--- name: "dategrep" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "dateutils" version: "0.4.11-3" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/dategrep" --- # dategrep(1) Grep standard input for lines that match EXPRESSION. ## NAME dategrep - Grep standard input for lines that match EXPRESSION. ## SYNOPSIS **dategrep** \[*OPTION*\]... EXPRESSION ## DESCRIPTION Grep standard input for lines that match EXPRESSION. EXPRESSION may be date/times prefixed with an operator \`\<', \`\<=', \`=', \`\>=', \`\>', \`!=', \`\<\>' (if omitted defaults to \`='), which will match lines with date/times which are older, older-equal, equal, newer-equal, newer, or not equal respectively. EXPRESSION may also be format specifiers infixed by above operators and suffixed by a value (e.g. \`%a="Wed"') which matches lines whose %a representation (weekday name abbreviated) is "Wed". EXPRESSION may be statements as described above concatenated through \`&&' (for conjunction) or \`\|\|' (disjunction), both of which may be parenthesised as per usual to change precedence (\`&&' goes over \`\|\|'). If multiple date/times occur on the same line and any one of them fulfills the criteria then the line is considered a match and will be output. Note:\ Operations can be specified by options (--eq, --gt, ...) as well.\ This serves solely as a means of convenience, e.g. the datetest tool has a\ similar syntax. Recognized *OPTION*s: - **-h, --help** Print help and exit - **-V, --version** Print version and exit - **-q, --quiet** Suppress message about date/time and duration parser errors. - **-i, --input-format=*STRING*...** Input format, can be used multiple times. Each date/time will be passed to the input format parsers in the order they are given, if a date/time can be read successfully with a given input format specifier string, that value will be used. - **-b, --base=*DT*** For underspecified input use DT as a fallback to fill in missing fields. Also used for ambiguous format specifiers to position their range on the absolute time line. Must be a date/time in ISO8601 format. If omitted defaults to the current date/time. - **-e, --backslash-escapes** Enable interpretation of backslash escapes in the output and input format specifier strings. - **-o, --only-matching** Show only the part of a line matching DATE. - **-v, --invert-match** Select non-matching lines. - **--from-locale=*LOCALE*** Interpret dates on stdin or the command line as coming from the locale LOCALE, this would only affect month and weekday names as input formats have to be specified explicitly. - **--from-zone=*ZONE*** Consider date/times on stdin as coming from the zone ZONE, default: UTC. - **-z, --zone=*ZONE*** Consider date/times in EXPRESSION as coming from the zone ZONE, default: UTC. - **--eq** Lines match when date/times are equal to EXPRESSION. - **--ne** Lines match when date/times are not the same as EXPRESSION. - **--gt** Lines match when date/times are newer than EXPRESSION. - **--lt** Lines match when date/times are older than EXPRESSION. - **--ge** Lines match when date/times are newer than or equal EXPRESSION. - **--le** Lines match when date/times are older than or equal EXPRESSION. - **--nt** Lines match when date/times are newer than or equal EXPRESSION. - **--ot** Lines match when date/times are older than or equal EXPRESSION. ## FORMAT SPECS Format specs in dateutils are similar to posix' strftime(). However, due to a broader range of supported calendars dateutils must employ different rules. Date specs: ``` %a The abbreviated weekday name %A The full weekday name %_a The weekday name shortened to a single character (MTWRFAS) %b The abbreviated month name %B The full month name %_b The month name shortened to a single character (FGHJKMNQUVXZ) %c The count of the weekday within the month (range 00 to 05) %C The count of the weekday within the year (range 00 to 53) %d The day of the month, 2 digits (range 00 to 31) %D The day of the year, 3 digits (range 000 to 366) %F Equivalent to %Y-%m-%d (ymd's canonical format) %g ISO week date year without the century (range 00 to 99) %G ISO week date year including the century %j Equivalent to %D %m The month in the current calendar (range 00 to 12) %Q The quarter of the year (range Q1 to Q4) %q The number of the quarter (range 01 to 04) %s The number of seconds since the Epoch. %u The weekday as number (range 01 to 07, Sunday being 07) %U The week count, day of week is Sun (range 00 to 53) %V The ISO week count, day of week is Mon (range 01 to 53) %w The weekday as number (range 00 to 06, Sunday being 00) %W The week count, day of week is Mon (range 00 to 53) %y The year without a century (range 00 to 99) %Y The year including the century %_y The year shortened to a single digit %Z The zone offset in hours and minutes (HH:MM) with a preceding sign (+ for offsets east of UTC, - for offsets west of UTC) ``` ``` %Od The day as roman numerals %Om The month as roman numerals %Oy The two digit year as roman numerals %OY The year including the century as roman numerals ``` ``` %rs In time systems whose Epoch is different from the unix Epoch, this selects the number of seconds since then. %rY In calendars with years that don't coincide with the Gregorian years, this selects the calendar's year. ``` ``` %dth The day of the month as an ordinal number, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. %mth The month of the year as an ordinal number, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. ``` ``` %db The business day of the month (since last month's ultimo) %dB Number of business days until this month's ultimo ``` Time specs: ``` %H The hour of the day using a 24h clock, 2 digits (range 00 to 23) %I The hour of the day using a 12h clock, 2 digits (range 01 to 12) %M The minute (range 00 to 59) %N The nanoseconds (range 000000000 to 999999999) %p The string AM or PM, noon is PM and midnight is AM. %P Like %p but in lowercase %S The (range 00 to 60, 60 is for leap seconds) %T Equivalent to %H:%M:%S ``` General specs: ``` %n A newline character %t A tab character %% A literal % character ``` Modifiers: ``` %O Modifier to turn decimal numbers into Roman numerals %r Modifier to turn units into real units %0 Modifier to turn on zero prefixes %SPC Modifier to turn on space prefixes %- Modifier to turn off prefixes altogether th Suffix, read and print ordinal numbers b Suffix, treat days as business days ``` By design dates before 1601-01-01 are not supported. For conformity here is a list of calendar designators and their corresponding format string: ``` ymd %Y-%m-%d ymcw %Y-%m-%c-%w ywd %rY-W%V-%u bizda %Y-%m-%db lilian n/a ldn n/a julian n/a jdn n/a matlab n/a mdn n/a ``` These designators can be used as output format string, moreover, @code{lilian}/@code{ldn} and @code{julian}/@code{jdn} can also be used as input format string. ## EXAMPLES ``` $ dategrep 2012-03-01 <=12:00:00' <=12:00:00' < ## REPORTING BUGS Report bugs to: https://github.com/hroptatyr/dateutils/issues ## SEE ALSO The full documentation for **dategrep** is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the **info** and **dategrep** programs are properly installed at your site, the command - **info (dateutils)dategrep** should give you access to the complete manual.