15. Date

15.1. Paths

  • /etc/timezone

  • /etc/localtime

15.2. Date Formatting

Table 15.1. Date and time parsing parameters

Directive

Example

Meaning

%a

Sun, Mon, ..., Sat

Weekday as locale's abbreviated name

%A

Sunday, Monday, ..., Saturday (en_US)

Weekday as locale's full name

%w

0, 1, ..., 6

Weekday as a decimal number, where 0 is Sunday and 6 is Saturday

%d

01, 02, ..., 31

Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal number

%b

Jan, Feb, ..., Dec (en_US)

Month as locale's abbreviated name

%B

January, February, ..., December (en_US)

Month as locale's full name

%m

01, 02, ..., 12

Month as a zero-padded decimal number

%y

00, 01, ..., 99

Year without century as a zero-padded decimal number

%Y

0001, 0002, ..., 2013, 2014, ..., 9998, 9999

Year with century as a decimal number

%H

00, 01, ..., 23

Hour (24-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number

%I

01, 02, ..., 12

Hour (12-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number

%p

AM, PM (en_US)

Locale's equivalent of either AM or PM

%M

00, 01, ..., 59

Minute as a zero-padded decimal number

%S

00, 01, ..., 59

Second as a zero-padded decimal number

%f

000000, 000001, ..., 999999

Microsecond as a decimal number, zero-padded on the left

%z

(empty), +0000, -0400, +1030

UTC offset in the form +HHMM or -HHMM (empty string if the object is naive)

%Z

(empty), UTC, EST, CST

Time zone name (empty string if the object is naive)

%j

001, 002, ..., 366

Day of the year as a zero-padded decimal number

%U

00, 01, ..., 53

Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week) as a zero padded decimal number. All days in a new year preceding the first Sunday are considered to be in week 0

%W

00, 01, ..., 53

Week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number. All days in a new year preceding the first Monday are considered to be in week 0

%c

Tue Aug 16 21:30:00 1988 (en_US)

Locale's appropriate date and time representation

%x

08/16/1988 (en_US); 16.08.1988 (de_DE)

Locale's appropriate date representation

%X

21:30:00

Locale's appropriate time representation

%%

%

A literal % character

%G

0001, 0002, ..., 2013, 2014, ..., 9998, 9999

ISO 8601 year with century representing the year that contains the greater part of the ISO week (%V)

%u

1, 2, ..., 7

ISO 8601 weekday as a decimal number where 1 is Monday

%V

01, 02, ..., 53

ISO 8601 week as a decimal number with Monday as the first day of the week. Week 01 is the week containing Jan 4
Table 15.2. Leading Zero

Meaning

With

Without

day

%d

%-d

hour 24h

%H

%-H

hour 12h

%I

%-I

day of a year

%j

%-j

month

%m

%-m

minute

%M

%-M

second

%S

%-S

week number (Sunday first)

%U

%-U

week number (Monday first)

%W

%-W

weekday (Sunday first)

%w

%-w

year short

%y

%-y

year long

%Y

%-Y

15.3. Date

$ date -I
1969-07-21

$ date -Iseconds
1969-07-21T02:56:15+00:00

$ date +"%F %H:%M:%S %Z"
1969-07-21 02:56:15 UTC

$ date +%s
1234567890

$ date -d @1234567890
Sat Feb 14 00:31:30 CET 2009

$ date -u
Mon Jul 21 02:56:15 UTC 1969

$ date -d '-10 min'
Mon Jul 21 02:46:15 UTC 1969

$ TZ=UTC date
Mon Jul 21 02:56:15 UTC 1969

$ TZ=CET date
Mon Jul 21 04:56:15 CEST 1969

$ TZ=GMT date
Mon Jul 21 02:56:15 GMT 1969

15.4. Unix Timestamp

$ TZ=UTC date +%s
1234567890

$ TZ=CET date +%s
1234567890

$ TZ=GMT date +%s
1234567890

15.5. Commands

  • tzconfig -

  • tzselect - view timezones

  • tzselect - select a timezone

  • date - print or set the system date and time

  • date +%F -

  • date --iso-8601

  • date -Ins

  • date -I - ISO 8601 (YYY-MM-DD)

  • date -Iseconds

  • date +%s - timestamp, seconds since: 1970-01-01T00:00:00.000000+00:00

  • date -d @1234567890

  • date --date='-90 minute' -Iseconds

  • date --date='-10 min' -