3 perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
7 These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
10 (W) A warning (optional).
11 (D) A deprecation (optional).
12 (S) A severe warning (mandatory).
13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
18 Optional warnings are enabled by using the B<-w> switch. Warnings may
19 be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}> to a reference to a routine that
20 will be called on each warning instead of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
21 Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
24 Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are denoted with a %s,
25 just as in a printf format. Note that some messages start with a %s!
26 The symbols C<"%(-?@> sort before the letters, while C<[> and C<\> sort after.
30 =item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
32 (F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make sense
33 to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use local()
34 if you want to localize a package variable.
36 =item "my" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
38 (W) A lexical variable has been redeclared in the current scope or statement,
39 effectively eliminating all access to the previous instance. This is almost
40 always a typographical error. Note that the earlier variable will still exist
41 until the end of the scope or until all closure referents to it are
44 =item "no" not allowed in expression
46 (F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and returns
47 no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
49 =item "use" not allowed in expression
51 (F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and returns
52 no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
54 =item '!' allowed only after types %s
56 (F) The '!' is allowed in pack() and unpack() only after certain types.
59 =item % may only be used in unpack
61 (F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
62 checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other
63 way. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
65 =item /%s/: Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through
67 (W) You used a backslash-character combination which is not recognized
68 by Perl. This combination appears in an interpolated variable or a
69 C<'>-delimited regular expression.
71 =item %s (...) interpreted as function
73 (W) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator followed
74 by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list operators arguments
75 found inside the parentheses. See L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
77 =item %s argument is not a HASH element
79 (F) The argument to exists() must be a hash element, such as
84 =item %s argument is not a HASH element or slice
86 (F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash element, such as
91 or a hash slice, such as
93 @foo{$bar, $baz, $xyzzy}
94 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
96 =item %s did not return a true value
98 (F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
99 it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
100 traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
101 do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
103 =item %s found where operator expected
105 (S) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator. If it
106 sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an operator,
107 it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an operator or
108 delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
110 =item %s had compilation errors
112 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
114 =item %s has too many errors
116 (F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
117 Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
119 =item %s matches null string many times
121 (W) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
122 regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. See L<perlre>.
124 =item %s never introduced
126 (S) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of scope
127 before it could possibly have been used.
131 (F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
133 =item %s: Command not found
135 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
136 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
139 =item %s: Expression syntax
141 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
142 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
145 =item %s: Undefined variable
147 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
148 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
153 (A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell
154 instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script
157 =item (in cleanup) %s
159 (W) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
160 the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by
161 the system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast
162 number of times, the warning is issued only once for any number
163 of failures that would otherwise result in the same message being
166 Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag
167 could also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
169 =item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
171 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
172 found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
173 the previous line just because you saw this message.
175 =item B<-P> not allowed for setuid/setgid script
177 (F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor by name,
178 which provides a race condition that breaks security.
180 =item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
182 (F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
183 know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
185 =item C<-p> destination: %s
187 (F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
188 command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
189 redirected it with select().)
191 =item 500 Server error
195 =item ?+* follows nothing in regexp
197 (F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it
198 if you meant it literally. See L<perlre>.
200 =item @ outside of string
202 (F) You had a pack template that specified an absolute position outside
203 the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
205 =item accept() on closed fd
207 (W) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
208 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/accept>.
210 =item Allocation too large: %lx
212 (X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
214 =item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
216 (W) The pattern match (//), substitution (s///), and transliteration (tr///)
217 operators work on scalar values. If you apply one of them to an array
218 or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to a scalar value -- the
219 length of an array, or the population info of a hash -- and then work on
220 that scalar value. This is probably not what you meant to do. See
221 L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for alternatives.
223 =item Arg too short for msgsnd
225 (F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
227 =item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
229 (W)(S) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
230 you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
231 a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
233 =item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
235 (W) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl keyword,
236 and you have used the name without qualification for calling one or the
237 other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the subroutine is
240 To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
241 before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
242 Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
243 imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
245 To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
246 on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or by declaring the subroutine
247 to be an object method (see L<attrs>).
249 =item Args must match #! line
251 (F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
252 with match the arguments specified on the #! line. Since some systems
253 impose a one-argument limit on the #! line, try combining switches;
254 for example, turn C<-w -U> into C<-wU>.
256 =item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
258 (W) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator that
259 expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
260 will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
262 =item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
264 (D) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some spots. This
265 is now heavily deprecated.
267 =item assertion botched: %s
269 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
271 =item Assertion failed: file "%s"
273 (P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
275 =item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
277 (F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
278 must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
279 know which context to supply to the right side.
281 =item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
283 (P) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas that will
284 be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be outside any
287 =item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
289 (P) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of strings to
290 optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other strings. This
291 indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count of a string
292 that can no longer be found in the table.
294 =item Attempt to free temp prematurely
296 (W) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the free_tmps()
297 routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the SV before
298 the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the free_tmps()
299 routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does try to free
302 =item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
304 (P) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
306 =item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
308 (W) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to see if it
309 would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0 earlier,
310 and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed. This
311 could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or that
312 SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was mortalized
313 when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been corrupted.
315 =item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
317 (W) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
318 function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
319 means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
320 invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
321 literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
324 =item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
326 (W) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr() used
327 as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
328 dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
330 =item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %d
332 (F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl() or
333 shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
334 S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
335 S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
337 =item Bad filehandle: %s
339 (F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the symbol
340 has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an open(), or
341 did it in another package.
343 =item Bad free() ignored
345 (S) An internal routine called free() on something that had never been
346 malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
347 setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
349 This message can be quite often seen with DB_File on systems with
350 "hard" dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of
351 C<Berkeley DB> which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving>
356 (P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
358 =item Bad index while coercing array into hash
360 (F) The index looked up in the hash found as the 0'th element of a
361 pseudo-hash is not legal. Index values must be at 1 or greater.
364 =item Bad name after %s::
366 (F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then didn't
367 finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside of quotes,
376 $sym = "mypack::$var";
378 =item Bad symbol for array
380 (P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
381 wasn't a symbol table entry.
383 =item Bad symbol for filehandle
385 (P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something that
386 wasn't a symbol table entry.
388 =item Bad symbol for hash
390 (P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
391 wasn't a symbol table entry.
393 =item Badly placed ()'s
395 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
396 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
399 =item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
401 (F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
402 subroutine identifier, in curly braces or to the left of the "=>" symbol.
403 Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
405 =item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
407 (W) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but
408 the compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point.
409 Perhaps you need to predeclare a package?
411 =item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
413 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN subroutine.
414 Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is exited.
416 =item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
418 (F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
419 implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had
420 already occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}>
421 could not be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code
422 likely depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
424 =item bind() on closed fd
426 (W) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
427 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
429 =item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
431 (P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not copiable.
433 =item Callback called exit
435 (F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via perl_call_sv()
436 exited by calling exit.
438 =item Can't "goto" outside a block
440 (F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look
441 like a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually
442 occurs if you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which
443 is a no-no. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
445 =item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
447 (F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a
448 foreach loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
450 =item Can't "last" outside a block
452 (F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
453 except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a
454 current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a
455 "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(). You can usually double
456 the curlies to get the same effect though, because the inner curlies
457 will be considered a block that loops once. See L<perlfunc/last>.
