3 perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
7 These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
10 (W) A warning (optional).
11 (D) A deprecation (optional).
12 (S) A severe warning (default).
13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
18 The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
19 (W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
21 If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
22 category is included with the classification letter in the description
25 Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
26 and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
27 to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
28 of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
30 Default warnings are always enabled unless they are explicitly disabled
31 with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
33 Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
34 L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35 disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
38 The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
39 lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
40 denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
41 ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
42 letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
47 =item A thread exited while %d other threads were still running
49 (W) When using threaded Perl, a thread (not necessarily the main
50 thread) exited while there were still other threads running.
51 Usually it's a good idea to first collect the return values of the
52 created threads by joining them, and only then exit from the main
53 thread. See L<threads>.
55 =item accept() on closed socket %s
57 (W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
58 to check the return value of your socket() call? See
61 =item Allocation too large: %lx
63 (X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
65 =item '!' allowed only after types %s
67 (F) The '!' is allowed in pack() and unpack() only after certain types.
70 =item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
72 (W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
73 keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
74 one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
75 subroutine is not imported.
77 To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
78 before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
79 Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
80 imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
82 To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
83 on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
84 to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
87 =item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
89 (F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
90 all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
91 first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
92 C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
94 =item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
96 (W ambiguous)(S) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
97 you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
98 a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
100 =item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
102 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
103 redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
104 redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
106 =item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
108 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
109 redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
110 into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
111 though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
112 which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
114 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
121 =item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
123 (W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
124 transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
125 one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
126 a scalar value -- the length of an array, or the population info of a
127 hash -- and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
128 you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
131 =item Args must match #! line
133 (F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
134 with match the arguments specified on the #! line. Since some systems
135 impose a one-argument limit on the #! line, try combining switches;
136 for example, turn C<-w -U> into C<-wU>.
138 =item Arg too short for msgsnd
140 (F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
142 =item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element
144 (F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element, such as:
149 =item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
151 (F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
157 or a hash or array slice, such as:
159 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
160 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
162 =item %s argument is not a subroutine name
164 (F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
165 name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
168 =item '%s' trapped by operation mask
170 (F) You tried to use an operator from a Safe compartment in which it's
171 disallowed. See L<Safe>.
173 =item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
175 (W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
176 that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
177 will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
179 =item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
181 (D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
182 spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
184 =item assertion botched: %s
186 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
188 =item Assertion failed: file "%s"
190 (P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
192 =item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
194 (F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
195 must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
196 know which context to supply to the right side.
198 =item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
200 (F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
201 the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
203 =item Attempt to clear a restricted hash
205 (F) It is currently not allowed to clear a restricted hash, even if the
206 new hash would contain the same keys as before. This may change in
209 =item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
211 (F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
212 declared readonly from a restricted hash.
214 =item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
216 (F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
217 which is not in its key set.
219 =item Attempt to bless into a reference
221 (F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
222 the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
223 supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
229 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
231 If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
232 of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
235 bless $self, "$proto";
237 =item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
239 (P internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
240 that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
241 outside any of those arenas.
243 =item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
245 (P internal) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of
246 strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
247 strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
248 of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
250 =item Attempt to free temp prematurely
252 (W debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
253 free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
254 SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
255 free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
258 =item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
260 (P internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
262 =item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
264 (W internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
265 see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
266 earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
267 This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
268 that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
269 mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
272 =item Attempt to join self
274 (F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
275 impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
276 to move the join() to some other thread.
278 =item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
280 (W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
281 function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
282 means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
283 invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
284 literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
287 =item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
289 (W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
290 used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
291 dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
293 =item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %s
295 (F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
296 or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
297 S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
298 S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
300 =item Bad evalled substitution pattern
302 (F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
303 substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
304 most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
306 =item Bad filehandle: %s
308 (F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
309 symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
310 open(), or did it in another package.
312 =item Bad free() ignored
314 (S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
315 been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
316 setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
318 This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
319 dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
320 which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
324 (P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
326 =item Badly placed ()'s
328 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
329 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
332 =item Bad name after %s::
334 (F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
335 didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
344 $sym = "mypack::$var";
346 =item Bad realloc() ignored
348 (S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
349 never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled
350 by setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
352 =item Bad symbol for array
354 (P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
355 wasn't a symbol table entry.
357 =item Bad symbol for filehandle
359 (P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
360 that wasn't a symbol table entry.
362 =item Bad symbol for hash
364 (P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
365 wasn't a symbol table entry.
367 =item Bareword found in conditional
369 (W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
370 conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
371 of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
375 It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
378 use constant TYPO => 1;
379 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
381 The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
383 =item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
385 (F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
386 subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
387 symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
389 =item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
391 (W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
392 compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
393 you need to predeclare a package?
395 =item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
397 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
398 subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
401 =item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
403 (F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
404 implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
405 occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
406 be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
407 depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
409 =item \1 better written as $1
411 (W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
412 The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
413 substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
414 because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
415 there are more than 9 backreferences.
417 =item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
419 (W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
420 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
421 L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
423 =item bind() on closed socket %s
425 (W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
426 check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
428 =item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
430 (W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
431 Check you control flow and number of arguments.
433 =item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
435 (W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
437 =item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
439 (P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
442 =item B<-P> not allowed for setuid/setgid script
444 (F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor by name,
445 which provides a race condition that breaks security.
447 =item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
449 (W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
450 iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
451 which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
453 =item Callback called exit
455 (F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
456 exited by calling exit.
458 =item %s() called too early to check prototype
460 (W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
461 parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
462 that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
463 early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
464 subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
465 checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
466 function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
467 the warning. See L<perlsub>.
469 =item Can only compress unsigned integers
471 (F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER compressed
472 integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you attempted
473 to compress something else. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
475 =item Cannot compress integer
477 (F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress. The BER
478 compressed integer format can only be used with positive integers, and you
479 attempted to compress Infinity or a very large number (> 1e308).
480 See L<perlfunc/pack>.
482 =item Cannot compress negative numbers
484 (F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed integer
485 format can only be used with positive integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
487 =item / cannot take a count
489 (F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
490 you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
493 =item Can't bless non-reference value
495 (F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
496 encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
498 =item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
500 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
501 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
502 in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
504 =item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
506 (F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
507 object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
508 like this will reproduce the error:
511 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
512 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
514 =item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
516 (F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
517 ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
518 didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
519 object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
521 =item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
523 (F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
524 object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
525 defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
526 Something like this will reproduce the error:
529 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
530 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
532 =item Can't chdir to %s
534 (F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
535 that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
537 =item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
539 (P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
542 =item Can't coerce array into hash
544 (F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the array has no
545 information on how to map from keys to array indices. You can do that
546 only with arrays that have a hash reference at index 0.
548 =item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
550 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
551 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
561 but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
563 =item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
565 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
566 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
568 =item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
570 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
571 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
573 =item Can't create pipe mailbox
575 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
576 quotas or other plumbing problems.
578 =item Can't declare class for non-scalar %s in "%s"
580 (F) Currently, only scalar variables can be declared with a specific
581 class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration. The semantics may be
582 extended for other types of variables in future.
584 =item Can't declare %s in "%s"
586 (F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my" or
587 "our" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
589 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
591 (S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
592 a file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
594 =item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
596 (S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
599 =item Can't do inplace edit without backup
601 (F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
602 reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
603 C<-i.bak>, or some such.
605 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
607 (S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
608 characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
609 inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
611 =item Can't do {n,m} with n > m in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
613 (F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want your
614 regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. The <-- HERE shows in the
615 regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
617 =item Can't do setegid!
619 (P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
622 =item Can't do seteuid!
624 (P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
626 =item Can't do setuid
628 (F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to do
629 setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the form
630 sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides under
631 the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines. If the
632 file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask your
633 sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
635 =item Can't do waitpid with flags
637 (F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
638 waitpid() without flags is emulated.
640 =item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
642 (F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
643 point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
646 =item Can't exec "%s": %s
648 (W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
649 named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
650 permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
651 C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
652 architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
653 can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
658 (F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
659 that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
660 need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
662 =item Can't execute %s
664 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
665 found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
667 =item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
669 (F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
670 is no builtin with the name C<word>.
