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PERLDIAG
!!!PERLDIAG
NAME
DESCRIPTION
----
!!NAME


perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
!!DESCRIPTION


These messages are classified as follows (listed in
increasing order of desperation):


    (W) A warning (optional).
(D) A deprecation (optional).
(S) A severe warning (default).
(F) A fatal error (trappable).
(P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
(X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
(A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
The majority of messages from the first three classifications above (W, D warnings pragma.


If a message can be controlled by the warnings
pragma, its warning category is included with the
classification letter in the description below.


Optional warnings are enabled by using the warnings
pragma or the __-w__ and __-W__ switches. Warnings may
be captured by setting $SIG{__WARN__} to a
reference to a routine that will be called on each warning
instead of printing it. See perlvar.


Default warnings are always enabled unless they are
explicitly disabled with the warnings pragma or the
__-X__ switch.


Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See
``eval'' in perlfunc. In almost all cases, warnings may be
selectively disabled or promoted to fatal errors using the
warnings pragma. See warnings.


The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to
upper or lower-case. Some of these messages are generic.
Spots that vary are denoted with a %s or other
printf-style escape. These escapes are ignored by the
alphabetical order, as are all characters other than
letters. To look up your message, just ignore anything that
is not a letter.


''accept()'' on closed socket %s


(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did
you forget to check the return value of your ''socket()''
call? See ``accept'' in perlfunc.


Allocation too large: %lx


(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS
machine.


'!' allowed only after types %s


(F) The '!' is allowed in ''pack()'' and ''unpack()''
only after certain types. See ``pack'' in
perlfunc.


Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or
use


(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same
name as a Perl keyword, and you have used the name without
qualification for calling one or the other. Perl decided to
call the builtin because the subroutine is not
imported.


To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an
ampersand before the subroutine name, or qualify the name
with its package. Alternatively, you can import the
subroutine (or pretend that it's imported with the use
subs pragma).


To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the
CORE:: prefix on the operator (e.g.
CORE::log($x)) or by declaring the subroutine to be
an object method (see ``Subroutine Attributes'' in perlsub
or attributes).


Ambiguous use of %s resolved as
%s


(W ambiguous)(S) You said something that may not be
interpreted the way you thought. Normally it's pretty easy
to disambiguate it by supplying a missing quote, operator,
parenthesis pair or declaration.


'' and '


(F) An error peculiar to VMS . Perl does its
own command line redirection, and found that
STDIN was a pipe, and that you also tried to
redirect STDIN using '
STDIN stream to a customer,
please.


'' and '


(F) An error peculiar to VMS . Perl does its
own command line redirection, and thinks you tried to
redirect stdout both to a file and into a pipe to another
command. You need to choose one or the other, though
nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl
script which 'splits' output into two streams, such
as


    open(OUT,


Applying %s to %s will act on
scalar(%s)


(W misc) The pattern match (//), substitution (s///), and
transliteration (tr///) operators work on scalar values. If
you apply one of them to an array or a hash, it will convert
the array or hash to a scalar value -- the length of an
array, or the population info of a hash -- and then work on
that scalar value. This is probably not what you meant to
do. See ``grep'' in perlfunc and ``map'' in perlfunc for
alternatives.


Args must match #! line


(F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was
invoked with match the arguments specified on the #! line.
Since some systems impose a one-argument limit on the #!
line, try combining switches; for example, turn -w
-U into -wU.


Arg too short for msgsnd


(F) ''msgsnd()'' requires a string at least as long as
sizeof(long).


%s argument is not a HASH or
ARRAY element


(F) The argument to ''exists()'' must be a hash or array
element, such as:


    $foo{$bar}
$ref-


%s argument is not a HASH or
ARRAY element or slice


(F) The argument to ''delete()'' must be either a hash or
array element, such as:


    $foo{$bar}
$ref-
or a hash or array slice, such as:


    @foo[[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
@{$ref-


%s argument is not a subroutine name


(F) The argument to ''exists()'' for exists
 must be a subroutine name, and not a
subroutine call. exists  will generate
this error.


Argument ``%s'' isn't numeric%s


(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argument to
an operator that expected a numeric value instead. If you're
fortunate the message will identify which operator was so
unfortunate.


Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of
%s()


(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array
names in some spots. This is now heavily
deprecated.


assertion botched: %s


(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal
failure.


Assertion failed: file ``%s''


(P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be
examined.


Assignment to both a list and a scalar


(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd
arguments must either both be scalars or both be lists.
Otherwise Perl won't know which context to supply to the
right side.


Negative offset to vec in lvalue context


(F) When vec is called in an lvalue context, the second
argument must be greater than or equal to zero.


Attempt to free non-arena SV:
0x%lx


(P internal) All SV objects are supposed to
be allocated from arenas that will be garbage collected on
exit. An SV was discovered to be outside any
of those arenas.


Attempt to free nonexistent shared string


(P internal) Perl maintains a reference counted internal
table of strings to optimize the storage and access of hash
keys and other strings. This indicates someone tried to
decrement the reference count of a string that can no longer
be found in the table.


Attempt to free temp prematurely


(W debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by
the ''free_tmps()'' routine. This indicates that
something else is freeing the SV before the
''free_tmps()'' routine gets a chance, which means that
the ''free_tmps()'' routine will be freeing an
unreferenced scalar when it does try to free
it.


Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers


(P internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol
aliases.


Attempt to free unreferenced scalar


(W internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a
scalar to see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it
had already gone to 0 earlier, and should have been freed,
and in fact, probably was freed. This could indicate that
''SvREFCNT_dec()'' was called too many times, or that
''SvREFCNT_inc()'' was called too few times, or that the
SV was mortalized when it shouldn't have
been, or that memory has been corrupted.


Attempt to join self


(F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is
an impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or
you may need to move the ''join()'' to some other
thread.


Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value


(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the
result of a function, or a computed expression) to the ``p''
''pack()'' template. This means the result contains a
pointer to a location that could become invalid anytime,
even before the end of the current statement. Use literals
or global values as arguments to the ``p'' ''pack()''
template to avoid this warning.


Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr


(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to
''substr()'' used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange.
Perhaps you forgot to dereference it first. See ``substr''
in perlfunc.


Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be
%d


(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of
''msgctl()'', ''semctl()'' or ''shmctl()''. In C
parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively, sizeof(struct
msqid_ds *), sizeof(struct semid_ds *), and sizeof(struct
shmid_ds *).


Bad evalled substitution pattern


(F) You've used the /e switch to evaluate the replacement
for a substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the
code to evaluate, most likely an unexpected right brace
'}'.


Bad filehandle: %s


(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle,
but the symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps
you didn't do an ''open()'', or did it in another
package.


Bad ''free()'' ignored


(S malloc) An internal routine called ''free()'' on
something that had never been ''malloc()''ed in the first
place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by setting environment
variable PERL_BADFREE to 0.


This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems
with ``hard'' dynamic linking, like AIX and
OS/2. It is a bug of Berkeley DB which is
left unnoticed if DB uses ''forgiving'' system
''malloc()''.


Bad hash


(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null
HV pointer.


Bad index while coercing array into hash


(F) The index looked up in the hash found as the 0'th
element of a pseudo-hash is not legal. Index values must be
at 1 or greater. See perlref.


Badly placed ()'s


(A) You've accidentally run your script through __csh__
instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your
script into Perl yourself.


Bad name after %s::


(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix,
and then didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't
interpolate outside of quotes, so


    $var = 'myvar';
$sym = mypack::$var;
is not the same as


    $var = 'myvar';
$sym =


Bad ''realloc()'' ignored


(S malloc) An internal routine called ''realloc()'' on
something that had never been ''malloc()''ed in the first
place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by setting environment
variable PERL_BADFREE to 1.


Bad symbol for array


(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to
something that wasn't a symbol table entry.


Bad symbol for filehandle


(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to
something that wasn't a symbol table entry.


Bad symbol for hash


(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to
something that wasn't a symbol table entry.


Bareword found in conditional


(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected
a conditional, which often indicates that an or


    open FOO  die;
It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has been interpreted as a bareword:


    use constant TYPO =
The strict pragma is useful in avoiding such errors.


Bareword ``%s'' not allowed while ``strict subs'' in
use


(F) With ``strict subs'' in use, a bareword is only allowed
as a subroutine identifier, in curly brackets or to the left
of the ``=


Bareword ``%s'' refers to nonexistent package


(W bareword) You used a qualified bareword of the form
Foo::, but the compiler saw no other uses of that
namespace before that point. Perhaps you need to predeclare
a package?


BEGIN failed--compilation
aborted


(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a
BEGIN subroutine. Compilation stops
immediately and the interpreter is exited.


BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation
aborted


(F) Perl found a BEGIN {} subroutine (or a
use directive, which implies a BEGIN {})
after one or more compilation errors had already occurred.
Since the intended environment for the BEGIN {}
could not be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since
subsequent code likely depends on its correct operation,
Perl just gave up.


1 better written as $1


(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as
variables. The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the
right-hand side of a substitution, but stylistically it's
better to use the variable form because other Perl
programmers will expect it, and it works better if there are
more than 9 backreferences.


Binary number


(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than
2**32-1 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable between
systems. See perlport for more on portability
concerns.


''bind()'' on closed socket %s


(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did
you forget to check the return value of your ''socket()''
call? See ``bind'' in perlfunc.


Bit vector size


(W portable) Using bit vector sizes larger than 32 is
non-portable.


Bizarre copy of %s in %s


(P) Perl detected an attempt to copy an internal value that
is not copyable.


__-P__ not allowed for setuid/setgid script


(F) The script would have to be opened by the C preprocessor
by name, which provides a race condition that breaks
security.


Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s


(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS .
While Perl was preparing to iterate over %ENV, it
encountered a logical name or symbol definition which was
too long, so it was truncated to the string
shown.


Callback called exit


(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via
''call_sv()'' exited by calling exit.


%s() called too early to check prototype


(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype
before the parser saw a definition or declaration for it,
and Perl could not check that the call conforms to the
prototype. You need to either add an early prototype
declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper
prototype checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that
you're calling the function correctly, you may put an
ampersand before the name to avoid the warning. See
perlsub.


/ cannot take a count


(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length
string, but you have also specified an explicit size for the
string. See ``pack'' in perlfunc.


Can't bless non-reference value


(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl
``enforces'' encapsulation of objects. See
perlobj.


Can't call method ``%s'' in empty package
``%s''


(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly
indicated a package functioning as a class, but that package
doesn't have ANYTHING defined in it, let
alone methods. See perlobj.


Can't call method ``%s'' on an undefined value


(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot
filled by the object reference or package name contains an
undefined value. Something like this will reproduce the
error:


    $BADREF = undef;
process $BADREF 1,2,3;
$BADREF-


Can't call method ``%s'' on unblessed reference


(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to
run. It ordinarily finds this out from the object reference
you supply, but you didn't supply an object reference in
this case. A reference isn't an object reference until it
has been blessed. See perlobj.


Can't call method ``%s'' without a package or object
reference


(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot
filled by the object reference or package name contains an
expression that returns a defined value which is neither an
object reference nor a package name. Something like this
will reproduce the error:


    $BADREF = 42;
process $BADREF 1,2,3;
$BADREF-


Can't chdir to %s


(F) You called perl -x/foo/bar, but
/foo/bar is not a directory that you can chdir to,
possibly because it doesn't exist.


Can't check filesystem of script ``%s'' for
nosuid


(P) For some reason you can't check the filesystem of the
script for nosuid.


Can't coerce array into hash


(F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the
array has no information on how to map from keys to array
indices. You can do that only with arrays that have a hash
reference at index 0.


Can't coerce %s to integer in
%s


(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table
entries (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they
are. So you can't say things like:


    *foo += 1;
You CAN say


    $foo = *foo;
$foo += 1;
but then $foo no longer contains a glob.


Can't coerce %s to number in
%s


(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table
entries (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they
are.


Can't coerce %s to string in
%s


(F) Certain types of SVs, in particular real symbol table
entries (typeglobs), can't be forced to stop being what they
are.


Can't create pipe mailbox


(P) An error peculiar to VMS . The process is
suffering from exhausted quotas or other plumbing
problems.


Can't declare class for non-scalar %s in
``%s''


(S) Currently, only scalar variables can declared with a
specific class qualifier in a ``my'' or ``our'' declaration.
The semantics may be extended for other types of variables
in future.


Can't declare %s in ``%s''


(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared
as ``my'' or ``our'' variables. They must have ordinary
identifiers as names.


Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular
file


(S inplace) You tried to use the __-i__ switch on a
special file, such as a file in /dev, or a
FIFO . The file was ignored.


Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s


(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the
indicated reason.


Can't do inplace edit without backup


(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if
you try reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You
have to say -i.bak, or some such.


Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be
unique


(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames
longer than 14 characters and Perl was unable to create a
unique filename during inplace editing with the __-i__
switch. The file was ignored.


Can't do {n,m} with n
HERE in regex m/%s/


(F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you
really want your regexp to match something 0 times, just put
{0}. The HERE shows in the regular
expression about where the problem was discovered. See
perlre.


Can't do setegid!


(P) The ''setegid()'' call failed for some reason in the
setuid emulator of suidperl.


Can't do seteuid!


(P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some
reason.


Can't do setuid


(F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec
suidperl to do setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It
looks for a name of the form sperl5.000 in the same
directory that the perl executable resides under the name
perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines. If the
file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't,
ask your sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.


Can't do waitpid with flags


(F) This machine doesn't have either ''waitpid()'' or
''wait4()'', so only ''waitpid()'' without flags is
emulated.


Can't emulate -%s on #! line


(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense
at this point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a
__-x__ on the #! line.


Can't exec ``%s'': %s


(W exec) An ''system()'', ''exec()'', or piped open
call could not execute the named program for the indicated
reason. Typical reasons include: the permissions were wrong
on the file, the file wasn't found in $ENV{PATH},
the executable in question was compiled for another
architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an
interpreter that can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe
your system doesn't support #! at all.)


Can't exec %s


(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you
because that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you
wanted, you may need to mention ``perl'' on the #! line
somewhere.


Can't execute %s


(F) You used the __-S__ switch, but the copies of the
script to execute found in the PATH did not
have correct permissions.


Can't find an opnumber for ``%s''


(F) A string of a form CORE::word was given to
''prototype()'', but there is no builtin with the name
word.


Can't find label %s


(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere
that it's possible for us to go to. See ``goto'' in
perlfunc.


Can't find %s on PATH


(F) You used the __-S__ switch, but the script to execute
could not be found in the PATH .


Can't find %s on PATH , '.' not in
PATH


(F) You used the __-S__ switch, but the script to execute
could not be found in the PATH , or at least
not with the correct permissions. The script exists in the
current directory, but PATH prohibits running
it.


Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before
EOF


(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This
message means that the closing delimiter was omitted.
Because bracketed quotes count nesting levels, the following
is missing its final parenthesis:


    print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good programmer's editor will have a way to help you find these characters.


Can't find %s property definition
%s


(F) You may have tried to use p which means a
Unicode property for example p{Lu} is all uppercase letters.
Escape the p, either \p (just the
p) or by Qp (the rest of the string, until
possible E).


Can't fork


(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while
opening a pipeline.


Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?


(S) A warning peculiar to VMS . This arises
because of the difference between access checks under
VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
Under VMS , access checks are done by
filename, rather than by bits in the stat buffer, so that
ACLs and other protections can be taken into account.
Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains
all the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the
filespec, to the access checking routine. It will try to
retrieve the filespec using the device name and
FID present in the stat buffer, but this
works only if you haven't made a subsequent call to the
CRTL ''stat()'' routine, because the
device name is overwritten with each call. If this warning
appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking
routine gave up and returned FALSE , just to
be conservative. (Note: The access checking routine knows
about the Perl stat operator and file tests, so you
shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a Perl
command; it arises only if some internal code takes stat
buffers lightly.)


Can't get pipe mailbox device name


(P) An error peculiar to VMS . After creating
a mailbox to act as a pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for
later use.


Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for
MAXBUF


(P) An error peculiar to VMS . Perl asked
$GETSYI how big you want your mailbox buffers to
be, and didn't get an answer.


Can't ``goto'' into the middle of a foreach
loop


(F) A ``goto'' statement was executed to jump into the
middle of a foreach loop. You can't get there from here. See
``goto'' in perlfunc.


Can't ``goto'' out of a pseudo block


(F) A ``goto'' statement was executed to jump out of what
might look like a block, except that it isn't a proper
block. This usually occurs if you tried to jump out of a
''sort()'' block or subroutine, which is a no-no. See
``goto'' in perlfunc.


Can't goto subroutine from an eval-string


(F) The ``goto subroutine'' call can't be used to jump out
of an eval ``string''. (You can use it to jump out of an
eval { BLOCK }, but you probably don't want
to.)


Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine


(F) The deeply magical ``goto subroutine'' call can only
replace one subroutine call for another. It can't
manufacture one out of whole cloth. In general you should be
calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD routine
anyway. See ``goto'' in perlfunc.


Can't ignore signal CHLD , forcing to
default


(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the
SIGCHLD signal (sometimes known as
SIGCLD ) disabled. Since disabling this
signal will interfere with proper determination of exit
status of child processes, Perl has reset the signal to its
default value. This situation typically indicates that the
parent program under which Perl may be running (e.g. cron)
is being very careless.


Can't ``last'' outside a loop block


(F) A ``last'' statement was executed to break out of the
current block, except that there's this itty bitty problem
called there isn't a current block. Note that an ``if'' or
``else'' block doesn't count as a ``loopish'' block, as
doesn't a block given to ''sort()'', ''map()'' or
''grep()''. You can usually double the curlies to get the
same effect though, because the inner curlies will be
considered a block that loops once. See ``last'' in
perlfunc.


Can't localize lexical variable %s


(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously
declared as a lexical variable using ``my''. This is not
allowed. If you want to localize a package variable of the
same name, qualify it with the package name.


Can't localize pseudo-hash element


(F) You said something like local $ar-,
where $ar is a reference to a pseudo-hash. That
hasn't been implemented yet, but you can get a similar
effect by localizing the corresponding array element
directly -- local
$ar-.


Can't localize through a reference


(F) You said something like local $$ref, which Perl
can't currently handle, because when it goes to restore the
old value of whatever $ref pointed to after the
scope of the ''local()'' is finished, it can't be sure
that $ref will still be a reference.


Can't locate %s


(F) You said to do (or require, or
use) a file that couldn't be found. Perl looks for
the file in all the locations mentioned in @INC,
unless the file name included the full path to the file.
Perhaps you need to set the PERL5LIB or
PERL5OPT environment variable to say where
the extra library is, or maybe the script needs to add the
library name to @INC. Or maybe you just misspelled
the name of the file. See ``require'' in perlfunc and
lib.


Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC


(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which
allows autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most
probable causes are a misprint in a function/method name or
a failure to !AutoSplit the file, say, by doing
make install.


Can't locate object method ``%s'' via package
``%s''


(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly
indicated a package functioning as a class, but that package
doesn't define that particular method, nor does any of its
base classes. See perlobj.


(perhaps you forgot to load ``%s''?)


(F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the
message ``Can't locate object method ''%s`` via package
''%s


Can't locate package %s for @%s::ISA


(W syntax) The @ISA array contained the name of
another package that doesn't seem to exist.


Can't make list assignment to %ENV on this
system


(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on
some systems, notably VMS .


Can't modify %s in %s


(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or
otherwise try to change it, such as with an
auto-increment.


Can't modify nonexistent substring


(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a
''substr()'' was handed a NULL
.


Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call


(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be
declared as such, see ``Lvalue subroutines'' in
perlsub.


Can't msgrcv to read-only var


(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as
a receive buffer.


Can't ``next'' outside a loop block


(F) A ``next'' statement was executed to reiterate the
current block, but there isn't a current block. Note that an
``if'' or ``else'' block doesn't count as a ``loopish''
block, as doesn't a block given to ''sort()'',
''map()'' or ''grep()''. You can usually double the
curlies to get the same effect though, because the inner
curlies will be considered a block that loops once. See
``next'' in perlfunc.


Can't open %s: %s


(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of
the  filehandle, either implicitly under
the -n or -p command-line switches, or
explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this is
because you don't have read permission for a file which you
named on the command line.


Can't open bidirectional pipe


(W pipe) You tried to say open(CMD,
, which is not supported. You can try
any of several modules in the Perl library to do this, such
as IPC::Open2. Alternately, direct the pipe's output to a
file using ``


Can't open error file %s as stderr


(F) An error peculiar to VMS . Perl does its
own command line redirection, and couldn't open the file
specified after '2


Can't open input file %s as stdin


(F) An error peculiar to VMS . Perl does its
own command line redirection, and couldn't open the file
specified after '


Can't open output file %s as stdout


(F) An error peculiar to VMS . Perl does its
own command line redirection, and couldn't open the file
specified after '


Can't open output pipe (name: %s)


(P) An error peculiar to VMS . Perl does its
own command line redirection, and couldn't open the pipe
into which to send data destined for stdout.


Can't open perl script ``%s'': %s


(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the
indicated reason.


Can't read CRTL environ


(S) A warning peculiar to VMS . Perl tried to
read an element of %ENV from the
CRTL 's internal environment array and
discovered the array was missing. You need to figure out
where your CRTL misplaced its environ or
define ''PERL_ENV_TABLES'' (see perlvms)
so that environ is not searched.


Can't redefine active sort subroutine
%s


(F) Perl optimizes the internal handling of sort subroutines
and keeps pointers into them. You tried to redefine one such
sort subroutine when it was currently active, which is not
allowed. If you really want to do this, you should write
sort {  instead of sort func
@x.


Can't ``redo'' outside a loop block


(F) A ``redo'' statement was executed to restart the current
block, but there isn't a current block. Note that an ``if''
or ``else'' block doesn't count as a ``loopish'' block, as
doesn't a block given to ''sort()'', ''map()'' or
''grep()''. You can usually double the curlies to get the
same effect though, because the inner curlies will be
considered a block that loops once. See ``redo'' in
perlfunc.


Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file


(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a
backup file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to
replace it with the modified file. The file was left
unmodified.


Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping
file


(S inplace) The rename done by the __-i__ switch failed
for some reason, probably because you don't have write
permission to the directory.


Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary
mode


(P) An error peculiar to VMS . Perl thought
stdin was a pipe, and tried to reopen it to accept binary
data. Alas, it failed.


Can't resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package
`%s'


(FP) Error resolving overloading specified by a method name
(as opposed to a subroutine reference): no such method
callable via the package. If method name is ???,
this is an internal error.


Can't reswap uid and euid


(P) The ''setreuid()'' call failed for some reason in the
setuid emulator of suidperl.


Can't return %s from lvalue subroutine


(F) Perl detected an attempt to return illegal lvalues (such
as temporary or readonly values) from a subroutine used as
an lvalue. This is not allowed.


Can't return %s to lvalue scalar
context


(F) You tried to return a complete array or hash from an
lvalue subroutine, but you called the subroutine in a way
that made Perl think you meant to return only one value. You
probably meant to write parentheses around the call to the
subroutine, which tell Perl that the call should be in list
context.


Can't return outside a subroutine


(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that
is, where there was no subroutine call to return out of. See
perlsub.


Can't stat script ``%s''


(P) For some reason you can't ''fstat()'' the script even
though you have it open already. Bizarre.


Can't swap uid and euid


(P) The ''setreuid()'' call failed for some reason in the
setuid emulator of suidperl.


Can't take log of %g


(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm
of a negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex
package that comes standard with Perl, though, if you really
want to do that for the negative numbers.


Can't take sqrt of %g


(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square
root of a negative number. There's a Math::Complex package
that comes standard with Perl, though, if you really want to
do that.


Can't undef active subroutine


(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running.
You can, however, redefine it while it's running, and you
can even undef the redefined subroutine while the old
routine is running. Go figure.


Can't unshift


(F) You tried to unshift an ``unreal'' array that can't be
unshifted, such as the main Perl stack.


Can't upgrade that kind of scalar


(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds ``members'' to an
SV , making it into a more specialized kind
of SV . The top several SV
types are so specialized, however, that they cannot be
interconverted. This message indicates that such a
conversion was attempted.


Can't upgrade to undef


(P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the
totem pole, in the scheme of upgradability. Upgrading to
undef indicates an error in the code calling
sv_upgrade.


Can't use an undefined value as %s
reference


(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic
reference must be a defined value. This helps to delurk some
insidious errors.


Can't use bareword (``%s'') as %s ref while
``strict refs'' in use


(F) Only hard references are allowed by ``strict refs''.
Symbolic references are disallowed. See
perlref.


Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available


(F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically
loads the Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to
tie the %! hash to provide symbolic names for $!
errno values.


Can't use %s for loop variable


(F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop
variable on a foreach.


