Here is a Time::Local example

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use Time::Local;

my %months = 
    ( Jan => 0, Feb => 1, Mar => 2, Apr => 3, May => 4,  Jun => 5, 
      Jul => 6, Aug => 7, Sep => 8, Oct => 9, Nov => 10, Dec => 12);

sub get_epoch_seconds {
    my $line  = shift;
    # grab a scalar localtime looking like string from the line
    my ($wday,$mon,$mday,$hours,$min,$sec,$year) = 
        $line =~ m/(\w\w\w)\s+(\w\w\w)\s+(\d{1,2})\s+(\d\d):(\d\d):(\d
+\d)\s+(\d{4})/;
    die "Unable to find time like string in line:\n$line" unless $year
+;
    $mon = $months{$mon};   # convert to numerical months 0 - 11
  return timelocal($sec,$min,$hours,$mday,$mon,$year);
}

my $start = time();
my $string_start = scalar localtime ( $start );

print "Current time is $start epoch seconds\n";
print "As a string this is $string_start\n";
print "Converting string back into epoch seconds: ", get_epoch_seconds
+($string_start), "\n";

sleep 1;

my $string_finish = localtime;
print "As a string it is now $string_finish\n";
my $finish = get_epoch_seconds($string_finish);
print "This is $finish epoch seconds\n";
print "Comparing our times:\n";
print "$string_finish is after $string_start\n" if $finish > $start;
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cheers

tachyon

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