3 perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
7 These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
10 (W) A warning (optional).
11 (D) A deprecation (optional).
12 (S) A severe warning (mandatory).
13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
18 Optional warnings are enabled by using the B<-w> switch. Warnings may
19 be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}> to a reference to a routine that
20 will be called on each warning instead of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
21 Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
24 Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are denoted with a %s,
25 just as in a printf format. Note that some messages start with a %s!
26 The symbols C<"%(-?@> sort before the letters, while C<[> and C<\> sort after.
30 =item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
32 (F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make sense
33 to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use local()
34 if you want to localize a package variable.
36 =item "my" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
38 (W) A lexical variable has been redeclared in the current scope or statement,
39 effectively eliminating all access to the previous instance. This is almost
40 always a typographical error. Note that the earlier variable will still exist
41 until the end of the scope or until all closure referents to it are
44 =item "no" not allowed in expression
46 (F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and returns
47 no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
49 =item "use" not allowed in expression
51 (F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and returns
52 no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
54 =item '!' allowed only after types %s
56 (F) The '!' is allowed in pack() and unpack() only after certain types.
59 =item % may only be used in unpack
61 (F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
62 checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other
63 way. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
65 =item /%s/: Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through
67 (W) You used a backslash-character combination which is not recognized
68 by Perl. This combination appears in an interpolated variable or a
69 C<'>-delimited regular expression.
71 =item %s (...) interpreted as function
73 (W) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator followed
74 by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list operators arguments
75 found inside the parentheses. See L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
77 =item %s argument is not a HASH element
79 (F) The argument to exists() must be a hash element, such as
84 =item %s argument is not a HASH element or slice
86 (F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash element, such as
91 or a hash slice, such as
93 @foo{$bar, $baz, $xyzzy}
94 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
96 =item %s did not return a true value
98 (F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
99 it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
100 traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
101 do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
103 =item %s found where operator expected
105 (S) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator. If it
106 sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an operator,
107 it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an operator or
108 delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
110 =item %s had compilation errors
112 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
114 =item %s has too many errors
116 (F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
117 Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
119 =item %s matches null string many times
121 (W) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
122 regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. See L<perlre>.
124 =item %s never introduced
126 (S) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of scope
127 before it could possibly have been used.
131 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
133 =item %s: Command not found
135 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
136 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
139 =item %s: Expression syntax
141 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
142 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
145 =item %s: Undefined variable
147 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
148 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
153 (A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell
154 instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script
157 =item (in cleanup) %s
159 (W) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
160 the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by
161 the system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast
162 number of times, the warning is issued only once for any number
163 of failures that would otherwise result in the same message being
166 Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag
167 could also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
169 =item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
171 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
172 found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
173 the previous line just because you saw this message.
175 =item B<-P> not allowed for setuid/setgid script
177 (F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor by name,
178 which provides a race condition that breaks security.
180 =item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
182 (F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
183 know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
185 =item C<-p> destination: %s
187 (F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
188 command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
189 redirected it with select().)
191 =item 500 Server error
195 =item ?+* follows nothing in regexp
197 (F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it
198 if you meant it literally. See L<perlre>.
200 =item @ outside of string
202 (F) You had a pack template that specified an absolute position outside
203 the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
205 =item <> should be quotes
207 (F) You wrote C<require E<lt>fileE<gt>> when you should have written
210 =item accept() on closed fd
212 (W) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
213 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/accept>.
215 =item Allocation too large: %lx
217 (X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
219 =item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
221 (W) The pattern match (//), substitution (s///), and transliteration (tr///)
222 operators work on scalar values. If you apply one of them to an array
223 or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to a scalar value -- the
224 length of an array, or the population info of a hash -- and then work on
225 that scalar value. This is probably not what you meant to do. See
226 L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for alternatives.
228 =item Arg too short for msgsnd
230 (F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
232 =item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
234 (W)(S) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
235 you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
236 a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
238 =item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
240 (W) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl keyword,
241 and you have used the name without qualification for calling one or the
242 other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the subroutine is
245 To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
246 before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
247 Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
248 imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
250 To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
251 on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or by declaring the subroutine
252 to be an object method (see L<attrs>).
254 =item Args must match #! line
256 (F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
257 with match the arguments specified on the #! line. Since some systems
258 impose a one-argument limit on the #! line, try combining switches;
259 for example, turn C<-w -U> into C<-wU>.
261 =item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
263 (W) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator that
264 expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
265 will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
267 =item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
269 (D) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some spots. This
270 is now heavily deprecated.
272 =item assertion botched: %s
274 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
276 =item Assertion failed: file "%s"
278 (P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
280 =item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
282 (F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
283 must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
284 know which context to supply to the right side.
286 =item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
288 (P) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas that will
289 be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be outside any
292 =item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
294 (P) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of strings to
295 optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other strings. This
296 indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count of a string
297 that can no longer be found in the table.
299 =item Attempt to free temp prematurely
301 (W) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the free_tmps()
302 routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the SV before
303 the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the free_tmps()
304 routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does try to free
307 =item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
309 (P) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
311 =item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
313 (W) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to see if it
314 would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0 earlier,
315 and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed. This
316 could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or that
317 SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was mortalized
318 when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been corrupted.
320 =item Attempt to join self
322 (F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
323 impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may
324 need to move the join() to some other thread.
326 =item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
328 (W) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
329 function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
330 means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
331 invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
332 literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
335 =item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
337 (W) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr() used
338 as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
339 dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
341 =item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %d
343 (F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl() or
344 shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
345 S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
346 S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
348 =item Bad filehandle: %s
350 (F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the symbol
351 has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an open(), or
352 did it in another package.
354 =item Bad free() ignored
356 (S) An internal routine called free() on something that had never been
357 malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
358 setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
360 This message can be quite often seen with DB_File on systems with
361 "hard" dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of
362 C<Berkeley DB> which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving>
367 (P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
369 =item Bad index while coercing array into hash
371 (F) The index looked up in the hash found as the 0'th element of a
372 pseudo-hash is not legal. Index values must be at 1 or greater.
375 =item Bad name after %s::
377 (F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then didn't
378 finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside of quotes,
387 $sym = "mypack::$var";
389 =item Bad symbol for array
391 (P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
392 wasn't a symbol table entry.
394 =item Bad symbol for filehandle
396 (P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something that
397 wasn't a symbol table entry.
399 =item Bad symbol for hash
401 (P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
402 wasn't a symbol table entry.
404 =item Badly placed ()'s
406 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
407 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
410 =item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
412 (F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
413 subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>" symbol.
414 Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
416 =item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
418 (W) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but
419 the compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point.
420 Perhaps you need to predeclare a package?
422 =item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
424 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN subroutine.
425 Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is exited.
427 =item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
429 (F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
430 implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had
431 already occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}>
432 could not be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code
433 likely depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
435 =item bind() on closed fd
437 (W) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
438 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
440 =item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
442 (P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not copiable.
444 =item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
446 (W) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to iterate over
447 %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition which was too long,
448 so it was truncated to the string shown.
450 =item Callback called exit
452 (F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via perl_call_sv()
453 exited by calling exit.
