Thanks for taking a look. Yes, it looks like the `date` utility now observes locale-based defaults, such as the new default:
$ date Wed 25 Mar 2020 09:47:47 AM PDT Here are some other combinations I tried: $ LC_TIME="" date Wed 25 Mar 2020 09:47:53 AM PDT (setting LC_TIME to an empty string has no effect; the LC_TIME value most likely obtains a default value based on a different setting.) The following variations produce the (formerly, at least) expected output: $ LC_TIME="C" date Wed Mar 25 09:47:59 PDT 2020 $ LC_ALL="C" date Wed Mar 25 09:48:25 PDT 2020 $ LANG="C" date Wed Mar 25 09:52:08 PDT 2020 This post suggests that LC_ALL should be set to C if the output of these utilities is meant to be read by computers: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/87763/4295 So while this new default does have the potential to cause regressions in users' scripts (and could be considered a regression in that sense), the fix is to correctly set LC_ALL=C in when the `date` utility is invoked in situations where its output is intended to be parsed. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to coreutils in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1858883 Title: date utility format unexpectedly changed after upgrade from bionic to focal Status in coreutils package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: After upgrading my Bionic system to Focal, I noticed a significant change in the output of the `date` utility. This could potentially cause regressions for those who are relying on a consistent date format when using `date` in shell scripts. EXPECTED BEHAVIOR ================= I expected to see the same date format that can be seen on Ubuntu releases (at least) from Trusty through Bionic: $ date -u Wed Jan 8 21:00:14 UTC 2020 ACTUAL BEHAVIOR =============== On Focal (and Eoan) the following date format is seen by default: $ date -u Wed 08 Jan 2020 09:00:14 PM UTC Note the differences in zero-padding, whitespace, placement of the year, and the extraneous "PM" (I had expected to see a 24-hour time). FURTHER DETAILS =============== This machine was originally on Bionic and has been upgraded to development releases between Bionic and Focal. $ locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8 LANGUAGE= LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8" LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8" LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8" LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8" LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8" LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8" LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8" LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8" LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8" LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8" LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8" LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8" LC_ALL= To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/coreutils/+bug/1858883/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
