First: use strictures (use strict; use warnings;).

Second: named subs don't belong inside a while loop (replies to Perl scoping not logical...? may help understand why).

When you add use strict; you will find the variable $username can't be found. Because you use it in various subs you need to pass it into those subs. You've done that for greeting, but not elsewhere.

i dunno what in the world we have done wrong.

Okay, here is the revised version, now i get this error when it is compiling:
Global symbol "%logins" requires explicit package name at ./maybe.pl line 62. Execution of ./maybe.pl aborted due to compilation errors.


#    AGTS-CLI(Andrew's GTK Time System-Command Line version)
#    Copyright (C) 2008  Andrew Harris
#
#    This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or mod
+ify
#    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published
+ by
#    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
#    (at your option) any later version.
#
#    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
#    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
#    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
#    GNU General Public License for more details.
#
#    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
#    along with this program.  If not, email andrew2325@gmail.com!
#    Contributors:  Kelly Royal <netdaemon862@gmail.com>
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my $time = localtime;
sub verify {
    my $username = shift;
    my %logins = ("aharris" => "1234", "kroyal" => "5678");
    if (exists $logins{$username}) {
        login($username, %logins);
    }
    else {
        print "$username does not exist in our database.\n";
    }
}

sub login {
    my %logins = shift;
    my $username = shift;
    print "Enter your password: ";
    chomp(my $pass = <STDIN>);
    if ($pass <=> $logins{$username}) {
        greeting($username);
    }
    else {
        print "Incorrect password!\n";
    }
}

sub greeting {
    my $username = shift;
    print "Welcome $username.\n";
    print "Current time is $time\n\n\n";
}

sub admin {
    print "Administrative Tools\n";
    print "1. Add user\n";
    print "2. Remove user\n";
    print "Enter selection: ";
    chomp(my $selection = <STDIN>);
    if ($selection == "1") {
        print "Enter new user name: ";
        chomp(my $newname = <STDIN>);
        print "Enter password for $newname: ";
        chomp(my $newpass = <STDIN>);
        $logins{$newname} = $newpass;
        print "User added.\n";
    }
}
while (1) {
print "Welcome, Main Menu\n";
print "1. Log in\n";
print "2. Log out\n";
print "3. Administration\n";
print "Enter selection: ";
my $selection = <STDIN>;
if ($selection == "1") {
    print "Enter your user name to log in: ";
    chomp(my $username = <STDIN>);
    verify($username);
    open(MYLOGINFILE, ">>login.txt");
    print MYLOGINFILE "$username:$time\n";
    close(MYLOGINFILE);
}
elsif ($selection == "2") {
    print "Enter your user name to log out: ";
    chomp(my $username = <STDIN>);
    verify($username);
    open(MYLOGOUTFILE, ">>login.txt");
    print MYLOGOUTFILE "$username:$time\n";
    close(MYLOGOUTFILE);
}
elsif ($selection == "3") {
    admin;    
}
}
[download]


When I remove use strict; use warnings;, it runs, but it doesn't add the users/passwords to the hash..

use strict; requires that you declare all variables using my in all scopes. The variable $username is used in your "login" sub, but it is not declared there, nor is it declared as a global variable. Since your call to "login" is:

        login($username, %logins);
[download]

I believe you might want:

sub login {
    my $username = shift;
    my %logins = shift;
[download]

You only declare your $time variable in your "greeting" sub, but you use it in the "while" loop.

first i had use strict; use warnings; in there, but it wouldn't run the script. just gave a warning about line 83. then i removed it to see if it would work without the debugging.

Did you consider fixing the bug that caused the warning on line 83?

use warnings; use strict; aren't debugging aids. They help reveal badly constructed Perl. You debug your program after it compiles cleanly.

#    AGTS-CLI(Andrew's GTK Time System-Command Line version)
#    Copyright (C) 2008  Andrew Harris
#
#    This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or mod
+ify
#    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published
+ by
#    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
#    (at your option) any later version.
#
#    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
#    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
#    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
#    GNU General Public License for more details.
#
#    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
#    along with this program.  If not, email andrew2325@gmail.com!
#    Contributors:  Kelly Royal <netdaemon862@gmail.com>
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings; 
my $time = localtime;
sub verify {
    my $username = shift;
    my %logins = shift;
    if (exists $logins{$username}) {
        login($username, %logins);
    }
    else {
        print "$username does not exist in our database.\n";
    }
}

sub login {
    my %logins = shift;
    my $username = shift;
    print "Enter your password: ";
    chomp(my $pass = <STDIN>);
    if ($pass <=> $logins{$username}) {
        greeting($username);
    }
    else {
        print "Incorrect password!\n";
    }
}

