Re: Date in Filename

To get a useful short string from a date, I'd typically do something like this:

  my( $sec, $min, $hour, $mday, $mon, $year ) = gmtime;
  my $datestamp = sprintf "%04d%02d%02d-%02d%02d",
    $year+1900, $mon+1, $mday, $hour, $min, $sec;
[download]

Then you could include that in a file name, and open STDERR to it:

  my $error_log = "error-$datestamp";
  open STDERR, "> $error_log" or
    warn "Error redirecting stderr to $error_log: $!\n";
[download]

Thereafter, all writes to stderr (including from warn and die) will go to that file.

jdporter
The 6th Rule of Perl Club is -- There is no Rule #6.

Comment on Re: Date in Filename Select or Download Code

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Re(2): Date in Filename by chip (Curate) on May 19, 2003 at 16:08 UTC
Why `gmtime`? -- Chip Salzenberg, Free-Floating Agent of Chaos	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re(2): Date in Filename by jdporter (Paladin) on May 19, 2003 at 18:22 UTC
There are various good reasons. One that I find compelling is that in this Internet Age, where I am and where my process runs might not be in the same timezone. Indeed, we might have many users in many timezones, and many servers in many timezones. I'm finding `localtime` to be rapidly diminishing in usefulness. jdporter The 6th Rule of Perl Club is -- There is no Rule #6.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re(2): Date in Filename by benn (Vicar) on May 19, 2003 at 16:52 UTC
Maybe to avoid any ambiguity with DST? Otherwise, the error log could overwrite itself during the 'switching hour'. Cheers,Ben.	[reply]