[ID 20001112.004] man perlfunc omits tell()'s error return

This is a bug report for perl from nick@talking.bollo.cx,
generated with the help of perlbug 1.32 running under perl v5.7.0.


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[Please enter your report here]

pod/perlfunc.pod doesn't say what tell returns on error. The following
documents current behaviour (presumably behaviour since perl 1):

--- pod/perlfunc.pod.orig Tue Nov  7 00:12:06 2000
+++ pod/perlfunc.pod Sun Nov 12 19:54:46 2000
@@ -5068,9 +5068,9 @@
 
 =item tell
 
-Returns the current position for FILEHANDLE.  FILEHANDLE may be an
-expression whose value gives the name of the actual filehandle.  If
-FILEHANDLE is omitted, assumes the file last read.  
+Returns the current position for FILEHANDLE, or -1 on error.  FILEHANDLE
+may be an expression whose value gives the name of the actual filehandle.
+If FILEHANDLE is omitted, assumes the file last read.  
 
 There is no C<systell> function.  Use C<sysseek(FH, 0, 1)> for that.

Nicholas Clark

[Please do not change anything below this line]
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---
Flags:
    category=docs
    severity=low
---
Site configuration information for perl v5.7.0:

Configured by nick at Sat Oct 21 11:14:10 BST 2000.

Summary of my perl5 (revision 5.0 version 7 subversion 0) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=linux, osvers=2.2.17-rmk1, archname=armv4l-linux-64int
    uname='linux bagpuss.unfortu.net 2.2.17-rmk1 #5 mon sep 18 19:03:46 bst 2000 armv4l unknown '
    config_args=''
    hint=previous, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
    usethreads=undef use5005threads=undef useithreads=undef usemultiplicity=undef
    useperlio=define d_sfio=define uselargefiles=define usesocks=undef
    use64bitint=define use64bitall=undef uselongdouble=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='/usr/local/bin/gcc', ccflags ='-fno-strict-aliasing -I/usr/local/include -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64',
    optimize='-O2',
    cppflags='-fno-strict-aliasing -I/usr/local/include -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64'
    ccversion='', gccversion='2.95.2 20000516 (release) [Rebel.com]', gccosandvers=''
    intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8, byteorder=12345678
    d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=8
    ivtype='long long', ivsize=8, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='off_t', lseeksize=8
    alignbytes=4, usemymalloc=n, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='cc', ldflags =' -L/usr/local/lib'
    libpth=/usr/local/lib /lib /usr/lib
    libs=-lsfio -lnsl -lndbm -ldb -ldl -lm -lc -lposix -lcrypt -lutil
    perllibs=-lsfio -lnsl -ldl -lm -lc -lposix -lcrypt -lutil
    libc=/lib/libc-2.1.3.so, 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:
    DEVEL7385

---
@INC for perl v5.7.0:
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.7.0/armv4l-linux
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.7.0
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.7.0/armv4l-linux
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.7.0
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl
    .

---
Environment for perl v5.7.0:
    HOME=/home/nick
    LANG (unset)
    LANGUAGE (unset)
    LC_CTYPE=en_GB.ISO-8859-1
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH (unset)
    LOGDIR (unset)
    PATH=/home/nick/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin
    PERL_BADLANG (unset)
    SHELL=/bin/bash

• [ID 20001112.004] man perlfunc omits tell()'s error return by Nicholas Clark
• Re: [ID 20001112.004] man perlfunc omits tell()'s error return by Jarkko Hietaniemi