Re: Problem with Date Command

[Philip Rowlands]

On Wed, 4 Jun 2008, Dameon G. Rogers wrote:

> Bug-coreutils,
>
>   I would like to report a problem with the *date* command:
>
> date +%C
>
>    does not function properly.  It says it displays the current 
> century but the/ definition /of century means that we are in the 21st 
> not the 20th.

The documentation does not state that %C is the ordinal century; in the 
manpage/--help output, we see:

  %C   century; like %Y, except omit last two digits (e.g., 21)
  %Y   year

and from the info documentation:

`%C'
     century.  This is like `%Y', except the last two digits are
     omitted.  For example, it is `20' if `%Y' is `2000', and is `-0'
     if `%Y' is `-001'.  It is normally at least two characters, but it
     may be more.

> Either the command needs to be changed or the man page needs to be 
> changed to express what the command actually does.  Any assistance 
> would be appreciated.

I agree that until 2100, it would be better if the manpage gave "20" as 
the example, or no example at all, but the wording is strictly correct.


Cheers,
Phil