Initial commit of OpenSPARC T2 design and verification files.
[OpenSPARC-T2-DV] / tools / perl-5.8.0 / lib / 5.8.0 / pod / perldiag.pod
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1=head1 NAME
2
3perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
4
5=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
8desperation):
9
10 (W) A warning (optional).
11 (D) A deprecation (optional).
12 (S) A severe warning (default).
13 (F) A fatal error (trappable).
14 (P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
15 (X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
16 (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
17
18The majority of messages from the first three classifications above
19(W, D & S) can be controlled using the C<warnings> pragma.
20
21If a message can be controlled by the C<warnings> pragma, its warning
22category is included with the classification letter in the description
23below.
24
25Optional warnings are enabled by using the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-w>
26and B<-W> switches. Warnings may be captured by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
27to a reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead
28of printing it. See L<perlvar>.
29
30Default warnings are always enabled unless they are explicitly disabled
31with the C<warnings> pragma or the B<-X> switch.
32
33Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
34L<perlfunc/eval>. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively
35disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the C<warnings> pragma.
36See L<warnings>.
37
38The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
39lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
40denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are
41ignored by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
42letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
43letter.
44
45=over 4
46
47=item A thread exited while %d other threads were still running
48
49(W) When using threaded Perl, a thread (not necessarily the main
50thread) exited while there were still other threads running.
51Usually it's a good idea to first collect the return values of the
52created threads by joining them, and only then exit from the main
53thread. See L<threads>.
54
55=item accept() on closed socket %s
56
57(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you forget
58to check the return value of your socket() call? See
59L<perlfunc/accept>.
60
61=item Allocation too large: %lx
62
63(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
64
65=item '!' allowed only after types %s
66
67(F) The '!' is allowed in pack() and unpack() only after certain types.
68See L<perlfunc/pack>.
69
70=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
71
72(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl
73keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for calling
74one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
75subroutine is not imported.
76
77To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
78before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
79Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
80imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
81
82To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
83on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or declare the subroutine
84to be an object method (see L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> or
85L<attributes>).
86
87=item Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
88
89(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
90all. To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
91first or last. (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
92C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)
93
94=item Ambiguous use of %s resolved as %s
95
96(W ambiguous)(S) You said something that may not be interpreted the way
97you thought. Normally it's pretty easy to disambiguate it by supplying
98a missing quote, operator, parenthesis pair or declaration.
99
100=item '|' and '<' may not both be specified on command line
101
102(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
103redirection, and found that STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
104redirect STDIN using '<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
105
106=item '|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
107
108(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
109redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
110into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
111though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
112which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
113
114 open(OUT,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
115 while (<STDIN>) {
116 print;
117 print OUT;
118 }
119 close OUT;
120
121=item Applying %s to %s will act on scalar(%s)
122
123(W misc) The pattern match (C<//>), substitution (C<s///>), and
124transliteration (C<tr///>) operators work on scalar values. If you apply
125one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert the array or hash to
126a scalar value -- the length of an array, or the population info of a
127hash -- and then work on that scalar value. This is probably not what
128you meant to do. See L<perlfunc/grep> and L<perlfunc/map> for
129alternatives.
130
131=item Args must match #! line
132
133(F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
134with match the arguments specified on the #! line. Since some systems
135impose a one-argument limit on the #! line, try combining switches;
136for example, turn C<-w -U> into C<-wU>.
137
138=item Arg too short for msgsnd
139
140(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
141
142=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element
143
144(F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element, such as:
145
146 $foo{$bar}
147 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
148
149=item %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or slice
150
151(F) The argument to delete() must be either a hash or array element,
152such as:
153
154 $foo{$bar}
155 $ref->{"susie"}[12]
156
157or a hash or array slice, such as:
158
159 @foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
160 @{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
161
162=item %s argument is not a subroutine name
163
164(F) The argument to exists() for C<exists &sub> must be a subroutine
165name, and not a subroutine call. C<exists &sub()> will generate this
166error.
167
168=item Argument "%s" isn't numeric%s
169
170(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to an operator
171that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
172will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
173
174=item Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
175
176(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in some
177spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
178
179=item assertion botched: %s
180
181(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
182
183=item Assertion failed: file "%s"
184
185(P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
186
187=item Assignment to both a list and a scalar
188
189(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
190must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
191know which context to supply to the right side.
192
193=item Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
194
195(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
196the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
197
198=item Attempt to clear a restricted hash
199
200(F) It is currently not allowed to clear a restricted hash, even if the
201new hash would contain the same keys as before. This may change in
202the future.
203
204=item Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
205
206(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
207declared readonly from a restricted hash.
208
209=item Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
210
211(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
212which is not in its key set.
213
214=item Attempt to bless into a reference
215
216(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
217the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
218supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
219
220 bless $self, $proto;
221
222when you intended
223
224 bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
225
226If you actually want to bless into the stringified version
227of the reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for
228example by:
229
230 bless $self, "$proto";
231
232=item Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
233
234(P internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
235that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
236outside any of those arenas.
237
238=item Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
239
240(P internal) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of
241strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
242strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
243of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
244
245=item Attempt to free temp prematurely
246
247(W debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
248free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
249SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
250free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
251try to free it.
252
253=item Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
254
255(P internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
256
257=item Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
258
259(W internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
260see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
261earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
262This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
263that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
264mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
265corrupted.
266
267=item Attempt to join self
268
269(F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
270impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
271to move the join() to some other thread.
272
273=item Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
274
275(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
276function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
277means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
278invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
279literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
280avoid this warning.
281
282=item Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
283
284(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
285used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
286dereference it first. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
287
288=item Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %s
289
290(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
291or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
292S<sizeof(struct msqid_ds *)>, S<sizeof(struct semid_ds *)>, and
293S<sizeof(struct shmid_ds *)>.
294
295=item Bad evalled substitution pattern
296
297(F) You've used the C</e> switch to evaluate the replacement for a
298substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
299most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
300
301=item Bad filehandle: %s
302
303(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
304symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
305open(), or did it in another package.
306
307=item Bad free() ignored
308
309(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had never
310been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by
311setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 0.
312
313This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with "hard"
314dynamic linking, like C<AIX> and C<OS/2>. It is a bug of C<Berkeley DB>
315which is left unnoticed if C<DB> uses I<forgiving> system malloc().
316
317=item Bad hash
318
319(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
320
321=item Bad index while coercing array into hash
322
323(F) The index looked up in the hash found as the 0'th element of a
324pseudo-hash is not legal. Index values must be at 1 or greater.
325See L<perlref>.
326
327=item Badly placed ()'s
328
329(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
330of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
331Perl yourself.
332
333=item Bad name after %s::
334
335(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
336didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
337of quotes, so
338
339 $var = 'myvar';
340 $sym = mypack::$var;
341
342is not the same as
343
344 $var = 'myvar';
345 $sym = "mypack::$var";
346
347=item Bad realloc() ignored
348
349(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
350never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be disabled
351by setting environment variable C<PERL_BADFREE> to 1.
352
353=item Bad symbol for array
354
355(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
356wasn't a symbol table entry.
357
358=item Bad symbol for filehandle
359
360(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
361that wasn't a symbol table entry.
362
363=item Bad symbol for hash
364
365(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
366wasn't a symbol table entry.
367
368=item Bareword found in conditional
369
370(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
371conditional, which often indicates that an || or && was parsed as part
372of the last argument of the previous construct, for example:
373
374 open FOO || die;
375
376It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as
377a bareword:
378
379 use constant TYPO => 1;
380 if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
381
382The C<strict> pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.
383
384=item Bareword "%s" not allowed while "strict subs" in use
385
386(F) With "strict subs" in use, a bareword is only allowed as a
387subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left of the "=>"
388symbol. Perhaps you need to predeclare a subroutine?
389
390=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
391
392(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but the
393compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point. Perhaps
394you need to predeclare a package?
395
396=item BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
397
398(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
399subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
400exited.
401
402=item BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
403
404(F) Perl found a C<BEGIN {}> subroutine (or a C<use> directive, which
405implies a C<BEGIN {}>) after one or more compilation errors had already
406occurred. Since the intended environment for the C<BEGIN {}> could not
407be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
408depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
409
410=item \1 better written as $1
411
412(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
413The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
414substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
415because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
416there are more than 9 backreferences.
417
418=item Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
419
420(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
421(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
422L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
423
424=item bind() on closed socket %s
425
426(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget to
427check the return value of your socket() call? See L<perlfunc/bind>.
428
429=item binmode() on closed filehandle %s
430
431(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
432Check you control flow and number of arguments.
433
434=item Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
435
436(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is non-portable.
437
438=item Bizarre copy of %s in %s
439
440(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that is not
441copyable.
442
443=item B<-P> not allowed for setuid/setgid script
444
445(F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor by name,
446which provides a race condition that breaks security.
447
448=item Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
449
450(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
451iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
452which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
453
454=item Callback called exit
455
456(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv()
457exited by calling exit.
458
459=item %s() called too early to check prototype
460
461(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
462parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
463that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
464early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
465subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
466checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
467function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
468the warning. See L<perlsub>.
469
470=item / cannot take a count
471
472(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
473you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See
474L<perlfunc/pack>.
475
476=item Can't bless non-reference value
477
478(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
479encapsulation of objects. See L<perlobj>.
480
481=item Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
482
483(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
484functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
485in it, let alone methods. See L<perlobj>.
486
487=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
488
489(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
490object reference or package name contains an undefined value. Something
491like this will reproduce the error:
492
493 $BADREF = undef;
494 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
495 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
496
497=item Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
498
499(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
500ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
501didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
502object reference until it has been blessed. See L<perlobj>.
503
504=item Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
505
506(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
507object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
508defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
509Something like this will reproduce the error:
510
511 $BADREF = 42;
512 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
513 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
514
515=item Can't chdir to %s
516
517(F) You called C<perl -x/foo/bar>, but C</foo/bar> is not a directory
518that you can chdir to, possibly because it doesn't exist.
519
520=item Can't check filesystem of script "%s" for nosuid
521
522(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the script for
523nosuid.
524
525=item Can't coerce array into hash
526
527(F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the array has no
528information on how to map from keys to array indices. You can do that
529only with arrays that have a hash reference at index 0.
530
531=item Can't coerce %s to integer in %s
532
533(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
534(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are. So you can't
535say things like:
536
537 *foo += 1;
538
539You CAN say
540
541 $foo = *foo;
542 $foo += 1;
543
544but then $foo no longer contains a glob.
545
546=item Can't coerce %s to number in %s
547
548(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
549(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
550
551=item Can't coerce %s to string in %s
552
553(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table entries
554(typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they are.
555
556=item Can't create pipe mailbox
557
558(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The process is suffering from exhausted
559quotas or other plumbing problems.
560
561=item Can't declare class for non-scalar %s in "%s"
562
563(F) Currently, only scalar variables can be declared with a specific
564class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration. The semantics may be
565extended for other types of variables in future.
566
567=item Can't declare %s in "%s"
568
569(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my" or
570"our" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
571
572=item Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
573
574(S inplace) You tried to use the B<-i> switch on a special file, such as
575a file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
576
577=item Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
578
579(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
580reason.
581
582=item Can't do inplace edit without backup
583
584(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
585reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
586C<-i.bak>, or some such.
587
588=item Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
589
590(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
591characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
592inplace editing with the B<-i> switch. The file was ignored.
593
594=item Can't do {n,m} with n > m in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
595
596(F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want your
597regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. The <-- HERE shows in the
598regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
599
600=item Can't do setegid!
601
602(P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
603suidperl.
604
605=item Can't do seteuid!
606
607(P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
608
609=item Can't do setuid
610
611(F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to do
612setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the form
613sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides under
614the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines. If the
615file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask your
616sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
617
618=item Can't do waitpid with flags
619
620(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
621waitpid() without flags is emulated.
622
623=item Can't emulate -%s on #! line
624
625(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
626point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a B<-x> on the #!
627line.
628
629=item Can't exec "%s": %s
630
631(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
632named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
633permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
634C<$ENV{PATH}>, the executable in question was compiled for another
635architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
636can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't support
637#! at all.)
638
639=item Can't exec %s
640
641(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
642that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
643need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
644
645=item Can't execute %s
646
647(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the copies of the script to execute
648found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
649
650=item Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
651
652(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but there
653is no builtin with the name C<word>.
654
655=item Can't find %s character property "%s"
656
657(F) You used C<\p{}> or C<\P{}> but the character property by that name
658could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property
659(remember that the names of character properties consist only of
660alphanumeric characters), or maybe you forgot the C<Is> or C<In> prefix?
661
662=item Can't find label %s
663
664(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
665possible for us to go to. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
666
667=item Can't find %s on PATH
668
669(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
670found in the PATH.
671
672=item Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
673
674(F) You used the B<-S> switch, but the script to execute could not be
675found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
676script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
677
678=item Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
679
680(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
681that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
682nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
683
684 print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
685
686If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have included
687unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good programmer's
688editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
689
690=item Can't find %s property definition %s
691
692(F) You may have tried to use C<\p> which means a Unicode property (for
693example C<\p{Lu}> is all uppercase letters). If you did mean to use a
694Unicode property, see L<perlunicode> for the list of known properties.
695If you didn't mean to use a Unicode property, escape the C<\p>, either
696by C<\\p> (just the C<\p>) or by C<\Q\p> (the rest of the string, until
697possible C<\E>).
