You should also look at perldoc perlvar for @ARGV for command line arguments

Since there isn't a need to roll your own, it is back to CPAN for modules on command line arguments.
Click Me

As yet another reason to use CPAN - you may want to look at one of the config modules. This will allow you to have a standard config and then overide those parameters on the command line.
Links are cool

Cheers - L~R

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
#
# This script is set up to accept *3* parameters:
# >./perl_argv.pl abc 123 xyz

use strict;

my $arg1 = shift;
my $arg2 = shift;
my $arg3 = shift;

if (! $arg1) {
    print "Didn't get 1st argument!\n";
}
else {
    print "1st argument = $arg1\n";
}

if (! $arg2) {
    print "Didn't get 2nd argument!\n";
}
else {
    print "2nd argument = $arg2\n";
}

if (! $arg3) {
    print "Didn't get 3rd argument!\n";
}
else {
    print "3rd argument = $arg3\n";
}
[download]

For the MD5 part, I did a google search for 'perl encrypt md5' and found this link:

http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Digest/Digest-Perl-MD5-1.5.readme

I haven't used it, but looks like perl module Digest::MD5::Perl does what you want.

HTH.

I have just taken a look at Digest:MD5 and it looks fairly simple to use _if you know how_. How would i pass somethign like $password containing a plain text password thru Digest:MD5 and output the encrypted password as $encr_pass?

MD5 and SHA1 do not encrypt, they hash. You can't undo a hashing function, but you can decrypt something that was encrypted.

That may be what you want, but it wasn't clear from your question. (Even if you know this, let me clarify for others.)

The digesting modules like Digest::SHA1 take some source data and make a small fixed-length hash value that would otherwise be very difficult to reproduce with some different source data. They are useful in the same way a CRC (cyclic redundancy check) is useful, only moreso. Nobody can get the original source data out of a hash value. You know the source data hasn't been modified if you get the same hash value (aka digest) that they did. But you still have to send the full data in some way.

The crypt() function for /etc/passwd passwords works the same way: it's a hashing of the plaintext password. This is handy because nobody can get the original password back from the hash value. The password checker just checks to see if the user supplies any password that would hash to an identical value. Now several operating systems support MD5-generated hash values in addition to the weaker crypt(), but it's the same idea.

--
[ e d @ h a l l e y . c c ]

Hi AnonyMonk,

With the first of these, your best bet is to look at @ARGV in the perldocs and see how to access and parse command line parameters. This node should help you there as the Getopt::Long and Getopt::std modules are your friends. For more info on this, use the search tool at the top left of the website to find the perldocs for these modules.

It is easy to encrypt to md5, using the MD5 module. See this page for information on how to use it.

Elgon

Please, if this node offends you, re-read it. Think for a bit. I am almost certainly not trying to offend you. Rememer - Please never take anything I do or say seriously.

------
We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.

Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.

I have just taken a look at Digest:MD5 and it looks fairly simple to use _if you know how_. How would i pass somethign like $password containing a plain text password thru Digest:MD5 and output the encrypted password as $encr_pass?.

Like this:

use Digest::MD5 qw(md5);
my $password = "passwd";
my $encr_pass = md5($password);
[download]

But for anything new, you should be using SHA1 (as MD5 is quite possibly on its deathbed as far as security applications go), which is done like this:

use Digest::SHA1 qw(sha1);
my $password = "passwd";
my $encr_pass = sha1($password);
[download]

Unfortunately, Digest::SHA1 doesn't come with Perl by default (the MD5 module does).

Better still, you can use simply Digest with an OO interface to specify the hash algorithm at runtime. IMHO, its important to be able to switch from one crypto/hash algorithm to another on a moment's notice, in case your current algorithm turns out to have a catastrophic security hole. The Digest.pm module helps you to do that change. Here's how to use it:

use Digest;
my $password = "passwd";
my $digest = Digest->new("SHA1");
$digest->add($password);
my $encr_pass = $digest->digest();
[download]

The OO interface in the Digest.pm module is basically the same as the interface in the Digest::MD5 and Digest::SHA1 modules (I used the functional interface for those modules above, for simplicity's sake).

----
I wanted to explore how Perl's closures can be manipulated, and ended up creating an object system by accident.
-- Schemer

Note: All code is untested, unless otherwise stated