xref: /freebsd/bin/date/date.1 (revision 17d6c636720d00f77e5d098daf4c278f89d84f7b)
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35.\"     @(#)date.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/28/95
36.\" $FreeBSD$
37.\"
38.Dd November 17, 1993
39.Dt DATE 1
40.Os
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm date
43.Nd display or set date and time
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Nm
46.Op Fl jnu
47.Op Fl d Ar dst
48.Op Fl r Ar seconds
49.Op Fl t Ar minutes_west
50.Oo
51.Fl v
52.Sm off
53.Op Cm + | -
54.Ar val Op Ar ymwdHMS
55.Sm on
56.Oc
57.Ar ...
58.Oo
59.Fl f
60.Ar fmt date |
61.Sm off
62.Op Oo Oo Oo Oo Ar cc Oc Ar yy Oc Ar mm Oc Ar dd Oc Ar HH
63.Ar MM Op Ar .ss
64.Sm on
65.Oc
66.Op Cm + Ns Ar format
67.Sh DESCRIPTION
68When invoked without arguments, the
69.Nm
70utility displays the current date and time.
71Otherwise, depending on the options specified,
72.Nm
73will set the date and time or print it in a user-defined way.
74.Pp
75Only the superuser may set the date,
76and if the system securelevel (see
77.Xr securelevel 8 )
78is greater than 1,
79the time may not be changed by more than 1 second.
80.Pp
81The options are as follows:
82.Bl -tag -width Ds
83.It Fl d Ar dst
84Set the kernel's value for daylight saving time.
85If
86.Ar dst
87is non-zero, future calls
88to
89.Xr gettimeofday 2
90will return a non-zero for
91.Fa tz_dsttime  .
92.It Fl f
93Use
94.Ar fmt
95as the format string to parse the
96.Ar date
97provided rather than using the default
98.Sm off
99.Oo Oo Oo Oo Oo
100.Ar cc Oc
101.Ar yy Oc
102.Ar mm Oc
103.Ar dd Oc
104.Ar HH
105.Oc Ar MM Op Ar .ss
106.Sm on
107format.
108Parsing is done using
109.Xr strptime 3 .
110.It Fl j
111Do not try to set the date.
112This allows you to use the
113.Fl f
114flag in addition to the
115.Cm +
116option to convert one date format to another.
117.It Fl n
118By default, if the
119.Xr timed 8
120daemon is running,
121.Nm
122sets the time on all of the machines in the local group.
123The
124.Fl n
125option suppresses this behavior and causes the time to be set only on the
126current machine.
127.It Fl r Ar seconds
128Print the date and time represented by
129.Ar seconds ,
130where
131.Ar seconds
132is the number of seconds since the Epoch
133(00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970;
134see
135.Xr time 3 ) ,
136and can be specified in decimal, octal, or hex.
137.It Fl t Ar minutes_west
138Set the system's value for minutes west of
139.Tn GMT .
140.Ar minutes_west
141specifies the number of minutes returned in
142.Fa tz_minuteswest
143by future calls to
144.Xr gettimeofday 2 .
145.It Fl u
146Display or set the date in
147.Tn UTC
148(Coordinated Universal) time.
149.It Fl v
150Adjust (i.e., take the current date and display the result of the
151adjustment; not actually set the date) the second, minute, hour, month
152day, week day, month or year according to
153.Ar val .
154If
155.Ar val
156is preceded with a plus or minus sign,
157the date is adjusted forwards or backwards according to the remaining string,
158otherwise the relevant part of the date is set.
159The date can be adjusted as many times as required using these flags.
160Flags are processed in the order given.
161.Pp
162When setting values
163(rather than adjusting them),
164seconds are in the range 0-59, minutes are in the range 0-59, hours are
165in the range 1-12, month days are in the range 1-31, week days are in the
166range 0-6 (Sun-Sat),
167months are in the range 1-12 (Jan-Dec)
168and years are in the range 80-38 or 1980-2038.
169.Pp
170If
171.Ar val
172is numeric, one of either
173.Ar y ,
174.Ar m ,
175.Ar w ,
176.Ar d ,
177.Ar H ,
178.Ar M
179or
180.Ar S
181must be used to specify which part of the date is to be adjusted.
182.Pp
183The week day or month may be specified using a name rather than a
184number.
185If a name is used with the plus
186(or minus)
187sign, the date will be put forwards
188(or backwards)
189to the next
190(previous)
191date that matches the given week day or month.
192This will not adjust the date,
193if the given week day or month is the same as the current one.
194.Pp
195When a date is adjusted to a specific value or in units greater than hours,
196daylight savings time considerations are ignored.
197Adjustments in units of hours or less honor daylight saving time.
198So, assuming the current date is March 26, 0:30 and that the DST adjustment
199means that the clock goes forward at 01:00 to 02:00, using
200.Fl v No +1H
201will adjust the date to March 26, 2:30.
202Likewise, if the date is October 29, 0:30 and the DST adjustment means that
203the clock goes back at 02:00 to 01:00, using
204.Fl v No +3H
205will be necessary to reach October 29, 2:30.
