---
name: "pmdate"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "pcp"
version: "7.2.2-2"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/pmdate"
---

# pmdate(1)

display an offset date

## NAME

**pmdate** - display an offset date

## SYNOPSIS

**pmdate** \[*offset* ...\] *format*

## DESCRIPTION

**pmdate** displays the current date and/or time, with an optional offset.

An *offset* is specified with a leading sign (\`\`+'' or \`\`-''), followed by an integer value, followed by one of the following \`\`scale'' specifiers;

- S

  seconds

- M

  minutes

- H

  hours

- d

  days

- m

  months

- y

  years

The output *format* follows the same rules as for [**date**(1)](/date/1.md) and [**strftime**(3)](/strftime/3.md).

For example, the following will display the date a week ago as DDMMYYYY; `pmdate -7d %d%m%Y`

## PCP ENVIRONMENT

Environment variables with the prefix **PCP\_** are used to parameterize the file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file */etc/pcp.conf* contains the local values for these variables. The **$PCP\_CONF** variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration file, as described in [**pcp.conf**(5)](/pcp.conf/5.md).

## SEE ALSO

[**date**(1)](/date/1.md), [**strftime**(3)](/strftime/3.md), [**pcp.conf**(5)](/pcp.conf/5.md) and [**pcp.env**(5)](/pcp.env/5.md).