459 =item Can't "next" outside a block
461 (F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
462 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
463 count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(). You can
464 usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the inner
465 curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
467 =item Can't "redo" outside a block
469 (F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
470 there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
471 count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(). You can
472 usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the inner
473 curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
475 =item Can't bless non-reference value
477 (F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
478 encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
480 =item Can't break at that line
482 (S) A warning intended to only be printed while running within the debugger, indicating
483 the line number specified wasn't the location of a statement that could
486 =item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
488 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
489 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
490 in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
492 =item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
494 (F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
495 ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but
496 you didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't
497 an object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
499 =item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
501 (F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
502 object reference or package name contains an expression that returns
503 a defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
504 Something like this will reproduce the error:
507 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
508 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
510 =item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
512 (F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
513 object reference or package name contains an undefined value.
514 Something like this will reproduce the error:
517 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
518 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
520 =item Can't chdir to %s
522 (F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
523 that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
525 =item Can't check filesystem of script "%s"
527 (P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for nosuid.
529 =item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
531 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
532 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
542 but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
544 =item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
546 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
547 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
549 =item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
551 (F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
552 (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
554 =item Can't coerce array into hash
556 (F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the array has no
557 information on how to map from keys to array indices. You can do that
558 only with arrays that have a hash reference at index 0.
560 =item Can't create pipe mailbox
562 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted quotas
563 or other plumbing problems.
565 =item Can't declare %s in my
567 (F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as lexical variables.
568 They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
570 =item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
572 (S) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated reason.
574 =item Can't do inplace edit without backup
576 (F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try reading
577 from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say C<-i.bak>, or some
580 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s E<gt> 14 characters
582 (S) There isn't enough room in the filename to make a backup name for the file.
584 =item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
586 (S) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as a file in
587 /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
589 =item Can't do setegid!
591 (P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator
594 =item Can't do seteuid!
596 (P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
598 =item Can't do setuid
600 (F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to
601 do setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the
602 form sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides
603 under the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines.
604 If the file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask
605 your sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
607 =item Can't do waitpid with flags
609 (F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only waitpid()
610 without flags is emulated.
612 =item Can't do {n,m} with n E<gt> m
614 (F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want
615 your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. See L<perlre>.
617 =item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
619 (F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this point.
620 For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #! line.
622 =item Can't exec "%s": %s
624 (W) An system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the named
625 program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the permissions
626 were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in C<$ENV{PATH}>, the
627 executable in question was compiled for another architecture, or the
628 #! line in a script points to an interpreter that can't be run for
629 similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support #! at all.)
633 (F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because that's
634 what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may need to
635 mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
637 =item Can't execute %s
639 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute found
640 in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
642 =item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
644 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be found
645 in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The script
646 exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
648 =item Can't find %s on PATH
650 (F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be found
653 =item Can't find label %s
655 (F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's possible
656 for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
658 =item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
660 (F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means that
661 the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count nesting
662 levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
664 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
666 If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have
667 included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good
668 programmer's editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
672 (F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a pipeline.
674 =item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
676 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference between
677 access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes. Under VMS,
678 access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in the stat buffer, so
679 that ACLs and other protections can be taken into account. Unfortunately, Perl
680 assumes that the stat buffer contains all the necessary information, and passes
681 it, instead of the filespec, to the access checking routine. It will try to
682 retrieve the filespec using the device name and FID present in the stat buffer,
683 but this works only if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat()
684 routine, because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
685 appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up and
686 returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking routine
687 knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you shouldn't ever
688 see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises only if some internal
689 code takes stat buffers lightly.)
691 =item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
693 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a pipe, Perl
694 can't retrieve its name for later use.
696 =item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
698 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
699 mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
701 =item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
703 (F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one subroutine
704 call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole cloth. In general
705 you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD routine anyway. See
708 =item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-string
710 (F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval "string".
711 (You can use it to jump out of an eval {BLOCK}, but you probably don't want to.)
713 =item Can't localize through a reference
715 (F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
716 handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
717 pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be
718 sure that $ref will still be a reference.
720 =item Can't localize lexical variable %s
722 (F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
723 lexical variable using "my". This is not allowed. If you want to
724 localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
727 =item Can't localize pseudo-hash element
729 (F) You said something like C<local $ar-E<gt>{'key'}>, where $ar is
730 a reference to a pseudo-hash. That hasn't been implemented yet, but
731 you can get a similar effect by localizing the corresponding array
732 element directly -- C<local $ar-E<gt>[$ar-E<gt>[0]{'key'}]>.
734 =item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
736 (F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows autoload,
737 but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes are a misprint
738 in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit> the file, say, by
739 doing C<make install>.
741 =item Can't locate %s in @INC
743 (F) You said to do (or require, or use) a file that couldn't be found
744 in any of the libraries mentioned in @INC. Perhaps you need to set the
745 PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where the extra library
746 is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name to @INC. Or maybe
747 you just misspelled the name of the file. See L<perlfunc/require>.
749 =item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
751 (F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
752 functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
753 method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
755 =item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
757 (W) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that doesn't seem
760 =item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
762 (F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably VMS.
764 =item Can't modify %s in %s
766 (F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try to
767 change it, such as with an auto-increment.
769 =item Can't modify nonexistent substring
771 (P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
774 =item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
776 (F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
779 =item Can't open %s: %s
781 (S) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<E<lt>E<gt>>
782 filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
783 switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
784 is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named
787 =item Can't open bidirectional pipe
789 (W) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported. You can
790 try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such as
791 IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using "E<gt>",
792 and then read it in under a different file handle.
794 =item Can't open error file %s as stderr
796 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
797 couldn't open the file specified after '2E<gt>' or '2E<gt>E<gt>' on the
798 command line for writing.
800 =item Can't open input file %s as stdin
802 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
803 couldn't open the file specified after 'E<lt>' on the command line for reading.
805 =item Can't open output file %s as stdout
807 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
808 couldn't open the file specified after 'E<gt>' or 'E<gt>E<gt>' on the command
811 =item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
813 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
814 couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined for stdout.
816 =item Can't open perl script "%s": %s
818 (F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
820 =item Can't redefine active sort subroutine %s
822 (F) Perl optimizes the internal handling of sort subroutines and keeps
823 pointers into them. You tried to redefine one such sort subroutine when it
824 was currently active, which is not allowed. If you really want to do
825 this, you should write C<sort { &func } @x> instead of C<sort func @x>.
827 =item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
829 (S) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason, probably because
830 you don't have write permission to the directory.
832 =item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
834 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried to
835 reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
837 =item Can't reswap uid and euid
839 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator
842 =item Can't return outside a subroutine
844 (F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
845 there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
847 =item Can't stat script "%s"
849 (P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have
850 it open already. Bizarre.
852 =item Can't swap uid and euid
854 (P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator
857 =item Can't take log of %g
859 (F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
860 negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
861 standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for
862 the negative numbers.
864 =item Can't take sqrt of %g
866 (F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
867 negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
868 with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
870 =item Can't undef active subroutine
872 (F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
873 however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
874 redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
878 (F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
879 as the main Perl stack.
