Converting a string from a file into a date

Question

I'm trying to read a string from a file and then convert it into a date but for some reason it's failing. I'm actually modifying a GeekTool Geeklet that's not working at the moment. It reads a file locally and pulls out a target date that is then used in a countdown clock. The line of code that is failing is:

TARGET=$(date -j -f %D_%T $1 +%s)

I know that I can hardcode the value in the script using -v but I want to work out why this line isn't working. I can't seem to find any refs to converting a string from a file into a date object. I also can't find refs to -j or -f flags...

[edit] Here's the full script:

#!/bin/bash
# Homework countdown
# BETA - I will update this when I get more time
function countdown
{
CURRENT=$(date +%s)
TARGET=$(date -j -f %D_%T $1 +%s)
LEFT=$((TARGET-CURRENT))
WEEKS=$((LEFT/604800))
DAYS=$(( (LEFT%604800)/86400))
HOURS=$(( (LEFT%86400)/3600))
MINS=$(( (LEFT%3600)/60))
SECS=$((LEFT%60))

lblWEEKS="Weeks"
lblDAYS="Days"

if [ $DAYS == 1 ]
then
lblDAYS="Day"
fi

if [ $WEEKS == 1 ]
then
lblWEEKS="Week"
fi

if [ $HOURS -lt 10 ]
then
    HOURS=0$HOURS
fi  

if [ $MINS -lt 10 ]
then
    MINS=0$MINS
fi


if [ $SECS -lt 10 ]
then
    SECS=0$SECS
fi

echo $1
echo $TARGET
echo $2 $WEEKS Weeks, $DAYS $lblDAYS $HOURS:$MINS:$SECS
# Optional extra line between timers
echo
}
DATES=( $( cat /Users/Shared/Deadlines.txt ) )
# Even numbered indices are names, odd numbered indices are dates


if [ ${#DATES[@]} == 0 ]
then
echo "No Deadlines!"
return
fi

for (( i = 0 ; i < ${#DATES[@]} ; i+=2 ))
do
countdown ${DATES[i+1]} ${DATES[i]}
done

And the file simply contains: test: 17/05/2011_12:00

Why don't you show the pertinent content of the file and the desired output? -j is not present in GNU date, what date are you using? — enzotib
– enzotib, Commented Aug 9, 2011 at 11:53

Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-09 23:42:04Z

Looks like the script was written for FreeBSD.

-f input_fmt: Use input_fmt as the format string to parse the new_date provided rather than using the default [[[[[cc]yy]mm]dd]HH]MM[.ss] format. Parsing is done using strptime(3).
-j: Do not try to set the date. This allows you to use the -f flag in addition to the + option to convert one date format to another.

These are nonstandard extensions to the standard date command, which can only format the current date. Under Linux (or Cygwin) or any other system with GNU date, you can use the -d option if you're willing to pass a different date format:

TARGET=$(date -d "$1" +%s)

and call the script as e.g. test 2011/05/17 12:00. For fancier parsing, preprocess the string in the shell first or call Perl or Python:

TARGET=$(IFS=/_:; set $1; date +%S $(($2*10000000000+$1*100000000+
                                      $4*1000000+$5*10000+$1)))
TARGET=$(perl -l -e '($day,$month,$year,$h,$m) = split(/[^0-9]+/, $ARGV[0]); print mktime(0, $m, $h, $day, $month, $year-1900)' "$1")
TARGET=$(python -c '
    import sys, time;
    print time.strftime("%s", time.strptime(sys.argv[1], "%d/%m/%Y_%H:%M"))
   '            "$1")

Stack Exchange Network

Converting a string from a file into a date

1 Answer 1

You must log in to answer this question.

Hot Network Questions

Converting a string from a file into a date

1 Answer 1

You must log in to answer this question.

Related

Hot Network Questions