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 (default).
13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
18 The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
19 (W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
21 If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
22 category is included with the classification letter in the description
25 Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
26 and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
27 to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
28 of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
30 Default warnings are always enabled unless they are explicitly disabled
31 with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
33 Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
34 L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35 disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
38 The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
39 lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
40 denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
41 ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
42 letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
47 =item accept() on closed socket %s
49 (W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
50 to check the return value of your socket() call? See
53 =item Allocation too large: %lx
55 (X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
57 =item '!' allowed only after types %s
59 (F) The '!' is allowed in pack() and unpack() only after certain types.
62 =item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
64 (W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
65 keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
66 one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
67 subroutine is not imported.
69 To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
70 before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
71 Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
72 imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
74 To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
75 on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or by declaring the subroutine
76 to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
79 =item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
81 (F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
82 all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
83 first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
84 C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
86 =item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
88 (W ambiguous)(S) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
89 you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
90 a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
92 =item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
94 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
95 redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
96 redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
98 =item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
100 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
101 redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
102 into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
103 though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
104 which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
106 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
113 =item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
115 (W misc) The pattern match (//), substitution (s///), and
116 transliteration (tr///) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
117 one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
118 a scalar value -- the length of an array, or the population info of a
119 hash -- and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
120 you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
123 =item Args must match #! line
125 (F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
126 with match the arguments specified on the #! line. Since some systems
127 impose a one-argument limit on the #! line, try combining switches;
128 for example, turn C<-w -U> into C<-wU>.
130 =item Arg too short for msgsnd
132 (F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
134 =item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element
136 (F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element, such as:
141 =item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
143 (F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
149 or a hash or array slice, such as:
151 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
152 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
154 =item %s argument is not a subroutine name
156 (F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
157 name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
160 =item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
162 (W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
163 that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
164 will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
166 =item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
168 (D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
169 spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
171 =item assertion botched: %s
173 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
175 =item Assertion failed: file "%s"
177 (P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
179 =item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
181 (F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
182 must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
183 know which context to supply to the right side.
185 =item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
187 (F) When vec is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
188 greater than or equal to zero.
190 =item Attempt to bless into a reference
192 (F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
193 the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
194 supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
200 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
202 If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
203 of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
206 bless $self, "$proto";
208 =item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
210 (P internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
211 that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
212 outside any of those arenas.
214 =item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
216 (P internal) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of
217 strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
218 strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
219 of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
221 =item Attempt to free temp prematurely
223 (W debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
224 free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
225 SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
226 free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
229 =item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
231 (P internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
233 =item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
235 (W internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
236 see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
237 earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
238 This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
239 that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
240 mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
243 =item Attempt to join self
245 (F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
246 impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
247 to move the join() to some other thread.
249 =item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
251 (W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
252 function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
253 means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
254 invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
255 literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
258 =item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
260 (W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
261 used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
262 dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
264 =item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %d
266 (F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
267 or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
268 S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
269 S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
271 =item Bad evalled substitution pattern
273 (F) You've used the /e switch to evaluate the replacement for a
274 substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
275 most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
277 =item Bad filehandle: %s
279 (F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
280 symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
281 open(), or did it in another package.
283 =item Bad free() ignored
285 (S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
286 been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
287 setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
289 This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
290 dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
291 which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
295 (P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
297 =item Bad index while coercing array into hash
299 (F) The index looked up in the hash found as the 0'th element of a
300 pseudo-hash is not legal. Index values must be at 1 or greater.
303 =item Badly placed ()'s
305 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
306 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
309 =item Bad name after %s::
311 (F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
312 didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
321 $sym = "mypack::$var";
323 =item Bad realloc() ignored
325 (S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
326 never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled
327 by setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
329 =item Bad symbol for array
331 (P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
332 wasn't a symbol table entry.
334 =item Bad symbol for filehandle
336 (P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
337 that wasn't a symbol table entry.
339 =item Bad symbol for hash
341 (P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
342 wasn't a symbol table entry.
344 =item Bareword found in conditional
346 (W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
347 conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
348 of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
352 It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
355 use constant TYPO => 1;
356 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
358 The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
360 =item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
362 (F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
363 subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
364 symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
366 =item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
368 (W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
369 compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
370 you need to predeclare a package?
372 =item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
374 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
375 subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
378 =item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
380 (F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
381 implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
382 occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
383 be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
384 depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
386 =item \1 better written as $1
388 (W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
389 The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
390 substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
391 because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
392 there are more than 9 backreferences.
394 =item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
396 (W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
397 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
398 L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
400 =item bind() on closed socket %s
402 (W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
403 check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
405 =item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
407 (W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
408 Check you control flow and number of arguments.
410 =item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
412 (W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
414 =item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
416 (P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
419 =item B<-P> not allowed for setuid/setgid script
421 (F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor by name,
422 which provides a race condition that breaks security.
424 =item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
426 (W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
427 iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
428 which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
430 =item Callback called exit
432 (F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
433 exited by calling exit.
435 =item %s() called too early to check prototype
437 (W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
438 parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
439 that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
440 early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
441 subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
442 checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
443 function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
444 the warning. See L<perlsub>.
446 =item / cannot take a count
448 (F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
449 you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
452 =item Can't bless non-reference value
454 (F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
455 encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
457 =item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
459 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
460 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
461 in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
463 =item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
465 (F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
466 object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
467 like this will reproduce the error:
470 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
471 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
473 =item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
475 (F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
476 ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
477 didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
478 object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
480 =item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
482 (F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
483 object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
484 defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
485 Something like this will reproduce the error:
488 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
489 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
491 =item Can't chdir to %s
493 (F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
494 that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
496 =item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
498 (P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
501 =item Can't coerce array into hash
503 (F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the array has no
504 information on how to map from keys to array indices. You can do that
505 only with arrays that have a hash reference at index 0.
507 =item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
509 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
510 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
520 but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
522 =item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
524 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
525 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
527 =item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
529 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
530 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
532 =item Can't create pipe mailbox
534 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
535 quotas or other plumbing problems.
537 =item Can't declare class for non-scalar %s in "%s"
539 (S) Currently, only scalar variables can declared with a specific class
540 qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration. The semantics may be extended
541 for other types of variables in future.
543 =item Can't declare %s in "%s"
545 (F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my" or
546 "our" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
548 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
550 (S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
551 a file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
553 =item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
555 (S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
558 =item Can't do inplace edit without backup
560 (F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
561 reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
562 C<-i.bak>, or some such.
564 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
566 (S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
567 characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
568 inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
570 =item Can't do {n,m} with n > m in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
572 (F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want your
573 regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. The <-- HERE shows in the
574 regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
576 =item Can't do setegid!
578 (P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
581 =item Can't do seteuid!
583 (P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
585 =item Can't do setuid
587 (F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to do
588 setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the form
589 sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides under
590 the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines. If the
591 file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask your
592 sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
594 =item Can't do waitpid with flags
596 (F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
597 waitpid() without flags is emulated.
599 =item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
601 (F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
602 point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
605 =item Can't exec "%s": %s
607 (W exec) An system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
608 named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
609 permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
610 C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
611 architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
612 can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
617 (F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
618 that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
619 need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
621 =item Can't execute %s
623 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
624 found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
626 =item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
628 (F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
629 is no builtin with the name C<word>.
