Append Current Date To Filename in Bash Shell

How do I append current date (mm_dd_yyyy format) to a filename (e.g., backup_mm_dd_yyyy.sql) under UNIX like operating systems?

To get the current date in mm_dd_yyyy format use the following date format syntax:

 
date +"%m_%d_%Y"

You can store this to a variable name:

 
now=$(date +"%m_%d_%Y")

 
now=`date +"%m_%d_%Y"`

Finally, you can create a filename as follows:

 
now=$(date +"%m_%d_%Y")
echo "Filename : /nas/backup_$now.sql"

Sample outputs:

Filename : /nas/backup_04_27_2010.sql

You can create a shell script as follows:

 
#!/bin/bash
_now=$(date +"%m_%d_%Y")
_file="/nas/backup_$_now.sql"
echo "Starting backup to $_file..."
# mysqldump -u admin -p'myPasswordHere' myDbNameHere > "$_file"

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Append Current Date To Filename in Bash Shell

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