Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are denoted with a %s,
just as in a printf format. Note that some messages start with a %s!
-The symbols C<"%(-?@> sort before the letters, while C<[> and C<\> sort after.
+Since the messages are listed in alphabetical order, the symbols
+C<"%(-?@> sort before the letters, while C<[> and C<\> sort after.
=over 4
(F) The '!' is allowed in pack() and unpack() only after certain types.
See L<perlfunc/pack>.
-=item # cannot take a count
+=item / cannot take a count
(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string,
but you have also specified an explicit size for the string.
See L<perlfunc/pack>.
-=item # must be followed by a, A or Z
+=item / must be followed by a, A or Z
(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string,
which must be followed by one of the letters a, A or Z
to indicate what sort of string is to be unpacked.
See L<perlfunc/pack>.
-=item # must be followed by a*, A* or Z*
+=item / must be followed by a*, A* or Z*
-(F) You had an pack template indicating a counted-length string,
+(F) You had a pack template indicating a counted-length string,
Currently the only things that can have their length counted are a*, A* or Z*.
See L<perlfunc/pack>.
-=item # must follow a numeric type
+=item / must follow a numeric type
(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '#',
but this did not follow some numeric unpack specification.
(W) You used a backslash-character combination which is not recognized
by Perl. This combination appears in an interpolated variable or a
-C<'>-delimited regular expression.
+C<'>-delimited regular expression. The character was understood literally.
+
+=item /%s/: Unrecognized escape \\%c in character class passed through
+
+(W) You used a backslash-character combination which is not recognized
+by Perl inside character classes. The character was understood literally.
+
+=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
+
+(W) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
+as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true
+or false result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string,
+which is probably not what you had in mind.
=item %s (...) interpreted as function
$var = 'myvar';
$sym = "mypack::$var";
+=item Bad realloc() ignored
+
+(S) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had never been
+malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
+setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
+
=item Bad symbol for array
(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say C<-i.bak>, or some
such.
-=item Can't do inplace edit: %s E<gt> 14 characters
+=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
-(S) There isn't enough room in the filename to make a backup name for the file.
+(S) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
+characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
+inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try to
change it, such as with an auto-increment.
+=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
+
+(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
+such, see L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
+
=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
was currently active, which is not allowed. If you really want to do
this, you should write C<sort { &func } @x> instead of C<sort func @x>.
+=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
+
+(S) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup file. Perl
+was unable to remove the original file to replace it with the modified
+file. The file was left unmodified.
+
=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
-(S) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason, probably because
-you don't have write permission to the directory.
+(S) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
+probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
+=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
+
+(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such
+as temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue.
+This is not allowed.
+
=item Can't stat script "%s"
(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have
=item Character class [:%s:] unknown
(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown.
+See L<perlre>.
=item Character class syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes
(W) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct,
-for example: /[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that the last two constructs
-are not currently implemented, they are placeholders for future extensions.
+for example: /[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .]
+are not currently implemented; they are simply placeholders for
+future extensions.
=item Character class syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions
C<FOO> is too long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously
twisted to write code that triggers this error.
+=item Did not produce a valid header
+
+See Server error.
+
=item Did you mean &%s instead?
(W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some such.
can use an empty "sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward"
declaration.
+=item Document contains no data
+
+See Server error.
+
=item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target
package, e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
+=item false [] range "%s" in regexp
+
+(W) A character class range must start and end at a literal character, not
+another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-" in your false
+range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the "-", "\-".
+See L<perlre>.
+
=item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS system
=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
(W) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing. If you
-intended it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with
+intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it with
"+E<lt>" or "+E<gt>" or "+E<gt>E<gt>" instead of with "E<lt>" or nothing. If
you intended only to read from the file, use "E<lt>". See
L<perlfunc/open>.
=item Illegal binary digit %s
-(F) You used a digit other than 0 and 1 in a binary number.
+(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
=item Illegal octal digit %s
=item Integer overflow in %s number
(W) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified either
-as a literal in your code or as a scalar is too big for your
+as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for your
architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number. On a
32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not recognized
by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
-=item invalid [] range in regexp
+=item invalid [] range "%s" in regexp
(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
-greater than the maximum character, or the range didn't start/end with
-a literal character. See L<perlre>.
+greater than the maximum character. See L<perlre>.
=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
(W) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget to check
the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/listen>.
+=item Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented yet
+
+(F) Due to limitations in the current implementation, array and hash
+values cannot be returned in subroutines used in lvalue context.
+See L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
+
=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
+=item Method %s not permitted
+
+See Server error.
+
=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
(W) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention
-it again somehow to suppress the message. The C<use vars> pragma is
-provided for just this purpose.
+it again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
+provided for this purpose.
=item Negative length
(F) The argument to B<-I> must follow the B<-I> immediately with no
intervening space.
-=item No such array field
+=item No such pseudo-hash field "%s"
(F) You tried to access an array as a hash, but the field name used is
not defined. The hash at index 0 should map all valid field names to
array indices for that to work.
-=item No such field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
+=item No such pseudo-hash field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
(F) You tried to access a field of a typed variable where the type
does not know about the field name. The field names are looked up in
For example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as
if you said "*foo * 'foo'".
+=item Out of memory!
+
+(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
+remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl
+has no option but to exit immediately.
+
=item Out of memory for yacc stack
(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue parsing,
(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
+=item panic: %s
+
+(P) An internal error.
+
=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
(W) You said something like
=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
-(F) Your C compiler uses POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
+(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
the BSD version, which takes a pid.
+=item Possible Y2K bug: %s
+
+(W) You are concatenating the number 19 with another number, which
+could be a potential Year 2000 problem.
+
=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
(W) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
put parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator
instead of "||".
+=item Premature end of script headers
+
+See Server error.
+
=item print on closed filehandle %s
(W) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime before now.
(W) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime before now.
Check your logic flow.
+=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
+
+(S) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had already
+been freed.
+
=item Reallocation too large: %lx
(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
=item Server error
-Also known as "500 Server error".
+This is the error message generally seen in a browser window when trying
+to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The actual error
+text varies widely from server to server. The most frequently-seen
+variants are "500 Server error", "Method (something) not permitted",
+"Document contains no data", "Premature end of script headers", and
+"Did not produce a valid header".
B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't
think so.
+=item setpgrp can't take arguments
+
+(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no arguments,
+unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process group ID.
+
=item setrgid() not implemented
(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't support
(F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
-=item split /^/ better written as split /^/m
-
-(W) Implicit translation of /^/ to mean /^/m in split is deprecated.
-
=item Split loop
(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't iterate
if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went past
the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename instead.
-=item This Perl can't reset CRTL eviron elements (%s)
+=item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
=item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
=item Unknown open() mode '%s'
-(F) The second argument of 3-arguments open is not one from the list
-of C<L<lt>>, C<L<gt>>, C<E<gt>E<gt>>, C<+L<lt>>, C<+L<gt>>,
-C<+E<gt>E<gt>>, C<-|>, C<|-> of possible open() modes.
+(F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
+of valid modes: C<L<lt>>, C<L<gt>>, C<E<gt>E<gt>>, C<+L<lt>>,
+C<+L<gt>>, C<+E<gt>E<gt>>, C<-|>, C<|->.
=item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
Perl yourself.
+=item Version number must be a constant number
+
+(P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
+its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
+the version number.
+
=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
(S) The whole warning message will look something like: