
1631that in an eval(). See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
e4d48cc9 1632
6df41af2
GS
1633=item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
1634
be771a83
GS
1635(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1636assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1637pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
6df41af2 1638
1a147d38
YO
1639=item EVAL without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1640
1641(F) You used a pattern that nested too many EVAL calls without consuming
1642any text. Restructure the pattern so that text is consumed.
1643
1644The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1645discovered.
1646
fc36a67e 1647=item Excessively long <> operator
1648
1649(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1650Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1651filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1652variable and glob that.
1653
ed9aa3b7
SG
1654=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1655
1656(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented in MacPerl. See L<perlport>.
1657
fe13d51d 1658=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors.
a0d0e21e
LW
1659
1660(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1661
1662=item Exiting eval via %s
1663
be771a83
GS
1664(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1665goto, or a loop control statement.
e476b1b5
GS
1666
1667=item Exiting format via %s
1668
9a2ff54b 1669(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
be771a83 1670goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1671
0a753a76 1672=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1673
be771a83
GS
1674(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1675sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1676loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
0a753a76 1677
a0d0e21e
LW
1678=item Exiting subroutine via %s
1679
be771a83
GS
1680(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1681as a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
1682
1683=item Exiting substitution via %s
1684
be771a83
GS
1685(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1686as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
a0d0e21e 1687
7b8d334a
GS
1688=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1689
be771a83
GS
1690(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1691the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1692usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1693e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
7b8d334a 1694
6df41af2
GS
1695=item %s: Expression syntax
1696
be771a83
GS
1697(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1698Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6df41af2
GS
1699
1700=item %s failed--call queue aborted
1701
3c10abe3
AG
1702(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a UNITCHECK,
1703CHECK, INIT, or END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the
1704queue of such routines has been prematurely ended.
6df41af2 1705
7253e4e3 1706=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
73b437c8 1707
be771a83 1708(W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
7253e4e3
RK
1709character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1710in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1711"-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1712problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
73b437c8 1713
1b1ee2ef 1714=item Fatal VMS error (status=%d) at %s, line %d
a0d0e21e 1715
be771a83
GS
1716(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1717system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1718details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1719you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
a0d0e21e
LW
1720
1721=item fcntl is not implemented
1722
1723(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1724PDP-11 or something?
1725
22846ab4
AB
1726=item FETCHSIZE returned a negative value
1727
1728(F) A tied array claimed to have a negative number of elements, which
1729is not possible.
1730
f337b084
TH
1731=item Field too wide in 'u' format in pack
1732
1733(W pack) Each line in an uuencoded string start with a length indicator
1734which can't encode values above 63. So there is no point in asking for
1735a line length bigger than that. Perl will behave as if you specified
1736C<u63> as format.
1737
af8c498a 1738=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
a0d0e21e 1739
6c8d78fb
HS
1740(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
1741it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
1742"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
1743write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
a0d0e21e 1744
af8c498a 1745=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
a0d0e21e 1746
6c8d78fb
HS
1747(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
1748you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
be771a83
GS
1749with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you
1750intended only to read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>.
6c8d78fb
HS
1751Another possibility is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0
1752(also known as STDIN) for output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
97828cef
RGS
1753
1754=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
1755
1756(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
d7f8936a 1757as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
97828cef
RGS
1758previously.
1759
1760=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
1761
1762(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
d7f8936a 1763as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
a0d0e21e
LW
1764
1765=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1766
1767(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
be771a83
GS
1768a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1769happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1770name.
a0d0e21e 1771
56e90b21
GS
1772=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1773
be771a83 1774(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
c289d2f7 1775some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
be771a83
GS
1776filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1777same name?
56e90b21 1778
6df41af2
GS
1779=item Format not terminated
1780
1781(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1782to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1783
a0d0e21e
LW
1784=item Format %s redefined
1785
e476b1b5 1786(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
a0d0e21e
LW
1787
1788 {
271595cc 1789 no warnings 'redefine';
a0d0e21e
LW
1790 eval "format NAME =...";
1791 }
1792
a0d0e21e
LW
1793=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1794
e476b1b5 1795(W syntax) You said
a0d0e21e
LW
1796
1797 if ($foo = 123)
1798
1799when you meant
1800
1801 if ($foo == 123)
1802
1803(or something like that).
1804
6df41af2
GS
1805=item %s found where operator expected
1806
56da5a46
RGS
1807(S syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator.
1808If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
be771a83
GS
1809operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
1810operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
6df41af2 1811
a0d0e21e
LW
1812=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1813
1814(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1815
1816=item gethostent not implemented
1817
1818(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1819because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1820on the Internet.
1821
69282e91 1822=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 1823
be771a83
GS
1824(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
1825socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
a0d0e21e 1826
748a9306
LW
1827=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1828
1829(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1830C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1831
6df41af2
GS
1832=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
1833
be771a83
GS
1834(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
1835forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
6df41af2
GS
1836L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
1837
1838=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1839
a4edf47d 1840(F) You've said "use strict" or "use strict vars", which indicates
30c282f6 1841that all variables must either be lexically scoped (using "my" or "state"),
a4edf47d
GS
1842declared beforehand using "our", or explicitly qualified to say
1843which package the global variable is in (using "::").
6df41af2 1844
e476b1b5
GS
1845=item glob failed (%s)
1846
be771a83
GS
1847(W glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for
1848C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a
1849C<glob> pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
1850nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
1851resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell) is
1852broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables in
1853config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it
1854were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all
1855empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
1856think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
75b44862 1857C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
e476b1b5 1858
a0d0e21e
LW
1859=item Glob not terminated
1860
1861(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
be771a83
GS
1862a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
1863not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
1864earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
a0d0e21e 1865
8b56d6ff
FC
1866=item gmtime(%.0f) too large
1867
fc003d4b
MS
1868(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with an number that was larger than
1869it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong
1870date. This warning is also triggered with nan (the special
1871not-a-number value).
1872
1873=item gmtime(%.0f) too small
1874
1875(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with an number that was smaller than
1876it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong
1877date. This warning is also triggered with nan (the special
1878not-a-number value).
