Better yet from a performance standpoint, spare yourself a system call and use the builtin localtime, à la:

sub get_date {
        my @time=(localtime)[3..5];
        $time[2]+=1900;
        $time[1]++;
        foreach ($time[1], $time[0]) {
                $_ = '0'.$_ if $_ < 10;
        }
        "$time[2]$time[1]$time[0]";
}
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Yes, it's wordier, but adding this to your toolkit will allow you to cut n' paste it wherever you need it; you can also stick it in a module.

Philosophy can be made out of anything. Or less -- Jerry A. Fodor