Why no command line? Try changing your hash to this:

use Getopt::Long;

my (%parm, %file);

GetOptions(
            'recurse'  => \$parm{recurse},
            'cmprlevl' => \$parm{cmprlevl},
            'outfile'  => \$file{out},
            'logfile'  => \$file{log} 
          );

$parm{recurse}  ||= 1;
$parm{cmprlevl} ||= 9;
$parm{out}      ||= 'tgzpl.tar.gz';
$parm{log}      ||= 'tgzpl.log';
[download]

Now you can use 'gnu' long format args with your program. For example, tgz.pl --cmprlevl=3. Don't forget to untaint these values as well.