Thank you to all who helped. Your guess was indeed correct I was looking at the dir attempting to see what file was newest and then output that file name. I have the perl working, the code may not be the nicest but it works. I realised I was not keeping the old compare time when looking at graff's example. I unfortunately cannot use a lot of modules. We are running an older version of perl at work and they refuse to update. I can't even use NET::Telnet Here it is as it works followed by the output: 
#use strict;

my $comparetime="0";
sub compare;


##defines locations to look for files
$Clinrxdir="D:\\StoreAccess\\shared\\sup shared\\";


##reads DIR
opendir(DIR,$Clinrxdir);
@Files= readdir(DIR);
closedir(DIR);


#for every file retured do the following
foreach $cpupdate (@Files){

##if the file starts with CP_ checks it's timestamp
if($cpupdate =~ m/\s*cp_/i){


##I did not write this section I was using code I read up on using goo
+gle and found in other various 

##scripts we used, for me the fact it broke it down in to a simple int
+ style var made life easier.

my $m_time = (stat($Clinrxdir.$cpupdate))[9];
my ($i_wday, $i_month, $day, $year) = (localtime($m_time))[6,4,3,5];


##prints what files where found and time stamps
print "Timestamp for " . $cpupdate . " " . $m_time ."\n";

##Attempting to use this sup to compare time stamps and change the $fi
+le var to the one with most recent 

##stamp
compare($m_time);
}

}


##$file is pulled from the compare sub
print "The oldest file= " . $file . "\n";
print "The time stamp for this file is " . $oldcomp . "\n";

system("pause");


##this was meant to work in the following manner: look at time stamp. 
+if it's older than the one
##currently stored do nothing, if it's newer change $file to be the fi
+le name of the newer file.
##this is where I realised my folly thanks to graff's code.. I was not
+ keeping anything to compare to 

##other than the new string


sub compare($){
local( $string ) = shift;
if($comparetime > $oldcomp){
    $file=$cpupdate;
    $oldcomp=$string;}

    else{$comparetime = $string;}
}

[download]

Timestamp for CP_APR09.exe 1241465790
Timestamp for CP_FEB09.exe 1236031283
Timestamp for CP_JUL09.exe 1249498031
Timestamp for CP_JUN09.EXE 1247593421
Timestamp for CP_MAR09.EXE 1238771856
Timestamp for CP_MAY09.EXE 1244056821
The oldest file= CP_JUL09.exe
The time stamp for this file is 1249498031

That is as the output looks when returned in perl once again thank you for your help

In reply to Re^2: Compare script by TheRedcoat
in thread Compare script by TheRedcoat

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