This is probably what you're looking for:

do_work ($cmd);

sub do_work {
   my $command = shift;
   # do stuff here...
}
[download]

If you need to pass more than one argument, try this:

do_work ($cmd, $foo);

sub do_work {
   my ($command, $foo) = @_;
   # do stuff
}
[download]

HTH

-- vek --