xref: /minix/bin/date/date.1 (revision ebfedea0)
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33.\"     @(#)date.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/28/95
34.\"
35.Dd November 15, 2006
36.Dt DATE 1
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm date
40.Nd display or set date and time
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl ajnu
44.Op Fl d Ar date
45.Op Fl r Ar seconds
46.Op Cm + Ns Ar format
47.Sm off
48.Oo Oo Oo Oo Oo Oo
49.Ar CC Oc
50.Ar yy Oc
51.Ar mm Oc
52.Ar dd Oc
53.Ar HH Oc Ar MM Oo
54.Li \&. Ar SS Oc Oc
55.Sm on
56.Sh DESCRIPTION
57.Nm
58displays the current date and time when invoked without arguments.
59Providing arguments will format the date and time in a user-defined
60way or set the date.
61Only the superuser may set the date.
62.Pp
63The options are as follows:
64.Bl -tag -width Ds
65.It Fl a
66Use
67.Xr adjtime 2
68to change the local system time slowly,
69maintaining it as a monotonically increasing function.
70.Fl a
71implies
72.Fl n .
73.It Fl d Ar date
74Parse the provided human-described date and time and display the result without
75actually changing the system clock.
76(See
77.Xr parsedate 3
78for examples.)
79.It Fl j
80Parse the provided canonical representation of date and time (described below)
81and display the result without actually changing the system clock.
82.It Fl n
83The utility
84.Xr timed 8
85is used to synchronize the clocks on groups of machines.
86By default, if
87.Xr timed 8
88is running,
89.Nm
90will set the time on all of the machines in the local group.
91The
92.Fl n
93option stops
94.Nm
95from setting the time for other than the current machine.
96.It Fl r Ar seconds
97Print out the date and time that is
98.Ar seconds
99from the Epoch.
100.It Fl u
101Display or set the date in
102.Tn UTC
103(universal) time.
104.El
105.Pp
106An operand with a leading plus
107.Pq Cm +
108sign signals a user-defined format
109string which specifies the format in which to display the date and time.
110The format string may contain any of the conversion specifications described
111in the
112.Xr strftime 3
113manual page, as well as any arbitrary text.
114A \*[Lt]newline\*[Gt] character is always output after the characters
115specified by the format string.
116The format string for the default display is:
117.Bd -literal -offset indent
118%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Z %Y
119.Ed
120.Pp
121If an operand does not have a leading plus sign, it is interpreted as
122a value for setting the system's notion of the current date and time.
123The canonical representation for setting the date and time is:
124.Pp
125.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
126.It Ar CC
127The first two digits of the year (the century).
128.It Ar yy
129The second two digits of the year.
130If
131.Ar yy
132is specified, but
133.Ar CC
134is not, a value for
135.Ar yy
136between 69 and 99 results in a
137.Ar CC
138value of 19.
139Otherwise, a
140.Ar CC
141value of 20 is used.
142.It Ar mm
143The month of the year, from 01 to 12.
144.It Ar dd
145The day of the month, from 01 to 31.
146.It Ar HH
147The hour of the day, from 00 to 23.
148.It Ar MM
149The minute of the hour, from 00 to 59.
150.It Ar SS
151The second of the minute, from 00 to 61.
152.El
153.Pp
154Everything but the minutes is optional.
155.Pp
156Time changes for Daylight Saving and Standard Time and leap seconds
157and years are handled automatically.
158.Sh ENVIRONMENT
159The following environment variables affect the execution of
160.Nm :
161.Bl -tag -width iTZ
162.It Ev TZ
163The timezone to use when displaying dates.
164See
165.Xr environ 7
166for more information.
167.El
168.Sh FILES
169.Bl -tag -width /var/log/messages -compact
170.It Pa /etc/localtime
171Symlink pointing to system's default timezone information file in
172.Pa /usr/share/zoneinfo
173directory.
174.It Pa /var/log/wtmp
175A record of date resets and time changes.
176.It Pa /var/log/messages
177A record of the user setting the time.
178.El
179.Sh EXAMPLES
180The command:
181.Bd -literal -offset indent
182date '+DATE: %m/%d/%y%nTIME: %H:%M:%S'
183.Ed
184.Pp
185will display:
186.Bd -literal -offset indent
187DATE: 11/21/87
188TIME: 13:36:16
189.Ed
190.Pp
191The command:
192.Bd -literal -offset indent
193date 8506131627
194.Ed
195.Pp
196sets the date to
197.Dq Li "June 13, 1985, 4:27 PM" .
198.Pp
199The command:
200.Bd -literal -offset indent
201date 1432
202.Ed
203.Pp
204sets the time to
205.Li "2:32 PM" ,
206without modifying the date.
207.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
208Exit status is 0 on success, 1 if unable to set the date, and 2
209if able to set the local date, but unable to set it globally.
210.Pp
211Occasionally, when
212.Xr timed 8
213synchronizes the time on many hosts, the setting of a new time value may
214require more than a few seconds.
215On these occasions,
216.Nm
217prints:
218.Ql Network time being set .
219The message
220.Ql Communication error with
221.Xr timed 8
222occurs when the communication
223between
224.Nm
225and
226.Xr timed 8
227fails.
228.Sh SEE ALSO
229.Xr adjtime 2 ,
230.Xr gettimeofday 2 ,
231.Xr settimeofday 2 ,
232.Xr parsedate 3 ,
233.Xr strftime 3 ,
234.Xr utmp 5 ,
235.Xr environ 7 ,
236.Xr timed 8
237.Rs
238.%T "TSP: The Time Synchronization Protocol for UNIX 4.3BSD"
239.%A R. Gusella
240.%A S. Zatti
241.Re
242.Sh STANDARDS
243The
244.Nm
245utility is expected to be compatible with
246.St -p1003.2 .
247