698
699=item Can't fork
700
701(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
702pipeline.
703
704=item Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
705
706(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
707between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
708Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
709the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
710account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
711the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
712the access checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec using
713the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this works only
714if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat() routine,
715because the device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
716appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking routine gave up
717and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note: The access checking
718routine knows about the Perl C<stat> operator and file tests, so you
719shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl command; it arises
720only if some internal code takes stat buffers lightly.)
721
722=item Can't get pipe mailbox device name
723
724(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
725pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
726
727=item Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
728
729(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
730mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
731
732=item Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
733
734(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a foreach
735loop. You can't get there from here. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
736
737=item Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
738
739(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
740a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
741you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a no-no.
742See L<perlfunc/goto>.
743
744=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-string
745
746(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
747"string". (You can use it to jump out of an eval {BLOCK}, but you
748probably don't want to.)
749
750=item Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
751
752(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
753subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
754cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
755routine anyway. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
756
757=item Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
758
759(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
760signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
761signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
762processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
763situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
764may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
765
766=item Can't "last" outside a loop block
767
768(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
769except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a current
770block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a "loopish"
771block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep(). You can
772usually double the curlies to get the same effect though, because the
773inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
774L<perlfunc/last>.
775
776=item Can't localize lexical variable %s
777
778(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
779lexical variable using "my". This is not allowed. If you want to
780localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
781package name.
782
783=item Can't localize pseudo-hash element
784
785(F) You said something like C<< local $ar->{'key'} >>, where $ar is a
786reference to a pseudo-hash. That hasn't been implemented yet, but you
787can get a similar effect by localizing the corresponding array element
788directly -- C<< local $ar->[$ar->[0]{'key'}] >>.
789
790=item Can't localize through a reference
791
792(F) You said something like C<local $$ref>, which Perl can't currently
793handle, because when it goes to restore the old value of whatever $ref
794pointed to after the scope of the local() is finished, it can't be sure
795that $ref will still be a reference.
796
797=item Can't locate %s
798
799(F) You said to C<do> (or C<require>, or C<use>) a file that couldn't be
800found. Perl looks for the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC,
801unless the file name included the full path to the file. Perhaps you
802need to set the PERL5LIB or PERL5OPT environment variable to say where
803the extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the library name
804to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled the name of the file. See
805L<perlfunc/require> and L<lib>.
806
807=item Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
808
809(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
810autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
811are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to C<AutoSplit>
812the file, say, by doing C<make install>.
813
814=item Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
815
816(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
817functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
818method, nor does any of its base classes. See L<perlobj>.
819
820=item Can't locate PerlIO%s
821
822(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist,
823e.g. open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
824
825=item (perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)
826
827(F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
828"Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"". It often means
829that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.
830
831=item Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA
832
833(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of another package that
834doesn't seem to exist.
835
836=item Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
837
838(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
839VMS.
840
841=item Can't modify %s in %s
842
843(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try
844to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
845
846=item Can't modify nonexistent substring
847
848(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
849a NULL.
850
851=item Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
852
853(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared as
854such, see L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
855
856=item Can't msgrcv to read-only var
857
858(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
859buffer.
860
861=item Can't "next" outside a loop block
862
863(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
864there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
865count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or
866grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
867though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
868once. See L<perlfunc/next>.
869
870=item Can't open %s: %s
871
872(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the C<< <> >>
873filehandle, either implicitly under the C<-n> or C<-p> command-line
874switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
875is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named on
876the command line.
877
878=item Can't open a reference
879
880(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
881using the 3-arg open() syntax :
882
883 open FH, '>', $ref;
884
885but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
886open is not supported.
887
888=item Can't open bidirectional pipe
889
890(W pipe) You tried to say C<open(CMD, "|cmd|")>, which is not supported.
891You can try any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
892as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a file using
893">", and then read it in under a different file handle.
894
895=item Can't open error file %s as stderr
896
897(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
898redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' or '2>>' on
899the command line for writing.
900
901=item Can't open input file %s as stdin
902
903(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
904redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '<' on the
905command line for reading.
906
907=item Can't open output file %s as stdout
908
909(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
910redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '>' or '>>' on
911the command line for writing.
912
913=item Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
914
915(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
916redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data destined
917for stdout.
918
919=item Can't open perl script%s: %s
920
921(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
922
923=item Can't read CRTL environ
924
925(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
926from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
927missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
928or define F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that environ is not
929searched.
930
931=item Can't redefine active sort subroutine %s
932
933(F) Perl optimizes the internal handling of sort subroutines and keeps
934pointers into them. You tried to redefine one such sort subroutine when
935it was currently active, which is not allowed. If you really want to do
936this, you should write C<sort { &func } @x> instead of C<sort func @x>.
937
938=item Can't "redo" outside a loop block
939
940(F) A "redo" statement was executed to restart the current block, but
941there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
942count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
943or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
944though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that
945loops once. See L<perlfunc/redo>.
946
947=item Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
948
949(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
950file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
951the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
952
953=item Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
954
955(S inplace) The rename done by the B<-i> switch failed for some reason,
956probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
957
958=item Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
959
960(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
961to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
962
963=item Can't resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
964
965(F|P) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name (as opposed
966to a subroutine reference): no such method callable via the package. If
967method name is C<???>, this is an internal error.
968
969=item Can't reswap uid and euid
970
971(P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
972suidperl.
973
974=item Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine
975
976(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such as
977temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as an lvalue. This
978is not allowed.
979
980=item Can't return %s to lvalue scalar context
981
982(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an lvalue subroutine,
983but you called the subroutine in a way that made Perl think you meant
984to return only one value. You probably meant to write parentheses around
985the call to the subroutine, which tell Perl that the call should be in
986list context.
987
988=item Can't return outside a subroutine
989
990(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
991there was no subroutine call to return out of. See L<perlsub>.
992
993=item Can't stat script "%s"
994
995(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have it
996open already. Bizarre.
997
998=item Can't swap uid and euid
999
1000(P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
1001suidperl.
1002
1003=item Can't take log of %g
1004
1005(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
1006negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
1007standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
1008negative numbers.
1009
1010=item Can't take sqrt of %g
1011
1012(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
1013negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
1014with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
1015
1016=item Can't undef active subroutine
1017
1018(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
1019however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
1020redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
1021
1022=item Can't unshift
1023
1024(F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted, such
1025as the main Perl stack.
1026
1027=item Can't upgrade that kind of scalar
1028
1029(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
1030into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
1031specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
1032indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
1033
1034=item Can't upgrade to undef
1035
1036(P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the totem pole, in the scheme of
1037upgradability. Upgrading to undef indicates an error in the code
1038calling sv_upgrade.
1039
1040=item Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
1041
1042(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference must
1043be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
1044
1045=item Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
1046
1047(P) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
1048table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous
1049for example by undefining stashes: C<undef %Some::Package::>.
1050
1051=item Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1052
1053(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1054references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
1055
1056=item Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
1057
1058(F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
1059Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
1060provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
1061
1062=item Can't use %s for loop variable
1063
1064(F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
1065foreach.
1066
1067=item Can't use global %s in "my"
1068
1069(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable. This
1070is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
1071(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
1072have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
1073weren't.
1074
1075=item Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
1076
1077(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
1078You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> or cmp operator,
1079and the variable had earlier been declared as a lexical variable.
1080Either qualify the sort variable with the package name, or rename the
1081lexical variable.
1082
1083=item Can't use %s ref as %s ref
1084
1085(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to dereference a
1086reference of the type needed. You can use the ref() function to
1087test the type of the reference, if need be.
1088
1089=item Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
1090
1091(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
1092references are disallowed. See L<perlref>.
1093
1094=item Can't use subscript on %s
1095
1096(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
1097subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
1098didn't look like an array reference, or anything else subscriptable.
1099
1100=item Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
1101
1102(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator that
1103creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to indicate a
1104backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part of a regular
1105expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
1106value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf). Use the $1 form
1107instead.
1108
1109=item Can't weaken a nonreference
1110
1111(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
1112references can be weakened.
1113
1114=item Can't x= to read-only value
1115
1116(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
1117with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
1118Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
1119
1120=item Character in "C" format wrapped
1121
1122(W pack) You said
1123
1124 pack("C", $x)
1125
1126where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the C<"C"> format is
1127only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1128and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1129
1130 pack("C", $x & 255)
1131
1132If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1133instead.
1134
1135=item Character in "c" format wrapped
1136
1137(W pack) You said
1138
1139 pack("c", $x)
1140
1141where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the C<"c"> format
1142is only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
1143and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
1144
1145 pack("c", $x & 255);
1146
1147If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the C<"U"> format
1148instead.
1149
1150=item close() on unopened filehandle %s
1151
1152(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
1153
1154=item %s: Command not found
1155
1156(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1157Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
1158
1159=item Compilation failed in require
1160
1161(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a C<require> statement.
1162Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
1163encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
1164
1165=item Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
1166
1167(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
1168situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
1169to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
1170arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
1171recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
1172under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with C<while>) rather than
1173in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression so
1174that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See L<perlfaq2> for information
1175on I<Mastering Regular Expressions>.)
1176
1177=item cond_broadcast() called on unlocked variable
1178
1179(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1180cond_broadcast() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_broadcast()
1181function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1182cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1183has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1184first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1185after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1186lock.
1187
1188
1189=item cond_signal() called on unlocked variable
1190
1191(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
1192cond_signal() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_signal()
1193function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
1194cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other thread
1195has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling thread to
1196first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will only succeed
1197after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus relinquished the
1198lock.
1199
1200=item connect() on closed socket %s
1201
1202(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you forget
1203to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1204L<perlfunc/connect>.
1205
1206=item Constant(%s)%s: %s
1207
1208(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
1209an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
1210specified in the C<\N{...}> escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
1211corresponding C<overload> or C<charnames> pragma? See L<charnames> and
1212L<overload>.
1213
1214=item Constant is not %s reference
1215
1216(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the C<use constant> pragma)
1217is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
1218The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
1219usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
1220See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> and L<constant>.
1221
1222=item Constant subroutine %s redefined
1223
1224(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been
1225eligible for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for
1226commentary and workarounds.
1227
1228=item Constant subroutine %s undefined
1229
1230(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
1231for inlining. See L<perlsub/"Constant Functions"> for commentary and
1232workarounds.
1233
1234=item Copy method did not return a reference
1235
1236(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See
1237L<overload/Copy Constructor>.
1238
1239=item CORE::%s is not a keyword
1240
1241(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
1242
1243=item corrupted regexp pointers
1244
1245(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
1246expression compiler gave it.
1247
1248=item corrupted regexp program
1249
1250(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
1251valid magic number.
1252
1253=item Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
1254
1255(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
1256
1257=item C<-p> destination: %s
1258
1259(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by the C<-p>
1260command-line switch. (This output goes to STDOUT unless you've
1261redirected it with select().)
1262
1263=item C<-T> and C<-B> not implemented on filehandles
1264
1265(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when it doesn't
1266know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use a filename instead.
1267
1268=item Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
1269
1270(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or indirectly)
1271100 times more than it has returned. This probably indicates an
1272infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange benchmark programs, in
1273which case it indicates something else.
1274
1275=item defined(@array) is deprecated
1276
1277(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
1278checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the
1279array is empty, just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example.
1280
1281=item defined(%hash) is deprecated
1282
1283(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it
1284checks for an undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the hash
1285is empty, just use C<if (%hash) { # not empty }> for example.
1286
1287=item %s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
1288
1289(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
1290there are neither package declarations nor a C<$VERSION>.
1291
1292=item Delimiter for here document is too long
1293
1294(F) In a here document construct like C<<<FOO>, the label C<FOO> is too
1295long for Perl to handle. You have to be seriously twisted to write code
1296that triggers this error.
1297
1298=item Did not produce a valid header
1299
1300See Server error.
1301
1302=item %s did not return a true value
1303
1304(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
1305it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
1306traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
1307do. See L<perlfunc/require>.
1308
1309=item (Did you mean &%s instead?)
1310
1311(W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine &FOO as $FOO or some
1312such.
1313
1314=item (Did you mean "local" instead of "our"?)
1315
1316(W misc) Remember that "our" does not localize the declared global
1317variable. You have declared it again in the same lexical scope, which
1318seems superfluous.
1319
1320=item (Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)
1321
1322(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant $hash{$key} or
1323@hash{@keys}. On the other hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got
1324carried away.
1325
1326=item Died
1327
1328(F) You passed die() an empty string (the equivalent of C<die "">) or
1329you called it with no args and both C<$@> and C<$_> were empty.
1330
1331=item Document contains no data
1332
1333See Server error.
1334
1335=item %s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
1336
1337(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
1338define a C<$VERSION.>
1339
1340=item Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'
1341
1342(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been cursed.
1343
1344=item do_study: out of memory
1345
1346(P) This should have been caught by safemalloc() instead.
1347
1348=item (Do you need to predeclare %s?)
1349
1350(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
1351found where operator expected". It often means a subroutine or module
1352name is being referenced that hasn't been declared yet. This may be
1353because of ordering problems in your file, or because of a missing
1354"sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If you're referencing
1355something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to define the
1356subroutine or package before the current location. You can use an empty
1357"sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward" declaration.
