3 perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
7 These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
10 (W) A warning (optional).
11 (D) A deprecation (optional).
12 (S) A severe warning (mandatory).
13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
15 (X) A very fatal error (non-trappable).
17 Optional warnings are enabled by using the B<-w> switch. Warnings may
18 be captured by setting C<$^Q> to a reference to a routine that will be
19 called on each warning instead of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
20 Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
23 Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are denoted with a %s,
24 just as in a printf format. Note that some message start with a %s!
25 The symbols C<"%-?@> sort before the letters, while C<[> and C<\> sort after.
29 =item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
31 (F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make sense
32 to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use local()
33 if you want to localize a package variable.
35 =item "no" not allowed in expression
37 (F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and returns
38 no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
40 =item "use" not allowed in expression
42 (F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and returns
43 no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
45 =item % may only be used in unpack
47 (F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, since the
48 checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other
49 way. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
51 =item %s (...) interpreted as function
53 (W) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator followed
54 by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list operators arguments
55 found inside the parens. See L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
57 =item %s argument is not a HASH element
59 (F) The argument to delete() or exists() must be a hash element, such as
64 =item %s did not return a true value
66 (F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
67 it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
68 traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
69 do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
71 =item %s found where operator expected
73 (S) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator. If it
74 sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an operator,
75 it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an operator or
76 delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
78 =item %s had compilation errors.
80 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
82 =item %s has too many errors.
84 (F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
85 Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
87 =item %s matches null string many times
89 (W) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
90 regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. See L<perlre>.
92 =item %s never introduced
94 (S) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of scope
95 before it could possibly have been used.
99 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
101 =item B<-P> not allowed for setuid/setgid script
103 (F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor by name,
104 which provides a race condition that breaks security.
106 =item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
108 (F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
109 know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
111 =item ?+* follows nothing in regexp
113 (F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it
114 if you meant it literally. See L<perlre>.
116 =item @ outside of string
118 (F) You had a pack template that specified an absolution position outside
119 the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
121 =item accept() on closed fd
123 (W) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
124 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/accept>.
126 =item Allocation too large: %lx
128 (F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MSDOS machine.
130 =item Arg too short for msgsnd
132 (F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
134 =item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
136 (W)(S) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
137 you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
138 a missing quote, operator, paren pair or declaration.
140 =item Args must match #! line
142 (F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
143 with match the arguments specified on the #! line.
145 =item Argument "%s" isn't numeric
147 (W) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator that
148 expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
149 will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
151 =item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
153 (D) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some spots. This
154 is now heavily deprecated.
156 =item assertion botched: %s
158 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
160 =item Assertion failed: file "%s"
162 (P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
164 =item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
166 (F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
167 must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
168 know which context to supply to the right side.
170 =item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
172 (P) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas that will
173 be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be outside any
176 =item Attempt to free temp prematurely
178 (W) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the free_tmps()
179 routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the SV before
180 the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the free_tmps()
181 routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does try to free
184 =item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
186 (P) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
188 =item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
190 (W) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to see if it
191 would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0 earlier,
192 and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed. This
193 could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or that
194 SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was mortalized
195 when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been corrupted.
197 =item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %d
199 (F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl() or
200 shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sized are, respectively,
201 S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)> and
202 S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
204 =item Bad associative array
206 (P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
208 =item Bad filehandle: %s
210 (F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the symbol
211 has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an open(), or
212 did it in another package.
214 =item Bad free() ignored
216 (S) An internal routine called free() on something that had never been
217 malloc()ed in the first place.
219 =item Bad name after %s::
221 (F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then didn't
222 finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside of quotes,
231 $sym = "mypack::$var";
233 =item Bad symbol for array
235 (P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
236 wasn't a symbol table entry.
238 =item Bad symbol for filehandle
240 (P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something that
241 wasn't a symbol table entry.
243 =item Bad symbol for hash
245 (P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
246 wasn't a symbol table entry.
248 =item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
250 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN subroutine.
251 Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is exited.
253 =item bind() on closed fd
255 (W) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
256 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
258 =item Callback called exit
260 (F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via perl_call_sv()
261 exited by calling exit.
263 =item Can't "last" outside a block
265 (F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
266 except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a
267 current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a
268 "loopish" block. You can usually double the curlies to get the same
269 effect though, since the inner curlies will be considered a block
270 that loops once. See L<perlfunc/last>.
272 =item Can't "next" outside a block
274 (F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
275 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
276 count as a "loopish" block. You can usually double the curlies to get
277 the same effect though, since the inner curlies will be considered a block
278 that loops once. See L<perlfunc/last>.
280 =item Can't "redo" outside a block
282 (F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
283 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
284 count as a "loopish" block. You can usually double the curlies to get
285 the same effect though, since the inner curlies will be considered a block
286 that loops once. See L<perlfunc/last>.
