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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. E.g. C<(W closed)> means a warning in the C<closed> category.
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 Aliasing via reference is experimental
54
55(S experimental::refaliasing) This warning is emitted if you use
56a reference constructor on the left-hand side of an assignment to
57alias one variable to another. Simply suppress the warning if you
58want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you are taking
59the risk of using an experimental feature which may change or be
60removed in a future Perl version:
61
62 no warnings "experimental::refaliasing";
63 use feature "refaliasing";
64 \$x = \$y;
65
66=item Allocation too large: %x
67
68(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
69
70=item '%c' allowed only after types %s in %s
71
72(F) The modifiers '!', '<' and '>' are allowed in pack() or unpack() only
73after certain types. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
74
75=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
76
77(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
78keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
79one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
80subroutine is not imported.
81
82To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
83before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
84Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
85imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
86
87To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
88on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
89to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
90L<attributes>).
91
92=item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
93
94(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
95all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
96first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
97C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
98
99=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
100
101(S ambiguous) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
102you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
103a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
104
105=item Ambiguous use of -%s resolved as -&%s()
106
107(S ambiguous) You wrote something like C<-foo>, which might be the
108string C<"-foo">, or a call to the function C<foo>, negated. If you meant
109the string, just write C<"-foo">. If you meant the function call,
110write C<-foo()>.
111
112=item Ambiguous use of %c resolved as operator %c
113
114(S ambiguous) C<%>, C<&>, and C<*> are both infix operators (modulus,
115bitwise and, and multiplication) I<and> initial special characters
116(denoting hashes, subroutines and typeglobs), and you said something
117like C<*foo * foo> that might be interpreted as either of them. We
118assumed you meant the infix operator, but please try to make it more
119clear -- in the example given, you might write C<*foo * foo()> if you
120really meant to multiply a glob by the result of calling a function.
121
122=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s} resolved to %c%s
123
124(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<@{foo}>, which might be
125asking for the variable C<@foo>, or it might be calling a function
126named foo, and dereferencing it as an array reference. If you wanted
127the variable, you can just write C<@foo>. If you wanted to call the
128function, write C<@{foo()}> ... or you could just not have a variable
129and a function with the same name, and save yourself a lot of trouble.
130
131=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s[...]} resolved to %c%s[...]
132
133=item Ambiguous use of %c{%s{...}} resolved to %c%s{...}
134
135(W ambiguous) You wrote something like C<${foo[2]}> (where foo represents
136the name of a Perl keyword), which might be looking for element number
1372 of the array named C<@foo>, in which case please write C<$foo[2]>, or you
138might have meant to pass an anonymous arrayref to the function named
139foo, and then do a scalar deref on the value it returns. If you meant
140that, write C<${foo([2])}>.
141
142In regular expressions, the C<${foo[2]}> syntax is sometimes necessary
143to disambiguate between array subscripts and character classes.
144C</$length[2345]/>, for instance, will be interpreted as C<$length> followed
145by the character class C<[2345]>. If an array subscript is what you
146want, you can avoid the warning by changing C</${length[2345]}/> to the
147unsightly C</${\$length[2345]}/>, by renaming your array to something
148that does not coincide with a built-in keyword, or by simply turning
149off warnings with C<no warnings 'ambiguous';>.
150
151=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
152
153(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
154redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
155redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
156
157=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
158
159(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
160redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
161into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
162though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
163which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
164
165 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
166 while (<STDIN>) {
167 print;
168 print OUT;
169 }
170 close OUT;
171
172=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
173
174(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
175transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
176one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
177a scalar value (the length of an array, or the population info of a
178hash) and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
179you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
180alternatives.
181
182=item Arg too short for msgsnd
183
184(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
185
186=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
187
188(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
189that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
190will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
191
192Note that for the C<Inf> and C<NaN> (infinity and not-a-number) the
193definition of "numeric" is somewhat unusual: the strings themselves
194(like "Inf") are considered numeric, and anything following them is
195considered non-numeric.
196
197=item Argument list not closed for PerlIO layer "%s"
198
199(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O
200system you forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers
201take care of transforming data between external and internal
202representations.) Perl stopped parsing the layer list at this
203point and did not attempt to push this layer. If your program
204didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the
205result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
206
207=item Argument "%s" treated as 0 in increment (++)
208
209(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to the C<++>
210operator which expects either a number or a string matching
211C</^[a-zA-Z]*[0-9]*\z/>. See L<perlop/Auto-increment and
212Auto-decrement> for details.
213
214=item assertion botched: %s
215
216(X) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
217
218=item Assertion %s failed: file "%s", line %d
219
220(X) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
221
222=item Assigned value is not a reference
223
224(F) You tried to assign something that was not a reference to an lvalue
225reference (e.g., C<\$x = $y>). If you meant to make $x an alias to $y, use
226C<\$x = \$y>.
227
228=item Assigned value is not %s reference
229
230(F) You tried to assign a reference to a reference constructor, but the
231two references were not of the same type. You cannot alias a scalar to
232an array, or an array to a hash; the two types must match.
233
234 \$x = \@y; # error
235 \@x = \%y; # error
236 $y = [];
237 \$x = $y; # error; did you mean \$y?
238
239=item Assigning non-zero to $[ is no longer possible
240
241(F) When the "array_base" feature is disabled (e.g., under C<use v5.16;>)
242the special variable C<$[>, which is deprecated, is now a fixed zero value.
243
244=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
245
246(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
247must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
248know which context to supply to the right side.
249
250=item <> at require-statement should be quotes
251
252(F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
253C<require 'file'>.
254
255=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
256
257(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
258the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
259
260=item Attempt to bless into a freed package
261
262(F) You wrote C<bless $foo> with one argument after somehow causing
263the current package to be freed. Perl cannot figure out what to
264do, so it throws up in hands in despair.
265
266=item Attempt to bless into a reference
267
268(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
269the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
270supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
271
272 bless $self, $proto;
273
274when you intended
275
276 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
277
278If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
279of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
280example by:
281
282 bless $self, "$proto";
283
284=item Attempt to clear deleted array
285
286(S debugging) An array was assigned to when it was being freed.
287Freed values are not supposed to be visible to Perl code. This
288can also happen if XS code calls C<av_clear> from a custom magic
289callback on the array.
290
291=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
292
293(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
294which is not in its key set.
295
296=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
297
298(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
299declared readonly from a restricted hash.
300
301=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%x
302
303(S internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
304that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
305outside any of those arenas.
306
307=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string '%s'%s
308
309(S internal) Perl maintains a reference-counted internal table of
310strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
311strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
312of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
313
314=item Attempt to free temp prematurely: SV 0x%x
315
316(S debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
317free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
318SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
319free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
320try to free it.
321
322=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
323
324(S internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
325
326=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar: SV 0x%x
327
328(S internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
329see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
330earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
331This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
332that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
333mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
334corrupted.
335
336=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
337
338(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
339function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
340means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
341invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
342literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
343avoid this warning.
344
345=item Attempt to reload %s aborted.
346
347(F) You tried to load a file with C<use> or C<require> that failed to
348compile once already. Perl will not try to compile this file again
349unless you delete its entry from %INC. See L<perlfunc/require> and
350L<perlvar/%INC>.
351
352=item Attempt to set length of freed array
353
354(W misc) You tried to set the length of an array which has
355been freed. You can do this by storing a reference to the
356scalar representing the last index of an array and later
357assigning through that reference. For example
358
359 $r = do {my @a; \$#a};
360 $$r = 503
361
362=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
363
364(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
365used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
366dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
367
368=item Attribute "locked" is deprecated
369
370(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragma to modify the
371"locked" attribute on a code reference. The :locked attribute is
372obsolete, has had no effect since 5005 threads were removed, and
373will be removed in a future release of Perl 5.
374
375=item Attribute prototype(%s) discards earlier prototype attribute in same sub
376
377(W misc) A sub was declared as sub foo : prototype(A) : prototype(B) {}, for
378example. Since each sub can only have one prototype, the earlier
379declaration(s) are discarded while the last one is applied.
380
381=item Attribute "unique" is deprecated
382
383(D deprecated) You have used the attributes pragma to modify
384the "unique" attribute on an array, hash or scalar reference.
385The :unique attribute has had no effect since Perl 5.8.8, and
386will be removed in a future release of Perl 5.
387
388=item av_reify called on tied array
389
390(S debugging) This indicates that something went wrong and Perl got I<very>
391confused about C<@_> or C<@DB::args> being tied.
392
393=item Bad arg length for %s, is %u, should be %d
394
395(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
396or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
397S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
398S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
399
400=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
401
402(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
403substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
404most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
405
406=item Bad filehandle: %s
407
408(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
409symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
410open(), or did it in another package.
411
412=item Bad free() ignored
413
414(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
415been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
416setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
417
418This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
419dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
420which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
421
422=item Bad hash
423
424(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
425
426=item Badly placed ()'s
427
428(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
429of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
430Perl yourself.
431
432=item Bad name after %s
433
434(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
435didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
436of quotes, so
437
438 $var = 'myvar';
439 $sym = mypack::$var;
440
441is not the same as
442
443 $var = 'myvar';
444 $sym = "mypack::$var";
445
446=item Bad plugin affecting keyword '%s'
447
448(F) An extension using the keyword plugin mechanism violated the
449plugin API.
450
451=item Bad realloc() ignored
452
453(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that
454had never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can
455be disabled by setting the environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
456
457=item Bad symbol for array
458
459(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
460wasn't a symbol table entry.
461
462=item Bad symbol for dirhandle
463
464(P) An internal request asked to add a dirhandle entry to something
465that wasn't a symbol table entry.
466
467=item Bad symbol for filehandle
468
469(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
470that wasn't a symbol table entry.
471
472=item Bad symbol for hash
473
474(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
475wasn't a symbol table entry.
476
477=item Bad symbol for scalar
478
479(P) An internal request asked to add a scalar entry to something that
480wasn't a symbol table entry.
481
482=item Bareword found in conditional
483
484(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
485conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
486of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
487
488 open FOO || die;
489
490It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
491a bareword:
492
493 use constant TYPO => 1;
494 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
495
496The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
497
498=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
499
500(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
501subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
502symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
503
504=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
505
506(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
507compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
508you need to predeclare a package?
509
510=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
511
512(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
513subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
514exited.
515
516=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
517
518(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
519implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
520occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
521be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
522depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
523
524=item \%d better written as $%d
525
526(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
527The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
528substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
529because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
530there are more than 9 backreferences.
531
532=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
533
534(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
535(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
536L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
537
538=item bind() on closed socket %s
539
540(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
541check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
542
543=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
544
545(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
546Check your control flow and number of arguments.
547
548=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
549
550(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
551
552=item Bizarre copy of %s
553
554(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
555copiable.
556
557=item Bizarre SvTYPE [%d]
558
559(P) When starting a new thread or returning values from a thread, Perl
560encountered an invalid data type.
561
562=item Both or neither range ends should be Unicode in regex; marked by
563<-- HERE in m/%s/
564
565(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
566
567In a bracketed character class in a regular expression pattern, you
568had a range which has exactly one end of it specified using C<\N{}>, and
569the other end is specified using a non-portable mechanism. Perl treats
570the range as a Unicode range, that is, all the characters in it are
571considered to be the Unicode characters, and which may be different code
572points on some platforms Perl runs on. For example, C<[\N{U+06}-\x08]>
573is treated as if you had instead said C<[\N{U+06}-\N{U+08}]>, that is it
574matches the characters whose code points in Unicode are 6, 7, and 8.
575But that C<\x08> might indicate that you meant something different, so
576the warning gets raised.
577
578=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
579
580(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
581iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
582which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
583
584=item Callback called exit
585
586(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
587exited by calling exit.
588
589=item %s() called too early to check prototype
590
591(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
592parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
593that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
594early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
595subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
596checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
597function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
598the warning. See L<perlsub>.
599
600=item Calling POSIX::%s() is deprecated
601
602(D deprecated) You called a function whose use is deprecated. See
603the function's name in L<POSIX> for details.
604
605=item Cannot chr %f
606
607(F) You passed an invalid number (like an infinity or not-a-number) to C<chr>.
608
609=item Cannot compress %f in pack
610
611(F) You tried compressing an infinity or not-a-number as an unsigned
612integer with BER, which makes no sense.
613
614=item Cannot compress integer in pack
615
616(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress.
617The BER compressed integer format can only be used with positive
618integers, and you attempted to compress a very large number (> 1e308).
619See L<perlfunc/pack>.
620
621=item Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
622
623(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
624format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
625
626=item Cannot convert a reference to %s to typeglob
627
628(F) You manipulated Perl's symbol table directly, stored a reference
629in it, then tried to access that symbol via conventional Perl syntax.
630The access triggers Perl to autovivify that typeglob, but it there is
631no legal conversion from that type of reference to a typeglob.
632
633=item Cannot copy to %s
634
635(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy a value to an internal type that cannot
636be directly assigned to.
637
638=item Cannot find encoding "%s"
639
640(S io) You tried to apply an encoding that did not exist to a filehandle,
641either with open() or binmode().
642
643=item Cannot pack %f with '%c'
644
645(F) You tried converting an infinity or not-a-number to an integer,
646which makes no sense.
647
648=item Cannot printf %f with '%c'
649
650(F) You tried printing an infinity or not-a-number as a character (%c),
651which makes no sense. Maybe you meant '%s', or just stringifying it?
652
653=item Cannot set tied @DB::args
654
655(F) C<caller> tried to set C<@DB::args>, but found it tied. Tying C<@DB::args>
656is not supported. (Before this error was added, it used to crash.)
657
658=item Cannot tie unreifiable array
659
660(P) You somehow managed to call C<tie> on an array that does not
661keep a reference count on its arguments and cannot be made to
662do so. Such arrays are not even supposed to be accessible to
663Perl code, but are only used internally.
664
665=item Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
666
667(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
668integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
669to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
670
671=item Can't bless non-reference value
672
673(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
674encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
675
676=item Can't "break" in a loop topicalizer
677
678(F) You called C<break>, but you're in a C<foreach> block rather than
679a C<given> block. You probably meant to use C<next> or C<last>.
680
681=item Can't "break" outside a given block
682
683(F) You called C<break>, but you're not inside a C<given> block.
684
685=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
686
687(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
688object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
689like this will reproduce the error:
690
691 $BADREF = undef;
692 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
693 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
694
695=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
696
697(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
698ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
699didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
700object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
701
702=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
703
704(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
705object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
706defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
707Something like this will reproduce the error:
708
709 $BADREF = 42;
710 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
711 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
712
713=item Can't call mro_isa_changed_in() on anonymous symbol table
714
715(P) Perl got confused as to whether a hash was a plain hash or a
716symbol table hash when trying to update @ISA caches.
717
718=item Can't call mro_method_changed_in() on anonymous symbol table
719
720(F) An XS module tried to call C<mro_method_changed_in> on a hash that was
721not attached to the symbol table.
722
723=item Can't chdir to %s
724
725(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but F</foo/bar> is not a directory
726that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
727
728=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
729
730(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
731nosuid.
732
733=item Can't coerce %s to %s in %s
734
735(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
736(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
737say things like:
738
739 *foo += 1;
740
741You CAN say
742
743 $foo = *foo;
744 $foo += 1;
745
746but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
747
748=item Can't "continue" outside a when block
749
750(F) You called C<continue>, but you're not inside a C<when>
751or C<default> block.
752
753=item Can't create pipe mailbox
754
755(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
756quotas or other plumbing problems.
757
758=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
759
760(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my", "our" or
761"state" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
762
763=item Can't "default" outside a topicalizer
764
765(F) You have used a C<default> block that is neither inside a
766C<foreach> loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is
767issued on exit from the C<default> block, so you won't get the
768error if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
769
770=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
771
772(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
773a file in /dev, a FIFO or an uneditable directory. The file was ignored.
774
775=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
776
777(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
778reason.
779
780=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
781
782(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
783reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
784C<-i.bak>, or some such.
785
786=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
787
788(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
789characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
790inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
791
792=item Can't do %s("%s") on non-UTF-8 locale; resolved to "%s".
793
794(W locale) You are 1) running under "C<use locale>"; 2) the current
795locale is not a UTF-8 one; 3) you tried to do the designated case-change
796operation on the specified Unicode character; and 4) the result of this
797operation would mix Unicode and locale rules, which likely conflict.
798Mixing of different rule types is forbidden, so the operation was not
799done; instead the result is the indicated value, which is the best
800available that uses entirely Unicode rules. That turns out to almost
801always be the original character, unchanged.
802
803It is generally a bad idea to mix non-UTF-8 locales and Unicode, and
804this issue is one of the reasons why. This warning is raised when
805Unicode rules would normally cause the result of this operation to
806contain a character that is in the range specified by the locale,
8070..255, and hence is subject to the locale's rules, not Unicode's.
808
809If you are using locale purely for its characteristics related to things
810like its numeric and time formatting (and not C<LC_CTYPE>), consider
811using a restricted form of the locale pragma (see L<perllocale/The "use
812locale" pragma>) like "S<C<use locale ':not_characters'>>".
813
814Note that failed case-changing operations done as a result of
815case-insensitive C</i> regular expression matching will show up in this
816warning as having the C<fc> operation (as that is what the regular
817expression engine calls behind the scenes.)
818
819=item Can't do waitpid with flags
820
821(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
822waitpid() without flags is emulated.
823
824=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
825
826(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
827point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
828line.
829
830=item Can't %s %s-endian %ss on this platform
831
832(F) Your platform's byte-order is neither big-endian nor little-endian,
833or it has a very strange pointer size. Packing and unpacking big- or
834little-endian floating point values and pointers may not be possible.
835See L<perlfunc/pack>.
836
837=item Can't exec "%s": %s
838
839(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
840named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
841permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
842C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
843architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
844can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
845#! at all.)
846
847=item Can't exec %s
848
849(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
850that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
851need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
852
853=item Can't execute %s
854
855(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
856found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
857
858=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
859
860(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
861is no builtin with the name C<word>.
862
863=item Can't find %s character property "%s"
864
865(F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
866could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property?
867See L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
868for a complete list of available official properties.
869
870=item Can't find label %s
871
872(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
873possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
874
875=item Can't find %s on PATH
876
877(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
878found in the PATH.
879
880=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
881
882(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
883found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
884script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
885
886=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
887
888(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
889that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
890nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
891
892 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
893
894If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have
895included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag or there
896may not be a linebreak after it. A good programmer's editor will have
897a way to help you find these characters (or lack of characters). See
898L<perlop> for the full details on here-documents.
899
900=item Can't find Unicode property definition "%s"
901
902(F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode
903property (for example C<\p{Lu}> matches all uppercase
904letters). If you did mean to use a Unicode property, see
905L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
906for a complete list of available properties. If you didn't
907mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either by
908C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, or
909until C<\E>).
910
911=item Can't fork: %s
912
913(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
914pipeline.
915
916=item Can't fork, trying again in 5 seconds
917
918(W pipe) A fork in a piped open failed with EAGAIN and will be retried
919after five seconds.
920
921=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
922
923(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
924between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
925Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
926the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
927account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
928the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
929the access-checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
930the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
931if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
932because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
933appears, the name lookup failed, and the access-checking routine gave up
934and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access-checking
935routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
936shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
937only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
938
939=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
940
941(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
942pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
943
944=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
945
946(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
947mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
948
949=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
950
951(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
952loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
953
954=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
955
956(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
957a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
958you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
959See L<perlfunc/goto>.
960
961=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-%s
962
963(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
964"string" or block.
965
966=item Can't goto subroutine from a sort sub (or similar callback)
967
968(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of the
969comparison sub for a sort(), or from a similar callback (such
970as the reduce() function in List::Util).
971
972=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
973
974(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
975subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
976cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
977routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
978
979=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
980
981(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
982signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
983signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
984processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
985situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
986may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
987
988=item Can't kill a non-numeric process ID
989
990(F) Process identifiers must be (signed) integers. It is a fatal error to
991attempt to kill() an undefined, empty-string or otherwise non-numeric
992process identifier.
993
994=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
995
996(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
997except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
998block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
999block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
1000usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
1001inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
1002L<perlfunc/last>.
1003
1004=item Can't linearize anonymous symbol table
1005
1006(F) Perl tried to calculate the method resolution order (MRO) of a
1007package, but failed because the package stash has no name.
1008
1009=item Can't load '%s' for module %s
1010
1011(F) The module you tried to load failed to load a dynamic extension.
1012This may either mean that you upgraded your version of perl to one
1013that is incompatible with your old dynamic extensions (which is known
1014to happen between major versions of perl), or (more likely) that your
1015dynamic extension was built against an older version of the library
1016that is installed on your system. You may need to rebuild your old
1017dynamic extensions.
1018
1019=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
1020
1021(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
1022lexical variable using "my" or "state". This is not allowed. If you
1023want to localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with
1024the package name.
1025
1026=item Can't localize through a reference
1027
1028(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
1029handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
1030pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
1031that $ref will still be a reference.
1032
1033=item Can't locate %s
1034
1035(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be found.
1036Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC, unless
1037the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you need
1038to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where the
1039extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
1040to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
1041L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
1042
1043=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
1044
1045(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
1046autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
1047are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
1048the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
1049
1050=item Can't locate loadable object for module %s in @INC
1051
1052(F) The module you loaded is trying to load an external library, like
1053for example, F<foo.so> or F<bar.dll>, but the L<DynaLoader> module was
1054unable to locate this library. See L<DynaLoader>.
1055
1056=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
1057
1058(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
1059functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
1060method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
1061
1062=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s" (perhaps you forgot
1063to load "%s"?)
1064
1065(F) You called a method on a class that did not exist, and the method
1066could not be found in UNIVERSAL. This often means that a method
1067requires a package that has not been loaded.
1068
1069=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
1070
1071(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
1072doesn't seem to exist.
1073
1074=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
1075
1076(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
1077e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
1078
1079=item Can't make list assignment to %ENV on this system
1080
1081(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
1082VMS.
