DDATE(1)		   Emperor Norton Utilities		     DDATE(1)



NAME
       ddate - converts Gregorian dates to Discordian dates

SYNOPSIS
       ddate [+format] [date]

DESCRIPTION
       ddate prints the date in Discordian date format.

       If  called  with no arguments, ddate will get the current system date,
       convert this to the Discordian date format and print this on the stan-
       dard  output.  Alternatively, a Gregorian date may be specified on the
       command line, in the form of a numerical day, month and year.

       If a format string is specified, the Discordian date will  be  printed
       in a format specified by the string. This mechanism works similarly to
       the format string mechanism of date(1), only almost completely differ-
       ently. The fields are:

       %A     Full name of the day of the week (i.e., Sweetmorn)

       %a     Abbreviated name of the day of the week (i.e., SM)

       %B     Full name of the season (i.e., Chaos)

       %b     Abbreviated name of the season (i.e., Chs)

       %d     Ordinal number of day in season (i.e., 23)

       %e     Cardinal number of day in season (i.e., 23rd)

       %H     Name of current Holyday, if any

       %N     Magic  code to prevent rest of format from being printed unless
	      today is a Holyday.

       %n     Newline

       %t     Tab

       %X     Number of days remaining until X-Day. (Not valid if the  SubGe-
	      nius options are not compiled in.)

       %{

       %}     Used  to enclose the part of the string which is to be replaced
	      with the words "St. Tib's Day" if the current day is St.	Tib's
	      Day.

       %.     Try it and see.













EXAMPLES
       % ddate
       Sweetmorn, Bureaucracy 42, 3161 YOLD

       % ddate +'Today is %{%A, the %e of %B%}, %Y. %N%nCelebrate %H'
       Today is Sweetmorn, the 42nd of Bureaucracy, 3161.

       % ddate +"It's %{%A, the %e of %B%}, %Y. %N%nCelebrate %H" 26 9 1995
       It's Prickle-Prickle, the 50th of Bureaucracy, 3161.
       Celebrate Bureflux

       % ddate +'Today's %{%A, the %e of %B%}, %Y. %N%nCelebrate %H' 29 2 1996
       Today's St. Tib's Day, 3162.


BUGS
       ddate(1) will produce undefined behaviour if asked to produce the date
       for St. Tib's day and its format string does not contain the St. Tib's
       Day delimiters %{ and %}.


NOTE
       After  'X-Day'  passed  without	incident, the Church of the SubGenius
       declared that it had got the year upside down - X-Day is	 actually  in
       8661 AD rather than 1998 AD.  Thus, the True X-Day is Cfn 40, 9827.


AUTHOR
       Original	  program   by	 Druel	 the   Chaotic	 aka  Jeremy  Johnson
       (mpython@gnu.ai.mit.edu)
       Major  rewrite  by  Lee	H:.  O:.  Smith,  KYTP,	 aka  Andrew   Bulhak
       (acb@dev.null.org)
       Five tons of flax.


DISTRIBUTION POLICY
       Public domain. All rites reversed.


SEE ALSO
       date(1),
       http://www.subgenius.com/
       Malaclypse  the	Younger,  Principia Discordia, Or How I Found Goddess
       And What I Did To Her When I Found Her




			     59 Bureaucracy 3161		     DDATE(1)

UNIX/Linux commands referenced on this page:

1. date
2. convert
3. which