4.3BSD - /usr/man/cat1/date.0

DATE(1)                                                                DATE(1)


NAME
       date - print and set the date

SYNOPSIS
       date [ -n ] [ -u ] [ yymmddhhmm [ .ss ] ]

DESCRIPTION
       If no arguments are given, the current date and time are printed.  Pro‐
       viding an argument will set the desired date.  Only the  superuser  can
       set  the  date.   The -u flag is used to display or set the date in GMT
       (universal) time.  yy represents the last two digits of the  year;  the
       first mm is the month number; dd is the day number; hh is the hour num‐
       ber (24 hour system); the second  mm  is  the  minute  number;  .ss  is
       optional and represents the seconds.  For example:

              date 8506131627

       sets the date to June 13 1985, 4:27 PM.  The year, month and day may be
       omitted; the default values will be the current ones.  The system oper‐
       ates in GMT.  Date takes care of the conversion to and from local stan‐
       dard and daylight-saving time.

       If timed(8) is running to synchronize the clocks of machines in a local
       area  network, date sets the time globally on all those machines unless
       the -n option is given.

FILES
       /usr/adm/wtmp  to  record  time-setting.   In  /usr/adm/messages,  date
       records the name of the user setting the time.

SEE ALSO
       gettimeofday(2), utmp(5), timed(8),
       TSP:  The Time Synchronization Protocol for UNIX 4.3BSD, R. Gusella and
       S. Zatti

DIAGNOSTICS
       Exit status is 0 on success, 1 on complete failure to set the date, and
       2 on successfully setting the local date but failing globally.

       ‘You are not superuser: date not set’ if you try to change the date but
       are not the super-user.  Occasionally, when timed synchronizes the time
       on  many hosts, the setting of a new time value may require more than a
       few seconds.  On these occasions,  date  prints:  ‘Network  time  being
       set’.   The  message  ‘Communication  error with timed’ occurs when the
       communication between date and timed fails.

BUGS
       The system attempts to keep the date in  a  format  closely  compatible
       with VMS.  VMS, however, uses local time (rather than GMT) and does not
       understand daylight-saving time.  Thus, if you use both UNIX  and  VMS,
       VMS will be running on GMT.


4th Berkeley Distribution        May 18, 1986                          DATE(1)