use Date::Manip; Date_Init( "ConvTZ=IGNORE", "TZ=GMT" ); # We don't want time conversions happening. GMailBackup ignores timezone conformance and keeps timestamps as they were # If using Date::Transform, you can use '%g' that is short for %a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S %z - Fri, 28 Apr 1995 17:23:15 EDT; For eg : Sat, 9 Feb 2008 17:04:08 -0330 $mailDate = UnixDate( $mailDate , '%Y_%m_%Q-%H%M%S' ); # 2008_02_20080209-170408