455 =item Can't "goto" outside a block
457 (F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look
458 like a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually
459 occurs if you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which
460 is a no-no. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
462 =item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
464 (F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a
465 foreach loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
467 =item Can't "last" outside a block
469 (F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
470 except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a
471 current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a
472 "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(). You can usually double
473 the curlies to get the same effect though, because the inner curlies
474 will be considered a block that loops once. See L<perlfunc/last>.
476 =item Can't "next" outside a block
478 (F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
479 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
480 count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(). You can
481 usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the inner
482 curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
484 =item Can't read CRTL environ
486 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
487 from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
488 missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
489 or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not searched.
491 =item Can't "redo" outside a block
493 (F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
494 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
495 count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(). You can
496 usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the inner
497 curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
499 =item Can't bless non-reference value
501 (F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
502 encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
504 =item Can't break at that line
506 (S) A warning intended to only be printed while running within the debugger, indicating
507 the line number specified wasn't the location of a statement that could
510 =item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
512 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
513 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
514 in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
516 =item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
518 (F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
519 ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but
520 you didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't
521 an object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
523 =item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
525 (F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
526 object reference or package name contains an expression that returns
527 a defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
528 Something like this will reproduce the error:
531 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
532 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
534 =item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
536 (F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
537 object reference or package name contains an undefined value.
538 Something like this will reproduce the error:
541 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
542 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
544 =item Can't chdir to %s
546 (F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
547 that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
549 =item Can't check filesystem of script "%s"
551 (P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for nosuid.
553 =item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
555 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
556 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
566 but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
568 =item Can't coerce %s to number 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 coerce %s to string in %s
575 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
576 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
578 =item Can't coerce array into hash
580 (F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the array has no
581 information on how to map from keys to array indices. You can do that
582 only with arrays that have a hash reference at index 0.
584 =item Can't create pipe mailbox
586 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted quotas
587 or other plumbing problems.
589 =item Can't declare %s in my
591 (F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as lexical variables.
592 They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
594 =item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
596 (S) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated reason.
598 =item Can't do inplace edit without backup
600 (F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try reading
601 from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say C<-i.bak>, or some
604 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s E<gt> 14 characters
606 (S) There isn't enough room in the filename to make a backup name for the file.
608 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
610 (S) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as a file in
611 /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
613 =item Can't do setegid!
615 (P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator
618 =item Can't do seteuid!
620 (P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
622 =item Can't do setuid
624 (F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to
625 do setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the
626 form sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides
627 under the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines.
628 If the file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask
629 your sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
631 =item Can't do waitpid with flags
633 (F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only waitpid()
634 without flags is emulated.
636 =item Can't do {n,m} with n E<gt> m
638 (F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want
639 your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. See L<perlre>.
641 =item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
643 (F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this point.
644 For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #! line.
646 =item Can't exec "%s": %s
648 (W) An system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the named
649 program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the permissions
650 were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in C<$ENV{PATH}>, the
651 executable in question was compiled for another architecture, or the
652 #! line in a script points to an interpreter that can't be run for
653 similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support #! at all.)
657 (F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because that's
658 what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may need to
659 mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
661 =item Can't execute %s
663 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute found
664 in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
666 =item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
668 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be found
669 in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The script
670 exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
672 =item Can't find %s on PATH
674 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be found
677 =item Can't find label %s
679 (F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's possible
680 for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
682 =item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
684 (F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means that
685 the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count nesting
686 levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
688 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
690 If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have
691 included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good
692 programmer's editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
696 (F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a pipeline.
698 =item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
700 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference between
701 access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes. Under VMS,
702 access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in the stat buffer, so
703 that ACLs and other protections can be taken into account. Unfortunately, Perl
704 assumes that the stat buffer contains all the necessary information, and passes
705 it, instead of the filespec, to the access checking routine. It will try to
706 retrieve the filespec using the device name and FID present in the stat buffer,
707 but this works only if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat()
708 routine, because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
709 appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up and
710 returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking routine
711 knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you shouldn't ever
712 see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises only if some internal
713 code takes stat buffers lightly.)
715 =item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
717 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a pipe, Perl
718 can't retrieve its name for later use.
720 =item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
722 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
723 mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
725 =item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
727 (F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one subroutine
728 call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole cloth. In general
729 you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD routine anyway. See
732 =item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-string
734 (F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval "string".
735 (You can use it to jump out of an eval {BLOCK}, but you probably don't want to.)
737 =item Can't localize through a reference
739 (F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
740 handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
741 pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be
742 sure that $ref will still be a reference.
744 =item Can't localize lexical variable %s
746 (F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
747 lexical variable using "my". This is not allowed. If you want to
748 localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
751 =item Can't localize pseudo-hash element
753 (F) You said something like C<local $ar-E<gt>{'key'}>, where $ar is
754 a reference to a pseudo-hash. That hasn't been implemented yet, but
755 you can get a similar effect by localizing the corresponding array
756 element directly -- C<local $ar-E<gt>[$ar-E<gt>[0]{'key'}]>.
758 =item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
760 (F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows autoload,
761 but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes are a misprint
762 in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit> the file, say, by
763 doing C<make install>.
765 =item Can't locate %s
767 (F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be
768 found. Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC,
769 unless the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you need
770 to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where the extra
771 library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name to @INC. Or
772 maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See L<perlfunc/require>
775 =item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
777 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
778 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
779 method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
781 =item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
783 (W) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that doesn't seem
786 =item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
788 (F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably VMS.
790 =item Can't modify %s in %s
792 (F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try to
793 change it, such as with an auto-increment.
795 =item Can't modify nonexistent substring
797 (P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
800 =item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
802 (F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
805 =item Can't open %s: %s
807 (S) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<E<lt>E<gt>>
808 filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
809 switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
810 is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named
813 =item Can't open bidirectional pipe
815 (W) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported. You can
816 try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such as
817 IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using "E<gt>",
818 and then read it in under a different file handle.
820 =item Can't open error file %s as stderr
822 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
823 couldn't open the file specified after '2E<gt>' or '2E<gt>E<gt>' on the
824 command line for writing.
826 =item Can't open input file %s as stdin
828 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
829 couldn't open the file specified after 'E<lt>' on the command line for reading.
831 =item Can't open output file %s as stdout
833 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
834 couldn't open the file specified after 'E<gt>' or 'E<gt>E<gt>' on the command
837 =item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
839 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
840 couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined for stdout.
842 =item Can't open perl script "%s": %s
844 (F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
846 =item Can't redefine active sort subroutine %s
848 (F) Perl optimizes the internal handling of sort subroutines and keeps
849 pointers into them. You tried to redefine one such sort subroutine when it
850 was currently active, which is not allowed. If you really want to do
851 this, you should write C<sort { &func } @x> instead of C<sort func @x>.
853 =item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
855 (S) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason, probably because
856 you don't have write permission to the directory.
858 =item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
860 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried to
861 reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
863 =item Can't reswap uid and euid
865 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator
868 =item Can't return outside a subroutine
870 (F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
871 there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
873 =item Can't stat script "%s"
875 (P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have
876 it open already. Bizarre.
878 =item Can't swap uid and euid
880 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator
883 =item Can't take log of %g
885 (F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
886 negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
887 standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for
888 the negative numbers.
890 =item Can't take sqrt of %g
892 (F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
893 negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
894 with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
896 =item Can't undef active subroutine
898 (F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
899 however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
900 redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
904 (F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
905 as the main Perl stack.
