GOODDATE(1)

 NAME
      gooddate - verify date input and convert to standard format

 SYNOPSIS
      gooddate [-E] [fmt]

 DESCRIPTION
      Use gooddate to verify date input given on stdin.  Dates are accepted
      in many formats and converted to fmt format or YYMMDD format if no fmt
      is specified.  The converted date is output to stdout.

 OPTIONS
      [-E]  This option turns on European date format conversion for input
            formats.  This can also be turned on by setting the environment
            variable DDTS_DATE_FORMAT to European.  The default is non-
            european date format.

      [fmt] Output format for the date.  Formats strings are expected to be
            enclosed in quotes and follow the format used by strftime(3).
            If no format is specified, the ClearDDTS date format YYMMDD is
            used.  This format represents the last two digits of the year
            (1970 = 70, 2030 = 30), the number of the month (Feb = 02), and
            the date (3rd = 03).  This is also the internal format stored in
            the ClearDDTS database.

      For non-european dates, the following formats are supported:

      Input                           Example
      ------------------------------------------------------------
      m/d/y                           8/16/94
      m-d-y                           8-16-94
      m/d                             8/16
      m-d                             8-16

      For European dates, the following formats are supported:

      Input                           Example
      ------------------------------------------------------------
      d/m/y                           16/8/94
      d-m-y                           16-8-94
      d/m                             16/8
      d-m                             16-8

      For either style, the following formats are also supported:

      Input                           Example
      ------------------------------------------------------------
      day mon d HH:MM:SS TZ YYYY      Tue Aug 16 11:15:43 PST 1994
      day mon d HH:MM:SS YYYY         Tue Aug 16 11:15:43 1994
      mon d HH:MM:SS TZ YYYY          Aug 16 11:15:43 PST 1994
      mon d HH:MM:SS YYYY             Aug 16 11:15:43 1994
      d-mon-y                         16-Aug-94
      YYYYMMDD                        19940816
      YYMMDD                          940816

      All dates in the above examples would be converted to 940816
      if no fmt was specified.

      Additionally, ClearDDTS understands the following keywords:

      Input           Does this
      ------------------------------------------------------------
      asap            Today's date
      now             Today's date
      today           Today's date
      tomorrow        Tomorrow's date
      yesterday       Yesterday's date
      mon             Next Monday
      tue             Next Tuesday
      wed             Next Wednesday
      thu             Next Thursday
      fri             Next Friday
      sat             Next Saturday
      sun             Next Sunday

 DIAGNOSTICS
      It works as all standard filters used in the master.tmpl files.  It
      reads the date from stdin and writes the converted date to stdout.  If
      the date cannot be converted successfully, an error message is sent to
      stderr and the program exits with an exit status of 1.  Otherwise it
      exits with an exit status of 0.

 CAVEATS
      The conversion specified by fmt depends on the system call
      strftime(3).  This call does have bugs in processing the string on
      several architectures.  For example, on SunOS the %y format gives
      incorrect output for years after 2000.  Sun has a patch available.
      HP-UX does not process the formats %k, %l, %EX, and %u correctly.
      Your mileage may vary.

 SEE ALSO
      template(5), strftime(3)