Bareword "documentid" not allowed while "strict subs" in use

[Angel_Blue01]

I am trying to run the following command on a directory with 1,600 files:

exiftool -overwrite_original -P ''-documentid<${filename}' -if 'not documentid' -progress -r .

When I try to run a certain command recursively it exist with exit code 2. The -v flag reveals the following underlying error for each file in the directory, where the last part of the error is the file:

Condition: Bareword "documentid" not allowed while "strict subs" in use - ./DSCN1053.JPG

Googling the error points to others having this problem with Perl scripts. There was one person who had this message in the old forum, but alas, it is no longer viewable.

I am using exiftool 13.25 in Debian 13 using the bash shell.

[Angel_Blue01]

Running the command on a single file, without the -r flag works as expected.

[StarGeek]

Technically, it is only working "as expected" because the -if option is broken.

From the docs on the -if option

Specify a condition to be evaluated before processing each FILE. EXPR is a Perl-like logic expression containing tag names prefixed by $ symbols.

In the expression, you are using the bare word "documentid" and not the tag name DocumentID.

Also, a minor item is that you are making Common Mistake #5b, "Adding a leading "$" when copying a simple tag".

Try this:
exiftool -overwrite_original -P '-documentid<filename' -if 'not $documentid' -progress -r .