Question
How to convert Unix timestamps to human readable date format in Bash?
- Posted on November 25, 2020
- Linux BasicsLinux CommandsUbuntuCentOS
Asked by Bobby Iliev
I recently got asked how to convert Unix timestamps to human readable date format in Bash.
Here is an example of how to generate a Unix timestamp using the date command:
date +%s
This will output a long string of numbers like this:
1606319820
This number represents the seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970.
So here’s how to convert Unix timestamps to human readable date format in Bash!
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In order to convert a Unix timestamp to a human-readable date format, you can use the date command with a -d flag followed by the timestamp with a @ prefix.
So if we run the command from above to generate a new timestamp:
- date +%s
Then copy the output and run the date -d @time_stamp command to decode it:
- date -d @1606320072
You will get an output with the date in the following format:
Wed Nov 25 16:01:12 UTC 2020
Also, in order to get the exact Unix time starting point, you could run the above command with a 0:
- date -d @0
Output:
Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 UTC 1970
Example:
I hope that this helps! Regards, Bobby
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