getting a previous date in bash/unix

Question

I am looking to get previous date in unix / shell script .

I am using the following code

date -d ’1 day ago’ +’%Y/%m/%d’

But I am getting the following error.

date: illegal option -- d

As far as I've read on the inetrnet , it basically means I am using a older version of GNU. Can anyone please help with this.

Further Info

unix> uname -a

SunOS Server 5.10 Generic_147440-19 sun4v sparc SUNW,Sun-Fire-T200

Also The below command gives an error.

unix> date --version

date: illegal option -- version usage: date [-u] mmddHHMM[[cc]yy][.SS] date [-u] [+format] date -a [-]sss[.fff]

if you're using a true unix, many don't support the date -d option. Consider editing your question to include the output of uname -a and date --version. Good luck. — shellter
– shellter, Commented Apr 16, 2013 at 2:33
Nope Unix , SunOS 5.10 Generic_147440-19 sun4v sparc SUNW,Sun-Fire-T200System = SunOS — misguided
– misguided, Commented Apr 16, 2013 at 2:35
+1 to shellter, an alternative being date -h and/or man date to see if your system supports the -d option. — Cargo23
– Cargo23, Commented Apr 16, 2013 at 2:35
@FatalError Sorry , I'm a noob at shell scrpting. How do I check this? If I run this coomand directly on unix I get ksh: gdate: not found — misguided
– misguided, Commented Apr 16, 2013 at 2:52

kumarprd · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-16 03:50:11Z

18

try this:

date --date="yesterday" +%Y/%m/%d

answered Apr 16, 2013 at 3:50

kumarprd

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7 Comments

kumarprd Over a year ago

I am using this in my shell script and working fine for me in all my shells. Have you tested it ??

tripleee Over a year ago

Then the question's code will also have worked for you, and you are not on SunOS.

kumarprd Over a year ago

Yes that also worked. I am not using SunOS, that's why I asked to try.

lamcro Over a year ago

This worked for me in Solaris 11.3, but using "gdate" instead of "date".

Nikhil VJ Over a year ago

search engines are sending us here for asking how to find yesterday's date in linux. @tripleee pls specify "SunOS" in your question because your use case doesn't apply to generic bash/linux where this seems to work just fine.

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Dan Pickard · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-16 16:29:37Z

10

you can use

date -d "30 days ago" +"%d/%m/%Y"

to get the date from 30 days ago, similarly you can replace 30 with x amount of days

answered Mar 16, 2015 at 16:29

Dan Pickard

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1 Comment

Kelly Bang Over a year ago

"apk add coreutils" if you get an error like "date: invalid date '30 days ago'". This applies to Alpine linux and maybe others

Vladislav Ross · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-30 17:44:33Z

9

dtd="2015-06-19" yesterday=$( date -d "${dtd} -1 days" +'%Y_%m_%d' ) echo $yesterday;

answered Jun 30, 2015 at 17:44

Vladislav Ross

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Comments

Joel · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-24 12:32:00Z

In order to get 1 day back date using date command:

date -v -1d It will give (current date -1) means 1 day before .

date -v +1d This will give (current date +1) means 1 day after.

Similarly below written code can be used in place of d to find out year,month etc

y-Year, m-Month w-Week d-Day H-Hour M-Minute S-Second

devnull · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-16 04:58:03Z

4

Several solutions suggested here assume GNU coreutils being present on the system. The following should work on Solaris:

TZ=GMT+24 date +’%Y/%m/%d’

answered Apr 16, 2013 at 4:58

devnull

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9 Comments

misguided Over a year ago

brilliant answer. WOrks perfectly. Only query I have is , is this specific to any timezone? I live in a GMT+10 timezone, does that I mean i should upadte the qury accordingly?

devnull Over a year ago

If your time zone is GMT+10, use TZ=GMT+14 date +’%Y/%m/%d’.

tripleee Over a year ago

... Which again makes this answer unsuitable for a portable solution; but if it works for you, it's arguable the simplest.

misguided Over a year ago

@devnull Thanks. Just want to understand the logic , if it is GMT +10 , why am I using GMT+14 in the equation?

devnull Over a year ago

Another option is to say: TZ=$TZ+24 date +’%Y/%m/%d’

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tripleee · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-16 08:29:49Z

SunOS ships with legacy BSD userland tools which often lack the expected modern options. See if you can get the XPG add-on (it's something like /usr/xpg4/bin/date) or install the GNU coreutils package if you can.

In the meantime, you might need to write your own simple date handling script. There are many examples on the net e.g. in Perl. E.g. this one:

vnix$ perl -MPOSIX=strftime -le 'print strftime("%Y%m", localtime(time-86400))' 201304

(Slightly adapted, if you compare to the one behind the link.)

On a tangent, perfect for epoch based math (%s in date from GNU coreutils).

UpAndAdam · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-08 15:44:46Z

the following script prints the previous date to the targetDate (specified Date or given date)

targetDate=2014-06-30 count=1 startDate=$( echo `date -d "${targetDate} -${count} days" +"%Y-%m-%d"`) echo $startDate

misguided · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-16 03:46:15Z

I have used the following workaround to get to the required solution .

timeA=$(date +%Y%m) sysD=$(date +%d) print "Initial sysD $sysD">>LogPrint.log sysD=$((sysD-1)) print "Final sysD $sysD">>LogPrint.log finalTime=$timeA$sysD

I hope this is useful for people who are facing the same issue as me.

Of course, in January, 201401 minus one is 201400, not 201312.
@tripleee agree that this is not a foolproof workaround.But at this moment I am not able to find any other solutions :(. I am still looking for a better answer.

Nazik · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-19 05:55:03Z

0

$ date '+%m/%d/%Y' --- current date $ TZ=Etc/GMT+24 date '+%m/%d/%Y' -- one dayprevious date

Use time zone appropriately

edited Feb 19, 2015 at 5:55

Nazik

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answered Feb 19, 2015 at 5:36

akash malbari

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Comments

Todd A. Jacobs · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-16 02:31:14Z

Problem

You are using backticks, rather than single quotes, for your arguments. You may also not be using GNU date, or a version of date that supports the flag you are using.

Solution

Quote your arguments properly. For example:

$ date -d '1 day ago' +'%Y/%m/%d' 2013/04/14

venki · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-19 17:51:40Z

-1

Try This: gdate -d "1 day ago" +"%Y/%m/%d"

answered Oct 19, 2017 at 17:51

venki

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1 Comment

tripleee Over a year ago

This just repeats several of the answers from 2013 with a very minor variation.

showdev · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-19 22:07:46Z

-1

date -d "yesterday" '+%Y-%m-%d'

edited Jan 19, 2020 at 22:07

showdev

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answered Jan 19, 2020 at 13:21

suresh Palemoni

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3 Comments

Kevin Over a year ago

Please add an explanation to explain what this does.

suresh Palemoni Over a year ago

it gives the previous day date.

tripleee Over a year ago

This just repeats several of the answers from 2013 with a very minor variation.

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