3 perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
7 These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
10 (W) A warning (optional).
11 (D) A deprecation (optional).
12 (S) A severe warning (mandatory).
13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
18 Optional warnings are enabled by using the B<-w> switch. Warnings may
19 be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}> to a reference to a routine that
20 will be called on each warning instead of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
21 Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
24 Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are denoted with a %s,
25 just as in a printf format. Note that some messages start with a %s!
26 The symbols C<"%-?@> sort before the letters, while C<[> and C<\> sort after.
30 =item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
32 (F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make sense
33 to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use local()
34 if you want to localize a package variable.
36 =item "my" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same scope
38 (S) A lexical variable has been redeclared in the same scope, effectively
39 eliminating all access to the previous instance. This is almost always
40 a typographical error. Note that the earlier variable will still exist
41 until the end of the scope or until all closure referents to it are
44 =item "no" not allowed in expression
46 (F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and returns
47 no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
49 =item "use" not allowed in expression
51 (F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and returns
52 no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
54 =item % may only be used in unpack
56 (F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
57 checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other
58 way. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
60 =item %s (...) interpreted as function
62 (W) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator followed
63 by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list operators arguments
64 found inside the parentheses. See L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
66 =item %s argument is not a HASH element
68 (F) The argument to exists() must be a hash element, such as
73 =item %s argument is not a HASH element or slice
75 (F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash element, such as
80 or a hash slice, such as
82 @foo{$bar, $baz, $xyzzy}
83 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
85 =item %s did not return a true value
87 (F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
88 it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
89 traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
90 do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
92 =item %s found where operator expected
94 (S) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator. If it
95 sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an operator,
96 it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an operator or
97 delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
99 =item %s had compilation errors
101 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
103 =item %s has too many errors
105 (F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
106 Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
108 =item %s matches null string many times
110 (W) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
111 regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. See L<perlre>.
113 =item %s never introduced
115 (S) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of scope
116 before it could possibly have been used.
120 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
122 =item %s: Command not found
124 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
125 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
128 =item %s: Expression syntax
130 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
131 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
134 =item %s: Undefined variable
136 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
137 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
142 (A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell
143 instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script
146 =item B<-P> not allowed for setuid/setgid script
148 (F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor by name,
149 which provides a race condition that breaks security.
151 =item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
153 (F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
154 know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
156 =item C<-p> destination: %s
158 (F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
159 command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
160 redirected it with select().)
162 =item 500 Server error
166 =item ?+* follows nothing in regexp
168 (F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it
169 if you meant it literally. See L<perlre>.
171 =item @ outside of string
173 (F) You had a pack template that specified an absolute position outside
174 the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
176 =item accept() on closed fd
178 (W) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
179 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/accept>.
181 =item Allocation too large: %lx
183 (X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
185 =item Allocation too large
187 (F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes.
189 =item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
191 (W) The pattern match (//), substitution (s///), and translation (tr///)
192 operators work on scalar values. If you apply one of them to an array
193 or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to a scalar value -- the
194 length of an array, or the population info of a hash -- and then work on
195 that scalar value. This is probably not what you meant to do. See
196 L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for alternatives.
198 =item Arg too short for msgsnd
200 (F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
202 =item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
204 (W)(S) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
205 you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
206 a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
208 =item Args must match #! line
210 (F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
211 with match the arguments specified on the #! line. Since some systems
212 impose a one-argument limit on the #! line, try combining switches;
213 for example, turn C<-w -U> into C<-wU>.
215 =item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
217 (W) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator that
218 expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
219 will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
221 =item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
223 (D) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some spots. This
224 is now heavily deprecated.
226 =item assertion botched: %s
228 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
230 =item Assertion failed: file "%s"
232 (P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
234 =item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
236 (F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
237 must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
238 know which context to supply to the right side.
240 =item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
242 (P) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas that will
243 be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be outside any
246 =item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
248 (P) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of strings to
249 optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other strings. This
250 indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count of a string
251 that can no longer be found in the table.
253 =item Attempt to free temp prematurely
255 (W) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the free_tmps()
256 routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the SV before
257 the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the free_tmps()
258 routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does try to free
261 =item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
263 (P) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
265 =item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
267 (W) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to see if it
268 would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0 earlier,
269 and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed. This
270 could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or that
271 SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was mortalized
272 when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been corrupted.
274 =item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
276 (W) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr() used
277 as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
278 dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
280 =item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %d
282 (F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl() or
283 shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
284 S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
285 S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
287 =item Bad filehandle: %s
289 (F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the symbol
290 has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an open(), or
291 did it in another package.
293 =item Bad free() ignored
295 (S) An internal routine called free() on something that had never been
296 malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
297 setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
299 This message can be quite often seen with DB_File on systems with
300 "hard" dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of
301 C<Berkeley DB> which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving>
306 (P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
308 =item Bad name after %s::
310 (F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then didn't
311 finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside of quotes,
320 $sym = "mypack::$var";
322 =item Bad symbol for array
324 (P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
325 wasn't a symbol table entry.
327 =item Bad symbol for filehandle
329 (P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something that
330 wasn't a symbol table entry.
332 =item Bad symbol for hash
334 (P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
335 wasn't a symbol table entry.
337 =item Badly placed ()'s
339 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
340 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
343 =item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
345 (F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
346 subroutine identifier, in curly braces or to the left of the "=>" symbol.
347 Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
349 =item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
351 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN subroutine.
352 Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is exited.
354 =item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
356 (F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
357 implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had
358 already occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}>
359 could not be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code
360 likely depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
362 =item bind() on closed fd
364 (W) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
365 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
367 =item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
369 (P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not copiable.
371 =item Callback called exit
373 (F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via perl_call_sv()
374 exited by calling exit.
376 =item Can't "goto" outside a block
378 (F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look
379 like a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually
380 occurs if you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which
381 is a no-no. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
383 =item Can't "last" outside a block
385 (F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
386 except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a
387 current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a
388 "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(). You can usually double
389 the curlies to get the same effect though, because the inner curlies
390 will be considered a block that loops once. See L<perlfunc/last>.
392 =item Can't "next" outside a block
394 (F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
395 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
396 count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(). You can
397 usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the inner
398 curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
400 =item Can't "redo" outside a block
402 (F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
403 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
404 count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(). You can
405 usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the inner
406 curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
408 =item Can't bless non-reference value
410 (F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
411 encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
413 =item Can't break at that line
415 (S) A warning intended to only be printed while running within the debugger, indicating
416 the line number specified wasn't the location of a statement that could
419 =item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
421 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
422 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
423 in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
425 =item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
427 (F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
428 ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but
429 you didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't
430 an object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
432 =item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
434 (F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
435 object reference or package name contains an expression that returns
436 neither an object reference nor a package name. (Perhaps it's null?)