1358
1359=item dump() better written as CORE::dump()
1360
1361(W misc) You used the obsolescent C<dump()> built-in function, without fully
1362qualifying it as C<CORE::dump()>. Maybe it's a typo. See L<perlfunc/dump>.
1363
1364=item Duplicate free() ignored
1365
1366(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
1367already been freed.
1368
1369=item elseif should be elsif
1370
1371(S) There is no keyword "elseif" in Perl because Larry thinks it's ugly.
1372Your code will be interpreted as an attempt to call a method named
1373"elseif" for the class returned by the following block. This is
1374unlikely to be what you want.
1375
1376=item Empty %s
1377
1378(F) C<\p> and C<\P> are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
1379described in L<perlunicode> and L<perlre>. You used C<\p> or C<\P> in
1380a regular expression without specifying the property name.
1381
1382=item entering effective %s failed
1383
1384(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
1385effective uids or gids failed.
1386
1387=item Error converting file specification %s
1388
1389(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
1390specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
1391single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've passed
1392an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case the
1393conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
1394
1395=item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
1396
1397(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
1398expression that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which
1399is unsafe. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
1400
1401=item %s: Eval-group not allowed at run time
1402
1403(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the
1404C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the
1405pattern contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it
1406is not allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly
1407building the pattern from an interpolated string at run time and using
1408that in an eval(). See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
1409
1410=item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
1411
1412(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width
1413assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'>
1414pragma is in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
1415
1416=item Excessively long <> operator
1417
1418(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the maximum size of a
1419Perl identifier. If you're just trying to glob a long list of
1420filenames, try using the glob() operator, or put the filenames into a
1421variable and glob that.
1422
1423=item exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
1424
1425(F) The C<exec> function is not implemented in MacPerl. See L<perlport>.
1426
1427=item Execution of %s aborted due to compilation errors
1428
1429(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation fails.
1430
1431=item Exiting eval via %s
1432
1433(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means, such as a
1434goto, or a loop control statement.
1435
1436=item Exiting format via %s
1437
1438(W exiting) You are exiting a format by unconventional means, such as a
1439goto, or a loop control statement.
1440
1441=item Exiting pseudo-block via %s
1442
1443(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
1444sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
1445loop control statement. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
1446
1447=item Exiting subroutine via %s
1448
1449(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
1450as a goto, or a loop control statement.
1451
1452=item Exiting substitution via %s
1453
1454(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means, such
1455as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
1456
1457=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
1458
1459(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
1460the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
1461usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target package,
1462e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
1463
1464=item %s: Expression syntax
1465
1466(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
1467Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
1468
1469=item %s failed--call queue aborted
1470
1471(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a CHECK, INIT, or
1472END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the queue of such
1473routines has been prematurely ended.
1474
1475=item False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1476
1477(W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a literal
1478character, not another character class like C<\d> or C<[:alpha:]>. The "-"
1479in your false range is interpreted as a literal "-". Consider quoting the
1480"-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1481problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
1482
1483=item Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
1484
1485(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
1486system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
1487details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
1488you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
1489
1490=item fcntl is not implemented
1491
1492(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
1493PDP-11 or something?
1494
1495=item Filehandle %s opened only for input
1496
1497(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended it
1498to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or "+>"
1499or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to write
1500the file, use ">" or ">>". See L<perlfunc/open>.
1501The warning will also occur if STDOUT (file descriptor 1) or STDERR
1502(file descriptor 2) is opened for input, this is a pre-emptive warning in
1503case some other part of your program or a child process is expecting STDOUT
1504and STDERR to be writable. This can happen accidentally if you
1505C<close(STDOUT)> or STDERR and then C<open> an unrelated handle which
1506will resuse the lowest numbered available descriptor.
1507
1508=item Filehandle %s opened only for output
1509
1510(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing.
1511If you intended it to be a read/write filehandle, you needed to open it
1512with "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you
1513intended only to read from the file, use "<". See L<perlfunc/open>.
1514The warning will also occur if STDIN (file descriptor 0) is opened
1515for output - this is a pre-emptive warning in case some other part of your
1516program or a child process is expecting STDIN to be readable.
1517This can happen accidentally if you C<close(STDIN)> and then C<open> an
1518unrelated handle which will resuse the lowest numbered available
1519descriptor.
1520
1521=item Final $ should be \$ or $name
1522
1523(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was meant to be
1524a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1525happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1526name.
1527
1528=item Final @ should be \@ or @name
1529
1530(F) You must now decide whether the final @ in a string was meant to be
1531a literal "at" sign, or was meant to introduce a variable name that
1532happens to be missing. So you have to put either the backslash or the
1533name.
1534
1535=item flock() on closed filehandle %s
1536
1537(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself closed
1538some time before now. Check your control flow. flock() operates on
1539filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a dirhandle by the
1540same name?
1541
1542=item Quantifier follows nothing in regex;
1543
1544marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1545
1546(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier. Backslash it if you
1547meant it literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
1548where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
1549
1550=item Format not terminated
1551
1552(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl got
1553to the end of your file without finding such a line.
1554
1555=item Format %s redefined
1556
1557(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
1558
1559 {
1560 no warnings 'redefine';
1561 eval "format NAME =...";
1562 }
1563
1564=item Found = in conditional, should be ==
1565
1566(W syntax) You said
1567
1568 if ($foo = 123)
1569
1570when you meant
1571
1572 if ($foo == 123)
1573
1574(or something like that).
1575
1576=item %s found where operator expected
1577
1578(S) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an operator. If it
1579sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting to see an
1580operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates that an
1581operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
1582
1583=item gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
1584
1585(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
1586
1587=item gethostent not implemented
1588
1589(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
1590because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
1591on the Internet.
1592
1593=item get%sname() on closed socket %s
1594
1595(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
1596socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket() call?
1597
1598=item getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
1599
1600(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to C<sys$getuai> underlying the
1601C<getpwnam> operator returned an invalid UIC.
1602
1603=item getsockopt() on closed socket %s
1604
1605(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
1606forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1607L<perlfunc/getsockopt>.
1608
1609=item Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
1610
1611(F) You've said "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables
1612must either be lexically scoped (using "my"), declared beforehand using
1613"our", or explicitly qualified to say which package the global variable
1614is in (using "::").
1615
1616=item glob failed (%s)
1617
1618(W glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for
1619C<glob> and C<< <*.c> >>. Usually, this means that you supplied a
1620C<glob> pattern that caused the external program to fail and exit with a
1621nonzero status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
1622resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C shell) is
1623broken. If so, you should change all of the csh-related variables in
1624config.sh: If you have tcsh, make the variables refer to it as if it
1625were csh (e.g. C<full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'>); otherwise, make them all
1626empty (except that C<d_csh> should be C<'undef'>) so that Perl will
1627think csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
1628C<./Configure -S> and rebuild Perl.
1629
1630=item Glob not terminated
1631
1632(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
1633a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
1634not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
1635earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
1636
1637=item Got an error from DosAllocMem
1638
1639(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
1640version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
1641
1642=item goto must have label
1643
1644(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
1645unspecified destination. See L<perlfunc/goto>.
1646
1647=item %s-group starts with a count
1648
1649(F) In pack/unpack a ()-group started with a count. A count is
1650supposed to follow something: a template character or a ()-group.
1651
1652=item %s had compilation errors
1653
1654(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> fails.
1655
1656=item Had to create %s unexpectedly
1657
1658(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that ought
1659to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had to be
1660created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
1661
1662=item Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
1663
1664(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
1665spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
1666
1667=item %s has too many errors
1668
1669(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10 errors.
1670Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
1671
1672=item Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
1673
1674(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
1675(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
1676L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
1677
1678=item Identifier too long
1679
1680(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
1681about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
1682names (like C<$A::B>). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions
1683of Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
1684
1685=item Illegal binary digit %s
1686
1687(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
1688
1689=item Illegal binary digit %s ignored
1690
1691(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
1692binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
1693offending digit.
1694
1695=item Illegal character %s (carriage return)
1696
1697(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
1698would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
1699when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
1700version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
1701to your Perl administrator.
1702
1703=item Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
1704
1705(W syntax) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration. Legal
1706characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, and \.
1707
1708=item Illegal division by zero
1709
1710(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
1711your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
1712meaningless input.
1713
1714=item Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
1715
1716(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or
1717A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
1718number stopped before the illegal character.
1719
1720=item Illegal modulus zero
1721
1722(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
1723numbers don't take to this kindly.
1724
1725=item Illegal number of bits in vec
1726
1727(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
1728two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
1729
1730=item Illegal octal digit %s
1731
1732(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
1733
1734=item Illegal octal digit %s ignored
1735
1736(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
1737Interpretation of the octal number stopped before the 8 or 9.
1738
1739=item Illegal switch in PERL5OPT: %s
1740
1741(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may only be used to set the
1742following switches: B<-[DIMUdmtw]>.
1743
1744=item Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
1745
1746(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
1747internal environ array, and encountered an element without the C<=>
1748delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
1749
1750=item Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
1751
1752(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
1753name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
1754didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line was
1755ignored.
1756
1757=item (in cleanup) %s
1758
1759(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
1760the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
1761system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
1762times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
1763would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
1764
1765Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the C<G_KEEPERR> flag could
1766also result in this warning. See L<perlcall/G_KEEPERR>.
1767
1768=item In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
1769
1770(F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
1771Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-EBCDIC
1772encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647 (0x7FFFFFFF).
1773
1774=item Insecure dependency in %s
1775
1776(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
1777The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
1778setgid, or when you specify B<-T> to turn it on explicitly. The
1779tainting mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly
1780from the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any
1781such data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
1782L<perlsec> for more information.
1783
1784=item Insecure directory in %s
1785
1786(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1787setgid script if C<$ENV{PATH}> contains a directory that is writable by
1788the world. See L<perlsec>.
1789
1790=item Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
1791
1792(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
1793setgid script if any of C<$ENV{PATH}>, C<$ENV{IFS}>, C<$ENV{CDPATH}>,
1794C<$ENV{ENV}> or C<$ENV{BASH_ENV}> are derived from data supplied (or
1795potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set the path to a
1796known value, using trustworthy data. See L<perlsec>.
1797
1798=item Integer overflow in %s number
1799
1800(W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
1801either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
1802your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
1803On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary number
1804representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
18050b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
1806transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
1807internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
1808operations.
1809
1810=item Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1811
1812(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser.
1813The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1814discovered.
1815
1816=item Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
1817
1818(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
1819you've called C<fork> and C<exec>, to determine whether the current call
1820to C<exec> should affect the current script or a subprocess (see
1821L<perlvms/"exec LIST">). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so
1822Perl is making a guess and treating this C<exec> as a request to
1823terminate the Perl script and execute the specified command.
1824
1825=item Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1826
1827(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The
1828<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
1829discovered.
1830
1831=item %s (...) interpreted as function
1832
1833(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list operator
1834followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the list
1835operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See
1836L<perlop/Terms and List Operators (Leftward)>.
1837
1838=item Invalid %s attribute: %s
1839
1840The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
1841by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
1842
1843=item Invalid %s attributes: %s
1844
1845The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
1846recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>.
1847
1848=item Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
1849
1850(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
1851L<perlfunc/sprintf>.
1852
1853=item Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1854
1855(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
1856greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot the
1857C<{}> from your ending C<\x{}> - C<\x> without the curly braces can go only
1858up to C<ff>. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
1859problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
1860
1861=item Invalid [] range "%s" in transliteration operator
1862
1863(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
1864character greater than the maximum character. See L<perlop>.
1865
1866=item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
1867
1868(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
1869elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
1870parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
1871See L<attributes>.
1872
1873=item Invalid type in pack: '%s'
1874
1875(F) The given character is not a valid pack type. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
1876(W pack) The given character is not a valid pack type but used to be
1877silently ignored.
1878
1879=item Invalid type in unpack: '%s'
1880
1881(F) The given character is not a valid unpack type. See
1882L<perlfunc/unpack>.
1883(W unpack) The given character is not a valid unpack type but used to be
1884silently ignored.
1885
1886=item ioctl is not implemented
1887
1888(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement ioctl(), which is pretty
1889strange for a machine that supports C.
1890
1891=item ioctl() on unopened %s
1892
1893(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
1894Check you control flow and number of arguments.
1895
1896=item IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
1897
1898(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
1899neither as a system call or an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
1900
1901=item `%s' is not a code reference
1902
1903(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of overload::constant
1904needs to be a code reference. Either an anonymous subroutine, or a reference
1905to a subroutine.
1906
1907=item `%s' is not an overloadable type
1908
1909(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package is
1910unaware of.
1911
1912=item junk on end of regexp
1913
1914(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
1915
1916=item Label not found for "last %s"
1917
1918(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a loop
1919of that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1920L<perlfunc/last>.
1921
1922=item Label not found for "next %s"
1923
1924(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
1925that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1926L<perlfunc/last>.
1927
1928=item Label not found for "redo %s"
1929
1930(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
1931that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
1932L<perlfunc/last>.
1933
1934=item leaving effective %s failed
1935
1936(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, switching the real and
1937effective uids or gids failed.
1938
1939=item listen() on closed socket %s
1940
1941(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
1942to check the return value of your socket() call? See
1943L<perlfunc/listen>.
