If crontab executes at midnight, what will the current date be?

Question

I have the following entry in cron:

0 0 * * * /path/to/script.sh

in script.sh, there's a call to:

date +%Y%m%d

Even if this executed in zero-time, I'm assuming that the value of date will be for the date after midnight, rather than the date before. Is that correct?

Answer 1

Yes, you are correct once the clock hits 00:00:00 date = date +1

However, if you really wanted it to be the day before you could do this in your date command:

date "yesterday" +%Y%m%d

Answer 2

Yes. Computers view 00:00.00 as the start of a new day, so it will be for the date after midnight, not the date before.