convdate

CONVDATE(1)               InterNetNews Documentation               CONVDATE(1)

NAME

       convdate - Convert time/date strings and numbers

SYNOPSIS

       convdate [-dhl] [-c │ -n │ -s] [date ...]

DESCRIPTION

       convdate translates the date/time strings given on the command line,
       outputting the results one to a line.  The input can either be a date
       in some format that parsedate(3) can parse or the number of seconds
       since epoch (if -c is given).  The output is either ctime(3) results,
       the number of seconds since epoch, or a Usenet Date: header, depending
       on the options given.

OPTIONS

       -c  Each argument is taken to be the number of seconds since epoch (a
           time_t) rather than a date.

       -d  Output a valid Usenet Date: header instead of the results of
           ctime(3) for each date given on the command line.  This is useful
           for testing the algorithm used to generate Date: headers for local
           posts.  Normally, the date will be in UTC, but see the -l option.

       -h  Print usage information and exit.

       -l  Only makes sense in combination with -d.  If given, Date: headers
           generated will use the local time zone instead of UTC.

       -n  Rather than outputting the results of ctime(3) or a Date: header,
           output each date given as the number of seconds since epoch (a
           time_t).  This option doesn’t make sense in combination with -d.

       -s  Pass each given date to parsedate(3) and print the results of
           ctime(3) (or a Date: header if -d is given).  This is the default
           behavior.

EXAMPLES

       Note that relative times or times with partial information use the cur-
       rent time to fill in the rest of the date, so dates like "12pm" are
       taken to be 12pm of the day when convdate is run.  This is a property
       of parsedate(3); see the man page for more information.  Most of these
       examples are from the original man page dating from 1991 and were run
       in the -0400 time zone.

           % convdate ’feb 10 10am’
           Sun Feb 10 10:00:00 1991

           % convdate 12pm 5/4/90
           Fri Dec 13 00:00:00 1991
           Fri May  4 00:00:00 1990

       Note that 12pm and 5/4/90 are two *separate* arguments and therefore
       result in two results.  Note also that a date with no time is taken to
       be at midnight.

           % convdate -n ’feb 10 10am’ ’12pm 5/4/90’
           666198000
           641880000

           % convdate -c 666198000
           Sun Feb 10 10:00:00 1991

       ctime(3) results are in the local time zone.  Compare to:

           % convdate -dc 666198000
           Sun, 10 Feb 1991 15:00:00 +0000 (UTC)

           % env TZ=PST8PDT convdate -dlc 666198000
           Sun, 10 Feb 1991 07:00:00 -0800 (PST)

           % env TZ=EST5EDT convdate -dlc 666198000
           Sun, 10 Feb 1991 10:00:00 -0500 (EST)

       The system library functions generally use the environment variable TZ
       to determine (or at least override) the local time zone.

HISTORY

       Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net>, rewritten and updated by
       Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu> for the -d and -l flags.

       $Id: convdate.1,v 1.5 2002/02/22 20:39:04 vinocur Exp $

SEE ALSO

       parsedate(3).



INN 2.4.0                         2002-02-02                       CONVDATE(1)