File::Basename can be used to parse the dirname and basename from a string. In this example . . . 

• $dirname = /home/john.doe
• $basename = example.txt

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use File::Basename;

my $file     = "/home/john.doe/example.txt";
my $dirname  = File::Basename::dirname($file);
my $basename = File::Basename::basename($file);

You may also want to use File::HomeDir to return the users home directory.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use File::Basename;
use File::HomeDir;

my $home     = File::HomeDir->my_home;
my $file     = "$home/example.txt";
my $dirname  = File::Basename::dirname($file);
my $basename = File::Basename::basename($file);