LINUX COMMANDS

date [options] [+format] [date]

Print the current date and time. You may specify a display format, which can consist of literal text strings (blanks must be quoted) as well as field descriptors, whose values are described in the following entries (the listing shows some logical groupings). A privileged
user can change the system’s date and time.

Linux Commad Options:
+format
Display current date in a nonstandard format. For example:
$ date +"%A %j %n%k %p"
Friday 051 23 PM
The default is %a %b %e %T %Z %Y (e.g., Fri Feb 20
22:59:43 EST 2009).
-d date, --date date
Display date, which should be in quotes and may be in the format d days or m months d days, to print a date in the
future. Specify ago to print a date in the past. You may include formatting (see the following section).
-f datefile, --file=datefile
Like -d, but printed once for each line of datefile.
-r file, --reference=file
Display the time file was last modified.
-R, --rfc-2822
Display the date and time in RFC 2822 format.
--rfc-3339=timespec
Display the date and time in RFC 3339 format. The value of timespec can be one of date, seconds, or ns (nanoseconds) to
get the desired degree of precision.
--help
Print help message and exit.
--version
Print version information and exit.
-s date, --set=date
Set the date.
-u, --utc, --universal
Set the date to Coordinated Universal Time, not local time.

Examples:

date 0701040009                                                         Set the date to July 1 (0701), 4 a.m. (0400), 2009 (09)

date +"Hello%t Date is %D %n%t Time is %T"                 Produces a formatted date as follows:   Hello Date is 02/20/09

date --date='TZ="America/Los_Angeles" 09:00 next Fri'       What's the local time for 9AM next Friday on west coast US

date --date='@2147483647'                                           Convert seconds since the epoch (1970-01-01 UTC) to date

date --date='25 Dec' +%A                                              What day does xmas fall on, this year

[ $(date -d "tomorrow" +%d) = "01" ] ||  exit                   Exit a script unless it's the last day of the month

date -d fri                                                                     What date is it this friday