437 Something like this will reproduce the error:
440 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
441 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
443 =item Can't chdir to %s
445 (F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
446 that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
448 =item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
450 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
451 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
461 but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
463 =item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
465 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
466 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
468 =item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
470 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
471 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
473 =item Can't create pipe mailbox
475 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted quotas
476 or other plumbing problems.
478 =item Can't declare %s in my
480 (F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as lexical variables.
481 They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
483 =item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
485 (S) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated reason.
487 =item Can't do inplace edit without backup
489 (F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try reading
490 from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say C<-i.bak>, or some
493 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s E<gt> 14 characters
495 (S) There isn't enough room in the filename to make a backup name for the file.
497 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
499 (S) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as a file in
500 /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
502 =item Can't do setegid!
504 (P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator
507 =item Can't do seteuid!
509 (P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
511 =item Can't do setuid
513 (F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to
514 do setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the
515 form sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides
516 under the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines.
517 If the file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask
518 your sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
520 =item Can't do waitpid with flags
522 (F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only waitpid()
523 without flags is emulated.
525 =item Can't do {n,m} with n E<gt> m
527 (F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want
528 your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. See L<perlre>.
530 =item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
532 (F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this point.
533 For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #! line.
535 =item Can't exec "%s": %s
537 (W) An system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the named
538 program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the permissions
539 were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in C<$ENV{PATH}>, the
540 executable in question was compiled for another architecture, or the
541 #! line in a script points to an interpreter that can't be run for
542 similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support #! at all.)
546 (F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because that's
547 what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may need to
548 mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
550 =item Can't execute %s
552 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute found
553 in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
555 =item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
557 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be found
558 in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The script
559 exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
561 =item Can't find %s on PATH
563 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be found
566 =item Can't find label %s
568 (F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's possible
569 for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
571 =item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
573 (F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means that
574 the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count nesting
575 levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
577 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.)
581 (F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a pipeline.
583 =item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
585 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference between
586 access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes. Under VMS,
587 access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in the stat buffer, so
588 that ACLs and other protections can be taken into account. Unfortunately, Perl
589 assumes that the stat buffer contains all the necessary information, and passes
590 it, instead of the filespec, to the access checking routine. It will try to
591 retrieve the filespec using the device name and FID present in the stat buffer,
592 but this works only if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat()
593 routine, because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
594 appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up and
595 returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking routine
596 knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you shouldn't ever
597 see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises only if some internal
598 code takes stat buffers lightly.)
600 =item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
602 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a pipe, Perl
603 can't retrieve its name for later use.
605 =item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
607 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
608 mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
610 =item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
612 (F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one subroutine
613 call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole cloth. In general
614 you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD routine anyway. See
617 =item Can't localize through a reference
619 (F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
620 handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
621 pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be
622 sure that $ref will still be a reference.
624 =item Can't localize lexical variable %s
626 (F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
627 lexical variable using "my". This is not allowed. If you want to
628 localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
631 =item Can't locate %s in @INC
633 (F) You said to do (or require, or use) a file that couldn't be found
634 in any of the libraries mentioned in @INC. Perhaps you need to set the
635 PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where the extra library
636 is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name to @INC. Or maybe
637 you just misspelled the name of the file. See L<perlfunc/require>.
639 =item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
641 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
642 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
643 method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
645 =item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
647 (W) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that doesn't seem
650 =item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
652 (F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably VMS.
656 (F) The mktemp() routine failed for some reason while trying to process
657 a B<-e> switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.
659 =item Can't modify %s in %s
661 (F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try to
662 change it, such as with an auto-increment.
664 =item Can't modify nonexistent substring
666 (P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
669 =item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
671 (F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
674 =item Can't open %s: %s
676 (S) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<E<lt>E<gt>>
677 filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
678 switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
679 is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named
682 =item Can't open bidirectional pipe
684 (W) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported. You can
685 try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such as
686 IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using "E<gt>",
687 and then read it in under a different file handle.
689 =item Can't open error file %s as stderr
691 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
692 couldn't open the file specified after '2E<gt>' or '2E<gt>E<gt>' on the
693 command line for writing.
695 =item Can't open input file %s as stdin
697 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
698 couldn't open the file specified after 'E<lt>' on the command line for reading.
700 =item Can't open output file %s as stdout
702 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
703 couldn't open the file specified after 'E<gt>' or 'E<gt>E<gt>' on the command
706 =item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
708 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
709 couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined for stdout.
711 =item Can't open perl script "%s": %s
713 (F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
715 =item Can't redefine active sort subroutine %s
717 (F) Perl optimizes the internal handling of sort subroutines and keeps
718 pointers into them. You tried to redefine one such sort subroutine when it
719 was currently active, which is not allowed. If you really want to do
720 this, you should write C<sort { &func } @x> instead of C<sort func @x>.
722 =item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
724 (S) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason, probably because
725 you don't have write permission to the directory.
727 =item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
729 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried to
730 reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
732 =item Can't reswap uid and euid
734 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator
737 =item Can't return outside a subroutine
739 (F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
740 there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
742 =item Can't stat script "%s"
744 (P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have
745 it open already. Bizarre.
747 =item Can't swap uid and euid
749 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator
752 =item Can't take log of %g
754 (F) Logarithms are defined on only positive real numbers.
756 =item Can't take sqrt of %g
758 (F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
759 negative number. There's a Complex package available for Perl, though,
760 if you really want to do that.
762 =item Can't undef active subroutine
764 (F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
765 however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
766 redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
770 (F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
771 as the main Perl stack.
773 =item Can't upgrade that kind of scalar
775 (P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making
776 it into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are
777 so specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This
778 message indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
780 =item Can't upgrade to undef
782 (P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the totem pole, in the scheme
783 of upgradability. Upgrading to undef indicates an error in the
784 code calling sv_upgrade.
786 =item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
788 (F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
789 You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the E<lt>=E<gt> or cmp operator,
790 and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
791 Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
794 =item Can't use %s for loop variable
796 (F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a foreach.
798 =item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
800 (F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
801 reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
802 test the type of the reference, if need be.
