A phantom death

I have a problem with a phantom "die" statement:

Use of uninitialized value in die at ./correct-<censored>-buch.pl line 114.
Died at ./correct-<censored>-buch.pl line 114.

However, this line does not contain a 'die', even though it used to. Currently it is: $update->execute(($autor, $titel, $verlag, $jahr, $ort, $auflage, $sprache, $einband, $seiten, $format, $stichwort, $sparteName, $lfdnr, $infotext, $preis_euro, $gewicht, $isbn)) or print "Fehler beim Aktualisieren von ISBN $isbn.\n";

I have tried reproducing the problem in a mini script, leaving the parameters for the update uninitialized or using a key for $isbn that does not exist. But not of that failed let alone caused the script to exit by a triggered "die" statement.

'$update' is defined as follows:

#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use DBD::mysql;
(...)
my $updateStatement =
"UPDATE `<censored>_buch`
SET
        `autor` = ?,
        `titel` = ?,
        `verlag` = ?,
        `jahr` = ?,
        `ort` = ?,
        `auflage` = ?,
        `sprache` = ?,
        `einband` = ?,
        `seiten` = ?,
        `format` = ?,
        `stichwort` = ?,
        `sparteName` = ?,
        `lfdnr` = ?,
        `infotext` = ?,
        `preis_euro` = ?,
        `gewicht` = ?
WHERE
        `isbn` = ?
LIMIT 1";
(...)
my $db = DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:database=<censored>;host=localhost;po
+rt=3306", "<censored>", "<censored>");
my $update = $db->prepare($updateStatement) or die ($DBI::errstr);
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Re: A phantom death by moritz (Cardinal) on Dec 18, 2008 at 12:33 UTC
You could try to wrap the dying statement in an `eval { ... }` block, and inspect `$db->errstr` after that. If it's a DBI error, that might contain some useful information.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: A phantom death by holli (Monsignor) on Dec 18, 2008 at 13:40 UTC
However, this line does not contain a 'die', even though it used to Check if the file you are editing REALLY is the file you are running. holli, /regexed monk/	[reply]
Re^2: A phantom death by Anonymous Monk on Dec 18, 2008 at 13:42 UTC
maybe restart webserver	[reply]
Re: A phantom death by derby (Monsignor) on Dec 18, 2008 at 15:33 UTC
Is the RaiseError attribute for your db handle being set somewhere? -derby	[reply]
Re: A phantom death by shmem (Canon) on Dec 18, 2008 at 18:05 UTC
To get where the die really occurs, there's Carp, specifically `Carp::confess`. You can set `$SIG{__DIE__} = \&Carp::confess` to get a stack trace, though it's not always accurate. If this die is occurring inside DBI, a `RaiseError =>1` passed to the `connect()` method should give you useful information.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: A phantom death by jakobi (Pilgrim) on Sep 30, 2009 at 16:05 UTC
Not yet mentioned: If everything fails, there's always the lowlevel approach of using the perl -d, type s<CR>, then keep <CR> pressed: this should give you the the last few lines of code before it dies, and thus an idea what actually happens. Maybe with a suitable breakpoint to speedup reaching the problematic line. man perlrun, man perldebug. Printing the arguments of the dying function call might also help -> perldoc -m Data::Dumper once again. Meta: shouldn't there be an existing help/faq node on basic debugging; or do we assume this to be well-known?	[reply]
Re^2: A phantom death by jdporter (Canon) on Sep 30, 2009 at 19:54 UTC
Meta: shouldn't there be an existing help/faq node on basic debugging; or do we assume this to be well-known? Well, Tutorials has a section Debugging and Optimization, but it doesn't have many articles. More would be appreciated! I've updated the Tutorials Quest with this request. Between the mind which plans and the hands which build, there must be a mediator... and this mediator must be the heart.	[reply]


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A phantom death

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