631 =item Can't find %s character property "%s"
633 (F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
634 could not be find. Maybe you mispelled the name of the property
635 (remember that the names of character properties consist only of
636 alphanumeric characters), or maybe you forgot the C<Is> or C<In> prefix?
638 =item Can't find label %s
640 (F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
641 possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
643 =item Can't find %s on PATH
645 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
648 =item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
650 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
651 found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
652 script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
654 =item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
656 (F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
657 that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
658 nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
660 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
662 If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have included
663 unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good programmer's
664 editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
666 =item Can't find %s property definition %s
668 (F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode property for
669 example \p{Lu} is all uppercase letters. Escape the C<\p>, either
670 C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, until
675 (F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
678 =item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
680 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
681 between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
682 Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
683 the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
684 account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
685 the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
686 the access checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
687 the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
688 if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
689 because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
690 appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up
691 and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking
692 routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
693 shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
694 only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
696 =item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
698 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
699 pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
701 =item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
703 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
704 mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
706 =item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
708 (F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
709 loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
711 =item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
713 (F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
714 a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
715 you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
716 See L<perlfunc/goto>.
718 =item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-string
720 (F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
721 "string". (You can use it to jump out of an eval {BLOCK}, but you
722 probably don't want to.)
724 =item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
726 (F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
727 subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
728 cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
729 routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
731 =item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
733 (W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
734 signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
735 signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
736 processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
737 situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
738 may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
740 =item Can't "last" outside a loop block
742 (F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
743 except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
744 block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
745 block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
746 usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
747 inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
750 =item Can't localize lexical variable %s
752 (F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
753 lexical variable using "my". This is not allowed. If you want to
754 localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
757 =item Can't localize pseudo-hash element
759 (F) You said something like C<< local $ar->{'key'} >>, where $ar is a
760 reference to a pseudo-hash. That hasn't been implemented yet, but you
761 can get a similar effect by localizing the corresponding array element
762 directly -- C<< local $ar->[$ar->[0]{'key'}] >>.
764 =item Can't localize through a reference
766 (F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
767 handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
768 pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
769 that $ref will still be a reference.
771 =item Can't locate %s
773 (F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be
774 found. Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC,
775 unless the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you
776 need to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where
777 the extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
778 to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
779 L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
781 =item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
783 (F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
784 autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
785 are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
786 the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
788 =item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
790 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
791 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
792 method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
794 =item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
796 (F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
797 "Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
798 that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
800 =item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
802 (W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
803 doesn't seem to exist.
805 =item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
807 (F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
810 =item Can't modify %s in %s
812 (F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
813 to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
815 =item Can't modify nonexistent substring
817 (P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
820 =item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
822 (F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
823 such, see L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
825 =item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
827 (F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
830 =item Can't "next" outside a loop block
832 (F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
833 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
834 count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
835 grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
836 though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
837 once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
839 =item Can't open %s: %s
841 (S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
842 filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
843 switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
844 is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named on
847 =item Can't open bidirectional pipe
849 (W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
850 You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
851 as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
852 ">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
854 =item Can't open error file %s as stderr
856 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
857 redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
858 the command line for writing.
860 =item Can't open input file %s as stdin
862 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
863 redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
864 command line for reading.
866 =item Can't open output file %s as stdout
868 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
869 redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
870 the command line for writing.
872 =item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
874 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
875 redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
878 =item Can't open perl script%s: %s
880 (F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
882 =item Can't read CRTL environ
884 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
885 from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
886 missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
887 or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
890 =item Can't redefine active sort subroutine %s
892 (F) Perl optimizes the internal handling of sort subroutines and keeps
893 pointers into them. You tried to redefine one such sort subroutine when
894 it was currently active, which is not allowed. If you really want to do
895 this, you should write C<sort { &func } @x> instead of C<sort func @x>.
897 =item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
899 (F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
900 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
901 count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
902 or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
903 though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
904 loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
906 =item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
908 (S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
909 file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
910 the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
912 =item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
914 (S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
915 probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
917 =item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
919 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
920 to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
922 =item Can't resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
924 (F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as opposed
925 to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the package. If
926 method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
928 =item Can't reswap uid and euid
930 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
933 =item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
935 (F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
936 temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
939 =item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
941 (F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue subroutine,
942 but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl think you meant
943 to return only one value. You probably meant to write parentheses around
944 the call to the subroutine, which tell Perl that the call should be in
947 =item Can't return outside a subroutine
949 (F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
950 there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
952 =item Can't stat script "%s"
954 (P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
955 open already. Bizarre.
957 =item Can't swap uid and euid
959 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
962 =item Can't take log of %g
964 (F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
965 negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
966 standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
969 =item Can't take sqrt of %g
971 (F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
972 negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
973 with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
975 =item Can't undef active subroutine
977 (F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
978 however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
979 redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
983 (F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
984 as the main Perl stack.
986 =item Can't upgrade that kind of scalar
988 (P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
989 into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
990 specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
991 indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
993 =item Can't upgrade to undef
995 (P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the totem pole, in the scheme of
996 upgradability. Upgrading to undef indicates an error in the code
999 =item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1001 (F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1002 be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1004 =item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1006 (P) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1007 table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1008 for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1010 =item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1012 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1013 references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
1015 =item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1017 (F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
1018 Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1019 provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1021 =item Can't use %s for loop variable
1023 (F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1026 =item Can't use global %s in "my"
1028 (F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1029 is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1030 (namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1031 have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
1034 =item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1036 (F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
1037 You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
1038 and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1039 Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1042 =item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1044 (F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1045 reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1046 test the type of the reference, if need be.
1048 =item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1050 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1051 references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
1053 =item Can't use subscript on %s
1055 (F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1056 subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
1057 didn't look like an array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
1059 =item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1061 (W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1062 creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1063 backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
1064 expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1065 value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1068 =item Can't weaken a nonreference
1070 (F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1071 references can be weakened.
1073 =item Can't x= to read-only value
1075 (F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1076 with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
1077 Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1079 =item chmod() mode argument is missing initial 0
1081 (W chmod) A novice will sometimes say
1083 chmod 777, $filename
1085 not realizing that 777 will be interpreted as a decimal number,
1086 equivalent to 01411. Octal constants are introduced with a leading 0 in
1089 =item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1091 (W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1093 =item %s: Command not found
1095 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1096 Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
1098 =item Compilation failed in require
1100 (F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
1101 Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1102 encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
1104 =item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1106 (W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1107 situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1108 to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1109 arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1110 recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1111 under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1112 in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
1113 that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
1114 on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
1116 =item connect() on closed socket %s
1118 (W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1119 to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1120 L<perlfunc/connect>.
1122 =item Constant(%s)%s: %s
1124 (F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1125 an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1126 specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
1127 corresponding C<overload> or C<charnames> pragma? See L<charnames> and
1130 =item Constant is not %s reference
1132 (F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
1133 is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
1134 The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
1135 usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
1136 See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1138 =item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1140 (S|W redefine) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been
1141 eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for
1142 commentary and workarounds.
1144 =item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1146 (W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1147 for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1150 =item Copy method did not return a reference
1152 (F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
1153 L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
1155 =item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1157 (F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1159 =item corrupted regexp pointers
1161 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1162 expression compiler gave it.