804 =item Can't use \1 to mean $1 in expression
806 (W) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that creates
807 a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a backreference
808 to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular expression pattern.
809 Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a value that prints
810 out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form instead.
812 =item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while \"strict refs\" in use
814 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic references
815 are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
817 =item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
819 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic references
820 are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
822 =item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
824 (F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
825 be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
827 =item Can't use global %s in "my"
829 (F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This is
830 not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location (namely
831 the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to have
832 variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
835 =item Can't use subscript on %s
837 (F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
838 subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
839 didn't look like an array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
841 =item Can't write to temp file for B<-e>: %s
843 (F) The write routine failed for some reason while trying to process
844 a B<-e> switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.
846 =item Can't x= to read-only value
848 (F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value) with
849 an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
850 Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
852 =item Cannot open temporary file
854 (F) The create routine failed for some reason while trying to process
855 a B<-e> switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.
857 =item Cannot resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
859 (F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as
860 opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the
861 package. If method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
863 =item chmod: mode argument is missing initial 0
865 (W) A novice will sometimes say
869 not realizing that 777 will be interpreted as a decimal number, equivalent
870 to 01411. Octal constants are introduced with a leading 0 in Perl, as in C.
872 =item Close on unopened file E<lt>%sE<gt>
874 (W) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
876 =item Compilation failed in require
878 (F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
879 Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it encountered
880 were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
882 =item connect() on closed fd
884 (W) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
885 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/connect>.
887 =item Constant subroutine %s redefined
889 (S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible for
890 inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
893 =item Constant subroutine %s undefined
895 (S) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible for
896 inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
899 =item Copy method did not return a reference
901 (F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
903 =item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
905 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
907 =item corrupted regexp pointers
909 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
910 expression compiler gave it.
912 =item corrupted regexp program
914 (P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without
915 a valid magic number.
917 =item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
919 (W) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly) 100
920 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an infinite
921 recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in which
922 case it indicates something else.
924 =item Delimiter for here document is too long
926 (F) In a here document construct like C<E<lt>E<lt>FOO>, the label
927 C<FOO> is too long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously
928 twisted to write code that triggers this error.
930 =item Did you mean &%s instead?
932 (W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some such.
934 =item Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?
936 (W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or @hash{@keys}.
937 On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got carried away.
941 (F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
942 you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
944 =item Do you need to predeclare %s?
946 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
947 found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
948 name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
949 because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
950 "sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're
951 referencing something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have
952 to define the subroutine or package before the current location. You
953 can use an empty "sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward"
956 =item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
958 (P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
960 =item do_study: out of memory
962 (P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
964 =item Duplicate free() ignored
966 (S) An internal routine called free() on something that had already
969 =item elseif should be elsif
971 (S) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's
972 ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method
973 named "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
974 unlikely to be what you want.
976 =item END failed--cleanup aborted
978 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing an END subroutine.
979 The interpreter is immediately exited.
981 =item Error converting file specification %s
983 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
984 specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
985 single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've
986 passed an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a
987 case the conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
989 =item Excessively long <> operator
991 (F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
992 Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
993 filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
994 variable and glob that.
996 =item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors
998 (F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1000 =item Exiting eval via %s
1002 (W) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as
1003 a goto, or a loop control statement.
1005 =item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1007 (W) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a sort block or
1008 subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a loop control
1009 statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
1011 =item Exiting subroutine via %s
1013 (W) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such as
1014 a goto, or a loop control statement.
1016 =item Exiting substitution via %s
1018 (W) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such as
1019 a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
1021 =item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
1023 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS system
1024 service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more details. The
1025 filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell you which section of
1026 the Perl source code is distressed.
1028 =item fcntl is not implemented
1030 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1031 PDP-11 or something?
1033 =item Filehandle %s never opened
1035 (W) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was never initialized.
1036 You need to do an open() or a socket() call, or call a constructor from
1037 the FileHandle package.
1039 =item Filehandle %s opened for only input
1041 (W) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you
1042 intended it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with
1043 "+E<lt>" or "+E<gt>" or "+E<gt>E<gt>" instead of with "E<lt>" or nothing. If
1044 you intended only to write the file, use "E<gt>" or "E<gt>E<gt>". See
1047 =item Filehandle opened for only input
1049 (W) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you
1050 intended it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with
1051 "+E<lt>" or "+E<gt>" or "+E<gt>E<gt>" instead of with "E<lt>" or nothing. If
1052 you intended only to write the file, use "E<gt>" or "E<gt>E<gt>". See
1055 =item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1057 (F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
1058 a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name
1059 that happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or
1062 =item Final @ should be \@ or @name
1064 (F) You must now decide whether the final @ in a string was meant to be
1065 a literal "at" sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name
1066 that happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or
1069 =item Format %s redefined
1071 (W) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
1075 eval "format NAME =...";
1078 =item Format not terminated
1080 (F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1081 to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1083 =item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1093 (or something like that).
1095 =item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1097 (S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1099 =item gethostent not implemented
1101 (F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1102 because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1105 =item get{sock,peer}name() on closed fd
1107 (W) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed socket.
1108 Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
1110 =item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1112 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1113 C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1116 =item Glob not terminated
1118 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
1119 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and not
1120 finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out earlier in
1121 the line, and you really meant a "less than".
1123 =item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1125 (F) You've said "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables
1126 must either be lexically scoped (using "my"), or explicitly qualified to
1127 say which package the global variable is in (using "::").
1129 =item goto must have label
1131 (F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1132 unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1134 =item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1136 (S) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought to have
1137 existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be created on
1138 an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
1140 =item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1142 (D) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some spots. This
1143 is now heavily deprecated.
1145 =item Identifier too long
1147 (F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
1148 about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
1149 names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future
1150 versions of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
1152 =item Ill-formed logical name |%s| in prime_env_iter
1154 (W) A warning peculiar to VMS. A logical name was encountered when preparing
1155 to iterate over %ENV which violates the syntactic rules governing logical
1156 names. Because it cannot be translated normally, it is skipped, and will not
1157 appear in %ENV. This may be a benign occurrence, as some software packages
1158 might directly modify logical name tables and introduce nonstandard names,
1159 or it may indicate that a logical name table has been corrupted.
1161 =item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1163 (F) A carriage return character was found in the input. This is an
1164 error, and not a warning, because carriage return characters can break
1165 multi-line strings, including here documents (e.g., C<print E<lt>E<lt>EOF;>).
