1 //depot/perl/pod/perldiag.pod#272 - edit change 14824 (text)
4 perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
8 These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
11 (W) A warning (optional).
12 (D) A deprecation (optional).
13 (S) A severe warning (default).
14 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
15 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
16 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
17 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
19 The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
20 (W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
22 If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
23 category is included with the classification letter in the description
26 Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
27 and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
28 to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
29 of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
31 Default warnings are always enabled unless they are explicitly disabled
32 with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
34 Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
35 L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
36 disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
39 The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
40 lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
41 denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
42 ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
43 letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
48 =item accept() on closed socket %s
50 (W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
51 to check the return value of your socket() call? See
54 =item Allocation too large: %lx
56 (X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
58 =item '!' allowed only after types %s
60 (F) The '!' is allowed in pack() and unpack() only after certain types.
63 =item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
65 (W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
66 keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
67 one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
68 subroutine is not imported.
70 To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
71 before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
72 Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
73 imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
75 To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
76 on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
77 to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
80 =item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
82 (F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
83 all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
84 first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
85 C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
87 =item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
89 (W ambiguous)(S) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
90 you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
91 a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
93 =item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
95 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
96 redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
97 redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
99 =item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
101 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
102 redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
103 into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
104 though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
105 which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
107 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
114 =item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
116 (W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
117 transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
118 one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
119 a scalar value -- the length of an array, or the population info of a
120 hash -- and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
121 you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
124 =item Args must match #! line
126 (F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
127 with match the arguments specified on the #! line. Since some systems
128 impose a one-argument limit on the #! line, try combining switches;
129 for example, turn C<-w -U> into C<-wU>.
131 =item Arg too short for msgsnd
133 (F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
135 =item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element
137 (F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element, such as:
142 =item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
144 (F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
150 or a hash or array slice, such as:
152 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
153 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
155 =item %s argument is not a subroutine name
157 (F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
158 name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
161 =item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
163 (W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
164 that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
165 will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
167 =item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
169 (D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
170 spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
172 =item assertion botched: %s
174 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
176 =item Assertion failed: file "%s"
178 (P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
180 =item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
182 (F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
183 must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
184 know which context to supply to the right side.
186 =item Attempt to access key '%_' in fixed hash
188 (F) A hash has been marked as READONLY at the C level to turn it
189 into a "record" with a fixed set of keys. The failing code
190 has attempted to get or set the value of a key which does not
191 exist or to delete a key.
193 =item Attempt to bless into a reference
195 (F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
196 the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
197 supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
203 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
205 If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
206 of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
209 bless $self, "$proto";
211 =item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
213 (P internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
214 that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
215 outside any of those arenas.
217 =item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
219 (P internal) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of
220 strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
221 strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
222 of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
224 =item Attempt to free temp prematurely
226 (W debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
227 free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
228 SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
229 free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
232 =item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
234 (P internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
236 =item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
238 (W internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
239 see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
240 earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
241 This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
242 that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
243 mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
246 =item Attempt to join self
248 (F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
249 impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
250 to move the join() to some other thread.
252 =item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
254 (W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
255 function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
256 means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
257 invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
258 literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
261 =item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
263 (W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
264 used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
265 dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
267 =item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %s
269 (F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
270 or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
271 S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
272 S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
274 =item Bad evalled substitution pattern
276 (F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
277 substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
278 most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
280 =item Bad filehandle: %s
282 (F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
283 symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
284 open(), or did it in another package.
286 =item Bad free() ignored
288 (S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
289 been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
290 setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
292 This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
293 dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
294 which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
298 (P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
300 =item Bad index while coercing array into hash
302 (F) The index looked up in the hash found as the 0'th element of a
303 pseudo-hash is not legal. Index values must be at 1 or greater.
306 =item Badly placed ()'s
308 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
309 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
312 =item Bad name after %s::
314 (F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
315 didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
324 $sym = "mypack::$var";
326 =item Bad realloc() ignored
328 (S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
329 never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled
330 by setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
332 =item Bad symbol for array
334 (P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
335 wasn't a symbol table entry.
337 =item Bad symbol for filehandle
339 (P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
340 that wasn't a symbol table entry.
342 =item Bad symbol for hash
344 (P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
345 wasn't a symbol table entry.
347 =item Bareword found in conditional
349 (W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
350 conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
351 of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
355 It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
358 use constant TYPO => 1;
359 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
361 The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
363 =item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
365 (F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
366 subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
367 symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
369 =item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
371 (W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
372 compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
373 you need to predeclare a package?
375 =item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
377 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
378 subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
381 =item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
383 (F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
384 implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
385 occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
386 be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
387 depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
389 =item \1 better written as $1
391 (W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
392 The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
393 substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
394 because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
395 there are more than 9 backreferences.
397 =item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
399 (W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
400 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
401 L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
403 =item bind() on closed socket %s
405 (W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
406 check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
408 =item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
410 (W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
411 Check you control flow and number of arguments.
413 =item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
415 (W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
417 =item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
419 (P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
422 =item B<-P> not allowed for setuid/setgid script
424 (F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor by name,
425 which provides a race condition that breaks security.
427 =item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
429 (W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
430 iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
431 which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
433 =item Callback called exit
435 (F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
436 exited by calling exit.
438 =item %s() called too early to check prototype
440 (W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
441 parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
442 that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
443 early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
444 subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
445 checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
446 function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
447 the warning. See L<perlsub>.
449 =item / cannot take a count
451 (F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
452 you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
455 =item Can't bless non-reference value
457 (F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
458 encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
460 =item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
462 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
463 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
464 in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
466 =item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
468 (F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
469 object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
470 like this will reproduce the error:
473 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
474 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
476 =item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
478 (F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
479 ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
480 didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
481 object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
483 =item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
485 (F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
486 object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
487 defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
488 Something like this will reproduce the error:
491 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
492 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
494 =item Can't chdir to %s
496 (F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
497 that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
499 =item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
501 (P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
504 =item Can't coerce array into hash
506 (F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the array has no
507 information on how to map from keys to array indices. You can do that
508 only with arrays that have a hash reference at index 0.
510 =item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
512 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
513 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
523 but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
525 =item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
527 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
528 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
530 =item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
532 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
533 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
535 =item Can't create pipe mailbox
537 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
538 quotas or other plumbing problems.
540 =item Can't declare class for non-scalar %s in "%s"
542 (F) Currently, only scalar variables can be declared with a specific
543 class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration. The semantics may be
544 extended for other types of variables in future.
546 =item Can't declare %s in "%s"
548 (F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my" or
549 "our" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
551 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
553 (S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
554 a file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
556 =item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
558 (S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
561 =item Can't do inplace edit without backup
563 (F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
564 reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
565 C<-i.bak>, or some such.
567 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
569 (S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
570 characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
571 inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
573 =item Can't do {n,m} with n > m in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
575 (F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want your
576 regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. The <-- HERE shows in the
577 regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
579 =item Can't do setegid!
581 (P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
584 =item Can't do seteuid!
586 (P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
588 =item Can't do setuid
590 (F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to do
591 setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the form
592 sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides under
593 the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines. If the
594 file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask your
595 sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
597 =item Can't do waitpid with flags
599 (F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
600 waitpid() without flags is emulated.
602 =item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
604 (F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
605 point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
608 =item Can't exec "%s": %s
610 (W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
611 named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
612 permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
613 C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
614 architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
615 can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
620 (F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
621 that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
622 need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
624 =item Can't execute %s
626 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
627 found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
629 =item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
631 (F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
632 is no builtin with the name C<word>.
634 =item Can't find %s character property "%s"
636 (F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
637 could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property
638 (remember that the names of character properties consist only of
639 alphanumeric characters), or maybe you forgot the C<Is> or C<In> prefix?
