On Friday 14 January 2011 13:47, David Collier wrote: > In article <memo.20110114113746.14188A@postmaster+dexdyne.com.cix.co.uk>, > [email protected] (David Collier) wrote: > > > *From:* "David Collier" <[email protected]> > > *To:* [email protected] > > *CC:* [email protected] > > *Date:* Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:37 +0000 (GMT Standard Time) > > > > "big linux" date command seems to like a single format when you are > > setting the date > > > > that is [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]] > > > > if I do "date --help" in busybox it says: > > > > Recognized TIME formats: > > hh:mm[:ss] > > [YYYY.]MM.DD-hh:mm[:ss] > > YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm[:ss] > > [[[[[YY]YY]MM]DD]hh]mm[.ss] > > > > which doesn't seem to allow for MMDDhhmmCCYY > > > > however when I experiment with > > > > date 011410032011 > > > > it all seems to work as desired. > > rubbish - I screwed my tests > > it worked in 1.13.1, > though it wasn't documented as an acceptable format > it no longer works in 1.17.4 > > So I guess the help file is now telling the truth. > > It seems a bit silly not to accept the only standard format as used by > the coreutils version?
There seems to be no consensus between Unix-like systems on this: http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/darwin/reference/manpages/man1/date.1.html DATE(1) BSD General Commands Manual DATE(1) SYNOPSIS date [-jnu] [[[mm]dd]HH]MM[[cc]yy][.ss] http://www.daemon-systems.org/man/date.1.html DATE(1) NetBSD General Commands Manual DATE(1) SYNOPSIS date [-ajnu] [-d date] [-r seconds] [+format] [[[[[[CC]yy]mm]dd]HH]MM[.SS]] http://ss64.com/osx/date.html Syntax date [-nu] [-r seconds] [+format] [[[[[cc]yy]mm]dd]hh]mm[.ss] http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/CGI/man-cgi?date DATE(1) User Commands DATE(1) SYNOPSIS date [-u|--utc|--universal] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]] "man date" on Fedora: DATE(1) User Commands DATE(1) SYNOPSIS date [-u|--utc|--universal] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]] >From these five examples, two use [[cc]yy]mmddhhmm[.ss] and three use mmddhhmm[[cc]yy][.ss] format. But for another tool, touch, all manpages I was able to find uniformly say that "touch -t DT" accepts DT = [[cc]yy]mmddhhmm[.ss] format on every Unix. None of them use mmddhhmm[[cc]yy][.ss] for it. I am torn here. From one POV, compatibility with "big Linux" date is good. >From another, mmddhhmm[[cc]yy][.ss] format is (a) stupid, (b) does not match "touch -t" format, and (c) doesn't seem to be the universally accepted syntax in wider Unix world. -- vda _______________________________________________ busybox mailing list [email protected] http://lists.busybox.net/mailman/listinfo/busybox
