--- name: "dateseq" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "dateutils" version: "0.4.11-3" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/dateseq" --- # dateseq(1) Generate a sequence of date/times from FIRST to LAST, optionally in steps of ## NAME dateseq - Generate a sequence of date/times from FIRST to LAST, optionally in steps of ## SYNOPSIS **dateseq** \[*OPTION*\]... FIRST \[\[*INCREMENT*\] *LAST*\] ## DESCRIPTION Generate a sequence of date/times from FIRST to LAST, optionally in steps of INCREMENT (which defaults to \`1d'). If LAST is omitted it defaults to \`now' if FIRST is a date/time, or \`today' if FIRST is a date, or \`time' if FIRST is a time. The values of FIRST and LAST are always inclusive and no date/times before FIRST and no date/times after LAST will be printed. Negative INCREMENTs must be given, i.e. if FIRST is newer than LAST. 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 and fix-ups. The default is to print a warning or the fixed up value and return error code 2. - **-f, --format=*STRING*** Output format. This can either be a specifier string (similar to strftime()'s FMT) or the name of a calendar. - **-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. - **--locale=*LOCALE*** Format results according to LOCALE, this would only affect month and weekday names. - **--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. - **-s, --skip=*STRING*...** Skip weekdays specified by STRING. STRING can be a single weekday (Mon, Tue, etc.), and to skip several days the --skip option can be used multiple times. STRING can also be a comma-separated list of weekday names, or \`ss' to skip weekends (sat+sun) altogether. STRING can also contain date ranges like \`mo-we' for monday to wednesday. - **--alt-inc=*STRING*** Alternative increment to use when a date is hit that is skipped as per --skip. This increment will be applied until a non-skipped date is reached. The special case \`0' (default) deactivates alternative incrementing. A useful value could be \`1d' for increasing sequences and \`-1d' for decreasing sequences, so if a skipped date is encountered the next non-skipped date after/before will be used. - **--compute-from-last** Compute a start value from LAST using INCREMENT. This option has an effect only when INCREMENT is not a divisor of the duration between FIRST and LAST. In such case, an alternative FIRST will be computed by consecutively subtracting INCREMENT from LAST until FIRST is hit or crossed. ## 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. ## SPECIFYING DURATIONS Some tools ("dateadd", "dateseq") need durations as their input. Durations are generally incompatible with input formats as specified by "-i\|--input-format" and (at the moment) the input syntax is fixed. The general format is "+-Nunit" where "+" or "-" is the sign, "N" a number, and "unit" the unit as discussed below. Units: ``` s seconds m minutes h hours rs real-life seconds, as in including leap transitions ``` ``` d days b business days mo months y years ``` For historical reasons, we used to accept "m" in the context of date-only input as a qualifier for months. As of 0.4.4, this is no longer the case. ## EXAMPLES ``` $ dateseq 2012-02-01 2012-03-01 2012-02-01 2012-02-02 2012-02-03 2012-02-04 2012-02-05 2012-02-06 2012-02-07 2012-02-08 2012-02-09 2012-02-10 2012-02-11 2012-02-12 2012-02-13 2012-02-14 2012-02-15 