What are the best-practices for implementing a CLI tool in Perl?

Question

I am implementing a CLI tool using Perl. What are the best-practices we can follow here?

Answer 1

The following points aren't specific to Perl but I've found many Perl CL scripts to be deficient in these areas:

1. Use common command line options. To show the version number implement -v or --version not --ver. For recursive processing -r (or perhaps -R although in my Gnu/Linux experience -r is more common) not --rec. People will use your script if they can remember the parameters. It's easy to learn a new command if you can remember "it works like grep" or some other familiar utility.

2. Many command line tools process "things" (files or directories) within the "current directory". While this can be convenient make sure you also add command line options for explicitly identifying the files or directories to process. This makes it easier to put your utility in a pipeline without developers having to issue a bunch of cd commands and remember which directory they're in.