672 =item Can't find %s character property "%s"
674 (F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
675 could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property
676 (remember that the names of character properties consist only of
677 alphanumeric characters), or maybe you forgot the C<Is> or C<In> prefix?
679 =item Can't find label %s
681 (F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
682 possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
684 =item Can't find %s on PATH
686 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
689 =item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
691 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
692 found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
693 script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
695 =item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
697 (F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
698 that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
699 nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
701 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
703 If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have included
704 unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good programmer's
705 editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
707 =item Can't find %s property definition %s
709 (F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode property (for
710 example C<\p{Lu}> is all uppercase letters). If you did mean to use a
711 Unicode property, see L<perlunicode> for the list of known properties.
712 If you didn't mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either
713 by C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, until
718 (F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
721 =item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
723 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
724 between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
725 Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
726 the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
727 account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
728 the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
729 the access checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
730 the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
731 if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
732 because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
733 appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up
734 and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking
735 routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
736 shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
737 only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
739 =item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
741 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
742 pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
744 =item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
746 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
747 mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
749 =item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
751 (F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
752 loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
754 =item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
756 (F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
757 a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
758 you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
759 See L<perlfunc/goto>.
761 =item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-string
763 (F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
764 "string". (You can use it to jump out of an eval {BLOCK}, but you
765 probably don't want to.)
767 =item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
769 (F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
770 subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
771 cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
772 routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
774 =item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
776 (W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
777 signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
778 signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
779 processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
780 situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
781 may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
783 =item Can't "last" outside a loop block
785 (F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
786 except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
787 block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
788 block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
789 usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
790 inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
793 =item Can't localize lexical variable %s
795 (F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
796 lexical variable using "my". This is not allowed. If you want to
797 localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
800 =item Can't localize through a reference
802 (F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
803 handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
804 pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
805 that $ref will still be a reference.
807 =item Can't locate %s
809 (F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be
810 found. Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC,
811 unless the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you
812 need to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where
813 the extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
814 to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
815 L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
817 =item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
819 (F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
820 autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
821 are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
822 the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
824 =item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
826 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
827 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
828 method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
830 =item Can't locate PerlIO%s
832 (F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
833 e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
835 =item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
837 (F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
838 "Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
839 that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
841 =item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
843 (W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
844 doesn't seem to exist.
846 =item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
848 (F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
851 =item Can't modify %s in %s
853 (F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
854 to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
856 =item Can't modify nonexistent substring
858 (P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
861 =item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
863 (F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
864 such, see L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
866 =item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
868 (F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
871 =item Can't "next" outside a loop block
873 (F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
874 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
875 count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
876 grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
877 though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
878 once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
880 =item Can't open %s: %s
882 (S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
883 filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
884 switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
885 is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named on
888 =item Can't open a reference
890 (W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
891 using the 3-arg open() syntax :
895 but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
896 open is not supported.
898 =item Can't open bidirectional pipe
900 (W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
901 You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
902 as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
903 ">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
905 =item Can't open error file %s as stderr
907 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
908 redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
909 the command line for writing.
911 =item Can't open input file %s as stdin
913 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
914 redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
915 command line for reading.
917 =item Can't open output file %s as stdout
919 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
920 redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
921 the command line for writing.
923 =item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
925 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
926 redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
929 =item Can't open perl script%s: %s
931 (F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
933 =item Can't read CRTL environ
935 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
936 from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
937 missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
938 or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
941 =item Can't redefine active sort subroutine %s
943 (F) Perl optimizes the internal handling of sort subroutines and keeps
944 pointers into them. You tried to redefine one such sort subroutine when
945 it was currently active, which is not allowed. If you really want to do
946 this, you should write C<sort { &func } @x> instead of C<sort func @x>.
948 =item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
950 (F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
951 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
952 count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
953 or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
954 though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
955 loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
957 =item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
959 (S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
960 file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
961 the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
963 =item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
965 (S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
966 probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
968 =item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
970 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
971 to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
973 =item Can't resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
975 (F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as opposed
976 to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the package. If
977 method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
979 =item Can't reswap uid and euid
981 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
984 =item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
986 (F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
987 temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
990 =item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
992 (F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue subroutine,
993 but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl think you meant
994 to return only one value. You probably meant to write parentheses around
995 the call to the subroutine, which tell Perl that the call should be in
998 =item Can't return outside a subroutine
1000 (F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
1001 there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
1003 =item Can't stat script "%s"
1005 (P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
1006 open already. Bizarre.
1008 =item Can't swap uid and euid
1010 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
1013 =item Can't take log of %g
1015 (F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
1016 negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
1017 standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1020 =item Can't take sqrt of %g
1022 (F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
1023 negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1024 with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
1026 =item Can't undef active subroutine
1028 (F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1029 however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1030 redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1034 (F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
1035 as the main Perl stack.
1037 =item Can't upgrade that kind of scalar
1039 (P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1040 into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1041 specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1042 indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
1044 =item Can't upgrade to undef
1046 (P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the totem pole, in the scheme of
1047 upgradability. Upgrading to undef indicates an error in the code
1050 =item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1052 (F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1053 be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1055 =item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1057 (P) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1058 table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1059 for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1061 =item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1063 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1064 references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
1066 =item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1068 (F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
1069 Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1070 provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1072 =item Can't use %s for loop variable
1074 (F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1077 =item Can't use global %s in "my"
1079 (F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1080 is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1081 (namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1082 have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
1085 =item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1087 (F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
1088 You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
1089 and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1090 Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1093 =item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1095 (F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1096 reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1097 test the type of the reference, if need be.
1099 =item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1101 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1102 references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
1104 =item Can't use subscript on %s
1106 (F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1107 subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
1108 didn't look like an array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
1110 =item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1112 (W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1113 creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1114 backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
1115 expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1116 value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1119 =item Can't weaken a nonreference
1121 (F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1122 references can be weakened.
1124 =item Can't x= to read-only value
1126 (F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1127 with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
1128 Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1130 =item Character in "C" format wrapped
1136 where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1137 only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1138 and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1142 If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1145 =item Character in "c" format wrapped
1151 where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1152 is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1153 and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1155 pack("c", $x & 255);
1157 If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1160 =item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1162 (W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1164 =item %s: Command not found
1166 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1167 Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
1169 =item Compilation failed in require
1171 (F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
1172 Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1173 encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
1175 =item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1177 (W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1178 situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1179 to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1180 arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1181 recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1182 under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1183 in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
1184 that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
1185 on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
1187 =item cond_broadcast() called on unlocked variable
1189 (W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1190 cond_broadcast() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_broadcast()
1191 function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1192 cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1193 has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1194 first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1195 after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1199 =item cond_signal() called on unlocked variable
1201 (W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1202 cond_signal() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_signal()
1203 function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1204 cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1205 has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1206 first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1207 after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1210 =item connect() on closed socket %s
1212 (W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1213 to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1214 L<perlfunc/connect>.
1216 =item Constant(%s)%s: %s
1218 (F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1219 an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1220 specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
1221 corresponding C<overload> or C<charnames> pragma? See L<charnames> and
1224 =item Constant is not %s reference
1226 (F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
1227 is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
1228 The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
1229 usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
1230 See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1232 =item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1234 (S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been
1235 eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for
1236 commentary and workarounds.
1238 =item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1240 (W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1241 for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1244 =item Copy method did not return a reference
1246 (F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
1247 L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
1249 =item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1251 (F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1253 =item corrupted regexp pointers
1255 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1256 expression compiler gave it.
1258 =item corrupted regexp program
1260 (P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1263 =item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
1265 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1267 =item C<-p> destination: %s
1269 (F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
1270 command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
1271 redirected it with select().)
1273 =item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
1275 (F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
1276 know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
1278 =item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1280 (W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1281 100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1282 infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1283 which case it indicates something else.
1285 =item defined(@array) is deprecated
1287 (D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1288 checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
1289 array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
1291 =item defined(%hash) is deprecated
1293 (D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it
1294 checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the hash
1295 is empty, just use C<if (%hash) { # not empty }> for example.