8b56d6ff 1879
6df41af2 1880=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
a0d0e21e 1881
6df41af2
GS
1882(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
1883version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
a0d0e21e
LW
1884
1885=item goto must have label
1886
1887(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1888unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1889
49704364 1890=item ()-group starts with a count
18529408 1891
49704364 1892(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is
18529408 1893supposed to follow something: a template character or a ()-group.
49704364 1894 See L<perlfunc/pack>.
18529408 1895
fe13d51d 1896=item %s had compilation errors.
6df41af2
GS
1897
1898(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
1899
a0d0e21e
LW
1900=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1901
be771a83
GS
1902(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
1903to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
1904created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
a0d0e21e
LW
1905
1906=item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1907
be771a83
GS
1908(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
1909spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
a0d0e21e 1910
6df41af2
GS
1911=item %s has too many errors
1912
1913(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
1914Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
1915
252aa082
JH
1916=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
1917
e476b1b5 1918(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
9e24b6e2
JH
1919(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
1920L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082 1921
8903cb82 1922=item Identifier too long
1923
1924(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
fc36a67e 1925about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
be771a83
GS
1926names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
1927of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
8903cb82 1928
c3c41406 1929=item Ignoring zero length \N{} in character class
fc8cd66c 1930
ff3f963a
KW
1931(W) Named Unicode character escapes (\N{...}) may return a
1932zero length sequence. When such an escape is used in a character class
1a147d38 1933its behaviour is not well defined. Check that the correct escape has
fc8cd66c
YO
1934been used, and the correct charname handler is in scope.
1935
6df41af2 1936=item Illegal binary digit %s
f675dbe5 1937
6df41af2 1938(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
f675dbe5 1939
6df41af2 1940=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
a0d0e21e 1941
be771a83
GS
1942(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
1943binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
1944offending digit.
a0d0e21e 1945
4fdae800 1946=item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1947
d5898338 1948(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
be771a83
GS
1949would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
1950when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
1951version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
1952to your Perl administrator.
4fdae800 1953
d37a9538
ST
1954=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
1955
197afce1
MT
1956(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
1957Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, and \.
d37a9538 1958
904d85c5
RGS
1959=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
1960
1961(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
1962you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
1963
8e742a20
MHM
1964=item Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
1965
1966(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See L<perlsub>.
1967
a0d0e21e
LW
1968=item Illegal division by zero
1969
be771a83
GS
1970(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
1971your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
1972meaningless input.
a0d0e21e 1973
6df41af2
GS
1974=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
1975
be771a83
GS
1976(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
1977A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
1978number stopped before the illegal character.
6df41af2 1979
a0d0e21e
LW
1980=item Illegal modulus zero
1981
be771a83
GS
1982(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
1983numbers don't take to this kindly.
a0d0e21e 1984
6df41af2 1985=item Illegal number of bits in vec
399388f4 1986
6df41af2
GS
1987(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
1988two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
399388f4
GS
1989
1990=item Illegal octal digit %s
a0d0e21e 1991
d1be9408 1992(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
a0d0e21e 1993
399388f4 1994=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
748a9306 1995
d1be9408 1996(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
75b44862 1997Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
748a9306 1998
fe13d51d 1999=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: -%c
6ff81951 2000
6df41af2 2001(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
646ca9b2 2002following switches: B<-[CDIMUdmtw]>.
6ff81951 2003
6df41af2 2004=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
81e118e0 2005
75b44862 2006(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
be771a83
GS
2007internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
2008delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
09bef843 2009
6df41af2 2010=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
54310121 2011
be771a83
GS
2012(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
2013name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
2014didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
2015ignored.
54310121 2016
6df41af2 2017=item (in cleanup) %s
9607fc9c 2018
be771a83
GS
2019(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
2020the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
2021system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
2022times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
2023would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
6df41af2 2024
be771a83
GS
2025Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
2026also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
9607fc9c 2027
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2028=item Inconsistent hierarchy during C3 merge of class '%s': merging failed on parent '%s'
2029
2030(F) The method resolution order (MRO) of the given class is not
2031C3-consistent, and you have enabled the C3 MRO for this class. See the C3
2032documentation in L<mro> for more information.
2033
979699d9
JH
2034=item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
2035
2036(F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
2037Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
2038encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
2039
1a147d38
YO
2040=item Infinite recursion in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2041
2042(F) You used a pattern that references itself without consuming any input
2043text. You should check the pattern to ensure that recursive patterns
2044either consume text or fail.
2045
2046The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2047discovered.
2048
6dbe9451
NC
2049=item Initialization of state variables in list context currently forbidden
2050
2051(F) Currently the implementation of "state" only permits the initialization
2052of scalar variables in scalar context. Re-write C<state ($a) = 42> as
2053C<state $a = 42> to change from list to scalar context. Constructions such
2054as C<state (@a) = foo()> will be supported in a future perl release.
2055
a0d0e21e
LW
2056=item Insecure dependency in %s
2057
8b1a09fc 2058(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
be771a83
GS
2059The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
2060setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
2061tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
2062from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
2063such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
2064L<perlsec> for more information.
a0d0e21e
LW
2065
2066=item Insecure directory in %s
2067
be771a83
GS
2068(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2069setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
df98f984
RGS
2070the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
2071See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2072
62f468fc 2073=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2074
2075(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
62f468fc 2076setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
332d5f78
SR
2077C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
2078supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
2079the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2080
a7ae9550
GS
2081=item Integer overflow in %s number
2082
75b44862 2083(W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
be771a83
GS
2084either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
2085your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
2086On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
9e24b6e2
JH
2087representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
20880b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
2089transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
2090internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
2091operations.
bbce6d69 2092
2fba7546
GA
2093=item Integer overflow in format string for %s
2094
0be96356
AL
2095(F) The indexes and widths specified in the format string of C<printf()>
2096or C<sprintf()> are too large. The numbers must not overflow the size of
2fba7546
GA
2097integers for your architecture.
2098
46314c13
JP
2099=item Integer overflow in version
2100
2101(F) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for the
2102size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
2103because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use a
2104element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by
2105trying to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like
2106100/9.