288 =item Can't bless non-reference value
290 (F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
291 encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
293 =item Can't break at that line
295 (S) A warning intended for while running within the debugger, indicating
296 the line number specified wasn't the location of a statement that could
299 =item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
301 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
302 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
303 in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
305 =item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
307 (F) A method call must know what package it's supposed to run in. It
308 ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but
309 you didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't
310 an object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
312 =item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
314 (F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
315 object reference or package name contains an expression that returns
316 neither an object reference nor a package name. (Perhaps it's null?)
317 Something like this will reproduce the error:
320 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
321 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
323 =item Can't chdir to %s
325 (F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
326 that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
328 =item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
330 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
331 (type GLOB), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
341 but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
343 =item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
345 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
346 (type GLOB), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
348 =item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
350 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
351 (type GLOB), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
353 =item Can't create pipe mailbox
355 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted quotas
356 or other plumbing problems.
358 =item Can't declare %s in my
360 (F) Only scalar, array and hash variables may be declared as lexical variables.
361 They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
363 =item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
365 (S) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated reason.
367 =item Can't do inplace edit without backup
369 (F) You're on a system such as MSDOS that gets confused if you try reading
370 from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say B<-i>C<.bak>, or some
373 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s > 14 characters
375 (S) There isn't enough room in the filename to make a backup name for the file.
377 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
379 (S) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as a file in
380 /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
382 =item Can't do setegid!
384 (P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator
387 =item Can't do seteuid!
389 (P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
391 =item Can't do setuid
393 (F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to
394 do setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the
395 form sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides
396 under the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines.
397 If the file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask
398 your sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
400 =item Can't do waitpid with flags
402 (F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only waitpid()
403 without flags is emulated.
405 =item Can't do {n,m} with n > m
407 (F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want
408 your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. See L<perlre>.
410 =item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
412 (F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this point.
413 For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #! line.
415 =item Can't exec "%s": %s
417 (W) An system(), exec() or piped open call could not execute the named
418 program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the permissions
419 were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in C<$ENV{PATH}>, the
420 executable in question was compiled for another architecture, or the
421 #! line in a script points to an interpreter that can't be run for
422 similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support #! at all.)
426 (F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because that's
427 what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may need to
428 mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
430 =item Can't execute %s
432 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be found
433 in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions.
435 =item Can't find label %s
437 (F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's possible
438 for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
440 =item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
442 (F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means that
443 the closing delimiter was omitted. Since bracketed quotes count nesting
444 levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
446 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.)
450 (F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a pipeline.
452 =item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
454 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference between
455 access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes. Under VMS,
456 access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in the stat buffer, so
457 that ACLs and other protections can be taken into account. Unfortunately, Perl
458 assumes that the stat buffer contains all the necessary information, and passes
459 it, instead of the filespec, to the access checking routine. It will try to
460 retrieve the filespec using the device name and FID present in the stat buffer,
461 but this works only if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat()
462 routine, since the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
463 appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up and
464 returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking routine
465 knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you shouldn't ever
466 see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises only if some internal
467 code takes stat buffers lightly.)
469 =item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
471 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a pipe, Perl
472 can't retrieve its name for later use.
474 =item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
476 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
477 mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
479 =item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
481 (F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one subroutine
482 call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole cloth. In general
483 you should only be calling it out of an AUTOLOAD routine anyway. See
486 =item Can't localize lexical variable %s
488 (F) You used local on a variable name that was previous declared as a
489 lexical variable using "my". This is not allowed. If you want to
490 localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
493 =item Can't locate %s in @INC
495 (F) You said to do (or require, or use) a file that couldn't be found
496 in any of the libraries mentioned in @INC. Perhaps you need to set
497 the PERL5LIB environment variable to say where the extra library is,
498 or maybe the script needs to add the library name to @INC. Or maybe
499 you just misspelled the name of the file. See L<perlfunc/require>.
501 =item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
503 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
504 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
505 method, nor does any of it's base classes. See L<perlobj>.
507 =item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
509 (W) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that doesn't seem
514 (F) The mktemp() routine failed for some reason while trying to process
515 a B<-e> switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.
517 =item Can't modify %s in %s
519 (F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try to
520 change it, such as with an autoincrement.
522 =item Can't modify non-existent substring
524 (P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
527 =item Can't msgrcv to readonly var
529 (F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable in order to be used as a receive
532 =item Can't open %s: %s
534 (S) An inplace edit couldn't open the original file for the indicated reason.
535 Usually this is because you don't have read permission for the file.
537 =item Can't open bidirectional pipe
539 (W) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported. You can
540 try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such as
541 "open2.pl". Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using ">",
542 and then read it in under a different file handle.
544 =item Can't open error file %s as stderr
546 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
547 couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on the command line for
550 =item Can't open input file %s as stdin
552 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
553 couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the command line for reading.
555 =item Can't open output file %s as stdout
557 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
558 couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on the command line for
561 =item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
563 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
564 couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined for stdout.