Can't use global %s in ``my''


(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical
variable. This is not allowed, because the magic can be tied
to only one location (namely the global variable) and it
would be incredibly confusing to have variables in your
program that looked like magical variables but
weren't.


Can't use ``my %s'' in sort comparison


(F) The global variables $a and $b are
reserved for sort comparisons. You mentioned $a or
$b in the same line as the


Can't use %s ref as %s ref


(F) You've mixed up your reference types. You have to
dereference a reference of the type needed. You can use the
''ref()'' function to test the type of the reference, if
need be.


Can't use string (``%s'') as %s ref while ``strict
refs'' in use


(F) Only hard references are allowed by ``strict refs''.
Symbolic references are disallowed. See
perlref.


Can't use subscript on %s


(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression
as a subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an
expression that didn't look like an array reference, or
anything else subscriptable.


Can't use %c to mean $%c in expression


(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary
operator that creates a reference to its argument. The use
of backslash to indicate a backreference to a matched
substring is valid only as part of a regular expression
pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl code produces a
value that prints out looking like
''SCALAR'' (0xdecaf). Use the $1
form instead.


Can't weaken a nonreference


(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a
reference. Only references can be weakened.


Can't x= to read-only value


(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the
undefined value) with an assignment operator, which implies
modifying the value itself. Perhaps you need to copy the
value to a temporary, and repeat that.


''chmod()'' mode argument is missing initial
0


(W chmod) A novice will sometimes say


    chmod 777, $filename
not realizing that 777 will be interpreted as a decimal number, equivalent to 01411. Octal constants are introduced with a leading 0 in Perl, as in C.


''close()'' on unopened filehandle
%s


(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never
opened.


%s: Command not found


(A) You've accidentally run your script through __csh__
instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your
script into Perl yourself.


Compilation failed in require


(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a
require statement. Perl uses this generic message
when none of the errors that it encountered were severe
enough to halt compilation immediately.


Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d)
exceeded


(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in
complex situations where back-tracking is required.
Recursion depth is limited to 32766, or perhaps less in
architectures where the stack cannot grow arbitrarily.
(``Simple'' and ``medium'' situations are handled without
recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening
the string under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g.
with while) rather than in the regular expression
engine; or rewriting the regular expression so that it is
simpler or backtracks less. (See perlfaq2 for information on
''Mastering Regular Expressions''.)


''connect()'' on closed socket %s


(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did
you forget to check the return value of your ''socket()''
call? See ``connect'' in perlfunc.


Constant(%s)%s: %s


(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting
to define an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the
character name specified in the N{...} escape.
Perhaps you forgot to load the corresponding
overload or charnames pragma? See
charnames and overload.


Constant is not %s reference


(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the use
constant pragma) is being dereferenced, but it amounts
to the wrong type of reference. The message indicates the
type of reference that was expected. This usually indicates
a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value. See
``Constant Functions'' in perlsub and constant.


Constant subroutine %s redefined


(SW redefine) You redefined a subroutine which had
previously been eligible for inlining. See ``Constant
Functions'' in perlsub for commentary and
workarounds.


Constant subroutine %s undefined


(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously
been eligible for inlining. See ``Constant Functions'' in
perlsub for commentary and workarounds.


Copy method did not return a reference


(F) The method which overloads ``='' is buggy. See ``Copy
Constructor'' in overload.


CORE::%s is not a keyword


(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl
keywords.


corrupted regexp pointers


(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the
regular expression compiler gave it.


corrupted regexp program


(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp
program without a valid magic number.


Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx


(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal
failure.


-p destination: %s


(F) An error occurred during the implicit output invoked by
the -p command-line switch. (This output goes to
STDOUT unless you've redirected it with
''select()''.)


-T and -B not implemented on
filehandles


(F) Perl can't peek at the stdio buffer of filehandles when
it doesn't know about your kind of stdio. You'll have to use
a filename instead.


Deep recursion on subroutine ``%s''


(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or
indirectly) 100 times more than it has returned. This
probably indicates an infinite recursion, unless you're
writing strange benchmark programs, in which case it
indicates something else.


defined(@array) is deprecated


(D deprecated) ''defined()'' is not usually useful on
arrays because it checks for an undefined ''scalar''
value. If you want to see if the array is empty, just use
if (@array) { # not empty } for
example.


defined(%hash) is deprecated


(D deprecated) ''defined()'' is not usually useful on
hashes because it checks for an undefined ''scalar''
value. If you want to see if the hash is empty, just use
if (%hash) { # not empty } for
example.


Delimiter for here document is too long


(F) In a here document construct like ,
the label FOO is too long for Perl to handle. You
have to be seriously twisted to write code that triggers
this error.


Did not produce a valid header


See Server error.


%s did not return a true value


(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to
indicate that it compiled correctly and ran its
initialization code correctly. It's traditional to end such
a file with a ``1;'', though any true value would do. See
``require'' in perlfunc.


(Did you mean


(W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine
$FOO or some such.


(Did you mean ``local'' instead of ``our''?)


(W misc) Remember that ``our'' does not localize the
declared global variable. You have declared it again in the
same lexical scope, which seems superfluous.


(Did you mean $ or @ instead of %?)


(W) You probably said %hash{$key} when you meant
$hash{$key} or @hash{@keys}. On the other
hand, maybe you just meant %hash and got carried
away.


Died


(F) You passed ''die()'' an empty string (the equivalent
of die ) or you called it with no args
and both $@ and $_ were
empty.


Document contains no data


See Server error.


Don't know how to handle magic of type '%s'


(P) The internal handling of magical variables has been
cursed.


do_study: out of memory


(P) This should have been caught by ''safemalloc()''
instead.


(Do you need to predeclare %s?)


(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the
message ``%s found where operator expected''. It often means
a subroutine or module name is being referenced that hasn't
been declared yet. This may be because of ordering problems
in your file, or because of a missing ``sub'', ``package'',
``require'', or ``use'' statement. If you're referencing
something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually have to
define the subroutine or package before the current
location. You can use an empty ``sub foo;'' or ``package
FOO ;'' to enter a ``forward''
declaration.


Duplicate ''free()'' ignored


(S malloc) An internal routine called ''free()'' on
something that had already been freed.


elseif should be elsif


(S) There is no keyword ``elseif'' in Perl because Larry
thinks it's ugly. Your code will be interpreted as an
attempt to call a method named ``elseif'' for the class
returned by the following block. This is unlikely to be what
you want.


entering effective %s failed


(F) While under the use filetest pragma, switching
the real and effective uids or gids failed.


Error converting file specification %s


(F) An error peculiar to VMS . Because Perl
may have to deal with file specifications in either
VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
single form when it must operate on them directly. Either
you've passed an invalid file specification to Perl, or
you've found a case the conversion routines don't handle.
Drat.


%s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression


(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a
regular expression that contains the (?{ ... })
zero-width assertion, which is unsafe. See ``(?{ code })''
in perlre, and perlsec.


%s: Eval-group not allowed at run time


(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing
the (?{ ... }) zero-width assertion at run time, as
it would when the pattern contains interpolated values.
Since that is a security risk, it is not allowed. If you
insist, you may still do this by explicitly building the
pattern from an interpolated string at run time and using
that in an ''eval()''. See ``(?{ code })'' in
perlre.


%s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'


(F) A regular expression contained the (?{ ... })
zero-width assertion, but that construct is only allowed
when the use re 'eval' pragma is in effect. See
``(?{ code })'' in perlre.


Excessively long


(F) The contents of a
glob()''
operator, or put the filenames into a variable and glob
that.


Execution of %s aborted due to compilation
errors


(F) The final summary message when a Perl compilation
fails.


Exiting eval via %s


(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means,
such as a goto, or a loop control statement.


Exiting format via %s


(W exiting) You are exiting an eval by unconventional means,
such as a goto, or a loop control statement.


Exiting pseudo-block via %s


(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct
(like a sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means,
such as a goto, or a loop control statement. See ``sort'' in
perlfunc.


Exiting subroutine via %s


(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional
means, such as a goto, or a loop control
statement.


Exiting substitution via %s


(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional
means, such as a return, a goto, or a loop control
statement.


Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)


(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length
string. This has the effect of blessing the reference into
the package main. This is usually not what you want.
Consider providing a default target package, e.g.
bless($ref, $p '!MyPackage');


%s: Expression syntax


(A) You've accidentally run your script through __csh__
instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your
script into Perl yourself.


%s failed--call queue aborted


(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a
CHECK , INIT , or
END subroutine. Processing of the remainder
of the queue of such routines has been prematurely
ended.


false [[] range ``%s'' in regexp


(W regexp) A character class range must start and end at a
literal character, not another character class like
d or [[:alpha:]. The ``-'' in your false
range is interpreted as a literal ``-''. Consider quoting
the ``-'', ``-''. See perlre.


Fatal VMS error at %s, line
%d


(P) An error peculiar to VMS . Something
untoward happened in a VMS system service or
RTL routine; Perl's exit status should
provide more details. The filename in ``at %s'' and
the line number in ``line %d'' tell you which
section of the Perl source code is distressed.


fcntl is not implemented


(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement
''fcntl()''. What is this, a PDP-11 or
something?


Filehandle %s opened only for input


(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you
intended it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to
open it with ``+


Filehandle %s opened only for output


(W io) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for
writing. If you intended it to be a read/write filehandle,
you needed to open it with ``+


Final $ should be $ or $name


(F) You must now decide whether the final $ in a string was
meant to be a literal dollar sign, or was meant to introduce
a variable name that happens to be missing. So you have to
put either the backslash or the name.


Final @ should be @ or @name


(F) You must now decide whether the final @ in a string was
meant to be a literal ``at'' sign, or was meant to introduce
a variable name that happens to be missing. So you have to
put either the backslash or the name.


''flock()'' on closed filehandle %s


(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to
''flock()'' got itself closed some time before now. Check
your logic flow. ''flock()'' operates on filehandles. Are
you attempting to call ''flock()'' on a dirhandle by the
same name?


Quantifier follows nothing before
HERE in regex m/%s/


(F) You started a regular expression with a quantifier.
Backslash it if you meant it literally. The
HERE shows in the regular expression about
where the problem was discovered. See perlre.


Format not terminated


(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary
dot. Perl got to the end of your file without finding such a
line.


Format %s redefined


(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this
warning, say


    {
no warnings;
eval


Found = in conditional, should be ==


(W syntax) You said


    if ($foo = 123)
when you meant


    if ($foo == 123)
(or something like that).


%s found where operator expected


(S) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an
operator. If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was
expecting to see an operator, it gives you this warning.
Usually it indicates that an operator or delimiter was
omitted, such as a semicolon.


gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key
``%s''


(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store
failed.


gethostent not implemented


(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement
''gethostent()'', probably because if it did, it'd feel
morally obligated to return every hostname on the
Internet.


get%''sname()'' on closed socket %s


(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on
a closed socket. Did you forget to check the return value of
your ''socket()'' call?


getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user
``%s''


(S) A warning peculiar to VMS . The call to
sys$getuai underlying the getpwnam
operator returned an invalid UIC
.


''getsockopt()'' on closed socket
%s


(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed
socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your
''socket()'' call? See ``getsockopt'' in
perlfunc.


Global symbol ``%s'' requires explicit package
name


(F) You've said ``use strict vars'', which indicates that
all variables must either be lexically scoped (using
``my''), declared beforehand using ``our'', or explicitly
qualified to say which package the global variable is in
(using ``::'').


glob failed (%s)


(W glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s)
used for glob and . Usually,
this means that you supplied a glob pattern that
caused the external program to fail and exit with a nonzero
status. If the message indicates that the abnormal exit
resulted in a coredump, this may also mean that your csh (C
shell) is broken. If so, you should change all of the
csh-related variables in config.sh: If you have tcsh, make
the variables refer to it as if it were csh (e.g.
full_csh='/usr/bin/tcsh'); otherwise, make them all
empty (except that d_csh should be
'undef') so that Perl will think csh is missing. In
either case, after editing config.sh, run ./Configure
-S and rebuild Perl.


Glob not terminated


(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it
was expecting a term, so it's looking for the corresponding
right angle bracket, and not finding it. Chances are you
left some needed parentheses out earlier in the line, and
you really meant a ``less than''.


Got an error from !DosAllocMem


(P) An error peculiar to OS/2 . Most probably
you're using an obsolete version of Perl, and this should
not happen anyway.


goto must have label


(F) Unlike with ``next'' or ``last'', you're not allowed to
goto an unspecified destination. See ``goto'' in
perlfunc.


%s had compilation errors


(F) The final summary message when a perl -c
fails.


