tag 22439 notabug close 22439 stop Hello,
> On Jan 22, 2016, at 19:27, Karl Thomas Schmidt > <karl.thomas.schm...@googlemail.com> wrote: > > If i specify -d 1970/1/1 it returns proper value of 00:00:00 This is not a bug, but simply a side-effect of ignoring your local timezone. Using '-d @0' syntax specifies seconds-since-epoch in UTC timezone, regardless of your computer's timezone. But when the date is printed, it is converted to your computer's timezone - hence the offset. Examples: (on my computer, in which timezone = EST,-05:00) $ date -d '@0' Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 EST 1969 $ TZ=UTC date -d '@0' Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 UTC 1970 $ TZ=Asia/Tokyo date -d '@0' Thu Jan 1 09:00:00 JST 1970 Thus, when using '-d @0', it is useful to add the '-u' option (print in UTC): $ date -u -d '@0' Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 UTC 1970 $ date -u -d '@0' +%X 00:00:00 When using an explicit date (but without explicit time zone), the assumed time zone is your local computer's. Thus, specifying '-d 1970/1/1' means midnight of 1-Jan-1970 in *your local timezone*. Then this time is printed in your local time zone, and the printed time stays at midnight: $ date -d '1970/1/1' Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 EST 1970 I'm therefore marking this bug as closed, but discussion can continue by replying to this thread. regards, - assaf