Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: October 2008
Sommaire  

date - print or set the system date and time  

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

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', `seconds', 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 alternate representations if available, or O to use the locale's alternate numeric symbols if available.  

Written by David MacKenzie.  

Report bugs to <bug-coreutils@gnu.org>.  

Copyright © 2008 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.  

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.

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