#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use warnings;
use strict;

my $start = "Tue Jan 27 15:40:16 2004";
print "This is the start time: $start \n";

system (This is where the system process stuff goes); 

my $finish = localtime;
print "This is the finish time: $finish \n";

my $elapsedtime = ("$finish" - "$start") ;
print "This is the time diff: $elapsedtime \n";

The above obviously didn't work.  Here's what it returned:

This is the start time: Tue Jan 27 15:40:16 2004 
Argument "Tue Jan 27 15:40:16 2004" isn't numeric in subtraction (-) at 
C:\Perl\timetest.pl line 13.
This is the finish time: Tue Jan 27 19:45:56 2004 
This is the time diff: 0 
Argument "Tue Jan 27 19:45:56 2004" isn't numeric in subtraction (-) at 
C:\Perl\timetest.pl line ClearCase\Us