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PERLDIAG(1)
NAME
perldiag - various Perl diagnostics
DESCRIPTION
These messages are classified as follows (listed in increasing order of
desperation):
(W) A warning (optional).
(D) A deprecation (optional).
(S) A severe warning (default).
(F) A fatal error (trappable).
(P) An internal error you should never see (trappable).
(X) A very fatal error (nontrappable).
(A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
The majority of messages from the first three classifications above (W, D &
S) can be controlled using the "warnings" pragma.
If a message can be controlled by the "warnings" pragma, its warning
category is included with the classification letter in the description
below.
Optional warnings are enabled by using the "warnings" pragma or the -w and
-W switches. Warnings may be captured by setting $SIG{__WARN__} to a
reference to a routine that will be called on each warning instead of
printing it. See perlvar.
Default warnings are always enabled unless they are explicitly disabled
with the "warnings" pragma or the -X switch.
Trappable errors may be trapped using the eval operator. See "eval" in
perlfunc. In almost all cases, warnings may be selectively disabled or
promoted to fatal errors using the "warnings" pragma. See warnings.
The messages are in alphabetical order, without regard to upper or
lower-case. Some of these messages are generic. Spots that vary are
denoted with a %s or other printf-style escape. These escapes are ignored
by the alphabetical order, as are all characters other than letters. To
look up your message, just ignore anything that is not a letter.
accept() on closed socket %s
(W closed) You tried to do an accept on a closed socket. Did you
forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See "accept"
in perlfunc.
Allocation too large: %lx
(X) You can't allocate more than 64K on an MS-DOS machine.
'!' allowed only after types %s
(F) The '!' is allowed in pack() or unpack() only after certain types.
See "pack" in perlfunc.
Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
(W ambiguous) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a
Perl keyword, and you have used the name without qualification for
calling one or the other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the
subroutine is not imported.
To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
imported with the "use subs" pragma).
To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the "CORE::" prefix
on the operator (e.g. "CORE::log($x)") or declare the subroutine to be
an object method (see "Subroutine Attributes" in perlsub or
attributes).
Ambiguous range in transliteration operator
(F) You wrote something like "tr/a-z-0//" which doesn't mean anything
at all. To include a "-" character in a transliteration, put it either
first or last. (In the past, "tr/a-z-0//" was synonymous with
"tr/a-y//", which was probably not what you would have expected.)
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 command 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 command line
redirection, and thinks you tried to redirect stdout both to a file and
into a pipe to another command. You need to choose one or the other,
though nothing's stopping you from piping into a program or Perl script
which 'splits' output into two streams, such as
open(OUT,">$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 "grep" in perlfunc and "map" in perlfunc
for alternatives.
Args must match #! line
(F) The setuid emulator requires that the arguments Perl was invoked
with match the arguments specified on the #! line. Since some systems
impose a one-argument limit on the #! line, try combining switches; for
example, turn "-w -U" into "-wU".
Arg too short for msgsnd
(F) msgsnd() requires a string at least as long as sizeof(long).
%s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element
(F) The argument to exists() must be a hash or array element, such as:
$foo{$bar}
$ref->{"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 argument to an operator
that expected a numeric value instead. If you're fortunate the message
will identify which operator was so unfortunate.
Argument list not closed for PerlIO layer "%s"
(W layer) When pushing a layer with arguments onto the Perl I/O system
you forgot the ) that closes the argument list. (Layers take care of
transforming data between external and internal representations.) Perl
stopped parsing the layer list at this point and did not attempt to
push this layer. If your program didn't explicitly request the failing
operation, it may be the result of the value of the environment
variable PERLIO.
Array @%s missing the @ in argument %d of %s()
(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the @ on array names in
some spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
assertion botched: %s
(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
Assertion failed: file "%s"
(P) A general assertion failed. The file in question must be examined.
Assignment to both a list and a scalar
(F) If you assign to a conditional operator, the 2nd and 3rd arguments
must either both be scalars or both be lists. Otherwise Perl won't
know which context to supply to the right side.
A thread exited while %d threads were running
(W threads)(S) When using threaded Perl, a thread (not necessarily the
main thread) exited while there were still other threads running.
Usually it's a good idea to first collect the return values of the
created threads by joining them, and only then exit from the main
thread. See threads.
Attempt to access disallowed key '%s' in a restricted hash
(F) The failing code has attempted to get or set a key which is not in
the current set of allowed keys of a restricted hash.
Attempt to bless into a reference
(F) The CLASSNAME argument to the bless() operator is expected to be
the name of the package to bless the resulting object into. You've
supplied instead a reference to something: perhaps you wrote
bless $self, $proto;
when you intended
bless $self, ref($proto) || $proto;
If you actually want to bless into the stringified version of the
reference supplied, you need to stringify it yourself, for example by:
bless $self, "$proto";
Attempt to delete disallowed key '%s' from a restricted hash
(F) The failing code attempted to delete from a restricted hash a key
which is not in its key set.
Attempt to delete readonly key '%s' from a restricted hash
(F) The failing code attempted to delete a key whose value has been
declared readonly from a restricted hash.
Attempt to free non-arena SV: 0x%lx
(P internal) All SV objects are supposed to be allocated from arenas
that will be garbage collected on exit. An SV was discovered to be
outside any of those arenas.
Attempt to free nonexistent shared string
(P internal) Perl maintains a reference counted internal table of
strings to optimize the storage and access of hash keys and other
strings. This indicates someone tried to decrement the reference count
of a string that can no longer be found in the table.
Attempt to free temp prematurely
(W debugging) Mortalized values are supposed to be freed by the
free_tmps() routine. This indicates that something else is freeing the
SV before the free_tmps() routine gets a chance, which means that the
free_tmps() routine will be freeing an unreferenced scalar when it does
try to free it.
Attempt to free unreferenced glob pointers
(P internal) The reference counts got screwed up on symbol aliases.
Attempt to free unreferenced scalar
(W internal) Perl went to decrement the reference count of a scalar to
see if it would go to 0, and discovered that it had already gone to 0
earlier, and should have been freed, and in fact, probably was freed.
This could indicate that SvREFCNT_dec() was called too many times, or
that SvREFCNT_inc() was called too few times, or that the SV was
mortalized when it shouldn't have been, or that memory has been
corrupted.
Attempt to join self
(F) You tried to join a thread from within itself, which is an
impossible task. You may be joining the wrong thread, or you may need
to move the join() to some other thread.
Attempt to pack pointer to temporary value
(W pack) You tried to pass a temporary value (like the result of a
function, or a computed expression) to the "p" pack() template. This
means the result contains a pointer to a location that could become
invalid anytime, even before the end of the current statement. Use
literals or global values as arguments to the "p" pack() template to
avoid this warning.
Attempt to set length of freed array
(W) You tried to set the length of an array which has been freed. You
can do this by storing a reference to the scalar representing the last
index of an array and later assigning through that reference. For
example
$r = do {my @a; \$#a};
$$r = 503
Attempt to use reference as lvalue in substr
(W substr) You supplied a reference as the first argument to substr()
used as an lvalue, which is pretty strange. Perhaps you forgot to
dereference it first. See "substr" in perlfunc.
