date(1) date(1)
NAME
date - print and set the date
SYNOPSIS
date [-u] [+format]
date [-u] [[mmdd]HHMM | mmddHHMM[[cc]yy]]
date [-a [-]sss.fff]
DESCRIPTION
If no argument is given, or if the argument begins with +, the
current date and time are printed. Otherwise, the current
date is set if the user is a privilege user.
Supplementary code set characters in + format (see below) are
recognized and displayed according to the locale specified in
the LC_CTYPE environment variable [see LANG on environ(5)].
Month and weekday names are recognized according to the locale
specified in the LC_TIME environment variable, as described
below.
-a [-]sss.fff Slowly adjust the time by sss.fff seconds (fff
represents fractions of a second). This
adjustment can be positive or negative. The
system's clock will be sped up or slowed down
until it has drifted by the number of seconds
specified.
-u Display (or set) the date in Coordinated
Universal Time or Greenwich Mean Time,
bypassing the normal conversion to (or from)
local time.
mm is the month number
dd is the day number in the month
HH is the hour number (24 hour system)
MM is the minute number
cc is the century minus one
yy is the last 2 digits of the year number
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date(1) date(1)
The month, day, year, and century may be
omitted; the current values are supplied as
defaults. For example:
date 10080045
sets the date to Oct 8, 12:45 AM. The current
year is the default because no year is
supplied. The system operates in GMT. date
takes care of the conversion to and from local
standard and daylight time. Only a privileged
user may change the date. After successfully
setting the date and time, date displays the
new date according to the default format. The
date command uses TZ to determine the correct
time zone information [see LANG on environ(5)].
+ format If the argument begins with +, the output of
date is under the control of the user. Each
Field Descriptor is preceded by % and is
replaced in the output by its corresponding
value. A single % is encoded by %%. All other
characters are copied to the output without
change. The string is always terminated with a
new-line character. If the argument contains
embedded blanks it must be quoted (see the
EXAMPLE section). Supplementary code set
characters may be used in format.
As noted, month and weekday names are recognized according to
the locale specified in the LC_TIME environment variable [see
LANG on environ(5)]. The names are taken from a file whose
format is specified in strftime(3C). This file also defines
country-specific date and time formats such as %c, which
specifies the default date format. The following form is the
default for %c:
%a %b %e %T %Z %Y
For example: Fri Dec 23 10:10:42 EST 1992
Field Descriptors (must be preceded by a %):
a abbreviated weekday name
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date(1) date(1)
A full weekday name
b abbreviated month name
B full month name
c country-specific date and time format
C century as a decimal integer (equivalent to the
year divided by 100)
d day of month - 01 to 31
D date as %m/%d/%y
e day of month - 1 to 31 (single digits are preceded
by a blank)
h abbreviated month name (alias for %b)
H hour - 00 to 23
I hour - 01 to 12
j day of year - 001 to 366
m month of year - 01 to 12
M minute - 00 to 59
n insert a new-line character
p string containing ante-meridian or post-meridian
indicator (by default, AM or PM)
r time as %I:%M:%S %p
R time as %H:%M
S second - 00 to 61, allows for leap seconds
t insert a tab character
T time as %H:%M:%S
U week number of year (Sunday as the first day of the
week) - 00 to 53
w day of week - Sunday = 0
W week number of year (Monday as the first day of the
week) - 00 to 53
x country-specific date format
X country-specific time format
y year within century - 00 to 99
Y year as ccyy (4 digits)
Z abbreviated timezone name
Some of the field descriptors above can be modified by
prepending them with an E or O, resulting in the following
descriptors.
Modified Field Descriptors (must be preceded by a %):
Ec Alternate appropriate date and time representation.
EC Name of the base year (period) in locale's alternate
representation.
Ex Locale's alternate date representation.
Ey Offset from %EC (year only) in locale's alternate
representation.
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date(1) date(1)
EY Full alternate year representation.
Od Day of month using locale's alternate numeric symbols.
Oe Day of month using locale's alternate numeric symbols.
OH Hour (24 hr clock) using locale's alternate numeric
symbols.
OI Hour (12 hr clock) using locale's alternate numeric
symbols.
Om Month using locale's alternate numeric symbols.
OM Minutes using locale's alternate numeric symbols.
OS Seconds using locale's alternate numeric symbols.
OU Week number of year (Sunday is 1st day of week) using
locale's alternate numeric symbols.
Ow Week day as number in locale's alternate
representation (Sunday = 0).
OW Week number of year (Monday is 1st day of week) using
locale's alternate numeric symbols.
Oy Year (offset from %C) in alternate representation.
USAGE
Examples
The command
date '+DATE: %m/%d/%y%nTIME: %H:%M:%S'
generates as output:
DATE: 08/01/76
TIME: 14:45:05
Errors
UX:date:ERROR:No permission
You are not a privileged user and you try to change the
date.
UX:date:ERROR:bad conversion
The date set is syntactically incorrect.
Files
/usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES/uxcore.abi
language-specific message file [see LANG on environ(5)].
REFERENCES
environ(5), strftime(4), sysadm(1M)
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date(1) date(1)
NOTICES
Should you need to change the date while the system is running
multi-user, use the datetime command of sysadm.
If you attempt to set the current date to one of the dates on
which the standard and alternate time zones change (for
example, the date that daylight time is starting or ending),
and you attempt to set the time to a time in the interval
between the end of standard time and the beginning of the
alternate time (or the end of the alternate time and the
beginning of standard time), the results are unpredictable.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 5