Date _____ %b month, %h Mon, %a dow, %m mm, %d dd, %I hh, %M minutes ; last month, last Thursday

Display or set date and time

Green
options
not BSD

date [-nu] [-r file] [ +format]

The default format is: "%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Z %Y"
sample output: Sat Feb 5 18:09:28 EST 2005

Useful forms: export TODAY=`date +%y%m%d` echo $TODAY 131108 export yymmdd=`date +"%y%m%d"` echo $yymmdd 130915 export LOG=`date +log/%y%m%d.%H%M` echo $LOG log/130720.1859 myscript1 >> $LOG myscript2 >> $LOG export title=`date +"Report Date: %m/%d %H:%M"` report Date: 07/20 18:56 touch `date +%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S` creates file named now. Example: 2018-12-31 23:59:59^†

format codes
(arranged by function, not alphabetically, composite formats)
N.B. If used in crontab command fields, % must be escaped.
locale: order of date items vary
as well as spellings as per language.
Examples:
LC_ALL=C > date Wed Jun 22 13:18:10 EDT 2016 > export LC_ALL=es_ES # use Spanish (Español) > date miércoles, 22 de junio de 2016, 13:39:34 EDT
%m mm month (01…12) (how to blank padded?? ie ' 1, 2, 3' vs '01,02,03' ?? ) sed s/0([[:digit:]])/ $1/
%b abbreviated month (Jan…Dec) %h (same as:%b)
%B full month, variable length (January…December)

%d dd (01…31), %e ( 1…31)

%C cc century (00…99) %y yy two digit year (00…99)
%Y ccyy year (1970)
%g 2-digit year corresponding to the %V week number %G 4-digit

%F %Y-%m-%d (2013-02-24)

%D mm/dd/yy %x mm/dd/yy
hours
%I (01…12) %H (00…23)
%l^† (1…12) %k (0…23)

%p AM or PM upper case (blank in many locales)   %P am or pm lower case

%M MM minutes (00…59)

%S SS second (00…60) The 60 is necessary to accommodate a leap second

24-hour: %R (23:59), %T HH:mm:ss ( 11:53:41 )
12-hour: %r (11:26:20 AM ) %X %H:%M:%S (11:56:05 AM)
%N nanoseconds ^† since last second (000000000..999999999)
(on mac OS use gdate )
     Use sed to restrict the output to milliseconds:
date +%S.%N|sed "s/......$//" 26.123 %c date and time
(Sat Nov 04 12:02:33 EST 1989 )
%j day of year (001…366)
%u day of week (1…7); 7 represents Sunday mtwtfss
%w                    (0…6); 0 represents Sunday smtwtfs
%a abbreviated weekday (Sun…Sat)
%A full weekday, variable length (Sunday…Saturday)
%U week number Sunday as first day of week (00…53)
%W week number Monday as first day of week (00…53)    %V (01…53)
%z -zzzz RFC-822 style numeric timezone (-0400)
%:z +hh:mm numeric timezone ( -04:00)
%::z +hh:mm:ss numeric time zone ( -04:00:00)

%:::z numeric time zone with : to necessary precision (-04, +05:30)
%Z time zone (EDT) nothing if no time zone is determinable
$TZ timezone, unless overridden by command line parameters.
Default: the setting from /etc/localtime is used.
on macBookPro:      > hexdump -e '"%_p"' -s 0x4DB -n 7 /etc/localtime      EDT.EST On Real-World-Systems.com      hexdump -e '"%_p"' /etc/localtime |tail -2      .MST7MDT,M3.2.0,M1*      > echo $TZ      America/Boise      > date      Wed Mar 27 18:36:50 MDT 2019      export TZ=US/Eastern      > echo $TZ      US/Eastern      > date      Wed Mar 27 20:37:00 EDT 2019

%s seconds since 00:00:00 1970-01-01 UTC
To convert %s value like 1212642879
use date -d "1970-01-01 1212642879 sec utc"