907 =item Can't upgrade that kind of scalar
909 (P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making
910 it into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are
911 so specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This
912 message indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
914 =item Can't upgrade to undef
916 (P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the totem pole, in the scheme
917 of upgradability. Upgrading to undef indicates an error in the
918 code calling sv_upgrade.
920 =item Can't use %%! because Errno.pm is not available
922 (F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
923 Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
924 provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
926 =item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
928 (F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
929 You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the E<lt>=E<gt> or cmp operator,
930 and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
931 Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
934 =item Bad evalled substitution pattern
936 (F) You've used the /e switch to evaluate the replacement for a
937 substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
938 most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
940 =item Can't use %s for loop variable
942 (F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a foreach.
944 =item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
946 (F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
947 reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
948 test the type of the reference, if need be.
950 =item Can't use \1 to mean $1 in expression
952 (W) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that creates
953 a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a backreference
954 to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular expression pattern.
955 Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a value that prints
956 out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form instead.
958 =item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while \"strict refs\" in use
960 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic references
961 are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
963 =item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
965 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic references
966 are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
968 =item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
970 (F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
971 be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
973 =item Can't use global %s in "my"
975 (F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This is
976 not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location (namely
977 the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to have
978 variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
981 =item Can't use subscript on %s
983 (F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
984 subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
985 didn't look like an array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
987 =item Can't weaken a nonreference
989 (F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
990 references can be weakened.
992 =item Can't x= to read-only value
994 (F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value) with
995 an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
996 Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
998 =item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
1000 (F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but
1001 there is no builtin with the name C<word>.
1003 =item Can't resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
1005 (F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as
1006 opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the
1007 package. If method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
1009 =item Character class [:%s:] unknown
1011 (F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown.
1013 =item Character class syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes
1015 (W) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
1016 I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct,
1017 for example: /[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that the last two constructs
1018 are not currently implemented, they are placeholders for future extensions.
1020 =item Character class syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions
1022 (W) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
1023 with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
1024 If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
1025 expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
1026 backslash: "\[." and ".\]".
1028 =item Character class syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions
1030 (W) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
1031 beginning with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions.
1032 If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
1033 expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
1034 backslash: "\[=" and "=\]".
1036 =item chmod: mode argument is missing initial 0
1038 (W) A novice will sometimes say
1040 chmod 777, $filename
1042 not realizing that 777 will be interpreted as a decimal number, equivalent
1043 to 01411. Octal constants are introduced with a leading 0 in Perl, as in C.
1045 =item Close on unopened file E<lt>%sE<gt>
1047 (W) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1049 =item Compilation failed in require
1051 (F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
1052 Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it encountered
1053 were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
1055 =item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1057 (W) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex situations
1058 where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited to 32766,
1059 or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1060 arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1061 recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1062 under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather
1063 than in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular
1064 expression so that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlbook>
1065 for information on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
1067 =item connect() on closed fd
1069 (W) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
1070 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/connect>.
1072 =item Constant is not %s reference
1074 (F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
1075 is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference. The
1076 message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This usually
1077 indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
1078 See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1080 =item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1082 (S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible for
1083 inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1086 =item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1088 (S) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible for
1089 inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1092 =item Copy method did not return a reference
1094 (F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
1096 =item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
1098 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1100 =item corrupted regexp pointers
1102 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1103 expression compiler gave it.
1105 =item corrupted regexp program
1107 (P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without
1108 a valid magic number.
1110 =item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1112 (W) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly) 100
1113 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an infinite
1114 recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in which
1115 case it indicates something else.
1117 =item defined(@array) is deprecated
1119 (D) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it checks for an
1120 undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the array is empty,
1121 just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
1123 =item defined(%hash) is deprecated
1125 (D) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it checks for an
1126 undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the hash is empty,
1127 just use C<if (%hash) { # not empty }> for example.
1129 =item Delimiter for here document is too long
1131 (F) In a here document construct like C<E<lt>E<lt>FOO>, the label
1132 C<FOO> is too long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously
1133 twisted to write code that triggers this error.
1135 =item Did you mean &%s instead?
1137 (W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some such.
1139 =item Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?
1141 (W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or @hash{@keys}.
1142 On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got carried away.
1146 (F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1147 you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
1149 =item Do you need to predeclare %s?
1151 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1152 found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
1153 name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1154 because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
1155 "sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're
1156 referencing something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have
1157 to define the subroutine or package before the current location. You
1158 can use an empty "sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward"
1161 =item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1163 (P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1165 =item do_study: out of memory
1167 (P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1169 =item Duplicate free() ignored
1171 (S) An internal routine called free() on something that had already
1174 =item elseif should be elsif
1176 (S) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's
1177 ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method
1178 named "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
1179 unlikely to be what you want.
1181 =item END failed--cleanup aborted
1183 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing an END subroutine.
1184 The interpreter is immediately exited.
1186 =item entering effective %s failed
1188 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
1189 effective uids or gids failed.
1191 =item Error converting file specification %s
1193 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
1194 specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
1195 single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've
1196 passed an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a
1197 case the conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
1199 =item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
1201 (F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular expression
1202 that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which is unsafe.
1203 See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
1205 =item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
1207 (F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion,
1208 but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'> pragma is
1209 in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
1211 =item %s: Eval-group not allowed at run time
1213 (F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the C<(?{ ... })>
1214 zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the pattern contains
1215 interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it is not allowed.
1216 If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly building the pattern
1217 from an interpolated string at run time and using that in an eval().
1218 See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
1220 =item Excessively long <> operator
1222 (F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1223 Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1224 filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1225 variable and glob that.
1227 =item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors
1229 (F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1231 =item Exiting eval via %s
1233 (W) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as
1234 a goto, or a loop control statement.
1236 =item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1238 (W) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a sort block or
1239 subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a loop control
1240 statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
1242 =item Exiting subroutine via %s
1244 (W) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such as
1245 a goto, or a loop control statement.
1247 =item Exiting substitution via %s
1249 (W) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such as
1250 a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
1252 =item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1254 (W) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1255 the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1256 usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target
1257 package, e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
1259 =item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
1261 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS system
1262 service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more details. The
1263 filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell you which section of
1264 the Perl source code is distressed.
1266 =item fcntl is not implemented
1268 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1269 PDP-11 or something?
1271 =item Filehandle %s never opened
1273 (W) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was never initialized.
1274 You need to do an open() or a socket() call, or call a constructor from
1275 the FileHandle package.
1277 =item Filehandle %s opened only for input
1279 (W) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you
1280 intended it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with
1281 "+E<lt>" or "+E<gt>" or "+E<gt>E<gt>" instead of with "E<lt>" or nothing. If
1282 you intended only to write the file, use "E<gt>" or "E<gt>E<gt>". See
1285 =item Filehandle %s opened only for output
1287 (W) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing. If you
1288 intended it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with
1289 "+E<lt>" or "+E<gt>" or "+E<gt>E<gt>" instead of with "E<lt>" or nothing. If
1290 you intended only to read from the file, use "E<lt>". See
1293 =item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1295 (F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
1296 a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name
1297 that happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or
1300 =item Final @ should be \@ or @name
1302 (F) You must now decide whether the final @ in a string was meant to be
1303 a literal "at" sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name
1304 that happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or
1307 =item Format %s redefined
1309 (W) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
1313 eval "format NAME =...";
1316 =item Format not terminated
1318 (F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1319 to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1321 =item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1331 (or something like that).
