# date

## NAME



           date - print or set the system date and time
    


## SYNOPSIS



           **date**[_OPTION_]... [_+FORMAT_]
           **date**[_-u|--utc|--universal_] [_MMDDhhmm_[[_CC_]_YY_][_.ss_]]
    


## DESCRIPTION



           Display date and time in the given FORMAT.  With **-s** , or with
           [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]], set the date and time.
    
           Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short
           options too.
    
           **-d** , **--date** =_STRING_
                  display time described by STRING, not 'now'
    
           **--debug**
                  annotate the parsed date, and warn about questionable usage
                  to stderr
    
           **-f** , **--file** =_DATEFILE_
                  like **--date** ; once for each line of DATEFILE
    
           **-I[FMT]** , **--iso-8601**[=_FMT_]
                  output date/time in ISO 8601 format.  FMT='date' for date
                  only (the default), 'hours', 'minutes', 'seconds', or 'ns'
                  for date and time to the indicated precision.  Example:
                  2006-08-14T02:34:56-06:00
    
           **--resolution**
                  output the available resolution of timestamps Example:
                  0.000000001
    
           **-R** , **--rfc-email**
                  output date and time in RFC 5322 format.  Example: Mon, 14
                  Aug 2006 02:34:56 **-0600**
    
           **--rfc-3339** =_FMT_
                  output date/time in RFC 3339 format.  FMT='date',
                  'seconds', or 'ns' for date and time to the indicated
                  precision.  Example: 2006-08-14 02:34:56-06:00
    
           **-r** , **--reference** =_FILE_
                  display the last modification time of FILE
    
           **-s** , **--set** =_STRING_
                  set time described by STRING
    
           **-u** , **--utc** , **--universal**
                  print or set Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
    
           **--help** display this help and exit
    
           **--version**
                  output version information and exit
    
           All options that specify the date to display are mutually
           exclusive.  I.e.: **--date** , **--file** , **--reference** , **--resolution**.
    
           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)
    
           %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 (ambiguous); same as %m/%d/%y
    
           %e     day of month, space padded; same as %_d
    
           %F     full date; like %+4Y-%m-%d
    
           %g     last two digits of year of ISO week number (ambiguous;
                  00-99); see %G
    
           %G     year of ISO week number; 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, space padded ( 0..23); same as %_H
    
           %l     hour, space padded ( 1..12); same as %_I
    
           %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
    
           %q     quarter of year (1..4)
    
           %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 the Epoch (1970-01-01 00:00 UTC)
    
           %S     second (00..60)
    
           %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 (can be ambiguous; e.g., 12/31/99)
    
           %X     locale's time representation (e.g., 23:13:48)
    
           %y     last two digits of year (ambiguous; 00..99)
    
           %Y     year
    
           %z     +hhmm numeric time zone (e.g., **-0400**)
    
           %:z    +hh:mm numeric time zone (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 following
           optional flags may follow '%':
    
           -      (hyphen) do not pad the field
    
           _      (underscore) pad with spaces
    
           0      (zero) pad with zeros
    
           +      pad with zeros, and put '+' before future years with >4
                  digits
    
           ^      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 the
           locale's alternate representations if available, or O to use the
           locale's alternate numeric symbols if available.
    


## EXAMPLES



           Convert seconds since the Epoch (1970-01-01 UTC) to a date
    
                  $ date --date='@2147483647'
    
           Show the time on the west coast of the US (use **tzselect**(1) to find
           TZ)
    
                  $ TZ='America/Los_Angeles' date
    
           Show the local time for 9AM next Friday on the west coast of the
           US
    
                  $ date --date='TZ="America/Los_Angeles" 09:00 next Fri'
    


## 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 documentation.
    


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