PERLDIAG(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLDIAG(1)NAMEperldiag - 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 classifica
tions above (W, D & S) can be controlled using the "warn
ings" 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 "$SIG{__WARN__}" to a reference to a routine
that will be called on each warning instead of printing
it. See the perlvar manpage.
Default warnings are always enabled unless they are
explicitly disabled with the "warnings" pragma or the -X
switch.
Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator.
See the eval entry in the perlfunc manpage. In almost all
cases, warnings may be selectively disabled or promoted to
fatal errors using the "warnings" pragma. See the warn
ings manpage.
The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to
upper or lower-case. Some of these messages are generic.
Spots that vary are denoted with a %s or other printf-
style escape. These escapes are ignored by the alphabeti
cal order, as are all characters other than letters. To
look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a
letter.
accept() on closed socket %s
(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed
socket. Did you forget to check the return value of
your socket() call? See the accept entry in the perl
func manpage.
Allocation too large: %lx
(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS
machine.
'!' allowed only after types %s
(F) The '!' is allowed in pack() and unpack() only
after certain types. See the pack entry in the perl
func manpage.
Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or
use &
(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the
same name as a Perl keyword, and you have used the
name without qualification for calling one or the
other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
subroutine is not imported.
To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either
put an ampersand before the subroutine name, or qual
ify the name with its package. Alternatively, you can
import the subroutine (or pretend that it's imported
with the "use subs" pragma).
To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the
"CORE::" prefix on the operator (e.g. "CORE::log($x)")
or by declaring the subroutine to be an object method
(see the Subroutine Attributes entry in the perlsub
manpage or the attributes manpage).
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 '<' may not both be specified on command line
(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own com
mand line redirection, and found that STDIN was a
pipe, and that you also tried to redirect STDIN using
'<'. Only one STDIN stream to a customer, please.
'|' and '>' may not both be specified on command line
(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own com
mand line redirection, and thinks you tried to redi
rect 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,">$ARGV[0]") or die "Can't write to $ARGV[0]: $!";
while (<STDIN>) {
print;
print OUT;
}
close 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 the
grep entry in the perlfunc manpage and the map entry
in the perlfunc manpage 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->{"susie"}[12]
%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}
$ref->{"susie"}[12]
or a hash or array slice, such as:
@foo[$bar, $baz, $xyzzy]
@{$ref->[12]}{"susie", "queue"}
%s argument is not a subroutine name
(F) The argument to exists() for "exists &sub" must be
a subroutine name, and not a subroutine call. "exists
&sub()" will generate this error.
Argument ""%s"" isn't numeric%s
(W numeric) The indicated string was fed as an argu
ment to an operator that expected a numeric value
instead. If you're fortunate the message will iden
tify 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 depre
cated.
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 sec
ond 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 allo
cated 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 inter
nal 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 unrefer
enced 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 dis
covered 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 any
time, 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 argu
ment to substr() used as an lvalue, which is pretty
strange. Perhaps you forgot to dereference it first.
See the substr entry in the perlfunc manpage.
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 replace
ment 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 file
handle, 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 some
thing that had never been malloc()ed in the first
place. Mandatory, but can be disabled by setting envi
ronment 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 the perlref manpage.
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 partic
ular, you can't interpolate outside of quotes, so
$var = 'myvar';
$sym = mypack::$var;
is not the same as
$var = 'myvar';
$sym = "mypack::$var";
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 envi
ronment 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 && was parsed as part of the last argument of
the previous construct, for example:
open FOO || die;
It may also indicate a misspelled constant that has
been interpreted as a bareword:
use constant TYPO => 1;
if (TYOP) { print "foo" }
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 "=>" symbol. Perhaps you need
to predeclare a subroutine?
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 pre
declare 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 subse
quent 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 stylis
tically 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 > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-
portable
(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger
than 2**32-1 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable
between systems. See the perlport manpage 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 the bind entry in the perlfunc
manpage.
Bit vector size > 32 non-portable
(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 pre
processor 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 pro
totype before the parser saw a definition or declara
tion 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. Alterna
tively, if you are certain that you're calling the
function correctly, you may put an ampersand before
the name to avoid the warning. See the perlsub man
page.
/ 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 the pack entry in the perl
func manpage.
Can't bless non-reference value
(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how
Perl "enforces" encapsulation of objects. See the
perlobj manpage.
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 the perlobj manpage.
