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remove deprecated qw-as-parens behaviour
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1=head1 NAME
2
3perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
4
5=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
8desperation):
9
10 (W) A warning (optional).
11 (D) A deprecation (enabled by default).
12 (S) A severe warning (enabled by default).
13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
17
18The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
19(W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
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<$SIG{__WARN__}>
27to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
28of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
29
30Severe warnings are always enabled, unless they are explicitly disabled
31with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
32
33Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
34L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
36See L<warnings>.
37
38The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
39lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
40denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
41ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
42letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
43letter.
44
45=over 4
46
47=item accept() on closed socket %s
48
49(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
50to check the return value of your socket() call? See
51L<perlfunc/accept>.
52
53=item Allocation too large: %x
54
55(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
56
57=item '%c' allowed only after types %s
58
59(F) The modifiers '!', '<' and '>' are allowed in pack() or unpack() only
60after certain types. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
61
62=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
63
64(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
65keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
66one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
67subroutine is not imported.
68
69To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
70before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
71Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
72imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
73
74To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
75on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
76to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
77L<attributes>).
78
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
86=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
87
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.
91
92=item Ambiguous use of %c resolved as operator %c
93
94(W ambiguous) C<%>, C<&>, and C<*> are both infix operators (modulus,
95bitwise and, and multiplication) I<and> initial special characters
96(denoting hashes, subroutines and typeglobs), and you said something
97like C<*foo * foo> that might be interpreted as either of them. We
98assumed you meant the infix operator, but please try to make it more
99clear -- in the example given, you might write C<*foo * foo()> if you
100really meant to multiply a glob by the result of calling a function.
101
102=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s} resolved to %c%s
103
104(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<@{foo}>, which might be
105asking for the variable C<@foo>, or it might be calling a function
106named foo, and dereferencing it as an array reference. If you wanted
107the variable, you can just write C<@foo>. If you wanted to call the
108function, write C<@{foo()}> ... or you could just not have a variable
109and a function with the same name, and save yourself a lot of trouble.
110
111=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s[...]} resolved to %c%s[...]
112
113=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s{...}} resolved to %c%s{...}
114
115(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<${foo[2]}> (where foo represents
116the name of a Perl keyword), which might be looking for element number
1172 of the array named C<@foo>, in which case please write C<$foo[2]>, or you
118might have meant to pass an anonymous arrayref to the function named
119foo, and then do a scalar deref on the value it returns. If you meant
120that, write C<${foo([2])}>.
121
122In regular expressions, the C<${foo[2]}> syntax is sometimes necessary
123to disambiguate between array subscripts and character classes.
124C</$length[2345]/>, for instance, will be interpreted as C<$length> followed
125by the character class C<[2345]>. If an array subscript is what you
126want, you can avoid the warning by changing C</${length[2345]}/> to the
127unsightly C</${\$length[2345]}/>, by renaming your array to something
128that does not coincide with a built-in keyword, or by simply turning
129off warnings with C<no warnings 'ambiguous';>.
130
131=item Ambiguous use of -%s resolved as -&%s()
132
133(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<-foo>, which might be the
134string C<"-foo">, or a call to the function C<foo>, negated. If you meant
135the string, just write C<"-foo">. If you meant the function call,
136write C<-foo()>.
137
138=item Ambiguous use of 's//le...' resolved as 's// le...'; Rewrite as 's//el' if you meant 'use locale rules and evaluate rhs as an expression'. In Perl 5.18, it will be resolved the other way
139
140(W deprecated, ambiguous) You wrote a pattern match with substitution
141immediately followed by "le". In Perl 5.16 and earlier, this is
142resolved as meaning to take the result of the substitution, and see if
143it is stringwise less-than-or-equal-to what follows in the expression.
144Having the "le" immediately following a pattern is deprecated behavior,
145so in Perl 5.18, this expression will be resolved as meaning to do the
146pattern match using the rules of the current locale, and evaluate the
147rhs as an expression when doing the substitution. In 5.14, and 5.16 if
148you want the latter interpretation, you can simply write "el" instead.
149But note that the C</l> modifier should not be used explicitly anyway;
150you should use C<use locale> instead. See L<perllocale>.
151
152=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
153
154(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
155redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
156redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
157
158=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
159
160(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
161redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
162into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
163though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
164which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
165
166 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
167 while (<STDIN>) {
168 print;
169 print OUT;
170 }
171 close OUT;
172
173=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
174
175(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
176transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
177one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
178a scalar value (the length of an array, or the population info of a
179hash) and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
180you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
181alternatives.
182
183=item Arg too short for msgsnd
184
185(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
186
187=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine
188
189(F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element or a
190subroutine with an ampersand, such as:
191
192 $foo{$bar}
193 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
194 &do_something
195
196=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
197
198(F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
199such as:
200
201 $foo{$bar}
202 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
203
204or a hash or array slice, such as:
205
206 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
207 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
208
209=item %s argument is not a subroutine name
210
211(F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
212name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
213error.
214
215=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
216
217(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
218that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
219will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
220
221=item Argument list not closed for PerlIO layer "%s"
222
223(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O
224system you forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers
225take care of transforming data between external and internal
226representations.) Perl stopped parsing the layer list at this
227point and did not attempt to push this layer. If your program
228didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the
229result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
230
231=item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
232
233(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
234spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
235
236=item assertion botched: %s
237
238(X) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
239
240=item Assertion failed: file "%s"
241
242(X) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
243
244=item Assigning non-zero to $[ is no longer possible
245
246(F) When the "array_base" feature is disabled (e.g., under C<use v5.16;>)
247the special variable C<$[>, which is deprecated, is now a fixed zero value.
248
249=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
250
251(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
252must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
253know which context to supply to the right side.
254
255=item A thread exited while %d threads were running
256
257(W threads)(S) When using threaded Perl, a thread (not necessarily
258the main thread) exited while there were still other threads running.
259Usually it's a good idea first to collect the return values of the
260created threads by joining them, and only then to exit from the main
261thread. See L<threads>.
262
263=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
264
265(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
266the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
267
268=item Attempt to bless into a reference
269
270(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
271the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
272supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
273
274 bless $self, $proto;
275
276when you intended
277
278 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
279
280If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
281of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
282example by:
283
284 bless $self, "$proto";
285
286=item Attempt to clear deleted array
287
288(S debugging) An array was assigned to when it was being freed.
289Freed values are not supposed to be visible to Perl code. This
290can also happen if XS code calls C<av_clear> from a custom magic
291callback on the array.
292
293=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
294
295(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
296which is not in its key set.
297
298=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
299
300(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
301declared readonly from a restricted hash.
302
303=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%x
304
305(S internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
306that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
307outside any of those arenas.
308
309=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string '%s'%s
310
311(S internal) Perl maintains a reference-counted internal table of
312strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
313strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
314of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
315
316=item Attempt to free temp prematurely: SV 0x%x
317
318(S debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
319free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
320SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
321free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
322try to free it.
323
324=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
325
326(S internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
327
328=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar: SV 0x%x
329
330(W internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
331see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
332earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
333This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
334that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
335mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
336corrupted.
337
338=item Attempt to join self
339
340(F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
341impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
342to move the join() to some other thread.
343
344=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
345
346(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
347function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
348means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
349invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
350literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
351avoid this warning.
352
353=item Attempt to reload %s aborted.
354
355(F) You tried to load a file with C<use> or C<require> that failed to
356compile once already. Perl will not try to compile this file again
357unless you delete its entry from %INC. See L<perlfunc/require> and
358L<perlvar/%INC>.
359
360=item Attempt to set length of freed array
361
362(W) You tried to set the length of an array which has been freed. You
363can do this by storing a reference to the scalar representing the last index
364of an array and later assigning through that reference. For example
365
366 $r = do {my @a; \$#a};
367 $$r = 503
368
369=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
370
371(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
372used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
373dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
374
375=item Attribute "locked" is deprecated
376
377(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragma to modify the
378"locked" attribute on a code reference. The :locked attribute is
379obsolete, has had no effect since 5005 threads were removed, and
380will be removed in a future release of Perl 5.
381
382=item Attribute "unique" is deprecated
383
384(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragma to modify
385the "unique" attribute on an array, hash or scalar reference.
386The :unique attribute has had no effect since Perl 5.8.8, and
387will be removed in a future release of Perl 5.
388
389=item av_reify called on tied array
390
391(S debugging) This indicates that something went wrong and Perl got I<very>
392confused about C<@_> or C<@DB::args> being tied.
393
394=item Bad arg length for %s, is %u, should be %d
395
396(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
397or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
398S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
399S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
400
401=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
402
403(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
404substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
405most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
406
407=item Bad filehandle: %s
408
409(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
410symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
411open(), or did it in another package.
412
413=item Bad free() ignored
414
415(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
416been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
417setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
418
419This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
420dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
421which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
422
423=item Bad hash
424
425(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
426
427=item Badly placed ()'s
428
429(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
430of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
431Perl yourself.
432
433=item Bad name after %s
434
435(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
436didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
437of quotes, so
438
439 $var = 'myvar';
440 $sym = mypack::$var;
441
442is not the same as
443
444 $var = 'myvar';
445 $sym = "mypack::$var";
446
447=item Bad plugin affecting keyword '%s'
448
449(F) An extension using the keyword plugin mechanism violated the
450plugin API.
451
452=item Bad realloc() ignored
453
454(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that
455had never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can
456be disabled by setting the environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
457
458=item Bad symbol for array
459
460(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
461wasn't a symbol table entry.
462
463=item Bad symbol for dirhandle
464
465(P) An internal request asked to add a dirhandle entry to something
466that wasn't a symbol table entry.
467
468=item Bad symbol for filehandle
469
470(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
471that wasn't a symbol table entry.
472
473=item Bad symbol for hash
474
475(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
476wasn't a symbol table entry.
477
478=item Bareword found in conditional
479
480(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
481conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
482of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
483
484 open FOO || die;
485
486It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
487a bareword:
488
489 use constant TYPO => 1;
490 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
491
492The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
493
494=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
495
496(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
497subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
498symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
499
500=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
501
502(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
503compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
504you need to predeclare a package?
505
506=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
507
508(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
509subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
510exited.
511
512=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
513
514(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
515implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
516occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
517be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
518depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
519
520=item \1 better written as $1
521
522(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
523The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
524substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
525because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
526there are more than 9 backreferences.
527
528=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
529
530(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
531(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
532L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
533
534=item bind() on closed socket %s
535
536(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
537check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
538
539=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
540
541(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
542Check your control flow and number of arguments.
543
544=item "\b{" is deprecated; use "\b\{" instead
545
546=item "\B{" is deprecated; use "\B\{" instead
547
548(W deprecated, regexp) Use of an unescaped "{" immediately following a
549C<\b> or C<\B> is now deprecated so as to reserve its use for Perl
550itself in a future release.
551
552=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
553
554(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
555
556=item Bizarre copy of %s
557
558(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
559copiable.
560
561=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
562
563(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
564iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
565which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
566
567=item Bizarre SvTYPE [%d]
568
569(P) When starting a new thread or return values from a thread, Perl
570encountered an invalid data type.
571
572=item Callback called exit
573
574(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
575exited by calling exit.
576
577=item %s() called too early to check prototype
578
579(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
580parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
581that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
582early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
583subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
584checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
585function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
586the warning. See L<perlsub>.
587
588=item Cannot compress integer in pack
589
590(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress. The BER
591compressed integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you
592attempted to compress Infinity or a very large number (> 1e308).
593See L<perlfunc/pack>.
594
595=item Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
596
597(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
598format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
599
600=item Cannot convert a reference to %s to typeglob
601
602(F) You manipulated Perl's symbol table directly, stored a reference
603in it, then tried to access that symbol via conventional Perl syntax.
604The access triggers Perl to autovivify that typeglob, but it there is
605no legal conversion from that type of reference to a typeglob.
606
607=item Cannot copy to %s
608
609(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy a value to an internal type that cannot
610be directly assigned to.
611
612=item Cannot find encoding "%s"
613
614(S io) You tried to apply an encoding that did not exist to a filehandle,
615either with open() or binmode().
616
617=item Cannot set tied @DB::args
618
619(F) C<caller> tried to set C<@DB::args>, but found it tied. Tying C<@DB::args>
620is not supported. (Before this error was added, it used to crash.)
621
622=item Cannot tie unreifiable array
623
624(P) You somehow managed to call C<tie> on an array that does not
625keep a reference count on its arguments and cannot be made to
626do so. Such arrays are not even supposed to be accessible to
627Perl code, but are only used internally.
628
629=item Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
630
631(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
632integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
633to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
634
635=item Can't bless non-reference value
636
637(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
638encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
639
640=item Can't "break" in a loop topicalizer
641
642(F) You called C<break>, but you're in a C<foreach> block rather than
643a C<given> block. You probably meant to use C<next> or C<last>.
644
645=item Can't "break" outside a given block
646
647(F) You called C<break>, but you're not inside a C<given> block.
648
649=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
650
651(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
652object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
653like this will reproduce the error:
654
655 $BADREF = undef;
656 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
657 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
658
659=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
660
661(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
662ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
663didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
664object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
665
666=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
667
668(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
669object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
670defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
671Something like this will reproduce the error:
672
673 $BADREF = 42;
674 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
675 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
676
677=item Can't chdir to %s
678
679(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
680that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
681
682=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
683
684(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
685nosuid.
686
687=item Can't coerce %s to %s in %s
688
689(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
690(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
691say things like:
692
693 *foo += 1;
694
695You CAN say
696
697 $foo = *foo;
698 $foo += 1;
699
700but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
701
702=item Can't "continue" outside a when block
703
704(F) You called C<continue>, but you're not inside a C<when>
705or C<default> block.
706
707=item Can't create pipe mailbox
708
709(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
710quotas or other plumbing problems.
711
712=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
713
714(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my", "our" or
715"state" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
716
717=item Can't "default" outside a topicalizer
718
719(F) You have used a C<default> block that is neither inside a
720C<foreach> loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is
721issued on exit from the C<default> block, so you won't get the
722error if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
723
724=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
725
726(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
727a file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
728
729=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
730
731(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
732reason.
733
734=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
735
736(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
737reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
738C<-i.bak>, or some such.
739
740=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
741
742(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
743characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
744inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
745
746=item Can't do {n,m} with n > m in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
747
748(F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really
749want your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. The
750<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem
751was discovered. See L<perlre>.
752
753=item Can't do waitpid with flags
754
755(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
756waitpid() without flags is emulated.
757
758=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
759
760(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
761point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
762line.
763
764=item Can't %s %s-endian %ss on this platform
765
766(F) Your platform's byte-order is neither big-endian nor little-endian,
767or it has a very strange pointer size. Packing and unpacking big- or
768little-endian floating point values and pointers may not be possible.
769See L<perlfunc/pack>.
770
771=item Can't exec "%s": %s
772
773(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
774named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
775permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
776C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
777architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
778can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
779#! at all.)
780
781=item Can't exec %s
782
783(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
784that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
785need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
786
787=item Can't execute %s
788
789(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
790found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
791
792=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
793
794(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
795is no builtin with the name C<word>.
796
797=item Can't find %s character property "%s"
798
799(F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
800could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property?
