date(P)                                                 date(P)





NAME
       date - write the date and time

SYNOPSIS
       date [-u] [+format]



       date [-u] mmddhhmm[[cc]yy]


DESCRIPTION
       The  date utility shall write the date and time to stan-
       dard output  or attempt to set the system date and time.
       By  default, the current date and time shall be written.
       If an operand beginning with '+' is specified, the  out-
       put format of date shall be controlled by the conversion
       specifications and other text in the operand.

OPTIONS
       The date utility shall conform to the  Base  Definitions
       volume  of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,  Section 12.2, Utility
       Syntax Guidelines.

       The following option shall be supported:

       -u     Perform operations as if the TZ environment vari-
              able was set to the string "UTC0" , or its equiv-
              alent historical value  of  "GMT0"  .  Otherwise,
              date  shall  use the timezone indicated by the TZ
              environment variable or  the  system  default  if
              that variable is unset or null.


OPERANDS
       The following operands shall be supported:

       +format
              When  the  format  is  specified, each conversion
              specifier shall be replaced in the standard  out-
              put  by its corresponding value.  All other char-
              acters shall be  copied  to  the  output  without
              change.   The  output  shall always be terminated
              with a <newline>.


   Conversion Specifications
       %a     Locale's abbreviated weekday name.

       %A     Locale's full weekday name.

       %b     Locale's abbreviated month name.

       %B     Locale's full month name.

       %c     Locale's appropriate date  and  time  representa-
              tion.

       %C     Century  (a  year divided by 100 and truncated to
              an integer) as a decimal number [00,99].

       %d     Day of the month as a decimal number [01,31].

       %D     Date in the format mm/dd/yy.

       %e     Day of the month as a decimal number [1,31] in  a
              two-digit  field  with  leading  space  character
              fill.

       %h     A synonym for %b .

       %H     Hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number [00,23].

       %I     Hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number [01,12].

       %j     Day of the year as a decimal number [001,366].

       %m     Month as a decimal number [01,12].

       %M     Minute as a decimal number [00,59].

       %n     A <newline>.

       %p     Locale's equivalent of either AM or PM.

       %r     12-hour clock time [01,12] using the AM/PM  nota-
              tion;  in the POSIX locale, this shall be equiva-
              lent to %I : %M : %S %p .

       %S     Seconds as a decimal number [00,60].

       %t     A <tab>.

       %T     24-hour  clock  time  [00,23]   in   the   format
              HH:MM:SS.

       %u     Weekday as a decimal number [1,7] (1=Monday).

       %U     Week  of the year (Sunday as the first day of the
              week) as a decimal number [00,53]. All days in  a
              new year preceding the first Sunday shall be con-
              sidered to be in week 0.

       %V     Week of the year (Monday as the first day of  the
              week)  as  a  decimal number [01,53]. If the week
              containing January 1 has four or more days in the
              new  year,  then  it  shall be considered week 1;
              otherwise, it shall be the last week of the  pre-
              vious year, and the next week shall be week 1.

       %w     Weekday as a decimal number [0,6] (0=Sunday).

       %W     Week  of the year (Monday as the first day of the
              week) as a decimal number [00,53]. All days in  a
              new year preceding the first Monday shall be con-
              sidered to be in week 0.

       %x     Locale's appropriate date representation.

       %X     Locale's appropriate time representation.

       %y     Year within century [00,99].

       %Y     Year with century as a decimal number.

       %Z     Timezone name, or no characters if no timezone is
              determinable.

       %%     A percent sign character.


       See the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,
       Section 7.3.5, LC_TIME for the conversion specifier val-
       ues in the POSIX locale.

   Modified Conversion Specifications
       Some  conversion specifiers can be modified by the E and
       O modifier characters to indicate a different format  or
       specification   as   specified  in  the  LC_TIME  locale
       description  (see  the  Base   Definitions   volume   of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,  Section  7.3.5,  LC_TIME). If the
       corresponding keyword (see era, era_year, era_d_fmt, and
       alt_digits   in   the   Base   Definitions   volume   of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section  7.3.5,  LC_TIME)  is  not
       specified  or  not supported for the current locale, the
       unmodified conversion specifier value shall be used.

       %Ec    Locale's alternative appropriate  date  and  time
              representation.

       %EC    The  name  of  the  base  year  (period)  in  the
              locale's alternative representation.

       %Ex    Locale's alternative date representation.

       %EX    Locale's alternative time representation.

       %Ey    Offset from  %EC  (year  only)  in  the  locale's
              alternative representation.

       %EY    Full alternative year representation.

       %Od    Day  of  month  using  the  locale's  alternative
              numeric symbols.

       %Oe    Day  of  month  using  the  locale's  alternative
              numeric symbols.

       %OH    Hour  (24-hour clock) using the locale's alterna-
              tive numeric symbols.

       %OI    Hour (12-hour clock) using the locale's  alterna-
              tive numeric symbols.

       %Om    Month using the locale's alternative numeric sym-
              bols.

       %OM    Minutes using the  locale's  alternative  numeric
              symbols.

