To add a bit to what brother ybiC states there is another function that has made my life piles easier.

use POSIX;
print strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", localtime),"\n";

# This displays the following:
# 2002-04-28 10:52:32
# (Assuming I ran this when I was typing. {g})
[download]

Do a man strftime to find out what all the formats are.

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