Date

External

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_%28Unix%29

Internal

• Linux Commands
• gdate

Overview

date +'%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S'

Output:

03/07/11 16:07:17

Double quotes also work:

date +"%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S"

This also works:

date "+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S"

Output Patterns

%s seconds since epoch (?)

AM/PM

date +'%m/%d/%y %I:%M:%S %p'

Year

Short year (14) %y

Long year (2014) %Y

File Name Format

date +'%y.%m.%d-%H.%M.%S'

or

date +'%Y.%m.%d'

Setting Date and Time

date 08311650

sets the date for 08/31 current year, time 16:50.

Getting the Time in Seconds

date '+%s'

Elapsed Time in Seconds

local t0=$(date '+%s')
sleep 2
local t1=$(date '+%s')
local elapsed=$(expr ${t1} - ${t0})
echo "elapsed seconds: ${elapsed}"