2107
7253e4e3 2108=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2109
2110(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
7253e4e3 2111The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
b45f050a
JF
2112discovered.
2113
748a9306
LW
2114=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
2115
be771a83
GS
2116(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
2117you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
2118to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
2119L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
2120Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
2121terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
748a9306 2122
7253e4e3 2123=item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
b45f050a 2124
7253e4e3
RK
2125(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
2126<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2127discovered.
a0d0e21e 2128
6df41af2
GS
2129=item %s (...) interpreted as function
2130
75b44862 2131(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
be771a83 2132followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
64977eb6 2133operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
13a2d996 2134L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
6df41af2 2135
09bef843
SB
2136=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
2137
2138The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
2139by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
2140
2141=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
2142
be771a83
GS
2143The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
2144recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2145
c635e13b 2146=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
2147
be771a83
GS
2148(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
2149L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
c635e13b 2150
9e08bc66
TS
2151=item Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2152
2153(W regexp) The numeric escape (for example C<\xHH>) of value < 256
2154didn't correspond to a single character through the conversion
2155from the encoding specified by the encoding pragma.
2156The escape was replaced with REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (U+FFFD) instead.
2157The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2158escape was discovered.
2159
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2160=item Invalid mro name: '%s'
2161
2162(F) You tried to C<mro::set_mro("classname", "foo")>
2163or C<use mro 'foo'>, where C<foo> is not a valid method resolution order (MRO).
2164(Currently, the only valid ones are C<dfs> and C<c3>). See L<mro>.
2165
7253e4e3 2166=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2167
2168(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
7253e4e3
RK
2169greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
2170C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
2171up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2172problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 2173
d1573ac7 2174=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
c2e66d9e
GS
2175
2176(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
2177character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
2178
09bef843
SB
2179=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
2180
0120eecf 2181(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
be771a83
GS
2182elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
2183parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
2184See L<attributes>.
09bef843 2185
b4581f09
JH
2186=item Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
2187
2188(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other than a
2189colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
2190If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2191list was terminated too soon.
2192
49704364 2193=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
96e4d5b1 2194
49704364
WL
2195(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
2196See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2197(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
75b44862 2198silently ignored.
96e4d5b1 2199
46314c13
JP
2200=item Invalid version format (multiple underscores)
2201
2202(F) Versions may contain at most a single underscore, which signals
2203that the version is a beta release. See L<version> for the allowed
2204version formats.
2205
2206=item Invalid version format (underscores before decimal)
2207
2208(F) Versions may not contain decimals after the optional underscore.
2209See L<version> for the allowed version formats.
2210
a0d0e21e
LW
2211=item ioctl is not implemented
2212
2213(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
2214strange for a machine that supports C.
2215
c289d2f7
JH
2216=item ioctl() on unopened %s
2217
2218(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
2219Check you control flow and number of arguments.
2220
fe13d51d 2221=item IO layers (like '%s') unavailable
363c40c4
SB
2222
2223(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
2224you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO Perl must be configured
2225with 'useperlio'.
2226
80cbd5ad
JH
2227=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
2228
2229(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
2230neither as a system call or an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
2231
b4581f09
JH
2232=item $* is no longer supported
2233
d1d15184 2234(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older perls, has
4fd19576
B
2235been removed as of 5.9.0 and is no longer supported. In previous versions of perl the use of
2236C<$*> enabled or disabled multi-line matching within a string.
2237
2238Instead of using C<$*> you should use the C</m> (and maybe C</s>) regexp
2239modifiers. (In older versions: when C<$*> was set to a true value then all regular
2240expressions behaved as if they were written using C</m>.)
b4581f09 2241
8ae1fe26
RGS
2242=item $# is no longer supported
2243
d1d15184 2244(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$#>, deprecated in older perls, has
8ae1fe26
RGS
2245been removed as of 5.9.3 and is no longer supported. You should use the
2246printf/sprintf functions instead.
2247
6ad11d81
JH
2248=item `%s' is not a code reference
2249
04a80ee0
RGS
2250(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of overload::constant
2251needs to be a code reference. Either an anonymous subroutine, or a reference
6ad11d81
JH
2252to a subroutine.
2253
2254=item `%s' is not an overloadable type
2255
04a80ee0
RGS
2256(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
2257unaware of.
6ad11d81 2258
a0d0e21e
LW
2259=item junk on end of regexp
2260
2261(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
2262
2263=item Label not found for "last %s"
2264
be771a83
GS
2265(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
2266of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2267L<perlfunc/last>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2268
2269=item Label not found for "next %s"
2270
2271(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
2272that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2273L<perlfunc/last>.
2274
2275=item Label not found for "redo %s"
2276
2277(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
2278that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2279L<perlfunc/last>.
2280
85ab1d1d 2281=item leaving effective %s failed
5ff3f7a4 2282
85ab1d1d 2283(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
5ff3f7a4
GS
2284effective uids or gids failed.
2285
49704364
WL
2286=item length/code after end of string in unpack
2287
d7f8936a 2288(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an unpack
49704364
WL
2289length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
2290an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2291
f0e67a1d
Z
2292=item Lexing code attempted to stuff non-Latin-1 character into Latin-1 input
2293
2294(F) An extension is attempting to insert text into the current parse
2295(using L<lex_stuff_pvn_flags|perlapi/lex_stuff_pvn_flags> or similar), but
2296tried to insert a character that couldn't be part of the current input.
2297This is an inherent pitfall of the stuffing mechanism, and one of the
2298reasons to avoid it. Where it is necessary to stuff, stuffing only
2299plain ASCII is recommended.
2300
2301=item Lexing code internal error (%s)
2302
2303(F) Lexing code supplied by an extension violated the lexer's API in a
2304detectable way.
2305
69282e91 2306=item listen() on closed socket %s
a0d0e21e 2307
be771a83
GS
2308(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
2309to check the return value of your socket() call? See
2310L<perlfunc/listen>.
a0d0e21e 2311
8b56d6ff
FC
2312=item localtime(%.0f) too large
2313
fc003d4b
MS
2314(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with an number that was larger
2315than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
2316wrong date. This warning is also triggered with nan (the special
2317not-a-number value).
