Aha.. I am using a custom postamble for html:

            (setq org-html-postamble t) ; default value = 'auto
            (setq org-html-postamble-format
                  `(("en"
                     ,(concat "Exported using "
                              ;; "%c" is replaced with
`org-html-creator-string'
                              ;; Emacs <VERSION> (Org mode <VERSION>)
                              "<div style=\"display: inline\"
class=\"creator\">"
                              "%c</div> "
                              "by %e. — "
                              "<div style=\"display: inline\"
class=\"date\">"
                              "%d</div>"))))

So it looks like "%d" returns an empty string if #+DATE: is omitted
altogether; but if org-html-postamble is 'auto, today's date is entered if
#+DATE: is omitted.



--
Kaushal Modi

On Fri, Aug 7, 2015 at 10:20 AM, Suvayu Ali <fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Fri, Aug 07, 2015 at 10:01:42AM -0400, Kaushal wrote:
> > @Fabrice Thanks for sharing your examples!
> >
> > @Suvayu I tried removing #+DATE: line.. but with that I don't see the
> date
> > stamp in html exports. The advantage of {{{time(FORMAT)}}} is that I can
> > also control the formatting of the date-time stamp.
>
> I just tested it, I get the following at the end of the exported html
> document:
>
> <div id="postamble" class="status">
> <p class="author">Author: Suvayu Ali</p>
> <p class="date">Created: 2015-08-07 Fri 16:14</p>
> <p class="validation"><a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer
> ">Validate</a></p>
>
> I don't know any html, were you expecting something else?  About the
> format, take a look at org-time-stamp-custom-formats and
> org-time-stamp-formats; eventhough they are for timestamps in the
> document, maybe they honour the document creation timestamp.
>
> --
> Suvayu
>
> Open source is the future. It sets us free.
>
>