# phpman > info > dp

[DP(8mh)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/DP/8mh/markdown)                                                                [DP(8mh)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/DP/8mh/markdown)

NAME
       dp - nmh parser of RFC 822-style dates

SYNOPSIS
       /usr/lib/mh/dp [-help] [-version] [-form formatfile] [-format string]
            [-width columns] dates ...

DESCRIPTION
       dp is a program that parses dates according to the ARPA Internet  stan-
       dard.   It  also  understands  many non-standard formats, such as those
       produced by TOPS-20 sites and some Unix sites using  [ctime(3)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ctime/3/markdown).   It  is
       useful for seeing how nmh will interpret a date.

       The  dp  program  treats each argument as a single date, and prints the
       date out in the official RFC 822 format.  Hence, it is usually best  to
       enclose each argument in quotes for the shell.

       To override the output format used by dp, the -format string or -format
       file switches are used.  This permits individual fields of the  address
       to  be  extracted  with ease.  The string is simply a format string and
       the file is simply a format file.  See [mh-format(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mh-format/5/markdown) for the details.

       Here is the default format string used by dp:

            %<(nodate{text})error: %{text}%|%(putstr(pretty{text}))%>

       which says that if an error was detected, print the error, a  `:',  and
       the  date in error.  Otherwise, output the RFC 822-proper format of the
       date.

FILES
       $HOME/.mh_profile   The user's profile.

PROFILE COMPONENTS
       None

SEE ALSO
       [fmttest(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/fmttest/1/markdown), [ap(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ap/8/markdown),

       Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages (RFC 822)

DEFAULTS
       -format             As described above.
       -width              The width of the terminal.

CONTEXT
       None

nmh-1.7.1                         1999-04-30                           [DP(8mh)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/DP/8mh/markdown)