Get the current date from command line Prompt: mcfuser@graphics2:gmeigs/notes 7% date Tue Jan 24 16:13:01 PST 2006 Get the Current Unix time from command line prompt by piping into tickle: mcfuser@graphics2:gmeigs/notes 8% echo "puts [clock seconds]" | tclsh 1138147981 Get Unix time from random date mcfuser@graphics2:gmeigs/notes 10% set date = "Dec 10 13:58:03 PST 1998" ---->>>N.B.: 3 (three!) arguments are passed to tclsh <<<---- ---->>>first 1 is inside single quotes, 2nd is the varible $date, 3rd inside second set of single quotes: <<<---- mcfuser@graphics2:gmeigs/notes 11% echo 'puts [clock scan "' $date '"]' | tclsh 913327083 Get the date of random Unix Time: mcfuser@graphics2:gmeigs/notes 12% echo 'puts [clock format 913327083 ]' | tclsh Thu Dec 10 13:58:03 PST 1998 mcfuser@graphics2:gmeigs/notes 13% set foo = "913327083" mcfuser@graphics2:gmeigs/notes 14% echo $foo 913327083 mcfuser@graphics2:gmeigs/notes 15% echo 'puts [clock format' $foo ']' | tclsh Thu Dec 10 13:58:03 PST 1998 USE it in "awk" : 397% head -1 temp Oct 07 15:26:52 2009 15748 0.92 psi 011011 31.02 23.05 -114.99 -138.58 0 0 1 1 1.9971 idle force_fill 0 398% head -1 temp | awk '{print "puts [clock scan \"" $1, $2, $3, $4"\"]"}' | tclsh 1254954412 Do the same things from inside tickle shell: % % date Tue Dec 21 10:32:07 PST 2010 % % clock scan [date] Tue Dec 21 10:32:48 PST 2010 1292918400 % % set foo "Dec 19 02:02:02" Dec 19 02:02:02 % % echo $foo Dec 19 02:02:02 % % clock scan $foo 1292752922 % % clock scan "Dec 19 02:02:02" 1292752922 % % clock format 1292752922 Sun Dec 19 02:02:02 PST 2010 %