Yes, that message is correct:

$ perl -Mwarnings -Mdiagnostics -e '@array = (1,2,3); print defined(@a
+rray)'
defined(@array) is deprecated at -e line 1 (#1)
    (D deprecated) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because i
+t
    checks for an undefined scalar value.  If you want to see if the
    array is empty, just use if (@array) { # not empty } for example.
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Your code:

my $tSida = $sida + 1;
if ((@annots) || (defined @{$links{'-1'}}) || (defined @{$links{$tSida
+}})) { $sidObjekt .='/Annots ' . mergeLinks() . ' 0 R';
}
[download]

Would be better written as...

my $tSida = $sida + 1;
if( @annots || @{$links{'-1'}} || @{$links{$tSida}} ) {
  $sidObjekt .= '/Annots ' . mergLinks() . ' 0 R';
}
[download]

Your use of defined is presumably to determine if the array ref stored in $links{'-1'} contains values. If instead you want to determine if $links{'-1'} exists, use exists. If you want to see if $links{'-1'} is defined, use defined without dereferencing the element. And if you want to see if it contains an anonymous array, you can use ref or Scalar::Util::reftype()

Thanks davido! That did the trick. I am finding as I move perl scripts from one version of perl to another even the updated perl modules need some tweeking in order to function accordingly. Thanks again!.

G'day PilotinControl,

There was a change to that deprecation warning in v5.16.0 (see perl5160delta: New Diagnostics).

"The long-deprecated defined(@array) now also warns for package variables. Previously it issued a warning for lexical variables only."

There was a bug report raised for this issue 8 months ago: Bug #77800 for PDF-Reuse: Deprecation Warnings in Perl 5.16.0

PDF::Reuse (v0.35) (the current version at the time of writing) has not changed in ~6 years. There have been bugs raised over its lifetime: at least 13 appear to be for this specific version and all remain active (see Active bugs for PDF-Reuse).

I don't personally have any knowledge of this module, but it's quite possible that maintenance has been abandoned. Your options would seem to be:

• Do nothing and put up with the warnings.
• Attempt to contact the author and determine the status of this module.
• Take over maintenance of this module and fix it yourself.
• Find an alternative module which provides sufficiently similar functionality for your requirements.
• Write your own module that provides exactly the functionality you want.

By the way, check the version of Perl you're running on "WinXP": if it's earlier than 5.16.0, that would explain why the warnings are absent there.

I might be wrong, but it looks like $links is (or should be) a hash of array refs, in which case it doesn't make sense to me to use the @{$links{$elementname}} instead of simply defined( $links{$elementname} ) to see if the element has been populated to begin with.

In fact, it looks like you need to check for the element's existence and if it has members in the array being referenced by it. I'd have to double check, but I think doing if ( @{$hash{element}} ) might throw a warning if the element does not exist or contains undef.