Linux date Command

The date command in Linux is used to display or set the system date and time. It is a powerful utility that allows you to format the output in various ways.

Basic Syntax

date [OPTION]... [+FORMAT]

Common Options

• +%Y: Displays the year (e.g., 2023).
• +%y: Displays the last two digits of the year (e.g., 23).
• +%m: Displays the month (01-12).
• +%d: Displays the day of the month (01-31).
• +%H: Displays the hour (00-23).
• +%M: Displays the minute (00-59).
• +%S: Displays the second (00-59).
• +%A: Displays the full weekday name (e.g., Monday).
• +%a: Displays the abbreviated weekday name (e.g., Mon).
• +%B: Displays the full month name (e.g., January).
• +%b: Displays the abbreviated month name (e.g., Jan).
• +%c: Displays the date and time in the locale's format.
• +%x: Displays the date in the locale's format.
• +%X: Displays the time in the locale's format.
• +%s: Displays the number of seconds since the epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC).
• +%z: Displays the time zone offset from UTC.
• +%Z: Displays the time zone name.
• --date="STRING": Displays the date and time specified by the string.
• --set="STRING": Sets the system date and time.
• --utc: Displays the date in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).
• --rfc-3339=TYPE: Displays the date in RFC 3339 format.
• --iso-8601=TYPE: Displays the date in ISO 8601 format.

Examples

1. Display the Current Date and Time

date

Output:

Tue Oct 10 14:30:00 UTC 2023

2. Display Only the Current Year

date +%Y

Output:

2023

3. Display Date in Custom Format

date "+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"

Output:

2023-10-10 14:30:00

4. Set the System Date and Time

sudo date -s "2023-10-10 14:30:00"

This command sets the system date and time to the specified value.

5. Display the Date in RFC 3339 Format

date --rfc-3339=seconds

Output:

2023-10-10 14:30:00+00:00

6. Display the Date in ISO 8601 Format

date --iso-8601=seconds

Output:

2023-10-10T14:30:00+00:00

7. Display the Date in UTC

date --utc

Output:

Tue Oct 10 14:30:00 UTC 2023

8. Display the Date in a Specific Time Zone

TZ="America/New_York" date

Output:

Tue Oct 10 10:30:00 EDT 2023

9. Display the Date in a Specific Format

date "+%A, %B %d, %Y"

Output:

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Some Other method

0525115625.30

This Time formate is "mmddHHmmyy.ss"

Where:

• mm: Month (01-12)
• dd: Day of the month (01-31)
• HH: Hour (00-23)
• mm: Minute (00-59)
• yy: Year (last two digits)
• ss: Seconds (00-59)

To convert this format to a standard date format, you can use the date command with the -d option:

date -d "0525115625.30" +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"

Output:

2025-05-25 11:56:25

Set Time zone

To set the time zone in Linux, you can use the timedatectl command. For example, to set the time zone to "America/New_York", you can use:

sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/New_York

To check the current time zone, you can use:

timedatectl

Output:

Local time: Tue 2023-10-10 14:30:00 UTC
Time zone: UTC (UTC, +0000)
NTP enabled: yes
NTP synchronized: yes
RTC in local TZ: no

To list all available time zones, you can use:

timedatectl list-timezones

This will display a list of all available time zones. You can scroll through the list or use the grep command to filter for a specific time zone.

For example, to find all time zones that contain "Asia", you can use:

timedatectl list-timezones | grep Asia

This will display a list of all time zones that contain "Asia".

To set the time zone to a specific time zone, you can use the timedatectl set-timezone command followed by the name of the time zone. For example:

sudo timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Kolkata

This will set the time zone to "Asia/Kolkata".

To verify that the time zone has been set correctly, you can use the timedatectl command again:

timedatectl

Output:

Local time: Tue 2023-10-10 14:30:00 IST
Time zone: Asia/Kolkata (IST, +5:30)
NTP enabled: yes
NTP synchronized: yes
RTC in local TZ: no

Note: You may need to restart your system or log out and log back in for the changes to take effect.