1944
1945=item lstat() on filehandle %s
1946
1947(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean
1948by that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
1949instead on the filehandle.)
1950
1951=item Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented yet
1952
1953(F) Due to limitations in the current implementation, array and hash
1954values cannot be returned in subroutines used in lvalue context. See
1955L<perlsub/"Lvalue subroutines">.
1956
1957=item Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex;
1958
1959marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
1960
1961(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind can
1962handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release. The <-- HERE
1963shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
1964
1965=item Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
1966
1967(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
1968
1969 prefix1;prefix2
1970
1971or
1972 prefix1 prefix2
1973
1974with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If C<prefix1> is indeed a prefix of
1975a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
1976appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
1977"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in L<perlos2>.
1978
1979=item Malformed prototype for %s: %s
1980
1981(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The
1982syntax of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for
1983obvious errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run
1984when the function is called.
1985
1986=item Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
1987
1988Perl detected something that didn't comply with UTF-8 encoding rules.
1989
1990One possible cause is that you read in data that you thought to be in
1991UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy 8-bit data). Another
1992possibility is careless use of utf8::upgrade().
1993
1994=item Malformed UTF-16 surrogate
1995
1996Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded character data but while
1997doing it Perl met a malformed Unicode surrogate.
1998
1999=item %s matches null string many times in regex;
2000
2001marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2002
2003(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if the
2004regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The <-- HERE
2005shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2006See L<perlre>.
2007
2008=item "%s" may clash with future reserved word
2009
2010(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
2011interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is
2012"use" or "my".
2013
2014=item % may only be used in unpack
2015
2016(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
2017checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
2018See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
2019
2020=item Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
2021
2022(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
2023doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
2024
2025=item Method %s not permitted
2026
2027See Server error.
2028
2029=item Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
2030
2031(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
2032by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
2033ended earlier on the current line.
2034
2035=item Misplaced _ in number
2036
2037(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
2038separate two digits.
2039
2040=item Missing %sbrace%s on \N{}
2041
2042(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal C<\N{charname}> within
2043double-quotish context.
2044
2045=item Missing comma after first argument to %s function
2046
2047(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
2048"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
2049
2050=item Missing command in piped open
2051
2052(W pipe) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or
2053C<open(FH, "command |")> construction, but the command was missing or
2054blank.
2055
2056=item Missing name in "my sub"
2057
2058(F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that
2059they have a name with which they can be found.
2060
2061=item Missing $ on loop variable
2062
2063(F) Apparently you've been programming in B<csh> too much. Variables
2064are always mentioned with the $ in Perl, unlike in the shells, where it
2065can vary from one line to the next.
2066
2067=item (Missing operator before %s?)
2068
2069(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
2070found where operator expected". Often the missing operator is a comma.
2071
2072=item Missing right brace on %s
2073
2074(F) Missing right brace in C<\p{...}> or C<\P{...}>.
2075
2076=item Missing right curly or square bracket
2077
2078(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than closing
2079ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the place you
2080were last editing.
2081
2082=item (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
2083
2084(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message "%s
2085found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a semicolon on
2086the previous line just because you saw this message.
2087
2088=item Modification of a read-only value attempted
2089
2090(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
2091constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
2092catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
2093
2094 sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
2095 mod(2);
2096
2097Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the string.
2098
2099Yet another way is to assign to a C<foreach> loop I<VAR> when I<VAR>
2100is aliased to a constant in the look I<LIST>:
2101
2102 $x = 1;
2103 foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
2104 $n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to modify the 2
2105 }
2106
2107=item Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
2108
2109(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
2110subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
2111backwards.
2112
2113=item Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
2114
2115(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
2116couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
2117
2118=item Module name must be constant
2119
2120(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a "use".
2121
2122=item Module name required with -%c option
2123
2124(F) The C<-M> or C<-m> options say that Perl should load some module, but
2125you omitted the name of the module. Consult L<perlrun> for full details
2126about C<-M> and C<-m>.
2127
2128=item More than one argument to open
2129
2130(F) The C<open> function has been asked to open multiple files. This
2131can happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a
2132list of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode.
2133See L<perlfunc/open> for details.
2134
2135=item msg%s not implemented
2136
2137(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
2138
2139=item Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
2140
2141(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like C<$foo[1,2,3]>.
2142They're written like C<$foo[1][2][3]>, as in C.
2143
2144=item / must be followed by a*, A* or Z*
2145
2146(F) You had a pack template indicating a counted-length string,
2147Currently the only things that can have their length counted are a*, A*
2148or Z*. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2149
2150=item / must be followed by a, A or Z
2151
2152(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, which
2153must be followed by one of the letters a, A or Z to indicate what sort
2154of string is to be unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2155
2156=item / must follow a numeric type
2157
2158(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '#', but this did not
2159follow some numeric unpack specification. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2160
2161=item "my sub" not yet implemented
2162
2163(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
2164that yet.
2165
2166=item "my" variable %s can't be in a package
2167
2168(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
2169sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
2170local() if you want to localize a package variable.
2171
2172=item Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
2173
2174(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
2175If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
2176again somehow to suppress the message. The C<our> declaration is
2177provided for this purpose.
2178
2179=item Negative length
2180
2181(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a buffer
2182length that is less than 0. This is difficult to imagine.
2183
2184=item Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
2185
2186(F) When C<vec> is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must be
2187greater than or equal to zero.
2188
2189=item Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2190
2191(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
2192things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the regular
2193expression about where the problem was discovered.
2194
2195Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, C<*?>, C<+?>, and
2196C<??> appear to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See L<perlre>.
2197
2198=item %s never introduced
2199
2200(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out of
2201scope before it could possibly have been used.
2202
2203=item No %s allowed while running setuid
2204
2205(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
2206setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
2207will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at least
2208securable. See L<perlsec>.
2209
2210=item No B<-e> allowed in setuid scripts
2211
2212(F) A setuid script can't be specified by the user.
2213
2214=item No comma allowed after %s
2215
2216(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or "indirect object" is not
2217allowed to have a comma between that and the following arguments.
2218Otherwise it'd be just another one of the arguments.
2219
2220One possible cause for this is that you expected to have imported a
2221constant to your name space with B<use> or B<import> while no such
2222importing took place, it may for example be that your operating system
2223does not support that particular constant. Hopefully you did use an
2224explicit import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
2225L<perlfunc/use> and L<perlfunc/import>. While an explicit import list
2226would probably have caught this error earlier it naturally does not
2227remedy the fact that your operating system still does not support that
2228constant. Maybe you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import
2229list of B<use> or B<import> or in the constant name at the line where
2230this error was triggered?
2231
2232=item No command into which to pipe on command line
2233
2234(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2235redirection, and found a '|' at the end of the command line, so it
2236doesn't know where you want to pipe the output from this command.
2237
2238=item No DB::DB routine defined
2239
2240(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch, but
2241for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof) didn't
2242define a routine to be called at the beginning of each statement. Which
2243is odd, because the file should have been required automatically, and
2244should have blown up the require if it didn't parse right.
2245
2246=item No dbm on this machine
2247
2248(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every machine should
2249supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with SDBM. See L<SDBM_File>.
2250
2251=item No DBsub routine
2252
2253(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the B<-d> switch,
2254but for some reason the perl5db.pl file (or some facsimile thereof)
2255didn't define a DB::sub routine to be called at the beginning of each
2256ordinary subroutine call.
2257
2258=item No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
2259
2260(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2261redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>' on the command line, but can't
2262find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stderr.
2263
2264=item No input file after < on command line
2265
2266(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2267redirection, and found a '<' on the command line, but can't find the
2268name of the file from which to read data for stdin.
2269
2270=item No #! line
2271
2272(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2273even on machines that don't support the #! construct.
2274
2275=item "no" not allowed in expression
2276
2277(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
2278returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
2279
2280=item No output file after > on command line
2281
2282(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2283redirection, and found a lone '>' at the end of the command line, so it
2284doesn't know where you wanted to redirect stdout.
2285
2286=item No output file after > or >> on command line
2287
2288(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own command line
2289redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on the command line, but can't
2290find the name of the file to which to write data destined for stdout.
2291
2292=item No package name allowed for variable %s in "our"
2293
2294(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in "our"
2295declarations, because that doesn't make much sense under existing
2296semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future extensions.
2297
2298=item No Perl script found in input
2299
2300(F) You called C<perl -x>, but no line was found in the file beginning
2301with #! and containing the word "perl".
2302
2303=item No setregid available
2304
2305(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setregid() call for
2306your system.
2307
2308=item No setreuid available
2309
2310(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the setreuid() call for
2311your system.
2312
2313=item No space allowed after -%c
2314
2315(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
2316immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
2317
2318=item No %s specified for -%c
2319
2320(F) The indicated command line switch needs a mandatory argument, but
2321you haven't specified one.
2322
2323=item No such class %s
2324
2325(F) You provided a class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration, but
2326this class doesn't exist at this point in your program.
2327
2328=item No such pipe open
2329
2330(P) An error peculiar to VMS. The internal routine my_pclose() tried to
2331close a pipe which hadn't been opened. This should have been caught
2332earlier as an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.
2333
2334=item No such pseudo-hash field "%s"
2335
2336(F) You tried to access an array as a hash, but the field name used is
2337not defined. The hash at index 0 should map all valid field names to
2338array indices for that to work.
2339
2340=item No such pseudo-hash field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
2341
2342(F) You tried to access a field of a typed variable where the type does
2343not know about the field name. The field names are looked up in the
2344%FIELDS hash in the type package at compile time. The %FIELDS hash is
2345%usually set up with the 'fields' pragma.
2346
2347=item No such signal: SIG%s
2348
2349(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to %SIG that was
2350not recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal
2351names on your system.
2352
2353=item Not a CODE reference
2354
2355(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2356subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
2357use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2358also L<perlref>.
2359
2360=item Not a format reference
2361
2362(F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to an anonymous
2363format, but this indicates you did, and that it didn't exist.
2364
2365=item Not a GLOB reference
2366
2367(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a "typeglob" (that is, a
2368symbol table entry that looks like C<*foo>), but found a reference to
2369something else instead. You can use the ref() function to find out what
2370kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2371
2372=item Not a HASH reference
2373
2374(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value, but found a
2375reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function to
2376find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2377
2378=item Not an ARRAY reference
2379
2380(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array value, but found
2381a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2382to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2383
2384=item Not a perl script
2385
2386(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a well-formed #! line
2387even on machines that don't support the #! construct. The line must
2388mention perl.
2389
2390=item Not a SCALAR reference
2391
2392(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar value, but found
2393a reference to something else instead. You can use the ref() function
2394to find out what kind of ref it really was. See L<perlref>.
2395
2396=item Not a subroutine reference
2397
2398(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value (that is, a
2399subroutine), but found a reference to something else instead. You can
2400use the ref() function to find out what kind of ref it really was. See
2401also L<perlref>.
2402
2403=item Not a subroutine reference in overload table
2404
2405(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table that
2406doesn't somehow point to a valid subroutine. See L<overload>.
2407
2408=item Not enough arguments for %s
2409
2410(F) The function requires more arguments than you specified.
2411
2412=item Not enough format arguments
2413
2414(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the next line
2415supplied. See L<perlform>.
2416
2417=item %s: not found
2418
2419(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
2420of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
2421yourself.
2422
2423=item %s not allowed in length fields
2424
2425(F) The count in the (un)pack template may be replaced by C<[TEMPLATE]> only if
2426C<TEMPLATE> always matches the same amount of packed bytes. Redesign
2427the template.
2428
2429=item no UTC offset information; assuming local time is UTC
2430
2431(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl was unable to find the local
2432timezone offset, so it's assuming that local system time is equivalent
2433to UTC. If it's not, define the logical name
2434F<SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL> to translate to the number of seconds which
2435need to be added to UTC to get local time.
2436
2437=item Null filename used
2438
2439(F) You can't require the null filename, especially because on many
2440machines that means the current directory! See L<perlfunc/require>.
2441
2442=item NULL OP IN RUN
2443
2444(P debugging) Some internal routine called run() with a null opcode
2445pointer.
2446
2447=item Null picture in formline
2448
2449(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format picture
2450specification. It was found to be empty, which probably means you
2451supplied it an uninitialized value. See L<perlform>.
2452
2453=item Null realloc
2454
2455(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL.
2456
2457=item NULL regexp argument
2458
2459(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big time.
2460
2461=item NULL regexp parameter
2462
2463(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their gourd.
2464
2465=item Number too long
2466
2467(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in programs to
2468about 250 characters. You've exceeded that length. Future
2469versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this arbitrary limitation. In
2470the meantime, try using scientific notation (e.g. "1e6" instead of
2471"1_000_000").
2472
2473=item Octal number in vector unsupported
2474
2475(F) Numbers with a leading C<0> are not currently allowed in vectors.
2476The octal number interpretation of such numbers may be supported in a
2477future version.
2478
2479=item Octal number > 037777777777 non-portable
2480
2481(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
2482(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
2483L<perlport> for more on portability concerns.
2484
2485See also L<perlport> for writing portable code.
2486
2487=item Odd number of arguments for overload::constant
2488
2489(W overload) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number of
2490arguments. The arguments should come in pairs.
2491
2492=item Odd number of elements in anonymous hash
2493
2494(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2495which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
2496
2497=item Odd number of elements in hash assignment
2498
2499(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to initialize a hash,
2500which is odd, because hashes come in key/value pairs.
