3 perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
7 These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
10 (W) A warning (optional).
11 (D) A deprecation (optional).
12 (S) A severe warning (mandatory).
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).
18 Optional warnings are enabled by using the B<-w> switch. Warnings may
19 be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}> to a reference to a routine that
20 will be called on each warning instead of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
21 Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
24 Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are denoted with a %s,
25 just as in a printf format. Note that some messages start with a %s!
26 The symbols C<"%(-?@> sort before the letters, while C<[> and C<\> sort after.
30 =item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
32 (F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make sense
33 to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use local()
34 if you want to localize a package variable.
36 =item "my" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same scope
38 (W) A lexical variable has been redeclared in the same scope, effectively
39 eliminating all access to the previous instance. This is almost always
40 a typographical error. Note that the earlier variable will still exist
41 until the end of the scope or until all closure referents to it are
44 =item "no" not allowed in expression
46 (F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and returns
47 no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
49 =item "use" not allowed in expression
51 (F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and returns
52 no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
54 =item % may only be used in unpack
56 (F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
57 checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other
58 way. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
60 =item %s (...) interpreted as function
62 (W) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator followed
63 by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list operators arguments
64 found inside the parentheses. See L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
66 =item %s argument is not a HASH element
68 (F) The argument to exists() must be a hash element, such as
73 =item %s argument is not a HASH element or slice
75 (F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash element, such as
80 or a hash slice, such as
82 @foo{$bar, $baz, $xyzzy}
83 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
85 =item %s did not return a true value
87 (F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
88 it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
89 traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
90 do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
92 =item %s found where operator expected
94 (S) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator. If it
95 sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an operator,
96 it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an operator or
97 delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
99 =item %s had compilation errors
101 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
103 =item %s has too many errors
105 (F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
106 Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
108 =item %s matches null string many times
110 (W) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
111 regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. See L<perlre>.
113 =item %s never introduced
115 (S) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of scope
116 before it could possibly have been used.
120 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
122 =item %s: Command not found
124 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
125 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
128 =item %s: Expression syntax
130 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
131 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
134 =item %s: Undefined variable
136 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
137 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
142 (A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell
143 instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script
146 =item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
148 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
149 found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
150 the previous line just because you saw this message.
152 =item B<-P> not allowed for setuid/setgid script
154 (F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor by name,
155 which provides a race condition that breaks security.
157 =item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
159 (F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
160 know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
162 =item C<-p> destination: %s
164 (F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
165 command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
166 redirected it with select().)
168 =item 500 Server error
172 =item ?+* follows nothing in regexp
174 (F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it
175 if you meant it literally. See L<perlre>.
177 =item @ outside of string
179 (F) You had a pack template that specified an absolute position outside
180 the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
182 =item accept() on closed fd
184 (W) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
185 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/accept>.
187 =item Allocation too large: %lx
189 (X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
191 =item Allocation too large
193 (F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes.
195 =item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
197 (W) The pattern match (//), substitution (s///), and translation (tr///)
198 operators work on scalar values. If you apply one of them to an array
199 or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to a scalar value -- the
200 length of an array, or the population info of a hash -- and then work on
201 that scalar value. This is probably not what you meant to do. See
202 L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for alternatives.
204 =item Arg too short for msgsnd
206 (F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
208 =item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
210 (W)(S) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
211 you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
212 a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
214 =item Args must match #! line
216 (F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
217 with match the arguments specified on the #! line. Since some systems
218 impose a one-argument limit on the #! line, try combining switches;
219 for example, turn C<-w -U> into C<-wU>.
221 =item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
223 (W) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator that
224 expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
225 will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
227 =item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
229 (D) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some spots. This
230 is now heavily deprecated.
232 =item assertion botched: %s
234 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
236 =item Assertion failed: file "%s"
238 (P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
240 =item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
242 (F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
243 must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
244 know which context to supply to the right side.
246 =item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
248 (P) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas that will
249 be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be outside any
252 =item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
254 (P) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of strings to
255 optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other strings. This
256 indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count of a string
257 that can no longer be found in the table.
259 =item Attempt to free temp prematurely
261 (W) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the free_tmps()
262 routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the SV before
263 the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the free_tmps()
264 routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does try to free
267 =item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
269 (P) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
271 =item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
273 (W) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to see if it
274 would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0 earlier,
275 and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed. This
276 could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or that
277 SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was mortalized
278 when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been corrupted.
280 =item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
282 (W) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
283 function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
284 means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
285 invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
286 literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
289 =item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
291 (W) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr() used
292 as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
293 dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
295 =item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %d
297 (F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl() or
298 shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
299 S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
300 S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
302 =item Bad filehandle: %s
304 (F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the symbol
305 has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an open(), or
306 did it in another package.
308 =item Bad free() ignored
310 (S) An internal routine called free() on something that had never been
311 malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
312 setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
314 This message can be quite often seen with DB_File on systems with
315 "hard" dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of
316 C<Berkeley DB> which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving>
321 (P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
323 =item Bad name after %s::
325 (F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then didn't
326 finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside of quotes,
335 $sym = "mypack::$var";
337 =item Bad symbol for array
339 (P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
340 wasn't a symbol table entry.
342 =item Bad symbol for filehandle
344 (P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something that
345 wasn't a symbol table entry.
347 =item Bad symbol for hash
349 (P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
350 wasn't a symbol table entry.
352 =item Badly placed ()'s
354 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
355 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
358 =item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
360 (F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
361 subroutine identifier, in curly braces or to the left of the "=>" symbol.
362 Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
364 =item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
366 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN subroutine.
367 Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is exited.
369 =item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
371 (F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
372 implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had
373 already occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}>
374 could not be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code
375 likely depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
377 =item bind() on closed fd
379 (W) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
380 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
382 =item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
384 (P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not copiable.
386 =item Callback called exit
388 (F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via perl_call_sv()
389 exited by calling exit.
391 =item Can't "goto" outside a block
393 (F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look
394 like a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually
395 occurs if you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which
396 is a no-no. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
398 =item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
400 (F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a
401 foreach loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
403 =item Can't "last" outside a block
405 (F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
406 except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a
407 current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a
408 "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(). You can usually double
409 the curlies to get the same effect though, because the inner curlies
410 will be considered a block that loops once. See L<perlfunc/last>.
