To simplify, this is how you do it. Set the current date to April 7 2008 8:42:45pm. The easy way, #date -s "7 April 2008 20:42:45" The harder way, #date  040720422008.45 The break down: MM DD hh mm YYYY ss MM = month = 04 DD = day = 07 hh = hour = 20 [...]