Bad arg length for %s, is %d, should be %s
(F) You passed a buffer of the wrong size to one of msgctl(), semctl()
or shmctl(). In C parlance, the correct sizes are, respectively,
sizeof(struct msqid_ds *), sizeof(struct semid_ds *), and
sizeof(struct shmid_ds *).
Bad evalled substitution pattern
(F) You've used the "/e" switch to evaluate the replacement for a
substitution, but perl found a syntax error in the code to evaluate,
most likely an unexpected right brace '}'.
Bad filehandle: %s
(F) A symbol was passed to something wanting a filehandle, but the
symbol has no filehandle associated with it. Perhaps you didn't do an
open(), or did it in another package.
Bad free() ignored
(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
never been malloc()ed in the first place. Mandatory, but can be
disabled by setting environment variable "PERL_BADFREE" to 0.
This message can be seen quite often with DB_File on systems with
"hard" dynamic linking, like "AIX" and "OS/2". It is a bug of "Berkeley
DB" which is left unnoticed if "DB" uses forgiving system malloc().
Bad hash
(P) One of the internal hash routines was passed a null HV pointer.
Bad index while coercing array into hash
(F) The index looked up in the hash found as the 0'th element of a
pseudo-hash is not legal. Index values must be at 1 or greater. See
perlref.
Badly placed ()'s
(A) You've accidentally run your script through csh instead of Perl.
Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
Bad name after %s::
(F) You started to name a symbol by using a package prefix, and then
didn't finish the symbol. In particular, you can't interpolate outside
of quotes, so
$var = 'myvar';
$sym = mypack::$var;
is not the same as
$var = 'myvar';
$sym = "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 environment variable "PERL_BADFREE" to 1.
Bad symbol for array
(P) An internal request asked to add an array entry to something that
wasn't a symbol table entry.
Bad symbol for filehandle
(P) An internal request asked to add a filehandle entry to something
that wasn't a symbol table entry.
Bad symbol for hash
(P) An internal request asked to add a hash entry to something that
wasn't a symbol table entry.
Bareword found in conditional
(W bareword) The compiler found a bareword where it expected a
conditional, which often indicates that an || or && 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 predeclare a package?
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted
(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a BEGIN
subroutine. Compilation stops immediately and the interpreter is
exited.
BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted
(F) Perl found a "BEGIN {}" subroutine (or a "use" directive, which
implies a "BEGIN {}") after one or more compilation errors had already
occurred. Since the intended environment for the "BEGIN {}" could not
be guaranteed (due to the errors), and since subsequent code likely
depends on its correct operation, Perl just gave up.
\1 better written as $1
(W syntax) Outside of patterns, backreferences live on as variables.
The use of backslashes is grandfathered on the right-hand side of a
substitution, but stylistically it's better to use the variable form
because other Perl programmers will expect it, and it works better if
there are more than 9 backreferences.
Binary number > 0b11111111111111111111111111111111 non-portable
(W portable) The binary number you specified is larger than 2**32-1
(4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See perlport
for more on portability concerns.
bind() on closed socket %s
(W closed) You tried to do a bind on a closed socket. Did you forget
to check the return value of your socket() call? See "bind" in
perlfunc.
binmode() on closed filehandle %s
(W unopened) You tried binmode() on a filehandle that was never opened.
Check you control flow and number of arguments.
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.
Buffer overflow in prime_env_iter: %s
(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. While Perl was preparing to
iterate over %ENV, it encountered a logical name or symbol definition
which was too long, so it was truncated to the string shown.
Callback called exit
(F) A subroutine invoked from an external package via call_sv() exited
by calling exit.
%s() called too early to check prototype
(W prototype) You've called a function that has a prototype before the
parser saw a definition or declaration for it, and Perl could not check
that the call conforms to the prototype. You need to either add an
early prototype declaration for the subroutine in question, or move the
subroutine definition ahead of the call to get proper prototype
checking. Alternatively, if you are certain that you're calling the
function correctly, you may put an ampersand before the name to avoid
the warning. See perlsub.
Cannot compress integer in pack
(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was too large to compress. The BER
compressed integer format can only be used with positive integers, and
you attempted to compress Infinity or a very large number (> 1e308).
See "pack" in perlfunc.
Cannot compress negative numbers in pack
(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was negative. The BER compressed
integer format can only be used with positive integers. See "pack" in
perlfunc.
Can only compress unsigned integers in pack
(F) An argument to pack("w",...) was not an integer. The BER
compressed integer format can only be used with positive integers, and
you attempted to compress something else. See "pack" in perlfunc.
Can't bless non-reference value
(F) Only hard references may be blessed. This is how Perl "enforces"
encapsulation of objects. See perlobj.
Can't call method "%s" in empty package "%s"
(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
functioning as a class, but that package doesn't have ANYTHING defined
in it, let alone methods. See perlobj.
Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
object reference or package name contains an undefined value.
Something like this will reproduce the error:
$BADREF = undef;
process $BADREF 1,2,3;
$BADREF->process(1,2,3);
Can't call method "%s" on unblessed reference
(F) A method call must know in what package it's supposed to run. It
ordinarily finds this out from the object reference you supply, but you
didn't supply an object reference in this case. A reference isn't an
object reference until it has been blessed. See perlobj.
Can't call method "%s" without a package or object reference
(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
object reference or package name contains an expression that returns a
defined value which is neither an object reference nor a package name.
Something like this will reproduce the error:
$BADREF = 42;
process $BADREF 1,2,3;
$BADREF->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 suffering from exhausted
quotas or other plumbing problems.
Can't declare class for non-scalar %s in "%s"
(F) Currently, only scalar variables can be declared with a specific
class qualifier in a "my" or "our" declaration. The semantics may be
extended for other types of variables in future.
Can't declare %s in "%s"
(F) Only scalar, array, and hash variables may be declared as "my" or
"our" variables. They must have ordinary identifiers as names.
Can't do inplace edit: %s is not a regular file
(S inplace) You tried to use the -i switch on a special file, such as a
file in /dev, or a FIFO. The file was ignored.
Can't do inplace edit on %s: %s
(S inplace) The creation of the new file failed for the indicated
reason.
Can't do inplace edit without backup
(F) You're on a system such as MS-DOS that gets confused if you try
reading from a deleted (but still opened) file. You have to say
"-i.bak", or some such.
Can't do inplace edit: %s would not be unique
(S inplace) Your filesystem does not support filenames longer than 14
characters and Perl was unable to create a unique filename during
inplace editing with the -i switch. The file was ignored.
Can't do {n,m} with n > m in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
(F) Minima must be less than or equal to maxima. If you really want
your regexp to match something 0 times, just put {0}. The <-- HERE
shows in the regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
See perlre.
Can't do setegid!
(P) The setegid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator of
suidperl.
Can't do seteuid!
(P) The setuid emulator of suidperl failed for some reason.