2501
2502=item Offset outside string
2503
2504(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with an offset
2505pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to imagine. The sole
2506exception to this is that C<sysread()>ing past the buffer will extend
2507the buffer and zero pad the new area.
2508
2509=item -%s on unopened filehandle %s
2510
2511(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a filehandle
2512that isn't open. Check your control flow. See also L<perlfunc/-X>.
2513
2514=item %s() on unopened %s
2515
2516(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle that was
2517never initialized. You need to do an open(), a sysopen(), or a socket()
2518call, or call a constructor from the FileHandle package.
2519
2520=item oops: oopsAV
2521
2522(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
2523
2524=item oops: oopsHV
2525
2526(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed up.
2527
2528=item Operation `%s': no method found, %s
2529
2530(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation for which no
2531handler was defined. While some handlers can be autogenerated in terms
2532of other handlers, there is no default handler for any operation, unless
2533C<fallback> overloading key is specified to be true. See L<overload>.
2534
2535=item Operator or semicolon missing before %s
2536
2537(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where the parser
2538was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed you really meant to
2539use an operator, but this is highly likely to be incorrect. For
2540example, if you say "*foo *foo" it will be interpreted as if you said
2541"*foo * 'foo'".
2542
2543=item "our" variable %s redeclared
2544
2545(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global once before
2546in the current lexical scope.
2547
2548=item Out of memory!
2549
2550(X) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
2551remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. Perl has
2552no option but to exit immediately.
2553
2554=item Out of memory during "large" request for %s
2555
2556(F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was insufficient
2557remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the request. However,
2558the request was judged large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a
2559possibility to shut down by trapping this error is granted.
2560
2561=item Out of memory during request for %s
2562
2563(X|F) The malloc() function returned 0, indicating there was
2564insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory) to satisfy the
2565request.
2566
2567The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to trap it
2568depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it is not trappable.
2569However, if compiled for this, Perl may use the contents of C<$^M> as an
2570emergency pool after die()ing with this message. In this case the error
2571is trappable I<once>, and the error message will include the line and file
2572where the failed request happened.
2573
2574=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
2575
2576(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
2577is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g.,
2578C<$arr[time]> instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
2579
2580=item Out of memory for yacc stack
2581
2582(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could continue
2583parsing, but realloc() wouldn't give it more memory, virtual or
2584otherwise.
2585
2586=item @ outside of string
2587
2588(F) You had a pack template that specified an absolute position outside
2589the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
2590
2591=item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s
2592
2593(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
2594package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to Perl itself
2595some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a
2596mixed-case attribute name, instead. See L<attributes>.
2597
2598=item page overflow
2599
2600(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines than can fit on a
2601page. See L<perlform>.
2602
2603=item panic: %s
2604
2605(P) An internal error.
2606
2607=item panic: ck_grep
2608
2609(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a grep.
2610
2611=item panic: ck_split
2612
2613(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a split.
2614
2615=item panic: corrupt saved stack index
2616
2617(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized values than
2618there are in the savestack.
2619
2620=item panic: del_backref
2621
2622(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset a weak
2623reference.
2624
2625=item panic: die %s
2626
2627(P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then discovered
2628it wasn't an eval context.
2629
2630=item panic: pp_match%s
2631
2632(P) The internal pp_match() routine was called with invalid operational
2633data.
2634
2635=item panic: do_subst
2636
2637(P) The internal pp_subst() routine was called with invalid operational
2638data.
2639
2640=item panic: do_trans_%s
2641
2642(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid operational
2643data.
2644
2645=item panic: frexp
2646
2647(P) The library function frexp() failed, making printf("%f") impossible.
2648
2649=item panic: goto
2650
2651(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the specified label,
2652and then discovered it wasn't a context we know how to do a goto in.
2653
2654=item panic: INTERPCASEMOD
2655
2656(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case modifier.
2657
2658=item panic: INTERPCONCAT
2659
2660(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with brackets.
2661
2662=item panic: kid popen errno read
2663
2664(F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about its errno.
2665
2666=item panic: last
2667
2668(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then discovered
2669it wasn't a block context.
2670
2671=item panic: leave_scope clearsv
2672
2673(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow within the
2674scope.
2675
2676=item panic: leave_scope inconsistency
2677
2678(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there was an
2679invalid enum on the top of it.
2680
2681=item panic: magic_killbackrefs
2682
2683(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to reset all weak
2684references to an object.
2685
2686=item panic: malloc
2687
2688(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of malloc.
2689
2690=item panic: mapstart
2691
2692(P) The compiler is screwed up with respect to the map() function.
2693
2694=item panic: null array
2695
2696(P) One of the internal array routines was passed a null AV pointer.
2697
2698=item panic: pad_alloc
2699
2700(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2701and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2702
2703=item panic: pad_free curpad
2704
2705(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2706and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2707
2708=item panic: pad_free po
2709
2710(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2711
2712=item panic: pad_reset curpad
2713
2714(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2715and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2716
2717=item panic: pad_sv po
2718
2719(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2720
2721=item panic: pad_swipe curpad
2722
2723(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was allocating
2724and freeing temporaries and lexicals from.
2725
2726=item panic: pad_swipe po
2727
2728(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected internally.
2729
2730=item panic: pp_iter
2731
2732(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context frame.
2733
2734=item panic: pp_split
2735
2736(P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the split.
2737
2738=item panic: realloc
2739
2740(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of realloc.
2741
2742=item panic: restartop
2743
2744(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something like it), and
2745didn't supply the destination.
2746
2747=item panic: return
2748
2749(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval context, and
2750then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval context.
2751
2752=item panic: scan_num
2753
2754(P) scan_num() got called on something that wasn't a number.
2755
2756=item panic: sv_insert
2757
2758(P) The sv_insert() routine was told to remove more string than there
2759was string.
2760
2761=item panic: top_env
2762
2763(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird like that.
2764
2765=item panic: yylex
2766
2767(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case modifier.
2768
2769=item panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen
2770
2771(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as opposed
2772to even) byte length.
2773
2774=item Parentheses missing around "%s" list
2775
2776(W parenthesis) You said something like
2777
2778 my $foo, $bar = @_;
2779
2780when you meant
2781
2782 my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
2783
2784Remember that "my", "our", and "local" bind tighter than comma.
2785
2786=item Perl %s required--this is only version %s, stopped
2787
2788(F) The module in question uses features of a version of Perl more
2789recent than the currently running version. How long has it been since
2790you upgraded, anyway? See L<perlfunc/require>.
2791
2792=item PERL_SH_DIR too long
2793
2794(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
2795C<sh>-shell in. See "PERL_SH_DIR" in L<perlos2>.
2796
2797=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2798
2799(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
2800
2801 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
2802 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
2803 LC_ALL = "En_US",
2804 LANG = (unset)
2805 are supported and installed on your system.
2806 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
2807
2808Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
2809settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
2810This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating
2811system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called
2812locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not
2813dead serious, fortunately: there is a "default locale" called "C" that
2814Perl can and will use, the script will be run. Before you really fix
2815the problem, however, you will get the same error message each time
2816you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in
2817L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
2818
2819=item perlio: argument list not closed for layer "%s"
2820
2821(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O system you
2822forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers take care of transforming
2823data between external and internal representations.) Perl stopped parsing
2824the layer list at this point and did not attempt to push this layer.
2825If your program didn't explicitly request the failing operation, it may be
2826the result of the value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2827
2828=item perlio: invalid separator character %s in layer specification list %s
2829
2830(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other than a
2831colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer list.
2832If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
2833list was terminated too soon.
2834
2835=item perlio: unknown layer "%s"
2836
2837(W layer) An attempt was made to push an unknown layer onto the Perl I/O
2838system. (Layers take care of transforming data between external and
2839internal representations.) Note that some layers, such as C<mmap>,
2840are not supported in all environments. If your program didn't
2841explicitly request the failing operation, it may be the result of the
2842value of the environment variable PERLIO.
2843
2844=item Permission denied
2845
2846(F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to no good.
2847
2848=item pid %x not a child
2849
2850(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS. Waitpid() was asked to wait for a
2851process which isn't a subprocess of the current process. While this is
2852fine from VMS' perspective, it's probably not what you intended.
2853
2854=item P must have an explicit size
2855
2856(F) The unpack format P must have an explicit size, not "*".
2857
2858=item POSIX syntax [%s] belongs inside character classes in regex;
2859
2860marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2861
2862(W regexp) The character class constructs [: :], [= =], and [. .] go
2863I<inside> character classes, the [] are part of the construct, for example:
2864/[012[:alpha:]345]/. Note that [= =] and [. .] are not currently
2865implemented; they are simply placeholders for future extensions and will
2866cause fatal errors. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
2867where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2868
2869=item POSIX syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions in regex;
2870
2871marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2872
2873(F regexp) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
2874beginning with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
2875If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
2876expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
2877backslash: "\[." and ".\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
2878about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2879
2880=item POSIX syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions in regex;
2881
2882marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2883
2884(F) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
2885with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions. If you
2886need to represent those character sequences inside a regular expression
2887character class, just quote the square brackets with the backslash: "\[="
2888and "=\]". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
2889problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
2890
2891=item POSIX class [:%s:] unknown in regex;
2892
2893marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
2894
2895(F) The class in the character class [: :] syntax is unknown. The <-- HERE
2896shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
2897Note that the POSIX character classes do B<not> have the C<is> prefix
2898the corresponding C interfaces have: in other words, it's C<[[:print:]]>,
2899not C<isprint>. See L<perlre>.
2900
2901=item POSIX getpgrp can't take an argument
2902
2903(F) Your system has POSIX getpgrp(), which takes no argument, unlike
2904the BSD version, which takes a pid.
2905
2906=item Possible attempt to put comments in qw() list
2907
2908(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; as with literal
2909strings, comment characters are not ignored, but are instead treated as
2910literal data. (You may have used different delimiters than the
2911parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently used.)
2912
2913You probably wrote something like this:
2914
2915 @list = qw(
2916 a # a comment
2917 b # another comment
2918 );
2919
2920when you should have written this:
2921
2922 @list = qw(
2923 a
2924 b
2925 );
2926
2927If you really want comments, build your list the
2928old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:
2929
2930 @list = (
2931 'a', # a comment
2932 'b', # another comment
2933 );
2934
2935=item Possible attempt to separate words with commas
2936
2937(W qw) qw() lists contain items separated by whitespace; therefore
2938commas aren't needed to separate the items. (You may have used
2939different delimiters than the parentheses shown here; braces are also
2940frequently used.)
2941
2942You probably wrote something like this:
2943
2944 qw! a, b, c !;
2945
2946which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without
2947commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:
2948
2949 qw! a b c !;
2950
2951=item Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd argument
2952
2953(F) An ioctl() or fcntl() returned more than Perl was bargaining for.
2954Perl guesses a reasonable buffer size, but puts a sentinel byte at the
2955end of the buffer just in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and
2956Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted. See L<perlfunc/ioctl>.
2957
2958=item Possible unintended interpolation of %s in string
2959
2960(W ambiguous) You said something like `@foo' in a double-quoted string
2961but there was no array C<@foo> in scope at the time. If you wanted a
2962literal @foo, then write it as \@foo; otherwise find out what happened
2963to the array you apparently lost track of.
2964
2965=item Possible Y2K bug: %s
2966
2967(W y2k) You are concatenating the number 19 with another number, which
2968could be a potential Year 2000 problem.
2969
2970=item pragma "attrs" is deprecated, use "sub NAME : ATTRS" instead
2971
2972(D deprecated) You have written something like this:
2973
2974 sub doit
2975 {
2976 use attrs qw(locked);
2977 }
2978
2979You should use the new declaration syntax instead.
2980
2981 sub doit : locked
2982 {
2983 ...
2984
2985The C<use attrs> pragma is now obsolete, and is only provided for
2986backward-compatibility. See L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes">.
2987
2988=item Precedence problem: open %s should be open(%s)
2989
2990(S precedence) The old irregular construct
2991
2992 open FOO || die;
2993
2994is now misinterpreted as
2995
2996 open(FOO || die);
2997
2998because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and
2999list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put
3000parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new "or" operator instead
3001of "||".
3002
3003=item Premature end of script headers
3004
3005See Server error.
3006
3007=item printf() on closed filehandle %s
3008
3009(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
3010before now. Check your control flow.
3011
3012=item print() on closed filehandle %s
3013
3014(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself closed sometime
3015before now. Check your control flow.
3016
3017=item Process terminated by SIG%s
3018
3019(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2 applications, while *nix
3020applications die in silence. It is considered a feature of the OS/2
3021port. One can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
3022L<perlipc/"Signals">. See also "Process terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT"
3023in L<perlos2>.
3024
3025=item Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
3026
3027(S prototype) The subroutine being declared or defined had previously been
3028declared or defined with a different function prototype.
3029
3030=item Prototype not terminated
3031
3032(F) You've omitted the closing parenthesis in a function prototype
3033definition.
3034
3035=item Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d in regex;
3036
3037marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3038
3039(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and max values of the
3040{min,max} construct. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where
3041the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3042
3043=item Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression;
3044
3045marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3046
3047(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a place where
3048it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width assertion. Try putting the
3049quantifier inside the assertion instead. For example, the way to match
3050"abc" provided that it is followed by three repetitions of "xyz" is
3051C</abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/>, not C</abc(?=xyz){3}/>.
