This ofcourse being kinda nitpicking... but may I suggest localtime ? Using shell calls to get the date in a certain format just seems plain kinky to me. Shell calls will not only slow ya down, Taint might freak on em (as it should) and it could break your script if (you don't have access|it's not present on the box).

Greetz
Beatnik
... Quidquid perl dictum sit, altum viditur.