1264434947 was Mon Jan 25 10:55:57 EST 2010 1402410634 was Tue Jun 10 10:29:44 EDT 2014
Example usage: include in .profile:
export login_s=`date +%s`
…
echo ' $(((`date +%s` - $login_s)/60)) minutes since login.'
literals: %n newline ; %% percent; %t horizontal tab

By default, date pads numeric fields with zeroes.
GNU (not BSD) date recognizes modifiers between % and a numeric:
- (hyphen) do not pad the field _ (underscore) pad the field with spaces
examples:
%_H == %k       %-m/%-d/%y 1/2/50

Options

`-d` `-de=string`	display time described by `string` including some "humand readable" strings like `last Thursday` and `last month` date -d "2010/12/31" Fri Dec 31 00:00:00 EST 2010 date -d "12/31/2010" Fri Dec 31 00:00:00 EST 2010 date -d "2010-12-31 23:58:57" Fri Dec 31 23:58:57 EST 2010 date -d "23:58:57 12/31/2010" Fri Dec 31 23:58:57 EST 2010 date -d "12/31/2010 23:58:57" Fri Dec 31 23:58:57 EST 2010 date -d "12/31/2010 23 sec" Fri Dec 31 00:00:23 EST 2010 To convert seconds (for example 1212642879) use: `> date -d "1970-01-01 1212642879 sec utc" Thu Jun 5 01:14:39 EDT 2008`
`-e=datefile`	like `-de` once for each line of `datefile`
BSD(Mac OS X):
`-f fmt_str idate [ +fmt]`	Output `idate` default `fmt_str` is `[[[mm]dd]HH]MM[[cc]yy][.ss]`
`-j` with `-f`	Don't set
`-s` `--set=string`	set system time described by `string` `date -s "2010-12-31 23:59:00"`
`-n`	don't synchronize the clocks on groups of machines using the utility `timed`(8). By default, if `timed` is running, `date` will set the time on all of the machines in the local group. `-n` inhibites that. *date and time seconds* from the Epoch. ( i.e. `Dec 31 19:00:00 EST 1969` )**
`-u`	Display or set the date in UTC (universal) time. Without the `+` , `date` uses the argument for setting the system's date if user has sufficient authorization.
[`-u\| --utc\| --universal]` [`MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]`]	The only valid option for the this form specifies Coordinated Universal Time.
`-u`	GMT ex: `Sat Feb 5 14:49:42 GMT 2005`
`--utc`
`--universal`	Coordinated Universal Time local TZ Sat Feb 5 09:49:59 EST 2005
`-ITIMESPEC`
`--iso-8601[=timespec]`	output in ISO 8601 format. `timespec` precision : `date` \| `hours` \| `minutes` \| `seconds` > date --iso-8601=date 2010-08-23 > date --iso-8601=hours 2010-08-23T21-0400 > date --iso-8601=minutes 2010-08-23T21:05-0400 > date --iso-8601=seconds 2010-08-23T21:05:53-0400
`-R --rfc-822`	output RFC-822 compliant date string example: `Sat Feb 15 09:50:23 EST 2005`
`--help`	display help and exit
`--version`	output version information and exit
`-r file --reference=file`	output modification date/time of `file` > date -r 0test Thu Aug 19 18:05:09 EDT 2010 > date -r arp.1.html +"%y%m%d_%H%M" 140630_1810

