dp(8mh) dp(8mh)
Name
dp - parse dates RFC 822-style
Syntax
/usr/lib/mh/dp [ -form file ] [ -format string ] [ -help ] [ -width columns ] dates
Description
The command parses dates according to the ARPA Internet standard. It also understands many non-standard formats, such as those produced by
TOPS-20 sites and some UNIX sites using It is useful for seeing how MH will interpret a date.
The program treats each argument as a single date, and prints the date out in the official RFC 822 format. Hence, it is usually best to
enclose each argument in double quotes (") for the shell.
Options
-form file
Overrides the default output format of The output is formatted according to the instructions in the specified file. This must be
a format file; see
-format string
Overrides the default output format of The output is formatted according to the instructions in the specified string. This must
be a format string; see
The argument to the -format option must be interpreted as a single token by the shell that invokes Therefore, you should usually
place the argument to this option inside double quotes (").
-help Prints a list of the valid options to this command.
-width columns
Specifies the width of the screen in columns.
The defaults for this command are as follows:
-width defaults to the width of the terminal
Examples
This is the default format string used by
%<(nodate{text})error: %{text}%|%(pretty{text})%>
When an error is detected, this prints error: and the date that is in error. Otherwise, it outputs the proper RFC 822 format of the date.
Files
User profile.
See Also
ap(8mh)
Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages (RFC 822)
dp(8mh)