DATE(1) UNIX Reference Manual DATE(1) NNAAMMEE ddaattee - Display or set date and time SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS ddaattee [--nnuu] [--dd _d_s_t] [--tt _m_i_n_u_t_e_s__w_e_s_t] [yymmddhhmm [.ss]] DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN DDaattee displays today's date and time when invoked without arguments. Pro- viding an argument will set the desired date; only the superuser can set the date. Options are: --dd Set the kernel's values for daylight savings time. If _d_s_t is non- zero, future calls to gettimeofday(2) will return a non-zero `tz_dsttime'. --tt Set the kernel's values for minutes west of GMT. _M_i_n_u_t_e_s__w_e_s_t pro- vides the number of minutes returned by future calls to gettimeof- day(2) in `tz_minuteswest'. --uu Display or set the date in GMT (universal) time. The canonical representation for setting the date and time: _y_y Year in abbreviated form (.e.g 89 for 1989). _m_m Numeric month. A number from 01 to 12. _d_d Day, a number from 01 to 31. _h_h Hour, a number from 00 to 24. _m_m Minutes, a number from 00 to 60. ._s_s Seconds, a number from 00 to 60. The command: date 8506131627 sets the date to June 13 1985, 4:27 PM. To reset today's time, the incantation can be shortened to just the hours and minutes: date 1432 sets the time to 2:32 PM, unaffecting the date. Providing a system stays running, date will handle time changes for daylight/standards savings time and leap times. If timed(8) is running to synchronize the clocks of machines in a local area network, ddaattee sets the time globally on all those machines unless the --nn option is given. FFIILLEESS /_v_a_r/_l_o_g/_w_t_m_p A record of date resets and time changes. /_v_a_r/_l_o_g/_m_e_s_s_a_g_e_s A record of the name of the user setting the time. SSEEEE AALLSSOO gettimeofday(2), utmp(5), timed(8) _T_S_P: _T_h_e _T_i_m_e _S_y_n_c_h_r_o_n_i_z_a_t_i_o_n _P_r_o_t_o_c_o_l _f_o_r _U_N_I_X _4._3_B_S_D, R. Gusella and S. Zatti HHIISSTTOORRYY DDaattee appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. DDIIAAGGNNOOSSTTIICCSS Exit status is 0 on success, 1 on complete failure to set the date, and 2 on successfully setting the local date but failing globally. Occasionally, when timed synchronizes the time on many hosts, the setting of a new time value may require more than a few seconds. On these occa- sions, ddaattee prints: `Network time being set'. The message `Communication error with timed' occurs when the communication between ddaattee and timed fails. BBUUGGSS The system attempts to keep the date in a format closely compatible with VMS. VMS, however, uses local time (rather than GMT) and does not under- stand daylight-saving time. Thus, if you use both UNIX and VMS, VMS will be running on GMT.