641 =item Can't find label %s
643 (F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
644 possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
646 =item Can't find %s on PATH
648 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
651 =item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
653 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
654 found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
655 script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
657 =item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
659 (F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
660 that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
661 nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
663 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
665 If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have included
666 unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good programmer's
667 editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
669 =item Can't find %s property definition %s
671 (F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode property for
672 example \p{Lu} is all uppercase letters. Escape the C<\p>, either
673 C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, until
678 (F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
681 =item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
683 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
684 between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
685 Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
686 the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
687 account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
688 the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
689 the access checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
690 the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
691 if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
692 because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
693 appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up
694 and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking
695 routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
696 shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
697 only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
699 =item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
701 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
702 pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
704 =item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
706 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
707 mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
709 =item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
711 (F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
712 loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
714 =item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
716 (F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
717 a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
718 you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
719 See L<perlfunc/goto>.
721 =item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-string
723 (F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
724 "string". (You can use it to jump out of an eval {BLOCK}, but you
725 probably don't want to.)
727 =item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
729 (F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
730 subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
731 cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
732 routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
734 =item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
736 (W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
737 signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
738 signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
739 processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
740 situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
741 may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
743 =item Can't "last" outside a loop block
745 (F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
746 except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
747 block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
748 block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
749 usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
750 inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
753 =item Can't localize lexical variable %s
755 (F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
756 lexical variable using "my". This is not allowed. If you want to
757 localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
760 =item Can't localize pseudo-hash element
762 (F) You said something like C<< local $ar->{'key'} >>, where $ar is a
763 reference to a pseudo-hash. That hasn't been implemented yet, but you
764 can get a similar effect by localizing the corresponding array element
765 directly -- C<< local $ar->[$ar->[0]{'key'}] >>.
767 =item Can't localize through a reference
769 (F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
770 handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
771 pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
772 that $ref will still be a reference.
774 =item Can't locate %s
776 (F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be
777 found. Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC,
778 unless the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you
779 need to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where
780 the extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
781 to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
782 L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
784 =item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
786 (F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
787 autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
788 are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
789 the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
791 =item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
793 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
794 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
795 method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
797 =item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
799 (F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
800 "Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
801 that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
803 =item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
805 (W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
806 doesn't seem to exist.
808 =item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
810 (F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
813 =item Can't modify %s in %s
815 (F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
816 to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
818 =item Can't modify nonexistent substring
820 (P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
823 =item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
825 (F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
826 such, see L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
828 =item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
830 (F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
833 =item Can't "next" outside a loop block
835 (F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
836 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
837 count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
838 grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
839 though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
840 once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
842 =item Can't open %s: %s
844 (S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
845 filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
846 switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
847 is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named on
850 =item Can't open bidirectional pipe
852 (W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
853 You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
854 as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
855 ">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
857 =item Can't open error file %s as stderr
859 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
860 redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
861 the command line for writing.
863 =item Can't open input file %s as stdin
865 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
866 redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
867 command line for reading.
869 =item Can't open output file %s as stdout
871 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
872 redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
873 the command line for writing.
875 =item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
877 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
878 redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
881 =item Can't open perl script%s: %s
883 (F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
885 =item Can't read CRTL environ
887 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
888 from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
889 missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
890 or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
893 =item Can't redefine active sort subroutine %s
895 (F) Perl optimizes the internal handling of sort subroutines and keeps
896 pointers into them. You tried to redefine one such sort subroutine when
897 it was currently active, which is not allowed. If you really want to do
898 this, you should write C<sort { &func } @x> instead of C<sort func @x>.
900 =item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
902 (F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
903 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
904 count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
905 or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
906 though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
907 loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
909 =item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
911 (S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
912 file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
913 the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
915 =item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
917 (S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
918 probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
920 =item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
922 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
923 to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
925 =item Can't resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
927 (F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as opposed
928 to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the package. If
929 method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
931 =item Can't reswap uid and euid
933 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
936 =item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
938 (F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
939 temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
942 =item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
944 (F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue subroutine,
945 but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl think you meant
946 to return only one value. You probably meant to write parentheses around
947 the call to the subroutine, which tell Perl that the call should be in
950 =item Can't return outside a subroutine
952 (F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
953 there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
955 =item Can't stat script "%s"
957 (P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
958 open already. Bizarre.
960 =item Can't swap uid and euid
962 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
965 =item Can't take log of %g
967 (F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
968 negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
969 standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
972 =item Can't take sqrt of %g
974 (F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
975 negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
976 with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
978 =item Can't undef active subroutine
980 (F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
981 however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
982 redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
986 (F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
987 as the main Perl stack.
989 =item Can't upgrade that kind of scalar
991 (P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
992 into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
993 specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
994 indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
996 =item Can't upgrade to undef
998 (P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the totem pole, in the scheme of
999 upgradability. Upgrading to undef indicates an error in the code
1002 =item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1004 (F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1005 be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1007 =item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1009 (P) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1010 table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1011 for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1013 =item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1015 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1016 references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
1018 =item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1020 (F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
1021 Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1022 provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1024 =item Can't use %s for loop variable
1026 (F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1029 =item Can't use global %s in "my"
1031 (F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1032 is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1033 (namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1034 have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
1037 =item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1039 (F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
1040 You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
1041 and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1042 Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1045 =item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1047 (F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1048 reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1049 test the type of the reference, if need be.
1051 =item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1053 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1054 references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
1056 =item Can't use subscript on %s
1058 (F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1059 subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
1060 didn't look like an array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
1062 =item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1064 (W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1065 creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1066 backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
1067 expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1068 value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1071 =item Can't weaken a nonreference
1073 (F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1074 references can be weakened.
1076 =item Can't x= to read-only value
1078 (F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1079 with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
1080 Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1082 =item Character in "C" format wrapped
1088 where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1089 only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1090 and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1094 If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1097 =item Character in "c" format wrapped
1103 where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1104 is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1105 and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1107 pack("c", $x & 255);
1109 If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1112 =item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1114 (W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1116 =item %s: Command not found
1118 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1119 Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
1121 =item Compilation failed in require
1123 (F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
1124 Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1125 encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
1127 =item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1129 (W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1130 situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1131 to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1132 arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1133 recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1134 under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1135 in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
1136 that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
1137 on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
1139 =item connect() on closed socket %s
1141 (W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1142 to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1143 L<perlfunc/connect>.
1145 =item Constant(%s)%s: %s
1147 (F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1148 an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1149 specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
1150 corresponding C<overload> or C<charnames> pragma? See L<charnames> and
1153 =item Constant is not %s reference
1155 (F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
1156 is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
1157 The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
1158 usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
1159 See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1161 =item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1163 (S|W redefine) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been
1164 eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for
1165 commentary and workarounds.
1167 =item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1169 (W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1170 for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1173 =item Copy method did not return a reference
1175 (F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
1176 L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
1178 =item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1180 (F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1182 =item corrupted regexp pointers
1184 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1185 expression compiler gave it.
1187 =item corrupted regexp program
1189 (P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1192 =item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
1194 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1196 =item C<-p> destination: %s
1198 (F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
1199 command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
1200 redirected it with select().)
1202 =item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
1204 (F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
1205 know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
1207 =item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1209 (W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1210 100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1211 infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1212 which case it indicates something else.
1214 =item defined(@array) is deprecated
1216 (D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1217 checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
1218 array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
1220 =item defined(%hash) is deprecated
1222 (D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it
1223 checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the hash
1224 is empty, just use C<if (%hash) { # not empty }> for example.
1226 =item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1228 (F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1229 there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1231 =item Delimiter for here document is too long
1233 (F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1234 long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1235 that triggers this error.
