Okay, here's something I don't understand.

Suppose I have the following code, I'll call it prog.pl:

#!/usr/bin/perl

my $lines;
my @lines;

print ("\@ARGV: @ARGV, \$\#ARGV: $#ARGV\n");

if (!@ARGV){
   print("No command line parameters present");
}

chomp(@lines = <>);

foreach $lines (@lines){
   print("$lines\n");
}
[download]

1. If I run the program as perl prog.pl test.txt it prints out

@ARGV: test.txt, $#ARGV: 0

2. If I run the program as perl prog.pl it prints out

@ARGV: , $#ARGV: -1

(This next one is my problem.)

3. If I run the program as perl prog.pl < test.txt it prints out

@ARGV: , $#ARGV: -1

which looks as if there were no command line arguments.

Now, I realize that in some aspects, this might be considered correct,
as there are no command line arguments, just input to the <> operator.
Will GetOpt get around this peculiarity?
Or am I going to be stuck always showing my little help text no matter what?

Am I missing something dreadfully obvious?

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.