1333 =item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1335 (S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1337 =item gethostent not implemented
1339 (F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1340 because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1343 =item get{sock,peer}name() on closed fd
1345 (W) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed socket.
1346 Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
1348 =item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1350 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1351 C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1353 =item Glob not terminated
1355 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
1356 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and not
1357 finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out earlier in
1358 the line, and you really meant a "less than".
1360 =item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1362 (F) You've said "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables
1363 must either be lexically scoped (using "my"), or explicitly qualified to
1364 say which package the global variable is in (using "::").
1366 =item goto must have label
1368 (F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1369 unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1371 =item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1373 (S) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought to have
1374 existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be created on
1375 an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
1377 =item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1379 (D) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some spots. This
1380 is now heavily deprecated.
1382 =item Identifier too long
1384 (F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
1385 about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
1386 names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future
1387 versions of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
1389 =item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
1391 (W) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's internal
1392 environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=> delimiter
1393 used to spearate keys from values. The element is ignored.
1395 =item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
1397 (W) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical name
1398 or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
1399 didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the
1402 =item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1404 (F) A carriage return character was found in the input. This is an
1405 error, and not a warning, because carriage return characters can break
1406 multi-line strings, including here documents (e.g., C<print E<lt>E<lt>EOF;>).
1408 Under Unix, this error is usually caused by executing Perl code --
1409 either the main program, a module, or an eval'd string -- that was
1410 transferred over a network connection from a non-Unix system without
1411 properly converting the text file format.
1413 Under systems that use something other than '\n' to delimit lines of
1414 text, this error can also be caused by reading Perl code from a file
1415 handle that is in binary mode (as set by the C<binmode> operator).
1417 In either case, the Perl code in question will probably need to be
1418 converted with something like C<s/\x0D\x0A?/\n/g> before it can be
1421 =item Illegal division by zero
1423 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in your
1424 logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against meaningless input.
1426 =item Illegal modulus zero
1428 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most numbers
1429 don't take to this kindly.
1431 =item Illegal binary digit %s
1433 (F) You used a digit other than 0 and 1 in a binary number.
1435 =item Illegal octal digit %s
1437 (F) You used an 8 or 9 in a octal number.
1439 =item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
1441 (W) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
1442 Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the offending digit.
1444 =item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
1446 (W) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in a octal number. Interpretation
1447 of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
1449 =item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
1451 (W) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or A - F in a
1452 hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal number stopped
1453 before the illegal character.
1455 =item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: %s
1457 (X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
1458 following switches: B<-[DIMUdmw]>.
1460 =item In string, @%s now must be written as \@%s
1462 (F) It used to be that Perl would try to guess whether you wanted an
1463 array interpolated or a literal @. It did this when the string was first
1464 used at runtime. Now strings are parsed at compile time, and ambiguous
1465 instances of @ must be disambiguated, either by prepending a backslash to
1466 indicate a literal, or by declaring (or using) the array within the
1467 program before the string (lexically). (Someday it will simply assume
1468 that an unbackslashed @ interpolates an array.)
1470 =item Insecure dependency in %s
1472 (F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
1473 The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or setgid,
1474 or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The tainting mechanism
1475 labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly from the user,
1476 who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any such data is
1477 used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See L<perlsec>
1478 for more information.
1480 =item Insecure directory in %s
1482 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or setgid
1483 script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by the world.
1486 =item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
1488 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1489 setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
1490 C<$ENV{ENV}> or C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> are derived from data supplied (or
1491 potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set the path to a
1492 known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
1494 =item Integer overflow in %s number
1496 (S) The literal hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
1497 is too big for your architecture. On a 32-bit architecture the largest
1498 literal hex, octal or binary number representable without overflow
1499 is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or 0b11111111111111111111111111111111
1500 respectively. Note that Perl transparently promotes decimal literals
1501 to a floating point representation internally--subject to loss of
1502 precision errors in subsequent operations--so this limit usually
1503 doesn't apply to decimal literals.
1505 =item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
1507 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number
1508 of times you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine
1509 whether the current call to C<exec> should affect the current
1510 script or a subprocess (see L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count
1511 has become scrambled, so Perl is making a guess and treating
1512 this C<exec> as a request to terminate the Perl script
1513 and execute the specified command.
1515 =item internal disaster in regexp
1517 (P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
1519 =item glob failed (%s)
1521 (W) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for C<glob>
1522 and C<E<lt>*.cE<gt>>. Usually, this means that you supplied a C<glob>
1523 pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a nonzero
1524 status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit resulted in a
1525 coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell) is broken. If so,
1526 you should change all of the csh-related variables in config.sh: If you
1527 have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it were csh (e.g.
1528 C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all empty (except that
1529 C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will think csh is missing.
1530 In either case, after editing config.sh, run C<./Configure -S> and
1533 =item internal urp in regexp at /%s/
1535 (P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser.
1537 =item invalid [] range in regexp
1539 (F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
1540 greater than the maximum character. See L<perlre>.
1542 =item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
1544 (W) Perl does not understand the given format conversion.
1545 See L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
1547 =item Invalid type in pack: '%s'
1549 (F) The given character is not a valid pack type. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1550 (W) The given character is not a valid pack type but used to be silently
1553 =item Invalid type in unpack: '%s'
1555 (F) The given character is not a valid unpack type. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
1556 (W) The given character is not a valid unpack type but used to be silently
1559 =item ioctl is not implemented
1561 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
1562 strange for a machine that supports C.
1564 =item junk on end of regexp
1566 (P) The regular expression parser is confused.
1568 =item Label not found for "last %s"
1570 (F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a
1571 loop of that name, not even if you count where you were called from.
1572 See L<perlfunc/last>.
1574 =item Label not found for "next %s"
1576 (F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
1577 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1580 =item Label not found for "redo %s"
1582 (F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
1583 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1586 =item leaving effective %s failed
1588 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
1589 effective uids or gids failed.
1591 =item listen() on closed fd
1593 (W) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
1594 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/listen>.
1596 =item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
1598 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
1599 doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
1601 =item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
1603 (S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
1604 by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
1605 ended earlier on the current line.
1607 =item Misplaced _ in number
1609 (W) An underline in a decimal constant wasn't on a 3-digit boundary.
1611 =item Missing $ on loop variable
1613 (F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables are always
1614 mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it can vary from
1615 one line to the next.
1617 =item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
1619 (F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
1620 "indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
1622 =item Missing command in piped open
1624 (W) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or C<open(FH, "command |")>
1625 construction, but the command was missing or blank.
1627 =item Missing operator before %s?
1629 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1630 found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
1632 =item Missing right curly or square bracket
1634 (F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than
1635 closing ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place
1636 you were last editing.
1638 =item Modification of a read-only value attempted
1640 (F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
1641 constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
1642 catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
1644 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
1647 Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
1649 =item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, subscript %d
1651 (F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
1652 subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
1655 =item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, subscript "%s"
1657 (P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it couldn't
1658 be created for some peculiar reason.
1660 =item Module name must be constant
1662 (F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
1664 =item msg%s not implemented
1666 (F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
1668 =item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
1670 (W) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>. They're written
1671 like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
1673 =item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
1675 (W) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
1676 If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention
1677 it again somehow to suppress the message. The C<use vars> pragma is
1678 provided for just this purpose.
