3 perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
7 These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
10 (W) A warning (optional).
11 (D) A deprecation (optional).
12 (S) A severe warning (default).
13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
18 The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
19 (W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
21 If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
22 category is included with the classification letter in the description
25 Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
26 and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
27 to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
28 of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
30 Default warnings are always enabled unless they are explicitly disabled
31 with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
33 Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
34 L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35 disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
38 The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
39 lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
40 denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
41 ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
42 letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
47 =item A thread exited while %d other threads were still running
49 (W) When using threaded Perl, a thread (not necessarily the main
50 thread) exited while there were still other threads running.
51 Usually it's a good idea to first collect the return values of the
52 created threads by joining them, and only then exit from then main
53 thread. See L<threads>.
55 =item accept() on closed socket %s
57 (W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
58 to check the return value of your socket() call? See
61 =item Allocation too large: %lx
63 (X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
65 =item '!' allowed only after types %s
67 (F) The '!' is allowed in pack() and unpack() only after certain types.
70 =item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
72 (W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
73 keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
74 one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
75 subroutine is not imported.
77 To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
78 before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
79 Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
80 imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
82 To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
83 on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
84 to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
87 =item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
89 (F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
90 all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
91 first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
92 C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
94 =item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
96 (W ambiguous)(S) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
97 you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
98 a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
100 =item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
102 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
103 redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
104 redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
106 =item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
108 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
109 redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
110 into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
111 though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
112 which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
114 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
121 =item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
123 (W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
124 transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
125 one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
126 a scalar value -- the length of an array, or the population info of a
127 hash -- and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
128 you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
131 =item Args must match #! line
133 (F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
134 with match the arguments specified on the #! line. Since some systems
135 impose a one-argument limit on the #! line, try combining switches;
136 for example, turn C<-w -U> into C<-wU>.
138 =item Arg too short for msgsnd
140 (F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
142 =item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element
144 (F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element, such as:
149 =item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
151 (F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
157 or a hash or array slice, such as:
159 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
160 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
162 =item %s argument is not a subroutine name
164 (F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
165 name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
168 =item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
170 (W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
171 that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
172 will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
174 =item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
176 (D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
177 spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
179 =item assertion botched: %s
181 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
183 =item Assertion failed: file "%s"
185 (P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
187 =item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
189 (F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
190 must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
191 know which context to supply to the right side.
193 =item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
195 (F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
196 the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
198 =item Attempt to clear a restricted hash
200 (F) It is currently not allowed to clear a restricted hash, even if the
201 new hash would contain the same keys as before. This may change in
204 =item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
206 (F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
207 declared readonly from a restricted hash.
209 =item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
211 (F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
212 which is not in its key set.
214 =item Attempt to bless into a reference
216 (F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
217 the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
218 supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
224 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
226 If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
227 of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
230 bless $self, "$proto";
232 =item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
234 (P internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
235 that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
236 outside any of those arenas.
238 =item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
240 (P internal) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of
241 strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
242 strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
243 of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
245 =item Attempt to free temp prematurely
247 (W debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
248 free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
249 SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
250 free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
253 =item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
255 (P internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
257 =item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
259 (W internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
260 see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
261 earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
262 This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
263 that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
264 mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
267 =item Attempt to join self
269 (F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
270 impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
271 to move the join() to some other thread.
273 =item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
275 (W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
276 function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
277 means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
278 invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
279 literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
282 =item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
284 (W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
285 used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
286 dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
288 =item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %s
290 (F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
291 or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
292 S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
293 S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
295 =item Bad evalled substitution pattern
297 (F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
298 substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
299 most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
301 =item Bad filehandle: %s
303 (F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
304 symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
305 open(), or did it in another package.
307 =item Bad free() ignored
309 (S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
310 been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
311 setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
313 This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
314 dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
315 which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
319 (P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
321 =item Bad index while coercing array into hash
323 (F) The index looked up in the hash found as the 0'th element of a
324 pseudo-hash is not legal. Index values must be at 1 or greater.
327 =item Badly placed ()'s
329 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
330 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
333 =item Bad name after %s::
335 (F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
336 didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
345 $sym = "mypack::$var";
347 =item Bad realloc() ignored
349 (S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
350 never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled
351 by setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
353 =item Bad symbol for array
355 (P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
356 wasn't a symbol table entry.
358 =item Bad symbol for filehandle
360 (P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
361 that wasn't a symbol table entry.
363 =item Bad symbol for hash
365 (P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
366 wasn't a symbol table entry.
368 =item Bareword found in conditional
370 (W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
371 conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
372 of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
376 It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
379 use constant TYPO => 1;
380 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
382 The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
384 =item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
386 (F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
387 subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
388 symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
390 =item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
392 (W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
393 compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
394 you need to predeclare a package?
396 =item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
398 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
399 subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
402 =item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
404 (F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
405 implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
406 occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
407 be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
408 depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
410 =item \1 better written as $1
412 (W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
413 The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
414 substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
415 because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
416 there are more than 9 backreferences.
418 =item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
420 (W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
421 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
422 L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
424 =item bind() on closed socket %s
426 (W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
427 check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
429 =item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
431 (W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
432 Check you control flow and number of arguments.
434 =item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
436 (W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
438 =item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
440 (P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
443 =item B<-P> not allowed for setuid/setgid script
445 (F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor by name,
446 which provides a race condition that breaks security.
448 =item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
450 (W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
451 iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
452 which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
454 =item Callback called exit
456 (F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
457 exited by calling exit.
459 =item %s() called too early to check prototype
461 (W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
462 parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
463 that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
464 early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
465 subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
466 checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
467 function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
468 the warning. See L<perlsub>.
470 =item / cannot take a count
472 (F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
473 you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
476 =item Can't bless non-reference value
478 (F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
479 encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
481 =item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
483 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
484 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
485 in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
487 =item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
489 (F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
490 object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
491 like this will reproduce the error:
494 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
495 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
497 =item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
499 (F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
500 ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
501 didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
502 object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
504 =item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
506 (F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
507 object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
508 defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
509 Something like this will reproduce the error:
512 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
513 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
515 =item Can't chdir to %s
517 (F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
518 that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
520 =item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
522 (P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
525 =item Can't coerce array into hash
527 (F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the array has no
528 information on how to map from keys to array indices. You can do that
529 only with arrays that have a hash reference at index 0.
531 =item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
533 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
534 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
544 but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
546 =item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
548 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
549 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
551 =item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
553 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
554 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
556 =item Can't create pipe mailbox
558 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
559 quotas or other plumbing problems.
561 =item Can't declare class for non-scalar %s in "%s"
563 (F) Currently, only scalar variables can be declared with a specific
564 class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration. The semantics may be
565 extended for other types of variables in future.
567 =item Can't declare %s in "%s"
569 (F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my" or
570 "our" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
572 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
574 (S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
575 a file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
577 =item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
579 (S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
582 =item Can't do inplace edit without backup
584 (F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
585 reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
586 C<-i.bak>, or some such.
588 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
590 (S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
591 characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
592 inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
594 =item Can't do {n,m} with n > m in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
596 (F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want your
597 regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. The <-- HERE shows in the
598 regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
600 =item Can't do setegid!
602 (P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
605 =item Can't do seteuid!
607 (P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
609 =item Can't do setuid
611 (F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to do
612 setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the form
613 sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides under
614 the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines. If the
615 file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask your
616 sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
618 =item Can't do waitpid with flags
620 (F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
621 waitpid() without flags is emulated.
623 =item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
625 (F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
626 point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
629 =item Can't exec "%s": %s
631 (W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
632 named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
633 permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
634 C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
635 architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
636 can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
641 (F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
642 that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
643 need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
645 =item Can't execute %s
647 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
648 found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
650 =item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
652 (F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
653 is no builtin with the name C<word>.
