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.
+The symbols C<"%(-?@> sort before the letters, while C<[> and C<\> sort after.
=over 4
=item "my" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same scope
-(S) A lexical variable has been redeclared in the same scope, effectively
+(W) A lexical variable has been redeclared in the same scope, effectively
eliminating all access to the previous instance. This is almost always
a typographical error. Note that the earlier variable will still exist
until the end of the scope or until all closure referents to it are
instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script
into Perl yourself.
+=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
+
+(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
+found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
+the previous line just because you saw this message.
+
=item B<-P> not allowed for setuid/setgid script
(F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor by name,
=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
-(W) The pattern match (//), substitution (s///), and translation (tr///)
+(W) The pattern match (//), substitution (s///), and transliteration (tr///)
operators work on scalar values. If you apply one of them to an array
or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to a scalar value -- the
length of an array, or the population info of a hash -- and then work on
SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was mortalized
when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been corrupted.
+=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
+
+(W) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
+function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
+means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
+invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
+literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
+avoid this warning.
+
=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
(W) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr() used
subroutine identifier, in curly braces or to the left of the "=>" symbol.
Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
+=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
+
+(W) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but
+the compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point.
+Perhaps you need to predeclare a package?
+
=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN subroutine.
occurs if you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which
is a no-no. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
+=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
+
+(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a
+foreach loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
+
=item Can't "last" outside a block
(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count nesting
levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
- print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.)
+ print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
+
+If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have
+included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good
+programmer's editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
=item Can't fork
you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD routine anyway. See
L<perlfunc/goto>.
+=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-string
+
+(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval "string".
+(You can use it to jump out of an eval {BLOCK}, but you probably don't want to.)
+
=item Can't localize through a reference
(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
package name.
+=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
+
+(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows autoload,
+but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes are a misprint
+in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit> the file, say, by
+doing C<make install>.
+
=item Can't locate %s in @INC
(F) You said to do (or require, or use) a file that couldn't be found
(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably VMS.
-=item Can't mktemp()
-
-(F) The mktemp() routine failed for some reason while trying to process
-a B<-e> switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.
-
=item Can't modify %s in %s
(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try to
=item Can't take log of %g
-(F) Logarithms are defined on only positive real numbers.
+(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
+negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
+standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for
+the negative numbers.
=item Can't take sqrt of %g
(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
-negative number. There's a Complex package available for Perl, though,
-if you really want to do that.
+negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
+with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
=item Can't undef active subroutine
an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
-=item Cannot open temporary file
+=item Cannot create temporary file "%s"
-(F) The create routine failed for some reason while trying to process
-a B<-e> switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.
+(F) A temporary file could not created for some reason while trying to
+process a B<-e> switch. Maybe your temporary file partition is full,
+or over-protected, or clobbered.
+
+=item Cannot find an opnumber for "%s"
+
+(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but
+there is no builtin with the name C<word>.
+
+=item Cannot generate temporary filename
+
+(F) While trying to process a B<-e> switch, a filename for a temporary
+file could not be generated. Maybe your temporary file partition is
+full, or over-protected, or clobbered.
=item Cannot resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the
package. If method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
+=item Character class syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions
+
+(W) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
+with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
+If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
+expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
+backslash: "\[." and ".\]".
+
+=item Character class syntax [: :] is reserved for future extensions
+
+(W) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
+with "[:" and ending with ":]" is reserved for future extensions.
+If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
+expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
+backslash: "\[:" and ":\]".
+
+=item Character class syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions
+
+(W) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
+beginning with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions.
+If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
+expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
+backslash: "\[=" and "=\]".
+
=item chmod: mode argument is missing initial 0
(W) A novice will sometimes say
=item Invalid type in pack: '%s'
(F) The given character is not a valid pack type. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
+(W) The given character is not a valid pack type but used to be silently
+ignored.
=item Invalid type in unpack: '%s'
(F) The given character is not a valid unpack type. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
+(W) The given character is not a valid unpack type but used to be silently
+ignored.
=item ioctl is not implemented
As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you were last
editing.
-=item Missing semicolon on previous line?
-
-(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
-found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
-the previous line just because you saw this message.
-
=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In the meantime,
try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of "1_000_000").
-=item Odd number of elements in hash list
+=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
-(S) You specified an odd number of elements to a hash list, which is odd,
-because hash lists come in key/value pairs.
+(S) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash, which
+is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
=item Offset outside string
(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably indicates
an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
+=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
+
+(W) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list with
+an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This
+usually means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant
+to use parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
+
+ %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
+ %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
+ %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
+ %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
+
=item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
(W) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with a
reference count of other than 1.
+=item regexp *+ operand could be empty
+
+(F) The part of the regexp subject to either the * or + quantifier
+could match an empty string.
+
=item regexp memory corruption
(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
+Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
=item %sseek() on unopened file
(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a s/// or s{}{}
construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
+Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
=item Substitution replacement not terminated
(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a s/// or s{}{}
construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
+Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
=item substr outside of string
(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash. Backslash
it. See L<perlre>.
-=item Translation pattern not terminated
+=item Transliteration pattern not terminated
(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
-construct.
+or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
+C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
-=item Translation replacement not terminated
+=item Transliteration replacement not terminated
(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
construct.
(F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not recognized.
Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names on your system.
-=item Unrecognized switch: -%s
+=item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that.
(If you think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's
depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class named
C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during startup.
+In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);> you
+should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
+C<C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
+
=item Use of %s is deprecated
(D) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use, generally
of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
Perl yourself.
+=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
+
+(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
+
+ perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
+ perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
+ LC_ALL = "En_US",
+ LANG = (unset)
+ are supported and installed on your system.
+ perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
+
+Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
+settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
+This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your system
+administrator have set up the so-called variable system but Perl could
+not use those settings. This was not dead serious, fortunately: there
+is a "default locale" called "C" that Perl can and will use, the
+script will be run. Before you really fix the problem, however, you
+will get the same error message each time you run Perl. How to really
+fix the problem can be found in L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
+
=item Warning: something's wrong
(W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or