1083
1084=item Can't make loaded symbols global on this platform while loading %s
1085
1086(S) A module passed the flag 0x01 to DynaLoader::dl_load_file() to request
1087that symbols from the stated file are made available globally within the
1088process, but that functionality is not available on this platform. Whilst
1089the module likely will still work, this may prevent the perl interpreter
1090from loading other XS-based extensions which need to link directly to
1091functions defined in the C or XS code in the stated file.
1092
1093=item Can't modify %s in %s
1094
1095(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
1096to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
1097
1098=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
1099
1100(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
1101a NULL.
1102
1103=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
1104
1105(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
1106such. See L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
1107
1108=item Can't modify reference to %s in %s assignment
1109
1110(F) Only a limited number of constructs can be used as the argument to a
1111reference constructor on the left-hand side of an assignment, and what
1112you used was not one of them. See L<perlref/Assigning to References>.
1113
1114=item Can't modify reference to localized parenthesized array in list
1115assignment
1116
1117(F) Assigning to C<\local(@array)> or C<\(local @array)> is not supported, as
1118it is not clear exactly what it should do. If you meant to make @array
1119refer to some other array, use C<\@array = \@other_array>. If you want to
1120make the elements of @array aliases of the scalars referenced on the
1121right-hand side, use C<\(@array) = @scalar_refs>.
1122
1123=item Can't modify reference to parenthesized hash in list assignment
1124
1125(F) Assigning to C<\(%hash)> is not supported. If you meant to make %hash
1126refer to some other hash, use C<\%hash = \%other_hash>. If you want to
1127make the elements of %hash into aliases of the scalars referenced on the
1128right-hand side, use a hash slice: C<\@hash{@keys} = @those_scalar_refs>.
1129
1130=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
1131
1132(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
1133buffer.
1134
1135=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
1136
1137(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
1138there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
1139count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
1140grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1141though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
1142once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
1143
1144=item Can't open %s: %s
1145
1146(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
1147filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
1148switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually
1149this is because you don't have read permission for a file which
1150you named on the command line.
1151
1152(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-e> switch, but F</dev/null> (or
1153your operating system's equivalent) could not be opened.
1154
1155=item Can't open a reference
1156
1157(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
1158using the 3-arg open() syntax:
1159
1160 open FH, '>', $ref;
1161
1162but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
1163open is not supported.
1164
1165=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
1166
1167(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
1168You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
1169as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
1170">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
1171
1172=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
1173
1174(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1175redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
1176the command line for writing.
1177
1178=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
1179
1180(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1181redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
1182command line for reading.
1183
1184=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
1185
1186(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1187redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
1188the command line for writing.
1189
1190=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
1191
1192(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
1193redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
1194for stdout.
1195
1196=item Can't open perl script "%s": %s
1197
1198(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
1199
1200If you're debugging a script that uses #!, and normally relies on the
1201shell's $PATH search, the -S option causes perl to do that search, so
1202you don't have to type the path or C<`which $scriptname`>.
1203
1204=item Can't read CRTL environ
1205
1206(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
1207from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
1208missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
1209or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
1210searched.
1211
1212=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
1213
1214(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
1215there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
1216count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
1217or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
1218though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
1219loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
1220
1221=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
1222
1223(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
1224file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
1225the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
1226
1227=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
1228
1229(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
1230probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
1231
1232=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
1233
1234(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
1235to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
1236
1237=item Can't represent character for Ox%X on this platform
1238
1239(F) There is a hard limit to how big a character code point can be due
1240to the fundamental properties of UTF-8, especially on EBCDIC
1241platforms. The given code point exceeds that. The only work-around is
1242to not use such a large code point.
1243
1244=item Can't reset %ENV on this system
1245
1246(F) You called C<reset('E')> or similar, which tried to reset
1247all variables in the current package beginning with "E". In
1248the main package, that includes %ENV. Resetting %ENV is not
1249supported on some systems, notably VMS.
1250
1251=item Can't resolve method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
1252
1253(F)(P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as
1254opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the
1255package. If the method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
1256
1257=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
1258
1259(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
1260temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
1261is not allowed.
1262
1263=item Can't return outside a subroutine
1264
1265(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1266there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1267
1268=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
1269
1270(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue
1271subroutine, but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl
1272think you meant to return only one value. You probably meant to
1273write parentheses around the call to the subroutine, which tell
1274Perl that the call should be in list context.
1275
1276=item Can't stat script "%s"
1277
1278(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1279open already. Bizarre.
1280
1281=item Can't take log of %g
1282
1283(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
1284negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
1285standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1286negative numbers.
1287
1288=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1289
1290(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
1291negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1292with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
1293
1294=item Can't undef active subroutine
1295
1296(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1297however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1298redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1299
1300=item Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d
1301
1302(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1303into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1304specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1305indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
1306
1307=item Can't use '%c' after -mname
1308
1309(F) You tried to call perl with the B<-m> switch, but you put something
1310other than "=" after the module name.
1311
1312=item Can't use a hash as a reference
1313
1314(F) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
1315C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl
1316<= 5.22.0 used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't
1317have. This was deprecated in perl 5.6.1.
1318
1319=item Can't use an array as a reference
1320
1321(F) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
1322C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.22.0
1323used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. This
1324was deprecated in perl 5.6.1.
1325
1326=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1327
1328(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1329table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1330for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1331
1332=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1333
1334(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1335be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1336
1337=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1338
1339(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1340references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
1341
1342=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1343
1344(F) The first time the C<%!> hash is used, perl automatically loads the
1345Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1346provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1347
1348=item Can't use both '<' and '>' after type '%c' in %s
1349
1350(F) A type cannot be forced to have both big-endian and little-endian
1351byte-order at the same time, so this combination of modifiers is not
1352allowed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1353
1354=item Can't use 'defined(@array)' (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?)
1355
1356(F) defined() is not useful on arrays because it
1357checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
1358array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
1359
1360=item Can't use 'defined(%hash)' (Maybe you should just omit the defined()?)
1361
1362(F) C<defined()> is not usually right on hashes.
1363
1364Although C<defined %hash> is false on a plain not-yet-used hash, it
1365becomes true in several non-obvious circumstances, including iterators,
1366weak references, stash names, even remaining true after C<undef %hash>.
1367These things make C<defined %hash> fairly useless in practice, so it now
1368generates a fatal error.
1369
1370If a check for non-empty is what you wanted then just put it in boolean
1371context (see L<perldata/Scalar values>):
1372
1373 if (%hash) {
1374 # not empty
1375 }
1376
1377If you had C<defined %Foo::Bar::QUUX> to check whether such a package
1378variable exists then that's never really been reliable, and isn't
1379a good way to enquire about the features of a package, or whether
1380it's loaded, etc.
1381
1382=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1383
1384(P) The parser got confused when trying to parse a C<foreach> loop.
1385
1386=item Can't use global %s in "%s"
1387
1388(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1389is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1390(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1391have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
1392weren't.
1393
1394=item Can't use '%c' in a group with different byte-order in %s
1395
1396(F) You attempted to force a different byte-order on a type
1397that is already inside a group with a byte-order modifier.
1398For example you cannot force little-endianness on a type that
1399is inside a big-endian group.
1400
1401=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1402
1403(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
1404You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
1405and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1406Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1407lexical variable.
1408
1409=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1410
1411(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1412reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1413test the type of the reference, if need be.
1414
1415=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1416
1417=item Can't use string ("%s"...) as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1418
1419(F) You've told Perl to dereference a string, something which
1420C<use strict> blocks to prevent it happening accidentally. See
1421L<perlref/"Symbolic references">. This can be triggered by an C<@> or C<$>
1422in a double-quoted string immediately before interpolating a variable,
1423for example in C<"user @$twitter_id">, which says to treat the contents
1424of C<$twitter_id> as an array reference; use a C<\> to have a literal C<@>
1425symbol followed by the contents of C<$twitter_id>: C<"user \@$twitter_id">.
1426
1427=item Can't use subscript on %s
1428
1429(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1430subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
1431didn't look like a hash or array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
1432
1433=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1434
1435(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1436creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1437backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
1438expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1439value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1440instead.
1441
1442=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1443
1444(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1445references can be weakened.
1446
1447=item Can't "when" outside a topicalizer
1448
1449(F) You have used a when() block that is neither inside a C<foreach>
1450loop nor a C<given> block. (Note that this error is issued on exit
1451from the C<when> block, so you won't get the error if the match fails,
1452or if you use an explicit C<continue>.)
1453
1454=item Can't x= to read-only value
1455
1456(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1457with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
1458Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1459
1460=item Character following "\c" must be printable ASCII
1461
1462(F) In C<\cI<X>>, I<X> must be a printable (non-control) ASCII character.
1463
1464Note that ASCII characters that don't map to control characters are
1465discouraged, and will generate the warning (when enabled)
1466L</""\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"">.
1467
1468=item Character in 'C' format wrapped in pack
1469
1470(W pack) You said
1471
1472 pack("C", $x)
1473
1474where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1475only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1476and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1477
1478 pack("C", $x & 255)
1479
1480If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1481instead.
1482
1483=item Character in 'c' format wrapped in pack
1484
1485(W pack) You said
1486
1487 pack("c", $x)
1488
1489where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1490is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1491and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1492
1493 pack("c", $x & 255);
1494
1495If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1496instead.
1497
1498=item Character in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1499
1500(W unpack) You tried something like
1501
1502 unpack("H", "\x{2a1}")
1503
1504where the format expects to process a byte (a character with a value
1505below 256), but a higher value was provided instead. Perl uses the
1506value modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1507
1508 unpack("H", "\x{a1}")
1509
1510=item Character in 'W' format wrapped in pack
1511
1512(W pack) You said
1513
1514 pack("U0W", $x)
1515
1516where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255. However, C<U0>-mode
1517expects all values to fall in the interval [0, 255], so Perl behaved
1518as if you meant:
1519
1520 pack("U0W", $x & 255)
1521
1522=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in pack
1523
1524(W pack) You tried something like
1525
1526 pack("u", "\x{1f3}b")
1527
1528where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
1529value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
1530uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1531
1532 pack("u", "\x{f3}b")
1533
1534=item Character(s) in '%c' format wrapped in unpack
1535
1536(W unpack) You tried something like
1537
1538 unpack("s", "\x{1f3}b")
1539
1540where the format expects to process a sequence of bytes (character with a
1541value below 256), but some of the characters had a higher value. Perl
1542uses the character values modulus 256 instead, as if you had provided:
1543
1544 unpack("s", "\x{f3}b")
1545
1546=item charnames alias definitions may not contain a sequence of multiple spaces
1547
1548(F) You defined a character name which had multiple space characters
1549in a row. Change them to single spaces. Usually these names are
1550defined in the C<:alias> import argument to C<use charnames>, but they
1551could be defined by a translator installed into C<$^H{charnames}>. See
1552L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
1553
1554=item charnames alias definitions may not contain trailing white-space
1555
1556(F) You defined a character name which ended in a space
1557character. Remove the trailing space(s). Usually these names are
1558defined in the C<:alias> import argument to C<use charnames>, but they
1559could be defined by a translator installed into C<$^H{charnames}>.
1560See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
1561
1562=item \C is deprecated in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1563
1564(D deprecated, regexp) The \C character class is deprecated, and will
1565become a compile-time error in a future release of perl (tentatively
1566v5.24). This construct allows you to match a single byte of what makes
1567up a multi-byte single UTF8 character, and breaks encapsulation. It is
1568currently also very buggy. If you really need to process the individual
1569bytes, you probably want to convert your string to one where each
1570underlying byte is stored as a character, with utf8::encode().
1571
1572=item "\c%c" is more clearly written simply as "%s"
1573
1574(W syntax) The C<\cI<X>> construct is intended to be a way to specify
1575non-printable characters. You used it for a printable one, which
1576is better written as simply itself, perhaps preceded by a backslash
1577for non-word characters. Doing it the way you did is not portable
1578between ASCII and EBCDIC platforms.
1579
1580=item Cloning substitution context is unimplemented
1581
1582(F) Creating a new thread inside the C<s///> operator is not supported.
1583
1584=item closedir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
1585
1586(W io) The dirhandle you tried to close is either closed or not really
1587a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
1588
1589=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1590
1591(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1592
1593=item Closure prototype called
1594
1595(F) If a closure has attributes, the subroutine passed to an attribute
1596handler is the prototype that is cloned when a new closure is created.
1597This subroutine cannot be called.
1598
1599=item Code missing after '/'
1600
1601(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be
1602another template code following the slash. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1603
1604=item Code point 0x%X is not Unicode, may not be portable
1605
1606(S non_unicode) You had a code point above the Unicode maximum
1607of U+10FFFF.
1608
1609Perl allows strings to contain a superset of Unicode code points, up
1610to the limit of what is storable in an unsigned integer on your system,
1611but these may not be accepted by other languages/systems. At one time,
1612it was legal in some standards to have code points up to 0x7FFF_FFFF,
1613but not higher. Code points above 0xFFFF_FFFF require larger than a
161432 bit word.
1615
1616=item %s: Command not found
1617
1618(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> or another shell
1619instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
1620Perl yourself. The #! line at the top of your file could look like
1621
1622 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
1623
1624=item Compilation failed in require
1625
1626(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
1627Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1628encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
1629
1630=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1631
1632(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1633situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1634to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1635arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1636recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1637under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1638in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
1639that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
1640on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
1641
1642=item connect() on closed socket %s
1643
1644(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1645to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1646L<perlfunc/connect>.
1647
1648=item Constant(%s): Call to &{$^H{%s}} did not return a defined value
1649
1650(F) The subroutine registered to handle constant overloading
1651(see L<overload>) or a custom charnames handler (see
1652L<charnames/CUSTOM TRANSLATORS>) returned an undefined value.
1653
1654=item Constant(%s): $^H{%s} is not defined
1655
1656(F) The parser found inconsistencies while attempting to define an
1657overloaded constant. Perhaps you forgot to load the corresponding
1658L<overload> pragma?
1659
1660=item Constant is not %s reference
1661
1662(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
1663is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
1664The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
1665usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
1666See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1667
1668=item Constants from lexical variables potentially modified elsewhere are
1669deprecated
1670
1671(D deprecated) You wrote something like
1672
1673 my $var;
1674 $sub = sub () { $var };
1675
1676but $var is referenced elsewhere and could be modified after the C<sub>
1677expression is evaluated. Either it is explicitly modified elsewhere
1678(C<$var = 3>) or it is passed to a subroutine or to an operator like
1679C<printf> or C<map>, which may or may not modify the variable.
1680
1681Traditionally, Perl has captured the value of the variable at that
1682point and turned the subroutine into a constant eligible for inlining.
1683In those cases where the variable can be modified elsewhere, this
1684breaks the behavior of closures, in which the subroutine captures
1685the variable itself, rather than its value, so future changes to the
1686variable are reflected in the subroutine's return value.
1687
1688This usage is deprecated, because the behavior is likely to change
1689in a future version of Perl.
1690
1691If you intended for the subroutine to be eligible for inlining, then
1692make sure the variable is not referenced elsewhere, possibly by
1693copying it:
1694
1695 my $var2 = $var;
1696 $sub = sub () { $var2 };
1697
1698If you do want this subroutine to be a closure that reflects future
1699changes to the variable that it closes over, add an explicit C<return>:
1700
1701 my $var;
1702 $sub = sub () { return $var };
1703
1704=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1705
1706(W redefine)(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously
1707been eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions">
1708for commentary and workarounds.
1709
1710=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1711
1712(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1713for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1714workarounds.
1715
1716=item Constant(%s) unknown
1717
1718(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting
1719to define an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the
1720character name specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you
1721forgot to load the corresponding L<overload> pragma?.
1722
1723=item :const is experimental
1724
1725(S experimental::const_attr) The "const" attribute is experimental.
1726If you want to use the feature, disable the warning with C<no warnings
1727'experimental::const_attr'>, but know that in doing so you are taking
1728the risk that your code may break in a future Perl version.
1729
1730=item :const is not permitted on named subroutines
1731
1732(F) The "const" attribute causes an anonymous subroutine to be run and
1733its value captured at the time that it is cloned. Named subroutines are
1734not cloned like this, so the attribute does not make sense on them.
1735
1736=item Copy method did not return a reference
1737
1738(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
1739L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
1740
1741=item &CORE::%s cannot be called directly
1742
1743(F) You tried to call a subroutine in the C<CORE::> namespace
1744with C<&foo> syntax or through a reference. Some subroutines
1745in this package cannot yet be called that way, but must be
1746called as barewords. Something like this will work:
1747
1748 BEGIN { *shove = \&CORE::push; }
1749 shove @array, 1,2,3; # pushes on to @array
1750
1751=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1752
1753(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1754
1755=item Corrupted regexp opcode %d > %d
1756
1757(P) This is either an error in Perl, or, if you're using
1758one, your L<custom regular expression engine|perlreapi>. If not the
1759latter, report the problem through the L<perlbug> utility.
1760
1761=item corrupted regexp pointers
1762
1763(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1764expression compiler gave it.
1765
1766=item corrupted regexp program
1767
1768(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1769valid magic number.
1770
1771=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%x at 0x%x
1772
1773(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1774
1775=item Count after length/code in unpack
1776
1777(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
1778you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
1779L<perlfunc/pack>.
1780
1781=for comment
1782The following are used in lib/diagnostics.t for testing two =items that
1783share the same description. Changes here need to be propagated to there
1784
1785=item Deep recursion on anonymous subroutine
1786
1787=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1788
1789(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1790100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1791infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1792which case it indicates something else.
1793
1794This threshold can be changed from 100, by recompiling the F<perl> binary,
1795setting the C pre-processor macro C<PERL_SUB_DEPTH_WARN> to the desired value.
1796
1797=item (?(DEFINE)....) does not allow branches in regex; marked by
1798S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1799
1800(F) You used something like C<(?(DEFINE)...|..)> which is illegal. The
1801most likely cause of this error is that you left out a parenthesis inside
1802of the C<....> part.
1803
1804The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
1805discovered.
1806
1807=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1808
1809(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1810there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1811
1812=item delete argument is index/value array slice, use array slice
1813
1814(F) You used index/value array slice syntax (C<%array[...]>) as
1815the argument to C<delete>. You probably meant C<@array[...]> with
1816an @ symbol instead.
1817
1818=item delete argument is key/value hash slice, use hash slice
1819
1820(F) You used key/value hash slice syntax (C<%hash{...}>) as the argument to
1821C<delete>. You probably meant C<@hash{...}> with an @ symbol instead.
1822
1823=item delete argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
1824
1825(F) The argument to C<delete> must be either a hash or array element,
1826such as:
1827
1828 $foo{$bar}
1829 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
1830
1831or a hash or array slice, such as:
1832
1833 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
1834 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
1835
1836=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1837
1838(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1839long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1840that triggers this error.
1841
1842=item Deprecated use of my() in false conditional
1843
1844(D deprecated) You used a declaration similar to C<my $x if 0>. There
1845has been a long-standing bug in Perl that causes a lexical variable
1846not to be cleared at scope exit when its declaration includes a false
1847conditional. Some people have exploited this bug to achieve a kind of
1848static variable. Since we intend to fix this bug, we don't want people
1849relying on this behavior. You can achieve a similar static effect by
1850declaring the variable in a separate block outside the function, eg
1851
1852 sub f { my $x if 0; return $x++ }
1853
1854becomes
1855
1856 { my $x; sub f { return $x++ } }
1857
1858Beginning with perl 5.10.0, you can also use C<state> variables to have
1859lexicals that are initialized only once (see L<feature>):
1860
1861 sub f { state $x; return $x++ }
1862
1863=item DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
1864
1865(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
1866just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather
1867than to create a dangling reference.
1868
1869=item Did not produce a valid header
1870
1871See Server error.
1872
1873=item %s did not return a true value
1874
1875(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1876it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1877traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1878do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1879
1880=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
1881
1882(W misc) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or
1883some such.
1884
1885=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
1886
1887(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1888variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1889seems superfluous.
1890
1891=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
1892
1893(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1894@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1895carried away.
1896
1897=item Died
1898
1899(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1900you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
1901
1902=item Document contains no data
1903
1904See Server error.
1905
1906=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1907
1908(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1909define a C<$VERSION>.
1910
1911=item '/' does not take a repeat count
1912
1913(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
1914See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1915
1916=item Don't know how to get file name
1917
1918(P) C<PerlIO_getname>, a perl internal I/O function specific to VMS, was
1919somehow called on another platform. This should not happen.
1920
1921=item Don't know how to handle magic of type \%o
1922
1923(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1924
1925=item do_study: out of memory
1926
1927(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1928
1929=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1930
1931(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
1932"%s found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
1933name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1934because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
1935"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1936something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1937subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1938"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
1939
1940=item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1941
1942(W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1943qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1944
1945=item dump is not supported
1946
1947(F) Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.
1948
1949=item Duplicate free() ignored
1950
1951(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1952already been freed.
1953
1954=item Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
1955
1956(W unpack) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a
1957type in a pack template. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1958
1959=item each on reference is experimental
1960
1961(S experimental::autoderef) C<each> with a scalar argument is experimental
1962and may change or be removed in a future Perl version. If you want to
1963take the risk of using this feature, simply disable this warning:
1964
1965 no warnings "experimental::autoderef";
1966
1967=item elseif should be elsif
1968
1969(S syntax) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks
1970it's ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method
1971named "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
1972unlikely to be what you want.
1973
1974=item Empty \%c{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
1975
1976(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
1977described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
1978a regular expression without specifying the property name.
1979
1980=item entering effective %s failed
1981
1982(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
1983effective uids or gids failed.
1984
1985=item %ENV is aliased to %s
1986
1987(F) You're running under taint mode, and the C<%ENV> variable has been
1988aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
1989program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
1990
1991=item Error converting file specification %s
1992
1993(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
1994specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
1995single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1996an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1997conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
1998
1999=item Eval-group in insecure regular expression
2000
2001(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2002expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
2003is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
2004
2005=item Eval-group not allowed at runtime, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
2006
2007(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
2008C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
2009pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk,
2010it is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by using the
2011C<re 'eval'> pragma or by explicitly building the pattern from an
2012interpolated string at run time and using that in an eval(). See
2013L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
2014
2015=item Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval' in regex m/%s/
2016
2017(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
2018assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
2019pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
2020
2021=item EVAL without pos change exceeded limit in regex; marked by
2022S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2023
2024(F) You used a pattern that nested too many EVAL calls without consuming
2025any text. Restructure the pattern so that text is consumed.