655 =item Can't find %s character property "%s"
657 (F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
658 could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property
659 (remember that the names of character properties consist only of
660 alphanumeric characters), or maybe you forgot the C<Is> or C<In> prefix?
662 =item Can't find label %s
664 (F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
665 possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
667 =item Can't find %s on PATH
669 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
672 =item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
674 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
675 found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
676 script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
678 =item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
680 (F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
681 that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
682 nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
684 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
686 If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have included
687 unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good programmer's
688 editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
690 =item Can't find %s property definition %s
692 (F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode property for
693 example \p{Lu} is all uppercase letters. if you did mean to use a
694 Unicode property, see L<perlunicode> for the list of known properties.
695 If you didn't mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either
696 C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, until
701 (F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
704 =item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
706 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
707 between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
708 Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
709 the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
710 account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
711 the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
712 the access checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
713 the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
714 if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
715 because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
716 appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up
717 and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking
718 routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
719 shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
720 only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
722 =item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
724 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
725 pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
727 =item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
729 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
730 mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
732 =item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
734 (F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
735 loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
737 =item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
739 (F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
740 a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
741 you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
742 See L<perlfunc/goto>.
744 =item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-string
746 (F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
747 "string". (You can use it to jump out of an eval {BLOCK}, but you
748 probably don't want to.)
750 =item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
752 (F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
753 subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
754 cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
755 routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
757 =item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
759 (W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
760 signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
761 signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
762 processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
763 situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
764 may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
766 =item Can't "last" outside a loop block
768 (F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
769 except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
770 block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
771 block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
772 usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
773 inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
776 =item Can't localize lexical variable %s
778 (F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
779 lexical variable using "my". This is not allowed. If you want to
780 localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
783 =item Can't localize pseudo-hash element
785 (F) You said something like C<< local $ar->{'key'} >>, where $ar is a
786 reference to a pseudo-hash. That hasn't been implemented yet, but you
787 can get a similar effect by localizing the corresponding array element
788 directly -- C<< local $ar->[$ar->[0]{'key'}] >>.
790 =item Can't localize through a reference
792 (F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
793 handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
794 pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
795 that $ref will still be a reference.
797 =item Can't locate %s
799 (F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be
800 found. Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC,
801 unless the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you
802 need to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where
803 the extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
804 to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
805 L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
807 =item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
809 (F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
810 autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
811 are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
812 the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
814 =item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
816 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
817 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
818 method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
820 =item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
822 (F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
823 "Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
824 that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
826 =item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
828 (W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
829 doesn't seem to exist.
831 =item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
833 (F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
836 =item Can't modify %s in %s
838 (F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
839 to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
841 =item Can't modify nonexistent substring
843 (P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
846 =item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
848 (F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
849 such, see L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
851 =item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
853 (F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
856 =item Can't "next" outside a loop block
858 (F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
859 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
860 count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
861 grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
862 though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
863 once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
865 =item Can't open %s: %s
867 (S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
868 filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
869 switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
870 is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named on
873 =item Can't open a reference
875 (W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
876 using the 3-arg open() syntax :
880 but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
881 open is not supported.
883 =item Can't open bidirectional pipe
885 (W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
886 You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
887 as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
888 ">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
890 =item Can't open error file %s as stderr
892 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
893 redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
894 the command line for writing.
896 =item Can't open input file %s as stdin
898 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
899 redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
900 command line for reading.
902 =item Can't open output file %s as stdout
904 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
905 redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
906 the command line for writing.
908 =item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
910 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
911 redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
914 =item Can't open perl script%s: %s
916 (F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
918 =item Can't read CRTL environ
920 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
921 from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
922 missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
923 or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
926 =item Can't redefine active sort subroutine %s
928 (F) Perl optimizes the internal handling of sort subroutines and keeps
929 pointers into them. You tried to redefine one such sort subroutine when
930 it was currently active, which is not allowed. If you really want to do
931 this, you should write C<sort { &func } @x> instead of C<sort func @x>.
933 =item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
935 (F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
936 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
937 count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
938 or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
939 though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
940 loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
942 =item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
944 (S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
945 file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
946 the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
948 =item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
950 (S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
951 probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
953 =item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
955 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
956 to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
958 =item Can't resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
960 (F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as opposed
961 to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the package. If
962 method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
964 =item Can't reswap uid and euid
966 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
969 =item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
971 (F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
972 temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
975 =item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
977 (F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue subroutine,
978 but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl think you meant
979 to return only one value. You probably meant to write parentheses around
980 the call to the subroutine, which tell Perl that the call should be in
983 =item Can't return outside a subroutine
985 (F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
986 there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
988 =item Can't stat script "%s"
990 (P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
991 open already. Bizarre.
993 =item Can't swap uid and euid
995 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
998 =item Can't take log of %g
1000 (F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
1001 negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
1002 standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1005 =item Can't take sqrt of %g
1007 (F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
1008 negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1009 with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
1011 =item Can't undef active subroutine
1013 (F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1014 however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1015 redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1019 (F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
1020 as the main Perl stack.
1022 =item Can't upgrade that kind of scalar
1024 (P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1025 into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1026 specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1027 indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
1029 =item Can't upgrade to undef
1031 (P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the totem pole, in the scheme of
1032 upgradability. Upgrading to undef indicates an error in the code
1035 =item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1037 (F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1038 be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1040 =item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1042 (P) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1043 table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1044 for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1046 =item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1048 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1049 references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
1051 =item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1053 (F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
1054 Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1055 provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1057 =item Can't use %s for loop variable
1059 (F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1062 =item Can't use global %s in "my"
1064 (F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1065 is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1066 (namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1067 have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
1070 =item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1072 (F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
1073 You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
1074 and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1075 Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1078 =item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1080 (F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1081 reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1082 test the type of the reference, if need be.
1084 =item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1086 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1087 references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
1089 =item Can't use subscript on %s
1091 (F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1092 subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
1093 didn't look like an array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
1095 =item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1097 (W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1098 creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1099 backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
1100 expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1101 value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1104 =item Can't weaken a nonreference
1106 (F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1107 references can be weakened.
1109 =item Can't x= to read-only value
1111 (F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1112 with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
1113 Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1115 =item Character in "C" format wrapped
1121 where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1122 only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1123 and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1127 If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1130 =item Character in "c" format wrapped
1136 where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1137 is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1138 and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1140 pack("c", $x & 255);
1142 If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1145 =item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1147 (W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1149 =item %s: Command not found
1151 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1152 Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
1154 =item Compilation failed in require
1156 (F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
1157 Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1158 encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
1160 =item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1162 (W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1163 situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1164 to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1165 arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1166 recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1167 under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1168 in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
1169 that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
1170 on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
1172 =item connect() on closed socket %s
1174 (W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1175 to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1176 L<perlfunc/connect>.
1178 =item Constant(%s)%s: %s
1180 (F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1181 an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1182 specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
1183 corresponding C<overload> or C<charnames> pragma? See L<charnames> and
1186 =item Constant is not %s reference
1188 (F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
1189 is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
1190 The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
1191 usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
1192 See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1194 =item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1196 (S|W redefine) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been
1197 eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for
1198 commentary and workarounds.
1200 =item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1202 (W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1203 for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1206 =item Copy method did not return a reference
1208 (F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
1209 L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
1211 =item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1213 (F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1215 =item corrupted regexp pointers
1217 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1218 expression compiler gave it.
1220 =item corrupted regexp program
1222 (P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1225 =item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
1227 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1229 =item C<-p> destination: %s
1231 (F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
1232 command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
1233 redirected it with select().)
1235 =item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
1237 (F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
1238 know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
1240 =item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1242 (W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1243 100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1244 infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1245 which case it indicates something else.
1247 =item defined(@array) is deprecated
1249 (D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1250 checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
1251 array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
1253 =item defined(%hash) is deprecated
1255 (D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it
1256 checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the hash
1257 is empty, just use C<if (%hash) { # not empty }> for example.