1164 =item corrupted regexp program
1166 (P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1169 =item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
1171 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1173 =item C<-p> destination: %s
1175 (F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
1176 command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
1177 redirected it with select().)
1179 =item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
1181 (F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
1182 know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
1184 =item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1186 (W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1187 100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1188 infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1189 which case it indicates something else.
1191 =item defined(@array) is deprecated
1193 (D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1194 checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
1195 array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
1197 =item defined(%hash) is deprecated
1199 (D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it
1200 checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the hash
1201 is empty, just use C<if (%hash) { # not empty }> for example.
1203 =item Delimiter for here document is too long
1205 (F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1206 long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1207 that triggers this error.
1209 =item Did not produce a valid header
1213 =item %s did not return a true value
1215 (F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1216 it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1217 traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1218 do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1220 =item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
1222 (W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some
1225 =item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
1227 (W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1228 variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1231 =item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
1233 (W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1234 @hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1239 (F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1240 you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
1242 =item Document contains no data
1246 =item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1248 (P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1250 =item do_study: out of memory
1252 (P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1254 =item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1256 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1257 found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
1258 name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1259 because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
1260 "sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1261 something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1262 subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1263 "sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
1265 =item Duplicate free() ignored
1267 (S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1270 =item elseif should be elsif
1272 (S) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's ugly.
1273 Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method named
1274 "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
1275 unlikely to be what you want.
1277 =item entering effective %s failed
1279 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
1280 effective uids or gids failed.
1282 =item Error converting file specification %s
1284 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
1285 specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
1286 single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1287 an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1288 conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
1290 =item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
1292 (F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1293 expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1294 is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
1296 =item %s: Eval-group not allowed at run time
1298 (F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1299 C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
1300 pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it
1301 is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly
1302 building the pattern from an interpolated string at run time and using
1303 that in an eval(). See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
1305 =item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
1307 (F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1308 assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1309 pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
1311 =item Excessively long <> operator
1313 (F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1314 Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1315 filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1316 variable and glob that.
1318 =item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors
1320 (F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1322 =item Exiting eval via %s
1324 (W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1325 goto, or a loop control statement.
1327 =item Exiting format via %s
1329 (W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1330 goto, or a loop control statement.
1332 =item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1334 (W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1335 sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1336 loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
1338 =item Exiting subroutine via %s
1340 (W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1341 as a goto, or a loop control statement.
1343 =item Exiting substitution via %s
1345 (W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1346 as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
1348 =item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1350 (W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1351 the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1352 usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1353 e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
1355 =item %s: Expression syntax
1357 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1358 Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
1360 =item %s failed--call queue aborted
1362 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a CHECK, INIT, or
1363 END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the queue of such
1364 routines has been prematurely ended.
1366 =item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1368 (W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
1369 character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1370 in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1371 "-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1372 problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
1374 =item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
1376 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1377 system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1378 details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1379 you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
1381 =item fcntl is not implemented
1383 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1384 PDP-11 or something?
1386 =item Filehandle %s opened only for input
1388 (W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended it
1389 to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or "+>"
1390 or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to write
1391 the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
1393 =item Filehandle %s opened only for output
1395 (W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing. If
1396 you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
1397 with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you
1398 intended only to read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>.
1400 =item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1402 (F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
1403 a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1404 happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1407 =item Final @ should be \@ or @name
1409 (F) You must now decide whether the final @ in a string was meant to be
1410 a literal "at" sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1411 happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1414 =item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1416 (W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
1417 some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
1418 filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1421 =item Quantifier follows nothing in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1423 (F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if you
1424 meant it literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
1425 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
1427 =item Format not terminated
1429 (F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1430 to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1432 =item Format %s redefined
1434 (W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
1438 eval "format NAME =...";
1441 =item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1451 (or something like that).
1453 =item %s found where operator expected
1455 (S) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator. If it
1456 sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
1457 operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
1458 operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
1460 =item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1462 (S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1464 =item gethostent not implemented
1466 (F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1467 because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1470 =item get%sname() on closed socket %s
1472 (W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
1473 socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
1475 =item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1477 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1478 C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1480 =item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
1482 (W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
1483 forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1484 L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
1486 =item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1488 (F) You've said "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables
1489 must either be lexically scoped (using "my"), declared beforehand using
1490 "our", or explicitly qualified to say which package the global variable
1493 =item glob failed (%s)
1495 (W glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for
1496 C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a
1497 C<glob> pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
1498 nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
1499 resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell) is
1500 broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables in
1501 config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it
1502 were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all
1503 empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
1504 think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
1505 C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
1507 =item Glob not terminated
1509 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
1510 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
1511 not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
1512 earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
1514 =item Got an error from DosAllocMem
1516 (P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
1517 version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
1519 =item goto must have label
1521 (F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1522 unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1524 =item %s had compilation errors
1526 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
1528 =item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1530 (S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
1531 to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
1532 created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
1534 =item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1536 (D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
1537 spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
1539 =item %s has too many errors
1541 (F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
1542 Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
1544 =item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
1546 (W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
1547 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
1548 L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
1550 =item Identifier too long
1552 (F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
1553 about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
1554 names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
1555 of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
1557 =item Illegal binary digit %s
1559 (F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
1561 =item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
1563 (W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
1564 binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
1567 =item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1569 (F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
1570 would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
1571 when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
1572 version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
1573 to your Perl administrator.
1575 =item Illegal division by zero
1577 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
1578 your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
1581 =item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
1583 (W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
1584 A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
1585 number stopped before the illegal character.
1587 =item Illegal modulus zero
1589 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
1590 numbers don't take to this kindly.
1592 =item Illegal number of bits in vec
1594 (F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
1595 two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
1597 =item Illegal octal digit %s
1599 (F) You used an 8 or 9 in a octal number.
1601 =item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
1603 (W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in a octal number.
1604 Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
1606 =item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: %s
1608 (X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
1609 following switches: B<-[DIMUdmw]>.
1611 =item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
1613 (W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
1614 internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
1615 delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
1617 =item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
1619 (W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
1620 name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
1621 didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
1624 =item (in cleanup) %s
1626 (W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
1627 the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
1628 system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
1629 times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
1630 would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
1632 Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
1633 also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
1635 =item Insecure dependency in %s
1637 (F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
1638 The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
1639 setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
1640 tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
1641 from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
1642 such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
1643 L<perlsec> for more information.
1645 =item Insecure directory in %s
1647 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1648 setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
1649 the world. See L<perlsec>.
