...please, please, use one of those. (I mean Getopt::Std or Getopt::Long) You will be able to pare your code down by so many lines it's amazing. The latter module allows you more flexibility and power at the price of a steeper learning curve, the former will give you rapid access to a simple means of cleanly parsing your command-line. (But you may have to sacrifice the --force in favor of a -f option.)

...All the world looks like -well- all the world, when your hammer is Perl.
---v