2026
2027The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
2028discovered.
2029
2030=item Excessively long <> operator
2031
2032(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
2033Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
2034filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
2035variable and glob that.
2036
2037=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
2038
2039(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented on some systems, e.g., Symbian
2040OS. See L<perlport>.
2041
2042=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors.
2043
2044(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
2045
2046=item exists argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine
2047
2048(F) The argument to C<exists> must be a hash or array element or a
2049subroutine with an ampersand, such as:
2050
2051 $foo{$bar}
2052 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
2053 &do_something
2054
2055=item exists argument is not a subroutine name
2056
2057(F) The argument to C<exists> for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine name,
2058and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this error.
2059
2060=item Exiting eval via %s
2061
2062(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
2063goto, or a loop control statement.
2064
2065=item Exiting format via %s
2066
2067(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
2068goto, or a loop control statement.
2069
2070=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
2071
2072(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
2073sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
2074loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2075
2076=item Exiting subroutine via %s
2077
2078(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
2079as a goto, or a loop control statement.
2080
2081=item Exiting substitution via %s
2082
2083(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
2084as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
2085
2086=item Expecting close bracket in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2087
2088(F) You wrote something like
2089
2090 (?13
2091
2092to denote a capturing group of the form
2093L<C<(?I<PARNO>)>|perlre/(?PARNO) (?-PARNO) (?+PARNO) (?R) (?0)>,
2094but omitted the C<")">.
2095
2096=item Expecting '(?flags:(?[...' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2097
2098(F) The C<(?[...])> extended character class regular expression construct
2099only allows character classes (including character class escapes like
2100C<\d>), operators, and parentheses. The one exception is C<(?flags:...)>
2101containing at least one flag and exactly one C<(?[...])> construct.
2102This allows a regular expression containing just C<(?[...])> to be
2103interpolated. If you see this error message, then you probably
2104have some other C<(?...)> construct inside your character class. See
2105L<perlrecharclass/Extended Bracketed Character Classes>.
2106
2107=item Experimental aliasing via reference not enabled
2108
2109(F) To do aliasing via references, you must first enable the feature:
2110
2111 no warnings "experimental::refaliasing";
2112 use feature "refaliasing";
2113 \$x = \$y;
2114
2115=item Experimental subroutine signatures not enabled
2116
2117(F) To use subroutine signatures, you must first enable them:
2118
2119 no warnings "experimental::signatures";
2120 use feature "signatures";
2121 sub foo ($left, $right) { ... }
2122
2123=item Experimental "%s" subs not enabled
2124
2125(F) To use lexical subs, you must first enable them:
2126
2127 no warnings 'experimental::lexical_subs';
2128 use feature 'lexical_subs';
2129 my sub foo { ... }
2130
2131=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
2132
2133(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
2134the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
2135usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
2136e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
2137
2138=item %s: Expression syntax
2139
2140(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
2141Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
2142
2143=item %s failed--call queue aborted
2144
2145(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a UNITCHECK,
2146CHECK, INIT, or END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the
2147queue of such routines has been prematurely ended.
2148
2149=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2150
2151(W regexp)(F) A character class range must start and end at a literal
2152character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
2153in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". In a C<(?[...])>
2154construct, this is an error, rather than a warning. Consider quoting
2155the "-", "\-". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression
2156the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2157
2158=item Fatal VMS error (status=%d) at %s, line %d
2159
2160(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
2161system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
2162details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
2163you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
2164
2165=item fcntl is not implemented
2166
2167(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
2168PDP-11 or something?
2169
2170=item FETCHSIZE returned a negative value
2171
2172(F) A tied array claimed to have a negative number of elements, which
2173is not possible.
2174
2175=item Field too wide in 'u' format in pack
2176
2177(W pack) Each line in an uuencoded string starts with a length indicator
2178which can't encode values above 63. So there is no point in asking for
2179a line length bigger than that. Perl will behave as if you specified
2180C<u63> as the format.
2181
2182=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
2183
2184(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
2185it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
2186"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
2187write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
2188
2189=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
2190
2191(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
2192you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
2193with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with ">". If you intended only to
2194read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>. Another possibility
2195is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0 (also known as STDIN) for
2196output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
2197
2198=item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
2199
2200(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
2201as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
2202previously.
2203
2204=item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
2205
2206(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
2207as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
2208
2209=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
2210
2211(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
2212a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
2213happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
2214name.
2215
2216=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
2217
2218(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
2219some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
2220filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
2221same name?
2222
2223=item Format not terminated
2224
2225(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
2226to the end of your file without finding such a line.
2227
2228=item Format %s redefined
2229
2230(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
2231
2232 {
2233 no warnings 'redefine';
2234 eval "format NAME =...";
2235 }
2236
2237=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
2238
2239(W syntax) You said
2240
2241 if ($foo = 123)
2242
2243when you meant
2244
2245 if ($foo == 123)
2246
2247(or something like that).
2248
2249=item %s found where operator expected
2250
2251(S syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator.
2252If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
2253operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
2254operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
2255
2256=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
2257
2258(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
2259
2260=item gethostent not implemented
2261
2262(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
2263because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
2264on the Internet.
2265
2266=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
2267
2268(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
2269socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
2270
2271=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
2272
2273(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
2274C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
2275
2276=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
2277
2278(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
2279forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
2280L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
2281
2282=item given is experimental
2283
2284(S experimental::smartmatch) C<given> depends on smartmatch, which
2285is experimental, so its behavior may change or even be removed
2286in any future release of perl. See the explanation under
2287L<perlsyn/Experimental Details on given and when>.
2288
2289=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name (did you forget to
2290declare "my %s"?)
2291
2292(F) You've said "use strict" or "use strict vars", which indicates
2293that all variables must either be lexically scoped (using "my" or "state"),
2294declared beforehand using "our", or explicitly qualified to say
2295which package the global variable is in (using "::").
2296
2297=item glob failed (%s)
2298
2299(S glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used
2300for C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a C<glob>
2301pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
2302nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
2303resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell)
2304is broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables
2305in config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as
2306if it were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them
2307all empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
2308think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
2309C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
2310
2311=item Glob not terminated
2312
2313(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
2314a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
2315not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
2316earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
2317
2318=item gmtime(%f) failed
2319
2320(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that it could not handle:
2321too large, too small, or NaN. The returned value is C<undef>.
2322
2323=item gmtime(%f) too large
2324
2325(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was larger than
2326it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong
2327date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
2328not-a-number value).
2329
2330=item gmtime(%f) too small
2331
2332(W overflow) You called C<gmtime> with a number that was smaller than
2333it can reliably handle and C<gmtime> probably returned the wrong date.
2334
2335=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
2336
2337(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
2338version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
2339
2340=item goto must have label
2341
2342(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
2343unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
2344
2345=item Goto undefined subroutine%s
2346
2347(F) You tried to call a subroutine with C<goto &sub> syntax, but
2348the indicated subroutine hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
2349has since been undefined.
2350
2351=item Group name must start with a non-digit word character in regex; marked by
2352S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2353
2354(F) Group names must follow the rules for perl identifiers, meaning
2355they must start with a non-digit word character. A common cause of
2356this error is using (?&0) instead of (?0). See L<perlre>.
2357
2358=item ()-group starts with a count
2359
2360(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is supposed to follow
2361something: a template character or a ()-group. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2362
2363=item %s had compilation errors.
2364
2365(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
2366
2367=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
2368
2369(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
2370to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
2371created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
2372
2373=item %s has too many errors
2374
2375(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
2376Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
2377
2378=item Having more than one /%c regexp modifier is deprecated
2379
2380(D deprecated, regexp) You used the indicated regular expression pattern
2381modifier at least twice in a string of modifiers. It is deprecated to
2382do this with this particular modifier, to allow future extensions to the
2383Perl language.
2384
2385=item Hexadecimal float: exponent overflow
2386
2387(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point has a larger exponent
2388than the floating point supports.
2389
2390=item Hexadecimal float: exponent underflow
2391
2392(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point has a smaller exponent
2393than the floating point supports.
2394
2395=item Hexadecimal float: internal error
2396
2397(F) Something went horribly bad in hexadecimal float handling.
2398
2399=item Hexadecimal float: mantissa overflow
2400
2401(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point literal had more bits in
2402the mantissa (the part between the 0x and the exponent, also known as
2403the fraction or the significand) than the floating point supports.
2404
2405=item Hexadecimal float: precision loss
2406
2407(W overflow) The hexadecimal floating point had internally more
2408digits than could be output. This can be caused by unsupported
2409long double formats, or by 64-bit integers not being available
2410(needed to retrieve the digits under some configurations).
2411
2412=item Hexadecimal float: unsupported long double format
2413
2414(F) You have configured Perl to use long doubles but
2415the internals of the long double format are unknown;
2416therefore the hexadecimal float output is impossible.
2417
2418=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
2419
2420(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
2421(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2422L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
2423
2424=item Identifier too long
2425
2426(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
2427about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
2428names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
2429of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
2430
2431=item Ignoring zero length \N{} in character class in regex; marked by
2432S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2433
2434(W regexp) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a
2435zero-length sequence. When such an escape is used in a character
2436class its behavior is not well defined. Check that the correct
2437escape has been used, and the correct charname handler is in scope.
2438
2439=item Illegal binary digit %s
2440
2441(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
2442
2443=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
2444
2445(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
2446binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
2447offending digit.
2448
2449=item Illegal character after '_' in prototype for %s : %s
2450
2451(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype
2452declaration. The '_' in a prototype must be followed by a ';',
2453indicating the rest of the parameters are optional, or one of '@'
2454or '%', since those two will accept 0 or more final parameters.
2455
2456=item Illegal character \%o (carriage return)
2457
2458(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
2459would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
2460when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
2461version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
2462to your Perl administrator.
2463
2464=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
2465
2466(W illegalproto) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
2467Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, \, and +.
2468Perhaps you were trying to write a subroutine signature but didn't enable
2469that feature first (C<use feature 'signatures'>), so your signature was
2470instead interpreted as a bad prototype.
2471
2472=item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
2473
2474(F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
2475you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
2476
2477=item Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
2478
2479(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See L<perlsub>.
2480
2481=item Illegal division by zero
2482
2483(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
2484your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
2485meaningless input.
2486
2487=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
2488
2489(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
2490A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
2491number stopped before the illegal character.
2492
2493=item Illegal modulus zero
2494
2495(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
2496numbers don't take to this kindly.
2497
2498=item Illegal number of bits in vec
2499
2500(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
2501two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
2502
2503=item Illegal octal digit %s
2504
2505(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
2506
2507=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
2508
2509(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
2510Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
2511
2512=item Illegal pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2513
2514(F) You wrote something like
2515
2516 (?+foo)
2517
2518The C<"+"> is valid only when followed by digits, indicating a
2519capturing group. See
2520L<C<(?I<PARNO>)>|perlre/(?PARNO) (?-PARNO) (?+PARNO) (?R) (?0)>.
2521
2522=item Illegal suidscript
2523
2524(F) The script run under suidperl was somehow illegal.
2525
2526=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: -%c
2527
2528(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
2529following switches: B<-[CDIMUdmtw]>.
2530
2531=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
2532
2533(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
2534internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
2535delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
2536
2537=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
2538
2539(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
2540name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
2541didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
2542ignored.
2543
2544=item (in cleanup) %s
2545
2546(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
2547the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
2548system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
2549times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
2550would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
2551
2552Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
2553also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
2554
2555=item Incomplete expression within '(?[ ])' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
2556in m/%s/
2557
2558(F) There was a syntax error within the C<(?[ ])>. This can happen if the
2559expression inside the construct was completely empty, or if there are
2560too many or few operands for the number of operators. Perl is not smart
2561enough to give you a more precise indication as to what is wrong.
2562
2563=item Inconsistent hierarchy during C3 merge of class '%s': merging failed on
2564parent '%s'
2565
2566(F) The method resolution order (MRO) of the given class is not
2567C3-consistent, and you have enabled the C3 MRO for this class. See the C3
2568documentation in L<mro> for more information.
2569
2570=item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
2571
2572(F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
2573Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
2574encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
2575
2576=item Infinite recursion in regex
2577
2578(F) You used a pattern that references itself without consuming any input
2579text. You should check the pattern to ensure that recursive patterns
2580either consume text or fail.
2581
2582=item Initialization of state variables in list context currently forbidden
2583
2584(F) Currently the implementation of "state" only permits the
2585initialization of scalar variables in scalar context. Re-write
2586C<state ($a) = 42> as C<state $a = 42> to change from list to scalar
2587context. Constructions such as C<state (@a) = foo()> will be
2588supported in a future perl release.
2589
2590=item %%s[%s] in scalar context better written as $%s[%s]
2591
2592(W syntax) In scalar context, you've used an array index/value slice
2593(indicated by %) to select a single element of an array. Generally
2594it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
2595is that C<$foo[&bar]> always behaves like a scalar, both in the value it
2596returns and when evaluating its argument, while C<%foo[&bar]> provides
2597a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things if you're
2598expecting only one subscript. When called in list context, it also
2599returns the index (what C<&bar> returns) in addition to the value.
2600
2601=item %%s{%s} in scalar context better written as $%s{%s}
2602
2603(W syntax) In scalar context, you've used a hash key/value slice
2604(indicated by %) to select a single element of a hash. Generally it's
2605better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
2606is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves like a scalar, both in the value
2607it returns and when evaluating its argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> and
2608provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
2609if you're expecting only one subscript. When called in list context,
2610it also returns the key in addition to the value.
2611
2612=item Insecure dependency in %s
2613
2614(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
2615The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
2616setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
2617tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
2618from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
2619such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
2620L<perlsec> for more information.
2621
2622=item Insecure directory in %s
2623
2624(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2625setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
2626the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
2627See L<perlsec>.
2628
2629=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
2630
2631(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
2632setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
2633C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
2634supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
2635the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
2636
2637=item Insecure user-defined property %s
2638
2639(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
2640expression that contains a call to a user-defined character property
2641function, i.e. C<\p{IsFoo}> or C<\p{InFoo}>.
2642See L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties> and L<perlsec>.
2643
2644=item Integer overflow in format string for %s
2645
2646(F) The indexes and widths specified in the format string of C<printf()>
2647or C<sprintf()> are too large. The numbers must not overflow the size of
2648integers for your architecture.
2649
2650=item Integer overflow in %s number
2651
2652(S overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
2653either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
2654your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
2655On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
2656representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
26570b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
2658transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
2659internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
2660operations.
2661
2662=item Integer overflow in srand
2663
2664(S overflow) The number you have passed to srand is too big to fit
2665in your architecture's integer representation. The number has been
2666replaced with the largest integer supported (0xFFFFFFFF on 32-bit
2667architectures). This means you may be getting less randomness than
2668you expect, because different random seeds above the maximum will
2669return the same sequence of random numbers.
2670
2671=item Integer overflow in version
2672
2673=item Integer overflow in version %d
2674
2675(W overflow) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for
2676the size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
2677because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use an
2678element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by trying
2679to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like 100/9.
2680
2681=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2682
2683(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
2684The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
2685discovered.
2686
2687=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
2688
2689(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
2690you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
2691to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
2692L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
2693Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
2694terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
2695
2696=item internal %<num>p might conflict with future printf extensions
2697
2698(S internal) Perl's internal routine that handles C<printf> and C<sprintf>
2699formatting follows a slightly different set of rules when called from
2700C or XS code. Specifically, formats consisting of digits followed
2701by "p" (e.g., "%7p") are reserved for future use. If you see this
2702message, then an XS module tried to call that routine with one such
2703reserved format.
2704
2705=item Internal urp in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2706
2707(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
2708S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
2709discovered.
2710
2711=item %s (...) interpreted as function
2712
2713(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
2714followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
2715operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
2716L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
2717
2718=item In '(?...)', the '(' and '?' must be adjacent in regex;
2719marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2720
2721(F) The two-character sequence C<"(?"> in this context in a regular
2722expression pattern should be an indivisible token, with nothing
2723intervening between the C<"("> and the C<"?">, but you separated them
2724with whitespace.
2725
2726=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
2727
2728(F) The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
2729by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
2730
2731=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
2732
2733(F) The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
2734recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
2735
2736=item Invalid character in charnames alias definition; marked by
2737S<<-- HERE> in '%s
2738
2739(F) You tried to create a custom alias for a character name, with
2740the C<:alias> option to C<use charnames> and the specified character in
2741the indicated name isn't valid. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
2742
2743=item Invalid \0 character in %s for %s: %s\0%s
2744
2745(W syscalls) Embedded \0 characters in pathnames or other system call
2746arguments produce a warning as of 5.20. The parts after the \0 were
2747formerly ignored by system calls.
2748
2749=item Invalid character in \N{...}; marked by S<<-- HERE> in \N{%s}
2750
2751(F) Only certain characters are valid for character names. The
2752indicated one isn't. See L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
2753
2754=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
2755
2756(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
2757L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
2758
2759=item Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regex; marked by
2760S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2761
2762(W regexp)(F) The numeric escape (for example C<\xHH>) of value < 256
2763didn't correspond to a single character through the conversion
2764from the encoding specified by the encoding pragma.
2765The escape was replaced with REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (U+FFFD)
2766instead, except within S<C<(?[ ])>>, where it is a fatal error.
2767The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
2768escape was discovered.
2769
2770=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...}
2771
2772=item Invalid hexadecimal number in \N{U+...} in regex; marked by
2773S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2774
2775(F) The character constant represented by C<...> is not a valid hexadecimal
2776number. Either it is empty, or you tried to use a character other than
27770 - 9 or A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number.
2778
2779=item Invalid module name %s with -%c option: contains single ':'
2780
2781(F) The module argument to perl's B<-m> and B<-M> command-line options
2782cannot contain single colons in the module name, but only in the
2783arguments after "=". In other words, B<-MFoo::Bar=:baz> is ok, but
2784B<-MFoo:Bar=baz> is not.
2785
2786=item Invalid mro name: '%s'
2787
2788(F) You tried to C<mro::set_mro("classname", "foo")> or C<use mro 'foo'>,
2789where C<foo> is not a valid method resolution order (MRO). Currently,
2790the only valid ones supported are C<dfs> and C<c3>, unless you have loaded
2791a module that is a MRO plugin. See L<mro> and L<perlmroapi>.
2792
2793=item Invalid negative number (%s) in chr
2794
2795(W utf8) You passed a negative number to C<chr>. Negative numbers are
2796not valid character numbers, so it returns the Unicode replacement
2797character (U+FFFD).
2798
2799=item invalid option -D%c, use -D'' to see choices
2800
2801(S debugging) Perl was called with invalid debugger flags. Call perl
2802with the B<-D> option with no flags to see the list of acceptable values.
2803See also L<perlrun/-Dletters>.
2804
2805=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2806
2807(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
2808greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
2809C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
2810up to C<ff>. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
2811problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2812
2813=item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
2814
2815(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
2816character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
2817
2818=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
2819
2820(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
2821elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
2822parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
2823See L<attributes>.
2824
2825=item Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
2826
2827(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other
2828than a colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
2829If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2830list was terminated too soon.
2831
2832=item Invalid strict version format (%s)
2833
2834(F) A version number did not meet the "strict" criteria for versions.
2835A "strict" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
2836decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
2837v-string with a leading 'v' character and at least three components.
2838The parenthesized text indicates which criteria were not met.
2839See the L<version> module for more details on allowed version formats.
2840
2841=item Invalid type '%s' in %s
2842
2843(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type.
2844See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2845
2846(W) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type but used to be
2847silently ignored.
2848
2849=item Invalid version format (%s)
2850
2851(F) A version number did not meet the "lax" criteria for versions.
2852A "lax" version number is a positive decimal number (integer or
2853decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal
2854v-string. If the v-string has fewer than three components, it
2855must have a leading 'v' character. Otherwise, the leading 'v' is
2856optional. Both decimal and dotted-decimal versions may have a
2857trailing "alpha" component separated by an underscore character
2858after a fractional or dotted-decimal component. The parenthesized
2859text indicates which criteria were not met. See the L<version> module
2860for more details on allowed version formats.
2861
2862=item Invalid version object
2863
2864(F) The internal structure of the version object was invalid.
2865Perhaps the internals were modified directly in some way or
2866an arbitrary reference was blessed into the "version" class.
2867
2868=item In '(*VERB...)', the '(' and '*' must be adjacent in regex;
2869marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
2870
2871(F) The two-character sequence C<"(*"> in
2872this context in a regular expression pattern should be an
2873indivisible token, with nothing intervening between the C<"(">
2874and the C<"*">, but you separated them.
2875
2876=item ioctl is not implemented
2877
2878(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
2879strange for a machine that supports C.
2880
2881=item ioctl() on unopened %s
2882
2883(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
2884Check your control flow and number of arguments.
2885
2886=item IO layers (like '%s') unavailable
2887
2888(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore
2889you cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO, Perl must be configured
2890with 'useperlio'.
2891
2892=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
2893
2894(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
2895neither as a system call nor an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
2896
2897=item "%s" is more clearly written simply as "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2898
2899(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
2900
2901You specified a character that has the given plainer way of writing it,
2902and which is also portable to platforms running with different character
2903sets.
2904
2905=item $* is no longer supported
2906
2907(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$*>, deprecated in older
2908perls, has been removed as of 5.10.0 and is no longer supported. In
2909previous versions of perl the use of C<$*> enabled or disabled multi-line
2910matching within a string.
2911
2912Instead of using C<$*> you should use the C</m> (and maybe C</s>) regexp
2913modifiers. You can enable C</m> for a lexical scope (even a whole file)
2914with C<use re '/m'>. (In older versions: when C<$*> was set to a true value
2915then all regular expressions behaved as if they were written using C</m>.)
2916
2917=item $# is no longer supported
2918
2919(D deprecated, syntax) The special variable C<$#>, deprecated in older
2920perls, has been removed as of 5.10.0 and is no longer supported. You
2921should use the printf/sprintf functions instead.
