i have an almost what you want. i'm still stuck in a couple of places. Proc::PID::File has some issues (at least the way i want to use it) in that it will delete your pidfile when it shouldn't. i started on a patch/replacement but haven't finished. (can't figure a good way to hold the pidfile locked while i daemonize since Proc::Daemon closes open files (losing the locks).

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
$|++;

my $base = '/home/me/testing';
my $name = 'simpledaemon';
my $default_configfile = join '/', $base, $name . ".conf";

=head1 NAME

B<simpledaemon> -- A daemon to ...

=head1 SYNOPSIS

simpledaemon [--start|--stop|--check] [--configfile <file>]

  Options:
    --help         Display help
    --man          Display man page

    --start        Start the daemon (default)
    --stop         Stop the daemon
    --check        Check the daemon

    --configfile <file>  Specify alternate configuration file
                         (default: simpledaemon.conf)

=cut


#
# handle command line options
#

use Getopt::Long;
use Pod::Usage;

my %opt = (
        help => 0,
        man => 0,
        configfile => $default_configfile,
        check => 0,
        stop => 0,
        start => 1,
        fork => 1,
);

GetOptions(\%opt,
        'help',
        'man',
        'configfile=s',
        'check',
        'stop',
        'start!',
        'fork!',
);


#
# handy dandy help and man options
#
pod2usage(-verbose => 1), exit if $opt{help};
pod2usage(-verbose => 2), exit if $opt{man};


#
# load the config file
#

use Config::General;
my $conf;                   # the object
my %conf;                   # the handy hash

# we eval this just to give pretty error messages...

eval {
        $conf = Config::General->new(
                -ConfigFile => $opt{configfile},
                -InterPolateVars => 1,
        );
};
if (local $_ = $@) {
        s/\n.*//;
        chomp;
        die "load config failed with: $_\n";
}

# and voila! here's our conf

%conf = $conf->getall;

if (0) {                                 # debugging
use Data::Dumper;
print Data::Dumper->Dump([\%conf],['conf']);
}

my $myname = $conf{Simpledaemon}{name};        # save some typing late
+r on


#
# now we start the real work... handling --start, --stop, --check
#

use Proc::PID::File;
my $pidfile;

$pidfile = Proc::PID::File->new(
#       dir => $conf{Simpledaemon}{base},        # default: /var/run
#       name => 'simpledaemon',                     # default: prognam
+e  (.pid g
ets added)
);

# only one of --check, --stop, --start will be performed.
# handle --check

if ($opt{check}) {
        if ($pidfile->alive) {
                print "$myname appears to be alive (pid ",$pidfile->re
+ad,").$/";
        } else {
                print "$myname appears to be dead.$/";
        }
        $pidfile = undef;
        exit 0;
}

# handle --stop

if ($opt{stop}) {
        if ($pidfile->alive) {
                my $pid = $pidfile->read;
                kill TERM => $pid;
                sleep 2;
                if (kill 0, $pid) {
                        print "$myname is hard to kill!$/";
                        exit 1;
                } else {
                        print "$myname appears to be dead now.$/";
                        exit 0;
                }
        } else {
                print "$myname wasn't alive.$/";
                exit 1;
        }
}

# handle --start

sub logfailsafe {
        open(F, '>>', $conf{Simpledaemon}{logfailsafe})
          and print(F @_)
          and close(F);
        die "@_";
}

use Proc::Daemon;

if ($opt{start}) {
        die "$myname already running!$/" if $pidfile->alive;

#
# fork if needed
# we get a new pidfile here, Proc::Daemon::Init closes the open files 
+(losing lo
cks)
#
        if ($opt{fork}) {
                $pidfile = undef;
                Proc::Daemon::Init;                     # become a dae
+mon
                $pidfile = Proc::PID::File->new(
                #       dir => '$conf{Simpledaemon}{base}', # default:
+ /var/run
                #       name => 'simpledaemon',             # default:
+ progname 
(.pid is added)
                );
        }

        $pidfile->write;


#
# start our logging, try and fail gracefully
#

        use Log::Log4perl qw(get_logger);
        eval {
        #       Log::Log4perl::init(\$conf{logconfig});
                Log::Log4perl::init_and_watch($conf{Simpledaemon}{logc
+onfigfile}
, 10);
        };
        if (local $_ = $@) {
                s/ at .*//;
                chomp;
                logfailsafe("logging config failed with: $_\n");
        }

        my $log = get_logger($conf{Simpledaemon}{logger})
          or logfailsafe("get_logger failed!\n");

#
# safeish death, pidfile is picky
#

        $SIG{INT} = $SIG{TERM} = sub { 
                $log->info("stopping");
                $pidfile = undef;
                exit 0;
        };


        $log->info("starting");

#
# here's our loop
#

        while (1) {
                no strict 'refs';
                sleep 20;
                for my $i (qw/ debug info warn error fatal /) {
                        $log->$i("log $i");
                }
        }

#
# end of our loop
#

} # start

__END__


=head1 DESCRIPTION

This program will...

=cut
[download]

i never found a CPAN module that did all of the stuff i wanted (like you, stop/start/check). my plan is to eventually get this finished up as a module that i can use for all of my daemons to provide common functionality.

package MyDaemon;
use base qw(SimpleDaemon);

sub MainLoop {
   #do work here
}
[download]

or something similar. i'm open for ideas/comments/pointers to modules etc.