801See L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
802for a complete list of available properties.
803
804=item Can't find label %s
805
806(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
807possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
808
809=item Can't find %s on PATH
810
811(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
812found in the PATH.
813
814=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
815
816(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
817found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
818script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
819
820=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
821
822(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
823that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
824nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
825
826 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
827
828If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have
829included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag or there
830may not be a linebreak after it. A good programmer's editor will have
831a way to help you find these characters (or lack of characters). See
832L<perlop> for the full details on here-documents.
833
834=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s"
835
836(F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode
837property (for example C<\p{Lu}> matches all uppercase
838letters). If you did mean to use a Unicode property, see
839L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
840for a complete list of available properties. If you didn't
841mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either by
842C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, or
843until C<\E>).
844
845=item Can't fork: %s
846
847(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
848pipeline.
849
850=item Can't fork, trying again in 5 seconds
851
852(W pipe) A fork in a piped open failed with EAGAIN and will be retried
853after five seconds.
854
855=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
856
857(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
858between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
859Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
860the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
861account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
862the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
863the access-checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
864the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
865if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
866because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
867appears, the name lookup failed, and the access-checking routine gave up
868and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access-checking
869routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
870shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
871only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
872
873=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
874
875(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
876pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
877
878=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
879
880(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
881mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
882
883=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
884
885(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
886loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
887
888=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
889
890(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
891a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
892you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
893See L<perlfunc/goto>.
894
895=item Can't goto subroutine from a sort sub (or similar callback)
896
897(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of the
898comparison sub for a sort(), or from a similar callback (such
899as the reduce() function in List::Util).
900
901=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-%s
902
903(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
904"string" or block.
905
906=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
907
908(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
909subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
910cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
911routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
912
913=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
914
915(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
916signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
917signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
918processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
919situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
920may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
921
922=item Can't kill a non-numeric process ID
923
924(F) Process identifiers must be (signed) integers. It is a fatal error to
925attempt to kill() an undefined, empty-string or otherwise non-numeric
926process identifier.
927
928=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
929
930(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
931except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
932block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
933block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
934usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
935inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
936L<perlfunc/last>.
937
938=item Can't linearize anonymous symbol table
939
940(F) Perl tried to calculate the method resolution order (MRO) of a
941package, but failed because the package stash has no name.
942
943=item Can't load '%s' for module %s
944
945(F) The module you tried to load failed to load a dynamic extension.
946This may either mean that you upgraded your version of perl to one
947that is incompatible with your old dynamic extensions (which is known
948to happen between major versions of perl), or (more likely) that your
949dynamic extension was built against an older version of the library
950that is installed on your system. You may need to rebuild your old
951dynamic extensions.
952
953=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
954
955(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
956lexical variable using "my" or "state". This is not allowed. If you
957want to localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with
958the package name.
959
960=item Can't localize through a reference
961
962(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
963handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
964pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
965that $ref will still be a reference.
966
967=item Can't locate %s
968
969(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be found.
970Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC, unless
971the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you need
972to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where the
973extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
974to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
975L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
976
977=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
978
979(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
980autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
981are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
982the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
983
984=item Can't locate loadable object for module %s in @INC
985
986(F) The module you loaded is trying to load an external library, like
987for example, F<foo.so> or F<bar.dll>, but the L<DynaLoader> module was
988unable to locate this library. See L<DynaLoader>.
989
990=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
991
992(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
993functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
994method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
995
996=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
997
998(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
999doesn't seem to exist.
1000
1001=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
1002
1003(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
1004e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
1005
1006=item Can't make list assignment to %ENV on this system
1007
1008(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
1009VMS.
1010
1011=item Can't modify %s in %s
1012
1013(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
1014to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
1015
1016=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
1017
1018(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
1019a NULL.
1020
1021=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
1022
1023(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
1024such. See L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
1025
1026=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
1027
1028(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
1029buffer.
1030
1031=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
1032
1033(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
1034there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
1035count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
1036grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1037though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
1038once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
1039
1040=item Can't open %s
1041
1042(F) You tried to run a perl built with MAD support with
1043the PERL_XMLDUMP environment variable set, but the file
1044named by that variable could not be opened.
1045
1046=item Can't open %s: %s
1047
1048(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
1049filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
1050switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually
1051this is because you don't have read permission for a file which
1052you named on the command line.
1053
1054(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-e> switch, but F</dev/null> (or
1055your operating system's equivalent) could not be opened.
1056
1057=item Can't open a reference
1058
1059(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
1060using the 3-arg open() syntax:
1061
1062 open FH, '>', $ref;
1063
1064but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
1065open is not supported.
1066
1067=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
1068
1069(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
1070You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
1071as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
1072">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
1073
1074=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
1075
1076(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1077redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
1078the command line for writing.
1079
1080=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
1081
1082(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1083redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
1084command line for reading.
1085
1086=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
1087
1088(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1089redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
1090the command line for writing.
1091
1092=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
1093
1094(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1095redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
1096for stdout.
1097
1098=item Can't open perl script "%s": %s
1099
1100(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
1101
1102If you're debugging a script that uses #!, and normally relies on the
1103shell's $PATH search, the -S option causes perl to do that search, so
1104you don't have to type the path or C<`which $scriptname`>.
1105
1106=item Can't read CRTL environ
1107
1108(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
1109from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
1110missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
1111or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
1112searched.
1113
1114=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
1115
1116(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
1117there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
1118count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
1119or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1120though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
1121loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
1122
1123=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
1124
1125(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
1126file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
1127the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
1128
1129=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
1130
1131(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
1132probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
1133
1134=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
1135
1136(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
1137to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
1138
1139=item Can't reset %ENV on this system
1140
1141(F) You called C<reset('E')> or similar, which tried to reset
1142all variables in the current package beginning with "E". In
1143the main package, that includes %ENV. Resetting %ENV is not
1144supported on some systems, notably VMS.
1145
1146=item Can't resolve method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
1147
1148(F)(P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as
1149opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the
1150package. If the method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
1151
1152=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
1153
1154(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
1155temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
1156is not allowed.
1157
1158=item Can't return outside a subroutine
1159
1160(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1161there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1162
1163=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
1164
1165(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue
1166subroutine, but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl
1167think you meant to return only one value. You probably meant to
1168write parentheses around the call to the subroutine, which tell
1169Perl that the call should be in list context.
1170
1171=item Can't stat script "%s"
1172
1173(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1174open already. Bizarre.
1175
1176=item Can't take log of %g
1177
1178(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
1179negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
1180standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1181negative numbers.
1182
1183=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1184
1185(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
1186negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1187with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
1188
1189=item Can't undef active subroutine
1190
1191(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1192however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1193redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1194
1195=item Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d
1196
1197(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1198into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1199specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1200indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
1201
1202=item Can't use '%c' after -mname
1203
1204(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-m> switch, but you put something
1205other than "=" after the module name.
1206
1207=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1208
1209(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1210table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1211for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1212
1213=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1214
1215(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1216be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1217
1218=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1219
1220(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1221references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
1222
1223=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1224
1225(F) The first time the C<%!> hash is used, perl automatically loads the
1226Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1227provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1228
1229=item Can't use both '<' and '>' after type '%c' in %s
1230
1231(F) A type cannot be forced to have both big-endian and little-endian
1232byte-order at the same time, so this combination of modifiers is not
1233allowed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1234
1235=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1236
1237(F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1238foreach.
1239
1240=item Can't use global %s in "%s"
1241
1242(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1243is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1244(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1245have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
1246weren't.
1247
1248=item Can't use '%c' in a group with different byte-order in %s
1249
1250(F) You attempted to force a different byte-order on a type
1251that is already inside a group with a byte-order modifier.
1252For example you cannot force little-endianness on a type that
1253is inside a big-endian group.
1254
1255=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1256
1257(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
1258You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
1259and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1260Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1261lexical variable.
1262
1263=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1264
1265(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1266reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1267test the type of the reference, if need be.
1268
1269=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1270
1271(F) You've told Perl to dereference a string, something which
1272C<use strict> blocks to prevent it happening accidentally. See
1273L<perlref/"Symbolic references">. This can be triggered by an C<@> or C<$>
1274in a double-quoted string immediately before interpolating a variable,
1275for example in C<"user @$twitter_id">, which says to treat the contents
1276of C<$twitter_id> as an array reference; use a C<\> to have a literal C<@>
1277symbol followed by the contents of C<$twitter_id>: C<"user \@$twitter_id">.
1278
1279=item Can't use subscript on %s
1280
1281(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1282subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
1283didn't look like a hash or array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
1284
1285=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1286
1287(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1288creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1289backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
1290expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1291value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1292instead.
1293
1294=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1295
1296(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1297references can be weakened.
1298
1299=item Can't "when" outside a topicalizer
1300
1301(F) You have used a when() block that is neither inside a C<foreach>
1302loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is issued on exit
1303from the C<when> block, so you won't get the error if the match fails,
1304or if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
1305
1306=item Can't x= to read-only value
1307
1308(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1309with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
1310Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1311
1312=item Character following "\c" must be ASCII
1313
1314(F)(W deprecated, syntax) In C<\cI<X>>, I<X> must be an ASCII character.
1315It is planned to make this fatal in all instances in Perl 5.18. In the
1316cases where it isn't fatal, the character this evaluates to is
1317derived by exclusive or'ing the code point of this character with 0x40.
1318
1319Note that non-alphabetic ASCII characters are discouraged here as well.
1320
1321=item Character in 'C' format wrapped in pack
1322
1323(W pack) You said
1324
1325 pack("C", $x)
1326
1327where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1328only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1329and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1330
1331 pack("C", $x & 255)
1332
1333If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1334instead.
1335
1336=item Character in 'W' format wrapped in pack
1337
1338(W pack) You said
1339
1340 pack("U0W", $x)
1341
1342where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255. However, C<U0>-mode
1343expects all values to fall in the interval [0, 255], so Perl behaved
1344as if you meant:
1345
1346 pack("U0W", $x & 255)
1347
1348=item Character in 'c' format wrapped in pack
1349
1350(W pack) You said
1351
1352 pack("c", $x)
1353
1354where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1355is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1356and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1357
1358 pack("c", $x & 255);
1359
1360If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1361instead.
1362
1363=item Character in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1364
1365(W unpack) You tried something like
1366
1367 unpack("H", "\x{2a1}")
1368
1369where the format expects to process a byte (a character with a value
1370below 256), but a higher value was provided instead. Perl uses the
1371value modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1372
1373 unpack("H", "\x{a1}")
1374
1375=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in pack
1376
1377(W pack) You tried something like
1378
1379 pack("u", "\x{1f3}b")
1380
1381where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
1382value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
1383uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1384
1385 pack("u", "\x{f3}b")
1386
1387=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1388
1389(W unpack) You tried something like
1390
1391 unpack("s", "\x{1f3}b")
1392
1393where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
1394value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
1395uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1396
1397 unpack("s", "\x{f3}b")
1398
1399=item "\c{" is deprecated and is more clearly written as ";"
1400
1401(D deprecated, syntax) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a way
1402to specify non-printable characters. You used it with a "{" which
1403evaluates to ";", which is printable. It is planned to remove the
1404ability to specify a semi-colon this way in Perl 5.18. Just use a
1405semi-colon or a backslash-semi-colon without the "\c".
1406
1407=item "\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"
1408
1409(W syntax) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a way to specify
1410non-printable characters. You used it for a printable one, which is better
1411written as simply itself, perhaps preceded by a backslash for non-word
1412characters.
1413
1414=item Cloning substitution context is unimplemented
1415
1416(F) Creating a new thread inside the C<s///> operator is not supported.
1417
1418=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1419
1420(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1421
1422=item closedir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
1423
1424(W io) The dirhandle you tried to close is either closed or not really
1425a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
1426
1427=item Closure prototype called
1428
1429(F) If a closure has attributes, the subroutine passed to an attribute
1430handler is the prototype that is cloned when a new closure is created.
1431This subroutine cannot be called.
1432
1433=item Code missing after '/'
1434
1435(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be
1436another template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1437
1438=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, may not be portable
1439
1440=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, all \p{} matches fail; all \P{} matches succeed
1441
1442(W utf8, non_unicode) You had a code point above the Unicode maximum
1443of U+10FFFF.
1444
1445Perl allows strings to contain a superset of Unicode code points, up
1446to the limit of what is storable in an unsigned integer on your system,
1447but these may not be accepted by other languages/systems. At one time,
1448it was legal in some standards to have code points up to 0x7FFF_FFFF,
1449but not higher. Code points above 0xFFFF_FFFF require larger than a
145032 bit word.
1451
1452None of the Unicode or Perl-defined properties will match a non-Unicode
1453code point. For example,
1454
1455 chr(0x7FF_FFFF) =~ /\p{Any}/
1456
1457will not match, because the code point is not in Unicode. But
1458
1459 chr(0x7FF_FFFF) =~ /\P{Any}/
1460
1461will match.
1462
1463This may be counterintuitive at times, as both these fail:
1464
1465 chr(0x110000) =~ \p{ASCII_Hex_Digit=True} # Fails.
1466 chr(0x110000) =~ \p{ASCII_Hex_Digit=False} # Also fails!
1467
1468and both these succeed:
1469
1470 chr(0x110000) =~ \P{ASCII_Hex_Digit=True} # Succeeds.
1471 chr(0x110000) =~ \P{ASCII_Hex_Digit=False} # Also succeeds!
1472
1473=item %s: Command not found
1474
1475(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> or another shell
1476shell instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script
1477into Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
1478
1479 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
1480
1481=item Compilation failed in require
1482
1483(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
1484Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1485encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
1486
1487=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1488
1489(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1490situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1491to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1492arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1493recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1494under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1495in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
1496that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
1497on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
1498
1499=item cond_broadcast() called on unlocked variable
1500
1501(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to
1502call cond_broadcast() on a variable which wasn't locked.
1503The cond_broadcast() function is used to wake up another thread
1504that is waiting in a cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't
1505sent before the other thread has a chance to enter the wait, it
1506is usual for the signaling thread first to wait for a lock on
1507variable. This lock attempt will only succeed after the other
1508thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the lock.
1509
1510=item cond_signal() called on unlocked variable
1511
1512(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to
1513call cond_signal() on a variable which wasn't locked. The
1514cond_signal() function is used to wake up another thread that
1515is waiting in a cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't
1516sent before the other thread has a chance to enter the wait, it
1517is usual for the signaling thread first to wait for a lock on
1518variable. This lock attempt will only succeed after the other
1519thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the lock.
1520
1521=item connect() on closed socket %s
1522
1523(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1524to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1525L<perlfunc/connect>.
1526
1527=item Constant(%s)%s: %s
1528
1529(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1530an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1531specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
1532corresponding L<overload> pragma?.
1533
1534=item Constant(%s)%s: %s in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1535
1536(F) The parser found inconsistencies while attempting to find
1537the character name specified in the C<\N{...}> escape.
1538
1539=item Constant is not %s reference
1540
1541(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
1542is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
1543The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
1544usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
1545See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1546
1547=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1548
1549(W redefine)(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously
1550been eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions">
1551for commentary and workarounds.