2318
2319=item localtime(%.0f) too small
2320
2321(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with an number that was smaller
2322than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
2323wrong date. This warning is also triggered with nan (the special
2324not-a-number value).
8b56d6ff 2325
58e23c8d 2326=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex m/%s/
b45f050a
JF
2327
2328(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
58e23c8d 2329handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release.
2e50fd82 2330
b88df990
NC
2331=item Lost precision when %s %f by 1
2332
2333(W) The value you attempted to increment or decrement by one is too large
2334for the underlying floating point representation to store accurately,
2335hence the target of C<++> or C<--> is unchanged. Perl issues this warning
2336because it has already switched from integers to floating point when values
2337are too large for integers, and now even floating point is insufficient.
2338You may wish to switch to using L<Math::BigInt> explicitly.
2339
2f7da168
RK
2340=item lstat() on filehandle %s
2341
2342(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
2343by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
2344instead on the filehandle.)
2345
885ef6f5
GG
2346=item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined
2347
963d9ce9 2348(W misc) Making a subroutine an lvalue subroutine after it has been defined
885ef6f5
GG
2349by declaring the subroutine with a lvalue attribute is not
2350possible. To make the the subroutine a lvalue subroutine add the
2351lvalue attribute to the definition, or put the the declaration before
2352the definition.
2353
96ebfdd7
RK
2354=item Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented yet
2355
2356(F) Due to limitations in the current implementation, array and hash
2357values cannot be returned in subroutines used in lvalue context. See
2358L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
2359
49704364
WL
2360=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
2361
2362(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
2363are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2364
2365=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
2366
2367(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
2368are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2369
6df41af2
GS
2370=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
2371
2372(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
2373
2374 prefix1;prefix2
2375
2376or
6df41af2
GS
2377 prefix1 prefix2
2378
be771a83
GS
2379with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
2380a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
2381appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
fecfaeb8 2382"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
6df41af2 2383
2f758a16
ST
2384=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
2385
d37a9538
ST
2386(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
2387syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
2388obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
2389when the function is called.
2f758a16 2390
ba210ebe
JH
2391=item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
2392
2575c402
JW
2393(S utf8) (F) Perl detected a string that didn't comply with UTF-8
2394encoding rules, even though it had the UTF8 flag on.
ba210ebe 2395
2575c402
JW
2396One possible cause is that you set the UTF8 flag yourself for data that
2397you thought to be in UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy
23988-bit data). To guard against this, you can use Encode::decode_utf8.
2399
2400If you use the C<:encoding(UTF-8)> PerlIO layer for input, invalid byte
2401sequences are handled gracefully, but if you use C<:utf8>, the flag is
2402set without validating the data, possibly resulting in this error
2403message.
2404
2405See also L<Encode/"Handling Malformed Data">.
901b21bf 2406
dea0fc0b
JH
2407=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
2408
183097aa 2409(F) Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
dea0fc0b
JH
2410doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
2411
ff3f963a
KW
2412=item Malformed UTF-8 returned by \N
2413
2414(F) The charnames handler returned malformed UTF-8.
2415
f337b084
TH
2416=item Malformed UTF-8 string in pack
2417
2418(F) You tried to pack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2419rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2420
2421=item Malformed UTF-8 string in unpack
2422
2423(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2424rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2425
2426=item Malformed UTF-8 string in '%c' format in unpack
2427
2428(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2429rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2430
fe13d51d 2431=item Maximal count of pending signals (%d) exceeded
2563cec5 2432
fe13d51d 2433(F) Perl aborted due to a too high number of signals pending. This
2563cec5
IZ
2434usually indicates that your operating system tried to deliver signals
2435too fast (with a very high priority), starving the perl process from
2436resources it would need to reach a point where it can process signals
2437safely. (See L<perlipc/"Deferred Signals (Safe Signals)">.)
2438
49704364 2439=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6df41af2
GS
2440
2441(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
7253e4e3
RK
2442regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
2443shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2444See L<perlre>.
6df41af2 2445
25f58aea
PN
2446=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2447
2448(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
2449interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
2450"use" or "my".
2451
49704364 2452=item % may not be used in pack
6df41af2
GS
2453
2454(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
be771a83
GS
2455checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
2456See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
6df41af2 2457
a0d0e21e
LW
2458=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
2459
2460(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
e7ea3e70 2461doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2462
3cdd684c
TP
2463=item Method %s not permitted
2464
2465See Server error.
2466
a0d0e21e
LW
2467=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
2468
2469(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
2470by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
2471ended earlier on the current line.
2472
2473=item Misplaced _ in number
2474
d4ced10d
JH
2475(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
2476separate two digits.
a0d0e21e 2477
7baa4690
HS
2478=item Missing argument in %s
2479
2480(W uninitialized) A printf-type format required more arguments than were
2481supplied.
2482
9e81e6a1
RGS
2483=item Missing argument to -%c
2484
2485(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2486immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
2487
ff3f963a 2488=item Missing braces on \N{}
423cee85 2489
4a2d328f 2490(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
c3c41406
KW
2491double-quotish context. This can also happen when there is a space (or
2492comment) between the C<\N> and the C<{> in a regex with the C</x> modifier.
2493This modifier does not change the requirement that the brace immediately follow
2494the C<\N>.
423cee85 2495
a0d0e21e
LW
2496=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
2497
2498(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
2499"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
2500
06eaf0bc
GS
2501=item Missing command in piped open
2502
be771a83
GS
2503(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
2504C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
2505blank.
06eaf0bc 2506
961ce445
RGS
2507=item Missing control char name in \c
2508
2509(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
2510character name.
2511
6df41af2
GS
2512=item Missing name in "my sub"
2513
be771a83
GS
2514(F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
2515they have a name with which they can be found.
6df41af2
GS
2516
2517=item Missing $ on loop variable
2518
be771a83
GS
2519(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
2520are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
2521can vary from one line to the next.
6df41af2 2522
cc507455 2523=item (Missing operator before %s?)
