In this article, we will see Linux date command with examples.
Linux date command is used to display the system date. Linux date command is also used to set date and time of the system. We must have the root privilege to change the system date.
Linux date command
date [OPTION]... [+FORMAT] date [-u|--utc|--universal] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]
List format options are there at the end of this article.
Linux date command examples:
1. Display the Linux/Unix current system date and time. Open the terminal and just type date command.
date
2. Lets print date with Date part and time part separately using Linux date command.
date "+DATE: %m/%d/%y%nTIME: %H:%M:%S"
3. If we want to set System date, run the below command. To set system date, we must have root privileges.
date -s "11/20/2020 12:48:00"
4. Display the given date string in the format of a date.
date -d "2022-10-10 07:07:07"
5. Find future date. The date command accepts values such as “tomorrow”, “Friday”, “last Friday”, “next Friday”, “next week”, “2 year ago”, ….
date --date="5 day" date -d "last week"
6. create file with date and time in Linux
touch backup_$(date +%d%m%Y)
List of Linux date command format options:
%% 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., 20)
%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, space padded ( 0..23); same as %_H
%l hour, space padded ( 1..12); same as %_I
%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
%q quarter of year (1..4)
%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 time zone (e.g., -0400)
%:z +hh:mm numeric time zone (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)