How can I get the 1st and last date of the previous month in a Bash script?

Question

I have scheduled a Bash script to run on the 1st of the month but I need to create 2 variables in it with the 1st and last date of the previous month, whatever those may be.

Answer 1

If you're doing this on the 1st day of the month then you can use something like

first=$(date --date='-1 month')
last=$(date --date='-1 day')

But if you're running on another date then I guess you'll need to start from a known reference date.