Get current time in seconds since the Epoch on Linux, Bash?

Question

I need something simple like `date`, but in seconds since 1970 instead of the current date, hours, minutes, and seconds. `date` doesn't seem to offer that option. Is there an easy way?

Answer 1

The 'date' command provides the option to display the time in seconds since Epoch(1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC). Use the FORMAT specifier '%s' to display the value.

date '+%s' # returns number of seconds such as: 1562172080

To get the full list of format specifies for date type 'man date' on the command line.