1297 =item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1299 (F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1300 there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1302 =item Delimiter for here document is too long
1304 (F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1305 long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1306 that triggers this error.
1308 =item Did not produce a valid header
1312 =item %s did not return a true value
1314 (F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1315 it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1316 traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1317 do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1319 =item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
1321 (W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some
1324 =item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
1326 (W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1327 variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1330 =item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
1332 (W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1333 @hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1338 (F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1339 you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
1341 =item Document contains no data
1345 =item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1347 (F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1348 define a C<$VERSION.>
1350 =item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1352 (P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1354 =item do_study: out of memory
1356 (P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1358 =item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1360 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1361 found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
1362 name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1363 because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
1364 "sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1365 something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1366 subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1367 "sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
1369 =item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1371 (W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1372 qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1374 =item Duplicate free() ignored
1376 (S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1379 =item elseif should be elsif
1381 (S) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's ugly.
1382 Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method named
1383 "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
1384 unlikely to be what you want.
1388 (F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
1389 described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
1390 a regular expression without specifying the property name.
1392 =item entering effective %s failed
1394 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
1395 effective uids or gids failed.
1397 =item Error converting file specification %s
1399 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
1400 specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
1401 single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1402 an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1403 conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
1405 =item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
1407 (F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1408 expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1409 is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
1411 =item %s: Eval-group not allowed at run time
1413 (F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1414 C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
1415 pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it
1416 is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly
1417 building the pattern from an interpolated string at run time and using
1418 that in an eval(). See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
1420 =item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
1422 (F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1423 assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1424 pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
1426 =item Excessively long <> operator
1428 (F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1429 Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1430 filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1431 variable and glob that.
1433 =item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1435 (F) The C<exec> function is not implemented in MacPerl. See L<perlport>.
1437 =item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors
1439 (F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1441 =item Exiting eval via %s
1443 (W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1444 goto, or a loop control statement.
1446 =item Exiting format via %s
1448 (W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
1449 goto, or a loop control statement.
1451 =item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1453 (W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1454 sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1455 loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
1457 =item Exiting subroutine via %s
1459 (W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1460 as a goto, or a loop control statement.
1462 =item Exiting substitution via %s
1464 (W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1465 as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
1467 =item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1469 (W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1470 the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1471 usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1472 e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
1474 =item %s: Expression syntax
1476 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1477 Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
1479 =item %s failed--call queue aborted
1481 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a CHECK, INIT, or
1482 END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the queue of such
1483 routines has been prematurely ended.
1485 =item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1487 (W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
1488 character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1489 in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1490 "-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1491 problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
1493 =item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
1495 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1496 system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1497 details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1498 you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
1500 =item fcntl is not implemented
1502 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1503 PDP-11 or something?
1505 =item Filehandle %s opened only for input
1507 (W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
1508 it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
1509 "+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
1510 write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
1512 =item Filehandle %s opened only for output
1514 (W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing, If
1515 you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
1516 with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you
1517 intended only to read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>.
1518 Another possibility is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0
1519 (also known as STDIN) for output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
1521 =item Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
1523 (W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
1524 as STDOUT or STDERR. This occured because you closed STDOUT or STDERR
1527 =item Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
1529 (W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle id
1530 as STDIN. This occured because you closed STDIN previously.
1532 =item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1534 (F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
1535 a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1536 happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1539 =item Final @ should be \@ or @name
1541 (F) You must now decide whether the final @ in a string was meant to be
1542 a literal "at" sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1543 happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1546 =item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1548 (W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
1549 some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
1550 filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1553 =item Quantifier follows nothing in regex;
1555 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1557 (F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if you
1558 meant it literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
1559 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
1561 =item Format not terminated
1563 (F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1564 to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1566 =item Format %s redefined
1568 (W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
1571 no warnings 'redefine';
1572 eval "format NAME =...";
1575 =item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1585 (or something like that).
1587 =item %s found where operator expected
1589 (S) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator. If it
1590 sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
1591 operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
1592 operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
1594 =item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1596 (S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1598 =item gethostent not implemented
1600 (F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1601 because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1604 =item get%sname() on closed socket %s
1606 (W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
1607 socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
1609 =item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1611 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1612 C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1614 =item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
1616 (W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
1617 forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1618 L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
1620 =item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1622 (F) You've said "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables
1623 must either be lexically scoped (using "my"), declared beforehand using
1624 "our", or explicitly qualified to say which package the global variable
1627 =item glob failed (%s)
1629 (W glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for
1630 C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a
1631 C<glob> pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
1632 nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
1633 resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell) is
1634 broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables in
1635 config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it
1636 were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all
1637 empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
1638 think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
1639 C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
1641 =item Glob not terminated
1643 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
1644 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
1645 not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
1646 earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
1648 =item Got an error from DosAllocMem
1650 (P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
1651 version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
1653 =item goto must have label
1655 (F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1656 unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1658 =item %s-group starts with a count
1660 (F) In pack/unpack a ()-group started with a count. A count is
1661 supposed to follow something: a template character or a ()-group.
1663 =item %s had compilation errors
1665 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
1667 =item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1669 (S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
1670 to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
1671 created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
1673 =item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1675 (D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
1676 spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
1678 =item %s has too many errors
1680 (F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
1681 Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
1683 =item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
1685 (W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
1686 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
1687 L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
1689 =item Identifier too long
1691 (F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
1692 about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
1693 names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
1694 of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
1696 =item Illegal binary digit %s
1698 (F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
1700 =item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
1702 (W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
1703 binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
1706 =item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1708 (F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
1709 would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
1710 when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
1711 version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
1712 to your Perl administrator.
1714 =item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
1716 (W syntax) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration. Legal
1717 characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, and \.
1719 =item Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
1721 (F) When using the C<sub> keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
1722 you must always specify a block of code. See L<perlsub>.
1724 =item Illegal division by zero
1726 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
1727 your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
1730 =item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
1732 (W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
1733 A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
1734 number stopped before the illegal character.
1736 =item Illegal modulus zero
1738 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
1739 numbers don't take to this kindly.
1741 =item Illegal number of bits in vec
1743 (F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
1744 two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
1746 =item Illegal octal digit %s
1748 (F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
1750 =item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
1752 (W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
1753 Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
1755 =item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: %s
1757 (X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
1758 following switches: B<-[DIMUdmtw]>.
1760 =item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
1762 (W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
1763 internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
1764 delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
1766 =item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
1768 (W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
1769 name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
1770 didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
1773 =item (in cleanup) %s
1775 (W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
1776 the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
1777 system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
1778 times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
1779 would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
1781 Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
1782 also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
1784 =item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
1786 (F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
1787 Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
1788 encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
1790 =item Insecure dependency in %s
1792 (F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
1793 The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
1794 setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
1795 tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
1796 from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
1797 such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
1798 L<perlsec> for more information.
1800 =item Insecure directory in %s
1802 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1803 setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
1804 the world. See L<perlsec>.
1806 =item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
1808 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1809 setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
1810 C<$ENV{ENV}>, C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> or C<$ENV{TERM}> are derived from data
1811 supplied (or potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set
1812 the path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
1814 =item Integer overflow in %s number
1816 (W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
1817 either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
1818 your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
1819 On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
1820 representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
1821 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
1822 transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
1823 internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
1826 =item Integer overflow in version
1828 (F) Some portion of a version initialization is too large for the
1829 size of integers for your architecture. This is not a warning
1830 because there is no rational reason for a version to try and use a
1831 element larger than typically 2**32. This is usually caused by
1832 trying to use some odd mathematical operation as a version, like
1835 =item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1837 (P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
1838 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1841 =item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
1843 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
1844 you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
1845 to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
1846 L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
1847 Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
1848 terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
1850 =item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1852 (P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
1853 <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1856 =item %s (...) interpreted as function
1858 (W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
1859 followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
1860 operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
1861 L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
1863 =item Invalid %s attribute: %s
1865 The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
1866 by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
1868 =item Invalid %s attributes: %s
1870 The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
1871 recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
1873 =item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
1875 (W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
1876 L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
1878 =item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1880 (F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
1881 greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
1882 C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
1883 up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1884 problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
1886 =item Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
1888 (F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
1889 character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
1891 =item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
1893 (F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
1894 elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
1895 parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
1898 =item Invalid type in pack: '%s'
1900 (F) The given character is not a valid pack type. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1901 (W pack) The given character is not a valid pack type but used to be
1904 =item Invalid type in unpack: '%s'
1906 (F) The given character is not a valid unpack type. See
1908 (W unpack) The given character is not a valid unpack type but used to be
1911 =item Invalid version format (multiple underscores)
1913 (F) Versions may contain at most a single underscore, which signals
1914 that the version is a beta release. See L<version> for the allowed
1917 =item Invalid version format (underscores before decimal)
1919 (F) Versions may not contain decimals after the optional underscore.