Can't do setuid
(F) This typically means that ordinary perl tried to exec suidperl to
do setuid emulation, but couldn't exec it. It looks for a name of the
form sperl5.000 in the same directory that the perl executable resides
under the name perl5.000, typically /usr/local/bin on Unix machines.
If the file is there, check the execute permissions. If it isn't, ask
your sysadmin why he and/or she removed it.
Can't do waitpid with flags
(F) This machine doesn't have either waitpid() or wait4(), so only
waitpid() without flags is emulated.
Can't emulate -%s on #! line
(F) The #! line specifies a switch that doesn't make sense at this
point. For example, it'd be kind of silly to put a -x on the #! line.
Can't exec "%s": %s
(W exec) A system(), exec(), or piped open call could not execute the
named program for the indicated reason. Typical reasons include: the
permissions were wrong on the file, the file wasn't found in
$ENV{PATH}, the executable in question was compiled for another
architecture, or the #! line in a script points to an interpreter that
can't be run for similar reasons. (Or maybe your system doesn't
support #! at all.)
Can't exec %s
(F) Perl was trying to execute the indicated program for you because
that's what the #! line said. If that's not what you wanted, you may
need to mention "perl" on the #! line somewhere.
Can't execute %s
(F) You used the -S switch, but the copies of the script to execute
found in the PATH did not have correct permissions.
Can't find an opnumber for "%s"
(F) A string of a form "CORE::word" was given to prototype(), but there
is no builtin with the name "word".
Can't find %s character property "%s"
(F) You used "\p{}" or "\P{}" but the character property by that name
could not be found. Maybe you misspelled the name of the property
(remember that the names of character properties consist only of
alphanumeric characters), or maybe you forgot the "Is" or "In" prefix?
Can't find label %s
(F) You said to goto a label that isn't mentioned anywhere that it's
possible for us to go to. See "goto" in perlfunc.
Can't find %s on PATH
(F) You used the -S switch, but the script to execute could not be
found in the PATH.
Can't find %s on PATH, '.' not in PATH
(F) You used the -S switch, but the script to execute could not be
found in the PATH, or at least not with the correct permissions. The
script exists in the current directory, but PATH prohibits running it.
Can't find %s property definition %s
(F) You may have tried to use "\p" which means a Unicode property (for
example "\p{Lu}" is all uppercase letters). If you did mean to use a
Unicode property, see perlunicode for the list of known properties. If
you didn't mean to use a Unicode property, escape the "\p", either by
"\\p" (just the "\p") or by "\Q\p" (the rest of the string, until
possible "\E").
Can't find string terminator %s anywhere before EOF
(F) Perl strings can stretch over multiple lines. This message means
that the closing delimiter was omitted. Because bracketed quotes count
nesting levels, the following is missing its final parenthesis:
print q(The character '(' starts a side comment.);
If you're getting this error from a here-document, you may have
included unseen whitespace before or after your closing tag. A good
programmer's editor will have a way to help you find these characters.
Can't fork
(F) A fatal error occurred while trying to fork while opening a
pipeline.
Can't get filespec - stale stat buffer?
(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. This arises because of the difference
between access checks under VMS and under the Unix model Perl assumes.
Under VMS, access checks are done by filename, rather than by bits in
the stat buffer, so that ACLs and other protections can be taken into
account. Unfortunately, Perl assumes that the stat buffer contains all
the necessary information, and passes it, instead of the filespec, to
the access checking routine. It will try to retrieve the filespec
using the device name and FID present in the stat buffer, but this
works only if you haven't made a subsequent call to the CRTL stat()
routine, because the device name is overwritten with each call. If
this warning appears, the name lookup failed, and the access checking
routine gave up and returned FALSE, just to be conservative. (Note:
The access checking routine knows about the Perl "stat" operator and
file tests, so you shouldn't ever see this warning in response to a
Perl command; it arises only if some internal code takes stat buffers
lightly.)
Can't get pipe mailbox device name
(P) An error peculiar to VMS. After creating a mailbox to act as a
pipe, Perl can't retrieve its name for later use.
Can't get SYSGEN parameter value for MAXBUF
(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl asked $GETSYI how big you want your
mailbox buffers to be, and didn't get an answer.
Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop
(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump into the middle of a
foreach loop. You can't get there from here. See "goto" in perlfunc.
Can't "goto" out of a pseudo block
(F) A "goto" statement was executed to jump out of what might look like
a block, except that it isn't a proper block. This usually occurs if
you tried to jump out of a sort() block or subroutine, which is a
no-no. See "goto" in perlfunc.
Can't goto subroutine from an eval-%s
(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval
"string" or block.
Can't goto subroutine outside a subroutine
(F) The deeply magical "goto subroutine" call can only replace one
subroutine call for another. It can't manufacture one out of whole
cloth. In general you should be calling it out of only an AUTOLOAD
routine anyway. See "goto" in perlfunc.
Can't ignore signal CHLD, forcing to default
(W signal) Perl has detected that it is being run with the SIGCHLD
signal (sometimes known as SIGCLD) disabled. Since disabling this
signal will interfere with proper determination of exit status of child
processes, Perl has reset the signal to its default value. This
situation typically indicates that the parent program under which Perl
may be running (e.g. cron) is being very careless.
Can't "last" outside a loop block
(F) A "last" statement was executed to break out of the current block,
except that there's this itty bitty problem called there isn't a
current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't count as a
"loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map() or grep().
You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect though,
because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops once.
See "last" in perlfunc.
Can't load '%s' for module %s
(F) The module you tried to load failed to load a dynamic extension.
This may either mean that you upgraded your version of perl to one that
is incompatible with your old dynamic extensions (which is known to
happen between major versions of perl), or (more likely) that your
dynamic extension was built against an older version of the library
that is installed on your system. You may need to rebuild your old
dynamic extensions.
Can't localize lexical variable %s
(F) You used local on a variable name that was previously declared as a
lexical variable using "my". This is not allowed. If you want to
localize a package variable of the same name, qualify it with the
package name.
Can't localize pseudo-hash element
(F) You said something like "local $ar->{'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
"require" in perlfunc and lib.
Can't locate auto/%s.al in @INC
(F) A function (or method) was called in a package which allows
autoload, but there is no function to autoload. Most probable causes
are a misprint in a function/method name or a failure to "AutoSplit"
the file, say, by doing "make install".
Can't locate loadable object for module %s in @INC
(F) The module you loaded is trying to load an external library, like
for example, "foo.so" or "bar.dll", but the DynaLoader module was
unable to locate this library. See DynaLoader.
Can't locate object method "%s" via package "%s"
(F) You called a method correctly, and it correctly indicated a package
functioning as a class, but that package doesn't define that particular
method, nor does any of its base classes. See perlobj.
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 locate PerlIO%s
(F) You tried to use in open() a PerlIO layer that does not exist, e.g.
open(FH, ">:nosuchlayer", "somefile").
Can't make list assignment to \%ENV on this system
(F) List assignment to %ENV is not supported on some systems, notably
VMS.
Can't modify %s in %s
(F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise
try to change it, such as with an auto-increment.
