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date(1)								       date(1)

NAME
       date - Displays or sets the date

SYNOPSIS
   Without Superuser Authority - Displays the Date
       date [-u] [+field_descriptor ...]

   With Superuser Authority - Sets the Date
       date  [-nu]  [MMddhhmm.ssyy | alternate_date_format] [+field_descriptor
       ...]

   Using XCU5.0 - Sets or Displays the Date
       date [-u] mmddHHMM[yy]

       date [-u] [+field_descriptor ...]

   Using the Century Field - Sets the Date
       date mmddHHMM[[cc]yy] [.ss]

       date [[cc]yy]mmddHHMM[.ss]

       date mmddHHMM[.ss[[cc]yy]]

STANDARDS
       Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry	 stan‐
       dards as follows:

       date:  XCU5.0

       Refer  to  the  standards(5)  reference page for more information about
       industry standards and associated tags.

OPTIONS
       [Tru64 UNIX]  Does not set the time globally on all machines in a local
       area  network  that  have  their	 clocks synchronized (superuser only).
       Performs operations as if the TZ environment variable was  set  to  the
       string  GMT0.   Otherwise,  date uses the time zone indicated by the TZ
       environment variable or the system default if that variable is not set.

DESCRIPTION
       The date command displays the date and, with superuser authority,  sets
       the  system date. The date command has been enhanced to support setting
       the system date past the year 1999, thus providing customers  with  the
       ability	to begin testing their software for potential century rollover
       problems.

   Displaying the Date
       The date command writes the current date and time to standard output if
       called with no options or with a option list that begins with a + (plus
       sign).

       If you follow date with a + (plus sign) and a field descriptor, you can
       control	the  output  of	 the  command.	 You  must  precede each field
       descriptor with a % (percent sign).   The  system  replaces  the	 field
       descriptor  with	 the  specified	 value.	 Enter a literal % as %%.  The
       date command copies any other characters	 to  standard  output  without
       change.	The date command always ends the string with a newline charac‐
       ter.  Output fields are fixed size (zero padded if necessary).

       [Tru64 UNIX]  The date command prints out a usage message on any unrec‐
       ognized options or input.