Had to create %s unexpectedly


(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol
table that ought to have existed already, but for some
reason it didn't, and had to be created on an emergency
basis to prevent a core dump.


Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of
%s()


(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash
names in some spots. This is now heavily
deprecated.


%s has too many errors


(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program
after 10 errors. Further error messages would likely be
uninformative.


Hexadecimal number


(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger
than 2**32-1 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable between
systems. See perlport for more on portability
concerns.


Identifier too long


(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions,
etc.) to about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat
more for compound names (like $A::B). You've
exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions of Perl are likely
to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.


Illegal binary digit %s


(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary
number.


Illegal binary digit %s ignored


(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or
1 in a binary number. Interpretation of the binary number
stopped before the offending digit.


Illegal character %s (carriage return)


(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program
text as it would any other whitespace, which means you
should never see this error when Perl was built using
standard options. For some reason, your version of Perl
appears to have been built without this support. Talk to
your Perl administrator.


Illegal division by zero


(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was
wrong in your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to
guard against meaningless input.


Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored


(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0
- 9 or A - F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation
of the hexadecimal number stopped before the illegal
character.


Illegal modulus zero


(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder.
Most numbers don't take to this kindly.


Illegal number of bits in vec


(F) The number of bits in ''vec()'' (the third argument)
must be a power of two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform
supports that).


Illegal octal digit %s


(F) You used an 8 or 9 in a octal number.


Illegal octal digit %s ignored


(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in a octal
number. Interpretation of the octal number stopped before
the 8 or 9.


Illegal switch in PERL5OPT:
%s


(X) The PERL5OPT environment variable may
only be used to set the following switches:
__-[[DIMUdmw]__.


Ill-formed CRTL environ value
``%s''


(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS . Perl
tried to read the CRTL 's internal environ
array, and encountered an element without the =
delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is
ignored.


Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: %s


(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS . Perl
tried to read a logical name or CLI symbol
definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so
the line was ignored.


(in cleanup) %s


(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a
''DESTROY ()'' method raised the indicated
exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a
vast number of times, the warning is issued only once for
any number of failures that would otherwise result in the
same message being repeated.


Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the
G_KEEPERR flag could also result in this warning.
See ``G_KEEPERR'' in perlcall.


Insecure dependency in %s


(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism
didn't like. The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're
running setuid or setgid, or when you specify __-T__ to
turn it on explicitly. The tainting mechanism labels all
data that's derived directly or indirectly from the user,
who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any such
data is used in a ``dangerous'' operation, you get this
error. See perlsec for more information.


Insecure directory in %s


(F) You can't use ''system()'', ''exec()'', or a piped
open in a setuid or setgid script if $ENV{PATH}
contains a directory that is writable by the world. See
perlsec.


Insecure $ENV{%s} while running
%s


(F) You can't use ''system()'', ''exec()'', or a piped
open in a setuid or setgid script if any of
$ENV{PATH}, $ENV{IFS},
$ENV{CDPATH}, $ENV{ENV} or
$ENV{BASH_ENV} are derived from data supplied (or
potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set the
path to a known value, using trustworthy data. See
perlsec.


Integer overflow in %s number


(W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you
have specified either as a literal or as an argument to
''hex()'' or ''oct()'' is too big for your
architecture, and has been converted to a floating point
number. On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal,
octal or binary number representable without overflow is
0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
0b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that
Perl transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point
representation internally--subject to loss of precision
errors in subsequent operations.


Internal disaster before HERE in
regex m/%s/


(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression
parser. The HERE shows in the
regular expression about where the problem was
discovered.


Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks


(S) A warning peculiar to VMS . Perl keeps
track of the number of times you've called fork and
exec, to determine whether the current call to
exec should affect the current script or a
subprocess (see ``exec LIST '' in perlvms).
Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so Perl is making
a guess and treating this exec as a request to
terminate the Perl script and execute the specified
command.


Internal urp before HERE in regex
m/%s/


(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression
parser. The HERE shows in the
regular expression about where the problem was
discovered.


%s (...) interpreted as function


(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any
list operator followed by parentheses turns into a function,
with all the list operators arguments found inside the
parentheses. See ``Terms and List Operators (Leftward)'' in
perlop.


Invalid %s attribute: %s


The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not
recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See
attributes.


Invalid %s attributes: %s


The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were
not recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See
attributes.


Invalid conversion in %s: ``%s''


(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format
conversion. See ``sprintf'' in perlfunc.


invalid [[] range ``%s'' in regexp


(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum
character greater than the maximum character. See
perlre.


Invalid separator character %s in attribute
list


(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen
between the elements of an attribute list. If the previous
attribute had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that
list was terminated too soon. See attributes.


Invalid type in pack: '%s'


(F) The given character is not a valid pack type. See
``pack'' in perlfunc. (W pack) The given character is not a
valid pack type but used to be silently
ignored.


Invalid type in unpack: '%s'


(F) The given character is not a valid unpack type. See
``unpack'' in perlfunc. (W unpack) The given character is
not a valid unpack type but used to be silently
ignored.


ioctl is not implemented


(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement
''ioctl()'', which is pretty strange for a machine that
supports C.


`%s' is not a code reference


(W) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of
overload::constant needs to be a code reference. Either an
anonymous subroutine, or a reference to a
subroutine.


`%s' is not an overloadable type


(W) You tried to overload a constant type the overload
package is unaware of.


junk on end of regexp


(P) The regular expression parser is confused.


Label not found for ``last %s''


(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not
currently in a loop of that name, not even if you count
where you were called from. See ``last'' in
perlfunc.


Label not found for ``next %s''


(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently
in a loop of that name, not even if you count where you were
called from. See ``last'' in perlfunc.


Label not found for ``redo %s''


(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in
a loop of that name, not even if you count where you were
called from. See ``last'' in perlfunc.


leaving effective %s failed


(F) While under the use filetest pragma, switching
the real and effective uids or gids failed.


''listen()'' on closed socket %s


(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did
you forget to check the return value of your ''socket()''
call? See ``listen'' in perlfunc.


Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented at {#}
mark in regex %s


There is an upper limit to the depth of lookbehind in the
(?


Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented
yet


(F) Due to limitations in the current implementation, array
and hash values cannot be returned in subroutines used in
lvalue context. See ``Lvalue subroutines'' in
perlsub.


Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented before
HERE %s


(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which
lookbehind can handle. This restriction may be eased in a
future release. The HERE shows in
the regular expression about where the problem was
discovered.


Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX


(F) An error peculiar to OS/2 .
PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the
form


    prefix1;prefix2
or


    prefix1 prefix2
with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If prefix1 is indeed a prefix of a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may appear if components are not found, or are too long. See `` PERLLIB_PREFIX '' in perlos2.


Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)


Perl detected something that didn't comply with
UTF-8 encoding rules.


Malformed UTF-16 surrogate


Perl thought it was reading UTF-16 encoded
character data but while doing it Perl met a malformed
Unicode surrogate.


%s matches null string many times


(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite
loop if the regular expression engine didn't specifically
check for that. See perlre.


% may only be used in unpack


(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because
the checksumming process loses information, and you can't go
the other way. See ``unpack'' in perlfunc.


Method for operation %s not found in package
%s during blessing


(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an
overloading table that doesn't resolve to a valid
subroutine. See overload.


Method %s not permitted


See Server error.


Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on
line %d


(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have
been caused by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern,
because it eventually ended earlier on the current
line.


Misplaced _ in number


(W syntax) An underline in a decimal constant wasn't on a
3-digit boundary.


Missing %sbrace%s on N{}


(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal
N{charname} within double-quotish
context.


Missing comma after first argument to %s
function


(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a
filehandle or an ``indirect object'' before the argument
list, this ain't one of them.


Missing command in piped open


(W pipe) You used the open(FH,
 or open(FH,
 construction, but the command was missing or
blank.


Missing name in ``my sub''


(F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines
requires that they have a name with which they can be
found.


Missing $ on loop variable


(F) Apparently you've been programming in __csh__ too
much. Variables are always mentioned with the $ in Perl,
unlike in the shells, where it can vary from one line to the
next.


(Missing operator before %s?)


(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the
message ``%s found where operator expected''. Often the
missing operator is a comma.


Missing right curly or square bracket


(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets
than closing ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's
missing near the place you were last editing.


(Missing semicolon on previous line?)


(S) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the
message ``%s found where operator expected''. Don't
automatically put a semicolon on the previous line just
because you saw this message.


Modification of a read-only value attempted


(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value
of a constant. You didn't, of course, try ``2 = 1'', because
the compiler catches that. But an easy way to do the same
thing is:


    sub mod { $_[[0] = 1 }
mod(2);
Another way is to assign to a ''substr()'' that's off the end of the string.


Yet another way is to assign to a foreach loop
''VAR'' when ''VAR'' is
aliased to a constant in the look ''LIST''
:


        $x = 1;
foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
$n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to modify the 2
}


Modification of non-creatable array value attempted,
%s


(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence,
and the subscript was probably negative, even counting from
end of the array backwards.


Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted,
%s


(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence,
and it couldn't be created for some peculiar
reason.


Module name must be constant


(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument
to a ``use''.


Module name required with -%c option


(F) The -M or -m options say that Perl
should load some module, but you omitted the name of the
module. Consult perlrun for full details about -M
and -m.


msg%s not implemented


(F) You don't have System V message IPC on
your system.


Multidimensional syntax %s not
supported


(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like
$foo[[1,2,3]. They're written like
$foo[[1][[2][[3], as in C.


/ must be followed by a*, A* or Z*


(F) You had a pack template indicating a counted-length
string, Currently the only things that can have their length
counted are a*, A* or Z*. See ``pack'' in
perlfunc.


/ must be followed by a, A or Z


(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length
string, which must be followed by one of the letters a, A or
Z to indicate what sort of string is to be unpacked. See
``pack'' in perlfunc.


/ must follow a numeric type


(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '#', but
this did not follow some numeric unpack specification. See
``pack'' in perlfunc.


``my sub'' not yet implemented


(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented.
Don't try that yet.


``my'' variable %s can't be in a
package


(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it
doesn't make sense to try to declare one with a package
qualifier on the front. Use ''local()'' if you want to
localize a package variable.


Name ``%s::%s'' used only once: possible typo


(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique
variable names. If you had a good reason for having a unique
name, then just mention it again somehow to suppress the
message. The our declaration is provided for this
purpose.


Negative length


(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with a
buffer length that is less than 0. This is difficult to
imagine.


Nested quantifiers before HERE in
regex m/%s/


(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening
parentheses. So things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The
HERE shows in the regular expression
about where the problem was discovered.


Note, however, that the minimal matching quantifiers,
*?, +?, and ?? appear to be
nested quantifiers, but aren't. See perlre.


%s never introduced


(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow
went out of scope before it could possibly have been
used.


No %s allowed while running setuid


(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a
setuid or setgid script to even be allowed to attempt.
Generally speaking there will be another way to do what you
want that is, if not secure, at least securable. See
perlsec.


No __-e__ allowed in setuid scripts


(F) A setuid script can't be specified by the
user.


No comma allowed after %s


(F) A list operator that has a filehandle or ``indirect
object'' is not allowed to have a comma between that and the
following arguments. Otherwise it'd be just another one of
the arguments.


One possible cause for this is that you expected to have
imported a constant to your name space with __use__ or
__import__ while no such importing took place, it may for
example be that your operating system does not support that
particular constant. Hopefully you did use an explicit
import list for the constants you expect to see, please see
``use'' in perlfunc and ``import'' in perlfunc. While an
explicit import list would probably have caught this error
earlier it naturally does not remedy the fact that your
operating system still does not support that constant. Maybe
you have a typo in the constants of the symbol import list
of __use__ or __import__ or in the constant name at
the line where this error was triggered?


No command into which to pipe on command line


(F) An error peculiar to VMS . Perl handles
its own command line redirection, and found a '' at the end
of the command line, so it doesn't know where you want to
pipe the output from this command.


No DB::DB routine defined


(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the
__-d__ switch, but for some reason the perl5db.pl file
(or some facsimile thereof) didn't define a routine to be
called at the beginning of each statement. Which is odd,
because the file should have been required automatically,
and should have blown up the require if it didn't parse
right.


No dbm on this machine


(P) This is counted as an internal error, because every
machine should supply dbm nowadays, because Perl comes with
SDBM . See SDBM_File.


No DBsub routine


(F) The currently executing code was compiled with the
__-d__ switch, but for some reason the perl5db.pl file
(or some facsimile thereof) didn't define a DB::sub routine
to be called at the beginning of each ordinary subroutine
call.