Can't modify nonexistent substring
(P) The internal routine that does assignment to a substr() was handed
a NULL.
Can't modify non-lvalue subroutine call
(F) Subroutines meant to be used in lvalue context should be declared
as such, see "Lvalue subroutines" in perlsub.
Can't msgrcv to read-only var
(F) The target of a msgrcv must be modifiable to be used as a receive
buffer.
Can't "next" outside a loop block
(F) A "next" statement was executed to reiterate the current block, but
there isn't a current block. Note that an "if" or "else" block doesn't
count as a "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
once. See "next" in perlfunc.
Can't open %s: %s
(S inplace) The implicit opening of a file through use of the "<>"
filehandle, either implicitly under the "-n" or "-p" command-line
switches, or explicitly, failed for the indicated reason. Usually this
is because you don't have read permission for a file which you named on
the command line.
Can't open a reference
(W io) You tried to open a scalar reference for reading or writing,
using the 3-arg open() syntax :
open FH, '>', $ref;
but your version of perl is compiled without perlio, and this form of
open is not supported.
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 handle.
Can't open error file %s as stderr
(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl does its own command line
redirection, and couldn't open the file specified after '2>' 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 command 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 command 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 command line
redirection, and couldn't open the pipe into which to send data
destined for stdout.
Can't open perl script%s
(F) The script you specified can't be opened for the indicated reason.
If you're debugging a script that uses #!, and normally relies on the
shell's $PATH search, the -S option causes perl to do that search, so
you don't have to type the path or `which $scriptname`.
Can't read CRTL environ
(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read an element of %ENV
from the CRTL's internal environment array and discovered the array was
missing. You need to figure out where your CRTL misplaced its environ
or define PERL_ENV_TABLES (see perlvms) so that environ is not
searched.
Can't redefine active sort subroutine %s
(F) Perl optimizes the internal handling of sort subroutines and keeps
pointers into them. You tried to redefine one such sort subroutine
when it was currently active, which is not allowed. If you really want
to do this, you should write "sort { &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 "loopish" block, as doesn't a block given to sort(), map()
or grep(). You can usually double the curlies to get the same effect
though, because the inner curlies will be considered a block that loops
once. See "redo" in perlfunc.
Can't remove %s: %s, skipping file
(S inplace) You requested an inplace edit without creating a backup
file. Perl was unable to remove the original file to replace it with
the modified file. The file was left unmodified.
Can't rename %s to %s: %s, skipping file
(S inplace) The rename done by the -i switch failed for some reason,
probably because you don't have write permission to the directory.
Can't reopen input pipe (name: %s) in binary mode
(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Perl thought stdin was a pipe, and tried
to reopen it to accept binary data. Alas, it failed.
Can't resolve method `%s' overloading `%s' in package `%s'
(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 subroutine used as an lvalue.
This is not allowed.
Can't return outside a subroutine
(F) The return statement was executed in mainline code, that is, where
there was no subroutine call to return out of. See perlsub.
Can't 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 stat script "%s"
(P) For some reason you can't fstat() the script even though you have
it open already. Bizarre.
Can't swap uid and euid
(P) The setreuid() call failed for some reason in the setuid emulator
of suidperl.
Can't take log of %g
(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the logarithm of a
negative number or zero. There's a Math::Complex package that comes
standard with Perl, though, if you really want to do that for the
negative numbers.
Can't take sqrt of %g
(F) For ordinary real numbers, you can't take the square root of a
negative number. There's a Math::Complex package that comes standard
with Perl, though, if you really want to do that.
Can't undef active subroutine
(F) You can't undefine a routine that's currently running. You can,
however, redefine it while it's running, and you can even undef the
redefined subroutine while the old routine is running. Go figure.
Can't unshift
(F) You tried to unshift an "unreal" array that can't be unshifted,
such as the main Perl stack.
Can't upgrade that kind of scalar
(P) The internal sv_upgrade routine adds "members" to an SV, making it
into a more specialized kind of SV. The top several SV types are so
specialized, however, that they cannot be interconverted. This message
indicates that such a conversion was attempted.
Can't upgrade to undef
(P) The undefined SV is the bottom of the totem pole, in the scheme of
upgradability. Upgrading to undef indicates an error in the code
calling sv_upgrade.
Can't use anonymous symbol table for method lookup
(F) The internal routine that does method lookup was handed a symbol
table that doesn't have a name. Symbol tables can become anonymous for
example by undefining stashes: "undef %Some::Package::".
Can't use an undefined value as %s reference
(F) A value used as either a hard reference or a symbolic reference
must be a defined value. This helps to delurk some insidious errors.
Can't use bareword ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
references are disallowed. See perlref.
Can't use %! because Errno.pm is not available
(F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
provide symbolic names for $! errno values.
Can't use %s for loop variable
(F) Only a simple scalar variable may be used as a loop variable on a
foreach.
Can't use global %s in "my"
(F) You tried to declare a magical variable as a lexical variable.
This is not allowed, because the magic can be tied to only one location
(namely the global variable) and it would be incredibly confusing to
have variables in your program that looked like magical variables but
weren't.
Can't use "my %s" in sort comparison
(F) The global variables $a and $b are reserved for sort comparisons.
You mentioned $a or $b in the same line as the <=> 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 reference, if need be.
Can't use string ("%s") as %s ref while "strict refs" in use
(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic
references are disallowed. See perlref.
Can't use subscript on %s
(F) The compiler tried to interpret a bracketed expression as a
subscript. But to the left of the brackets was an expression that
didn't look like a hash or array reference, or anything else
subscriptable.
Can't use \%c to mean $%c in expression
(W syntax) In an ordinary expression, backslash is a unary operator
that creates a reference to its argument. The use of backslash to
indicate a backreference to a matched substring is valid only as part
of a regular expression pattern. Trying to do this in ordinary Perl
code produces a value that prints out looking like SCALAR(0xdecaf).
Use the $1 form instead.
Can't weaken a nonreference
(F) You attempted to weaken something that was not a reference. Only
references can be weakened.
Can't x= to read-only value
(F) You tried to repeat a constant value (often the undefined value)
with an assignment operator, which implies modifying the value itself.
Perhaps you need to copy the value to a temporary, and repeat that.
Character in "C" format wrapped in pack
(W pack) You said
pack("C", $x)
where $x is either less than 0 or more than 255; the "C" format is only
for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC, and so
on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you meant
pack("C", $x & 255)
If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the "U" format
instead.
Character in "c" format wrapped in pack
(W pack) You said
pack("c", $x)
where $x is either less than -128 or more than 127; the "c" format is
only for encoding native operating system characters (ASCII, EBCDIC,
and so on) and not for Unicode characters, so Perl behaved as if you
meant
pack("c", $x & 255);
If you actually want to pack Unicode codepoints, use the "U" format
instead.
close() on unopened filehandle %s
(W unopened) You tried to close a filehandle that was never opened.
Code missing after '/'
(F) You had a (sub-)template that ends with a '/'. There must be
another template code following the slash. See "pack" in perlfunc.
