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; like %+4Y-%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 the Epoch (1970-01-01 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 op‐
153 tional 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 + pad with zeros, and put '+' before future years with >4 digits
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163 ^ use upper case if possible
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165 # use opposite case if possible
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167 After any flags comes an optional field width, as a decimal number;
168 then an optional modifier, which is either E to use the locale's alter‐
169 nate representations if available, or O to use the locale's alternate
170 numeric symbols if available.
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173 Convert seconds since the Epoch (1970-01-01 UTC) to a date
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175 $ date --date='@2147483647'
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177 Show the time on the west coast of the US (use tzselect(1) to find TZ)
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179 $ TZ='America/Los_Angeles' date
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181 Show the local time for 9AM next Friday on the west coast of the US
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183 $ date --date='TZ="America/Los_Angeles" 09:00 next Fri'
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186 The --date=STRING is a mostly free format human readable date string
187 such as "Sun, 29 Feb 2004 16:21:42 -0800" or "2004-02-29 16:21:42" or
188 even "next Thursday". A date string may contain items indicating cal‐
189 endar date, time of day, time zone, day of week, relative time, rela‐
190 tive date, and numbers. An empty string indicates the beginning of the
191 day. The date string format is more complex than is easily documented
192 here but is fully described in the info documentation.
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195 TZ Specifies the timezone, unless overridden by command line param‐
196 eters. If neither is specified, the setting from /etc/localtime
197 is used.
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200 Written by David MacKenzie.
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203 GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
204 Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
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207 Copyright © 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU
208 GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
209 This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
210 There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
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213 Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/date>
214 or available locally via: info '(coreutils) date invocation'
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218GNU coreutils 9.0 March 2022 DATE(1)