Epoch

Convert Unix timestamps, compare epochs, and do time arithmetic. Use when converting dates, debugging timestamps, or checking timezone offsets.

A real Unix timestamp tool for converting, comparing, and calculating epoch timestamps. All conversions use the system date command with support for both local and UTC output.

Commands

Command	Description
epoch now	Show current epoch timestamp + human-readable date (local & UTC)
epoch convert <timestamp>	Convert an epoch timestamp to human-readable local, UTC, and age
epoch from <date-string>	Convert a human-readable date string to epoch
epoch diff <ts1> <ts2>	Calculate difference between two timestamps (seconds, minutes, hours, days)
epoch add <timestamp> <seconds>	Add seconds to a timestamp and show the result
epoch version	Show version
epoch help	Show available commands and usage

Requirements

• Bash 4+ (set -euo pipefail)
• date, awk — standard Unix utilities
• No external dependencies or API keys

When to Use

1. Quick timestamp lookup — epoch now gives you the current epoch + human date instantly
2. Debugging timestamps in logs — epoch convert 1700000000 shows you what that number actually means
3. Parsing date strings — epoch from '2024-01-15 10:30:00' gets you the epoch value
4. Calculating time differences — epoch diff <ts1> <ts2> shows the gap in every unit
5. Time arithmetic — epoch add 1700000000 3600 adds an hour and shows the result

Examples

# Show current epoch + human-readable date
epoch now

# Convert epoch to date
epoch convert 1700000000

# Convert date string to epoch
epoch from '2024-01-15 10:30:00'
epoch from 'Jan 15 2024'

# Difference between two timestamps
epoch diff 1700000000 1700086400

# Add 1 hour (3600 seconds) to a timestamp
epoch add 1700000000 3600

# Add 7 days to a timestamp
epoch add 1700000000 604800

Example Output

$ epoch now
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Current Time                       │
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Epoch:  1773916290                 │
│  Human:  2026-03-19 18:31:30 CST   │
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│  UTC:    2026-03-19 10:31:30 UTC   │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

$ epoch diff 1700000000 1700086400
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Timestamp Difference                             │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  From:     1700000000 (2023-11-15 06:13:20 CST)   │
│  To:       1700086400 (2023-11-16 06:13:20 CST)   │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Seconds:  86400                                   │
│  Minutes:  1440.00                                 │
│  Hours:    24.00                                   │
│  Days:     1.0000                                  │
│  Duration: 1d 0h 0m 0s                             │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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