usr/src/bin/date/date.1

.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" %sccs.include.redist.man%
.\"
.\"     @(#)date.1      6.12 (Berkeley) %G%
.\"
.Dd
.Dt DATE 1
.Os BSD 4.4
.Sh NAME
.Nm date
.Nd display or set date and time
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm date
.Op Fl nu
.Op Fl d Ar dst
.Op Fl r Ar seconds
.Op Fl t Ar minutes_west
.Op +format
.Op [yy[mm[dd[hh]]]]mm[\&.ss]
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm Date
displays the current date and time when invoked without arguments.
Providing arguments will format the date and time in a user-defined
way or set the date.
Only the superuser may set the date.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Pp
.Tw Ds
.Tp Fl d
Set the kernel's values for daylight savings time.
If
.Ar dst
is non-zero, future calls
to
.Xr gettimeofday 2
will return a non-zero
.Ql tz_dsttime  .
.Tp Fl n
The utility
.Xr timed 8
is used to synchronize the clocks of groups of machines.
By default, if
.Xr timed
is running,
.Nm date
will set the time on all of the machines in the local group.
The
.Fl n
option stops
.Nm date
from setting the time for other than the current machine.
.Tp Fl r
Print out the date and time for
.Ar seconds
from the Epoch.
.Tp Fl t
Set the kernel's values for minutes west of GMT.
.Ar Minutes_west
specifies the number of minutes returned in
.Ql tz_minuteswest
by future calls to
.Xr gettimeofday 2 .
.Tp Fl u
Display or set the date in UCT (universal) time.
.Tp
.Pp
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 described
in the
.Xr strftime 3
manual page, as well as any arbitrary text.
The format string for the default display is:
.Pp
.Dl ``%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Z %Y\en''.
.Pp
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:
.Dw Ds
.Dp Ar yy
Year in abbreviated form (.e.g 89 for 1989).
.Dp Ar mm
Numeric month.
A number from 1 to 12.
.Dp Ar dd
Day, a number from 1 to 31.
.Dp Ar hh
Hour, a number from 0 to 23.
.Dp Ar mm
Minutes, a number from 0 to 59.
.Dp Ar .ss
Seconds, a number from 0 to 60.
.Dp
.Pp
Everything but the minutes are optional.
.Pp
Time changes for Daylight Saving and Standard time and leap seconds
and years are handled automatically.
.Sh EXAMPLES
The command:
.Pp
.Dl date ``+DATE: %m/%d/%y%nTIME: %H:%M:n''
.Pp
will display:
.Pp
.Dl DATE: 11/21/87
.Dl TIME: 13:36:16
.Pp
The command:
.Pp
.Dl date 8506131627
.Pp
sets the date to June 13 1985, 4:27 PM.
.Pp
The command:
.Pp
.Dl date 1432
.Pp
sets the time to 2:32 PM, without modifying the date.
.Sh FILES
.Dw /var/log/messages
.Di L
.Dp Pa /var/log/wtmp
A record of date resets and time changes.
.Dp Pa /var/log/messages
A record of the user setting the time.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr gettimeofday 2 ,
.Xr strftime 3 ,
.Xr utmp 5 ,
.Xr timed 8
.br
.Em TSP:\ The\ Time\ Synchronization Protocol
.Em for UNIX 4.3BSD ,
R. Gusella
and\ S.\ Zatti
.Sh HISTORY
.Nm Date
appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
Exit status is 0 on success, 1 on if unable to set the date, and 2 on
if able to set the local date but failing to set it globally.
.Pp
Occasionally, when
.Xr timed
synchronizes the time on many hosts, the setting of a new time value may
require more than a few seconds.
On these occasions,
.Nm date
prints: `Network time being set'.
The message `Communication error with timed' occurs when the communication
between
.Nm date
and
.Xr timed
fails.
.Sh BUGS
The system attempts to keep the date in a format closely compatible
with VMS.
VMS, however, uses local time (rather than GMT) and does not understand
daylight-saving time.
Thus, if you use both UNIX and VMS, VMS will be running on GMT.