Linux provides commands that allow you to view system’s time information, and with these commands, you can quickly get the time related information.

System Time

We can use the date command to get or set the time of the system: 

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date
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Outputs system's datetime

Timezone

We can use the TZ variable to specify the time zone where our server is located: 

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export TZ=Pacific/Auckland
date
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Changes timezone to Pacific Auckland

Time in Difference Timezone

Shows the time in Shanghai when a Auckland clock shows 8:07 on March 07, 2019: 

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export TZ="Asia/Shanghai"
date --date='TZ="Pacific/Auckland" 2019-03-07 08:07'
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Changes timezone to China Shanghai and shows the corresponding time in Shanghai

Hour - 24-hour format

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date +'%H'
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Outputs current hour in 24 hours format

Hour - 24-hour space padded format 

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date +'%k'
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Outputs current hour in 24 hours space padded format

Hour - 12-hour format

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date +'%I'
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Outputs current hour in 12 hours format

Hour - 12-hour space padded format 

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date +'%l'
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Outputs current hour in 12 hours space padded format

Minute

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date +'%M'
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Outputs current minutes

Second

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date +'%S'
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Outputs current seconds

Nanosecond

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date +'%N'
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Outputs current nanoseconds

Seconds Since Epoch (Timestamp) 

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date +'s'
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Outputs current timestamp

Time - 24-hour format (Hour:Minute:Second) 

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date +'%T'
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Outputs hour, minute, second in 24-hour time

Time - 24-hour format (Hour:Minute) 

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date +'%R'
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Outputs hour, minute in 24-hour time

Locale Time - 24-hour Clock Time 

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date +'%X'
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Outputs 24-hour clock time

Locale Time - 12-hour Clock Time 

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date +'%r'
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Outputs 12-hour clock time

AM or PM - Uppercase

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date +'%p'
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Outputs a.m. or p.m. in uppercase

AM or PM - Lowercase

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date +'%P'
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Outputs a.m. or p.m. in lowercase

Timezone - Four Digits

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date +'%z'
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Outputs four digits timezone

Timezone - Nearest Minute

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date +'%:z'
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Outputs timezone in nearest minute

Timezone - Nearest Second

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date +'%::z'
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Outputs timezone in nearest second

Timezone - Minimum Necessary Precision 

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date +'%:::z'
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Outputs the minimum necessary part of the timezone

Timezone - Alphabetic Abbreviation 

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date +'%Z'
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Outputs the timezone in alphabetic abbreviation

References 21 System context, 21.1 date: Print or set system date and time, TWiki.org Service: Date and Time Gateway, 29.10 Specifying time zone rules

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