This is the entire date manual obtained by typing 'man date'. DATE(1) User Commands 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 locales abbreviated weekday name (e.g., Sun) %A locales full weekday name (e.g., Sunday) %b locales abbreviated month name (e.g., Jan) %B locales full month name (e.g., January) %c locales 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 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 ( 0..23) %l hour ( 1..12) %m month (01..12) %M minute (00..59) %n a newline %N nanoseconds (000000000..999999999) %p locales equivalent of either AM or PM; blank if not known %P like %p, but lower case %r locales 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 locales date representation (e.g., 12/31/99) %X locales 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 locales alter nate representations if available, or O to use the locales alternate numeric symbols if available. AUTHOR Written by David MacKenzie. REPORTING BUGS Report bugs to . COPYRIGHT Copyright 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This is free software. You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of the GNU General Public License . 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 5.97 January 2007 DATE(1)