.TH SECONDS 1 .SH NAMEseconds \- convert human-readable date (and time) to seconds since epoch.SH SYNOPSIS.B seconds.I date\&....SH DESCRIPTION.I Secondsprints the number of seconds since 1 Jan 1970corresponding to one or more human-readable.IR date s.Each.I datemust be.I oneargument;it will usually be necessary to enclose it in quotes..PP.I Secondsaccepts a somewhat wider range of input than just output from.IR date (1).The main requirement is that the date must be fully specified,with a day of month, month and yearin any order.The month must be an English name (or abbreviation),not a number, and the year must contain 4 digits.Unambiguous time-zone names are understood (i.e., not.LR IST )or time zones may be written as.IR ±hhmm .Case is ignored..SH EXAMPLESPrint the names of all files under.L \&.modified since the start of 23 May 2011..IP.EXdu -ta | awk '$1 >= '^`{seconds '23 may 2011'}^' {print $2}'.EE.SH SEE ALSO.IR date (1),.IR du (1),.IR mtime (1),.IR ctime (2).SH BUGSAll-numeric dates, popular in the USA, are simply ambiguous,more so if the year is truncated to 2 digits.
.TH SECONDS 1
.SH NAME
seconds \- convert human-readable date (and time) to seconds since epoch
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B seconds
.I date
\&...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Seconds
prints the number of seconds since 1 Jan 1970
corresponding to one or more human-readable
.IR date s.
Each
.I date
must be
.I one
argument;
it will usually be necessary to enclose it in quotes.
.PP
.I Seconds
accepts a somewhat wider range of input than just output from
.IR date (1).
The main requirement is that the date must be fully specified,
with a day of month, month and year
in any order.
The month must be an English name (or abbreviation),
not a number, and the year must contain 4 digits.
Unambiguous time-zone names are understood (i.e., not
.LR IST )
or time zones may be written as
.IR ±hhmm .
Case is ignored.
.SH EXAMPLES
Print the names of all files under
.L \&.
modified since the start of 23 May 2011.
.IP
.EX
du -ta | awk '$1 >= '^`{seconds '23 may 2011'}^' {print $2}'
.EE
.SH SEE ALSO
.IR date (1),
.IR du (1),
.IR mtime (1),
.IR ctime (2)
.SH BUGS
All-numeric dates, popular in the USA, are simply ambiguous,
more so if the year is truncated to 2 digits.