881 =item Can't upgrade that kind of scalar
883 (P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making
884 it into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are
885 so specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This
886 message indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
888 =item Can't upgrade to undef
890 (P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the totem pole, in the scheme
891 of upgradability. Upgrading to undef indicates an error in the
892 code calling sv_upgrade.
894 =item Can't use %%! because Errno.pm is not available
896 (F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
897 Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
898 provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
900 =item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
902 (F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
903 You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the E<lt>=E<gt> or cmp operator,
904 and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
905 Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
908 =item Bad evalled substitution pattern
910 (F) You've used the /e switch to evaluate the replacement for a
911 substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
912 most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
914 =item Can't use %s for loop variable
916 (F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a foreach.
918 =item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
920 (F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
921 reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
922 test the type of the reference, if need be.
924 =item Can't use \1 to mean $1 in expression
926 (W) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that creates
927 a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a backreference
928 to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular expression pattern.
929 Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a value that prints
930 out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form instead.
932 =item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while \"strict refs\" in use
934 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic references
935 are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
937 =item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
939 (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic references
940 are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
942 =item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
944 (F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
945 be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
947 =item Can't use global %s in "my"
949 (F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This is
950 not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location (namely
951 the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to have
952 variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
955 =item Can't use subscript on %s
957 (F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
958 subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
959 didn't look like an array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
961 =item Can't x= to read-only value
963 (F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value) with
964 an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
965 Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
967 =item Cannot find an opnumber for "%s"
969 (F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but
970 there is no builtin with the name C<word>.
972 =item Cannot resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
974 (F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as
975 opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the
976 package. If method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
978 =item Character class syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions
980 (W) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
981 with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
982 If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
983 expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
984 backslash: "\[." and ".\]".
986 =item Character class syntax [: :] is reserved for future extensions
988 (W) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
989 with "[:" and ending with ":]" is reserved for future extensions.
990 If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
991 expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
992 backslash: "\[:" and ":\]".
994 =item Character class syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions
996 (W) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
997 beginning with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions.
998 If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
999 expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
1000 backslash: "\[=" and "=\]".
1002 =item chmod: mode argument is missing initial 0
1004 (W) A novice will sometimes say
1006 chmod 777, $filename
1008 not realizing that 777 will be interpreted as a decimal number, equivalent
1009 to 01411. Octal constants are introduced with a leading 0 in Perl, as in C.
1011 =item Close on unopened file E<lt>%sE<gt>
1013 (W) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1015 =item Compilation failed in require
1017 (F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
1018 Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it encountered
1019 were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
1021 =item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1023 (W) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex situations
1024 where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited to 32766,
1025 or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1026 arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1027 recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1028 under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather
1029 than in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular
1030 expression so that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlbook>
1031 for information on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
1033 =item connect() on closed fd
1035 (W) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
1036 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/connect>.
1038 =item Constant is not %s reference
1040 (F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
1041 is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference. The
1042 message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This usually
1043 indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
1044 See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1046 =item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1048 (S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible for
1049 inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1052 =item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1054 (S) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible for
1055 inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1058 =item Copy method did not return a reference
1060 (F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
1062 =item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
1064 (P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1066 =item corrupted regexp pointers
1068 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1069 expression compiler gave it.
1071 =item corrupted regexp program
1073 (P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without
1074 a valid magic number.
1076 =item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1078 (W) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly) 100
1079 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an infinite
1080 recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in which
1081 case it indicates something else.
1083 =item Delimiter for here document is too long
1085 (F) In a here document construct like C<E<lt>E<lt>FOO>, the label
1086 C<FOO> is too long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously
1087 twisted to write code that triggers this error.
1089 =item Did you mean &%s instead?
1091 (W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some such.
1093 =item Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?
1095 (W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or @hash{@keys}.
1096 On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got carried away.
1100 (F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1101 you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
1103 =item Do you need to predeclare %s?
1105 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1106 found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
1107 name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1108 because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
1109 "sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're
1110 referencing something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have
1111 to define the subroutine or package before the current location. You
1112 can use an empty "sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward"
1115 =item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1117 (P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1119 =item do_study: out of memory
1121 (P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1123 =item Duplicate free() ignored
1125 (S) An internal routine called free() on something that had already
1128 =item elseif should be elsif
1130 (S) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's
1131 ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method
1132 named "elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
1133 unlikely to be what you want.
1135 =item END failed--cleanup aborted
1137 (F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing an END subroutine.
1138 The interpreter is immediately exited.
1140 =item entering effective %s failed
1142 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
1143 effective uids or gids failed.
1145 =item Error converting file specification %s
1147 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
1148 specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
1149 single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've
1150 passed an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a
1151 case the conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
1153 =item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
1155 (F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular expression
1156 that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which is unsafe.
1157 See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
1159 =item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
1161 (F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion,
1162 but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'> pragma is
1163 in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
1165 =item %s: Eval-group not allowed at run time
1167 (F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the C<(?{ ... })>
1168 zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the pattern contains
1169 interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it is not allowed.
1170 If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly building the pattern
1171 from an interpolated string at run time and using that in an eval().
1172 See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
1174 =item Excessively long <> operator
1176 (F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1177 Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1178 filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1179 variable and glob that.
1181 =item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors
1183 (F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1185 =item Exiting eval via %s
1187 (W) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as
1188 a goto, or a loop control statement.
1190 =item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1192 (W) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a sort block or
1193 subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a loop control
1194 statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
1196 =item Exiting subroutine via %s
1198 (W) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such as
1199 a goto, or a loop control statement.
1201 =item Exiting substitution via %s
1203 (W) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such as
1204 a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
1206 =item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1208 (W) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1209 the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1210 usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target
1211 package, e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
1213 =item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
1215 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS system
1216 service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more details. The
1217 filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell you which section of
1218 the Perl source code is distressed.
1220 =item fcntl is not implemented
1222 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1223 PDP-11 or something?
1225 =item Filehandle %s never opened
1227 (W) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was never initialized.
1228 You need to do an open() or a socket() call, or call a constructor from
1229 the FileHandle package.
1231 =item Filehandle %s opened for only input
1233 (W) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you
1234 intended it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with
1235 "+E<lt>" or "+E<gt>" or "+E<gt>E<gt>" instead of with "E<lt>" or nothing. If
1236 you intended only to write the file, use "E<gt>" or "E<gt>E<gt>". See
1239 =item Filehandle opened for only input
1241 (W) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you
1242 intended it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with
1243 "+E<lt>" or "+E<gt>" or "+E<gt>E<gt>" instead of with "E<lt>" or nothing. If
1244 you intended only to write the file, use "E<gt>" or "E<gt>E<gt>". See
1247 =item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1249 (F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
1250 a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name
1251 that happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or
1254 =item Final @ should be \@ or @name
1256 (F) You must now decide whether the final @ in a string was meant to be
1257 a literal "at" sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name
1258 that happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or
1261 =item Format %s redefined
1263 (W) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
1267 eval "format NAME =...";
1270 =item Format not terminated
1272 (F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1273 to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1275 =item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1285 (or something like that).
1287 =item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1289 (S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1291 =item gethostent not implemented
1293 (F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1294 because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1297 =item get{sock,peer}name() on closed fd
1299 (W) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed socket.
