DATE(1) General Commands Manual DATE(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

date - Print or set the system date and time

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**date** \[OPTION]... \[+FORMAT]...  
**date** \[OPTION]... \[MMDDhhmm\[\[CC]YY]\[.ss]]  
FORMAT controls the output. Interpreted sequences are:  
| Sequence | Description | Example |  
| -------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------- |  
| %% | a literal % | % |  
| %a | locale's abbreviated weekday name | Sun |  
| %A | locale's full weekday name | Sunday |  
| %b | locale's abbreviated month name | Jan |  
| %B | locale's full month name | January |  
| %c | locale's date and time | Thu Mar 3 23:05:25 2005|  
| %C | century; like %Y, except omit last two digits | 20 |  
| %d | day of month | 01 |  
| %D | date; same as %m/%d/%y | 12/31/99 |  
| %e | day of month, space padded; same as %\_d | 3 |  
| %F | full date; same as %Y-%m-%d | 2005-03-03 |  
| %g | last two digits of year of ISO week number (see %G) | 05 |  
| %G | year of ISO week number (see %V); normally useful only with %V | 2005 |  
| %h | same as %b | Jan |  
| %H | hour (00..23) | 23 |  
| %I | hour (01..12) | 11 |  
| %j | day of year (001..366) | 062 |  
| %k | hour, space padded ( 0..23); same as %\_H | 3 |  
| %l | hour, space padded ( 1..12); same as %\_I | 9 |  
| %m | month (01..12) | 03 |  
| %M | minute (00..59) | 30 |  
| %n | a newline | \\n |  
| %N | nanoseconds (000000000..999999999) | 123456789 |  
| %p | locale's equivalent of either AM or PM; blank if not known | PM |  
| %P | like %p, but lower case | pm |  
| %q | quarter of year (1..4) | 1 |  
| %r | locale's 12-hour clock time | 11:11:04 PM |  
| %R | 24-hour hour and minute; same as %H:%M | 23:30 |  
| %s | seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1615432800 |  
| %S | second (00..60) | 30 |  
| %t | a tab | \\t |  
| %T | time; same as %H:%M:%S | 23:30:30 |  
| %u | day of week (1..7); 1 is Monday | 4 |  
| %U | week number of year, with Sunday as first day of week (00..53) | 10 |  
| %V | ISO week number, with Monday as first day of week (01..53) | 12 |  
| %w | day of week (0..6); 0 is Sunday | 4 |  
| %W | week number of year, with Monday as first day of week (00..53) | 11 |  
| %x | locale's date representation | 03/03/2005 |  
| %X | locale's time representation | 23:30:30 |  
| %y | last two digits of year (00..99) | 05 |  
| %Y | year | 2005 |  
| %z | +hhmm numeric time zone | -0400 |  
| %:z | +hh:mm numeric time zone | -04:00 |  
| %::z | +hh:mm:ss numeric time zone | -04:00:00 |  
| %:::z | numeric time zone with : to necessary precision | -04, +05:30 |  
| %Z | alphabetic time zone abbreviation | 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  
\* \`^\` 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 modifier, 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)](/man/os/uutils/tzselect.1) to find TZ)  
TZ='America/Los\_Angeles' date

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

Print or set the system date and time

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

[**-d**, **--date** *<STRING>*](#d)

display time described by STRING, not 'now'

[**-f**, **--file** *<DATEFILE>*](#f)

like --date; once for each line of DATEFILE

[**-I**, **--iso-8601** \[*<FMT>*\]](#I)

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

*Possible values:*

- date
- hours
- minutes
- seconds
- ns

[**--resolution**](#resolution)

output the available resolution of timestamps Example: 0.000000001

[**-R**, **--rfc-email**](#R)

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

[**--rfc-3339** *<FMT>*](#rfc)

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

*Possible values:*

- date
- seconds
- ns

[**--debug**](#debug)

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

[**-r**, **--reference** *<FILE>*](#r)

display the last modification time of FILE

[**-s**, **--set** *<STRING>*](#s)

set time described by STRING

[**-u**, **--universal**](#u)

print or set Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

[**-h**, **--help**](#h)

Print help

[**-V**, **--version**](#V)

Print version

\[*format*]

# [VERSION](#VERSION)

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

2026-09-30

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Document: date(1) from uutils 0.12.0-r1 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/uutils/coreutils