Perl: DB Connection details on the command line: Part 2

The previous post showed a simple routine for extracting out the database connection variables from the command line. It worked, but it had two flaws:

1. It doesn't validate your parameters
2. It requires you to put your password on the command line, visible to a PS command in Unix

The code below seeks to address both these issues. If you enter a paramter that I don't understand, it kicks you out, and it you end your input with a -p, it accepts the password without echoing it back to the screen, just like you hoped it would!

sub dbinfo() {
 use Term::ReadKey;
 my $helpinstructions = "Valid parameters are\n-h {host}\n" .
                        "-d {database}\n" . 
          "-u {user}\n" .
          "-p [password]\n";
 my %mydbinfo = ( db => "",
    host => "",
    user => "",
    passwd => ""
 );


 die $helpinstructions unless ($#ARGV > 5);

 for (my $i=0; $i <= $#ARGV; $i++) {
  $ARGV[$i]= "-?" if  ($ARGV[$i] ne '-h' and
     $ARGV[$i] ne '-d' and
     $ARGV[$i] ne '-u' and
     $ARGV[$i] ne '-p' );
  die $helpinstructions if ( $ARGV[$i] eq "-?" ) ;
  $mydbinfo{db} = $ARGV[++$i] if ( $ARGV[$i] eq "-d" ) ;
  $mydbinfo{host} = $ARGV[++$i] if ( $ARGV[$i] eq "-h" ) ;
  $mydbinfo{user} = $ARGV[++$i] if ( $ARGV[$i] eq "-u" ) ;
  if ( $ARGV[$i] eq "-p" ) {
   if ( $i ne $#ARGV) {
    $mydbinfo{passwd} = $ARGV[++$i];
   }
   else {
    print "\nPlease Enter passwd: ";
    ReadMode 'noecho';
    chomp($mydbinfo{passwd} = ReadLine);
    ReadMode 'normal';
    print "\n\n";
   }
  }
 
 }
 return %mydbinfo;
}
return true;

And the output:

D:\Documents and Settings\timj\perl>testcommandline.pl -h localhost -d cddb -u timj -p

Please Enter passwd:

Name            Title
Phatfish        Guaranteed
Phatfish        15
Bethany Dillon  Waking Up
Bethany Dillon  Bethany Dillon
Bethany Dillon  Imagination
Nick Drake      Made To Love Magic
Nick Drake      Five Leaves Left
Nick Drake      Bryter Layter

D:\Documents and Settings\timj\perl>

The great thing is that you can directly replace your previous version of the dbsettings routine with this one, and there is no need to alter your existing scripts!