1167 Under Unix, this error is usually caused by executing Perl code --
1168 either the main program, a module, or an eval'd string -- that was
1169 transferred over a network connection from a non-Unix system without
1170 properly converting the text file format.
1172 Under systems that use something other than '\n' to delimit lines of
1173 text, this error can also be caused by reading Perl code from a file
1174 handle that is in binary mode (as set by the C<binmode> operator).
1176 In either case, the Perl code in question will probably need to be
1177 converted with something like C<s/\x0D\x0A?/\n/g> before it can be
1180 =item Illegal division by zero
1182 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in your
1183 logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against meaningless input.
1185 =item Illegal modulus zero
1187 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most numbers
1188 don't take to this kindly.
1190 =item Illegal octal digit
1192 (F) You used an 8 or 9 in a octal number.
1194 =item Illegal octal digit ignored
1196 (W) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in a octal number. Interpretation
1197 of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
1199 =item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: %s
1201 (X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
1202 following switches: B<-[DIMUdmw]>.
1204 =item In string, @%s now must be written as \@%s
1206 (F) It used to be that Perl would try to guess whether you wanted an
1207 array interpolated or a literal @. It did this when the string was first
1208 used at runtime. Now strings are parsed at compile time, and ambiguous
1209 instances of @ must be disambiguated, either by prepending a backslash to
1210 indicate a literal, or by declaring (or using) the array within the
1211 program before the string (lexically). (Someday it will simply assume
1212 that an unbackslashed @ interpolates an array.)
1214 =item Insecure dependency in %s
1216 (F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
1217 The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or setgid,
1218 or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The tainting mechanism
1219 labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly from the user,
1220 who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any such data is
1221 used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See L<perlsec>
1222 for more information.
1224 =item Insecure directory in %s
1226 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or setgid
1227 script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by the world.
1232 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1233 setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> is derived from data supplied (or
1234 potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set the path to a
1235 known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
1237 =item Integer overflow in hex number
1239 (S) The literal hex number you have specified is too big for your
1240 architecture. On a 32-bit architecture the largest hex literal is
1243 =item Integer overflow in octal number
1245 (S) The literal octal number you have specified is too big for your
1246 architecture. On a 32-bit architecture the largest octal literal is
1249 =item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
1251 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number
1252 of times you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine
1253 whether the current call to C<exec> should affect the current
1254 script or a subprocess (see L<perlvms/exec>). Somehow, this count
1255 has become scrambled, so Perl is making a guess and treating
1256 this C<exec> as a request to terminate the Perl script
1257 and execute the specified command.
1259 =item internal disaster in regexp
1261 (P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
1263 =item internal error: glob failed
1265 (P) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for C<glob>
1266 and C<E<lt>*.cE<gt>>. This may mean that your csh (C shell) is
1267 broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables in
1268 config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it
1269 were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all
1270 empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
1271 think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
1272 C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
1274 =item internal urp in regexp at /%s/
1276 (P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser.
1278 =item invalid [] range in regexp
1280 (F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
1281 greater than the maximum character. See L<perlre>.
1283 =item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
1285 (W) Perl does not understand the given format conversion.
1286 See L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
1288 =item Invalid type in pack: '%s'
1290 (F) The given character is not a valid pack type. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1292 =item Invalid type in unpack: '%s'
1294 (F) The given character is not a valid unpack type. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
1296 =item ioctl is not implemented
1298 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
1299 strange for a machine that supports C.
1301 =item junk on end of regexp
1303 (P) The regular expression parser is confused.
1305 =item Label not found for "last %s"
1307 (F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a
1308 loop of that name, not even if you count where you were called from.
1309 See L<perlfunc/last>.
1311 =item Label not found for "next %s"
1313 (F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
1314 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1317 =item Label not found for "redo %s"
1319 (F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
1320 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1323 =item listen() on closed fd
1325 (W) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
1326 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/listen>.
1328 =item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
1330 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
1331 doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
1333 =item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
1335 (S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
1336 by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
1337 ended earlier on the current line.
1339 =item Misplaced _ in number
1341 (W) An underline in a decimal constant wasn't on a 3-digit boundary.
1343 =item Missing $ on loop variable
1345 (F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables are always
1346 mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it can vary from
1347 one line to the next.
1349 =item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
1351 (F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
1352 "indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
1354 =item Missing operator before %s?
1356 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1357 found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
1359 =item Missing right bracket
1361 (F) The lexer counted more opening curly brackets (braces) than closing ones.
1362 As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you were last
1365 =item Missing semicolon on previous line?
1367 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1368 found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
1369 the previous line just because you saw this message.
1371 =item Modification of a read-only value attempted
1373 (F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
1374 constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
1375 catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
1377 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
1380 Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
1382 =item Modification of noncreatable array value attempted, subscript %d
1384 (F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
1385 subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
1388 =item Modification of noncreatable hash value attempted, subscript "%s"
1390 (F) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it couldn't
1391 be created for some peculiar reason.
1393 =item Module name must be constant
1395 (F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
1397 =item msg%s not implemented
1399 (F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
1401 =item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
1403 (W) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>. They're written
1404 like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
1406 =item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
1408 (W) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
1409 If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention
1410 it again somehow to suppress the message. The C<use vars> pragma is
1411 provided for just this purpose.
1413 =item Negative length
1415 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer length
1416 that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
1418 =item nested *?+ in regexp
1420 (F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
1421 things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal.
1423 Note, however, that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and C<??> appear
1424 to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
1428 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
1429 even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
1431 =item No %s allowed while running setuid
1433 (F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or setgid
1434 script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there will be
1435 another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least securable.
1438 =item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
1440 (F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
1442 =item No comma allowed after %s
1444 (F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
1445 allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
1446 Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
1448 One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
1449 constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
1450 importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
1451 does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
1452 explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
1453 L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
1454 would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
1455 remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
1456 constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
1457 list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
1458 this error was triggered?
1460 =item No command into which to pipe on command line
1462 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1463 and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it doesn't know where you
1464 want to pipe the output from this command.
1466 =item No DB::DB routine defined
1468 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
1469 but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
1470 didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
1471 statement. Which is odd, because the file should have been required
1472 automatically, and should have blown up the require if it didn't parse
1475 =item No dbm on this machine
1477 (P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
1478 supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
1480 =item No DBsub routine
1482 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
1483 but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
1484 didn't define a DB::sub routine to be called at the beginning of each
1485 ordinary subroutine call.
