DATE("1") manual page

Table of Contents

## Name

date - print or set the system date and time

## Synopsis

date [OPTION]... [+FORMAT]
date [OPTION] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]

## Description

Display the current time in the given FORMAT, or set the system date.

-d, --date=STRING
  display time described by STRING, not `now'
-f, --file=DATEFILE
  like --date once for each line of DATEFILE
-I, --iso-8601[=TIMESPEC] output an ISO-8601 compliant date/time string.
TIMESPEC=`date' (or missing) for date only,
  `hours', `minutes', or `seconds' for date and time to the indicated precision.
-r, --reference=FILE
  display the last modification time of FILE
-R, --rfc-822
  output RFC-822 compliant date string
-s, --set=STRING
  set time described by STRING
-u, --utc, --universal
  print or set Coordinated Universal Time
--help
  display this help and exit
--version
  output version information and exit

FORMAT controls the output. The only valid option for the second form specifies Coordinated Universal Time. Interpreted sequences are:

%%
  a literal %
%a
  locale's abbreviated weekday name (Sun..Sat)
%A
  locale's full weekday name, variable length (Sunday..Saturday)
%b
  locale's abbreviated month name (Jan..Dec)
%B
  locale's full month name, variable length (January..December)
%c
  locale's date and time (Sat Nov 04 12:02:33 EST 1989)
%d
  day of month (01..31)
%D
  date (mm/dd/yy)
%e
  day of month, blank padded ( 1..31)
%h
  same as %b
%H
  hour (00..23)
%I
  hour (01..12)
%j
  day of year (001..366)
%k
  hour ( 0..23)
%l
  hour ( 1..12)
%m
  month (01..12)
%M
  minute (00..59)
%n
  a newline
%p
  locale's AM or PM
%r
  time, 12-hour (hh:mm:ss [AP]M)
%s
  seconds since 00:00:00, Jan 1, 1970 (a GNU extension)
%S
  second (00..60)
%t
  a horizontal tab
%T
  time, 24-hour (hh:mm:ss)
%U
  week number of year with Sunday as first day of week (00..53)
%V
  week number of year with Monday as first day of week (01..52)
%w
  day of week (0..6); 0 represents Sunday
%W
  week number of year with Monday as first day of week (00..53)
%x
  locale's date representation (mm/dd/yy)
%X
  locale's time representation (%H:%M:%S)
%y
  last two digits of year (00..99)
%Y
  year (1970...)
%z
  RFC-822 style numeric timezone (-0500) (a nonstandard extension)
%Z
  time zone (e.g., EDT), or nothing if no time zone is determinable

By default, date pads numeric fields with zeroes. GNU date recognizes the following modifiers between `%' and a numeric directive.

`-' (hyphen) do not pad the field
  `_' (underscore) pad the field with spaces

## Reporting Bugs

Report bugs to <bug-sh-utils@gnu.org>.

## See Also

The full documentation for date is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and date programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info date

should give you access to the complete manual.

## Copyright

Copyright © 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Table of Contents

- Name
- Synopsis
- Description
- Reporting Bugs
- See Also
- Copyright