Get Current date in epoch from Unix shell script

Question

Hi, How to get the current date value in epoch i.e., number of days elapsed since 1970-1-1. I need solution in unix shell script.

Answer 1

Depending on the language you're using it's going to be something simple like

CInt(CDate("1970-1-1") - CDate(Today()))

Ironically enough, yesterday was day 40,000 if you use 1/1/1900 as "day zero" like many computer systems use.

Answer 2

echo $(($(date +%s) / 60 / 60 / 24))

Answer 3

You mention you want a UNIX shell script. Peter J. Acklam wrote some shell scripts that may help you. Look here:

$ ./gymd2uday.sh
14432

$ echo $(( $(./gymd2uday.sh 1985 02 20) - $(./gymd2uday.sh 1970 1 1) )) 
5529

As you can see, the default date is the current date. Peter's script does not use the %s format specifier, so it may work for you.

Answer 4

The Unix Date command will display in epoch time

the command is

date +"%s"

http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/CGI/man-cgi?date

Edit: Some people have observed you asked for days, so it's the result of that command divided by 86,400

Answer 5

echo `date +%s`/86400 | bc