date
[option
] [+
format
]date
[options
] [string
]
In the first form, print the current date and time, specifying an optional display
format
. In the second form, a privileged user can set the current date by supplying a numeric
string
.
format
can consist of literal text strings (blanks must be quoted) as well as field descriptors, whose values will appear as described below (the listing shows some logical groupings).
Insert a newline.
Insert a tab.
Month of year (01-12).
Day of month (01-31).
Last two digits of year (00-99).
Date in %m/%d/%y format.
Abbreviated month name.
Day of month (1-31); pad single digits with a space.
Four-digit year (e.g., 1996).
Same as %b .
Full month name.
Hour in 24-hour format (00-23).
Minute (00-59).
Second (00-61); 61 permits leap seconds.
Time in %H:%M format.
Time in %H:%M:%S format.
Hour in 12-hour format (01-12).
String to indicate a.m. or p.m. (default is AM or PM).
Time in %I:%M:%S %p format.
Abbreviated weekday.
Full weekday.
Day of week (Sunday = 0).
Week number in year (00-53); start week on Sunday.
Week number in year (00-53); start week on Monday.
Julian day of year (001-366).
Time zone name.
Country-specific date format.
Country-specific time format.
Country-specific date and time format (default is %a %b %e %T %Z %Y ; e.g., Mon Feb 1 14:30:59 EST 1993).
The preceding country-specific formats, as well as language names (e.g., for month and weekday) are defined in a file given by strftime (4).
s
.
f
(Privileged user only.) Gradually adjust the system clock until it drifts
s
seconds away from what it thinks is the "current" time. (This allows continuous micro-adjustment of the clock while the system is running.)
f
is the fraction of seconds by which time drifts. By default, the clock speeds up; precede
s
by a
-
to slow down.
Display or set the time using Greenwich Mean Time.
A privileged user can set the date by supplying a numeric
string
.
string
consists of time, day, and year concatenated in one of three ways:
time
or [
day
]
time
or [
day
]
time
[
year
]. Note: You don't type the brackets.
time
A two-digit hour and two-digit minute (
HHMM
);
HH
uses 24-hour format.
day
A two-digit month and two-digit day of month (
mmdd
); default is current day and month.
year
The year specified as either the full four digits or just the last two digits; default is current year.
Set the date to July 1 ( 0701 ), 4 a.m. ( 0400 ), 1995 ( 95 ):
date 0701040095
The command:
date +"Hello%t Date is %D %n%t Time is %T"
produces a formatted date as follows:
Hello Date is 05/09/93 Time is 17:53:39