Date Manual

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.

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

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

       -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’, ‘sec‐
              onds’,  or  ‘ns’  for  date and time to the indicated precision.
              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.  The only valid option for the second form
       specifies Coordinated Universal Time.  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., 21)

       %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 ( 0..23)

       %l     hour ( 1..12)

       %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 timezone (e.g., -0400)

       %:z    +hh:mm numeric timezone (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 alter‐
       nate representations if available, or O to use the  locale’s  alternate
       numeric symbols if available.

AUTHOR
       Written by David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS
       Report bugs to .

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright  ©  2008  Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+: GNU
       GPL version 3 or later 
       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 date

       should give you access to the complete manual.



GNU coreutils 6.9.92.4-f088d-dirtJanuary 2008                          DATE(1)