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Date Module

The date module parses dates, and prints them.

The server will normally print dates in its own pre-defined format. It will also parse dates in a few limited formats. However, these operations are for full dates (e.g. January 1, 2020 12:34pm). The server does not print dates in other formats, and does not parse dates in other formats.

The date module adds that functionality. It allows you to print dates in almost any format you want. It allows you to parse dates in almost any format, so long as you know what the fields are, and how they are defined.

Configuration Settings

format

Formatting of the output string.

The format arguments are the same as for the system strftime call. See man strftime for documentation.

utc

Whether conversions are in UTC or local time.

If utc is enabled then any conversions will be made as UTC, not localtime.

ISO format

Default is to use localtime.

The core xlat, %T returns the request timestamp in ISO format including milliseconds. This expansion returns it without the millisecond component.

Use e.g. %date_iso(request):

xlat expansions

The date module defines an expansion %date() When the expansion is not passed an argument, it returns the current date printed according to the format string defined above.

"Attribute" mode:

If the argument to %date(…​) is an attribute of date or integer type, the date used will be the time given by the relevant attribute. If the attributes is of type string, the string will be parsed according to the format configuration, and a Unix date will be returned, as integer seconds since the epoch.

For example, %date(&Event-Timestamp) will use the date from the Event-Timestamp attribute as the source of the date for printing.

"Get time" mode:

If the input is the string request, the xlat will format the time the current request packet arrived according to the format string, and return it as a string.

If the input is the string now, the xlat will behave as above, for the current time.

If the input string begins with +, then the remainder of the string is interpreted as if the string had been given in the format configuration item.

For example %date('+%A') will return Monday if today is Monday.

Note that the % character is special for xlat expansions, and therefore either has to be "protected" by string quotation, or the % character has to be escaped itself, as in %date(+%%A)

"Integer output"

In some cases, it is useful for the module to parse dates instead of printing them. In this mode, the format string is ignored. Instead, the input arguments are parsed, and the output is an integer containing the requested value.

The following expansions return integer numbers:

Parameter Description

%l

request time in seconds since the epoch.

%M

request time microsecond component.

%c

current time in seconds since the epoch.

%C

current time microsecond component.

&Attribute-Name

for string attributes, parse the string according to format, and return the integer value as a Unix timestamp.

Default Configuration

date {
	format = "%b %e %Y %H:%M:%S %Z"
#	utc = no
}
date date_iso {
	format = "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"
	utc = yes
}