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 con
tains an undefined value. Something like this will
reproduce the error:
$BADREF = undef;
process $BADREF 1,2,3;
$BADREF->process(1,2,3);
Can't call method ""%s"" on unblessed reference
(F) A method call must know in what package it's sup
posed 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 the
perlobj manpage.
Can't call method ""%s"" without a package or object ref
erence
(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot
filled by the object reference or package name con
tains 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->process(1,2,3);
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 suffer
ing 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" declara
tion. 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 spe
cial 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 con
fused 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 cre
ate a unique filename during inplace editing with the
-i switch. The file was ignored.
Can't do {n,m} with n > m before << 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
the perlre manpage.
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 exe
cute 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 rea
son. 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 cor
rect permissions.
Can't find an opnumber for ""%s""
(F) A string of a form "CORE::word" was given to pro_
totype(), 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 any
where that it's possible for us to go to. See the
goto entry in the perlfunc manpage.
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 lev
els, 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 Uni
code property for example \p{Lu} is all uppercase let
ters. Escape the "\p", either "\\p" (just the "\p")
or by "\Q\p" (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 neces
sary information, and passes it, instead of the file
spec, 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() rou
tine, 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 mail
box 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 the goto entry in the perlfunc manpage.
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 the goto entry in the perlfunc manpage.
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 the goto entry in the perlfunc manpage.
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) dis
abled. Since disabling this signal will interfere
with proper determination of exit status of child pro
cesses, 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 the last
entry in the perlfunc manpage.
Can't localize lexical variable %s
(F) You used local on a variable name that was previ
ously 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->{'key'}",
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 $ar->[$ar->[0]{'key'}]".
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 the require
entry in the perlfunc manpage and the lib manpage.
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 the perlobj man
page.
(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\"". It often means that a method
requires a package that has not been loaded.
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 indi
cated, 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 the Lvalue subroutines
entry in the perlsub manpage.
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 "loop
ish" 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 the next
entry in the perlfunc manpage.
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, "|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
">", and then read it in under a different file han
dle.
Can't open error file %s as stderr
(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own com
mand line redirection, and couldn't open the file
specified after '2>' or '2>>' on the command line for
writing.
Can't open input file %s as stdin
(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own com
mand line redirection, and couldn't open the file
specified after '<' on the command line for reading.
Can't open output file %s as stdout
(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own com
mand line redirection, and couldn't open the file
specified after '>' or '>>' on the command line for
writing.
Can't open output pipe (name: %s)
(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own com
mand 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 the perlvms manpage) so
that environ is not searched.
Can't redefine active sort subroutine %s
(F) Perl optimizes the internal handling of sort sub
routines and keeps pointers into them. You tried to
redefine one such sort subroutine when it was cur
rently active, which is not allowed. If you really
want to do this, you should write "sort { &func } @x"
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 "loop
ish" 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 the redo
entry in the perlfunc manpage.
Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without cre
ating 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'
(F|P) 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 subrou
tine 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 the perlsub manpage.
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 log
arithm 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 run
ning. You can, however, redefine it while it's run
ning, 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 sym
bolic 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 the perlref
manpage.
Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
(F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automati
cally 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 lexi
cal 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 <=> or cmp operator, and the variable had
earlier been declared as a lexical variable. Either
qualify the sort variable with the package name, or
rename the lexical variable.
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 refer
ence, 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 the perlref
manpage.
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 argu
ment. The use of backslash to indicate a backrefer
ence 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 deci
mal 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 recur
sion 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 the perlfaq2 manpage 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 the connect entry in the
perlfunc manpage.
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 cor
responding "overload" or "charnames" pragma? See the
charnames manpage and the overload manpage.
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 the Constant Functions entry
in the perlsub manpage and the constant manpage.
Constant subroutine %s redefined
(S|W redefine) You redefined a subroutine which had
previously been eligible for inlining. See the Con
stant Functions entry in the perlsub manpage for com
mentary and workarounds.
Constant subroutine %s undefined
(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previ
ously been eligible for inlining. See the Constant
Functions entry in the perlsub manpage for commentary
and workarounds.
Copy method did not return a reference
(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See the
Copy Constructor entry in the overload manpage.
CORE::%s is not a keyword
(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl key
words.
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 recur
sion, unless you're writing strange benchmark pro
grams, 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 "<<FOO", 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 the require entry in the perlfunc man
page.
(Did you mean &%s instead?)
(W) You probably referred to an imported subroutine
&FOO as $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 ref
erenced 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 some
thing 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 the sec
tion on "(?{ code })" in the perlre manpage, and the
perlsec manpage.
