1DATE(1) User Commands DATE(1)
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6 date - print or set the system date and time
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9 date [OPTION]... [+FORMAT]
10 date [-u|--utc|--universal] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]
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13 Display the current time in the given FORMAT, or set the system date.
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15 Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options
16 too.
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18 -d, --date=STRING
19 display time described by STRING, not 'now'
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21 --debug
22 annotate the parsed date, and warn about questionable usage to
23 stderr
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25 -f, --file=DATEFILE
26 like --date; once for each line of DATEFILE
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28 -I[FMT], --iso-8601[=FMT]
29 output date/time in ISO 8601 format. FMT='date' for date only
30 (the default), 'hours', 'minutes', 'seconds', or 'ns' for date
31 and time to the indicated precision. Example:
32 2006-08-14T02:34:56-06:00
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34 -R, --rfc-email
35 output date and time in RFC 5322 format. Example: Mon, 14 Aug
36 2006 02:34:56 -0600
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38 --rfc-3339=FMT
39 output date/time in RFC 3339 format. FMT='date', 'seconds', or
40 'ns' for date and time to the indicated precision. Example:
41 2006-08-14 02:34:56-06:00
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43 -r, --reference=FILE
44 display the last modification time of FILE
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46 -s, --set=STRING
47 set time described by STRING
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49 -u, --utc, --universal
50 print or set Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
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52 --help display this help and exit
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54 --version
55 output version information and exit
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57 FORMAT controls the output. Interpreted sequences are:
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59 %% a literal %
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61 %a locale's abbreviated weekday name (e.g., Sun)
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63 %A locale's full weekday name (e.g., Sunday)
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65 %b locale's abbreviated month name (e.g., Jan)
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67 %B locale's full month name (e.g., January)
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69 %c locale's date and time (e.g., Thu Mar 3 23:05:25 2005)
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71 %C century; like %Y, except omit last two digits (e.g., 20)
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73 %d day of month (e.g., 01)
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75 %D date; same as %m/%d/%y
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77 %e day of month, space padded; same as %_d
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79 %F full date; same as %Y-%m-%d
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81 %g last two digits of year of ISO week number (see %G)
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83 %G year of ISO week number (see %V); normally useful only with %V
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85 %h same as %b
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87 %H hour (00..23)
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89 %I hour (01..12)
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91 %j day of year (001..366)
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93 %k hour, space padded ( 0..23); same as %_H
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95 %l hour, space padded ( 1..12); same as %_I
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97 %m month (01..12)
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99 %M minute (00..59)
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101 %n a newline
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103 %N nanoseconds (000000000..999999999)
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105 %p locale's equivalent of either AM or PM; blank if not known
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107 %P like %p, but lower case
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109 %q quarter of year (1..4)
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111 %r locale's 12-hour clock time (e.g., 11:11:04 PM)
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113 %R 24-hour hour and minute; same as %H:%M
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115 %s seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
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117 %S second (00..60)
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119 %t a tab
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121 %T time; same as %H:%M:%S
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123 %u day of week (1..7); 1 is Monday
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125 %U week number of year, with Sunday as first day of week (00..53)
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127 %V ISO week number, with Monday as first day of week (01..53)
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129 %w day of week (0..6); 0 is Sunday
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131 %W week number of year, with Monday as first day of week (00..53)
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133 %x locale's date representation (e.g., 12/31/99)
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135 %X locale's time representation (e.g., 23:13:48)
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137 %y last two digits of year (00..99)
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139 %Y year
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141 %z +hhmm numeric time zone (e.g., -0400)
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143 %:z +hh:mm numeric time zone (e.g., -04:00)
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145 %::z +hh:mm:ss numeric time zone (e.g., -04:00:00)
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147 %:::z numeric time zone with : to necessary precision (e.g., -04,
148 +05:30)
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150 %Z alphabetic time zone abbreviation (e.g., EDT)
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152 By default, date pads numeric fields with zeroes. The following
153 optional flags may follow '%':
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155 - (hyphen) do not pad the field
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157 _ (underscore) pad with spaces
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159 0 (zero) pad with zeros
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161 ^ use upper case if possible
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163 # use opposite case if possible
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165 After any flags comes an optional field width, as a decimal number;
166 then an optional modifier, which is either E to use the locale's alter‐
167 nate representations if available, or O to use the locale's alternate
168 numeric symbols if available.
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171 Convert seconds since the epoch (1970-01-01 UTC) to a date
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173 $ date --date='@2147483647'
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175 Show the time on the west coast of the US (use tzselect(1) to find TZ)
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177 $ TZ='America/Los_Angeles' date
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179 Show the local time for 9AM next Friday on the west coast of the US
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181 $ date --date='TZ="America/Los_Angeles" 09:00 next Fri'
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184 The --date=STRING is a mostly free format human readable date string
185 such as "Sun, 29 Feb 2004 16:21:42 -0800" or "2004-02-29 16:21:42" or
186 even "next Thursday". A date string may contain items indicating cal‐
187 endar date, time of day, time zone, day of week, relative time, rela‐
188 tive date, and numbers. An empty string indicates the beginning of the
189 day. The date string format is more complex than is easily documented
190 here but is fully described in the info documentation.
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193 TZ Specifies the timezone, unless overridden by command line param‐
194 eters. If neither is specified, the setting from /etc/localtime
195 is used.
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198 Written by David MacKenzie.
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201 GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
202 Report date translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
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205 Copyright © 2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU
206 GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
207 This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
208 There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
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211 Full documentation at: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/date>
212 or available locally via: info '(coreutils) date invocation'
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216GNU coreutils 8.30 July 2018 DATE(1)