How do we convert past date into future date?

Who do I convert "noon oct 21" to a date time linux and compare it with current date time?

• I need to write a shell script that will take the date time from arg and when that date and time is reached, the shell needs to do something. The date time in the arg is in this ...show more

• Answer:

  The date(1) command may have a parameter to interpret this free format description. For example: date --date "noon oct 21" If so, you can use the format string (+ then % letter - one is seconds since 1970) to output the date as an absolute number of seconds. That can be compared with the current date/time. But personally I'd be looking at converting this free format into a format that at(1) can understand and let your server handle the scheduling automatically.