1651 =item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
1653 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1654 setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
1655 C<$ENV{ENV}> or C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> are derived from data supplied (or
1656 potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set the path to a
1657 known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
1659 =item Integer overflow in %s number
1661 (W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
1662 either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
1663 your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
1664 On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
1665 representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
1666 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
1667 transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
1668 internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
1671 =item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1673 (P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
1674 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1678 =item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
1680 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
1681 you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
1682 to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
1683 L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
1684 Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
1685 terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
1687 =item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1689 (P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
1690 <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1694 =item %s (...) interpreted as function
1696 (W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
1697 followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
1698 operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
1699 L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
1701 =item Invalid %s attribute: %s
1703 The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
1704 by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
1706 =item Invalid %s attributes: %s
1708 The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
1709 recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
1711 =item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
1713 (W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
1714 L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
1716 =item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1718 (F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
1719 greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
1720 C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
1721 up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1722 problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
1724 =item Invalid [] range "%s" in transliteration operator
1726 (F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
1727 character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
1729 =item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
1731 (F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
1732 elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
1733 parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
1736 =item Invalid type in pack: '%s'
1738 (F) The given character is not a valid pack type. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1739 (W pack) The given character is not a valid pack type but used to be
1742 =item Invalid type in unpack: '%s'
1744 (F) The given character is not a valid unpack type. See
1746 (W unpack) The given character is not a valid unpack type but used to be
1749 =item ioctl is not implemented
1751 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
1752 strange for a machine that supports C.
1754 =item ioctl() on unopened %s
1756 (W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
1757 Check you control flow and number of arguments.
1759 =item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
1761 (F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
1762 neither as a system call or an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
1764 =item `%s' is not a code reference
1766 (W) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of overload::constant needs
1767 to be a code reference. Either an anonymous subroutine, or a reference
1770 =item `%s' is not an overloadable type
1772 (W) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is unaware of.
1774 =item junk on end of regexp
1776 (P) The regular expression parser is confused.
1778 =item Label not found for "last %s"
1780 (F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
1781 of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1784 =item Label not found for "next %s"
1786 (F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
1787 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1790 =item Label not found for "redo %s"
1792 (F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
1793 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1796 =item leaving effective %s failed
1798 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
1799 effective uids or gids failed.
1801 =item listen() on closed socket %s
1803 (W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
1804 to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1807 =item lstat() on filehandle %s
1809 (W io) You tried to do a lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
1810 by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
1811 instead on the filehandle.)
1813 =item Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented yet
1815 (F) Due to limitations in the current implementation, array and hash
1816 values cannot be returned in subroutines used in lvalue context. See
1817 L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
1819 =item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1821 (F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
1822 handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release. The <-- HERE
1823 shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
1825 =item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
1827 (F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
1835 with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
1836 a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
1837 appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
1838 "PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
1840 =item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
1842 Perl detected something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding rules.
1844 =item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
1846 Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
1847 doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
1849 =item %s matches null string many times in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1851 (W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
1852 regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
1853 shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
1856 =item % may only be used in unpack
1858 (F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
1859 checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
1860 See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
1862 =item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
1864 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
1865 doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
1867 =item Method %s not permitted
1871 =item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
1873 (S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
1874 by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
1875 ended earlier on the current line.
1877 =item Misplaced _ in number
1879 (W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
1880 separate two digits.
1882 =item Missing %sbrace%s on \N{}
1884 (F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
1885 double-quotish context.
1887 =item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
1889 (F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
1890 "indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
1892 =item Missing command in piped open
1894 (W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
1895 C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
1898 =item Missing name in "my sub"
1900 (F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
1901 they have a name with which they can be found.
1903 =item Missing $ on loop variable
1905 (F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
1906 are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
1907 can vary from one line to the next.
1909 =item (Missing operator before %s?)
1911 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1912 found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
1914 =item Missing right curly or square bracket
1916 (F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
1917 ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
1920 =item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
1922 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1923 found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
1924 the previous line just because you saw this message.
1926 =item Modification of a read-only value attempted
1928 (F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
1929 constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
1930 catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
1932 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
1935 Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
1937 Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
1938 is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
1941 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
1942 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to modify the 2
1945 =item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
1947 (F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
1948 subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
1951 =item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
1953 (P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
1954 couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
1956 =item Module name must be constant
1958 (F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
1960 =item Module name required with -%c option
1962 (F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
1963 you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
1964 about C<-M> and C<-m>.
1966 =item msg%s not implemented
1968 (F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
1970 =item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
1972 (W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
1973 They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
1975 =item / must be followed by a*, A* or Z*
1977 (F) You had a pack template indicating a counted-length string,
1978 Currently the only things that can have their length counted are a*, A*
1979 or Z*. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1981 =item / must be followed by a, A or Z
1983 (F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, which
1984 must be followed by one of the letters a, A or Z to indicate what sort
1985 of string is to be unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1987 =item / must follow a numeric type
1989 (F) You had an unpack template that contained a '#', but this did not
1990 follow some numeric unpack specification. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1992 =item "my sub" not yet implemented
1994 (F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
1997 =item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
1999 (F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2000 sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2001 local() if you want to localize a package variable.
2003 =item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2005 (W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
2006 If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2007 again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
2008 provided for this purpose.
2010 =item Negative length
2012 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
2013 length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
2015 =item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2017 (F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
2018 things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
2019 expression about where the problem was discovered.
2021 Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
2022 C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
2024 =item %s never introduced
2026 (S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
2027 scope before it could possibly have been used.
2029 =item No %s allowed while running setuid
2031 (F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
2032 setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
2033 will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
2034 securable. See L<perlsec>.
2036 =item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
2038 (F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
2040 =item No comma allowed after %s
2042 (F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
2043 allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
2044 Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
2046 One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
2047 constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
2048 importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
2049 does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
2050 explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
2051 L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
2052 would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
2053 remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
2054 constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
2055 list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
2056 this error was triggered?
2058 =item No command into which to pipe on command line
2060 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2061 redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
2062 doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
2064 =item No DB::DB routine defined
2066 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
2067 for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof) didn't
2068 define a routine to be called at the beginning of each statement. Which
2069 is odd, because the file should have been required automatically, and
2070 should have blown up the require if it didn't parse right.
2072 =item No dbm on this machine
2074 (P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
2075 supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
2077 =item No DBsub routine
2079 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
2080 but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
2081 didn't define a DB::sub routine to be called at the beginning of each
2082 ordinary subroutine call.
2084 =item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
2086 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2087 redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
2088 find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
2090 =item No input file after < on command line
2092 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2093 redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
2094 name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
2098 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2099 even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
2101 =item "no" not allowed in expression
2103 (F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
2104 returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
2106 =item No output file after > on command line
2108 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2109 redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
2110 doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
2112 =item No output file after > or >> on command line
2114 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2115 redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
2116 find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
2118 =item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
2120 (F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
2121 declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
2122 semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
2124 =item No Perl script found in input
2126 (F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
2127 with #! and containing the word "perl".
2129 =item No setregid available
2131 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
2134 =item No setreuid available
2136 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
2139 =item No space allowed after -%c
2141 (F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2142 immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
2144 =item No %s specified for -%c
2146 (F) The indicated command line switch needs a mandatory argument, but
2147 you haven't specified one.
2149 =item No such pipe open
2151 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
2152 close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
2153 earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
2155 =item No such pseudo-hash field "%s"
2157 (F) You tried to access an array as a hash, but the field name used is
2158 not defined. The hash at index 0 should map all valid field names to
2159 array indices for that to work.
2161 =item No such pseudo-hash field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
2163 (F) You tried to access a field of a typed variable where the type does
2164 not know about the field name. The field names are looked up in the
2165 %FIELDS hash in the type package at compile time. The %FIELDS hash is
2166 %usually set up with the 'fields' pragma.
2168 =item No such signal: SIG%s
2170 (W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
2171 not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
2172 names on your system.