   Field Descriptors
       Displays	 the locale's abbreviated weekday name (Sun to Sat or the non-
       English equivalent).  Displays the locale's full	 weekday  name.	  Dis‐
       plays  the locale's abbreviated month name.  Displays the locale's full
       month name.  Displays the locale's appropriate time and date  represen‐
       tation.	 Displays  the	locale's  century (the year divided by 100 and
       truncated to an integer) as a decimal number (00 to 99).	 Displays  the
       day  of month as a decimal number (01 to 31).  Displays the date in the
       format mm/dd/yy independent of the value specified by the LC_TIME envi‐
       ronment variable, if defined.  Displays the day of the month as a deci‐
       mal number (1 to 31 in a 2-digit field with leading space fill).	 Spec‐
       ifies the locale's alternative date and time representation.  Specifies
       the name of the base year (period) in the locale's  alternative	repre‐
       sentation.   Specifies  the  locale's  alternative date representation.
       Specifies the locale's alternative time representation.	Specifies  the
       offset from %EC (year only) in the locale's alternative representation.
       Specifies the full alternative year representation.  A synonym for  %b.
       Displays the hour as a decimal number (00 to 23).  Displays the hour as
       a decimal number (01 to 12).  Displays the day of  year	as  a  decimal
       number  (001  to	 366).	Displays the month of year as a decimal number
       (01 to 12).  Displays the minute	 as  a	decimal	 number	 (00  to  59).
       Inserts	a newline character.  [Tru64 UNIX]  Represents the alternative
       era name.  [Tru64 UNIX]	Represents the alternative era	year.	Speci‐
       fies  the  day of the month using the locale's alternative numeric sym‐
       bols.  Specifies the day of the month using  the	 locale's  alternative
       numeric symbols.	 Specifies the hour (24-hour clock) using the locale's
       alternative numeric symbols.  Specifies the hour (12-hour clock)	 using
       the  locale's  alternative  numeric symbols.  Specifies the month using
       the locale's alternative numeric symbols.  Specifies the minutes	 using
       the  locale's alternative numeric symbols.  Specifies the seconds using
       the locale's alternative numeric symbols.  Specifies the weekday	 as  a
       number  in  the locale's alternative representation (Monday=1).	Speci‐
       fies the week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the	 week)
       using  the locale's alternative numeric symbols.	 Specifies the weekday
       as a number in the locale's  alternative	 representation	 (Sunday = 0).
       Specifies  the  week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the
       week) using the locale's alternative numeric  symbols.	Specifies  the
       year  (offset  from  %C)	 in  alternative representation.  Displays the
       locale's equivalent of either AM or PM.	 Displays  the	time  (12-hour
       clock) using AM/PM notation (or the non-English equivalent) in the for‐
       mat hh:mm:ss AM or hh:mm:ss PM.	Displays the second as a decimal  num‐
       ber (00 to 61).	Inserts a tab character.  Displays the time in 24-hour
       clock format as hh:mm:ss (the default), or as specified by the  LC_TIME
       environment  variable,  if  defined.  Displays the weekday as a decimal
       number [1,7], with 1 representing Monday.  Displays the week number  of
       the  year (Sunday is the first day of the week) as a decimal number (00
       to 53).	All days in a new year preceding the first Sunday are  consid‐
       ered  to be in week 0.  Displays the week number of the year (Monday as
       the first day of the week) as a decimal number (01 to 53).  If the week
       containing  January 1 has four or more days in the new year, then it is
       considered week 1; otherwise, it is week 53 of the previous  year,  and
       the  next  week	is  week 1.  Displays the day of the week as a decimal
       number (Sunday = 0).  Displays the week number of the year  (Monday  is
       the first day of the week) as a decimal number (00 to 53).  All days in
       a new year preceding the first Monday are considered to be in  week  0.
       Displays	 the  locale's	appropriate date representation.  Displays the
       locale's appropriate time representation.  Displays the last  two  num‐
       bers  of	 the  year  as a decimal number (00 to 99).  Displays the full
       year as a decimal number.  Displays the time zone name, or  no  charac‐
       ters if the time zone cannot be determined.  Inserts a % character.

   Setting the Date
       Only  a user operating with superuser authority can change the date and
       time.

       The default input format for setting the date is	 mmddHHMM[[cc]yy][.ss]
       where:  mm  is  the month number (01=January).  dd is the number of the
       day in the month.  HH is the hour in the day (using a  24-hour  clock).
       MM  is  the number of minutes.  cc is the first two digits of the year.
       yy is the last two digits of the year.  If this field is	 omitted,  the
       current year is used.  ss is the number of seconds.

       The LC_TIME variable, if defined, controls the ordering of the day (dd)
       and month (mm) numbers in these formats.	  The  default	order  is  the
       month (mm) followed by the day (dd).

       Each of the formats allows you to specify the century (first two digits
       of the year).  This century field (cc) is optional to ensure that input
       formats previously accepted by the date command are still supported.

       Currently,  theXCU5.0  format  does  not have a century field.  This is
       consistent with current X/Open specifications regarding the  date  com‐
       mand.   The  century  field  will  be  added to this format in a future
       release of the operating system once this new field is officially  sup‐
       ported in future revisions of X/Open's UNIX specification.

       [Tru64  UNIX]  Reset  the  date	in single-user mode only. Changing the
       date in multiuser mode could cause the creation and modifications dates
       for user files to be inconsistent.

       [Tru64  UNIX]  To change the year, the system disk must be updated with
       the new year information. To change the year, in single-user mode enter
       the  following  command	after  you enter a date containing a new year:
       mount -u /

       The mount -u / command writes the new year into the superblock  on  the
       system disk. The root file system is now mounted read/write.