1487 =item No error file after 2E<gt> or 2E<gt>E<gt> on command line
1489 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1490 and found a '2E<gt>' or a '2E<gt>E<gt>' on the command line, but can't find
1491 the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
1493 =item No input file after E<lt> on command line
1495 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1496 and found a 'E<lt>' on the command line, but can't find the name of the file
1497 from which to read data for stdin.
1499 =item No output file after E<gt> on command line
1501 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1502 and found a lone 'E<gt>' at the end of the command line, so it doesn't know
1503 where you wanted to redirect stdout.
1505 =item No output file after E<gt> or E<gt>E<gt> on command line
1507 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1508 and found a 'E<gt>' or a 'E<gt>E<gt>' on the command line, but can't find the
1509 name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
1511 =item No Perl script found in input
1513 (F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
1514 with #! and containing the word "perl".
1516 =item No setregid available
1518 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
1521 =item No setreuid available
1523 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
1526 =item No space allowed after B<-I>
1528 (F) The argument to B<-I> must follow the B<-I> immediately with no
1531 =item No such pipe open
1533 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
1534 close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught earlier as
1535 an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
1537 =item No such signal: SIG%s
1539 (W) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was not recognized.
1540 Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names on your system.
1542 =item Not a CODE reference
1544 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
1545 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
1546 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was.
1547 See also L<perlref>.
1549 =item Not a format reference
1551 (F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
1552 format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
1554 =item Not a GLOB reference
1556 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is,
1557 a symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
1558 something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out
1559 what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1561 =item Not a HASH reference
1563 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but
1564 found a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref()
1565 function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1567 =item Not a perl script
1569 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
1570 even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
1573 =item Not a SCALAR reference
1575 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but
1576 found a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref()
1577 function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1579 =item Not a subroutine reference
1581 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
1582 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
1583 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was.
1584 See also L<perlref>.
1586 =item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
1588 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
1589 doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
1591 =item Not an ARRAY reference
1593 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but
1594 found a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref()
1595 function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1597 =item Not enough arguments for %s
1599 (F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
1601 =item Not enough format arguments
1603 (W) A format specified more picture fields than the next line supplied.
1606 =item Null filename used
1608 (F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many machines
1609 that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
1611 =item Null picture in formline
1613 (F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
1614 specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
1615 supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
1617 =item NULL OP IN RUN
1619 (P) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode pointer.
1623 (P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
1625 =item NULL regexp argument
1627 (P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
1629 =item NULL regexp parameter
1631 (P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
1633 =item Number too long
1635 (F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to about
1636 about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future versions of
1637 Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In the meantime,
1638 try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of "1_000_000").
1640 =item Odd number of elements in hash list
1642 (S) You specified an odd number of elements to a hash list, which is odd,
1643 because hash lists come in key/value pairs.
1645 =item Offset outside string
1647 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with an offset
1648 pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to imagine.
1649 The sole exception to this is that C<sysread()>ing past the buffer
1650 will extend the buffer and zero pad the new area.
1654 (S) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
1658 (S) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
1660 =item Operation `%s': no method found,%s
1662 (F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which
1663 no handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in
1664 terms of other handlers, there is no default handler for any
1665 operation, unless C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be
1666 true. See L<overload>.
1668 =item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
1670 (S) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser was
1671 expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant
1672 to use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect.
1673 For example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as
1674 if you said "*foo * 'foo'".
1676 =item Out of memory for yacc stack
1678 (F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue parsing,
1679 but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or otherwise.
1681 =item Out of memory!
1683 (X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
1684 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request.
1686 The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
1687 depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
1688 However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as
1689 an emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the
1690 error is trappable I<once>.
1692 =item Out of memory during request for %s
1694 (F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
1695 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
1696 the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so
1697 a possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
1701 (W) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a page.
1704 =item panic: ck_grep
1706 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
1708 =item panic: ck_split
1710 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
1712 =item panic: corrupt saved stack index
1714 (P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than there
1715 are in the savestack.
1719 (P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
1720 it wasn't an eval context.
1722 =item panic: do_match
1724 (P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational data.
1726 =item panic: do_split
1728 (P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
1730 =item panic: do_subst
1732 (P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational data.
1734 =item panic: do_trans
1736 (P) The internal do_trans() routine was called with invalid operational data.
1740 (P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
1744 (P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
1745 and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
1747 =item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
1749 (P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
1751 =item panic: INTERPCONCAT
1753 (P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
1757 (P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
1758 it wasn't a block context.
1760 =item panic: leave_scope clearsv
1762 (P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the scope.
1764 =item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
1766 (P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
1767 invalid enum on the top of it.
1771 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
1773 =item panic: mapstart
1775 (P) The compiler is screwed up with respect to the map() function.
1777 =item panic: null array
1779 (P) One of the internal array routines was passed a null AV pointer.
1781 =item panic: pad_alloc
1783 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
1784 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
1786 =item panic: pad_free curpad
1788 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
1789 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
1791 =item panic: pad_free po
1793 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
1795 =item panic: pad_reset curpad
1797 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
1798 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
1800 =item panic: pad_sv po
1802 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
1804 =item panic: pad_swipe curpad
1806 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
1807 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
1809 =item panic: pad_swipe po
1811 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
1813 =item panic: pp_iter
1815 (P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
1817 =item panic: realloc
1819 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
1821 =item panic: restartop
1823 (P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
1824 didn't supply the destination.
1828 (P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
1829 then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
1831 =item panic: scan_num
1833 (P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
1835 =item panic: sv_insert
1837 (P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
1840 =item panic: top_env
1842 (P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
1846 (P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
1848 =item Pareneses missing around "%s" list
1850 (W) You said something like
1856 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
1858 Remember that "my" and "local" bind closer than comma.
1860 =item Perl %3.3f required--this is only version %s, stopped
1862 (F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more recent
1863 than the currently running version. How long has it been since you upgraded,
1864 anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
1866 =item Permission denied
1868 (F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to no good.
1870 =item pid %d not a child
1872 (W) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a process which
1873 isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is fine from VMS'
1874 perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
1876 =item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
1878 (F) Your C compiler uses POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
1879 the BSD version, which takes a pid.
