Fish Shell:
Getting the current date

How to:

Fish Shell utilizes external commands like date for getting the current date, offering flexibility to format the output as needed. Here’s how to use it:

# Display the current date in the default format
echo (date)

# Output example: Wed 25 Oct 2023 15:42:03 BST

To customize the format of the date, you can use the + option followed by format specifiers:

# Display the current date in YYYY-MM-DD format
echo (date "+%Y-%m-%d")

# Output example: 2023-10-25

For more complex tasks, such as working with timestamps or performing date arithmetic, Fish Shell relies on external tools like date due to its scripting nature. Here’s an example of getting the current UNIX timestamp:

# Get the current UNIX timestamp
echo (date "+%s")

# Output example: 1666710123

And to add one day to the current date using date:

# Add one day to the current date
echo (date -d "+1 day" "+%Y-%m-%d")

# Output example: 2023-10-26

Note: The examples use date command options that work with GNU coreutils. Options may vary in other environments like macOS, which uses BSD date command by default. Always refer to date --help or the man page for details specific to your environment.