User Commands                                             DATE(1)



NAME
     date - print or set the system date and time

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

DESCRIPTION
     Display the current time in the given  FORMAT,  or  set  the
     system date.

     -d, --date=STRING
          display time described by STRING, not `now'

     -f, --file=DATEFILE
          like --date once for each line of DATEFILE

     -r, --reference=FILE
          display the last modification time of FILE

     -R, --rfc-2822
          output date and time in RFC 2822 format.  Example: Mon,
          07 Aug 2006 12:34:56 -0600

     --rfc-3339=TIMESPEC
          output   date   and   time   in   RFC   3339    format.
          TIMESPEC=`date',  `seconds',  or `ns' for date and time
          to the indicated precision.  Date and  time  components
          are   separated   by   a   single   space:   2006-08-07
          12:34:56-06:00

     -s, --set=STRING
          set time described by STRING

     -u, --utc, --universal
          print or set Coordinated Universal Time

     --help
          display this help and exit

     --version
          output version information and exit

     FORMAT controls the output.  Interpreted sequences are:

     %%   a literal %

     %a   locale's abbreviated weekday name (e.g., Sun)

     %A   locale's full weekday name (e.g., Sunday)

     %b   locale's abbreviated month name (e.g., Jan)



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User Commands                                             DATE(1)



     %B   locale's full month name (e.g., January)

     %c   locale's date and time (e.g., Thu Mar  3 23:05:25 2005)

     %C   century; like %Y, except omit last  two  digits  (e.g.,
          20)

     %d   day of month (e.g, 01)

     %D   date; same as %m/%d/%y

     %e   day of month, space padded; same as %_d

     %F   full date; same as %Y-%m-%d

     %g   last two digits of year of ISO week number (see %G)

     %G   year of ISO week number (see %V); normally useful  only
          with %V

     %h   same as %b

     %H   hour (00..23)

     %I   hour (01..12)

     %j   day of year (001..366)

     %k   hour ( 0..23)

     %l   hour ( 1..12)

     %m   month (01..12)

     %M   minute (00..59)

     %n   a newline

     %N   nanoseconds (000000000..999999999)

     %p   locale's equivalent of either AM or PM;  blank  if  not
          known

     %P   like %p, but lower case

     %r   locale's 12-hour clock time (e.g., 11:11:04 PM)

     %R   24-hour hour and minute; same as %H:%M

     %s   seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC

     %S   second (00..60)



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User Commands                                             DATE(1)



     %t   a tab

     %T   time; same as %H:%M:%S

     %u   day of week (1..7); 1 is Monday

     %U   week number of year, with Sunday as first day  of  week
          (00..53)

     %V   ISO week number, with  Monday  as  first  day  of  week
          (01..53)

     %w   day of week (0..6); 0 is Sunday

     %W   week number of year, with Monday as first day  of  week
          (00..53)

     %x   locale's date representation (e.g., 12/31/99)

     %X   locale's time representation (e.g., 23:13:48)

     %y   last two digits of year (00..99)

     %Y   year

     %z   +hhmm numeric timezone (e.g., -0400)

     %:z  +hh:mm numeric timezone (e.g., -04:00)

     %::z +hh:mm:ss numeric time zone (e.g., -04:00:00)

     %:::z
          numeric time zone with : to necessary precision  (e.g.,
          -04, +05:30)

     %Z   alphabetic time zone abbreviation (e.g., EDT)

     By default, date pads numeric fields with zeroes.  The  fol-
     lowing optional flags may follow `%':

     -    (hyphen) do not pad the field

     _    (underscore) pad with spaces

     0    (zero) pad with zeros

     ^    use upper case if possible

     #    use opposite case if possible

     After any flags comes an optional field width, as a  decimal
     number;  then an optional modifier, which is either E to use



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User Commands                                             DATE(1)



     the locale's alternate representations if available, or O to
     use the locale's alternate numeric symbols if available.

DATE STRING
     The --date=STRING is a mostly  free  format  human  readable
     date  string  such  as  "Sun, 29 Feb 2004 16:21:42 -0800" or
     "2004-02-29 16:21:42"  or  even  "next  Thursday".   A  date
     string  may  contain items indicating calendar date, time of
     day, time zone, day of week, relative time,  relative  date,
     and numbers.  An empty string indicates the beginning of the
     day.  The date string format is more complex than is  easily
     documented  here but is fully described in the info documen-
     tation.

AUTHOR
     Written by David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS
     Report date bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
     GNU             coreutils             home             page:
     <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
     General        help        using        GNU        software:
     <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
     Report        date        translation        bugs         to
     <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT
     Copyright c 2010 Free  Software  Foundation,  Inc.   License
     GPLv3+:      GNU      GPL     version     3     or     later
     <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
     This is free software: you are free to change and  redistri-
     bute  it.   There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
     law.

SEE ALSO
     The full documentation for date is maintained as  a  Texinfo
     manual.    If  the  info  and  date  programs  are  properly
     installed at your site, the command

          info coreutils date invocation

     should give you access to the complete manual.













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