Bash for Times to Use with Remind
# Calculate number of minutes since start of day.
# Use this with output of `remind -s` to calculate
# task duration.
GENERIC_DATE=$(date +'%b %d %Z %Y') # Example output: "Feb 23 EST 2020"
START_OF_DAY_IN_SECONDS_SINCE_THE_EPOCH=$(date --date="$GENERIC_DATE" +'%s') # That date spec provides sste at midnight.
NOW_IN_SECONDS_SINCE_THE_EPOCH=$(date +'%s')
SECONDS_SINCE_START_OF_DAY=$(( $NOW_IN_SECONDS_SINCE_THE_EPOCH - $START_OF_DAY_IN_SECONDS_SINCE_THE_EPOCH ))
MINUTES_SINCE_START_OF_DAY=$(( $SECONDS_SINCE_START_OF_DAY / 60 ))
echo $MINUTES_SINCE_START_OF_DAY
###################
START_OF_TASK=$(rem -s | tail -1 | cut -d" " -f5)
echo $START_OF_TASK
DURATION_OF_TASK_IN_MINUTES=$(( $MINUTES_SINCE_START_OF_DAY - $START_OF_TASK ))
echo $DURATION_OF_TASK_IN_MINUTES
#########
REMIND_START="REM $(date +'%d %b %Y AT %H:%M') MSG <some string>"
echo $REMIND_START