i prefer

use POSIX;
use constant DATETIME => strftime("%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S", localtime);
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this returns something like "2001-07-02_15-07-32"

i use this to name temp directories, like

my $tmpdir = $ENV{TMP} . '/' . basename $0 . '.' . DATETIME . '.' . $$
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which gives me a uniquely named dir. then my named temp files are more human readable, because i don't need the date/time string in their names.

~Particle