1552
1553=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1554
1555(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1556for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1557workarounds.
1558
1559=item Copy method did not return a reference
1560
1561(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
1562L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
1563
1564=item &CORE::%s cannot be called directly
1565
1566(F) You tried to call a subroutine in the C<CORE::> namespace
1567with C<&foo> syntax or through a reference. Some subroutines
1568in this package cannot yet be called that way, but must be
1569called as barewords. Something like this will work:
1570
1571 BEGIN { *shove = \&CORE::push; }
1572 shove @array, 1,2,3; # pushes on to @array
1573
1574=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1575
1576(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1577
1578=item corrupted regexp pointers
1579
1580(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1581expression compiler gave it.
1582
1583=item corrupted regexp program
1584
1585(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1586valid magic number.
1587
1588=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%x at 0x%x
1589
1590(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1591
1592=item Count after length/code in unpack
1593
1594(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1595you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1596L<perlfunc/pack>.
1597
1598=item Deep recursion on anonymous subroutine
1599
1600=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1601
1602(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1603100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1604infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1605which case it indicates something else.
1606
1607This threshold can be changed from 100, by recompiling the F<perl> binary,
1608setting the C pre-processor macro C<PERL_SUB_DEPTH_WARN> to the desired value.
1609
1610=item defined(@array) is deprecated
1611
1612(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1613checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
1614array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
1615
1616=item defined(%hash) is deprecated
1617
1618(D deprecated) C<defined()> is not usually right on hashes and has been
1619discouraged since 5.004.
1620
1621Although C<defined %hash> is false on a plain not-yet-used hash, it
1622becomes true in several non-obvious circumstances, including iterators,
1623weak references, stash names, even remaining true after C<undef %hash>.
1624These things make C<defined %hash> fairly useless in practice.
1625
1626If a check for non-empty is what you wanted then just put it in boolean
1627context (see L<perldata/Scalar values>):
1628
1629 if (%hash) {
1630 # not empty
1631 }
1632
1633If you had C<defined %Foo::Bar::QUUX> to check whether such a package
1634variable exists then that's never really been reliable, and isn't
1635a good way to enquire about the features of a package, or whether
1636it's loaded, etc.
1637
1638
1639=item (?(DEFINE)....) does not allow branches in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1640
1641(F) You used something like C<(?(DEFINE)...|..)> which is illegal. The
1642most likely cause of this error is that you left out a parenthesis inside
1643of the C<....> part.
1644
1645The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1646discovered.
1647
1648=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1649
1650(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1651there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1652
1653=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1654
1655(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1656long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1657that triggers this error.
1658
1659=item Deprecated character in \N{...}; marked by <-- HERE in \N{%s<-- HERE %s
1660
1661(D deprecated) Just about anything is legal for the C<...> in C<\N{...}>.
1662But starting in 5.12, non-reasonable ones that don't look like names
1663are deprecated. A reasonable name begins with an alphabetic character
1664and continues with any combination of alphanumerics, dashes, spaces,
1665parentheses or colons.
1666
1667=item Deprecated use of my() in false conditional
1668
1669(D deprecated) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>. There
1670has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
1671not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
1672conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
1673static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
1674relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
1675declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
1676
1677 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
1678
1679becomes
1680
1681 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
1682
1683Beginning with perl 5.9.4, you can also use C<state> variables to have
1684lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
1685
1686 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
1687
1688=item DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
1689
1690(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
1691just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather
1692than to create a dangling reference.
1693
1694=item Did not produce a valid header
1695
1696See Server error.
1697
1698=item %s did not return a true value
1699
1700(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1701it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1702traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1703do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1704
1705=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
1706
1707(W misc) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or
1708some such.
1709
1710=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
1711
1712(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1713variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1714seems superfluous.
1715
1716=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
1717
1718(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1719@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1720carried away.
1721
1722=item Died
1723
1724(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1725you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
1726
1727=item Document contains no data
1728
1729See Server error.
1730
1731=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1732
1733(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1734define a C<$VERSION.>
1735
1736=item '/' does not take a repeat count
1737
1738(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
1739See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1740
1741=item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1742
1743(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1744
1745=item do_study: out of memory
1746
1747(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1748
1749=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1750
1751(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
1752"%s found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
1753name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1754because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
1755"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1756something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1757subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1758"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
1759
1760=item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1761
1762(W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1763qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1764
1765=item dump is not supported
1766
1767(F) Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.
1768
1769=item Duplicate free() ignored
1770
1771(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1772already been freed.
1773
1774=item Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
1775
1776(W) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a type
1777in a pack template. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1778
1779=item elseif should be elsif
1780
1781(S syntax) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks
1782it's ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method
1783named "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
1784unlikely to be what you want.
1785
1786=item Empty %s
1787
1788(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
1789described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
1790a regular expression without specifying the property name.
1791
1792=item entering effective %s failed
1793
1794(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
1795effective uids or gids failed.
1796
1797=item %ENV is aliased to %s
1798
1799(F) You're running under taint mode, and the C<%ENV> variable has been
1800aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
1801program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
1802
1803=item Error converting file specification %s
1804
1805(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
1806specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
1807single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1808an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1809conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
1810
1811=item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
1812
1813(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1814expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1815is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
1816
1817=item %s: Eval-group not allowed at runtime, use re 'eval'
1818
1819(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1820C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
1821pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk,
1822it is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by using the
1823C<re 'eval'> pragma or by explicitly building the pattern from an
1824interpolated string at run time and using that in an eval(). See
1825L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
1826
1827=item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
1828
1829(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1830assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1831pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
1832
1833=item EVAL without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1834
1835(F) You used a pattern that nested too many EVAL calls without consuming
1836any text. Restructure the pattern so that text is consumed.
1837
1838The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1839discovered.
1840
1841=item Excessively long <> operator
1842
1843(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1844Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1845filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1846variable and glob that.
1847
1848=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1849
1850(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented on some systems, e.g., Symbian
1851OS. See L<perlport>.
1852
1853=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors.
1854
1855(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1856
1857=item Exiting eval via %s
1858
1859(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1860goto, or a loop control statement.
1861
1862=item Exiting format via %s
1863
1864(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
1865goto, or a loop control statement.
1866
1867=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1868
1869(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1870sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1871loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
1872
1873=item Exiting subroutine via %s
1874
1875(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1876as a goto, or a loop control statement.
1877
1878=item Exiting substitution via %s
1879
1880(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1881as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
1882
1883=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1884
1885(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1886the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1887usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1888e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
1889
1890=item %s: Expression syntax
1891
1892(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1893Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
1894
1895=item %s failed--call queue aborted
1896
1897(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a UNITCHECK,
1898CHECK, INIT, or END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the
1899queue of such routines has been prematurely ended.
1900
1901=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1902
1903(W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
1904character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1905in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1906"-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1907problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
1908
1909=item Fatal VMS error (status=%d) at %s, line %d
1910
1911(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1912system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1913details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1914you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
1915
1916=item fcntl is not implemented
1917
1918(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1919PDP-11 or something?
1920
1921=item FETCHSIZE returned a negative value
1922
1923(F) A tied array claimed to have a negative number of elements, which
1924is not possible.
1925
1926=item Field too wide in 'u' format in pack
1927
1928(W pack) Each line in an uuencoded string start with a length indicator
1929which can't encode values above 63. So there is no point in asking for
1930a line length bigger than that. Perl will behave as if you specified
1931C<u63> as the format.
1932
1933=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
1934
1935(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
1936it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
1937"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
1938write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
1939
1940=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
1941
1942(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
1943you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
1944with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with ">". If you intended only to
1945read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>. Another possibility
1946is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0 (also known as STDIN) for
1947output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
1948
1949=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
1950
1951(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
1952as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
1953previously.
1954
1955=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
1956
1957(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
1958as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
1959
1960=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1961
1962(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
1963a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1964happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1965name.
1966
1967=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1968
1969(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
1970some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
1971filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1972same name?
1973
1974=item Format not terminated
1975
1976(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1977to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1978
1979=item Format %s redefined
1980
1981(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
1982
1983 {
1984 no warnings 'redefine';
1985 eval "format NAME =...";
1986 }
1987
1988=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1989
1990(W syntax) You said
1991
1992 if ($foo = 123)
1993
1994when you meant
1995
1996 if ($foo == 123)
1997
1998(or something like that).
1999
2000=item %s found where operator expected
2001
2002(S syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator.
2003If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
2004operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
2005operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
2006
2007=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
2008
2009(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
2010
2011=item gethostent not implemented
2012
2013(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
2014because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
2015on the Internet.
2016
2017=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
2018
2019(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
2020socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
2021
2022=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
2023
2024(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
2025C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
2026
2027=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
2028
2029(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
2030forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
2031L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
2032
2033=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
2034
2035(F) You've said "use strict" or "use strict vars", which indicates
2036that all variables must either be lexically scoped (using "my" or "state"),
2037declared beforehand using "our", or explicitly qualified to say
2038which package the global variable is in (using "::").
2039
2040=item glob failed (%s)
2041
2042(S glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used
2043for C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a C<glob>
2044pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
2045nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
2046resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell)
2047is broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables
2048in config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as
2049if it were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them
2050all empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
2051think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
2052C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
2053
2054=item Glob not terminated
2055
2056(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
2057a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
2058not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
2059earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
2060
2061=item gmtime(%f) too large
2062
2063(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was larger than
2064it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong
2065date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
2066not-a-number value).
2067
2068=item gmtime(%f) too small
2069
2070(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was smaller than
2071it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong date.
2072
2073=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
2074
2075(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
2076version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
2077
2078=item goto must have label
2079
2080(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
2081unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2082
2083=item Goto undefined subroutine%s
2084
2085(F) You tried to call a subroutine with C<goto &sub> syntax, but
2086the indicated subroutine hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
2087has since been undefined.
2088
2089=item ()-group starts with a count
2090
2091(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is supposed to follow
2092something: a template character or a ()-group. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2093
2094=item %s had compilation errors.
2095
2096(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
2097
2098=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
2099
2100(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
2101to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
2102created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
2103
2104=item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
2105
2106(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
2107spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
2108
2109=item %s has too many errors
2110
2111(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
2112Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
2113
2114=item Having no space between pattern and following word is deprecated
2115
2116(D syntax)
2117
2118You had a word that isn't a regex modifier immediately following
2119a pattern without an intervening space. If you are trying to use
2120the C</le> flags on a substitution, use C</el> instead. Otherwise, add
2121white space between the pattern and following word to eliminate
2122the warning. As an example of the latter, the two constructs:
2123
2124
2125 $a =~ m/$foo/sand $bar
2126 $a =~ m/$foo/s and $bar
2127
2128both currently mean the same thing, but it is planned to disallow
2129the first form in Perl 5.18. And,
2130
2131 $a =~ m/$foo/and $bar
2132
2133will be disallowed too.
2134
2135=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
2136
2137(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
2138(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2139L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
2140
2141=item Identifier too long
2142
2143(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
2144about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
2145names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
2146of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
2147
2148=item Ignoring zero length \N{} in character class
2149
2150(W) Named Unicode character escapes C<(\N{...})> may return a zero-length
2151sequence. When such an escape is used in a character class its
2152behaviour is not well defined. Check that the correct escape has
2153been used, and the correct charname handler is in scope.
2154
2155=item Illegal binary digit %s
2156
2157(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
2158
2159=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
2160
2161(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
2162binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
2163offending digit.
2164
2165=item Illegal character after '_' in prototype for %s : %s
2166
2167(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
2168Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, \, and +.
2169
2170=item Illegal character \%o (carriage return)
2171
2172(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
2173would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
2174when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
2175version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
2176to your Perl administrator.
2177
2178=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
2179
2180(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
2181Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, \, and +.
2182
2183=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
2184
2185(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
2186you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
2187
2188=item Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
2189
2190(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See L<perlsub>.
2191
2192=item Illegal division by zero
2193
2194(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
2195your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
2196meaningless input.
2197
2198=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
2199
2200(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
2201A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
2202number stopped before the illegal character.
2203
2204=item Illegal modulus zero
2205
2206(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
2207numbers don't take to this kindly.
2208
2209=item Illegal number of bits in vec
2210
2211(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
2212two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
2213
2214=item Illegal octal digit %s
2215
2216(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
2217
2218=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
2219
2220(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
2221Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
2222
2223=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: -%c
2224
2225(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
2226following switches: B<-[CDIMUdmtw]>.
2227
2228=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
2229
2230(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
2231internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
2232delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
2233
2234=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
2235
2236(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
2237name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
2238didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
2239ignored.
2240
2241=item (in cleanup) %s
2242
2243(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
2244the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
2245system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
2246times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
2247would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
2248
2249Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
2250also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
2251
2252=item Inconsistent hierarchy during C3 merge of class '%s': merging failed on parent '%s'
2253
2254(F) The method resolution order (MRO) of the given class is not
2255C3-consistent, and you have enabled the C3 MRO for this class. See the C3
2256documentation in L<mro> for more information.
2257
2258=item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
2259
2260(F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
2261Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
2262encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
2263
2264=item Infinite recursion in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2265
2266(F) You used a pattern that references itself without consuming any input
2267text. You should check the pattern to ensure that recursive patterns
2268either consume text or fail.
2269
2270The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2271discovered.
2272
2273=item Initialization of state variables in list context currently forbidden
2274
2275(F) Currently the implementation of "state" only permits the
2276initialization of scalar variables in scalar context. Re-write
2277C<state ($a) = 42> as C<state $a = 42> to change from list to scalar
2278context. Constructions such as C<state (@a) = foo()> will be
2279supported in a future perl release.
2280
2281=item Insecure dependency in %s
2282
2283(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
2284The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
2285setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
2286tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
2287from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
2288such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
2289L<perlsec> for more information.
2290
2291=item Insecure directory in %s
2292
2293(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2294setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
2295the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
2296See L<perlsec>.
2297
2298=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
2299
2300(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2301setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
2302C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
2303supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
2304the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
2305
2306=item Insecure user-defined property %s
2307
2308(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2309expression that contains a call to a user-defined character property
2310function, i.e. C<\p{IsFoo}> or C<\p{InFoo}>.
2311See L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties> and L<perlsec>.
2312
2313=item Integer overflow in format string for %s
2314
2315(F) The indexes and widths specified in the format string of C<printf()>
2316or C<sprintf()> are too large. The numbers must not overflow the size of
2317integers for your architecture.
2318
2319=item Integer overflow in %s number
2320
2321(W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
2322either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
2323your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
2324On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
2325representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
23260b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
2327transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
2328internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
2329operations.
2330
2331=item Integer overflow in version
2332
2333(F) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for the
2334size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
2335because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use a
2336element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by
2337trying to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like
2338100/9.
2339
2340=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2341
2342(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
2343The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2344discovered.
2345
2346=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
2347
2348(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
2349you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
2350to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
2351L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
2352Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
2353terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
2354
2355=item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2356
2357(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
2358<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2359discovered.
2360
2361=item %s (...) interpreted as function
2362
2363(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
2364followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
2365operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
2366L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
2367
2368=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
2369
2370(F) The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
2371by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
2372
2373=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
2374
2375(F) The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
2376recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
2377
2378=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
2379
2380(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
2381L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
2382
2383=item Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2384
2385(W regexp) The numeric escape (for example C<\xHH>) of value < 256
2386didn't correspond to a single character through the conversion
2387from the encoding specified by the encoding pragma.