1259 =item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1261 (F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1262 there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1264 =item Delimiter for here document is too long
1266 (F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1267 long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1268 that triggers this error.
1270 =item Did not produce a valid header
1274 =item %s did not return a true value
1276 (F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1277 it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1278 traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1279 do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1281 =item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
1283 (W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some
1286 =item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
1288 (W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1289 variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1292 =item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
1294 (W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1295 @hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1300 (F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1301 you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
1303 =item Document contains no data
1307 =item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1309 (F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1310 define a C<$VERSION.>
1312 =item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1314 (P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1316 =item do_study: out of memory
1318 (P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1320 =item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1322 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1323 found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
1324 name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1325 because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
1326 "sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1327 something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1328 subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1329 "sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
1331 =item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1333 (W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1334 qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1336 =item Duplicate free() ignored
1338 (S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1341 =item elseif should be elsif
1343 (S) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's ugly.
1344 Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method named
1345 "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
1346 unlikely to be what you want.
1350 (F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
1351 described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
1352 a regular expression without specifying the property name.
1354 =item entering effective %s failed
1356 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
1357 effective uids or gids failed.
1359 =item Error converting file specification %s
1361 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
1362 specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
1363 single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1364 an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1365 conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
1367 =item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
1369 (F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1370 expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1371 is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
1373 =item %s: Eval-group not allowed at run time
1375 (F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1376 C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
1377 pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it
1378 is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly
1379 building the pattern from an interpolated string at run time and using
1380 that in an eval(). See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
1382 =item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
1384 (F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1385 assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1386 pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
1388 =item Excessively long <> operator
1390 (F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1391 Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1392 filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1393 variable and glob that.
1395 =item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1397 (F) The C<exec> function is not implemented in MacPerl. See L<perlport>.
1399 =item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors
1401 (F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1403 =item Exiting eval via %s
1405 (W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1406 goto, or a loop control statement.
1408 =item Exiting format via %s
1410 (W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1411 goto, or a loop control statement.
1413 =item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1415 (W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1416 sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1417 loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
1419 =item Exiting subroutine via %s
1421 (W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1422 as a goto, or a loop control statement.
1424 =item Exiting substitution via %s
1426 (W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1427 as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
1429 =item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1431 (W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1432 the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1433 usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1434 e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
1436 =item %s: Expression syntax
1438 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1439 Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
1441 =item %s failed--call queue aborted
1443 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a CHECK, INIT, or
1444 END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the queue of such
1445 routines has been prematurely ended.
1447 =item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1449 (W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
1450 character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1451 in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1452 "-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1453 problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
1455 =item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
1457 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1458 system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1459 details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1460 you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
1462 =item fcntl is not implemented
1464 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1465 PDP-11 or something?
1467 =item Filehandle %s opened only for input
1469 (W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended it
1470 to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or "+>"
1471 or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to write
1472 the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
1474 =item Filehandle %s opened only for output
1476 (W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing. If
1477 you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
1478 with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you
1479 intended only to read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>.
1481 =item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1483 (F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
1484 a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1485 happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1488 =item Final @ should be \@ or @name
1490 (F) You must now decide whether the final @ in a string was meant to be
1491 a literal "at" sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1492 happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1495 =item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1497 (W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
1498 some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
1499 filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1502 =item Quantifier follows nothing in regex;
1504 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1506 (F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if you
1507 meant it literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
1508 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
1510 =item Format not terminated
1512 (F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1513 to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1515 =item Format %s redefined
1517 (W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
1520 no warnings 'redefine';
1521 eval "format NAME =...";
1524 =item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1534 (or something like that).
1536 =item %s found where operator expected
1538 (S) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator. If it
1539 sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
1540 operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
1541 operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
1543 =item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1545 (S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1547 =item gethostent not implemented
1549 (F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1550 because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1553 =item get%sname() on closed socket %s
1555 (W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
1556 socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
1558 =item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1560 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1561 C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1563 =item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
1565 (W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
1566 forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1567 L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
1569 =item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1571 (F) You've said "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables
1572 must either be lexically scoped (using "my"), declared beforehand using
1573 "our", or explicitly qualified to say which package the global variable
1576 =item glob failed (%s)
1578 (W glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for
1579 C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a
1580 C<glob> pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
1581 nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
1582 resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell) is
1583 broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables in
1584 config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it
1585 were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all
1586 empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
1587 think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
1588 C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
1590 =item Glob not terminated
1592 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
1593 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
1594 not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
1595 earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
1597 =item Got an error from DosAllocMem
1599 (P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
1600 version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
1602 =item goto must have label
1604 (F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1605 unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1607 =item %s-group starts with a count
1609 (F) In pack/unpack a ()-group started with a count. A count is
1610 supposed to follow something: a template character or a ()-group.
1612 =item %s had compilation errors
1614 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
1616 =item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1618 (S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
1619 to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
1620 created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
1622 =item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1624 (D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
1625 spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
1627 =item %s has too many errors
1629 (F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
1630 Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
1632 =item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
1634 (W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
1635 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
1636 L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
1638 =item Identifier too long
1640 (F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
1641 about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
1642 names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
1643 of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
1645 =item Illegal binary digit %s
1647 (F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
1649 =item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
1651 (W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
1652 binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
1655 =item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1657 (F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
1658 would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
1659 when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
1660 version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
1661 to your Perl administrator.
1663 =item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
1665 (W syntax) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration. Legal
1666 characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, and \.
1668 =item Illegal division by zero
1670 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
1671 your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
1674 =item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
1676 (W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
1677 A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
1678 number stopped before the illegal character.
1680 =item Illegal modulus zero
1682 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
1683 numbers don't take to this kindly.
1685 =item Illegal number of bits in vec
1687 (F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
1688 two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
1690 =item Illegal octal digit %s
1692 (F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
1694 =item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
1696 (W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
1697 Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
1699 =item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: %s
1701 (X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
1702 following switches: B<-[DIMUdmtw]>.
1704 =item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
1706 (W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
1707 internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
1708 delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
1710 =item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
1712 (W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
1713 name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
1714 didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
1717 =item (in cleanup) %s
1719 (W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
1720 the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
1721 system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
1722 times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
1723 would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
1725 Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
1726 also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
1728 =item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
1730 (F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
1731 Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
1732 encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
1734 =item Insecure dependency in %s
1736 (F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
1737 The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
1738 setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
1739 tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
1740 from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
1741 such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
1742 L<perlsec> for more information.
1744 =item Insecure directory in %s
1746 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1747 setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
1748 the world. See L<perlsec>.
1750 =item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
1752 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1753 setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
1754 C<$ENV{ENV}> or C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> are derived from data supplied (or
1755 potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set the path to a
1756 known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
1758 =item Integer overflow in %s number
1760 (W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
1761 either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
1762 your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
1763 On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
1764 representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
1765 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
1766 transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
1767 internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
1770 =item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1772 (P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
1773 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1776 =item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
1778 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
1779 you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
1780 to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
1781 L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
1782 Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
1783 terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
1785 =item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1787 (P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
1788 <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1791 =item %s (...) interpreted as function
1793 (W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
1794 followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
1795 operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
1796 L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
1798 =item Invalid %s attribute: %s
1800 The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
1801 by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
1803 =item Invalid %s attributes: %s
1805 The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
1806 recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
1808 =item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
1810 (W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
1811 L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
1813 =item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1815 (F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
1816 greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
1817 C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
1818 up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1819 problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
1821 =item Invalid [] range "%s" in transliteration operator
1823 (F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
1824 character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
1826 =item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
1828 (F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
1829 elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
1830 parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
1833 =item Invalid type in pack: '%s'
1835 (F) The given character is not a valid pack type. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1836 (W pack) The given character is not a valid pack type but used to be
1839 =item Invalid type in unpack: '%s'
1841 (F) The given character is not a valid unpack type. See
1843 (W unpack) The given character is not a valid unpack type but used to be
1846 =item ioctl is not implemented
1848 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
1849 strange for a machine that supports C.