1680 =item Negative length
1682 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer length
1683 that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
1685 =item nested *?+ in regexp
1687 (F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
1688 things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal.
1690 Note, however, that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and C<??> appear
1691 to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
1695 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
1696 even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
1698 =item No %s allowed while running setuid
1700 (F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or setgid
1701 script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there will be
1702 another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least securable.
1705 =item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
1707 (F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
1709 =item No comma allowed after %s
1711 (F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
1712 allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
1713 Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
1715 One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
1716 constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
1717 importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
1718 does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
1719 explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
1720 L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
1721 would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
1722 remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
1723 constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
1724 list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
1725 this error was triggered?
1727 =item No command into which to pipe on command line
1729 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1730 and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it doesn't know where you
1731 want to pipe the output from this command.
1733 =item No DB::DB routine defined
1735 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
1736 but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
1737 didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
1738 statement. Which is odd, because the file should have been required
1739 automatically, and should have blown up the require if it didn't parse
1742 =item No dbm on this machine
1744 (P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
1745 supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
1747 =item No DBsub routine
1749 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
1750 but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
1751 didn't define a DB::sub routine to be called at the beginning of each
1752 ordinary subroutine call.
1754 =item No error file after 2E<gt> or 2E<gt>E<gt> on command line
1756 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1757 and found a '2E<gt>' or a '2E<gt>E<gt>' on the command line, but can't find
1758 the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
1760 =item No input file after E<lt> on command line
1762 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1763 and found a 'E<lt>' on the command line, but can't find the name of the file
1764 from which to read data for stdin.
1766 =item No output file after E<gt> on command line
1768 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1769 and found a lone 'E<gt>' at the end of the command line, so it doesn't know
1770 where you wanted to redirect stdout.
1772 =item No output file after E<gt> or E<gt>E<gt> on command line
1774 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1775 and found a 'E<gt>' or a 'E<gt>E<gt>' on the command line, but can't find the
1776 name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
1778 =item No Perl script found in input
1780 (F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
1781 with #! and containing the word "perl".
1783 =item No setregid available
1785 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
1788 =item No setreuid available
1790 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
1793 =item No space allowed after B<-I>
1795 (F) The argument to B<-I> must follow the B<-I> immediately with no
1798 =item No such array field
1800 (F) You tried to access an array as a hash, but the field name used is
1801 not defined. The hash at index 0 should map all valid field names to
1802 array indices for that to work.
1804 =item No such field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
1806 (F) You tried to access a field of a typed variable where the type
1807 does not know about the field name. The field names are looked up in
1808 the %FIELDS hash in the type package at compile time. The %FIELDS hash
1809 is usually set up with the 'fields' pragma.
1811 =item No such pipe open
1813 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
1814 close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught earlier as
1815 an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
1817 =item No such signal: SIG%s
1819 (W) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was not recognized.
1820 Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names on your system.
1822 =item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
1824 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
1825 timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
1826 to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL>
1827 to translate to the number of seconds which need to be added to UTC to
1830 =item Not a CODE reference
1832 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
1833 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
1834 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was.
1835 See also L<perlref>.
1837 =item Not a format reference
1839 (F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
1840 format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
1842 =item Not a GLOB reference
1844 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is,
1845 a symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
1846 something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out
1847 what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1849 =item Not a HASH reference
1851 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but
1852 found a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref()
1853 function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1855 =item Not a perl script
1857 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
1858 even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
1861 =item Not a SCALAR reference
1863 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but
1864 found a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref()
1865 function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1867 =item Not a subroutine reference
1869 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
1870 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
1871 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was.
1872 See also L<perlref>.
1874 =item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
1876 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
1877 doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
1879 =item Not an ARRAY reference
1881 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but
1882 found a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref()
1883 function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1885 =item Not enough arguments for %s
1887 (F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
1889 =item Not enough format arguments
1891 (W) A format specified more picture fields than the next line supplied.
1894 =item Null filename used
1896 (F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many machines
1897 that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
1899 =item Null picture in formline
1901 (F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
1902 specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
1903 supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
1905 =item NULL OP IN RUN
1907 (P) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode pointer.
1911 (P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
1913 =item NULL regexp argument
1915 (P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
1917 =item NULL regexp parameter
1919 (P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
1921 =item Number too long
1923 (F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to about
1924 about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future versions of
1925 Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In the meantime,
1926 try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of "1_000_000").
1928 =item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
1930 (S) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash, which
1931 is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
1933 =item Offset outside string
1935 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with an offset
1936 pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to imagine.
1937 The sole exception to this is that C<sysread()>ing past the buffer
1938 will extend the buffer and zero pad the new area.
1942 (S) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
1946 (S) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
1948 =item Operation `%s': no method found, %s
1950 (F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which
1951 no handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in
1952 terms of other handlers, there is no default handler for any
1953 operation, unless C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be
1954 true. See L<overload>.
1956 =item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
1958 (S) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser was
1959 expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant
1960 to use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect.
1961 For example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as
1962 if you said "*foo * 'foo'".
1964 =item Out of memory for yacc stack
1966 (F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue parsing,
1967 but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or otherwise.
1969 =item Out of memory during request for %s
1971 (X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
1972 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request.
1974 The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
1975 depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
1976 However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as
1977 an emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the
1978 error is trappable I<once>.
1980 =item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
1982 (F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
1983 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
1984 the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so
1985 a possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
1987 =item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
1989 (F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
1990 is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g., C<$arr[time]>
1991 instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1995 (W) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a page.
1998 =item panic: ck_grep
2000 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
2002 =item panic: ck_split
2004 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
2006 =item panic: corrupt saved stack index
2008 (P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than there
2009 are in the savestack.
2011 =item panic: del_backref
2013 (P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
2018 (P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
2019 it wasn't an eval context.
2021 =item panic: do_match
2023 (P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational data.
2025 =item panic: do_split
2027 (P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
2029 =item panic: do_subst
2031 (P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational data.
2033 =item panic: do_trans
2035 (P) The internal do_trans() routine was called with invalid operational data.
2039 (P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
2043 (P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
2044 and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
2046 =item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
2048 (P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
2050 =item panic: INTERPCONCAT
2052 (P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
2054 =item panic: kid popen errno read
2056 (F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
2060 (P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
2061 it wasn't a block context.
2063 =item panic: leave_scope clearsv
2065 (P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the scope.
2067 =item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
2069 (P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
2070 invalid enum on the top of it.
2074 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
2076 =item panic: magic_killbackrefs
2078 (P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
2079 references to an object.
2081 =item panic: mapstart
2083 (P) The compiler is screwed up with respect to the map() function.
2085 =item panic: null array
2087 (P) One of the internal array routines was passed a null AV pointer.
2089 =item panic: pad_alloc
2091 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2092 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2094 =item panic: pad_free curpad
2096 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2097 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2099 =item panic: pad_free po
2101 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2103 =item panic: pad_reset curpad
2105 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2106 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2108 =item panic: pad_sv po
2110 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2112 =item panic: pad_swipe curpad
2114 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2115 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2117 =item panic: pad_swipe po
2119 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2121 =item panic: pp_iter
2123 (P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
2125 =item panic: realloc
2127 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
2129 =item panic: restartop
2131 (P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
2132 didn't supply the destination.