date [[[[[cc]yy]mm]dd]hh]mm[.ss]
set system time

java script functions From w3schools.com

according to
UTC (aka GMT)
date object is local
getMonth() 0-11 getUTCMonth()
getDate() day of the month ( 1-31) getUTCDate()
getFullYear() year yyyy getUTCFullYear()
getHours() 0-23 getUTCHours()
getMinutes() 0-59 getUTCMinutes()
getSeconds() 0-59 getUTCSeconds()
getMilliseconds() 0-999 getUTCMilliseconds()
getDay() of the week ( 0-6) getUTCDay()
getTime() milliseconds since 1/1/1970 00:00
getTimezoneOffset() minutes between UTC and local
getYear() Deprecated. Use the getFullYear() method
parse() number of milliseconds since 1/1/1970 00:00 of date string
set portions of a date object
setFullYear() YYYY setUTCFullYear()
setMonth() setUTCMonth()
setDate() day of the month setUTCDate()
setHours() setUTCHours()
setMinutes() setUTCMinutes()
setSeconds() setUTCSeconds()
setMilliseconds() setUTCMilliseconds()
setTime() Sets a date and time
by adding or subtracting milliseconds to/from 1/1/1970 00:00
setYear() Deprecated. Use the setFullYear() method
formatting to string
toString() `Sat Aug 04 2012 17:09:15 GMT-0400 (EDT)` toLocaleString() `Sat Aug 4 17:08:41 2012`
Really! YYYY last
toISOString() `2012-08-04T21:03:51.449Z`
toJSON()
JavaScript Object Notation `2012-08-04T20:27:42.419Z`
toUTCString() `Sat, 04 Aug 2012 21:32:18 GMT`
toDateString() `Sat Aug 04 2012` toLocaleDateString() `08/04/2012`
toTimeString() `17:14:24 GMT-0400 (EDT)` toLocaleTimeString() `17:06:00`
toGMTString() Deprecated. Use the toUTCString() method
valueOf() primitive value of a Date object
`1344116221551`
UTC(`yyyy,mm,dd`) number of milliseconds in `yyyy,mm,dd`
since 00:00 1/1/1970
according to universal time
`1333065600000`

The default `format` is:	`"%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Z %Y"`
sample output:	`Sat Feb 5 18:09:28 EST 2005`

Useful forms:
export TODAY=`date +%y%m%d`	`echo $TODAY 131108`
export yymmdd=`date +"%y%m%d"`	`echo $yymmdd 130915`
export LOG=`date +log/%y%m%d.%H%M`	`echo $LOG log/130720.1859 myscript1 >> $LOG myscript2 >> $LOG`
export title=`date +"Report Date: %m/%d %H:%M"`	report Date: 07/20 18:56
touch `date +%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S`	creates file named `now`. Example: 2018-12-31 23:59:59^†

`format` codes (arranged by function, not alphabetically, composite formats) N.B. If used in `crontab` command fields, `%` must be escaped.	locale: order of date items vary as well as spellings as per language. Examples: LC_ALL=C > date Wed Jun 22 13:18:10 EDT 2016 > export LC_ALL=es_ES # use Spanish (Español) > date miércoles, 22 de junio de 2016, 13:39:34 EDT
`%m` mm month (`01`…`12`) (how to blank padded?? ie ' 1, 2, 3' vs '01,02,03' ?? ) sed s/0([[:digit:]])/ $1/ `%b` abbreviated month (`Jan`…`Dec`) `%h` (same as:`%b`) `%B` full month, variable length (`January…December`)
`%d` dd (`01`…31), `%e` ( `1…31`)
`%C` cc century (`00…99`) `%y` yy two digit year (`00…99`) `%Y` ccyy year (`1970`)
`%g` 2-digit year corresponding to the `%V` week number `%G` 4-digit
`%F %Y-%m-%d` (`2013-02-24`)