1851 =item ioctl() on unopened %s
1853 (W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
1854 Check you control flow and number of arguments.
1856 =item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
1858 (F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
1859 neither as a system call or an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
1861 =item `%s' is not a code reference
1863 (W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of overload::constant
1864 needs to be a code reference. Either an anonymous subroutine, or a reference
1867 =item `%s' is not an overloadable type
1869 (W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
1872 =item junk on end of regexp
1874 (P) The regular expression parser is confused.
1876 =item Label not found for "last %s"
1878 (F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
1879 of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1882 =item Label not found for "next %s"
1884 (F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
1885 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1888 =item Label not found for "redo %s"
1890 (F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
1891 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1894 =item leaving effective %s failed
1896 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
1897 effective uids or gids failed.
1899 =item listen() on closed socket %s
1901 (W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
1902 to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1905 =item lstat() on filehandle %s
1907 (W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
1908 by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
1909 instead on the filehandle.)
1911 =item Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented yet
1913 (F) Due to limitations in the current implementation, array and hash
1914 values cannot be returned in subroutines used in lvalue context. See
1915 L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
1917 =item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex;
1919 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1921 (F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
1922 handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release. The <-- HERE
1923 shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
1925 =item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
1927 (F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
1934 with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
1935 a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
1936 appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
1937 "PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
1939 =item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
1941 (F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
1942 syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
1943 obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
1944 when the function is called.
1946 =item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
1948 Perl detected something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding rules.
1950 One possible cause is that you read in data that you thought to be in
1951 UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy 8-bit data). Another
1952 possibility is careless use of utf8::upgrade().
1954 =item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
1956 Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
1957 doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
1959 =item %s matches null string many times in regex;
1961 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1963 (W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
1964 regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
1965 shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
1968 =item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
1970 (W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
1971 interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
1974 =item % may only be used in unpack
1976 (F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
1977 checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
1978 See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
1980 =item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
1982 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
1983 doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
1985 =item Method %s not permitted
1989 =item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
1991 (S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
1992 by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
1993 ended earlier on the current line.
1995 =item Misplaced _ in number
1997 (W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
1998 separate two digits.
2000 =item Missing %sbrace%s on \N{}
2002 (F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
2003 double-quotish context.
2005 =item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
2007 (F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
2008 "indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
2010 =item Missing command in piped open
2012 (W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
2013 C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
2016 =item Missing name in "my sub"
2018 (F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
2019 they have a name with which they can be found.
2021 =item Missing $ on loop variable
2023 (F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
2024 are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
2025 can vary from one line to the next.
2027 =item (Missing operator before %s?)
2029 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
2030 found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
2032 =item Missing right brace on %s
2034 (F) Missing right brace in C<\p{...}> or C<\P{...}>.
2036 =item Missing right curly or square bracket
2038 (F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
2039 ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
2042 =item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
2044 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
2045 found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
2046 the previous line just because you saw this message.
2048 =item Modification of a read-only value attempted
2050 (F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
2051 constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
2052 catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
2054 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
2057 Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
2059 Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
2060 is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
2063 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
2064 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to modify the 2
2067 =item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
2069 (F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
2070 subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
2073 =item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
2075 (P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
2076 couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
2078 =item Module name must be constant
2080 (F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
2082 =item Module name required with -%c option
2084 (F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
2085 you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
2086 about C<-M> and C<-m>.
2088 =item More than one argument to open
2090 (F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
2091 can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
2092 list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
2093 See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
2095 =item msg%s not implemented
2097 (F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
2099 =item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
2101 (W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
2102 They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
2104 =item / must be followed by a*, A* or Z*
2106 (F) You had a pack template indicating a counted-length string,
2107 Currently the only things that can have their length counted are a*, A*
2108 or Z*. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2110 =item / must be followed by a, A or Z
2112 (F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, which
2113 must be followed by one of the letters a, A or Z to indicate what sort
2114 of string is to be unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2116 =item / must follow a numeric type
2118 (F) You had an unpack template that contained a '#', but this did not
2119 follow some numeric unpack specification. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2121 =item "my sub" not yet implemented
2123 (F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
2126 =item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
2128 (F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2129 sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2130 local() if you want to localize a package variable.
2132 =item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2134 (W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
2135 If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2136 again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
2137 provided for this purpose.
2139 =item Negative length
2141 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
2142 length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
2144 =item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
2146 (F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
2147 greater than or equal to zero.
2149 =item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2151 (F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
2152 things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
2153 expression about where the problem was discovered.
2155 Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
2156 C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
2158 =item %s never introduced
2160 (S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
2161 scope before it could possibly have been used.
2163 =item No %s allowed while running setuid
2165 (F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
2166 setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
2167 will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
2168 securable. See L<perlsec>.
2170 =item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
2172 (F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
2174 =item No comma allowed after %s
2176 (F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
2177 allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
2178 Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
2180 One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
2181 constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
2182 importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
2183 does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
2184 explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
2185 L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
2186 would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
2187 remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
2188 constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
2189 list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
2190 this error was triggered?
2192 =item No command into which to pipe on command line
2194 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2195 redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
2196 doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
2198 =item No DB::DB routine defined
2200 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
2201 for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof) didn't
2202 define a routine to be called at the beginning of each statement. Which
2203 is odd, because the file should have been required automatically, and
2204 should have blown up the require if it didn't parse right.
2206 =item No dbm on this machine
2208 (P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
2209 supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
2211 =item No DBsub routine
2213 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
2214 but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
2215 didn't define a DB::sub routine to be called at the beginning of each
2216 ordinary subroutine call.
2218 =item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
2220 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2221 redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
2222 find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
2224 =item No input file after < on command line
2226 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2227 redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
2228 name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
2232 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2233 even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
2235 =item "no" not allowed in expression
2237 (F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
2238 returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
2240 =item No output file after > on command line
2242 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2243 redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
2244 doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
2246 =item No output file after > or >> on command line
2248 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2249 redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
2250 find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
2252 =item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
2254 (F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
2255 declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
2256 semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
2258 =item No Perl script found in input
2260 (F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
2261 with #! and containing the word "perl".
2263 =item No setregid available
2265 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
2268 =item No setreuid available
2270 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
2273 =item No space allowed after -%c
2275 (F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2276 immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
2278 =item No %s specified for -%c
2280 (F) The indicated command line switch needs a mandatory argument, but
2281 you haven't specified one.
2283 =item No such class %s
2285 (F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration, but
2286 this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
2288 =item No such pipe open
2290 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
2291 close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
2292 earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
2294 =item No such pseudo-hash field "%s"
2296 (F) You tried to access an array as a hash, but the field name used is
2297 not defined. The hash at index 0 should map all valid field names to
2298 array indices for that to work.
2300 =item No such pseudo-hash field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
2302 (F) You tried to access a field of a typed variable where the type does
2303 not know about the field name. The field names are looked up in the
2304 %FIELDS hash in the type package at compile time. The %FIELDS hash is
2305 %usually set up with the 'fields' pragma.
2307 =item No such signal: SIG%s
2309 (W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
2310 not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
2311 names on your system.
2313 =item Not a CODE reference
2315 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2316 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
2317 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2320 =item Not a format reference
2322 (F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
2323 format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
2325 =item Not a GLOB reference
2327 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
2328 symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
2329 something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
2330 kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2332 =item Not a HASH reference
2334 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
2335 reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
2336 find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2338 =item Not an ARRAY reference
2340 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
2341 a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2342 to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2344 =item Not a perl script
2346 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2347 even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
2350 =item Not a SCALAR reference
2352 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
2353 a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2354 to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2356 =item Not a subroutine reference
2358 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2359 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
2360 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2363 =item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
2365 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
2366 doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
2368 =item Not enough arguments for %s
2370 (F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
2372 =item Not enough format arguments
2374 (W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
2375 supplied. See L<perlform>.