2922
2923=item '%s' is not a code reference
2924
2925(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of
2926overload::constant needs to be a code reference. Either
2927an anonymous subroutine, or a reference to a subroutine.
2928
2929=item '%s' is not an overloadable type
2930
2931(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
2932unaware of.
2933
2934=item -i used with no filenames on the command line, reading from STDIN
2935
2936(S inplace) The C<-i> option was passed on the command line, indicating
2937that the script is intended to edit files in place, but no files were
2938given. This is usually a mistake, since editing STDIN in place doesn't
2939make sense, and can be confusing because it can make perl look like
2940it is hanging when it is really just trying to read from STDIN. You
2941should either pass a filename to edit, or remove C<-i> from the command
2942line. See L<perlrun> for more details.
2943
2944=item Junk on end of regexp in regex m/%s/
2945
2946(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
2947
2948=item keys on reference is experimental
2949
2950(S experimental::autoderef) C<keys> with a scalar argument is experimental
2951and may change or be removed in a future Perl version. If you want to
2952take the risk of using this feature, simply disable this warning:
2953
2954 no warnings "experimental::autoderef";
2955
2956=item Label not found for "last %s"
2957
2958(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
2959of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2960L<perlfunc/last>.
2961
2962=item Label not found for "next %s"
2963
2964(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
2965that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2966L<perlfunc/last>.
2967
2968=item Label not found for "redo %s"
2969
2970(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
2971that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
2972L<perlfunc/last>.
2973
2974=item leaving effective %s failed
2975
2976(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
2977effective uids or gids failed.
2978
2979=item length/code after end of string in unpack
2980
2981(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an unpack
2982length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results in
2983an undefined value for the length. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2984
2985=item length() used on %s (did you mean "scalar(%s)"?)
2986
2987(W syntax) You used length() on either an array or a hash when you
2988probably wanted a count of the items.
2989
2990Array size can be obtained by doing:
2991
2992 scalar(@array);
2993
2994The number of items in a hash can be obtained by doing:
2995
2996 scalar(keys %hash);
2997
2998=item Lexing code attempted to stuff non-Latin-1 character into Latin-1 input
2999
3000(F) An extension is attempting to insert text into the current parse
3001(using L<lex_stuff_pvn|perlapi/lex_stuff_pvn> or similar), but tried to insert a character that
3002couldn't be part of the current input. This is an inherent pitfall
3003of the stuffing mechanism, and one of the reasons to avoid it. Where
3004it is necessary to stuff, stuffing only plain ASCII is recommended.
3005
3006=item Lexing code internal error (%s)
3007
3008(F) Lexing code supplied by an extension violated the lexer's API in a
3009detectable way.
3010
3011=item listen() on closed socket %s
3012
3013(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
3014to check the return value of your socket() call? See
3015L<perlfunc/listen>.
3016
3017=item List form of piped open not implemented
3018
3019(F) On some platforms, notably Windows, the three-or-more-arguments
3020form of C<open> does not support pipes, such as C<open($pipe, '|-', @args)>.
3021Use the two-argument C<open($pipe, '|prog arg1 arg2...')> form instead.
3022
3023=item %s: loadable library and perl binaries are mismatched (got handshake key %p, needed %p)
3024
3025(P) A dynamic loading library C<.so> or C<.dll> was being loaded into the
3026process that was built against a different build of perl than the
3027said library was compiled against. Reinstalling the XS module will
3028likely fix this error.
3029
3030=item Locale '%s' may not work well.%s
3031
3032(W locale) You are using the named locale, which is a non-UTF-8 one, and
3033which Perl has determined is not fully compatible with Perl. The second
3034C<%s> gives a reason.
3035
3036By far the most common reason is that the locale has characters in it
3037that are represented by more than one byte. The only such locales that
3038Perl can handle are the UTF-8 locales. Most likely the specified locale
3039is a non-UTF-8 one for an East Asian language such as Chinese or
3040Japanese. If the locale is a superset of ASCII, the ASCII portion of it
3041may work in Perl.
3042
3043Some essentially obsolete locales that aren't supersets of ASCII, mainly
3044those in ISO 646 or other 7-bit locales, such as ASMO 449, can also have
3045problems, depending on what portions of the ASCII character set get
3046changed by the locale and are also used by the program.
3047The warning message lists the determinable conflicting characters.
3048
3049Note that not all incompatibilities are found.
3050
3051If this happens to you, there's not much you can do except switch to use a
3052different locale or use L<Encode> to translate from the locale into
3053UTF-8; if that's impracticable, you have been warned that some things
3054may break.
3055
3056This message is output once each time a bad locale is switched into
3057within the scope of C<S<use locale>>, or on the first possibly-affected
3058operation if the C<S<use locale>> inherits a bad one. It is not raised
3059for any operations from the L<POSIX> module.
3060
3061=item localtime(%f) failed
3062
3063(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that it could not handle:
3064too large, too small, or NaN. The returned value is C<undef>.
3065
3066=item localtime(%f) too large
3067
3068(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was larger
3069than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
3070wrong date. This warning is also triggered with NaN (the special
3071not-a-number value).
3072
3073=item localtime(%f) too small
3074
3075(W overflow) You called C<localtime> with a number that was smaller
3076than it can reliably handle and C<localtime> probably returned the
3077wrong date.
3078
3079=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex m/%s/
3080
3081(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
3082handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release.
3083
3084=item Lost precision when %s %f by 1
3085
3086(W imprecision) The value you attempted to increment or decrement by one
3087is too large for the underlying floating point representation to store
3088accurately, hence the target of C<++> or C<--> is unchanged. Perl issues this
3089warning because it has already switched from integers to floating point
3090when values are too large for integers, and now even floating point is
3091insufficient. You may wish to switch to using L<Math::BigInt> explicitly.
3092
3093=item lstat() on filehandle%s
3094
3095(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
3096by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
3097instead on the filehandle.)
3098
3099=item lvalue attribute %s already-defined subroutine
3100
3101(W misc) Although L<attributes.pm|attributes> allows this, turning the lvalue
3102attribute on or off on a Perl subroutine that is already defined
3103does not always work properly. It may or may not do what you
3104want, depending on what code is inside the subroutine, with exact
3105details subject to change between Perl versions. Only do this
3106if you really know what you are doing.
3107
3108=item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined
3109
3110(W misc) Using the C<:lvalue> declarative syntax to make a Perl
3111subroutine an lvalue subroutine after it has been defined is
3112not permitted. To make the subroutine an lvalue subroutine,
3113add the lvalue attribute to the definition, or put the C<sub
3114foo :lvalue;> declaration before the definition.
3115
3116See also L<attributes.pm|attributes>.
3117
3118=item Magical list constants are not supported
3119
3120(F) You assigned a magical array to a stash element, and then tried
3121to use the subroutine from the same slot. You are asking Perl to do
3122something it cannot do, details subject to change between Perl versions.
3123
3124=item Malformed integer in [] in pack
3125
3126(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
3127are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3128
3129=item Malformed integer in [] in unpack
3130
3131(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
3132are permitted. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3133
3134=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
3135
3136(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
3137
3138 prefix1;prefix2
3139
3140or
3141 prefix1 prefix2
3142
3143with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
3144a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
3145appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
3146"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
3147
3148=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
3149
3150(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
3151syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
3152obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
3153when the function is called.
3154Perhaps the function's author was trying to write a subroutine signature
3155but didn't enable that feature first (C<use feature 'signatures'>),
3156so the signature was instead interpreted as a bad prototype.
3157
3158=item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
3159
3160(S utf8)(F) Perl detected a string that didn't comply with UTF-8
3161encoding rules, even though it had the UTF8 flag on.
3162
3163One possible cause is that you set the UTF8 flag yourself for data that
3164you thought to be in UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy
31658-bit data). To guard against this, you can use Encode::decode_utf8.
3166
3167If you use the C<:encoding(UTF-8)> PerlIO layer for input, invalid byte
3168sequences are handled gracefully, but if you use C<:utf8>, the flag is
3169set without validating the data, possibly resulting in this error
3170message.
3171
3172See also L<Encode/"Handling Malformed Data">.
3173
3174=item Malformed UTF-8 character immediately after '%s'
3175
3176(F) You said C<use utf8>, but the program file doesn't comply with UTF-8
3177encoding rules. The message prints out the properly encoded characters
3178just before the first bad one. If C<utf8> warnings are enabled, a
3179warning is generated that gives more details about the type of
3180malformation.
3181
3182=item Malformed UTF-8 returned by \N{%s} immediately after '%s'
3183
3184(F) The charnames handler returned malformed UTF-8.
3185
3186=item Malformed UTF-8 string in '%c' format in unpack
3187
3188(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3189rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3190
3191=item Malformed UTF-8 string in pack
3192
3193(F) You tried to pack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3194rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3195
3196=item Malformed UTF-8 string in unpack
3197
3198(F) You tried to unpack something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding
3199rules and perl was unable to guess how to make more progress.
3200
3201=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
3202
3203(F) Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
3204doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
3205
3206=item Mandatory parameter follows optional parameter
3207
3208(F) In a subroutine signature, you wrote something like "$a = undef,
3209$b", making an earlier parameter optional and a later one mandatory.
3210Parameters are filled from left to right, so it's impossible for the
3211caller to omit an earlier one and pass a later one. If you want to act
3212as if the parameters are filled from right to left, declare the rightmost
3213optional and then shuffle the parameters around in the subroutine's body.
3214
3215=item Matched non-Unicode code point 0x%X against Unicode property; may
3216not be portable
3217
3218(S non_unicode) Perl allows strings to contain a superset of
3219Unicode code points; each code point may be as large as what is storable
3220in an unsigned integer on your system, but these may not be accepted by
3221other languages/systems. This message occurs when you matched a string
3222containing such a code point against a regular expression pattern, and
3223the code point was matched against a Unicode property, C<\p{...}> or
3224C<\P{...}>. Unicode properties are only defined on Unicode code points,
3225so the result of this match is undefined by Unicode, but Perl (starting
3226in v5.20) treats non-Unicode code points as if they were typical
3227unassigned Unicode ones, and matched this one accordingly. Whether a
3228given property matches these code points or not is specified in
3229L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>.
3230
3231This message is suppressed (unless it has been made fatal) if it is
3232immaterial to the results of the match if the code point is Unicode or
3233not. For example, the property C<\p{ASCII_Hex_Digit}> only can match
3234the 22 characters C<[0-9A-Fa-f]>, so obviously all other code points,
3235Unicode or not, won't match it. (And C<\P{ASCII_Hex_Digit}> will match
3236every code point except these 22.)
3237
3238Getting this message indicates that the outcome of the match arguably
3239should have been the opposite of what actually happened. If you think
3240that is the case, you may wish to make the C<non_unicode> warnings
3241category fatal; if you agree with Perl's decision, you may wish to turn
3242off this category.
3243
3244See L<perlunicode/Beyond Unicode code points> for more information.
3245
3246=item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
3247m/%s/
3248
3249(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
3250regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The S<<-- HERE>
3251shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
3252See L<perlre>.
3253
3254=item Maximal count of pending signals (%u) exceeded
3255
3256(F) Perl aborted due to too high a number of signals pending. This
3257usually indicates that your operating system tried to deliver signals
3258too fast (with a very high priority), starving the perl process from
3259resources it would need to reach a point where it can process signals
3260safely. (See L<perlipc/"Deferred Signals (Safe Signals)">.)
3261
3262=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
3263
3264(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
3265interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
3266"use" or "my".
3267
3268=item '%' may not be used in pack
3269
3270(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
3271checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
3272See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
3273
3274=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
3275
3276(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
3277doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
3278
3279=item Method %s not permitted
3280
3281See Server error.
3282
3283=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
3284
3285(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
3286by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
3287ended earlier on the current line.
3288
3289=item Misplaced _ in number
3290
3291(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
3292separate two digits.
3293
3294=item Missing argument in %s
3295
3296(W missing) You called a function with fewer arguments than other
3297arguments you supplied indicated would be needed.
3298
3299Currently only emitted when a printf-type format required more
3300arguments than were supplied, but might be used in the future for
3301other cases where we can statically determine that arguments to
3302functions are missing, e.g. for the L<perlfunc/pack> function.
3303
3304=item Ranges of ASCII printables should be some subset of "0-9", "A-Z", or
3305"a-z" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3306
3307(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
3308
3309Stricter rules help to find typos and other errors. Perhaps you didn't
3310even intend a range here, if the C<"-"> was meant to be some other
3311character, or should have been escaped (like C<"\-">). If you did
3312intend a range, the one that was used is not portable between ASCII and
3313EBCDIC platforms, and doesn't have an obvious meaning to a casual
3314reader.
3315
3316 [3-7] # OK; Obvious and portable
3317 [d-g] # OK; Obvious and portable
3318 [A-Y] # OK; Obvious and portable
3319 [A-z] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
3320 [a-Z] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
3321 [%-.] # WRONG; Not portable; not clear what is meant
3322 [\x41-Z] # WRONG; Not portable; not obvious to non-geek
3323
3324(You can force portability by specifying a Unicode range, which means that
3325the endpoints are specified by
3326L<C<\N{...}>|perlrecharclass/Character Ranges>, but the meaning may
3327still not be obvious.)
3328The stricter rules require that ranges that start or stop with an ASCII
3329character that is not a control have all their endpoints be the literal
3330character, and not some escape sequence (like C<"\x41">), and the ranges
3331must be all digits, or all uppercase letters, or all lowercase letters.
3332
3333=item Ranges of digits should be from the same group in regex; marked by
3334<-- HERE in m/%s/
3335
3336(W regexp) (only under C<S<use re 'strict'>> or within C<(?[...])>)
3337
3338Stricter rules help to find typos and other errors. You included a
3339range, and at least one of the end points is a decimal digit. Under the
3340stricter rules, when this happens, both end points should be digits in
3341the same group of 10 consecutive digits.
3342
3343=item Missing argument to -%c
3344
3345(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
3346immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
3347
3348=item Missing braces on \N{}
3349
3350=item Missing braces on \N{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3351
3352(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
3353double-quotish context. This can also happen when there is a space
3354(or comment) between the C<\N> and the C<{> in a regex with the C</x> modifier.
3355This modifier does not change the requirement that the brace immediately
3356follow the C<\N>.
3357
3358=item Missing braces on \o{}
3359
3360(F) A C<\o> must be followed immediately by a C<{> in double-quotish context.
3361
3362=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
3363
3364(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
3365"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
3366
3367=item Missing command in piped open
3368
3369(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
3370C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
3371blank.
3372
3373=item Missing control char name in \c
3374
3375(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
3376character name.
3377
3378=item Missing ']' in prototype for %s : %s
3379
3380(W illegalproto) A grouping was started with C<[> but never closed with C<]>.
3381
3382=item Missing name in "%s sub"
3383
3384(F) The syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
3385they have a name with which they can be found.
3386
3387=item Missing $ on loop variable
3388
3389(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
3390are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
3391can vary from one line to the next.
3392
3393=item (Missing operator before %s?)
3394
3395(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3396"%s found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
3397
3398=item Missing or undefined argument to require
3399
3400(F) You tried to call require with no argument or with an undefined
3401value as an argument. Require expects either a package name or a
3402file-specification as an argument. See L<perlfunc/require>.
3403
3404=item Missing right brace on \%c{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3405
3406(F) Missing right brace in C<\x{...}>, C<\p{...}>, C<\P{...}>, or C<\N{...}>.
3407
3408=item Missing right brace on \N{}
3409
3410=item Missing right brace on \N{} or unescaped left brace after \N
3411
3412(F) C<\N> has two meanings.
3413
3414The traditional one has it followed by a name enclosed in braces,
3415meaning the character (or sequence of characters) given by that
3416name. Thus C<\N{ASTERISK}> is another way of writing C<*>, valid in both
3417double-quoted strings and regular expression patterns. In patterns,
3418it doesn't have the meaning an unescaped C<*> does.
3419
3420Starting in Perl 5.12.0, C<\N> also can have an additional meaning (only)
3421in patterns, namely to match a non-newline character. (This is short
3422for C<[^\n]>, and like C<.> but is not affected by the C</s> regex modifier.)
3423
3424This can lead to some ambiguities. When C<\N> is not followed immediately
3425by a left brace, Perl assumes the C<[^\n]> meaning. Also, if the braces
3426form a valid quantifier such as C<\N{3}> or C<\N{5,}>, Perl assumes that this
3427means to match the given quantity of non-newlines (in these examples,
34283; and 5 or more, respectively). In all other case, where there is a
3429C<\N{> and a matching C<}>, Perl assumes that a character name is desired.
3430
3431However, if there is no matching C<}>, Perl doesn't know if it was
3432mistakenly omitted, or if C<[^\n]{> was desired, and raises this error.
3433If you meant the former, add the right brace; if you meant the latter,
3434escape the brace with a backslash, like so: C<\N\{>
3435
3436=item Missing right curly or square bracket
3437
3438(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
3439ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
3440were last editing.
3441
3442=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
3443
3444(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
3445"%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
3446the previous line just because you saw this message.
3447
3448=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
3449
3450(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
3451constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
3452catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
3453
3454 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
3455 mod(2);
3456
3457Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
3458
3459Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
3460is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
3461
3462 $x = 1;
3463 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
3464 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to
3465 } # modify the 2
3466
3467=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
3468
3469(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
3470subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
3471backwards.
3472
3473=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
3474
3475(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
3476couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
3477
3478=item Module name must be constant
3479
3480(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
3481
3482=item Module name required with -%c option
3483
3484(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
3485you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
3486about C<-M> and C<-m>.
3487
3488=item More than one argument to '%s' open
3489
3490(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
3491can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
3492list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
3493See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
3494
3495=item mprotect for COW string %p %u failed with %d
3496
3497(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_COW (see
3498L<perlguts/"Copy on Write">), but a shared string buffer
3499could not be made read-only.
3500
3501=item mprotect for %p %u failed with %d
3502
3503(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS (see L<perlhacktips>),
3504but an op tree could not be made read-only.
3505
3506=item mprotect RW for COW string %p %u failed with %d
3507
3508(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_COW (see
3509L<perlguts/"Copy on Write">), but a read-only shared string
3510buffer could not be made mutable.
3511
3512=item mprotect RW for %p %u failed with %d
3513
3514(S) You compiled perl with B<-D>PERL_DEBUG_READONLY_OPS (see
3515L<perlhacktips>), but a read-only op tree could not be made
3516mutable before freeing the ops.
3517
3518=item msg%s not implemented
3519
3520(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
3521
3522=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
3523
3524(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
3525They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
3526
3527=item '/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
3528
3529(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
3530follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value.
3531See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3532
3533=item "my sub" not yet implemented
3534
3535(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
3536that yet.
3537
3538=item "my" subroutine %s can't be in a package
3539
3540(F) Lexically scoped subroutines aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
3541sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front.
3542
3543=item "my %s" used in sort comparison
3544
3545(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
3546You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
3547sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
3548lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
3549name, or rename the lexical variable.
3550
3551=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
3552
3553(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
3554sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
3555local() if you want to localize a package variable.
3556
3557=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
3558
3559(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable
3560names. If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then
3561just mention it again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our>
3562declaration is also provided for this purpose.
3563
3564NOTE: This warning detects package symbols that have been used
3565only once. This means lexical variables will never trigger this
3566warning. It also means that all of the package variables $c, @c,
3567%c, as well as *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or
3568format) are considered the same; if a program uses $c only once
3569but also uses any of the others it will not trigger this warning.
3570Symbols beginning with an underscore and symbols using special
3571identifiers (q.v. L<perldata>) are exempt from this warning.
3572
3573=item Need exactly 3 octal digits in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3574
3575(F) Within S<C<(?[ ])>>, all constants interpreted as octal need to be
3576exactly 3 digits long. This helps catch some ambiguities. If your
3577constant is too short, add leading zeros, like
3578
3579 (?[ [ \078 ] ]) # Syntax error!
3580 (?[ [ \0078 ] ]) # Works
3581 (?[ [ \007 8 ] ]) # Clearer
3582
3583The maximum number this construct can express is C<\777>. If you
3584need a larger one, you need to use L<\o{}|perlrebackslash/Octal escapes> instead. If you meant
3585two separate things, you need to separate them:
3586
3587 (?[ [ \7776 ] ]) # Syntax error!
3588 (?[ [ \o{7776} ] ]) # One meaning
3589 (?[ [ \777 6 ] ]) # Another meaning
3590 (?[ [ \777 \006 ] ]) # Still another
3591
3592=item Negative '/' count in unpack
3593
3594(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
3595negative. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3596
3597=item Negative length
3598
3599(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
3600length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
3601
3602=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
3603
3604(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
3605greater than or equal to zero.
3606
3607=item Negative repeat count does nothing
3608
3609(W numeric) You tried to execute the
3610L<C<x>|perlop/Multiplicative Operators> repetition operator fewer than 0
3611times, which doesn't make sense.
3612
3613=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3614
3615(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses.
3616So things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The S<<-- HERE> shows
3617whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
3618
3619Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
3620C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
3621
3622=item %s never introduced
3623
3624(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
3625scope before it could possibly have been used.
3626
3627=item next::method/next::can/maybe::next::method cannot find enclosing method
3628
3629(F) C<next::method> needs to be called within the context of a
3630real method in a real package, and it could not find such a context.
3631See L<mro>.
3632
3633=item \N in a character class must be a named character: \N{...} in regex;
3634marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3635
3636(F) The new (as of Perl 5.12) meaning of C<\N> as C<[^\n]> is not valid in a
3637bracketed character class, for the same reason that C<.> in a character
3638class loses its specialness: it matches almost everything, which is
3639probably not what you want.
3640
3641=item \N{} in inverted character class or as a range end-point is restricted to one character in regex; marked
3642by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3643
3644(F) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a
3645multi-character sequence. Even though a character class is
3646supposed to match just one character of input, perl will match the
3647whole thing correctly, except when the class is inverted (C<[^...]>),
3648or the escape is the beginning or final end point of a range. The
3649mathematically logical behavior for what matches when inverting
3650is very different from what people expect, so we have decided to
3651forbid it. Similarly unclear is what should be generated when the
3652C<\N{...}> is used as one of the end points of the range, such as in
3653
3654 [\x{41}-\N{ARABIC SEQUENCE YEH WITH HAMZA ABOVE WITH AE}]
3655
3656What is meant here is unclear, as the C<\N{...}> escape is a sequence
3657of code points, so this is made an error.
