Yet another solution (boy, you've got to be quick around here :))

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my $input ='junk_input.txt'; #returns filename from command line
my $nodename;
my $filename;
my $pathname;
my $backupdate;
my $textline;
my $nochar ="";
my $charposition;
my $nextrecord;
chomp $input; #strip the carriage return

my  %len              = ('NODE',0,'FILE',0,'PATH',0,'DATE',0);
my  @textline         = ();

open (DATAFILE, "$input")|| die ("Can not open $input:!\n");  # access
+ the file

while (my $textline=<DATAFILE>) {
    chomp $textline;
    ################################
    # If continuation of last line
    ################################
    if (substr($textline,0,8) =~ /^\s/) {
        # Append contents to previous values
        $nodename   .= substr($textline,0,8);
        $filename   .= substr($textline,9,9)      if (length($textline
+) >= 10);
        $pathname   .= substr($textline,19,10)    if (length($textline
+) >= 20);
        $backupdate .= ' ' . substr($textline,29) if (length($textline
+) >= 30);
    } else {
    ################################
    # If new line
    ################################
        push @textline, "$nodename|$filename|$pathname|$backupdate";  
+         # Save previous line

        # Save new values
        $nodename    = substr($textline,0,8);
        $filename    = substr($textline,9,9)      if (length($textline
+) >= 10);
        $pathname    = substr($textline,19,10)    if (length($textline
+) >= 20);
        $backupdate  = substr($textline,29)       if (length($textline
+) >= 30);
    }
    # Remove unwanted spaces at beginning or end, depending on column
    $nodename       =~ s/\s{1,}$//g;
    $filename       =~ s/\s{1,}$//g;
    $pathname       =~ s/\s{1,}$//g;
    $backupdate     =~ s/^\s{1,}//g;

    # Save longest column length (used later for formatting output)
    $len{NODE}   = length($nodename)   if (length($nodename)   > $len{
+NODE});
    $len{FILE}   = length($filename)   if (length($filename)   > $len{
+FILE});
    $len{PATH}   = length($pathname)   if (length($pathname)   > $len{
+PATH});
    $len{DATE}   = length($backupdate) if (length($backupdate) > $len{
+DATE});

}

push @textline, "$nodename|$filename|$pathname|$backupdate";          
+         # Save last line of input file
close (DATAFILE);

for my $textline (@textline) {
   ($nodename,$filename,$pathname,$backupdate) = split(/\|/,$textline)
+;        # Separate columns
   
    # Format column widths
    $nodename       .= ' ' x ($len{NODE} - length($nodename));
    $filename       .= ' ' x ($len{FILE} - length($filename));
    $pathname       .= ' ' x ($len{PATH} - length($pathname));
    $backupdate     .= ' ' x ($len{DATE} - length($backupdate));
    print "$nodename $filename $pathname $backupdate\n";
}
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