2379 (A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
2380 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
2383 =item %s not allowed in length fields
2385 (F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]> only if
2386 C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes. Redesign
2389 =item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
2391 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
2392 timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
2393 to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
2394 F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
2395 need to be added to UTC to get local time.
2397 =item Null filename used
2399 (F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
2400 machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
2402 =item NULL OP IN RUN
2404 (P debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
2407 =item Null picture in formline
2409 (F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
2410 specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
2411 supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
2415 (P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
2417 =item NULL regexp argument
2419 (P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
2421 =item NULL regexp parameter
2423 (P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
2425 =item Number too long
2427 (F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
2428 about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
2429 versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
2430 the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
2433 =item Octal number in vector unsupported
2435 (F) Numbers with a leading C<0> are not currently allowed in vectors.
2436 The octal number interpretation of such numbers may be supported in a
2439 =item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
2441 (W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
2442 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2443 L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
2445 See also L<perlport> for writing portable code.
2447 =item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
2449 (W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
2450 arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
2452 =item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
2454 (W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2455 which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
2457 =item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
2459 (W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2460 which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
2462 =item Offset outside string
2464 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with an offset
2465 pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to imagine. The sole
2466 exception to this is that C<sysread()>ing past the buffer will extend
2467 the buffer and zero pad the new area.
2469 =item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
2471 (W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
2472 that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
2474 =item %s() on unopened %s
2476 (W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
2477 never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
2478 call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
2482 (S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
2486 (S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
2488 =item Operation `%s': no method found, %s
2490 (F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
2491 handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
2492 of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
2493 C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
2495 =item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
2497 (S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
2498 was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
2499 use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
2500 example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
2503 =item "our" variable %s redeclared
2505 (W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
2506 in the current lexical scope.
2508 =item Out of memory!
2510 (X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
2511 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
2512 no option but to exit immediately.
2514 =item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
2516 (F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
2517 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
2518 the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
2519 possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
2521 =item Out of memory during request for %s
2523 (X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
2524 insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
2527 The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
2528 depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
2529 However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
2530 emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
2531 is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
2532 where the failed request happened.
2534 =item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
2536 (F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
2537 is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
2538 C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
2540 =item Out of memory for yacc stack
2542 (F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
2543 parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
2546 =item @ outside of string
2548 (F) You had a pack template that specified an absolute position outside
2549 the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2551 =item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
2553 (W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
2554 package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
2555 some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
2556 mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
2560 (W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
2561 page. See L<perlform>.
2565 (P) An internal error.
2567 =item panic: ck_grep
2569 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
2571 =item panic: ck_split
2573 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
2575 =item panic: corrupt saved stack index
2577 (P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
2578 there are in the savestack.
2580 =item panic: del_backref
2582 (P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
2587 (P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
2588 it wasn't an eval context.
2590 =item panic: pp_match%s
2592 (P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
2595 =item panic: do_subst
2597 (P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
2600 =item panic: do_trans_%s
2602 (P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
2607 (P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
2611 (P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
2612 and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
2614 =item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
2616 (P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
2618 =item panic: INTERPCONCAT
2620 (P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
2622 =item panic: kid popen errno read
2624 (F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
2628 (P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
2629 it wasn't a block context.
2631 =item panic: leave_scope clearsv
2633 (P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
2636 =item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
2638 (P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
2639 invalid enum on the top of it.
2641 =item panic: magic_killbackrefs
2643 (P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
2644 references to an object.
2648 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
2650 =item panic: mapstart
2652 (P) The compiler is screwed up with respect to the map() function.
2654 =item panic: null array
2656 (P) One of the internal array routines was passed a null AV pointer.
2658 =item panic: pad_alloc
2660 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2661 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2663 =item panic: pad_free curpad
2665 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2666 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2668 =item panic: pad_free po
2670 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2672 =item panic: pad_reset curpad
2674 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2675 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2677 =item panic: pad_sv po
2679 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2681 =item panic: pad_swipe curpad
2683 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2684 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2686 =item panic: pad_swipe po
2688 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2690 =item panic: pp_iter
2692 (P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
2694 =item panic: pp_split
2696 (P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
2698 =item panic: realloc
2700 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
2702 =item panic: restartop
2704 (P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
2705 didn't supply the destination.
2709 (P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
2710 then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
2712 =item panic: scan_num
2714 (P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
2716 =item panic: sv_insert
2718 (P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
2721 =item panic: top_env
2723 (P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
2727 (P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
2729 =item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
2731 (P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
2732 to even) byte length.
2734 =item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
2736 (W parenthesis) You said something like
2742 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
2744 Remember that "my", "our", and "local" bind tighter than comma.
2746 =item Perl %s required--this is only version %s, stopped
2748 (F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
2749 recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
2750 you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
2752 =item PERL_SH_DIR too long
2754 (F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
2755 C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
2757 =item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2759 (S) The whole warning message will look something like:
2761 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2762 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
2765 are supported and installed on your system.
2766 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
2768 Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
2769 settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
2770 This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
2771 system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
2772 locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
2773 dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
2774 Perl can and will use, the script will be run. Before you really fix
2775 the problem, however, you will get the same error message each time
2776 you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
2777 L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
2779 =item perlio: argument list not closed for layer "%s"
2781 (S) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O system you forgot
2782 the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers take care of transforming
2783 data between external and internal representations.) Perl stopped parsing
2784 the layer list at this point and did not attempt to push this layer.
2785 If your program didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be
2786 the result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2788 =item perlio: invalid separator character %s in attribute list
2790 (S) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other than a
2791 colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
2792 If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2793 list was terminated too soon.
2795 =item perlio: unknown layer "%s"
2797 (S) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
2798 system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
2799 internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
2800 are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
2801 explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
2802 value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2804 =item Permission denied
2806 (F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to no good.
2808 =item pid %x not a child
2810 (W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
2811 process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
2812 fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
2814 =item P must have an explicit size
2816 (F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
2818 =item POSIX syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes in regex;
2820 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2822 (W regexp) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
2823 I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
2824 /[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
2825 implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and will
2826 cause fatal errors. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
2827 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2829 =item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex;
2831 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2833 (F regexp) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
2834 beginning with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
2835 If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
2836 expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
2837 backslash: "\[." and ".\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
2838 about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2840 =item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex;
2842 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2844 (F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
2845 with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
2846 need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
2847 character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
2848 and "=\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2849 problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2851 =item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex;
2853 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2855 (F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The <-- HERE
2856 shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2857 Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
2858 the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
2859 not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
2861 =item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
2863 (F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
2864 the BSD version, which takes a pid.
2866 =item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
2868 (W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
2869 strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
2870 literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
2871 parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
2873 You probably wrote something like this:
2880 when you should have written this:
2887 If you really want comments, build your list the
2888 old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
2892 'b', # another comment
2895 =item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
2897 (W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
2898 commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
2899 different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
2902 You probably wrote something like this:
2906 which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
2907 commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
2911 =item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
2913 (F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
2914 Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
2915 end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
2916 Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
2918 =item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
2920 (W ambiguous) You said something like `@foo' in a double-quoted string
2921 but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
2922 literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
2923 to the array you apparently lost track of.
2925 =item Possible Y2K bug: %s
2927 (W y2k) You are concatenating the number 19 with another number, which
2928 could be a potential Year 2000 problem.
2930 =item pragma "attrs" is deprecated, use "sub NAME : ATTRS" instead
2932 (D deprecated) You have written something like this:
2936 use attrs qw(locked);
2939 You should use the new declaration syntax instead.
2945 The C<use attrs> pragma is now obsolete, and is only provided for
2946 backward-compatibility. See L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes">.