566 =item Can't open perl script "%s": %s
568 (F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
570 =item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
572 (S) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason, probably because
573 you don't have write permission to the directory.
575 =item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
577 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried to
578 reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
580 =item Can't reswap uid and euid
582 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator
585 =item Can't return outside a subroutine
587 (F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
588 there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
590 =item Can't stat script "%s"
592 (P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have
593 it open already. Bizarre.
595 =item Can't swap uid and euid
597 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator
600 =item Can't take log of %g
602 (F) Logarithms are only defined on positive real numbers.
604 =item Can't take sqrt of %g
606 (F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
607 negative number. There's a Complex package available for Perl, though,
608 if you really want to do that.
610 =item Can't undef active subroutine
612 (F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
613 however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
614 redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
618 (F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
619 as the main Perl stack.
621 =item Can't upgrade that kind of scalar
623 (P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making
624 it into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are
625 so specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This
626 message indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
628 =item Can't upgrade to undef
630 (P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the totem pole, in the scheme
631 of upgradability. Upgrading to undef indicates an error in the
632 code calling sv_upgrade.
634 =item Can't use %s for loop variable
636 (F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a foreach.
638 =item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
640 (F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
641 reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
642 test the type of the reference, if need be.
644 =item Can't use \1 to mean $1 in expression
646 (W) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that creates
647 a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a backreference
648 to a matched substring is only valid as part of a regular expression pattern.
649 Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a value that prints
650 out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form instead.
652 =item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
654 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic references
655 are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
657 =item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
659 (F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
660 be a defined value. This helps to de-lurk some insidious errors.
662 =item Can't use delimiter brackets within expression
664 (F) The ${name} construct is for disambiguating identifiers in strings, not
667 =item Can't use global %s in "my"
669 (F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This is
670 not allowed, because the magic can only be tied to one location (namely
671 the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to have
672 variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
675 =item Can't use subscript on %s
677 (F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
678 subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
679 didn't look like an array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
681 =item Can't write to temp file for B<-e>: %s
683 (F) The write routine failed for some reason while trying to process
684 a B<-e> switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.
686 =item Can't x= to readonly value
688 (F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value) with
689 an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
690 Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
692 =item Cannot open temporary file
694 (F) The create routine failed for some reaon while trying to process
695 a B<-e> switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.
697 =item chmod: mode argument is missing initial 0
699 (W) A novice will sometimes say
703 not realizing that 777 will be interpreted as a decimal number, equivalent
704 to 01411. Octal constants are introduced with a leading 0 in Perl, as in C.
706 =item Close on unopened file <%s>
708 (W) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
710 =item connect() on closed fd
712 (W) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
713 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/connect>.
715 =item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
717 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
719 =item corrupted regexp pointers
721 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
722 expression compiler gave it.
724 =item corrupted regexp program
726 (P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without
727 a valid magic number.
729 =item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
731 (W) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly) 100
732 times than it has returned. This probably indicates an infinite
733 recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in which
734 case it indicates something else.
736 =item Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?
738 (W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or @hash{@keys}.
739 On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got carried away.
741 =item Do you need to predeclare %s?
743 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
744 found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
745 name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
746 because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
747 "sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're
748 referencing something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have
749 to define the subroutine or package before the current location. You
750 can use an empty "sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward"
753 =item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
755 (P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
757 =item do_study: out of memory
759 (P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
761 =item Duplicate free() ignored
763 (S) An internal routine called free() on something that had already
766 =item END failed--cleanup aborted
768 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing an END subroutine.
769 The interpreter is immediately exited.
771 =item Error converting file specification %s
773 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Since Perl may have to deal with file
774 specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
775 single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've
776 passed an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a
777 case the conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
779 =item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors.
781 (F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
783 =item Exiting eval via %s
785 (W) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
786 a goto, or a loop control statement.
788 =item Exiting subroutine via %s
790 (W) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such as a
791 a goto, or a loop control statement.
793 =item Exiting substitution via %s
795 (W) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such as a
796 a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
798 =item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
800 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS system
801 service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more details. The
802 filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell you which section of
803 the Perl source code is distressed.
805 =item fcntl is not implemented
807 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
810 =item Filehandle %s never opened
812 (W) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was never initialized.
813 You need to do an open() or a socket() call, or call a constructor from
814 the FileHandle package.
816 =item Filehandle %s opened only for input
818 (W) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you
819 intended it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with
820 "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you only
821 intended to write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
823 =item Filehandle only opened for input
825 (W) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you
826 intended it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with
827 "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you only
828 intended to write the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
830 =item Final $ should be \$ or $name
832 (F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
833 a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name
834 that happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or
837 =item Final @ should be \@ or @name
839 (F) You must now decide whether the final @ in a string was meant to be
840 a literal "at" sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name
841 that happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or
844 =item Format %s redefined
846 (W) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
850 eval "format NAME =...";
853 =item Format not terminated
855 (F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
856 to the end of your file without finding such a line.
