xref: /dragonfly/bin/date/date.1 (revision 0bb9290e)
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35.\"     @(#)date.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/28/95
36.\" $FreeBSD: src/bin/date/date.1,v 1.72 2005/02/13 22:25:09 ru Exp $
37.\" $DragonFly: src/bin/date/date.1,v 1.4 2005/07/20 20:05:46 cpressey Exp $
38.\"
39.Dd August 9, 2004
40.Dt DATE 1
41.Os
42.Sh NAME
43.Nm date
44.Nd display or set date and time
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.Nm
47.Op Fl ju
48.Op Fl r Ar seconds
49.Oo
50.Fl v
51.Sm off
52.Op Cm + | -
53.Ar val Op Ar ymwdHMS
54.Sm on
55.Oc
56.Ar ...
57.Op Cm + Ns Ar output_fmt
58.Nm
59.Op Fl jnu
60.Sm off
61.Op Oo Oo Oo Oo Ar cc Oc Ar yy Oc Ar mm Oc Ar dd Oc Ar HH
62.Ar MM Op Ar .ss
63.Sm on
64.Nm
65.Op Fl jnu
66.Fl f Ar input_fmt new_date
67.Op Cm + Ns Ar output_fmt
68.Nm
69.Op Fl d Ar dst
70.Op Fl t Ar minutes_west
71.Sh DESCRIPTION
72When invoked without arguments, the
73.Nm
74utility displays the current date and time.
75Otherwise, depending on the options specified,
76.Nm
77will set the date and time or print it in a user-defined way.
78.Pp
79The
80.Nm
81utility displays the date and time read from the kernel clock.
82When used to set the date and time,
83both the kernel clock and the hardware clock are updated.
84.Pp
85Only the superuser may set the date,
86and if the system securelevel (see
87.Xr securelevel 8 )
88is greater than 1,
89the time may not be changed by more than 1 second.
90.Pp
91The options are as follows:
92.Bl -tag -width Ds
93.It Fl d Ar dst
94Set the kernel's value for daylight saving time.
95If
96.Ar dst
97is non-zero, future calls
98to
99.Xr gettimeofday 2
100will return a non-zero for
101.Fa tz_dsttime .
102.It Fl f
103Use
104.Ar input_fmt
105as the format string to parse the
106.Ar new_date
107provided rather than using the default
108.Sm off
109.Oo Oo Oo Oo Oo
110.Ar cc Oc
111.Ar yy Oc
112.Ar mm Oc
113.Ar dd Oc
114.Ar HH
115.Oc Ar MM Op Ar .ss
116.Sm on
117format.
118Parsing is done using
119.Xr strptime 3 .
120.It Fl j
121Do not try to set the date.
122This allows you to use the
123.Fl f
124flag in addition to the
125.Cm +
126option to convert one date format to another.
127.It Fl n
128By default, if the
129.Xr timed 8
130daemon is running,
131.Nm
132sets the time on all of the machines in the local group.
133The
134.Fl n
135option suppresses this behavior and causes the time to be set only on the
136current machine.
137.It Fl r Ar seconds
138Print the date and time represented by
139.Ar seconds ,
140where
141.Ar seconds
142is the number of seconds since the Epoch
143(00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970;
144see
145.Xr time 3 ) ,
146and can be specified in decimal, octal, or hex.
147.It Fl t Ar minutes_west
148Set the system's value for minutes west of
149.Tn GMT .
150.Ar minutes_west
151specifies the number of minutes returned in
152.Fa tz_minuteswest
153by future calls to
154.Xr gettimeofday 2 .
155.It Fl u
156Display or set the date in
157.Tn UTC
158(Coordinated Universal) time.
159.It Fl v
160Adjust (i.e., take the current date and display the result of the
161adjustment; not actually set the date) the second, minute, hour, month
162day, week day, month or year according to
163.Ar val .
164If
165.Ar val
166is preceded with a plus or minus sign,
167the date is adjusted forwards or backwards according to the remaining string,
168otherwise the relevant part of the date is set.
