Getopt::Long in this case is just letting you be flexible -- the '-' is a valid character in a string, so it lets you put it in there. What I've done in the past is set up a collection of regular expressions to validate the strings passed in. You can do this after argument processing, or during using anonymous subs.

This ain't pretty, but it'll work.

my %script_opts = ();

GetOptions("foo=s" => sub { if ($_[1] =~ /^([^-]).*$/) {
    $script_opts{$_[0]} = $_[1];}  }
);
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Documentation for the module is here.

You don't mention how you initialize Getopt::Long, but you should be able to define 'file' as a boolean switch rather than a value field. Running the following:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use Getopt::Long;

my ( $file, $name );
GetOptions( file => \$file, name => \$name );
print "File: $file\nName: $name\n";
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with:

perl test_getopt.pl -file -name
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produces:

File: 1
Name: 1
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which sounds like what you want.

Chris
M-x auto-bs-mode

Nope. What I want is to be able to do:

myscript.pl -file -name

And get the error that -file requires a string. In the case here, I don't get the error. I get file set to "-name". In other words, I want getopts to recognize that a switch has followed the one I wanted to take a string instead of a string as a required, so the user does not need to worry about what order s/he puts the switch in.

---

I admit it, I am Paco.

Something like this might do what you need:


GetOptions(\%param, 'file:s', 'name:s', 'any:s', 'other:s', 'params:s'
+);
foreach (qw(file name any other params)) {
  die "Option $_ requires an argument\n" if defined($param{$_}) && $pa
+ram{$_} eq '';
}
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Using the colon (e.g. 'file:s') in the GetOptions call instead of an equals sign makes a string parameter on the switch optional rather than required. As a result, when GetOptions sees '-file -name', it interprets this as 'switch -file with no optional string param, followed by switch -name with no optional string param', rather than as 'switch -file with string param -name'. Then the subsequent loop goes through and complains if one of those "optional" parameters in fact has an empty value.

Also, if you check the perldoc for Getopt::Long you'll find that you can define handler subroutines to be called when an individual switch is encountered, which would probably also let you trap the case that's bothering you. I haven't used that capability in a while and it seems like it would be more work, but perhaps I haven't addressed all the angles of your question.

Good luck!