HPUX date[1]
date(1) date(1)
NAME
date - print or set the date and time
SYNOPSIS
date [-u]
date [-u] +format
date [-u] mmddhhmm[yy]
DESCRIPTION
date displays or sets the current HP-UX system clock date and time.
The command has three forms:
date [-u] Display the current date and time.
date [-u] +format Display current date and time according to
formatting directives specified in format
(see Formatting Directives below).
The format string consists of zero or more
directives and ordinary characters. A
directive consists of a % character, an
optional field width and precision
specification, and a terminating character
that determines the directive's behavior.
All ordinary characters are copied unchanged
into the output string, and the output string
is always terminated with a new-line
character.
The default format string is %c when format
is not specified or the date [-u] command
form is used.
date [-u] mmddhhmm[yy]
Set HP-UX system clock to the date and time
specified. Requires super-user privilege.
If -u option is given, the specified date and
time is assumed to be Universal Coordinated
Time. The numeric argument is interpreted
left-to-right as follows:
mm Month number.
dd Day number in the month.
hh Hour number (24 hour system).
mm Minute number.
yy (optional) Last 2 digits of the
year number. If not specified,
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current year is used.
Options
-u If this option is given, all operations occur
as if the TZ environment variable were set to
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
The HP-UX system operates in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). date
automatically converts to and from local standard and daylight time
unless the -u option is given (see Environment Variables below).
If the super-user attempts to set the date backwards, date generates a
warning, and requires an extra confirmation before proceeding.
When date is used to set the date, a pair of date change records is
written to the file /etc/wtmp.
In an HP Clustered Environment, the date and time are automatically
set when the system comes up as a cluster node. Setting the date and
time from any node in a cluster sets the date and time on all nodes in
the cluster.
Formatting Directives
The following directives, shown without the optional field width and
precision specification, are replaced by the indicated characters:
%a Abbreviated weekday name.
%A Full weekday name.
%b Abbreviated month name.
%B Full month name.
%c Current date and time representation.
%C Century (a year divided by 100 and truncated to an
integer) as a decimal number (00-99).
%d Day of the month as a decimal number [01,31].
%D Date in the format mm/dd/yy.
%e Day of the month as a decimal number (1-31 in a two
digit field with leading space-character fill).
%E Combined Emperor/Era name and year.
%h Same as %b.
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%H Hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number [00,23].
%I Hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number [01,12].
%j Day of the year as a decimal number [001,366].
%m Month as a decimal number [01,12].
%M Minute as a decimal number [00,59].
%n New-line character.
%N Emperor/Era name.
%o Emperor/Era year.
%p Equivalent of either AM or PM.
%r 12-hour clock time (01-12) using AM/PM notation.
%S Second as a decimal number [00,59].
%t Tab character.
%u Weekday as a decimal number [1(Monday),7].
%U Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the
week) as a decimal number [00,53]. All days in a new
year preceding the first Sunday are considered to be in
week 0.
%V Week of the year (Monday as the first day of the week)
as a decimal number [01,53]. If the week containing 1
January has four or more days in the new year, it is
considered week 1; otherwise, it is week 53 of the
previous year, and the next week is week 1.
%w Weekday as a decimal number [0(Sunday),6].
%W Week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the
week) as a decimal number [00,53]. All days in a new
year preceding the first Sunday are considered to be in
week 0.
%x Current date representation.
%X Current time representation.
%y Year without century as a decimal number [00,99].
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%Y Year with century as a decimal number.
%Z Time zone name (or no characters if time zone cannot be
determined).
%% %
The following directives are provided for backward compatibility. It
is recommended that the preceding directives be used in preference to
those which follow.
%D Date in usual U.S. Format (%m/%d/%y) (use %x instead).
%F Full month name (use %B instead).
%h Abbreviated month name (use %b instead).
%r Time in 12-hour US format (%I:%M:%S [AM|PM]) (use %X
instead).
%T Time in 24-hour US format (%H:%M:%S) (use %X instead).
%z Time zone name (or no characters if time zone cannot be
determined) (use %Z instead).
If a directive is not one of the above, the behavior is undefined.
Modified Formatting Directives
Some Formatting Directives can be modified by the E and O modifier
characters to indicate a different format or specification as
specified in the LC_TIME environment variable. If the corresponding
keyword (see era, era_year, era_d_fmt, and alt_digits) is not
specified or not supported, the unmodified field descriptor value is
used.
%EC The name of the base year in alternate representation.
%Ex Alternate date representation.
%Ey Offset from %EC (year only) in the alternate
representation.