%s: Command not found
(A) You've accidentally run your script through csh instead of Perl.
Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
Compilation failed in require
(F) Perl could not compile a file specified in a "require" statement.
Perl uses this generic message when none of the errors that it
encountered were severe enough to halt compilation immediately.
Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (%d) exceeded
(W regexp) The regular expression engine uses recursion in complex
situations where back-tracking is required. Recursion depth is limited
to 32766, or perhaps less in architectures where the stack cannot grow
arbitrarily. ("Simple" and "medium" situations are handled without
recursion and are not subject to a limit.) Try shortening the string
under examination; looping in Perl code (e.g. with "while") rather than
in the regular expression engine; or rewriting the regular expression
so that it is simpler or backtracks less. (See perlfaq2 for
information on Mastering Regular Expressions.)
cond_broadcast() called on unlocked variable
(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
cond_broadcast() on a variable which wasn't locked. The
cond_broadcast() function is used to wake up another thread that is
waiting in a cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before
the other thread has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the
signaling thread to first wait for a lock on variable. This lock
attempt will only succeed after the other thread has entered
cond_wait() and thus relinquished the lock.
cond_signal() called on unlocked variable
(W threads) Within a thread-enabled program, you tried to call
cond_signal() on a variable which wasn't locked. The cond_signal()
function is used to wake up another thread that is waiting in a
cond_wait(). To ensure that the signal isn't sent before the other
thread has a chance to enter the wait, it is usual for the signaling
thread to first wait for a lock on variable. This lock attempt will
only succeed after the other thread has entered cond_wait() and thus
relinquished the lock.
connect() on closed socket %s
(W closed) You tried to do a connect on a closed socket. Did you
forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See "connect"
in perlfunc.
Constant(%s)%s: %s
(F) The parser found inconsistencies either while attempting to define
an overloaded constant, or when trying to find the character name
specified in the "\N{...}" escape. Perhaps you forgot to load the
corresponding "overload" or "charnames" pragma? See charnames and
overload.
Constant is not %s reference
(F) A constant value (perhaps declared using the "use constant" pragma)
is being dereferenced, but it amounts to the wrong type of reference.
The message indicates the type of reference that was expected. This
usually indicates a syntax error in dereferencing the constant value.
See "Constant Functions" in perlsub and constant.
Constant subroutine %s redefined
(S) You redefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible for
inlining. See "Constant Functions" in perlsub for commentary and
workarounds.
Constant subroutine %s undefined
(W misc) You undefined a subroutine which had previously been eligible
for inlining. See "Constant Functions" in perlsub for commentary and
workarounds.
Copy method did not return a reference
(F) The method which overloads "=" is buggy. See "Copy Constructor" in
overload.
CORE::%s is not a keyword
(F) The CORE:: namespace is reserved for Perl keywords.
corrupted regexp pointers
(P) The regular expression engine got confused by what the regular
expression compiler gave it.
corrupted regexp program
(P) The regular expression engine got passed a regexp program without a
valid magic number.
Corrupt malloc ptr 0x%lx at 0x%lx
(P) The malloc package that comes with Perl had an internal failure.
Count after length/code in unpack
(F) You had an unpack template indicating a counted-length string, but
you have also specified an explicit size for the string. See "pack" in
perlfunc.
Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"
(W recursion) This subroutine has called itself (directly or
indirectly) 100 times more than it has returned. This probably
indicates an infinite recursion, unless you're writing strange
benchmark programs, in which case it indicates something else.
defined(@array) is deprecated
(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it
checks for an undefined scalar value. If you want to see if the array
is empty, just use "if (@array) { # not empty }" for example.
defined(%hash) is deprecated
(D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it
checks for an undefined scalar value. If you want to see if the hash
is empty, just use "if (%hash) { # not empty }" for example.
%s defines neither package nor VERSION--version check failed
(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but in the Module file
there are neither package declarations nor a $VERSION.
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.
DESTROY created new reference to dead object '%s'
(F) A DESTROY() method created a new reference to the object which is
just being DESTROYed. Perl is confused, and prefers to abort rather
than to create a dangling reference.
Did not produce a valid header
See Server error.
%s did not return a true value
(F) A required (or used) file must return a true value to indicate that
it compiled correctly and ran its initialization code correctly. It's
traditional to end such a file with a "1;", though any true value would
do. See "require" in perlfunc.
(Did you mean &%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 $_ were empty.
Document contains no data
See Server error.
%s does not define %s::VERSION--version check failed
(F) You said something like "use Module 42" but the Module did not
define a "$VERSION."
'/' does not take a repeat count
(F) You cannot put a repeat count of any kind right after the '/' code.
See "pack" in perlfunc.
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 syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the
message "%s found where operator expected". It often means a
subroutine or module name is being referenced that hasn't been declared
yet. This may be because of ordering problems in your file, or because
of a missing "sub", "package", "require", or "use" statement. If
you're referencing something that isn't defined yet, you don't actually
have to define the subroutine or package before the current location.
You can use an empty "sub foo;" or "package FOO;" to enter a "forward"
declaration.
dump() better written as CORE::dump()
(W misc) You used the obsolescent "dump()" built-in function, without
fully qualifying it as "CORE::dump()". Maybe it's a typo. See "dump"
in perlfunc.
Duplicate free() ignored
(S malloc) An internal routine called free() on something that had
already been freed.
Duplicate modifier '%c' after '%c' in %s
(W) You have applied the same modifier more than once after a type in a
pack template. See "pack" in perlfunc.
elseif should be elsif
(S syntax) 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.
Empty %s
(F) "\p" and "\P" are used to introduce a named Unicode property, as
described in perlunicode and perlre. You used "\p" or "\P" in a regular
expression without specifying the property name.
entering effective %s failed
(F) While under the "use filetest" pragma, switching the real and
effective uids or gids failed.
%ENV is aliased to %s
(F) You're running under taint mode, and the %ENV variable has been
aliased to another hash, so it doesn't reflect anymore the state of the
program's environment. This is potentially insecure.
Error converting file specification %s
(F) An error peculiar to VMS. Because Perl may have to deal with file
specifications in either VMS or Unix syntax, it converts them to a
single form when it must operate on them directly. Either you've
passed an invalid file specification to Perl, or you've found a case
the conversion routines don't handle. Drat.
%s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular
expression that contains the "(?{ ... })" zero-width assertion, which
is unsafe. See "(?{ code })" in perlre, and perlsec.
%s: Eval-group not allowed at run time
(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the "(?{ ...
})" zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the pattern
contains interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it is not
allowed. If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly building
the pattern from an interpolated string at run time and using that in
an eval(). See "(?{ code })" in perlre.
%s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
(F) A regular expression contained the "(?{ ... })" zero-width
assertion, but that construct is only allowed when the "use re 'eval'"
pragma is in effect. See "(?{ code })" in perlre.
Excessively long <> 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.
exec? I'm not *that* kind of operating system
(F) The "exec" function is not implemented in MacPerl. See perlport.
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 a format by unconventional means, such as a
goto, or a loop control statement.
