nepdate-cli: Bikram Sambat Date Converter

nepdate-cli is a command-line tool for displaying and converting dates between the Bikram Sambat (Vikram Samvat) and Gregorian calendars. It's a simple utility designed for easy interaction with these two calendar systems, featuring extensive formatting options.

Note

A Rust port is available on the rust branch of this repository. If you prefer to install a binary using Cargo, you can run:

cargo install nepdate-cli

Or, add it as a dependency in your Cargo.toml file: nepdate-cli = "0.1.3". For more details, see the Rust README.

Features

• Display a summary of the current date in both Bikram Sambat and Gregorian calendars.

• Convert dates between Bikram Sambat and Gregorian.

• Display the current date or date/time with custom formatting.

• Supports both simple format specifiers and a wide range of strftime-style specifiers.

• Output in Unicode (Devanagari script) or Romanized text.

• Supports a very long date range using astronomical calculation.(there is precomputed data for 2000-2099)

Installation

There are two installation methods available: using a Debian package or compiling from source.

From Debian Package

1. Download the latest .deb file from the releases page.

2. Install the package using dpkg:

   sudo dpkg -i nepdate-cli_1.0.0_amd64.deb
   
   

   Replace nepdate-cli_1.0.0_amd64.deb with the filename of the downloaded package.

From Source

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone [https://github.com/opensource-nepal/nepdate-cli.git](https://github.com/opensource-nepal/nepdate-cli.git)
   cd nepdate-cli
   
   

2. Install dependencies:

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install -y cmake build-essential debhelper devscripts
   
   

   The debhelper and devscripts packages are for building the Debian installer package.

3. Build and install:

   mkdir build
   cd build
   cmake ..
   make
   sudo make install
   
   

   To build a Debian package, run dpkg-buildpackage -b -us -uc from the project root directory. This command builds the package without signing.

Usage

Once installed, use nepdate-cli from the command line.

Running the command with no arguments displays a detailed summary of the current date:

nepdate-cli

Output:

   Today's Date:
    Gregorian: 2025 August 30, Saturday
    Bikram Sambat: 2082 Bhadra 14, शनिबार
    Days in this Bikram month: 31

For specific conversions and formatted outputs, use the following commands and options:

Usage: 
  Show today's date summary: ./nepdate-cli
  Show today's date (simple format): ./nepdate-cli --today [--ad] [--unicode] [--format y-m-d]
  Show current date & time (strftime): ./nepdate-cli --now [--ad] [--unicode] [--format '%Y-%m-%d']
  Convert to Bikram Sambat: ./nepdate-cli --tobs yyyy mm dd [--unicode] [--format y-m-d]
  Convert to Gregorian: ./nepdate-cli --toad yyyy mm dd [--unicode] [--format y-m-d]

Options:
  --ad:      Show date in AD when used with --today or --now
  --unicode: Display Unicode (Devanagari) output
  --format:  Format string (see specifiers for each command).

Format Specifiers

Simple Format Specifiers (--today, --tobs, --toad)

Specifier

Description

y

Year

m

Month (numeric)

d

Day

M

Full month name

w

Weekday name (Nepali)

W

Weekday name (English)

strftime Format Specifiers (--now)

Specifier

Description

Specifier

Description

%Y

Year (e.g., 2082)

%H

Hour, 24-hour (00-23)

%y

Year, 2-digit (e.g., 82)

%I

Hour, 12-hour (01-12)

%m

Month as a number (01-12)

%M

Minute (00-59)

%d

Day of the month (01-31)

%S

Second (00-59)

%B

Full month name

%p

AM or PM

%b

Abbreviated month name

%c

Locale’s appropriate date and time

%A

Full weekday name

%x

Locale’s appropriate date

%a

Abbreviated weekday name

%X

Locale’s appropriate time

%%

A literal % character

Examples

(Note: Terminal output colors are represented here by formatting.)

1. Show today's date in BS using simple format

   # Show today's date in BS (simple format)
   $ ./nepdate-cli --today --unicode --format 'd M, y, w'
   > १४ भाद्रपद, २०८२, शनिबार
   
   

2. Show current date and time in AD using strftime

   # Show current time in AD using strftime format (%c)
   $ ./nepdate-cli --now --ad --format '%c'
   > Sat Aug 30 11:34:15 2025
   
   

3. Show current date and time in BS (Devanagari) with full details

   # Show current date/time in BS (Devanagari) with full details
   $ ./nepdate-cli --now --unicode --format '%A, %d %B %Y, %I:%M:%S %p'
   > शनिबार, १४ भाद्रपद २०८२, ११:३४:१५ पूर्वाह्न
   
   

4. Convert a specific AD date to BS

   # Convert a specific AD date to BS (simple format)
   $ ./nepdate-cli --tobs 2025 8 30 --format 'y-M-d, W'
   > 2082-Bhadra-14, Saturday
   
   

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you have any bug reports or feature requests, please open an issue on the GitHub repository.

To contribute code:

1. Fork the repository.

2. Create a new branch for your changes.

3. Commit your changes and push them to your fork.

4. Open a pull request against the main branch of the original repository.

License

nepdate-cli is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0. See the LICENSE file for more details.

Contact

For any inquiries, you can reach out to khumnath cg.