   Handling of Two-Digit Year Input
       When the year is specified using two digits (as in the XCU5.0 format or
       when the [cc] field is omitted ), the century is determined in the fol‐
       lowing  manner:	if  the	 specified two-digit year is between 69 and 99
       inclusive, the 20th century is assumed (that is, 19yy); otherwise,  the
       21st century is assumed (that is, 20yy).

       This  algorithm	for determining the century is consistent with current
       drafts of forthcoming X/Open UNIX  specifications  regarding  two-digit
       year  handling in various system interfaces and commands, including the
       date command.  This algorithm is	 based	on  the	 standard  UNIX	 epoch
       (12:00:00  AM Jan 1, 1970 UTC), minus one year to account for different
       time zones.  Internal UNIX time handling is based on the number of sec‐
       onds in this epoch.

   Handling of Ambiguous Input
       If the input string is ambiguous, that is, if the format cannot be con‐
       clusively determined from the data, the date command will issue a warn‐
       ing  to	stderr	and assume the mmddHHMM[[cc]yy][.ss] format.  To avoid
       ambiguous input, use one of our formats and specify the [cc] field.

EXAMPLES
       To display current date and time, enter: date

	      Depending on your current locale, the output might look like one
	      of the following: Thu Apr 16  13:21:30 EDT  1998

	      jeu 16 avr  17:21:30 CUT	1998

	      tor 16 apr  17:21:30 CUT	1998

	      The  first  output  line	is for an American English locale, the
	      second is for a French locale, and the third  is	for  a	Danish
	      locale.  To set the date and time, enter: date  02171425.45

	      This  sets  the date and time to 14:25:45 (45 seconds after 2:25
	      p.m.)  February 17 of the current year.  To display the date and
	      time in a specified format, enter: date  +"%r  %d	 %h  %y	 (%a)"

	      This  displays  the  date (assume current year is 1993) shown in
	      Example 2 as: 02:25:45  PM  17  Feb  99  (Fri)

       Do not set the date in multi-user mode.

   Year 2000 Examples
       To  set	the  date  to  09:34:00	 AM  Jan  7,  2000:  Using  the	  mmd‐
       dHHMM[[cc]yy][.ss]  format:  date  010709342000 date 0107093400.00 date
       010709342000.00 Using the [[cc]yy]mmddHHMM[.ss] format: date 0001070934
       date  200001070934 date 200001070934.00 Using the mmddHHMM[.ss[[cc]yy]]
       format: date 01070934.0000 date 01070934.002000 Using the  mmddHHMM[yy]
       format:	date  0107093400  An  example of ambiguous input:  XCU5.0 date
       0101010000

	      This input could be recognized as one of the following formats:

	      mmddHHMM[[cc]yy][.ss] meaning 01:00:00 AM Jan 1, 2000

	      [[cc]yy]mmddHHMM[.ss] meaning 12:00:00 AM Jan 1, 2001

	      In this case, the date command will display a warning and assume
	      the  mmddHHMM[[cc]yy][.ss]  format, setting the date to 01:00:00
	      AM Jan 1, 2000.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The following environment variables affect the execution of date:  Pro‐
       vides  a	 default value for the internationalization variables that are
       unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding  value  from
       the  default  locale  is used. If any of the internationalization vari‐
       ables contain an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of the
       variables  had been defined.  If set to a non-empty string value, over‐
       rides the values	 of  all  the  other  internationalization  variables.
       Determines  the	locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of
       text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to	multi‐
       byte  characters	 in  arguments).  Determines the locale for the format
       and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.	Deter‐
       mines  the format of the date and time strings written by date.	Deter‐
       mines the location of message catalogues for the processing of  LC_MES‐
       SAGES.	Determines  the time zone in which the time and date are writ‐
       ten, unless the -u option is specified.	If the TZ variable is not  set
       and the -u option is not specified, a system default time zone is used.

SEE ALSO
       Functions:  gettimeofday(2)

       Routines:  ctime(3), getclock(3), setclock(3)

       Standards:  standards(5)

       Command and Shell User's Guide

								       date(1)
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