Can we perform mathematical operations on UNIX dates?

Question

I want to know how much time has elapsed between 20:26:47 EST 02/04/2007 and 20:30:04 EST 02/04/2007? TIA.

Answer 1

http://linux.about.com/od/commands/l/blcmdl1_date.htm Use date in unix to get the time in UTC in seconds. Simply subtract them. Then you have the seconds between dates. Then convert using 86400 seconds in day 3600 in hour, 60 in minute etc.