412 =item Can't "next" outside a block
414 (F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
415 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
416 count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(). You can
417 usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the inner
418 curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
420 =item Can't "redo" outside a block
422 (F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
423 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
424 count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(). You can
425 usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the inner
426 curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
428 =item Can't bless non-reference value
430 (F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
431 encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
433 =item Can't break at that line
435 (S) A warning intended to only be printed while running within the debugger, indicating
436 the line number specified wasn't the location of a statement that could
439 =item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
441 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
442 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
443 in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
445 =item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
447 (F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
448 ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but
449 you didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't
450 an object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
452 =item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
454 (F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
455 object reference or package name contains an expression that returns
456 neither an object reference nor a package name. (Perhaps it's null?)
457 Something like this will reproduce the error:
460 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
461 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
463 =item Can't chdir to %s
465 (F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
466 that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
468 =item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
470 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
471 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
481 but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
483 =item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
485 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
486 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
488 =item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
490 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
491 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
493 =item Can't create pipe mailbox
495 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted quotas
496 or other plumbing problems.
498 =item Can't declare %s in my
500 (F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as lexical variables.
501 They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
503 =item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
505 (S) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated reason.
507 =item Can't do inplace edit without backup
509 (F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try reading
510 from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say C<-i.bak>, or some
513 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s E<gt> 14 characters
515 (S) There isn't enough room in the filename to make a backup name for the file.
517 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
519 (S) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as a file in
520 /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
522 =item Can't do setegid!
524 (P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator
527 =item Can't do seteuid!
529 (P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
531 =item Can't do setuid
533 (F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to
534 do setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the
535 form sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides
536 under the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines.
537 If the file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask
538 your sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
540 =item Can't do waitpid with flags
542 (F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only waitpid()
543 without flags is emulated.
545 =item Can't do {n,m} with n E<gt> m
547 (F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want
548 your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. See L<perlre>.
550 =item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
552 (F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this point.
553 For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #! line.
555 =item Can't exec "%s": %s
557 (W) An system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the named
558 program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the permissions
559 were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in C<$ENV{PATH}>, the
560 executable in question was compiled for another architecture, or the
561 #! line in a script points to an interpreter that can't be run for
562 similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support #! at all.)
566 (F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because that's
567 what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may need to
568 mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
570 =item Can't execute %s
572 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute found
573 in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
575 =item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
577 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be found
578 in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The script
579 exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
581 =item Can't find %s on PATH
583 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be found
586 =item Can't find label %s
588 (F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's possible
589 for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
591 =item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
593 (F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means that
594 the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count nesting
595 levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
597 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
599 If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have
600 included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good
601 programmer's editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
605 (F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a pipeline.
607 =item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
609 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference between
610 access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes. Under VMS,
611 access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in the stat buffer, so
612 that ACLs and other protections can be taken into account. Unfortunately, Perl
613 assumes that the stat buffer contains all the necessary information, and passes
614 it, instead of the filespec, to the access checking routine. It will try to
615 retrieve the filespec using the device name and FID present in the stat buffer,
616 but this works only if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat()
617 routine, because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
618 appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up and
619 returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking routine
620 knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you shouldn't ever
621 see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises only if some internal
622 code takes stat buffers lightly.)
624 =item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
626 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a pipe, Perl
627 can't retrieve its name for later use.
629 =item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
631 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
632 mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
634 =item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
636 (F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one subroutine
637 call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole cloth. In general
638 you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD routine anyway. See
641 =item Can't localize through a reference
643 (F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
644 handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
645 pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be
646 sure that $ref will still be a reference.
648 =item Can't localize lexical variable %s
650 (F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
651 lexical variable using "my". This is not allowed. If you want to
652 localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
655 =item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
657 (F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows autoload,
658 but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes are a misprint
659 in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit> the file, say, by
660 doing C<make install>.
662 =item Can't locate %s in @INC
664 (F) You said to do (or require, or use) a file that couldn't be found
665 in any of the libraries mentioned in @INC. Perhaps you need to set the
666 PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where the extra library
667 is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name to @INC. Or maybe
668 you just misspelled the name of the file. See L<perlfunc/require>.
670 =item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
672 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
673 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
674 method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
676 =item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
678 (W) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that doesn't seem
681 =item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
683 (F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably VMS.
687 (F) The mktemp() routine failed for some reason while trying to process
688 a B<-e> switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.
690 =item Can't modify %s in %s
692 (F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try to
693 change it, such as with an auto-increment.
695 =item Can't modify nonexistent substring
697 (P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
700 =item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
702 (F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
705 =item Can't open %s: %s
707 (S) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<E<lt>E<gt>>
708 filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
709 switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
710 is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named
713 =item Can't open bidirectional pipe
715 (W) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported. You can
716 try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such as
717 IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using "E<gt>",
718 and then read it in under a different file handle.
720 =item Can't open error file %s as stderr
722 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
723 couldn't open the file specified after '2E<gt>' or '2E<gt>E<gt>' on the
724 command line for writing.
726 =item Can't open input file %s as stdin
728 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
729 couldn't open the file specified after 'E<lt>' on the command line for reading.
731 =item Can't open output file %s as stdout
733 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
734 couldn't open the file specified after 'E<gt>' or 'E<gt>E<gt>' on the command
737 =item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
739 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
740 couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined for stdout.
742 =item Can't open perl script "%s": %s
744 (F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
746 =item Can't redefine active sort subroutine %s
748 (F) Perl optimizes the internal handling of sort subroutines and keeps
749 pointers into them. You tried to redefine one such sort subroutine when it
750 was currently active, which is not allowed. If you really want to do
751 this, you should write C<sort { &func } @x> instead of C<sort func @x>.
753 =item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
755 (S) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason, probably because
756 you don't have write permission to the directory.
758 =item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
760 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried to
761 reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
763 =item Can't reswap uid and euid
765 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator
768 =item Can't return outside a subroutine
770 (F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
771 there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
773 =item Can't stat script "%s"
775 (P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have
776 it open already. Bizarre.
778 =item Can't swap uid and euid
780 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator
783 =item Can't take log of %g
785 (F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
786 negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
787 standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for
788 the negative numbers.
790 =item Can't take sqrt of %g
792 (F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
793 negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
794 with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
796 =item Can't undef active subroutine
798 (F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
799 however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
800 redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
804 (F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
805 as the main Perl stack.
807 =item Can't upgrade that kind of scalar
809 (P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making
810 it into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are
811 so specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This
812 message indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
814 =item Can't upgrade to undef
816 (P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the totem pole, in the scheme
817 of upgradability. Upgrading to undef indicates an error in the
818 code calling sv_upgrade.
