But getopt always assumes all the named switches take arguments.

    getopt('oDI');    # -o, -D & -I take arg.  Sets $opt_* as a side e
+ffect.
    getopt('oDI', \%opts);    # -o, -D & -I take arg.  Values in %opts
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Try running this:

#!perl
use Getopt::Std;
my %opts = ();
getopt('z', \%opts);
for (keys %opts) {
    print '$opts{', $_, '} = "', $opts{$_}, "\"\n";
}
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you get some interesting results

C:\myperl\temp>perl temp.pl -z
$opts{z} = ""

C:\myperl\temp>perl temp.pl -y
$opts{y} = "1"

C:\myperl\temp>perl temp.pl -y -z
$opts{y} = "1"
$opts{z} = ""

C:\myperl\temp>perl temp.pl -z -y
$opts{z} = "-y"

C:\myperl\temp>temp -z -z
$opts{z} = "-z"
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