GETDATE(5MDQS)          COMMAND REFERENCE          GETDATE(5MDQS)



NAME
     getdate -  time and date format for MDQS

DESCRIPTION
     Getdate converts common time specifications to standard UTek
     format.  The input format is used for time specification
     with the -a options of mdqs commands batch and lpr.  The
     format is a character string defined as follows:

     tod  A tod is a time of day, which is of the form hh:mm[:ss]
          [meridian] [zone].  If no meridian - am or pm - is
          specified, a 24-hour clock is used.  A tod may be
          specified as just hh followed by a meridian.

     date A date is a specific month and day, and possibly a
          year.  Acceptable formats are mm/dd[/yy] and monthname
          dd[, yy] If omitted, the year defaults to the current
          year; if a year is specified as a number less than 100,
          1900 is added.

     day  A day of the week may be specified; the current day
          will be used if appropriate.  A day may be preceeded by
          a number indicating which instance of that day is
          desired; the default is 1.  A negative number indicates
          past time.  Some symbolic numbers are accepted:  last,
          next, and the ordinals first through twelfth (second is
          ambiguous, and is not accepted as an ordinal number).
          The symbolic number next is equivalent to 2.  It refers
          not to the immediately coming Monday, but to the one a
          week later.

     relative time
          Specifications relative to the current time are also
          accepted.  The format is [number] unit [ago acceptable
          units are year, month, fortnight, week, day, hour,
          minute, second, today, now, this, tomorrow, and
          yesterday.

     The actual date is formed as follows:

     First, any absolute date and/or time is processed and
     converted.  Using that time as the base, day-of-week
     specifications are added.

     Next, relative specifications are used.  If a date or day is
     specified, and no absolute or relative time is given,
     midnight is used.

     Finally, a correction is applied so that the correct hour of
     the day is produced after allowing for daylight savings time
     differences.




Printed 10/17/86                                                1

GETDATE(5MDQS)          COMMAND REFERENCE          GETDATE(5MDQS)



     Most common abbreviations for days, months, and so forth are
     allowable.  In particular, they may have upper- or lowercase
     first letters and three-letter abbreviations for any of
     them, with or without a trailing period, are recognized.
     Units, such as weeks, may be specified in the singular or
     plural.  Time zone and meridian values may be in upper- or
     lowercase, and with or without periods.

EXAMPLES
     For the following examples the current time is Jan 16, 1985
     11:05 AM.

          tomorrow 2 PM

     This date will be Jan 17, 1985 14:00.

          20 minutes

     This date will be Jan 16, 1985 13:05.

          next thu 13:30

     This date will be Jan 24, 1985 13:30.

          April 1 5:30 PM

     This date will be April 1, 1985 17:30.

          1 hour ago

     This date will be Jan 16, 1985 10:05.

CAVEATS
     The daylight savings time correction can get confused if
     handed times between midnight and 2:00 am on the days that
     the reckoning changes.

SEE ALSO
     ctime(3c).
















Printed 10/17/86                                                2

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