820 =item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
822 (F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
823 You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the E<lt>=E<gt> or cmp operator,
824 and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
825 Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
828 =item Can't use %s for loop variable
830 (F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a foreach.
832 =item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
834 (F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
835 reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
836 test the type of the reference, if need be.
838 =item Can't use \1 to mean $1 in expression
840 (W) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that creates
841 a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a backreference
842 to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular expression pattern.
843 Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a value that prints
844 out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form instead.
846 =item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while \"strict refs\" in use
848 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic references
849 are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
851 =item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
853 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic references
854 are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
856 =item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
858 (F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
859 be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
861 =item Can't use global %s in "my"
863 (F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This is
864 not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location (namely
865 the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to have
866 variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
869 =item Can't use subscript on %s
871 (F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
872 subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
873 didn't look like an array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
875 =item Can't write to temp file for B<-e>: %s
877 (F) The write routine failed for some reason while trying to process
878 a B<-e> switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.
880 =item Can't x= to read-only value
882 (F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value) with
883 an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
884 Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
886 =item Cannot open temporary file
888 (F) The create routine failed for some reason while trying to process
889 a B<-e> switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.
891 =item Cannot resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
893 (F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as
894 opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the
895 package. If method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
897 =item chmod: mode argument is missing initial 0
899 (W) A novice will sometimes say
903 not realizing that 777 will be interpreted as a decimal number, equivalent
904 to 01411. Octal constants are introduced with a leading 0 in Perl, as in C.
906 =item Close on unopened file E<lt>%sE<gt>
908 (W) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
910 =item Compilation failed in require
912 (F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
913 Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it encountered
914 were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
916 =item connect() on closed fd
918 (W) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
919 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/connect>.
921 =item Constant subroutine %s redefined
923 (S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible for
924 inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
927 =item Constant subroutine %s undefined
929 (S) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible for
930 inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
933 =item Copy method did not return a reference
935 (F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
937 =item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
939 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
941 =item corrupted regexp pointers
943 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
944 expression compiler gave it.
946 =item corrupted regexp program
948 (P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without
949 a valid magic number.
951 =item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
953 (W) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly) 100
954 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an infinite
955 recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in which
956 case it indicates something else.
958 =item Delimiter for here document is too long
960 (F) In a here document construct like C<E<lt>E<lt>FOO>, the label
961 C<FOO> is too long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously
962 twisted to write code that triggers this error.
964 =item Did you mean &%s instead?
966 (W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some such.
968 =item Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?
970 (W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or @hash{@keys}.
971 On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got carried away.
975 (F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
976 you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
978 =item Do you need to predeclare %s?
980 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
981 found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
982 name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
983 because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
984 "sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're
985 referencing something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have
986 to define the subroutine or package before the current location. You
987 can use an empty "sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward"
990 =item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
992 (P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
994 =item do_study: out of memory
996 (P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
998 =item Duplicate free() ignored
1000 (S) An internal routine called free() on something that had already
1003 =item elseif should be elsif
1005 (S) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's
1006 ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method
1007 named "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
1008 unlikely to be what you want.
1010 =item END failed--cleanup aborted
1012 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing an END subroutine.
1013 The interpreter is immediately exited.
1015 =item Error converting file specification %s
1017 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
1018 specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
1019 single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've
1020 passed an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a
1021 case the conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
1023 =item Excessively long <> operator
1025 (F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1026 Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1027 filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1028 variable and glob that.
1030 =item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors
1032 (F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1034 =item Exiting eval via %s
1036 (W) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as
1037 a goto, or a loop control statement.
1039 =item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1041 (W) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a sort block or
1042 subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a loop control
1043 statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
1045 =item Exiting subroutine via %s
1047 (W) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such as
1048 a goto, or a loop control statement.
1050 =item Exiting substitution via %s
1052 (W) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such as
1053 a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
1055 =item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
1057 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS system
1058 service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more details. The
1059 filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell you which section of
1060 the Perl source code is distressed.
1062 =item fcntl is not implemented
1064 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1065 PDP-11 or something?
1067 =item Filehandle %s never opened
1069 (W) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was never initialized.
1070 You need to do an open() or a socket() call, or call a constructor from
1071 the FileHandle package.
1073 =item Filehandle %s opened for only input
1075 (W) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you
1076 intended it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with
1077 "+E<lt>" or "+E<gt>" or "+E<gt>E<gt>" instead of with "E<lt>" or nothing. If
1078 you intended only to write the file, use "E<gt>" or "E<gt>E<gt>". See
1081 =item Filehandle opened for only input
1083 (W) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you
1084 intended it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with
1085 "+E<lt>" or "+E<gt>" or "+E<gt>E<gt>" instead of with "E<lt>" or nothing. If
1086 you intended only to write the file, use "E<gt>" or "E<gt>E<gt>". See
1089 =item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1091 (F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
1092 a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name
1093 that happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or
1096 =item Final @ should be \@ or @name
1098 (F) You must now decide whether the final @ in a string was meant to be
1099 a literal "at" sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name
1100 that happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or
1103 =item Format %s redefined
1105 (W) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
1109 eval "format NAME =...";
1112 =item Format not terminated
1114 (F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1115 to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1117 =item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1127 (or something like that).
1129 =item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1131 (S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1133 =item gethostent not implemented
1135 (F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1136 because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1139 =item get{sock,peer}name() on closed fd
1141 (W) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed socket.
1142 Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
1144 =item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1146 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1147 C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1150 =item Glob not terminated
1152 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
1153 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and not
1154 finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out earlier in
1155 the line, and you really meant a "less than".
1157 =item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1159 (F) You've said "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables
1160 must either be lexically scoped (using "my"), or explicitly qualified to
1161 say which package the global variable is in (using "::").
1163 =item goto must have label
1165 (F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1166 unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1168 =item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1170 (S) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought to have
1171 existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be created on
1172 an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
1174 =item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1176 (D) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some spots. This
1177 is now heavily deprecated.
1179 =item Identifier too long
1181 (F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
1182 about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
1183 names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future
1184 versions of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
1186 =item Ill-formed logical name |%s| in prime_env_iter
1188 (W) A warning peculiar to VMS. A logical name was encountered when preparing
1189 to iterate over %ENV which violates the syntactic rules governing logical
1190 names. Because it cannot be translated normally, it is skipped, and will not
1191 appear in %ENV. This may be a benign occurrence, as some software packages
1192 might directly modify logical name tables and introduce nonstandard names,
1193 or it may indicate that a logical name table has been corrupted.