2174 =item Not a CODE reference
2176 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2177 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
2178 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2181 =item Not a format reference
2183 (F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
2184 format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
2186 =item Not a GLOB reference
2188 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
2189 symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
2190 something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
2191 kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2193 =item Not a HASH reference
2195 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
2196 reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
2197 find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2199 =item Not an ARRAY reference
2201 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
2202 a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2203 to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2205 =item Not a perl script
2207 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2208 even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
2211 =item Not a SCALAR reference
2213 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
2214 a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2215 to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2217 =item Not a subroutine reference
2219 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2220 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
2221 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2224 =item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
2226 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
2227 doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
2229 =item Not enough arguments for %s
2231 (F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
2233 =item Not enough format arguments
2235 (W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
2236 supplied. See L<perlform>.
2240 (A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
2241 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
2244 =item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
2246 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
2247 timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
2248 to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
2249 F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
2250 need to be added to UTC to get local time.
2252 =item Null filename used
2254 (F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
2255 machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
2257 =item NULL OP IN RUN
2259 (P debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
2262 =item Null picture in formline
2264 (F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
2265 specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
2266 supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
2270 (P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
2272 =item NULL regexp argument
2274 (P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
2276 =item NULL regexp parameter
2278 (P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
2280 =item Number too long
2282 (F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
2283 about about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
2284 versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
2285 the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
2288 =item Octal number in vector unsupported
2290 (F) Numbers with a leading C<0> are not currently allowed in vectors.
2291 The octal number interpretation of such numbers may be supported in a
2294 =item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
2296 (W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
2297 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2298 L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
2300 See also L<perlport> for writing portable code.
2302 =item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
2304 (W) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of arguments.
2305 The arguments should come in pairs.
2307 =item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
2309 (W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2310 which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
2312 =item Offset outside string
2314 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with an offset
2315 pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to imagine. The sole
2316 exception to this is that C<sysread()>ing past the buffer will extend
2317 the buffer and zero pad the new area.
2319 =item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
2321 (W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
2322 that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
2324 =item %s() on unopened %s
2326 (W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
2327 never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
2328 call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
2332 (S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
2336 (S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
2338 =item Operation `%s': no method found, %s
2340 (F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
2341 handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
2342 of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
2343 C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
2345 =item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
2347 (S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
2348 was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
2349 use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
2350 example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
2353 =item "our" variable %s redeclared
2355 (W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
2356 in the current lexical scope.
2358 =item Out of memory!
2360 (X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
2361 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
2362 no option but to exit immediately.
2364 =item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
2366 (F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
2367 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
2368 the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
2369 possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
2371 =item Out of memory during request for %s
2373 (X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
2374 insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
2377 The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
2378 depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
2379 However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
2380 emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
2381 is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
2382 where the failed request happened.
2384 =item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
2386 (F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
2387 is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
2388 C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
2390 =item Out of memory for yacc stack
2392 (F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
2393 parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
2396 =item @ outside of string
2398 (F) You had a pack template that specified an absolute position outside
2399 the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2401 =item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
2403 (W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
2404 package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
2405 some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
2406 mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
2410 (W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
2411 page. See L<perlform>.
2415 (P) An internal error.
2417 =item panic: ck_grep
2419 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
2421 =item panic: ck_split
2423 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
2425 =item panic: corrupt saved stack index
2427 (P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
2428 there are in the savestack.
2430 =item panic: del_backref
2432 (P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
2437 (P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
2438 it wasn't an eval context.
2440 =item panic: pp_match
2442 (P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
2445 =item panic: do_subst
2447 (P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
2450 =item panic: do_trans_%s
2452 (P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
2457 (P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
2461 (P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
2462 and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
2464 =item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
2466 (P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
2468 =item panic: INTERPCONCAT
2470 (P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
2472 =item panic: kid popen errno read
2474 (F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
2478 (P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
2479 it wasn't a block context.
2481 =item panic: leave_scope clearsv
2483 (P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
2486 =item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
2488 (P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
2489 invalid enum on the top of it.
2491 =item panic: magic_killbackrefs
2493 (P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
2494 references to an object.
2498 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
2500 =item panic: mapstart
2502 (P) The compiler is screwed up with respect to the map() function.
2504 =item panic: null array
2506 (P) One of the internal array routines was passed a null AV pointer.
2508 =item panic: pad_alloc
2510 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2511 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2513 =item panic: pad_free curpad
2515 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2516 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2518 =item panic: pad_free po
2520 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2522 =item panic: pad_reset curpad
2524 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2525 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2527 =item panic: pad_sv po
2529 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2531 =item panic: pad_swipe curpad
2533 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2534 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2536 =item panic: pad_swipe po
2538 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2540 =item panic: pp_iter
2542 (P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
2544 =item panic: pp_split
2546 (P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
2548 =item panic: realloc
2550 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
2552 =item panic: restartop
2554 (P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
2555 didn't supply the destination.
2559 (P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
2560 then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
2562 =item panic: scan_num
2564 (P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
2566 =item panic: sv_insert
2568 (P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
2571 =item panic: top_env
2573 (P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
2577 (P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
2579 =item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
2581 (P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
2582 to even) byte length.
2584 =item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
2586 (W parenthesis) You said something like
2592 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
2594 Remember that "my", "our", and "local" bind tighter than comma.
2596 =item Perl %s required--this is only version %s, stopped
2598 (F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
2599 recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
2600 you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
2602 =item PERL_SH_DIR too long
2604 (F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
2605 C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
2607 =item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2609 (S) The whole warning message will look something like:
2611 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2612 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
2615 are supported and installed on your system.
2616 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
2618 Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
2619 settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
2620 This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
2621 system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
2622 locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
2623 dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
2624 Perl can and will use, the script will be run. Before you really fix
2625 the problem, however, you will get the same error message each time
2626 you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
2627 L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
2629 =item perlio: argument list not closed for layer "%s"
2631 (S) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O system you forgot
2632 the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers take care of transforming
2633 data between external and internal representations.) Perl stopped parsing
2634 the layer list at this point and did not attempt to push this layer.
2635 If your program didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be
2636 the result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2638 =item perlio: invalid separator character %s in attribute list
2640 (S) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other than a
2641 colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of an layer list.
2642 If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2643 list was terminated too soon.
2645 =item perlio: unknown layer "%s"
2647 (S) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
2648 system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
2649 internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
2650 are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
2651 explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
2652 value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2654 =item Permission denied
2656 (F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to no good.
2658 =item pid %x not a child
2660 (W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
2661 process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
2662 fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
2664 =item POSIX syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2666 (W unsafe) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
2667 I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
2668 /[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
2669 implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and will
2670 cause fatal errors. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
2671 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2673 =item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2675 (F regexp) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
2676 beginning with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
2677 If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
2678 expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
2679 backslash: "\[." and ".\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
2680 about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2682 =item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2684 (F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
2685 with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
2686 need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
2687 character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
2688 and "=\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2689 problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2691 =item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2693 (F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The <-- HERE
2694 shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2697 =item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
2699 (F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
2700 the BSD version, which takes a pid.