1237 =item Did not produce a valid header
1241 =item %s did not return a true value
1243 (F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1244 it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1245 traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1246 do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1248 =item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
1250 (W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some
1253 =item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
1255 (W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1256 variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1259 =item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
1261 (W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1262 @hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1267 (F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1268 you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
1270 =item Document contains no data
1274 =item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1276 (F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1277 define a C<$VERSION.>
1279 =item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1281 (P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1283 =item do_study: out of memory
1285 (P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1287 =item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1289 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1290 found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
1291 name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1292 because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
1293 "sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1294 something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1295 subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1296 "sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
1298 =item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1300 (W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1301 qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1303 =item Duplicate free() ignored
1305 (S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1308 =item elseif should be elsif
1310 (S) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's ugly.
1311 Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method named
1312 "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
1313 unlikely to be what you want.
1317 (F) Empty C<\p{}> or C<\P{}>.
1319 =item entering effective %s failed
1321 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
1322 effective uids or gids failed.
1324 =item Error converting file specification %s
1326 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
1327 specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
1328 single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1329 an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1330 conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
1332 =item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
1334 (F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1335 expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1336 is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
1338 =item %s: Eval-group not allowed at run time
1340 (F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1341 C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
1342 pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it
1343 is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly
1344 building the pattern from an interpolated string at run time and using
1345 that in an eval(). See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
1347 =item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
1349 (F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1350 assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1351 pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
1353 =item Excessively long <> operator
1355 (F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1356 Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1357 filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1358 variable and glob that.
1360 =item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1362 (F) The C<exec> function is not implemented in MacPerl. See L<perlport>.
1364 =item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors
1366 (F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1368 =item Exiting eval via %s
1370 (W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1371 goto, or a loop control statement.
1373 =item Exiting format via %s
1375 (W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1376 goto, or a loop control statement.
1378 =item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1380 (W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1381 sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1382 loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
1384 =item Exiting subroutine via %s
1386 (W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1387 as a goto, or a loop control statement.
1389 =item Exiting substitution via %s
1391 (W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1392 as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
1394 =item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1396 (W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1397 the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1398 usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1399 e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
1401 =item %s: Expression syntax
1403 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1404 Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
1406 =item %s failed--call queue aborted
1408 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a CHECK, INIT, or
1409 END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the queue of such
1410 routines has been prematurely ended.
1412 =item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1414 (W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
1415 character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1416 in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1417 "-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1418 problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
1420 =item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
1422 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1423 system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1424 details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1425 you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
1427 =item fcntl is not implemented
1429 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1430 PDP-11 or something?
1432 =item Filehandle %s opened only for input
1434 (W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended it
1435 to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or "+>"
1436 or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to write
1437 the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
1439 =item Filehandle %s opened only for output
1441 (W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing. If
1442 you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
1443 with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you
1444 intended only to read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>.
1446 =item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1448 (F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
1449 a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1450 happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1453 =item Final @ should be \@ or @name
1455 (F) You must now decide whether the final @ in a string was meant to be
1456 a literal "at" sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1457 happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1460 =item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1462 (W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
1463 some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
1464 filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1467 =item Quantifier follows nothing in regex;
1469 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1471 (F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if you
1472 meant it literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
1473 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
1475 =item Format not terminated
1477 (F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1478 to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1480 =item Format %s redefined
1482 (W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
1485 no warnings 'redefine';
1486 eval "format NAME =...";
1489 =item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1499 (or something like that).
1501 =item %s found where operator expected
1503 (S) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator. If it
1504 sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
1505 operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
1506 operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
1508 =item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1510 (S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1512 =item gethostent not implemented
1514 (F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1515 because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1518 =item get%sname() on closed socket %s
1520 (W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
1521 socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
1523 =item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1525 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1526 C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1528 =item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
1530 (W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
1531 forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1532 L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
1534 =item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1536 (F) You've said "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables
1537 must either be lexically scoped (using "my"), declared beforehand using
1538 "our", or explicitly qualified to say which package the global variable
1541 =item glob failed (%s)
1543 (W glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for
1544 C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a
1545 C<glob> pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
1546 nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
1547 resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell) is
1548 broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables in
1549 config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it
1550 were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all
1551 empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
1552 think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
1553 C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
1555 =item Glob not terminated
1557 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
1558 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
1559 not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
1560 earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
1562 =item Got an error from DosAllocMem
1564 (P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
1565 version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
1567 =item goto must have label
1569 (F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1570 unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1572 =item %s-group starts with a count
1574 (F) In pack/unpack a ()-group started with a count. A count is
1575 supposed to follow something: a template character or a ()-group.
1577 =item %s had compilation errors
1579 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
1581 =item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1583 (S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
1584 to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
1585 created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
1587 =item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1589 (D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
1590 spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
1592 =item %s has too many errors
1594 (F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
1595 Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
1597 =item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
1599 (W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
1600 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
1601 L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
1603 =item Identifier too long
1605 (F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
1606 about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
1607 names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
1608 of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
1610 =item Illegal binary digit %s
1612 (F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
1614 =item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
1616 (W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
1617 binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
1620 =item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1622 (F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
1623 would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
1624 when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
1625 version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
1626 to your Perl administrator.
1628 =item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
1630 (W syntax) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration. Legal
1631 characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, and \.
1633 =item Illegal division by zero
1635 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
1636 your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
1639 =item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
1641 (W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
1642 A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
1643 number stopped before the illegal character.
1645 =item Illegal modulus zero
1647 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
1648 numbers don't take to this kindly.
1650 =item Illegal number of bits in vec
1652 (F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
1653 two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
1655 =item Illegal octal digit %s
1657 (F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
1659 =item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
1661 (W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
1662 Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
1664 =item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: %s
1666 (X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
1667 following switches: B<-[DIMUdmtw]>.
1669 =item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
1671 (W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
1672 internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
1673 delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
1675 =item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
1677 (W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
1678 name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
1679 didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
1682 =item (in cleanup) %s
1684 (W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
1685 the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
1686 system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
1687 times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
1688 would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
1690 Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
1691 also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
1693 =item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
1695 (F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
1696 Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
1697 encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
1699 =item Insecure dependency in %s
1701 (F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
1702 The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
1703 setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
1704 tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
1705 from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
1706 such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
1707 L<perlsec> for more information.
1709 =item Insecure directory in %s
1711 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1712 setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
1713 the world. See L<perlsec>.
1715 =item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
1717 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1718 setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
1719 C<$ENV{ENV}> or C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> are derived from data supplied (or
1720 potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set the path to a
1721 known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
1723 =item Integer overflow in %s number
1725 (W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
1726 either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
1727 your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
1728 On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
1729 representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
1730 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
1731 transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
1732 internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
1735 =item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1737 (P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
1738 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1741 =item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
1743 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
1744 you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
1745 to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
1746 L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
1747 Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
1748 terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
1750 =item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1752 (P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
1753 <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1756 =item %s (...) interpreted as function
1758 (W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
1759 followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
1760 operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
1761 L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
1763 =item Invalid %s attribute: %s
1765 The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
1766 by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
1768 =item Invalid %s attributes: %s
1770 The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
1771 recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
1773 =item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
1775 (W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
1776 L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
1778 =item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1780 (F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
1781 greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
1782 C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
1783 up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1784 problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
1786 =item Invalid [] range "%s" in transliteration operator
1788 (F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
1789 character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
1791 =item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
1793 (F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
1794 elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
1795 parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
1798 =item Invalid type in pack: '%s'
1800 (F) The given character is not a valid pack type. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1801 (W pack) The given character is not a valid pack type but used to be
1804 =item Invalid type in unpack: '%s'
1806 (F) The given character is not a valid unpack type. See
1808 (W unpack) The given character is not a valid unpack type but used to be
1811 =item ioctl is not implemented
1813 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
1814 strange for a machine that supports C.