%s: Eval-group not allowed at run time
(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression con
taining the "(?{ ... })" zero-width assertion at run
time, as it would when the pattern contains interpo
lated 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
the section on "(?{ code })" in the perlre manpage.
%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 the section on "(?{ code })" in the perlre man
page.
Excessively long <> operator
(F) The contents of a <> operator may not exceed the
maximum size of a Perl identifier. If you're just
trying to glob a long list of filenames, try using the
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 uncon
ventional means, such as a goto, or a loop control
statement. See the sort entry in the perlfunc man
page.
Exiting subroutine via %s
(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconven
tional means, such as a goto, or a loop control state
ment.
Exiting substitution via %s
(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by uncon
ventional 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 pre
maturely 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 the perlre manpage.
Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward hap
pened 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 "+<" or "+>" or "+>>" instead
of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to write
the file, use ">" or ">>". See the open entry in the
perlfunc manpage.
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 "+<" or "+>" or
"+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended
only to read from the file, use "<". See the open
entry in the perlfunc manpage.
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 quanti
fier. Backslash it if you meant it literally. The <<
HERE shows in the regular expression about where the
problem was discovered. See the perlre manpage.
Format not terminated
(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a soli
tary 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 "format NAME =...";
}
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 geth_
ostent(), 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$get
uai" 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 the getsockopt entry
in the perlfunc manpage.
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 pro_
gram(s) used for "glob" and "<*.c>". 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'"); other
wise, 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 "./Con
figure -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 ear
lier 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 the goto
entry in the perlfunc manpage.
%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 sym
bol 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 depre
cated.
%s has too many errors
(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the pro
gram after 10 errors. Further error messages would
likely be uninformative.
Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is
larger than 2**32-1 (4294967295) and therefore non-
portable between systems. See the perlport manpage
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 ver
sions 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 pro
gram 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 some
thing 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 encoun
tered 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 the G_KEEPERR entry in the perlcall manpage.
Insecure dependency in %s
(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mecha
nism 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 the
perlsec manpage 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 the
perlsec manpage.
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 the perlsec manpage.
Integer overflow in %s number
(W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number
you have specified either as a literal or as an argu
ment to hex() or oct() is too big for your architec
ture, and has been converted to a floating point num
ber. On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadeci
mal, 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 expres
sion parser. The << HERE shows in the regular expres
sion 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 the
exec LIST entry in the perlvms manpage). Somehow,
this count has become scrambled, so Perl is making a
guess and treating this "exec" as a request to termi
nate the Perl script and execute the specified com
mand.
Internal urp before << HERE in regex m/%s/
(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expres
sion parser. The <<<HERE shows in the regular expres
sion 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 the Terms and List Opera
tors (Leftward) entry in the perlop manpage.
Invalid %s attribute: %s
The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable
was not recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied han
dler. See the attributes manpage.
Invalid %s attributes: %s
The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable
were not recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied han
dler. See the attributes manpage.
Invalid conversion in %s: ""%s""
(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format
conversion. See the sprintf entry in the perlfunc
manpage.
invalid [] range ""%s"" in regexp
(F) The range specified in a character class had a
minimum character greater than the maximum character.
See the perlre manpage.
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
the attributes manpage.
Invalid type in pack: '%s'
(F) The given character is not a valid pack type. See
the pack entry in the perlfunc manpage. (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 the unpack entry in the perlfunc manpage. (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 over
load::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 the last entry
in the perlfunc manpage.
Label not found for ""next %s""
(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not cur
rently in a loop of that name, not even if you count
where you were called from. See the last entry in the
perlfunc manpage.
Label not found for ""redo %s""
(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not cur
rently in a loop of that name, not even if you count
where you were called from. See the last entry in the
perlfunc manpage.
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 the listen entry in the perl
func manpage.
Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented at {#} mark in
regex %s
There is an upper limit to the depth of lookbehind in
the (?<= regular expression construct.
Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented yet
(F) Due to limitations in the current implementation,
array and hash values cannot be returned in subrou
tines used in lvalue context. See the Lvalue subrou
tines entry in the perlsub manpage.
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 discov
ered.
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, pre
fix2 is substituted. The error may appear if compo
nents are not found, or are too long. See "PERL
LIB_PREFIX" in the perlos2 manpage.
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 the perlre manpage.
% 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 the unpack entry
in the perlfunc manpage.
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 sub
routine. See the overload manpage.
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{char
name}" 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, "| command")" or
"open(FH, "command |")" 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 edit
ing.
