date(1) CLIX date(1)
NAME
date - Displays or sets the system date
SYNOPSIS
date [+format]
date "[mmddhhmm[[yy] [ccyy]]]"
DESCRIPTION
The date command displays or sets the current system date and time. If no
argument is given, or if the argument begins with +, the current date and
time are displayed. Otherwise, the current date is set (only by
superuser). The first mm is the month number; dd is the day number in the
month; hh is the hour number (24 hour system); the second mm is the minute
number; cc is the century minus one and is optional; yy is the last 2
digits of the year number and is optional. For example:
date 10080045
sets the date to Oct 8, 12:45 AM. The current year is the default if no
year is mentioned. The system operates in GMT. The date command takes
care of the conversion to and from local standard and daylight time. Only
the superuser may change the date.
If the argument begins with +, the output of date is under the control of
the user. All output fields are of fixed size (zero padded if necessary).
Each Field Descriptor is preceded by % and will be replaced in the output
by its corresponding value. A single % is encoded by %%. All other
characters are copied to the output without change. The string is always
terminated with a newline character. If the argument contains embedded
blanks it must be quoted (see the EXAMPLE section).
Specifications of native language translations of month and weekday names
are supported. The language used depends on the value of the environment
variable LANGUAGE (see environ. The month and weekday names used for a
language are taken from strings in the file for that language in the
/lib/cftime directory (see cftime).
After successfully setting the date and time, date will display the new
date according to the format defined in the environment variable CFTIME
(see environ).
Field Descriptors (must be preceded by a %):
a Abbreviated weekday name
A Full weekday name
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date(1) CLIX date(1)
b Abbreviated month name
B Full month name
d Day of month - 01 to 31
D Date as mm/dd/yy
e Day of month - 1 to 31 (single digits are preceded by a blank)
h Abbreviated month name (alias for %b)
H Hour - 00 to 23
I Hour - 01 to 12
j Day of year - 001 to 366
m Month of year - 01 to 12
M Minute - 00 to 59
n Insert a newline character
p String containing ante-meridian or post-meridian indicator (by
default, AM or PM)
r Time as hh:mm:"ss pp" where pp is the ante-meridian or post-meridian
indicator (by default, AM or PM)
R Time as hh:mm
S Second - 00 to 59
t Insert a tab character
T Time as hh:mm:ss
U Week number of year (Sunday as the first day of the week) - 01 to 52
w Day of week - Sunday = 0
W Week number of year (Monday as the first day of the week) - 01 to 52
x Country-specific date format
X Country-specific time format
y Year within century - 00 to 99
Y Year as ccyy (4 digits)
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date(1) CLIX date(1)
Z Timezone name
EXAMPLE
date '+DATE: %m/%d/%y%nTIME: %H:%M:%S'
would have generated as output:
DATE: 08/01/76
TIME: 14:45:05
FILES
/dev/kmem
NOTE
Administrators should note the following: if you attempt to set the
current date to one of the dates that the standard and alternate time
zones change (for example, the date that daylight time is starting or
ending), and you attempt to set the time to a time in the interval between
the end of standard time and the beginning of the alternate time (or the
end of the alternate time and the beginning of standard time), the results
are unpredictable.
CAUTIONS
Should you need to change the date while the system is running multiuser,
use sysadm datetime.
DIAGNOSTICS
No permission
if you are not the superuser and you try to change the date
bad conversion
if the date set is syntactically incorrect
RELATED INFORMATION
Commands: sysadm(1)
Files: cftime(4)
Miscellany: environ(4)
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