1816 =item ioctl() on unopened %s
1818 (W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
1819 Check you control flow and number of arguments.
1821 =item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
1823 (F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
1824 neither as a system call or an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
1826 =item `%s' is not a code reference
1828 (W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of overload::constant
1829 needs to be a code reference. Either an anonymous subroutine, or a reference
1832 =item `%s' is not an overloadable type
1834 (W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
1837 =item junk on end of regexp
1839 (P) The regular expression parser is confused.
1841 =item Label not found for "last %s"
1843 (F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
1844 of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1847 =item Label not found for "next %s"
1849 (F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
1850 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1853 =item Label not found for "redo %s"
1855 (F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
1856 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1859 =item leaving effective %s failed
1861 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
1862 effective uids or gids failed.
1864 =item listen() on closed socket %s
1866 (W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
1867 to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1870 =item lstat() on filehandle %s
1872 (W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
1873 by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
1874 instead on the filehandle.)
1876 =item Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented yet
1878 (F) Due to limitations in the current implementation, array and hash
1879 values cannot be returned in subroutines used in lvalue context. See
1880 L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
1882 =item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex;
1884 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1886 (F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
1887 handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release. The <-- HERE
1888 shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
1890 =item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
1892 (F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
1899 with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
1900 a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
1901 appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
1902 "PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
1904 =item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
1906 (F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
1907 syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
1908 obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
1909 when the function is called.
1911 =item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
1913 Perl detected something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding rules.
1915 =item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
1917 Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
1918 doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
1920 =item %s matches null string many times in regex;
1922 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1924 (W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
1925 regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
1926 shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
1929 =item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
1931 (W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
1932 interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
1935 =item % may only be used in unpack
1937 (F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
1938 checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
1939 See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
1941 =item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
1943 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
1944 doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
1946 =item Method %s not permitted
1950 =item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
1952 (S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
1953 by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
1954 ended earlier on the current line.
1956 =item Misplaced _ in number
1958 (W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
1959 separate two digits.
1961 =item Missing %sbrace%s on \N{}
1963 (F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
1964 double-quotish context.
1966 =item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
1968 (F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
1969 "indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
1971 =item Missing command in piped open
1973 (W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
1974 C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
1977 =item Missing name in "my sub"
1979 (F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
1980 they have a name with which they can be found.
1982 =item Missing $ on loop variable
1984 (F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
1985 are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
1986 can vary from one line to the next.
1988 =item (Missing operator before %s?)
1990 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1991 found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
1993 =item Missing right brace on %s
1995 (F) Missing right brace in C<\p{...}> or C<\P{...}>.
1997 =item Missing right curly or square bracket
1999 (F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
2000 ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
2003 =item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
2005 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
2006 found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
2007 the previous line just because you saw this message.
2009 =item Modification of a read-only value attempted
2011 (F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
2012 constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
2013 catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
2015 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
2018 Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
2020 Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
2021 is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
2024 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
2025 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to modify the 2
2028 =item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
2030 (F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
2031 subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
2034 =item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
2036 (P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
2037 couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
2039 =item Module name must be constant
2041 (F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
2043 =item Module name required with -%c option
2045 (F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
2046 you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
2047 about C<-M> and C<-m>.
2049 =item More than one argument to open
2051 (F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
2052 can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
2053 list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
2054 See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
2056 =item msg%s not implemented
2058 (F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
2060 =item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
2062 (W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
2063 They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
2065 =item / must be followed by a*, A* or Z*
2067 (F) You had a pack template indicating a counted-length string,
2068 Currently the only things that can have their length counted are a*, A*
2069 or Z*. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2071 =item / must be followed by a, A or Z
2073 (F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, which
2074 must be followed by one of the letters a, A or Z to indicate what sort
2075 of string is to be unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2077 =item / must follow a numeric type
2079 (F) You had an unpack template that contained a '#', but this did not
2080 follow some numeric unpack specification. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2082 =item "my sub" not yet implemented
2084 (F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
2087 =item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
2089 (F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2090 sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2091 local() if you want to localize a package variable.
2093 =item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2095 (W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
2096 If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2097 again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
2098 provided for this purpose.
2100 =item Negative length
2102 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
2103 length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
2105 =item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
2107 (F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
2108 greater than or equal to zero.
2110 =item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2112 (F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
2113 things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
2114 expression about where the problem was discovered.
2116 Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
2117 C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
2119 =item %s never introduced
2121 (S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
2122 scope before it could possibly have been used.
2124 =item No %s allowed while running setuid
2126 (F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
2127 setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
2128 will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
2129 securable. See L<perlsec>.
2131 =item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
2133 (F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
2135 =item No comma allowed after %s
2137 (F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
2138 allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
2139 Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
2141 One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
2142 constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
2143 importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
2144 does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
2145 explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
2146 L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
2147 would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
2148 remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
2149 constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
2150 list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
2151 this error was triggered?
2153 =item No command into which to pipe on command line
2155 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2156 redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
2157 doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
2159 =item No DB::DB routine defined
2161 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
2162 for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof) didn't
2163 define a routine to be called at the beginning of each statement. Which
2164 is odd, because the file should have been required automatically, and
2165 should have blown up the require if it didn't parse right.
2167 =item No dbm on this machine
2169 (P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
2170 supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
2172 =item No DBsub routine
2174 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
2175 but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
2176 didn't define a DB::sub routine to be called at the beginning of each
2177 ordinary subroutine call.
2179 =item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
2181 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2182 redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
2183 find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
2185 =item No input file after < on command line
2187 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2188 redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
2189 name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
2193 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2194 even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
2196 =item "no" not allowed in expression
2198 (F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
2199 returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
2201 =item No output file after > on command line
2203 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2204 redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
2205 doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
2207 =item No output file after > or >> on command line
2209 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2210 redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
2211 find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
2213 =item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
2215 (F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
2216 declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
2217 semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
2219 =item No Perl script found in input
2221 (F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
2222 with #! and containing the word "perl".
2224 =item No setregid available
2226 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
2229 =item No setreuid available
2231 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
2234 =item No space allowed after -%c
2236 (F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2237 immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
2239 =item No %s specified for -%c
2241 (F) The indicated command line switch needs a mandatory argument, but
2242 you haven't specified one.
2244 =item No such class %s
2246 (F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration, but
2247 this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
2249 =item No such pipe open
2251 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
2252 close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
2253 earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
2255 =item No such pseudo-hash field "%s"
2257 (F) You tried to access an array as a hash, but the field name used is
2258 not defined. The hash at index 0 should map all valid field names to
2259 array indices for that to work.
2261 =item No such pseudo-hash field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
2263 (F) You tried to access a field of a typed variable where the type does
2264 not know about the field name. The field names are looked up in the
2265 %FIELDS hash in the type package at compile time. The %FIELDS hash is
2266 %usually set up with the 'fields' pragma.
2268 =item No such signal: SIG%s
2270 (W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
2271 not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
2272 names on your system.
2274 =item Not a CODE reference
2276 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2277 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
2278 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2281 =item Not a format reference
2283 (F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
2284 format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
2286 =item Not a GLOB reference
2288 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
2289 symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
2290 something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
2291 kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2293 =item Not a HASH reference
2295 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
2296 reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
2297 find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2299 =item Not an ARRAY reference
2301 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
2302 a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2303 to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2305 =item Not a perl script
2307 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2308 even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
2311 =item Not a SCALAR reference
2313 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
2314 a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2315 to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2317 =item Not a subroutine reference
2319 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2320 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
2321 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2324 =item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
2326 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
2327 doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
2329 =item Not enough arguments for %s
2331 (F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
2333 =item Not enough format arguments
2335 (W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
2336 supplied. See L<perlform>.
