$ perl -MList::Util=reduce -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E ' my $newest = reduce { $a->[ 1 ] > $b->[ 1 ] ? $a : $b } do { opendir my $dotDH, q{.} or die qq{opendir: .: $!\n}; map { [ $_, ( stat $_ )[ 9 ] ] } grep { -f and not -l } readdir $dotDH; }; say qq{Newest file - $newest->[ 0 ]};' Newest file - spw1029421 $