NAME

       date - print or set the system date and time

SYNOPSIS

       date [OPTION]... [+FORMAT]
       date [-u|--utc|--universal] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]

DESCRIPTION

       Display the current time in the given FORMAT, or set the system date.

       -d, --date=STRING
              display time described by STRING, not ‘now’

       -f, --file=DATEFILE
              like --date once for each line of DATEFILE

       -r, --reference=FILE
              display the last modification time of FILE

       -R, --rfc-2822
              output date and time in RFC 2822 format

       --rfc-3339=TIMESPEC
              output  date  and  time  in  RFC  3339 format.  TIMESPEC=‘date’,
              ‘seconds’, or ‘ns’ for date and time to the indicated precision.

       -s, --set=STRING
              set time described by STRING

       -u, --utc, --universal
              print or set Coordinated Universal Time

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
              output version information and exit

       FORMAT  controls the output.  The only valid option for the second form
       specifies Coordinated Universal Time.  Interpreted sequences are:

       %%     a literal %

       %a     locale’s abbreviated weekday name (e.g., Sun)

       %A     locale’s full weekday name (e.g., Sunday)

       %b     locale’s abbreviated month name (e.g., Jan)

       %B     locale’s full month name (e.g., January)

       %c     locale’s date and time (e.g., Thu Mar  3 23:05:25 2005)

       %C     century; like %Y, except omit last two digits (e.g., 21)

       %d     day of month (e.g, 01)

       %D     date; same as %m/%d/%y

       %e     day of month, space padded; same as %_d

       %F     full date; same as %Y-%m-%d

       %g     the last two digits of the year corresponding  to  the  %V  week
              number

       %G     the year corresponding to the %V week number

       %h     same as %b

       %H     hour (00..23)

       %I     hour (01..12)

       %j     day of year (001..366)

       %k     hour ( 0..23)

       %l     hour ( 1..12)

       %m     month (01..12)

       %M     minute (00..59)

       %n     a newline

       %N     nanoseconds (000000000..999999999)

       %p     locale’s equivalent of either AM or PM; blank if not known

       %P     like %p, but lower case

       %r     locale’s 12-hour clock time (e.g., 11:11:04 PM)

       %R     24-hour hour and minute; same as %H:%M

       %s     seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC

       %S     second (00..60)

       %t     a tab

       %T     time; same as %H:%M:%S

       %u     day of week (1..7); 1 is Monday

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

       %V     week number of year with Monday as first day of week (01..53)

       %w     day of week (0..6); 0 is Sunday

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

       %x     locale’s date representation (e.g., 12/31/99)

       %X     locale’s time representation (e.g., 23:13:48)

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

       %Y     year

       %z     +hhmm numeric timezone (e.g., -0400)

       %:z    +hh:mm numeric timezone (e.g., -04:00)

              %::z +hh:mm:ss numeric time zone (e.g., -04:00:00) %:::z numeric
              time zone with : to necessary precision (e.g., -04,  +05:30)  %Z
              alphabetic time zone abbreviation (e.g., EDT)

       By  default,  date  pads  numeric  fields  with  zeroes.  The following
       optional flags may follow ‘%’:

              - (hyphen) do not pad the field _ (underscore) pad with spaces 0
              (zero)  pad  with  zeros  ^  use  upper  case  if possible # use
              opposite case if possible

       After any flags comes an optional field width,  as  a  decimal  number;
       then  an  optional  modifier,  which  is  either  E to use the locale’s
       alternate representations if  available,  or  O  to  use  the  locale’s
       alternate numeric symbols if available.

AUTHOR

       Written by David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs to <bug-coreutils@gnu.org>.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
       This  is  free  software.   You may redistribute copies of it under the
       terms      of      the      GNU      General       Public       License
       <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.   There  is NO WARRANTY, to the
       extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO

       The full documentation for date is maintained as a Texinfo manual.   If
       the  info  and  date  programs are properly installed at your site, the
       command

              info date

       should give you access to the complete manual.