748a9306 2524
56da5a46
RGS
2525(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2526"%s found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
748a9306 2527
ab13f0c7
JH
2528=item Missing right brace on %s
2529
ff3f963a
KW
2530(F) Missing right brace in C<\x{...}>, C<\p{...}>, C<\P{...}>, or C<\N{...}>.
2531
4a68bf9d 2532=item Missing right brace on \N{} or unescaped left brace after \N
ff3f963a 2533
0a96133f
KW
2534(F)
2535C<\N> has two meanings.
2536
2537The traditional one has it followed by a name enclosed
2538in braces, meaning the character (or sequence of characters) given by that name.
ff3f963a 2539Thus C<\N{ASTERISK}> is another way of writing C<*>, valid in both
0a96133f
KW
2540double-quoted strings and regular expression patterns. In patterns, it doesn't
2541have the meaning an unescaped C<*> does.
ff3f963a 2542
0a96133f 2543Starting in Perl 5.12.0, C<\N> also can have an additional meaning (only) in
c3c41406
KW
2544patterns, namely to match a non-newline character. (This is short for
2545C<[^\n]>, and like C<.> but is not affected by the C</s> regex modifier.)
ff3f963a
KW
2546
2547This can lead to some ambiguities. When C<\N> is not followed immediately by a
c3c41406 2548left brace, Perl assumes the C<[^\n]> meaning. Also, if
ff3f963a
KW
2549the braces form a valid quantifier such as C<\N{3}> or C<\N{5,}>, Perl assumes
2550that this means to match the given quantity of non-newlines (in these examples,
0a96133f 25513; and 5 or more, respectively). In all other case, where there is a C<\N{>
ff3f963a
KW
2552and a matching C<}>, Perl assumes that a character name is desired.
2553
2554However, if there is no matching C<}>, Perl doesn't know if it was mistakenly
c3c41406 2555omitted, or if C<[^\n]{> was desired, and
0a96133f
KW
2556raises this error. If you meant the former, add the right brace; if you meant
2557the latter, escape the brace with a backslash, like so: C<\N\{>
ab13f0c7 2558
d98d5fff 2559=item Missing right curly or square bracket
a0d0e21e 2560
be771a83
GS
2561(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
2562ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
2563were last editing.
a0d0e21e 2564
6df41af2
GS
2565=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
2566
56da5a46
RGS
2567(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2568"%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
6df41af2
GS
2569the previous line just because you saw this message.
2570
a0d0e21e
LW
2571=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
2572
2573(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
5f05dabc 2574constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
a0d0e21e
LW
2575catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
2576
2577 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
2578 mod(2);
2579
2580Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
2581
c5674021
PDF
2582Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
2583is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
2584
2585 $x = 1;
2586 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
2587 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to modify the 2
64977eb6 2588 }
c5674021 2589
7a4340ed 2590=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e
LW
2591
2592(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
2593subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
2594backwards.
2595
7a4340ed 2596=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
a0d0e21e 2597
be771a83
GS
2598(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
2599couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
a0d0e21e
LW
2600
2601=item Module name must be constant
2602
2603(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
2604
be98fb35 2605=item Module name required with -%c option
6df41af2 2606
be98fb35
GS
2607(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
2608you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
2609about C<-M> and C<-m>.
6df41af2 2610
fe13d51d 2611=item More than one argument to '%s' open
ed9aa3b7
SG
2612
2613(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
2614can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
2615list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
2616See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
2617
a0d0e21e
LW
2618=item msg%s not implemented
2619
2620(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
2621
2622=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
2623
75b44862
GS
2624(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
2625They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
8b1a09fc 2626
49704364 2627=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
6df41af2 2628
49704364
WL
2629(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
2630follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
2631See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6df41af2
GS
2632
2633=item "my sub" not yet implemented
2634
be771a83
GS
2635(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
2636that yet.
6df41af2 2637
30c282f6 2638=item "%s" variable %s can't be in a package
6df41af2 2639
be771a83
GS
2640(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2641sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2642local() if you want to localize a package variable.
09bef843 2643
4a68bf9d 2644=item \N in a character class must be a named character: \N{...}
ff3f963a 2645
c3c41406
KW
2646(F) The new (5.12) meaning of C<\N> as C<[^\n]> is not valid in a bracketed
2647character class, for the same reason that C<.> in a character class loses its
2648specialness: it matches almost everything, which is probably not what you want.
2649
4a68bf9d 2650=item \N{NAME} must be resolved by the lexer
c3c41406
KW
2651
2652(F) When compiling a regex pattern, an unresolved named character or sequence
2653was encountered. This can happen in any of several ways that bypass the lexer,
b09c05e6 2654such as using single-quotish context, or an extra backslash in double quotish:
c3c41406
KW
2655
2656 $re = '\N{SPACE}'; # Wrong!
b09c05e6 2657 $re = "\\N{SPACE}"; # Wrong!
c3c41406
KW
2658 /$re/;
2659
b09c05e6 2660Instead, use double-quotes with a single backslash:
c3c41406
KW
2661
2662 $re = "\N{SPACE}"; # ok
2663 /$re/;
2664
2665The lexer can be bypassed as well by creating the pattern from smaller
2666components:
2667
2668 $re = '\N';
2669 /${re}{SPACE}/; # Wrong!
2670
2671It's not a good idea to split a construct in the middle like this, and it
2672doesn't work here. Instead use the solution above.
2673
2674Finally, the message also can happen under the C</x> regex modifier when the
2675C<\N> is separated by spaces from the C<{>, in which case, remove the spaces.
2676
2677 /\N {SPACE}/x; # Wrong!
2678 /\N{SPACE}/x; # ok
ff3f963a 2679
8b1a09fc 2680=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2681
e476b1b5 2682(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
be771a83
GS
2683If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2684again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
77ca0c92 2685provided for this purpose.
a0d0e21e 2686
64b374f4
FD
2687NOTE: This warning detects symbols that have been used only once so $c, @c,
2688%c, *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or format) are considered
2689the same; if a program uses $c only once but also uses any of the others it
2690will not trigger this warning.