2702 =item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
2704 (W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
2705 strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
2706 literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
2707 parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
2709 You probably wrote something like this:
2716 when you should have written this:
2723 If you really want comments, build your list the
2724 old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
2728 'b', # another comment
2731 =item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
2733 (W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
2734 commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
2735 different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
2738 You probably wrote something like this:
2742 which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
2743 commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
2747 =item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
2749 (F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
2750 Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
2751 end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
2752 Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
2754 =item Possible Y2K bug: %s
2756 (W y2k) You are concatenating the number 19 with another number, which
2757 could be a potential Year 2000 problem.
2759 =item pragma "attrs" is deprecated, use "sub NAME : ATTRS" instead
2761 (D deprecated) You have written something like this:
2765 use attrs qw(locked);
2768 You should use the new declaration syntax instead.
2774 The C<use attrs> pragma is now obsolete, and is only provided for
2775 backward-compatibility. See L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes">.
2777 =item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
2779 (S precedence) The old irregular construct
2783 is now misinterpreted as
2787 because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
2788 list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
2789 parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
2792 =item Premature end of script headers
2796 =item printf() on closed filehandle %s
2798 (W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
2799 before now. Check your control flow.
2801 =item print() on closed filehandle %s
2803 (W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
2804 before now. Check your control flow.
2806 =item Process terminated by SIG%s
2808 (W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
2809 applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
2810 port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
2811 L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
2814 =item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
2816 (S unsafe) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
2817 declared or defined with a different function prototype.
2819 =item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2821 (F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of the
2822 {min,max} construct. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where
2823 the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2825 =item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2827 (W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
2828 it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
2829 quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
2830 "abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
2831 C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
2833 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2836 =item Range iterator outside integer range
2838 (F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
2839 are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
2840 One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
2841 by prepending "0" to your numbers.
2843 =item readline() on closed filehandle %s
2845 (W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
2846 before now. Check your control flow.
2848 =item Reallocation too large: %lx
2850 (F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
2852 =item realloc() of freed memory ignored
2854 (S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
2857 =item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
2859 (F debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
2860 the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
2861 which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
2863 =item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
2865 (F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably indicates
2866 an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
2868 =item Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method %s
2870 (F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were encountered while invoking
2871 a method. Probably indicates an unintended loop in your inheritance
2874 =item Reference found where even-sized list expected
2876 (W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
2877 with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This usually
2878 means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant to use
2879 parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
2881 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
2882 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
2883 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
2884 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
2886 =item Reference is already weak
2888 (W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
2889 Doing so has no effect.
2891 =item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
2893 (W internal) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with
2894 a reference count of other than 1.
2896 =item Reference to nonexistent group in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2898 (F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
2899 not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If you
2900 wanted to have the character with value 7 inserted into the regular expression,
2901 prepend a zero to make the number at least two digits: C<\07>
2903 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2906 =item regexp memory corruption
2908 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
2909 expression compiler gave it.
2911 =item Regexp out of space
2913 (P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
2916 =item Repeat count in pack overflows
2918 (F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
2919 signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2921 =item Repeat count in unpack overflows
2923 (F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
2924 signed integers. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
2926 =item Reversed %s= operator
2928 (W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
2929 always comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
2931 =item Runaway format
2933 (F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence, but it
2934 produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th line looked exactly like the
2935 199th line. Apparently you didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust
2936 themselves, either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
2937 shifting or popping (for array variables). See L<perlform>.
2939 =item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
2941 (W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
2942 single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
2943 value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
2944 behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
2945 argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
2946 and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
2947 if you're expecting only one subscript.
2949 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
2950 element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
2951 Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
2954 =item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
2956 (W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
2957 element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
2958 (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
2959 like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
2960 argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
2961 and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
2962 if you're expecting only one subscript.
2964 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
2965 as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
2966 not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
2969 =item Scalars leaked: %d
2971 (P) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping of scalars:
2972 not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time Perl exited.
2973 What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which is of course bad,
2974 especially if the Perl program is intended to be long-running.
2976 =item Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl
2978 (F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script without a setuid
2979 or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much sense.
2981 =item Search pattern not terminated
2983 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
2984 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
2985 Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
2987 =item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
2989 (W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
2990 filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
2992 =item select not implemented
2994 (F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
2996 =item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
2998 (F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
2999 the current implementation.
3001 =item Semicolon seems to be missing
3003 (W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
3004 semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
3006 =item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
3008 (S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
3009 scalar that had previously been marked as free.
3011 =item sem%s not implemented
3013 (F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
3015 =item send() on closed socket %s
3017 (W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
3018 before now. Check your control flow.
3020 =item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3022 (F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The <-- HERE
3023 shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3026 =item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated or not {}-balanced in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3028 (F) If the contents of a (?{...}) clause contains braces, they must balance
3029 for Perl to properly detect the end of the clause. The <-- HERE shows in
3030 the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3033 =item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3035 (F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved but
3036 has not yet been written. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3037 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3039 =item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3041 (F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense. The
3042 <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3043 discovered. See L<perlre>.
3045 =item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3047 (F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
3048 parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. The <-- HERE shows in
3049 the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3052 =item 500 Server error
3058 This is the error message generally seen in a browser window when trying
3059 to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The actual error text
3060 varies widely from server to server. The most frequently-seen variants
3061 are "500 Server error", "Method (something) not permitted", "Document
3062 contains no data", "Premature end of script headers", and "Did not
3063 produce a valid header".
3065 B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
3067 You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by the
3068 user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the user
3069 account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment variables
3070 (like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't in a
3071 location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or less.
3072 Please see the following for more information:
3074 http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FAQs/cgi/idiots-guide.html
3075 http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FAQs/cgi/perl-cgi-faq.html
3076 ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/www/cgi-faq
3077 http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/interface.html
3078 http://www-genome.wi.mit.edu/WWW/faqs/www-security-faq.html
3080 You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
3082 =item setegid() not implemented
3084 (F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
3085 support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3088 =item seteuid() not implemented
3090 (F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
3091 support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3094 =item setpgrp can't take arguments
3096 (F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
3097 arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
3100 =item setrgid() not implemented
3102 (F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
3103 support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3106 =item setruid() not implemented
3108 (F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
3109 support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3112 =item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
3114 (W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
3115 forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
3116 L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
3118 =item Setuid/gid script is writable by world
3120 (F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that is writable by the
3121 world, because the world might have written on it already.
3123 =item shm%s not implemented
3125 (F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
3127 =item <> should be quotes
3129 (F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
3132 =item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
3134 (W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
3135 as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
3136 result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
3137 probably not what you had in mind.
3139 =item shutdown() on closed socket %s
3141 (W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
3144 =item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
3146 (W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
3147 Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
3149 =item sort is now a reserved word
3151 (F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
3152 But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
3154 =item Sort subroutine didn't return a numeric value
3156 (F) A sort comparison routine must return a number. You probably blew
3157 it by not using C<< <=> >> or C<cmp>, or by not using them correctly.
3158 See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3160 =item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
3162 (F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
3163 or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3167 (P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
3168 iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
3169 happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
3171 =item Statement unlikely to be reached
3173 (W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
3174 die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
3175 unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
3176 instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
3179 =item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
3181 (W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
3182 was either never opened or has since been closed.