1920 See L<version> for the allowed version formats.
1922 =item ioctl is not implemented
1924 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
1925 strange for a machine that supports C.
1927 =item ioctl() on unopened %s
1929 (W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
1930 Check you control flow and number of arguments.
1932 =item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
1934 (F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
1935 neither as a system call or an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
1937 =item `%s' is not a code reference
1939 (W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of overload::constant
1940 needs to be a code reference. Either an anonymous subroutine, or a reference
1943 =item `%s' is not an overloadable type
1945 (W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
1948 =item junk on end of regexp
1950 (P) The regular expression parser is confused.
1952 =item Label not found for "last %s"
1954 (F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
1955 of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1958 =item Label not found for "next %s"
1960 (F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
1961 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1964 =item Label not found for "redo %s"
1966 (F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
1967 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1970 =item leaving effective %s failed
1972 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
1973 effective uids or gids failed.
1975 =item listen() on closed socket %s
1977 (W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
1978 to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1981 =item lstat() on filehandle %s
1983 (W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
1984 by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
1985 instead on the filehandle.)
1987 =item Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented yet
1989 (F) Due to limitations in the current implementation, array and hash
1990 values cannot be returned in subroutines used in lvalue context. See
1991 L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
1993 =item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex;
1995 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1997 (F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
1998 handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release. The <-- HERE
1999 shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2001 =item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
2003 (F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
2010 with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
2011 a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
2012 appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
2013 "PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
2015 =item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
2017 (F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
2018 syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
2019 obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
2020 when the function is called.
2022 =item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
2024 Perl detected something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding rules.
2026 One possible cause is that you read in data that you thought to be in
2027 UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy 8-bit data). Another
2028 possibility is careless use of utf8::upgrade().
2030 =item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
2032 Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
2033 doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
2035 =item %s matches null string many times in regex;
2037 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2039 (W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
2040 regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
2041 shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2044 =item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2046 (W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
2047 interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
2050 =item % may only be used in unpack
2052 (F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
2053 checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
2054 See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
2056 =item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
2058 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
2059 doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
2061 =item Method %s not permitted
2065 =item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
2067 (S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
2068 by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
2069 ended earlier on the current line.
2071 =item Misplaced _ in number
2073 (W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
2074 separate two digits.
2076 =item Missing %sbrace%s on \N{}
2078 (F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
2079 double-quotish context.
2081 =item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
2083 (F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
2084 "indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
2086 =item Missing command in piped open
2088 (W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
2089 C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
2092 =item Missing control char name in \c
2094 (F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required control
2097 =item Missing name in "my sub"
2099 (F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
2100 they have a name with which they can be found.
2102 =item Missing $ on loop variable
2104 (F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
2105 are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
2106 can vary from one line to the next.
2108 =item (Missing operator before %s?)
2110 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
2111 found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
2113 =item Missing right brace on %s
2115 (F) Missing right brace in C<\p{...}> or C<\P{...}>.
2117 =item Missing right curly or square bracket
2119 (F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
2120 ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
2123 =item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
2125 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
2126 found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
2127 the previous line just because you saw this message.
2129 =item Modification of a read-only value attempted
2131 (F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
2132 constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
2133 catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
2135 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
2138 Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
2140 Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
2141 is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
2144 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
2145 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to modify the 2
2148 =item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
2150 (F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
2151 subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
2154 =item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
2156 (P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
2157 couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
2159 =item Module name must be constant
2161 (F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
2163 =item Module name required with -%c option
2165 (F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
2166 you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
2167 about C<-M> and C<-m>.
2169 =item More than one argument to open
2171 (F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
2172 can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
2173 list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
2174 See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
2176 =item msg%s not implemented
2178 (F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
2180 =item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
2182 (W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
2183 They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
2185 =item / must be followed by a*, A* or Z*
2187 (F) You had a pack template indicating a counted-length string,
2188 Currently the only things that can have their length counted are a*, A*
2189 or Z*. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2191 =item / must be followed by a, A or Z
2193 (F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, which
2194 must be followed by one of the letters a, A or Z to indicate what sort
2195 of string is to be unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2197 =item / must follow a numeric type
2199 (F) You had an unpack template that contained a '#', but this did not
2200 follow some numeric unpack specification. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2202 =item "my sub" not yet implemented
2204 (F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
2207 =item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
2209 (F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2210 sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2211 local() if you want to localize a package variable.
2213 =item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2215 (W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
2216 If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2217 again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
2218 provided for this purpose.
2220 =item Negative length
2222 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
2223 length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
2225 =item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
2227 (F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
2228 greater than or equal to zero.
2230 =item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2232 (F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
2233 things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
2234 expression about where the problem was discovered.
2236 Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
2237 C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
2239 =item %s never introduced
2241 (S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
2242 scope before it could possibly have been used.
2244 =item No %s allowed while running setuid
2246 (F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
2247 setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
2248 will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
2249 securable. See L<perlsec>.
2251 =item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
2253 (F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
2255 =item No comma allowed after %s
2257 (F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
2258 allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
2259 Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
2261 One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
2262 constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
2263 importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
2264 does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
2265 explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
2266 L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
2267 would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
2268 remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
2269 constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
2270 list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
2271 this error was triggered?
2273 =item No command into which to pipe on command line
2275 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2276 redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
2277 doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
2279 =item No DB::DB routine defined
2281 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
2282 for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof) didn't
2283 define a routine to be called at the beginning of each statement. Which
2284 is odd, because the file should have been required automatically, and
2285 should have blown up the require if it didn't parse right.
2287 =item No dbm on this machine
2289 (P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
2290 supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
2292 =item No DBsub routine
2294 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
2295 but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
2296 didn't define a DB::sub routine to be called at the beginning of each
2297 ordinary subroutine call.
2299 =item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
2301 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2302 redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
2303 find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
2305 =item No input file after < on command line
2307 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2308 redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
2309 name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
2313 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2314 even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
2316 =item "no" not allowed in expression
2318 (F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
2319 returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
2321 =item No output file after > on command line
2323 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2324 redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
2325 doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
2327 =item No output file after > or >> on command line
2329 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2330 redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
2331 find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
2333 =item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
2335 (F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
2336 declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
2337 semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
2339 =item No Perl script found in input
2341 (F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
2342 with #! and containing the word "perl".
2344 =item No setregid available
2346 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
2349 =item No setreuid available
2351 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
2354 =item No space allowed after -%c
2356 (F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2357 immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
2359 =item No %s specified for -%c
2361 (F) The indicated command line switch needs a mandatory argument, but
2362 you haven't specified one.
2364 =item No such class %s
2366 (F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration, but
2367 this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
2369 =item No such pipe open
2371 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
2372 close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
2373 earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
2375 =item No such signal: SIG%s
2377 (W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
2378 not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
2379 names on your system.
2381 =item Not a CODE reference
2383 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2384 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
2385 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2388 =item Not a format reference
2390 (F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
2391 format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
2393 =item Not a GLOB reference
2395 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
2396 symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
2397 something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
2398 kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2400 =item Not a HASH reference
2402 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
2403 reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
2404 find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2406 =item Not an ARRAY reference
2408 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
2409 a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2410 to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2412 =item Not a perl script
2414 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2415 even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
2418 =item Not a SCALAR reference
2420 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
2421 a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2422 to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2424 =item Not a subroutine reference
2426 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2427 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
2428 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2431 =item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
2433 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
2434 doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
2436 =item Not enough arguments for %s
2438 (F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
2440 =item Not enough format arguments
2442 (W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
2443 supplied. See L<perlform>.