2691
4a68bf9d 2692=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...}
ff3f963a
KW
2693
2694(F) The character constant represented by C<...> is not a valid hexadecimal
c3c41406
KW
2695number. Either it is empty, or you tried to use a character other than 0 - 9
2696or A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number.
ff3f963a 2697
49704364
WL
2698=item Negative '/' count in unpack
2699
2700(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
2701negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2702
a0d0e21e
LW
2703=item Negative length
2704
be771a83
GS
2705(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
2706length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
a0d0e21e 2707
ed9aa3b7
SG
2708=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
2709
2710(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
2711greater than or equal to zero.
2712
7253e4e3 2713=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
a0d0e21e 2714
b45f050a 2715(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
7253e4e3 2716things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
b45f050a 2717expression about where the problem was discovered.
a0d0e21e 2718
7253e4e3 2719Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
be771a83 2720C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
a0d0e21e 2721
6df41af2 2722=item %s never introduced
a0d0e21e 2723
be771a83
GS
2724(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
2725scope before it could possibly have been used.
a0d0e21e 2726
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2727=item next::method/next::can/maybe::next::method cannot find enclosing method
2728
2729(F) C<next::method> needs to be called within the context of a
2730real method in a real package, and it could not find such a context.
2731See L<mro>.
2732
a0d0e21e
LW
2733=item No %s allowed while running setuid
2734
be771a83
GS
2735(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
2736setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
2737will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
2738securable. See L<perlsec>.
a0d0e21e 2739
a0d0e21e
LW
2740=item No comma allowed after %s
2741
2742(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
2743allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
2744Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
2745
0a753a76 2746One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
2747constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
2748importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
2749does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
2750explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
2751L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
2752would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
2753remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
2754constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
2755list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
2756this error was triggered?
2757
748a9306
LW
2758=item No command into which to pipe on command line
2759
be771a83
GS
2760(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2761redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
2762doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
748a9306 2763
a0d0e21e
LW
2764=item No DB::DB routine defined
2765
be771a83 2766(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
ccafdc96
RGS
2767for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
2768module) didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
2769statement.
a0d0e21e
LW
2770
2771=item No dbm on this machine
2772
2773(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
5f05dabc 2774supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e 2775
ccafdc96 2776=item No DB::sub routine defined
a0d0e21e 2777
ccafdc96
RGS
2778(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
2779for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
2780module) didn't define a C<DB::sub> routine to be called at the beginning
2781of each ordinary subroutine call.
a0d0e21e 2782
96ebfdd7
RK
2783=item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
2784
2785(F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
2786
c47ff5f1 2787=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
748a9306 2788
be771a83
GS
2789(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2790redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
2791find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
748a9306 2792
49704364
WL
2793=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
2794
2795(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
2796matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2797
c47ff5f1 2798=item No input file after < on command line
748a9306 2799
be771a83
GS
2800(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2801redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
2802name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
748a9306 2803
6df41af2
GS
2804=item No #! line
2805
2806(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2807even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
2808
2c7d6b9c
RGS
2809=item No next::method '%s' found for %s
2810
2811(F) C<next::method> found no further instances of this method name
2812in the remaining packages of the MRO of this class. If you don't want
2813it throwing an exception, use C<maybe::next::method>
2814or C<next::can>. See L<mro>.
2815
6df41af2
GS
2816=item "no" not allowed in expression
2817
be771a83
GS
2818(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
2819returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6df41af2 2820
c47ff5f1 2821=item No output file after > on command line
748a9306 2822
be771a83
GS
2823(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2824redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
2825doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
748a9306 2826
c47ff5f1 2827=item No output file after > or >> on command line
748a9306 2828
be771a83
GS
2829(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2830redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
2831find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
748a9306 2832
1ec3e8de
GS
2833=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
2834
be771a83
GS
2835(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
2836declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
2837semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
1ec3e8de 2838
a0d0e21e
LW
2839=item No Perl script found in input
2840
2841(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
2842with #! and containing the word "perl".
2843
2844=item No setregid available
2845
2846(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
2847your system.
2848
2849=item No setreuid available
2850
2851(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
2852your system.
2853
6df41af2
GS
2854=item No %s specified for -%c
2855
2856(F) The indicated command line switch needs a mandatory argument, but
2857you haven't specified one.
2858
e75d1f10
RD
2859=item No such class field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
2860
2861(F) You tried to access a key from a hash through the indicated typed variable
2862but that key is not allowed by the package of the same type. The indicated
2863package has restricted the set of allowed keys using the L<fields> pragma.
2864
2c692339
RGS
2865=item No such class %s
2866
30c282f6 2867(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state" declaration, but
2c692339
RGS
2868this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
2869
3c20a832
SP
2870=item No such hook: %s
2871
2872(F) You specified a signal hook that was not recognized by Perl. Currently, Perl
2873accepts C<__DIE__> and C<__WARN__> as valid signal hooks
2874
6df41af2
GS
2875=item No such pipe open
2876
2877(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
be771a83
GS
2878close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
2879earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
6df41af2 2880
a0d0e21e
LW
2881=item No such signal: SIG%s
2882
be771a83
GS
2883(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
2884not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
2885names on your system.
a0d0e21e
LW
2886
2887=item Not a CODE reference
2888
2889(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2890subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
2891use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2892also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2893
2894=item Not a format reference
2895
2896(F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
2897format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
2898
2899=item Not a GLOB reference
2900
be771a83
GS
2901(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
2902symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
2903something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
2904kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2905
2906=item Not a HASH reference
2907
be771a83
GS
2908(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
2909reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
2910find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 2911
6df41af2
GS
2912=item Not an ARRAY reference
2913
be771a83
GS
2914(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
2915a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2916to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
6df41af2 2917
a0d0e21e
LW
2918=item Not a perl script
2919
2920(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2921even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
2922mention perl.
