This is a perl snippet I use for logging date/time stamps;
$ cat x this is a file with some data in it typically log file type of stuff pecan.makuch.org:/mkm/home/mkm $ cat x | dstamp.pl 20111103-002836 20111103-002836 this is a file 20111103-002836 with 20111103-002836 some data in it 20111103-002836 typically log file type of stuff pecan.makuch.org:/mkm/home/mkm $ cat scripts/dstamp.pl #!/usr/bin/perl while() { $d = `date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S`; chop $d; print $d . ' ' . $_; } pecan.makuch.org:/mkm/home/mkm $