858 =item Found = in conditional, should be ==
868 (or something like that).
870 =item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
872 (S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
874 =item gethostent not implemented
876 (F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
877 because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
880 =item get{sock,peer}name() on closed fd
882 (W) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed socket.
883 Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
885 =item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
887 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
888 C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
891 =item Glob not terminated
893 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
894 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and not
895 finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out earlier in
896 the line, and you really meant a "less than".
898 =item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
900 (F) You've said "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables must
901 either be lexically scoped (using "my"), or explicitly qualified to
902 say which package the global variable is in (using "::").
904 =item goto must have label
906 (F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
907 unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
909 =item Had to create %s unexpectedly
911 (S) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought to have
912 existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be created on
913 an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
915 =item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
917 (D) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some spots. This
918 is now heavily deprecated.
920 =item Identifier "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
922 (W) Typographical errors often show up as unique identifiers. If you
923 had a good reason for having a unique identifier, then just mention it
924 again somehow to suppress the message.
926 =item Illegal division by zero
928 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in your
929 logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against meaningless input.
931 =item Illegal modulus zero
933 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most numbers
934 don't take to this kindly.
936 =item Illegal octal digit
938 (F) You used an 8 or 9 in a octal number.
940 =item Illegal octal digit ignored
942 (W) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in a octal number. Interpretation
943 of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
945 =item Insecure dependency in %s
947 (F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
948 The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or setgid,
949 or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The tainting mechanism
950 labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly from the user,
951 who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any such data is
952 used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See L<perlsec>
953 for more information.
955 =item Insecure directory in %s
957 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or setgid
958 script if $ENV{PATH} contains a directory that is writable by the world.
963 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
964 setgid script if $ENV{PATH} is derived from data supplied (or
965 potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set the path to a
966 known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
968 =item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
970 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number
971 of times you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, in order to determine
972 whether the current call to C<exec> should be affect the current
973 script or a subprocess (see L<perlvms/exec>). Somehow, this count
974 has become scrambled, so Perl is making a guess and treating
975 this C<exec> as a request to terminate the Perl script
976 and execute the specified command.
978 =item internal disaster in regexp
980 (P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
982 =item internal urp in regexp at /%s/
984 (P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser.
986 =item invalid [] range in regexp
988 (F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
989 greater than the maximum character. See L<perlre>.
991 =item ioctl is not implemented
993 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
994 strange for a machine that supports C.
996 =item junk on end of regexp
998 (P) The regular expression parser is confused.
1000 =item Label not found for "last %s"
1002 (F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a
1003 loop of that name, not even if you count where you were called from.
1004 See L<perlfunc/last>.
1006 =item Label not found for "next %s"
1008 (F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
1009 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1012 =item Label not found for "redo %s"
1014 (F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
1015 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1018 =item listen() on closed fd
1020 (W) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
1021 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/listen>.
1023 =item Literal @%s now requires backslash
1025 (F) It used to be that Perl would try to guess whether you wanted an
1026 array interpolated or a literal @. It did this when the string was
1027 first used at runtime. Now strings are parsed at compile time, and
1028 ambiguous instances of @ must be disambiguated, either by putting a
1029 backslash to indicate a literal, or by declaring (or using) the array
1030 within the program before the string (lexically). (Someday it will simply
1031 assume that an unbackslashed @ interpolates an array.)
1033 =item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
1035 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
1036 doesn't somehow point to a valid method. See L<perlovl>.
1038 =item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
1040 (S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
1041 by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
1042 ended earlier on the current line.
1044 =item Misplaced _ in number
1046 (W) An underline in a decimal constant wasn't on a 3-digit boundary.
1048 =item Missing $ on loop variable
1050 (F) Apparently you've been programming in csh too much. Variables are always
1051 mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it can vary from
1052 one line to the next.
1054 =item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
1056 (F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
1057 "indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
1059 =item Missing operator before %s?
1061 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1062 found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
1064 =item Missing right bracket
1066 (F) The lexer counted more opening curly brackets (braces) than closing ones.
1067 As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you were last
1070 =item Missing semicolon on previous line?
1072 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1073 found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
1074 the previous line just because you saw this message.
1076 =item Modification of a read-only value attempted
1078 (F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
1079 constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", since the compiler
1080 catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
1082 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
1085 Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
1087 =item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, subscript %d
1089 (F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
1090 subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
1093 =item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, subscript "%s"
1095 (F) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it couldn't
1096 be created for some peculiar reason.
1098 =item Module name must be constant
1100 (F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
1102 =item msg%s not implemented
1104 (F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
1106 =item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
1108 (W) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like $foo[1,2,3]. They're written
1109 like $foo[1][2][3], as in C.
1111 =item Negative length
1113 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer length
1114 that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
1116 =item nested *?+ in regexp
1118 (F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parens. So
1119 things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal.
1121 Note, however, that the minimal matching quantifiers, *?, +? and ?? appear
1122 to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
1126 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
1127 even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
1129 =item No %s allowed while running setuid
1131 (F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or setgid
1132 script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there will be
1133 another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least securable.
