my %options = ( date    => prev_day( strftime( '%Y%m%d', localtime )),
                    qadir   => $QADIR,
                    proddir => $PRODDIR,
                  );
    GetOptions( \%options,
                'date=s', 'qadir=s', 'proddir=s', 'exch=s',
                'altexch=s',
                'man', 'help', 'alert!', 'debug+' )
        || pod2usage(2);

    pod2usage(1) if $options{'help'};
    pod2usage( '-verbose' => 2 ) if $options{'man'};

##</code><code>##

    pod2usage( { -message => q{Mandatory argument '-file' is missing} ,
                 -exitval => 1  ,
                 -verbose => 1
               }
             ) unless $options{file};