No error file after 2


(F) An error peculiar to VMS . Perl handles
its own command line redirection, and found a '2


No input file after


(F) An error peculiar to VMS . Perl handles
its own command line redirection, and found a '


No #! line


(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a
well-formed #! line even on machines that don't support the
#! construct.


``no'' not allowed in expression


(F) The ``no'' keyword is recognized and executed at compile
time, and returns no useful value. See perlmod.


No output file after


(F) An error peculiar to VMS . Perl handles
its own command line redirection, and found a lone '


No output file after


(F) An error peculiar to VMS . Perl handles
its own command line redirection, and found a '


No package name allowed for variable %s in
``our''


(F) Fully qualified variable names are not allowed in
``our'' declarations, because that doesn't make much sense
under existing semantics. Such syntax is reserved for future
extensions.


No Perl script found in input


(F) You called perl -x, but no line was found in
the file beginning with #! and containing the word
``perl''.


No setregid available


(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the
''setregid()'' call for your system.


No setreuid available


(F) Configure didn't find anything resembling the
''setreuid()'' call for your system.


No space allowed after -%c


(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must
follow immediately after the switch, without intervening
spaces.


No %s specified for -%c


(F) The indicated command line switch needs a mandatory
argument, but you haven't specified one.


No such pipe open


(P) An error peculiar to VMS . The internal
routine ''my_pclose()'' tried to close a pipe which
hadn't been opened. This should have been caught earlier as
an attempt to close an unopened filehandle.


No such pseudo-hash field ``%s''


(F) You tried to access an array as a hash, but the field
name used is not defined. The hash at index 0 should map all
valid field names to array indices for that to
work.


No such pseudo-hash field ``%s'' in variable %s of
type %s


(F) You tried to access a field of a typed variable where
the type does not know about the field name. The field names
are looked up in the %FIELDS hash in the type
package at compile time. The %FIELDS hash is
%usually set up with the 'fields'
pragma.


No such signal: SIG%s


(W signal) You specified a signal name as a subscript to
%SIG that was not recognized. Say kill -l
in your shell to see the valid signal names on your
system.


Not a CODE reference


(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value
(that is, a subroutine), but found a reference to something
else instead. You can use the ''ref()'' function to find
out what kind of ref it really was. See also
perlref.


Not a format reference


(F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a reference to
an anonymous format, but this indicates you did, and that it
didn't exist.


Not a GLOB reference


(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a
``typeglob'' (that is, a symbol table entry that looks like
*foo), but found a reference to something else
instead. You can use the ''ref()'' function to find out
what kind of ref it really was. See perlref.


Not a HASH reference


(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a hash value,
but found a reference to something else instead. You can use
the ''ref()'' function to find out what kind of ref it
really was. See perlref.


Not an ARRAY reference


(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to an array
value, but found a reference to something else instead. You
can use the ''ref()'' function to find out what kind of
ref it really was. See perlref.


Not a perl script


(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a
well-formed #! line even on machines that don't support the
#! construct. The line must mention perl.


Not a SCALAR reference


(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a scalar
value, but found a reference to something else instead. You
can use the ''ref()'' function to find out what kind of
ref it really was. See perlref.


Not a subroutine reference


(F) Perl was trying to evaluate a reference to a code value
(that is, a subroutine), but found a reference to something
else instead. You can use the ''ref()'' function to find
out what kind of ref it really was. See also
perlref.


Not a subroutine reference in overload table


(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an
overloading table that doesn't somehow point to a valid
subroutine. See overload.


Not enough arguments for %s


(F) The function requires more arguments than you
specified.


Not enough format arguments


(W syntax) A format specified more picture fields than the
next line supplied. See perlform.


%s: not found


(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne
shell instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed
your script into Perl yourself.


no UTC offset information; assuming local
time is UTC


(S) A warning peculiar to VMS . Perl was
unable to find the local timezone offset, so it's assuming
that local system time is equivalent to UTC .
If it's not, define the logical name
''SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL'' to translate
to the number of seconds which need to be added to
UTC to get local time.


Null filename used


(F) You can't require the null filename, especially because
on many machines that means the current directory! See
``require'' in perlfunc.


NULL OP IN RUN


(P debugging) Some internal routine called ''run()'' with
a null opcode pointer.


Null picture in formline


(F) The first argument to formline must be a valid format
picture specification. It was found to be empty, which
probably means you supplied it an uninitialized value. See
perlform.


Null realloc


(P) An attempt was made to realloc NULL
.


NULL regexp argument


(P) The internal pattern matching routines blew it big
time.


NULL regexp parameter


(P) The internal pattern matching routines are out of their
gourd.


Number too long


(F) Perl limits the representation of decimal numbers in
programs to about about 250 characters. You've exceeded that
length. Future versions of Perl are likely to eliminate this
arbitrary limitation. In the meantime, try using scientific
notation (e.g. ``1e6'' instead of
``1_000_000'').


Octal number in vector unsupported


(F) Numbers with a leading 0 are not currently
allowed in vectors. The octal number interpretation of such
numbers may be supported in a future version.


Octal number


(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger than
2**32-1 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable between
systems. See perlport for more on portability
concerns.


See also perlport for writing portable code.


Odd number of arguments for overload::constant


(W) The call to overload::constant contained an odd number
of arguments. The arguments should come in
pairs.


Odd number of elements in hash assignment


(W misc) You specified an odd number of elements to
initialize a hash, which is odd, because hashes come in
key/value pairs.


Offset outside string


(F) You tried to do a read/write/send/recv operation with an
offset pointing outside the buffer. This is difficult to
imagine. The sole exception to this is that
sysread()ing past the buffer will extend the buffer
and zero pad the new area.


-%s on unopened filehandle %s


(W unopened) You tried to invoke a file test operator on a
filehandle that isn't open. Check your logic. See also
``-X'' in perlfunc.


%s() on unopened %s %s


(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a filehandle
that was never initialized. You need to do an ''open()'',
a ''sysopen()'', or a ''socket()'' call, or call a
constructor from the !FileHandle package.


oops: oopsAV


(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed
up.


oops: oopsHV


(S internal) An internal warning that the grammar is screwed
up.


Operation `%s': no method found, %s


(F) An attempt was made to perform an overloaded operation
for which no handler was defined. While some handlers can be
autogenerated in terms of other handlers, there is no
default handler for any operation, unless fallback
overloading key is specified to be true. See
overload.


Operator or semicolon missing before
%s


(S ambiguous) You used a variable or subroutine call where
the parser was expecting an operator. The parser has assumed
you really meant to use an operator, but this is highly
likely to be incorrect. For example, if you say ``*foo
*foo'' it will be interpreted as if you said ``*foo *
'foo'''.


``our'' variable %s redeclared


(W misc) You seem to have already declared the same global
once before in the current lexical scope.


Out of memory!


(X) The ''malloc()'' function returned 0, indicating
there was insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory)
to satisfy the request. Perl has no option but to exit
immediately.


Out of memory during ``large'' request for
%s


(F) The ''malloc()'' function returned 0, indicating
there was insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory)
to satisfy the request. However, the request was judged
large enough (compile-time default is 64K), so a possibility
to shut down by trapping this error is granted.


Out of memory during request for %s


(XF) The ''malloc()'' function returned 0, indicating
there was insufficient remaining memory (or virtual memory)
to satisfy the request.


The request was judged to be small, so the possibility to
trap it depends on the way perl was compiled. By default it
is not trappable. However, if compiled for this, Perl may
use the contents of $^M as an emergency pool after
''die()''ing with this message. In this case the error is
trappable ''once'', and the error message will include
the line and file where the failed request
happened.


Out of memory during ridiculously large request


(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+``small amount''
bytes. This error is most likely to be caused by a typo in
the Perl program. e.g., $arr[[time] instead of
$arr[[$time].


Out of memory for yacc stack


(F) The yacc parser wanted to grow its stack so it could
continue parsing, but ''realloc()'' wouldn't give it more
memory, virtual or otherwise.


@ outside of string


(F) You had a pack template that specified an absolute
position outside the string being unpacked. See ``pack'' in
perlfunc.


%s package attribute may clash with future reserved word:
%s


(W reserved) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a
package-specific handler. That name might have a meaning to
Perl itself some day, even though it doesn't yet. Perhaps
you should use a mixed-case attribute name, instead. See
attributes.


page overflow


(W io) A single call to ''write()'' produced more lines
than can fit on a page. See perlform.


panic: %s


(P) An internal error.


panic: ck_grep


(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a
grep.


panic: ck_split


(P) Failed an internal consistency check trying to compile a
split.


panic: corrupt saved stack index


(P) The savestack was requested to restore more localized
values than there are in the savestack.


panic: del_backref


(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to
reset a weak reference.


panic: die %s


(P) We popped the context stack to an eval context, and then
discovered it wasn't an eval context.


panic: pp_match


(P) The internal ''pp_match()'' routine was called with
invalid operational data.


panic: do_subst


(P) The internal ''pp_subst()'' routine was called with
invalid operational data.


panic: do_trans_%s


(P) The internal do_trans routines were called with invalid
operational data.


panic: frexp


(P) The library function ''frexp()'' failed, making
printf(``%f'') impossible.


panic: goto


(P) We popped the context stack to a context with the
specified label, and then discovered it wasn't a context we
know how to do a goto in.


panic: INTERPCASEMOD


(P) The lexer got into a bad state at a case
modifier.


panic: INTERPCONCAT


(P) The lexer got into a bad state parsing a string with
brackets.


panic: kid popen errno read


(F) forked child returned an incomprehensible message about
its errno.


panic: last


(P) We popped the context stack to a block context, and then
discovered it wasn't a block context.


panic: leave_scope clearsv


(P) A writable lexical variable became read-only somehow
within the scope.


panic: leave_scope inconsistency


(P) The savestack probably got out of sync. At least, there
was an invalid enum on the top of it.


panic: magic_killbackrefs


(P) Failed an internal consistency check while trying to
reset all weak references to an object.


panic: malloc


(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of
malloc.


panic: mapstart


(P) The compiler is screwed up with respect to the
''map()'' function.


panic: null array


(P) One of the internal array routines was passed a null
AV pointer.


panic: pad_alloc


(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was
allocating and freeing temporaries and lexicals
from.


panic: pad_free curpad


(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was
allocating and freeing temporaries and lexicals
from.


panic: pad_free po


(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected
internally.


panic: pad_reset curpad


(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was
allocating and freeing temporaries and lexicals
from.


panic: pad_sv po


(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected
internally.


panic: pad_swipe curpad


(P) The compiler got confused about which scratch pad it was
allocating and freeing temporaries and lexicals
from.


panic: pad_swipe po


(P) An invalid scratch pad offset was detected
internally.


panic: pp_iter


(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop context
frame.


panic: pp_split


(P) Something terrible went wrong in setting up for the
split.


panic: realloc


(P) Something requested a negative number of bytes of
realloc.


panic: restartop


(P) Some internal routine requested a goto (or something
like it), and didn't supply the destination.


panic: return


(P) We popped the context stack to a subroutine or eval
context, and then discovered it wasn't a subroutine or eval
context.


panic: scan_num


(P) ''scan_num()'' got called on something that wasn't a
number.


panic: sv_insert


(P) The ''sv_insert()'' routine was told to remove more
string than there was string.


panic: top_env


(P) The compiler attempted to do a goto, or something weird
like that.


panic: yylex


(P) The lexer got into a bad state while processing a case
modifier.


panic: utf16_to_utf8: odd bytelen


(P) Something tried to call utf16_to_utf8 with an odd (as
opposed to even) byte length.


Parentheses missing around ``%s'' list


(W parenthesis) You said something like


    my $foo, $bar = @_;
when you meant


    my ($foo, $bar) = @_;
Remember that ``my'', ``our'', and ``local'' bind tighter than comma.


Perl %s required--this is only version %s,
stopped


(F) The module in question uses features of a version of
Perl more recent than the currently running version. How
long has it been since you upgraded, anyway? See ``require''
in perlfunc.


PERL_SH_DIR too long


(F) An error peculiar to OS/2 .
PERL_SH_DIR is the directory to find the
sh-shell in. See `` PERL_SH_DIR ''
in perlos2.


perl: warning: Setting locale failed.


(S) The whole warning message will look something
like:


        perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
LC_ALL =
Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the settings were that the LC_ALL was ``En_US'' and the LANG had no value. This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your operating system supplier and/or system administrator have set up the so-called locale system but Perl could not use those settings. This was not dead serious, fortunately: there is a ``default locale'' called ``C'' that Perl can and will use, the script will be run. Before you really fix the problem, however, you will get the same error message each time you run Perl. How to really fix the problem can be found in perllocale section __LOCALE PROBLEMS__ .