(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 $x, but fails on attempt to modify the 2
}
Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
(F) You tried to make an array value spring into exis
tence, and the subscript was probably negative, even
counting from end of the array backwards.
Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into exis
tence, and it couldn't be created for some peculiar
reason.
Module name must be constant
(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first
argument to a "use".
Module name required with -%c option
(F) The "-M" or "-m" options say that Perl should load
some module, but you omitted the name of the module.
Consult the perlrun manpage for full details about
"-M" and "-m".
msg%s not implemented
(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your sys
tem.
Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like
"$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 the pack
entry in the perlfunc manpage.
/ 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 the pack entry in the perlfunc
manpage.
/ must follow a numeric type
(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '#',
but this did not follow some numeric unpack specifica
tion. See the pack entry in the perlfunc manpage.
""my sub"" not yet implemented
(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet imple
mented. 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 pro
vided 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 interven
ing 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 the perlre manpage.
%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 the perlsec manpage.
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 the use entry in the perl
func manpage and the import entry in the perlfunc man
page. 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 auto
matically, 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 the SDBM_File manpage.
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 rou
tine to be called at the beginning of each ordinary
subroutine call.
No error file after 2> or 2>> on command line
(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own
command line redirection, and found a '2>' or a '2>>'
on the command line, but can't find the name of the
file to which to write data destined for stderr.
No input file after < on command line
(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own
command line redirection, and found a '<' on the com
mand line, but can't find the name of the file from
which to read data for stdin.
No #! line
(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a
well-formed #! line even on machines that don't sup
port the #! construct.
""no"" not allowed in expression
(F) The "no" keyword is recognized and executed at
compile time, and returns no useful value. See the
perlmod manpage.
No output file after > on command line
(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own
command line redirection, and found a lone '>' at the
end of the command line, so it doesn't know where you
wanted to redirect stdout.
No output file after > or >> on command line
(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl handles its own
command line redirection, and found a '>' or a '>>' on
the command line, but can't find the name of the file
to which to write data destined for stdout.
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 manda
tory 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 sys
tem.
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 the perlref manpage.
Not a format reference
(F) I'm not sure how you managed to generate a refer
ence 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 the perlref man
page.
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 the perlref man
page.
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 the perlref man
page.
Not a perl script
(F) The setuid emulator requires that scripts have a
well-formed #! line even on machines that don't sup
port 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 the perlref man
page.
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 the perlref manpage.
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 the overload manpage.
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 the perlform manpage.
%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 direc
tory! See the require entry in the perlfunc manpage.
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 unini
tialized value. See the perlform manpage.
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 > 037777777777 non-portable
(W portable) The octal number you specified is larger
than 2**32-1 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable
between systems. See the perlport manpage for more on
portability concerns.
See also the perlport manpage 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 the section on "-X" in the perlfunc manpage.
%s() on unopened %s %s
(W unopened) An I/O operation was attempted on a file
handle 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 oper
ation for which no handler was defined. While some
handlers can be autogenerated in terms of other han
dlers, there is no default handler for any operation,
unless "fallback" overloading key is specified to be
true. See the overload manpage.
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 opera
tor, 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
(X|F) 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 "$^M" as an emer
gency pool after die()ing with this message. In this
case the error is trappable once, and the error mes
sage will include the line and file where the failed
request happened.
Out of memory during ridiculously large request
(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount"
bytes. This error is most likely to be caused by a
typo in the Perl program. e.g., "$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 the
pack entry in the perlfunc manpage.
%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 the attributes manpage.
page overflow
(W io) A single call to write() produced more lines
than can fit on a page. See the perlform manpage.
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 local
ized 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 con
text 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 some
how 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 inter
nally.
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 inter
nally.
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 inter
nally.
panic: pp_iter
(P) The foreach iterator got called in a non-loop con
text 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 some
thing 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 subrou
tine 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 ver
sion. How long has it been since you upgraded, any
way? See the require entry in the perlfunc manpage.
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 the perlos2 manpage.
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
(S) The whole warning message will look something
like:
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
LC_ALL = "En_US",
LANG = (unset)
are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies.
In the above the settings were that the LC_ALL was
"En_US" and the LANG had no value. This error means
that Perl detected that you and/or your operating sys
tem 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, fortu
nately: 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 the perllocale
manpage 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 placehold
ers 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 regu
lar 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 repre
sent 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 the perlre manpage.
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 whites
pace; 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 whites
pace; 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 clob
bered, and Perl assumes that memory is now corrupted.
See the ioctl entry in the perlfunc manpage.
