The date command.

stf92 · 05-15-2014, 11:14 PM

Code:

semoi@server:~/Downloads/nvidia$ date 05160115
date: extra operand '05160115'
Try 'date --help' for more information.
semoi@server:~/Downloads/nvidia$

What am I doing wrong?

dijetlo · 05-15-2014, 11:45 PM

Are you trying to set the date to May 16 0115 or is 0115 a time reference?

stf92 · 05-16-2014, 12:10 AM

I appended a note to my post but it must have done something wrong because I don't see there now. I had previously made an alias of 'date' and the system was taking the alias instead of the real command.

dijetlo · 05-16-2014, 04:32 AM

You know, oddly enough you're the second person this week to ask me why aliasing a shell built in with the name of a shell built in is giving you unexpected output.
I know technically you should be able to do it, the aliases load after the shell so the alias should supersede the built-in...what was your alias for date? If it was built on "date"

Code:

alias date ='date -?'

it may have worked, however the underlying utility, once accessed, is just throwing a familiar error.

Habitual · 05-16-2014, 09:27 AM

Code:

date 05160115

works on Ubuntu 12.04.4 and Ubuntu 9.04 and CentOS 5.10 also
and spits out

Code:

Fri May 16 01:15:00 PDT 2014

on those.
Slackware 14, not so much:

Code:

date: cannot set date: Operation not permitted
Fri May 16 01:15:00 EDT 2014

It all depends on what the intent is, and the OS, of course.
maybe there's an alias for date already set?
try

Code:

\date 05160115

and if that 'works' as expected, then

Code:

alias date

will show you what's been set for it, if exists.

rtmistler · 05-16-2014, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92

I appended a note to my post but it must have done something wrong because I don't see there now. I had previously made an alias of 'date' and the system was taking the alias instead of the real command.

Glad you got it resolved. I thought the use of date was correct, and the fact that there was an alias explains it. Can you please mark the thread as solved.

Habitual · 05-16-2014, 05:38 PM

I power post too much.

Anyway the "\" escapes any alias if there is one.

Code:

type <alias>

also works, same as alias <alias> to 'see' what's what.