2447 (A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
2448 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
2451 =item %s not allowed in length fields
2453 (F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]> only if
2454 C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes. Redesign
2457 =item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
2459 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
2460 timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
2461 to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
2462 F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
2463 need to be added to UTC to get local time.
2465 =item Null filename used
2467 (F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
2468 machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
2470 =item NULL OP IN RUN
2472 (P debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
2475 =item Null picture in formline
2477 (F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
2478 specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
2479 supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
2483 (P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
2485 =item NULL regexp argument
2487 (P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
2489 =item NULL regexp parameter
2491 (P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
2493 =item Number too long
2495 (F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
2496 about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
2497 versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
2498 the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
2501 =item Octal number in vector unsupported
2503 (F) Numbers with a leading C<0> are not currently allowed in vectors.
2504 The octal number interpretation of such numbers may be supported in a
2507 =item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
2509 (W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
2510 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2511 L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
2513 See also L<perlport> for writing portable code.
2515 =item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
2517 (W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
2518 arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
2520 =item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
2522 (W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2523 which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
2525 =item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
2527 (W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2528 which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
2530 =item Offset outside string
2532 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with an offset
2533 pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to imagine. The sole
2534 exception to this is that C<sysread()>ing past the buffer will extend
2535 the buffer and zero pad the new area.
2537 =item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
2539 (W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
2540 that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
2542 =item %s() on unopened %s
2544 (W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
2545 never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
2546 call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
2550 (S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
2554 (S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
2556 =item Operation `%s': no method found, %s
2558 (F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
2559 handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
2560 of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
2561 C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
2563 =item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
2565 (S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
2566 was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
2567 use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
2568 example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
2571 =item "our" variable %s redeclared
2573 (W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
2574 in the current lexical scope.
2576 =item Out of memory!
2578 (X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
2579 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
2580 no option but to exit immediately.
2582 =item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
2584 (F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
2585 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
2586 the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
2587 possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
2589 =item Out of memory during request for %s
2591 (X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
2592 insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
2595 The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
2596 depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
2597 However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
2598 emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
2599 is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
2600 where the failed request happened.
2602 =item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
2604 (F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
2605 is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
2606 C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
2608 =item Out of memory for yacc stack
2610 (F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
2611 parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
2614 =item @ outside of string
2616 (F) You had a pack template that specified an absolute position outside
2617 the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2619 =item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
2621 (W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
2622 package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
2623 some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
2624 mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
2628 (W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
2629 page. See L<perlform>.
2633 (P) An internal error.
2635 =item panic: ck_grep
2637 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
2639 =item panic: ck_split
2641 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
2643 =item panic: corrupt saved stack index
2645 (P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
2646 there are in the savestack.
2648 =item panic: del_backref
2650 (P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
2655 (P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
2656 it wasn't an eval context.
2658 =item panic: pp_match%s
2660 (P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
2663 =item panic: do_subst
2665 (P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
2668 =item panic: do_trans_%s
2670 (P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
2675 (P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
2679 (P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
2680 and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
2682 =item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
2684 (P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
2686 =item panic: INTERPCONCAT
2688 (P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
2690 =item panic: kid popen errno read
2692 (F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
2696 (P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
2697 it wasn't a block context.
2699 =item panic: leave_scope clearsv
2701 (P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
2704 =item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
2706 (P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
2707 invalid enum on the top of it.
2709 =item panic: magic_killbackrefs
2711 (P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
2712 references to an object.
2716 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
2718 =item panic: mapstart
2720 (P) The compiler is screwed up with respect to the map() function.
2722 =item panic: null array
2724 (P) One of the internal array routines was passed a null AV pointer.
2726 =item panic: pad_alloc
2728 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2729 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2731 =item panic: pad_free curpad
2733 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2734 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2736 =item panic: pad_free po
2738 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2740 =item panic: pad_reset curpad
2742 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2743 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2745 =item panic: pad_sv po
2747 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2749 =item panic: pad_swipe curpad
2751 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2752 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2754 =item panic: pad_swipe po
2756 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2758 =item panic: pp_iter
2760 (P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
2762 =item panic: pp_split
2764 (P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
2766 =item panic: realloc
2768 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
2770 =item panic: restartop
2772 (P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
2773 didn't supply the destination.
2777 (P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
2778 then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
2780 =item panic: scan_num
2782 (P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
2784 =item panic: sv_insert
2786 (P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
2789 =item panic: top_env
2791 (P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
2795 (P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
2797 =item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
2799 (P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
2800 to even) byte length.
2802 =item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
2804 (W parenthesis) You said something like
2810 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
2812 Remember that "my", "our", and "local" bind tighter than comma.
2814 =item Perl %s required--this is only version %s, stopped
2816 (F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
2817 recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
2818 you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
2820 =item PERL_SH_DIR too long
2822 (F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
2823 C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
2825 =item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2827 (S) The whole warning message will look something like:
2829 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2830 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
2833 are supported and installed on your system.
2834 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
2836 Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
2837 settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
2838 This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
2839 system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
2840 locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
2841 dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
2842 Perl can and will use, the script will be run. Before you really fix
2843 the problem, however, you will get the same error message each time
2844 you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
2845 L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
2847 =item perlio: argument list not closed for layer "%s"
2849 (W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O system you
2850 forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers take care of transforming
2851 data between external and internal representations.) Perl stopped parsing
2852 the layer list at this point and did not attempt to push this layer.
2853 If your program didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be
2854 the result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2856 =item perlio: invalid separator character %s in layer specification list %s
2858 (W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other than a
2859 colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
2860 If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2861 list was terminated too soon.
2863 =item perlio: unknown layer "%s"
2865 (W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
2866 system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
2867 internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
2868 are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
2869 explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
2870 value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2872 =item Permission denied
2874 (F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to no good.
2876 =item pid %x not a child
2878 (W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
2879 process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
2880 fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
2882 =item P must have an explicit size
2884 (F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
2886 =item POSIX syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes in regex;
2888 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2890 (W regexp) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
2891 I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
2892 /[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
2893 implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and will
2894 cause fatal errors. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
2895 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2897 =item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex;
2899 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2901 (F regexp) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
2902 beginning with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
2903 If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
2904 expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
2905 backslash: "\[." and ".\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
2906 about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2908 =item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex;
2910 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2912 (F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
2913 with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
2914 need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
2915 character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
2916 and "=\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2917 problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2919 =item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex;
2921 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2923 (F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The <-- HERE
2924 shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2925 Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
2926 the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
2927 not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
2929 =item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
2931 (F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
2932 the BSD version, which takes a pid.
2934 =item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
2936 (W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
2937 strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
2938 literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
2939 parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
2941 You probably wrote something like this:
2948 when you should have written this:
2955 If you really want comments, build your list the
2956 old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
2960 'b', # another comment
2963 =item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
2965 (W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
2966 commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
2967 different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
2970 You probably wrote something like this:
2974 which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
2975 commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
2979 =item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
2981 (F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
2982 Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
2983 end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
2984 Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
2986 =item Possible precedence problem on bitwise %c operator
2988 (W precedence) Your program uses a bitwise logical operator in conjunction
2989 with a numeric comparison operator, like this :
2991 if ($x & $y == 0) { ... }
2993 This expression is actually equivalent to C<$x & ($y == 0)>, due to the
2994 higher precedence of C<==>. This is probably not what you want. (If you
2995 really meant to write this, disable the warning, or, better, write
2996 C<$x & ($y == 0 ? 1 : 0)>).
2998 =item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
3000 (W ambiguous) You said something like `@foo' in a double-quoted string
3001 but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
3002 literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
3003 to the array you apparently lost track of.
3005 =item Possible Y2K bug: %s
3007 (W y2k) You are concatenating the number 19 with another number, which
3008 could be a potential Year 2000 problem.
3010 =item pragma "attrs" is deprecated, use "sub NAME : ATTRS" instead
3012 (D deprecated) You have written something like this:
3016 use attrs qw(locked);
3019 You should use the new declaration syntax instead.
3025 The C<use attrs> pragma is now obsolete, and is only provided for
3026 backward-compatibility. See L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes">.
