davidov0009 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

This should be a relatively simple problem to fix for those of you with more wisdom. It comes from using strict. I am calling upon 2 variables created when a function is run from an module. The script is as follows: 
use strict;
use diagnostics;
use Mail::SendMail;

my %mail=( To       => 'xxxxxxx@xxxxxx.com',
          From       => 'yyyyyyy@hyyyyy.edu',
           Message => "Message Body"
         );

   sendmail(%mail) or die $Mail::SendMail::error;
   print "Log Message:\n", $Mail::SendMail::log;

[download]
The error states that I have only used $Mail::SendMail::error and $Mail::SendMail::log once during
the script and relates this to a possible typo,
("Mail::SendMail::error" used only once: possible typo ....)
when all I want to do is call the variables once, since, supposedly they have been defined since
the call to the sendmail() function. How can I fix this error?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Strict error on var when using Mail::SendMail
by ikegami (Patriarch) on Mar 22, 2007 at 04:26 UTC

    To disable the warning for those two variable: 

    # Prevent "used only once" warning for these variables.
$Mail::SendMail::error = $Mail::SendMail::error;
$Mail::SendMail::log   = $Mail::SendMail::log;

    [download]

    To disable the warning for all variables: 

    no warnings 'once';

    [download]

    Update: There actually is a typo! $Mail::SendMail::... should be $Mail::Sendmail::....

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
Re: Strict error on var when using Mail::SendMail
by rhesa (Vicar) on Mar 22, 2007 at 04:27 UTC
    It's not actually an error, and it's not strict that's complaining. It is in fact a warning, and diagnostics warns you.

    I don't think the diagnostics pragma allows you to selectively disable its messages, like you can with e.g.  no warnings 'once', but you can turn all diagnostics off and on: 

    use diagnostics;

disable diagnostics;
do_naughty_stuff();

enable diagnostics;
do_nice_things();

    [download]
    For more details, see the manuals for diagnostics and warnings.
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

      That doesn't work for two reasons.

      • disable diagnostics; only affects run-time warnings. "used only once" is a compile-time warning.
      • disable diagnostics; doesn't disable the warning, just the diagnostic. So while disable diagnostics; would remove the diagnostic message, the basic warning message would still be displayed.

      The solution is to eliminate the warning (using no warnings 'once'; for example), since there's no diagnostic message if there's no warning.

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
Re: Strict error on var when using Mail::SendMail
by arc_of_descent (Hermit) on Mar 22, 2007 at 11:59 UTC

    You can try this out:

    use strict;
use warnings;
use Mail::Sendmail qw/ sendmail $error $log /;

my %mail=( To       => 'xxxxxxx@xxxxxx.com',
          From       => 'yyyyyyy@hyyyyy.edu',
           Message => "Message Body"
         );

sendmail(%mail) or die $error;
print "Log Message:\n", $log;

    [download]

    --
    Rohan

[reply]
[d/l]
Re: Strict error on var when using Mail::SendMail
by Herkum (Parson) on Mar 22, 2007 at 14:11 UTC

    Better to do use warnings than use diagnostics. Diagnostics tends to be pretty dumb and the error messages are overly verbose and are harder to control.

    Your code is a good example of this.

[reply]
Re: Strict error on var when using Mail::SendMail
by 13warrior (Acolyte) on Mar 22, 2007 at 18:53 UTC
    I think the message yo are getting is due to the enabling diagnostics. I feel use warnings is better than use diagnostics as it diagostics is just the verbose part of it.
[reply]
      Thanks your comments have helped me solve the problem, and I no longer will use diagnostics, but instead, warnings.

      Now I have one error left, it is an "undefined subroutine &main::sendmail"

      This function should have been exported to the namespace by default upon my call to the Mail::SendMail module, as the CPAN documentation states: sendmail is the only thing exported to your namespace by default.

      I have tried calling it with a & in front, and also placing the Mail::SendMail::sendmail namespace in front, nothing seems to work.

      Any ideas why it seems I cannot call the subroutine?

[reply]

        I should have pointed this out in my earlier post. Isn't Mail::SendMail a typo? It should be Mail::Sendmail. Hope this helps.


        --
        Rohan

[reply]

Back to Seekers of Perl Wisdom