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I'm working with the date command in Linux and I'm curious about the format specifier "%b". It outputs the abbreviated month name, which is great. However, I couldn't find a clear explanation for why "b" was chosen for this purpose.

In contrast, "%Y" for full year and "%d" for day seem intuitive. Is there a specific reason behind using "b" for abbreviated month, or is it simply a historical convention?

I'd appreciate any insights into the origin or rationale behind this format specifier, Thank you everyone.

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  • Sometimes, there just aren't enough letters in the alphabet, and both %m and %M were taken. Commented May 21, 2024 at 13:38
  • As date +%m is already taken for numerical month & date +%M for minutes, %bis taken for "brief month" and %B for month Commented May 21, 2024 at 13:39
  • Similar to what Kusalananda and admstg say, but I think they went with alphabetical order (a/A went for day, and then the next was b/B for month). You can even see it in the order in man date - locale day, locale month, locale full date in that order. Commented May 21, 2024 at 14:12

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it conforms to the ansi c standard (have a look at man strftime). I dont believe that it has a specific reason other than being first available (however I remember it as a'b'reviated month ;-) )

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    ANSI C was adopted in 1989. date was included in Version 1 AT&T UNIX, released 1983. Could you have it backwards and say that ANSI C just adopted was was already in use? Commented May 21, 2024 at 17:53
  • could be! good point Commented May 21, 2024 at 18:35

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