When using dates in a shell script, you can format them like this:
$(date +[format])
Here are some examples:
$(date +”%Y%m%d)
20080508
——————–
$(date +”%Y-%m-%d)
2008-05-08
——————–
$(date +%D) which is shorthand equivalent for $(date +”%m/%d/%Y)
05/08/2008
To include time:
$(date +%r)
10:15:36 PM
——————–
$(date +%T)
22:15:36
A typical date format for a log entry:
$(date +”%Y-%m-%d %T”)
2008-05-29 14:31:34
To test a date format on the command line:
echo $(date +”%Y-%m-%d %T”)
2008-05-29 14:31:34
To see all the date format options, look at the man page for date:
man date