Permission denied


(F) The setuid emulator in suidperl decided you were up to
no good.


pid %x not a child


(W exec) A warning peculiar to VMS .
''Waitpid()'' was asked to wait for a process which isn't
a subprocess of the current process. While this is fine from
VMS ' perspective, it's probably not what you
intended.


POSIX syntax [[%s] belongs inside character
classes


(W unsafe) The character class constructs [[: :], [[= =], and
[[. .] go ''inside'' character classes, the [[] are part of
the construct, for example: /[[012[[:alpha:]345]/. Note that
[[= =] and [[. .] are not currently implemented; they are
simply placeholders for future extensions and will cause
fatal errors.


POSIX syntax [[. .] is reserved for future
extensions


(F regexp) Within regular expression character classes ([[])
the syntax beginning with ``[[.'' and ending with ``.]'' is
reserved for future extensions. If you need to represent
those character sequences inside a regular expression
character class, just quote the square brackets with the
backslash: ``[[.'' and ``.]''.


POSIX syntax [[= =] is reserved for future
extensions


(F) Within regular expression character classes ([[]) the
syntax beginning with ``[[='' and ending with ``=]'' is
reserved for future extensions. If you need to represent
those character sequences inside a regular expression
character class, just quote the square brackets with the
backslash: ``[[='' and ``=]''.


POSIX class [[:%s:] unknown


(F) The class in the character class [[: :] syntax is
unknown. See perlre.


POSIX getpgrp can't take an
argument


(F) Your system has POSIX ''getpgrp()'',
which takes no argument, unlike the BSD
version, which takes a pid.


Possible attempt to put comments in ''qw()''
list


(W qw) ''qw()'' lists contain items separated by
whitespace; as with literal strings, comment characters are
not ignored, but are instead treated as literal data. (You
may have used different delimiters than the parentheses
shown here; braces are also frequently used.)


You probably wrote something like this:


    @list = qw(
a # a comment
b # another comment
);
when you should have written this:


    @list = qw(
a
b
);
If you really want comments, build your list the old-fashioned way, with quotes and commas:


    @list = (
'a',    # a comment
'b',    # another comment
);


Possible attempt to separate words with commas


(W qw) ''qw()'' lists contain items separated by
whitespace; therefore commas aren't needed to separate the
items. (You may have used different delimiters than the
parentheses shown here; braces are also frequently
used.)


You probably wrote something like this:


    qw! a, b, c !;
which puts literal commas into some of the list items. Write it without commas if you don't want them to appear in your data:


    qw! a b c !;


Possible memory corruption: %s overflowed 3rd
argument


(F) An ''ioctl()'' or ''fcntl()'' returned more than
Perl was bargaining for. Perl guesses a reasonable buffer
size, but puts a sentinel byte at the end of the buffer just
in case. This sentinel byte got clobbered, and Perl assumes
that memory is now corrupted. See ``ioctl'' in
perlfunc.


Possible Y2K bug: %s


(W y2k) You are concatenating the number 19 with another
number, which could be a potential Year 2000
problem.


pragma ``attrs'' is deprecated, use ``sub
NAME : ATTRS ''
instead


(W deprecated) You have written something like
this:


    sub doit
{
use attrs qw(locked);
}
You should use the new declaration syntax instead.


    sub doit : locked
{
...
The use attrs pragma is now obsolete, and is only provided for backward-compatibility. See ``Subroutine Attributes'' in perlsub.


Precedence problem: open %s should be
open(%s)


(S precedence) The old irregular construct


    open FOO  die;
is now misinterpreted as


    open(FOO  die);
because of the strict regularization of Perl 5's grammar into unary and list operators. (The old open was a little of both.) You must put parentheses around the filehandle, or use the new ``or'' operator instead of ``''.


Premature end of script headers


See Server error.


''printf()'' on closed filehandle
%s


(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself
closed sometime before now. Check your logic
flow.


''print()'' on closed filehandle %s


(W closed) The filehandle you're printing on got itself
closed sometime before now. Check your logic
flow.


Process terminated by SIG%s


(W) This is a standard message issued by OS/2
applications, while *nix applications die in silence. It is
considered a feature of the OS/2 port. One
can easily disable this by appropriate sighandlers, see
``Signals'' in perlipc. See also ``Process terminated by
SIGTERM/SIGINT '' in perlos2.


Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s


(S unsafe) The subroutine being declared or defined had
previously been declared or defined with a different
function prototype.


Quantifier in {,} bigger than %d before
HERE in regex m/%s/


(F) There is currently a limit to the size of the min and
max values of the {min,max} construct. The
HERE shows in the regular expression about
where the problem was discovered. See perlre.


Quantifier unexpected on zero-length expression before
HERE %s


(W regexp) You applied a regular expression quantifier in a
place where it makes no sense, such as on a zero-width
assertion. Try putting the quantifier inside the assertion
instead. For example, the way to match ``abc'' provided that
it is followed by three repetitions of ``xyz'' is
/abc(?=(?:xyz){3})/, not
/abc(?=xyz){3}/.


Range iterator outside integer range


(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range
operator ``..'' are outside the range which can be
represented by integers internally. One possible workaround
is to force Perl to use magical string increment by
prepending ``0'' to your numbers.


''readline()'' on closed filehandle
%s


(W closed) The filehandle you're reading from got itself
closed sometime before now. Check your logic
flow.


Reallocation too large: %lx


(F) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS
machine.


''realloc()'' of freed memory ignored


(S malloc) An internal routine called ''realloc()'' on
something that had already been freed.


Recompile perl with __-D__ DEBUGGING to
use __-D__ switch


(F debugging) You can't use the __-D__ option unless the
code to produce the desired output is compiled into Perl,
which entails some overhead, which is why it's currently
left out of your copy.


Recursive inheritance detected in package '%s'


(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were used. Probably
indicates an unintended loop in your inheritance
hierarchy.


Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method
%s


(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were encountered
while invoking a method. Probably indicates an unintended
loop in your inheritance hierarchy.


Reference found where even-sized list expected


(W misc) You gave a single reference where Perl was
expecting a list with an even number of elements (for
assignment to a hash). This usually means that you used the
anon hash constructor when you meant to use parens. In any
case, a hash requires key/value __pairs__.


    %hash = { one =


Reference is already weak


(W misc) You have attempted to weaken a reference that is
already weak. Doing so has no effect.


Reference miscount in ''sv_replace()''


(W internal) The internal ''sv_replace()'' function was
handed a new SV with a reference count of
other than 1.


Reference to nonexistent group before
HERE in regex m/%s/


(F) You used something like 7 in your regular
expression, but there are not at least seven sets of
capturing parentheses in the expression. If you wanted to
have the character with value 7 inserted into the regular
expression, prepend a zero to make the number at least two
digits: 07


The HERE shows in the regular
expression about where the problem was
discovered.


regexp memory corruption


(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the
regular expression compiler gave it.


Regexp out of space


(P) A ``can't happen'' error, because ''safemalloc()''
should have caught it earlier.


Repeat count in pack overflows


(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it
overflows your signed integers. See ``pack'' in
perlfunc.


Repeat count in unpack overflows


(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it
overflows your signed integers. See ``unpack'' in
perlfunc.


Reversed %s= operator


(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator backwards. The
= must always comes last, to avoid ambiguity with subsequent
unary operators.


Runaway format


(F) Your format contained the ~~ repeat-until-blank
sequence, but it produced 200 lines at once, and the 200th
line looked exactly like the 199th line. Apparently you
didn't arrange for the arguments to exhaust themselves,
either by using ^ instead of @ (for scalar variables), or by
shifting or popping (for array variables). See
perlform.


Scalar value @%s[[%s] better written as $%s[[%s]


(W syntax) You've used an array slice (indicated by @) to
select a single element of an array. Generally it's better
to ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference
is that $foo[[ always behaves like a
scalar, both when assigning to it and when evaluating its
argument, while @foo[[ behaves like a list
when you assign to it, and provides a list context to its
subscript, which can do weird things if you're expecting
only one subscript.


On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the
array element as a list, you need to look into how
references work, because Perl will not magically convert
between scalars and lists for you. See perlref.


Scalar value @%s{%s} better written as $%s{%s}


(W syntax) You've used a hash slice (indicated by @) to
select a single element of a hash. Generally it's better to
ask for a scalar value (indicated by $). The difference is
that $foo{ always behaves like a scalar,
both when assigning to it and when evaluating its argument,
while @foo{ behaves like a list when you
assign to it, and provides a list context to its subscript,
which can do weird things if you're expecting only one
subscript.


On the other hand, if you were actually hoping to treat the
hash element as a list, you need to look into how references
work, because Perl will not magically convert between
scalars and lists for you. See perlref.


Scalars leaked: %d


(P) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeeping of
scalars: not all scalar variables were deallocated by the
time Perl exited. What this usually indicates is a memory
leak, which is of course bad, especially if the Perl program
is intended to be long-running.


Script is not setuid/setgid in suidperl


(F) Oddly, the suidperl program was invoked on a script
without a setuid or setgid bit set. This doesn't make much
sense.


Search pattern not terminated


(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a // or
m{} construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count
nesting level. Missing the leading $ from a
variable $m may cause this error.


%''sseek()'' on unopened filehandle


(W unopened) You tried to use the ''seek()'' or
''sysseek()'' function on a filehandle that was either
never opened or has since been closed.


select not implemented


(F) This machine doesn't implement the ''select()''
system call.


Semicolon seems to be missing


(W semicolon) A nearby syntax error was probably caused by a
missing semicolon, or possibly some other missing operator,
such as a comma.


semi-panic: attempt to dup freed string


(S internal) The internal ''newSVsv()'' routine was
called to duplicate a scalar that had previously been marked
as free.


sem%s not implemented


(F) You don't have System V semaphore IPC on
your system.


''send()'' on closed socket %s


(W closed) The socket you're sending to got itself closed
sometime before now. Check your logic flow.


Sequence (? incomplete before HERE
mark in regex m/%s/


(F) A regular expression ended with an incomplete extension
(?. The HERE shows in the
regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
See perlre.


Sequence (?{...}) not terminated or not {}-balanced in
%s


(F) If the contents of a (?{...}) clause contains braces,
they must balance for Perl to properly detect the end of the
clause. See perlre.


Sequence (?%s...) not implemented before
HERE mark in %s


(F) A proposed regular expression extension has the
character reserved but has not yet been written. The
HERE shows in the regular expression
about where the problem was discovered. See
perlre.


Sequence (?%s...) not recognized before
HERE mark in %s


(F) You used a regular expression extension that doesn't
make sense. The HERE shows in the
regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
See perlre.


Sequence (?#... not terminated in regex m/%s/


(F) A regular expression comment must be terminated by a
closing parenthesis. Embedded parentheses aren't allowed.
See perlre.


500 Server error


See Server error.


Server error


This is the error message generally seen in a browser window
when trying to run a CGI program (including
SSI ) over the web. The actual error text
varies widely from server to server. The most
frequently-seen variants are ``500 Server error'', ``Method
(something) not permitted'', ``Document contains no data'',
``Premature end of script headers'', and ``Did not produce a
valid header''.


__This is a CGI error, not a Perl
error__.


You need to make sure your script is executable, is
accessible by the user CGI is running the
script under (which is probably not the user account you
tested it under), does not rely on any environment variables
(like PATH ) from the user it isn't running
under, and isn't in a location where the CGI
server can't find it, basically, more or less. Please see
the following for more information:


        http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FAQs/cgi/idiots-guide.html
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FAQs/cgi/perl-cgi-faq.html
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/www/cgi-faq
http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/interface.html
http://www-genome.wi.mit.edu/WWW/faqs/www-security-faq.html
You should also look at perlfaq9.


''setegid()'' not implemented


(F) You tried to assign to $), and your operating
system doesn't support the ''setegid()'' system call (or
equivalent), or at least Configure didn't think
so.


''seteuid()'' not implemented


(F) You tried to assign to $, and your
operating system doesn't support the ''seteuid()'' system
call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't think
so.


setpgrp can't take arguments


(F) Your system has the ''setpgrp()'' from
BSD 4.2, which takes no arguments, unlike
POSIX ''setpgid()'', which takes a process
ID and process group ID
.


''setrgid()'' not implemented


(F) You tried to assign to $(, and your operating
system doesn't support the ''setrgid()'' system call (or
equivalent), or at least Configure didn't think
so.