1136 =item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
1138 (F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
1140 =item No comma allowed after %s
1142 (F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
1143 allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
1144 Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
1146 =item No command into which to pipe on command line
1148 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1149 and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it doesn't know whither you
1150 want to pipe the output from this command.
1152 =item No DB::DB routine defined
1154 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
1155 but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
1156 didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
1157 statement. Which is odd, because the file should have been required
1158 automatically, and should have blown up the require if it didn't parse
1161 =item No dbm on this machine
1163 (P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
1164 supply dbm nowadays, since Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
1166 =item No DBsub routine
1168 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
1169 but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
1170 didn't define a DB::sub routine to be called at the beginning of each
1171 ordinary subroutine call.
1173 =item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
1175 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1176 and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't find the name of the
1177 file to which to write data destined for stderr.
1179 =item No input file after < on command line
1181 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1182 and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the name of the file from
1183 which to read data for stdin.
1185 =item No output file after > on command line
1187 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1188 and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it doesn't know whither
1189 you wanted to redirect stdout.
1191 =item No output file after > or >> on command line
1193 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1194 and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't find the name of the
1195 file to which to write data destined for stdout.
1197 =item No Perl script found in input
1199 (F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
1200 with #! and containing the word "perl".
1202 =item No setregid available
1204 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
1207 =item No setreuid available
1209 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
1212 =item No space allowed after B<-I>
1214 (F) The argument to B<-I> must follow the B<-I> immediately with no
1217 =item No such pipe open
1219 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
1220 close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught earlier as
1221 an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
1223 =item No such signal: SIG%s
1225 (W) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was not recognized.
1226 Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names on your system.
1228 =item Not a CODE reference
1230 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
1231 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
1232 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was.
1233 See also L<perlref>.
1235 =item Not a format reference
1237 (F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
1238 format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
1240 =item Not a GLOB reference
1242 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "type glob" (that is,
1243 a symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
1244 something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out
1245 what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1247 =item Not a HASH reference
1249 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but
1250 found a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref()
1251 function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1253 =item Not a perl script
1255 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
1256 even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
1259 =item Not a SCALAR reference
1261 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but
1262 found a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref()
1263 function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1265 =item Not a subroutine reference
1267 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
1268 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
1269 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was.
1270 See also L<perlref>.
1272 =item Not a subroutine reference in %OVERLOAD
1274 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
1275 doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<perlovl>.
1277 =item Not an ARRAY reference
1279 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but
1280 found a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref()
1281 function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1283 =item Not enough arguments for %s
1285 (F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
1287 =item Not enough format arguments
1289 (W) A format specified more picture fields than the next line supplied.
1292 =item Null filename used
1294 (F) You can't require the null filename, especially since on many machines
1295 that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
1297 =item NULL OP IN RUN
1299 (P) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode pointer.
1303 (P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
1305 =item NULL regexp argument
1307 (P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it bigtime.
1309 =item NULL regexp parameter
1311 (P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
1313 =item Odd number of elements in hash list
1315 (S) You specified an odd number of elements to a hash list, which is odd,
1316 since hash lists come in key/value pairs.
1320 (S) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
1324 (S) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
1326 =item Operation `%s' %s: no method found,
1328 (F) An attempt was made to use an entry in an overloading table that
1329 somehow no longer points to a valid method. See L<perlovl>.
1331 =item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
1333 (S) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser was
1334 expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant
1335 to use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect.
1336 For example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as
1337 if you said "*foo * 'foo'".
1339 =item Out of memory for yacc stack
1341 (F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue parsing,
1342 but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or otherwise.
1344 =item Out of memory!
1346 (X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
1347 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request.
1351 (W) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a page.
1354 =item panic: ck_grep
1356 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
1358 =item panic: ck_split
1360 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
1362 =item panic: corrupt saved stack index
1364 (P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than there
1365 are in the savestack.
1369 (P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
1370 it wasn't an eval context.
1372 =item panic: do_match
1374 (P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational data.
1376 =item panic: do_split
1378 (P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
1380 =item panic: do_subst
1382 (P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational data.
1384 =item panic: do_trans
1386 (P) The internal do_trans() routine was called with invalid operational data.
1390 (P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
1391 and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
1393 =item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
1395 (P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
1397 =item panic: INTERPCONCAT
1399 (P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
1403 (P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
1404 it wasn't a block context.
1406 =item panic: leave_scope clearsv
1408 (P) A writable lexical variable became readonly somehow within the scope.
1410 =item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
1412 (P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
1413 invalid enum on the top of it.
1417 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
1419 =item panic: mapstart
1421 (P) The compiler is screwed up with respect to the map() function.
1423 =item panic: null array
1425 (P) One of the internal array routines was passed a null AV pointer.
