date

NAME

SYNOPSIS

date [-u] [-r seconds] [+format]

date [-u] -t [[[[[CC]yy]mm]dd]HH]MM[.SS] [+format]

date [-u] [+format] mmddHHMM[yy]

DESCRIPTION

If the argument provided is the month (mm, as a number), day (dd), hour (HH, as a number using the 24-hour system), minute (MM) and optionally the year (yy--current year if omitted), the utility attempts to set the system date and time. Only a user with appropriate privileges may set the date.

OPTIONS

-r seconds

Display the date and time in seconds from the UNIX Epoch (January 1, 1970)

-t [[[[[CC]yy]mm]dd]HH]MM[.SS]

Set the time and date for minutes west of Greenwich mean time (GMT). This value is the number of minutes that is returned in the tz_minuteswest member in calls to gettimeofday(2). Only the minutes (MM) are required; hours (HH), days (dd), month (mm), the century (CC), and seconds (SS) are all optional.

-u

Display the date in Universal Coordinated Time (UCT).

+format

Display the date and time in the format specified by format. Format can contain arbitrary text and any of the following conversion specifications:

%A	The full weekday name.
%a	The abbreviated weekday name, where the abbreviation is the first three characters.
%B	The full month name.
%b or %h	The abbreviated month name, where the abbreviation is the first three characters.
%C	The first two digits of the year, indicating the century.
%c	Equivalent to %m/%d/%y.
%D	The date in the format mm/dd/yy.
%d	The day of the month as a decimal number (01-31).
%e	The day of month as a decimal number (1-31); single digits are preceded by a blank.
%H	The hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (00-23).
%I	The hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (01-12).
%j	The day of the year as a decimal number (001-366).
%k	The hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (0-23); single digits are preceded by a blank.
%l	The hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (1-12); single digits are preceded by a blank.
%M	The minute as a decimal number (00-59).
%m	The month as a decimal number (01-12).
%n	A newline.
%p	Either A.M. or P.M., as appropriate.
%R	Equivalent to %H:%M.
%r	Equivalent to %I:%M:%S%p.
%t	A tab character.
%S	The second as a decimal number (00-60).
%T	Equivalent to %H:%M:%S.
%U	The week number of the year as a decimal number (00-53), where Sunday is the first day of the week.
%W	The week number of the year as a decimal number (00-53), where Monday is the first day of the week.
%w	The weekday as a decimal number (0-6), where Sunday is the first day of the week.
%X	The locale's appropriate time representation.
%x	The locale's appropriate date representation.
%Y	The year with century as a decimal number.
%y	The year without century as a decimal number (00-99).
%Z	The time zone name.
%%	Prints a percent character (%).

The format string for the default display is:

%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Z %Y%n

NOTES

Only users who have been granted the permission SE_SYSTEMTIME_PRIVILEGE can set the date and time.

The specifiers %c, %D, %x, and %y all represent the year as a two-digit variable. Examine any shell scripts that make use of this output to ensure that they will function correctly.

In the POSIX or C locale, the appropriate date representation is %m/%d/%y; the appropriate time representation is %H:%M:%S.

EXAMPLES

date "+DATE: %m/%d/%y%nTIME: %H:%M:%S"

will display:

DATE: 11/21/87
TIME: 13:36:16

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

DIAGNOSTICS

SEE ALSO

ctime(3)

printf(3)