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date

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
FILES

NAME

date − show and set date and time

SYNOPSIS

date [ -u ] [ -c ] [ -r seconds ] [ +format ] [ [yyyy]mmddhhmm[yy][.ss] ]

DESCRIPTION

The date command without arguments writes the date and time to the standard output in the form

Wed Mar 8 14:54:40 EST 1989

with EST replaced by the local time zone’s abbreviation (or by the abbreviation for the time zone specified in the TZ environment variable if set). The exact output format depends on the locale.

If a command-line argument starts with a plus sign (“+”), the rest of the argument is used as a format that controls what appears in the output. In the format, when a percent sign (“%” appears, it and the character after it are not output, but rather identify part of the date or time to be output in a particular way (or identify a special character to output):


		Sample output	Explanation
		%a
		Wed	Abbreviated weekday name*
		%A
		Wednesday	Full weekday name*
		%b
		Mar	Abbreviated month name*
		%B
		March	Full month name*
		%c
		Wed Mar 08 14:54:40 1989	Date and time*
		%C
		19	Century
		%d
		08	Day of month (always two digits)
		%D
		03/08/89	Month/day/year (eight characters)
		%e
		8	Day of month (leading zero blanked)
		%h
		Mar	Abbreviated month name*
		%H
		14	24-hour-clock hour (two digits)
		%I
		02	12-hour-clock hour (two digits)
		%j
		067	Julian day number (three digits)
		%k
		2	12-hour-clock hour (leading zero blanked)
		%l
		14	24-hour-clock hour (leading zero blanked)
		%m
		03	Month number (two digits)
		%M
		54	Minute (two digits)
		%n
		\n	newline character
		%p
		PM	AM/PM designation
		%r
		02:54:40 PM	Hour:minute:second AM/PM designation
		%R
		14:54	Hour:minute
		%S
		40	Second (two digits)
		%t
		\t	tab character
		%T
		14:54:40	Hour:minute:second
		%U
		10	Sunday-based week number (two digits)
		%w
		3	Day number (one digit, Sunday is 0)
		%W
		10	Monday-based week number (two digits)
		%x
		03/08/89	Date*
		%X
		14:54:40	Time*
		%y
		89	Last two digits of year
		%Y
		1989	Year in full
		%z
		-0500	Numeric time zone
		%Z
		EST	Time zone abbreviation
		%+
		Wed Mar 8 14:54:40 EST 1989	Default output format*

* The exact output depends on the locale.

If a character other than one of those shown above appears after a percent sign in the format, that following character is output. All other characters in the format are copied unchanged to the output; a newline character is always added at the end of the output.

In Sunday-based week numbering, the first Sunday of the year begins week 1; days preceding it are part of “week 0”. In Monday-based week numbering, the first Monday of the year begins week 1.

To set the date, use a command line argument with one of the following forms:

	1454	24-hour-clock hours (first two digits) and minutes
	081454	Month day (first two digits), hours, and minutes
	03081454	Month (two digits, January is 01), month day, hours, minutes
	8903081454	Year, month, month day, hours, minutes
	0308145489	Month, month day, hours, minutes, year
		(on System V-compatible systems)
	030814541989	Month, month day, hours, minutes, four-digit year
	198903081454	Four-digit year, month, month day, hours, minutes

If the century, year, month, or month day is not given, the current value is used. Any of the above forms may be followed by a period and two digits that give the seconds part of the new time; if no seconds are given, zero is assumed.

These options are available:
-u or -c

Use Universal Time when setting and showing the date and time.

-r seconds

Output the date that corresponds to seconds past the epoch of 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC, where seconds should be an integer, either decimal, octal (leading 0), or hexadecimal (leading 0x), preceded by an optional sign.

FILES

	/etc/localtime	local timezone file
	/usr/lib/locale/L/LC_TIME	description of time locale L
	/usr/share/zoneinfo	timezone information directory
	/usr/share/zoneinfo/posixrules	used with POSIX-style TZ’s
	/usr/share/zoneinfo/GMT	for UTC leap seconds

If /usr/share/zoneinfo/GMT is absent, UTC leap seconds are loaded from /usr/share/zoneinfo/posixrules.