How to set a variable to current date and date-1 in linux?

Question

I want to set the variable date-today to the current date, and date_dir to yesterday's date, both in the format yyyy-mm-dd.

I am doing this:

#!/bin/bash
d=`date +%y%m%d%H%M%S`
echo $d

I'm confused how you managed to get stuck at the exact point that you did. You managed to retrieve the date using a specified format -- but not the format you want. You managed to save the output to a variable -- but not the variable you want. How did you manage to write the code under "I am doing this", and how come you can't do the little bit of extra work of tweaking it to what you need? — ruakh, Dec 10 '13 at 04:10
@ruakh: actually it is not dispalaying the $d variable that is why and i am very new to this bash scripting — cloudbud, Dec 10 '13 at 04:12
The script that you've posted *does* print `$d`. What makes you say that it doesn't? — ruakh, Dec 10 '13 at 04:17

score 98 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 10 '16 at 19:24

98

You can try:

#!/bin/bash
d=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
echo "$d"

EDIT: Changed y to Y for 4 digit date as per QuantumFool's comment.

edited Nov 10 '16 at 19:24

Chris Seline

answered Dec 10 '13 at 04:16

cloudbud

2

Actually, if the year is supposed to appear as four characters long (i.e. 2016), then %Y should be used in place of %y (which will return 16 with the 20 cut off) – QuantumFool Mar 19 '16 at 22:05
Perfect, thanks! – Marko Bajlovic Apr 06 '21 at 01:56

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 08 '17 at 06:58

12

You can also use the shorter format

From the man page:

%F     full date; same as %Y-%m-%d

Example:

#!/bin/bash
date_today=$(date +%F)
date_dir=$(date +%F -d yesterday)

answered Aug 08 '17 at 06:58

xloto

score 9 · Answer 3 · answered May 27 '17 at 07:53

9

simple:

today="$(date '+%Y-%m-%d')"
yesterday="$(date -d yesterday '+%Y-%m-%d')"

answered May 27 '17 at 07:53

fraff

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 10 '13 at 04:07

0

you should man date first

date +%Y-%m-%d
date +%Y-%m-%d -d yesterday

answered Dec 10 '13 at 04:07

ray

i want to set it to a variable how to do that. i am creating a bash script – cloudbud Dec 10 '13 at 04:08
i would also like to tell you that it is picking date +%Y-%m-%d `2013-12-09` date +%Y-%m-%d -d yesterday is picking `2013-12-09` – cloudbud Dec 10 '13 at 04:10

4 Answers4