Exiting pseudo-block via %s
(W exiting) You are exiting a rather special block construct (like a
sort block or subroutine) by unconventional means, such as a goto, or a
loop control statement. See "sort" in perlfunc.
Exiting subroutine via %s
(W exiting) You are exiting a subroutine by unconventional means, such
as a goto, or a loop control statement.
Exiting substitution via %s
(W exiting) You are exiting a substitution by unconventional means,
such as a return, a goto, or a loop control statement.
Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
(W misc) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This
has the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This
is usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target
package, e.g. bless($ref, $p || 'MyPackage');
%s: Expression syntax
(A) You've accidentally run your script through csh instead of Perl.
Check the #! line, or manually feed your script into Perl yourself.
%s failed--call queue aborted
(F) An untrapped exception was raised while executing a CHECK, INIT, or
END subroutine. Processing of the remainder of the queue of such
routines has been prematurely ended.
False [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
(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 "-", "\-". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression
about where the problem was discovered. See perlre.
Fatal VMS error at %s, line %d
(P) An error peculiar to VMS. Something untoward happened in a VMS
system service or RTL routine; Perl's exit status should provide more
details. The filename in "at %s" and the line number in "line %d" tell
you which section of the Perl source code is distressed.
fcntl is not implemented
(F) Your machine apparently doesn't implement fcntl(). What is this, a
PDP-11 or something?
Filehandle %s opened only for input
(W io) You tried to write on a read-only filehandle. If you intended
it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with "+<" or
"+>" or "+>>" instead of with "<" or nothing. If you intended only to
write the file, use ">" or ">>". See "open" in perlfunc.
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 "open" in perlfunc.
Another possibility is that you attempted to open filedescriptor 0
(also known as STDIN) for output (maybe you closed STDIN earlier?).
Filehandle %s reopened as %s only for input
(W io) You opened for reading a filehandle that got the same filehandle
id as STDOUT or STDERR. This occurred because you closed STDOUT or
STDERR previously.
Filehandle STDIN reopened as %s only for output
(W io) You opened for writing a filehandle that got the same filehandle
id as STDIN. This occurred because you closed STDIN previously.
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.
flock() on closed filehandle %s
(W closed) The filehandle you're attempting to flock() got itself
closed some time before now. Check your control flow. flock()
operates on filehandles. Are you attempting to call flock() on a
dirhandle by the same name?
Format not terminated
(F) A format must be terminated by a line with a solitary dot. Perl
got to the end of your file without finding such a line.
Format %s redefined
(W redefine) You redefined a format. To suppress this warning, say
{
no warnings 'redefine';
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 syntax) The Perl lexer knows whether to expect a term or an
operator. If it sees what it knows to be a term when it was expecting
to see an operator, it gives you this warning. Usually it indicates
that an operator or delimiter was omitted, such as a semicolon.
gdbm store returned %d, errno %d, key "%s"
(S) A warning from the GDBM_File extension that a store failed.
gethostent not implemented
(F) Your C library apparently doesn't implement gethostent(), probably
because if it did, it'd feel morally obligated to return every hostname
on the Internet.
get%sname() on closed socket %s
(W closed) You tried to get a socket or peer socket name on a closed
socket. Did you forget to check the return value of your socket()
call?
getpwnam returned invalid UIC %#o for user "%s"
(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. The call to "sys$getuai" underlying the
"getpwnam" operator returned an invalid UIC.
getsockopt() on closed socket %s
(W closed) You tried to get a socket option on a closed socket. Did
you forget to check the return value of your socket() call? See
"getsockopt" in perlfunc.
Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name
(F) You've said "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables
must either be lexically scoped (using "my"), declared beforehand using
"our", or explicitly qualified to say which package the global variable
is in (using "::").
glob failed (%s)
(W glob) Something went wrong with the external program(s) used for
"glob" and "<*.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'"); otherwise, make them all
empty (except that "d_csh" should be 'undef') so that Perl will think
csh is missing. In either case, after editing config.sh, run
"./Configure -S" and rebuild Perl.
Glob not terminated
(F) The lexer saw a left angle bracket in a place where it was
expecting a term, so it's looking for the corresponding right angle
bracket, and not finding it. Chances are you left some needed
parentheses out earlier in the line, and you really meant a "less
than".
Got an error from DosAllocMem
(P) An error peculiar to OS/2. Most probably you're using an obsolete
version of Perl, and this should not happen anyway.
goto must have label
(F) Unlike with "next" or "last", you're not allowed to goto an
unspecified destination. See "goto" in perlfunc.
()-group starts with a count
(F) A ()-group started with a count. A count is supposed to follow
something: a template character or a ()-group.
See "pack" in perlfunc.
%s had compilation errors
(F) The final summary message when a "perl -c" fails.
Had to create %s unexpectedly
(S internal) A routine asked for a symbol from a symbol table that
ought to have existed already, but for some reason it didn't, and had
to be created on an emergency basis to prevent a core dump.
Hash %%s missing the % in argument %d of %s()
(D deprecated) Really old Perl let you omit the % on hash names in some
spots. This is now heavily deprecated.
%s has too many errors
(F) The parser has given up trying to parse the program after 10
errors. Further error messages would likely be uninformative.
Hexadecimal number > 0xffffffff non-portable
(W portable) The hexadecimal number you specified is larger than
2**32-1 (4294967295) and therefore non-portable between systems. See
perlport for more on portability concerns.
Identifier too long
(F) Perl limits identifiers (names for variables, functions, etc.) to
about 250 characters for simple names, and somewhat more for compound
names (like $A::B). You've exceeded Perl's limits. Future versions of
Perl are likely to eliminate these arbitrary limitations.
Illegal binary digit %s
(F) You used a digit other than 0 or 1 in a binary number.
Illegal binary digit %s ignored
(W digit) You may have tried to use a digit other than 0 or 1 in a
binary number. Interpretation of the binary number stopped before the
offending digit.
Illegal character %s (carriage return)
(F) Perl normally treats carriage returns in the program text as it
would any other whitespace, which means you should never see this error
when Perl was built using standard options. For some reason, your
version of Perl appears to have been built without this support. Talk
to your Perl administrator.
Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
(W syntax) An illegal character was found in a prototype declaration.
Legal characters in prototypes are $, @, %, *, ;, [, ], &, and \.
Illegal declaration of anonymous subroutine
(F) When using the "sub" keyword to construct an anonymous subroutine,
you must always specify a block of code. See perlsub.
Illegal declaration of subroutine %s
(F) A subroutine was not declared correctly. See perlsub.
Illegal division by zero
(F) You tried to divide a number by 0. Either something was wrong in
your logic, or you need to put a conditional in to guard against
meaningless input.
Illegal hexadecimal digit %s ignored
(W digit) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or A -
F, a - f in a hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal
number stopped before the illegal character.
Illegal modulus zero
(F) You tried to divide a number by 0 to get the remainder. Most
numbers don't take to this kindly.
Illegal number of bits in vec
(F) The number of bits in vec() (the third argument) must be a power of
two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports that).
