note almut <blockquote> With this behaviour I cannot run a script with different flags without having to modify it if it contains a shebang lines with flags. </blockquote> You could also argue the other way round, i.e. it provides for consistency independently of how exactly the interpreter is being invoked — in particular as there are some operating system that don't handle shebangs (one rather commonly used one is among them...). And some options might be an integral part of a script, or at least important to its proper functioning — like <c>-n</c>, <c>-p</c>, <c>-l</c>, <c>-C</c> (which didn't work on the shebang line until recently, btw), etc. — so I would rather want them to remain in effect when I call the script as <c>perl myscript.pl</c> . 850850 850939