3028 =item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
3030 (S precedence) The old irregular construct
3034 is now misinterpreted as
3038 because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
3039 list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
3040 parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
3043 =item Premature end of script headers
3047 =item printf() on closed filehandle %s
3049 (W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
3050 before now. Check your control flow.
3052 =item print() on closed filehandle %s
3054 (W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
3055 before now. Check your control flow.
3057 =item Process terminated by SIG%s
3059 (W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
3060 applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
3061 port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
3062 L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
3065 =item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
3067 (S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
3068 declared or defined with a different function prototype.
3070 =item Prototype not terminated
3072 (F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
3075 =item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex;
3077 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3079 (F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of the
3080 {min,max} construct. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where
3081 the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3083 =item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression;
3085 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3087 (W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
3088 it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
3089 quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
3090 "abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
3091 C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
3093 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3096 =item Range iterator outside integer range
3098 (F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
3099 are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
3100 One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
3101 by prepending "0" to your numbers.
3103 =item read() on closed filehandle %s
3105 (W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
3107 =item read() on unopened filehandle %s
3109 (W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
3111 =item readline() on closed filehandle %s
3113 (W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
3114 before now. Check your control flow.
3116 =item Reallocation too large: %lx
3118 (F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
3120 =item realloc() of freed memory ignored
3122 (S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
3125 =item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
3127 (F debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
3128 the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
3129 which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
3131 =item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
3133 (F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably indicates
3134 an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
3136 =item Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method %s
3138 (F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were encountered while invoking
3139 a method. Probably indicates an unintended loop in your inheritance
3142 =item Reference found where even-sized list expected
3144 (W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
3145 with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This usually
3146 means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant to use
3147 parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
3149 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
3150 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
3151 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
3152 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
3154 =item Reference is already weak
3156 (W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
3157 Doing so has no effect.
3159 =item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
3161 (W internal) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with
3162 a reference count of other than 1.
3164 =item Reference to nonexistent group in regex;
3166 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3168 (F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
3169 not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If you
3170 wanted to have the character with value 7 inserted into the regular expression,
3171 prepend a zero to make the number at least two digits: C<\07>
3173 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3176 =item regexp memory corruption
3178 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
3179 expression compiler gave it.
3181 =item Regexp out of space
3183 (P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
3186 =item Repeat count in pack overflows
3188 (F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3189 signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3191 =item Repeat count in unpack overflows
3193 (F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3194 signed integers. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
3196 =item Reversed %s= operator
3198 (W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
3199 always comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
3201 =item Runaway format
3203 (F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence, but it
3204 produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th line looked exactly like the
3205 199th line. Apparently you didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust
3206 themselves, either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
3207 shifting or popping (for array variables). See L<perlform>.
3209 =item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
3211 (W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
3212 single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
3213 value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
3214 behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3215 argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3216 and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3217 if you're expecting only one subscript.
3219 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
3220 element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
3221 Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
3224 =item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
3226 (W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
3227 element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
3228 (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
3229 like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3230 argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3231 and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3232 if you're expecting only one subscript.
3234 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
3235 as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
3236 not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
3239 =item Scalars leaked: %d
3241 (P) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping of scalars:
3242 not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time Perl exited.
3243 What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which is of course bad,
3244 especially if the Perl program is intended to be long-running.
3246 =item Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl
3248 (F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script without a setuid
3249 or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much sense.
3251 =item Search pattern not terminated
3253 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
3254 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
3255 Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
3257 Note that since Perl 5.9.0 a // can also be the I<defined-or>
3258 construct, not just the empty search pattern. Therefore code written
3259 in Perl 5.9.0 or later that uses the // as the I<defined-or> can be
3260 misparsed by pre-5.9.0 Perls as a non-terminated search pattern.
3262 =item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
3264 (W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
3265 filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
3267 =item select not implemented
3269 (F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
3271 =item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
3273 (F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
3274 the current implementation.
3276 =item Semicolon seems to be missing
3278 (W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
3279 semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
3281 =item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
3283 (S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
3284 scalar that had previously been marked as free.
3286 =item sem%s not implemented
3288 (F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
3290 =item send() on closed socket %s
3292 (W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
3293 before now. Check your control flow.
3295 =item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3297 (F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The <-- HERE
3298 shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3301 =item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated or not {}-balanced in regex;
3303 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3305 (F) If the contents of a (?{...}) clause contains braces, they must balance
3306 for Perl to properly detect the end of the clause. The <-- HERE shows in
3307 the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3310 =item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented in regex;
3312 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3314 (F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved but
3315 has not yet been written. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3316 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3318 =item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex;
3320 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3322 (F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense. The
3323 <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3324 discovered. See L<perlre>.
3326 =item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex;
3328 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3330 (F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
3331 parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. The <-- HERE shows in
3332 the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3335 =item 500 Server error
3341 This is the error message generally seen in a browser window when trying
3342 to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The actual error text
3343 varies widely from server to server. The most frequently-seen variants
3344 are "500 Server error", "Method (something) not permitted", "Document
3345 contains no data", "Premature end of script headers", and "Did not
3346 produce a valid header".
3348 B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
3350 You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by the
3351 user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the user
3352 account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment variables
3353 (like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't in a
3354 location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or less.
3355 Please see the following for more information:
3357 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
3358 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
3359 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
3361 You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
3363 =item setegid() not implemented
3365 (F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
3366 support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3369 =item seteuid() not implemented
3371 (F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
3372 support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3375 =item setpgrp can't take arguments
3377 (F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
3378 arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
3381 =item setrgid() not implemented
3383 (F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
3384 support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3387 =item setruid() not implemented
3389 (F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
3390 support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3393 =item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
3395 (W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
3396 forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
3397 L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
3399 =item Setuid/gid script is writable by world
3401 (F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that is writable by the
3402 world, because the world might have written on it already.
3404 =item shm%s not implemented
3406 (F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
3408 =item <> should be quotes
3410 (F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
3413 =item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
3415 (W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
3416 as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
3417 result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
3418 probably not what you had in mind.
3420 =item shutdown() on closed socket %s
3422 (W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
3425 =item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
3427 (W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
3428 Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
3430 =item sort is now a reserved word
3432 (F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
3433 But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
3435 =item Sort subroutine didn't return a numeric value
3437 (F) A sort comparison routine must return a number. You probably blew
3438 it by not using C<< <=> >> or C<cmp>, or by not using them correctly.
3439 See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3441 =item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
3443 (F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
3444 or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3446 =item splice() offset past end of array
3448 (W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
3449 the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the end
3450 of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want, try
3451 explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset. See
3456 (P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
3457 iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
3458 happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
3460 =item Statement unlikely to be reached
3462 (W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
3463 die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
3464 unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
3465 instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
3468 =item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
3470 (W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
3471 was either never opened or has since been closed.
3473 =item Stub found while resolving method `%s' overloading %s
3475 (P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
3476 stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
3477 C<can> may break this.
3479 =item Subroutine %s redefined
3481 (W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
3484 no warnings 'redefine';
3485 eval "sub name { ... }";
3488 =item Substitution loop
3490 (P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
3491 shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
3492 is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
3493 L<perlop/"Quote and Quote-like Operators">.
3495 =item Substitution pattern not terminated
3497 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
3498 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
3499 Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
3501 =item Substitution replacement not terminated
3503 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
3504 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
3505 Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
3507 =item substr outside of string
3509 (W substr),(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
3510 a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
3511 length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
3512 substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
3513 assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
3515 =item suidperl is no longer needed since %s
3517 (F) Your Perl was compiled with B<-D>SETUID_SCRIPTS_ARE_SECURE_NOW, but
3518 a version of the setuid emulator somehow got run anyway.
3520 =item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex;
3522 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3524 (F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most two
3525 branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or both to
3526 contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose it in
3527 clustering parentheses:
3529 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
3531 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3532 discovered. See L<perlre>.
3534 =item Switch condition not recognized in regex;
3536 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3538 (F) If the argument to the (?(...)if-clause|else-clause) construct is a
3539 number, it can be only a number. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
3540 about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3542 =item switching effective %s is not implemented
3544 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
3545 and effective uids or gids.