2948 =item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
2950 (S precedence) The old irregular construct
2954 is now misinterpreted as
2958 because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
2959 list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
2960 parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
2963 =item Premature end of script headers
2967 =item printf() on closed filehandle %s
2969 (W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
2970 before now. Check your control flow.
2972 =item print() on closed filehandle %s
2974 (W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
2975 before now. Check your control flow.
2977 =item Process terminated by SIG%s
2979 (W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
2980 applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
2981 port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
2982 L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
2985 =item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
2987 (S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
2988 declared or defined with a different function prototype.
2990 =item Prototype not terminated
2992 (F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
2995 =item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex;
2997 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2999 (F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of the
3000 {min,max} construct. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where
3001 the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3003 =item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression;
3005 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3007 (W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
3008 it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
3009 quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
3010 "abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
3011 C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
3013 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3016 =item Range iterator outside integer range
3018 (F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
3019 are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
3020 One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
3021 by prepending "0" to your numbers.
3023 =item readline() on closed filehandle %s
3025 (W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
3026 before now. Check your control flow.
3028 =item Reallocation too large: %lx
3030 (F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
3032 =item realloc() of freed memory ignored
3034 (S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
3037 =item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
3039 (F debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
3040 the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
3041 which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
3043 =item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
3045 (F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably indicates
3046 an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
3048 =item Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method %s
3050 (F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were encountered while invoking
3051 a method. Probably indicates an unintended loop in your inheritance
3054 =item Reference found where even-sized list expected
3056 (W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
3057 with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This usually
3058 means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant to use
3059 parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
3061 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
3062 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
3063 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
3064 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
3066 =item Reference is already weak
3068 (W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
3069 Doing so has no effect.
3071 =item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
3073 (W internal) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with
3074 a reference count of other than 1.
3076 =item Reference to nonexistent group in regex;
3078 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3080 (F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
3081 not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If you
3082 wanted to have the character with value 7 inserted into the regular expression,
3083 prepend a zero to make the number at least two digits: C<\07>
3085 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3088 =item regexp memory corruption
3090 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
3091 expression compiler gave it.
3093 =item Regexp out of space
3095 (P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
3098 =item Repeat count in pack overflows
3100 (F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3101 signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3103 =item Repeat count in unpack overflows
3105 (F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3106 signed integers. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
3108 =item Reversed %s= operator
3110 (W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
3111 always comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
3113 =item Runaway format
3115 (F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence, but it
3116 produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th line looked exactly like the
3117 199th line. Apparently you didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust
3118 themselves, either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
3119 shifting or popping (for array variables). See L<perlform>.
3121 =item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
3123 (W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
3124 single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
3125 value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
3126 behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3127 argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3128 and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3129 if you're expecting only one subscript.
3131 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
3132 element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
3133 Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
3136 =item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
3138 (W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
3139 element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
3140 (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
3141 like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3142 argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3143 and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3144 if you're expecting only one subscript.
3146 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
3147 as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
3148 not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
3151 =item Scalars leaked: %d
3153 (P) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping of scalars:
3154 not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time Perl exited.
3155 What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which is of course bad,
3156 especially if the Perl program is intended to be long-running.
3158 =item Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl
3160 (F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script without a setuid
3161 or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much sense.
3163 =item Search pattern not terminated
3165 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
3166 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
3167 Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
3169 =item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
3171 (W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
3172 filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
3174 =item select not implemented
3176 (F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
3178 =item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
3180 (F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
3181 the current implementation.
3183 =item Semicolon seems to be missing
3185 (W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
3186 semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
3188 =item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
3190 (S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
3191 scalar that had previously been marked as free.
3193 =item sem%s not implemented
3195 (F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
3197 =item send() on closed socket %s
3199 (W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
3200 before now. Check your control flow.
3202 =item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3204 (F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The <-- HERE
3205 shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3208 =item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated or not {}-balanced in regex;
3210 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3212 (F) If the contents of a (?{...}) clause contains braces, they must balance
3213 for Perl to properly detect the end of the clause. The <-- HERE shows in
3214 the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3217 =item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented in regex;
3219 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3221 (F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved but
3222 has not yet been written. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3223 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3225 =item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex;
3227 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3229 (F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense. The
3230 <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3231 discovered. See L<perlre>.
3233 =item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex;
3235 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3237 (F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
3238 parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. The <-- HERE shows in
3239 the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3242 =item 500 Server error
3248 This is the error message generally seen in a browser window when trying
3249 to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The actual error text
3250 varies widely from server to server. The most frequently-seen variants
3251 are "500 Server error", "Method (something) not permitted", "Document
3252 contains no data", "Premature end of script headers", and "Did not
3253 produce a valid header".
3255 B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
3257 You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by the
3258 user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the user
3259 account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment variables
3260 (like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't in a
3261 location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or less.
3262 Please see the following for more information:
3264 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
3265 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
3266 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
3268 You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
3270 =item setegid() not implemented
3272 (F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
3273 support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3276 =item seteuid() not implemented
3278 (F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
3279 support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3282 =item setpgrp can't take arguments
3284 (F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
3285 arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
3288 =item setrgid() not implemented
3290 (F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
3291 support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3294 =item setruid() not implemented
3296 (F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
3297 support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3300 =item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
3302 (W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
3303 forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
3304 L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
3306 =item Setuid/gid script is writable by world
3308 (F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that is writable by the
3309 world, because the world might have written on it already.
3311 =item shm%s not implemented
3313 (F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
3315 =item <> should be quotes
3317 (F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
3320 =item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
3322 (W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
3323 as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
3324 result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
3325 probably not what you had in mind.
3327 =item shutdown() on closed socket %s
3329 (W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
3332 =item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
3334 (W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
3335 Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
3337 =item sort is now a reserved word
3339 (F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
3340 But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
3342 =item Sort subroutine didn't return a numeric value
3344 (F) A sort comparison routine must return a number. You probably blew
3345 it by not using C<< <=> >> or C<cmp>, or by not using them correctly.
3346 See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3348 =item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
3350 (F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
3351 or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3353 =item splice() offset past end of array
3355 (W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
3356 the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the end
3357 of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want, try
3358 explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset. See
3363 (P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
3364 iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
3365 happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
3367 =item Statement unlikely to be reached
3369 (W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
3370 die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
3371 unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
3372 instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
3375 =item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
3377 (W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
3378 was either never opened or has since been closed.
3380 =item Stub found while resolving method `%s' overloading %s
3382 (P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
3383 stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
3384 C<can> may break this.
3386 =item Subroutine %s redefined
3388 (W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
3391 no warnings 'redefine';
3392 eval "sub name { ... }";
3395 =item Substitution loop
3397 (P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
3398 shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
3399 is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
3400 L<perlop/"Quote and Quote-like Operators">.
3402 =item Substitution pattern not terminated
3404 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
3405 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
3406 Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
3408 =item Substitution replacement not terminated
3410 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
3411 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
3412 Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
3414 =item substr outside of string
3416 (W substr),(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
3417 a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
3418 length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
3419 substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
3420 assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
3422 =item suidperl is no longer needed since %s
3424 (F) Your Perl was compiled with B<-D>SETUID_SCRIPTS_ARE_SECURE_NOW, but
3425 a version of the setuid emulator somehow got run anyway.
3427 =item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex;
3429 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3431 (F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most two
3432 branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or both to
3433 contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose it in
3434 clustering parentheses:
3436 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
3438 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3439 discovered. See L<perlre>.
3441 =item Switch condition not recognized in regex;
3443 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3445 (F) If the argument to the (?(...)if-clause|else-clause) construct is a
3446 number, it can be only a number. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
3447 about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3449 =item switching effective %s is not implemented
3451 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
3452 and effective uids or gids.
3456 (F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
3458 A keyword is misspelled.
3459 A semicolon is missing.
3461 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
3462 An opening or closing brace is missing.
3463 A closing quote is missing.
3465 Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
3466 error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
3467 The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
3468 it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
3469 before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
3470 Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
3471 the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
3472 C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
3473 if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20
3476 =item syntax error at line %d: `%s' unexpected
3478 (A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
3479 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
3482 =item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
3484 (F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
3485 a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
3486 or "my $var" or "our $var".
