xref: /openbsd-src/bin/date/date.1 (revision f2da64fbbbf1b03f09f390ab01267c93dfd77c4c)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: date.1,v 1.67 2016/09/12 17:28:47 jca Exp $
2.\"	$NetBSD: date.1,v 1.12 1996/03/12 04:32:37 phil Exp $
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34.\"     @(#)date.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/28/95
35.\"
36.Dd $Mdocdate: September 12 2016 $
37.Dt DATE 1
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm date
41.Nd display or set date and time
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Nm date
44.Op Fl aju
45.Op Fl d Ar dst
46.Op Fl r Ar seconds
47.Op Fl t Ar minutes_west
48.Op Fl z Ar output_zone
49.Op Cm + Ns Ar format
50.Sm off
51.Oo Oo Oo Oo Oo Oo
52.Ar cc Oc
53.Ar yy Oc
54.Ar mm Oc
55.Ar dd Oc
56.Ar HH Oc
57.Ar MM
58.Op . Ar SS
59.Oc
60.Sm on
61.Sh DESCRIPTION
62When invoked without arguments, the
63.Nm
64utility displays the current date and time.
65Otherwise, depending on the options specified,
66.Nm
67will set the date and time or print it in a user-defined way.
68.Pp
69Changing the system date has some risks, as described in
70.Xr settimeofday 2 .
71Only the superuser may change the date.
72.Pp
73The options are as follows:
74.Bl -tag -width Ds
75.It Fl a
76Use the
77.Xr adjtime 2
78call to gradually skew the local time to the
79desired time rather than just hopping.
80.It Fl d Ar dst
81Set the system's value for Daylight Saving Time.
82If
83.Ar dst
84is non-zero, future calls
85to
86.Xr gettimeofday 2
87will return a non-zero value for
88.Fa tz_dsttime .
89.It Fl j
90Parse the provided date and time and display the result without changing
91the clock.
92.It Fl r Ar seconds
93Print out (in specified format) the date and time represented by
94.Ar seconds
95from the Epoch.
96.It Fl t Ar minutes_west
97Set the system's value for minutes west of GMT.
98.Ar minutes_west
99specifies the number of minutes returned in
100.Fa tz_minuteswest
101by future calls to
102.Xr gettimeofday 2 .
103.It Fl u
104Display or set the date in UTC (Coordinated Universal) time.
105.It Fl z Ar output_zone
106Just before printing the time, change to the specified timezone;
107see the description of
108.Ev TZ
109below.
110This can be used with
111.Fl j
112to easily convert time specifications from one zone to another.
113.El
114.Pp
115An operand with a leading plus sign
116.Pq Sq +
117signals a user-defined format
118string which specifies the format in which to display the date and time.
119The format string may contain any of the conversion specifications described
120in the
121.Xr strftime 3
122manual page, as well as any arbitrary text.
123A newline
124.Pq Ql \en
125character is always output after the characters specified by
126the format string.
127The format string for the default display is:
128.Bd -literal -offset indent
129%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Z %Y
130.Ed
131.Pp
132If an operand does not have a leading plus sign, it is interpreted as
133a value for setting the system's notion of the current date and time.
134The canonical representation for setting the date and time is:
135.Pp
136.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
137.It Ar ccyy
138Year.
139If yy is specified, but cc is not,
140a value for yy between 69 and 99 results in a cc value of 19.
141Otherwise, a cc value of 20 is used.
142.It Ar mm
143Month:
144a number from 1 to 12.
145.It Ar dd
146Day:
147a number from 1 to 31.
148.It Ar HH
149Hour:
150a number from 0 to 23.
151.It Ar MM
152Minute:
153a number from 0 to 59.
154.It Ar SS
155Second:
156a number from 0 to 60
157(permitting a leap second),
158preceded by a period.
159.El
160.Pp
161Everything but the minute is optional.
162.Pp
163Time changes for Daylight Saving Time, standard time, leap seconds,
164and leap years are handled automatically.
165.Sh ENVIRONMENT
166.Bl -tag -width Ds
167.It Ev TZ
168The time zone to use when parsing or displaying dates.
169See
170.Xr environ 7
171for more information.
172If this variable is not set, the time zone is determined based on
173.Pa /etc/localtime ,
174which the administrator adjusts using
175the
176.Fl l
177option of
178.Xr zic 8 .
179.El
180.Sh FILES
181.Bl -tag -width /var/log/messages -compact
182.It Pa /var/log/wtmp
183record of date resets and time changes
184.It Pa /var/log/messages
185record of the user setting the time
186.El
187.Sh EXIT STATUS
188.Ex -std
189.Sh EXAMPLES
190Display the date using the specified format string:
191.Bd -literal -offset indent
192$ date "+DATE: %Y-%m-%d%nTIME: %H:%M:%S"
193DATE: 1987-11-21
194TIME: 13:36:16
195.Ed
196.Pp
197Set the date to
198June 13, 1985, 4:27 PM:
199.Pp
200.Dl # date 198506131627
201.Pp
202Set the time to
2032:32 PM,
204without modifying the date:
205.Pp
206.Dl # date 1432
207.Sh SEE ALSO
208.Xr adjtime 2 ,
209.Xr gettimeofday 2 ,
210.Xr strftime 3 ,
211.Xr utmp 5 ,
212.Xr ntpd 8 ,
213.Xr rdate 8
214.Sh STANDARDS
215The
216.Nm
217utility is compliant with the
218.St -p1003.1-2008
219specification.
220.Pp
221The flags
222.Op Fl adjrtz ,
223as well as the conversion specifiers
224.Ql \&%F ,
225.Ql \&%G ,
226.Ql \&%g ,
227.Ql \&%k ,
228.Ql \&%l ,
229.Ql \&%R ,
230.Ql \&%s ,
231.Ql \&%v ,
232and
233.Ql \&%+ ,
234are extensions to that specification.
235.Pp
236This implementation requires the traditional
237.Bx
238date format,
239[[[[[cc]yy]mm]dd]HH]MM[.SS],
240which differs from the
241X/Open System Interfaces option of the
242.St -p1003.1-2008
243specification.
244.Sh HISTORY
245A
246.Nm
247command appeared in
248.At v1 .
249