3184 =item Stub found while resolving method `%s' overloading %s
3186 (P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
3187 stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
3188 C<can> may break this.
3190 =item Subroutine %s redefined
3192 (W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
3196 eval "sub name { ... }";
3199 =item Substitution loop
3201 (P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
3202 shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
3203 is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
3204 L<perlop/"Quote and Quote-like Operators">.
3206 =item Substitution pattern not terminated
3208 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a s/// or s{}{}
3209 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
3210 Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
3212 =item Substitution replacement not terminated
3214 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a s/// or s{}{}
3215 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
3216 Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
3218 =item substr outside of string
3220 (W substr),(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
3221 a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
3222 length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
3223 substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
3224 assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
3226 =item suidperl is no longer needed since %s
3228 (F) Your Perl was compiled with B<-D>SETUID_SCRIPTS_ARE_SECURE_NOW, but
3229 a version of the setuid emulator somehow got run anyway.
3231 =item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3233 (F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most two
3234 branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or both to
3235 contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose it in
3236 clustering parentheses:
3238 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
3240 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3241 discovered. See L<perlre>.
3243 =item Switch condition not recognized in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3245 (F) If the argument to the (?(...)if-clause|else-clause) construct is a
3246 number, it can be only a number. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
3247 about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3249 =item switching effective %s is not implemented
3251 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
3252 and effective uids or gids.
3256 (F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
3258 A keyword is misspelled.
3259 A semicolon is missing.
3261 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
3262 An opening or closing brace is missing.
3263 A closing quote is missing.
3265 Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
3266 error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
3267 The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
3268 it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
3269 before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
3270 Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
3271 the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
3272 C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
3273 if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20
3276 =item syntax error at line %d: `%s' unexpected
3278 (A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
3279 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
3284 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
3286 =item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
3288 (F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
3289 "shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
3290 machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
3291 unconfigured. Consult your system support.
3293 =item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
3295 (W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
3296 before now. Check your control flow.
3298 =item Target of goto is too deeply nested
3300 (F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
3301 for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
3303 =item tell() on unopened filehandle
3305 (W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
3306 was either never opened or has since been closed.
3308 =item That use of $[ is unsupported
3310 (F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted
3311 as a compiler directive. You may say only one of
3320 This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out
3321 from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[>.
3323 =item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia
3325 (F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
3326 probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
3327 think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
3328 will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
3331 =item The %s function is unimplemented
3333 The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture, according
3334 to the probings of Configure.
3336 =item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
3338 (F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
3339 linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
3340 past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
3343 =item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
3345 =item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
3347 (W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
3348 element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
3349 wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
3350 need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
3351 F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
3352 target of the change to
3353 %ENV which produced the warning.
3355 =item times not implemented
3357 (F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
3358 suspect you're not running on Unix.
3360 =item Too few args to syscall
3362 (F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
3363 system call to call, silly dilly.
3365 =item Too late for "B<-T>" option
3367 (X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
3368 B<-T> option, but Perl was not invoked with B<-T> in its command line.
3369 This is an error because, by the time Perl discovers a B<-T> in a
3370 script, it's too late to properly taint everything from the environment.
3373 If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
3374 mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be fixed by
3375 editing the #! line so that the B<-T> option is a part of Perl's first
3376 argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -T> to C<perl -T -n>.
3378 If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
3379 B<-T> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -T scriptname>.
3381 =item Too late for "-%s" option
3383 (X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
3384 B<-M> or B<-m> option. This is an error because B<-M> and B<-m> options
3385 are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
3387 =item Too late to run %s block
3389 (W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
3390 when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
3391 loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
3392 instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
3395 =item Too many args to syscall
3397 (F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
3399 =item Too many arguments for %s
3401 (F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
3405 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
3406 Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
3410 =item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
3412 (F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
3413 Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
3415 =item Transliteration pattern not terminated
3417 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
3418 or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
3419 C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
3421 =item Transliteration replacement not terminated
3423 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
3426 =item truncate not implemented
3428 (F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
3429 Configure knows about.
3431 =item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
3433 (F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
3434 certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
3435 %NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
3436 {EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
3438 =item umask: argument is missing initial 0
3440 (W umask) A umask of 222 is incorrect. It should be 0222, because octal
3441 literals always start with 0 in Perl, as in C.
3443 =item umask not implemented
3445 (F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
3446 use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
3448 =item Unable to create sub named "%s"
3450 (F) You attempted to create or access a subroutine with an illegal name.
3452 =item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
3454 (W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3455 many execution contexts were entered and left.
3457 =item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
3459 (W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3460 many values were temporarily localized.
3462 =item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
3464 (W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3465 many blocks were entered and left.
3467 =item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
3469 (W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3470 many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
3472 =item Undefined format "%s" called
3474 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
3475 another package? See L<perlform>.
3477 =item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
3479 (F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
3480 Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3482 =item Undefined subroutine &%s called
3484 (F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
3485 since been undefined.
3487 =item Undefined subroutine called
3489 (F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
3490 or if it was, it has since been undefined.
3492 =item Undefined subroutine in sort
3494 (F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
3495 to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3497 =item Undefined top format "%s" called
3499 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
3500 another package? See L<perlform>.
3502 =item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
3504 (W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
3505 C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
3508 =item %s: Undefined variable
3510 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
3511 Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
3513 =item unexec of %s into %s failed!
3515 (F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
3516 representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
3519 =item Unknown BYTEORDER
3521 (F) There are no byte-swapping functions for a machine with this byte
3524 =item Unknown switch condition (?(%.2s in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3526 (F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
3527 is not known. The condition may be lookahead or lookbehind (the condition
3528 is true if the lookahead or lookbehind is true), a (?{...}) construct (the
3529 condition is true if the code evaluates to a true value), or a number (the
3530 condition is true if the set of capturing parentheses named by the number
3533 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3534 discovered. See L<perlre>.
3536 =item Unknown open() mode '%s'
3538 (F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
3539 of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
3540 C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->.
3542 =item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
3544 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
3545 iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
3546 data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
3547 subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
3549 =item unmatched [ in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3551 (F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
3552 include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
3553 first. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem
3554 was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3556 =item unmatched ( in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3558 (F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
3559 expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding the
3560 matching parenthesis. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3561 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3563 =item Unmatched right %s bracket
3565 (F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
3566 ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
3567 general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
3568 you were last editing.
3570 =item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
3572 (W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
3573 reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
3574 somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
3577 =item Unrecognized character %s
3579 (F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
3580 in your Perl script (or eval). Perhaps you tried to run a compressed
3581 script, a binary program, or a directory as a Perl program.
3583 =item /%s/: Unrecognized escape \\%c in character class passed through
3585 (W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
3586 recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
3587 understood literally.
3589 =item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3591 (W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
3592 recognized by Perl. This combination appears in an interpolated variable or
3593 a C<'>-delimited regular expression. The character was understood
3594 literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
3595 escape was discovered.
3597 =item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through
3599 (W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
3602 =item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
3604 (F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
3605 recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
3608 =item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
3610 (F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
3611 think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
3612 bad switch on your behalf.)
3614 =item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
3616 (W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
3617 operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
3618 PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
3620 =item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
3622 (F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
3624 =item Unsupported function %s
3626 (F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
3627 At least, Configure doesn't think so.
3629 =item Unsupported function fork
3631 (F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
3633 Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
3634 of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
3635 changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
3637 =item Unsupported script encoding
3639 (F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
3640 declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot yet read.
3642 =item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
3644 (F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
3645 least that's what Configure thought.
