NAME

DESCRIPTION

About the new versioning system

Perl 5.005 is the combined product of the new dual-track development scheme.

Incompatible Changes

Core Changes

    $x = "hello";
    sub printit {
        $x = "g'bye";
        print $_[0], "\n";
    }
    printit(substr($x, 0, 5));

Supported Platforms

Modules and Pragmata

Utility Changes

"perlcc", a new experimental front end for the compiler is available.

The crude GNU "configure" emulator is now called "configure.gnu" to avoid trampling on "Configure" under case-insensitive filesystems.

"perldoc" used to be rather slow. The slower features are now optional. In particular, case-insensitive searches need the "-i" switch, and recursive searches need "-r". You can set these switches in the "PERLDOC" environment variable to get the old behavior.

Documentation Changes

Porting/patching.pod has detailed instructions on how to create and submit patches for perl.

perlport specifies guidelines on how to write portably.

perlmodinstall describes how to fetch and install modules from "CPAN" sites.

Some more Perl traps are documented now. See perltrap.

perlopentut gives a tutorial on using open().

perlreftut gives a tutorial on references.

perlthrtut gives a tutorial on threads.

New Diagnostics

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

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

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

To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the "CORE::" prefix on the operator (e.g. "CORE::log($x)") or by declaring the subroutine to be an object method (see "attrs").

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.

Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package

(W) 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?

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 = 42;
    process $BADREF 1,2,3;
    $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
    

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 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 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 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.

Cannot 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".

Character class syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions

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

Character class syntax [: :] is reserved for future extensions

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

Character class syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions

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

%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, 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.

%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.

Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)

(W) 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');

Illegal hex digit ignored

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

No such array field

(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 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.

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].

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.

Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method '%s' %s

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

Reference found where even-sized list expected

(W) 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
    

Undefined value assigned to typeglob

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

Use of reserved word "%s" is deprecated

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

perl: warning: Setting locale failed.

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

       perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
       perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
               LC_ALL = "En_US",
               LANG = (unset)
           are supported and installed on your system.
       perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
    

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

Obsolete Diagnostics

Can't mktemp()

(F) The mktemp() routine failed for some reason while trying to process a -e switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.

Removed because -e doesn't use temporary files any more.

Can't write to temp file for -e: %s

(F) The write routine failed for some reason while trying to process a -e switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.

Removed because -e doesn't use temporary files any more.

Cannot open temporary file

(F) The create routine failed for some reason while trying to process a -e switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.

Removed because -e doesn't use temporary files any more.

regexp too big

(F) The current implementation of regular expressions uses shorts as address offsets within a string. Unfortunately this means that if the regular expression compiles to longer than 32767, it'll blow up. Usually when you want a regular expression this big, there is a better way to do it with multiple statements. See perlre.

Configuration Changes

BUGS

If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the perlbug program included with your release. Make sure you trim your bug down to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the output of "perl -V", will be sent off to <perlbug@perl.com> to be analysed by the Perl porting team.

SEE ALSO

The INSTALL file for how to build Perl.

The README file for general stuff.

The Artistic and Copying files for copyright information.

HISTORY

Send omissions or corrections to <perlbug@perl.com>.