3490 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
3492 =item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
3494 (F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
3495 "shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
3496 machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
3497 unconfigured. Consult your system support.
3499 =item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
3501 (W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
3502 before now. Check your control flow.
3504 =item Target of goto is too deeply nested
3506 (F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
3507 for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
3509 =item tell() on unopened filehandle
3511 (W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
3512 was either never opened or has since been closed.
3514 =item That use of $[ is unsupported
3516 (F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted
3517 as a compiler directive. You may say only one of
3526 This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out
3527 from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[>.
3529 =item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia
3531 (F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
3532 probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
3533 think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
3534 will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
3537 =item The %s function is unimplemented
3539 The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture, according
3540 to the probings of Configure.
3542 =item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
3544 (F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
3545 linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
3546 past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
3549 =item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
3551 =item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
3553 (W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
3554 element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
3555 wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
3556 need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
3557 F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
3558 target of the change to
3559 %ENV which produced the warning.
3561 =item times not implemented
3563 (F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
3564 suspect you're not running on Unix.
3566 =item Too few args to syscall
3568 (F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
3569 system call to call, silly dilly.
3571 =item Too late for "B<-T>" option
3573 (X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
3574 B<-T> option, but Perl was not invoked with B<-T> in its command line.
3575 This is an error because, by the time Perl discovers a B<-T> in a
3576 script, it's too late to properly taint everything from the environment.
3579 If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
3580 mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be fixed by
3581 editing the #! line so that the B<-T> option is a part of Perl's first
3582 argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -T> to C<perl -T -n>.
3584 If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
3585 B<-T> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -T scriptname>.
3587 =item Too late for "-%s" option
3589 (X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
3590 B<-M> or B<-m> option. This is an error because B<-M> and B<-m> options
3591 are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
3593 =item Too late to run %s block
3595 (W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
3596 when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
3597 loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
3598 instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
3601 =item Too many args to syscall
3603 (F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
3605 =item Too many arguments for %s
3607 (F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
3613 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
3614 Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
3616 =item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
3618 (F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
3619 Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
3621 =item Transliteration pattern not terminated
3623 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
3624 or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
3625 C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
3627 =item Transliteration replacement not terminated
3629 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
3632 =item truncate not implemented
3634 (F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
3635 Configure knows about.
3637 =item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
3639 (F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
3640 certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
3641 %NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
3642 {EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
3644 =item umask not implemented
3646 (F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
3647 use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
3649 =item Unable to create sub named "%s"
3651 (F) You attempted to create or access a subroutine with an illegal name.
3653 =item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
3655 (W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3656 many execution contexts were entered and left.
3658 =item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
3660 (W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3661 many values were temporarily localized.
3663 =item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
3665 (W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3666 many blocks were entered and left.
3668 =item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
3670 (W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3671 many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
3673 =item Undefined format "%s" called
3675 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
3676 another package? See L<perlform>.
3678 =item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
3680 (F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
3681 Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3683 =item Undefined subroutine &%s called
3685 (F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
3686 since been undefined.
3688 =item Undefined subroutine called
3690 (F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
3691 or if it was, it has since been undefined.
3693 =item Undefined subroutine in sort
3695 (F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
3696 to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3698 =item Undefined top format "%s" called
3700 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
3701 another package? See L<perlform>.
3703 =item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
3705 (W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
3706 C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
3709 =item %s: Undefined variable
3711 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
3712 Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
3714 =item unexec of %s into %s failed!
3716 (F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
3717 representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
3719 =item Unicode character %s is illegal
3721 (W utf8) Certain Unicode characters have been designated off-limits by
3722 the Unicode standard and should not be generated. If you really know
3723 what you are doing you can turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'utf8';>.
3725 =item Unknown BYTEORDER
3727 (F) There are no byte-swapping functions for a machine with this byte
3730 =item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
3732 You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
3734 =item Unknown switch condition (?(%.2s in regex;
3736 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3738 (F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
3739 is not known. The condition may be lookahead or lookbehind (the condition
3740 is true if the lookahead or lookbehind is true), a (?{...}) construct (the
3741 condition is true if the code evaluates to a true value), or a number (the
3742 condition is true if the set of capturing parentheses named by the number
3745 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3746 discovered. See L<perlre>.
3748 =item Unknown open() mode '%s'
3750 (F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
3751 of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
3752 C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
3754 =item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
3756 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
3757 iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
3758 data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
3759 subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
3761 =item Unknown warnings category '%s'
3763 (F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
3764 category that is unknown to perl at this point.
3766 Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a module
3767 (e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have imported this module
3770 =item unmatched [ in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3772 (F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
3773 include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
3774 first. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem
3775 was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3777 =item unmatched ( in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3779 (F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
3780 expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding the
3781 matching parenthesis. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3782 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3784 =item Unmatched right %s bracket
3786 (F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
3787 ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
3788 general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
3789 you were last editing.
3791 =item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
3793 (W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
3794 reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
3795 somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
3798 =item Unrecognized character %s
3800 (F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
3801 in your Perl script (or eval). Perhaps you tried to run a compressed
3802 script, a binary program, or a directory as a Perl program.
3804 =item /%s/: Unrecognized escape \\%c in character class passed through
3806 (W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
3807 recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
3808 understood literally.
3810 =item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through in regex;
3812 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3814 (W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
3815 recognized by Perl. This combination appears in an interpolated variable or
3816 a C<'>-delimited regular expression. The character was understood
3817 literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
3818 escape was discovered.
3820 =item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through
3822 (W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
3825 =item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
3827 (F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
3828 recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
3831 =item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
3833 (F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
3834 think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
3835 bad switch on your behalf.)
3837 =item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
3839 (W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
3840 operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
3841 PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
3843 =item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
3845 (F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
3847 =item Unsupported function %s
3849 (F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
3850 At least, Configure doesn't think so.
3852 =item Unsupported function fork
3854 (F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
3856 Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
3857 of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
3858 changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
3860 =item Unsupported script encoding
3862 (F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
3863 declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot yet read.
3865 =item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
3867 (F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
3868 least that's what Configure thought.
3870 =item Unterminated attribute list
3872 (F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
3873 start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
3874 block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
3875 attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
3877 =item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
3879 (F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
3880 an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
3881 character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
3882 character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
3884 =item Unterminated compressed integer
3886 (F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
3887 compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
3888 See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3890 =item Unterminated <> operator
3892 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
3893 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
3894 not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
3895 earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
3897 =item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
3899 (W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
3900 still valid when C<untie> was called.
3902 =item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex;
3904 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3906 (W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
3907 meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
3909 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
3913 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
3915 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3916 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3918 =item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex;
3920 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3922 (W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
3923 meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
3925 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
3929 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
3931 The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3932 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3934 =item Useless use of %s in void context
3936 (W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
3937 nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
3938 value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
3939 often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
3940 to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
3941 get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
3946 when you meant to say
3948 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
3950 Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
3951 reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
3956 when you should have said
3960 The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
3961 while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
3962 a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
3963 throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
3964 L<perlref> for more on this.
3966 This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
3967 since they are often used in statements like
3969 1 while sub_with_side_effects() ;
3971 String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
3974 =item Useless use of "re" pragma
3976 (W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
3978 =item Useless use of sort in scalar context
3980 (W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
3984 This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
3986 =item Useless use of %s with no values
3988 (W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
3989 apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
3990 usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
3991 possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
3992 if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
3993 you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
3995 =item "use" not allowed in expression
3997 (F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
3998 returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
4000 =item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is deprecated
4002 (D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted form
4003 if you wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
4005 =item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
4007 (W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
4008 modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
4010 =item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
4012 (W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
4013 use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
4014 used. (This may change in the future.)
