# MIT Kerberos Documentation

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# Supported date and time formats

## Time duration

This format is used to express a time duration in the Kerberos configuration files and user commands. The allowed formats are:

> Format | Example | Value
> h:m[:s] | 36:00 | 36 hours
> NdNhNmNs | 8h30s | 8 hours 30 seconds
> N (number of seconds) | 3600 | 1 hour

Here N denotes a number, d - days, h - hours, m - minutes, s - seconds.

Note

The time interval should not exceed 2147483647 seconds.

Examples:

    Request a ticket valid for one hour, five hours, 30 minutes
    and 10 days respectively:

      kinit -l 3600
      kinit -l 5:00
      kinit -l 30m
      kinit -l "10d 0h 0m 0s"

## getdate time

Some of the kadmin and kdb5_util commands take a date-time in a human-readable format. Some of the acceptable date-time strings are:

> | Format | Example
> --- | --- | ---
> Date | mm/dd/yy | 07/27/12
> month dd, yyyy | Jul 27, 2012
> yyyy-mm-dd | 2012-07-27
> Absolute time | HH:mm[:ss]pp | 08:30 PM
> hh:mm[:ss] | 20:30
> Relative time | N tt | 30 sec
> Time zone | Z | EST
> z | -0400

(See Abbreviations used in this document.)

Examples:

    Create a principal that expires on the date indicated:
        addprinc test1 -expire "3/27/12 10:00:07 EST"
        addprinc test2 -expire "January 23, 2015 10:05pm"
        addprinc test3 -expire "22:00 GMT"
    Add a principal that will expire in 30 minutes:
        addprinc test4 -expire "30 minutes"

## Absolute time

This rarely used date-time format can be noted in one of the following ways:

> Format | Example | Value
> --- | --- | ---
> yyyymmddhhmmss | 20141231235900 | One minute before 2015
> yyyy.mm.dd.hh.mm.ss | 2014.12.31.23.59.00
> yymmddhhmmss | 141231235900
> yy.mm.dd.hh.mm.ss | 14.12.31.23.59.00
> dd-month-yyyy:hh:mm:ss | 31-Dec-2014:23:59:00
> hh:mm:ss | 20:00:00 | 8 o’clock in the evening
> hhmmss | 200000

(See Abbreviations used in this document.)

Example:

    Set the default expiration date to July 27, 2012 at 20:30
    default_principal_expiration = 20120727203000

### Abbreviations used in this document

month : locale’s month name or its abbreviation;
dd : day of month (01-31);
HH : hours (00-12);
hh : hours (00-23);
mm : in time - minutes (00-59); in date - month (01-12);
N : number;
pp : AM or PM;
ss : seconds (00-60);
tt : time units (hours, minutes, min, seconds, sec);
yyyy : year;
yy : last two digits of the year;
Z : alphabetic time zone abbreviation;
z : numeric time zone;

Note

- If the date specification contains spaces, you may need to enclose it in double quotes;
- All keywords are case-insensitive.