how to use getdate on HP UX

[starlite79]

I am wondering how to use getdate on HP UX. Based on the man page for getdate, I should just need to type getdate("yesterday"); to return yesterday's date. However, I get a syntax error when I do this.

The man page also mentions creating a user defined template of date formats, but if this is needed, how to I access it?

 

[Annihilannic]

The getdate() function you are referring to is a C library function. Note that the man page is in section 3C, which is for C library functions. Are you writing and compiling C code here?

Annihilannic.

 

[starlite79]

I noticed it was a C library. I am trying to call/invoke it in a script to get a date based on a string like "3 weeks ago" or something like that.

 

[Annihilannic]

Well, you can't call it directly from a script, but you could use a little C programme such as:

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

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
        struct tm *thetime;
        time_t epoch;
        char tstr[32];

        epoch=time((long*)NULL);

        thetime=localtime(&epoch);
        thetime->tm_mday--;

        strftime(tstr,sizeof(tstr),"%d/%m/%y",thetime);

        printf("%s\n",tstr);

        exit(0);
}

Compile it using gcc -o yesterday yesterday.c.

Annihilannic.