3658
3659=item \N{NAME} must be resolved by the lexer in regex; marked by
3660S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3661
3662(F) When compiling a regex pattern, an unresolved named character or
3663sequence was encountered. This can happen in any of several ways that
3664bypass the lexer, such as using single-quotish context, or an extra
3665backslash in double-quotish:
3666
3667 $re = '\N{SPACE}'; # Wrong!
3668 $re = "\\N{SPACE}"; # Wrong!
3669 /$re/;
3670
3671Instead, use double-quotes with a single backslash:
3672
3673 $re = "\N{SPACE}"; # ok
3674 /$re/;
3675
3676The lexer can be bypassed as well by creating the pattern from smaller
3677components:
3678
3679 $re = '\N';
3680 /${re}{SPACE}/; # Wrong!
3681
3682It's not a good idea to split a construct in the middle like this, and
3683it doesn't work here. Instead use the solution above.
3684
3685Finally, the message also can happen under the C</x> regex modifier when the
3686C<\N> is separated by spaces from the C<{>, in which case, remove the spaces.
3687
3688 /\N {SPACE}/x; # Wrong!
3689 /\N{SPACE}/x; # ok
3690
3691=item No %s allowed while running setuid
3692
3693(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
3694setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
3695will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
3696securable. See L<perlsec>.
3697
3698=item NO-BREAK SPACE in a charnames alias definition is deprecated
3699
3700(D deprecated) You defined a character name which contained a no-break
3701space character. Change it to a regular space. Usually these names are
3702defined in the C<:alias> import argument to C<use charnames>, but they
3703could be defined by a translator installed into C<$^H{charnames}>. See
3704L<charnames/CUSTOM ALIASES>.
3705
3706=item No code specified for -%c
3707
3708(F) Perl's B<-e> and B<-E> command-line options require an argument. If
3709you want to run an empty program, pass the empty string as a separate
3710argument or run a program consisting of a single 0 or 1:
3711
3712 perl -e ""
3713 perl -e0
3714 perl -e1
3715
3716=item No comma allowed after %s
3717
3718(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is
3719not allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
3720Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
3721
3722One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported
3723a constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
3724importing took place, it may for example be that your operating
3725system does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did
3726use an explicit import list for the constants you expect to see;
3727please see L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an
3728explicit import list would probably have caught this error earlier
3729it naturally does not remedy the fact that your operating system
3730still does not support that constant. Maybe you have a typo in
3731the constants of the symbol import list of B<use> or B<import> or in the
3732constant name at the line where this error was triggered?
3733
3734=item No command into which to pipe on command line
3735
3736(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3737redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
3738doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
3739
3740=item No DB::DB routine defined
3741
3742(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
3743for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
3744module) didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
3745statement.
3746
3747=item No dbm on this machine
3748
3749(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
3750supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
3751
3752=item No DB::sub routine defined
3753
3754(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
3755for some reason the current debugger (e.g. F<perl5db.pl> or a C<Devel::>
3756module) didn't define a C<DB::sub> routine to be called at the beginning
3757of each ordinary subroutine call.
3758
3759=item No directory specified for -I
3760
3761(F) The B<-I> command-line switch requires a directory name as part of the
3762I<same> argument. Use B<-Ilib>, for instance. B<-I lib> won't work.
3763
3764=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
3765
3766(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3767redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
3768find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
3769
3770=item No group ending character '%c' found in template
3771
3772(F) A pack or unpack template has an opening '(' or '[' without its
3773matching counterpart. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3774
3775=item No input file after < on command line
3776
3777(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3778redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
3779name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
3780
3781=item No next::method '%s' found for %s
3782
3783(F) C<next::method> found no further instances of this method name
3784in the remaining packages of the MRO of this class. If you don't want
3785it throwing an exception, use C<maybe::next::method>
3786or C<next::can>. See L<mro>.
3787
3788=item Non-finite repeat count does nothing
3789
3790(W numeric) You tried to execute the
3791L<C<x>|perlop/Multiplicative Operators> repetition operator C<Inf> (or
3792C<-Inf>) or C<NaN> times, which doesn't make sense.
3793
3794=item Non-hex character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3795
3796(F) In a regular expression, there was a non-hexadecimal character where
3797a hex one was expected, like
3798
3799 (?[ [ \xDG ] ])
3800 (?[ [ \x{DEKA} ] ])
3801
3802=item Non-octal character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3803
3804(F) In a regular expression, there was a non-octal character where
3805an octal one was expected, like
3806
3807 (?[ [ \o{1278} ] ])
3808
3809=item Non-octal character '%c'. Resolved as "%s"
3810
3811(W digit) In parsing an octal numeric constant, a character was
3812unexpectedly encountered that isn't octal. The resulting value
3813is as indicated.
3814
3815=item "no" not allowed in expression
3816
3817(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
3818returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
3819
3820=item Non-string passed as bitmask
3821
3822(W misc) A number has been passed as a bitmask argument to select().
3823Use the vec() function to construct the file descriptor bitmasks for
3824select. See L<perlfunc/select>.
3825
3826=item No output file after > on command line
3827
3828(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3829redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
3830doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
3831
3832=item No output file after > or >> on command line
3833
3834(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
3835redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
3836find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
3837
3838=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
3839
3840(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
3841declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
3842semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
3843
3844=item No Perl script found in input
3845
3846(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
3847with #! and containing the word "perl".
3848
3849=item No setregid available
3850
3851(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
3852your system.
3853
3854=item No setreuid available
3855
3856(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
3857your system.
3858
3859=item No such class %s
3860
3861(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my", "our" or "state"
3862declaration, but this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
3863
3864=item No such class field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
3865
3866(F) You tried to access a key from a hash through the indicated typed
3867variable but that key is not allowed by the package of the same type.
3868The indicated package has restricted the set of allowed keys using the
3869L<fields> pragma.
3870
3871=item No such hook: %s
3872
3873(F) You specified a signal hook that was not recognized by Perl.
3874Currently, Perl accepts C<__DIE__> and C<__WARN__> as valid signal hooks.
3875
3876=item No such pipe open
3877
3878(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
3879close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
3880earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
3881
3882=item No such signal: SIG%s
3883
3884(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
3885not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
3886names on your system.
3887
3888=item Not a CODE reference
3889
3890(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
3891subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
3892use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
3893also L<perlref>.
3894
3895=item Not a GLOB reference
3896
3897(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
3898symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
3899something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
3900kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
3901
3902=item Not a HASH reference
3903
3904(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
3905reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
3906find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
3907
3908=item Not an ARRAY reference
3909
3910(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
3911a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
3912to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
3913
3914=item Not an unblessed ARRAY reference
3915
3916(F) You passed a reference to a blessed array to C<push>, C<shift> or
3917another array function. These only accept unblessed array references
3918or arrays beginning explicitly with C<@>.
3919
3920=item Not a SCALAR reference
3921
3922(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
3923a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
3924to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
3925
3926=item Not a subroutine reference
3927
3928(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
3929subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
3930use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
3931also L<perlref>.
3932
3933=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
3934
3935(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
3936doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
3937
3938=item Not enough arguments for %s
3939
3940(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
3941
3942=item Not enough format arguments
3943
3944(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
3945supplied. See L<perlform>.
3946
3947=item %s: not found
3948
3949(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
3950of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
3951yourself.
3952
3953=item (?[...]) not valid in locale in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
3954
3955(F) C<(?[...])> cannot be used within the scope of a C<S<use locale>> or with
3956an C</l> regular expression modifier, as that would require deferring
3957to run-time the calculation of what it should evaluate to, and it is
3958regex compile-time only.
3959
3960=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
3961
3962(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
3963timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
3964to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
3965F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
3966need to be added to UTC to get local time.
3967
3968=item NULL OP IN RUN
3969
3970(S debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
3971pointer.
3972
3973=item Null picture in formline
3974
3975(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
3976specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
3977supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
3978
3979=item Null realloc
3980
3981(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
3982
3983=item NULL regexp argument
3984
3985(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
3986
3987=item NULL regexp parameter
3988
3989(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
3990
3991=item Number too long
3992
3993(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
3994about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
3995versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
3996the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
3997"1_000_000").
3998
3999=item Number with no digits
4000
4001(F) Perl was looking for a number but found nothing that looked like
4002a number. This happens, for example with C<\o{}>, with no number between
4003the braces.
4004
4005=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
4006
4007(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
4008(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
4009L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
4010
4011=item Odd name/value argument for subroutine
4012
4013(F) A subroutine using a slurpy hash parameter in its signature
4014received an odd number of arguments to populate the hash. It requires
4015the arguments to be paired, with the same number of keys as values.
4016The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault. Inconveniently,
4017this error will be reported at the location of the subroutine, not that
4018of the caller.
4019
4020=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
4021
4022(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
4023arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
4024
4025=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
4026
4027(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
4028which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
4029
4030=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
4031
4032(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
4033which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
4034
4035=item Offset outside string
4036
4037(F)(W layer) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv/seek operation
4038with an offset pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to
4039imagine. The sole exceptions to this are that zero padding will
4040take place when going past the end of the string when either
4041C<sysread()>ing a file, or when seeking past the end of a scalar opened
4042for I/O (in anticipation of future reads and to imitate the behavior
4043with real files).
4044
4045=item %s() on unopened %s
4046
4047(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
4048never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
4049call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
4050
4051=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
4052
4053(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
4054that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
4055
4056=item oops: oopsAV
4057
4058(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
4059
4060=item oops: oopsHV
4061
4062(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
4063
4064=item Opening dirhandle %s also as a file
4065
4066(D io, deprecated) You used open() to associate a filehandle to
4067a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a dirhandle.
4068Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
4069and is deprecated.
4070
4071=item Opening filehandle %s also as a directory
4072
4073(D io, deprecated) You used opendir() to associate a dirhandle to
4074a symbol (glob or scalar) that already holds a filehandle.
4075Although legal, this idiom might render your code confusing
4076and is deprecated.
4077
4078=item Operand with no preceding operator in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
4079m/%s/
4080
4081(F) You wrote something like
4082
4083 (?[ \p{Digit} \p{Thai} ])
4084
4085There are two operands, but no operator giving how you want to combine
4086them.
4087
4088=item Operation "%s": no method found, %s
4089
4090(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
4091handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
4092of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
4093the C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
4094
4095=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for non-Unicode code point 0x%X
4096
4097(S non_unicode) You performed an operation requiring Unicode semantics
4098on a code point that is not in Unicode, so what it should do is not
4099defined. Perl has chosen to have it do nothing, and warn you.
4100
4101If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
4102matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
4103
4104If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
4105C<no warnings 'non_unicode';>.
4106
4107=item Operation "%s" returns its argument for UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
4108
4109(S surrogate) You performed an operation requiring Unicode
4110semantics on a Unicode surrogate. Unicode frowns upon the use
4111of surrogates for anything but storing strings in UTF-16, but
4112semantics are (reluctantly) defined for the surrogates, and
4113they are to do nothing for this operation. Because the use of
4114surrogates can be dangerous, Perl warns.
4115
4116If the operation shown is "ToFold", it means that case-insensitive
4117matching in a regular expression was done on the code point.
4118
4119If you know what you are doing you can turn off this warning by
4120C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
4121
4122=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
4123
4124(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
4125was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
4126use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
4127example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
4128"*foo * 'foo'".
4129
4130=item Optional parameter lacks default expression
4131
4132(F) In a subroutine signature, you wrote something like "$a =", making a
4133named optional parameter without a default value. A nameless optional
4134parameter is permitted to have no default value, but a named one must
4135have a specific default. You probably want "$a = undef".
4136
4137=item "our" variable %s redeclared
4138
4139(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
4140in the current lexical scope.
4141
4142=item Out of memory!
4143
4144(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
4145remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
4146no option but to exit immediately.
4147
4148At least in Unix you may be able to get past this by increasing your
4149process datasize limits: in csh/tcsh use C<limit> and
4150C<limit datasize n> (where C<n> is the number of kilobytes) to check
4151the current limits and change them, and in ksh/bash/zsh use C<ulimit -a>
4152and C<ulimit -d n>, respectively.
4153
4154=item Out of memory during %s extend
4155
4156(X) An attempt was made to extend an array, a list, or a string beyond
4157the largest possible memory allocation.
4158
4159=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
4160
4161(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
4162remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
4163the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
4164possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
4165
4166=item Out of memory during request for %s
4167
4168(X)(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
4169insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
4170request.
4171
4172The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
4173depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
4174However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
4175emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
4176is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
4177where the failed request happened.
4178
4179=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
4180
4181(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
4182is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
4183C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
4184
4185=item Out of memory for yacc stack
4186
4187(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
4188parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
4189otherwise.
4190
4191=item '.' outside of string in pack
4192
4193(F) The argument to a '.' in your template tried to move the working
4194position to before the start of the packed string being built.
4195
4196=item '@' outside of string in unpack
4197
4198(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
4199the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4200
4201=item '@' outside of string with malformed UTF-8 in unpack
4202
4203(F) You had a template that specified an absolute position outside
4204the string being unpacked. The string being unpacked was also invalid
4205UTF-8. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4206
4207=item overload arg '%s' is invalid
4208
4209(W overload) The L<overload> pragma was passed an argument it did not
4210recognize. Did you mistype an operator?
4211
4212=item Overloaded dereference did not return a reference
4213
4214(F) An object with an overloaded dereference operator was dereferenced,
4215but the overloaded operation did not return a reference. See
4216L<overload>.
4217
4218=item Overloaded qr did not return a REGEXP
4219
4220(F) An object with a C<qr> overload was used as part of a match, but the
4221overloaded operation didn't return a compiled regexp. See L<overload>.
4222
4223=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
4224
4225(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
4226package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
4227some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
4228mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
4229
4230=item pack/unpack repeat count overflow
4231
4232(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
4233signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4234
4235=item page overflow
4236
4237(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
4238page. See L<perlform>.
4239
4240=item panic: %s
4241
4242(P) An internal error.
4243
4244=item panic: attempt to call %s in %s
4245
4246(P) One of the file test operators entered a code branch that calls
4247an ACL related-function, but that function is not available on this
4248platform. Earlier checks mean that it should not be possible to
4249enter this branch on this platform.
4250
4251=item panic: child pseudo-process was never scheduled
4252
4253(P) A child pseudo-process in the ithreads implementation on Windows
4254was not scheduled within the time period allowed and therefore was not
4255able to initialize properly.
4256
4257=item panic: ck_grep, type=%u
4258
4259(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
4260
4261=item panic: ck_split, type=%u
4262
4263(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
4264
4265=item panic: corrupt saved stack index %ld
4266
4267(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
4268there are in the savestack.
4269
4270=item panic: del_backref
4271
4272(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
4273reference.
4274
4275=item panic: die %s
4276
4277(P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
4278it wasn't an eval context.
4279
4280=item panic: do_subst
4281
4282(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
4283data.
4284
4285=item panic: do_trans_%s
4286
4287(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
4288data.
4289
4290=item panic: fold_constants JMPENV_PUSH returned %d
4291
4292(P) While attempting folding constants an exception other than an C<eval>
4293failure was caught.
4294
4295=item panic: frexp: %f
4296
4297(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
4298
4299=item panic: goto, type=%u, ix=%ld
4300
4301(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
4302and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
4303
4304=item panic: gp_free failed to free glob pointer
4305
4306(P) The internal routine used to clear a typeglob's entries tried
4307repeatedly, but each time something re-created entries in the glob.
4308Most likely the glob contains an object with a reference back to
4309the glob and a destructor that adds a new object to the glob.
4310
4311=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD, %s
4312
4313(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
4314
4315=item panic: INTERPCONCAT, %s
4316
4317(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
4318
4319=item panic: kid popen errno read
4320
4321(F) A forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
4322
4323=item panic: last, type=%u
4324
4325(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
4326it wasn't a block context.
4327
4328=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
4329
4330(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
4331scope.
4332
4333=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency %u
4334
4335(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
4336invalid enum on the top of it.
4337
4338=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
4339
4340(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
4341references to an object.
4342
4343=item panic: malloc, %s
4344
4345(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
4346
4347=item panic: memory wrap
4348
4349(P) Something tried to allocate either more memory than possible or a
4350negative amount.
4351
4352=item panic: pad_alloc, %p!=%p
4353
4354(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4355and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4356
4357=item panic: pad_free curpad, %p!=%p
4358
4359(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4360and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4361
4362=item panic: pad_free po
4363
4364(P) A zero scratch pad offset was detected internally. An attempt was
4365made to free a target that had not been allocated to begin with.
4366
4367=item panic: pad_reset curpad, %p!=%p
4368
4369(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4370and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4371
4372=item panic: pad_sv po
4373
4374(P) A zero scratch pad offset was detected internally. Most likely
4375an operator needed a target but that target had not been allocated
4376for whatever reason.
4377
4378=item panic: pad_swipe curpad, %p!=%p
4379
4380(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
4381and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
4382
4383=item panic: pad_swipe po
4384
4385(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
4386
4387=item panic: pp_iter, type=%u
4388
4389(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
4390
4391=item panic: pp_match%s
4392
4393(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
4394data.
4395
4396=item panic: pp_split, pm=%p, s=%p
4397
4398(P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
4399
4400=item panic: realloc, %s
4401
4402(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
4403
4404=item panic: reference miscount on nsv in sv_replace() (%d != 1)
4405
4406(P) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
4407reference count other than 1.
4408
4409=item panic: restartop in %s
4410
4411(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
4412didn't supply the destination.
4413
4414=item panic: return, type=%u
4415
4416(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
4417then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
4418
4419=item panic: scan_num, %s
4420
4421(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
4422
4423=item panic: Sequence (?{...}): no code block found in regex m/%s/
4424
4425(P) While compiling a pattern that has embedded (?{}) or (??{}) code
4426blocks, perl couldn't locate the code block that should have already been
4427seen and compiled by perl before control passed to the regex compiler.
4428
4429=item panic: strxfrm() gets absurd - a => %u, ab => %u
4430
4431(P) The interpreter's sanity check of the C function strxfrm() failed.
4432In your current locale the returned transformation of the string "ab"
4433is shorter than that of the string "a", which makes no sense.
4434
4435=item panic: sv_chop %s
4436
4437(P) The sv_chop() routine was passed a position that is not within the
4438scalar's string buffer.
4439
4440=item panic: sv_insert, midend=%p, bigend=%p
4441
4442(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
4443was string.
4444
4445=item panic: top_env
4446
4447(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
4448
4449=item panic: unimplemented op %s (#%d) called
4450
4451(P) The compiler is screwed up and attempted to use an op that isn't
4452permitted at run time.
4453
4454=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
4455
4456(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
4457to even) byte length.
4458
4459=item panic: utf16_to_utf8_reversed: odd bytelen
4460
4461(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8_reversed with an odd (as opposed
4462to even) byte length.
4463
4464=item panic: yylex, %s
4465
4466(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
4467
4468=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
4469
4470(W parenthesis) You said something like
4471
4472 my $foo, $bar = @_;
4473
4474when you meant
4475
4476 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
4477
4478Remember that "my", "our", "local" and "state" bind tighter than comma.
4479
4480=item Parsing code internal error (%s)
4481
4482(F) Parsing code supplied by an extension violated the parser's API in
4483a detectable way.
4484
4485=item Passing malformed UTF-8 to "%s" is deprecated
4486
4487(D deprecated, utf8) This message indicates a bug either in the Perl
4488core or in XS code. Such code was trying to find out if a character,
4489allegedly stored internally encoded as UTF-8, was of a given type, such
4490as being punctuation or a digit. But the character was not encoded in
4491legal UTF-8. The C<%s> is replaced by a string that can be used by
4492knowledgeable people to determine what the type being checked against
4493was. If C<utf8> warnings are enabled, a further message is raised,
4494giving details of the malformation.
4495
4496=item Pattern subroutine nesting without pos change exceeded limit in regex
4497
4498(F) You used a pattern that uses too many nested subpattern calls without
4499consuming any text. Restructure the pattern so text is consumed before
4500the nesting limit is exceeded.
4501
4502=item C<-p> destination: %s
4503
4504(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
4505command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
4506redirected it with select().)
4507
4508=item Perl API version %s of %s does not match %s
4509
4510(F) The XS module in question was compiled against a different incompatible
4511version of Perl than the one that has loaded the XS module.
4512
4513=item Perl folding rules are not up-to-date for 0x%X; please use the perlbug
4514utility to report; in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4515
4516(S regexp) You used a regular expression with case-insensitive matching,
4517and there is a bug in Perl in which the built-in regular expression
4518folding rules are not accurate. This may lead to incorrect results.
4519Please report this as a bug using the L<perlbug> utility.
4520
4521=item PerlIO layer ':win32' is experimental
4522
4523(S experimental::win32_perlio) The C<:win32> PerlIO layer is
4524experimental. If you want to take the risk of using this layer,
4525simply disable this warning:
4526
4527 no warnings "experimental::win32_perlio";
4528
4529=item Perl_my_%s() not available
4530
4531(F) Your platform has very uncommon byte-order and integer size,
4532so it was not possible to set up some or all fixed-width byte-order
4533conversion functions. This is only a problem when you're using the
4534'<' or '>' modifiers in (un)pack templates. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4535
4536=item Perl %s required (did you mean %s?)--this is only %s, stopped
4537
4538(F) The code you are trying to run has asked for a newer version of
4539Perl than you are running. Perhaps C<use 5.10> was written instead
4540of C<use 5.010> or C<use v5.10>. Without the leading C<v>, the number is
4541interpreted as a decimal, with every three digits after the
4542decimal point representing a part of the version number. So 5.10
4543is equivalent to v5.100.
4544
4545=item Perl %s required--this is only %s, stopped
4546
4547(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
4548recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
4549you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
4550
4551=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
4552
4553(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
4554C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
4555
4556=item PERL_SIGNALS illegal: "%s"
4557
4558(X) See L<perlrun/PERL_SIGNALS> for legal values.
4559
4560=item Perls since %s too modern--this is %s, stopped
4561
4562(F) The code you are trying to run claims it will not run
4563on the version of Perl you are using because it is too new.