2012-02-16 2012-02-17 2012-02-18 2012-02-19 2012-02-20 2012-02-21 2012-02-22 2012-02-23 2012-02-24 2012-02-25 2012-02-26 2012-02-27 2012-02-28 2012-02-29 2012-03-01 $ ``` ``` $ dateseq 2001-02-03 2001-03-03 --skip sat -f "%F %a" 2001-02-04 Sun 2001-02-05 Mon 2001-02-06 Tue 2001-02-07 Wed 2001-02-08 Thu 2001-02-09 Fri 2001-02-11 Sun 2001-02-12 Mon 2001-02-13 Tue 2001-02-14 Wed 2001-02-15 Thu 2001-02-16 Fri 2001-02-18 Sun 2001-02-19 Mon 2001-02-20 Tue 2001-02-21 Wed 2001-02-22 Thu 2001-02-23 Fri 2001-02-25 Sun 2001-02-26 Mon 2001-02-27 Tue 2001-02-28 Wed 2001-03-01 Thu 2001-03-02 Fri $ ``` ``` $ dateseq --compute-from-last 2001-02-03 1 2001-03-03 --skip sat -f "%F %a" 2001-02-04 Sun 2001-02-05 Mon 2001-02-06 Tue 2001-02-07 Wed 2001-02-08 Thu 2001-02-09 Fri 2001-02-11 Sun 2001-02-12 Mon 2001-02-13 Tue 2001-02-14 Wed 2001-02-15 Thu 2001-02-16 Fri 2001-02-18 Sun 2001-02-19 Mon 2001-02-20 Tue 2001-02-21 Wed 2001-02-22 Thu 2001-02-23 Fri 2001-02-25 Sun 2001-02-26 Mon 2001-02-27 Tue 2001-02-28 Wed 2001-03-01 Thu 2001-03-02 Fri $ ``` ``` $ dateseq 2001-02-03 3 2001-03-03 --skip sat,fri -f "%F %a" 2001-02-06 Tue 2001-02-12 Mon 2001-02-15 Thu 2001-02-18 Sun 2001-02-21 Wed 2001-02-27 Tue $ ``` ``` $ dateseq --compute-from-last 2001-02-03 3 2001-03-03 --skip sat,fri -f "%F %a" 2001-02-04 Sun 2001-02-07 Wed 2001-02-13 Tue 2001-02-19 Mon 2001-02-22 Thu 2001-02-25 Sun 2001-02-28 Wed $ ``` ``` $ dateseq 2001-02-05 4 2001-03-04 -f "%F %a" 2001-02-05 Mon 2001-02-09 Fri 2001-02-13 Tue 2001-02-17 Sat 2001-02-21 Wed 2001-02-25 Sun 2001-03-01 Thu $ ``` ``` $ dateseq --compute-from-last 2001-02-05 4 2001-03-04 -f "%F %a" 2001-02-08 Thu 2001-02-12 Mon 2001-02-16 Fri 2001-02-20 Tue 2001-02-24 Sat 2001-02-28 Wed 2001-03-04 Sun $ ``` ``` $ dateseq --alt-inc 1d 2001-02-03 3 2001-03-03 --skip sat,fri -f "%F %a" 2001-02-04 Sun 2001-02-07 Wed 2001-02-11 Sun 2001-02-14 Wed 2001-02-18 Sun 2001-02-21 Wed 2001-02-25 Sun 2001-02-28 Wed $ ``` ``` $ dateseq --compute-from-last --alt-inc 1d 2001-02-03 3 2001-03-03 --skip sat,fri -f "%F %a" 2001-02-04 Sun 2001-02-07 Wed 2001-02-11 Sun 2001-02-14 Wed 2001-02-18 Sun 2001-02-21 Wed 2001-02-25 Sun 2001-02-28 Wed $ ``` ``` $ dateseq 2001-01-01 2d 2001-01-08 2001-01-01 2001-01-03 2001-01-05 2001-01-07 $ ``` ``` $ dateseq --compute-from-last 2001-01-01 2d 2001-01-08 2001-01-02 2001-01-04 2001-01-06 2001-01-08 $ ``` ``` $ dateseq 2001-01-08 -2d 2001-01-01 2001-01-08 2001-01-06 2001-01-04 2001-01-02 $ ``` ``` $ dateseq --compute-from-last 2001-01-08 -2d 2001-01-01 2001-01-07 2001-01-05 2001-01-03 2001-01-01 $ ``` ``` $ dateseq 10:00:00 12m 11:20:00 10:00:00 10:12:00 10:24:00 10:36:00 10:48:00 11:00:00 11:12:00 $ ``` ``` $ dateseq --compute-from-last 10:00:00 12m 11:20:00 10:08:00 10:20:00 10:32:00 10:44:00 10:56:00 11:08:00 11:20:00 $ ``` ``` $ dateseq 11:20:00 -12m 10:00:00 11:20:00 11:08:00 10:56:00 10:44:00 10:32:00 10:20:00 10:08:00 $ ``` ``` $ dateseq --compute-from-last 11:20:00 -12m 10:00:00 11:12:00 11:00:00 10:48:00 10:36:00 10:24:00 10:12:00 10:00:00 $ ``` ## AUTHOR Written by Sebastian Freundt \ ## REPORTING BUGS Report bugs to: https://github.com/hroptatyr/dateutils/issues ## SEE ALSO The full documentation for **dateseq** is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the **info** and **dateseq** programs are properly installed at your site, the command - **info (dateutils)dateseq** should give you access to the complete manual.