It doesn't arise on Windows, because the OS doesn't process the command line, just hands it straight to perl.

I'm not certain that Term::UI::History wouldn't work, but because it couldn't be running when the command line is processed by the OS, I can't quite see how it would work.

If your main concern is that you might ask perl to get a file that doesn't exist, I would use something like:

die "$fileName not found.\n\n" if !-e $fileName;

If it's writing to a new file, maybe you could similarly check that the directory exists, before writing to the file ?

In any case, it's still a good question, and if you do figure out an answer, please let me know!

Michael