2923
2924=item Not a SCALAR reference
2925
be771a83
GS
2926(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
2927a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2928to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e
LW
2929
2930=item Not a subroutine reference
2931
2932(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2933subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
be771a83
GS
2934use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2935also L<perlref>.
a0d0e21e 2936
e7ea3e70 2937=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
a0d0e21e
LW
2938
2939(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
8b1a09fc 2940doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
a0d0e21e 2941
a0d0e21e
LW
2942=item Not enough arguments for %s
2943
2944(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
2945
6df41af2
GS
2946=item Not enough format arguments
2947
be771a83
GS
2948(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
2949supplied. See L<perlform>.
6df41af2
GS
2950
2951=item %s: not found
2952
be771a83
GS
2953(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
2954of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
2955yourself.
6df41af2
GS
2956
2957=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
a0d0e21e 2958
6df41af2
GS
2959(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
2960timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
be771a83
GS
2961to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
2962F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
2963need to be added to UTC to get local time.
a0d0e21e 2964
4ef2275c
GA
2965=item Non-string passed as bitmask
2966
2967(W misc) A number has been passed as a bitmask argument to select().
2968Use the vec() function to construct the file descriptor bitmasks for
2969select. See L<perlfunc/select>
2970
a0d0e21e
LW
2971=item Null filename used
2972
be771a83
GS
2973(F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
2974machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
a0d0e21e 2975
6df41af2
GS
2976=item NULL OP IN RUN
2977
be771a83
GS
2978(P debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
2979pointer.
6df41af2 2980
55497cff 2981=item Null picture in formline
2982
2983(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
2984specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
2985supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
2986
a0d0e21e
LW
2987=item Null realloc
2988
2989(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
2990
2991=item NULL regexp argument
2992
5f05dabc 2993(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
a0d0e21e
LW
2994
2995=item NULL regexp parameter
2996
2997(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
2998
fc36a67e 2999=item Number too long
3000
be771a83 3001(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
da75cd15 3002about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
be771a83
GS
3003versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
3004the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
3005"1_000_000").
fc36a67e 3006
6df41af2
GS
3007=item Octal number in vector unsupported
3008
be771a83
GS
3009(F) Numbers with a leading C<0> are not currently allowed in vectors.
3010The octal number interpretation of such numbers may be supported in a
3011future version.
6df41af2 3012
252aa082
JH
3013=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
3014
75b44862 3015(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
be771a83
GS
3016(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
3017L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
252aa082
JH
3018
3019See also L<perlport> for writing portable code.
3020
6ad11d81
JH
3021=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
3022
04a80ee0
RGS
3023(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
3024arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
6ad11d81 3025
b21befc1
MG
3026=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
3027
3028(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
3029which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
3030
1930e939 3031=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
a0d0e21e 3032
be771a83
GS
3033(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
3034which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
a0d0e21e 3035
bbce6d69 3036=item Offset outside string
3037
42bc49da
JH
3038(F, W layer) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv/seek operation
3039with an offset pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to
f5a7294f
JH
3040imagine. The sole exceptions to this are that zero padding will
3041take place when going past the end of the string when either
3042C<sysread()>ing a file, or when seeking past the end of a scalar opened
1a7a2554
MB
3043for I/O (in anticipation of future reads and to imitate the behaviour
3044with real files).
bbce6d69 3045
c289d2f7 3046=item %s() on unopened %s
2dd78f96
JH
3047
3048(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
3049never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
3050call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
3051
96ebfdd7
RK
3052=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
3053
3054(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
3055that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
3056
a0d0e21e
LW
3057=item oops: oopsAV
3058
e476b1b5 3059(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e
LW
3060
3061=item oops: oopsHV
3062
e476b1b5 3063(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
a0d0e21e 3064
abc718f2
RGS
3065=item Opening dirhandle %s also as a file
3066
3067(W io deprecated) You used open() to associate a filehandle to
3068a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a dirhandle.
3069Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
3070and is deprecated.
3071
3072=item Opening filehandle %s also as a directory
3073
3074(W io deprecated) You used opendir() to associate a dirhandle to
3075a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a filehandle.
3076Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
3077and is deprecated.
3078
a0288114 3079=item Operation "%s": no method found, %s
44a8e56a 3080
be771a83
GS
3081(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
3082handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
3083of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
3084C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
44a8e56a 3085
748a9306
LW
3086=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
3087
be771a83
GS
3088(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
3089was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
3090use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
3091example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
3092"*foo * 'foo'".
748a9306 3093
6df41af2
GS
3094=item "our" variable %s redeclared
3095
be771a83
GS
3096(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
3097in the current lexical scope.
6df41af2 3098
a80b8354
GS
3099=item Out of memory!
3100
3101(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
be771a83
GS
3102remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
3103no option but to exit immediately.
a80b8354 3104
19a52907
JH
3105At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
3106process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
3107C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
3108the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
3109and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
3110
6d3b25aa
RGS
3111=item Out of memory during %s extend
3112
3113(X) An attempt was made to extend an array, a list, or a string beyond
3114the largest possible memory allocation.
3115
6df41af2 3116=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
a0d0e21e 3117
6df41af2
GS
3118(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
3119remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
be771a83
GS
3120the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
3121possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
a0d0e21e 3122
1b979e0a 3123=item Out of memory during request for %s
a0d0e21e 3124
be771a83
GS
3125(X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
3126insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
3127request.
eff9c6e2
CS
3128
3129The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
3130depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
be771a83
GS
3131However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
3132emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
b022d2d2
IZ
3133is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
3134where the failed request happened.
55497cff 3135
1b979e0a
IZ
3136=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
3137
3138(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
be771a83
GS
3139is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
3140C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1b979e0a 3141
6df41af2
GS
3142=item Out of memory for yacc stack
3143
be771a83
GS
3144(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
3145parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
3146otherwise.
6df41af2 3147
28be1210
TH
3148=item '.' outside of string in pack
3149
3150(F) The argument to a '.' in your template tried to move the working
3151position to before the start of the packed string being built.
3152
49704364 3153=item '@' outside of string in unpack
6df41af2 3154
49704364 3155(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
6df41af2
GS
3156the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3157
f337b084
TH
3158=item '@' outside of string with malformed UTF-8 in unpack
3159
3160(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
3161the string being unpacked. The string being unpacked was also invalid
3162UTF-8. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3163
7cb0cfe6
BM
3164=item Overloaded dereference did not return a reference
3165
3166(F) An object with an overloaded dereference operator was dereferenced,
3167but the overloaded operation did not return a reference. See
3168L<overload>.
