'\" te
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.TH date 1 "20 Jan 2011" "SunOS 5.11" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
date \- write the date and time
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
.nf
\fB/usr/bin/date\fR [\fB-u\fR] [+\fIformat\fR]
.fi

.LP
.nf
\fB/usr/bin/date\fR [\fB-a\fR [-]\fIsss.fff\fR]
.fi

.LP
.nf
\fB/usr/bin/date\fR [\fB-u\fR] [ [\fImmdd\fR] \fIHHMM\fR | \fImmddHHMM\fR [\fIcc\fR] \fIyy\fR] [\fI\&.SS\fR]
.fi

.LP
.nf
\fB/usr/xpg4/bin/date\fR [\fB-u\fR] [+\fIformat\fR]
.fi

.LP
.nf
\fB/usr/xpg4/bin/date\fR [\fB-a\fR [-]\fIsss.fff\fR]
.fi

.LP
.nf
\fB/usr/xpg4/bin/date\fR [\fB-u\fR]
     [ [\fImmdd\fR] \fIHHMM\fR | \fImmddHHMM\fR [\fIcc\fR] \fIyy\fR] [\fI\&.SS\fR]
.fi

.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
.LP
The \fBdate\fR utility writes the date and time to standard output or attempts to set the system date and time. By default, the current date and time is written.
.sp
.LP
Specifications of native language translations of month and weekday names are supported. The month and weekday names used for a language are based on the locale specified by the environment variable \fBLC_TIME\fR. See \fBenviron\fR(5).
.sp
.LP
The following is the default form for the \fBC\fR locale:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
\fI%a %b %e %T %Z %Y\fR
.fi
.in -2

.sp
.LP
For example,
.sp
.in +2
.nf
Fri Dec 23 10:10:42 EST 1988
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.SH OPTIONS
.sp
.LP
The following options are supported:
.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fB-a\fR [\|\fB-\fR\|]\|\fIsss.fff\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 23n
.rt  
Slowly adjust the time by \fIsss\fR.\fIfff\fR seconds (\fIfff\fR represents fractions of a second). This adjustment can be positive or negative. The system's clock is sped up or slowed down until it has drifted by the number of seconds specified. Only the super-user may adjust the time.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fB-u\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 23n
.rt  
Display (or set) the date in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT\(emuniversal time), bypassing the normal conversion to (or from) local time.
.RE

.SH OPERANDS
.sp
.LP
The following operands are supported:
.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fB+\fR\fIformat\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 11n
.rt  
If the argument begins with \fB+\fR, the output of \fBdate\fR is the result of passing \fIformat\fR and the current time to \fBstrftime()\fR. \fBdate\fR uses the conversion specifications listed on the \fBstrftime\fR(3C) manual page, with the conversion specification for \fB%C\fR determined by whether \fB/usr/bin/date\fR or \fB/usr/xpg4/bin/date\fR is used: 
.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fB/usr/bin/date\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 22n
.rt  
Locale's date and time representation. This is the default output for \fBdate\fR.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fB/usr/xpg4/bin/date\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 22n
.rt  
Century (a year divided by 100 and truncated to an integer) as a decimal number [00-99].
.RE

Additionally, date supports \fI%N\fR which represents nanosecond  portion of the current time since Epoch (\fB00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970\fR)  as a decimal number [\fB000000000-999999999\fR]. The conversion specification accepts an optional flag character,  an optional field width, or both as specified in \fBstrftime()\fR with a difference that, if a field width specified is less than nine, the actual date output contains only the specified amount of digits of the nanoseconds from left.
.sp
The string is always terminated with a NEWLINE. An argument containing blanks must be quoted; see the \fBEXAMPLES\fR section.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fImm\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 11n
.rt  
Month number
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fIdd\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 11n
.rt  
Day number in the month
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fIHH\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 11n
.rt  
Hour number (24 hour system)
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fIMM\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 11n
.rt  
Minute number
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fISS\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 11n
.rt  
Second number
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fIcc\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 11n
.rt  
Century (a year divided by 100 and truncated to an integer) as a decimal number [00-99]. For example, \fIcc\fR is \fB19\fR for the year 1988 and \fB20\fR for the year 2007.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fIyy\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 11n
.rt  
Last two digits of the year number. If century (\fIcc\fR) is not specified, then values in the range \fB69-99\fR shall refer to years 1969 to 1999 inclusive, and values in the range \fB00-68\fR shall refer to years 2000 to 2068, inclusive.
.RE

