get current date in shell linux code example

Example 1: shell script current time

#!/bin/bash
now="$(date)"
printf "Current date and time %s\n" "$now"
 
now="$(date +'%d/%m/%Y')"
printf "Current date in dd/mm/yyyy format %s\n" "$now"
 
echo "Starting backup at $now, please wait..."
# command to backup scripts goes here
# ...

Example 2: current date bash

date +'FORMAT'
 
### mm/dd/yyyy ###
date +'%m/%d/%Y'
 
## Time in 12 hr format ###
date +'%r'
 
## backup dir format ##
backup_dir=$(date +'%m/%d/%Y')
echo "Backup dir for today: /nas04/backups/${backup_dir}"