$ perl -e'flush STDOUT;' $ perl -e'no feature qw( indirect ); flush STDOUT;' Bareword found where operator expected (Do you need to predeclare "flush"?) at -e line 1, near "flush STDOUT" syntax error at -e line 1, near "flush STDOUT" Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors. $ perl -e'use v5.36; flush STDOUT;' Bareword found where operator expected (Do you need to predeclare "flush"?) at -e line 1, near "flush STDOUT" syntax error at -e line 1, near "flush STDOUT" Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.