2388The escape was replaced with REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (U+FFFD) instead.
2389The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2390escape was discovered.
2391
2392=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...}
2393
2394(F) The character constant represented by C<...> is not a valid hexadecimal
2395number. Either it is empty, or you tried to use a character other than
23960 - 9 or A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number.
2397
2398=item Invalid module name %s with -%c option: contains single ':'
2399
2400(F) The module argument to perl's B<-m> and B<-M> command-line options
2401cannot contain single colons in the module name, but only in the
2402arguments after "=". In other words, B<-MFoo::Bar=:baz> is ok, but
2403B<-MFoo:Bar=baz> is not.
2404
2405=item Invalid mro name: '%s'
2406
2407(F) You tried to C<mro::set_mro("classname", "foo")> or C<use mro 'foo'>,
2408where C<foo> is not a valid method resolution order (MRO). Currently,
2409the only valid ones supported are C<dfs> and C<c3>, unless you have loaded
2410a module that is a MRO plugin. See L<mro> and L<perlmroapi>.
2411
2412=item invalid option -D%c, use -D'' to see choices
2413
2414(F) Perl was called with invalid debugger flags. Call perl with
2415the B<-D> option with no flags to see the list of acceptable values.
2416See also L<< perlrun/B<-D>I<letters> >>.
2417
2418=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2419
2420(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
2421greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
2422C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
2423up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2424problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2425
2426=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
2427
2428(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
2429character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
2430
2431=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
2432
2433(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
2434elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
2435parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
2436See L<attributes>.
2437
2438=item Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
2439
2440(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other
2441than a colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
2442If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2443list was terminated too soon.
2444
2445=item Invalid strict version format (%s)
2446
2447(F) A version number did not meet the "strict" criteria for versions.
2448A "strict" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
2449decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
2450v-string with a leading 'v' character and at least three components.
2451The parenthesized text indicates which criteria were not met.
2452See the L<version> module for more details on allowed version formats.
2453
2454=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
2455
2456(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
2457See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2458
2459(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
2460silently ignored.
2461
2462=item Invalid version format (%s)
2463
2464(F) A version number did not meet the "lax" criteria for versions.
2465A "lax" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
2466decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
2467v-string. If the v-string has fewer than three components, it
2468must have a leading 'v' character. Otherwise, the leading 'v' is
2469optional. Both decimal and dotted-decimal versions may have a
2470trailing "alpha" component separated by an underscore character
2471after a fractional or dotted-decimal component. The parenthesized
2472text indicates which criteria were not met. See the L<version> module
2473for more details on allowed version formats.
2474
2475=item Invalid version object
2476
2477(F) The internal structure of the version object was invalid.
2478Perhaps the internals were modified directly in some way or
2479an arbitrary reference was blessed into the "version" class.
2480
2481=item ioctl is not implemented
2482
2483(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
2484strange for a machine that supports C.
2485
2486=item ioctl() on unopened %s
2487
2488(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
2489Check your control flow and number of arguments.
2490
2491=item IO layers (like '%s') unavailable
2492
2493(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
2494you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO, Perl must be configured
2495with 'useperlio'.
2496
2497=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
2498
2499(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
2500neither as a system call nor an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
2501
2502=item $* is no longer supported
2503
2504(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older
2505perls, has been removed as of 5.9.0 and is no longer supported. In
2506previous versions of perl the use of C<$*> enabled or disabled multi-line
2507matching within a string.
2508
2509Instead of using C<$*> you should use the C</m> (and maybe C</s>) regexp
2510modifiers. You can enable C</m> for a lexical scope (even a whole file)
2511with C<use re '/m'>. (In older versions: when C<$*> was set to a true value
2512then all regular expressions behaved as if they were written using C</m>.)
2513
2514=item $# is no longer supported
2515
2516(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$#>, deprecated in older
2517perls, has been removed as of 5.9.3 and is no longer supported. You
2518should use the printf/sprintf functions instead.
2519
2520=item '%s' is not a code reference
2521
2522(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of
2523overload::constant needs to be a code reference. Either
2524an anonymous subroutine, or a reference to a subroutine.
2525
2526=item '%s' is not an overloadable type
2527
2528(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
2529unaware of.
2530
2531=item junk on end of regexp
2532
2533(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
2534
2535=item Label not found for "last %s"
2536
2537(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
2538of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2539L<perlfunc/last>.
2540
2541=item Label not found for "next %s"
2542
2543(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
2544that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2545L<perlfunc/last>.
2546
2547=item Label not found for "redo %s"
2548
2549(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
2550that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2551L<perlfunc/last>.
2552
2553=item leaving effective %s failed
2554
2555(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
2556effective uids or gids failed.
2557
2558=item length/code after end of string in unpack
2559
2560(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an unpack
2561length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
2562an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2563
2564=item length() used on %s
2565
2566(W syntax) You used length() on either an array or a hash when you
2567probably wanted a count of the items.
2568
2569Array size can be obtained by doing:
2570
2571 scalar(@array);
2572
2573The number of items in a hash can be obtained by doing:
2574
2575 scalar(keys %hash);
2576
2577=item Lexing code attempted to stuff non-Latin-1 character into Latin-1 input
2578
2579(F) An extension is attempting to insert text into the current parse
2580(using L<lex_stuff_pvn|perlapi/lex_stuff_pvn> or similar), but tried to insert a character that
2581couldn't be part of the current input. This is an inherent pitfall
2582of the stuffing mechanism, and one of the reasons to avoid it. Where
2583it is necessary to stuff, stuffing only plain ASCII is recommended.
2584
2585=item Lexing code internal error (%s)
2586
2587(F) Lexing code supplied by an extension violated the lexer's API in a
2588detectable way.
2589
2590=item listen() on closed socket %s
2591
2592(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
2593to check the return value of your socket() call? See
2594L<perlfunc/listen>.
2595
2596=item List form of piped open not implemented
2597
2598(F) On some platforms, notably Windows, the three-or-more-arguments
2599form of C<open> does not support pipes, such as C<open($pipe, '|-', @args)>.
2600Use the two-argument C<open($pipe, '|prog arg1 arg2...')> form instead.
2601
2602=item localtime(%f) too large
2603
2604(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was larger
2605than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
2606wrong date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
2607not-a-number value).
2608
2609=item localtime(%f) too small
2610
2611(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was smaller
2612than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
2613wrong date.
2614
2615=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex m/%s/
2616
2617(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
2618handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release.
2619
2620=item Lost precision when %s %f by 1
2621
2622(W) The value you attempted to increment or decrement by one is too large
2623for the underlying floating point representation to store accurately,
2624hence the target of C<++> or C<--> is unchanged. Perl issues this warning
2625because it has already switched from integers to floating point when values
2626are too large for integers, and now even floating point is insufficient.
2627You may wish to switch to using L<Math::BigInt> explicitly.
2628
2629=item lstat() on filehandle%s
2630
2631(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
2632by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
2633instead on the filehandle.)
2634
2635=item lvalue attribute %s already-defined subroutine
2636
2637(W misc) Although L<attributes.pm|attributes> allows this, turning the lvalue
2638attribute on or off on a Perl subroutine that is already defined
2639does not always work properly. It may or may not do what you
2640want, depending on what code is inside the subroutine, with exact
2641details subject to change between Perl versions. Only do this
2642if you really know what you are doing.
2643
2644=item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined
2645
2646(W misc) Using the C<:lvalue> declarative syntax to make a Perl
2647subroutine an lvalue subroutine after it has been defined is
2648not permitted. To make the subroutine an lvalue subroutine,
2649add the lvalue attribute to the definition, or put the C<sub
2650foo :lvalue;> declaration before the definition.
2651
2652See also L<attributes.pm|attributes>.
2653
2654=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
2655
2656(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
2657are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2658
2659=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
2660
2661(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
2662are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2663
2664=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
2665
2666(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
2667
2668 prefix1;prefix2
2669
2670or
2671 prefix1 prefix2
2672
2673with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
2674a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
2675appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
2676"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
2677
2678=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
2679
2680(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
2681syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
2682obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
2683when the function is called.
2684
2685=item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
2686
2687(S utf8)(F) Perl detected a string that didn't comply with UTF-8
2688encoding rules, even though it had the UTF8 flag on.
2689
2690One possible cause is that you set the UTF8 flag yourself for data that
2691you thought to be in UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy
26928-bit data). To guard against this, you can use Encode::decode_utf8.
2693
2694If you use the C<:encoding(UTF-8)> PerlIO layer for input, invalid byte
2695sequences are handled gracefully, but if you use C<:utf8>, the flag is
2696set without validating the data, possibly resulting in this error
2697message.
2698
2699See also L<Encode/"Handling Malformed Data">.
2700
2701=item Malformed UTF-8 returned by \N
2702
2703(F) The charnames handler returned malformed UTF-8.
2704
2705=item Malformed UTF-8 string in '%c' format in unpack
2706
2707(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2708rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2709
2710=item Malformed UTF-8 string in pack
2711
2712(F) You tried to pack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2713rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2714
2715=item Malformed UTF-8 string in unpack
2716
2717(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
2718rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
2719
2720=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
2721
2722(F) Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
2723doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
2724
2725=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2726
2727(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
2728regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
2729shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2730See L<perlre>.
2731
2732=item Maximal count of pending signals (%u) exceeded
2733
2734(F) Perl aborted due to too high a number of signals pending. This
2735usually indicates that your operating system tried to deliver signals
2736too fast (with a very high priority), starving the perl process from
2737resources it would need to reach a point where it can process signals
2738safely. (See L<perlipc/"Deferred Signals (Safe Signals)">.)
2739
2740=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2741
2742(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
2743interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
2744"use" or "my".
2745
2746=item '%' may not be used in pack
2747
2748(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
2749checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
2750See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
2751
2752=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
2753
2754(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
2755doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
2756
2757=item Method %s not permitted
2758
2759See Server error.
2760
2761=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
2762
2763(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
2764by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
2765ended earlier on the current line.
2766
2767=item Misplaced _ in number
2768
2769(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
2770separate two digits.
2771
2772=item Missing argument in %s
2773
2774(W uninitialized) A printf-type format required more arguments than were
2775supplied.
2776
2777=item Missing argument to -%c
2778
2779(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2780immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
2781
2782=item Missing braces on \N{}
2783
2784(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
2785double-quotish context. This can also happen when there is a space
2786(or comment) between the C<\N> and the C<{> in a regex with the C</x> modifier.
2787This modifier does not change the requirement that the brace immediately
2788follow the C<\N>.
2789
2790=item Missing braces on \o{}
2791
2792(F) A C<\o> must be followed immediately by a C<{> in double-quotish context.
2793
2794=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
2795
2796(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
2797"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
2798
2799=item Missing command in piped open
2800
2801(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
2802C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
2803blank.
2804
2805=item Missing control char name in \c
2806
2807(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
2808character name.
2809
2810=item Missing name in "my sub"
2811
2812(F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
2813they have a name with which they can be found.
2814
2815=item Missing $ on loop variable
2816
2817(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
2818are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
2819can vary from one line to the next.
2820
2821=item (Missing operator before %s?)
2822
2823(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2824"%s found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
2825
2826=item Missing right brace on %s
2827
2828(F) Missing right brace in C<\x{...}>, C<\p{...}>, C<\P{...}>, or C<\N{...}>.
2829
2830=item Missing right brace on \N{} or unescaped left brace after \N
2831
2832(F) C<\N> has two meanings.
2833
2834The traditional one has it followed by a name enclosed in braces,
2835meaning the character (or sequence of characters) given by that
2836name. Thus C<\N{ASTERISK}> is another way of writing C<*>, valid in both
2837double-quoted strings and regular expression patterns. In patterns,
2838it doesn't have the meaning an unescaped C<*> does.
2839
2840Starting in Perl 5.12.0, C<\N> also can have an additional meaning (only)
2841in patterns, namely to match a non-newline character. (This is short
2842for C<[^\n]>, and like C<.> but is not affected by the C</s> regex modifier.)
2843
2844This can lead to some ambiguities. When C<\N> is not followed immediately
2845by a left brace, Perl assumes the C<[^\n]> meaning. Also, if the braces
2846form a valid quantifier such as C<\N{3}> or C<\N{5,}>, Perl assumes that this
2847means to match the given quantity of non-newlines (in these examples,
28483; and 5 or more, respectively). In all other case, where there is a
2849C<\N{> and a matching C<}>, Perl assumes that a character name is desired.
2850
2851However, if there is no matching C<}>, Perl doesn't know if it was
2852mistakenly omitted, or if C<[^\n]{> was desired, and raises this error.
2853If you meant the former, add the right brace; if you meant the latter,
2854escape the brace with a backslash, like so: C<\N\{>
2855
2856=item Missing right curly or square bracket
2857
2858(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
2859ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
2860were last editing.
2861
2862=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
2863
2864(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
2865"%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
2866the previous line just because you saw this message.
2867
2868=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
2869
2870(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
2871constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
2872catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
2873
2874 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
2875 mod(2);
2876
2877Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
2878
2879Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
2880is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
2881
2882 $x = 1;
2883 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
2884 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to
2885 } # modify the 2
2886
2887=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
2888
2889(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
2890subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
2891backwards.
2892
2893=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
2894
2895(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
2896couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
2897
2898=item Module name must be constant
2899
2900(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
2901
2902=item Module name required with -%c option
2903
2904(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
2905you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
2906about C<-M> and C<-m>.
2907
2908=item More than one argument to '%s' open
2909
2910(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
2911can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
2912list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
2913See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
2914
2915=item msg%s not implemented
2916
2917(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
2918
2919=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
2920
2921(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
2922They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
2923
2924=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
2925
2926(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
2927follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
2928See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2929
2930=item "my sub" not yet implemented
2931
2932(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
2933that yet.
2934
2935=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
2936
2937(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2938sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2939local() if you want to localize a package variable.
2940
2941=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2942
2943(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
2944If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2945again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
2946provided for this purpose.
2947
2948NOTE: This warning detects symbols that have been used only once so $c, @c,
2949%c, *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or format) are considered
2950the same; if a program uses $c only once but also uses any of the others it
2951will not trigger this warning.
2952
2953=item \N in a character class must be a named character: \N{...}
2954
2955(F) The new (5.12) meaning of C<\N> as C<[^\n]> is not valid in a bracketed
2956character class, for the same reason that C<.> in a character class loses
2957its specialness: it matches almost everything, which is probably not
2958what you want.
2959
2960=item \N{NAME} must be resolved by the lexer
2961
2962(F) When compiling a regex pattern, an unresolved named character or
2963sequence was encountered. This can happen in any of several ways that
2964bypass the lexer, such as using single-quotish context, or an extra
2965backslash in double-quotish:
2966
2967 $re = '\N{SPACE}'; # Wrong!
2968 $re = "\\N{SPACE}"; # Wrong!
