Modload zsh/datetime

Use strftime.

You need to be using n/zsh 4.3.4

if the datetime module is there, EPOCHSECONDS will be the current time as well:

$ echo $EPOCHSECONDS

1334773831

$

If the newer zsh isn't available, awk can generate it as well:

$ echo $EPOCHSECONDS

1334774032

$ echo "" | awk 'END {print srand()}'

1334774034

$

Are you using the nsh awk or the system awk?

It shouldn't matter. awk should have the srand() function, and that's what makes this work. With no arguments, srand() will return the current time in seconds.

playing around with this a bit more. It seems gnu awk always (some versions?) implicitly seed to 1, so gawk may need srand twice:

$ echo "" | gawk 'END{print srand()}'

1

$ echo "" | gawk 'END{print srand()}'

1

$ echo "" | gawk 'END{srand(); print srand()}'

1334788707

echo "" | gawk 'END{srand(); print srand()}'

1334788708

nsh awk only needs one... eh..

You can update nsh – actually zsh.

To check the version run:

Nsh –version

That will show like:

$ nsh --version

zsh 4.3.4 (i686-pc-linux-gnu)

if it’s 4.0.4 you can goto the NSH/bin directory and change the nsh symlink to point to the zsh-4_3_4 binary instead of zsh.  4.3.4 is the default for bsa 8.1+ and it works fine in older versions for the most part.