Syntax to specify format
date +FORMAT
Task: Display date in mm-dd-yy format
Type the command as follows:
$ date +"%m-%d-%y"
Output:
02-27-07
Turn on 4 digit year display:
$ date +"%m-%d-%Y"
Just display date as mm/dd/yy format:
$ date +"%D"
Task: Display time only
Type the command as follows:
$ date +"%T"
Output:
19:55:04
Display locale’s 12-hour clock time
$ date +"%r"
Output:
07:56:05 PM
Display time in HH:MM format:
$ date +"%H-%M"
How do I save time/date format to a variable?
Simply type command as follows at a shell prompt:
$ NOW=$(date +"%m-%d-%Y")
To display a variable use echo / printf command:
$ echo $NOW
Sample shell script:
#!/bin/bash NOW=$(date +"%m-%d-%Y") FILE="backup.$NOW.tar.gz" # rest of script
Complete list of FORMAT control characters supported by date command
FORMAT controls the output.It can be the combination of any one of the following:
- %%
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., 21)
- %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)
