man > DATE(1)

DATE(1)                                     User Commands                                    DATE(1)

NAME
       date - print or set the system date and time

SYNOPSIS
       date [OPTION]... [+FORMAT]
       date [-u|--utc|--universal] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]

DESCRIPTION
       Display date and time in the given FORMAT.  With -s, or with [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]], set the
       date and time.

       Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

       -d, --date=STRING
              display time described by STRING, not 'now'

       --debug
              annotate the parsed date, and warn about questionable usage to stderr

       -f, --file=DATEFILE
              like --date; once for each line of DATEFILE

       -I[FMT], --iso-8601[=FMT]
              output date/time in ISO 8601 format.  FMT='date' for date only (the default), 'hours',
              'minutes',  'seconds', or 'ns' for date and time to the indicated precision.  Example:
              2006-08-14T02:34:56-06:00

       --resolution
              output the available resolution of timestamps Example: 0.000000001

       -R, --rfc-email
              output date and time in RFC 5322 format.  Example: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 02:34:56 -0600

       --rfc-3339=FMT
              output date/time in RFC 3339 format.  FMT='date', 'seconds', or 'ns' for date and time
              to the indicated precision.  Example: 2006-08-14 02:34:56-06:00

       -r, --reference=FILE
              display the last modification time of FILE

       -s, --set=STRING
              set time described by STRING

       -u, --utc, --universal
              print or set Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
              output version information and exit

       All options that specify the date to display are mutually exclusive.  I.e.:  --date,  --file,
       --reference, --resolution.

       FORMAT controls the output.  Interpreted sequences are:

       %%     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; like %+4Y-%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 the Epoch (1970-01-01 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)

       By  default,  date  pads numeric fields with zeroes.  The following optional flags may follow
       '%':

       -      (hyphen) do not pad the field

       _      (underscore) pad with spaces

       0      (zero) pad with zeros

       +      pad with zeros, and put '+' before future years with >4 digits

       ^      use upper case if possible

       #      use opposite case if possible

       After any flags comes an optional field width, as a decimal number; then  an  optional  modi‐
       fier,  which  is either E to use the locale's alternate representations if available, or O to
       use the locale's alternate numeric symbols if available.

EXAMPLES
       Convert seconds since the Epoch (1970-01-01 UTC) to a date

              $ date --date='@2147483647'

       Show the time on the west coast of the US (use tzselect(1) to find TZ)

              $ TZ='America/Los_Angeles' date

       Show the local time for 9AM next Friday on the west coast of the US

              $ date --date='TZ="America/Los_Angeles" 09:00 next Fri'

DATE STRING
       The --date=STRING is a mostly free format human readable date string such  as  "Sun,  29  Feb
       2004  16:21:42  -0800"  or  "2004-02-29 16:21:42" or even "next Thursday".  A date string may
       contain items indicating calendar date, time of day, time zone, day of week,  relative  time,
       relative  date,  and  numbers.  An empty string indicates the beginning of the day.  The date
       string format is more complex than is easily documented here but is fully  described  in  the
       info documentation.

AUTHOR
       Written by David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS
       GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright  ©  2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
       <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY,  to
       the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO
       Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/date>
       or available locally via: info '(coreutils) date invocation'

GNU coreutils 9.4                           January 2026                                     DATE(1)