Working with calendars in the shell
Tutorial – Shell Calendars
Command-line aficionados do not have to forgo calendars and appointment reminders. The shell offers many tools for user-friendly handling of date definitions in scripts.
Working with dates in the shell often causes problems. Aside from the usual typos, this is usually due to mismatched language and country settings. In practice, you will especially be confronted with this when working with databases.
Manual input can be relatively easily checked for formal correctness. The simplest aspect to change is the separators or the order of day, month, and year. An example of this is shown in Listing 1, and the corresponding output is shown in Figure 1. The short script supports both correct input with the dot as a separator and input with the comma in the numeric keypad for quick data entry.
Figure 1: Using a script to convert a date format. Date formats are defined by standards such as DIN 5008 (for Germany) [1] and ISO 8601 (international) [2].
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Introducing matrixOS, an Immutable Gentoo-Based Linux Distro
It was only a matter of time before a developer decided one of the most challenging Linux distributions needed to be immutable.
-
Chaos Comes to KDE in KaOS
KaOS devs are making a major change to the distribution, and it all comes down to one system.
-
New Linux Botnet Discovered
The SSHStalker botnet uses IRC C2 to control systems via legacy Linux kernel exploits.
-
The Next Linux Kernel Turns 7.0
Linus Torvalds has announced that after Linux kernel 6.19, we'll finally reach the 7.0 iteration stage.
-
Linux From Scratch Drops SysVinit Support
LFS will no longer support SysVinit.
-
LibreOffice 26.2 Now Available
With new features, improvements, and bug fixes, LibreOffice 26.2 delivers a modern, polished office suite without compromise.
-
Linux Kernel Project Releases Project Continuity Document
What happens to Linux when there's no Linus? It's a question many of us have asked over the years, and it seems it's also on the minds of the Linux kernel project.
-
Mecha Systems Introduces Linux Handheld
Mecha Systems has revealed its Mecha Comet, a new handheld computer powered by – you guessed it – Linux.
-
MX Linux 25.1 Features Dual Init System ISO
The latest release of MX Linux caters to lovers of two different init systems and even offers instructions on how to transition.
-
Photoshop on Linux?
A developer has patched Wine so that it'll run specific versions of Photoshop that depend on Adobe Creative Cloud.