Passing by reference question.

Hello; What does this mean? Fatal error: Call-time pass-by-reference has been removed in (path to source file); I am trying to write a recursive function for doing various operations on file system segments; directories with files. I am currently working on a delete (rm -R) function. So in one recursion create a local variable to record the name of the current directory that the recursive function has been called on. So that next lower level needs to record its status when its looping completes and there are no child directories in it. by setting this status, when it returns to the next higher level, the higher level can call rmDir on it. That local record is what is being passed by reference so its status can be set when the current directory is empty and can be removed. I have been getting notices from Rogue Wave about discontinuation of v 5.6 support. Does that apply to this list? Thank you for time and attention; Jeff K.