1195 =item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1197 (F) A carriage return character was found in the input. This is an
1198 error, and not a warning, because carriage return characters can break
1199 multi-line strings, including here documents (e.g., C<print E<lt>E<lt>EOF;>).
1201 Under Unix, this error is usually caused by executing Perl code --
1202 either the main program, a module, or an eval'd string -- that was
1203 transferred over a network connection from a non-Unix system without
1204 properly converting the text file format.
1206 Under systems that use something other than '\n' to delimit lines of
1207 text, this error can also be caused by reading Perl code from a file
1208 handle that is in binary mode (as set by the C<binmode> operator).
1210 In either case, the Perl code in question will probably need to be
1211 converted with something like C<s/\x0D\x0A?/\n/g> before it can be
1214 =item Illegal division by zero
1216 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in your
1217 logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against meaningless input.
1219 =item Illegal modulus zero
1221 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most numbers
1222 don't take to this kindly.
1224 =item Illegal octal digit
1226 (F) You used an 8 or 9 in a octal number.
1228 =item Illegal octal digit ignored
1230 (W) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in a octal number. Interpretation
1231 of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
1233 =item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: %s
1235 (X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
1236 following switches: B<-[DIMUdmw]>.
1238 =item In string, @%s now must be written as \@%s
1240 (F) It used to be that Perl would try to guess whether you wanted an
1241 array interpolated or a literal @. It did this when the string was first
1242 used at runtime. Now strings are parsed at compile time, and ambiguous
1243 instances of @ must be disambiguated, either by prepending a backslash to
1244 indicate a literal, or by declaring (or using) the array within the
1245 program before the string (lexically). (Someday it will simply assume
1246 that an unbackslashed @ interpolates an array.)
1248 =item Insecure dependency in %s
1250 (F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
1251 The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or setgid,
1252 or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The tainting mechanism
1253 labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly from the user,
1254 who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any such data is
1255 used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See L<perlsec>
1256 for more information.
1258 =item Insecure directory in %s
1260 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or setgid
1261 script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by the world.
1266 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1267 setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> is derived from data supplied (or
1268 potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set the path to a
1269 known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
1271 =item Integer overflow in hex number
1273 (S) The literal hex number you have specified is too big for your
1274 architecture. On a 32-bit architecture the largest hex literal is
1277 =item Integer overflow in octal number
1279 (S) The literal octal number you have specified is too big for your
1280 architecture. On a 32-bit architecture the largest octal literal is
1283 =item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
1285 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number
1286 of times you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine
1287 whether the current call to C<exec> should affect the current
1288 script or a subprocess (see L<perlvms/exec>). Somehow, this count
1289 has become scrambled, so Perl is making a guess and treating
1290 this C<exec> as a request to terminate the Perl script
1291 and execute the specified command.
1293 =item internal disaster in regexp
1295 (P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
1297 =item internal error: glob failed
1299 (P) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for C<glob>
1300 and C<E<lt>*.cE<gt>>. This may mean that your csh (C shell) is
1301 broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables in
1302 config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it
1303 were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all
1304 empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
1305 think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
1306 C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
1308 =item internal urp in regexp at /%s/
1310 (P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser.
1312 =item invalid [] range in regexp
1314 (F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
1315 greater than the maximum character. See L<perlre>.
1317 =item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
1319 (W) Perl does not understand the given format conversion.
1320 See L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
1322 =item Invalid type in pack: '%s'
1324 (F) The given character is not a valid pack type. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1325 (W) The given character is not a valid pack type but used to be silently
1328 =item Invalid type in unpack: '%s'
1330 (F) The given character is not a valid unpack type. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
1331 (W) The given character is not a valid unpack type but used to be silently
1334 =item ioctl is not implemented
1336 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
1337 strange for a machine that supports C.
1339 =item junk on end of regexp
1341 (P) The regular expression parser is confused.
1343 =item Label not found for "last %s"
1345 (F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a
1346 loop of that name, not even if you count where you were called from.
1347 See L<perlfunc/last>.
1349 =item Label not found for "next %s"
1351 (F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
1352 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1355 =item Label not found for "redo %s"
1357 (F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
1358 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1361 =item listen() on closed fd
1363 (W) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
1364 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/listen>.
1366 =item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
1368 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
1369 doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
1371 =item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
1373 (S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
1374 by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
1375 ended earlier on the current line.
1377 =item Misplaced _ in number
1379 (W) An underline in a decimal constant wasn't on a 3-digit boundary.
1381 =item Missing $ on loop variable
1383 (F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables are always
1384 mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it can vary from
1385 one line to the next.
1387 =item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
1389 (F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
1390 "indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
1392 =item Missing operator before %s?
1394 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1395 found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
1397 =item Missing right bracket
1399 (F) The lexer counted more opening curly brackets (braces) than closing ones.
1400 As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you were last
1403 =item Modification of a read-only value attempted
1405 (F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
1406 constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
1407 catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
1409 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
1412 Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
1414 =item Modification of noncreatable array value attempted, subscript %d
1416 (F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
1417 subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
1420 =item Modification of noncreatable hash value attempted, subscript "%s"
1422 (F) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it couldn't
1423 be created for some peculiar reason.
1425 =item Module name must be constant
1427 (F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
1429 =item msg%s not implemented
1431 (F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
1433 =item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
1435 (W) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>. They're written
1436 like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
1438 =item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
1440 (W) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
1441 If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention
1442 it again somehow to suppress the message. The C<use vars> pragma is
1443 provided for just this purpose.
1445 =item Negative length
1447 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer length
1448 that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
1450 =item nested *?+ in regexp
1452 (F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
1453 things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal.
1455 Note, however, that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and C<??> appear
1456 to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
1460 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
1461 even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
1463 =item No %s allowed while running setuid
1465 (F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or setgid
1466 script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there will be
1467 another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least securable.
1470 =item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
1472 (F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
1474 =item No comma allowed after %s
1476 (F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
1477 allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
1478 Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
1480 One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
1481 constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
1482 importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
1483 does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
1484 explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
1485 L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
1486 would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
1487 remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
1488 constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
1489 list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
1490 this error was triggered?
1492 =item No command into which to pipe on command line
1494 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1495 and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it doesn't know where you
1496 want to pipe the output from this command.
1498 =item No DB::DB routine defined
1500 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
1501 but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
1502 didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
1503 statement. Which is odd, because the file should have been required
1504 automatically, and should have blown up the require if it didn't parse
1507 =item No dbm on this machine
1509 (P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
1510 supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
1512 =item No DBsub routine
1514 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
1515 but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
1516 didn't define a DB::sub routine to be called at the beginning of each
1517 ordinary subroutine call.
