The Linux date command displays the current date and time of the system. While writing the shell scripts, I realise that sometimes we are required to find future dates—for example, dates after 10 days, 2 months, or 1 year, etc.

The date command provides an option to display the future dates as described.

-d, --date=STRING          display time described by STRING, not 'now'

Let’s understand this with some examples:

  • Display current date: Simply type “date” to display the current date and time of system. 
    date     

Thu Sep 22 03:58:36 UTC 2022
  • Date after 10 days: What will be the date after 10 days? The below command will show you the desired results: 
    date -d " 10 days"

Sun Oct  2 03:58:48 UTC 2022
  • Date after 3 months: Similarly to find the date after 3 months, type: 
    date -d " 3 months "

Thu Dec 22 03:58:58 UTC 2022
  • Date after 1 year: What will be the date just after 1 year? 
    date -d " 1 year"

Fri Sep 22 03:59:05 UTC 2023

These commands are helpful to find the day, month date in the future after a specific duration. We can also format the date on display. Here are a few more examples to view future dates and times.

Command Output Details
date Thu Sep 22 03:58:36 UTC 2022 Display the current date.
date -d “ 10 days” Sun Oct 2 03:58:48 UTC 2022 Display date after 10 days.
date -d “tomorrow” Fri Sep 23 03:58:48 UTC 2022 Show tomorrow’s date
date -d “tomorrow 1” Fri Sep 24 03:58:48 UTC 2022 Show date of the day after tomorrow.
date ”%a” -d “ 10 days” Sun Displa the day name after 10 days (eg: Sun, Mon etc)
date ”%b %d, %Y” -d “ 10 days” Oct 02, 2022 Display date after 10 days in custom format
date -d “next sun” Sun Sep 25 00:00:00 UTC 2022 Display date on next Sunday
date ”%b” -d “next month” Oct Shwo the next month name (eg: Oct, Nov etc)
date -d “next week” Thu Sep 29 04:46:32 UTC 2022 Show the date on next week of same day
date -d “Oct 12, 2022 1 week” Wed Oct 19 00:00:00 UTC 2022 Date after 1 week of Oct 12, 2022(or other specific date)
date ”%A” -d “Oct 12, 2022 1 week” Wednesday Display the day name after one week of Oct 12, 2022.

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