2340 (A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
2341 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
2344 =item %s not allowed in length fields
2346 (F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]> only if
2347 C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes. Redesign
2350 =item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
2352 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
2353 timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
2354 to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
2355 F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
2356 need to be added to UTC to get local time.
2358 =item Null filename used
2360 (F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
2361 machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
2363 =item NULL OP IN RUN
2365 (P debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
2368 =item Null picture in formline
2370 (F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
2371 specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
2372 supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
2376 (P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
2378 =item NULL regexp argument
2380 (P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
2382 =item NULL regexp parameter
2384 (P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
2386 =item Number too long
2388 (F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
2389 about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
2390 versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
2391 the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
2394 =item Octal number in vector unsupported
2396 (F) Numbers with a leading C<0> are not currently allowed in vectors.
2397 The octal number interpretation of such numbers may be supported in a
2400 =item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
2402 (W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
2403 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2404 L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
2406 See also L<perlport> for writing portable code.
2408 =item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
2410 (W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
2411 arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
2413 =item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
2415 (W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2416 which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
2418 =item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
2420 (W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2421 which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
2423 =item Offset outside string
2425 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with an offset
2426 pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to imagine. The sole
2427 exception to this is that C<sysread()>ing past the buffer will extend
2428 the buffer and zero pad the new area.
2430 =item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
2432 (W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
2433 that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
2435 =item %s() on unopened %s
2437 (W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
2438 never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
2439 call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
2443 (S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
2447 (S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
2449 =item Operation `%s': no method found, %s
2451 (F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
2452 handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
2453 of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
2454 C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
2456 =item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
2458 (S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
2459 was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
2460 use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
2461 example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
2464 =item "our" variable %s redeclared
2466 (W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
2467 in the current lexical scope.
2469 =item Out of memory!
2471 (X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
2472 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
2473 no option but to exit immediately.
2475 =item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
2477 (F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
2478 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
2479 the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
2480 possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
2482 =item Out of memory during request for %s
2484 (X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
2485 insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
2488 The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
2489 depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
2490 However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
2491 emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
2492 is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
2493 where the failed request happened.
2495 =item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
2497 (F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
2498 is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
2499 C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
2501 =item Out of memory for yacc stack
2503 (F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
2504 parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
2507 =item @ outside of string
2509 (F) You had a pack template that specified an absolute position outside
2510 the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2512 =item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
2514 (W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
2515 package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
2516 some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
2517 mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
2521 (W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
2522 page. See L<perlform>.
2526 (P) An internal error.
2528 =item panic: ck_grep
2530 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
2532 =item panic: ck_split
2534 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
2536 =item panic: corrupt saved stack index
2538 (P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
2539 there are in the savestack.
2541 =item panic: del_backref
2543 (P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
2548 (P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
2549 it wasn't an eval context.
2551 =item panic: pp_match%s
2553 (P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
2556 =item panic: do_subst
2558 (P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
2561 =item panic: do_trans_%s
2563 (P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
2568 (P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
2572 (P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
2573 and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
2575 =item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
2577 (P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
2579 =item panic: INTERPCONCAT
2581 (P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
2583 =item panic: kid popen errno read
2585 (F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
2589 (P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
2590 it wasn't a block context.
2592 =item panic: leave_scope clearsv
2594 (P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
2597 =item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
2599 (P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
2600 invalid enum on the top of it.
2602 =item panic: magic_killbackrefs
2604 (P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
2605 references to an object.
2609 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
2611 =item panic: mapstart
2613 (P) The compiler is screwed up with respect to the map() function.
2615 =item panic: null array
2617 (P) One of the internal array routines was passed a null AV pointer.
2619 =item panic: pad_alloc
2621 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2622 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2624 =item panic: pad_free curpad
2626 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2627 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2629 =item panic: pad_free po
2631 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2633 =item panic: pad_reset curpad
2635 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2636 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2638 =item panic: pad_sv po
2640 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2642 =item panic: pad_swipe curpad
2644 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2645 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2647 =item panic: pad_swipe po
2649 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2651 =item panic: pp_iter
2653 (P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
2655 =item panic: pp_split
2657 (P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
2659 =item panic: realloc
2661 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
2663 =item panic: restartop
2665 (P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
2666 didn't supply the destination.
2670 (P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
2671 then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
2673 =item panic: scan_num
2675 (P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
2677 =item panic: sv_insert
2679 (P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
2682 =item panic: top_env
2684 (P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
2688 (P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
2690 =item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
2692 (P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
2693 to even) byte length.
2695 =item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
2697 (W parenthesis) You said something like
2703 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
2705 Remember that "my", "our", and "local" bind tighter than comma.
2707 =item Perl %s required--this is only version %s, stopped
2709 (F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
2710 recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
2711 you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
2713 =item PERL_SH_DIR too long
2715 (F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
2716 C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
2718 =item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2720 (S) The whole warning message will look something like:
2722 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2723 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
2726 are supported and installed on your system.
2727 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
2729 Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
2730 settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
2731 This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
2732 system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
2733 locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
2734 dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
2735 Perl can and will use, the script will be run. Before you really fix
2736 the problem, however, you will get the same error message each time
2737 you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
2738 L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
2740 =item perlio: argument list not closed for layer "%s"
2742 (S) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O system you forgot
2743 the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers take care of transforming
2744 data between external and internal representations.) Perl stopped parsing
2745 the layer list at this point and did not attempt to push this layer.
2746 If your program didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be
2747 the result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2749 =item perlio: invalid separator character %s in attribute list
2751 (S) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other than a
2752 colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
2753 If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2754 list was terminated too soon.
2756 =item perlio: unknown layer "%s"
2758 (S) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
2759 system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
2760 internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
2761 are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
2762 explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
2763 value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2765 =item Permission denied
2767 (F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to no good.
2769 =item pid %x not a child
2771 (W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
2772 process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
2773 fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
2775 =item P must have an explicit size
2777 (F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
2779 =item POSIX syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes in regex;
2781 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2783 (W regexp) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
2784 I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
2785 /[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
2786 implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and will
2787 cause fatal errors. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
2788 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2790 =item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex;
2792 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2794 (F regexp) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
2795 beginning with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
2796 If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
2797 expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
2798 backslash: "\[." and ".\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
2799 about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2801 =item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex;
2803 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2805 (F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
2806 with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
2807 need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
2808 character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
2809 and "=\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2810 problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2812 =item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex;
2814 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2816 (F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The <-- HERE
2817 shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2818 Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
2819 the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
2820 not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
2822 =item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
2824 (F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
2825 the BSD version, which takes a pid.
2827 =item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
2829 (W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
2830 strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
2831 literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
2832 parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
2834 You probably wrote something like this:
2841 when you should have written this:
2848 If you really want comments, build your list the
2849 old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
2853 'b', # another comment
2856 =item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
2858 (W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
2859 commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
2860 different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
2863 You probably wrote something like this:
2867 which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
2868 commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
2872 =item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
2874 (F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
2875 Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
2876 end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
2877 Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
2879 =item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
2881 (W ambiguous) You said something like `@foo' in a double-quoted string
2882 but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
2883 literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
2884 to the array you apparently lost track of.
2886 =item Possible Y2K bug: %s
2888 (W y2k) You are concatenating the number 19 with another number, which
2889 could be a potential Year 2000 problem.
2891 =item pragma "attrs" is deprecated, use "sub NAME : ATTRS" instead
2893 (D deprecated) You have written something like this:
2897 use attrs qw(locked);
2900 You should use the new declaration syntax instead.
2906 The C<use attrs> pragma is now obsolete, and is only provided for
2907 backward-compatibility. See L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes">.
2909 =item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
2911 (S precedence) The old irregular construct
2915 is now misinterpreted as
2919 because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
2920 list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
2921 parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
2924 =item Premature end of script headers
2928 =item printf() on closed filehandle %s
2930 (W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
2931 before now. Check your control flow.