''setruid()'' not implemented


(F) You tried to assign to $, and your
operating system doesn't support the ''setruid()'' system
call (or equivalent), or at least Configure didn't think
so.


''setsockopt()'' on closed socket
%s


(W closed) You tried to set a socket option on a closed
socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your
''socket()'' call? See ``setsockopt'' in
perlfunc.


Setuid/gid script is writable by world


(F) The setuid emulator won't run a script that is writable
by the world, because the world might have written on it
already.


shm%s not implemented


(F) You don't have System V shared memory IPC
on your system.




(F) You wrote require  when you should
have written require 'file'.


/%s/ should probably be written as ``%s''


(W syntax) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to
find a string, as in the first argument to join.
Perl will treat the true or false result of matching the
pattern against $_ as the string, which is probably
not what you had in mind.


''shutdown()'' on closed socket %s


(W closed) You tried to do a shutdown on a closed socket.
Seems a bit superfluous.


SIG%s handler ``%s'' not defined


(W signal) The signal handler named in %SIG
doesn't, in fact, exist. Perhaps you put it into the wrong
package?


sort is now a reserved word


(F) An ancient error message that almost nobody ever runs
into anymore. But before sort was a keyword, people
sometimes used it as a filehandle.


Sort subroutine didn't return a numeric value


(F) A sort comparison routine must return a number. You
probably blew it by not using  or
cmp, or by not using them correctly. See ``sort''
in perlfunc.


Sort subroutine didn't return single value


(F) A sort comparison subroutine may not return a list value
with more or less than one element. See ``sort'' in
perlfunc.


Split loop


(P) The split was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a split
shouldn't iterate more times than there are characters of
input, which is what happened.) See ``split'' in
perlfunc.


Statement unlikely to be reached


(W exec) You did an ''exec()'' with some statement after
it other than a ''die()''. This is almost always an
error, because ''exec()'' never returns unless there was
a failure. You probably wanted to use ''system()''
instead, which does return. To suppress this warning, put
the ''exec()'' in a block by itself.


''stat()'' on unopened filehandle
%s


(W unopened) You tried to use the ''stat()'' function on
a filehandle that was either never opened or has since been
closed.


Stub found while resolving method `%s' overloading
%s


(P) Overloading resolution over @ISA tree may be
broken by importation stubs. Stubs should never be
implicitly created, but explicit calls to can may
break this.


Subroutine %s redefined


(W redefine) You redefined a subroutine. To suppress this
warning, say


    {
no warnings;
eval


Substitution loop


(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obviously, a
substitution shouldn't iterate more times than there are
characters of input, which is what happened.) See the
discussion of substitution in ``Quote and Quote-like
Operators'' in perlop.


Substitution pattern not terminated


(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a s///
or s{}{} construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters
count nesting level. Missing the leading $ from
variable $s may cause this error.


Substitution replacement not terminated


(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a s/// or
s{}{} construct. Remember that bracketing delimiters count
nesting level. Missing the leading $ from variable
$s may cause this error.


substr outside of string


(W substr),(F) You tried to reference a ''substr()'' that
pointed outside of a string. That is, the absolute value of
the offset was larger than the length of the string. See
``substr'' in perlfunc. This warning is fatal if substr is
used in an lvalue context (as the left hand side of an
assignment or as a subroutine argument for
example).


suidperl is no longer needed since %s


(F) Your Perl was compiled with __-D__
SETUID_SCRIPTS_ARE_SECURE_NOW , but a version
of the setuid emulator somehow got run anyway.


Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches before


(F) A (?(condition)if-clauseelse-clause) construct can have
at most two branches (the if-clause and the else-clause). If
you want one or both to contain alternation, such as using
thisthatother, enclose it in clustering
parentheses:


    (?(condition)(?:thisthatother)else-clause)
The HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered. See perlre.


Switch condition not recognized before
HERE in regex m/%s/


(F) If the argument to the (?(...)if-clauseelse-clause)
construct is a number, it can be only a number. The
HERE shows in the regular expression about
where the problem was discovered. See perlre.


switching effective %s is not
implemented


(F) While under the use filetest pragma, we cannot
switch the real and effective uids or gids.


syntax error


(F) Probably means you had a syntax error. Common reasons
include:


    A keyword is misspelled.
A semicolon is missing.
A comma is missing.
An opening or closing parenthesis is missing.
An opening or closing brace is missing.
A closing quote is missing.
Often there will be another error message associated with the syntax error giving more information. (Sometimes it helps to turn on __-w__.) The error message itself often tells you where it was in the line when it decided to give up. Sometimes the actual error is several tokens before this, because Perl is good at understanding random input. Occasionally the line number may be misleading, and once in a blue moon the only way to figure out what's triggering the error is to call perl -c repeatedly, chopping away half the program each time to see if the error went away. Sort of the cybernetic version of 20 questions.


syntax error at line %d: `%s'
unexpected


(A) You've accidentally run your script through the Bourne
shell instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed
your script into Perl yourself.


%s syntax OK


(F) The final summary message when a perl -c
succeeds.


System V %s is not implemented on this
machine


(F) You tried to do something with a function beginning with
``sem'', ``shm'', or ``msg'' but that System V
IPC is not implemented in your machine. In
some machines the functionality can exist but be
unconfigured. Consult your system support.


''syswrite()'' on closed filehandle
%s


(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself
closed sometime before now. Check your logic
flow.


Target of goto is too deeply nested


(F) You tried to use goto to reach a label that was
too deeply nested for Perl to reach. Perl is doing you a
favor by refusing.


''tell()'' on unopened filehandle


(W unopened) You tried to use the ''tell()'' function on
a filehandle that was either never opened or has since been
closed.


That use of $[[ is unsupported


(F) Assignment to $[[ is now strictly circumscribed,
and interpreted as a compiler directive. You may say only
one of


    $[[ = 0;
$[[ = 1;
...
local $[[ = 0;
local $[[ = 1;
...
This is to prevent the problem of one module changing the array base out from under another module inadvertently. See ``$[['' in perlvar.


The ''crypt()'' function is unimplemented due to
excessive paranoia


(F) Configure couldn't find the ''crypt()'' function on
your machine, probably because your vendor didn't supply it,
probably because they think the U.S. Government thinks it's
a secret, or at least that they will continue to pretend
that it is. And if you quote me on that, I will deny
it.


The %s function is unimplemented


The function indicated isn't implemented on this
architecture, according to the probings of
Configure.


The stat preceding -l _ wasn't an
lstat


(F) It makes no sense to test the current stat buffer for
symbolic linkhood if the last stat that wrote to the stat
buffer already went past the symlink to get to the real
file. Use an actual filename instead.


This Perl can't reset CRTL environ elements
(%s)


This Perl can't set CRTL environ elements
(%s=%s)


(W internal) Warnings peculiar to VMS . You
tried to change or delete an element of the
CRTL 's internal environ array, but your copy
of Perl wasn't built with a CRTL that
contained the ''setenv()'' function. You'll need to
rebuild Perl with a CRTL that does, or
redefine ''PERL_ENV_TABLES'' (see perlvms)
so that the environ array isn't the target of the change to
%ENV which produced the warning.


times not implemented


(F) Your version of the C library apparently doesn't do
''times()''. I suspect you're not running on
Unix.


Too few args to syscall


(F) There has to be at least one argument to
''syscall()'' to specify the system call to call, silly
dilly.


Too late for ``__-T__'' option


(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script
contains the __-T__ option, but Perl was not invoked with
__-T__ in its command line. This is an error because, by
the time Perl discovers a __-T__ in a script, it's too
late to properly taint everything from the environment. So
Perl gives up.


If the Perl script is being executed as a command using the
#! mechanism (or its local equivalent), this error can
usually be fixed by editing the #! line so that the
__-T__ option is a part of Perl's first argument: e.g.
change perl -n -T to perl -T
-n.


If the Perl script is being executed as perl
scriptname, then the __-T__ option must appear on
the command line: perl -T scriptname.


Too late for ``-%s'' option


(X) The #! line (or local equivalent) in a Perl script
contains the __-M__ or __-m__ option. This is an error
because __-M__ and __-m__ options are not intended for
use inside scripts. Use the use pragma
instead.


Too late to run %s block


(W void) A CHECK or INIT block
is being defined during run time proper, when the
opportunity to run them has already passed. Perhaps you are
loading a file with require or do when you
should be using use instead. Or perhaps you should
put the require or do inside a
BEGIN block.


Too many args to syscall


(F) Perl supports a maximum of only 14 args to
''syscall()''.


Too many arguments for %s


(F) The function requires fewer arguments than you
specified.


Too many )'s


(A) You've accidentally run your script through __csh__
instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your
script into Perl yourself.


Too many ('s


trailing \ in regexp


(F) The regular expression ends with an unbackslashed
backslash. Backslash it. See perlre.


Transliteration pattern not terminated


(F) The lexer couldn't find the interior delimiter of a
tr/// or tr[[][[] or y/// or y[[][[] construct. Missing the
leading $ from variables $tr or
$y may cause this error.


Transliteration replacement not terminated


(F) The lexer couldn't find the final delimiter of a tr///
or tr[[][[] construct.


truncate not implemented


(F) Your machine doesn't implement a file truncation
mechanism that Configure knows about.


Type of arg %d to %s must be %s
(not %s)


(F) This function requires the argument in that position to
be of a certain type. Arrays must be @NAME or
@{EXPR}. Hashes must be %NAME or
%{EXPR}. No implicit dereferencing is allowed--use
the { EXPR } forms as an explicit
dereference. See perlref.


umask: argument is missing initial 0


(W umask) A umask of 222 is incorrect. It should be 0222,
because octal literals always start with 0 in Perl, as in
C.


umask not implemented


(F) Your machine doesn't implement the umask function and
you tried to use it to restrict permissions for yourself (
EXPR


Unable to create sub named ``%s''


(F) You attempted to create or access a subroutine with an
illegal name.


Unbalanced context: %d more PUSHes than
POPs


(W internal) The exit code detected an internal
inconsistency in how many execution contexts were entered
and left.


Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than
restores


(W internal) The exit code detected an internal
inconsistency in how many values were temporarily
localized.


Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than
LEAVEs


(W internal) The exit code detected an internal
inconsistency in how many blocks were entered and
left.


Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than
frees


(W internal) The exit code detected an internal
inconsistency in how many mortal scalars were allocated and
freed.


Undefined format ``%s'' called


(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's
really in another package? See perlform.


Undefined sort subroutine ``%s'' called


(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem to
exist. Perhaps it's in a different package? See ``sort'' in
perlfunc.


Undefined subroutine


(F) The subroutine indicated hasn't been defined, or if it
was, it has since been undefined.


Undefined subroutine called


(F) The anonymous subroutine you're trying to call hasn't
been defined, or if it was, it has since been
undefined.


Undefined subroutine in sort


(F) The sort comparison routine specified is declared but
doesn't seem to have been defined yet. See ``sort'' in
perlfunc.


Undefined top format ``%s'' called


(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Perhaps it's
really in another package? See perlform.


Undefined value assigned to typeglob


(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la
*foo = undef. This does nothing. It's possible that
you really mean undef *foo.


%s: Undefined variable


(A) You've accidentally run your script through __csh__
instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your
script into Perl yourself.


unexec of %s into %s failed!


(F) The ''unexec()'' routine failed for some reason. See
your local FSF representative, who probably
put it there in the first place.


Unknown BYTEORDER


(F) There are no byte-swapping functions for a machine with
this byte order.


Unknown switch condition (?(%.2s before
HERE in regex m/%s/


(F) The condition of a (?(condition)if-clauseelse-clause)
construct is not known. The condition may be lookaround (the
condition is true if the lookaround is true), a (?{...})
construct (the condition is true if the code evaluates to a
true value), or a number (the condition is true if the set
of capturing parentheses named by the number is
defined).


The HERE shows in the regular
expression about where the problem was discovered. See
perlre.


Unknown ''open()'' mode '%s'


(F) The second argument of 3-argument ''open()'' is not
among the list of valid modes: , ,
, +, +,
+, -, -.


Unknown process %x sent message to prime_env_iter:
%s


(P) An error peculiar to VMS . Perl was
reading values for %ENV before iterating over it,
and someone else stuck a message in the stream of data Perl
expected. Someone's very confused, or perhaps trying to
subvert Perl's population of %ENV for nefarious
purposes.


unmatched [[ before HERE mark in
regex m/%s/


(F) The brackets around a character class must match. If you
wish to include a closing bracket in a character class,
backslash it or put it first. See perlre. The
HERE shows in the regular expression about
where the escape was discovered.


unmatched ( in regexp before HERE
mark in regex m/%s/


(F) Unbackslashed parentheses must always be balanced in
regular expressions. If you're a vi user, the % key is
valuable for finding the matching parenthesis. See
perlre.


