I frequently use Unix timestamps as, or in, file and directory names when I need a quick ~guaranteed unique name (usually I use date +%s for this). This works well, but to later check when the directory or file was created, I have to copy the Unix timestamp and use a tool or website to convert it to something more human readable. readtimestamp is a simple tool that takes one argument and prints in a human readable format the first substring in that argument that looks like a Unix timestamp. Since some programs generate millisecond or nanosecond timestamps (e.g. Java's System.currentTimeMillis()), readtimestamp interprets the timestamp substring in multiple units, printing the most probable candidate first. See below for an example.
# TODO Publish to crates.io
cargo install --git https://github.com/andrewliebenow/readtimestamp❯ readtimestamp --help
Pretty print a Unix timestamp (seconds or milliseconds)
Usage: readtimestamp <TIMESTAMP>
Arguments:
<TIMESTAMP> The Unix timestamp to parse (can be in seconds, milliseconds, or nanoseconds)
Options:
-h, --help Print help
-V, --version Print version❯ readtimestamp ./my-saved-file-1704772140
Attempting to parse "./my-saved-file-1704772140"
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NOTE: <TIMESTAMP> contains non-digit characters, attempting to find something that looks like a timestamp
Parsing possible timestamp found in <TIMESTAMP>: "1704772140"
Best candidate unit:
( seconds) UTC: 2024-01-09 @ 03:49:00 AM local: 2024-01-08 @ 10:49:00 PM (7 months 4 weeks 1 day 11 hours 25 minutes ago)
(milliseconds) UTC: 1970-01-20 @ 05:32:52 PM local: 1970-01-20 @ 12:32:52 PM (54 years 8 months 11 hours 9 minutes 14 seconds ago)
(microseconds) UTC: 1970-01-01 @ 12:28:24 AM local: 1969-12-31 @ 07:28:24 PM (54 years 8 months 2 weeks 6 days 4 hours ago)
( nanoseconds) UTC: 1970-01-01 @ 12:00:01 AM local: 1969-12-31 @ 07:00:01 PM (54 years 8 months 2 weeks 6 days 4 hours ago)MIT License, see LICENSE file