topic Re: date command output is inconsistent. in Operating System - Linux

date command output is inconsistent.

Raynald Boucher — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:24:58 GMT

Hello all,

Output is correct was running date from command line but incorrect when setting an environment variable.

$ date '+%a %b %_d' --date="20 days ago"
Thu Oct 7
$ KEEP_STRING=`date '+%a %b %_d' --date="
20 days ago"`
$ echo $KEEP_STRING
Thu Oct 7

Can anyone tell me why?
and how to correct it?

Thanks

RayB

Re: date command output is inconsistent.

Patrick Wallek — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:44:50 GMT

Do an:

echo "$KEEP_STRING"

and I think you will see what you are looking for. Without the quotes, all spaces are compressed to a single space.

$ KEEP=$(date '+%a %b %_d' --date="20 days ago")
$ echo $KEEP
Thu Oct 7
$ echo "$KEEP"
Thu Oct 7
$

Re: date command output is inconsistent.

Patrick Wallek — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:46:32 GMT

Well heck. I tried using the 'retain format' and it didn't help much.

Consider the '_' characters as spaces below in my test output.

$ KEEP=$(date '+%a %b %_d' --date="20 days ago")
$ echo $KEEP
Thu_Oct_7
$ echo "$KEEP"
Thu_Oct__7
$

Re: date command output is inconsistent.

Raynald Boucher — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:50:41 GMT

I'll be darned...
Learn something every day don't we.

I swore at that for an hour yesterday.
Thanks much.

Ray

Re: date command output is inconsistent.

Raynald Boucher — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:56:23 GMT

Worst part is that after checking, I don't need to use the space padding functionality; I'll be looking for a zero padded day.

Take care