1519 =item No error file after 2E<gt> or 2E<gt>E<gt> on command line
1521 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1522 and found a '2E<gt>' or a '2E<gt>E<gt>' on the command line, but can't find
1523 the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
1525 =item No input file after E<lt> on command line
1527 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1528 and found a 'E<lt>' on the command line, but can't find the name of the file
1529 from which to read data for stdin.
1531 =item No output file after E<gt> on command line
1533 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1534 and found a lone 'E<gt>' at the end of the command line, so it doesn't know
1535 where you wanted to redirect stdout.
1537 =item No output file after E<gt> or E<gt>E<gt> on command line
1539 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1540 and found a 'E<gt>' or a 'E<gt>E<gt>' on the command line, but can't find the
1541 name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
1543 =item No Perl script found in input
1545 (F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
1546 with #! and containing the word "perl".
1548 =item No setregid available
1550 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
1553 =item No setreuid available
1555 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
1558 =item No space allowed after B<-I>
1560 (F) The argument to B<-I> must follow the B<-I> immediately with no
1563 =item No such pipe open
1565 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
1566 close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught earlier as
1567 an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
1569 =item No such signal: SIG%s
1571 (W) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was not recognized.
1572 Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names on your system.
1574 =item Not a CODE reference
1576 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
1577 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
1578 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was.
1579 See also L<perlref>.
1581 =item Not a format reference
1583 (F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
1584 format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
1586 =item Not a GLOB reference
1588 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is,
1589 a symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
1590 something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out
1591 what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1593 =item Not a HASH reference
1595 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but
1596 found a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref()
1597 function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1599 =item Not a perl script
1601 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
1602 even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
1605 =item Not a SCALAR reference
1607 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but
1608 found a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref()
1609 function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1611 =item Not a subroutine reference
1613 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
1614 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
1615 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was.
1616 See also L<perlref>.
1618 =item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
1620 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
1621 doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
1623 =item Not an ARRAY reference
1625 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but
1626 found a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref()
1627 function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1629 =item Not enough arguments for %s
1631 (F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
1633 =item Not enough format arguments
1635 (W) A format specified more picture fields than the next line supplied.
1638 =item Null filename used
1640 (F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many machines
1641 that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
1643 =item Null picture in formline
1645 (F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
1646 specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
1647 supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
1649 =item NULL OP IN RUN
1651 (P) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode pointer.
1655 (P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
1657 =item NULL regexp argument
1659 (P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
1661 =item NULL regexp parameter
1663 (P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
1665 =item Number too long
1667 (F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to about
1668 about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future versions of
1669 Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In the meantime,
1670 try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of "1_000_000").
1672 =item Odd number of elements in hash list
1674 (S) You specified an odd number of elements to a hash list, which is odd,
1675 because hash lists come in key/value pairs.
1677 =item Offset outside string
1679 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with an offset
1680 pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to imagine.
1681 The sole exception to this is that C<sysread()>ing past the buffer
1682 will extend the buffer and zero pad the new area.
1686 (S) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
1690 (S) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
1692 =item Operation `%s': no method found,%s
1694 (F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which
1695 no handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in
1696 terms of other handlers, there is no default handler for any
1697 operation, unless C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be
1698 true. See L<overload>.
1700 =item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
1702 (S) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser was
1703 expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant
1704 to use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect.
1705 For example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as
1706 if you said "*foo * 'foo'".
1708 =item Out of memory for yacc stack
1710 (F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue parsing,
1711 but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or otherwise.
1713 =item Out of memory!
1715 (X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
1716 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request.
1718 The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
1719 depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
1720 However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as
1721 an emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the
1722 error is trappable I<once>.
1724 =item Out of memory during request for %s
1726 (F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
1727 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
1728 the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so
1729 a possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
1733 (W) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a page.
1736 =item panic: ck_grep
1738 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
1740 =item panic: ck_split
1742 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
1744 =item panic: corrupt saved stack index
1746 (P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than there
1747 are in the savestack.
1751 (P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
1752 it wasn't an eval context.
1754 =item panic: do_match
1756 (P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational data.
1758 =item panic: do_split
1760 (P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
1762 =item panic: do_subst
1764 (P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational data.
1766 =item panic: do_trans
1768 (P) The internal do_trans() routine was called with invalid operational data.
1772 (P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
1776 (P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
1777 and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
1779 =item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
1781 (P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
1783 =item panic: INTERPCONCAT
1785 (P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
1789 (P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
1790 it wasn't a block context.
1792 =item panic: leave_scope clearsv
1794 (P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the scope.
1796 =item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
1798 (P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
1799 invalid enum on the top of it.
1803 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
1805 =item panic: mapstart
1807 (P) The compiler is screwed up with respect to the map() function.
1809 =item panic: null array
1811 (P) One of the internal array routines was passed a null AV pointer.
1813 =item panic: pad_alloc
1815 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
1816 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
1818 =item panic: pad_free curpad
1820 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
1821 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
1823 =item panic: pad_free po
1825 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
1827 =item panic: pad_reset curpad
1829 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
1830 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
1832 =item panic: pad_sv po
1834 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
1836 =item panic: pad_swipe curpad
1838 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
1839 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
1841 =item panic: pad_swipe po
1843 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
1845 =item panic: pp_iter
1847 (P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
1849 =item panic: realloc
1851 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
1853 =item panic: restartop
1855 (P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
1856 didn't supply the destination.
1860 (P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
1861 then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
1863 =item panic: scan_num
1865 (P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
1867 =item panic: sv_insert
1869 (P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
1872 =item panic: top_env
1874 (P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
1878 (P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
1880 =item Pareneses missing around "%s" list
1882 (W) You said something like
1888 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
1890 Remember that "my" and "local" bind closer than comma.
1892 =item Perl %3.3f required--this is only version %s, stopped
1894 (F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more recent
1895 than the currently running version. How long has it been since you upgraded,
1896 anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
1898 =item Permission denied
1900 (F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to no good.
1902 =item pid %d not a child
1904 (W) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a process which
1905 isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is fine from VMS'
1906 perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
1908 =item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
1910 (F) Your C compiler uses POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
1911 the BSD version, which takes a pid.
