Date Hour Duration

date-hour-duration is a small portable Bash script that calculates the end date and time of an event given:

• A start date
• A start time
• A duration (minutes, hours, days, or combined values)

It works on Linux (GNU date) and macOS (BSD date).

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Features

• Cross-platform (Linux + macOS)
• Supports combined durations:
  • 30m
  • 2h
  • 1d4h30m
  • 2w3d
• Validates input parameters
• Outputs:
  • Start time
  • Duration (human readable + seconds)
  • End time
  • Epoch timestamps

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Usage

./date-hour-duration.sh YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM DURATION

Examples

./date-hour-duration.sh 2026-02-22 09:00 1h30m
./date-hour-duration.sh 2026-02-22 09:00 2d4h
./date-hour-duration.sh 2026-02-22 09:00 45m

Output example

Start   : 2026-02-22 09:00:00 (1771741200)
Duration: 1d2h30m (1d 2h 30m = 95400s)
End     : 2026-02-23 11:30:00 (1771836600)

Duration format

Unit	Meaning	Example
m	minutes	30m
h	hours	2h
d	days	1d
w	weeks	2w

You can combine them 1w2d3h30m

History

2015-11-02

• Bash script with parameter validation
• Support for minutes
• Zenity version with parameter checks and GNU date detection

2015-11-01

• First release as a simple Pastebin snippet
• http://pastebin.com/hhwr4j09
• Zenity-based GUI version

2026-02-22

• Migrate to self-hosted Forgejo git
• Improve compatibility with MacOS date
• Improve output
• Unmaintain Zentry script

License

Licensed under the WTFPL v2.

http://www.wtfpl.net/