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 the Subrou
tine Attributes entry in the perlsub manpage.
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 gram
mar 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 applica
tions, 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 the Sig
nals entry in the perlipc manpage. See also "Process
terminated by SIGTERM/SIGINT" in the perlos2 manpage.
Prototype mismatch: %s vs %s
(S unsafe) The subroutine being declared or defined
had previously been declared or defined with a differ
ent 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 prob
lem was discovered. See the perlre manpage.
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 repeti
tions 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 -DDEBUGGING 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 inheri
tance hierarchy.
Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method %s
(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were encoun
tered 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 => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
%hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
%hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
%hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
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 the pack entry in
the perlfunc manpage.
Repeat count in unpack overflows
(F) You can't specify a repeat count so large that it
overflows your signed integers. See the unpack entry
in the perlfunc manpage.
Reversed %s= operator
(W syntax) You wrote your assignment operator back
wards. The = must always comes last, to avoid ambigu
ity 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. Appar
ently 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 vari
ables). See the perlform manpage.
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[&bar]" always
behaves like a scalar, both when assigning to it and
when evaluating its argument, while "@foo[&bar]"
behaves like a list when you assign to it, and pro
vides 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 magi
cally convert between scalars and lists for you. See
the perlref manpage.
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{&bar}" always behaves
like a scalar, both when assigning to it and when
evaluating its argument, while "@foo{&bar}" 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 magi
cally convert between scalars and lists for you. See
the perlref manpage.
Scalars leaked: %d
(P) Something went wrong in Perl's internal bookkeep
ing of scalars: not all scalar variables were deallo
cated 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 delim
iters 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 sys
tem.
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 expres
sion about where the problem was discovered. See the
perlre manpage.
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 the perlre manpage.
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 the perlre manpage.
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 the perlre manpage.
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 the perlre manpage.
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 vari
ants 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 the perlfaq9 manpage.
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 the setsockopt entry
in the perlfunc manpage.
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.
<> should be quotes
(F) You wrote "require <file>" 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 proba
bly 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 the sort entry in
the perlfunc manpage.
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 the
sort entry in the perlfunc manpage.
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 the
split entry in the perlfunc manpage.
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 bro
ken 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 "sub name { ... }";
}
Substitution loop
(P) The substitution was looping infinitely. (Obvi
ously, a substitution shouldn't iterate more times
than there are characters of input, which is what hap
pened.) See the discussion of substitution in the
Quote and Quote-like Operators entry in the perlop
manpage.
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 the substr entry in the perlfunc manpage.
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 -DSE
TUID_SCRIPTS_ARE_SECURE_NOW, but a version of the
setuid emulator somehow got run anyway.
Switch (?(condition)... contains too many branches before
<< HE%s
(F) A (?(condition)if-clause|else-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 "this|that|other", enclose
it in clustering parentheses:
(?(condition)(?:this|that|other)|else-clause)
The << HERE shows in the regular expression about
where the problem was discovered. See the perlre man
page.
Switch condition not recognized before << HERE in regex
m/%s/
(F) If the argument to the (?(...)if-clause|else-
clause) construct is a number, it can be only a num
ber. The << HERE shows in the regular expression about
where the problem was discovered. See the perlre man
page.
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. (Some
times 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" suc
ceeds.
System V %s is not implemented on this machine
(F) You tried to do something with a function begin
ning 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. Con
sult 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 $[ = 1;
...
This is to prevent the problem of one module changing
the array base out from under another module inadver
tently. See the section on "$[" in the perlvar man
page.
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 sup
ply it, probably because they think the U.S. Govern
ment 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 rede
fine PERL_ENV_TABLES (see the perlvms manpage) 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 environ
ment. 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 argu
ment: e.g. change "perl -n -T" to "perl -T -n".
If the Perl script is being executed as "perl script
name", 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 the perlre manpage.
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 posi
tion 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 the perlref
manpage.
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 & 0700).
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 incon
sistency in how many execution contexts were entered
and left.
Unbalanced saves: %d more saves than restores
(W internal) The exit code detected an internal incon
sistency in how many values were temporarily local
ized.
Unbalanced scopes: %d more ENTERs than LEAVEs
(W internal) The exit code detected an internal incon
sistency in how many blocks were entered and left.
Unbalanced tmps: %d more allocs than frees
(W internal) The exit code detected an internal incon
sistency in how many mortal scalars were allocated and
freed.
Undefined format ""%s"" called
(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Per
haps it's really in another package? See the perlform
manpage.