%Od Day of month using the alternate numeric symbols.
%Oe Day of month using the alternate numeric symobols with
leading space-character fill if applicable.
%OH Hour (24 hour clock) using the alternate numeric
symbols.
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%OI Hour (12 hour clock) using the alternate numeric
symbols.
%Om Month using the alternate numeric symbols.
%OM Minutes using the alternate numeric symbols.
%OS Seconds using the alternate numeric symbols.
%OU Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the
week) using the alternate numeric symbols.
%Ow Weekday as number using the alternate representation
(Sunday = 0).
%OW Weekday number of the year (Monday as the first day of
the week) using the alternate numeric symbols.
%Oy Year (offset from %C) in alternate representation.
Field Width and Precision
An optional field width and precision specification can immediately
follow the initial % of a directive in the following order:
[-|0]w the decimal digit string w specifies a minimum field width
in which the result of the conversion is right- or left-
justified. Default is right-justified (with space padding).
If the optional - option is specified, the result is left-
justified with space padding on the right. If the optional
0 option is specified, the result is right-justified and
padded with zeros on the left.
.p the decimal digit string p specifies the minimum number of
digits to appear for the d, H, I, j, m, M, o, S, U, w, W, y,
and Y directives, and the maximum number of characters to be
used from the a, A, b, B, c, D, E, F, h, n, N, p, r, t, T,
x, X, z, Z, and % directives. In the first case, if a
directive supplies fewer digits than specified by the
precision, it is expanded with leading zeros. In the second
case, if a directive supplies more characters than specified
by the precision, excess characters are truncated on the
right.
If no field width or precision is specified for a d, H, I, m, M, S, U,
W, y, or j directive, a default of .2 is used for all except j for
which .3 is used.
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
Environment Variables
TZ determines the conversion between the system time in UTC and the
time in the user's local time zone (see environ(5) and tztab(4)). TZ
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also determines the content (that is, the time-zone name produced by
the %z and %Z directives) of date and time strings output by the date
command.
If TZ is not set in the environment or is set to the empty string, a
default of EST5EDT is used.
LC_TIME determines the content (for example, weekday names produced by
the %a directive) and format (for example, current time representation
produced by the %X directive) of date and time strings output by the
date command.
LC_CTYPE determines the interpretation of the bytes within the format
string as single and/or multi-byte characters.
LC_NUMERIC determines the characters used to form numbers for those
directives that produce numbers in the output. The characters used
are those defined by ALT_DIGITS (see langinfo(5)).
LANG determines the language in which messages (other than the date
and time strings) are displayed.
If LC_TIME or LC_CTYPE is not specified in the environment or is set
to the empty string, the value of LANG is used as a default for each
unspecified or empty variable. If LANG is not specified or is set to
the empty string, a default of "C" (see lang(5)) is used instead of
LANG. If any internationalization variable contains an invalid
setting, date behaves as if all internationalization variables are set
to "C". See environ(5).
International Code Set Support
Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported.
DIAGNOSTICS
no permission Super-user privileges are required
to change the date.
bad conversion Date specification is syntactically
incorrect.
bad format character Field directive is not
recognizable.
EXAMPLES
Set Date
Set date to Oct 8, 12:45 AM:
date 10080045
Display Formatted Date
Display current date and time using a specified format:
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date '+DATE: %m/%d/%y%nTIME: %H:%M:%S'
Output resembles the following:
DATE: 10/08/87
TIME: 12:45:05
Display Formatted Date Using Local Language
Using the date as set in the first example above and LC_TIME set to
german:
date '%-4.4h %2.1d %H:%M'
generates output similar to:
Okt 8 12:45
where the month field is four bytes long, flush-left, and space-padded
on the right if the month name is shorter than four bytes. The day
field is two bytes long, with leading zeros suppressed.
WARNINGS
Changing the date while the system is running in multi-user mode
should be avoided to prevent disrupting user-scheduled and time-
sensitive programs and processes. Also, changing the date can cause
make and the SCCS and cron subsystems to behave in an unexpected
manner. The cron daemon should be killed prior to setting the date
backwards, then restarted (see cron(1M)). SCCS files should be
checked with val if deltas have been made while the clock was set
wrong (see val(1)).
Former HP-UX format option A has been changed to W for ANSI
compatability.
AUTHOR
date was developed by AT&T and HP.
FILES
/etc/wtmp
SEE ALSO
stime(2), ctime(3C), getdate(3C), strftime(3C), tztab(4), environ(5),
lang(5), langinfo(5).
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
date: SVID2, XPG2, XPG3, POSIX.2
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