## 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 standard 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 mech
           anism  works  similarly  to the format string mechanism of
           date(1), only almost completely  differently.  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 SubGenius 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.

           % 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 pro
           duce 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)