1DATE(1)                          User Commands                         DATE(1)
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NAME

6       date - print or set the system date and time
7

SYNOPSIS

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

13       Display the current time in the given FORMAT, or set the system date.
14
15       Mandatory  arguments  to  long  options are mandatory for short options
16       too.
17
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)
151
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
166
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.
171

EXAMPLES

173       Convert seconds since the Epoch (1970-01-01 UTC) to a date
174
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'
184

DATE STRING

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.
193

ENVIRONMENT

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.
198

AUTHOR

200       Written by David MacKenzie.
201

REPORTING BUGS

203       GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
204       Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
205
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.
211

SEE ALSO

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)
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