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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.  Example: Mon, 07 Aug
              2006 12:34:56 -0600

       --rfc-3339=TIMESPEC
              output date and  time  in  RFC  3339  format.   TIMESPEC=‘date’,
              ‘seconds’, or ‘ns’ for date and time to the indicated precision.
              Date and time  components  are  separated  by  a  single  space:
              2006-08-07 12:34:56-06:00

       -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.  Interpreted sequences are:

       %%     a literal %

       %a     locale’s abbreviated weekday name (e.g., Sun)

       %A     locale’s full weekday name (e.g., Sunday)

       %b     locale’s abbreviated month name (e.g., Jan)

       %B     locale’s full month name (e.g., January)

       %c     locale’s date and time (e.g., Thu Mar  3 23:05:25 2005)

       %C     century; like %Y, except omit last two digits (e.g., 20)

       %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     locale’s equivalent of either AM or PM; blank if not known

       %P     like %p, but lower case

       %r     locale’s 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     locale’s date representation (e.g., 12/31/99)

       %X     locale’s 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 opposite 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  locale’s
       alternate  representations  if  available,  or  O  to  use the locale’s
       alternate numeric symbols if available.

DATE STRING

       The --date=STRING is a mostly free format human  readable  date  string
       such  as  "Sun, 29 Feb 2004 16:21:42 -0800" or "2004-02-29 16:21:42" or
       even "next Thursday".  A  date  string  may  contain  items  indicating
       calendar  date,  time  of  day,  time zone, day of week, relative time,
       relative date, and numbers.  An empty string indicates the beginning of
       the  day.   The  date  string  format  is  more  complex than is easily
       documented here but is fully described in the info documentation.

AUTHOR

       Written by David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS

       Report date bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
       GNU coreutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
       Report date translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.   License  GPLv3+:  GNU
       GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
       This  is  free  software:  you  are free to change and redistribute it.
       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 coreutils 'date invocation'

       should give you access to the complete manual.