1427 =item panic: pad_alloc
1429 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
1430 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
1432 =item panic: pad_free curpad
1434 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
1435 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
1437 =item panic: pad_free po
1439 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
1441 =item panic: pad_reset curpad
1443 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
1444 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
1446 =item panic: pad_sv po
1448 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
1450 =item panic: pad_swipe curpad
1452 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
1453 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
1455 =item panic: pad_swipe po
1457 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
1459 =item panic: pp_iter
1461 (P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
1463 =item panic: realloc
1465 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
1467 =item panic: restartop
1469 (P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
1470 didn't supply the destination.
1474 (P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
1475 then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
1477 =item panic: scan_num
1479 (P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
1481 =item panic: sv_insert
1483 (P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
1486 =item panic: top_env
1488 (P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
1492 (P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
1494 =item Parens missing around "%s" list
1496 (W) You said something like
1502 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
1504 Remember that "my" and "local" bind closer than comma.
1506 =item Perl %3.3f required--this is only version %s, stopped
1508 (F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more recent
1509 than the currently running version. How long has it been since you upgraded,
1510 anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
1512 =item Permission denied
1514 (F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to no good.
1516 =item pid %d not a child
1518 (W) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a process which
1519 isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is fine from VMS'
1520 perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
1522 =item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
1524 (F) Your C compiler uses POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
1525 the BSD version, which takes a pid.
1527 =item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
1529 (F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
1530 Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
1531 end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
1532 Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
1534 =item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
1536 (S) The old irregular construct
1540 is now misinterpreted as
1544 because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
1545 list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
1546 parens around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead of "||".
1548 =item print on closed filehandle %s
1550 (W) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime before now.
1551 Check your logic flow.
1553 =item printf on closed filehandle %s
1555 (W) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime before now.
1556 Check your logic flow.
1558 =item Probable precedence problem on %s
1560 (W) The compiler found a bare word where it expected a conditional,
1561 which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part of the
1562 last argument of the previous construct, for example:
1566 =item Read on closed filehandle <%s>
1568 (W) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime before now.
1569 Check your logic flow.
1571 =item Reallocation too large: %lx
1573 (F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MSDOS machine.
1575 =item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
1577 (F) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce the
1578 desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
1579 which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
1581 =item Recursive inheritance detected
1583 (F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably indicates
1584 an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
1586 =item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
1588 (W) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
1589 reference count of other than 1.
1591 =item regexp memory corruption
1593 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1594 expression compiler gave it.
1596 =item regexp out of space
1598 (P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it earlier.
1600 =item regexp too big
1602 (F) The current implementation of regular expression uses shorts as
1603 address offsets within a string. Unfortunately this means that if
1604 the regular expression compiles to longer than 32767, it'll blow up.
1605 Usually when you want a regular expression this big, there is a better
1606 way to do it with multiple statements. See L<perlre>.
1608 =item Reversed %s= operator
1610 (W) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must always
1611 comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
1613 =item Runaway format
1615 (F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence, but it
1616 produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th line looked exactly like the
1617 199th line. Apparently you didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust
1618 themselves, either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
1619 shifting or popping (for array variables). See L<perlform>.
1621 =item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
1623 (W) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a single value of
1624 an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $).
1625 The difference is that $foo[&bar] always behaves like a scalar, both when
1626 assigning to it and when evaluating its argument, while @foo[&bar] behaves
1627 like a list when you assign to it, and provides a list context to its
1628 subscript, which can do weird things if you're only expecting one subscript.
1630 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
1631 element as a list, you need to look into how references work, since
1632 Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
1635 =item Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl
1637 (F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script with its setuid
1638 or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much sense.
1640 =item Search pattern not terminated
1642 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
1643 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
1645 =item seek() on unopened file
1647 (W) You tried to use the seek() function on a filehandle that was either
1648 never opened or has been closed since.
1650 =item select not implemented
1652 (F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
1654 =item sem%s not implemented
1656 (F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
1658 =item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
1660 (S) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a scalar
1661 that had previously been marked as free.
1663 =item Semicolon seems to be missing
1665 (W) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing semicolon,
1666 or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
1668 =item Send on closed socket
1670 (W) The filehandle you're sending to got itself closed sometime before now.
1671 Check your logic flow.
1673 =item Sequence (?#... not terminated
1675 (F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
1676 parenthesis. Embedded parens aren't allowed. See L<perlre>.
1678 =item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented
1680 (F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
1681 but has not yet been written. See L<perlre>.
1683 =item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized
1685 (F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense.
1688 =item setegid() not implemented
1690 (F) You tried to assign to $), and your operating system doesn't support
1691 the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
1694 =item seteuid() not implemented
1696 (F) You tried to assign to $>, and your operating system doesn't support
1697 the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
1700 =item setrgid() not implemented
1702 (F) You tried to assign to $(, and your operating system doesn't support
1703 the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
1706 =item setruid() not implemented
1708 (F) You tried to assign to $<, and your operating system doesn't support
1709 the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
1712 =item Setuid/gid script is writable by world
1714 (F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that is writable by the world,
1715 because the world might have written on it already.
