datetime - Current Date & Time
Get the current date and time in various formats.
Quick Reference
bash
# 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:
bash
echo "[$(date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")] Event occurred"
Backup file naming:
bash
cp file.txt "file_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S).txt"
API timestamp (UTC):
bash
date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"