3549 (F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
3551 A keyword is misspelled.
3552 A semicolon is missing.
3554 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
3555 An opening or closing brace is missing.
3556 A closing quote is missing.
3558 Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
3559 error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
3560 The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
3561 it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
3562 before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
3563 Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
3564 the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
3565 C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
3566 if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20
3569 =item syntax error at line %d: `%s' unexpected
3571 (A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
3572 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
3575 =item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
3577 (F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
3578 a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
3579 or "my $var" or "our $var".
3583 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
3585 =item sysread() on closed filehandle %s
3587 (W closed) You tried to read from a closed filehandle.
3589 =item sysread() on unopened filehandle %s
3591 (W unopened) You tried to read from a filehandle that was never opened.
3593 =item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
3595 (F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
3596 "shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
3597 machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
3598 unconfigured. Consult your system support.
3600 =item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
3602 (W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
3603 before now. Check your control flow.
3605 =item Target of goto is too deeply nested
3607 (F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
3608 for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
3610 =item tell() on unopened filehandle
3612 (W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
3613 was either never opened or has since been closed.
3615 =item That use of $[ is unsupported
3617 (F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted
3618 as a compiler directive. You may say only one of
3627 This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out
3628 from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[>.
3630 =item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia
3632 (F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
3633 probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
3634 think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
3635 will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
3638 =item The %s function is unimplemented
3640 The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture, according
3641 to the probings of Configure.
3643 =item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
3645 (F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
3646 linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
3647 past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
3650 =item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
3652 =item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
3654 (W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
3655 element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
3656 wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
3657 need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
3658 F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
3659 target of the change to
3660 %ENV which produced the warning.
3662 =item thread failed to start: %s
3664 (F) The entry point function of threads->create() failed for some reason.
3666 =item times not implemented
3668 (F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
3669 suspect you're not running on Unix.
3671 =item Too few args to syscall
3673 (F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
3674 system call to call, silly dilly.
3676 =item Too late for "B<-T>" option
3678 (X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
3679 B<-T> option, but Perl was not invoked with B<-T> in its command line.
3680 This is an error because, by the time Perl discovers a B<-T> in a
3681 script, it's too late to properly taint everything from the environment.
3684 If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
3685 mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be fixed by
3686 editing the #! line so that the B<-T> option is a part of Perl's first
3687 argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -T> to C<perl -T -n>.
3689 If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
3690 B<-T> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -T scriptname>.
3692 =item Too late for "-%s" option
3694 (X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
3695 B<-M> or B<-m> option. This is an error because B<-M> and B<-m> options
3696 are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
3698 =item Too late to run %s block
3700 (W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
3701 when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
3702 loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
3703 instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
3706 =item Too many args to syscall
3708 (F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
3710 =item Too many arguments for %s
3712 (F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
3718 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
3719 Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
3721 =item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
3723 (F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
3724 Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
3726 =item Transliteration pattern not terminated
3728 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
3729 or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
3730 C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
3732 =item Transliteration replacement not terminated
3734 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
3737 =item truncate not implemented
3739 (F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
3740 Configure knows about.
3742 =item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
3744 (F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
3745 certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
3746 %NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
3747 {EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
3749 =item umask not implemented
3751 (F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
3752 use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
3754 =item Unable to create sub named "%s"
3756 (F) You attempted to create or access a subroutine with an illegal name.
3758 =item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
3760 (W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3761 many execution contexts were entered and left.
3763 =item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
3765 (W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3766 many values were temporarily localized.
3768 =item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
3770 (W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3771 many blocks were entered and left.
3773 =item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
3775 (W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3776 many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
3778 =item Undefined format "%s" called
3780 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
3781 another package? See L<perlform>.
3783 =item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
3785 (F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
3786 Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3788 =item Undefined subroutine &%s called
3790 (F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
3791 since been undefined.
3793 =item Undefined subroutine called
3795 (F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
3796 or if it was, it has since been undefined.
3798 =item Undefined subroutine in sort
3800 (F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
3801 to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3803 =item Undefined top format "%s" called
3805 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
3806 another package? See L<perlform>.
3808 =item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
3810 (W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
3811 C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
3814 =item %s: Undefined variable
3816 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
3817 Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
3819 =item unexec of %s into %s failed!
3821 (F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
3822 representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
3824 =item Unicode character %s is illegal
3826 (W utf8) Certain Unicode characters have been designated off-limits by
3827 the Unicode standard and should not be generated. If you really know
3828 what you are doing you can turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'utf8';>.
3830 =item Unknown BYTEORDER
3832 (F) There are no byte-swapping functions for a machine with this byte
3835 =item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
3837 You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
3839 =item Unknown switch condition (?(%.2s in regex;
3841 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3843 (F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
3844 is not known. The condition may be lookahead or lookbehind (the condition
3845 is true if the lookahead or lookbehind is true), a (?{...}) construct (the
3846 condition is true if the code evaluates to a true value), or a number (the
3847 condition is true if the set of capturing parentheses named by the number
3850 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3851 discovered. See L<perlre>.
3853 =item Unknown open() mode '%s'
3855 (F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
3856 of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
3857 C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
3859 =item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
3861 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
3862 iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
3863 data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
3864 subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
3866 =item Unknown warnings category '%s'
3868 (F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
3869 category that is unknown to perl at this point.
3871 Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a module
3872 (e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have imported this module
3875 =item unmatched [ in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3877 (F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
3878 include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
3879 first. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem
3880 was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3882 =item unmatched ( in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3884 (F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
3885 expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding the
3886 matching parenthesis. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3887 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3889 =item Unmatched right %s bracket
3891 (F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
3892 ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
3893 general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
3894 you were last editing.
3896 =item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
3898 (W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
3899 reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
3900 somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
3903 =item Unrecognized character %s
3905 (F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
3906 in your Perl script (or eval). Perhaps you tried to run a compressed
3907 script, a binary program, or a directory as a Perl program.
3909 =item /%s/: Unrecognized escape \\%c in character class passed through
3911 (W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
3912 recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
3913 understood literally.
3915 =item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through in regex;
3917 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3919 (W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
3920 recognized by Perl. This combination appears in an interpolated variable or
3921 a C<'>-delimited regular expression. The character was understood
3922 literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
3923 escape was discovered.
3925 =item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through
3927 (W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
3930 =item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
3932 (F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
3933 recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
3936 =item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
3938 (F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
3939 think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
3940 bad switch on your behalf.)
3942 =item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
3944 (W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
3945 operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
3946 PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
3948 =item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
3950 (F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
3952 =item Unsupported function %s
3954 (F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
3955 At least, Configure doesn't think so.
3957 =item Unsupported function fork
3959 (F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
3961 Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
3962 of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
3963 changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
3965 =item Unsupported script encoding
3967 (F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
3968 declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot yet read.
3970 =item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
3972 (F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
3973 least that's what Configure thought.
3975 =item Unterminated attribute list
3977 (F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
3978 start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
3979 block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
3980 attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
3982 =item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
3984 (F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
3985 an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
3986 character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
3987 character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
3989 =item Unterminated compressed integer
3991 (F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
3992 compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
3993 See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3995 =item Unterminated <> operator
3997 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
3998 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
3999 not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
4000 earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
4002 =item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
4004 (W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
4005 still valid when C<untie> was called.
4007 =item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex;
4009 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4011 (W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
4012 meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
4014 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
4018 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
4020 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
4021 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4023 =item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex;
4025 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4027 (W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
4028 meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
4030 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
4034 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
4036 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
4037 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4039 =item Useless use of %s in void context
4041 (W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
4042 nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
4043 value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
4044 often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
4045 to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
4046 get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
4051 when you meant to say
4053 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
4055 Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
4056 reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
4061 when you should have said
4065 The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
4066 while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
4067 a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
4068 throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
4069 L<perlref> for more on this.
4071 This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
4072 since they are often used in statements like
4074 1 while sub_with_side_effects() ;
4076 String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
4079 =item Useless use of "re" pragma
4081 (W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
4083 =item Useless use of sort in scalar context
4085 (W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
4089 This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
4091 =item Useless use of %s with no values
4093 (W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
4094 apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
4095 usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
4096 possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
4097 if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
4098 you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
4100 =item "use" not allowed in expression
4102 (F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
4103 returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
4105 =item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is deprecated
4107 (D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted form
4108 if you wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
4110 =item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
4112 (W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
4113 modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
4115 =item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
4117 (W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
4118 use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
4119 used. (This may change in the future.)