169The date can be adjusted as many times as required using these flags.
170Flags are processed in the order given.
171.Pp
172When setting values
173(rather than adjusting them),
174seconds are in the range 0-59, minutes are in the range 0-59, hours are
175in the range 0-23, month days are in the range 1-31, week days are in the
176range 0-6 (Sun-Sat),
177months are in the range 1-12 (Jan-Dec)
178and years are in the range 80-38 or 1980-2038.
179.Pp
180If
181.Ar val
182is numeric, one of either
183.Ar y ,
184.Ar m ,
185.Ar w ,
186.Ar d ,
187.Ar H ,
188.Ar M
189or
190.Ar S
191must be used to specify which part of the date is to be adjusted.
192.Pp
193The week day or month may be specified using a name rather than a
194number.
195If a name is used with the plus
196(or minus)
197sign, the date will be put forwards
198(or backwards)
199to the next
200(previous)
201date that matches the given week day or month.
202This will not adjust the date,
203if the given week day or month is the same as the current one.
204.Pp
205When a date is adjusted to a specific value or in units greater than hours,
206daylight savings time considerations are ignored.
207Adjustments in units of hours or less honor daylight saving time.
208So, assuming the current date is March 26, 0:30 and that the DST adjustment
209means that the clock goes forward at 01:00 to 02:00, using
210.Fl v No +1H
211will adjust the date to March 26, 2:30.
212Likewise, if the date is October 29, 0:30 and the DST adjustment means that
213the clock goes back at 02:00 to 01:00, using
214.Fl v No +3H
215will be necessary to reach October 29, 2:30.
216.Pp
217When the date is adjusted to a specific value that does not actually exist
218(for example March 26, 1:30 BST 2000 in the Europe/London timezone),
219the date will be silently adjusted forwards in units of one hour until it
220reaches a valid time.
221When the date is adjusted to a specific value that occurs twice
222(for example October 29, 1:30 2000),
223the resulting timezone will be set so that the date matches the earlier of
224the two times.
225.Pp
226Adjusting the date by months is inherently ambiguous because
227a month is a unit of variable length depending on the current date.
228This kind of date adjustment is applied in the most intuitive way.
229First of all,
230.Nm
231tries to preserve the day of the month.
232If it is impossible because the target month is shorter than the present one,
233the last day of the target month will be the result.
234For example, using
235.Fl v No +1m
236on May 31 will adjust the date to June 30, while using the same option
237on January 30 will result in the date adjusted to the last day of February.
238This approach is also believed to make the most sense for shell scripting.
239Nevertheless, be aware that going forth and back by the same number of
240months may take you to a different date.
241.Pp
242Refer to the examples below for further details.
243.El
244.Pp
245An operand with a leading plus
246.Pq Sq +
247sign signals a user-defined format string
248which specifies the format in which to display the date and time.
249The format string may contain any of the conversion specifications
250described in the
251.Xr strftime 3
252manual page, as well as any arbitrary text.
253A newline
254.Pq Ql \en
255character is always output after the characters specified by
256the format string.
257The format string for the default display is
258.Dq +%+ .
259.Pp
260If an operand does not have a leading plus sign, it is interpreted as
261a value for setting the system's notion of the current date and time.
262The canonical representation for setting the date and time is:
263.Pp
264.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
265.It Ar cc
266Century
267(either 19 or 20)
268prepended to the abbreviated year.
269.It Ar yy
270Year in abbreviated form
271(e.g., 89 for 1989, 06 for 2006).
272.It Ar mm
273Numeric month, a number from 1 to 12.
274.It Ar dd
275Day, a number from 1 to 31.
276.It Ar HH
277Hour, a number from 0 to 23.
278.It Ar MM
279Minutes, a number from 0 to 59.
280.It Ar ss
281Seconds, a number from 0 to 61
282(59 plus a maximum of two leap seconds).
283.El
284.Pp
285Everything but the minutes is optional.
286.Pp
287Time changes for Daylight Saving Time, standard time, leap seconds,
288and leap years are handled automatically.
