.\"
.\" %nmhwarning%
.\"
.TH DP %manext8% "%nmhdate%" MH.6.8 [%nmhversion%]
.SH NAME
dp \- parse dates 822-style
.SH SYNOPSIS
.HP 5
.na
.B %libdir%/dp
.RB [ \-form
.IR formatfile ]
.RB [ \-Version ]
.RB [ \-help ]
.I dates
\&...
.ad
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B Dp
is a program that parses dates according to the ARPA Internet standard.
It also understands many non\-standard formats,
such as those produced by TOPS\-20 sites and some UNIX sites using
.BR ctime (3).
It is useful for seeing how
.B mmh
will interpret a date.
.PP
The
.B dp
program treats each argument as a single date,
and prints the date out in the official 822\-format.
Hence, it is usually best to enclose each argument in double\-quotes for the
shell.
.PP
To override the output format used by
.BR dp ,
the
.B \-form
.I file
switch is used.
This permits individual fields of the address to be extracted with ease.
The
.I file
is either the name of a format file or
a format string directly, if prepended with an equal sign `='.
See
.BR mh\-format (5)
for the details.
.PP
Here is the default format string used by
.BR dp :
.PP
.RS 5
.nf
%<(nodate{text})error: %{text}%|%(putstr(pretty{text}))%>
.fi
.RE
.PP
which says that if an error was detected, print the error, a `:',
and the date in error.
Otherwise, output the 822\-proper format of the date.

.SH FILES
.fc ^ ~
.nf
.ta \w'%etcdir%/ExtraBigFileName  'u
^$HOME/.mmh/profile~^The user profile
.fi

.SH "PROFILE COMPONENTS"
None

.SH "SEE ALSO"
ap(8),
.I "Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages"
(RFC\-822)

.SH DEFAULTS
.nf
.RB ` \-form "' default as described above"
.fi

.SH CONTEXT
None