3052
3053The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3054discovered.
3055
3056=item Range iterator outside integer range
3057
3058(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
3059are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
3060One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string increment
3061by prepending "0" to your numbers.
3062
3063=item readline() on closed filehandle %s
3064
3065(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself closed sometime
3066before now. Check your control flow.
3067
3068=item Reallocation too large: %lx
3069
3070(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
3071
3072=item realloc() of freed memory ignored
3073
3074(S malloc) An internal routine called realloc() on something that had
3075already been freed.
3076
3077=item Recompile perl with B<-D>DEBUGGING to use B<-D> switch
3078
3079(F debugging) You can't use the B<-D> option unless the code to produce
3080the desired output is compiled into Perl, which entails some overhead,
3081which is why it's currently left out of your copy.
3082
3083=item Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'
3084
3085(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably indicates
3086an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
3087
3088=item Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method %s
3089
3090(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were encountered while invoking
3091a method. Probably indicates an unintended loop in your inheritance
3092hierarchy.
3093
3094=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
3095
3096(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list
3097with an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This usually
3098means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant to use
3099parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
3100
3101 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
3102 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
3103 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
3104 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
3105
3106=item Reference is already weak
3107
3108(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is already weak.
3109Doing so has no effect.
3110
3111=item Reference miscount in sv_replace()
3112
3113(W internal) The internal sv_replace() function was handed a new SV with
3114a reference count of other than 1.
3115
3116=item Reference to nonexistent group in regex;
3117
3118marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3119
3120(F) You used something like C<\7> in your regular expression, but there are
3121not at least seven sets of capturing parentheses in the expression. If you
3122wanted to have the character with value 7 inserted into the regular expression,
3123prepend a zero to make the number at least two digits: C<\07>
3124
3125The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3126discovered.
3127
3128=item regexp memory corruption
3129
3130(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
3131expression compiler gave it.
3132
3133=item Regexp out of space
3134
3135(P) A "can't happen" error, because safemalloc() should have caught it
3136earlier.
3137
3138=item Repeat count in pack overflows
3139
3140(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3141signed integers. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3142
3143=item Repeat count in unpack overflows
3144
3145(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it overflows your
3146signed integers. See L<perlfunc/unpack>.
3147
3148=item Reversed %s= operator
3149
3150(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The = must
3151always comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent unary operators.
3152
3153=item Runaway format
3154
3155(F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank sequence, but it
3156produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th line looked exactly like the
3157199th line. Apparently you didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust
3158themselves, either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
3159shifting or popping (for array variables). See L<perlform>.
3160
3161=item Scalar value @%s[%s] better written as $%s[%s]
3162
3163(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to select a
3164single element of an array. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar
3165value (indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo[&bar]> always
3166behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3167argument, while C<@foo[&bar]> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3168and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3169if you're expecting only one subscript.
3170
3171On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the array
3172element as a list, you need to look into how references work, because
3173Perl will not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
3174L<perlref>.
3175
3176=item Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}
3177
3178(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to select a single
3179element of a hash. Generally it's better to ask for a scalar value
3180(indicated by $). The difference is that C<$foo{&bar}> always behaves
3181like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
3182argument, while C<@foo{&bar}> behaves like a list when you assign to it,
3183and provides a list context to its subscript, which can do weird things
3184if you're expecting only one subscript.
3185
3186On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the hash element
3187as a list, you need to look into how references work, because Perl will
3188not magically convert between scalars and lists for you. See
3189L<perlref>.
3190
3191=item Scalars leaked: %d
3192
3193(P) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping of scalars:
3194not all scalar variables were deallocated by the time Perl exited.
3195What this usually indicates is a memory leak, which is of course bad,
3196especially if the Perl program is intended to be long-running.
3197
3198=item Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl
3199
3200(F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script without a setuid
3201or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much sense.
3202
3203=item Search pattern not terminated
3204
3205(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or m{}
3206construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
3207Missing the leading C<$> from a variable C<$m> may cause this error.
3208
3209=item %sseek() on unopened filehandle
3210
3211(W unopened) You tried to use the seek() or sysseek() function on a
3212filehandle that was either never opened or has since been closed.
3213
3214=item select not implemented
3215
3216(F) This machine doesn't implement the select() system call.
3217
3218=item Self-ties of arrays and hashes are not supported
3219
3220(F) Self-ties are of arrays and hashes are not supported in
3221the current implementation.
3222
3223=item Semicolon seems to be missing
3224
3225(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a missing
3226semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator, such as a comma.
3227
3228=item semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string
3229
3230(S internal) The internal newSVsv() routine was called to duplicate a
3231scalar that had previously been marked as free.
3232
3233=item sem%s not implemented
3234
3235(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on your system.
3236
3237=item send() on closed socket %s
3238
3239(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed sometime
3240before now. Check your control flow.
3241
3242=item Sequence (? incomplete in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3243
3244(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension (?. The <-- HERE
3245shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3246L<perlre>.
3247
3248=item Sequence (?{...}) not terminated or not {}-balanced in regex;
3249
3250marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3251
3252(F) If the contents of a (?{...}) clause contains braces, they must balance
3253for Perl to properly detect the end of the clause. The <-- HERE shows in
3254the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3255L<perlre>.
3256
3257=item Sequence (?%s...) not implemented in regex;
3258
3259marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3260
3261(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the character reserved but
3262has not yet been written. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3263where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3264
3265=item Sequence (?%s...) not recognized in regex;
3266
3267marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3268
3269(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't make sense. The
3270<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3271discovered. See L<perlre>.
3272
3273=item Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex;
3274
3275marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3276
3277(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a closing
3278parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed. The <-- HERE shows in
3279the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See
3280L<perlre>.
3281
3282=item 500 Server error
3283
3284See Server error.
3285
3286=item Server error
3287
3288This is the error message generally seen in a browser window when trying
3289to run a CGI program (including SSI) over the web. The actual error text
3290varies widely from server to server. The most frequently-seen variants
3291are "500 Server error", "Method (something) not permitted", "Document
3292contains no data", "Premature end of script headers", and "Did not
3293produce a valid header".
3294
3295B<This is a CGI error, not a Perl error>.
3296
3297You need to make sure your script is executable, is accessible by the
3298user CGI is running the script under (which is probably not the user
3299account you tested it under), does not rely on any environment variables
3300(like PATH) from the user it isn't running under, and isn't in a
3301location where the CGI server can't find it, basically, more or less.
3302Please see the following for more information:
3303
3304 http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html
3305 http://www.htmlhelp.org/faq/cgifaq.html
3306 http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/
3307
3308You should also look at L<perlfaq9>.
3309
3310=item setegid() not implemented
3311
3312(F) You tried to assign to C<$)>, and your operating system doesn't
3313support the setegid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3314didn't think so.
3315
3316=item seteuid() not implemented
3317
3318(F) You tried to assign to C<< $> >>, and your operating system doesn't
3319support the seteuid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3320didn't think so.
3321
3322=item setpgrp can't take arguments
3323
3324(F) Your system has the setpgrp() from BSD 4.2, which takes no
3325arguments, unlike POSIX setpgid(), which takes a process ID and process
3326group ID.
3327
3328=item setrgid() not implemented
3329
3330(F) You tried to assign to C<$(>, and your operating system doesn't
3331support the setrgid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3332didn't think so.
3333
3334=item setruid() not implemented
3335
3336(F) You tried to assign to C<$<>, and your operating system doesn't
3337support the setruid() system call (or equivalent), or at least Configure
3338didn't think so.
3339
3340=item setsockopt() on closed socket %s
3341
3342(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed socket. Did you
3343forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
3344L<perlfunc/setsockopt>.
3345
3346=item Setuid/gid script is writable by world
3347
3348(F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that is writable by the
3349world, because the world might have written on it already.
3350
3351=item shm%s not implemented
3352
3353(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC on your system.
3354
3355=item <> should be quotes
3356
3357(F) You wrote C<< require <file> >> when you should have written
3358C<require 'file'>.
3359
3360=item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s"
3361
3362(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string,
3363as in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true or false
3364result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, which is
3365probably not what you had in mind.
3366
3367=item shutdown() on closed socket %s
3368
3369(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket. Seems a bit
3370superfluous.
3371
3372=item SIG%s handler "%s" not defined
3373
3374(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG doesn't, in fact, exist.
3375Perhaps you put it into the wrong package?
3376
3377=item sort is now a reserved word
3378
3379(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs into anymore.
3380But before sort was a keyword, people sometimes used it as a filehandle.
3381
3382=item Sort subroutine didn't return a numeric value
3383
3384(F) A sort comparison routine must return a number. You probably blew
3385it by not using C<< <=> >> or C<cmp>, or by not using them correctly.
3386See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3387
3388=item Sort subroutine didn't return single value
3389
3390(F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value with more
3391or less than one element. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3392
3393=item splice() offset past end of array
3394
3395(W misc) You attempted to specify an offset that was past the end of
3396the array passed to splice(). Splicing will instead commence at the end
3397of the array, rather than past it. If this isn't what you want, try
3398explicitly pre-extending the array by assigning $#array = $offset. See
3399L<perlfunc/splice>.
3400
3401=item Split loop
3402
3403(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split shouldn't
3404iterate more times than there are characters of input, which is what
3405happened.) See L<perlfunc/split>.
3406
3407=item Statement unlikely to be reached
3408
3409(W exec) You did an exec() with some statement after it other than a
3410die(). This is almost always an error, because exec() never returns
3411unless there was a failure. You probably wanted to use system()
3412instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put the exec() in
3413a block by itself.
3414
3415=item stat() on unopened filehandle %s
3416
3417(W unopened) You tried to use the stat() function on a filehandle that
3418was either never opened or has since been closed.
3419
3420=item Stub found while resolving method `%s' overloading %s
3421
3422(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be broken by importation
3423stubs. Stubs should never be implicitly created, but explicit calls to
3424C<can> may break this.
3425
3426=item Subroutine %s redefined
3427
3428(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this warning, say
3429
3430 {
3431 no warnings 'redefine';
3432 eval "sub name { ... }";
3433 }
3434
3435=item Substitution loop
3436
3437(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a substitution
3438shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of input, which
3439is what happened.) See the discussion of substitution in
3440L<perlop/"Quote and Quote-like Operators">.
3441
3442=item Substitution pattern not terminated
3443
3444(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
3445construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
3446Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
3447
3448=item Substitution replacement not terminated
3449
3450(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of an s/// or s{}{}
3451construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count nesting level.
3452Missing the leading C<$> from variable C<$s> may cause this error.
3453
3454=item substr outside of string
3455
3456(W substr),(F) You tried to reference a substr() that pointed outside of
3457a string. That is, the absolute value of the offset was larger than the
3458length of the string. See L<perlfunc/substr>. This warning is fatal if
3459substr is used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
3460assignment or as a subroutine argument for example).
3461
3462=item suidperl is no longer needed since %s
3463
3464(F) Your Perl was compiled with B<-D>SETUID_SCRIPTS_ARE_SECURE_NOW, but
3465a version of the setuid emulator somehow got run anyway.
3466
3467=item Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches in regex;
3468
3469marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3470
3471(F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct can have at most two
3472branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If you want one or both to
3473contain alternation, such as using C<this|that|other>, enclose it in
3474clustering parentheses:
3475
3476 (?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
3477
3478The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3479discovered. See L<perlre>.
3480
3481=item Switch condition not recognized in regex;
3482
3483marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3484
3485(F) If the argument to the (?(...)if-clause|else-clause) construct is a
3486number, it can be only a number. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
3487about where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3488
3489=item switching effective %s is not implemented
3490
3491(F) While under the C<use filetest> pragma, we cannot switch the real
3492and effective uids or gids.
3493
3494=item syntax error
3495
3496(F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons include:
3497
3498 A keyword is misspelled.
3499 A semicolon is missing.
3500 A comma is missing.
3501 An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
3502 An opening or closing brace is missing.
3503 A closing quote is missing.
3504
3505Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax
3506error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on B<-w>.)
3507The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when
3508it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens
3509before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input.
3510Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon
3511the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call
3512C<perl -c> repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see
3513if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of S<20
3514questions>.
3515
3516=item syntax error at line %d: `%s' unexpected
3517
3518(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne shell instead
3519of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl
3520yourself.
3521
3522=item syntax error in file %s at line %d, next 2 tokens "%s"
3523
3524(F) This error is likely to occur if you run a perl5 script through
3525a perl4 interpreter, especially if the next 2 tokens are "use strict"
3526or "my $var" or "our $var".
3527
3528=item %s syntax OK
3529
3530(F) The final summary message when a C<perl -c> succeeds.
3531
3532=item System V %s is not implemented on this machine
3533
3534(F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with "sem",
3535"shm", or "msg" but that System V IPC is not implemented in your
3536machine. In some machines the functionality can exist but be
3537unconfigured. Consult your system support.
3538
3539=item syswrite() on closed filehandle %s
3540
3541(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
3542before now. Check your control flow.
3543
3544=item Target of goto is too deeply nested
3545
3546(F) You tried to use C<goto> to reach a label that was too deeply nested
3547for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a favor by refusing.
