date command one liners

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For viewing date

To print date in terminal default format

[root@localhost]# date

Sun Mar 25 16:21:21 IST 2012

To print Date in terminal GMT/UTC time zone

[root@localhost]# date -u

Sun Mar 25 10:51:25 UTC 2012

To print Date in terminal RFC format

[root@localhost]# date -R

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 16:21:34 +0530

For setting date

Using User friendly format "01/01/2000 12:12:12" and -s option

[root@localhost]# date

Sun Mar 25 16:24:09 IST 2012

[root@localhost]# date -s "01/01/2000 12:12:12"

Sat Jan  1 12:12:12 IST 2000

[root@localhost]# date

Sat Jan  1 12:12:13 IST 2000

Using précised format 0701040095

[root@localhost]# date

Fri Jan 21 12:20:46 IST 2000

[root@localhost]# date 0701040095

Sat Jul  1 04:00:00 IST 1995

[root@localhost]# date

Sat Jul  1 04:00:02 IST 1995

Where date is set as,

July 1 -> 0701

4 a.m. -> 0400

2005   -> 05

To display Month, Day and Year

[root@localhost]# date '+%m-%d-%Y'

01-01-2000

where,

%m -> to get the month value

%d -> to get the value of day of the month

%Y -> to get the value of Year

To display Hours, Minutes and Seconds

[root@localhost]# date '+%H-%M-%S'

12-16-11

Where,

%H -> to get the Hours value

%M -> to get the value of Minutes of the Hour

%S -> to get the value of Seconds of the Minute

To display Month, Day, Year, Hours, Minutes and Seconds

[root@localhost]# date '+%m-%d-%Y %H-%M-%S'

01-01-2000 12-16-16

To find the number of seconds from UNIX epoch.

[root@localhost]# date '+%s'

946709313

Where,

%s -> to get the date and time in unix epoc format which is a system for describing instants in time, defined as the number of seconds elapsed since midnight Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) of Thursday, January 1, 1970

This is the reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time

To get Date in single parameter

[root@localhost]# date +"%D"

01/01/00

Where

%D -> to get the date in MM/DD/YY format

[root@localhost]# date +"%T"

12:32:59

Where,

%T -> to get the date in HH:MM:SS format

To display date with customized text

[root@localhost]# date +"Hello%t Date is %D %n%t Time is %T"

Hello    Date is 01/01/00

         Time is 12:27:33

Where,

%n -> newline character to add newline in output

%t -> tab character to add tab in output

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