4564Maybe the code needs to be updated, or maybe it is simply
4565wrong and the version check should just be removed.
4566
4567=item perl: warning: Non hex character in '$ENV{PERL_HASH_SEED}', seed only partially set
4568
4569(S) PERL_HASH_SEED should match /^\s*(?:0x)?[0-9a-fA-F]+\s*\z/ but it
4570contained a non hex character. This could mean you are not using the
4571hash seed you think you are.
4572
4573=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
4574
4575(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
4576
4577 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
4578 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
4579 LC_ALL = "En_US",
4580 LANG = (unset)
4581 are supported and installed on your system.
4582 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
4583
4584Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
4585settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
4586This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
4587system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
4588locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
4589dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
4590Perl can and will use, and the script will be run. Before you really
4591fix the problem, however, you will get the same error message each
4592time you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
4593L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
4594
4595=item perl: warning: strange setting in '$ENV{PERL_PERTURB_KEYS}': '%s'
4596
4597(S) Perl was run with the environment variable PERL_PERTURB_KEYS defined
4598but containing an unexpected value. The legal values of this setting
4599are as follows.
4600
4601 Numeric | String | Result
4602 --------+---------------+-----------------------------------------
4603 0 | NO | Disables key traversal randomization
4604 1 | RANDOM | Enables full key traversal randomization
4605 2 | DETERMINISTIC | Enables repeatable key traversal
4606 | | randomization
4607
4608Both numeric and string values are accepted, but note that string values are
4609case sensitive. The default for this setting is "RANDOM" or 1.
4610
4611=item pid %x not a child
4612
4613(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
4614process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
4615fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
4616
4617=item 'P' must have an explicit size in unpack
4618
4619(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
4620
4621=item pop on reference is experimental
4622
4623(S experimental::autoderef) C<pop> with a scalar argument is experimental
4624and may change or be removed in a future Perl version. If you want to
4625take the risk of using this feature, simply disable this warning:
4626
4627 no warnings "experimental::autoderef";
4628
4629=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex; marked by S<< <-- HERE in m/%s/ >>
4630
4631(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The S<<-- HERE>
4632shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
4633Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
4634the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
4635not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
4636
4637=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
4638
4639(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
4640the BSD version, which takes a pid.
4641
4642=item POSIX syntax [%c %c] belongs inside character classes in regex; marked by
4643S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4644
4645(W regexp) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
4646I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
4647/[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
4648implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and
4649will cause fatal errors. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
4650expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4651
4652=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by
4653S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4654
4655(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
4656with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
4657need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
4658character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[."
4659and ".\]". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
4660problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4661
4662=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by
4663S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4664
4665(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
4666with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
4667need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
4668character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
4669and "=\]". The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
4670problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4671
4672=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
4673
4674(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
4675strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
4676literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
4677parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
4678
4679You probably wrote something like this:
4680
4681 @list = qw(
4682 a # a comment
4683 b # another comment
4684 );
4685
4686when you should have written this:
4687
4688 @list = qw(
4689 a
4690 b
4691 );
4692
4693If you really want comments, build your list the
4694old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
4695
4696 @list = (
4697 'a', # a comment
4698 'b', # another comment
4699 );
4700
4701=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
4702
4703(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
4704commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
4705different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
4706frequently used.)
4707
4708You probably wrote something like this:
4709
4710 qw! a, b, c !;
4711
4712which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
4713commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
4714
4715 qw! a b c !;
4716
4717=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
4718
4719(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
4720Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
4721end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
4722Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
4723
4724=item Possible precedence issue with control flow operator
4725
4726(W syntax) There is a possible problem with the mixing of a control
4727flow operator (e.g. C<return>) and a low-precedence operator like
4728C<or>. Consider:
4729
4730 sub { return $a or $b; }
4731
4732This is parsed as:
4733
4734 sub { (return $a) or $b; }
4735
4736Which is effectively just:
4737
4738 sub { return $a; }
4739
4740Either use parentheses or the high-precedence variant of the operator.
4741
4742Note this may be also triggered for constructs like:
4743
4744 sub { 1 if die; }
4745
4746=item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %c operator
4747
4748(W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
4749with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
4750
4751 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
4752
4753This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
4754higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
4755really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, put the
4756parentheses explicitly and write C<$x & ($y == 0)>).
4757
4758=item Possible unintended interpolation of $\ in regex
4759
4760(W ambiguous) You said something like C<m/$\/> in a regex.
4761The regex C<m/foo$\s+bar/m> translates to: match the word 'foo', the output
4762record separator (see L<perlvar/$\>) and the letter 's' (one time or more)
4763followed by the word 'bar'.
4764
4765If this is what you intended then you can silence the warning by using
4766C<m/${\}/> (for example: C<m/foo${\}s+bar/>).
4767
4768If instead you intended to match the word 'foo' at the end of the line
4769followed by whitespace and the word 'bar' on the next line then you can use
4770C<m/$(?)\/> (for example: C<m/foo$(?)\s+bar/>).
4771
4772=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
4773
4774(W ambiguous) You said something like '@foo' in a double-quoted string
4775but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
4776literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
4777to the array you apparently lost track of.
4778
4779=item Postfix dereference is experimental
4780
4781(S experimental::postderef) This warning is emitted if you use
4782the experimental postfix dereference syntax. Simply suppress the
4783warning if you want to use the feature, but know that in doing
4784so you are taking the risk of using an experimental feature which
4785may change or be removed in a future Perl version:
4786
4787 no warnings "experimental::postderef";
4788 use feature "postderef", "postderef_qq";
4789 $ref->$*;
4790 $aref->@*;
4791 $aref->@[@indices];
4792 ... etc ...
4793
4794=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
4795
4796(S precedence) The old irregular construct
4797
4798 open FOO || die;
4799
4800is now misinterpreted as
4801
4802 open(FOO || die);
4803
4804because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
4805list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
4806parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
4807of "||".
4808
4809=item Premature end of script headers
4810
4811See Server error.
4812
4813=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
4814
4815(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
4816before now. Check your control flow.
4817
4818=item print() on closed filehandle %s
4819
4820(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
4821before now. Check your control flow.
4822
4823=item Process terminated by SIG%s
4824
4825(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
4826applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
4827port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
4828L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
4829in L<perlos2>.
4830
4831=item Property '%s' is unknown in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4832
4833(F) The named property which you specified via C<\p> or C<\P> is not one
4834known to Perl. Perhaps you misspelled the name? See
4835L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>
4836for a complete list of available official
4837properties. If it is a L<user-defined property|perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties>
4838it must have been defined by the time the regular expression is
4839compiled.
4840
4841=item Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s
4842
4843(W illegalproto) A character follows % or @ in a prototype. This is
4844useless, since % and @ gobble the rest of the subroutine arguments.
4845
4846=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
4847
4848(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
4849declared or defined with a different function prototype.
4850
4851=item Prototype not terminated
4852
4853(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
4854definition.
4855
4856=item Prototype '%s' overridden by attribute 'prototype(%s)' in %s
4857
4858(W prototype) A prototype was declared in both the parentheses after
4859the sub name and via the prototype attribute. The prototype in
4860parentheses is useless, since it will be replaced by the prototype
4861from the attribute before it's ever used.
4862
4863=item push on reference is experimental
4864
4865(S experimental::autoderef) C<push> with a scalar argument is experimental
4866and may change or be removed in a future Perl version. If you want to
4867take the risk of using this feature, simply disable this warning:
4868
4869 no warnings "experimental::autoderef";
4870
4871=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by S<< <-- HERE in m/%s/ >>
4872
4873(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if
4874you meant it literally. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
4875expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4876
4877=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
4878m/%s/
4879
4880(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of
4881the {min,max} construct. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular
4882expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4883
4884=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex
4885
4886=item Quantifier {n,m} with n > m can't match in regex; marked by
4887S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4888
4889(W regexp) Minima should be less than or equal to maxima. If you really
4890want your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}.
4891
4892=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression in regex m/%s/
4893
4894(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
4895it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
4896quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
4897"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
4898C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
4899
4900=item Range iterator outside integer range
4901
4902(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
4903are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
4904One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
4905by prepending "0" to your numbers.
4906
4907=item readdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
4908
4909(W io) The dirhandle you're reading from is either closed or not really
4910a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
4911
4912=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
4913
4914(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
4915before now. Check your control flow.
4916
4917=item read() on closed filehandle %s
4918
4919(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
4920
4921=item read() on unopened filehandle %s
4922
4923(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
4924
4925=item Reallocation too large: %x
4926
4927(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
4928
4929=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
4930
4931(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
4932already been freed.
4933
4934=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
4935
4936(S debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
4937the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
4938which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
4939
4940=item Recursive call to Perl_load_module in PerlIO_find_layer
4941
4942(P) It is currently not permitted to load modules when creating
4943a filehandle inside an %INC hook. This can happen with C<open my
4944$fh, '<', \$scalar>, which implicitly loads PerlIO::scalar. Try
4945loading PerlIO::scalar explicitly first.
4946
4947=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
4948
4949(F) While calculating the method resolution order (MRO) of a package, Perl
4950believes it found an infinite loop in the C<@ISA> hierarchy. This is a
4951crude check that bails out after 100 levels of C<@ISA> depth.
4952
4953=item Redundant argument in %s
4954
4955(W redundant) You called a function with more arguments than other
4956arguments you supplied indicated would be needed. Currently only
4957emitted when a printf-type format required fewer arguments than were
4958supplied, but might be used in the future for e.g. L<perlfunc/pack>.
4959
4960=item refcnt_dec: fd %d%s
4961
4962=item refcnt: fd %d%s
4963
4964=item refcnt_inc: fd %d%s
4965
4966(P) Perl's I/O implementation failed an internal consistency check. If
4967you see this message, something is very wrong.
4968
4969=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
4970
4971(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
4972with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This
4973usually means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant
4974to use parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
4975
4976 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
4977 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
4978 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
4979 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
4980
4981=item Reference is already weak
4982
4983(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
4984Doing so has no effect.
4985
4986=item Reference to invalid group 0 in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
4987
4988(F) You used C<\g0> or similar in a regular expression. You may refer
4989to capturing parentheses only with strictly positive integers
4990(normal backreferences) or with strictly negative integers (relative
4991backreferences). Using 0 does not make sense.
4992
4993=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
4994m/%s/
4995
4996(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
4997not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If
4998you wanted to have the character with ordinal 7 inserted into the regular
4999expression, prepend zeroes to make it three digits long: C<\007>
5000
5001The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
5002discovered.
5003
5004=item Reference to nonexistent named group in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
5005in m/%s/
5006
5007(F) You used something like C<\k'NAME'> or C<< \k<NAME> >> in your regular
5008expression, but there is no corresponding named capturing parentheses
5009such as C<(?'NAME'...)> or C<< (?<NAME>...) >>. Check if the name has been
5010spelled correctly both in the backreference and the declaration.
5011
5012The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
5013discovered.
5014
5015=item Reference to nonexistent or unclosed group in regex; marked by
5016S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5017
5018(F) You used something like C<\g{-7}> in your regular expression, but there
5019are not at least seven sets of closed capturing parentheses in the
5020expression before where the C<\g{-7}> was located.
5021
5022The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
5023discovered.
5024
5025=item regexp memory corruption
5026
5027(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
5028expression compiler gave it.
5029
5030=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may appear a maximum of twice
5031
5032=item Regexp modifier "%c" may appear a maximum of twice in regex; marked
5033by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5034
5035(F) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
5036of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
5037
5038=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear after the "-" in regex; marked by <--
5039HERE in m/%s/
5040
5041(F) Turning off the given modifier has the side effect of turning on
5042another one. Perl currently doesn't allow this. Reword the regular
5043expression to use the modifier you want to turn on (and place it before
5044the minus), instead of the one you want to turn off.
5045
5046=item Regexp modifier "/%c" may not appear twice
5047
5048=item Regexp modifier "%c" may not appear twice in regex; marked by <--
5049HERE in m/%s/
5050
5051(F) The regular expression pattern had too many occurrences
5052of the specified modifier. Remove the extraneous ones.
5053
5054=item Regexp modifiers "/%c" and "/%c" are mutually exclusive
5055
5056=item Regexp modifiers "%c" and "%c" are mutually exclusive in regex;
5057marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5058
5059(F) The regular expression pattern had more than one of these
5060mutually exclusive modifiers. Retain only the modifier that is
5061supposed to be there.
5062
5063=item Regexp out of space in regex m/%s/
5064
5065(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
5066earlier.
5067
5068=item Repeated format line will never terminate (~~ and @#)
5069
5070(F) Your format contains the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence and a
5071numeric field that will never go blank so that the repetition never
5072terminates. You might use ^# instead. See L<perlform>.
5073
5074=item Replacement list is longer than search list
5075
5076(W misc) You have used a replacement list that is longer than the
5077search list. So the additional elements in the replacement list
5078are meaningless.
5079
5080=item '%s' resolved to '\o{%s}%d'
5081
5082(W misc, regexp) You wrote something like C<\08>, or C<\179> in a
5083double-quotish string. All but the last digit is treated as a single
5084character, specified in octal. The last digit is the next character in
5085the string. To tell Perl that this is indeed what you want, you can use
5086the C<\o{ }> syntax, or use exactly three digits to specify the octal
5087for the character.
5088
5089=item Reversed %s= operator
5090
5091(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
5092always come last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
5093
5094=item rewinddir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5095
5096(W io) The dirhandle you tried to do a rewinddir() on is either closed
5097or not really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5098
5099=item Scalars leaked: %d
5100
5101(S internal) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping
5102of scalars: not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time
5103Perl exited. What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which
5104is of course bad, especially if the Perl program is intended to be
5105long-running.
5106
5107=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
5108
5109(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
5110single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
5111value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
5112behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
5113argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
5114and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
5115if you're expecting only one subscript.
5116
5117On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
5118element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
5119Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
5120L<perlref>.
5121
5122=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
5123
5124(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
5125element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
5126(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
5127like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
5128argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
5129and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
5130if you're expecting only one subscript.
5131
5132On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
5133as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
5134not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
5135L<perlref>.
5136
5137=item Search pattern not terminated
5138
5139(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
5140construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
5141Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
5142
5143Note that since Perl 5.10.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
5144construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
5145in Perl 5.10.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
5146misparsed by pre-5.10.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
5147
5148=item seekdir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5149
5150(W io) The dirhandle you are doing a seekdir() on is either closed or not
5151really a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5152
5153=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
5154
5155(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
5156filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
5157
5158=item select not implemented
5159
5160(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
5161
5162=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
5163
5164(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
5165the current implementation.
5166
5167=item Semicolon seems to be missing
5168
5169(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
5170semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
5171
5172=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
5173
5174(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
5175scalar that had previously been marked as free.
5176
5177=item sem%s not implemented
5178
5179(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
5180
5181=item send() on closed socket %s
5182
5183(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
5184before now. Check your control flow.
5185
5186=item Sequence "\c{" invalid
5187
5188(F) These three characters may not appear in sequence in a
5189double-quotish context. This message is raised only on non-ASCII
5190platforms (a different error message is output on ASCII ones). If you
5191were intending to specify a control character with this sequence, you'll
5192have to use a different way to specify it.
5193
5194=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5195
5196(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The
5197S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
5198discovered. See L<perlre>.
5199
5200=item Sequence (?%c...) not implemented in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5201m/%s/
5202
5203(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
5204but has not yet been written. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
5205regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
5206
5207=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5208m/%s/
5209
5210(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense.
5211The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
5212discovered. This may happen when using the C<(?^...)> construct to tell
5213Perl to use the default regular expression modifiers, and you
5214redundantly specify a default modifier. For other
5215causes, see L<perlre>.
5216
5217=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex m/%s/
5218
5219(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
5220parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. See
5221L<perlre>.
5222
5223=item Sequence (?&... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5224m/%s/
5225
5226(F) A named reference of the form C<(?&...)> was missing the final
5227closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
5228in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5229
5230=item Sequence (?%c... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
5231in m/%s/
5232
5233(F) A named group of the form C<(?'...')> or C<< (?<...>) >> was missing the final
5234closing quote or angle bracket. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
5235regular expression the problem was discovered.
5236
5237=item Sequence (?(%c... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE>
5238in m/%s/
5239
5240(F) A named reference of the form C<(?('...')...)> or C<< (?(<...>)...) >> was
5241missing the final closing quote or angle bracket after the name. The
5242S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
5243discovered.
5244
5245=item Sequence \%s... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5246m/%s/
5247
5248(F) The regular expression expects a mandatory argument following the escape
5249sequence and this has been omitted or incorrectly written.
5250
5251=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated with ')'
5252
5253(F) The end of the perl code contained within the {...} must be
5254followed immediately by a ')'.
5255
5256=item Sequence ?P=... not terminated in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5257m/%s/
5258
5259(F) A named reference of the form C<(?P=...)> was missing the final
5260closing parenthesis after the name. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts
5261in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
5262
5263=item Sequence (?R) not terminated in regex m/%s/
5264
5265(F) An C<(?R)> or C<(?0)> sequence in a regular expression was missing the
5266final parenthesis.
5267
5268=item Server error (a.k.a. "500 Server error")
5269
5270(A) This is the error message generally seen in a browser window
5271when trying to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The
5272actual error text varies widely from server to server. The most
5273frequently-seen variants are "500 Server error", "Method (something)
5274not permitted", "Document contains no data", "Premature end of script
5275headers", and "Did not produce a valid header".
5276
5277B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
5278
5279You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by
5280the user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the
5281user account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment
5282variables (like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't
5283in a location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or
5284less. Please see the following for more information:
5285
5286 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
5287 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
5288 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
5289
5290You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
5291
5292=item setegid() not implemented
5293
5294(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
5295support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5296didn't think so.
5297
5298=item seteuid() not implemented
5299
5300(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
5301support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5302didn't think so.
5303
5304=item setpgrp can't take arguments
5305
5306(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
5307arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
5308group ID.
5309
5310=item setrgid() not implemented
5311
5312(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
5313support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5314didn't think so.
5315
5316=item setruid() not implemented
5317
5318(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
5319support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
5320didn't think so.
5321
5322=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
5323
5324(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
5325forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
5326L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
5327
5328=item Setting ${^ENCODING} is deprecated
5329
5330(D deprecated) You assigned a non-C<undef> value to C<${^ENCODING}>.
5331This is deprecated; see C<L<perlvar/${^ENCODING}>> for details.
5332
5333=item Setting $/ to a reference to %s as a form of slurp is deprecated, treating as undef
5334
5335(D deprecated) You assigned a reference to a scalar to C<$/> where the
5336referenced item is not a positive integer. In older perls this B<appeared>
5337to work the same as setting it to C<undef> but was in fact internally
5338different, less efficient and with very bad luck could have resulted in
5339your file being split by a stringified form of the reference.
5340
5341In Perl 5.20.0 this was changed so that it would be B<exactly> the same as
5342setting C<$/> to undef, with the exception that this warning would be
5343thrown.
5344
5345You are recommended to change your code to set C<$/> to C<undef> explicitly
5346if you wish to slurp the file. In future versions of Perl assigning
5347a reference to will throw a fatal error.
5348
5349=item Setting $/ to %s reference is forbidden
5350
5351(F) You tried to assign a reference to a non integer to C<$/>. In older
5352Perls this would have behaved similarly to setting it to a reference to
5353a positive integer, where the integer was the address of the reference.
5354As of Perl 5.20.0 this is a fatal error, to allow future versions of Perl
5355to use non-integer refs for more interesting purposes.
5356
5357=item shift on reference is experimental
5358
5359(S experimental::autoderef) C<shift> with a scalar argument is experimental
5360and may change or be removed in a future Perl version. If you want to
5361take the risk of using this feature, simply disable this warning:
5362
5363 no warnings "experimental::autoderef";
5364
5365=item shm%s not implemented
5366
5367(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
5368
5369=item !=~ should be !~
5370
5371(W syntax) The non-matching operator is !~, not !=~. !=~ will be
5372interpreted as the != (numeric not equal) and ~ (1's complement)
5373operators: probably not what you intended.
5374
5375=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
5376
5377(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
5378as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
5379result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
5380probably not what you had in mind.
5381
5382=item shutdown() on closed socket %s
5383
5384(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
5385superfluous.
5386
5387=item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
5388
5389(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
5390Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
5391
5392=item Slab leaked from cv %p
5393
5394(S) If you see this message, then something is seriously wrong with the
5395internal bookkeeping of op trees. An op tree needed to be freed after
5396a compilation error, but could not be found, so it was leaked instead.
5397
5398=item sleep(%u) too large
5399
5400(W overflow) You called C<sleep> with a number that was larger than
5401it can reliably handle and C<sleep> probably slept for less time than
5402requested.
5403
5404=item Slurpy parameter not last
5405
5406(F) In a subroutine signature, you put something after a slurpy (array or
5407hash) parameter. The slurpy parameter takes all the available arguments,
5408so there can't be any left to fill later parameters.
5409
5410=item Smart matching a non-overloaded object breaks encapsulation
5411
5412(F) You should not use the C<~~> operator on an object that does not
5413overload it: Perl refuses to use the object's underlying structure
5414for the smart match.
5415
5416=item Smartmatch is experimental
5417
5418(S experimental::smartmatch) This warning is emitted if you
5419use the smartmatch (C<~~>) operator. This is currently an experimental
5420feature, and its details are subject to change in future releases of
5421Perl. Particularly, its current behavior is noticed for being
5422unnecessarily complex and unintuitive, and is very likely to be
5423overhauled.
5424
5425=item sort is now a reserved word
5426
5427(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
5428But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
5429
5430=item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
5431
5432(F) A sort comparison subroutine written in XS must return exactly one
5433item. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
5434
5435=item Source filters apply only to byte streams
5436
5437(F) You tried to activate a source filter (usually by loading a
5438source filter module) within a string passed to C<eval>. This is
5439not permitted under the C<unicode_eval> feature. Consider using
5440C<evalbytes> instead. See L<feature>.
5441
5442=item splice() offset past end of array
5443
5444(W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
5445the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the
5446end of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want,
5447try explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset.