1300 Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
1302 =item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1304 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1305 C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1307 =item Glob not terminated
1309 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
1310 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and not
1311 finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out earlier in
1312 the line, and you really meant a "less than".
1314 =item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1316 (F) You've said "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables
1317 must either be lexically scoped (using "my"), or explicitly qualified to
1318 say which package the global variable is in (using "::").
1320 =item goto must have label
1322 (F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1323 unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1325 =item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1327 (S) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought to have
1328 existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be created on
1329 an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
1331 =item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1333 (D) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some spots. This
1334 is now heavily deprecated.
1336 =item Identifier too long
1338 (F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
1339 about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
1340 names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future
1341 versions of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
1343 =item Ill-formed logical name |%s| in prime_env_iter
1345 (W) A warning peculiar to VMS. A logical name was encountered when preparing
1346 to iterate over %ENV which violates the syntactic rules governing logical
1347 names. Because it cannot be translated normally, it is skipped, and will not
1348 appear in %ENV. This may be a benign occurrence, as some software packages
1349 might directly modify logical name tables and introduce nonstandard names,
1350 or it may indicate that a logical name table has been corrupted.
1352 =item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1354 (F) A carriage return character was found in the input. This is an
1355 error, and not a warning, because carriage return characters can break
1356 multi-line strings, including here documents (e.g., C<print E<lt>E<lt>EOF;>).
1358 Under Unix, this error is usually caused by executing Perl code --
1359 either the main program, a module, or an eval'd string -- that was
1360 transferred over a network connection from a non-Unix system without
1361 properly converting the text file format.
1363 Under systems that use something other than '\n' to delimit lines of
1364 text, this error can also be caused by reading Perl code from a file
1365 handle that is in binary mode (as set by the C<binmode> operator).
1367 In either case, the Perl code in question will probably need to be
1368 converted with something like C<s/\x0D\x0A?/\n/g> before it can be
1371 =item Illegal division by zero
1373 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in your
1374 logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against meaningless input.
1376 =item Illegal modulus zero
1378 (F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most numbers
1379 don't take to this kindly.
1381 =item Illegal binary digit %s
1383 (F) You used a digit other than 0 and 1 in a binary number.
1385 =item Illegal octal digit %s
1387 (F) You used an 8 or 9 in a octal number.
1389 =item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
1391 (W) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
1392 Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the offending digit.
1394 =item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
1396 (W) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in a octal number. Interpretation
1397 of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
1399 =item Illegal hex digit %s ignored
1401 (W) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or A - F in a
1402 hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal number stopped
1403 before the illegal character.
1405 =item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: %s
1407 (X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
1408 following switches: B<-[DIMUdmw]>.
1410 =item In string, @%s now must be written as \@%s
1412 (F) It used to be that Perl would try to guess whether you wanted an
1413 array interpolated or a literal @. It did this when the string was first
1414 used at runtime. Now strings are parsed at compile time, and ambiguous
1415 instances of @ must be disambiguated, either by prepending a backslash to
1416 indicate a literal, or by declaring (or using) the array within the
1417 program before the string (lexically). (Someday it will simply assume
1418 that an unbackslashed @ interpolates an array.)
1420 =item Insecure dependency in %s
1422 (F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
1423 The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or setgid,
1424 or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The tainting mechanism
1425 labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly from the user,
1426 who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any such data is
1427 used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See L<perlsec>
1428 for more information.
1430 =item Insecure directory in %s
1432 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or setgid
1433 script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by the world.
1436 =item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
1438 (F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1439 setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
1440 C<$ENV{ENV}> or C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> are derived from data supplied (or
1441 potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set the path to a
1442 known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
1444 =item Integer overflow in hex number
1446 (S) The literal hex number you have specified is too big for your
1447 architecture. On a 32-bit architecture the largest hex literal is
1450 =item Integer overflow in octal number
1452 (S) The literal octal number you have specified is too big for your
1453 architecture. On a 32-bit architecture the largest octal literal is
1456 =item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
1458 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number
1459 of times you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine
1460 whether the current call to C<exec> should affect the current
1461 script or a subprocess (see L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count
1462 has become scrambled, so Perl is making a guess and treating
1463 this C<exec> as a request to terminate the Perl script
1464 and execute the specified command.
1466 =item internal disaster in regexp
1468 (P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
1470 =item glob failed (%s)
1472 (W) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for C<glob>
1473 and C<E<lt>*.cE<gt>>. Usually, this means that you supplied a C<glob>
1474 pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a nonzero
1475 status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit resulted in a
1476 coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell) is broken. If so,
1477 you should change all of the csh-related variables in config.sh: If you
1478 have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it were csh (e.g.
1479 C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all empty (except that
1480 C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will think csh is missing.
1481 In either case, after editing config.sh, run C<./Configure -S> and
1484 =item internal urp in regexp at /%s/
1486 (P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser.
1488 =item invalid [] range in regexp
1490 (F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
1491 greater than the maximum character. See L<perlre>.
1493 =item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
1495 (W) Perl does not understand the given format conversion.
1496 See L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
1498 =item Invalid type in pack: '%s'
1500 (F) The given character is not a valid pack type. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1501 (W) The given character is not a valid pack type but used to be silently
1504 =item Invalid type in unpack: '%s'
1506 (F) The given character is not a valid unpack type. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
1507 (W) The given character is not a valid unpack type but used to be silently
1510 =item ioctl is not implemented
1512 (F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
1513 strange for a machine that supports C.
1515 =item junk on end of regexp
1517 (P) The regular expression parser is confused.
1519 =item Label not found for "last %s"
1521 (F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a
1522 loop of that name, not even if you count where you were called from.
1523 See L<perlfunc/last>.
1525 =item Label not found for "next %s"
1527 (F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
1528 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1531 =item Label not found for "redo %s"
1533 (F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
1534 that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1537 =item leaving effective %s failed
1539 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
1540 effective uids or gids failed.
1542 =item listen() on closed fd
1544 (W) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
1545 the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/listen>.
1547 =item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
1549 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
1550 doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
1552 =item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
1554 (S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
1555 by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
1556 ended earlier on the current line.
1558 =item Misplaced _ in number
1560 (W) An underline in a decimal constant wasn't on a 3-digit boundary.
1562 =item Missing $ on loop variable
1564 (F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables are always
1565 mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it can vary from
1566 one line to the next.
1568 =item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
1570 (F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
1571 "indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
1573 =item Missing command in piped open
1575 (W) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or C<open(FH, "command |")>
1576 construction, but the command was missing or blank.
1578 =item Missing operator before %s?
1580 (S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1581 found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
1583 =item Missing right bracket
1585 (F) The lexer counted more opening curly brackets (braces) than closing ones.
1586 As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you were last
1589 =item Modification of a read-only value attempted
1591 (F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
1592 constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
1593 catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
1595 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
1598 Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
1600 =item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, subscript %d
1602 (F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
1603 subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
1606 =item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, subscript "%s"
1608 (P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it couldn't
1609 be created for some peculiar reason.
1611 =item Module name must be constant
1613 (F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
1615 =item msg%s not implemented
1617 (F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
1619 =item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
1621 (W) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>. They're written
1622 like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
1624 =item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
1626 (W) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
1627 If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention
1628 it again somehow to suppress the message. The C<use vars> pragma is
1629 provided for just this purpose.