2969 /$re/;
2970
2971Instead, use double-quotes with a single backslash:
2972
2973 $re = "\N{SPACE}"; # ok
2974 /$re/;
2975
2976The lexer can be bypassed as well by creating the pattern from smaller
2977components:
2978
2979 $re = '\N';
2980 /${re}{SPACE}/; # Wrong!
2981
2982It's not a good idea to split a construct in the middle like this, and it
2983doesn't work here. Instead use the solution above.
2984
2985Finally, the message also can happen under the C</x> regex modifier when the
2986C<\N> is separated by spaces from the C<{>, in which case, remove the spaces.
2987
2988 /\N {SPACE}/x; # Wrong!
2989 /\N{SPACE}/x; # ok
2990
2991=item Negative '/' count in unpack
2992
2993(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
2994negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2995
2996=item Negative length
2997
2998(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
2999length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
3000
3001=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
3002
3003(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
3004greater than or equal to zero.
3005
3006=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3007
3008(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses.
3009So things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the
3010regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
3011
3012Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
3013C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
3014
3015=item %s never introduced
3016
3017(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
3018scope before it could possibly have been used.
3019
3020=item next::method/next::can/maybe::next::method cannot find enclosing method
3021
3022(F) C<next::method> needs to be called within the context of a
3023real method in a real package, and it could not find such a context.
3024See L<mro>.
3025
3026=item No %s allowed while running setuid
3027
3028(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
3029setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
3030will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
3031securable. See L<perlsec>.
3032
3033=item No code specified for -%c
3034
3035(F) Perl's B<-e> and B<-E> command-line options require an argument. If
3036you want to run an empty program, pass the empty string as a separate
3037argument or run a program consisting of a single 0 or 1:
3038
3039 perl -e ""
3040 perl -e0
3041 perl -e1
3042
3043=item No comma allowed after %s
3044
3045(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is
3046not allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
3047Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
3048
3049One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported
3050a constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
3051importing took place, it may for example be that your operating
3052system does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did
3053use an explicit import list for the constants you expect to see;
3054please see L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an
3055explicit import list would probably have caught this error earlier
3056it naturally does not remedy the fact that your operating system
3057still does not support that constant. Maybe you have a typo in
3058the constants of the symbol import list of B<use> or B<import> or in the
3059constant name at the line where this error was triggered?
3060
3061=item No command into which to pipe on command line
3062
3063(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3064redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
3065doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
3066
3067=item No DB::DB routine defined
3068
3069(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
3070for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
3071module) didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
3072statement.
3073
3074=item No dbm on this machine
3075
3076(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
3077supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
3078
3079=item No DB::sub routine defined
3080
3081(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
3082for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
3083module) didn't define a C<DB::sub> routine to be called at the beginning
3084of each ordinary subroutine call.
3085
3086=item No directory specified for -I
3087
3088(F) The B<-I> command-line switch requires a directory name as part of the
3089I<same> argument. Use B<-Ilib>, for instance. B<-I lib> won't work.
3090
3091=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
3092
3093(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3094redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
3095find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
3096
3097=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
3098
3099(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
3100matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3101
3102=item No input file after < on command line
3103
3104(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3105redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
3106name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
3107
3108=item No next::method '%s' found for %s
3109
3110(F) C<next::method> found no further instances of this method name
3111in the remaining packages of the MRO of this class. If you don't want
3112it throwing an exception, use C<maybe::next::method>
3113or C<next::can>. See L<mro>.
3114
3115=item "no" not allowed in expression
3116
3117(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
3118returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
3119
3120=item No output file after > on command line
3121
3122(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3123redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
3124doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
3125
3126=item No output file after > or >> on command line
3127
3128(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3129redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
3130find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
3131
3132=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
3133
3134(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
3135declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
3136semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
3137
3138=item No Perl script found in input
3139
3140(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
3141with #! and containing the word "perl".
3142
3143=item No setregid available
3144
3145(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
3146your system.
3147
3148=item No setreuid available
3149
3150(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
3151your system.
3152
3153=item No such class field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
3154
3155(F) You tried to access a key from a hash through the indicated typed
3156variable but that key is not allowed by the package of the same type.
3157The indicated package has restricted the set of allowed keys using the
3158L<fields> pragma.
3159
3160=item No such class %s
3161
3162(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state"
3163declaration, but this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
3164
3165=item No such hook: %s
3166
3167(F) You specified a signal hook that was not recognized by Perl.
3168Currently, Perl accepts C<__DIE__> and C<__WARN__> as valid signal hooks.
3169
3170=item No such pipe open
3171
3172(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
3173close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
3174earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
3175
3176=item No such signal: SIG%s
3177
3178(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
3179not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
3180names on your system.
3181
3182=item Not a CODE reference
3183
3184(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
3185subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
3186use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
3187also L<perlref>.
3188
3189=item Not a format reference
3190
3191(F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
3192format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
3193
3194=item Not a GLOB reference
3195
3196(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
3197symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
3198something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
3199kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
3200
3201=item Not a HASH reference
3202
3203(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
3204reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
3205find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
3206
3207=item Not an ARRAY reference
3208
3209(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
3210a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
3211to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
3212
3213=item Not an unblessed ARRAY reference
3214
3215(F) You passed a reference to a blessed array to C<push>, C<shift> or
3216another array function. These only accept unblessed array references
3217or arrays beginning explicitly with C<@>.
3218
3219=item Not a SCALAR reference
3220
3221(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
3222a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
3223to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
3224
3225=item Not a subroutine reference
3226
3227(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
3228subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
3229use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
3230also L<perlref>.
3231
3232=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
3233
3234(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
3235doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
3236
3237=item Not enough arguments for %s
3238
3239(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
3240
3241=item Not enough format arguments
3242
3243(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
3244supplied. See L<perlform>.
3245
3246=item %s: not found
3247
3248(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
3249of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
3250yourself.
3251
3252=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
3253
3254(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
3255timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
3256to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
3257F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
3258need to be added to UTC to get local time.
3259
3260=item Non-octal character '%c'. Resolved as "%s"
3261
3262(W digit) In parsing an octal numeric constant, a character was
3263unexpectedly encountered that isn't octal. The resulting value
3264is as indicated.
3265
3266=item Non-string passed as bitmask
3267
3268(W misc) A number has been passed as a bitmask argument to select().
3269Use the vec() function to construct the file descriptor bitmasks for
3270select. See L<perlfunc/select>.
3271
3272=item Null filename used
3273
3274(F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
3275machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
3276
3277=item NULL OP IN RUN
3278
3279(S debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
3280pointer.
3281
3282=item Null picture in formline
3283
3284(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
3285specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
3286supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
3287
3288=item Null realloc
3289
3290(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
3291
3292=item NULL regexp argument
3293
3294(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
3295
3296=item NULL regexp parameter
3297
3298(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
3299
3300=item Number too long
3301
3302(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
3303about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
3304versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
3305the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
3306"1_000_000").
3307
3308=item Number with no digits
3309
3310(F) Perl was looking for a number but found nothing that looked like
3311a number. This happens, for example with C<\o{}>, with no number between
3312the braces.
3313
3314=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
3315
3316(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
3317(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
3318L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
3319
3320=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
3321
3322(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
3323arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
3324
3325=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
3326
3327(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
3328which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
3329
3330=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
3331
3332(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
3333which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
3334
3335=item Offset outside string
3336
3337(F)(W layer) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv/seek operation
3338with an offset pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to
3339imagine. The sole exceptions to this are that zero padding will
3340take place when going past the end of the string when either
3341C<sysread()>ing a file, or when seeking past the end of a scalar opened
3342for I/O (in anticipation of future reads and to imitate the behaviour
3343with real files).
3344
3345=item %s() on unopened %s
3346
3347(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
3348never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
3349call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
3350
3351=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
3352
3353(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
3354that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
3355
3356=item oops: oopsAV
3357
3358(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
3359
3360=item oops: oopsHV
3361
3362(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
3363
3364=item Opening dirhandle %s also as a file
3365
3366(W io, deprecated) You used open() to associate a filehandle to
3367a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a dirhandle.
3368Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
3369and is deprecated.
3370
3371=item Opening filehandle %s also as a directory
3372
3373(W io, deprecated) You used opendir() to associate a dirhandle to
3374a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a filehandle.
3375Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
3376and is deprecated.
3377
3378=item Operation "%s": no method found, %s
3379
3380(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
3381handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
3382of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
3383the C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
3384
3385=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for non-Unicode code point 0x%X
3386
3387(W utf8, non_unicode) You performed an operation requiring Unicode
3388semantics on a code point that is not in Unicode, so what it should do
3389is not defined. Perl has chosen to have it do nothing, and warn you.
3390
3391If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
3392matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
3393
3394If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
3395C<no warnings 'non_unicode';>.
3396
3397=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
3398
3399(W utf8, surrogate) You performed an operation requiring Unicode
3400semantics on a Unicode surrogate. Unicode frowns upon the use of
3401surrogates for anything but storing strings in UTF-16, but semantics
3402are (reluctantly) defined for the surrogates, and they are to do
3403nothing for this operation. Because the use of surrogates can be
3404dangerous, Perl warns.
3405
3406If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
3407matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
3408
3409If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
3410C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
3411
3412=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
3413
3414(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
3415was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
3416use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
3417example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
3418"*foo * 'foo'".
3419
3420=item "our" variable %s redeclared
3421
3422(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
3423in the current lexical scope.
3424
3425=item Out of memory!
3426
3427(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
3428remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
3429no option but to exit immediately.
3430
3431At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
3432process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
3433C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
3434the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
3435and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
3436
3437=item Out of memory during %s extend
3438
3439(X) An attempt was made to extend an array, a list, or a string beyond
3440the largest possible memory allocation.
3441
3442=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
3443
3444(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
3445remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
3446the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
3447possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
3448
3449=item Out of memory during request for %s
3450
3451(X)(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
3452insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
3453request.
3454
3455The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
3456depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
3457However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
3458emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
3459is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
3460where the failed request happened.
3461
3462=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
3463
3464(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
3465is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
3466C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
3467
3468=item Out of memory for yacc stack
3469
3470(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
3471parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
3472otherwise.
3473
3474=item '.' outside of string in pack
3475
3476(F) The argument to a '.' in your template tried to move the working
3477position to before the start of the packed string being built.
3478
3479=item '@' outside of string in unpack
3480
3481(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
3482the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3483
3484=item '@' outside of string with malformed UTF-8 in unpack
3485
3486(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
3487the string being unpacked. The string being unpacked was also invalid
3488UTF-8. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3489
3490=item overload arg '%s' is invalid
3491
3492(W overload) The L<overload> pragma was passed an argument it did not
3493recognize. Did you mistype an operator?
3494
3495=item Overloaded dereference did not return a reference
3496
3497(F) An object with an overloaded dereference operator was dereferenced,
3498but the overloaded operation did not return a reference. See
3499L<overload>.
3500
3501=item Overloaded qr did not return a REGEXP
3502
3503(F) An object with a C<qr> overload was used as part of a match, but the
3504overloaded operation didn't return a compiled regexp. See L<overload>.
3505
3506=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
3507
3508(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
3509package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
3510some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
3511mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
3512
3513=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
3514
3515(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3516signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3517
3518=item page overflow
3519
3520(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
3521page. See L<perlform>.
3522
3523=item panic: %s
3524
3525(P) An internal error.
3526
3527=item panic: attempt to call %s in %s
3528
3529(P) One of the file test operators entered a code branch that calls
3530an ACL related-function, but that function is not available on this
3531platform. Earlier checks mean that it should not be possible to
3532enter this branch on this platform.
3533
3534=item panic: ck_grep, type=%u
3535
3536(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
3537
3538=item panic: ck_split, type=%u
3539
3540(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
3541
3542=item panic: corrupt saved stack index %ld
3543
3544(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
3545there are in the savestack.
3546
3547=item panic: del_backref
3548
3549(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
3550reference.
3551
3552=item panic: die %s
3553
3554(P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
3555it wasn't an eval context.
3556
3557=item panic: do_subst
3558
3559(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
3560data.
3561
3562=item panic: do_trans_%s
3563
3564(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
3565data.
3566
3567=item panic: fold_constants JMPENV_PUSH returned %d
3568
3569(P) While attempting folding constants an exception other than an C<eval>
3570failure was caught.
3571
3572=item panic: frexp
3573
3574(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
3575
3576=item panic: goto, type=%u, ix=%ld
3577
3578(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
3579and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
3580
3581=item panic: gp_free failed to free glob pointer
3582
3583(P) The internal routine used to clear a typeglob's entries tried
3584repeatedly, but each time something re-created entries in the glob.
3585Most likely the glob contains an object with a reference back to
3586the glob and a destructor that adds a new object to the glob.
3587
3588=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD, %s
3589
3590(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
3591
3592=item panic: INTERPCONCAT, %s
3593
3594(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
3595
3596=item panic: kid popen errno read
3597
3598(F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
3599
3600=item panic: last, type=%u
3601
3602(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
3603it wasn't a block context.
3604
3605=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
3606
3607(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
3608scope.
3609
3610=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency %u
3611
3612(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
3613invalid enum on the top of it.
3614
3615=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
3616
3617(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
3618references to an object.
3619
3620=item panic: malloc, %s
3621
3622(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
3623
3624=item panic: memory wrap
3625
3626(P) Something tried to allocate more memory than possible.
3627
3628=item panic: pad_alloc, %p!=%p
3629
3630(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3631and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3632
3633=item panic: pad_free curpad, %p!=%p
3634
3635(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3636and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3637
3638=item panic: pad_free po
3639
3640(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3641
3642=item panic: pad_reset curpad, %p!=%p
3643
3644(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3645and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3646
3647=item panic: pad_sv po
3648
3649(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3650
3651=item panic: pad_swipe curpad, %p!=%p
3652
3653(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
3654and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
3655
3656=item panic: pad_swipe po
3657
3658(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
3659
3660=item panic: pp_iter, type=%u
3661
3662(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
3663
3664=item panic: pp_match%s
3665
3666(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
3667data.
3668
3669=item panic: pp_split, pm=%p, s=%p
3670
3671(P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
3672
3673=item panic: realloc, %s
3674
3675(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
3676
3677=item panic: reference miscount on nsv in sv_replace() (%d != 1)
3678
3679(P) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
3680reference count other than 1.
3681
3682=item panic: restartop in %s
3683
3684(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
3685didn't supply the destination.
3686
3687=item panic: return, type=%u
3688
3689(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
3690then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
3691
3692=item panic: scan_num, %s
3693
3694(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
3695
3696=item panic: sv_chop %s
3697
3698(P) The sv_chop() routine was passed a position that is not within the
3699scalar's string buffer.
3700
3701=item panic: sv_insert, midend=%p, bigend=%p
3702
3703(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
3704was string.
3705
3706=item panic: strxfrm() gets absurd - a => %u, ab => %u
3707
3708(P) The interpreter's sanity check of the C function strxfrm() failed.
3709In your current locale the returned transformation of the string "ab" is
3710shorter than that of the string "a", which makes no sense.
3711
3712=item panic: top_env
3713
3714(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
3715
3716=item panic: unimplemented op %s (#%d) called
3717
3718(P) The compiler is screwed up and attempted to use an op that isn't
3719permitted at run time.
3720
3721=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
3722
3723(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
3724to even) byte length.