1913 =item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
1915 (W) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
1916 strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated
1917 as literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
1918 exclamation marks parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently
1921 You probably wrote something like this:
1928 when you should have written this:
1935 If you really want comments, build your list the
1936 old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
1940 'b', # another comment
1943 =item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
1945 (W) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore commas
1946 aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used different
1947 delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently
1950 You probably wrote something like this:
1954 which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
1955 commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
1959 =item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
1961 (F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
1962 Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
1963 end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
1964 Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
1966 =item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
1968 (S) The old irregular construct
1972 is now misinterpreted as
1976 because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary
1977 and list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must
1978 put parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator
1981 =item print on closed filehandle %s
1983 (W) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime before now.
1984 Check your logic flow.
1986 =item printf on closed filehandle %s
1988 (W) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime before now.
1989 Check your logic flow.
1991 =item Probable precedence problem on %s
1993 (W) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a conditional,
1994 which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part of the
1995 last argument of the previous construct, for example:
1999 =item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
2001 (S) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been declared
2002 or defined with a different function prototype.
2004 =item Read on closed filehandle E<lt>%sE<gt>
2006 (W) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime before now.
2007 Check your logic flow.
2009 =item Reallocation too large: %lx
2011 (F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
2013 =item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
2015 (F) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce the
2016 desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
2017 which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
2019 =item Recursive inheritance detected
2021 (F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably indicates
2022 an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
2024 =item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
2026 (W) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
2027 reference count of other than 1.
2029 =item regexp *+ operand could be empty
2031 (F) The part of the regexp subject to either the * or + quantifier
2032 could match an empty string.
2034 =item regexp memory corruption
2036 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
2037 expression compiler gave it.
2039 =item regexp out of space
2041 (P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it earlier.
2043 =item regexp too big
2045 (F) The current implementation of regular expressions uses shorts as
2046 address offsets within a string. Unfortunately this means that if
2047 the regular expression compiles to longer than 32767, it'll blow up.
2048 Usually when you want a regular expression this big, there is a better
2049 way to do it with multiple statements. See L<perlre>.
2051 =item Reversed %s= operator
2053 (W) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must always
2054 comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
2056 =item Runaway format
2058 (F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence, but it
2059 produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th line looked exactly like the
2060 199th line. Apparently you didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust
2061 themselves, either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
2062 shifting or popping (for array variables). See L<perlform>.
2064 =item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
2066 (W) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a single element of
2067 an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $).
2068 The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always behaves like a scalar, both when
2069 assigning to it and when evaluating its argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves
2070 like a list when you assign to it, and provides a list context to its
2071 subscript, which can do weird things if you're expecting only one subscript.
2073 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
2074 element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
2075 Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
2078 =item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
2080 (W) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single element of
2081 a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $).
2082 The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves like a scalar, both when
2083 assigning to it and when evaluating its argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves
2084 like a list when you assign to it, and provides a list context to its
2085 subscript, which can do weird things if you're expecting only one subscript.
2087 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash
2088 element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
2089 Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
2092 =item Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl
2094 (F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script without a setuid
2095 or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much sense.
2097 =item Search pattern not terminated
2099 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
2100 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
2101 Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
2103 =item %sseek() on unopened file
2105 (W) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a filehandle that
2106 was either never opened or has since been closed.
2108 =item select not implemented
2110 (F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
2112 =item sem%s not implemented
2114 (F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
2116 =item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
2118 (S) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a scalar
2119 that had previously been marked as free.
2121 =item Semicolon seems to be missing
2123 (W) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing semicolon,
2124 or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
2126 =item Send on closed socket
2128 (W) The filehandle you're sending to got itself closed sometime before now.
2129 Check your logic flow.
2131 =item Sequence (? incomplete
2132 (F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?.
2135 =item Sequence (?#... not terminated
2137 (F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
2138 parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. See L<perlre>.
2140 =item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented
2142 (F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
2143 but has not yet been written. See L<perlre>.
2145 =item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized
2147 (F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense.
2152 Also known as "500 Server error".
2154 B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
2156 You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by the user
2157 CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the user account you
2158 tested it under), does not rely on any environment variables (like PATH)
2159 from the user it isn't running under, and isn't in a location where the CGI
2160 server can't find it, basically, more or less. Please see the following
2161 for more information:
2163 http://www.perl.com/perl/faq/idiots-guide.html
2164 http://www.perl.com/perl/faq/perl-cgi-faq.html
2165 ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/www/cgi-faq
2166 http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/interface.html
2167 http://www-genome.wi.mit.edu/WWW/faqs/www-security-faq.html
2169 =item setegid() not implemented
2171 (F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't support
2172 the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
2175 =item seteuid() not implemented
2177 (F) You tried to assign to C<$E<gt>>, and your operating system doesn't support
2178 the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
2181 =item setrgid() not implemented
2183 (F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't support
2184 the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
2187 =item setruid() not implemented
2189 (F) You tried to assign to C<$E<lt>>, and your operating system doesn't support
2190 the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
2193 =item Setuid/gid script is writable by world
2195 (F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that is writable by the world,
2196 because the world might have written on it already.
2198 =item shm%s not implemented
2200 (F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
2202 =item shutdown() on closed fd
2204 (W) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit superfluous.
2206 =item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
2208 (W) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist. Perhaps you
2209 put it into the wrong package?
2211 =item sort is now a reserved word
2213 (F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
2214 But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
2216 =item Sort subroutine didn't return a numeric value
2218 (F) A sort comparison routine must return a number. You probably blew
2219 it by not using C<E<lt>=E<gt>> or C<cmp>, or by not using them correctly.
2220 See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2222 =item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
2224 (F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
2225 or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2229 (P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't iterate
2230 more times than there are characters of input, which is what happened.)
2231 See L<perlfunc/split>.
2233 =item Stat on unopened file E<lt>%sE<gt>
2235 (W) You tried to use the stat() function (or an equivalent file test)
2236 on a filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
2238 =item Statement unlikely to be reached
2240 (W) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a die().
2241 This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns unless
2242 there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system() instead,
2243 which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in a block
2246 =item Stub found while resolving method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
2248 (P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation stubs.
2249 Stubs should never be implicitely created, but explicit calls to C<can>
2252 =item Subroutine %s redefined
2254 (W) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
2258 eval "sub name { ... }";
2261 =item Substitution loop
2263 (P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a
2264 substitution shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of
2265 input, which is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
2266 L<perlop/"Quote and Quote-like Operators">.
2268 =item Substitution pattern not terminated
2270 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a s/// or s{}{}
2271 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
2272 Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
2274 =item Substitution replacement not terminated
2276 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a s/// or s{}{}
2277 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
2278 Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
2280 =item substr outside of string
2282 (S),(W) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of a
2283 string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
2284 length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is
2285 mandatory if substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side
2286 of an assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
2288 =item suidperl is no longer needed since %s
2290 (F) Your Perl was compiled with B<-D>SETUID_SCRIPTS_ARE_SECURE_NOW, but a
2291 version of the setuid emulator somehow got run anyway.
