time

Parses a datetime/timestamp using a strptime-like format string.

Synopsis

time [--components] [--strict]
     <format>

Description

Returns a timestamp in Unix time.

<format>

time is backed by POSIX strptime, and uses the same format string syntax, with the "C" locale.

--components

Instead of a timestamp, returns a record with fields for second, minute, hour, day, month, year, utc_offset, and timezone.

--strict

By default, if some information is missing from the parsed value, it's defaulted to be today at 00:00 UTC. Additionally, if no year is parsed, it's set to the previous year if the resulting time had been in the future.

With --strict, these defaults aren't used. Not providing values for years, months, days, hours, and minutes is an error, except when --components is set, where these fields will be null.

Examples

Parse an ISO 8601 timestamp:

# Example input:
# 2023-12-18T12:11:05+0100
parse time "%FT%T%z"
# Output:
# 2023-12-18T11:11:05

Parse an RFC 3164 syslog message timestamp:

# Assuming today is 2023-12-18

# Example input:
# Nov 10 15:10:20
parse time "%b %d %H:%M:%S"
# Output:
# 2023-10-10T15:10:20

# Input in the future:
# Dec 29 15:10:20
parse time "%b %d %H:%M:%S"
# Output (year is 2022):
# 2022-12-29T15:10:20

# With --strict
parse time "%b %d %H:%M:%S"
# Error, missing year