Command-line Knowledge Base
date
Example 1/2
$ date +%F$ 2021-01-08
Example 2/2
$ MONTH_NAME=$(date +%B)$ echo $MONTH_NAME$ January
Seconds
Sequence | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| %S | 00..60 | seconds |
| NULL | NULL | NULL |
| NULL | NULL | NULL |
Minutes
Sequence | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| %M | 00..59 | minutes |
| NULL | NULL | NULL |
| NULL | NULL | NULL |
Hour
Sequence | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| %H | 00..23 | hour |
| %I | 00..12 | hour |
| %k | 0..23 | hour, space padded; same as %_H |
| %l | 1..12 | hour, space padded; same as %_I |
Day
Sequence | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| %d | 01 | day of month |
| %e | 8 | day of month, space padded; same as %_d |
| %a | Sun | locale's abbreviated weekday name |
| %A | Sunday | locale's full weekday name |
| %j | 001..366 | day of year |
| %u | 1..7 | day of week; 1 is Monday |
| %w | 0..6 | day of week; 0 is Sunday |
Week
Sequence | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| %U | 00..53 | week number of year, with Sunday as first day of week |
| %W | 00..53 | week number of year, with Monday as first day of week |
| %V | 01..53 | ISO week number, with Monday as first day of week |
Month
Sequence | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| %m | 01..12 | month |
| %b | Jan | locale's abbreviated month name |
| %B | January | locale's full month name |
Year
Sequence | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| %g | 21 | last two digits of year of ISO week number (see %G) |
| %G | NULL | year of ISO week number (see %V); normally useful only with %V |
| %y | 00..99 | last two digits of year |
| %Y | 2021 | year |
| NULL | NULL | NULL |
Date
Sequence | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| %D | 01/08/21 | date; same as %m/%d/%y |
| %F | 2021-01-08 | full date; like %+4Y-%m-%d |
| %x | 2021-01-11 | locale's date representation |
Time
Sequence | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| %r | 03:10:13 PM | locale's 12-hour clock time |
| %R | 15:11 | 24-hour hour and minute; same as %H:%M |
| %T | 15:31:05 | time; same as %H:%M:%S |
| %X | 05:55:20 AM | locale's time representation |
| NULL | NULL | NULL |
Date and Time
Sequence | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| %c | Fri 08 Jan 2021 08:16:27 AM | locale's date and time |
Time Zone
Sequence | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| %z | -0400 | +hhmm numeric time zone |
| %:z | -04:00 | +hh:mm numeric time zone |
| %::z | -04:00:00 | +hh:mm:ss numeric time zone |
| %:::z | -04, +05:30 | numeric time zone with : to necessary precision |
| %Z | EST | alphabetic time zone abbreviation |
Misc
Sequence | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| %n | a newline | |
| %t | a tab | |
| %p | locale's equivalent of either AM or PM; blank if not known | |
| %P | like %p, but lower case | |
| %q | 1..4 | quarter of year |
| - | %-d | (hyphen) do not pad the field |
| _ | (underscore) pad with spaces | |
| 0 | (zero) pad with zeros | |
| + | pad with zeros, and put '+' before future years with >4 digits | |
| ^ | use upper case if possible | |
| # | use opposite case if possible |