2295 (F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
2297 A keyword is misspelled.
2298 A semicolon is missing.
2300 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
2301 An opening or closing brace is missing.
2302 A closing quote is missing.
2304 Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
2305 error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
2306 The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
2307 it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
2308 before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
2309 Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
2310 the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
2311 C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
2312 if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
2314 =item syntax error at line %d: `%s' unexpected
2316 (A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell
2317 instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script
2320 =item System V IPC is not implemented on this machine
2322 (F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem", "shm",
2323 or "msg". See L<perlfunc/semctl>, for example.
2325 =item Syswrite on closed filehandle
2327 (W) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime before now.
2328 Check your logic flow.
2330 =item Target of goto is too deeply nested
2332 (F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply
2333 nested for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
2335 =item tell() on unopened file
2337 (W) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that was either
2338 never opened or has since been closed.
2340 =item Test on unopened file E<lt>%sE<gt>
2342 (W) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle that isn't
2343 open. Check your logic. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
2345 =item That use of $[ is unsupported
2347 (F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted as
2348 a compiler directive. You may say only one of
2357 This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base
2358 out from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[>.
2360 =item The %s function is unimplemented
2362 The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture, according
2363 to the probings of Configure.
2365 =item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia
2367 (F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
2368 probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
2369 think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
2370 will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
2373 =item The stat preceding C<-l _> wasn't an lstat
2375 (F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic linkhood
2376 if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went past
2377 the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename instead.
2379 =item times not implemented
2381 (F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I suspect
2382 you're not running on Unix.
2384 =item Too few args to syscall
2386 (F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
2387 system call to call, silly dilly.
2389 =item Too late for "B<-T>" option
2391 (X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
2392 B<-T> option, but Perl was not invoked with B<-T> in its command line.
2393 This is an error because, by the time Perl discovers a B<-T> in a
2394 script, it's too late to properly taint everything from the environment.
2397 If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
2398 mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be fixed
2399 by editing the #! line so that the B<-T> option is a part of Perl's
2400 first argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -T> to C<perl -T -n>.
2402 If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
2403 B<-T> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -T scriptname>.
2405 =item Too late for "-%s" option
2407 (X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
2408 B<-M> or B<-m> option. This is an error because B<-M> and B<-m> options
2409 are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
2415 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
2416 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
2419 =item Too many args to syscall
2421 (F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
2423 =item Too many arguments for %s
2425 (F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
2427 =item trailing \ in regexp
2429 (F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash. Backslash
2432 =item Translation pattern not terminated
2434 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
2435 or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
2436 C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
2438 =item Translation replacement not terminated
2440 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
2443 =item truncate not implemented
2445 (F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
2446 Configure knows about.
2448 =item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
2450 (F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
2451 certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
2452 %NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
2453 {EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
2455 =item umask: argument is missing initial 0
2457 (W) A umask of 222 is incorrect. It should be 0222, because octal literals
2458 always start with 0 in Perl, as in C.
2460 =item Unable to create sub named "%s"
2462 (F) You attempted to create or access a subroutine with an illegal name.
2464 =item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
2466 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many execution
2467 contexts were entered and left.
2469 =item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
2471 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many
2472 values were temporarily localized.
2474 =item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
2476 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many blocks
2477 were entered and left.
2479 =item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
2481 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many mortal
2482 scalars were allocated and freed.
2484 =item Undefined format "%s" called
2486 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
2487 another package? See L<perlform>.
2489 =item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
2491 (F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps
2492 it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2494 =item Undefined subroutine &%s called
2496 (F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
2497 has since been undefined.
2499 =item Undefined subroutine called
2501 (F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
2502 or if it was, it has since been undefined.
2504 =item Undefined subroutine in sort
2506 (F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem to
2507 have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2509 =item Undefined top format "%s" called
2511 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
2512 another package? See L<perlform>.
2514 =item unexec of %s into %s failed!
2516 (F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
2517 representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
2519 =item Unknown BYTEORDER
2521 (F) There are no byte-swapping functions for a machine with this byte order.
2523 =item unmatched () in regexp
2525 (F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
2526 expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
2527 the matching parenthesis. See L<perlre>.
2529 =item Unmatched right bracket
2531 (F) The lexer counted more closing curly brackets (braces) than opening
2532 ones, so you're probably missing an opening bracket. As a general
2533 rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place you were
2536 =item unmatched [] in regexp
2538 (F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
2539 include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it first.
2542 =item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2544 (W) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a reserved word.
2545 It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it somehow, or insert
2546 an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a subroutine.
2548 =item Unrecognized character %s
2550 (F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
2551 in your Perl script (or eval). Perhaps you tried to run a compressed
2552 script, a binary program, or a directory as a Perl program.
2554 =item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
2556 (F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not recognized.
2557 Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names on your system.
2559 =item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
2561 (F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that.
2562 (If you think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's
2563 supplying the bad switch on your behalf.)
2565 =item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
2567 (W) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that operation
2568 failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline, PROBABLY
2569 because you forgot to chop() or chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
2571 =item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
2573 (F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
2575 =item Unsupported function fork
2577 (F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
2579 Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors of
2580 Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try changing
2581 the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
2583 =item Unsupported function %s
2585 (F) This machines doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
2586 At least, Configure doesn't think so.
2588 =item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
2590 (F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
2591 least that's what Configure thought.
2593 =item Unterminated E<lt>E<gt> operator
2595 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
2596 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and not
2597 finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out earlier in
2598 the line, and you really meant a "less than".
2600 =item Use of "$$<digit>" to mean "${$}<digit>" is deprecated
2602 (D) Perl versions before 5.004 misinterpreted any type marker followed
2603 by "$" and a digit. For example, "$$0" was incorrectly taken to mean
2604 "${$}0" instead of "${$0}". This bug is (mostly) fixed in Perl 5.004.
2606 However, the developers of Perl 5.004 could not fix this bug completely,
2607 because at least two widely-used modules depend on the old meaning of
2608 "$$0" in a string. So Perl 5.004 still interprets "$$<digit>" in the
2609 old (broken) way inside strings; but it generates this message as a
2610 warning. And in Perl 5.005, this special treatment will cease.
2612 =item Use of $# is deprecated
2614 (D) This was an ill-advised attempt to emulate a poorly defined B<awk> feature.