5448See L<perlfunc/splice>.
5449
5450=item splice on reference is experimental
5451
5452(S experimental::autoderef) C<splice> with a scalar argument
5453is experimental and may change or be removed in a future
5454Perl version. If you want to take the risk of using this
5455feature, simply disable this warning:
5456
5457 no warnings "experimental::autoderef";
5458
5459=item Split loop
5460
5461(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
5462iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
5463happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
5464
5465=item Statement unlikely to be reached
5466
5467(W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
5468die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
5469unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
5470instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
5471a block by itself.
5472
5473=item "state" subroutine %s can't be in a package
5474
5475(F) Lexically scoped subroutines aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
5476sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front.
5477
5478=item "state %s" used in sort comparison
5479
5480(W syntax) The package variables $a and $b are used for sort comparisons.
5481You used $a or $b in as an operand to the C<< <=> >> or C<cmp> operator inside a
5482sort comparison block, and the variable had earlier been declared as a
5483lexical variable. Either qualify the sort variable with the package
5484name, or rename the lexical variable.
5485
5486=item "state" variable %s can't be in a package
5487
5488(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
5489sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
5490local() if you want to localize a package variable.
5491
5492=item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
5493
5494(W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
5495was either never opened or has since been closed.
5496
5497=item Strings with code points over 0xFF may not be mapped into in-memory file handles
5498
5499(W utf8) You tried to open a reference to a scalar for read or append
5500where the scalar contained code points over 0xFF. In-memory files
5501model on-disk files and can only contain bytes.
5502
5503=item Stub found while resolving method "%s" overloading "%s" in package "%s"
5504
5505(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
5506stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
5507C<can> may break this.
5508
5509=item Subroutine "&%s" is not available
5510
5511(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
5512attempting to capture an outer lexical subroutine that is not currently
5513available. This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the lexical
5514subroutine may be declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has
5515not yet been created. (Remember that named subs are created at compile
5516time, while anonymous subs are created at run-time.) For example,
5517
5518 sub { my sub a {...} sub f { \&a } }
5519
5520At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current "a" sub,
5521since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely, the
5522following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by now
5523been created and is live:
5524
5525 sub { my sub a {...} eval 'sub f { \&a }' }->();
5526
5527The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a lexical subroutine
5528that has gone out of scope, for example,
5529
5530 sub f {
5531 my sub a {...}
5532 sub { eval '\&a' }
5533 }
5534 f()->();
5535
5536Here, when the '\&a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
5537being executed, so its &a is not available for capture.
5538
5539=item "%s" subroutine &%s masks earlier declaration in same %s
5540
5541(W misc) A "my" or "state" subroutine has been redeclared in the
5542current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to
5543the previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error.
5544Note that the earlier subroutine will still exist until the end of
5545the scope or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
5546
5547=item Subroutine %s redefined
5548
5549(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
5550
5551 {
5552 no warnings 'redefine';
5553 eval "sub name { ... }";
5554 }
5555
5556=item Subroutine "%s" will not stay shared
5557
5558(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a "my"
5559subroutine defined in an outer named subroutine.
5560
5561When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of the outer
5562subroutine's lexical subroutine as it was before and during the *first*
5563call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
5564outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
5565longer share a common value for the lexical subroutine. In other words,
5566it will no longer be shared. This will especially make a difference
5567if the lexical subroutines accesses lexical variables declared in its
5568surrounding scope.
5569
5570This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
5571anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
5572reference lexical subroutines in outer subroutines are created, they
5573are automatically rebound to the current values of such lexical subs.
5574
5575=item Substitution loop
5576
5577(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
5578shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
5579is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
5580L<perlop/"Regexp Quote-Like Operators">.
5581
5582=item Substitution pattern not terminated
5583
5584(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
5585construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
5586Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
5587
5588=item Substitution replacement not terminated
5589
5590(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
5591construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
5592Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
5593
5594=item substr outside of string
5595
5596(W substr)(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
5597a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
5598length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
5599substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
5600assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
5601
5602=item sv_upgrade from type %d down to type %d
5603
5604(P) Perl tried to force the upgrade of an SV to a type which was actually
5605inferior to its current type.
5606
5607=item SWASHNEW didn't return an HV ref
5608
5609(P) Something went wrong internally when Perl was trying to look up
5610Unicode characters.
5611
5612=item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex; marked by
5613S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5614
5615(F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most
5616two branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or
5617both to contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose
5618it in clustering parentheses:
5619
5620 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
5621
5622The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem
5623was discovered. See L<perlre>.
5624
5625=item Switch condition not recognized in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
5626m/%s/
5627
5628(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
5629is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
5630
5631 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
5632 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
5633 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
5634 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
5635 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
5636 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
5637 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
5638 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
5639 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
5640
5641The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
5642discovered. See L<perlre>.
5643
5644=item Switch (?(condition)... not terminated in regex; marked by
5645S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
5646
5647(F) You omitted to close a (?(condition)...) block somewhere
5648in the pattern. Add a closing parenthesis in the appropriate
5649position. See L<perlre>.
5650
5651=item switching effective %s is not implemented
5652
5653(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
5654and effective uids or gids.
5655
5656=item syntax error
5657
5658(F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
5659
5660 A keyword is misspelled.
5661 A semicolon is missing.
5662 A comma is missing.
5663 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
5664 An opening or closing brace is missing.
5665 A closing quote is missing.
5666
5667Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
5668error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
5669The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
5670it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
5671before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
5672Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
5673the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
5674C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
5675if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
5676
5677=item syntax error at line %d: '%s' unexpected
5678
5679(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
5680of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
5681yourself.
5682
5683=item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
5684
5685(F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
5686a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
5687or "my $var" or "our $var".
5688
5689=item Syntax error in (?[...]) in regex m/%s/
5690
5691(F) Perl could not figure out what you meant inside this construct; this
5692notifies you that it is giving up trying.
5693
5694=item %s syntax OK
5695
5696(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
5697
5698=item sysread() on closed filehandle %s
5699
5700(W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
5701
5702=item sysread() on unopened filehandle %s
5703
5704(W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
5705
5706=item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
5707
5708(F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
5709"shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
5710machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
5711unconfigured. Consult your system support.
5712
5713=item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
5714
5715(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
5716before now. Check your control flow.
5717
5718=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
5719
5720(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
5721know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
5722
5723=item Target of goto is too deeply nested
5724
5725(F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
5726for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
5727
5728=item telldir() attempted on invalid dirhandle %s
5729
5730(W io) The dirhandle you tried to telldir() is either closed or not really
5731a dirhandle. Check your control flow.
5732
5733=item tell() on unopened filehandle
5734
5735(W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
5736was either never opened or has since been closed.
5737
5738=item That use of $[ is unsupported
5739
5740(F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted
5741as a compiler directive. You may say only one of
5742
5743 $[ = 0;
5744 $[ = 1;
5745 ...
5746 local $[ = 0;
5747 local $[ = 1;
5748 ...
5749
5750This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out
5751from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[> and L<arybase>.
5752
5753=item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia.
5754
5755(F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
5756probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
5757think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
5758will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
5759will deny it.
5760
5761=item The %s function is unimplemented
5762
5763(F) The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture,
5764according to the probings of Configure.
5765
5766=item The lexical_subs feature is experimental
5767
5768(S experimental::lexical_subs) This warning is emitted if you
5769declare a sub with C<my> or C<state>. Simply suppress the warning
5770if you want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you
5771are taking the risk of using an experimental feature which may
5772change or be removed in a future Perl version:
5773
5774 no warnings "experimental::lexical_subs";
5775 use feature "lexical_subs";
5776 my sub foo { ... }
5777
5778=item The regex_sets feature is experimental
5779
5780(S experimental::regex_sets) This warning is emitted if you
5781use the syntax S<C<(?[ ])>> in a regular expression.
5782The details of this feature are subject to change.
5783if you want to use it, but know that in doing so you
5784are taking the risk of using an experimental feature which may
5785change in a future Perl version, you can do this to silence the
5786warning:
5787
5788 no warnings "experimental::regex_sets";
5789
5790=item The signatures feature is experimental
5791
5792(S experimental::signatures) This warning is emitted if you unwrap a
5793subroutine's arguments using a signature. Simply suppress the warning
5794if you want to use the feature, but know that in doing so you are taking
5795the risk of using an experimental feature which may change or be removed
5796in a future Perl version:
5797
5798 no warnings "experimental::signatures";
5799 use feature "signatures";
5800 sub foo ($left, $right) { ... }
5801
5802=item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
5803
5804(F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
5805linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
5806past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
5807instead.
5808
5809=item The 'unique' attribute may only be applied to 'our' variables
5810
5811(F) This attribute was never supported on C<my> or C<sub> declarations.
5812
5813=item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
5814
5815=item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
5816
5817(W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
5818element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
5819wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
5820need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
5821F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
5822target of the change to
5823%ENV which produced the warning.
5824
5825=item This Perl has not been built with support for randomized hash key traversal but something called Perl_hv_rand_set().
5826
5827(F) Something has attempted to use an internal API call which
5828depends on Perl being compiled with the default support for randomized hash
5829key traversal, but this Perl has been compiled without it. You should
5830report this warning to the relevant upstream party, or recompile perl
5831with default options.
5832
5833=item times not implemented
5834
5835(F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
5836suspect you're not running on Unix.
5837
5838=item "-T" is on the #! line, it must also be used on the command line
5839
5840(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains
5841the B<-T> option (or the B<-t> option), but Perl was not invoked with
5842B<-T> in its command line. This is an error because, by the time
5843Perl discovers a B<-T> in a script, it's too late to properly taint
5844everything from the environment. So Perl gives up.
5845
5846If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
5847mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be
5848fixed by editing the #! line so that the B<-%c> option is a part of
5849Perl's first argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -%c> to C<perl -%c -n>.
5850
5851If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
5852B<-%c> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -%c scriptname>.
5853
5854=item To%s: illegal mapping '%s'
5855
5856(F) You tried to define a customized To-mapping for lc(), lcfirst,
5857uc(), or ucfirst() (or their string-inlined versions), but you
5858specified an illegal mapping.
5859See L<perlunicode/"User-Defined Character Properties">.
5860
5861=item Too deeply nested ()-groups
5862
5863(F) Your template contains ()-groups with a ridiculously deep nesting level.
5864
5865=item Too few args to syscall
5866
5867(F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
5868system call to call, silly dilly.
5869
5870=item Too few arguments for subroutine
5871
5872(F) A subroutine using a signature received fewer arguments than required
5873by the signature. The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault.
5874Inconveniently, this error will be reported at the location of the
5875subroutine, not that of the caller.
5876
5877=item Too late for "-%s" option
5878
5879(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
5880B<-M>, B<-m> or B<-C> option.
5881
5882In the case of B<-M> and B<-m>, this is an error because those options
5883are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
5884
5885The B<-C> option only works if it is specified on the command line as
5886well (with the same sequence of letters or numbers following). Either
5887specify this option on the command line, or, if your system supports
5888it, make your script executable and run it directly instead of passing
5889it to perl.
5890
5891=item Too late to run %s block
5892
5893(W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
5894when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
5895loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
5896instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
5897BEGIN block.
5898
5899=item Too many args to syscall
5900
5901(F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
5902
5903=item Too many arguments for %s
5904
5905(F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
5906
5907=item Too many arguments for subroutine
5908
5909(F) A subroutine using a signature received more arguments than required
5910by the signature. The caller of the subroutine is presumably at fault.
5911Inconveniently, this error will be reported at the location of the
5912subroutine, not that of the caller.
5913
5914=item Too many )'s
5915
5916(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
5917Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
5918
5919=item Too many ('s
5920
5921(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
5922Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
5923
5924=item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
5925
5926(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
5927Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
5928
5929=item Transliteration pattern not terminated
5930
5931(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
5932or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
5933C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
5934
5935=item Transliteration replacement not terminated
5936
5937(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr///, tr[][],
5938y/// or y[][] construct.
5939
5940=item '%s' trapped by operation mask
5941
5942(F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
5943disallowed. See L<Safe>.
5944
5945=item truncate not implemented
5946
5947(F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
5948Configure knows about.
5949
5950=item Type of arg %d to &CORE::%s must be %s
5951
5952(F) The subroutine in question in the CORE package requires its argument
5953to be a hard reference to data of the specified type. Overloading is
5954ignored, so a reference to an object that is not the specified type, but
5955nonetheless has overloading to handle it, will still not be accepted.
5956
5957=item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
5958
5959(F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
5960certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
5961%NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
5962{EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
5963
5964=item Type of argument to %s must be unblessed hashref or arrayref
5965
5966(F) You called C<keys>, C<values> or C<each> with a scalar argument that
5967was not a reference to an unblessed hash or array.
5968
5969=item umask not implemented
5970
5971(F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
5972use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
5973
5974=item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
5975
5976(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
5977many execution contexts were entered and left.
5978
5979=item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
5980
5981(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
5982many values were temporarily localized.
5983
5984=item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
5985
5986(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
5987many blocks were entered and left.
5988
5989=item Unbalanced string table refcount: (%d) for "%s"
5990
5991(S internal) On exit, Perl found some strings remaining in the shared
5992string table used for copy on write and for hash keys. The entries
5993should have been freed, so this indicates a bug somewhere.
5994
5995=item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
5996
5997(S internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
5998many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
5999
6000=item Undefined format "%s" called
6001
6002(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
6003another package? See L<perlform>.
6004
6005=item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
6006
6007(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
6008Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
6009
6010=item Undefined subroutine &%s called
6011
6012(F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
6013since been undefined.
6014
6015=item Undefined subroutine called
6016
6017(F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
6018or if it was, it has since been undefined.
6019
6020=item Undefined subroutine in sort
6021
6022(F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
6023to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
6024
6025=item Undefined top format "%s" called
6026
6027(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
6028another package? See L<perlform>.
6029
6030=item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
6031
6032(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
6033C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
6034C<undef *foo>.
6035
6036=item %s: Undefined variable
6037
6038(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
6039Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
6040
6041=item Unescaped left brace in regex is deprecated, passed through in regex;
6042marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
6043
6044(D deprecated, regexp) You used a literal C<"{"> character in a regular
6045expression pattern. You should change to use C<"\{"> instead, because a
6046future version of Perl (tentatively v5.26) will consider this to be a
6047syntax error. If the pattern delimiters are also braces, any matching
6048right brace (C<"}">) should also be escaped to avoid confusing the parser,
6049for example,
6050
6051 qr{abc\{def\}ghi}
6052
6053=item unexec of %s into %s failed!
6054
6055(F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
6056representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
6057
6058=item Unexpected binary operator '%c' with no preceding operand in regex;
6059marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6060
6061(F) You had something like this:
6062
6063 (?[ | \p{Digit} ])
6064
6065where the C<"|"> is a binary operator with an operand on the right, but
6066no operand on the left.
6067
6068=item Unexpected character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6069
6070(F) You had something like this:
6071
6072 (?[ z ])
6073
6074Within C<(?[ ])>, no literal characters are allowed unless they are
6075within an inner pair of square brackets, like
6076
6077 (?[ [ z ] ])
6078
6079Another possibility is that you forgot a backslash. Perl isn't smart
6080enough to figure out what you really meant.
6081
6082=item Unexpected constant lvalue entersub entry via type/targ %d:%d
6083
6084(P) When compiling a subroutine call in lvalue context, Perl failed an
6085internal consistency check. It encountered a malformed op tree.
6086
6087=item Unexpected exit %u
6088
6089(S) exit() was called or the script otherwise finished gracefully when
6090C<PERL_EXIT_WARN> was set in C<PL_exit_flags>.
6091
6092=item Unexpected exit failure %d
6093
6094(S) An uncaught die() was called when C<PERL_EXIT_WARN> was set in
6095C<PL_exit_flags>.
6096
6097=item Unexpected ')' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6098
6099(F) You had something like this:
6100
6101 (?[ ( \p{Digit} + ) ])
6102
6103The C<")"> is out-of-place. Something apparently was supposed to
6104be combined with the digits, or the C<"+"> shouldn't be there, or
6105something like that. Perl can't figure out what was intended.
6106
6107=item Unexpected '(' with no preceding operator in regex; marked by
6108S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6109
6110(F) You had something like this:
6111
6112 (?[ \p{Digit} ( \p{Lao} + \p{Thai} ) ])
6113
6114There should be an operator before the C<"(">, as there's
6115no indication as to how the digits are to be combined
6116with the characters in the Lao and Thai scripts.
6117
6118=item Unicode non-character U+%X is illegal for open interchange
6119
6120(S nonchar) Certain codepoints, such as U+FFFE and U+FFFF, are
6121defined by the Unicode standard to be non-characters. Those
6122are legal codepoints, but are reserved for internal use; so,
6123applications shouldn't attempt to exchange them. An application
6124may not be expecting any of these characters at all, and receiving
6125them may lead to bugs. If you know what you are doing you can
6126turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'nonchar';>.
6127
6128This is not really a "severe" error, but it is supposed to be
6129raised by default even if warnings are not enabled, and currently
6130the only way to do that in Perl is to mark it as serious.
6131
6132=item Unicode surrogate U+%X is illegal in UTF-8
6133
6134(S surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
6135not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
6136U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
6137internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
6138available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
6139problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
6140came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
6141off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
6142
6143=item Unknown charname '%s'
6144
6145(F) The name you used inside C<\N{}> is unknown to Perl. Check the
6146spelling. You can say C<use charnames ":loose"> to not have to be
6147so precise about spaces, hyphens, and capitalization on standard Unicode
6148names. (Any custom aliases that have been created must be specified
6149exactly, regardless of whether C<:loose> is used or not.) This error may
6150also happen if the C<\N{}> is not in the scope of the corresponding
6151C<S<use charnames>>.
6152
6153=item Unknown error
6154
6155(P) Perl was about to print an error message in C<$@>, but the C<$@> variable
6156did not exist, even after an attempt to create it.
6157
6158=item Unknown open() mode '%s'
6159
6160(F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
6161of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
6162C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
6163
6164=item Unknown PerlIO layer "%s"
6165
6166(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
6167system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
6168internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
6169are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
6170explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
6171value of the environment variable PERLIO.
6172
6173=item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
6174
6175(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
6176iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
6177data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
6178subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
6179
6180=item Unknown regex modifier "%s"
6181
6182(F) Alphanumerics immediately following the closing delimiter
6183of a regular expression pattern are interpreted by Perl as modifier
6184flags for the regex. One of the ones you specified is invalid. One way
6185this can happen is if you didn't put in white space between the end of
6186the regex and a following alphanumeric operator:
6187
6188 if ($a =~ /foo/and $bar == 3) { ... }
6189
6190The C<"a"> is a valid modifier flag, but the C<"n"> is not, and raises
6191this error. Likely what was meant instead was:
6192
6193 if ($a =~ /foo/ and $bar == 3) { ... }
6194
6195=item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
6196
6197(W) You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
6198
6199=item Unknown switch condition (?(...)) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6200m/%s/
6201
6202(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
6203is not known. The condition must be one of the following:
6204
6205 (1) (2) ... true if 1st, 2nd, etc., capture matched
6206 (<NAME>) ('NAME') true if named capture matched
6207 (?=...) (?<=...) true if subpattern matches
6208 (?!...) (?<!...) true if subpattern fails to match
6209 (?{ CODE }) true if code returns a true value
6210 (R) true if evaluating inside recursion
6211 (R1) (R2) ... true if directly inside capture group 1, 2, etc.
6212 (R&NAME) true if directly inside named capture
6213 (DEFINE) always false; for defining named subpatterns
6214
6215The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
6216discovered. See L<perlre>.
6217
6218=item Unknown Unicode option letter '%c'
6219
6220(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
6221of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
6222
6223=item Unknown Unicode option value %d
6224
6225(F) You specified an unknown Unicode option. See L<perlrun> documentation
6226of the C<-C> switch for the list of known options.
6227
6228=item Unknown verb pattern '%s' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6229
6230(F) You either made a typo or have incorrectly put a C<*> quantifier
6231after an open brace in your pattern. Check the pattern and review
6232L<perlre> for details on legal verb patterns.
6233
6234=item Unknown warnings category '%s'
6235
6236(F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
6237category that is unknown to perl at this point.
6238
6239Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a
6240module (e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have loaded this
6241module first.
6242
6243=item Unmatched '[' in POSIX class in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6244
6245(F) You had something like this:
6246
6247 (?[ [:digit: ])
6248
6249That should be written:
6250
6251 (?[ [:digit:] ])
6252
6253=item Unmatched '%c' in POSIX class in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6254m/%s/
6255
6256(F) You had something like this:
6257
6258 (?[ [:alnum] ])
6259
6260There should be a second C<":">, like this:
6261
6262 (?[ [:alnum:] ])
6263
6264=item Unmatched [ in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6265
6266(F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
6267include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
6268first. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
6269problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6270
6271=item Unmatched ( in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6272
6273=item Unmatched ) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6274
6275(F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
6276expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
6277the matching parenthesis. The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the
6278regular expression the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
6279
6280=item Unmatched right %s bracket
6281
6282(F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
6283ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
6284general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
6285you were last editing.
6286
6287=item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
6288
6289(W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
6290reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
6291somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
6292subroutine.
6293
6294=item Unrecognized character %s; marked by S<<-- HERE> after %s near column
6295%d
6296
6297(F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
6298in your Perl script (or eval) near the specified column. Perhaps you
6299tried to run a compressed script, a binary program, or a directory as
6300a Perl program.
6301
6302=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class in regex; marked by
6303S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6304
6305(F) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
6306recognized by Perl inside character classes. This is a fatal
6307error when the character class is used within C<(?[ ])>.
6308
6309=item Unrecognized escape \%c in character class passed through in regex;
6310marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6311
6312(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
6313recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
6314understood literally, but this may change in a future version of Perl.
6315The S<<-- HERE> shows whereabouts in the regular expression the
6316escape was discovered.
6317
6318=item Unrecognized escape \%c passed through
6319
6320(W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
6321recognized by Perl. The character was understood literally, but this may
6322change in a future version of Perl.
6323
6324=item Unrecognized escape \%s passed through in regex; marked by
6325S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6326
6327(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
6328recognized by Perl. The character(s) were understood literally, but
6329this may change in a future version of Perl. The S<<-- HERE> shows
6330whereabouts in the regular expression the escape was discovered.
