How do you get the current date in Shell Script ??

[Praveen Hari]

How do you get the current date in shell script ?
I want to change the file name a.txt to
a.yymmdd.txt in Shell script with current date.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks

[Tim Adamson_1 · Accepted solution]

Use the date command:

date_format=`date +%y%m%d`

mv a.txt a.${date_format}.txt


Tim

[Patrick Wallek]

The better way to do it is to do:

curr_date=$(date +%y%m%d)

The use of the back ticks (`) has basically been deprecated as it can be difficult to distinguish the back ticks from an apostrophe / single quote (') in some fonts.

The $(command) is much more readable and does exactly the same thing.

[Steven E. Protter]

Patrick,

You deserve a rabbit. I must have missed the class on the back tick getting deprecated.

I've been punching out scripts left and right and I always hated the back tick because it was hard to read.

Thanks for your post.

You didn't just help the person that started the thread this time. You helped a fellow towel-head.

SEP

[Patrick Wallek]

No problem Stephen. Glad to be of service!

Don't feel bad. It has taken me a while to get used to not using the back tick as well. I'm just now starting to consistently use the $(command) syntax.

[Will Couillard]

Without the need to assign and call a variable:

mv a.out a.$(date '+%y%m%d').out