Thanks for you reply.
Looks like a beginner error: not ready the (right) doc :-)
Richard
PS: I will soon start a new thread with what seems to me a much more complex problem, if you could answer as fast as you did ... :-)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Maurits van Rees
> [mailto:maurits@mauritsvanrees.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of
> Maurits van Rees
> Sent: 04 May 2005 11:49
> To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> Cc: MOULI Richard
> Subject: Re: Bug in command date?
>
>
> On Wed, May 04, 2005 at 10:45:06AM +0200, richard.mouli@axa.be wrote:
> > That my first post in this mailing list. Please note I am not
> > subscribed and I would like to get your replies sent back to me,
> > thanks.
>
> It helps if you set the Mail-Followup-To header in your email
> program if possible. If that's not possible it helps to get a
> better email program. ;) I'll put that header in now and see
> if that helps.
>
> Putting yourself in a Cc: field may help as well.
>
> > I recently wrote scripts that relies on relative dates (they do
> > "intensive" date manipulations). I encountered the
> following problem:
> > #: date -d "today -1 week"
> > Wed Apr 27 09:54:18 CEST 2005
> > #: date -d "today - 1 week"
> > Wed May 11 09:54:22 CEST 2005
> >
> > What seems to be the same (note the space between the dash and the
> > one) does not report the same result!
>
> What *seems* to be the same is actually *not* the same. Note
> the space between the dash and the one. That is a difference
> so it does not report the same result! :)
>
> See the info manual from coreutils.info, Node: General date
> syntax. I reached it via 'info date' -> Options for date ->
> Date input formats. It says there:
>
> "Hyphens not followed by a digit are currently ignored."
>
> So in practice your first command calculates the current date
> minus one week:
>
> #: date -d "today -1 week"
>
> and your second command calculates the current date plus one week:
>
> #: date -d "today 1 week"
>
> > Should this be reported as a bug (and how)?
>
> It's not a bug; it is the behaviour described in the docs. If
> this would be a real bug, I would recommend the reportbug
> tool from package reportbug.
>
> HTH,
>
> --
> Maurits van Rees | http://maurits.vanrees.org/ [Dutch/Nederlands]
> Public GnuPG key: keyserver.net ID 0x1735C5C2
> "Let your advance worrying become advance thinking and planning."
> - Winston Churchill
>