use POSIX qw(strftime);

print strftime("%Y.%m.%d", localtime()), "\n";
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I always forget about the POSIX stuff, of course I also wish Perl had a matrix operator so that I could say something like:

printf '%d,%02d,%02d', (1900,1,0) plus reverse +(localtime)[3..5];
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Er... I guess really that's just a vector operator... I know there are modules to do that, but I think it should be part of the Perl core... otherwise what's the point? I could just as easily write it:

sub add_vectors
{
    my @left = @{ shift };
    my @right = @{ shift };
    my @result = ();
    my $index = $#left > $#right ? @left : @right;
    while( --$index >= $[ )
    {
        $left[$index]   = 0 if not defined $left[$index];
        $right[$index]  = 0 if not defined $right[$index];
        $result[$index] = $left[$index] + $right[$index];
    }
    return \@result;
}
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A sloppy first pass, but you get the idea.

If we're talking Perl, you won't get 13 if it is the twelfth month, because localtime delivers months from 0 to 11.

Besides that I like your answer.

printf("%4d.%02d.%02d\n", $year, $month, $day);

Update:

As BlaisePascal points out, this snippet assumes that the variables already contain what you want to print out; you may need to coerce return values from time functions to get them into the appropriate form.

Try:

  printf("%4d.%02d.%02d\n",$year+1900,$month,$day);
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That is, if you don't want today's date to be printed as 100.09.11

You might want to use sprintf if you are trying to get it in a string.

Actually, you'll also want to use $month+1...

printf("%4d.%02d.%02d\n",$year+1900,$month+1,$day);

@_ = (0,1,1900); 
$_ = sprintf '%4d.%02d.%02d', map {$_+pop @_} reverse +(localtime)[3..
+5];

# $_ = 2000.09.11 on Sept 11th, 2000.

# Another way that is more readable is:
my( $day, $month, $year ) = (localtime)[3..5];
$_ = sprintf '%4d.%02d.%02d', 1900+$year, ++$month, $day;
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@xtime=localtime(time);
$day=$xtime[3]+1;
$month=$xtime[4]+1;
$year=$xtime[5]+1900;
$hours=$xtime[2];
$mins=$xtime[1];
$secs=$xtime[0];
$logname='//server/share/'."ftp$month$day$year$hours$mins$secs".'.log'
+;
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