"date" Command

Learn all about date command

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date -- display or set date and time

When invoked without arguments, the date utility displays the current date and time. Otherwise, depending on the options specified, date will set the date and time or print it in a user-defined way. The date utility displays the date and time read from the kernel clock. When it is used to set the date and time, both the kernel clock and the hardware clock are updated.

root:~# man date

Running date command with no options will output the system date and time,as in the following option:

root:~# date
Fri Nov  3 23:36:27 IST 2017

Example-1

1.1 Display time described by STRING --date (-d)

Following are some examples where date will take input string and display output accordingly.

root:~# date
Fri Nov  3 18:11:26 UTC 2017

root:~# date --date='next mon'
Mon Nov  6 00:00:00 UTC 2017

root:~# date --date='next fri'
Fri Nov 10 00:00:00 UTC 2017

root:~# date --date='tomorrow'
Sat Nov  4 18:12:31 UTC 2017

root:~# date --date='today'
Fri Nov  3 18:12:41 UTC 2017

root:~# date --date='yesterday'
Thu Nov  2 18:12:51 UTC 2017

root:~# date --date='1 day ago'
Thu Nov  2 18:13:18 UTC 2017

root:~# date --date='5 day ago'
Sun Oct 29 18:13:20 UTC 2017

root:~# date --date='55 day ago'
Sat Sep  9 18:13:28 UTC 2017

root:~# date --date='1 year ago'
Thu Nov  3 18:16:15 UTC 2016

root:~# date --date='12/02/2012'
Sun Dec  2 00:00:00 UTC 2012

root:~# date --date='02/12/2012'
Sun Feb 12 00:00:00 UTC 2012

root:~# date --date='02/12/2012 01:01:01'
Sun Feb 12 01:01:01 UTC 2012

root:~# date --date='12 Feb 2014'
Wed Feb 12 00:00:00 UTC 2014

Example-2

2.1 Display date from file --file (-f)

root:~# cat dateFile
8 Nov 1951
31 Jan 1962
18 Nov 1952
26 Dec 1961
6 Jun 1927
30 May 1918
1 Dec 1915

root:~# date -f dateFile
Thu Nov  8 00:00:00 UTC 1951
Wed Jan 31 00:00:00 UTC 1962
Tue Nov 18 00:00:00 UTC 1952
Tue Dec 26 00:00:00 UTC 1961
Mon Jun  6 00:00:00 UTC 1927
Thu May 30 00:00:00 UTC 1918
Wed Dec  1 00:00:00 UTC 1915

2.2 Display Universal Date (-u)

root:~# date -u
Fri Nov  3 18:44:20 UTC 2017

2.3 Seconds from epoch till current time (%s)

root:~# date +%s
1509734988

2.4 Seconds from epoch to the provided time (%s and -d)

root:~# date -d "01/01/1975" +%s
157766400

2.5 Convert epoch time to Date

root:~# date -d @157766400
Wed Jan  1 00:00:00 UTC 1975

Example-3

3.1 Day of Week from a Given date

root:~# date -d "01/01/1975" +%A
Wednesday
root:~# date -d "01/01/1975" +%a
Wed

3.2 Display Date with different formatting Options

root:~# date +"Week Number:[%V],Abbreviated Day:[%a],Full Day Name:[%A],Abbreviated Month:[%b], Full Month Name:[%B],DayOfMonth:[%d],Year:%y"
Week Number:[44],Abbreviated Day:[Fri],Full Day Name:[Friday],Abbreviated Month:[Nov], Full Month Name:[November],DayOfMonth:[03],Year:17

root:~# date +%F
2017-11-03
root:~# date +%T
19:27:00
root:~# date +%D
11/03/17
root:~# date +%d
03
root:~# date +%b
Nov
root:~# date +%B
November
root:~# date +%a
Fri
root:~# date +%A
Friday

Formatting Options

Token	Output
%a	locale's abbreviated weekday name (e.g., Sun)
%A	locale's full weekday name (e.g., Sunday)
locale's abbreviated month name (e.g., Jan)	locale's full month name (e.g., January)
%D	date; same as %m/%d/%y
%d	day of month (e.g., 01)
%m	month (01..12)
%y	last two digits of year (00..99)
%Y	Year with all digits
%%	literal %

There are plenty of other options as well.

Example-4

4.1 Set Date and Time --set (-s)

root:~# date --set="20180413 21:14"

4.2 Override TimeZone and Display Date (TZ)

root:~# TZ='America/Los_Angeles' date
Fri Nov  3 12:36:31 PDT 2017

4.3 Display Last Modification Time (-r) of File

root:~# date -r dateFile
Fri Nov  3 18:31:57 UTC 2017