`%D` mm/dd/yy	`%x` mm/dd/yy
hours `%I` (`01…12`) `%H` (`00…23`) `%l`^† (`1…12`) `%k` (`0…23`)
`%p` `AM` or `PM` upper case (blank in many locales) `%P` `am` or `pm` lower case
`%M` MM minutes (`00…59`)
`%S` SS second (`00…60`) The 60 is necessary to accommodate a leap second
24-hour: `%R` (`23:59`), `%T` HH:mm:ss ( `11:53:41` ) 12-hour: `%r` (`11:26:20 AM` ) `%X` %H:%M:%S (`11:56:05 AM`)
`%N` nanoseconds ^† since last second (`000000000..999999999`) (on mac OS use `gdate` ) Use `sed` to restrict the output to milliseconds: `date +%S.%N\|sed "s/......$//"` 26.123	`%c` date and time (`Sat Nov 04 12:02:33 EST 1989` )
`%j` day of year (`001…366`)
`%u` day of week (`1…7`); 7 represents Sunday mtwtfss `%w` (`0…6`); 0 represents Sunday smtwtfs	`%a` abbreviated weekday (`Sun…Sat`) `%A` full weekday, variable length (`Sunday…Saturday`)
`%U` week number Sunday as first day of week (`00…53`)
`%W` week number Monday as first day of week (`00…53`) `%V` (`01…53`)
`%z` -zzzz RFC-822 style numeric timezone (`-0400`)
`%:z` +hh:mm numeric timezone ( `-04:00`)
`%::z` +hh:mm:ss numeric time zone ( `-04:00:00`)
`%:::z` numeric time zone with : to necessary precision (`-04, +05:30`)
`%Z` time zone (`EDT`) nothing if no time zone is determinable
`$TZ` timezone, unless overridden by command line parameters. Default: the setting from `/etc/localtime` is used. on macBookPro: > hexdump -e '"%_p"' -s 0x4DB -n 7 /etc/localtime EDT.EST On Real-World-Systems.com hexdump -e '"%_p"' /etc/localtime \|tail -2 .MST7MDT,M3.2.0,M1* > echo $TZ America/Boise > date Wed Mar 27 18:36:50 MDT 2019 export TZ=US/Eastern > echo $TZ US/Eastern > date Wed Mar 27 20:37:00 EDT 2019
`%s` seconds since `00:00:00 1970-01-01 UTC` To convert `%s` value like 1212642879 use `date -d "1970-01-01 1212642879 sec utc"` 1264434947 was Mon Jan 25 10:55:57 EST 2010 1402410634 was Tue Jun 10 10:29:44 EDT 2014 Example usage: include in `.profile`: export login_s=`date +%s` … echo ' $(((`date +%s` - $login_s)/60)) minutes since login.'
literals: `%n` newline ; `%%` percent; `%t` horizontal tab By default, date pads numeric fields with zeroes. GNU (not BSD) date recognizes modifiers between `%` and a numeric: - (hyphen) do not pad the field _ (underscore) pad the field with spaces examples: `%_H == %k` `%-m/%-d/%y 1/2/50`

set portions of a date object
		according to UTC (aka GMT) date object is local
getMonth()	0-11	getUTCMonth()
getDate()	day of the month ( 1-31)	getUTCDate()
getFullYear()	year yyyy	getUTCFullYear()
getHours()	0-23	getUTCHours()
getMinutes()	0-59	getUTCMinutes()
getSeconds()	0-59	getUTCSeconds()
getMilliseconds()	0-999	getUTCMilliseconds()
getDay()	of the week ( 0-6)	getUTCDay()
getTime()	milliseconds since 1/1/1970 00:00
getTimezoneOffset()	minutes between UTC and local
getYear()	Deprecated. Use the getFullYear() method
parse()	number of milliseconds since 1/1/1970 00:00 of date string
setFullYear()	YYYY	setUTCFullYear()
setMonth()		setUTCMonth()
setDate()	day of the month	setUTCDate()
setHours()		setUTCHours()
setMinutes()		setUTCMinutes()
setSeconds()		setUTCSeconds()
setMilliseconds()		setUTCMilliseconds()
setTime()	Sets a date and time by adding or subtracting milliseconds to/from 1/1/1970 00:00
setYear()	Deprecated. Use the setFullYear() method
formatting to string
toString()	`Sat Aug 04 2012 17:09:15 GMT-0400 (EDT)`	toLocaleString()	`Sat Aug 4 17:08:41 2012` Really! YYYY last
toISOString()	`2012-08-04T21:03:51.449Z`
toJSON() JavaScript Object Notation	`2012-08-04T20:27:42.419Z`
toUTCString()	`Sat, 04 Aug 2012 21:32:18 GMT`
toDateString()	`Sat Aug 04 2012`	toLocaleDateString()	`08/04/2012`
toTimeString()	`17:14:24 GMT-0400 (EDT)`	toLocaleTimeString()	`17:06:00`
toGMTString()	Deprecated. Use the toUTCString() method
valueOf()	primitive value of a Date object `1344116221551`
UTC(`yyyy,mm,dd`)	number of milliseconds in `yyyy,mm,dd` since 00:00 1/1/1970 according to universal time `1333065600000`

Display or set date and time

Options

see also