3169
3170=item Overloaded qr did not return a REGEXP
3171
3172(F) An object with a C<qr> overload was used as part of a match, but the
3173overloaded operation didn't return a compiled regexp. See L<overload>.
3174
6df41af2
GS
3175=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
3176
be771a83
GS
3177(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
3178package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
3179some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
3180mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
6df41af2 3181
96ebfdd7
RK
3182=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
3183
3184(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3185signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3186
a0d0e21e
LW
3187=item page overflow
3188
be771a83
GS
3189(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
3190page. See L<perlform>.
a0d0e21e 3191
6df41af2
GS
3192=item panic: %s
3193
3194(P) An internal error.
3195
c99a1475
NC
3196=item panic: attempt to call %s in %s
3197
3198(P) One of the file test operators entered a code branch that calls
3199an ACL related-function, but that function is not available on this
3200platform. Earlier checks mean that it should not be possible to
3201enter this branch on this platform.
3202
a0d0e21e
LW
3203=item panic: ck_grep
3204
3205(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
3206
3207=item panic: ck_split
3208
3209(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
3210
3211=item panic: corrupt saved stack index
3212
be771a83
GS
3213(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
3214there are in the savestack.
a0d0e21e 3215
810b8aa5
GS
3216=item panic: del_backref
3217
3218(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
3219reference.
3220
7619c85e
RG
3221=item panic: Devel::DProf inconsistent subroutine return
3222
3223(P) Devel::DProf called a subroutine that exited using goto(LABEL),
3224last(LABEL) or next(LABEL). Leaving that way a subroutine called from
3225an XSUB will lead very probably to a crash of the interpreter. This is
3226a bug that will hopefully one day get fixed.
3227
a0d0e21e
LW
3228=item panic: die %s
3229
3230(P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
3231it wasn't an eval context.
3232
a0d0e21e
LW
3233=item panic: do_subst
3234
be771a83
GS
3235(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
3236data.
a0d0e21e 3237
2269b42e 3238=item panic: do_trans_%s
a0d0e21e 3239
2269b42e 3240(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
be771a83 3241data.
a0d0e21e 3242
b7f7fd0b
NC
3243=item panic: fold_constants JMPENV_PUSH returned %d
3244
10203f38 3245(P) While attempting folding constants an exception other than an C<eval>
b7f7fd0b
NC
3246failure was caught.
3247
c635e13b 3248=item panic: frexp
3249
3250(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
3251
a0d0e21e
LW
3252=item panic: goto
3253
3254(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
3255and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
3256
23976bdd
NC
3257=item panic: hfreeentries failed to free hash
3258
3259(P) The internal routine used to clear a hashes entries tried repeatedly,
3260but each time something added more entries to the hash. Most likely the hash
3261contains an object with a reference back to the hash and a destructor that
3262adds a new object to the hash.
3263
a0d0e21e
LW
3264=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
3265
3266(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
3267
3268=item panic: INTERPCONCAT
3269
3270(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
3271
e446cec8
IZ
3272=item panic: kid popen errno read
3273
3274(F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
3275
a0d0e21e
LW
3276=item panic: last
3277
3278(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
3279it wasn't a block context.
3280
3281=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
3282
be771a83
GS
3283(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
3284scope.
a0d0e21e
LW
3285
3286=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
3287
3288(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
3289invalid enum on the top of it.
3290
810b8aa5
GS
3291=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
3292
3293(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
3294references to an object.
3295
6df41af2
GS
3296=item panic: malloc
3297
3298(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
3299
27d5b266
JH
3300=item panic: memory wrap
3301
3302(P) Something tried to allocate more memory than possible.
3303
a0d0e21e
LW
3304=item panic: pad_alloc
3305
3306(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3307and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3308
3309=item panic: pad_free curpad
3310
3311(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3312and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3313
3314=item panic: pad_free po
3315
3316(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3317
3318=item panic: pad_reset curpad
3319
3320(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3321and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3322
3323=item panic: pad_sv po
3324
3325(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3326
3327=item panic: pad_swipe curpad
3328
3329(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3330and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3331
3332=item panic: pad_swipe po
3333
3334(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3335
3336=item panic: pp_iter
3337
3338(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
3339
96ebfdd7
RK
3340=item panic: pp_match%s
3341
3342(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
3343data.
3344
2269b42e
JH
3345=item panic: pp_split
3346
3347(P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
3348
a0d0e21e
LW
3349=item panic: realloc
3350
3351(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
3352
3353=item panic: restartop
3354
3355(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
3356didn't supply the destination.
3357
3358=item panic: return
3359
3360(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
3361then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
3362
3363=item panic: scan_num
3364
3365(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
3366
6c65d5f9
NC
3367=item panic: sv_chop %s
3368
3369(P) The sv_chop() routine was passed a position that is not within the
3370scalar's string buffer.
3371
a0d0e21e
LW
3372=item panic: sv_insert
3373
3374(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
3375was string.
3376
3377=item panic: top_env
3378
6224f72b 3379(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
a0d0e21e 3380
65bca31a
NC
3381=item panic: unimplemented op %s (#%d) called
3382
3383(P) The compiler is screwed up and attempted to use an op that isn't permitted
3384at run time.
3385
dea0fc0b
JH
3386=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
3387
3388(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
64977eb6 3389to even) byte length.
dea0fc0b 3390
e0ea5e2d
NC
3391=item panic: utf16_to_utf8_reversed: odd bytelen
3392
3393(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8_reversed with an odd (as opposed
3394to even) byte length.
3395
2f7da168
RK
3396=item panic: yylex
3397
3398(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
3399
1a147d38
YO
3400=item Pattern subroutine nesting without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3401
3402(F) You used a pattern that uses too many nested subpattern calls without
3403consuming any text. Restructure the pattern so text is consumed before the
3404nesting limit is exceeded.
3405
3406The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3407discovered.
3408
7b8d334a 3409=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
a0d0e21e 3410
e476b1b5