% perl -le 'sub f ($) { print @_ } f(1, 2)' Too many arguments for main::f at -e line 1, at end of line Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors. % perl -le 'sub f ($) { print @_ } f()' Not enough arguments for main::f at -e line 1, at end of line Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.