3548
3549=item tell() on unopened filehandle
3550
3551(W unopened) You tried to use the tell() function on a filehandle that
3552was either never opened or has since been closed.
3553
3554=item That use of $[ is unsupported
3555
3556(F) Assignment to C<$[> is now strictly circumscribed, and interpreted
3557as a compiler directive. You may say only one of
3558
3559 $[ = 0;
3560 $[ = 1;
3561 ...
3562 local $[ = 0;
3563 local $[ = 1;
3564 ...
3565
3566This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out
3567from under another module inadvertently. See L<perlvar/$[>.
3568
3569=item The crypt() function is unimplemented due to excessive paranoia
3570
3571(F) Configure couldn't find the crypt() function on your machine,
3572probably because your vendor didn't supply it, probably because they
3573think the U.S. Government thinks it's a secret, or at least that they
3574will continue to pretend that it is. And if you quote me on that, I
3575will deny it.
3576
3577=item The %s function is unimplemented
3578
3579The function indicated isn't implemented on this architecture, according
3580to the probings of Configure.
3581
3582=item The stat preceding %s wasn't an lstat
3583
3584(F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for symbolic
3585linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat buffer already went
3586past the symlink to get to the real file. Use an actual filename
3587instead.
3588
3589=item This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements (%s)
3590
3591=item This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements (%s=%s)
3592
3593(W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS. You tried to change or delete an
3594element of the CRTL's internal environ array, but your copy of Perl
3595wasn't built with a CRTL that contained the setenv() function. You'll
3596need to rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or redefine
3597F<PERL_ENV_TABLES> (see L<perlvms>) so that the environ array isn't the
3598target of the change to
3599%ENV which produced the warning.
3600
3601=item thread failed to start: %s
3602
3603(F) The entry point function of threads->create() failed for some reason.
3604
3605=item times not implemented
3606
3607(F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do times(). I
3608suspect you're not running on Unix.
3609
3610=item Too few args to syscall
3611
3612(F) There has to be at least one argument to syscall() to specify the
3613system call to call, silly dilly.
3614
3615=item Too late for "B<-T>" option
3616
3617(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
3618B<-T> option, but Perl was not invoked with B<-T> in its command line.
3619This is an error because, by the time Perl discovers a B<-T> in a
3620script, it's too late to properly taint everything from the environment.
3621So Perl gives up.
3622
3623If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the #!
3624mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can usually be fixed by
3625editing the #! line so that the B<-T> option is a part of Perl's first
3626argument: e.g. change C<perl -n -T> to C<perl -T -n>.
3627
3628If the Perl script is being executed as C<perl scriptname>, then the
3629B<-T> option must appear on the command line: C<perl -T scriptname>.
3630
3631=item Too late for "-%s" option
3632
3633(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script contains the
3634B<-M> or B<-m> option. This is an error because B<-M> and B<-m> options
3635are not intended for use inside scripts. Use the C<use> pragma instead.
3636
3637=item Too late to run %s block
3638
3639(W void) A CHECK or INIT block is being defined during run time proper,
3640when the opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
3641loading a file with C<require> or C<do> when you should be using C<use>
3642instead. Or perhaps you should put the C<require> or C<do> inside a
3643BEGIN block.
3644
3645=item Too many args to syscall
3646
3647(F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to syscall().
3648
3649=item Too many arguments for %s
3650
3651(F) The function requires fewer arguments than you specified.
3652
3653=item Too many )'s
3654
3655=item Too many ('s
3656
3657(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
3658Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
3659
3660=item Trailing \ in regex m/%s/
3661
3662(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed backslash.
3663Backslash it. See L<perlre>.
3664
3665=item Transliteration pattern not terminated
3666
3667(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
3668or y/// or y[][] construct. Missing the leading C<$> from variables
3669C<$tr> or C<$y> may cause this error.
3670
3671=item Transliteration replacement not terminated
3672
3673(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr/// or tr[][]
3674construct.
3675
3676=item truncate not implemented
3677
3678(F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation mechanism that
3679Configure knows about.
3680
3681=item Type of arg %d to %s must be %s (not %s)
3682
3683(F) This function requires the argument in that position to be of a
3684certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or C<@{EXPR}>. Hashes must be
3685%NAME or C<%{EXPR}>. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use the
3686{EXPR} forms as an explicit dereference. See L<perlref>.
3687
3688=item umask not implemented
3689
3690(F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and you tried to
3691use it to restrict permissions for yourself (EXPR & 0700).
3692
3693=item Unable to create sub named "%s"
3694
3695(F) You attempted to create or access a subroutine with an illegal name.
3696
3697=item Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than POPs
3698
3699(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3700many execution contexts were entered and left.
3701
3702=item Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
3703
3704(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3705many values were temporarily localized.
3706
3707=item Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
3708
3709(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3710many blocks were entered and left.
3711
3712=item Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
3713
3714(W internal) The exit code detected an internal inconsistency in how
3715many mortal scalars were allocated and freed.
3716
3717=item Undefined format "%s" called
3718
3719(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
3720another package? See L<perlform>.
3721
3722=item Undefined sort subroutine "%s" called
3723
3724(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to exist.
3725Perhaps it's in a different package? See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3726
3727=item Undefined subroutine &%s called
3728
3729(F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it was, it has
3730since been undefined.
3731
3732=item Undefined subroutine called
3733
3734(F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't been defined,
3735or if it was, it has since been undefined.
3736
3737=item Undefined subroutine in sort
3738
3739(F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but doesn't seem
3740to have been defined yet. See L<perlfunc/sort>.
3741
3742=item Undefined top format "%s" called
3743
3744(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's really in
3745another package? See L<perlform>.
3746
3747=item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
3748
3749(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
3750C<*foo = undef>. This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean
3751C<undef *foo>.
3752
3753=item %s: Undefined variable
3754
3755(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead of Perl.
3756Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
3757
3758=item unexec of %s into %s failed!
3759
3760(F) The unexec() routine failed for some reason. See your local FSF
3761representative, who probably put it there in the first place.
3762
3763=item Unicode character %s is illegal
3764
3765(W utf8) Certain Unicode characters have been designated off-limits by
3766the Unicode standard and should not be generated. If you really know
3767what you are doing you can turn off this warning by C<no warnings 'utf8';>.
3768
3769=item Unknown BYTEORDER
3770
3771(F) There are no byte-swapping functions for a machine with this byte
3772order.
3773
3774=item Unknown "re" subpragma '%s' (known ones are: %s)
3775
3776You tried to use an unknown subpragma of the "re" pragma.
3777
3778=item Unknown switch condition (?(%.2s in regex;
3779
3780marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3781
3782(F) The condition part of a (?(condition)if-clause|else-clause) construct
3783is not known. The condition may be lookahead or lookbehind (the condition
3784is true if the lookahead or lookbehind is true), a (?{...}) construct (the
3785condition is true if the code evaluates to a true value), or a number (the
3786condition is true if the set of capturing parentheses named by the number
3787matched).
3788
3789The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
3790discovered. See L<perlre>.
3791
3792=item Unknown open() mode '%s'
3793
3794(F) The second argument of 3-argument open() is not among the list
3795of valid modes: C<< < >>, C<< > >>, C<<< >> >>>, C<< +< >>,
3796C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, C<-|>, C<|->, C<< <& >>, C<< >& >>.
3797
3798=item Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter: %s
3799
3800(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl was reading values for %ENV before
3801iterating over it, and someone else stuck a message in the stream of
3802data Perl expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
3803subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious purposes.
3804
3805=item Unknown warnings category '%s'
3806
3807(F) An error issued by the C<warnings> pragma. You specified a warnings
3808category that is unknown to perl at this point.
3809
3810Note that if you want to enable a warnings category registered by a module
3811(e.g. C<use warnings 'File::Find'>), you must have imported this module
3812first.
3813
3814=item unmatched [ in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3815
3816(F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you wish to
3817include a closing bracket in a character class, backslash it or put it
3818first. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem
3819was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3820
3821=item unmatched ( in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3822
3823(F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in regular
3824expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is valuable for finding the
3825matching parenthesis. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3826where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3827
3828=item Unmatched right %s bracket
3829
3830(F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets than opening
3831ones, so you're probably missing a matching opening bracket. As a
3832general rule, you'll find the missing one (so to speak) near the place
3833you were last editing.
3834
3835=item Unquoted string "%s" may clash with future reserved word
3836
3837(W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be claimed as a
3838reserved word. It's best to put such a word in quotes, or capitalize it
3839somehow, or insert an underbar into it. You might also declare it as a
3840subroutine.
3841
3842=item Unrecognized character %s
3843
3844(F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character
3845in your Perl script (or eval). Perhaps you tried to run a compressed
3846script, a binary program, or a directory as a Perl program.
3847
3848=item /%s/: Unrecognized escape \\%c in character class passed through
3849
3850(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
3851recognized by Perl inside character classes. The character was
3852understood literally.
3853
3854=item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through in regex;
3855
3856marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3857
3858(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
3859recognized by Perl. This combination appears in an interpolated variable or
3860a C<'>-delimited regular expression. The character was understood
3861literally. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
3862escape was discovered.
3863
3864=item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through
3865
3866(W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is not
3867recognized by Perl.
3868
3869=item Unrecognized signal name "%s"
3870
3871(F) You specified a signal name to the kill() function that was not
3872recognized. Say C<kill -l> in your shell to see the valid signal names
3873on your system.
3874
3875=item Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid options)
3876
3877(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that. (If you
3878think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see if it's supplying the
3879bad switch on your behalf.)
3880
3881=item Unsuccessful %s on filename containing newline
3882
3883(W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename, and that
3884operation failed, PROBABLY because the filename contained a newline,
3885PROBABLY because you forgot to chomp() it off. See L<perlfunc/chomp>.
3886
3887=item Unsupported directory function "%s" called
3888
3889(F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and readdir().
3890
3891=item Unsupported function %s
3892
3893(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function, apparently.
3894At least, Configure doesn't think so.
3895
3896=item Unsupported function fork
3897
3898(F) Your version of executable does not support forking.
3899
3900Note that under some systems, like OS/2, there may be different flavors
3901of Perl executables, some of which may support fork, some not. Try
3902changing the name you call Perl by to C<perl_>, C<perl__>, and so on.
3903
3904=item Unsupported script encoding
3905
3906(F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) which
3907declares it to be in a Unicode encoding that Perl cannot yet read.
3908
3909=item Unsupported socket function "%s" called
3910
3911(F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket mechanism, or at
3912least that's what Configure thought.
3913
3914=item Unterminated attribute list
3915
3916(F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the
3917start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a
3918block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous
3919attribute too soon. See L<attributes>.
3920
3921=item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
3922
3923(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing
3924an attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis
3925character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
3926character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>.
3927
3928=item Unterminated compressed integer
3929
3930(F) An argument to unpack("w",...) was incompatible with the BER
3931compressed integer format and could not be converted to an integer.
3932See L<perlfunc/pack>.
3933
3934=item Unterminated <> operator
3935
3936(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was expecting
3937a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle bracket, and
3938not finding it. Chances are you left some needed parentheses out
3939earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less than".
3940
3941=item untie attempted while %d inner references still exist
3942
3943(W untie) A copy of the object returned from C<tie> (or C<tied>) was
3944still valid when C<untie> was called.
3945
3946=item Useless (?%s) - use /%s modifier in regex;
3947
3948marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3949
3950(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?o) that has no
3951meaning unless applied to the entire regexp:
3952
3953 if ($string =~ /(?o)$pattern/) { ... }
3954
3955must be written as
3956
3957 if ($string =~ /$pattern/o) { ... }
3958
3959The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3960where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3961
3962=item Useless (?-%s) - don't use /%s modifier in regex;
3963
3964marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
3965
3966(W regexp) You have used an internal modifier such as (?-o) that has no
3967meaning unless removed from the entire regexp:
3968
3969 if ($string =~ /(?-o)$pattern/o) { ... }
3970
3971must be written as
3972
3973 if ($string =~ /$pattern/) { ... }
3974
3975The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
3976where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
3977
3978=item Useless use of %s in void context
3979
3980(W void) You did something without a side effect in a context that does
3981nothing with the return value, such as a statement that doesn't return a
3982value from a block, or the left side of a scalar comma operator. Very
3983often this points not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl
3984to parse your program the way you thought it would. For example, you'd
3985get this if you mixed up your C precedence with Python precedence and
3986said
3987
3988 $one, $two = 1, 2;
3989
3990when you meant to say
3991
3992 ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
3993
3994Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list
3995reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for
3996example, if you say
3997
3998 $array = (1,2);
3999
4000when you should have said
4001
4002 $array = [1,2];
4003
4004The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value,
4005while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in
4006a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
4007throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See
4008L<perlref> for more on this.
4009
4010This warning will not be issued for numerical constants equal to 0 or 1
4011since they are often used in statements like
4012
4013 1 while sub_with_side_effects() ;
4014
4015String constants that would normally evaluate to 0 or 1 are warned
4016about.
4017
4018=item Useless use of "re" pragma
4019
4020(W) You did C<use re;> without any arguments. That isn't very useful.
4021
4022=item Useless use of sort in scalar context
4023
4024(W void) You used sort in scalar context, as in :
4025
4026 my $x = sort @y;
4027
4028This is not very useful, and perl currently optimizes this away.