4121 =item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
4123 (W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
4124 operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
4125 repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
4127 =item Use of *glob{FILEHANDLE} is deprecated
4129 (D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the shorter *glob{IO} form
4130 to access the filehandle slot within a typeglob.
4132 =item Use of chdir('') or chdir(undef) as chdir() deprecated
4134 (D deprecated) chdir() with no arguments is documented to change to
4135 $ENV{HOME} or $ENV{LOGDIR}. chdir(undef) and chdir('') share this
4136 behavior, but that has been deprecated. In future versions they
4139 Be careful to check that what you pass to chdir() is defined and not
4140 blank, else you might find yourself in your home directory.
4142 =item Use of implicit split to @_ is deprecated
4144 (D deprecated) It makes a lot of work for the compiler when you clobber
4145 a subroutine's argument list, so it's better if you assign the results
4146 of a split() explicitly to an array (or list).
4148 =item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
4150 (D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines
4151 are looked up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy) even when the
4152 subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain functions (e.g.
4153 C<Foo::bar()>), not as methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or C<<
4156 This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup only for
4157 methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base of existing
4158 code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl
4159 currently issues an optional warning when non-methods use inherited
4162 The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
4163 non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used
4164 to depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class
4165 named C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during
4168 In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);>
4169 you should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
4170 C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
4172 =item Use of -l on filehandle %s
4174 (W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
4175 it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
4176 The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
4178 =item Use of "package" with no arguments is deprecated
4180 (D deprecated) You used the C<package> keyword without specifying a package
4181 name. So no namespace is current at all. Using this can cause many
4182 otherwise reasonable constructs to fail in baffling ways. C<use strict;>
4185 =item Use of %s in printf format not supported
4187 (F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
4188 only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
4190 =item Use of $* is deprecated
4192 (D deprecated) This variable magically turned on multi-line pattern
4193 matching, both for you and for any luckless subroutine that you happen
4194 to call. You should use the new C<//m> and C<//s> modifiers now to do
4195 that without the dangerous action-at-a-distance effects of C<$*>.
4197 =item Use of %s is deprecated
4199 (D deprecated) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use,
4200 generally because there's a better way to do it, and also because the
4201 old way has bad side effects.
4203 =item Use of $# is deprecated
4205 (D deprecated) This was an ill-advised attempt to emulate a poorly
4206 defined B<awk> feature. Use an explicit printf() or sprintf() instead.
4208 =item Use of reference "%s" as array index
4210 (W misc) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
4211 isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
4212 to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
4214 If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
4215 C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
4216 either, because you can overload the numification and stringification
4217 operators and then you assumedly know what you are doing.
4219 =item Use of reserved word "%s" is deprecated
4221 (D deprecated) The indicated bareword is a reserved word. Future
4222 versions of perl may use it as a keyword, so you're better off either
4223 explicitly quoting the word in a manner appropriate for its context of
4224 use, or using a different name altogether. The warning can be
4225 suppressed for subroutine names by either adding a C<&> prefix, or using
4226 a package qualifier, e.g. C<&our()>, or C<Foo::our()>.
4228 =item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
4230 (W taint, deprecated) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
4231 arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
4232 but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
4233 arguments. See L<perlsec>.
4235 =item Use of uninitialized value%s
4237 (W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
4238 defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
4239 To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
4241 To help you figure out what was undefined, perl tells you what operation
4242 you used the undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your
4243 program and the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily
4244 appear literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is
4245 usually optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to
4246 the C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in your
4249 =item Using a hash as a reference is deprecated
4251 (D deprecated) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
4252 C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1
4253 used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated, and will
4254 be removed in a future version.
4256 =item Using an array as a reference is deprecated
4258 (D deprecated) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
4259 C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1 used to
4260 allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated, and will be
4261 removed in a future version.
4263 =item UTF-16 surrogate %s
4265 (W utf8) You tried to generate half of an UTF-16 surrogate by
4266 requesting a Unicode character between the code points 0xD800 and
4267 0xDFFF (inclusive). That range is reserved exclusively for the use of
4268 UTF-16 encoding (by having two 16-bit UCS-2 characters); but Perl
4269 encodes its characters in UTF-8, so what you got is a very illegal
4270 character. If you really know what you are doing you can turn off
4271 this warning by C<no warnings 'utf8';>.
4273 =item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
4275 (W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
4276 C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
4277 can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
4278 false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
4279 constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
4280 C<defined> operator.
4282 =item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
4284 (W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
4285 %ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
4286 longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
4289 =item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
4291 (F) While "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable that
4292 you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
4293 something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
4294 that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
4295 front of your variable.
4297 =item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
4299 (W misc) A "my" or "our" variable has been redeclared in the current
4300 scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the previous
4301 instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note that the
4302 earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope or until
4303 all closure referents to it are destroyed.
4305 =item Variable "%s" may be unavailable
4307 (W closure) An inner (nested) I<anonymous> subroutine is inside a
4308 I<named> subroutine, and outside that is another subroutine; and the
4309 anonymous (innermost) subroutine is referencing a lexical variable
4310 defined in the outermost subroutine. For example:
4312 sub outermost { my $a; sub middle { sub { $a } } }
4314 If the anonymous subroutine is called or referenced (directly or
4315 indirectly) from the outermost subroutine, it will share the variable as
4316 you would expect. But if the anonymous subroutine is called or
4317 referenced when the outermost subroutine is not active, it will see the
4318 value of the shared variable as it was before and during the *first*
4319 call to the outermost subroutine, which is probably not what you want.
4321 In these circumstances, it is usually best to make the middle subroutine
4322 anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. Perl has specific support for
4323 shared variables in nested anonymous subroutines; a named subroutine in
4324 between interferes with this feature.
4326 =item Variable syntax
4328 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
4329 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
4332 =item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
4334 (W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
4335 lexical variable defined in an outer subroutine.
4337 When the inner subroutine is called, it will probably see the value of
4338 the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
4339 call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
4340 outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
4341 longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
4342 variable will no longer be shared.
4344 Furthermore, if the outer subroutine is anonymous and references a
4345 lexical variable outside itself, then the outer and inner subroutines
4346 will I<never> share the given variable.
4348 This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
4349 anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
4350 reference variables in outer subroutines are called or referenced, they
4351 are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
4353 =item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex;
4355 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4357 (F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
4358 known at compile time. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
4359 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4361 =item Version number must be a constant number
4363 (P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
4364 its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
4367 =item v-string in use/require is non-portable
4369 (W portable) The use of v-strings is non-portable to older, pre-5.6, Perls.
4370 If you want your scripts to be backward portable, use the floating
4371 point version number: for example, instead of C<use 5.6.1> say
4372 C<use 5.006_001>. This of course won't help: the older Perls
4373 won't suddenly start understanding newer features, but at least
4374 they will show a sensible error message indicating the required
4377 =item Warning: something's wrong
4379 (W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
4380 you called it with no args and C<$_> was empty.
4382 =item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
4384 (S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
4385 the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
4388 =item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
4390 (S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
4391 looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
4392 term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
4393 function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
4397 you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
4401 but in actual fact, you got
4405 So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
4407 =item Wide character in %s
4409 (W utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting
4410 one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print) but can be
4411 turned off by C<no warnings 'utf8';>. You are supposed to explicitly
4412 mark the filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
4414 =item write() on closed filehandle %s
4416 (W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
4417 before now. Check your control flow.
4419 =item X outside of string
4421 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position before
4422 the beginning of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4424 =item x outside of string
4426 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
4427 the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4429 =item Xsub "%s" called in sort
4431 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet
4434 =item Xsub called in sort
4436 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet
4439 =item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
4441 (F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
4442 sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
4443 about what you want. Your best bet is to put a setuid C wrapper around
4446 =item You need to quote "%s"
4448 (W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
4449 Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
4450 which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
4451 assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
4452 what you want, put an & in front.)