       %OS    Seconds  using  the  locale's alternative numeric
              symbols.

       %Ou    Weekday as a number in the  locale's  alternative
              representation (Monday = 1).

       %OU    Week  number of the year (Sunday as the first day
              of  the  week)  using  the  locale's  alternative
              numeric symbols.

       %OV    Week  number of the year (Monday as the first day
              of the week, rules corresponding to %V  ),  using
              the locale's alternative numeric symbols.

       %Ow    Weekday  as  a number in the locale's alternative
              representation (Sunday = 0).

       %OW    Week number of the year (Monday as the first  day
              of  the  week)  using  the  locale's  alternative
              numeric symbols.

       %Oy    Year (offset from %C ) in alternative representa-
              tion.



       mmddhhmm[[cc]yy]

              Attempt  to set the system date and time from the
              value given in the operand. This is only possible
              if  the  user  has appropriate privileges and the
              system permits the setting of the system date and
              time.  The  first mm is the month (number); dd is
              the day (number); hh is the hour (number, 24-hour
              system); the second mm is the minute (number); cc
              is the century and is the first two digits of the
              year  (this is optional); yy is the last two dig-
              its of the year and is optional.  If  century  is
              not  specified,  then values in the range [69,99]
              shall refer to years 1969 to 1999 inclusive,  and
              values  in the range [00,68] shall refer to years
              2000 to 2068 inclusive. The current year  is  the
              default if yy is omitted.

       Note:  It  is  expected  that  in  a  future  version of
              IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 the default century inferred
              from  a  2-digit  year  will  change. (This would
              apply to all commands accepting a 2-digit year as
              input.)



STDIN
       Not used.

INPUT FILES
       None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The  following  environment  variables  shall affect the
       execution of date:

       LANG   Provide a default value for the internationaliza-
              tion  variables  that are unset or null. (See the
              Base Definitions volume of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,
              Section  8.2,  Internationalization Variables for
              the precedence of internationalization  variables
              used  to  determine  the  values  of locale cate-
              gories.)

       LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override  the
              values  of  all  the  other  internationalization
              variables.

       LC_CTYPE
              Determine the locale for  the  interpretation  of
              sequences  of  bytes  of  text data as characters
              (for example, single-byte as  opposed  to  multi-
              byte characters in arguments).

       LC_MESSAGES
              Determine  the  locale  that  should  be  used to
              affect the format and contents of diagnostic mes-
              sages written to standard error.

       LC_TIME
              Determine  the  format  and  contents of date and
              time strings written by date.

       NLSPATH
              Determine the location of  message  catalogs  for
              the processing of LC_MESSAGES .

       TZ     Determine the timezone in which the time and date
              are written, unless the -u option  is  specified.
              If the TZ variable is unset or null and -u is not
              specified, an unspecified system default timezone
              is used.


ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Default.

STDOUT
       When  no  formatting operand is specified, the output in
       the POSIX locale shall be equivalent to specifying:


              date "+%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Z %Y"

STDERR
       The standard error shall be  used  only  for  diagnostic
       messages.

OUTPUT FILES
       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
       None.

EXIT STATUS
       The following exit values shall be returned:

        0     The date was written successfully.

       >0     An error occurred.


CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
       Conversion specifiers are of unspecified format when not
       in the POSIX locale. Some of them can contain <newline>s
       in  some locales, so it may be difficult to use the for-
       mat shown in standard output for parsing the  output  of
       date in those locales.

       The  range of values for %S extends from 0 to 60 seconds
       to accommodate the occasional leap second.

       Although certain of the  conversion  specifiers  in  the
       POSIX  locale  (such as the name of the month) are shown
       with initial capital letters, this need not be the  case
       in  other  locales. Programs using these fields may need
       to adjust the capitalization if the output is  going  to
       be used at the beginning of a sentence.

       The date string formatting capabilities are intended for
       use in Gregorian-style calendars, possibly with  a  dif-
       ferent  starting  year (or years). The %x and %c conver-
       sion specifications, however,  are  intended  for  local
       representation;  these may be based on a different, non-
       Gregorian calendar.

       The %C conversion specification was introduced to  allow
       a  fallback  for  the  %EC (alternative year format base
       year); it can be viewed as the base of the current  sub-
       division  in  the Gregorian calendar. The century number
       is calculated as the year divided by 100  and  truncated
       to an integer; it should not be confused with the use of
       ordinal numbers for  centuries  (for  example,  "twenty-
       first  century".) Both the %Ey and %y can then be viewed
       as the offset from %EC and %C , respectively.

       The E and O modifiers modify the traditional  conversion
       specifiers, so that they can always be used, even if the
       implementation (or the current locale) does not  support
       the modifier.

       The  E  modifier supports alternative date formats, such
       as the Japanese Emperor's Era,  as  long  as  these  are
       based  on the Gregorian calendar system. Extending the E
       modifiers to other date elements may provide  an  imple-
       mentation-defined  extension capable of supporting other
       calendar systems, especially in combination with  the  O
       modifier.

       The  O modifier supports time and date formats using the
       locale's alternative numerical symbols, such as Kanji or
       Hindi digits or ordinal number representation.