1631 =item Negative length
1633 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer length
1634 that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
1636 =item nested *?+ in regexp
1638 (F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
1639 things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal.
1641 Note, however, that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and C<??> appear
1642 to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
1646 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
1647 even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
1649 =item No %s allowed while running setuid
1651 (F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or setgid
1652 script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there will be
1653 another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least securable.
1656 =item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
1658 (F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
1660 =item No comma allowed after %s
1662 (F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
1663 allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
1664 Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
1666 One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
1667 constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
1668 importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
1669 does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
1670 explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
1671 L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
1672 would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
1673 remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
1674 constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
1675 list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
1676 this error was triggered?
1678 =item No command into which to pipe on command line
1680 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1681 and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it doesn't know where you
1682 want to pipe the output from this command.
1684 =item No DB::DB routine defined
1686 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
1687 but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
1688 didn't define a routine to be called at the beginning of each
1689 statement. Which is odd, because the file should have been required
1690 automatically, and should have blown up the require if it didn't parse
1693 =item No dbm on this machine
1695 (P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
1696 supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
1698 =item No DBsub routine
1700 (F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
1701 but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
1702 didn't define a DB::sub routine to be called at the beginning of each
1703 ordinary subroutine call.
1705 =item No error file after 2E<gt> or 2E<gt>E<gt> on command line
1707 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1708 and found a '2E<gt>' or a '2E<gt>E<gt>' on the command line, but can't find
1709 the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
1711 =item No input file after E<lt> on command line
1713 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1714 and found a 'E<lt>' on the command line, but can't find the name of the file
1715 from which to read data for stdin.
1717 =item No output file after E<gt> on command line
1719 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1720 and found a lone 'E<gt>' at the end of the command line, so it doesn't know
1721 where you wanted to redirect stdout.
1723 =item No output file after E<gt> or E<gt>E<gt> on command line
1725 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line redirection,
1726 and found a 'E<gt>' or a 'E<gt>E<gt>' on the command line, but can't find the
1727 name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
1729 =item No Perl script found in input
1731 (F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
1732 with #! and containing the word "perl".
1734 =item No setregid available
1736 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
1739 =item No setreuid available
1741 (F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
1744 =item No space allowed after B<-I>
1746 (F) The argument to B<-I> must follow the B<-I> immediately with no
1749 =item No such array field
1751 (F) You tried to access an array as a hash, but the field name used is
1752 not defined. The hash at index 0 should map all valid field names to
1753 array indices for that to work.
1755 =item No such field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
1757 (F) You tried to access a field of a typed variable where the type
1758 does not know about the field name. The field names are looked up in
1759 the %FIELDS hash in the type package at compile time. The %FIELDS hash
1760 is usually set up with the 'fields' pragma.
1762 =item No such pipe open
1764 (P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
1765 close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught earlier as
1766 an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
1768 =item No such signal: SIG%s
1770 (W) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was not recognized.
1771 Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names on your system.
1773 =item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
1775 (S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Per was unable to find the local
1776 timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
1777 to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL>
1778 to translate to the number of seconds which need to be added to UTC to
1781 =item Not a CODE reference
1783 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
1784 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
1785 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was.
1786 See also L<perlref>.
1788 =item Not a format reference
1790 (F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
1791 format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
1793 =item Not a GLOB reference
1795 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is,
1796 a symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
1797 something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out
1798 what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1800 =item Not a HASH reference
1802 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but
1803 found a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref()
1804 function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1806 =item Not a perl script
1808 (F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
1809 even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
1812 =item Not a SCALAR reference
1814 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but
1815 found a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref()
1816 function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1818 =item Not a subroutine reference
1820 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
1821 subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
1822 use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was.
1823 See also L<perlref>.
1825 =item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
1827 (F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
1828 doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
1830 =item Not an ARRAY reference
1832 (F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but
1833 found a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref()
1834 function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
1836 =item Not enough arguments for %s
1838 (F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
1840 =item Not enough format arguments
1842 (W) A format specified more picture fields than the next line supplied.
1845 =item Null filename used
1847 (F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many machines
1848 that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
1850 =item Null picture in formline
1852 (F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
1853 specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
1854 supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
1856 =item NULL OP IN RUN
1858 (P) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode pointer.
1862 (P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
1864 =item NULL regexp argument
1866 (P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
1868 =item NULL regexp parameter
1870 (P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
1872 =item Number too long
1874 (F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to about
1875 about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future versions of
1876 Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In the meantime,
1877 try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of "1_000_000").
1879 =item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
1881 (S) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash, which
1882 is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
1884 =item Offset outside string
1886 (F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with an offset
1887 pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to imagine.
1888 The sole exception to this is that C<sysread()>ing past the buffer
1889 will extend the buffer and zero pad the new area.
1893 (S) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
1897 (S) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
1899 =item Operation `%s': no method found, %s
1901 (F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which
1902 no handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in
1903 terms of other handlers, there is no default handler for any
1904 operation, unless C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be
1905 true. See L<overload>.
1907 =item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
1909 (S) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser was
1910 expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant
1911 to use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect.
1912 For example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as
1913 if you said "*foo * 'foo'".
1915 =item Out of memory for yacc stack
1917 (F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue parsing,
1918 but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or otherwise.
1920 =item Out of memory during request for %s
1922 (X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
1923 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request.
1925 The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
1926 depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
1927 However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as
1928 an emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the
1929 error is trappable I<once>.
1931 =item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
1933 (F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
1934 remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
1935 the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so
1936 a possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
1938 =item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
1940 (F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
1941 is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g., C<$arr[time]>
1942 instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
1946 (W) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a page.
1949 =item panic: ck_grep
1951 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
1953 =item panic: ck_split
1955 (P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
1957 =item panic: corrupt saved stack index
1959 (P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than there
1960 are in the savestack.
1964 (P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
1965 it wasn't an eval context.
1967 =item panic: do_match
1969 (P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational data.
1971 =item panic: do_split
1973 (P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
1975 =item panic: do_subst
1977 (P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational data.
1979 =item panic: do_trans
1981 (P) The internal do_trans() routine was called with invalid operational data.
1985 (P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
1989 (P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
1990 and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
1992 =item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
1994 (P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
1996 =item panic: INTERPCONCAT
1998 (P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
2002 (P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
2003 it wasn't a block context.
2005 =item panic: leave_scope clearsv
2007 (P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the scope.
2009 =item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
2011 (P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
2012 invalid enum on the top of it.
2016 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
2018 =item panic: mapstart
2020 (P) The compiler is screwed up with respect to the map() function.
2022 =item panic: null array
2024 (P) One of the internal array routines was passed a null AV pointer.
2026 =item panic: pad_alloc
2028 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2029 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2031 =item panic: pad_free curpad
2033 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2034 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2036 =item panic: pad_free po
2038 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2040 =item panic: pad_reset curpad
2042 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2043 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2045 =item panic: pad_sv po
2047 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2049 =item panic: pad_swipe curpad
2051 (P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2052 and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2054 =item panic: pad_swipe po
2056 (P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2058 =item panic: pp_iter
2060 (P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
2062 =item panic: realloc
2064 (P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
2066 =item panic: restartop
2068 (P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
2069 didn't supply the destination.
