date - linux command line to get and set the date and time in Linux

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

--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.

-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 oppo?
site 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 © 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software. You may redistribute copies of it under the
terms of the GNU General Public License
. 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.

date 5.97 January 2007 DATE(1)

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