date
Hurricane Electric Internet Services
NAME
date - show and set date and time
SYNOPSIS
date [ -u ] [ -c ] [ -n ] [ -d dsttype ] [ -t minutes-west
] [ -a [+|-]sss.fff ] [ +format ] [
[yyyy]mmddhhmm[yy][.ss] ]
DESCRIPTION
Date 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 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 GMT when setting and showing the date and time.
-n Do not notify other networked systems of the time
change.
-d dsttype
Set the kernel-stored Daylight Saving Time type to
the given value. (The kernel-stored DST type is
used mostly by ``old'' binaries.)
-t minutes-west
Set the kernel-stored ``minutes west of GMT'' value
to the one given on the command line. (The kernel-
stored DST type is used mostly by ``old''
binaries.)
-a adjustment
Change the time forward (or backward) by the number
of seconds (and fractions thereof) specified in the
adjustment argument. Either the seconds part or
the fractions part of the argument (but not both)
may be omitted. On BSD-based systems, the
adjustment is made by changing the rate at which
time advances; on System-V-based systems, the
adjustment is made by changing the time.
FILES
/usr/lib/locale/L/LC_TIME description of time
locale L
/usr/local/etc/zoneinfo time zone information
directory
/usr/local/etc/zoneinfo/localtime local time zone file
/usr/local/etc/zoneinfo/posixrules used with POSIX-style
TZ's
/usr/local/etc/zoneinfo/GMT for UTC leap seconds
If /usr/local/etc/zoneinfo/GMT is absent, UTC leap seconds
are loaded from /usr/local/etc/zoneinfo/posixrules.
Hurricane Electric Internet Services
Copyright (C) 1998
Hurricane Electric.
All Rights Reserved.