use strict;
use warnings;
use Time::Local;

my $date  = "06/06/2009";

my ($m,$d,$y) = $date =~ m|(\d+)/(\d+)/(\d+)|;
my $timet = timelocal(0, 0, 0, $d, $m-1, $y);
print "Date '$date' => $timet\n"

# Updated -- check the reverse
my $ltime = localtime($timet);
print "$timet => $ltime\n";

# Results:
#   Date '06/06/2009' => 1244260800
#   1244260800 => Sat Jun  6 00:00:00 2009