sub greeting {
    my $username = shift;
    print "Welcome $username.\n";
    print "Current time is $time\n\n\n";
}

sub admin {
    my %logins = shift;
    print "Administrative Tools\n";
    print "1. Add user\n";
    print "2. Remove user\n";
    print "Enter selection: ";
    chomp(my $selection = <STDIN>);
    if ($selection == "1") {
        print "Enter new user name: ";
        chomp(my $newname = <STDIN>);
        print "Enter password for $newname: ";
        chomp(my $newpass = <STDIN>);
        $logins{$newname} = $newpass;
        print "User added.\n";
    }
}
while (1) {
print "Welcome, Main Menu\n";
print "1. Log in\n";
print "2. Log out\n";
print "3. Administration\n";
print "Enter selection: ";
my $selection = <STDIN>;
my %logins = ("kroyal" => "5678", "aharris" => "1234");
if ($selection == "1") {
    print "Enter your user name to log in: ";
    chomp(my $username = <STDIN>);
    verify($username, %logins);
    open(MYLOGINFILE, ">>login.txt");
    print MYLOGINFILE "$username:$time\n";
    close(MYLOGINFILE);
}
elsif ($selection == "2") {
    print "Enter your user name to log out: ";
    chomp(my $username = <STDIN>);
    verify($username);
    open(MYLOGOUTFILE, ">>login.txt");
    print MYLOGOUTFILE "$username:$time\n";
    close(MYLOGOUTFILE);
}
elsif ($selection == "3") {
    admin(%logins);    
}
}
[download]

If you really want to pass your hash around

login($username, %logins);

then the start of the login sub should be

my $username = shift;
my %logins = @_;
[download]

and this

if ($pass <=> $logins{$username})
[download]

becomes

if( $pass eq $logins{$username} )
[download]

ie use a string comparison operator.
http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html#Equality-Operators

Numeric test:

if ($selection == "1")
[download]

becomes

if ($selection == 1)
[download]

Cheers
Chris

#!/usr/bin/perl
#
#    AGTS-CLI(Andrew's GTK Time System-Command Line version)
#    Copyright (C) 2008  Andrew Harris
#
#    This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or mod
+ify
#    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published
+ by
#    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
#    (at your option) any later version.
#
#    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
#    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
#    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
#    GNU General Public License for more details.
#
#    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
#    along with this program.  If not, email andrew2325@gmail.com!
#    Contributors:  Kelly Royal <netdaemon862@gmail.com>

use strict;
use warnings;
my $time = localtime;
my %logins = ("aharris" => "1234", "kroyal" => "5678");
sub verify {
    my $username = shift;
    if (exists $logins{$username}) {
        login($username, %logins);
    }
    else {
        print "$username does not exist in our database.\n";
    }
}

sub login {
    my %logins;
    my $username;
    print "Enter your password: ";
    chomp(my $pass = <STDIN>);
    if ($pass eq $logins{$username}) {
        greeting($username);
    }
    else {
        print "Incorrect password!\n";
    }
}

sub greeting {
    my $username = shift;
    print "Welcome $username.\n";
    print "Current time is $time\n\n\n";
}

sub admin {
    print "Administrative Tools\n";
    print "1. Add user\n";
    print "2. Remove user\n";
    print "Enter selection: ";
    chomp(my $selection = <STDIN>);
    if ($selection == 1) {
        print "Enter new user name: ";
        chomp(my $newname = <STDIN>);
        print "Enter password for $newname: ";
        chomp(my $newpass = <STDIN>);
        $logins{$newname} = $newpass;
        print "User added.\n";
    }
}
while (1) {
    print "Welcome, Main Menu\n";
    print "1. Log in\n";
    print "2. Log out\n";
    print "3. Administration\n";
    print "Enter selection: ";
    my $selection = <STDIN>;
    if ($selection == 1) {
    print "Enter your user name to log in: ";
    chomp(my $username = <STDIN>);
    verify($username);
    open(MYLOGINFILE, ">>login.txt");
    print MYLOGINFILE "$username:$time\n";
    close(MYLOGINFILE);
    }
    elsif ($selection == 2) {
    print "Enter your user name to log out: ";
    chomp(my $username = <STDIN>);
    verify($username);
    open(MYLOGOUTFILE, ">>login.txt");
    print MYLOGOUTFILE "$username:$time\n";
    close(MYLOGOUTFILE);
    }
    elsif ($selection == 3) {
    admin;    
    }
}
[download]