@item %X
locale's time representation (%H:%M:%S)
@item %z
-RFC-822 style numeric time zone (e.g., -0600 or +0100), or nothing if no
+RFC-2822 style numeric time zone (e.g., -0600 or +0100), or nothing if no
time zone is determinable. This value reflects the @emph{current} time
zone. It isn't changed by the @option{--date} option.
@item %Z
@item -R
@itemx --rfc-822
+@itemx --rfc-2822
@opindex -R
@opindex --rfc-822
-Display the time and date using the RFC-822-conforming
-format, @samp{%a, %_d %b %Y %H:%M:%S %z}.
+@opindex --rfc-2822
+Display the time and date using the format @samp{%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S
+%z}, evaluated in the C locale so abbreviations are always in English.
+For example:
+
+@example
+Fri,@ @ 1 Aug 2003 23:05:56 -0700
+@end example
+
+This format conforms to
+@uref{ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2822.txt, RFC 2822} and
+@uref{ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc822.txt, RFC 822}, the
+current and previous standards for Internet email.
@item -r @var{file}
@itemx --reference=@var{file}
@end example
@item
-To print the date in the format specified by RFC-822,
-use @samp{date --rfc}. I just did and saw this:
+To print the date in the format specified by RFC-2822,
+use @samp{date --rfc-2822}. I just did and saw this:
@example
-Mon, 25 Mar 1996 23:34:17 -0600
+Thu, 31 Jul 2003 13:13:05 -0700
@end example
@anchor{%s-examples}