sg:

Perl definitely has some good parsing mojo, so I can understand that aspect of it. Perhaps it might make sense to make an Inline::C interface to your code? You could rename main(), and then do all your argument parsing and verification straight from perl. Then, if everything passes muster, you can call what would've been your main(), but with exactly predictable arguments (i.e., no further parsing required). That would reduce a little of the back & forth, and simplify keeping the perl in synch with the C, as the bits that would need to cooperate can be in the same module. That way, you'd get the parsing goodness of Getopt::Declare, and it might be a bit less work.

Just a thought.

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.