Linux

date --date "1979-10-26 +54 hours" +%Y%m%d%H

1979102805

1979102806

$ date --date "1979-10-26" '+%Y%m%d%H %Z'
1979102600 GMTDT

$ date --date "1979-10-26 +54 hours" '+%Y%m%d%H %Z'
1979102805 GMTST

$ date --utc --date "1979-10-26 +54 hours" '+%Y%m%d%H %Z'
1979102806 UTC

$

File: coreutils.info,  Node: Date input formats

28 Date input formats
*********************

First, a quote:

     Our units of temporal measurement, from seconds on up to months,
     are so complicated, asymmetrical and disjunctive so as to make
     coherent mental reckoning in time all but impossible.  Indeed, had
     some tyrannical god contrived to enslave our minds to time, to
     make it all but impossible for us to escape subjection to sodden
     routines and unpleasant surprises, he could hardly have done
     better than handing down our present system.  It is like a set of
     trapezoidal building blocks, with no vertical or horizontal
     surfaces, like a language in which the simplest thought demands
     ornate constructions, useless particles and lengthy
     circumlocutions.  Unlike the more successful patterns of language
     and science, which enable us to face experience boldly or at least
     level-headedly, our system of temporal calculation silently and
     persistently encourages our terror of time.

     ...  It is as though architects had to measure length in feet,
     width in meters and height in ells; as though basic instruction
     manuals demanded a knowledge of five different languages.  It is
     no wonder then that we often look into our own immediate past or
     future, last Tuesday or a week from Sunday, with feelings of
     helpless confusion.  ...

     -- Robert Grudin, `Time and the Art of Living'.