date(1)

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', `sec-
              onds', 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  oppo-
              site 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 alter-
       nate  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 (C) 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.

date 5.93                        November 2005                         DATE(1)