$DATE = 'date + %Y%m%d'; #Is this a Unix call? If so, how can I use Perl for this?

Use the following equivalent instead:

use POSIX qw(strftime);
my $DATE = strftime("%Y%m%d", localtime());     # or use gmtime()
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My question is how do I pass the "file info" into the GetOpts::STD from a cron job?

To add a -f option with an argument (filename), modify Anonymous Monk's getopt to:

getopt('if:',\%opts);
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A crontab entry can include arguments. Example:

00 22 * * * /usr/local/bin/sid_proc.pl -f /usr/local/home/pfuser/CURRE
+NT_54_USERS
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However, I generally run a shell script out of cron, and the shell script contains the arguments and calls the program.

00 22 * * * /usr/local/bin/sid_batch.sh
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Where sid_batch.sh contains:

#!/bin/sh
/usr/local/bin/sid_proc.pl -f /usr/local/home/pfuser/CURRENT_54_USERS
/usr/local/bin/sid_proc.pl -f /usr/local/home/pfuser/CURRENT_55_USERS
/usr/local/bin/sid_proc.pl -f /usr/local/home/pfuser/CURRENT_56_USERS
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