2615 Use an explicit printf() or sprintf() instead.
2617 =item Use of $* is deprecated
2619 (D) This variable magically turned on multi-line pattern matching, both for
2620 you and for any luckless subroutine that you happen to call. You should
2621 use the new C<//m> and C<//s> modifiers now to do that without the dangerous
2622 action-at-a-distance effects of C<$*>.
2624 =item Use of %s in printf format not supported
2626 (F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
2627 only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
2629 =item Use of bare E<lt>E<lt> to mean E<lt>E<lt>"" is deprecated
2631 (D) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted form if you
2632 wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
2634 =item Use of implicit split to @_ is deprecated
2636 (D) It makes a lot of work for the compiler when you clobber a
2637 subroutine's argument list, so it's better if you assign the results of
2638 a split() explicitly to an array (or list).
2640 =item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
2642 (D) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines are looked
2643 up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy) even when the subroutines to
2644 be autoloaded were called as plain functions (e.g. C<Foo::bar()>), not
2645 as methods (e.g. C<Foo->bar()> or C<$obj->bar()>).
2647 This bug will be rectified in Perl 5.005, which will use method lookup
2648 only for methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base
2649 of existing code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an
2650 interim step, Perl 5.004 issues an optional warning when non-methods
2651 use inherited C<AUTOLOAD>s.
2653 The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
2654 non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used to
2655 depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class named
2656 C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during startup.
2658 In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);> you
2659 should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
2660 C<C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
2662 =item Use of %s is deprecated
2664 (D) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use, generally
2665 because there's a better way to do it, and also because the old way has
2668 =item Use of uninitialized value
2670 (W) An undefined value was used as if it were already defined. It was
2671 interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake. To suppress this
2672 warning assign an initial value to your variables.
2674 =item Useless use of %s in void context
2676 (W) You did something without a side effect in a context that does nothing
2677 with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a value
2678 from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very often
2679 this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl to parse
2680 your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd get this
2681 if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and said
2685 when you meant to say
2687 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
2689 Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
2690 reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
2695 when you should have said
2699 The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
2700 while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
2701 a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
2702 throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
2703 L<perlref> for more on this.
2705 =item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
2707 (W) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was still
2708 valid when C<untie> was called.
2710 =item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
2712 (W) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob), C<each()>,
2713 or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs can return a
2714 value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression false, which is
2715 probably not what you intended. When using these constructs in conditional
2716 expressions, test their values with the C<defined> operator.
2718 =item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
2720 (F) While "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable
2721 that you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
2722 something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported
2723 by that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character
2724 on the front of your variable.
2726 =item Variable "%s" may be unavailable
2728 (W) An inner (nested) I<anonymous> subroutine is inside a I<named>
2729 subroutine, and outside that is another subroutine; and the anonymous
2730 (innermost) subroutine is referencing a lexical variable defined in
2731 the outermost subroutine. For example:
2733 sub outermost { my $a; sub middle { sub { $a } } }
2735 If the anonymous subroutine is called or referenced (directly or
2736 indirectly) from the outermost subroutine, it will share the variable
2737 as you would expect. But if the anonymous subroutine is called or
2738 referenced when the outermost subroutine is not active, it will see
2739 the value of the shared variable as it was before and during the
2740 *first* call to the outermost subroutine, which is probably not what
2743 In these circumstances, it is usually best to make the middle
2744 subroutine anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. Perl has specific
2745 support for shared variables in nested anonymous subroutines; a named
2746 subroutine in between interferes with this feature.
2748 =item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
2750 (W) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a lexical
2751 variable defined in an outer subroutine.
2753 When the inner subroutine is called, it will probably see the value of
2754 the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the
2755 *first* call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first
2756 call to the outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer
2757 subroutines will no longer share a common value for the variable. In
2758 other words, the variable will no longer be shared.
2760 Furthermore, if the outer subroutine is anonymous and references a
2761 lexical variable outside itself, then the outer and inner subroutines
2762 will I<never> share the given variable.
2764 This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
2765 anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
2766 reference variables in outer subroutines are called or referenced,
2767 they are automatically rebound to the current values of such
2770 =item Variable syntax
2772 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
2773 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
2776 =item Warning: something's wrong
2778 (W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
2779 you called it with no args and C<$_> was empty.
2781 =item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
2783 (S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on the
2784 close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk space.
2786 =item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
2788 (S) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that looks like a
2789 binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a term or
2790 unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand function
2791 has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
2795 you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
2799 but in actual fact, you got
2803 So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
2805 =item Write on closed filehandle
2807 (W) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime before now.
2808 Check your logic flow.
2810 =item X outside of string
2812 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position before
2813 the beginning of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2815 =item x outside of string
2817 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
2818 the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2820 =item Xsub "%s" called in sort
2822 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet supported.
2824 =item Xsub called in sort
2826 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet supported.
2828 =item You can't use C<-l> on a filehandle
2830 (F) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file it
2831 already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
2832 Use a filename instead.
2834 =item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
2836 (F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
2837 sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
2838 about what you want. Your best bet is to use the wrapsuid script in
2839 the eg directory to put a setuid C wrapper around your script.
2841 =item You need to quote "%s"
2843 (W) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name. Unfortunately, you
2844 already have a subroutine of that name declared, which means that Perl 5
2845 will try to call the subroutine when the assignment is executed, which is
2846 probably not what you want. (If it IS what you want, put an & in front.)
2848 =item [gs]etsockopt() on closed fd
2850 (W) You tried to get or set a socket option on a closed socket.
2851 Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
2852 See L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
2854 =item \1 better written as $1
2856 (W) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables. The use
2857 of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
2858 substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
2859 because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better
2860 if there are more than 9 backreferences.
2862 =item '|' and 'E<lt>' may not both be specified on command line
2864 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
2865 found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to redirect STDIN using
2866 'E<lt>'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
2868 =item '|' and 'E<gt>' may not both be specified on command line
2870 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
2871 thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and into a pipe to another
2872 command. You need to choose one or the other, though nothing's stopping you
2873 from piping into a program or Perl script which 'splits' output into two
2876 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
2883 =item Got an error from DosAllocMem
2885 (P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
2886 version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
2888 =item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
2890 (F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
2898 with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix
2899 of a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error
2900 may appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
2901 "PERLLIB_PREFIX" in F<README.os2>.
2903 =item PERL_SH_DIR too long
2905 (F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
2906 C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in F<README.os2>.
2908 =item Process terminated by SIG%s
2910 (W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
2911 applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
2912 port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
2913 L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"