1881 =item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
1883 (W) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
1884 strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated
1885 as literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
1886 exclamation marks parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently
1889 You probably wrote something like this:
1896 when you should have written this:
1903 If you really want comments, build your list the
1904 old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
1908 'b', # another comment
1911 =item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
1913 (W) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore commas
1914 aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used different
1915 delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently
1918 You probably wrote something like this:
1922 which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
1923 commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
1927 =item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
1929 (F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
1930 Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
1931 end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
1932 Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
1934 =item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
1936 (S) The old irregular construct
1940 is now misinterpreted as
1944 because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary
1945 and list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must
1946 put parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator
1949 =item print on closed filehandle %s
1951 (W) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime before now.
1952 Check your logic flow.
1954 =item printf on closed filehandle %s
1956 (W) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime before now.
1957 Check your logic flow.
1959 =item Probable precedence problem on %s
1961 (W) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a conditional,
1962 which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part of the
1963 last argument of the previous construct, for example:
1967 =item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
1969 (S) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been declared
1970 or defined with a different function prototype.
1972 =item Read on closed filehandle E<lt>%sE<gt>
1974 (W) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime before now.
1975 Check your logic flow.
1977 =item Reallocation too large: %lx
1979 (F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
1981 =item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
1983 (F) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce the
1984 desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
1985 which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
1987 =item Recursive inheritance detected
1989 (F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably indicates
1990 an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
1992 =item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
1994 (W) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
1995 reference count of other than 1.
1997 =item regexp memory corruption
1999 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
2000 expression compiler gave it.
2002 =item regexp out of space
2004 (P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it earlier.
2006 =item regexp too big
2008 (F) The current implementation of regular expressions uses shorts as
2009 address offsets within a string. Unfortunately this means that if
2010 the regular expression compiles to longer than 32767, it'll blow up.
2011 Usually when you want a regular expression this big, there is a better
2012 way to do it with multiple statements. See L<perlre>.
2014 =item Reversed %s= operator
2016 (W) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must always
2017 comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
2019 =item Runaway format
2021 (F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence, but it
2022 produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th line looked exactly like the
2023 199th line. Apparently you didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust
2024 themselves, either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
2025 shifting or popping (for array variables). See L<perlform>.
2027 =item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
2029 (W) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a single element of
2030 an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $).
2031 The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always behaves like a scalar, both when
2032 assigning to it and when evaluating its argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves
2033 like a list when you assign to it, and provides a list context to its
2034 subscript, which can do weird things if you're expecting only one subscript.
2036 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
2037 element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
2038 Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
2041 =item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
2043 (W) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single element of
2044 a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $).
2045 The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves like a scalar, both when
2046 assigning to it and when evaluating its argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves
2047 like a list when you assign to it, and provides a list context to its
2048 subscript, which can do weird things if you're expecting only one subscript.
2050 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash
2051 element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
2052 Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
2055 =item Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl
2057 (F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script without a setuid
2058 or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much sense.
2060 =item Search pattern not terminated
2062 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
2063 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
2065 =item %sseek() on unopened file
2067 (W) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a filehandle that
2068 was either never opened or has since been closed.
2070 =item select not implemented
2072 (F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
2074 =item sem%s not implemented
2076 (F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
2078 =item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
2080 (S) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a scalar
2081 that had previously been marked as free.
2083 =item Semicolon seems to be missing
2085 (W) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing semicolon,
2086 or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
2088 =item Send on closed socket
2090 (W) The filehandle you're sending to got itself closed sometime before now.
2091 Check your logic flow.
2093 =item Sequence (? incomplete
2094 (F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?.
2097 =item Sequence (?#... not terminated
2099 (F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
2100 parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. See L<perlre>.
2102 =item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented
2104 (F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
2105 but has not yet been written. See L<perlre>.
2107 =item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized
2109 (F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense.
2114 Also known as "500 Server error".
2116 B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
2118 You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by the user
2119 CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the user account you
2120 tested it under), does not rely on any environment variables (like PATH)
2121 from the user it isn't running under, and isn't in a location where the CGI
2122 server can't find it, basically, more or less. Please see the following
2123 for more information:
2125 http://www.perl.com/perl/faq/idiots-guide.html
2126 http://www.perl.com/perl/faq/perl-cgi-faq.html
2127 ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/www/cgi-faq
2128 http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/interface.html
2129 http://www-genome.wi.mit.edu/WWW/faqs/www-security-faq.html
2131 =item setegid() not implemented
2133 (F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't support
2134 the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
2137 =item seteuid() not implemented
2139 (F) You tried to assign to C<$E<gt>>, and your operating system doesn't support
2140 the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
2143 =item setrgid() not implemented
2145 (F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't support
2146 the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
2149 =item setruid() not implemented
2151 (F) You tried to assign to C<$E<lt>>, and your operating system doesn't support
2152 the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
2155 =item Setuid/gid script is writable by world
2157 (F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that is writable by the world,
2158 because the world might have written on it already.
2160 =item shm%s not implemented
2162 (F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
2164 =item shutdown() on closed fd
2166 (W) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit superfluous.
2168 =item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
2170 (W) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist. Perhaps you
2171 put it into the wrong package?
2173 =item sort is now a reserved word
2175 (F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
2176 But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
2178 =item Sort subroutine didn't return a numeric value
2180 (F) A sort comparison routine must return a number. You probably blew
2181 it by not using C<E<lt>=E<gt>> or C<cmp>, or by not using them correctly.
2182 See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2184 =item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
2186 (F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
2187 or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2191 (P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't iterate
2192 more times than there are characters of input, which is what happened.)
2193 See L<perlfunc/split>.
2195 =item Stat on unopened file E<lt>%sE<gt>
2197 (W) You tried to use the stat() function (or an equivalent file test)
2198 on a filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
2200 =item Statement unlikely to be reached
2202 (W) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a die().
2203 This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns unless
2204 there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system() instead,
2205 which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in a block
2208 =item Stub found while resolving method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
2210 (P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation stubs.
2211 Stubs should never be implicitely created, but explicit calls to C<can>
2214 =item Subroutine %s redefined
2216 (W) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
2220 eval "sub name { ... }";
2223 =item Substitution loop
2225 (P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a
2226 substitution shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of
2227 input, which is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
2228 L<perlop/"Quote and Quote-like Operators">.
2230 =item Substitution pattern not terminated
2232 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a s/// or s{}{}
2233 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
2235 =item Substitution replacement not terminated
2237 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a s/// or s{}{}
2238 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
2240 =item substr outside of string
2242 (S),(W) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of a
2243 string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
2244 length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is
2245 mandatory if substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side
2246 of an assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
2248 =item suidperl is no longer needed since %s
2250 (F) Your Perl was compiled with B<-D>SETUID_SCRIPTS_ARE_SECURE_NOW, but a
2251 version of the setuid emulator somehow got run anyway.
