How about:

Personally, though, I'd go for putting all your arguments in a hash, with a reference to the opt_arg value, the variable you want the final result in, and the default value, and use a for loop to rip through them setting them all. Perhaps include a type (numeric, string, flag) and do a little type checking. For instance, if someone passed '123' to the $opt_tcp value, it prolly ain't gonna work...

--Chris

There are a number of ways to reduce some of this. The easiest way to get rid of the if's is probably something like:

Another simple way of setting defaults is to set them up before using Getopt::Long:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Getopt::Long;

my ($lines, $cols) = (5, 16);

GetOptions ('line=s' => \$lines, 'col=s' => \$cols);

print "Lines: $lines Cols: $cols\n";
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A very simple example I know, but it illustrates the point :)

Update: jcwren pointed out that I failed to mention this has a potential failure if you use '||' - if you want to set a value to '0', you won't be able to unless the default is also '0'. I advise pre-setting the defaults, and then letting the user override them - much simpler :) Thanks, jcwren.

Until Perl 6, you might find def -- Deal nicely with undefined values useful.     $targ= def( $opt_targ, 'localhost' );

$targ       = defined $opt_targ       ? $opt_targ       : 'localhost';
$firstport  = defined $opt_firstport  ? $opt_firstport  : 1; 
$lastport   = defined $opt_lastport   ? $opt_lastport   : 1024;
$proto      = defined $opt_proto      ? $opt_proto      : 'tcp';
$udptimeout = defined $opt_udptimeout ? $opt_udptimeout : 3;
$contimeout = defined $opt_contimeout ? $opt_contimeout : 3;
Usage('<lurch>You rang?</lurch>'), exit if defined $opt_help;
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Russ

if (defined $opt_targ){ $targ = $opt_targ }
  else {$targ='localhost';}
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$targ = $opt_arg;
$targ ||= 'localhost';
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#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use Getopt::Long;

my $targ    = 'localhost';
my $firstport    = 1;
my $lastport    = 1024;
my $proto    = 'tcp';
my $udptimeout    = 3;
my $contimeout    = 3;

{
  my %options;
  GetOptions(\%options, qw(targ=s firstport=s lastport=s proto=s udpti
+meout=s contimeout=s help!));

  if (defined $options{help}){
    Usage('You rang, sir?');
    exit;
  }

  ($targ, $firstport, $lastport, $proto, $udptimeout, $contimeout) =
  @options{qw(targ firstport lastport proto udptimeout contimeout)};
}
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With some further generalization the variable-/option-names wouldn't have to appear four times each as in this code either.

Update: maybe you want qw(targ=s firstport=s lastport=s proto=s udptimeout=i contimeout=i help!)? I can see someone saying POP3 for the port f.ex - but it doesn't seem to make any sense to take arbitrary values for the timeout parameters.

Makeshifts last the longest.