exec.Command("date") not able to find date command

Question

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "log"
    "os/exec"
)

func main() {
    out, err := exec.Command("date").Output()
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    fmt.Printf("The date is %s\n", out)
}

This is a code example from the documentation for executing system commands. http://golang.org/pkg/os/exec/#example_Cmd_Output Even on the documentation site the example execute box doesn't run and has the same error: 2009/11/10 23:00:00 exec: "date": executable file not found in $PATH

On Windows I get: exec: "date": executable file not found in %PATH%

How do I get commands to work? Do I need to set a path or write out the full path of the command?

Try running `which date`, then replacing `date` in your code with the fully qualified path of the `date` executable. (I realize this isn't what you want long-term, I'm just trying to diagnose.) — Christian Ternus, Oct 25 '13 at 00:51
Using the Get-Command to find the path, I tried `Get-Command ping` and it returned the path, `Get-Command ipconfig` did too, yet the `Get-Command date` says "The term 'date' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet". Edit: using `where`, I get the same result. — ApocSama, Oct 25 '13 at 01:11
On Windows 'date' is built into the command processor, so its not an executable that you are able to run. — miltonb, Oct 25 '13 at 01:19

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

Sadly, that example isn't going to work for you unless you get a date.exe from somewhere (Cygwin?) and put in on your %PATH%.

What's going on, I believe, is that date is a builtin in Powershell. It works for you because your shell is interpreting it.

You may be able to do

out, err := exec.Command("cmd", "/C", "date").Output()

as suggested here; I don't know, I don't have a Windows machine handy.

Sidenote:

Get-Command date says "The term 'date' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet"

There are exactly two Google results for that phrase. One of them leads me to this, which helped me figure this out.

Thanks, makes sense to me now. – ApocSama Oct 25 '13 at 01:29 — ApocSama, Oct 25 '13 at 01:29

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 25 '13 at 01:22

On windows since date is not a executable, I changed your code to run as follows:

out, err := exec.Command("cmd.exe", " /c date /t").Output()
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Printf("The date is %s\n", out)

The output:

The date is Fri 25/10/2013

exec.Command("date") not able to find date command

2 Answers2

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