date(1)

     NAME
          date - print or set the system date and time

     SYNOPSIS
          date [-u] [-d datestr] [-s datestr] [--utc] [--universal]
          [--date=datestr] [--set=datestr] [--help] [--version]
          [+FORMAT] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]


     DESCRIPTION
          This documentation is no longer being maintained and may be
          inaccurate or incomplete.  The Texinfo documentation is now
          the authoritative source.

          This manual page documents the GNU version of date.  date
          with no arguments prints the current time and date (in the
          format of the `%c' directive described below).  If given an
          argument that starts with a `+', it prints the current time
          and date in a format controlled by that argument, which has
          the same format as the format string passed to the
          `strftime' function.  Except for directives that start with
          `%', characters in that string are printed unchanged.

          The directives are:

          %    a literal %

          n    a newline

          t    a horizontal tab

          Time fields:

          %H   hour (00..23)

          %I   hour (01..12)

          %k   hour ( 0..23)

          %l   hour ( 1..12)

          %M   minute (00..59)

          %p   locale's AM or PM

          %r   time, 12-hour (hh:mm:ss [AP]M)

          %s   seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (a nonstandard
               extension)

          %S   second (00..61)
          %T   time, 24-hour (hh:mm:ss)

          %X   locale's time representation (%H:%M:%S)

          %Z   time zone (e.g., EDT), or nothing if no time zone is
               determinable

          Date fields:

          %a   locale's abbreviated weekday name (Sun..Sat)

          %A   locale's full weekday name, variable length
               (Sunday..Saturday)

          %b   locale's abbreviated month name (Jan..Dec)

          %B   locale's full month name, variable length
               (January..December)

          %c   locale's date and time (Sat Nov 04 12:02:33 EST 1989)

          %d   day of month (01..31)

          %D   date (mm/dd/yy)

          %h   same as %b

          %j   day of year (001..366)

          %m   month (01..12)

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

          %w   day of week (0..6) with 0 corresponding to Sunday

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

          %x   locale's date representation (mm/dd/yy)

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

          %Y   year (1970...)

          By default, date pads numeric fields with zeroes.  GNU date
          recognizes the following nonstandard numeric modifiers:

          -    (hyphen) do not pad the field

          _    (underscore) pad the field with spaces
          If given an argument that does not start with `+', date sets
          the system clock to the time and date specified by that
          argument.  The argument must consist entirely of digits,
          which have the following meaning:

          MM   month

          DD   day within month

          hh   hour

          mm   minute

          CC   first two digits of year (optional)

          YY   last two digits of year (optional)

          ss   second (optional)

          Only the superuser can set the system clock.

        OPTIONS
          -d datestr, --date datestr
               Display the time and date specified in datestr, which
               can be in almost any common format.  The display is in
               the default output format, or if an argument starting
               with `+' is given to date, in the format specified by
               that argument.

          --help
               Print a usage message on standard output and exit
               successfully.

          -s datestr, --set datestr
               Set the time and date to datestr, which can be in
               almost any common format.  It can contain month names,
               timezones, `am' and `pm', etc.

          -u, --universal
               Print or set the time and date in Coordinated Universal
               Time (also known as Greenwich Mean Time) instead of in
               local (wall clock) time.

          --version
               Print version information on standard output then exit
               successfully.

     EXAMPLES
          To print the date of the day before yesterday

               date --date '2 days ago'
          To print the date of the day three months and one day hence

               date --date '3 months 1 day'

          To print the day of year of Christmas in the current year

               date --date '25 Dec' +%j

          To print the current date in a format including the full
          month name and the day of the month

               date '+%B %d'

          But this may not be what you want because for the first nine
          days of the month, the `%d' expands to a zero-padded two-
          digit field, for example `date -d 1-may '+%B %d'' will print
          `May 01'.

          To print the same date but without the leading zero for
          one-digit days of month, you can use the nonstandard `-'
          modifier to suppress the padding altogether.

               date -d 1-may '+%B %-d'