3725
3726=item panic: utf16_to_utf8_reversed: odd bytelen
3727
3728(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8_reversed with an odd (as opposed
3729to even) byte length.
3730
3731=item panic: yylex, %s
3732
3733(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
3734
3735=item Parsing code internal error (%s)
3736
3737(F) Parsing code supplied by an extension violated the parser's API in
3738a detectable way.
3739
3740=item Pattern subroutine nesting without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3741
3742(F) You used a pattern that uses too many nested subpattern calls without
3743consuming any text. Restructure the pattern so text is consumed before
3744the nesting limit is exceeded.
3745
3746The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3747discovered.
3748
3749=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
3750
3751(W parenthesis) You said something like
3752
3753 my $foo, $bar = @_;
3754
3755when you meant
3756
3757 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
3758
3759Remember that "my", "our", "local" and "state" bind tighter than comma.
3760
3761=item C<-p> destination: %s
3762
3763(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
3764command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
3765redirected it with select().)
3766
3767=item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
3768
3769(F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3770"Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
3771that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
3772
3773=item Perl folding rules are not up-to-date for 0x%x; please use the perlbug utility to report
3774
3775(W regex, deprecated) You used a regular expression with
3776case-insensitive matching, and there is a bug in Perl in which the
3777built-in regular expression folding rules are not accurate. This may
3778lead to incorrect results. Please report this as a bug using the
3779"perlbug" utility. (This message is marked deprecated, so that it by
3780default will be turned-on.)
3781
3782=item Perl_my_%s() not available
3783
3784(F) Your platform has very uncommon byte-order and integer size,
3785so it was not possible to set up some or all fixed-width byte-order
3786conversion functions. This is only a problem when you're using the
3787'<' or '>' modifiers in (un)pack templates. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3788
3789=item Perl %s required (did you mean %s?)--this is only %s, stopped
3790
3791(F) The code you are trying to run has asked for a newer version of
3792Perl than you are running. Perhaps C<use 5.10> was written instead
3793of C<use 5.010> or C<use v5.10>. Without the leading C<v>, the number is
3794interpreted as a decimal, with every three digits after the
3795decimal point representing a part of the version number. So 5.10
3796is equivalent to v5.100.
3797
3798=item Perl %s required--this is only version %s, stopped
3799
3800(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
3801recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
3802you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
3803
3804=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
3805
3806(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
3807C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
3808
3809=item PERL_SIGNALS illegal: "%s"
3810
3811See L<perlrun/PERL_SIGNALS> for legal values.
3812
3813=item Perls since %s too modern--this is %s, stopped
3814
3815(F) The code you are trying to run claims it will not run
3816on the version of Perl you are using because it is too new.
3817Maybe the code needs to be updated, or maybe it is simply
3818wrong and the version check should just be removed.
3819
3820=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3821
3822(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
3823
3824 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3825 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
3826 LC_ALL = "En_US",
3827 LANG = (unset)
3828 are supported and installed on your system.
3829 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
3830
3831Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
3832settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
3833This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
3834system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
3835locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
3836dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
3837Perl can and will use, and the script will be run. Before you really
3838fix the problem, however, you will get the same error message each
3839time you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
3840L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
3841
3842=item pid %x not a child
3843
3844(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
3845process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
3846fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
3847
3848=item 'P' must have an explicit size in unpack
3849
3850(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
3851
3852=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3853
3854(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The <-- HERE
3855shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
3856Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
3857the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
3858not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
3859
3860=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
3861
3862(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
3863the BSD version, which takes a pid.
3864
3865=item POSIX syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3866
3867(W regexp) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
3868I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
3869/[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
3870implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and will
3871cause fatal errors. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3872where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3873
3874=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3875
3876(F regexp) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
3877beginning with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
3878If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
3879expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
3880backslash: "\[." and ".\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
3881about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3882
3883=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3884
3885(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
3886with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
3887need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
3888character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
3889and "=\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
3890problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3891
3892=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
3893
3894(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
3895strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
3896literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
3897parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
3898
3899You probably wrote something like this:
3900
3901 @list = qw(
3902 a # a comment
3903 b # another comment
3904 );
3905
3906when you should have written this:
3907
3908 @list = qw(
3909 a
3910 b
3911 );
3912
3913If you really want comments, build your list the
3914old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
3915
3916 @list = (
3917 'a', # a comment
3918 'b', # another comment
3919 );
3920
3921=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
3922
3923(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
3924commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
3925different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
3926frequently used.)
3927
3928You probably wrote something like this:
3929
3930 qw! a, b, c !;
3931
3932which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
3933commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
3934
3935 qw! a b c !;
3936
3937=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
3938
3939(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
3940Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
3941end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
3942Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
3943
3944=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %c operator
3945
3946(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
3947with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
3948
3949 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
3950
3951This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
3952higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
3953really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, put the
3954parentheses explicitly and write C<$x & ($y == 0)>).
3955
3956=item Possible unintended interpolation of $\ in regex
3957
3958(W ambiguous) You said something like C<m/$\/> in a regex.
3959The regex C<m/foo$\s+bar/m> translates to: match the word 'foo', the output
3960record separator (see L<perlvar/$\>) and the letter 's' (one time or more)
3961followed by the word 'bar'.
3962
3963If this is what you intended then you can silence the warning by using
3964C<m/${\}/> (for example: C<m/foo${\}s+bar/>).
3965
3966If instead you intended to match the word 'foo' at the end of the line
3967followed by whitespace and the word 'bar' on the next line then you can use
3968C<m/$(?)\/> (for example: C<m/foo$(?)\s+bar/>).
3969
3970=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
3971
3972(W ambiguous) You said something like '@foo' in a double-quoted string
3973but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
3974literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
3975to the array you apparently lost track of.
3976
3977=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
3978
3979(S precedence) The old irregular construct
3980
3981 open FOO || die;
3982
3983is now misinterpreted as
3984
3985 open(FOO || die);
3986
3987because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
3988list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
3989parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
3990of "||".
3991
3992=item Premature end of script headers
3993
3994See Server error.
3995
3996=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
3997
3998(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
3999before now. Check your control flow.
4000
4001=item print() on closed filehandle %s
4002
4003(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
4004before now. Check your control flow.
4005
4006=item Process terminated by SIG%s
4007
4008(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
4009applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
4010port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
4011L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
4012in L<perlos2>.
4013
4014=item Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s
4015
4016(W illegalproto) A character follows % or @ in a prototype. This is
4017useless, since % and @ gobble the rest of the subroutine arguments.
4018
4019=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4020
4021(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
4022declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4023
4024=item Prototype not terminated
4025
4026(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
4027definition.
4028
4029=item \p{} uses Unicode rules, not locale rules
4030
4031(W) You compiled a regular expression that contained a Unicode property
4032match (C<\p> or C<\P>), but the regular expression is also being told to
4033use the run-time locale, not Unicode. Instead, use a POSIX character
4034class, which should know about the locale's rules.
4035(See L<perlrecharclass/POSIX Character Classes>.)
4036
4037Even if the run-time locale is ISO 8859-1 (Latin1), which is a subset of
4038Unicode, some properties will give results that are not valid for that
4039subset.
4040
4041Here are a couple of examples to help you see what's going on. If the
4042locale is ISO 8859-7, the character at code point 0xD7 is the "GREEK
4043CAPITAL LETTER CHI". But in Unicode that code point means the
4044"MULTIPLICATION SIGN" instead, and C<\p> always uses the Unicode
4045meaning. That means that C<\p{Alpha}> won't match, but C<[[:alpha:]]>
4046should. Only in the Latin1 locale are all the characters in the same
4047positions as they are in Unicode. But, even here, some properties give
4048incorrect results. An example is C<\p{Changes_When_Uppercased}> which
4049is true for "LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH DIAERESIS", but since the upper
4050case of that character is not in Latin1, in that locale it doesn't
4051change when upper cased.
4052
4053=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4054
4055(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if
4056you meant it literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
4057about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4058
4059=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4060
4061(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of
4062the {min,max} construct. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
4063about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4064
4065=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4066
4067(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
4068it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
4069quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
4070"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
4071C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
4072
4073The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4074discovered.
4075
4076=item Range iterator outside integer range
4077
4078(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
4079are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
4080One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
4081by prepending "0" to your numbers.
4082
4083=item readdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4084
4085(W io) The dirhandle you're reading from is either closed or not really
4086a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4087
4088=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
4089
4090(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
4091before now. Check your control flow.
4092
4093=item read() on closed filehandle %s
4094
4095(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
4096
4097=item read() on unopened filehandle %s
4098
4099(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
4100
4101=item Reallocation too large: %x
4102
4103(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
4104
4105=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
4106
4107(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
4108already been freed.
4109
4110=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
4111
4112(F debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
4113the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
4114which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
4115
4116=item Recursive call to Perl_load_module in PerlIO_find_layer
4117
4118(P) It is currently not permitted to load modules when creating
4119a filehandle inside an %INC hook. This can happen with C<open my
4120$fh, '<', \$scalar>, which implicitly loads PerlIO::scalar. Try
4121loading PerlIO::scalar explicitly first.
4122
4123=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
4124
4125(F) While calculating the method resolution order (MRO) of a package, Perl
4126believes it found an infinite loop in the C<@ISA> hierarchy. This is a
4127crude check that bails out after 100 levels of C<@ISA> depth.
4128
4129=item refcnt_dec: fd %d%s
4130
4131=item refcnt: fd %d%s
4132
4133=item refcnt_inc: fd %d%s
4134
4135(P) Perl's I/O implementation failed an internal consistency check. If
4136you see this message, something is very wrong.
4137
4138=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
4139
4140(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
4141with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This
4142usually means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant
4143to use parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
4144
4145 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
4146 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
4147 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
4148 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
4149
4150=item Reference is already weak
4151
4152(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
4153Doing so has no effect.
4154
4155=item Reference to invalid group 0
4156
4157(F) You used C<\g0> or similar in a regular expression. You may refer
4158to capturing parentheses only with strictly positive integers
4159(normal backreferences) or with strictly negative integers (relative
4160backreferences). Using 0 does not make sense.
4161
4162=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4163
4164(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
4165not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If
4166you wanted to have the character with ordinal 7 inserted into the regular
4167expression, prepend zeroes to make it three digits long: C<\007>
4168
4169The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4170discovered.
4171
4172=item Reference to nonexistent named group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4173
4174(F) You used something like C<\k'NAME'> or C<< \k<NAME> >> in your regular
4175expression, but there is no corresponding named capturing parentheses
4176such as C<(?'NAME'...)> or C<< (?<NAME>...) >>. Check if the name has been
4177spelled correctly both in the backreference and the declaration.
4178
4179The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4180discovered.
4181
4182=item Reference to nonexistent or unclosed group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4183
4184(F) You used something like C<\g{-7}> in your regular expression, but there
4185are not at least seven sets of closed capturing parentheses in the
4186expression before where the C<\g{-7}> was located.
4187
4188The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4189discovered.
4190
4191=item regexp memory corruption
4192
4193(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
4194expression compiler gave it.
4195
4196=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may appear a maximum of twice
4197
4198=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may not appear twice
4199
4200(F syntax, regexp) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
4201of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
4202
4203=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear after the "-"
4204
4205(F regexp) Turning off the given modifier has the side effect of turning
4206on another one. Perl currently doesn't allow this. Reword the regular
4207expression to use the modifier you want to turn on (and place it before
4208the minus), instead of the one you want to turn off.
4209
4210=item Regexp modifiers "/%c" and "/%c" are mutually exclusive
4211
4212(F syntax, regexp) The regular expression pattern had more than one of these
4213mutually exclusive modifiers. Retain only the modifier that is
4214supposed to be there.
4215
4216=item Regexp out of space
4217
4218(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
4219earlier.
4220
4221=item Repeated format line will never terminate (~~ and @# incompatible)
4222
4223(F) Your format contains the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence and a
4224numeric field that will never go blank so that the repetition never
4225terminates. You might use ^# instead. See L<perlform>.
4226
4227=item Replacement list is longer than search list
4228
4229(W misc) You have used a replacement list that is longer than the
4230search list. So the additional elements in the replacement list
4231are meaningless.
4232
4233=item Reversed %s= operator
4234
4235(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
4236always come last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
4237
4238=item rewinddir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4239
4240(W io) The dirhandle you tried to do a rewinddir() on is either closed or not
4241really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4242
4243=item Scalars leaked: %d
4244
4245(P) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping of scalars:
4246not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time Perl exited.
4247What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which is of course bad,
4248especially if the Perl program is intended to be long-running.
4249
4250=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
4251
4252(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
4253single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
4254value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
4255behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
4256argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
4257and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
4258if you're expecting only one subscript.
4259
4260On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
4261element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
4262Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
4263L<perlref>.
4264
4265=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
4266
4267(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
4268element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
4269(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
4270like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
4271argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
4272and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
4273if you're expecting only one subscript.
4274
4275On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
4276as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
4277not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
4278L<perlref>.
4279
4280=item Search pattern not terminated
4281
4282(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
4283construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
4284Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
4285
4286Note that since Perl 5.9.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
4287construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
4288in Perl 5.9.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
4289misparsed by pre-5.9.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
4290
4291=item Search pattern not terminated or ternary operator parsed as search pattern
4292
4293(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a C<?PATTERN?>
4294construct.
4295
4296The question mark is also used as part of the ternary operator (as in
4297C<foo ? 0 : 1>) leading to some ambiguous constructions being wrongly
4298parsed. One way to disambiguate the parsing is to put parentheses around
4299the conditional expression, i.e. C<(foo) ? 0 : 1>.
4300
4301=item seekdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4302
4303(W io) The dirhandle you are doing a seekdir() on is either closed or not
4304really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4305
4306=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
4307
4308(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
4309filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
4310
4311=item select not implemented
4312
4313(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
4314
4315=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
4316
4317(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
4318the current implementation.
4319
4320=item Semicolon seems to be missing
4321
4322(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
4323semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
4324
4325=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
4326
4327(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
4328scalar that had previously been marked as free.
4329
4330=item sem%s not implemented
4331
4332(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
4333
4334=item send() on closed socket %s
4335
4336(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
4337before now. Check your control flow.
4338
4339=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4340
4341(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The
4342<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4343discovered. See L<perlre>.
4344
4345=item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4346
4347(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
4348but has not yet been written. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
4349expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4350
4351=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4352
4353(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense. The
4354<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
4355discovered. This happens when using the C<(?^...)> construct to tell
4356Perl to use the default regular expression modifiers, and you
4357redundantly specify a default modifier. For other
4358causes, see L<perlre>.
4359
4360=item Sequence \%s... not terminated in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4361
4362(F) The regular expression expects a mandatory argument following the escape
4363sequence and this has been omitted or incorrectly written.
4364
4365=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4366
4367(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
4368parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. The <-- HERE shows in
4369the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
4370L<perlre>.
4371
4372=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated or not {}-balanced in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4373
4374(F) If the contents of a (?{...}) clause contain braces, they
4375must balance for Perl to detect the end of the clause properly.
4376The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
4377problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4378
4379=item Z<>500 Server error
4380
4381See Server error.