2073 (P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
2074 then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
2076 =item panic: scan_num
2078 (P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
2080 =item panic: sv_insert
2082 (P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
2085 =item panic: top_env
2087 (P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
2091 (P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
2093 =item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
2095 (W) You said something like
2101 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
2103 Remember that "my" and "local" bind closer than comma.
2105 =item Perl %3.3f required--this is only version %s, stopped
2107 (F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more recent
2108 than the currently running version. How long has it been since you upgraded,
2109 anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
2111 =item Permission denied
2113 (F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to no good.
2115 =item pid %x not a child
2117 (W) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a process which
2118 isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is fine from VMS'
2119 perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
2121 =item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
2123 (F) Your C compiler uses POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
2124 the BSD version, which takes a pid.
2126 =item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
2128 (W) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
2129 strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated
2130 as literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
2131 parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
2133 You probably wrote something like this:
2140 when you should have written this:
2147 If you really want comments, build your list the
2148 old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
2152 'b', # another comment
2155 =item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
2157 (W) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore commas
2158 aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used different
2159 delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently
2162 You probably wrote something like this:
2166 which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
2167 commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
2171 =item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
2173 (F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
2174 Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
2175 end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
2176 Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
2178 =item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
2180 (S) The old irregular construct
2184 is now misinterpreted as
2188 because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary
2189 and list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must
2190 put parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator
2193 =item print on closed filehandle %s
2195 (W) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime before now.
2196 Check your logic flow.
2198 =item printf on closed filehandle %s
2200 (W) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime before now.
2201 Check your logic flow.
2203 =item Probable precedence problem on %s
2205 (W) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a conditional,
2206 which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part of the
2207 last argument of the previous construct, for example:
2211 =item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
2213 (S) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been declared
2214 or defined with a different function prototype.
2216 =item Range iterator outside integer range
2218 (F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
2219 are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
2220 One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string
2221 increment by prepending "0" to your numbers.
2223 =item Read on closed filehandle E<lt>%sE<gt>
2225 (W) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime before now.
2226 Check your logic flow.
2228 =item Reallocation too large: %lx
2230 (F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
2232 =item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
2234 (F) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce the
2235 desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
2236 which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
2238 =item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
2240 (F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably indicates
2241 an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
2243 =item Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method '%s' in package '%s'
2245 (F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were encountered while invoking a
2246 method. Probably indicates an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
2248 =item Reference found where even-sized list expected
2250 (W) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list with
2251 an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This
2252 usually means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant
2253 to use parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
2255 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
2256 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
2257 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
2258 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
2260 =item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
2262 (W) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
2263 reference count of other than 1.
2265 =item regexp *+ operand could be empty
2267 (F) The part of the regexp subject to either the * or + quantifier
2268 could match an empty string.
2270 =item regexp memory corruption
2272 (P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
2273 expression compiler gave it.
2275 =item regexp out of space
2277 (P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it earlier.
2279 =item Reversed %s= operator
2281 (W) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must always
2282 comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
2284 =item Runaway format
2286 (F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence, but it
2287 produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th line looked exactly like the
2288 199th line. Apparently you didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust
2289 themselves, either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
2290 shifting or popping (for array variables). See L<perlform>.
2292 =item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
2294 (W) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a single element of
2295 an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $).
2296 The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always behaves like a scalar, both when
2297 assigning to it and when evaluating its argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves
2298 like a list when you assign to it, and provides a list context to its
2299 subscript, which can do weird things if you're expecting only one subscript.
2301 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
2302 element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
2303 Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
2306 =item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
2308 (W) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single element of
2309 a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $).
2310 The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves like a scalar, both when
2311 assigning to it and when evaluating its argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves
2312 like a list when you assign to it, and provides a list context to its
2313 subscript, which can do weird things if you're expecting only one subscript.
2315 On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash
2316 element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
2317 Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
2320 =item Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl
2322 (F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script without a setuid
2323 or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much sense.
2325 =item Search pattern not terminated
2327 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
2328 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
2329 Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
2331 =item %sseek() on unopened file
2333 (W) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a filehandle that
2334 was either never opened or has since been closed.
2336 =item select not implemented
2338 (F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
2340 =item sem%s not implemented
2342 (F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
2344 =item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
2346 (S) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a scalar
2347 that had previously been marked as free.
2349 =item Semicolon seems to be missing
2351 (W) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing semicolon,
2352 or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
2354 =item Send on closed socket
2356 (W) The filehandle you're sending to got itself closed sometime before now.
2357 Check your logic flow.
2359 =item Sequence (? incomplete
2361 (F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?.
2364 =item Sequence (?#... not terminated
2366 (F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
2367 parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. See L<perlre>.
2369 =item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented
2371 (F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved
2372 but has not yet been written. See L<perlre>.
2374 =item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized
2376 (F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense.
2381 Also known as "500 Server error".
2383 B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
2385 You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by the user
2386 CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the user account you
2387 tested it under), does not rely on any environment variables (like PATH)
2388 from the user it isn't running under, and isn't in a location where the CGI
2389 server can't find it, basically, more or less. Please see the following
2390 for more information:
2392 http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FAQs/cgi/idiots-guide.html
2393 http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FAQs/cgi/perl-cgi-faq.html
2394 ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/www/cgi-faq
2395 http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/interface.html
2396 http://www-genome.wi.mit.edu/WWW/faqs/www-security-faq.html
2398 You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
2400 =item setegid() not implemented
2402 (F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't support
2403 the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
2406 =item seteuid() not implemented
2408 (F) You tried to assign to C<$E<gt>>, and your operating system doesn't support
2409 the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
2412 =item setrgid() not implemented
2414 (F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't support
2415 the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
2418 =item setruid() not implemented
2420 (F) You tried to assign to C<$E<lt>>, and your operating system doesn't support
2421 the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
2424 =item Setuid/gid script is writable by world
2426 (F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that is writable by the world,
2427 because the world might have written on it already.
2429 =item shm%s not implemented
2431 (F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
2433 =item shutdown() on closed fd
2435 (W) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit superfluous.
2437 =item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
2439 (W) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist. Perhaps you
2440 put it into the wrong package?
2442 =item sort is now a reserved word
2444 (F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
2445 But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
2447 =item Sort subroutine didn't return a numeric value
2449 (F) A sort comparison routine must return a number. You probably blew
2450 it by not using C<E<lt>=E<gt>> or C<cmp>, or by not using them correctly.
2451 See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2453 =item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
2455 (F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
2456 or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2460 (P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't iterate
2461 more times than there are characters of input, which is what happened.)
2462 See L<perlfunc/split>.
2464 =item Stat on unopened file E<lt>%sE<gt>
2466 (W) You tried to use the stat() function (or an equivalent file test)
2467 on a filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
2469 =item Statement unlikely to be reached
2471 (W) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a die().
2472 This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns unless
2473 there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system() instead,
2474 which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in a block
2477 =item Strange *+?{} on zero-length expression
2479 (W) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where it
2480 makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion.
2481 Try putting the quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example,
2482 the way to match "abc" provided that it is followed by three
2483 repetitions of "xyz" is C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
2485 =item Stub found while resolving method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
2487 (P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation stubs.