Undefined sort subroutine ""%s"" called
(F) The sort comparison routine specified doesn't seem
to exist. Perhaps it's in a different package? See
the sort entry in the perlfunc manpage.
Undefined subroutine &%s called
(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 the
sort entry in the perlfunc manpage.
Undefined top format ""%s"" called
(F) The format indicated doesn't seem to exist. Per
haps it's really in another package? See the perlform
manpage.
Undefined value assigned to typeglob
(W misc) An undefined value was assigned to a type
glob, 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-clause|else-
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 the perlre man
page.
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 charac
ter class, backslash it or put it first. See the
perlre manpage. 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 the perlre manpage.
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 sub
routine.
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 lit
erally. 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 file
name, and that operation failed, PROBABLY because the
filename contained a newline, PROBABLY because you
forgot to chomp() it off. See the chomp entry in the
perlfunc manpage.
Unsupported directory function ""%s"" called
(F) Your machine doesn't support opendir() and read_
dir().
Unsupported function %s
(F) This machine doesn't implement the indicated func
tion, apparently. At least, Configure doesn't think
so.
Unsupported function fork
(F) Your version of executable does not support fork
ing.
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 encod
ing 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 ter
minated the parameter list of the previous attribute
too soon. See the attributes manpage.
Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list
(F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis char
acter while parsing an attribute list, but the match
ing closing (right) parenthesis character was not
found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash
character to get your parentheses to balance. See the
attributes manpage.
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 the pack entry in the
perlfunc manpage.
Unterminated <> operator
(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 ear
lier 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
$array = [1,2];
The square brackets explicitly turn a list value into
a scalar value, while parentheses do not. So when a
parenthesized list is evaluated in a scalar context,
the comma is treated like C's comma operator, which
throws away the left argument, which is not what you
want. See the perlref manpage for more on this.
Useless use of ""re"" pragma
(W) You did "use re;" without any arguments. That
isn't very useful.
""use"" not allowed in expression
(F) The "use" keyword is recognized and executed at
compile time, and returns no useful value. See the
perlmod manpage.
Use of bare << to mean <<"""" is deprecated
(D deprecated) You are now encouraged to use the
explicitly quoted form if you wish to use an empty
line as the terminator of the here-document.
Use of implicit split to @_ is deprecated
(D deprecated) It makes a lot of work for the compiler
when you clobber a subroutine's argument list, so it's
better if you assign the results of a split() explic
itly to an array (or list).
Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method %s() is depre
cated
(D deprecated) As an (ahem) accidental feature,
"AUTOLOAD" subroutines are looked up as methods (using
the "@ISA" hierarchy) even when the subroutines to be
autoloaded were called as plain functions (e.g.
"Foo::bar()"), not as methods (e.g. "Foo->bar()" or
"$obj->bar()").
This bug will be rectified in future by using method
lookup only for methods' "AUTOLOAD"s. 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 "AUTOLOAD"s.
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 = \&Base
Class::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 bet
ter 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 emu
late 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 key
word, 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 warn
ing can be suppressed for subroutine names by either
adding a "&" prefix, or using a package qualifier,
e.g. "&our()", 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 "" or a
0, but maybe it was a mistake. To suppress this warn
ing assign a defined value to your variables.
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 neces
sarily appear literally in your program. For example,
""that $foo"" is usually optimized into ""that " .
$foo", and the warning will refer to the "concatena
tion (.)" 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 <HAN
DLE>, <*> (glob), "each()", or "readdir()" as a
boolean value. Each of these constructs can return a
value of "0"; that would make the conditional expres
sion false, which is probably not what you intended.
When using these constructs in conditional expres
sions, 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 elimi
nating 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 out
ermost 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 subrou
tine, it will share the variable as you would expect.
But if the anonymous subroutine is called or refer
enced 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 {}" syn
tax. 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 ref
erencing a lexical variable defined in an outer sub
routine.
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 sub
routines 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 auto
matically rebound to the current values of such vari
ables.
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 indi
cates 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 opera
tor. 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 (>255) when it wasn't
expecting one.
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 the pack entry in the perlfunc manpage.
x outside of string
(F) You had a pack template that specified a relative
position after the end of the string being unpacked.
See the pack entry in the perlfunc manpage.
Xsub ""%s"" called in sort
(F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort com
parison is not yet supported.
Xsub called in sort
(F) The use of an external subroutine as a sort com
parison 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 exe
cuted, which is probably not what you want. (If it IS
what you want, put an & in front.)
2001-04-07 perl v5.6.1 PERLDIAG(1)