2255 (F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
2257 A keyword is misspelled.
2258 A semicolon is missing.
2260 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
2261 An opening or closing brace is missing.
2262 A closing quote is missing.
2264 Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
2265 error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
2266 The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
2267 it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
2268 before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
2269 Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
2270 the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
2271 C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
2272 if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
2274 =item syntax error at line %d: `%s' unexpected
2276 (A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell
2277 instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script
2280 =item System V IPC is not implemented on this machine
2282 (F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem", "shm",
2283 or "msg". See L<perlfunc/semctl>, for example.
2285 =item Syswrite on closed filehandle
2287 (W) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime before now.
2288 Check your logic flow.
2290 =item Target of goto is too deeply nested
2292 (F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply
2293 nested for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
2295 =item tell() on unopened file
2297 (W) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that was either
2298 never opened or has since been closed.
2300 =item Test on unopened file E<lt>%sE<gt>
2302 (W) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle that isn't
2303 open. Check your logic. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
2305 =item That use of $[ is unsupported
2307 (F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted as
2308 a compiler directive. You may say only one of
2317 This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base
2318 out from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[>.
2320 =item The %s function is unimplemented
2322 The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture, according
2323 to the probings of Configure.
2325 =item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia
2327 (F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
2328 probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
2329 think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
2330 will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
2333 =item The stat preceding C<-l _> wasn't an lstat
2335 (F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic linkhood
2336 if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went past
2337 the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename instead.
2339 =item times not implemented
2341 (F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I suspect
2342 you're not running on Unix.
2344 =item Too few args to syscall
2346 (F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
2347 system call to call, silly dilly.
2349 =item Too late for "B<-T>" option
2351 (X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
2352 B<-T> option, but Perl was not invoked with B<-T> in its command line.
2353 This is an error because, by the time Perl discovers a B<-T> in a
2354 script, it's too late to properly taint everything from the environment.
2357 If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
2358 mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be fixed
2359 by editing the #! line so that the B<-T> option is a part of Perl's
2360 first argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -T> to C<perl -T -n>.
2362 If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
2363 B<-T> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -T scriptname>.
2365 =item Too late for "-%s" option
2367 (X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
2368 B<-M> or B<-m> option. This is an error because B<-M> and B<-m> options
2369 are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
2375 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
2376 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
2379 =item Too many args to syscall
2381 (F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
2383 =item Too many arguments for %s
2385 (F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
2387 =item trailing \ in regexp
2389 (F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash. Backslash
2392 =item Translation pattern not terminated
2394 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
2397 =item Translation replacement not terminated
2399 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
2402 =item truncate not implemented
2404 (F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
2405 Configure knows about.
2407 =item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
2409 (F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
2410 certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
2411 %NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
2412 {EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
2414 =item umask: argument is missing initial 0
2416 (W) A umask of 222 is incorrect. It should be 0222, because octal literals
2417 always start with 0 in Perl, as in C.
2419 =item Unable to create sub named "%s"
2421 (F) You attempted to create or access a subroutine with an illegal name.
2423 =item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
2425 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many execution
2426 contexts were entered and left.
2428 =item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
2430 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many
2431 values were temporarily localized.
2433 =item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
2435 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many blocks
2436 were entered and left.
2438 =item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
2440 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many mortal
2441 scalars were allocated and freed.
2443 =item Undefined format "%s" called
2445 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
2446 another package? See L<perlform>.
2448 =item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
2450 (F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps
2451 it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2453 =item Undefined subroutine &%s called
2455 (F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
2456 has since been undefined.
2458 =item Undefined subroutine called
2460 (F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
2461 or if it was, it has since been undefined.
2463 =item Undefined subroutine in sort
2465 (F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem to
2466 have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2468 =item Undefined top format "%s" called
2470 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
2471 another package? See L<perlform>.
2473 =item unexec of %s into %s failed!
2475 (F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
2476 representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
2478 =item Unknown BYTEORDER
2480 (F) There are no byte-swapping functions for a machine with this byte order.
2482 =item unmatched () in regexp
2484 (F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
2485 expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
2486 the matching parenthesis. See L<perlre>.
2488 =item Unmatched right bracket
2490 (F) The lexer counted more closing curly brackets (braces) than opening
2491 ones, so you're probably missing an opening bracket. As a general
2492 rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place you were
2495 =item unmatched [] in regexp
2497 (F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
2498 include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it first.
2501 =item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2503 (W) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a reserved word.
2504 It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it somehow, or insert
2505 an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a subroutine.
2507 =item Unrecognized character %s
2509 (F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
2510 in your Perl script (or eval). Perhaps you tried to run a compressed
2511 script, a binary program, or a directory as a Perl program.
2513 =item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
2515 (F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not recognized.
2516 Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names on your system.
2518 =item Unrecognized switch: -%s
2520 (F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that.
2521 (If you think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's
2522 supplying the bad switch on your behalf.)
2524 =item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
2526 (W) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that operation
2527 failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline, PROBABLY
2528 because you forgot to chop() or chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
2530 =item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
2532 (F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
2534 =item Unsupported function fork
2536 (F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
2538 Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors of
2539 Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try changing
2540 the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
2542 =item Unsupported function %s
2544 (F) This machines doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
2545 At least, Configure doesn't think so.
2547 =item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
2549 (F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
2550 least that's what Configure thought.
2552 =item Unterminated E<lt>E<gt> operator
2554 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
2555 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and not
2556 finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out earlier in
2557 the line, and you really meant a "less than".
2559 =item Use of "$$<digit>" to mean "${$}<digit>" is deprecated
2561 (D) Perl versions before 5.004 misinterpreted any type marker followed
2562 by "$" and a digit. For example, "$$0" was incorrectly taken to mean
2563 "${$}0" instead of "${$0}". This bug is (mostly) fixed in Perl 5.004.
2565 However, the developers of Perl 5.004 could not fix this bug completely,
2566 because at least two widely-used modules depend on the old meaning of
2567 "$$0" in a string. So Perl 5.004 still interprets "$$<digit>" in the
2568 old (broken) way inside strings; but it generates this message as a
2569 warning. And in Perl 5.005, this special treatment will cease.
2571 =item Use of $# is deprecated
2573 (D) This was an ill-advised attempt to emulate a poorly defined B<awk> feature.