6331
6332=item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
6333
6334(F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
6335recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
6336on your system.
6337
6338=item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
6339
6340(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
6341think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
6342bad switch on your behalf.)
6343
6344=item unshift on reference is experimental
6345
6346(S experimental::autoderef) C<unshift> with a scalar argument
6347is experimental and may change or be removed in a future
6348Perl version. If you want to take the risk of using this
6349feature, simply disable this warning:
6350
6351 no warnings "experimental::autoderef";
6352
6353=item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
6354
6355(W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
6356operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
6357PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
6358
6359=item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
6360
6361(F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
6362
6363=item Unsupported function %s
6364
6365(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
6366At least, Configure doesn't think so.
6367
6368=item Unsupported function fork
6369
6370(F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
6371
6372Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
6373of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
6374changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
6375
6376=item Unsupported script encoding %s
6377
6378(F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
6379declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot read.
6380
6381=item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
6382
6383(F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
6384least that's what Configure thought.
6385
6386=item Unterminated attribute list
6387
6388(F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
6389start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
6390block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
6391attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
6392
6393=item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
6394
6395(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
6396an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
6397character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
6398character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
6399
6400=item Unterminated compressed integer
6401
6402(F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
6403compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
6404See L<perlfunc/pack>.
6405
6406=item Unterminated delimiter for here document
6407
6408(F) This message occurs when a here document label has an initial
6409quotation mark but the final quotation mark is missing. Perhaps
6410you wrote:
6411
6412 <<"foo
6413
6414instead of:
6415
6416 <<"foo"
6417
6418=item Unterminated \g... pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6419
6420=item Unterminated \g{...} pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6421
6422(F) In a regular expression, you had a C<\g> that wasn't followed by a
6423proper group reference. In the case of C<\g{>, the closing brace is
6424missing; otherwise the C<\g> must be followed by an integer. Fix the
6425pattern and retry.
6426
6427=item Unterminated <> operator
6428
6429(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
6430a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
6431not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
6432earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
6433
6434=item Unterminated verb pattern argument in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6435m/%s/
6436
6437(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB:ARG)> but did not terminate
6438the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
6439
6440=item Unterminated verb pattern in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6441
6442(F) You used a pattern of the form C<(*VERB)> but did not terminate
6443the pattern with a C<)>. Fix the pattern and retry.
6444
6445=item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
6446
6447(W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
6448still valid when C<untie> was called.
6449
6450=item Usage: POSIX::%s(%s)
6451
6452(F) You called a POSIX function with incorrect arguments.
6453See L<POSIX/FUNCTIONS> for more information.
6454
6455=item Usage: Win32::%s(%s)
6456
6457(F) You called a Win32 function with incorrect arguments.
6458See L<Win32> for more information.
6459
6460=item $[ used in %s (did you mean $] ?)
6461
6462(W syntax) You used C<$[> in a comparison, such as:
6463
6464 if ($[ > 5.006) {
6465 ...
6466 }
6467
6468You probably meant to use C<$]> instead. C<$[> is the base for indexing
6469arrays. C<$]> is the Perl version number in decimal.
6470
6471=item Use "%s" instead of "%s"
6472
6473(F) The second listed construct is no longer legal. Use the first one
6474instead.
6475
6476=item Useless assignment to a temporary
6477
6478(W misc) You assigned to an lvalue subroutine, but what
6479the subroutine returned was a temporary scalar about to
6480be discarded, so the assignment had no effect.
6481
6482=item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex; marked by
6483S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6484
6485(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
6486meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
6487
6488 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
6489
6490must be written as
6491
6492 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
6493
6494The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
6495discovered. See L<perlre>.
6496
6497=item Useless localization of %s
6498
6499(W syntax) The localization of lvalues such as C<local($x=10)> is legal,
6500but in fact the local() currently has no effect. This may change at
6501some point in the future, but in the meantime such code is discouraged.
6502
6503=item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in
6504m/%s/
6505
6506(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
6507meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
6508
6509 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
6510
6511must be written as
6512
6513 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
6514
6515The <-- HERE shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was
6516discovered. See L<perlre>.
6517
6518=item Useless use of attribute "const"
6519
6520(W misc) The "const" attribute has no effect except
6521on anonymous closure prototypes. You applied it to
6522a subroutine via L<attributes.pm|attributes>. This is only useful
6523inside an attribute handler for an anonymous subroutine.
6524
6525=item Useless use of /d modifier in transliteration operator
6526
6527(W misc) You have used the /d modifier where the searchlist has the
6528same length as the replacelist. See L<perlop> for more information
6529about the /d modifier.
6530
6531=item Useless use of \E
6532
6533(W misc) You have a \E in a double-quotish string without a C<\U>,
6534C<\L> or C<\Q> preceding it.
6535
6536=item Useless use of greediness modifier '%c' in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6537
6538(W regexp) You specified something like these:
6539
6540 qr/a{3}?/
6541 qr/b{1,1}+/
6542
6543The C<"?"> and C<"+"> don't have any effect, as they modify whether to
6544match more or fewer when there is a choice, and by specifying to match
6545exactly a given numer, there is no room left for a choice.
6546
6547=item Useless use of %s in void context
6548
6549(W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
6550nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
6551value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
6552often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
6553to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
6554get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
6555said
6556
6557 $one, $two = 1, 2;
6558
6559when you meant to say
6560
6561 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
6562
6563Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
6564reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
6565example, if you say
6566
6567 $array = (1,2);
6568
6569when you should have said
6570
6571 $array = [1,2];
6572
6573The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
6574while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
6575a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
6576throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
6577L<perlref> for more on this.
6578
6579This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
6580since they are often used in statements like
6581
6582 1 while sub_with_side_effects();
6583
6584String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
6585about.
6586
6587=item Useless use of (?-p) in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6588
6589(W regexp) The C<p> modifier cannot be turned off once set. Trying to do
6590so is futile.
6591
6592=item Useless use of "re" pragma
6593
6594(W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
6595
6596=item Useless use of sort in scalar context
6597
6598(W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
6599
6600 my $x = sort @y;
6601
6602This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
6603
6604=item Useless use of %s with no values
6605
6606(W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
6607apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
6608usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
6609possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
6610if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
6611you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
6612
6613=item "use" not allowed in expression
6614
6615(F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
6616returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
6617
6618=item Use of assignment to $[ is deprecated
6619
6620(D deprecated) The C<$[> variable (index of the first element in an array)
6621is deprecated. See L<perlvar/"$[">.
6622
6623=item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is deprecated
6624
6625(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted
6626form if you wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the
6627here-document.
6628
6629=item Use of chdir('') or chdir(undef) as chdir() deprecated
6630
6631(D deprecated) chdir() with no arguments is documented to change to
6632$ENV{HOME} or $ENV{LOGDIR}. chdir(undef) and chdir('') share this
6633behavior, but that has been deprecated. In future versions they
6634will simply fail.
6635
6636Be careful to check that what you pass to chdir() is defined and not
6637blank, else you might find yourself in your home directory.
6638
6639=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
6640
6641(W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
6642modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
6643
6644=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
6645
6646(W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
6647use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
6648used. (This may change in the future.)
6649
6650=item Use of comma-less variable list is deprecated
6651
6652(D deprecated) The values you give to a format should be
6653separated by commas, not just aligned on a line.
6654
6655=item Use of each() on hash after insertion without resetting hash iterator results in undefined behavior
6656
6657(S internal) The behavior of C<each()> after insertion is undefined;
6658it may skip items, or visit items more than once. Consider using
6659C<keys()> instead of C<each()>.
6660
6661=item Use of := for an empty attribute list is not allowed
6662
6663(F) The construction C<my $x := 42> used to parse as equivalent to
6664C<my $x : = 42> (applying an empty attribute list to C<$x>).
6665This construct was deprecated in 5.12.0, and has now been made a syntax
6666error, so C<:=> can be reclaimed as a new operator in the future.
6667
6668If you need an empty attribute list, for example in a code generator, add
6669a space before the C<=>.
6670
6671=item Use of freed value in iteration
6672
6673(F) Perhaps you modified the iterated array within the loop?
6674This error is typically caused by code like the following:
6675
6676 @a = (3,4);
6677 @a = () for (1,2,@a);
6678
6679You are not supposed to modify arrays while they are being iterated over.
6680For speed and efficiency reasons, Perl internally does not do full
6681reference-counting of iterated items, hence deleting such an item in the
6682middle of an iteration causes Perl to see a freed value.
6683
6684=item Use of *glob{FILEHANDLE} is deprecated
6685
6686(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the shorter *glob{IO} form
6687to access the filehandle slot within a typeglob.
6688
6689=item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
6690
6691(W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
6692operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
6693repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
6694
6695=item Use of "goto" to jump into a construct is deprecated
6696
6697(D deprecated) Using C<goto> to jump from an outer scope into an inner
6698scope is deprecated and should be avoided.
6699
6700=item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
6701
6702(D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD>
6703subroutines are looked up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy)
6704even when the subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain
6705functions (e.g. C<Foo::bar()>), not as methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or
6706C<< $obj->bar() >>).
6707
6708This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup only for
6709methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base of existing
6710code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl
6711currently issues an optional warning when non-methods use inherited
6712C<AUTOLOAD>s.
6713
6714The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
6715non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used
6716to depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class
6717named C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during
6718startup.
6719
6720In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);>
6721you should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
6722C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
6723
6724=item Use of %s in printf format not supported
6725
6726(F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
6727only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
6728
6729=item Use of %s is deprecated
6730
6731(D deprecated) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use,
6732generally because there's a better way to do it, and also because the
6733old way has bad side effects.
6734
6735=item Use of literal control characters in variable names is deprecated
6736
6737=item Use of literal non-graphic characters in variable names is deprecated
6738
6739(D deprecated) Using literal non-graphic (including control)
6740characters in the source to refer to the ^FOO variables, like C<$^X> and
6741C<${^GLOBAL_PHASE}> is now deprecated. (We use C<^X> and C<^G> here for
6742legibility. They actually represent the non-printable control
6743characters, code points 0x18 and 0x07, respectively; C<^A> would mean
6744the control character whose code point is 0x01.) This only affects
6745code like C<$\cT>, where C<\cT> is a control in the source code; C<${"\cT"}> and
6746C<$^T> remain valid. Things that are non-controls and also not graphic
6747are NO-BREAK SPACE and SOFT HYPHEN, which were previously only allowed
6748for historical reasons.
6749
6750=item Use of -l on filehandle%s
6751
6752(W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
6753it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
6754The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
6755
6756=item Use of my $_ is experimental
6757
6758(S experimental::lexical_topic) Lexical $_ is an experimental feature and
6759its behavior may change or even be removed in any future release of perl.
6760See the explanation under L<perlvar/$_>.
6761
6762=item Use of %s on a handle without * is deprecated
6763
6764(D deprecated) You used C<tie>, C<tied> or C<untie> on a scalar but that scalar
6765happens to hold a typeglob, which means its filehandle will be tied. If
6766you mean to tie a handle, use an explicit * as in C<tie *$handle>.
6767
6768This was a long-standing bug that was removed in Perl 5.16, as there was
6769no way to tie the scalar itself when it held a typeglob, and no way to
6770untie a scalar that had had a typeglob assigned to it. If you see this
6771message, you must be using an older version.
6772
6773=item Use of reference "%s" as array index
6774
6775(W misc) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
6776isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
6777to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
6778
6779If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
6780C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
6781however, because you can overload the numification and stringification
6782operators and then you presumably know what you are doing.
6783
6784=item Use of state $_ is experimental
6785
6786(S experimental::lexical_topic) Lexical $_ is an experimental feature and
6787its behavior may change or even be removed in any future release of perl.
6788See the explanation under L<perlvar/$_>.
6789
6790=item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
6791
6792(W taint, deprecated) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
6793arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
6794but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
6795arguments. See L<perlsec>.
6796
6797=item Use of uninitialized value%s
6798
6799(W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
6800defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
6801To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
6802
6803To help you figure out what was undefined, perl will try to tell you
6804the name of the variable (if any) that was undefined. In some cases
6805it cannot do this, so it also tells you what operation you used the
6806undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your program
6807and the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily appear
6808literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is usually
6809optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to the
6810C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in
6811your program.
6812
6813=item "use re 'strict'" is experimental
6814
6815(S experimental::re_strict) The things that are different when a regular
6816expression pattern is compiled under C<'strict'> are subject to change
6817in future Perl releases in incompatible ways. This means that a pattern
6818that compiles today may not in a future Perl release. This warning is
6819to alert you to that risk.
6820
6821=item Use \x{...} for more than two hex characters in regex; marked by
6822S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6823
6824(F) In a regular expression, you said something like
6825
6826 (?[ [ \xBEEF ] ])
6827
6828Perl isn't sure if you meant this
6829
6830 (?[ [ \x{BEEF} ] ])
6831
6832or if you meant this
6833
6834 (?[ [ \x{BE} E F ] ])
6835
6836You need to add either braces or blanks to disambiguate.
6837
6838=item Using just the first character returned by \N{} in character class in
6839regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6840
6841(W regexp) Named Unicode character escapes C<(\N{...})> may return
6842a multi-character sequence. Even though a character class is
6843supposed to match just one character of input, perl will match
6844the whole thing correctly, except when the class is inverted
6845(C<[^...]>), or the escape is the beginning or final end point of
6846a range. For these, what should happen isn't clear at all. In
6847these circumstances, Perl discards all but the first character
6848of the returned sequence, which is not likely what you want.
6849
6850=item Using !~ with %s doesn't make sense
6851
6852(F) Using the C<!~> operator with C<s///r>, C<tr///r> or C<y///r> is
6853currently reserved for future use, as the exact behavior has not
6854been decided. (Simply returning the boolean opposite of the
6855modified string is usually not particularly useful.)
6856
6857=item UTF-16 surrogate U+%X
6858
6859(S surrogate) You had a UTF-16 surrogate in a context where they are
6860not considered acceptable. These code points, between U+D800 and
6861U+DFFF (inclusive), are used by Unicode only for UTF-16. However, Perl
6862internally allows all unsigned integer code points (up to the size limit
6863available on your platform), including surrogates. But these can cause
6864problems when being input or output, which is likely where this message
6865came from. If you really really know what you are doing you can turn
6866off this warning by C<no warnings 'surrogate';>.
6867
6868=item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
6869
6870(W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
6871C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
6872can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
6873false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
6874constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
6875C<defined> operator.
6876
6877=item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
6878
6879(W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
6880%ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
6881longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
68821024 characters.
6883
6884=item values on reference is experimental
6885
6886(S experimental::autoderef) C<values> with a scalar argument
6887is experimental and may change or be removed in a future
6888Perl version. If you want to take the risk of using this
6889feature, simply disable this warning:
6890
6891 no warnings "experimental::autoderef";
6892
6893=item Variable "%s" is not available
6894
6895(W closure) During compilation, an inner named subroutine or eval is
6896attempting to capture an outer lexical that is not currently available.
6897This can happen for one of two reasons. First, the outer lexical may be
6898declared in an outer anonymous subroutine that has not yet been created.
6899(Remember that named subs are created at compile time, while anonymous
6900subs are created at run-time.) For example,
6901
6902 sub { my $a; sub f { $a } }
6903
6904At the time that f is created, it can't capture the current value of $a,
6905since the anonymous subroutine hasn't been created yet. Conversely,
6906the following won't give a warning since the anonymous subroutine has by
6907now been created and is live:
6908
6909 sub { my $a; eval 'sub f { $a }' }->();
6910
6911The second situation is caused by an eval accessing a variable that has
6912gone out of scope, for example,
6913
6914 sub f {
6915 my $a;
6916 sub { eval '$a' }
6917 }
6918 f()->();
6919
6920Here, when the '$a' in the eval is being compiled, f() is not currently
6921being executed, so its $a is not available for capture.
6922
6923=item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
6924
6925(S misc) With "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable
6926that you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
6927something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
6928that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
6929front of your variable.
6930
6931=item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex m/%s/
6932
6933(F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
6934known at compile time. For positive lookbehind, you can use the C<\K>
6935regex construct as a way to get the equivalent functionality. See
6936L<perlre/(?<=pattern) \K>.
6937
6938There are non-obvious Unicode rules under C</i> that can match variably,
6939but which you might not think could. For example, the substring C<"ss">
6940can match the single character LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S. There are
6941other sequences of ASCII characters that can match single ligature
6942characters, such as LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FFI matching C<qr/ffi/i>.
6943Starting in Perl v5.16, if you only care about ASCII matches, adding the
6944C</aa> modifier to the regex will exclude all these non-obvious matches,
6945thus getting rid of this message. You can also say C<S<use re qw(/aa)>>
6946to apply C</aa> to all regular expressions compiled within its scope.
6947See L<re>.
6948
6949=item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
6950
6951(W misc) A "my", "our" or "state" variable has been redeclared in the
6952current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the
6953previous instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note
6954that the earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope
6955or until all closure references to it are destroyed.
6956
6957=item Variable syntax
6958
6959(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
6960of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
6961Perl yourself.
6962
6963=item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
6964
6965(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
6966lexical variable defined in an outer named subroutine.
6967
6968When the inner subroutine is called, it will see the value of
6969the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
6970call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
6971outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
6972longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
6973variable will no longer be shared.
6974
6975This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
6976anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
6977reference variables in outer subroutines are created, they
6978are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
6979
6980=item vector argument not supported with alpha versions
6981
6982(S printf) The %vd (s)printf format does not support version objects
6983with alpha parts.
6984
6985=item Verb pattern '%s' has a mandatory argument in regex; marked by
6986S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6987
6988(F) You used a verb pattern that requires an argument. Supply an
6989argument or check that you are using the right verb.
6990
6991=item Verb pattern '%s' may not have an argument in regex; marked by
6992S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
6993
6994(F) You used a verb pattern that is not allowed an argument. Remove the
6995argument or check that you are using the right verb.
6996
6997=item Version number must be a constant number
6998
6999(P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
7000its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
7001the version number.
7002
7003=item Version string '%s' contains invalid data; ignoring: '%s'
7004
7005(W misc) The version string contains invalid characters at the end, which
7006are being ignored.
7007
7008=item Warning: something's wrong
7009
7010(W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
7011you called it with no args and C<$@> was empty.
7012
7013=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
7014
7015(S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
7016the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
7017space.
7018
7019=item Warning: unable to close filehandle properly: %s
7020
7021=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly: %s
7022
7023(S io) An error occurred when Perl implicitly closed a filehandle. This
7024usually indicates your file system ran out of disk space.
7025
7026=item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
7027
7028(S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
7029looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
7030term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
7031function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
7032
7033 rand + 5;
7034
7035you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
7036
7037 rand() + 5;
7038
7039but in actual fact, you got
7040
7041 rand(+5);
7042
7043So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
7044
7045=item when is experimental
7046
7047(S experimental::smartmatch) C<when> depends on smartmatch, which is
7048experimental. Additionally, it has several special cases that may
7049not be immediately obvious, and their behavior may change or
7050even be removed in any future release of perl. See the explanation
7051under L<perlsyn/Experimental Details on given and when>.
7052
7053=item Wide character in %s
7054
7055(S utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting
7056one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print). The easiest
7057way to quiet this warning is simply to add the C<:utf8> layer to the
7058output, e.g. C<binmode STDOUT, ':utf8'>. Another way to turn off the
7059warning is to add C<no warnings 'utf8';> but that is often closer to
7060cheating. In general, you are supposed to explicitly mark the
7061filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
7062
7063=item Wide character (U+%X) in %s
7064
7065(W locale) While in a single-byte locale (I<i.e.>, a non-UTF-8
7066one), a multi-byte character was encountered. Perl considers this
7067character to be the specified Unicode code point. Combining non-UTF8
7068locales and Unicode is dangerous. Almost certainly some characters
7069will have two different representations. For example, in the ISO 8859-7
7070(Greek) locale, the code point 0xC3 represents a Capital Gamma. But so
7071also does 0x393. This will make string comparisons unreliable.
7072
7073You likely need to figure out how this multi-byte character got mixed up
7074with your single-byte locale (or perhaps you thought you had a UTF-8
7075locale, but Perl disagrees).
7076
7077=item Within []-length '%c' not allowed
7078
7079(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]>
7080only if C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes that
7081can be determined from the template alone. This is not possible if
7082it contains any of the codes @, /, U, u, w or a *-length. Redesign
7083the template.
7084
7085=item write() on closed filehandle %s
7086
7087(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
7088before now. Check your control flow.
7089
7090=item %s "\x%X" does not map to Unicode
7091
7092(S utf8) When reading in different encodings, Perl tries to
7093map everything into Unicode characters. The bytes you read
7094in are not legal in this encoding. For example
7095
7096 utf8 "\xE4" does not map to Unicode
7097
7098if you try to read in the a-diaereses Latin-1 as UTF-8.
7099
7100=item 'X' outside of string
7101
7102(F) You had a (un)pack template that specified a relative position before
7103the beginning of the string being (un)packed. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
7104
7105=item 'x' outside of string in unpack
7106
7107(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
7108the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
7109
7110=item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
7111
7112(F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
7113sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
7114about what you want. Your best bet is to put a setuid C wrapper around
7115your script.
7116
7117=item You need to quote "%s"
7118
7119(W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
7120Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
7121which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
7122assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
7123what you want, put an & in front.)
7124
7125=item Your random numbers are not that random
7126
7127(F) When trying to initialize the random seed for hashes, Perl could
7128not get any randomness out of your system. This usually indicates
7129Something Very Wrong.
7130
7131=item Zero length \N{} in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/
7132
7133(F) Named Unicode character escapes (C<\N{...}>) may return a zero-length
7134sequence. Such an escape was used in an extended character class, i.e.
7135C<(?[...])>, which is not permitted. Check that the correct escape has
7136been used, and the correct charnames handler is in scope. The S<<-- HERE>
7137shows whereabouts in the regular expression the problem was discovered.
7138
7139=back
7140
7141=head1 SEE ALSO
7142
7143L<warnings>, L<diagnostics>.
7144
7145=cut