2488 Stubs should never be implicitely created, but explicit calls to C<can>
2491 =item Subroutine %s redefined
2493 (W) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
2497 eval "sub name { ... }";
2500 =item Substitution loop
2502 (P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a
2503 substitution shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of
2504 input, which is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
2505 L<perlop/"Quote and Quote-like Operators">.
2507 =item Substitution pattern not terminated
2509 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a s/// or s{}{}
2510 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
2511 Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
2513 =item Substitution replacement not terminated
2515 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a s/// or s{}{}
2516 construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
2517 Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
2519 =item substr outside of string
2521 (S),(W) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of a
2522 string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
2523 length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is
2524 mandatory if substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side
2525 of an assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
2527 =item suidperl is no longer needed since %s
2529 (F) Your Perl was compiled with B<-D>SETUID_SCRIPTS_ARE_SECURE_NOW, but a
2530 version of the setuid emulator somehow got run anyway.
2532 =item switching effective %s is not implemented
2534 (F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the
2535 real and effective uids or gids.
2539 (F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
2541 A keyword is misspelled.
2542 A semicolon is missing.
2544 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
2545 An opening or closing brace is missing.
2546 A closing quote is missing.
2548 Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
2549 error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
2550 The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
2551 it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
2552 before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
2553 Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
2554 the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
2555 C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
2556 if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20 questions>.
2558 =item syntax error at line %d: `%s' unexpected
2560 (A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell
2561 instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script
2564 =item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
2566 (F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
2567 "shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
2568 machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
2569 unconfigured. Consult your system support.
2571 =item Syswrite on closed filehandle
2573 (W) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime before now.
2574 Check your logic flow.
2576 =item Target of goto is too deeply nested
2578 (F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply
2579 nested for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
2581 =item tell() on unopened file
2583 (W) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that was either
2584 never opened or has since been closed.
2586 =item Test on unopened file E<lt>%sE<gt>
2588 (W) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle that isn't
2589 open. Check your logic. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
2591 =item That use of $[ is unsupported
2593 (F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted as
2594 a compiler directive. You may say only one of
2603 This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base
2604 out from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[>.
2606 =item The %s function is unimplemented
2608 The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture, according
2609 to the probings of Configure.
2611 =item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia
2613 (F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
2614 probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
2615 think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
2616 will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
2619 =item The stat preceding C<-l _> wasn't an lstat
2621 (F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic linkhood
2622 if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went past
2623 the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename instead.
2625 =item times not implemented
2627 (F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I suspect
2628 you're not running on Unix.
2630 =item Too few args to syscall
2632 (F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
2633 system call to call, silly dilly.
2635 =item Too late for "B<-T>" option
2637 (X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
2638 B<-T> option, but Perl was not invoked with B<-T> in its command line.
2639 This is an error because, by the time Perl discovers a B<-T> in a
2640 script, it's too late to properly taint everything from the environment.
2643 If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
2644 mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be fixed
2645 by editing the #! line so that the B<-T> option is a part of Perl's
2646 first argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -T> to C<perl -T -n>.
2648 If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
2649 B<-T> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -T scriptname>.
2651 =item Too late for "-%s" option
2653 (X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
2654 B<-M> or B<-m> option. This is an error because B<-M> and B<-m> options
2655 are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
2661 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
2662 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
2665 =item Too many args to syscall
2667 (F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
2669 =item Too many arguments for %s
2671 (F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
2673 =item trailing \ in regexp
2675 (F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash. Backslash
2678 =item Transliteration pattern not terminated
2680 (F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
2681 or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
2682 C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
2684 =item Transliteration replacement not terminated
2686 (F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
2689 =item truncate not implemented
2691 (F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
2692 Configure knows about.
2694 =item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
2696 (F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
2697 certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
2698 %NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
2699 {EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
2701 =item umask: argument is missing initial 0
2703 (W) A umask of 222 is incorrect. It should be 0222, because octal
2704 literals always start with 0 in Perl, as in C.
2706 =item umask not implemented
2708 (F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried
2709 to use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
2711 =item Unable to create sub named "%s"
2713 (F) You attempted to create or access a subroutine with an illegal name.
2715 =item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
2717 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many execution
2718 contexts were entered and left.
2720 =item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
2722 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many
2723 values were temporarily localized.
2725 =item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
2727 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many blocks
2728 were entered and left.
2730 =item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
2732 (W) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how many mortal
2733 scalars were allocated and freed.
2735 =item Undefined format "%s" called
2737 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
2738 another package? See L<perlform>.
2740 =item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
2742 (F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps
2743 it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2745 =item Undefined subroutine &%s called
2747 (F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it
2748 has since been undefined.
2750 =item Undefined subroutine called
2752 (F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
2753 or if it was, it has since been undefined.
2755 =item Undefined subroutine in sort
2757 (F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem to
2758 have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
2760 =item Undefined top format "%s" called
2762 (F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
2763 another package? See L<perlform>.
2765 =item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
2767 (W) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la C<*foo = undef>.
2768 This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean C<undef *foo>.
2770 =item unexec of %s into %s failed!
2772 (F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
2773 representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
2775 =item Unknown BYTEORDER
2777 (F) There are no byte-swapping functions for a machine with this byte order.
2779 =item unmatched () in regexp
2781 (F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
2782 expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding
2783 the matching parenthesis. See L<perlre>.
2785 =item Unmatched right bracket
2787 (F) The lexer counted more closing curly brackets (braces) than opening
2788 ones, so you're probably missing an opening bracket. As a general
2789 rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place you were
2792 =item unmatched [] in regexp
2794 (F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
2795 include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it first.
2798 =item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2800 (W) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a reserved word.
2801 It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it somehow, or insert
2802 an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a subroutine.
2804 =item Unrecognized character %s
2806 (F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
2807 in your Perl script (or eval). Perhaps you tried to run a compressed
2808 script, a binary program, or a directory as a Perl program.
2810 =item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through
2812 (W) You used a backslash-character combination which is not recognized
2815 =item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
2817 (F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not recognized.
2818 Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names on your system.
2820 =item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
2822 (F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that.
2823 (If you think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's
2824 supplying the bad switch on your behalf.)
2826 =item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
2828 (W) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that operation
2829 failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline, PROBABLY
2830 because you forgot to chop() or chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
2832 =item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
2834 (F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
2836 =item Unsupported function fork
2838 (F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
2840 Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors of
2841 Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try changing
2842 the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
2844 =item Unsupported function %s
2846 (F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
2847 At least, Configure doesn't think so.
2849 =item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
2851 (F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
2852 least that's what Configure thought.
2854 =item Unterminated E<lt>E<gt> operator
2856 (F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
2857 a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and not
2858 finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out earlier in
2859 the line, and you really meant a "less than".
2861 =item Use of $# is deprecated
2863 (D) This was an ill-advised attempt to emulate a poorly defined B<awk> feature.
2864 Use an explicit printf() or sprintf() instead.
2866 =item Use of $* is deprecated
2868 (D) This variable magically turned on multi-line pattern matching, both for
2869 you and for any luckless subroutine that you happen to call. You should
2870 use the new C<//m> and C<//s> modifiers now to do that without the dangerous
2871 action-at-a-distance effects of C<$*>.
