Greetings all,
A little late I know but here is what I use for small cases.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Time::Local;
my $start_date_str = "2004-01-14";#date you are testing;
my ($year,$month,$day) = split(/\-/,$start_date_str);
$month--;#timelocal months are 0-11;
my $start_seconds = timelocal(0,0,0,$day, $month, $year);
my $today_seconds = time();
my $days_between = ( int( ( ( (abs($start_seconds - $today_seconds))/6
+0 )/60 )/24 ) );
print $days_between;
exit;
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Previewing it I must admit its not very elegant, but it works for me.
Hope that helps get you part of the way there.