Mastering the Linux ‘date’ Command: Display, Format, and Set System Time

date: display or set date and time

Function description

The date command can display or set the system’s date and time. When displaying, users can specify a format prefixed with a plus sign followed by format specifiers.

Without a leading plus sign, the command sets the time. The time format is MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss] , where MM is month, DD day, hh hour, mm minute, CC first two digits of year, YY last two digits, ss seconds.

Command syntax

date [options] [display format] (format must start with +)

Option meanings

-d <string>

: display the time described by the given string instead of the current time. -s <string>: set the system time to the time described by the string. -r <file>: display the last modification time of the file. -u: display or set Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). -f <datefile>: read time descriptions line by line from a date file. --help: show help information. --version: show version number.

Examples

(1) Show current date and time.

# date
2021年 09月 28日 星期二 23:40:24 CST

(2) Show current date and time in a specific format.

# date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
2021-09-28 23:41:27

(3) Set the computer date and time to September 10, 2029 11:12.

# date 0910111229
2029年 09月 10日 星期一 11:12:00 CST

(4) Set the computer date to November 12, 2025.

# date -s 251112
2025年 11月 12日 星期三 00:00:00 CST

(5) Set the computer time to 13:14:15.

# date -s 13:14:15
2025年 11月 12日 星期三 13:14:15 CST

(6) Display the date and time with a custom format.

# date "+今天的日期是%x, 当前时间是%X"
今天的日期是2021年09月28日, 当前时间是22时43分30秒