1717 =item shm%s not implemented
1719 (F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
1721 =item shutdown() on closed fd
1723 (W) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit superfluous.
1725 =item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined.
1727 (W) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist. Perhaps you
1728 put it into the wrong package?
1730 =item sort is now a reserved word
1732 (F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
1733 But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
1735 =item Sort subroutine didn't return a numeric value
1737 (F) A sort comparison routine must return a number. You probably blew
1738 it by not using C<E<lt>=E<gt> or C<cmp>, or by not using them correctly.
1739 See L<perlfunc/sort>.
1741 =item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
1743 (F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
1744 or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
1748 (P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't iterate
1749 more times than there are characters of input, which is what happened.)
1750 See L<perlfunc/split>.
1752 =item Stat on unopened file <%s>
1754 (W) You tried to use the stat() function (or an equivalent file test)
1755 on a filehandle that was either never opened or has been closed since.
1757 =item Statement unlikely to be reached
1759 (W) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a die().
1760 This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns unless
1761 there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system() instead,
1762 which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in a block
1765 =item Subroutine %s redefined
1767 (W) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
1771 eval "sub name { ... }";
1774 =item Substitution loop
1776 (P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a
1777 substitution shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of
1778 input, which is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
1779 L<perlop/"Quote and Quotelike Operators">.
1781 =item Substitution pattern not terminated
1783 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a s/// or s{}{}
1784 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
1786 =item Substitution replacement not terminated
1788 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a s/// or s{}{}
1789 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
1791 =item substr outside of string
1793 (W) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of a string.
1794 That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the length of
1795 the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
1797 =item suidperl is no longer needed since...
1799 (F) Your Perl was compiled with B<-D>SETUID_SCRIPTS_ARE_SECURE_NOW, but a
1800 version of the setuid emulator somehow got run anyway.
1804 (F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
1806 A keyword is misspelled.
1807 A semicolon is missing.
1809 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
1810 An opening or closing brace is missing.
1811 A closing quote is missing.
1813 Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
1814 error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
1815 The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
1816 it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
1817 before this, since Perl is good at understanding random input.
1818 Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
1819 the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
1820 C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
1821 if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
1823 =item System V IPC is not implemented on this machine
1825 (F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem", "shm"
1826 or "msg". See L<perlfunc/semctl>, for example.
1828 =item Syswrite on closed filehandle
1830 (W) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime before now.
1831 Check your logic flow.
1833 =item tell() on unopened file
1835 (W) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that was either
1836 never opened or has been closed since.
1838 =item Test on unopened file <%s>
1840 (W) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle that isn't
1841 open. Check your logic. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
1843 =item That use of $[ is unsupported
1845 (F) Assignment to $[ is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted as
1846 a compiler directive. You may only say one of
1855 This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base
1856 out from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[>.
1858 =item The %s function is unimplemented
1860 The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture, according
1861 to the probings of Configure.
1863 =item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia.
1865 (F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
1866 probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
1867 think the U.S. Govermnment thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
1868 will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
1871 =item The stat preceding C<-l _> wasn't an lstat
1873 (F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic linkhood
1874 if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went past
1875 the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename instead.
1877 =item times not implemented
1879 (F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I suspect
1880 you're not running on Unix.
1882 =item Too few args to syscall
1884 (F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
1885 system call to call, silly dilly.
1887 =item Too many args to syscall
1889 (F) Perl only supports a maximum of 14 args to syscall().
1891 =item Too many arguments for %s
1893 (F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
1895 =item trailing \ in regexp
1897 (F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash. Backslash
1900 =item Translation pattern not terminated
1902 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
1905 =item Translation replacement not terminated
1907 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
1910 =item truncate not implemented
1912 (F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
1913 Configure knows about.
1915 =item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
1917 (F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
1918 certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or @{EXPR}. Hashes must be
1919 %NAME or %{EXPR}. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
1920 {EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
1922 =item umask: argument is missing initial 0
1924 (W) A umask of 222 is incorrect. It should be 0222, since octal literals
1925 always start with 0 in Perl, as in C.
1927 =item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
1929 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many execution
1930 contexts were entered and left.
1932 =item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
1934 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many
1935 values were temporarily localized.
1937 =item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
1939 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many blocks
1940 were entered and left.
1942 =item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
1944 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many mortal
1945 scalars were allocated and freed.
1947 =item Undefined format "%s" called
1949 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
1950 another package? See L<perlform>.
1952 =item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
1954 (F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps
1955 it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
1957 =item Undefined subroutine &%s called
1959 (F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
1960 has since been undefined.
1962 =item Undefined subroutine called
1964 (F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
1965 or if it was, it has since been undefined.
1967 =item Undefined subroutine in sort
1969 (F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem to
1970 have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
1972 =item unexec of %s into %s failed!