4382
4383=item Server error
4384
4385(A) This is the error message generally seen in a browser window
4386when trying to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The
4387actual error text varies widely from server to server. The most
4388frequently-seen variants are "500 Server error", "Method (something)
4389not permitted", "Document contains no data", "Premature end of script
4390headers", and "Did not produce a valid header".
4391
4392B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
4393
4394You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by
4395the user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the
4396user account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment
4397variables (like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't
4398in a location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or
4399less. Please see the following for more information:
4400
4401 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
4402 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
4403 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
4404
4405You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
4406
4407=item setegid() not implemented
4408
4409(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
4410support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
4411didn't think so.
4412
4413=item seteuid() not implemented
4414
4415(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
4416support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
4417didn't think so.
4418
4419=item setpgrp can't take arguments
4420
4421(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
4422arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
4423group ID.
4424
4425=item setrgid() not implemented
4426
4427(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
4428support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
4429didn't think so.
4430
4431=item setruid() not implemented
4432
4433(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
4434support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
4435didn't think so.
4436
4437=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
4438
4439(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
4440forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
4441L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
4442
4443=item shm%s not implemented
4444
4445(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
4446
4447=item !=~ should be !~
4448
4449(W syntax) The non-matching operator is !~, not !=~. !=~ will be
4450interpreted as the != (numeric not equal) and ~ (1's complement)
4451operators: probably not what you intended.
4452
4453=item <> should be quotes
4454
4455(F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
4456C<require 'file'>.
4457
4458=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
4459
4460(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
4461as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
4462result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
4463probably not what you had in mind.
4464
4465=item shutdown() on closed socket %s
4466
4467(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
4468superfluous.
4469
4470=item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
4471
4472(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
4473Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
4474
4475=item Smart matching a non-overloaded object breaks encapsulation
4476
4477(F) You should not use the C<~~> operator on an object that does not
4478overload it: Perl refuses to use the object's underlying structure for
4479the smart match.
4480
4481=item sort is now a reserved word
4482
4483(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
4484But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
4485
4486=item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
4487
4488(F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
4489or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
4490
4491=item Source filters apply only to byte streams
4492
4493(F) You tried to activate a source filter (usually by loading a
4494source filter module) within a string passed to C<eval>. This is
4495not permitted under the C<unicode_eval> feature. Consider using
4496C<evalbytes> instead. See L<feature>.
4497
4498=item splice() offset past end of array
4499
4500(W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
4501the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the
4502end of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want,
4503try explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset.
4504See L<perlfunc/splice>.
4505
4506=item Split loop
4507
4508(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
4509iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
4510happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
4511
4512=item Statement unlikely to be reached
4513
4514(W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
4515die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
4516unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
4517instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
4518a block by itself.
4519
4520=item "state" variable %s can't be in a package
4521
4522(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
4523sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
4524local() if you want to localize a package variable.
4525
4526=item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
4527
4528(W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
4529was either never opened or has since been closed.
4530
4531=item Stub found while resolving method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
4532
4533(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
4534stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
4535C<can> may break this.
4536
4537=item Subroutine %s redefined
4538
4539(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
4540
4541 {
4542 no warnings 'redefine';
4543 eval "sub name { ... }";
4544 }
4545
4546=item Substitution loop
4547
4548(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
4549shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
4550is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
4551L<perlop/"Regexp Quote-Like Operators">.
4552
4553=item Substitution pattern not terminated
4554
4555(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
4556construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
4557Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
4558
4559=item Substitution replacement not terminated
4560
4561(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
4562construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
4563Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
4564
4565=item substr outside of string
4566
4567(W substr)(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
4568a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
4569length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
4570substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
4571assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
4572
4573=item sv_upgrade from type %d down to type %d
4574
4575(P) Perl tried to force the upgrade of an SV to a type which was actually
4576inferior to its current type.
4577
4578=item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4579
4580(F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most
4581two branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or
4582both to contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose
4583it in clustering parentheses:
4584
4585 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
4586
4587The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem
4588was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4589
4590=item Switch condition not recognized in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4591
4592(F) If the argument to the (?(...)if-clause|else-clause) construct is
4593a number, it can be only a number. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
4594expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4595
4596=item switching effective %s is not implemented
4597
4598(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
4599and effective uids or gids.
4600
4601=item %s syntax OK
4602
4603(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
4604
4605=item syntax error
4606
4607(F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
4608
4609 A keyword is misspelled.
4610 A semicolon is missing.
4611 A comma is missing.
4612 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
4613 An opening or closing brace is missing.
4614 A closing quote is missing.
4615
4616Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
4617error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
4618The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
4619it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
4620before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
4621Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
4622the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
4623C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
4624if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
4625
4626=item syntax error at line %d: '%s' unexpected
4627
4628(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
4629of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
4630yourself.
4631
4632=item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
4633
4634(F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
4635a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
4636or "my $var" or "our $var".
4637
4638=item sysread() on closed filehandle %s
4639
4640(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
4641
4642=item sysread() on unopened filehandle %s
4643
4644(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
4645
4646=item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
4647
4648(F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
4649"shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
4650machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
4651unconfigured. Consult your system support.
4652
4653=item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
4654
4655(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
4656before now. Check your control flow.
4657
4658=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
4659
4660(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
4661know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
4662
4663=item Target of goto is too deeply nested
4664
4665(F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
4666for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
4667
4668=item telldir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4669
4670(W io) The dirhandle you tried to telldir() is either closed or not really
4671a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4672
4673=item tell() on unopened filehandle
4674
4675(W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
4676was either never opened or has since been closed.
4677
4678=item That use of $[ is unsupported
4679
4680(F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted
4681as a compiler directive. You may say only one of
4682
4683 $[ = 0;
4684 $[ = 1;
4685 ...
4686 local $[ = 0;
4687 local $[ = 1;
4688 ...
4689
4690This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out
4691from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[> and L<arybase>.
4692
4693=item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia
4694
4695(F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
4696probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
4697think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
4698will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
4699will deny it.
4700
4701=item The %s function is unimplemented
4702
4703(F) The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture, according
4704to the probings of Configure.
4705
4706=item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
4707
4708(F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
4709linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
4710past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
4711instead.
4712
4713=item The 'unique' attribute may only be applied to 'our' variables
4714
4715(F) This attribute was never supported on C<my> or C<sub> declarations.
4716
4717=item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
4718
4719=item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
4720
4721(W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
4722element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
4723wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
4724need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
4725F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
4726target of the change to
4727%ENV which produced the warning.
4728
4729=item thread failed to start: %s
4730
4731(W threads)(S) The entry point function of threads->create() failed for some reason.
4732
4733=item times not implemented
4734
4735(F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
4736suspect you're not running on Unix.
4737
4738=item "-T" is on the #! line, it must also be used on the command line
4739
4740(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains
4741the B<-T> option (or the B<-t> option), but Perl was not invoked with
4742B<-T> in its command line. This is an error because, by the time
4743Perl discovers a B<-T> in a script, it's too late to properly taint
4744everything from the environment. So Perl gives up.
4745
4746If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
4747mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be
4748fixed by editing the #! line so that the B<-%c> option is a part of
4749Perl's first argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -%c> to C<perl -%c -n>.
4750
4751If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
4752B<-%c> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -%c scriptname>.
4753
4754=item To%s: illegal mapping '%s'
4755
4756(F) You tried to define a customized To-mapping for lc(), lcfirst,
4757uc(), or ucfirst() (or their string-inlined versions), but you
4758specified an illegal mapping.
4759See L<perlunicode/"User-Defined Character Properties">.
4760
4761=item Too deeply nested ()-groups
4762
4763(F) Your template contains ()-groups with a ridiculously deep nesting level.
4764
4765=item Too few args to syscall
4766
4767(F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
4768system call to call, silly dilly.
4769
4770=item Too late for "-%s" option
4771
4772(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
4773B<-M>, B<-m> or B<-C> option.
4774
4775In the case of B<-M> and B<-m>, this is an error because those options
4776are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
4777
4778The B<-C> option only works if it is specified on the command line as
4779well (with the same sequence of letters or numbers following). Either
4780specify this option on the command line, or, if your system supports
4781it, make your script executable and run it directly instead of passing
4782it to perl.
4783
4784=item Too late to run %s block
4785
4786(W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
4787when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
4788loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
4789instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
4790BEGIN block.
4791
4792=item Too many args to syscall
4793
4794(F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
4795
4796=item Too many arguments for %s
4797
4798(F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
4799
4800=item Too many )'s
4801
4802(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
4803Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
4804
4805=item Too many ('s
4806
4807(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
4808Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
4809
4810=item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
4811
4812(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
4813Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
4814
4815=item Transliteration pattern not terminated
4816
4817(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
4818or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
4819C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
4820
4821=item Transliteration replacement not terminated
4822
4823(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr///, tr[][],
4824y/// or y[][] construct.
4825
4826=item '%s' trapped by operation mask
4827
4828(F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
4829disallowed. See L<Safe>.
4830
4831=item truncate not implemented
4832
4833(F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
4834Configure knows about.
4835
4836=item Type of arg %d to &CORE::%s must be %s
4837
4838(F) The subroutine in question in the CORE package requires its argument
4839to be a hard reference to data of the specified type. Overloading is
4840ignored, so a reference to an object that is not the specified type, but
4841nonetheless has overloading to handle it, will still not be accepted.
4842
4843=item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
4844
4845(F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
4846certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
4847%NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
4848{EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
4849
4850=item Type of argument to %s must be unblessed hashref or arrayref
4851
4852(F) You called C<keys>, C<values> or C<each> with a scalar argument that
4853was not a reference to an unblessed hash or array.
4854
4855=item umask not implemented
4856
4857(F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
4858use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
4859
4860=item Unable to create sub named "%s"
4861
4862(F) You attempted to create or access a subroutine with an illegal name.
4863
4864=item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
4865
4866(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
4867many execution contexts were entered and left.
4868
4869=item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
4870
4871(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
4872many values were temporarily localized.
4873
4874=item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
4875
4876(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
4877many blocks were entered and left.
4878
4879=item Unbalanced string table refcount: (%d) for "%s"
4880
4881(W internal) On exit, Perl found some strings remaining in the shared
4882string table used for copy on write and for hash keys. The entries
4883should have been freed, so this indicates a bug somewhere.
4884
4885=item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
4886
4887(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
4888many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
4889
4890=item Undefined format "%s" called
4891
4892(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
4893another package? See L<perlform>.
4894
4895=item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
4896
4897(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
4898Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
4899
4900=item Undefined subroutine &%s called
4901
4902(F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
4903since been undefined.
4904
4905=item Undefined subroutine called
4906
4907(F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
4908or if it was, it has since been undefined.
4909
4910=item Undefined subroutine in sort
4911
4912(F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
4913to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
4914
4915=item Undefined top format "%s" called
4916
4917(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
4918another package? See L<perlform>.
4919
4920=item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
4921
4922(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
4923C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
4924C<undef *foo>.
4925
4926=item %s: Undefined variable
4927
4928(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
4929Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
4930
4931=item Unescaped left brace in regex is deprecated, passed through
4932
4933(D) You used a literal C<"{"> character in a regular expression pattern.
4934You should change to use C<"\{"> instead, because a future version of
4935Perl (tentatively v5.20) will consider this to be a syntax error. If
4936the pattern delimiters are also braces, any matching right brace
4937(C<"}">) should also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser, for
4938example,
4939
4940 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
4941
4942=item unexec of %s into %s failed!
4943
4944(F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
4945representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
4946
4947=item Unexpected constant lvalue entersub entry via type/targ %d:%d
4948
4949(P) When compiling a subroutine call in lvalue context, Perl failed an
4950internal consistency check. It encountered a malformed op tree.
4951
4952=item Unicode non-character U+%X is illegal for open interchange
4953
4954(W utf8, nonchar) Certain codepoints, such as U+FFFE and U+FFFF, are
4955defined by the Unicode standard to be non-characters. Those are
4956legal codepoints, but are reserved for internal use; so, applications
4957shouldn't attempt to exchange them. If you know what you are doing
4958you can turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'nonchar';>.
4959
4960=item Unicode surrogate U+%X is illegal in UTF-8
4961
4962(W utf8, surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
4963not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
4964U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
4965internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
4966available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
4967problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
4968came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
4969off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
4970
4971=item Unknown BYTEORDER
4972
4973(F) There are no byte-swapping functions for a machine with this byte
4974order.
4975
4976=item Unknown error
4977
4978(P) Perl was about to print an error message in C<$@>, but the C<$@> variable
4979did not exist, even after an attempt to create it.
4980
4981=item Unknown open() mode '%s'
4982
4983(F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
4984of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
4985C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
4986
4987=item Unknown PerlIO layer "%s"
4988
4989(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
4990system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
4991internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
4992are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
4993explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
4994value of the environment variable PERLIO.
4995
4996=item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
4997
4998(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
4999iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
5000data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
5001subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
5002
5003=item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
5004
5005(W) You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
5006
5007=item Unknown switch condition (?(%s in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5008
5009(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
5010is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5011
5012 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
5013 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
5014 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
5015 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
5016 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
5017 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
5018 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
5019 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
5020 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
5021
5022The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
5023discovered. See L<perlre>.
5024
5025=item Unknown Unicode option letter '%c'
5026
5027(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
5028of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
5029
5030=item Unknown Unicode option value %x
5031
5032(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
5033of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
5034
5035=item Unknown verb pattern '%s' in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5036
5037(F) You either made a typo or have incorrectly put a C<*> quantifier
5038after an open brace in your pattern. Check the pattern and review
5039L<perlre> for details on legal verb patterns.
5040
5041=item Unknown warnings category '%s'
5042
5043(F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
5044category that is unknown to perl at this point.
5045
5046Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a
5047module (e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have loaded this
5048module first.
5049
5050=item unmatched [ in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5051
5052(F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
5053include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
5054first. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
5055problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
5056
5057=item unmatched ( in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5058
5059(F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
5060expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
5061the matching parenthesis. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
5062about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
5063
5064=item Unmatched right %s bracket
5065
5066(F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
5067ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
5068general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
5069you were last editing.
5070
5071=item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
5072
5073(W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
5074reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
5075somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
5076subroutine.
5077
5078=item Unrecognized character %s; marked by <-- HERE after %s near column %d
5079
5080(F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
5081in your Perl script (or eval) near the specified column. Perhaps you tried
5082to run a compressed script, a binary program, or a directory as a Perl program.
5083
5084=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class passed through in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5085
5086(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
5087recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
5088understood literally, but this may change in a future version of Perl.
5089The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
5090escape was discovered.
5091
5092=item Unrecognized escape \%c passed through
5093
5094(W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
5095recognized by Perl. The character was understood literally, but this may
5096change in a future version of Perl.
5097
5098=item Unrecognized escape \%s passed through in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5099
5100(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
5101recognized by Perl. The character(s) were understood literally, but
5102this may change in a future version of Perl. The <-- HERE shows in
5103the regular expression about where the escape was discovered.
5104
5105=item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
5106
5107(F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
5108recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
5109on your system.
5110
5111=item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
5112
5113(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
5114think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
5115bad switch on your behalf.)
