Modified

Each node is capable of having a Created time, and a Modified time.

If the Modified header is not set, the modification time of the node file is used as its modified time by default.

The Modified header is not inherited by child nodes.

The value for the Modified header is a date/time string in ISO 8601 format.

The Modified time for a node can be referenced from the {{modified:%B %d, %Y}} substitution parameter, where the parameter rvalue can be an arbitrary strftime format string. If the Modified header is not set, the reference will fall back on the default node time derived from the node file modification time.

Generating Valid Date/Time Strings

On a Linux system with GNU date, the following command will output a suitable ISO 8601 date/time string, complete with the local UTC time zone offset:

date -Is

Example output:

2026-06-05T18:11:52-04:00

On other UNIX systems where GNU date is not available, the following command will output a suitable ISO 8601 date/time string, without the local UTC time zone offset:

date +%FT%T

Example output:

2026-06-05T18:11:52

You can also use date string values with less precision. For example, you can specify only the year, month, and day:

2026-06-05

Node Sorting Behavior

Node creation and modification time can both be used when nodes are sorted. When nodes are sorted by time, the creation time is used preferentially, and the modification time is only consulted if the creation time is not available. See the main node documentation for additional details.

Tags: headers