       Non-European  locales,  whether they use Latin digits in
       computational items or not, often have  local  forms  of
       the  digits for use in date formats. This is not totally
       unknown even in Europe; a variant of  dates  uses  Roman
       numerals for the months: the third day of September 1991
       would be written as 3.IX.1991. In  Japan,  Kanji  digits
       are  regularly  used for dates; in Arabic-speaking coun-
       tries, Hindi digits are used. The %d , %e , %H , %I , %m
       ,  %S  , %U , %w , %W , and %y conversion specifications
       always return the date and time field  in  Latin  digits
       (that  is,  0  to  9). The %O modifier was introduced to
       support the use for display purposes of  non-Latin  dig-
       its.  In the LC_TIME category in localedef, the optional
       alt_digits keyword is intended for this purpose.  As  an
       example,   assume   the  following  (partial)  localedef
       source:


              alt_digits  "";"I";"II";"III";"IV";"V";"VI";"VII";"VIII" \
                          "IX";"X";"XI";"XII"
              d_fmt       "%e.%Om.%Y"

       With the above date, the command:


              date "+%x"

       would yield 3.IX.1991. With the same d_fmt, but  without
       the alt_digits, the command would yield 3.9.1991.

EXAMPLES
       The  following are input/output examples of date used at
       arbitrary times in the POSIX locale:


              $ date
              Tue Jun 26 09:58:10 PDT 1990


              $ date "+DATE: %m/%d/%y%nTIME: %H:%M:%S"
              DATE: 11/02/91
              TIME: 13:36:16


              $ date "+TIME: %r"
              TIME: 01:36:32 PM

       Examples for Denmark, where the default  date  and  time
       format is %a %d %b %Y %T %Z :


              $ LANG=da_DK.iso_8859-1 date
              ons 02 okt 1991 15:03:32 CET


              $ LANG=da_DK.iso_8859-1 \
                  date "+DATO: %A den %e. %B %Y%nKLOKKEN: %H:%M:%S"
              DATO: onsdag den 2. oktober 1991
              KLOKKEN: 15:03:56

       Examples  for  Germany,  where the default date and time
       format is %a %d . %h . %Y , %T %Z :


              $ LANG=De_DE.88591 date
              Mi 02.Okt.1991, 15:01:21 MEZ


              $ LANG=De_DE.88591 date "+DATUM: %A, %d. %B %Y%nZEIT: %H:%M:%S"
              DATUM: Mittwoch, 02. Oktober 1991
              ZEIT: 15:02:02

       Examples for France, where the  default  date  and  time
       format is %a %d %h %Y %Z %T :


              $ LANG=Fr_FR.88591 date
              Mer 02 oct 1991 MET 15:03:32


              $ LANG=Fr_FR.88591 date "+JOUR: %A %d %B %Y%nHEURE: %H:%M:%S"
              JOUR: Mercredi 02 octobre 1991
              HEURE: 15:03:56

RATIONALE
       Some  of  the  new  options  for formatting are from the
       ISO C standard.  The -u option was introduced  to  allow
       portable access to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The
       string "GMT0" is allowed as an equivalent TZ value to be
       compatible  with all of the systems using the BSD imple-
       mentation, where this option originated.

       The %e format  conversion  specification  (adopted  from
       System  V)  was added because the ISO C standard conver-
       sion specifications did not provide any way  to  produce
       the historical default date output during the first nine
       days of any month.

       There are two varieties of day and week  numbering  sup-
       ported  (in  addition  to  any  others  created with the
       locale-dependent %E and %O modifier characters):

              The historical variety in  which  Sunday  is  the
              first  day of the week and the weekdays preceding
              the first Sunday of the year are considered  week
              0. These are represented by %w and %U . A variant
              of this is %W , using Monday as the first day  of
              the  week,  but  still  referring to week 0. This
              view of the calendar was retained because so many
              historical  applications  depend  on  it  and the
              ISO C standard strftime() function, on which many
              date  implementations  are  based, was defined in
              this way.

              The  international   standard,   based   on   the
              ISO 8601:2000  standard where Monday is the first
              weekday and the algorithm for the first week num-
              ber  is more complex: If the week (Monday to Sun-
              day) containing January 1 has four or  more  days
              in the new year, then it is week 1; otherwise, it
              is week 53 of the previous  year,  and  the  next
              week  is week 1. These are represented by the new
              conversion specifications %u and %V , added as  a
              result of international comments.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       The  System  Interfaces  volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,
       printf(), strftime()

COPYRIGHT
       Portions of this text are reprinted  and  reproduced  in
       electronic  form  from  IEEE  Std  1003.1, 2003 Edition,
       Standard for Information Technology -- Portable  Operat-
       ing System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Speci-
       fications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Insti-
       tute  of  Electrical  and Electronics Engineers, Inc and
       The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy  between
       this  version  and  the original IEEE and The Open Group
       Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group  Standard
       is  the  referee  document. The original Standard can be
       obtained        online        at        http://www.open-
       group.org/unix/online.html .



POSIX                         2003                      date(P)