4029
4030=item Useless use of %s with no values
4031
4032(W syntax) You used the push() or unshift() function with no arguments
4033apart from the array, like C<push(@x)> or C<unshift(@foo)>. That won't
4034usually have any effect on the array, so is completely useless. It's
4035possible in principle that push(@tied_array) could have some effect
4036if the array is tied to a class which implements a PUSH method. If so,
4037you can write it as C<push(@tied_array,())> to avoid this warning.
4038
4039=item "use" not allowed in expression
4040
4041(F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at compile time, and
4042returns no useful value. See L<perlmod>.
4043
4044=item Use of bare << to mean <<"" is deprecated
4045
4046(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly quoted form
4047if you wish to use an empty line as the terminator of the here-document.
4048
4049=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///
4050
4051(W regexp) You used the /c modifier in a substitution. The /c
4052modifier is not presently meaningful in substitutions.
4053
4054=item Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g
4055
4056(W regexp) You used the /c modifier with a regex operand, but didn't
4057use the /g modifier. Currently, /c is meaningful only when /g is
4058used. (This may change in the future.)
4059
4060=item Use of /g modifier is meaningless in split
4061
4062(W regexp) You used the /g modifier on the pattern for a C<split>
4063operator. Since C<split> always tries to match the pattern
4064repeatedly, the C</g> has no effect.
4065
4066=item Use of *glob{FILEHANDLE} is deprecated
4067
4068(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the shorter *glob{IO} form
4069to access the filehandle slot within a typeglob.
4070
4071=item Use of chdir('') or chdir(undef) as chdir() deprecated
4072
4073(D deprecated) chdir() with no arguments is documented to change to
4074$ENV{HOME} or $ENV{LOGDIR}. chdir(undef) and chdir('') share this
4075behavior, but that has been deprecated. In future versions they
4076will simply fail.
4077
4078Be careful to check that what you pass to chdir() is defined and not
4079blank, else you might find yourself in your home directory.
4080
4081=item Use of implicit split to @_ is deprecated
4082
4083(D deprecated) It makes a lot of work for the compiler when you clobber
4084a subroutine's argument list, so it's better if you assign the results
4085of a split() explicitly to an array (or list).
4086
4087=item Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is deprecated
4088
4089(D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature, C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines
4090are looked up as methods (using the C<@ISA> hierarchy) even when the
4091subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain functions (e.g.
4092C<Foo::bar()>), not as methods (e.g. C<< Foo->bar() >> or C<<
4093$obj->bar() >>).
4094
4095This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup only for
4096methods' C<AUTOLOAD>s. However, there is a significant base of existing
4097code that may be using the old behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl
4098currently issues an optional warning when non-methods use inherited
4099C<AUTOLOAD>s.
4100
4101The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when autoloading
4102non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In any module that used
4103to depend on inheriting C<AUTOLOAD> for non-methods from a base class
4104named C<BaseClass>, execute C<*AUTOLOAD = \&BaseClass::AUTOLOAD> during
4105startup.
4106
4107In code that currently says C<use AutoLoader; @ISA = qw(AutoLoader);>
4108you should remove AutoLoader from @ISA and change C<use AutoLoader;> to
4109C<use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';>.
4110
4111=item Use of -l on filehandle %s
4112
4113(W io) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you opened the file
4114it already went past any symlink you are presumably trying to look for.
4115The operation returned C<undef>. Use a filename instead.
4116
4117=item Use of "package" with no arguments is deprecated
4118
4119(D deprecated) You used the C<package> keyword without specifying a package
4120name. So no namespace is current at all. Using this can cause many
4121otherwise reasonable constructs to fail in baffling ways. C<use strict;>
4122instead.
4123
4124=item Use of %s in printf format not supported
4125
4126(F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is accessible from
4127only C. This usually means there's a better way to do it in Perl.
4128
4129=item Use of $* is deprecated
4130
4131(D deprecated) This variable magically turned on multi-line pattern
4132matching, both for you and for any luckless subroutine that you happen
4133to call. You should use the new C<//m> and C<//s> modifiers now to do
4134that without the dangerous action-at-a-distance effects of C<$*>.
4135
4136=item Use of %s is deprecated
4137
4138(D deprecated) The construct indicated is no longer recommended for use,
4139generally because there's a better way to do it, and also because the
4140old way has bad side effects.
4141
4142=item Use of $# is deprecated
4143
4144(D deprecated) This was an ill-advised attempt to emulate a poorly
4145defined B<awk> feature. Use an explicit printf() or sprintf() instead.
4146
4147=item Use of reference "%s" as array index
4148
4149(W misc) You tried to use a reference as an array index; this probably
4150isn't what you mean, because references in numerical context tend
4151to be huge numbers, and so usually indicates programmer error.
4152
4153If you really do mean it, explicitly numify your reference, like so:
4154C<$array[0+$ref]>. This warning is not given for overloaded objects,
4155either, because you can overload the numification and stringification
4156operators and then you assumedly know what you are doing.
4157
4158=item Use of reserved word "%s" is deprecated
4159
4160(D deprecated) The indicated bareword is a reserved word. Future
4161versions of perl may use it as a keyword, so you're better off either
4162explicitly quoting the word in a manner appropriate for its context of
4163use, or using a different name altogether. The warning can be
4164suppressed for subroutine names by either adding a C<&> prefix, or using
4165a package qualifier, e.g. C<&our()>, or C<Foo::our()>.
4166
4167=item Use of tainted arguments in %s is deprecated
4168
4169(W taint, deprecated) You have supplied C<system()> or C<exec()> with multiple
4170arguments and at least one of them is tainted. This used to be allowed
4171but will become a fatal error in a future version of perl. Untaint your
4172arguments. See L<perlsec>.
4173
4174=item Use of uninitialized value%s
4175
4176(W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were already
4177defined. It was interpreted as a "" or a 0, but maybe it was a mistake.
4178To suppress this warning assign a defined value to your variables.
4179
4180To help you figure out what was undefined, perl tells you what operation
4181you used the undefined value in. Note, however, that perl optimizes your
4182program and the operation displayed in the warning may not necessarily
4183appear literally in your program. For example, C<"that $foo"> is
4184usually optimized into C<"that " . $foo>, and the warning will refer to
4185the C<concatenation (.)> operator, even though there is no C<.> in your
4186program.
4187
4188=item Using a hash as a reference is deprecated
4189
4190(D deprecated) You tried to use a hash as a reference, as in
4191C<< %foo->{"bar"} >> or C<< %$ref->{"hello"} >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1
4192used to allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated, and will
4193be removed in a future version.
4194
4195=item Using an array as a reference is deprecated
4196
4197(D deprecated) You tried to use an array as a reference, as in
4198C<< @foo->[23] >> or C<< @$ref->[99] >>. Versions of perl <= 5.6.1 used to
4199allow this syntax, but shouldn't have. It is now deprecated, and will be
4200removed in a future version.
4201
4202=item UTF-16 surrogate %s
4203
4204(W utf8) You tried to generate half of an UTF-16 surrogate by
4205requesting a Unicode character between the code points 0xD800 and
42060xDFFF (inclusive). That range is reserved exclusively for the use of
4207UTF-16 encoding (by having two 16-bit UCS-2 characters); but Perl
4208encodes its characters in UTF-8, so what you got is a very illegal
4209character. If you really know what you are doing you can turn off
4210this warning by C<no warnings 'utf8';>.
4211
4212=item Value of %s can be "0"; test with defined()
4213
4214(W misc) In a conditional expression, you used <HANDLE>, <*> (glob),
4215C<each()>, or C<readdir()> as a boolean value. Each of these constructs
4216can return a value of "0"; that would make the conditional expression
4217false, which is probably not what you intended. When using these
4218constructs in conditional expressions, test their values with the
4219C<defined> operator.
4220
4221=item Value of CLI symbol "%s" too long
4222
4223(W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the value of an
4224%ENV element from a CLI symbol table, and found a resultant string
4225longer than 1024 characters. The return value has been truncated to
42261024 characters.
4227
4228=item Variable "%s" is not imported%s
4229
4230(F) While "use strict" in effect, you referred to a global variable that
4231you apparently thought was imported from another module, because
4232something else of the same name (usually a subroutine) is exported by
4233that module. It usually means you put the wrong funny character on the
4234front of your variable.
4235
4236=item "%s" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same %s
4237
4238(W misc) A "my" or "our" variable has been redeclared in the current
4239scope or statement, effectively eliminating all access to the previous
4240instance. This is almost always a typographical error. Note that the
4241earlier variable will still exist until the end of the scope or until
4242all closure referents to it are destroyed.
4243
4244=item Variable "%s" may be unavailable
4245
4246(W closure) An inner (nested) I<anonymous> subroutine is inside a
4247I<named> subroutine, and outside that is another subroutine; and the
4248anonymous (innermost) subroutine is referencing a lexical variable
4249defined in the outermost subroutine. For example:
4250
4251 sub outermost { my $a; sub middle { sub { $a } } }
4252
4253If the anonymous subroutine is called or referenced (directly or
4254indirectly) from the outermost subroutine, it will share the variable as
4255you would expect. But if the anonymous subroutine is called or
4256referenced when the outermost subroutine is not active, it will see the
4257value of the shared variable as it was before and during the *first*
4258call to the outermost subroutine, which is probably not what you want.
4259
4260In these circumstances, it is usually best to make the middle subroutine
4261anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. Perl has specific support for
4262shared variables in nested anonymous subroutines; a named subroutine in
4263between interferes with this feature.
4264
4265=item Variable syntax
4266
4267(A) You've accidentally run your script through B<csh> instead
4268of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into
4269Perl yourself.
4270
4271=item Variable "%s" will not stay shared
4272
4273(W closure) An inner (nested) I<named> subroutine is referencing a
4274lexical variable defined in an outer subroutine.
4275
4276When the inner subroutine is called, it will probably see the value of
4277the outer subroutine's variable as it was before and during the *first*
4278call to the outer subroutine; in this case, after the first call to the
4279outer subroutine is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no
4280longer share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
4281variable will no longer be shared.
4282
4283Furthermore, if the outer subroutine is anonymous and references a
4284lexical variable outside itself, then the outer and inner subroutines
4285will I<never> share the given variable.
4286
4287This problem can usually be solved by making the inner subroutine
4288anonymous, using the C<sub {}> syntax. When inner anonymous subs that
4289reference variables in outer subroutines are called or referenced, they
4290are automatically rebound to the current values of such variables.
4291
4292=item Variable length lookbehind not implemented in regex;
4293
4294marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
4295
4296(F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose length is fixed and
4297known at compile time. The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
4298where the problem was discovered. See L<perlre>.
4299
4300=item Version number must be a constant number
4301
4302(P) The attempt to translate a C<use Module n.n LIST> statement into
4303its equivalent C<BEGIN> block found an internal inconsistency with
4304the version number.
4305
4306=item v-string in use/require is non-portable
4307
4308(W portable) The use of v-strings is non-portable to older, pre-5.6, Perls.
4309If you want your scripts to be backward portable, use the floating
4310point version number: for example, instead of C<use 5.6.1> say
4311C<use 5.006_001>. This of course won't help: the older Perls
4312won't suddenly start understanding newer features, but at least
4313they will show a sensible error message indicating the required
4314minimum version.
4315
4316=item Warning: something's wrong
4317
4318(W) You passed warn() an empty string (the equivalent of C<warn "">) or
4319you called it with no args and C<$_> was empty.
4320
4321=item Warning: unable to close filehandle %s properly
4322
4323(S) The implicit close() done by an open() got an error indication on
4324the close(). This usually indicates your file system ran out of disk
4325space.
4326
4327=item Warning: Use of "%s" without parentheses is ambiguous
4328
4329(S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by something that
4330looks like a binary operator that could also have been interpreted as a
4331term or unary operator. For instance, if you know that the rand
4332function has a default argument of 1.0, and you write
4333
4334 rand + 5;
4335
4336you may THINK you wrote the same thing as
4337
4338 rand() + 5;
4339
4340but in actual fact, you got
4341
4342 rand(+5);
4343
4344So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.
4345
4346=item Wide character in %s
4347
4348(W utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting
4349one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print) but can be
4350turned off by C<no warnings 'utf8';>. You are supposed to explicitly
4351mark the filehandle with an encoding, see L<open> and L<perlfunc/binmode>.
4352
4353=item write() on closed filehandle %s
4354
4355(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself closed sometime
4356before now. Check your control flow.
4357
4358=item X outside of string
4359
4360(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position before
4361the beginning of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4362
4363=item x outside of string
4364
4365(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative position after
4366the end of the string being unpacked. See L<perlfunc/pack>.
4367
4368=item Xsub "%s" called in sort
4369
4370(F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet
4371supported.
4372
4373=item Xsub called in sort
4374
4375(F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison is not yet
4376supported.
4377
4378=item YOU HAVEN'T DISABLED SET-ID SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET!
4379
4380(F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't have the
4381sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably doesn't give a rip
4382about what you want. Your best bet is to put a setuid C wrapper around
4383your script.
4384
4385=item You need to quote "%s"
4386
4387(W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
4388Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name declared,
4389which means that Perl 5 will try to call the subroutine when the
4390assignment is executed, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
4391what you want, put an & in front.)
4392
4393=back
4394
4395=cut