The variables that getopts sets are package variables, not lexical variables. You can't declare them with my, you have to use use vars or use their full names (e.g. $main::opt_h>).

Personally, I like to use the version of getopts that takes a reference to a hash and puts the values in there.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Getopt::Std;

my %opt;
getopts('hd:t', \%opt);

my ($num_days, $dait, $today); # local vars used later

if ( $opt{d} ) { $num_days = $opt{d}; }
print ("num_days = $num_days\n");
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--
<http://www.dave.org.uk>

"Perl makes the fun jobs fun
and the boring jobs bearable" - me