shell - Convert date time string to epoch in Bash

Question

The date time string is in the following format: 06/12/2012 07:21:22. How can I convert it to UNIX timestamp or epoch?

Answer 1

What you're looking for is date --date='06/12/2012 07:21:22' +"%s". Keep in mind that this assumes you're using GNU coreutils, as both --date and the %s format string are GNU extensions. POSIX doesn't specify either of those, so there is no portable way of making such conversion even on POSIX compliant systems.

Consult the appropriate manual page for other versions of date.

Note: bash --date and -d option expects the date in US or ISO8601 format, i.e. mm/dd/yyyy or yyyy-mm-dd, not in UK, EU, or any other format.