Linux command to display date in unix format

Question

What command can I use in linux to display the time in unix format i.e. no of seconds since epoch (01/01/1970)?

possible duplicate of [get current time in seconds since the Epoch on Linux, Bash](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1092631/get-current-time-in-seconds-since-the-epoch-on-linux-bash) — Alex K., Jun 10 '13 at 14:21
Check the man pages for stuff like this, it'll save you time - looking at `man date` will show you this note: `%s seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC` — Mike, Jun 10 '13 at 14:21

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 10 '13 at 14:20

7

You should use date command with format: date +%s

answered Jun 10 '13 at 14:20

Ye Liu

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 10 '13 at 14:21

4

Just use this command:

date +%s

answered Jun 10 '13 at 14:21

Igor Chubin

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 25 '16 at 20:13

3

GNU and BSDs:

date +%s

With most Awk implementations:

awk 'BEGIN{srand(); print srand()}'

Probably the most portable out of Linux:

perl -le 'print time'

With shell builtin, ksh93 or Bash 4.1 or above:

printf '%(%s)T'

With shell builtin, zsh:

zmodload zsh/datetime
echo "$EPOCHSECONDS"

edited Dec 25 '16 at 20:13

Steven Penny

answered Jun 10 '13 at 14:25

Stephane Chazelas

3 Answers3