1974 (F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
1975 representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
1977 =item Unknown BYTEORDER
1979 (F) There are no byteswapping functions for a machine with this byte order.
1981 =item unmatched () in regexp
1983 (F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
1984 expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
1985 the matching paren. See L<perlre>.
1987 =item Unmatched right bracket
1989 (F) The lexer counted more closing curly brackets (braces) than opening
1990 ones, so you're probably missing an opening bracket. As a general
1991 rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place you were
1994 =item unmatched [] in regexp
1996 (F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
1997 include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it first.
2000 =item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2002 (W) You used a bare word that might someday be claimed as a reserved word.
2003 It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it somehow, or insert
2004 an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a subroutine.
2006 =item Unrecognized character \%03o ignored
2008 (S) A garbage character was found in the input, and ignored, in case it's
2009 a weird control character on an EBCDIC machine, or some such.
2011 =item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
2013 (F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not recognized.
2014 Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names on your system.
2016 =item Unrecognized switch: -%s
2018 (F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that.
2019 (If you think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's
2020 supplying the bad switch on your behalf.)
2022 =item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
2024 (W) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that operation
2025 failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline, PROBABLY
2026 because you forgot to chop() or chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chop>.
2028 =item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
2030 (F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
2032 =item Unsupported function %s
2034 (F) This machines doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
2035 At least, Configure doesn't think so.
2037 =item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
2039 (F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
2040 least that's what Configure thought.
2042 =item Unterminated <> operator
2044 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
2045 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and not
2046 finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out earlier in
2047 the line, and you really meant a "less than".
2049 =item Use of $# is deprecated
2051 (D) This was an ill-advised attempt to emulate a poorly defined awk feature.
2052 Use an explicit printf() or sprintf() instead.
2054 =item Use of $* is deprecated
2056 (D) This variable magically turned on multiline pattern matching, both for
2057 you and for any luckless subroutine that you happen to call. You should
2058 use the new C<//m> and C<//s> modifiers now to do that without the dangerous
2059 action-at-a-distance effects of C<$*>.
2061 =item Use of %s in printf format not supported
2063 (F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible only
2064 from C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
2066 =item Use of %s is deprecated
2068 (D) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use, generally
2069 because there's a better way to do it, and also because the old way has
2072 =item Use of implicit split to @_ is deprecated
2074 (D) It makes a lot of work for the compiler when you clobber a
2075 subroutine's argument list, so it's better if you assign the results of
2076 a split() explicitly to an array (or list).
2078 =item Use of uninitialized value
2080 (W) An undefined value was used as if it were already defined. It was
2081 interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake. To suppress this
2082 warning assign an initial value to your variables.
2084 =item Useless use of %s in void context
2086 (W) You did something without a side effect in a context that does nothing
2087 with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a value
2088 from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very often
2089 this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl to parse
2090 your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd get this
2091 if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and said
2095 when you meant to say
2097 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
2099 Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
2100 reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
2105 when you should have said
2109 The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
2110 while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
2111 a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
2112 throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
2113 L<perlref> for more on this.
2115 =item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly.
2117 (S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on the
2118 close(0. This usually indicates your filesystem ran out of disk space.
2120 =item Warning: Use of "%s" without parens is ambiguous
2122 (S) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that looks like a
2123 binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a term or
2124 unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand function
2125 has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
2129 you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
2133 but in actual fact, you got
2137 So put in parens to say what you really mean.
2139 =item Write on closed filehandle
2141 (W) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime before now.
2142 Check your logic flow.
2144 =item X outside of string
2146 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position before
2147 the beginning of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2149 =item x outside of string
2151 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
2152 the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2154 =item Xsub "%s" called in sort
2156 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet supported.
2158 =item Xsub called in sort
2160 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet supported.
2162 =item You can't use C<-l> on a filehandle
2164 (F) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file it
2165 already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
2166 Use a filename instead.
2168 =item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
2170 (F) And you probably never will, since you probably don't have the
2171 sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
2172 about what you want. Your best bet is to use the wrapsuid script in
2173 the eg directory to put a setuid C wrapper around your script.
2175 =item You need to quote "%s"
2177 (W) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name. Unfortunately, you
2178 already have a subroutine of that name declared, which means that Perl 5
2179 will try to call the subroutine when the assignment is executed, which is
2180 probably not what you want. (If it IS what you want, put an & in front.)
2182 =item [gs]etsockopt() on closed fd
2184 (W) You tried to get or set a socket option on a closed socket.
2185 Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
2186 See L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
2188 =item \1 better written as $1
2190 (W) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables. The use
2191 of backslashes is grandfathered on the righthand side of a
2192 substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
2193 because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better
2194 if there are more than 9 backreferences.
2196 =item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
2198 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
2199 found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to redirect STDIN using
2200 '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
2202 =item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
2204 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
2205 thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and into a pipe to another
2206 command. You need to choose one or the other, though nothing's stopping you
2207 from piping into a program or Perl script which 'splits' output into two
2210 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";