Illegal octal digit %s
(F) You used an 8 or 9 in an octal number.
Illegal octal digit %s ignored
(W digit) You may have tried to use an 8 or 9 in an 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: -[DIMUdmtw].
Ill-formed CRTL environ value "%s"
(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read the CRTL's
internal environ array, and encountered an element without the "="
delimiter used to separate keys from values. The element is ignored.
Ill-formed message in prime_env_iter: |%s|
(W internal) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl tried to read a logical
name or CLI symbol definition when preparing to iterate over %ENV, and
didn't see the expected delimiter between key and value, so the line
was ignored.
(in cleanup) %s
(W misc) This prefix usually indicates that a DESTROY() method raised
the indicated exception. Since destructors are usually called by the
system at arbitrary points during execution, and often a vast number of
times, the warning is issued only once for any number of failures that
would otherwise result in the same message being repeated.
Failure of user callbacks dispatched using the "G_KEEPERR" flag could
also result in this warning. See "G_KEEPERR" in perlcall.
In EBCDIC the v-string components cannot exceed 2147483647
(F) An error peculiar to EBCDIC. Internally, v-strings are stored as
Unicode code points, and encoded in EBCDIC as UTF-EBCDIC. The UTF-
EBCDIC encoding is limited to code points no larger than 2147483647
(0x7FFFFFFF).
Insecure dependency in %s
(F) You tried to do something that the tainting mechanism didn't like.
The tainting mechanism is turned on when you're running setuid or
setgid, or when you specify -T to turn it on explicitly. The tainting
mechanism labels all data that's derived directly or indirectly from
the user, who is considered to be unworthy of your trust. If any such
data is used in a "dangerous" operation, you get this error. See
perlsec for more information.
Insecure directory in %s
(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
setgid script if $ENV{PATH} contains a directory that is writable by
the world. Also, the PATH must not contain any relative directory.
See perlsec.
Insecure $ENV{%s} while running %s
(F) You can't use system(), exec(), or a piped open in a setuid or
setgid script if any of $ENV{PATH}, $ENV{IFS}, $ENV{CDPATH}, $ENV{ENV},
$ENV{BASH_ENV} or $ENV{TERM} are derived from data supplied (or
potentially supplied) by the user. The script must set the path to a
known value, using trustworthy data. See perlsec.
Integer overflow in %s number
(W overflow) The hexadecimal, octal or binary number you have specified
either as a literal or as an argument to hex() or oct() is too big for
your architecture, and has been converted to a floating point number.
On a 32-bit architecture the largest hexadecimal, octal or binary
number representable without overflow is 0xFFFFFFFF, 037777777777, or
0b11111111111111111111111111111111 respectively. Note that Perl
transparently promotes all numbers to a floating point representation
internally--subject to loss of precision errors in subsequent
operations.
Internal disaster in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
(P) Something went badly wrong in the regular expression parser. The
<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
discovered.
Internal inconsistency in tracking vforks
(S) A warning peculiar to VMS. Perl keeps track of the number of times
you've called "fork" and "exec", to determine whether the current call
to "exec" should affect the current script or a subprocess (see "exec
LIST" in perlvms). Somehow, this count has become scrambled, so Perl
is making a guess and treating this "exec" as a request to terminate
the Perl script and execute the specified command.
Internal urp in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
(P) Something went badly awry in the regular expression parser. The <--
HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
discovered.
%s (...) interpreted as function
(W syntax) You've run afoul of the rule that says that any list
operator followed by parentheses turns into a function, with all the
list operators arguments found inside the parentheses. See "Terms and
List Operators (Leftward)" in perlop.
Invalid %s attribute: %s
The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized
by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See attributes.
Invalid %s attributes: %s
The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not
recognized by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See attributes.
Invalid conversion in %s: "%s"
(W printf) Perl does not understand the given format conversion. See
"sprintf" in perlfunc.
Invalid [] range "%s" in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
(F) The range specified in a character class had a minimum character
greater than the maximum character. One possibility is that you forgot
the "{}" from your ending "\x{}" - "\x" without the curly braces can go
only up to "ff". The <-- HERE shows in the regular expression about
where the problem was discovered. See perlre.
Invalid range "%s" in transliteration operator
(F) The range specified in the tr/// or y/// operator had a minimum
character greater than the maximum character. See perlop.
Invalid separator character %s in attribute list
(F) Something other than a colon or whitespace was seen between the
elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute had a
parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated too
soon. See attributes.
Invalid separator character %s in PerlIO layer specification %s
(W layer) When pushing layers onto the Perl I/O system, something other
than a colon or whitespace was seen between the elements of a layer
list. If the previous attribute had a parenthesised parameter list,
perhaps that list was terminated too soon.
Invalid type '%s' in %s
(F) The given character is not a valid pack or unpack type. See "pack"
in perlfunc. (W) The given character is not a valid pack or 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.
ioctl() on unopened %s
(W unopened) You tried ioctl() on a filehandle that was never opened.
Check you control flow and number of arguments.
IO layers (like "%s") unavailable
(F) Your Perl has not been configured to have PerlIO, and therefore you
cannot use IO layers. To have PerlIO Perl must be configured with
'useperlio'.
IO::Socket::atmark not implemented on this architecture
(F) Your machine doesn't implement the sockatmark() functionality,
neither as a system call or an ioctl call (SIOCATMARK).
`%s' is not a code reference
(W overload) The second (fourth, sixth, ...) argument of
overload::constant needs to be a code reference. Either an anonymous
subroutine, or a reference to a subroutine.
`%s' is not an overloadable type
(W overload) You tried to overload a constant type the overload package
is unaware of.
junk on end of regexp
(P) The regular expression parser is confused.
Label not found for "last %s"
(F) You named a loop to break out of, but you're not currently in a
loop of that name, not even if you count where you were called from.
See "last" in perlfunc.
Label not found for "next %s"
(F) You named a loop to continue, but you're not currently in a loop of
that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
"last" in perlfunc.
Label not found for "redo %s"
(F) You named a loop to restart, but you're not currently in a loop of
that name, not even if you count where you were called from. See
"last" in perlfunc.
leaving effective %s failed
(F) While under the "use filetest" pragma, switching the real and
effective uids or gids failed.
length/code after end of string in unpack
(F) While unpacking, the string buffer was already used up when an
unpack length/code combination tried to obtain more data. This results
in an undefined value for the length. See "pack" in perlfunc.
listen() on closed socket %s
(W closed) You tried to do a listen on a closed socket. Did you forget
to check the return value of your socket() call? See "listen" in
perlfunc.
m/%s/
Lookbehind longer than %d not implemented in regex; marked by <-- HERE in
(F) There is currently a limit on the length of string which lookbehind
can handle. This restriction may be eased in a future release. The <--
HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
discovered.
lstat() on filehandle %s
(W io) You tried to do an lstat on a filehandle. What did you mean by
that? lstat() makes sense only on filenames. (Perl did a fstat()
instead on the filehandle.)
Lvalue subs returning %s not implemented yet
(F) Due to limitations in the current implementation, array and hash
values cannot be returned in subroutines used in lvalue context. See
"Lvalue subroutines" in perlsub.
