Learn how to change timezone in the Linux server. Understand timezone files location, configuration files, and way to change timezone using them.
This article is a beginner’s guide to change the timezone of the Linux server. Timezone is crucial for the server since the server’s native time is displayed according to timezone.
Server’s current timezone can be checked using simple date command
root@kerneltalks # date
Tue Nov 7 17:23:54 UTC 2017
In the above output, UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is your server’s timezone. If you want to change it to match your region or application’s user’s timezone there are three ways you can do it.
If you want to change the timezone without much hassle and without messing around system files directly jump to datetimectl command option below.
How to change timezone in Linux using /etc/localtime file
/etc/localtime is the file used by the kernel to determine the timezone. If you check your current file, its a soft link to respective timezone file in /usr/share/zoneinfo directory.
root@kerneltalks # ll /etc/localtime
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 25 Jul 11 16:06 /etc/localtime -> ../usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC
root@kerneltalks # ls -lrt /usr/share/zoneinfo/
total 284
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 17722 Dec 5 2016 zone1970.tab
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 19153 Feb 10 2017 zone.tab
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 4445 Feb 28 2017 iso3166.tab
-rw-r--r--. 6 root root 118 Mar 21 2017 Zulu
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 1518 Mar 21 2017 W-SU
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1873 Mar 21 2017 WET
-rw-r--r--. 6 root root 118 Mar 21 2017 UTC
-rw-r--r--. 6 root root 118 Mar 21 2017 Universal
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 118 Mar 21 2017 UCT
-rw-r--r--. 3 root root 2126 Mar 21 2017 Turkey
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 384 Mar 21 2017 Singapore
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 517 Mar 21 2017 ROK
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 764 Mar 21 2017 ROC
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2294 Mar 21 2017 PST8PDT
-rw-r--r--. 5 root root 388 Mar 21 2017 PRC
-rw-r--r--. 3 root root 3519 Mar 21 2017 posixrules
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 3439 Mar 21 2017 Portugal
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 2679 Mar 21 2017 Poland
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 2047 Mar 21 2017 NZ-CHAT
-rw-r--r--. 4 root root 2434 Mar 21 2017 NZ
-rw-r--r--. 4 root root 2427 Mar 21 2017 Navajo
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2294 Mar 21 2017 MST7MDT
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 118 Mar 21 2017 MST
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2102 Mar 21 2017 MET
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 641 Mar 21 2017 Libya
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 219 Mar 21 2017 Kwajalein
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 292 Mar 21 2017 Japan
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 481 Mar 21 2017 Jamaica
-rw-r--r--. 3 root root 8981 Mar 21 2017 Israel
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 1690 Mar 21 2017 Iran
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 1174 Mar 21 2017 Iceland
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 119 Mar 21 2017 HST
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 1175 Mar 21 2017 Hongkong
-rw-r--r--. 10 root root 118 Mar 21 2017 Greenwich
-rw-r--r--. 10 root root 118 Mar 21 2017 GMT+0
-rw-r--r--. 10 root root 118 Mar 21 2017 GMT-0
-rw-r--r--. 10 root root 118 Mar 21 2017 GMT0
-rw-r--r--. 10 root root 118 Mar 21 2017 GMT
-rw-r--r--. 7 root root 3661 Mar 21 2017 GB-Eire
-rw-r--r--. 7 root root 3661 Mar 21 2017 GB
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2294 Mar 21 2017 EST5EDT
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 118 Mar 21 2017 EST
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 3533 Mar 21 2017 Eire
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 1946 Mar 21 2017 Egypt
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1876 Mar 21 2017 EET
-rw-r--r--. 2 root root 2411 Mar 21 2017 Cuba
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2294 Mar 21 2017 CST6CDT
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2102 Mar 21 2017 CET
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 176 Jul 11 15:57 Indian
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jul 11 15:57 Africa
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 53 Jul 11 15:57 Mexico
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 59 Jul 11 15:57 Brazil
drwxr-xr-x. 6 root root 8192 Jul 11 15:57 America
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 161 Jul 11 15:57 Canada
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 187 Jul 11 15:57 Antarctica
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 26 Jul 11 15:57 Arctic
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jul 11 15:57 Asia
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 196 Jul 11 15:57 Atlantic
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jul 11 15:57 Australia
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 45 Jul 11 15:57 Chile
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jul 11 15:57 Etc
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jul 11 15:57 Europe
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 216 Jul 11 15:57 US
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jul 11 15:57 Pacific
drwxr-xr-x. 18 root root 4096 Jul 11 15:57 posix
drwxr-xr-x. 18 root root 4096 Jul 11 15:57 right
Since our test server’s timezone is UTC, you can see /etc/localtime is a soft link to /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC. To change the timezone delete existing /etc/localtime file and create a new one with a link to the desired timezone file.
root@kerneltalks # rm /etc/localtime
rm: remove symbolic link ‘/etc/localtime’? y
root@kerneltalks # ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Eastern /etc/localtime
root@kerneltalks # date
Tue Nov 7 12:32:19 EST 2017
You can see we have changed timezone to EST by linking new localtime file to appropriate zone file under /usr/share/zoneinfo
How to change timezone using shell variable TZ
Another way to change the timezone is to use shell variable TZ. You can do it with single line command as below :
root@kerneltalks # export TZ=Asia/Singapore
root@kerneltalks # date
Wed Nov 8 01:36:15 +08 2017
I exported the timezone variable TZ for Singapore timezone. Check the date command output. Timezone has been set to +08 which means UTC+08:00 i.e. SGT (Singapore Timezone)
But remember, this timezone setting will be available for current shell only from where you are exporting this TZ variable.
How to change timezone using /etc/timezone file
The third way to change timezone is through the use of /etc/timezone file. This is available in some distro like Ubuntu. The content of the file will be the timezone name you want to set.
root@kerneltalks # cat /etc/timezone
Etc/UTC
root@kerneltalks # date
Tue Nov 7 17:50:50 UTC 2017
You have to export the timezone variable TZ as well along with a change in /etc/timezone file. And then you can see timezone change in effect.
Change timezone using timedatectl command
You can use timedatectl command to safely change timezone when you don’t want to deal with system files and fear of messing them up.
timedatectl command used to display current timezone, list available timezones, and change timezone on the server. We have this dedicated article on timedatectl to learn this command in detail.
To change timezone of server, use timedatectl with set-timezone argument and its value.
root@kerneltalks # timedatectl set-timezone Africa/Malabo
root@kerneltalks # date
Wed Nov 15 16:59:23 WAT 2017
In the output, you can see we have changed the timezone of the server to the WAT timezone.