2933 =item print() on closed filehandle %s
2935 (W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
2936 before now. Check your control flow.
2938 =item Process terminated by SIG%s
2940 (W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
2941 applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
2942 port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
2943 L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
2946 =item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
2948 (S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
2949 declared or defined with a different function prototype.
2951 =item Prototype not terminated
2953 (F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
2956 =item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex;
2958 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2960 (F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of the
2961 {min,max} construct. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where
2962 the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2964 =item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression;
2966 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2968 (W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
2969 it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
2970 quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
2971 "abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
2972 C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
2974 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
2977 =item Range iterator outside integer range
2979 (F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
2980 are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
2981 One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
2982 by prepending "0" to your numbers.
2984 =item readline() on closed filehandle %s
2986 (W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
2987 before now. Check your control flow.
2989 =item Reallocation too large: %lx
2991 (F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
2993 =item realloc() of freed memory ignored
2995 (S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
2998 =item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
3000 (F debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
3001 the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
3002 which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
3004 =item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
3006 (F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably indicates
3007 an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
3009 =item Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method %s
3011 (F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were encountered while invoking
3012 a method. Probably indicates an unintended loop in your inheritance
3015 =item Reference found where even-sized list expected
3017 (W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
3018 with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This usually
3019 means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant to use
3020 parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
3022 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
3023 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
3024 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
3025 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
3027 =item Reference is already weak
3029 (W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
3030 Doing so has no effect.
3032 =item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
3034 (W internal) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with
3035 a reference count of other than 1.
3037 =item Reference to nonexistent group in regex;
3039 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3041 (F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
3042 not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If you
3043 wanted to have the character with value 7 inserted into the regular expression,
3044 prepend a zero to make the number at least two digits: C<\07>
3046 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3049 =item regexp memory corruption
3051 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
3052 expression compiler gave it.
3054 =item Regexp out of space
3056 (P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
3059 =item Repeat count in pack overflows
3061 (F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3062 signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3064 =item Repeat count in unpack overflows
3066 (F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3067 signed integers. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
3069 =item Reversed %s= operator
3071 (W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
3072 always comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
3074 =item Runaway format
3076 (F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence, but it
3077 produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th line looked exactly like the
3078 199th line. Apparently you didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust
3079 themselves, either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
3080 shifting or popping (for array variables). See L<perlform>.
3082 =item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
3084 (W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
3085 single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
3086 value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
3087 behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3088 argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3089 and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3090 if you're expecting only one subscript.
3092 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
3093 element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
3094 Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
3097 =item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
3099 (W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
3100 element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
3101 (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
3102 like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3103 argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3104 and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3105 if you're expecting only one subscript.
3107 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
3108 as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
3109 not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
3112 =item Scalars leaked: %d
3114 (P) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping of scalars:
3115 not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time Perl exited.
3116 What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which is of course bad,
3117 especially if the Perl program is intended to be long-running.
3119 =item Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl
3121 (F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script without a setuid
3122 or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much sense.
3124 =item Search pattern not terminated
3126 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
3127 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
3128 Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
3130 =item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
3132 (W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
3133 filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
3135 =item select not implemented
3137 (F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
3139 =item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
3141 (F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
3142 the current implementation.
3144 =item Semicolon seems to be missing
3146 (W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
3147 semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
3149 =item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
3151 (S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
3152 scalar that had previously been marked as free.
3154 =item sem%s not implemented
3156 (F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
3158 =item send() on closed socket %s
3160 (W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
3161 before now. Check your control flow.
3163 =item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3165 (F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The <-- HERE
3166 shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3169 =item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated or not {}-balanced in regex;
3171 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3173 (F) If the contents of a (?{...}) clause contains braces, they must balance
3174 for Perl to properly detect the end of the clause. The <-- HERE shows in
3175 the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3178 =item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented in regex;
3180 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3182 (F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved but
3183 has not yet been written. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3184 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3186 =item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex;
3188 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3190 (F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense. The
3191 <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3192 discovered. See L<perlre>.
3194 =item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex;
3196 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3198 (F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
3199 parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. The <-- HERE shows in
3200 the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3203 =item 500 Server error
3209 This is the error message generally seen in a browser window when trying
3210 to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The actual error text
3211 varies widely from server to server. The most frequently-seen variants
3212 are "500 Server error", "Method (something) not permitted", "Document
3213 contains no data", "Premature end of script headers", and "Did not
3214 produce a valid header".
3216 B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
3218 You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by the
3219 user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the user
3220 account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment variables
3221 (like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't in a
3222 location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or less.
3223 Please see the following for more information:
3225 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
3226 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
3227 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
3229 You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
3231 =item setegid() not implemented
3233 (F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
3234 support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3237 =item seteuid() not implemented
3239 (F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
3240 support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3243 =item setpgrp can't take arguments
3245 (F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
3246 arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
3249 =item setrgid() not implemented
3251 (F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
3252 support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3255 =item setruid() not implemented
3257 (F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
3258 support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3261 =item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
3263 (W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
3264 forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
3265 L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
3267 =item Setuid/gid script is writable by world
3269 (F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that is writable by the
3270 world, because the world might have written on it already.
3272 =item shm%s not implemented
3274 (F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
3276 =item <> should be quotes
3278 (F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
3281 =item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
3283 (W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
3284 as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
3285 result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
3286 probably not what you had in mind.
3288 =item shutdown() on closed socket %s
3290 (W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
3293 =item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
3295 (W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
3296 Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
3298 =item sort is now a reserved word
3300 (F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
3301 But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
3303 =item Sort subroutine didn't return a numeric value
3305 (F) A sort comparison routine must return a number. You probably blew
3306 it by not using C<< <=> >> or C<cmp>, or by not using them correctly.
3307 See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3309 =item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
3311 (F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
3312 or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3314 =item splice() offset past end of array
3316 (W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
3317 the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the end
3318 of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want, try
3319 explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset. See
3324 (P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
3325 iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
3326 happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
3328 =item Statement unlikely to be reached
3330 (W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
3331 die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
3332 unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
3333 instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
3336 =item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
3338 (W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
3339 was either never opened or has since been closed.
3341 =item Stub found while resolving method `%s' overloading %s
3343 (P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
3344 stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
3345 C<can> may break this.
3347 =item Subroutine %s redefined
3349 (W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
3352 no warnings 'redefine';
3353 eval "sub name { ... }";
3356 =item Substitution loop
3358 (P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
3359 shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
3360 is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
3361 L<perlop/"Quote and Quote-like Operators">.
3363 =item Substitution pattern not terminated
3365 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
3366 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
3367 Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
3369 =item Substitution replacement not terminated
3371 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
3372 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
3373 Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
3375 =item substr outside of string
3377 (W substr),(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
3378 a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
3379 length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
3380 substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
3381 assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
3383 =item suidperl is no longer needed since %s
3385 (F) Your Perl was compiled with B<-D>SETUID_SCRIPTS_ARE_SECURE_NOW, but
3386 a version of the setuid emulator somehow got run anyway.
3388 =item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex;
3390 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3392 (F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most two
3393 branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or both to
3394 contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose it in
3395 clustering parentheses:
3397 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
3399 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3400 discovered. See L<perlre>.
3402 =item Switch condition not recognized in regex;
3404 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3406 (F) If the argument to the (?(...)if-clause|else-clause) construct is a
3407 number, it can be only a number. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
3408 about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3410 =item switching effective %s is not implemented
3412 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
3413 and effective uids or gids.
3417 (F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
3419 A keyword is misspelled.
3420 A semicolon is missing.
3422 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
3423 An opening or closing brace is missing.
3424 A closing quote is missing.
3426 Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
3427 error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
3428 The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
3429 it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
3430 before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
3431 Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
3432 the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
3433 C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
3434 if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20
3437 =item syntax error at line %d: `%s' unexpected
3439 (A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
3440 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
3443 =item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
3445 (F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
3446 a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
3447 or "my $var" or "our $var".
