Script to copy files

[MarkLeong]

I want to run a cron job that will copy a file. However the copied file need to have a time and date stamp as part of the filename. The copied file has to look like:-

originalfilename.yyyymmdd.hhmmss.backup

How do I capture the computer's date and time and append it to the filename?

[error27]

cp foo foo$(date +%Y%m%d.%k%M%S).backup

man date for more details.