2873 =item Use of %s in printf format not supported
2875 (F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
2876 only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
2878 =item Use of bare E<lt>E<lt> to mean E<lt>E<lt>"" is deprecated
2880 (D) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted form if you
2881 wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
2883 =item Use of implicit split to @_ is deprecated
2885 (D) It makes a lot of work for the compiler when you clobber a
2886 subroutine's argument list, so it's better if you assign the results of
2887 a split() explicitly to an array (or list).
2889 =item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
2891 (D) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines are looked
2892 up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy) even when the subroutines to
2893 be autoloaded were called as plain functions (e.g. C<Foo::bar()>), not
2894 as methods (e.g. C<Foo-E<gt>bar()> or C<$obj-E<gt>bar()>).
2896 This bug will be rectified in Perl 5.005, which will use method lookup
2897 only for methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base
2898 of existing code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an
2899 interim step, Perl 5.004 issues an optional warning when non-methods
2900 use inherited C<AUTOLOAD>s.
2902 The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
2903 non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used to
2904 depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class named
2905 C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during startup.
2907 In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);> you
2908 should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
2909 C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
2911 =item Use of reserved word "%s" is deprecated
2913 (D) The indicated bareword is a reserved word. Future versions of perl
2914 may use it as a keyword, so you're better off either explicitly quoting
2915 the word in a manner appropriate for its context of use, or using a
2916 different name altogether. The warning can be suppressed for subroutine
2917 names by either adding a C<&> prefix, or using a package qualifier,
2918 e.g. C<&our()>, or C<Foo::our()>.
2920 =item Use of %s is deprecated
2922 (D) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use, generally
2923 because there's a better way to do it, and also because the old way has
2926 =item Use of uninitialized value
2928 (W) An undefined value was used as if it were already defined. It was
2929 interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake. To suppress this
2930 warning assign an initial value to your variables.
2932 =item Useless use of "re" pragma
2934 (W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
2936 =item Useless use of %s in void context
2938 (W) You did something without a side effect in a context that does nothing
2939 with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a value
2940 from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very often
2941 this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl to parse
2942 your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd get this
2943 if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and said
2947 when you meant to say
2949 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
2951 Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
2952 reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
2957 when you should have said
2961 The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
2962 while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
2963 a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
2964 throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
2965 L<perlref> for more on this.
2967 =item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
2969 (W) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was still
2970 valid when C<untie> was called.
2972 =item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
2974 (W) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob), C<each()>,
2975 or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs can return a
2976 value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression false, which is
2977 probably not what you intended. When using these constructs in conditional
2978 expressions, test their values with the C<defined> operator.
2980 =item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
2982 (F) While "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable
2983 that you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
2984 something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported
2985 by that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character
2986 on the front of your variable.
2988 =item Variable "%s" may be unavailable
2990 (W) An inner (nested) I<anonymous> subroutine is inside a I<named>
2991 subroutine, and outside that is another subroutine; and the anonymous
2992 (innermost) subroutine is referencing a lexical variable defined in
2993 the outermost subroutine. For example:
2995 sub outermost { my $a; sub middle { sub { $a } } }
2997 If the anonymous subroutine is called or referenced (directly or
2998 indirectly) from the outermost subroutine, it will share the variable
2999 as you would expect. But if the anonymous subroutine is called or
3000 referenced when the outermost subroutine is not active, it will see
3001 the value of the shared variable as it was before and during the
3002 *first* call to the outermost subroutine, which is probably not what
3005 In these circumstances, it is usually best to make the middle
3006 subroutine anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. Perl has specific
3007 support for shared variables in nested anonymous subroutines; a named
3008 subroutine in between interferes with this feature.
3010 =item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
3012 (W) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a lexical
3013 variable defined in an outer subroutine.
3015 When the inner subroutine is called, it will probably see the value of
3016 the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the
3017 *first* call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first
3018 call to the outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer
3019 subroutines will no longer share a common value for the variable. In
3020 other words, the variable will no longer be shared.
3022 Furthermore, if the outer subroutine is anonymous and references a
3023 lexical variable outside itself, then the outer and inner subroutines
3024 will I<never> share the given variable.
3026 This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
3027 anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
3028 reference variables in outer subroutines are called or referenced,
3029 they are automatically rebound to the current values of such
3032 =item Variable syntax
3034 (A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
3035 of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
3038 =item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3040 (S) The whole warning message will look something like:
3042 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
3043 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
3046 are supported and installed on your system.
3047 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
3049 Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
3050 settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
3051 This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your system
3052 administrator have set up the so-called variable system but Perl could
3053 not use those settings. This was not dead serious, fortunately: there
3054 is a "default locale" called "C" that Perl can and will use, the
3055 script will be run. Before you really fix the problem, however, you
3056 will get the same error message each time you run Perl. How to really
3057 fix the problem can be found in L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
3059 =item Warning: something's wrong
3061 (W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
3062 you called it with no args and C<$_> was empty.
3064 =item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
3066 (S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on the
3067 close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk space.
3069 =item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
3071 (S) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that looks like a
3072 binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a term or
3073 unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand function
3074 has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
3078 you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
3082 but in actual fact, you got
3086 So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
3088 =item Write on closed filehandle
3090 (W) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime before now.
3091 Check your logic flow.
3093 =item X outside of string
3095 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position before
3096 the beginning of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3098 =item x outside of string
3100 (F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
3101 the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3103 =item Xsub "%s" called in sort
3105 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet supported.
3107 =item Xsub called in sort
3109 (F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet supported.
3111 =item You can't use C<-l> on a filehandle
3113 (F) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file it
3114 already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
3115 Use a filename instead.
3117 =item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
3119 (F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
3120 sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
3121 about what you want. Your best bet is to use the wrapsuid script in
3122 the eg directory to put a setuid C wrapper around your script.
3124 =item You need to quote "%s"
3126 (W) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name. Unfortunately, you
3127 already have a subroutine of that name declared, which means that Perl 5
3128 will try to call the subroutine when the assignment is executed, which is
3129 probably not what you want. (If it IS what you want, put an & in front.)
3131 =item [gs]etsockopt() on closed fd
3133 (W) You tried to get or set a socket option on a closed socket.
3134 Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
3135 See L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
3137 =item \1 better written as $1
3139 (W) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables. The use
3140 of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
3141 substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
3142 because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better
3143 if there are more than 9 backreferences.
3145 =item '|' and 'E<lt>' may not both be specified on command line
3147 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
3148 found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to redirect STDIN using
3149 'E<lt>'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
3151 =item '|' and 'E<gt>' may not both be specified on command line
3153 (F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line redirection, and
3154 thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and into a pipe to another
3155 command. You need to choose one or the other, though nothing's stopping you
3156 from piping into a program or Perl script which 'splits' output into two
3159 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
3166 =item Got an error from DosAllocMem
3168 (P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
3169 version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
3171 =item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
3173 (F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
3181 with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix
3182 of a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error
3183 may appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
3184 "PERLLIB_PREFIX" in F<README.os2>.
3186 =item PERL_SH_DIR too long
3188 (F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
3189 C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in F<README.os2>.
3191 =item Process terminated by SIG%s
3193 (W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
3194 applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
3195 port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
3196 L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"