DATE(1)                    OpenBSD Reference Manual                    DATE(1)

NAME
     date - display or set date and time

SYNOPSIS
     date [-d dst] [-r seconds] [-t minutes_west] [-anu] [+format]
          [[[[[[cc]yy]mm]dd]HH]MM[.SS]]

DESCRIPTION
     When invoked without arguments, the date utility displays the current
     date and time.  Otherwise, depending on the options specified, date will
     set the date and time or print it in a user-defined way.

     Only the superuser may set the date.

     The options are as follows:

     -a      Use the adjtime(2) call to gradually skew the local time to the
             remote time rather than just hopping.

     -d dst  Set the system's value for Daylight Saving Time.  If dst is non-
             zero, future calls to gettimeofday(2) will return a non-zero val-
             ue for tz_dsttime.

     -n      By default, if the timed(8) daemon is running, date sets the time
             on all of the machines in the local group.  The -n option sup-
             presses this behavior and causes the time to be set only on the
             current machine.

     -r seconds
             Print out (in specified format) the date and time represented by
             seconds from the Epoch.

     -t minutes_west
             Set the system's value for minutes west of GMT.  minutes_west
             specifies the number of minutes returned in tz_minuteswest by fu-
             ture calls to gettimeofday(2).

     -u      Display or set the date in UTC (Coordinated 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.  A
     newline (`\n') character is always output after the characters specified
     by the format string.  The format string for the default display is:

           %a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Z %Y

     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:

           yy      Year in abbreviated form (for years 1969-2068).  The format
                   ccyymmddHHMM is also permitted, for non-ambiguous years.
           mm      Numeric month, a number from 1 to 12.
           dd      Day, a number from 1 to 31.
           HH      Hour, a number from 0 to 23.
           MM      Minute, a number from 0 to 59.
           SS      Second, a number from 0 to 61 (59 plus a maximum of two
                   leap seconds).

     Everything but the minute is optional.

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

ENVIRONMENT
     TZ      The timezone to use when displaying dates.  See environ(7) for
             more information.  If this variable is not set, the timezone is
             determined based on /etc/localtime, which the administrator ad-
             justs using the -l option of zic(8).

FILES
     /var/log/wtmp      record of date resets and time changes
     /var/log/messages  record of the user setting the time

EXAMPLES
     $ date "+DATE: %Y-%m-%d%nTIME: %H:%M:%S"

     Displays

           DATE: 1987-11-21
           TIME: 13:36:16

     # date 8506131627

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

     # date 1432

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

DIAGNOSTICS
     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(8) synchronizes the time on many hosts, the set-
     ting of a new time value may require more than a few seconds.  On these
     occasions, date prints: ``Network time being set''.  The message
     ``Communication error with timed'' occurs when the communication between
     date and timed(8) fails.

SEE ALSO
     gettimeofday(2), strftime(3), utmp(5), timed(8)

     R. Gusella, and S. Zatti, TSP: The Time Synchronization Protocol for UNIX
     4.3BSD.

STANDARDS
     The date utility is expected to be compatible with IEEE Std 1003.2
     (``POSIX.2'').

HISTORY
     A date command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.

OpenBSD 3.4                     April 28, 1995                               2