3647 =item Unterminated attribute list
3649 (F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
3650 start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
3651 block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
3652 attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
3654 =item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
3656 (F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
3657 an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
3658 character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
3659 character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
3661 =item Unterminated compressed integer
3663 (F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
3664 compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
3665 See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3667 =item Unterminated <> operator
3669 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
3670 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
3671 not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
3672 earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
3674 =item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
3676 (W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
3677 still valid when C<untie> was called.
3679 =item Useless use of %s in void context
3681 (W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
3682 nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
3683 value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
3684 often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
3685 to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
3686 get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
3691 when you meant to say
3693 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
3695 Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
3696 reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
3701 when you should have said
3705 The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
3706 while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
3707 a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
3708 throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
3709 L<perlref> for more on this.
3711 This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
3712 since they are often used in statements like
3714 1 while sub_with_side_effects() ;
3716 String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
3719 =item Useless use of "re" pragma
3721 (W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
3723 =item Useless use of %s with no values
3725 (W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
3726 apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
3727 usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
3728 possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
3729 if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
3730 you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
3732 =item "use" not allowed in expression
3734 (F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
3735 returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
3737 =item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is deprecated
3739 (D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted form
3740 if you wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
3742 =item Use of implicit split to @_ is deprecated
3744 (D deprecated) It makes a lot of work for the compiler when you clobber
3745 a subroutine's argument list, so it's better if you assign the results
3746 of a split() explicitly to an array (or list).
3748 =item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
3750 (D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines
3751 are looked up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy) even when the
3752 subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain functions (e.g.
3753 C<Foo::bar()>), not as methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or C<<
3756 This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup only for
3757 methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base of existing
3758 code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl
3759 currently issues an optional warning when non-methods use inherited
3762 The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
3763 non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used
3764 to depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class
3765 named C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during
3768 In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);>
3769 you should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
3770 C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
3772 =item Use of %s in printf format not supported
3774 (F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
3775 only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
3777 =item Use of $* is deprecated
3779 (D deprecated) This variable magically turned on multi-line pattern
3780 matching, both for you and for any luckless subroutine that you happen
3781 to call. You should use the new C<//m> and C<//s> modifiers now to do
3782 that without the dangerous action-at-a-distance effects of C<$*>.
3784 =item Use of %s is deprecated
3786 (D deprecated) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use,
3787 generally because there's a better way to do it, and also because the
3788 old way has bad side effects.
3790 =item Use of $# is deprecated
3792 (D deprecated) This was an ill-advised attempt to emulate a poorly
3793 defined B<awk> feature. Use an explicit printf() or sprintf() instead.
3795 =item Use of reference "%s" as array index
3797 (W) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
3798 isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
3799 to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
3801 If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
3802 C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
3803 either, because you can overload the numification and stringification
3804 operators and then you assumedly know what you are doing.
3806 =item Use of reserved word "%s" is deprecated
3808 (D deprecated) The indicated bareword is a reserved word. Future
3809 versions of perl may use it as a keyword, so you're better off either
3810 explicitly quoting the word in a manner appropriate for its context of
3811 use, or using a different name altogether. The warning can be
3812 suppressed for subroutine names by either adding a C<&> prefix, or using
3813 a package qualifier, e.g. C<&our()>, or C<Foo::our()>.
3815 =item Use of uninitialized value%s
3817 (W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
3818 defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
3819 To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
3821 To help you figure out what was undefined, perl tells you what operation
3822 you used the undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your
3823 program and the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily
3824 appear literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is
3825 usually optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to
3826 the C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in your
3829 =item Using a hash as a reference is deprecated
3831 (D deprecated) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in C<%foo->{"bar"}>
3832 or C<%$ref->{"hello"}. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1 used to allow this syntax,
3833 but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated, and will be removed in a future
3836 =item Using an array as a reference is deprecated
3838 (D deprecated) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in C<@foo->[23]>
3839 or C<@$ref->[99]>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1 used to allow this syntax, but
3840 shouldn't have. It is now deprecated, and will be removed in a future version.
3842 =item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
3844 (W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
3845 C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
3846 can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
3847 false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
3848 constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
3849 C<defined> operator.
3851 =item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
3853 (W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
3854 %ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
3855 longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
3858 =item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
3860 (F) While "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable that
3861 you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
3862 something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
3863 that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
3864 front of your variable.
3866 =item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
3868 (W misc) A "my" or "our" variable has been redeclared in the current
3869 scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the previous
3870 instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note that the
3871 earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope or until
3872 all closure referents to it are destroyed.
3874 =item Variable "%s" may be unavailable
3876 (W closure) An inner (nested) I<anonymous> subroutine is inside a
3877 I<named> subroutine, and outside that is another subroutine; and the
3878 anonymous (innermost) subroutine is referencing a lexical variable
3879 defined in the outermost subroutine. For example:
3881 sub outermost { my $a; sub middle { sub { $a } } }
3883 If the anonymous subroutine is called or referenced (directly or
3884 indirectly) from the outermost subroutine, it will share the variable as
3885 you would expect. But if the anonymous subroutine is called or
3886 referenced when the outermost subroutine is not active, it will see the
3887 value of the shared variable as it was before and during the *first*
3888 call to the outermost subroutine, which is probably not what you want.
3890 In these circumstances, it is usually best to make the middle subroutine
3891 anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. Perl has specific support for
3892 shared variables in nested anonymous subroutines; a named subroutine in
3893 between interferes with this feature.
3895 =item Variable syntax
3897 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
3898 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
3901 =item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
3903 (W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
3904 lexical variable defined in an outer subroutine.
3906 When the inner subroutine is called, it will probably see the value of
3907 the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
3908 call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
3909 outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
3910 longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
3911 variable will no longer be shared.
3913 Furthermore, if the outer subroutine is anonymous and references a
3914 lexical variable outside itself, then the outer and inner subroutines
3915 will I<never> share the given variable.
3917 This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
3918 anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
3919 reference variables in outer subroutines are called or referenced, they
3920 are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
3922 =item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3924 (F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
3925 known at compile time. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3926 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3928 =item Version number must be a constant number
3930 (P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
3931 its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
3934 =item Warning: something's wrong
3936 (W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
3937 you called it with no args and C<$_> was empty.
3939 =item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
3941 (S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
3942 the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
3945 =item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
3947 (S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
3948 looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
3949 term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
3950 function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
3954 you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
3958 but in actual fact, you got
3962 So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
3964 =item Wide character in %s
3966 (W utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting one.
3968 =item write() on closed filehandle %s
3970 (W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
3971 before now. Check your control flow.
3973 =item X outside of string
3975 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position before
3976 the beginning of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3978 =item x outside of string
3980 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
3981 the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3983 =item Xsub "%s" called in sort
3985 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet
3988 =item Xsub called in sort
3990 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet
3993 =item You can't use C<-l> on a filehandle
3995 (F) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
3996 it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
3997 Use a filename instead.
3999 =item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
4001 (F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
4002 sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
4003 about what you want. Your best bet is to use the wrapsuid script in the
4004 eg directory to put a setuid C wrapper around your script.
4006 =item You need to quote "%s"
4008 (W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
4009 Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
4010 which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
4011 assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
4012 what you want, put an & in front.)