Minor point, ybiC and no mua-hahaha this time.

Getopt::Long accepts all unique abreviations to the option, so you don't need to specify your synonym. See Getopt::Long for details, but these should work with 'infile=s'=>\$foo, 'bear=i'=>\$bar...:

script.pl --infile Myfile -bear 666
script.pl -i Myfile -b 5
[download]

Hope this helps,

Jeroen
"We are not alone"(FZ)