2136 (P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
2137 then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
2139 =item panic: scan_num
2141 (P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
2143 =item panic: sv_insert
2145 (P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
2148 =item panic: top_env
2150 (P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
2154 (P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
2156 =item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
2158 (W) You said something like
2164 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
2166 Remember that "my" and "local" bind closer than comma.
2168 =item Perl %3.3f required--this is only version %s, stopped
2170 (F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more recent
2171 than the currently running version. How long has it been since you upgraded,
2172 anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
2174 =item Permission denied
2176 (F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to no good.
2178 =item pid %x not a child
2180 (W) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a process which
2181 isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is fine from VMS'
2182 perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
2184 =item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
2186 (F) Your C compiler uses POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
2187 the BSD version, which takes a pid.
2189 =item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
2191 (W) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
2192 strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated
2193 as literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
2194 parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
2196 You probably wrote something like this:
2203 when you should have written this:
2210 If you really want comments, build your list the
2211 old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
2215 'b', # another comment
2218 =item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
2220 (W) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore commas
2221 aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used different
2222 delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently
2225 You probably wrote something like this:
2229 which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
2230 commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
2234 =item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
2236 (F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
2237 Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
2238 end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
2239 Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
2241 =item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
2243 (S) The old irregular construct
2247 is now misinterpreted as
2251 because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary
2252 and list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must
2253 put parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator
2256 =item print on closed filehandle %s
2258 (W) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime before now.
2259 Check your logic flow.
2261 =item printf on closed filehandle %s
2263 (W) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime before now.
2264 Check your logic flow.
2266 =item Probable precedence problem on %s
2268 (W) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a conditional,
2269 which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part of the
2270 last argument of the previous construct, for example:
2274 =item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
2276 (S) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been declared
2277 or defined with a different function prototype.
2279 =item Range iterator outside integer range
2281 (F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
2282 are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
2283 One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string
2284 increment by prepending "0" to your numbers.
2286 =item Read on closed filehandle %s
2288 (W) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime before now.
2289 Check your logic flow.
2291 =item Reallocation too large: %lx
2293 (F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
2295 =item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
2297 (F) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce the
2298 desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
2299 which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
2301 =item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
2303 (F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably indicates
2304 an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
2306 =item Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method '%s' in package '%s'
2308 (F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were encountered while invoking a
2309 method. Probably indicates an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
2311 =item Reference found where even-sized list expected
2313 (W) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list with
2314 an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This
2315 usually means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant
2316 to use parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
2318 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
2319 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
2320 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
2321 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
2323 =item Reference is already weak
2325 (W) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
2326 Doing so has no effect.
2328 =item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
2330 (W) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
2331 reference count of other than 1.
2333 =item regexp *+ operand could be empty
2335 (F) The part of the regexp subject to either the * or + quantifier
2336 could match an empty string.
2338 =item regexp memory corruption
2340 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
2341 expression compiler gave it.
2343 =item regexp out of space
2345 (P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it earlier.
2347 =item Reversed %s= operator
2349 (W) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must always
2350 comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
2352 =item Runaway format
2354 (F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence, but it
2355 produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th line looked exactly like the
2356 199th line. Apparently you didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust
2357 themselves, either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
2358 shifting or popping (for array variables). See L<perlform>.
2360 =item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
2362 (W) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a single element of
2363 an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $).
2364 The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always behaves like a scalar, both when
2365 assigning to it and when evaluating its argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves
2366 like a list when you assign to it, and provides a list context to its
2367 subscript, which can do weird things if you're expecting only one subscript.
2369 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
2370 element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
2371 Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
2374 =item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
2376 (W) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single element of
2377 a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $).
2378 The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves like a scalar, both when
2379 assigning to it and when evaluating its argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves
2380 like a list when you assign to it, and provides a list context to its
2381 subscript, which can do weird things if you're expecting only one subscript.
2383 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash
2384 element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
2385 Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
2388 =item Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl
2390 (F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script without a setuid
2391 or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much sense.
2393 =item Search pattern not terminated
2395 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
2396 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
2397 Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
2399 =item %sseek() on unopened file
2401 (W) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a filehandle that
2402 was either never opened or has since been closed.
2404 =item select not implemented
2406 (F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
2408 =item sem%s not implemented
2410 (F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
2412 =item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
2414 (S) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a scalar
2415 that had previously been marked as free.
2417 =item Semicolon seems to be missing
2419 (W) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing semicolon,
2420 or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
2422 =item Send on closed socket
2424 (W) The filehandle you're sending to got itself closed sometime before now.
2425 Check your logic flow.
2427 =item Sequence (? incomplete
2429 (F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?.
2432 =item Sequence (?#... not terminated
2434 (F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
2435 parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. See L<perlre>.
2437 =item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented
2439 (F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
2440 but has not yet been written. See L<perlre>.
2442 =item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized
2444 (F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense.
2449 Also known as "500 Server error".
2451 B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
2453 You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by the user
2454 CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the user account you
2455 tested it under), does not rely on any environment variables (like PATH)
2456 from the user it isn't running under, and isn't in a location where the CGI
2457 server can't find it, basically, more or less. Please see the following
2458 for more information:
2460 http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FAQs/cgi/idiots-guide.html
2461 http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FAQs/cgi/perl-cgi-faq.html
2462 ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/www/cgi-faq
2463 http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/interface.html
2464 http://www-genome.wi.mit.edu/WWW/faqs/www-security-faq.html
2466 You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
2468 =item setegid() not implemented
2470 (F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't support
2471 the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
2474 =item seteuid() not implemented
2476 (F) You tried to assign to C<$E<gt>>, and your operating system doesn't support
2477 the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
2480 =item setrgid() not implemented
2482 (F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't support
2483 the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
2486 =item setruid() not implemented
2488 (F) You tried to assign to C<$E<lt>>, and your operating system doesn't support
2489 the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
2492 =item Setuid/gid script is writable by world
2494 (F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that is writable by the world,
2495 because the world might have written on it already.
2497 =item shm%s not implemented
2499 (F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
2501 =item shutdown() on closed fd
2503 (W) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit superfluous.
2505 =item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
2507 (W) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist. Perhaps you
2508 put it into the wrong package?
2510 =item sort is now a reserved word
2512 (F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
2513 But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
2515 =item Sort subroutine didn't return a numeric value
2517 (F) A sort comparison routine must return a number. You probably blew
2518 it by not using C<E<lt>=E<gt>> or C<cmp>, or by not using them correctly.
2519 See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2521 =item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
2523 (F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
2524 or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2528 (P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't iterate
2529 more times than there are characters of input, which is what happened.)
2530 See L<perlfunc/split>.
2532 =item Stat on unopened file E<lt>%sE<gt>
2534 (W) You tried to use the stat() function (or an equivalent file test)
2535 on a filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
2537 =item Statement unlikely to be reached
2539 (W) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a die().
2540 This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns unless
2541 there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system() instead,
2542 which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in a block
2545 =item Strange *+?{} on zero-length expression
2547 (W) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where it
2548 makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion.
2549 Try putting the quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example,
2550 the way to match "abc" provided that it is followed by three
2551 repetitions of "xyz" is C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
2553 =item Stub found while resolving method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
2555 (P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation stubs.
