4.4BSD/usr/share/man/cat1/date.0

DATE(1)                      BSD Reference Manual                      DATE(1)

NNAAMMEE
     ddaattee - display or set date and time

SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS
     ddaattee [--dd _d_s_t] [--rr _s_e_c_o_n_d_s] [--tt _m_i_n_u_t_e_s___w_e_s_t] [--nnuu] [++_f_o_r_m_a_t]
          [[yy[mm[dd[hh]]]]mm[.ss]]

DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
     DDaattee displays the current date and time when invoked without arguments.
     Providing arguments will format the date and time in a user-defined way
     or set the date.  Only the superuser may set the date.

     The options are as follows:

     --dd      Set the kernel's value for daylight savings time.  If _d_s_t is non-
             zero, future calls to gettimeofday(2) will return a non-zero
             `tz_dsttime'.

     --nn      The utility timed(8) is used to synchronize the clocks on groups
             of machines.  By default, if timed is running, ddaattee will set the
             time on all of the machines in the local group.  The --nn option
             stops ddaattee from setting the time for other than the current ma-
             chine.

     --rr      Print out the date and time in _s_e_c_o_n_d_s from the Epoch.

     --tt      Set the kernel's value for minutes west of GMT. _M_i_n_u_t_e_s___w_e_s_t
             specifies the number of minutes returned in `tz_minuteswest' by
             future calls to gettimeofday(2).

     --uu      Display or set the date in UCT (universal) time.

     An operand with a leading plus (``+'') sign signals a user-defined format
     string which specifies the format in which to display the date and time.
     The format string may contain any of the conversion specifications de-
     scribed in the strftime(3) manual page, as well as any arbitrary text.
     The format string for the default display is:

           ``%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Z n''.

     If an operand does not have a leading plus sign, it is interpreted as a
     value for setting the system's notion of the current date and time.  The
     canonical representation for setting the date and time is:

           _y_y      Year in abbreviated form (.e.g 89 for 1989).
           _m_m      Numeric month.  A number from 1 to 12.
           _d_d      Day, a number from 1 to 31.
           _h_h      Hour, a number from 0 to 23.
           _m_m      Minutes, a number from 0 to 59.
           _._s_s     Seconds, a number from 0 to 61 (59 plus a a maximum of two
                   leap seconds).

     Everything but the minutes is optional.

     Time changes for Daylight Saving and Standard time and leap seconds and
     years are handled automatically.

EEXXAAMMPPLLEESS
     The command:

           date ``+DATE: %m/%d/%y%nTIME: %H:%M:0n''


     will display:

           DATE: 11/21/87
           TIME: 13:36:16

     The command:

           date 8506131627

     sets the date to ``June 13, 1985, 4:27 PM''.

     The command:

           date 1432

     sets the time to 2:32 PM, without modifying the date.

FFIILLEESS
     /var/log/wtmp      A record of date resets and time changes.
     /var/log/messages  A record of the user setting the time.

SSEEEE AALLSSOO
     gettimeofday(2),  strftime(3),  utmp(5),  timed(8)

     R. Gusella, and S. Zatti, _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.

DDIIAAGGNNOOSSTTIICCSS
     Exit status is 0 on success, 1 if unable to set the date, and 2 if able
     to set the local date, but unable to set it 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-savings time.  Thus, if you use both UNIX and VMS, VMS
     will be running on GMT.

SSTTAANNDDAARRDDSS
     The ddaattee command is expected to be compatible with IEEE Std1003.2
     (``POSIX'').

4.4BSD                           June 1, 1993                                2