Malformed integer in [] in pack
(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
are permitted. See "pack" in perlfunc.
Malformed integer in [] in unpack
(F) Between the brackets enclosing a numeric repeat count only digits
are permitted. See "pack" in perlfunc.
Malformed PERLLIB_PREFIX
(F) An error peculiar to OS/2. PERLLIB_PREFIX should be of the form
prefix1;prefix2
or
prefix1 prefix2
with nonempty prefix1 and prefix2. If "prefix1" is indeed a prefix of
a builtin library search path, prefix2 is substituted. The error may
appear if components are not found, or are too long. See
"PERLLIB_PREFIX" in perlos2.
Malformed prototype for %s: %s
(F) You tried to use a function with a malformed prototype. The syntax
of function prototypes is given a brief compile-time check for obvious
errors like invalid characters. A more rigorous check is run when the
function is called.
Malformed UTF-8 character (%s)
(S utf8) (F) Perl detected something that didn't comply with UTF-8
encoding rules.
One possible cause is that you read in data that you thought to be in
UTF-8 but it wasn't (it was for example legacy 8-bit data). Another
possibility is careless use of utf8::upgrade().
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 in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
(W regexp) The pattern you've specified would be an infinite loop if
the regular expression engine didn't specifically check for that. The
<-- HERE shows in the regular expression about where the problem was
discovered. See perlre.
"%s" may clash with future reserved word
(W) This warning may be due to running a perl5 script through a perl4
interpreter, especially if the word that is being warned about is "use"
or "my".
% may not be used in pack
(F) You can't pack a string by supplying a checksum, because the
checksumming process loses information, and you can't go the other way.
See "unpack" in perlfunc.
Method for operation %s not found in package %s during blessing
(F) An attempt was made to specify an entry in an overloading table
that doesn't resolve to a valid subroutine. See overload.
Method %s not permitted
See Server error.
Might be a runaway multi-line %s string starting on line %d
(S) An advisory indicating that the previous error may have been caused
by a missing delimiter on a string or pattern, because it eventually
ended earlier on the current line.
Misplaced _ in number
(W syntax) An underscore (underbar) in a numeric constant did not
separate two digits.
Missing argument to -%c
(F) The argument to the indicated command line switch must follow
immediately after the switch, without intervening spaces.
Missing %sbrace%s on \N{}
(F) Wrong syntax of character name literal "\N{charname}" within
double-quotish context.
Missing comma after first argument to %s function
(F) While certain functions allow you to specify a filehandle or an
"indirect object" before the argument list, this ain't one of them.
Missing command in piped open
(W pipe) You used the "open(FH, "| command")" or "open(FH, "command
|")" construction, but the command was missing or blank.
Missing control char name in \c
(F) A double-quoted string ended with "\c", without the required
control character name.
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 syntax) 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 brace on %s
(F) Missing right brace in "\p{...}" or "\P{...}".
Missing right curly or square bracket
(F) The lexer counted more opening curly or square brackets than
closing ones. As a general rule, you'll find it's missing near the
place you were last editing.
(Missing semicolon on previous line?)
(S syntax) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the
message "%s found where operator expected". Don't automatically put a
semicolon on the previous line just because you saw this message.
Modification of a read-only value attempted
(F) You tried, directly or indirectly, to change the value of a
constant. You didn't, of course, try "2 = 1", because the compiler
catches that. But an easy way to do the same thing is:
sub mod { $_[0] = 1 }
mod(2);
Another way is to assign to a substr() that's off the end of the
string.
Yet another way is to assign to a "foreach" loop VAR when VAR is
aliased to a constant in the look LIST:
$x = 1;
foreach my $n ($x, 2) {
$n *= 2; # modifies the $x, but fails on attempt to modify the 2
}
Modification of non-creatable array value attempted, %s
(F) You tried to make an array value spring into existence, and the
subscript was probably negative, even counting from end of the array
backwards.
Modification of non-creatable hash value attempted, %s
(P) You tried to make a hash value spring into existence, and it
couldn't be created for some peculiar reason.
Module name must be constant
(F) Only a bare module name is allowed as the first argument to a
"use".
Module name required with -%c option
(F) The "-M" or "-m" options say that Perl should load some module, but
you omitted the name of the module. Consult perlrun for full details
about "-M" and "-m".
More than one argument to open
(F) The "open" function has been asked to open multiple files. This can
happen if you are trying to open a pipe to a command that takes a list
of arguments, but have forgotten to specify a piped open mode. See
"open" in perlfunc for details.
msg%s not implemented
(F) You don't have System V message IPC on your system.
Multidimensional syntax %s not supported
(W syntax) Multidimensional arrays aren't written like $foo[1,2,3].
They're written like $foo[1][2][3], as in C.
'/' must be followed by 'a*', 'A*' or 'Z*'
(F) You had a pack template indicating a counted-length string,
Currently the only things that can have their length counted are a*, A*
or Z*. See "pack" in perlfunc.
'/' must follow a numeric type in unpack
(F) You had an unpack template that contained a '/', but this did not
follow some unpack specification producing a numeric value. See "pack"
in perlfunc.
"my sub" not yet implemented
(F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try
that yet.
"my" variable %s can't be in a package
(F) Lexically scoped variables aren't in a package, so it doesn't make
sense to try to declare one with a package qualifier on the front. Use
local() if you want to localize a package variable.
Name "%s::%s" used only once: possible typo
(W once) Typographical errors often show up as unique variable names.
If you had a good reason for having a unique name, then just mention it
again somehow to suppress the message. The "our" declaration is
provided for this purpose.
NOTE: This warning detects symbols that have been used only once so $c,
@c, %c, *c, &c, sub c{}, c(), and c (the filehandle or format) are
considered the same; if a program uses $c only once but also uses any
of the others it will not trigger this warning.
Negative '/' count in unpack
(F) The length count obtained from a length/code unpack operation was
negative. See "pack" in perlfunc.
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.
Negative offset to vec in lvalue context
(F) When "vec" is called in an lvalue context, the second argument must
be greater than or equal to zero.
Nested quantifiers in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/
(F) You can't quantify a quantifier without intervening parentheses. So
things like ** or +* or ?* are illegal. The <-- HERE shows in the
regular expression about where the problem was discovered.
Note that the minimal matching quantifiers, "*?", "+?", and "??" appear
to be nested quantifiers, but aren't. See perlre.
%s never introduced
(S internal) The symbol in question was declared but somehow went out
of scope before it could possibly have been used.
Newline in left-justified string for %s
(W printf) There is a newline in a string to be left justified by
"printf" or "sprintf".
The padding spaces will appear after the newline, which is probably not
what you wanted. Usually you should remove the newline from the string
and put formatting characters in the "sprintf" format.
No %s allowed while running setuid
(F) Certain operations are deemed to be too insecure for a setuid or
setgid script to even be allowed to attempt. Generally speaking there
will be another way to do what you want that is, if not secure, at
least securable. See perlsec.
No 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