Unmatched right %s bracket


(F) The lexer counted more closing curly or square brackets
than opening ones, so you're probably missing a matching
opening bracket. As a general rule, you'll find the missing
one (so to speak) near the place you were last
editing.


Unquoted string ``%s'' may clash with future reserved
word


(W reserved) You used a bareword that might someday be
claimed as a reserved word. It's best to put such a word in
quotes, or capitalize it somehow, or insert an underbar into
it. You might also declare it as a subroutine.


Unrecognized character %s


(F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the
specified character in your Perl script (or eval). Perhaps
you tried to run a compressed script, a binary program, or a
directory as a Perl program.


/%s/: Unrecognized escape \%c in character class passed
through


(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which
is not recognized by Perl inside character classes. The
character was understood literally.


Unrecognized escape \%c passed through before
HERE in m/%s/


(W regexp) You used a backslash-character combination which
is not recognized by Perl. This combination appears in an
interpolated variable or a '-delimited regular
expression. The character was understood literally. The
HERE shows in the regular expression
about where the escape was discovered.


Unrecognized escape \%c passed through


(W misc) You used a backslash-character combination which is
not recognized by Perl.


Unrecognized signal name ``%s''


(F) You specified a signal name to the ''kill()''
function that was not recognized. Say kill -l in
your shell to see the valid signal names on your
system.


Unrecognized switch: -%s (-h will show valid
options)


(F) You specified an illegal option to Perl. Don't do that.
(If you think you didn't do that, check the #! line to see
if it's supplying the bad switch on your
behalf.)


Unsuccessful %s on filename containing
newline


(W newline) A file operation was attempted on a filename,
and that operation failed, PROBABLY because
the filename contained a newline, PROBABLY
because you forgot to ''chomp()'' it off. See ``chomp''
in perlfunc.


Unsupported directory function ``%s'' called


(F) Your machine doesn't support ''opendir()'' and
''readdir()''.


Unsupported function %s


(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated function,
apparently. At least, Configure doesn't think
so.


Unsupported function fork


(F) Your version of executable does not support
forking.


Note that under some systems, like OS/2 ,
there may be different flavors of Perl executables, some of
which may support fork, some not. Try changing the name you
call Perl by to perl_, perl__, and so
on.


Unsupported script encoding


(F) Your program file begins with a Unicode Byte Order Mark
( BOM ) which declares it to be in a Unicode
encoding that Perl cannot yet read.


Unsupported socket function ``%s'' called


(F) Your machine doesn't support the Berkeley socket
mechanism, or at least that's what Configure
thought.


Unterminated attribute list


(F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier
at the start of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or
the start of a block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter
list of the previous attribute too soon. See
attributes.


Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute
list


(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character
while parsing an attribute list, but the matching closing
(right) parenthesis character was not found. You may need to
add (or remove) a backslash character to get your
parentheses to balance. See attributes.


Unterminated compressed integer


(F) An argument to unpack(``w'',...) was incompatible with
the BER compressed integer format and could
not be converted to an integer. See ``pack'' in
perlfunc.


Unterminated


(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it
was expecting a term, so it's looking for the corresponding
right angle bracket, and not finding it. Chances are you
left some needed parentheses out earlier in the line, and
you really meant a ``less than''.


untie attempted while %d inner references still
exist


(W untie) A copy of the object returned from tie
(or tied) was still valid when untie was
called.


Useless use of %s in void context


(W void) You did something without a side effect in a
context that does nothing with the return value, such as a
statement that doesn't return a value from a block, or the
left side of a scalar comma operator. Very often this points
not to stupidity on your part, but a failure of Perl to
parse your program the way you thought it would. For
example, you'd get this if you mixed up your C precedence
with Python precedence and said


    $one, $two = 1, 2;
when you meant to say


    ($one, $two) = (1, 2);
Another common error is to use ordinary parentheses to construct a list reference when you should be using square or curly brackets, for example, if you say


    $array = (1,2);
when you should have said


    $array = [[1,2];
The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into a scalar value, while parentheses do not. So when a parenthesized list is evaluated in a scalar context, the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which throws away the left argument, which is not what you want. See perlref for more on this.


Useless use of ``re'' pragma


(W) You did use re; without any arguments. That
isn't very useful.


``use'' not allowed in expression


(F) The ``use'' keyword is recognized and executed at
compile time, and returns no useful value. See
perlmod.


Use of bare


(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the explicitly
quoted form if you wish to use an empty line as the
terminator of the here-document.


Use of implicit split to @_ is
deprecated


(D deprecated) It makes a lot of work for the compiler when
you clobber a subroutine's argument list, so it's better if
you assign the results of a ''split()'' explicitly to an
array (or list).


Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s()
is deprecated


(D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature,
AUTOLOAD subroutines are looked up as methods
(using the @ISA hierarchy) even when the
subroutines to be autoloaded were called as plain functions
(e.g. Foo::bar()), not as methods (e.g.
Foo- or
$obj-).


This bug will be rectified in future by using method lookup
only for methods' AUTOLOADs. However, there is a
significant base of existing code that may be using the old
behavior. So, as an interim step, Perl currently issues an
optional warning when non-methods use inherited
AUTOLOADs.


The simple rule is: Inheritance will not work when
autoloading non-methods. The simple fix for old code is: In
any module that used to depend on inheriting
AUTOLOAD for non-methods from a base class named
!BaseClass, execute *AUTOLOAD =
 during startup.


In code that currently says use !AutoLoader; @ISA =
qw(!AutoLoader); you should remove !AutoLoader from
@ISA and change use !AutoLoader; to use
!AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';.


Use of %s in printf format not
supported


(F) You attempted to use a feature of printf that is
accessible from only C. This usually means there's a better
way to do it in Perl.


Use of $* is deprecated


(D deprecated) This variable magically turned on multi-line
pattern matching, both for you and for any luckless
subroutine that you happen to call. You should use the new
//m and //s modifiers now to do that
without the dangerous action-at-a-distance effects of
$*.


Use of %s is deprecated


(D deprecated) The construct indicated is no longer
recommended for use, generally because there's a better way
to do it, and also because the old way has bad side
effects.


Use of $# is deprecated


(D deprecated) This was an ill-advised attempt to emulate a
poorly defined __awk__ feature. Use an explicit
''printf()'' or ''sprintf()'' instead.


Use of reserved word ``%s'' is deprecated


(D deprecated) The indicated bareword is a reserved word.
Future versions of perl may use it as a keyword, so you're
better off either explicitly quoting the word in a manner
appropriate for its context of use, or using a different
name altogether. The warning can be suppressed for
subroutine names by either adding a  prefix,
or using a package qualifier, e.g. , or
Foo::our().


Use of uninitialized value%s


(W uninitialized) An undefined value was used as if it were
already defined. It was interpreted as a


To help you figure out what was undefined, perl tells you
what operation you used the undefined value in. Note,
however, that perl optimizes your program and the operation
displayed in the warning may not necessarily appear
literally in your program. For example,
 is usually optimized into
, and the warning will refer to the
concatenation (.) operator, even though there is no
. in your program.


Value of %s can be ``0''; test with
''defined()''


(W misc) In a conditional expression, you used
HANDLE
each(), or readdir() as a boolean value.
Each of these constructs can return a value of ``0''; that
would make the conditional expression false, which is
probably not what you intended. When using these constructs
in conditional expressions, test their values with the
defined operator.


Value of CLI symbol ``%s'' too
long


(W misc) A warning peculiar to VMS . Perl
tried to read the value of an %ENV element from a
CLI symbol table, and found a resultant
string longer than 1024 characters. The return value has
been truncated to 1024 characters.


Variable ``%s'' is not imported%s


(F) While ``use strict'' in effect, you referred to a global
variable that you apparently thought was imported from
another module, because something else of the same name
(usually a subroutine) is exported by that module. It
usually means you put the wrong funny character on the front
of your variable.


``%s'' variable %s masks earlier declaration in
same %s


(W misc) A ``my'' or ``our'' variable has been redeclared in
the current scope or statement, effectively eliminating all
access to the previous instance. This is almost always a
typographical error. Note that the earlier variable will
still exist until the end of the scope or until all closure
referents to it are destroyed.


Variable ``%s'' may be unavailable


(W closure) An inner (nested) ''anonymous'' subroutine is
inside a ''named'' subroutine, and outside that is
another subroutine; and the anonymous (innermost) subroutine
is referencing a lexical variable defined in the outermost
subroutine. For example:


   sub outermost { my $a; sub middle { sub { $a } } }
If the anonymous subroutine is called or referenced (directly or indirectly) from the outermost subroutine, it will share the variable as you would expect. But if the anonymous subroutine is called or referenced when the outermost subroutine is not active, it will see the value of the shared variable as it was before and during the *first* call to the outermost subroutine, which is probably not what you want.


In these circumstances, it is usually best to make the
middle subroutine anonymous, using the sub {}
syntax. Perl has specific support for shared variables in
nested anonymous subroutines; a named subroutine in between
interferes with this feature.


Variable syntax


(A) You've accidentally run your script through __csh__
instead of Perl. Check the #! line, or manually feed your
script into Perl yourself.


Variable ``%s'' will not stay shared


(W closure) An inner (nested) ''named'' subroutine is
referencing a lexical variable defined in an outer
subroutine.


When the inner subroutine is called, it will probably see
the value of the outer subroutine's variable as it was
before and during the *first* call to the outer subroutine;
in this case, after the first call to the outer subroutine
is complete, the inner and outer subroutines will no longer
share a common value for the variable. In other words, the
variable will no longer be shared.


Furthermore, if the outer subroutine is anonymous and
references a lexical variable outside itself, then the outer
and inner subroutines will ''never'' share the given
variable.


This problem can usually be solved by making the inner
subroutine anonymous, using the sub {} syntax. When
inner anonymous subs that reference variables in outer
subroutines are called or referenced, they are automatically
rebound to the current values of such
variables.


Variable length lookbehind not implemented before
HERE in %s


(F) Lookbehind is allowed only for subexpressions whose
length is fixed and known at compile time. The
HERE shows in the regular expression about
where the problem was discovered.


Version number must be a constant number


(P) The attempt to translate a use Module n.n LIST
statement into its equivalent BEGIN block found an
internal inconsistency with the version number.


Warning: something's wrong


(W) You passed ''warn()'' an empty string (the equivalent
of warn ) or you called it with no args
and $_ was empty.


Warning: unable to close filehandle %s
properly


(S) The implicit ''close()'' done by an ''open()'' got
an error indication on the ''close()''. This usually
indicates your file system ran out of disk
space.


Warning: Use of ``%s'' without parentheses is
ambiguous


(S ambiguous) You wrote a unary operator followed by
something that looks like a binary operator that could also
have been interpreted as a term or unary operator. For
instance, if you know that the rand function has a default
argument of 1.0, and you write


    rand + 5;
you may THINK you wrote the same thing as


    rand() + 5;
but in actual fact, you got


    rand(+5);
So put in parentheses to say what you really mean.


Wide character in %s


(F) Perl met a wide character (


''write()'' on closed filehandle %s


(W closed) The filehandle you're writing to got itself
closed sometime before now. Check your logic
flow.


X outside of string


(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative
position before the beginning of the string being unpacked.
See ``pack'' in perlfunc.


x outside of string


(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative
position after the end of the string being unpacked. See
``pack'' in perlfunc.


Xsub ``%s'' called in sort


(F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison
is not yet supported.


Xsub called in sort


(F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort comparison
is not yet supported.


You can't use -l on a filehandle


(F) A filehandle represents an opened file, and when you
opened the file it already went past any symlink you are
presumably trying to look for. Use a filename
instead.


YOU HAVEN 'T DISABLED SET-ID
SCRIPTS IN THE KERNEL YET !


(F) And you probably never will, because you probably don't
have the sources to your kernel, and your vendor probably
doesn't give a rip about what you want. Your best bet is to
use the wrapsuid script in the eg directory to put a setuid
C wrapper around your script.


You need to quote ``%s''


(W syntax) You assigned a bareword as a signal handler name.
Unfortunately, you already have a subroutine of that name
declared, which means that Perl 5 will try to call the
subroutine when the assignment is executed, which is
probably not what you want. (If it IS what
you want, put an
----
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Last edited on Monday, June 3, 2002 6:50:44 pm by "perry"
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