.sp
.LP
The month, day, year number, and century may be omitted; the current values are applied as defaults. For example, the following entry:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBdate 10080045\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.sp
.LP
sets the date to Oct 8, 12:45 a.m. The current year is the default because no year is supplied. The system operates in GMT. \fBdate\fR takes care of the conversion to and from local standard and daylight time. Only the super-user may change the date. After successfully setting the date and time, \fBdate\fR displays the new date according to the default format. The \fBdate\fR command uses \fBTZ\fR to determine the correct time zone information; see \fBenviron\fR(5). 
.SH EXAMPLES
.LP
\fBExample 1 \fRGenerating Output
.sp
.LP
The following command:

.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBdate '+DATE: %m/%d/%y%nTIME:%H:%M:%S'\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.sp
.LP
generates as output

.sp
.in +2
.nf
DATE: 08/01/76

TIME: 14:45:05
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.LP
\fBExample 2 \fRSetting the Current Time
.sp
.LP
The following command sets the current time to \fB12:34:56\fR:

.sp
.in +2
.nf
example# \fBdate 1234.56\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.LP
\fBExample 3 \fRSetting Another Time and Date in Greenwich Mean Time
.sp
.LP
The following command sets the date to January 1st, 12:30 am, 2000: 

.sp
.in +2
.nf
example# \fBdate -u 010100302000\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.sp
.LP
This is displayed as:

.sp
.in +2
.nf
Thu Jan 01 00:30:00 GMT 2000
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
.sp
.LP
See \fBenviron\fR(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of \fBdate\fR: \fBLANG\fR, \fBLC_ALL\fR, \fBLC_CTYPE\fR, \fBLC_TIME\fR, \fBLC_MESSAGES\fR, and \fBNLSPATH\fR.
.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fBTZ\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
.rt  
Determine the timezone in which the time and date are written, unless the \fB-u\fR option is specified. If the \fBTZ\fR variable is not set and the \fB-u\fR is not specified, the system default timezone is used.
.RE

.SH EXIT STATUS
.sp
.LP
The following exit values are returned:
.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fB0\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
.rt  
Successful completion.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fB>0\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
.rt  
An error occurred.
.RE

.SH ATTRIBUTES
.sp
.LP
See \fBattributes\fR(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
.SS "/usr/bin/date"
.sp

.sp
.TS
tab() box;
cw(2.75i) |cw(2.75i) 
lw(2.75i) |lw(2.75i) 
.
ATTRIBUTE TYPEATTRIBUTE VALUE
_
Availabilitysystem/core-os
_
CSIEnabled
.TE

.SS "/usr/xpg4/bin/date"
.sp

.sp
.TS
tab() box;
cw(2.75i) |cw(2.75i) 
lw(2.75i) |lw(2.75i) 
.
ATTRIBUTE TYPEATTRIBUTE VALUE
_
Availabilitysystem/xopen/xcu4
_
CSIEnabled
_
Interface StabilityCommitted
_
StandardSee \fBstandards\fR(5).
.TE

.SH SEE ALSO
.sp
.LP
\fBstrftime\fR(3C), \fBattributes\fR(5), \fBenviron\fR(5), \fBstandards\fR(5)
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fBno permission\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 18n
.rt  
You are not the super-user and you tried to change the date.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.mk
.na
\fB\fBbad conversion\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 18n
.rt  
The date set is syntactically incorrect.
.RE

.SH NOTES
.sp
.LP
If you attempt to set the current date to one of the dates that the standard and alternate time zones change (for example, the date that daylight time is starting or ending), and you attempt to set the time to a time in the interval between the end of standard time and the beginning of the alternate time (or the end of the alternate time and the beginning of standard time), the results are unpredictable.
.sp
.LP
Using the \fBdate\fR command from within windowing environments to change the date can lead to unpredictable results and is unsafe. It can also be unsafe in the multi-user mode, that is, outside of a windowing system, if the date is changed rapidly back and forth. The recommended method of changing the date is '\fBdate\fR \fB-a\fR'.
.sp
.LP
Setting the system time or allowing the system time to progress beyond \fB03:14:07 UTC Jan 19, 2038\fR is not supported on Solaris.