date - print or set the system date and time

date [OPTION]... [+FORMAT]
date [-u|--utc|--universal] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]

Display date and time in the given FORMAT. With -s, or with [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]], set the date and time.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

-d, --date=STRING

display time described by STRING, not 'now'

--debug

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

-f, --file=DATEFILE

like --date; once for each line of DATEFILE

-I[FMT], --iso-8601[=FMT]

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

--resolution

output the available resolution of timestamps Example: 0.000000001

-R, --rfc-email

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

--rfc-3339=FMT

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

-r, --reference=FILE

display the last modification time of FILE

-s, --set=STRING

set time described by STRING

-u, --utc, --universal

print or set Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

--help

display this help and exit

--version

output version information and exit

All options that specify the date to display are mutually exclusive. I.e.: --date, --file, --reference, --resolution.

FORMAT controls the output. Interpreted sequences are:

%%

a literal %

%a

locale's abbreviated weekday name (e.g., Sun)

%A

locale's full weekday name (e.g., Sunday)

%b

locale's abbreviated month name (e.g., Jan)

%B

locale's full month name (e.g., January)

%c

locale's date and time (e.g., Thu Mar 3 23:05:25 2005)

%C

century; like %Y, except omit last two digits (e.g., 20)

%d

day of month (e.g., 01)

%D

date; same as %m/%d/%y

%e

day of month, space padded; same as %_d

%F

full date; like %+4Y-%m-%d

%g

last two digits of year of ISO week number (see %G)

%G

year of ISO week number (see %V); normally useful only with %V

%h

same as %b

%H

hour (00..23)

%I

hour (01..12)

%j

day of year (001..366)

%k

hour, space padded ( 0..23); same as %_H

%l

hour, space padded ( 1..12); same as %_I

%m

month (01..12)

%M

minute (00..59)

%n

a newline

%N

nanoseconds (000000000..999999999)

%p

locale's equivalent of either AM or PM; blank if not known

%P

like %p, but lower case

%q

quarter of year (1..4)

%r

locale's 12-hour clock time (e.g., 11:11:04 PM)

%R

24-hour hour and minute; same as %H:%M

%s

seconds since the Epoch (1970-01-01 00:00 UTC)

%S

second (00..60)

%t

a tab

%T

time; same as %H:%M:%S

%u

day of week (1..7); 1 is Monday

%U

week number of year, with Sunday as first day of week (00..53)

%V

ISO week number, with Monday as first day of week (01..53)

%w

day of week (0..6); 0 is Sunday

%W

week number of year, with Monday as first day of week (00..53)

%x

locale's date representation (e.g., 12/31/99)

%X

locale's time representation (e.g., 23:13:48)

%y

last two digits of year (00..99)

%Y

year

%z

+hhmm numeric time zone (e.g., -0400)

%:z

+hh:mm numeric time zone (e.g., -04:00)

%::z

+hh:mm:ss numeric time zone (e.g., -04:00:00)

%:::z

numeric time zone with : to necessary precision (e.g., -04, +05:30)

%Z

alphabetic time zone abbreviation (e.g., 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

+

pad with zeros, and put '+' before future years with >4 digits

^

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.

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) to find TZ)

$ TZ='America/Los_Angeles' date

Show the local time for 9AM next Friday on the west coast of the US

$ date --date='TZ="America/Los_Angeles" 09:00 next Fri'

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/date>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) date invocation'