date

PURPOSE

     Displays or sets the date.
SYNOPSIS
     date [ [ [ date ] dd ] time [ .ss ] [ yy ] ] [ + format ]


       Operating With Superuser Authority

       Operating Without Superuser Authority

DESCRIPTION

     Warning:   Do not  change the  date while  the system  is
     running with more than one user.

     If called with  no flags or with a flag  list that begins
     with a + (plus sign), the date command writes the current
     date and time to standard output.  Otherwise, it sets the
     current  date.   Only  a user  operating  with  superuser
     authority can change the date and time.  The NLDATE vari-
     able, if it is defined,  controls the ordering of the day
     and  month  numbers  in  the  date  specifications.   The
     default order is MMddhhmm.ssyy where:

     o   MM is the month number
     o   dd is the number of the day in the month
     o   hh is the hour in the day (using a 24-hour clock)
     o   mm is the minute number
     o   .ss is the number of seconds
     o   yy is the last two numbers of the year.

     The alternative ordering is ddMMhhmm.ssyy.

     The  current  month,  day,  hour, and  year  are  default
     values.   The  system  operates in  Greenwich  Mean  Time
     (GMT).  date  takes care  of the  conversion to  and from
     local standard and daylight time as specified in the NLTZ
     environmental variable.

     If you follow  date with a + and a  field descriptor, you
     can control the output of  the command.  You must precede
     each  field descriptor  with a  percent sign  ("%").  The
     system replaces  the field descriptor with  the specified

     value.  Enter  a literal  "%" as  "%%".  date  copies any
     other  characters to  the  output  without change.   date
     always ends the string with a new-line character.  Output
     fields are fixed size (zero padded if necessary).

FIELD DESCRIPTORS

     a    Displays the  abbreviated day of the  week ("Sun" to
          "Sat" or the non-English equivalent).
     d    Displays the day of month ("01" to "31").
     D    Displays the  date as mm/dd/yy (the  default), or as
          dd/mm/yy.  This  format is  specified by  the NLDATE
          environment variable, if defined.
     h    Displays the  abbreviated month  ("Jan" to  "Dec" or
          the non-English equivalent).
     H    Displays the hour ("00" to "23").
     j    Displays the day of year ("001" to "366").
     m    Displays the month of year ("01" to "12").
     M    Displays the minute ("00" to "59")
     n    Inserts a new-line character.
     r    Displays  the time  in AM/PM  notation (or  the non-
          English equivalent).
     S    Displays the second ("00" to "59").
     t    Inserts a tab character.
     T    Displays the  time as hh:mm:ss (the  default), or as
          mm:hh:ss.  This  format is  specified by  the NLTIME
          environment variable, if defined.
     w    Displays the  day of the week  numerically (Sunday =
          "0").
     y    Displays  the  last two  numbers  of  year ("00"  to
          "99").

EXAMPLES

     1.  To display current date and time:

           date

     2.  To set the date and time:

           date  02171425.45

         This sets the  date and time to  14:25:45 (45 seconds
         after 2:25 p.m.)  February 17 of the current year.
     3.  To display the date and time in a specified format:

           date  +"%r  %a  %d  %h  %y  (Julian  Date:  %j)"

         This displays the date  (assume current year is 1984)
         shown in Example 2 as:

           02:25:03  PM  Fri  17  Feb  84  (Julian  Date:  048)

FILES

     /dev/kmem

RELATED INFORMATION

     See the time  and stime system calls  and the environment
     miscellaneous facility in  AIX Operating System Technical
     Reference.

     "Overview of International Character Support" in Managing
     the AIX Operating System.