You can do it like this using -M to load the module and -e to execute whatever is inside the ' ' . In this case we call clone with the args:

perl -MDBUtil -e 'clone(arg1 arg2 arg3)'

or

perl -MDBUtil -e 'clone(@ARGV)' arg1 arg2 arg3
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Another option is to add something like this to your module:

#!/usr/bin/perl

package DBUtil;

# run main if called with command line args
# will not execute when called as a module (no cmd line args)
main() if @ARGV;

sub main {
    # blah
}
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More typically you would write a 3 line script that uses your module like this:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use DBUtil;
clone(@ARGV)
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Then you just call the script. This is analagous to the command line version and is probably the more conventional way to do it.

cheers

tachyon

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You could go the route that CPAN.pm uses:

Then just write a 'shell' sub that does what you want and export it by default.

If that is no good, you could possibly look at $0 to see if you are being invoked as ./DBUtil.pm or being required by another program or module. I have never tried that but it might work...

When a module is used or required, the user (or requirer) is set up as a caller, accessible using caller. You can take advantage of that like so:

  unless (defined caller) {
    # run as command line script
    ...
  }
  1;
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I do this all the time, mostly as a way of incorporating unit test code into my modules, but I've seen no good reasons why it shouldn't be done for other purposes. I do it like this.

package My::Module;
...
return 1 if caller;

#! perl -slw
package main;
use My::Module;

my $thing = My::Module->new();
# Do My::Thing:)

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Use the module in the normal way in other programs, or invoke it using perl -x libpath/My/Module.pm to run the embedded program. The -x is only needed if you want any shebang line switches to be processed, omit it and put your switches on the command line if you prefer.

For a good example of this, look at the diagnostics module, which may also be called as the standalone program splain. (It 'splains what the error messages mean, get it?)

There's a bunch of stuff in there, but pay attention to how the variable $standalone is set and used. On top of which, the code's funny in several places....