289.Sh ENVIRONMENT
290The following environment variables affect the execution of
291.Nm :
292.Bl -tag -width Ds
293.It Ev TZ
294The timezone to use when displaying dates.
295The normal format is a pathname relative to
296.Pa /usr/share/zoneinfo .
297For example, the command
298.Dq TZ=America/Los_Angeles date
299displays the current time in California.
300See
301.Xr environ 7
302for more information.
303.El
304.Sh FILES
305.Bl -tag -width /var/log/messages -compact
306.It Pa /var/log/wtmp
307record of date resets and time changes
308.It Pa /var/log/messages
309record of the user setting the time
310.El
311.Sh EXIT STATUS
312The
313.Nm
314utility exits 0 on success, 1 if unable to set the date, and 2
315if able to set the local date, but unable to set it globally.
316.Sh EXAMPLES
317The command:
318.Pp
319.Dl "date ""+DATE: %Y-%m-%d%nTIME: %H:%M:%S"""
320.Pp
321will display:
322.Bd -literal -offset indent
323DATE: 1987-11-21
324TIME: 13:36:16
325.Ed
326.Pp
327In the Europe/London timezone, the command:
328.Pp
329.Dl "date -v1m -v+1y"
330.Pp
331will display:
332.Pp
333.Dl "Sun Jan  4 04:15:24 GMT 1998"
334.Pp
335where it is currently
336.Li "Mon Aug  4 04:15:24 BST 1997" .
337.Pp
338The command:
339.Pp
340.Dl "date -v1d -v3m -v0y -v-1d"
341.Pp
342will display the last day of February in the year 2000:
343.Pp
344.Dl "Tue Feb 29 03:18:00 GMT 2000"
345.Pp
346So will do the command:
347.Pp
348.Dl "date -v30d -v3m -v0y -v-1m"
349.Pp
350because there is no such date as the 30th of February.
351.Pp
352The command:
353.Pp
354.Dl "date -v1d -v+1m -v-1d -v-fri"
355.Pp
356will display the last Friday of the month:
357.Pp
358.Dl "Fri Aug 29 04:31:11 BST 1997"
359.Pp
360where it is currently
361.Li "Mon Aug  4 04:31:11 BST 1997" .
362.Pp
363The command:
364.Pp
365.Dl "date 8506131627"
366.Pp
367sets the date to
368.Dq Li "June 13, 1985, 4:27 PM" .
369.Pp
370.Dl "date ""+%Y%m%d%H%M.%S"""
371.Pp
372may be used on one machine to print out the date
373suitable for setting on another.
374.Qq ( Li "+%m%d%H%M%Y.%S"
375for use on
376.Tn Linux . )
377.Pp
378The command:
379.Pp
380.Dl "date 1432"
381.Pp
382sets the time to
383.Li "2:32 PM" ,
384without modifying the date.
385.Pp
386Finally the command:
387.Pp
388.Dl "date -j -f ""%a %b %d %T %Z %Y"" ""`date`"" ""+%s"""
389.Pp
390can be used to parse the output from
391.Nm
392and express it in Epoch time.
393.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
394Occasionally, when
395.Xr timed 8
396synchronizes the time on many hosts, the setting of a new time value may
397require more than a few seconds.
398On these occasions,
399.Nm
400prints:
401.Ql Network time being set .
402The message
403.Ql Communication error with timed
404occurs when the communication
405between
406.Nm
407and
408.Xr timed 8
409fails.
410.Sh SEE ALSO
411.Xr gettimeofday 2 ,
412.Xr strftime 3 ,
413.Xr strptime 3 ,
414.Xr utmp 5 ,
415.Xr timed 8
416.Rs
417.%T "TSP: The Time Synchronization Protocol for UNIX 4.3BSD"
418.%A R. Gusella
419.%A S. Zatti
420.Re
421.Sh STANDARDS
422The
423.Nm
424utility is expected to be compatible with
425.St -p1003.2 .
426.Sh HISTORY
427A
428.Nm
429command appeared in
430.At v1 .
431