sorry i am not sure i understood your response ...so which argument should i pass to this script to generate the .xml file ?

 
######################################################################
sub main
{
   my $gen_public = 0;
   my $version = "0.1";
   while ($arg = shift @ARGV)
   {
      $gen_public  = 1 if ($arg eq "-p");
      if ($arg eq "-v")
      {
         $version = shift @ARGV;
        $XLFILE =~ s/v0\.1/v$version/g;
      }
   }

   &print_t_xml_hdr();

   require "../vents.v$version.pl";
   foreach my $box (@SBoxes)
   {
      printf(" <Unc>\n  <ProcessArea name=\"%s\">\n", $box);
      &create_t_recs(\%P_UCventList, $gen_public, $box);
      printf("  </ProcessArea>\n </$area>\n");
   }
   
   my $cvents = "c_vents.xml";
   if (-f $cvents)
   {
        open(COXML, $cvents ) || die("Cannot Open $cvents");
        printf while <COXML>  ;
   }

   &print_t_xml_tail();
}
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Do you know what the -p switch does in your script?

Do you know what the -v switch does in your script?

The -v switch consumes one more argument from @ARGV and writes into a variable $version. That value is then stripped out from the string contained in the $XLFILE variable.

You don't show us where in your code the $XLFILE variable is populated, but most likely that file is what you want?

Or maybe the output filename is c_vewnts.xml - that is mentioned somewhere later.

My approach would be to talk to the people who wrote that program, or to the people who use that program and ask them about what the program does, and what its input parameters are and where it writes its output.

Hi the output file should be an .XML file which i believe is in the code as "c_vents.xml" I am just ensure of which arguments to parse on the script to generate the .XML file i tried running the script as follow: perl create_s_t_xml.pl -v 0.1 and it ge , why does it not generate the .XML file ?

In addition to what Corion said, are you sure your main() is called? And more, does it get past that require "../vents.v$version.pl";? If the main() sub is called then you should be able to see some XML header if all goes well... Best thing to do is to make a copy of that script and at some places add print "here1\n"; etc. to see what is the flow.

See also the Basic Debugging Checklist.