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

mm = minute = 42

YYYY = year = 2008

ss = second = 450

sample output,

[root@klmsyslog01p ~]# date -s “7 April 2008 20:42:45″
Mon Apr  7 20:42:45 MYT 2008
[root@klmsyslog01p ~]#
[root@kmmserver01p ~]# date 040720422008.45
Mon Apr  7 20:42:45 MYT 2008
[root@kmmserver01p ~]#