Get current time in hours and minutes
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Mastering Time: How to Get Current Hours and Minutes in Linux Bash
Learn various methods to extract and format the current time in hours and minutes using Bash commands on Linux systems, from simple date commands to advanced formatting.
Retrieving the current time in a specific format is a common task in shell scripting and command-line operations. Whether you need it for logging, file naming, or displaying information, Bash provides powerful tools to manipulate and format date and time data. This article will guide you through different approaches to get just the hours and minutes from the current system time in Linux.
The date Command: Your Primary Tool
The date command is the most versatile utility for handling date and time in Linux. It allows for extensive formatting options, making it straightforward to extract specific components like hours and minutes. The key to its flexibility lies in its format specifiers, which begin with a percentage sign (%).
date +%H:%M
Basic date command to get current hours and minutes.
In the command above:
+tellsdateto output a custom format.%Hrepresents the hour (00-23) in 24-hour format.%Mrepresents the minute (00-59).:is a literal character used to separate hours and minutes, as commonly seen.
date +%I:%M %p. %I gives the hour (01-12) and %p gives the locale's equivalent of AM or PM.Understanding Time Formatting Options
The date command offers a rich set of format specifiers. Understanding these can help you tailor the output precisely to your needs. Here's a brief overview of relevant specifiers for time:
%H: Hour (00-23)%I: Hour (01-12)%M: Minute (00-59)%S: Second (00-60)%p: Locale's equivalent of AM or PM%R: Time in 24-hour HH:MM format (equivalent to%H:%M)%T: Time in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format (equivalent to%H:%M:%S)
# Using %R for HH:MM
date +%R
# Using %I:%M %p for 12-hour format
date +%I:%M\ %p
# Getting hours only
date +%H
# Getting minutes only
date +%M
Examples of different time formatting options with date.
flowchart TD
A[Start] --> B{Need Current Time?}
B -- Yes --> C[Use `date` command]
C --> D{Specific Format Needed?}
D -- Yes --> E[Apply Format Specifiers]
E --> F{"e.g., `+%H:%M`"}
F --> G[Output Hours and Minutes]
D -- No --> H[Default `date` output]
H --> G
G --> I[End]Workflow for obtaining current time in hours and minutes using date.
Storing Time in a Variable
Often, you'll want to store the current time in a shell variable for later use within a script. This is a straightforward process using command substitution.
CURRENT_TIME=$(date +%H:%M)
echo "The current time is: $CURRENT_TIME"
# Example with 12-hour format
CURRENT_TIME_12H=$(date +%I:%M\ %p)
echo "The current time (12-hour) is: $CURRENT_TIME_12H"
Storing formatted time in Bash variables.
date +%I:%M %p, ensure to escape the space before %p if you're embedding it directly into a string or variable assignment without quotes, or simply wrap the entire format string in double quotes: date "+%I:%M %p".