4016 =item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
4018 (W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
4019 operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
4020 repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
4022 =item Use of *glob{FILEHANDLE} is deprecated
4024 (D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the shorter *glob{IO} form
4025 to access the filehandle slot within a typeglob.
4027 =item Use of chdir('') or chdir(undef) as chdir() deprecated
4029 (D deprecated) chdir() with no arguments is documented to change to
4030 $ENV{HOME} or $ENV{LOGDIR}. chdir(undef) and chdir('') share this
4031 behavior, but that has been deprecated. In future versions they
4034 Be careful to check that what you pass to chdir() is defined and not
4035 blank, else you might find yourself in your home directory.
4037 =item Use of implicit split to @_ is deprecated
4039 (D deprecated) It makes a lot of work for the compiler when you clobber
4040 a subroutine's argument list, so it's better if you assign the results
4041 of a split() explicitly to an array (or list).
4043 =item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
4045 (D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines
4046 are looked up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy) even when the
4047 subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain functions (e.g.
4048 C<Foo::bar()>), not as methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or C<<
4051 This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup only for
4052 methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base of existing
4053 code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl
4054 currently issues an optional warning when non-methods use inherited
4057 The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
4058 non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used
4059 to depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class
4060 named C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during
4063 In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);>
4064 you should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
4065 C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
4067 =item Use of -l on filehandle %s
4069 (W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
4070 it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
4071 The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
4073 =item Use of "package" with no arguments is deprecated
4075 (D deprecated) You used the C<package> keyword without specifying a package
4076 name. So no namespace is current at all. Using this can cause many
4077 otherwise reasonable constructs to fail in baffling ways. C<use strict;>
4080 =item Use of %s in printf format not supported
4082 (F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
4083 only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
4085 =item Use of $* is deprecated
4087 (D deprecated) This variable magically turned on multi-line pattern
4088 matching, both for you and for any luckless subroutine that you happen
4089 to call. You should use the new C<//m> and C<//s> modifiers now to do
4090 that without the dangerous action-at-a-distance effects of C<$*>.
4092 =item Use of %s is deprecated
4094 (D deprecated) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use,
4095 generally because there's a better way to do it, and also because the
4096 old way has bad side effects.
4098 =item Use of $# is deprecated
4100 (D deprecated) This was an ill-advised attempt to emulate a poorly
4101 defined B<awk> feature. Use an explicit printf() or sprintf() instead.
4103 =item Use of reference "%s" as array index
4105 (W) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
4106 isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
4107 to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
4109 If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
4110 C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
4111 either, because you can overload the numification and stringification
4112 operators and then you assumedly know what you are doing.
4114 =item Use of reserved word "%s" is deprecated
4116 (D deprecated) The indicated bareword is a reserved word. Future
4117 versions of perl may use it as a keyword, so you're better off either
4118 explicitly quoting the word in a manner appropriate for its context of
4119 use, or using a different name altogether. The warning can be
4120 suppressed for subroutine names by either adding a C<&> prefix, or using
4121 a package qualifier, e.g. C<&our()>, or C<Foo::our()>.
4123 =item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
4125 (W taint) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
4126 arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
4127 but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
4128 arguments. See L<perlsec>.
4130 =item Use of uninitialized value%s
4132 (W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
4133 defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
4134 To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
4136 To help you figure out what was undefined, perl tells you what operation
4137 you used the undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your
4138 program and the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily
4139 appear literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is
4140 usually optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to
4141 the C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in your
4144 =item Using a hash as a reference is deprecated
4146 (D deprecated) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
4147 C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1
4148 used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated, and will
4149 be removed in a future version.
4151 =item Using an array as a reference is deprecated
4153 (D deprecated) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
4154 C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1 used to
4155 allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated, and will be
4156 removed in a future version.
4158 =item UTF-16 surrogate %s
4160 (W utf8) You tried to generate half of an UTF-16 surrogate by
4161 requesting a Unicode character between the code points 0xD800 and
4162 0xDFFF (inclusive). That range is reserved exclusively for the use of
4163 UTF-16 encoding (by having two 16-bit UCS-2 characters); but Perl
4164 encodes its characters in UTF-8, so what you got is a very illegal
4165 character. If you really know what you are doing you can turn off
4166 this warning by C<no warnings 'utf8';>.
4168 =item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
4170 (W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
4171 C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
4172 can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
4173 false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
4174 constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
4175 C<defined> operator.
4177 =item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
4179 (W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
4180 %ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
4181 longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
4184 =item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
4186 (F) While "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable that
4187 you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
4188 something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
4189 that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
4190 front of your variable.
4192 =item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
4194 (W misc) A "my" or "our" variable has been redeclared in the current
4195 scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the previous
4196 instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note that the
4197 earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope or until
4198 all closure referents to it are destroyed.
4200 =item Variable "%s" may be unavailable
4202 (W closure) An inner (nested) I<anonymous> subroutine is inside a
4203 I<named> subroutine, and outside that is another subroutine; and the
4204 anonymous (innermost) subroutine is referencing a lexical variable
4205 defined in the outermost subroutine. For example:
4207 sub outermost { my $a; sub middle { sub { $a } } }
4209 If the anonymous subroutine is called or referenced (directly or
4210 indirectly) from the outermost subroutine, it will share the variable as
4211 you would expect. But if the anonymous subroutine is called or
4212 referenced when the outermost subroutine is not active, it will see the
4213 value of the shared variable as it was before and during the *first*
4214 call to the outermost subroutine, which is probably not what you want.
4216 In these circumstances, it is usually best to make the middle subroutine
4217 anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. Perl has specific support for
4218 shared variables in nested anonymous subroutines; a named subroutine in
4219 between interferes with this feature.
4221 =item Variable syntax
4223 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
4224 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
4227 =item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
4229 (W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
4230 lexical variable defined in an outer subroutine.
4232 When the inner subroutine is called, it will probably see the value of
4233 the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
4234 call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
4235 outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
4236 longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
4237 variable will no longer be shared.
4239 Furthermore, if the outer subroutine is anonymous and references a
4240 lexical variable outside itself, then the outer and inner subroutines
4241 will I<never> share the given variable.
4243 This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
4244 anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
4245 reference variables in outer subroutines are called or referenced, they
4246 are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
4248 =item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex;
4250 marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4252 (F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
4253 known at compile time. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
4254 where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4256 =item Version number must be a constant number
4258 (P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
4259 its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
4262 =item v-string in use/require is non-portable
4264 (W) The use of v-strings is non-portable to older, pre-5.6, Perls.
4265 If you want your scripts to be backward portable, use the floating
4266 point version number: for example, instead of C<use 5.6.1> say
4267 C<use 5.006_001>. This of course won't help: the older Perls
4268 won't suddenly start understanding newer features, but at least
4269 they will show a sensible error message indicating the required
4272 =item Warning: something's wrong
4274 (W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
4275 you called it with no args and C<$_> was empty.
4277 =item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
4279 (S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
4280 the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
4283 =item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
4285 (S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
4286 looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
4287 term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
4288 function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
4292 you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
4296 but in actual fact, you got
4300 So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
4302 =item Wide character in %s
4304 (W utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting
4305 one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print) but can be
4306 turned off by C<no warnings 'utf8';>. You are supposed to explicitly
4307 mark the filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
4309 =item write() on closed filehandle %s
4311 (W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
4312 before now. Check your control flow.
4314 =item X outside of string
4316 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position before
4317 the beginning of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4319 =item x outside of string
4321 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
4322 the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4324 =item Xsub "%s" called in sort
4326 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet
4329 =item Xsub called in sort
4331 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet
4334 =item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
4336 (F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
4337 sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
4338 about what you want. Your best bet is to put a setuid C wrapper around
4341 =item You need to quote "%s"
4343 (W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
4344 Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
4345 which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
4346 assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
4347 what you want, put an & in front.)