Linux Command Line Tutorial For Beginners 32 - date command

DATE(1)                        User Commands                       DATE(1)



NAME
       date - print or set the system date and time

SYNOPSIS
       date [OPTION]... [+FORMAT]
       date [-u|--utc|--universal] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]

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

       Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options
       too.

       -d, --date=STRING
              display time described by STRING, not 'now'

       -f, --file=DATEFILE
              like --date once for each line of DATEFILE

       -I[TIMESPEC], --iso-8601[=TIMESPEC]
              output  date/time  in  ISO 8601 format.  TIMESPEC='date' for
              date only (the default), 'hours', 'minutes',  'seconds',  or
              'ns' for date and time to the indicated precision.

       -r, --reference=FILE
              display the last modification time of FILE

       -R, --rfc-2822
              output  date  and time in RFC 2822 format.  Example: Mon, 07
              Aug 2006 12:34:56 -0600

       --rfc-3339=TIMESPEC
              output date and time in RFC 3339  format.   TIMESPEC='date',
              'seconds', or 'ns' for date and time to the indicated preci‐
              sion.  Date and time components are separated  by  a  single
              space: 2006-08-07 12:34:56-06:00

       -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.  Interpreted sequences are:

       %%     a literal %

       %a     locale's abbreviated weekday name (e.g., Sun)

       %A     locale's full weekday name (e.g., Sunday)

       %b     locale's abbreviated month name (e.g., Jan)

       %B     locale's full month name (e.g., January)

       %c     locale's date and time (e.g., Thu Mar  3 23:05:25 2005)

       %C     century; like %Y, except omit last two digits (e.g., 20)

       %d     day of month (e.g., 01)

       %D     date; same as %m/%d/%y

       %e     day of month, space padded; same as %_d

       %F     full date; same as %Y-%m-%d

       %g     last two digits of year of ISO week number (see %G)

       %G     year  of ISO week number (see %V); normally useful only with
              %V

       %h     same as %b

       %H     hour (00..23)

       %I     hour (01..12)

       %j     day of year (001..366)

       %k     hour, space padded ( 0..23); same as %_H

       %l     hour, space padded ( 1..12); same as %_I

       %m     month (01..12)

       %M     minute (00..59)

       %n     a newline

       %N     nanoseconds (000000000..999999999)

       %p     locale's equivalent of either AM or PM; blank if not known

       %P     like %p, but lower case

       %r     locale's 12-hour clock time (e.g., 11:11:04 PM)

       %R     24-hour hour and minute; same as %H:%M

       %s     seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC

       %S     second (00..60)

       %t     a tab

       %T     time; same as %H:%M:%S

       %u     day of week (1..7); 1 is Monday

       %U     week number of year,  with  Sunday  as  first  day  of  week
              (00..53)

       %V     ISO week number, with Monday as first day of week (01..53)

       %w     day of week (0..6); 0 is Sunday

       %W     week  number  of  year,  with  Monday  as  first day of week
              (00..53)

       %x     locale's date representation (e.g., 12/31/99)

       %X     locale's time representation (e.g., 23:13:48)

       %y     last two digits of year (00..99)

       %Y     year

       %z     +hhmm numeric time zone (e.g., -0400)

       %:z    +hh:mm numeric time zone (e.g., -04:00)

       %::z   +hh:mm:ss numeric time zone (e.g., -04:00:00)

       %:::z  numeric time zone with : to necessary precision (e.g.,  -04,
              +05:30)

       %Z     alphabetic time zone abbreviation (e.g., EDT)

       By  default,  date  pads numeric fields with zeroes.  The following
       optional flags may follow '%':

       -      (hyphen) do not pad the field

       _      (underscore) pad with spaces

       0      (zero) pad with zeros

       ^      use upper case if possible

       #      use opposite case if possible

       After any flags comes an optional field width, as a decimal number;
       then  an  optional  modifier, which is either E to use the locale's
       alternate representations if available, or O to  use  the  locale's
       alternate numeric symbols if available.

EXAMPLES
       Convert seconds since the epoch (1970-01-01 UTC) to a date

              $ date --date='@2147483647'

       Show  the time on the west coast of the US (use tzselect(1) to find
       TZ)

              $ TZ='America/Los_Angeles' date

       Show the local time for 9AM next Friday on the west coast of the US

              $ date --date='TZ="America/Los_Angeles" 09:00 next Fri'

DATE STRING
       The --date=STRING is a  mostly  free  format  human  readable  date
       string  such  as  "Sun,  29 Feb 2004 16:21:42 -0800" or "2004-02-29
       16:21:42" or even "next Thursday".  A date string may contain items
       indicating calendar date, time of day, time zone, day of week, rel‐
       ative time, relative date, and numbers.  An empty string  indicates
       the  beginning  of the day.  The date string format is more complex
       than is easily documented here but is fully described in  the  info
       documentation.

AUTHOR
       Written by David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS
       Report date bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
       GNU coreutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
       Report    date    translation   bugs   to   <http://translationpro‐
       ject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright © 2013 Free Software Foundation,  Inc.   License  GPLv3+:
       GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
       This  is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
       There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

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 coreutils 'date invocation'

       should give you access to the complete manual.



GNU coreutils 8.21              March 2014                         DATE(1)