From lecates@laurelnetworks.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------
The line number reported for "Use of uninitialized value" is wrong
under certain conditions. The script below reports this error​:
  Use of uninitialized value at /u/lecates/src/diag1/p1 line 5.
The error disappears if an extra statement is added at the "HERE" points.
This problem also occurs if the error is in the "else" portion of a
conditional statement. In all cases, the first line of the statement
is reported as the error, instead of the actual line number. I suspect
that the optimizer may be at fault. Thanks for investigating!

-Roy

BEGIN
#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my $pass;

if (1) {

  unless ($pass == 1) {
  exit;
  # HERE
  }
  # HERE
}

END

Site configuration information for perl 5.00503:

Configured by root at Mon Aug 30 23:08:56 EDT 1999.

Summary of my perl5 (5.0 patchlevel 5 subversion 3) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=linux, osvers=2.2.5-22smp, archname=i386-linux
    uname='linux porky.devel.redhat.com 2.2.5-22smp #1 smp wed jun 2 09:11:51 edt 1999 i686 unknown '
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
    usethreads=undef useperlio=undef d_sfio=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='cc', optimize='-O2', gccversion=egcs-2.91.66 19990314/Linux (egcs-1.1.2 release)
    cppflags='-Dbool=char -DHAS_BOOL -I/usr/local/include'
    ccflags ='-Dbool=char -DHAS_BOOL -I/usr/local/include'
    stdchar='char', d_stdstdio=undef, usevfork=false
    intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8
    d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=12
    alignbytes=4, usemymalloc=n, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='cc', ldflags =' -L/usr/local/lib'
    libpth=/usr/local/lib /lib /usr/lib
    libs=-lnsl -ldl -lm -lc -lposix -lcrypt
    libc=, so=so, useshrplib=false, libperl=libperl.a
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=so, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags='-rdynamic'
    cccdlflags='-fpic', lddlflags='-shared -L/usr/local/lib'

Locally applied patches:
    


@INC for perl 5.00503:
    /usr/lib/perl5/5.00503/i386-linux
    /usr/lib/perl5/5.00503
    /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/i386-linux
    /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
    .


Environment for perl 5.00503:
    HOME=/u/lecates
    LANG=en_US
    LANGUAGE (unset)
    LC_ALL=en_US
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH (unset)
    LOGDIR (unset)
    PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:.
    PERL_BADLANG (unset)
    SHELL=/bin/csh

From [Unknown Contact. See original ticket]

The line number reported for "Use of uninitialized value" is wrong
under certain conditions. The script below reports this error​:
Use of uninitialized value at /u/lecates/src/diag1/p1 line 5.
The error disappears if an extra statement is added at the "HERE" points.

The problem is due to Perl's optimization of​:

  if (TRUE_CONSTANT) {
  ONE_STATEMENT_OR_BLOCK;
  }

to

  ONE_STATEMENT_OR_BLOCK;

And apparently, in your case, the optimization

  if (COND) { EXPR; }

to

  COND and EXPR;

This turns your code into​:

  #!/usr/bin/perl -w
  use strict;
  my $pass;

  $pass == 1 or exit;

If you add a statement to the if-statement or the unless-statement, the
optimization doesn't occur as such.

--
Jeff "japhy" Pinyan japhy@​pobox.com http​://www.pobox.com/~japhy/
Eruséro Marillion -- wielder of Ringril, known as Hesinaur, the Winter-Sun
Are you a Monk? http​://www.perlmonks.com/ http​://forums.perlguru.com/
Perl Programmer at RiskMetrics Group, Inc. http​://www.riskmetrics.com/
Acacia Fraternity, Rensselaer Chapter. Brother #734
** Manning Publications, Co, is publishing my Perl Regex book **