How to change time-zone settings from the command line

Question

I have a virtual machine that is set to PST that a couple of colleagues have in different time-zones.

If I wanted to change the time-zone to EST and GMT, what do I need to do?

Or easily echo UTC > /etc/timezone – SdSaati Dec 07 '21 at 16:43 — SdSaati, Dec 07 '21 at 16:43

Jossef Harush Kadouri · Accepted Answer · 2023-02-11T13:32:14.453

375

Use timedatectl

sudo timedatectl set-timezone <timeszone>

Examples:

Timezone as EST
```
  sudo timedatectl set-timezone EST
```
Timezone as UTC
```
  sudo timedatectl set-timezone UTC
```
Listing all valid Timezones
```
  timedatectl list-timezones
```

This command is perfect for automation scripts since it doesn't require any user interaction while compared to the other given answer based on dpkg-reconfigure tzdata.

edited Feb 11 '23 at 13:32

answered Mar 08 '15 at 13:15

Jossef Harush Kadouri

4,646

1

Not a fan of +1 comments, but am putting one here since this worked for me in the best way. I was wanting a single one-line command line tool to change the timezone, rather than wanting to launch some whole either menu or gui program (I don't know what tzdata does, how it works, but I don't need to with this one line command). Thanks! – Phil Ryan Jun 01 '15 at 23:21
works like a charm ;) – user332660 Feb 24 '16 at 10:01
Interestingly, it is doing something a little different than tzdata. I had an issue with Java time being different than the system time after applying a patch. Tzdata didn't work to fix the issue, but this did. – Daniel Bower Mar 23 '16 at 15:54
2

this didn't work for me; however the dpkg-reconfigure did the trick. – Antti Haapala Apr 10 '16 at 11:39
14.04.4 ubuntu server – Antti Haapala Apr 10 '16 at 11:44
Not only did the timedatectl report anything or give wrong status, the timezone was still wrong in date commands run from the shell; the dpkg-reconfigure tzdata and switching to UTC was instantaneous - even the time on zsh prompt jumped to another timezone – Antti Haapala Apr 10 '16 at 11:46
@AnttiHaapala, thanks for sharing :) i'll check that. Any change you had [NTP / VM Hypervisor tools] race conditioned your command ? – Jossef Harush Kadouri Apr 10 '16 at 11:48
I don't think so. – Antti Haapala Apr 10 '16 at 11:49
A quick note that this command is meant for systemd-based installations. If your system is an older version, then you may need to rely on tzdata instead. – code_dredd May 27 '18 at 18:48
Note, this timedatectl solution persists after a reboot. No need for any additional steps to make it reboot safe! – tanius Jun 15 '18 at 12:04
Perfect, I use timedatectl set-timezone America/Maceio it's works. – Offboard Jul 16 '18 at 15:29
You might want to mention tzselect to find the desired timezone string. – Martin Thoma Nov 12 '18 at 08:19
Works on OL 7.9, Ubuntu and Redhat. – Mijo Dec 12 '23 at 07:49

score 61 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '15 at 14:06

61

As root you have to execute:

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

A menu based tool should be started that allows you to change the timezone.

edited Apr 13 '15 at 14:06

Freek de Bruijn

111
4

answered Aug 31 '10 at 19:41

maxschlepzig

3,474

This also works on an install where timedatectl is not available (such as in some Docker containers). – Frank Kusters Nov 30 '23 at 09:49

score 41 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 05 '14 at 14:34

41

The following also work. For GMT:

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/GMT /etc/localtime

For EST:

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/EST /etc/localtime

edited Aug 05 '14 at 14:34

user100464

228

answered Aug 31 '12 at 10:09

pm_labs

511

10

I think it would be better to link one of the city files rather than GMT or EST, as then they will keep track of daylight savings time, whereas linking (e.g.) GMT will not change the system time to reflect when daylight savings is in effect in your city. e.g.: ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/London /etc/localtime – Asfand Qazi Jun 08 '15 at 09:19
1

this is the best – Hasan Tıngır Oct 17 '18 at 12:48
3

I would caution against this. If something or someone accidentally overwrites /etc/localtime you have just lost your zoneinfo file. It's better to just copy the zoneinfo file over the /etc/localtime file. – J Roysdon May 04 '20 at 19:33
2

On docker images timedatectl may not be installed out of the box, and it is really overkill to install a tools just to change time zone. This is the only answer that allow setting timezone with system command only. In this sense, I would say this is the best answer. – cytsunny Oct 12 '20 at 05:24

score 28 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 18 '16 at 15:52

28

The most ease way especially to a server is to list timezones:

timedatectl list-timezones

And choose yours, for example:

timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Athens

Thats it! , :-)

answered Feb 18 '16 at 15:52

Dimitrios

410

score 7 · Answer 5 · edited May 02 '16 at 02:26

Edit the timezone file at the /etc folder as:

Etc/GMT

You can use the next format:

Region "/" City

Example of /etc/timezone:

Europe/Athens

or

Europe/Paris
Europe/London

You may experiment with the: dpkg-reconfigure tzdata and check cat the timezone file.

You must reboot or start again a service (not the ntp service). I do not know which one. If somebody knows please share with us. (Tested on Ubuntu 15.10 the change is taken into account instantly)

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 01 '10 at 00:04

6

To run one program with a different time zone setting, set the TZ environment variable, e.g. run TZ=Pacific/Kiritimati date to see what time it is on Christmas Island, or export TZ=Pacific/Kiritimati to have the setting last for a shell session.

answered Sep 01 '10 at 00:04

Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'

60,593

score 6 · Answer 7 · edited Sep 26 '18 at 22:30

6

cp -p /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific /etc/localtime

I recommend AGAINST linking like mentioned by others. If some script accidentally over writes your /etc/localtime file, then it overwrites your Pacific timezone file... and it's a bit of a pain to replace it.

Just copy the Pacific file over the localtime file with the command above.

edited Sep 26 '18 at 22:30

abu_bua

10,783

answered Jul 18 '17 at 20:04

J Roysdon

161

This actually worked for me. I think there's some bug with Docker, ansible (?). Both timedatectl and dpkg-reconfigure tzdata failed for me. After I copied, the time zone changed from EST to PDT. – Sun Jun 12 '18 at 15:25

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 26 '18 at 07:24

2

I use the following script to ask the user which timezone to set, and then confirm it has indeed been set:

#!/bin/sh
sudo timedatectl set-timezone $(tzselect)
echo
echo timedatectl says:
timedatectl

I call it tz-set.

answered Apr 26 '18 at 07:24

Tom Hale

3,508

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 19 '19 at 10:30

0

As root you have to execute:

ln -fs /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Warsaw /etc/localtime && dpkg-reconfigure --frontend noninteractive tzdata

answered Mar 19 '19 at 10:30

Stefan Sebastian

1

Please explain at least how this command works to change the timezone. – Parto Mar 19 '19 at 17:15
I get

tzdata is not installed

– Nam G VU Aug 02 '20 at 10:32

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Mar 24 '19 at 22:41

0

This worked for me on GCP Ubuntu 14 via SSH

sudo su
cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Singapore /etc/localtime
Restart the server
Done

answered Mar 24 '19 at 22:41

Vignesh Chinnaiyan

101

How to change time-zone settings from the command line

10 Answers10

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