3451 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
3453 =item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
3455 (F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
3456 "shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
3457 machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
3458 unconfigured. Consult your system support.
3460 =item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
3462 (W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
3463 before now. Check your control flow.
3465 =item Target of goto is too deeply nested
3467 (F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
3468 for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
3470 =item tell() on unopened filehandle
3472 (W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
3473 was either never opened or has since been closed.
3475 =item That use of $[ is unsupported
3477 (F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted
3478 as a compiler directive. You may say only one of
3487 This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out
3488 from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[>.
3490 =item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia
3492 (F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
3493 probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
3494 think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
3495 will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
3498 =item The %s function is unimplemented
3500 The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture, according
3501 to the probings of Configure.
3503 =item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
3505 (F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
3506 linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
3507 past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
3510 =item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
3512 =item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
3514 (W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
3515 element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
3516 wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
3517 need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
3518 F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
3519 target of the change to
3520 %ENV which produced the warning.
3522 =item times not implemented
3524 (F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
3525 suspect you're not running on Unix.
3527 =item Too few args to syscall
3529 (F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
3530 system call to call, silly dilly.
3532 =item Too late for "B<-T>" option
3534 (X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
3535 B<-T> option, but Perl was not invoked with B<-T> in its command line.
3536 This is an error because, by the time Perl discovers a B<-T> in a
3537 script, it's too late to properly taint everything from the environment.
3540 If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
3541 mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be fixed by
3542 editing the #! line so that the B<-T> option is a part of Perl's first
3543 argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -T> to C<perl -T -n>.
3545 If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
3546 B<-T> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -T scriptname>.
3548 =item Too late for "-%s" option
3550 (X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
3551 B<-M> or B<-m> option. This is an error because B<-M> and B<-m> options
3552 are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
3554 =item Too late to run %s block
3556 (W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
3557 when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
3558 loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
3559 instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
3562 =item Too many args to syscall
3564 (F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
3566 =item Too many arguments for %s
3568 (F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
3574 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
3575 Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
3577 =item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
3579 (F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
3580 Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
3582 =item Transliteration pattern not terminated
3584 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
3585 or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
3586 C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
3588 =item Transliteration replacement not terminated
3590 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
3593 =item truncate not implemented
3595 (F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
3596 Configure knows about.
3598 =item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
3600 (F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
3601 certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
3602 %NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
3603 {EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
3605 =item umask not implemented
3607 (F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
3608 use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
3610 =item Unable to create sub named "%s"
3612 (F) You attempted to create or access a subroutine with an illegal name.
3614 =item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
3616 (W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3617 many execution contexts were entered and left.
3619 =item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
3621 (W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3622 many values were temporarily localized.
3624 =item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
3626 (W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3627 many blocks were entered and left.
3629 =item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
3631 (W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3632 many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
3634 =item Undefined format "%s" called
3636 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
3637 another package? See L<perlform>.
3639 =item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
3641 (F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
3642 Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3644 =item Undefined subroutine &%s called
3646 (F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
3647 since been undefined.
3649 =item Undefined subroutine called
3651 (F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
3652 or if it was, it has since been undefined.
3654 =item Undefined subroutine in sort
3656 (F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
3657 to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3659 =item Undefined top format "%s" called
3661 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
3662 another package? See L<perlform>.
3664 =item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
3666 (W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
3667 C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
3670 =item %s: Undefined variable
3672 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
3673 Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
3675 =item unexec of %s into %s failed!
3677 (F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
3678 representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
3680 =item Unicode character %s is illegal
3682 (W utf8) Certain Unicode characters have been designated off-limits by
3683 the Unicode standard and should not be generated. If you really know
3684 what you are doing you can turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'utf8';>.
3686 =item Unknown BYTEORDER
3688 (F) There are no byte-swapping functions for a machine with this byte
3691 =item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
3693 You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
3695 =item Unknown switch condition (?(%.2s in regex;
3697 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3699 (F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
3700 is not known. The condition may be lookahead or lookbehind (the condition
3701 is true if the lookahead or lookbehind is true), a (?{...}) construct (the
3702 condition is true if the code evaluates to a true value), or a number (the
3703 condition is true if the set of capturing parentheses named by the number
3706 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3707 discovered. See L<perlre>.
3709 =item Unknown open() mode '%s'
3711 (F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
3712 of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
3713 C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->.
3715 =item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
3717 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
3718 iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
3719 data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
3720 subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
3722 =item Unknown warnings category '%s'
3724 (F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
3725 category that is unknown to perl at this point.
3727 Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a module
3728 (e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have imported this module
3731 =item unmatched [ in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3733 (F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
3734 include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
3735 first. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem
3736 was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3738 =item unmatched ( in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3740 (F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
3741 expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding the
3742 matching parenthesis. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3743 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3745 =item Unmatched right %s bracket
3747 (F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
3748 ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
3749 general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
3750 you were last editing.
3752 =item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
3754 (W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
3755 reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
3756 somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
3759 =item Unrecognized character %s
3761 (F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
3762 in your Perl script (or eval). Perhaps you tried to run a compressed
3763 script, a binary program, or a directory as a Perl program.
3765 =item /%s/: Unrecognized escape \\%c in character class passed through
3767 (W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
3768 recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
3769 understood literally.
3771 =item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through in regex;
3773 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3775 (W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
3776 recognized by Perl. This combination appears in an interpolated variable or
3777 a C<'>-delimited regular expression. The character was understood
3778 literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
3779 escape was discovered.
3781 =item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through
3783 (W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
3786 =item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
3788 (F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
3789 recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
3792 =item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
3794 (F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
3795 think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
3796 bad switch on your behalf.)
3798 =item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
3800 (W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
3801 operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
3802 PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
3804 =item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
3806 (F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
3808 =item Unsupported function %s
3810 (F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
3811 At least, Configure doesn't think so.
3813 =item Unsupported function fork
3815 (F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
3817 Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
3818 of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
3819 changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
3821 =item Unsupported script encoding
3823 (F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
3824 declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot yet read.
3826 =item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
3828 (F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
3829 least that's what Configure thought.
3831 =item Unterminated attribute list
3833 (F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
3834 start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
3835 block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
3836 attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
3838 =item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
3840 (F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
3841 an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
3842 character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
3843 character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
3845 =item Unterminated compressed integer
3847 (F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
3848 compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
3849 See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3851 =item Unterminated <> operator
3853 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
3854 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
3855 not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
3856 earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
3858 =item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
3860 (W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
3861 still valid when C<untie> was called.
3863 =item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex;
3865 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3867 (W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
3868 meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
3870 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
3874 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
3876 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3877 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3879 =item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex;
3881 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3883 (W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
3884 meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
3886 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
3890 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
3892 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3893 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3895 =item Useless use of %s in void context
3897 (W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
3898 nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
3899 value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
3900 often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
3901 to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
3902 get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
3907 when you meant to say
3909 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
3911 Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
3912 reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
3917 when you should have said
3921 The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
3922 while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
3923 a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
3924 throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
3925 L<perlref> for more on this.
3927 This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
3928 since they are often used in statements like
3930 1 while sub_with_side_effects() ;
3932 String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
3935 =item Useless use of "re" pragma
3937 (W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
3939 =item Useless use of sort in scalar context
3941 (W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
3945 This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
3947 =item Useless use of %s with no values
3949 (W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
3950 apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
3951 usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
3952 possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
3953 if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
3954 you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
3956 =item "use" not allowed in expression
3958 (F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
3959 returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
3961 =item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is deprecated
3963 (D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted form
3964 if you wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
3966 =item Use of *glob{FILEHANDLE} is deprecated
3968 (D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the shorter *glob{IO} form
3969 to access the filehandle slot within a typeglob.
