How do I get the current timestamp? 1

[AlbertAguirre]

I need to display the current date and time in the unix timestamp format.
How do I do this at the command line?

 

[needcoffee]

man date

needcoffee

 

[AlbertAguirre]

Already did that.
no answers in the AIX man pages.

 

[hirschaj]

If "UNIX timestamp format" means epoch time, you can use perl to accomplish this....

perl -e 'print scalar time'



Jim Hirschauer

http://www.aixexpert.com

 

[AlbertAguirre]

Wow. That helps. Thank you.

I guess its not possible to do this with a standard unix command like date?

 

[hirschaj]

Not the one provided with AIX. I believe the GNU version of date is capable though.


Jim Hirschauer

http://www.aixexpert.com

 

[p5wizard]

if you have a C compiler you can create your own:

source file udate.c

#include <time.h>
#include <stdio.h>

# udate.c - print seconds since "the epoch"

main ()
{
  time_t nowsec;

  nowsec = time (&nowsec);

  printf ("%ld\n", (long)nowsec);
}

cc udate.c -o udate
and use the command as

udate



otherwise create a file named udate.pl

#!/usr/bin/perl

# udate.pl - print seconds since "the epoch"

print scalar time, "\n";

Note: the first line may need altering - look and see where your perl executable lives.

and use the command as

udate.pl

or whatever other name you choose - doesn't have to use the .pl suffix, but it helps in identifying the contents...



HTH,

p5wizard

 

[p5wizard]

I forgot - you have to make the perl script executable:

chmod 755 udate.pl

in order to use it as a command.

HTH,

p5wizard