2556 Stubs should never be implicitely created, but explicit calls to C<can>
2559 =item Subroutine %s redefined
2561 (W) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
2565 eval "sub name { ... }";
2568 =item Substitution loop
2570 (P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a
2571 substitution shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of
2572 input, which is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
2573 L<perlop/"Quote and Quote-like Operators">.
2575 =item Substitution pattern not terminated
2577 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a s/// or s{}{}
2578 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
2579 Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
2581 =item Substitution replacement not terminated
2583 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a s/// or s{}{}
2584 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
2585 Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
2587 =item substr outside of string
2589 (S),(W) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of a
2590 string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
2591 length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is
2592 mandatory if substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side
2593 of an assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
2595 =item suidperl is no longer needed since %s
2597 (F) Your Perl was compiled with B<-D>SETUID_SCRIPTS_ARE_SECURE_NOW, but a
2598 version of the setuid emulator somehow got run anyway.
2600 =item switching effective %s is not implemented
2602 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the
2603 real and effective uids or gids.
2607 (F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
2609 A keyword is misspelled.
2610 A semicolon is missing.
2612 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
2613 An opening or closing brace is missing.
2614 A closing quote is missing.
2616 Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
2617 error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
2618 The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
2619 it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
2620 before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
2621 Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
2622 the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
2623 C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
2624 if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
2626 =item syntax error at line %d: `%s' unexpected
2628 (A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell
2629 instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script
2632 =item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
2634 (F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
2635 "shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
2636 machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
2637 unconfigured. Consult your system support.
2639 =item Syswrite on closed filehandle
2641 (W) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime before now.
2642 Check your logic flow.
2644 =item Target of goto is too deeply nested
2646 (F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply
2647 nested for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
2649 =item tell() on unopened file
2651 (W) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that was either
2652 never opened or has since been closed.
2654 =item Test on unopened file E<lt>%sE<gt>
2656 (W) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle that isn't
2657 open. Check your logic. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
2659 =item That use of $[ is unsupported
2661 (F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted as
2662 a compiler directive. You may say only one of
2671 This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base
2672 out from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[>.
2674 =item The %s function is unimplemented
2676 The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture, according
2677 to the probings of Configure.
2679 =item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia
2681 (F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
2682 probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
2683 think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
2684 will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
2687 =item The stat preceding C<-l _> wasn't an lstat
2689 (F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic linkhood
2690 if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went past
2691 the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename instead.
2693 =item This Perl can't reset CRTL eviron elements (%s)
2695 =item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
2697 (W) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an element
2698 of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl wasn't
2699 built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll need to
2700 rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see
2701 L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the target of the change to
2702 %ENV which produced the warning.
2704 =item times not implemented
2706 (F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I suspect
2707 you're not running on Unix.
2709 =item Too few args to syscall
2711 (F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
2712 system call to call, silly dilly.
2714 =item Too late for "B<-T>" option
2716 (X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
2717 B<-T> option, but Perl was not invoked with B<-T> in its command line.
2718 This is an error because, by the time Perl discovers a B<-T> in a
2719 script, it's too late to properly taint everything from the environment.
2722 If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
2723 mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be fixed
2724 by editing the #! line so that the B<-T> option is a part of Perl's
2725 first argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -T> to C<perl -T -n>.
2727 If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
2728 B<-T> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -T scriptname>.
2730 =item Too late for "-%s" option
2732 (X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
2733 B<-M> or B<-m> option. This is an error because B<-M> and B<-m> options
2734 are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
2740 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
2741 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
2744 =item Too many args to syscall
2746 (F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
2748 =item Too many arguments for %s
2750 (F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
2752 =item trailing \ in regexp
2754 (F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash. Backslash
2757 =item Transliteration pattern not terminated
2759 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
2760 or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
2761 C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
2763 =item Transliteration replacement not terminated
2765 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
2768 =item truncate not implemented
2770 (F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
2771 Configure knows about.
2773 =item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
2775 (F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
2776 certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
2777 %NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
2778 {EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
2780 =item umask: argument is missing initial 0
2782 (W) A umask of 222 is incorrect. It should be 0222, because octal
2783 literals always start with 0 in Perl, as in C.
2785 =item umask not implemented
2787 (F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried
2788 to use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
2790 =item Unable to create sub named "%s"
2792 (F) You attempted to create or access a subroutine with an illegal name.
2794 =item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
2796 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many execution
2797 contexts were entered and left.
2799 =item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
2801 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many
2802 values were temporarily localized.
2804 =item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
2806 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many blocks
2807 were entered and left.
2809 =item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
2811 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many mortal
2812 scalars were allocated and freed.
2814 =item Undefined format "%s" called
2816 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
2817 another package? See L<perlform>.
2819 =item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
2821 (F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps
2822 it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2824 =item Undefined subroutine &%s called
2826 (F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
2827 has since been undefined.
2829 =item Undefined subroutine called
2831 (F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
2832 or if it was, it has since been undefined.
2834 =item Undefined subroutine in sort
2836 (F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem to
2837 have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2839 =item Undefined top format "%s" called
2841 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
2842 another package? See L<perlform>.
2844 =item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
2846 (W) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la C<*foo = undef>.
2847 This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean C<undef *foo>.
2849 =item unexec of %s into %s failed!
2851 (F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
2852 representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
2854 =item Unknown BYTEORDER
2856 (F) There are no byte-swapping functions for a machine with this byte order.
2858 =item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
2860 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
2861 iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
2862 data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
2863 subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
2865 =item unmatched () in regexp
2867 (F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
2868 expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
2869 the matching parenthesis. See L<perlre>.
2871 =item Unmatched right %s bracket
2873 (F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than
2874 opening ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket.
2875 As a general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the
2876 place you were last editing.
2878 =item unmatched [] in regexp
2880 (F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
2881 include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it first.
2884 =item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2886 (W) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a reserved word.
2887 It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it somehow, or insert
2888 an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a subroutine.
2890 =item Unrecognized character %s
2892 (F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
2893 in your Perl script (or eval). Perhaps you tried to run a compressed
2894 script, a binary program, or a directory as a Perl program.
2896 =item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through
2898 (W) You used a backslash-character combination which is not recognized
2901 =item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
2903 (F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not recognized.
2904 Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names on your system.
2906 =item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
2908 (F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that.
2909 (If you think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's
2910 supplying the bad switch on your behalf.)
2912 =item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
2914 (W) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that operation
2915 failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline, PROBABLY
2916 because you forgot to chop() or chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
2918 =item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
2920 (F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
2922 =item Unsupported function fork
2924 (F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
2926 Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors of
2927 Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try changing
2928 the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
2930 =item Unsupported function %s
2932 (F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
2933 At least, Configure doesn't think so.
2935 =item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
2937 (F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
2938 least that's what Configure thought.
2940 =item Unterminated E<lt>E<gt> operator
2942 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
2943 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and not
2944 finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out earlier in
2945 the line, and you really meant a "less than".
2947 =item Use of $# is deprecated
2949 (D) This was an ill-advised attempt to emulate a poorly defined B<awk> feature.
2950 Use an explicit printf() or sprintf() instead.
2952 =item Use of $* is deprecated
2954 (D) This variable magically turned on multi-line pattern matching, both for
2955 you and for any luckless subroutine that you happen to call. You should
2956 use the new C<//m> and C<//s> modifiers now to do that without the dangerous
2957 action-at-a-distance effects of C<$*>.