206.Pp
207When the date is adjusted to a specific value that doesn't actually exist
208(for example March 26, 1:30 BST 2000 in the Europe/London timezone),
209the date will be silently adjusted forwards in units of one hour until it
210reaches a valid time.
211When the date is adjusted to a specific value that occurs twice
212(for example October 29, 1:30 2000),
213the resulting timezone will be set so that the date matches the earlier of
214the two times.
215.Pp
216Refer to the examples below for further details.
217.El
218.Pp
219An operand with a leading plus
220.Pq Sq +
221sign signals a user-defined format string
222which specifies the format in which to display the date and time.
223The format string may contain any of the conversion specifications
224described in the
225.Xr strftime 3
226manual page, as well as any arbitrary text.
227A newline
228.Pq Ql \en
229character is always output after the characters specified by
230the format string.
231The format string for the default display is
232.Dq +%+ .
233.Pp
234If an operand does not have a leading plus sign, it is interpreted as
235a value for setting the system's notion of the current date and time.
236The canonical representation for setting the date and time is:
237.Pp
238.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
239.It Ar cc
240Century
241(either 19 or 20)
242prepended to the abbreviated year.
243.It Ar yy
244Year in abbreviated form
245(e.g. 89 for 1989, 06 for 2006).
246.It Ar mm
247Numeric month, a number from 1 to 12.
248.It Ar dd
249Day, a number from 1 to 31.
250.It Ar HH
251Hour, a number from 0 to 23.
252.It Ar MM
253Minutes, a number from 0 to 59.
254.It Ar ss
255Seconds, a number from 0 to 61
256(59 plus a maximum of two leap seconds).
257.El
258.Pp
259Everything but the minutes is optional.
260.Pp
261Time changes for Daylight Saving Time, standard time, leap seconds,
262and leap years are handled automatically.
263.Sh EXAMPLES
264The command:
265.Bd -literal -offset indent
266date "+DATE: %Y-%m-%d%nTIME: %H:%M:%S"
267.Ed
268.Pp
269will display:
270.Bd -literal -offset indent
271DATE: 1987-11-21
272TIME: 13:36:16
273.Ed
274.Pp
275In the Europe/London timezone, the command:
276.Bd -literal -offset indent
277date -v1m -v+1y
278.Ed
279.Pp
280will display:
281.Bd -literal -offset indent
282Sun Jan  4 04:15:24 GMT 1998
283.Ed
284.Pp
285where it is currently Mon Aug  4 04:15:24 BST 1997.
286.Pp
287The command:
288.Bd -literal -offset indent
289date -v1d -v3m -v0y -v-1d
290.Ed
291.Pp
292will display the last day of February in the year 2000:
293.Bd -literal -offset indent
294Tue Feb 29 03:18:00 GMT 2000
295.Ed
296.Pp
297The command:
298.Bd -literal -offset indent
299date -v1d -v+1m -v-1d -v-fri
300.Ed
301.Pp
302will display the last Friday of the month:
303.Bd -literal -offset indent
304Fri Aug 29 04:31:11 BST 1997
305.Ed
306.Pp
307where it is currently Mon Aug  4 04:31:11 BST 1997.
308.Pp
309The command:
310.Bd -literal -offset indent
311date 8506131627
312.Ed
313.Pp
314sets the date to
315.Dq Li "June 13, 1985, 4:27 PM" .
316.Pp
317The command:
318.Bd -literal -offset indent
319date 1432
320.Ed
321.Pp
322sets the time to
323.Li "2:32 PM" ,
324without modifying the date.
325.Sh ENVIRONMENT
326The following environment variables affect the execution of
327.Nm :
328.Bl -tag -width Ds
329.It Ev TZ
330The timezone to use when displaying dates.
331The normal format is a pathname relative to
332.Pa /usr/share/zoneinfo .
333For example, the command
334.Dq TZ=America/Los_Angeles date
335displays the current time in California.
336See
337.Xr environ 7
338for more information.
339.El
340.Sh FILES
341.Bl -tag -width /var/log/messages -compact
342.It Pa /var/log/wtmp
343record of date resets and time changes
344.It Pa /var/log/messages
345record of the user setting the time
346.El
347.Sh SEE ALSO
348.Xr gettimeofday 2 ,
349.Xr strftime 3 ,
350.Xr strptime 3 ,
351.Xr utmp 5 ,
352.Xr timed 8
353.Rs
354.%T "TSP: The Time Synchronization Protocol for UNIX 4.3BSD"
355.%A R. Gusella
356.%A S. Zatti
357.Re
358.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
359The
360.Nm
361utility exits 0 on success, 1 if unable to set the date, and 2
362if able to set the local date, but unable to set it globally.
363.Pp
364Occasionally, when
365.Xr timed 8
366synchronizes the time on many hosts, the setting of a new time value may
367require more than a few seconds.
368On these occasions,
369.Nm
370prints:
371.Ql Network time being set .
372The message
373.Ql Communication error with timed
374occurs when the communication
375between
376.Nm
377and
378.Xr timed 8
379fails.
380.Sh STANDARDS
381The
382.Nm
383utility is expected to be compatible with
384.St -p1003.2 .
385.Sh HISTORY
386A
387.Nm
388command appeared in
389.At v1 .
390