Thanks toolic. I am pretty OCD so code cleanliness is almost required for me. I am still new to using modules and Getopt:Long seemed a bit more complicated to use...I was kind of coding in a hurry. so Getopt::Std suited me well at the time. I definitely plan to implement Getopt::Long shortly. I was unaware of Pod::Usage (and 99% of the included modules) so thank you for that; I will check it out. As for the return's, I have made the corrections; thanks again for the customary norms. I'm not too sure where I picked up on pre-declaring my variables, but you're right, it does shorten the overall length and doesn't reduce readability at all.

I appreciate all the tips. I really want to take my time learning this stuff properly up front as opposed to having to correct ingrained bad habits later down the road.

-- hakkum