2959 =item Use of %s in printf format not supported
2961 (F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
2962 only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
2964 =item Use of bare E<lt>E<lt> to mean E<lt>E<lt>"" is deprecated
2966 (D) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted form if you
2967 wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
2969 =item Use of implicit split to @_ is deprecated
2971 (D) It makes a lot of work for the compiler when you clobber a
2972 subroutine's argument list, so it's better if you assign the results of
2973 a split() explicitly to an array (or list).
2975 =item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
2977 (D) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines are looked
2978 up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy) even when the subroutines to
2979 be autoloaded were called as plain functions (e.g. C<Foo::bar()>), not
2980 as methods (e.g. C<Foo-E<gt>bar()> or C<$obj-E<gt>bar()>).
2982 This bug will be rectified in Perl 5.005, which will use method lookup
2983 only for methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base
2984 of existing code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an
2985 interim step, Perl 5.004 issues an optional warning when non-methods
2986 use inherited C<AUTOLOAD>s.
2988 The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
2989 non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used to
2990 depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class named
2991 C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during startup.
2993 In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);> you
2994 should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
2995 C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
2997 =item Use of reserved word "%s" is deprecated
2999 (D) The indicated bareword is a reserved word. Future versions of perl
3000 may use it as a keyword, so you're better off either explicitly quoting
3001 the word in a manner appropriate for its context of use, or using a
3002 different name altogether. The warning can be suppressed for subroutine
3003 names by either adding a C<&> prefix, or using a package qualifier,
3004 e.g. C<&our()>, or C<Foo::our()>.
3006 =item Use of %s is deprecated
3008 (D) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use, generally
3009 because there's a better way to do it, and also because the old way has
3012 =item Use of uninitialized value
3014 (W) An undefined value was used as if it were already defined. It was
3015 interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake. To suppress this
3016 warning assign a defined value to your variables.
3018 =item Useless use of "re" pragma
3020 (W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
3022 =item Useless use of %s in void context
3024 (W) You did something without a side effect in a context that does nothing
3025 with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a value
3026 from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very often
3027 this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl to parse
3028 your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd get this
3029 if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and said
3033 when you meant to say
3035 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
3037 Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
3038 reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
3043 when you should have said
3047 The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
3048 while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
3049 a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
3050 throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
3051 L<perlref> for more on this.
3053 =item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
3055 (W) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was still
3056 valid when C<untie> was called.
3058 =item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
3060 (W) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob), C<each()>,
3061 or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs can return a
3062 value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression false, which is
3063 probably not what you intended. When using these constructs in conditional
3064 expressions, test their values with the C<defined> operator.
3066 =item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
3068 (W) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an %ENV
3069 element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string longer
3070 than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to 1024
3073 =item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
3075 (F) While "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable
3076 that you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
3077 something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported
3078 by that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character
3079 on the front of your variable.
3081 =item Variable "%s" may be unavailable
3083 (W) An inner (nested) I<anonymous> subroutine is inside a I<named>
3084 subroutine, and outside that is another subroutine; and the anonymous
3085 (innermost) subroutine is referencing a lexical variable defined in
3086 the outermost subroutine. For example:
3088 sub outermost { my $a; sub middle { sub { $a } } }
3090 If the anonymous subroutine is called or referenced (directly or
3091 indirectly) from the outermost subroutine, it will share the variable
3092 as you would expect. But if the anonymous subroutine is called or
3093 referenced when the outermost subroutine is not active, it will see
3094 the value of the shared variable as it was before and during the
3095 *first* call to the outermost subroutine, which is probably not what
3098 In these circumstances, it is usually best to make the middle
3099 subroutine anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. Perl has specific
3100 support for shared variables in nested anonymous subroutines; a named
3101 subroutine in between interferes with this feature.
3103 =item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
3105 (W) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a lexical
3106 variable defined in an outer subroutine.
3108 When the inner subroutine is called, it will probably see the value of
3109 the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the
3110 *first* call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first
3111 call to the outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer
3112 subroutines will no longer share a common value for the variable. In
3113 other words, the variable will no longer be shared.
3115 Furthermore, if the outer subroutine is anonymous and references a
3116 lexical variable outside itself, then the outer and inner subroutines
3117 will I<never> share the given variable.
3119 This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
3120 anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
3121 reference variables in outer subroutines are called or referenced,
3122 they are automatically rebound to the current values of such
3125 =item Variable syntax
3127 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
3128 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
3131 =item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3133 (S) The whole warning message will look something like:
3135 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3136 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
3139 are supported and installed on your system.
3140 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
3142 Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
3143 settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
3144 This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your system
3145 administrator have set up the so-called variable system but Perl could
3146 not use those settings. This was not dead serious, fortunately: there
3147 is a "default locale" called "C" that Perl can and will use, the
3148 script will be run. Before you really fix the problem, however, you
3149 will get the same error message each time you run Perl. How to really
3150 fix the problem can be found in L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
3152 =item Warning: something's wrong
3154 (W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
3155 you called it with no args and C<$_> was empty.
3157 =item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
3159 (S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on the
3160 close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk space.
3162 =item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
3164 (S) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that looks like a
3165 binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a term or
3166 unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand function
3167 has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
3171 you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
3175 but in actual fact, you got
3179 So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
3181 =item Write on closed filehandle %s
3183 (W) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime before now.
3184 Check your logic flow.
3186 =item X outside of string
3188 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position before
3189 the beginning of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3191 =item x outside of string
3193 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
3194 the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3196 =item Xsub "%s" called in sort
3198 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet supported.
3200 =item Xsub called in sort
3202 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet supported.
3204 =item You can't use C<-l> on a filehandle
3206 (F) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file it
3207 already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
3208 Use a filename instead.
3210 =item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
3212 (F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
3213 sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
3214 about what you want. Your best bet is to use the wrapsuid script in
3215 the eg directory to put a setuid C wrapper around your script.
3217 =item You need to quote "%s"
3219 (W) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name. Unfortunately, you
3220 already have a subroutine of that name declared, which means that Perl 5
3221 will try to call the subroutine when the assignment is executed, which is
3222 probably not what you want. (If it IS what you want, put an & in front.)
3224 =item [gs]etsockopt() on closed fd
3226 (W) You tried to get or set a socket option on a closed socket.
3227 Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
3228 See L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
3230 =item \1 better written as $1
3232 (W) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables. The use
3233 of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
3234 substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
3235 because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better
3236 if there are more than 9 backreferences.
3238 =item '|' and 'E<lt>' may not both be specified on command line
3240 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
3241 found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to redirect STDIN using
3242 'E<lt>'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
3244 =item '|' and 'E<gt>' may not both be specified on command line
3246 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
3247 thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and into a pipe to another
3248 command. You need to choose one or the other, though nothing's stopping you
3249 from piping into a program or Perl script which 'splits' output into two
3252 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
3259 =item Got an error from DosAllocMem
3261 (P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
3262 version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
3264 =item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
3266 (F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
3274 with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix
3275 of a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error
3276 may appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
3277 "PERLLIB_PREFIX" in F<README.os2>.
3279 =item PERL_SH_DIR too long
3281 (F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
3282 C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in F<README.os2>.
3284 =item Process terminated by SIG%s
3286 (W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
3287 applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
3288 port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
3289 L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"