Linux : date command

Following are some illustrations of the date command.

date
# This prints the current date. Something of this form - "Tue Jan 31 12:16:53 IST 2006"

date +%d
# prints current day of the month

Following examples illustrate getting time related information of a day/date other than the current date

date --date="3 days ago"
# prints date that was 3 days ago

Try these too !
date --date="last Sunday"
date --date="next Sunday"
date --date="Jan 26, 2004" +%a
# prints Day of the week on Jan 26, 2004

Setting the system date. You need to have admin privileges to use --set option.

date --set='+10 minutes'
# Takes system clock forwad by 10 minutes.