3971 =item Use of chdir('') or chdir(undef) as chdir() deprecated
3973 (D deprecated) chdir() with no arguments is documented to change to
3974 $ENV{HOME} or $ENV{LOGDIR}. chdir(undef) and chdir('') share this
3975 behavior, but that has been deprecated. In future versions they
3978 Be careful to check that what you pass to chdir() is defined and not
3979 blank, else you might find yourself in your home directory.
3981 =item Use of implicit split to @_ is deprecated
3983 (D deprecated) It makes a lot of work for the compiler when you clobber
3984 a subroutine's argument list, so it's better if you assign the results
3985 of a split() explicitly to an array (or list).
3987 =item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
3989 (D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines
3990 are looked up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy) even when the
3991 subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain functions (e.g.
3992 C<Foo::bar()>), not as methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or C<<
3995 This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup only for
3996 methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base of existing
3997 code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl
3998 currently issues an optional warning when non-methods use inherited
4001 The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
4002 non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used
4003 to depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class
4004 named C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during
4007 In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);>
4008 you should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
4009 C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
4011 =item Use of -l on filehandle %s
4013 (W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
4014 it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
4015 The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
4017 =item Use of "package" with no arguments is deprecated
4019 (D deprecated) You used the C<package> keyword without specifying a package
4020 name. So no namespace is current at all. Using this can cause many
4021 otherwise reasonable constructs to fail in baffling ways. C<use strict;>
4024 =item Use of %s in printf format not supported
4026 (F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
4027 only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
4029 =item Use of $* is deprecated
4031 (D deprecated) This variable magically turned on multi-line pattern
4032 matching, both for you and for any luckless subroutine that you happen
4033 to call. You should use the new C<//m> and C<//s> modifiers now to do
4034 that without the dangerous action-at-a-distance effects of C<$*>.
4036 =item Use of %s is deprecated
4038 (D deprecated) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use,
4039 generally because there's a better way to do it, and also because the
4040 old way has bad side effects.
4042 =item Use of $# is deprecated
4044 (D deprecated) This was an ill-advised attempt to emulate a poorly
4045 defined B<awk> feature. Use an explicit printf() or sprintf() instead.
4047 =item Use of reference "%s" as array index
4049 (W) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
4050 isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
4051 to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
4053 If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
4054 C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
4055 either, because you can overload the numification and stringification
4056 operators and then you assumedly know what you are doing.
4058 =item Use of reserved word "%s" is deprecated
4060 (D deprecated) The indicated bareword is a reserved word. Future
4061 versions of perl may use it as a keyword, so you're better off either
4062 explicitly quoting the word in a manner appropriate for its context of
4063 use, or using a different name altogether. The warning can be
4064 suppressed for subroutine names by either adding a C<&> prefix, or using
4065 a package qualifier, e.g. C<&our()>, or C<Foo::our()>.
4067 =item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
4069 (W taint) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
4070 arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
4071 but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
4072 arguments. See L<perlsec>.
4074 =item Use of uninitialized value%s
4076 (W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
4077 defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
4078 To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
4080 To help you figure out what was undefined, perl tells you what operation
4081 you used the undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your
4082 program and the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily
4083 appear literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is
4084 usually optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to
4085 the C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in your
4088 =item Using a hash as a reference is deprecated
4090 (D deprecated) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
4091 C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1
4092 used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated, and will
4093 be removed in a future version.
4095 =item Using an array as a reference is deprecated
4097 (D deprecated) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
4098 C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1 used to
4099 allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated, and will be
4100 removed in a future version.
4102 =item UTF-16 surrogate %s
4104 (W utf8) You tried to generate half of an UTF-16 surrogate by
4105 requesting a Unicode character between the code points 0xD800 and
4106 0xDFFF (inclusive). That range is reserved exclusively for the use of
4107 UTF-16 encoding (by having two 16-bit UCS-2 characters); but Perl
4108 encodes its characters in UTF-8, so what you got is a very illegal
4109 character. If you really know what you are doing you can turn off
4110 this warning by C<no warnings 'utf8';>.
4112 =item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
4114 (W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
4115 C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
4116 can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
4117 false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
4118 constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
4119 C<defined> operator.
4121 =item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
4123 (W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
4124 %ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
4125 longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
4128 =item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
4130 (F) While "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable that
4131 you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
4132 something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
4133 that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
4134 front of your variable.
4136 =item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
4138 (W misc) A "my" or "our" variable has been redeclared in the current
4139 scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the previous
4140 instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note that the
4141 earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope or until
4142 all closure referents to it are destroyed.
4144 =item Variable "%s" may be unavailable
4146 (W closure) An inner (nested) I<anonymous> subroutine is inside a
4147 I<named> subroutine, and outside that is another subroutine; and the
4148 anonymous (innermost) subroutine is referencing a lexical variable
4149 defined in the outermost subroutine. For example:
4151 sub outermost { my $a; sub middle { sub { $a } } }
4153 If the anonymous subroutine is called or referenced (directly or
4154 indirectly) from the outermost subroutine, it will share the variable as
4155 you would expect. But if the anonymous subroutine is called or
4156 referenced when the outermost subroutine is not active, it will see the
4157 value of the shared variable as it was before and during the *first*
4158 call to the outermost subroutine, which is probably not what you want.
4160 In these circumstances, it is usually best to make the middle subroutine
4161 anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. Perl has specific support for
4162 shared variables in nested anonymous subroutines; a named subroutine in
4163 between interferes with this feature.
4165 =item Variable syntax
4167 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
4168 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
4171 =item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
4173 (W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
4174 lexical variable defined in an outer subroutine.
4176 When the inner subroutine is called, it will probably see the value of
4177 the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
4178 call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
4179 outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
4180 longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
4181 variable will no longer be shared.
4183 Furthermore, if the outer subroutine is anonymous and references a
4184 lexical variable outside itself, then the outer and inner subroutines
4185 will I<never> share the given variable.
4187 This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
4188 anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
4189 reference variables in outer subroutines are called or referenced, they
4190 are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
4192 =item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex;
4194 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4196 (F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
4197 known at compile time. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
4198 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4200 =item Version number must be a constant number
4202 (P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
4203 its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
4206 =item v-string in use/require is non-portable
4208 (W) The use of v-strings is non-portable to older, pre-5.6, Perls.
4209 If you want your scripts to be backward portable, use the floating
4210 point version number: for example, instead of C<use 5.6.1> say
4211 C<use 5.006_001>. This of course won't help: the older Perls
4212 won't suddenly start understanding newer features, but at least
4213 they will show a sensible error message indicating the required
4216 =item Warning: something's wrong
4218 (W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
4219 you called it with no args and C<$_> was empty.
4221 =item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
4223 (S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
4224 the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
4227 =item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
4229 (S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
4230 looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
4231 term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
4232 function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
4236 you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
4240 but in actual fact, you got
4244 So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
4246 =item Wide character in %s
4248 (W utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting
4249 one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print) but can be
4250 turned off by C<no warnings 'utf8';>. You are supposed to explicitly
4251 mark the filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
4253 =item write() on closed filehandle %s
4255 (W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
4256 before now. Check your control flow.
4258 =item X outside of string
4260 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position before
4261 the beginning of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4263 =item x outside of string
4265 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
4266 the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4268 =item Xsub "%s" called in sort
4270 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet
4273 =item Xsub called in sort
4275 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet
4278 =item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
4280 (F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
4281 sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
4282 about what you want. Your best bet is to put a setuid C wrapper around
4285 =item You need to quote "%s"
4287 (W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
4288 Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
4289 which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
4290 assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
4291 what you want, put an & in front.)