datetime

Get the current date and time in various formats.

Quick Reference

# Date only
date +%Y-%m-%d                    # 2025-01-15
date +%Y/%m/%d                    # 2025/01/15
date +%d-%m-%Y                    # 15-01-2025

# Date with time
date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"         # 2025-01-15 14:30:45
date +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"         # 2025-01-15T14:30:45 (ISO 8601)
date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"     # 2025-01-15T14:30:45Z (UTC ISO 8601)

# Time only
date +%H:%M:%S                    # 14:30:45
date +%H:%M                       # 14:30
date +%I:%M%p                     # 02:30PM (12-hour)

# Timestamps
date +%s                          # 1705329045 (Unix epoch)
date +%s%3N                       # 1705329045123 (milliseconds)

# Human readable
date "+%B %d, %Y"                 # January 15, 2025
date "+%A, %B %d, %Y"             # Wednesday, January 15, 2025
date "+%b %d %Y"                  # Jan 15 2025

# File-safe formats (no colons/spaces)
date +%Y%m%d                      # 20250115
date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S               # 20250115_143045
date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S               # 20250115-143045

When to Use

Use this skill whenever you need:

• Current date for logging or timestamps
• Date strings for file naming
• ISO 8601 formatted dates for APIs
• Unix timestamps for calculations
• Human-readable date displays
• UTC time for cross-timezone consistency

Format Codes

| Code | Output | Example | |------|--------|---------| | %Y | Year (4-digit) | 2025 | | %m | Month (01-12) | 01 | | %d | Day (01-31) | 15 | | %H | Hour 24h (00-23) | 14 | | %M | Minute (00-59) | 30 | | %S | Second (00-59) | 45 | | %I | Hour 12h (01-12) | 02 | | %p | AM/PM | PM | | %s | Unix timestamp | 1705329045 | | %A | Weekday name | Wednesday | | %B | Month name | January | | %b | Month abbrev | Jan | | %Z | Timezone | PST |

Common Patterns

Log timestamp:

echo "[$(date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")] Event occurred"

Backup file naming:

cp file.txt "file_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S).txt"

API timestamp (UTC):

date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"