2574 Use an explicit printf() or sprintf() instead.
2576 =item Use of $* is deprecated
2578 (D) This variable magically turned on multi-line pattern matching, both for
2579 you and for any luckless subroutine that you happen to call. You should
2580 use the new C<//m> and C<//s> modifiers now to do that without the dangerous
2581 action-at-a-distance effects of C<$*>.
2583 =item Use of %s in printf format not supported
2585 (F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
2586 only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
2588 =item Use of bare E<lt>E<lt> to mean E<lt>E<lt>"" is deprecated
2590 (D) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted form if you
2591 wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
2593 =item Use of implicit split to @_ is deprecated
2595 (D) It makes a lot of work for the compiler when you clobber a
2596 subroutine's argument list, so it's better if you assign the results of
2597 a split() explicitly to an array (or list).
2599 =item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
2601 (D) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines are looked
2602 up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy) even when the subroutines to
2603 be autoloaded were called as plain functions (e.g. C<Foo::bar()>), not
2604 as methods (e.g. C<Foo->bar()> or C<$obj->bar()>).
2606 This bug will be rectified in Perl 5.005, which will use method lookup
2607 only for methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base
2608 of existing code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an
2609 interim step, Perl 5.004 issues an optional warning when non-methods
2610 use inherited C<AUTOLOAD>s.
2612 The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
2613 non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used to
2614 depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class named
2615 C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during startup.
2617 =item Use of %s is deprecated
2619 (D) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use, generally
2620 because there's a better way to do it, and also because the old way has
2623 =item Use of uninitialized value
2625 (W) An undefined value was used as if it were already defined. It was
2626 interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake. To suppress this
2627 warning assign an initial value to your variables.
2629 =item Useless use of %s in void context
2631 (W) You did something without a side effect in a context that does nothing
2632 with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a value
2633 from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very often
2634 this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl to parse
2635 your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd get this
2636 if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and said
2640 when you meant to say
2642 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
2644 Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
2645 reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
2650 when you should have said
2654 The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
2655 while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
2656 a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
2657 throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
2658 L<perlref> for more on this.
2660 =item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
2662 (W) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was still
2663 valid when C<untie> was called.
2665 =item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
2667 (W) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob), C<each()>,
2668 or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs can return a
2669 value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression false, which is
2670 probably not what you intended. When using these constructs in conditional
2671 expressions, test their values with the C<defined> operator.
2673 =item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
2675 (F) While "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable
2676 that you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
2677 something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported
2678 by that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character
2679 on the front of your variable.
2681 =item Variable "%s" may be unavailable
2683 (W) An inner (nested) I<anonymous> subroutine is inside a I<named>
2684 subroutine, and outside that is another subroutine; and the anonymous
2685 (innermost) subroutine is referencing a lexical variable defined in
2686 the outermost subroutine. For example:
2688 sub outermost { my $a; sub middle { sub { $a } } }
2690 If the anonymous subroutine is called or referenced (directly or
2691 indirectly) from the outermost subroutine, it will share the variable
2692 as you would expect. But if the anonymous subroutine is called or
2693 referenced when the outermost subroutine is not active, it will see
2694 the value of the shared variable as it was before and during the
2695 *first* call to the outermost subroutine, which is probably not what
2698 In these circumstances, it is usually best to make the middle
2699 subroutine anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. Perl has specific
2700 support for shared variables in nested anonymous subroutines; a named
2701 subroutine in between interferes with this feature.
2703 =item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
2705 (W) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a lexical
2706 variable defined in an outer subroutine.
2708 When the inner subroutine is called, it will probably see the value of
2709 the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the
2710 *first* call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first
2711 call to the outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer
2712 subroutines will no longer share a common value for the variable. In
2713 other words, the variable will no longer be shared.
2715 Furthermore, if the outer subroutine is anonymous and references a
2716 lexical variable outside itself, then the outer and inner subroutines
2717 will I<never> share the given variable.
2719 This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
2720 anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
2721 reference variables in outer subroutines are called or referenced,
2722 they are automatically rebound to the current values of such
2725 =item Variable syntax
2727 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
2728 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
2731 =item Warning: something's wrong
2733 (W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
2734 you called it with no args and C<$_> was empty.
2736 =item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
2738 (S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on the
2739 close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk space.
2741 =item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
2743 (S) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that looks like a
2744 binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a term or
2745 unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand function
2746 has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
2750 you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
2754 but in actual fact, you got
2758 So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
2760 =item Write on closed filehandle
2762 (W) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime before now.
2763 Check your logic flow.
2765 =item X outside of string
2767 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position before
2768 the beginning of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2770 =item x outside of string
2772 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
2773 the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2775 =item Xsub "%s" called in sort
2777 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet supported.
2779 =item Xsub called in sort
2781 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet supported.
2783 =item You can't use C<-l> on a filehandle
2785 (F) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file it
2786 already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
2787 Use a filename instead.
2789 =item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
2791 (F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
2792 sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
2793 about what you want. Your best bet is to use the wrapsuid script in
2794 the eg directory to put a setuid C wrapper around your script.
2796 =item You need to quote "%s"
2798 (W) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name. Unfortunately, you
2799 already have a subroutine of that name declared, which means that Perl 5
2800 will try to call the subroutine when the assignment is executed, which is
2801 probably not what you want. (If it IS what you want, put an & in front.)
2803 =item [gs]etsockopt() on closed fd
2805 (W) You tried to get or set a socket option on a closed socket.
2806 Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
2807 See L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
2809 =item \1 better written as $1
2811 (W) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables. The use
2812 of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
2813 substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
2814 because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better
2815 if there are more than 9 backreferences.
2817 =item '|' and 'E<lt>' may not both be specified on command line
2819 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
2820 found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to redirect STDIN using
2821 'E<lt>'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
2823 =item '|' and 'E<gt>' may not both be specified on command line
2825 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
2826 thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and into a pipe to another
2827 command. You need to choose one or the other, though nothing's stopping you
2828 from piping into a program or Perl script which 'splits' output into two
2831 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
2838 =item Got an error from DosAllocMem
2840 (P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
2841 version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
2843 =item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
2845 (F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
2853 with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix
2854 of a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error
2855 may appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
2856 "PERLLIB_PREFIX" in F<README.os2>.
2858 =item PERL_SH_DIR too long
2860 (F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
2861 C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in F<README.os2>.
2863 =item Process terminated by SIG%s
2865 (W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
2866 applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
2867 port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
2868 L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"