[SOLVED] Specific date in "English" format?

L_Carver · 11-11-2018, 07:35 PM

I have a Bash script that returns a file's modified date as year-month-day hour:minutes:seconds by way of a cut command applied to the return of an ls -alh command.

What i would like to do is get a return more on the order of "Wed Nov 26 2015 12:18:56." I've seen solutions which apply this formatting to what's returned by the date command, but as I'm not concerned with the current system date, I'm at a loss as to how to do this.

It occurs to me that this is a nearly polar opposite of a thread I started more than a year ago about generating random dates to use with the touch -t command. I suspect the "way to do this" will be equally unfamiliar and complex.

Carver

lougavulin · 11-11-2018, 07:41 PM

Something like :

Code:

date +"%c" -d 2018-10-12

Use your date and modify output format (%c) if it is not exactly what you need.

michaelk · 11-11-2018, 07:53 PM

One quick solution would be to use the stat command to output modified time in seconds since epoch, then use the date command to put that in whatever format desired. Easier then parsing the ls command.

l0f4r0 · 11-12-2018, 03:34 AM

Why not resolve the issue from the very beginning directly in the ls command, like the following?

Code:

ls -alh --time-style='+%a %b %d %Y %H:%M:%S'

syg00 · 11-12-2018, 04:24 AM

That's gotta be worth a rep or two ...

michaelk · 11-12-2018, 06:08 AM

If the OP just wants the modification date.

Code:

date -d "@$(stat -c %Y file.name)" "+%a %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S"

scasey · 11-12-2018, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

That's gotta be worth a rep or two ...

...or a dozen. Added one!

L_Carver · 11-13-2018, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelk

If the OP just wants the modification date.

Code:

date -d "@$(stat -c %Y file.name)" "+%a %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S"

Yes, that's all I wanted, as that is only what the original script returns.
+1 michaelk. -1 l0f4r0
Thanks to you both.

Carver

hydrurga · 11-13-2018, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by L_Carver

Yes, that's all I wanted, as that is only what the original script returns.
+1 michaelk. -1 l0f4r0
Thanks to you both.

Carver

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