Provided by: coreutils_8.21-1ubuntu5.4_amd64 bug

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.

       Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

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

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

       -I[TIMESPEC], --iso-8601[=TIMESPEC]
              output  date/time in ISO 8601 format.  TIMESPEC='date' for date only (the default),
              'hours', 'minutes',  'seconds',  or  'ns'  for  date  and  time  to  the  indicated
              precision.

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

       -R, --rfc-2822
              output date and time in RFC 2822 format.  Example: Mon, 07 Aug 2006 12:34:56 -0600

       --rfc-3339=TIMESPEC
              output  date  and time in RFC 3339 format.  TIMESPEC='date', 'seconds', or 'ns' for
              date and time to the indicated precision.  Date and time components  are  separated
              by a single space: 2006-08-07 12:34:56-06:00

       -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.  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., 20)

       %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     last two digits of year of ISO week number (see %G)

       %G     year of ISO week number (see %V); normally useful only with %V

       %h     same as %b

       %H     hour (00..23)

       %I     hour (01..12)

       %j     day of year (001..366)

       %k     hour, space padded ( 0..23); same as %_H

       %l     hour, space padded ( 1..12); same as %_I

       %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     ISO week number, 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 time zone (e.g., -0400)

       %:z    +hh:mm numeric time zone (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.

EXAMPLES

       Convert seconds since the epoch (1970-01-01 UTC) to a date

              $ date --date='@2147483647'

       Show the time on the west coast of the US (use tzselect(1) to find TZ)

              $ TZ='America/Los_Angeles' date

       Show the local time for 9AM next Friday on the west coast of the US

              $ date --date='TZ="America/Los_Angeles" 09:00 next Fri'

DATE STRING

       The --date=STRING is a mostly free format human readable date string such as "Sun, 29  Feb
       2004  16:21:42 -0800" or "2004-02-29 16:21:42" or even "next Thursday".  A date string may
       contain items indicating calendar date, time of day, time  zone,  day  of  week,  relative
       time,  relative  date,  and  numbers.  An empty string indicates the beginning of the day.
       The date string format is more complex  than  is  easily  documented  here  but  is  fully
       described in the info documentation.

AUTHOR

       Written by David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS

       Report date bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
       GNU coreutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
       Report date translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright  ©  2013  Free  Software  Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or
       later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  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 coreutils 'date invocation'

       should give you access to the complete manual.