5116
5117=item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
5118
5119(W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
5120operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
5121PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
5122
5123=item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
5124
5125(F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
5126
5127=item Unsupported function %s
5128
5129(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
5130At least, Configure doesn't think so.
5131
5132=item Unsupported function fork
5133
5134(F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
5135
5136Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
5137of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
5138changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
5139
5140=item Unsupported script encoding %s
5141
5142(F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
5143declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot read.
5144
5145=item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
5146
5147(F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
5148least that's what Configure thought.
5149
5150=item Unterminated attribute list
5151
5152(F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
5153start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
5154block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
5155attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
5156
5157=item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
5158
5159(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
5160an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
5161character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
5162character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
5163
5164=item Unterminated compressed integer
5165
5166(F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
5167compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
5168See L<perlfunc/pack>.
5169
5170=item Unterminated \g{...} pattern in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5171
5172(F) You missed a close brace on a \g{..} pattern (group reference) in
5173a regular expression. Fix the pattern and retry.
5174
5175=item Unterminated <> operator
5176
5177(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
5178a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
5179not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
5180earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
5181
5182=item Unterminated verb pattern argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5183
5184(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB:ARG)> but did not terminate
5185the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
5186
5187=item Unterminated verb pattern in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5188
5189(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB)> but did not terminate
5190the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
5191
5192=item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
5193
5194(W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
5195still valid when C<untie> was called.
5196
5197=item Usage: POSIX::%s(%s)
5198
5199(F) You called a POSIX function with incorrect arguments.
5200See L<POSIX/FUNCTIONS> for more information.
5201
5202=item Usage: Win32::%s(%s)
5203
5204(F) You called a Win32 function with incorrect arguments.
5205See L<Win32> for more information.
5206
5207=item $[ used in %s (did you mean $] ?)
5208
5209(W syntax) You used C<$[> in a comparison, such as:
5210
5211 if ($[ > 5.006) {
5212 ...
5213 }
5214
5215You probably meant to use C<$]> instead. C<$[> is the base for indexing
5216arrays. C<$]> is the Perl version number in decimal.
5217
5218=item Useless assignment to a temporary
5219
5220(W misc) You assigned to an lvalue subroutine, but what
5221the subroutine returned was a temporary scalar about to
5222be discarded, so the assignment had no effect.
5223
5224=item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5225
5226(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
5227meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
5228
5229 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
5230
5231must be written as
5232
5233 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
5234
5235The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
5236where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
5237
5238=item Useless localization of %s
5239
5240(W syntax) The localization of lvalues such as C<local($x=10)> is legal,
5241but in fact the local() currently has no effect. This may change at
5242some point in the future, but in the meantime such code is discouraged.
5243
5244=item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5245
5246(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
5247meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
5248
5249 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
5250
5251must be written as
5252
5253 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
5254
5255The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
5256where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
5257
5258=item Useless use of /d modifier in transliteration operator
5259
5260(W misc) You have used the /d modifier where the searchlist has the
5261same length as the replacelist. See L<perlop> for more information
5262about the /d modifier.
5263
5264=item Useless use of \E
5265
5266(W misc) You have a \E in a double-quotish string without a C<\U>,
5267C<\L> or C<\Q> preceding it.
5268
5269=item Useless use of %s in void context
5270
5271(W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
5272nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
5273value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
5274often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
5275to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
5276get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
5277said
5278
5279 $one, $two = 1, 2;
5280
5281when you meant to say
5282
5283 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
5284
5285Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
5286reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
5287example, if you say
5288
5289 $array = (1,2);
5290
5291when you should have said
5292
5293 $array = [1,2];
5294
5295The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
5296while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
5297a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
5298throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
5299L<perlref> for more on this.
5300
5301This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
5302since they are often used in statements like
5303
5304 1 while sub_with_side_effects();
5305
5306String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
5307about.
5308
5309=item Useless use of "re" pragma
5310
5311(W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
5312
5313=item Useless use of sort in scalar context
5314
5315(W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
5316
5317 my $x = sort @y;
5318
5319This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
5320
5321=item Useless use of %s with no values
5322
5323(W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
5324apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
5325usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
5326possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
5327if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
5328you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
5329
5330=item "use" not allowed in expression
5331
5332(F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
5333returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
5334
5335=item Use of assignment to $[ is deprecated
5336
5337(D deprecated) The C<$[> variable (index of the first element in an array)
5338is deprecated. See L<perlvar/"$[">.
5339
5340=item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is deprecated
5341
5342(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted
5343form if you wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
5344
5345=item Use of comma-less variable list is deprecated
5346
5347(D deprecated) The values you give to a format should be
5348separated by commas, not just aligned on a line.
5349
5350=item Use of chdir('') or chdir(undef) as chdir() deprecated
5351
5352(D deprecated) chdir() with no arguments is documented to change to
5353$ENV{HOME} or $ENV{LOGDIR}. chdir(undef) and chdir('') share this
5354behavior, but that has been deprecated. In future versions they
5355will simply fail.
5356
5357Be careful to check that what you pass to chdir() is defined and not
5358blank, else you might find yourself in your home directory.
5359
5360=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
5361
5362(W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
5363modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
5364
5365=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
5366
5367(W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
5368use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
5369used. (This may change in the future.)
5370
5371=item Use of := for an empty attribute list is not allowed
5372
5373(F) The construction C<my $x := 42> used to parse as equivalent to
5374C<my $x : = 42> (applying an empty attribute list to C<$x>).
5375This construct was deprecated in 5.12.0, and has now been made a syntax
5376error, so C<:=> can be reclaimed as a new operator in the future.
5377
5378If you need an empty attribute list, for example in a code generator, add
5379a space before the C<=>.
5380
5381=item Use of freed value in iteration
5382
5383(F) Perhaps you modified the iterated array within the loop?
5384This error is typically caused by code like the following:
5385
5386 @a = (3,4);
5387 @a = () for (1,2,@a);
5388
5389You are not supposed to modify arrays while they are being iterated over.
5390For speed and efficiency reasons, Perl internally does not do full
5391reference-counting of iterated items, hence deleting such an item in the
5392middle of an iteration causes Perl to see a freed value.
5393
5394=item Use of *glob{FILEHANDLE} is deprecated
5395
5396(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the shorter *glob{IO} form
5397to access the filehandle slot within a typeglob.
5398
5399=item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
5400
5401(W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
5402operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
5403repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
5404
5405=item Use of "goto" to jump into a construct is deprecated
5406
5407(D deprecated) Using C<goto> to jump from an outer scope into an inner
5408scope is deprecated and should be avoided.
5409
5410=item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
5411
5412(D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD>
5413subroutines are looked up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy)
5414even when the subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain
5415functions (e.g. C<Foo::bar()>), not as methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or
5416C<< $obj->bar() >>).
5417
5418This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup only for
5419methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base of existing
5420code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl
5421currently issues an optional warning when non-methods use inherited
5422C<AUTOLOAD>s.
5423
5424The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
5425non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used
5426to depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class
5427named C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during
5428startup.
5429
5430In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);>
5431you should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
5432C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
5433
5434=item Use of %s in printf format not supported
5435
5436(F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
5437only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
5438
5439=item Use of %s is deprecated
5440
5441(D deprecated) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use,
5442generally because there's a better way to do it, and also because the
5443old way has bad side effects.
5444
5445=item Use of -l on filehandle %s
5446
5447(W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
5448it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
5449The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
5450
5451=item Use of %s on a handle without * is deprecated
5452
5453(D deprecated) You used C<tie>, C<tied> or C<untie> on a scalar but that scalar
5454happens to hold a typeglob, which means its filehandle will be tied. If
5455you mean to tie a handle, use an explicit * as in C<tie *$handle>.
5456
5457This was a long-standing bug that was removed in Perl 5.16, as there was
5458no way to tie the scalar itself when it held a typeglob, and no way to
5459untie a scalar that had had a typeglob assigned to it. If you see this
5460message, you must be using an older version.
5461
5462=item Use of ?PATTERN? without explicit operator is deprecated
5463
5464(D deprecated) You have written something like C<?\w?>, for a regular
5465expression that matches only once. Starting this term directly with
5466the question mark delimiter is now deprecated, so that the question mark
5467will be available for use in new operators in the future. Write C<m?\w?>
5468instead, explicitly using the C<m> operator: the question mark delimiter
5469still invokes match-once behaviour.
5470
5471=item Use of reference "%s" as array index
5472
5473(W misc) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
5474isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
5475to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
5476
5477If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
5478C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
5479however, because you can overload the numification and stringification
5480operators and then you presumably know what you are doing.
5481
5482=item Use of reserved word "%s" is deprecated
5483
5484(D deprecated) The indicated bareword is a reserved word. Future
5485versions of perl may use it as a keyword, so you're better off either
5486explicitly quoting the word in a manner appropriate for its context of
5487use, or using a different name altogether. The warning can be
5488suppressed for subroutine names by either adding a C<&> prefix, or using
5489a package qualifier, e.g. C<&our()>, or C<Foo::our()>.
5490
5491=item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
5492
5493(W taint, deprecated) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
5494arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
5495but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
5496arguments. See L<perlsec>.
5497
5498=item Use of uninitialized value%s
5499
5500(W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
5501defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
5502To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
5503
5504To help you figure out what was undefined, perl will try to tell you
5505the name of the variable (if any) that was undefined. In some cases
5506it cannot do this, so it also tells you what operation you used the
5507undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your program
5508anid the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily appear
5509literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is usually
5510optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to the
5511C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in
5512your program.
5513
5514=item Using a hash as a reference is deprecated
5515
5516(D deprecated) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
5517C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1
5518used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now
5519deprecated, and will be removed in a future version.
5520
5521=item Using an array as a reference is deprecated
5522
5523(D deprecated) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
5524C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1 used to
5525allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated,
5526and will be removed in a future version.
5527
5528=item Using just the first character returned by \N{} in character class
5529
5530(W) A charnames handler may return a sequence of more than one character.
5531Currently all but the first one are discarded when used in a regular
5532expression pattern bracketed character class.
5533
5534=item Using !~ with %s doesn't make sense
5535
5536(F) Using the C<!~> operator with C<s///r>, C<tr///r> or C<y///r> is
5537currently reserved for future use, as the exact behaviour has not
5538been decided. (Simply returning the boolean opposite of the
5539modified string is usually not particularly useful.)
5540
5541=item UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
5542
5543(W utf8, surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
5544not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
5545U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
5546internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
5547available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
5548problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
5549came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
5550off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
5551
5552=item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
5553
5554(W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
5555C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
5556can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
5557false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
5558constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
5559C<defined> operator.
5560
5561=item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
5562
5563(W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
5564%ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
5565longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
55661024 characters.
5567
5568=item Variable "%s" is not available
5569
5570(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
5571attempting to capture an outer lexical that is not currently available.
5572This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the outer lexical may be
5573declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has not yet been created.
5574(Remember that named subs are created at compile time, while anonymous
5575subs are created at run-time.) For example,
5576
5577 sub { my $a; sub f { $a } }
5578
5579At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current value of $a,
5580since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely,
5581the following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by
5582now been created and is live:
5583
5584 sub { my $a; eval 'sub f { $a }' }->();
5585
5586The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a variable that has
5587gone out of scope, for example,
5588
5589 sub f {
5590 my $a;
5591 sub { eval '$a' }
5592 }
5593 f()->();
5594
5595Here, when the '$a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently being
5596executed, so its $a is not available for capture.
5597
5598=item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
5599
5600(W misc) With "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable
5601that you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
5602something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
5603that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
5604front of your variable.
5605
5606=item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in m/%s/
5607
5608(F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
5609known at compile time. See L<perlre>.
5610
5611=item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
5612
5613(W misc) A "my", "our" or "state" variable has been redeclared in the
5614current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the
5615previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note
5616that the earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope
5617or until all closure referents to it are destroyed.
5618
5619=item Variable syntax
5620
5621(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
5622of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
5623Perl yourself.
5624
5625=item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
5626
5627(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
5628lexical variable defined in an outer named subroutine.
5629
5630When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of
5631the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
5632call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
5633outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
5634longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
5635variable will no longer be shared.
5636
5637This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
5638anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
5639reference variables in outer subroutines are created, they
5640are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
5641
5642=item vector argument not supported with alpha versions
5643
5644(W internal) The %vd (s)printf format does not support version objects
5645with alpha parts.
5646
5647=item Verb pattern '%s' has a mandatory argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5648
5649(F) You used a verb pattern that requires an argument. Supply an
5650argument or check that you are using the right verb.
5651
5652=item Verb pattern '%s' may not have an argument in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
5653
5654(F) You used a verb pattern that is not allowed an argument. Remove the
5655argument or check that you are using the right verb.
5656
5657=item Version number must be a constant number
5658
5659(P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
5660its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
5661the version number.
5662
5663=item Version string '%s' contains invalid data; ignoring: '%s'
5664
5665(W misc) The version string contains invalid characters at the end, which
5666are being ignored.
5667
5668=item Warning: something's wrong
5669
5670(W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
5671you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
5672
5673=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
5674
5675(S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
5676the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
5677space.
5678
5679=item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
5680
5681(S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
5682looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
5683term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
5684function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
5685
5686 rand + 5;
5687
5688you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
5689
5690 rand() + 5;
5691
5692but in actual fact, you got
5693
5694 rand(+5);
5695
5696So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
5697
5698=item Wide character in %s
5699
5700(S utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting
5701one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print). The easiest
5702way to quiet this warning is simply to add the C<:utf8> layer to the
5703output, e.g. C<binmode STDOUT, ':utf8'>. Another way to turn off the
5704warning is to add C<no warnings 'utf8';> but that is often closer to
5705cheating. In general, you are supposed to explicitly mark the
5706filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
5707
5708=item Within []-length '%c' not allowed
5709
5710(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]>
5711only if C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes that
5712can be determined from the template alone. This is not possible if
5713it contains any of the codes @, /, U, u, w or a *-length. Redesign
5714the template.
5715
5716=item write() on closed filehandle %s
5717
5718(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
5719before now. Check your control flow.
5720
5721=item %s "\x%X" does not map to Unicode
5722
5723(F) When reading in different encodings Perl tries to map everything
5724into Unicode characters. The bytes you read in are not legal in
5725this encoding, for example
5726
5727 utf8 "\xE4" does not map to Unicode
5728
5729if you try to read in the a-diaereses Latin-1 as UTF-8.
5730
5731=item 'X' outside of string
5732
5733(F) You had a (un)pack template that specified a relative position before
5734the beginning of the string being (un)packed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
5735
5736=item 'x' outside of string in unpack
5737
5738(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
5739the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
5740
5741=item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
5742
5743(F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
5744sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
5745about what you want. Your best bet is to put a setuid C wrapper around
5746your script.
5747
5748=item You need to quote "%s"
5749
5750(W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
5751Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
5752which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
5753assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
5754what you want, put an & in front.)
5755
5756=item Your random numbers are not that random
5757
5758(F) When trying to initialise the random seed for hashes, Perl could
5759not get any randomness out of your system. This usually indicates
5760Something Very Wrong.
5761
5762=back
5763
5764=head1 SEE ALSO
5765
5766L<warnings>, L<perllexwarn>, L<diagnostics>.
5767
5768=cut