On Sun, Jun 28, 2020, 8:50 AM felix <fe...@f-hauri.ch> wrote: > > _out=$(date -d "$_string" +%s) > many time in same script, I run something like: > > _fifo=$(mktemp -u /tmp/fifo-XXXXXXXX) > mkfifo $_fifo > exec 9> >(exec stdbuf -o0 date -f - +%s >$_fifo 2>&1) > exec 8<$_fifo > rm $_fifo > > Then to convert human datetime to UNIX SECONDS: > > echo >&9 $_string > read -t 1 -u 8 _out > >
How is running your echo >&9 $_string read -t 1 -u 8 _out many times better than running your _out=$(date -d "$_string" +%s) many times? Why don't you just use a function? date_to_epoch () { date -d "$1" +%s } _out=$(date_to_epoch "$_string")