How to change timezone in Linux

Linux instances are set to the UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) time zone by default.

Photo by Mitchell Hollander on Unsplash

But we need to change the time to local timezone for better understanding of time in log or in other file. First of all check timezone in linux server.

# date

Sat Aug 19 06:58:34 UTC 2017

Above command show time date with timezone UTC. Now we can change it to Indian time std.

Step 1: List all zone info by the command

# ls /usr/share/zoneinfo

Above command show zoneinfo. Some are directory and some are file. We require to set indian time zone so search kolkata timezone in Asia directory. So complete path for my timezone is /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/kolkata.

Step 2 : Update the /etc/sysconfig/clock file with the new time zone.

# vim /etc/sysconfig/clock

Change entry according to your timezone

Note: Do not change UTC=true. This entry is for hardware clock.

Save file and exit

Create a symbolic link between /etc/localtime/

# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Kolkata /etc/localtime

Above command create link of your time zone for system local timezone information.

Now check your time by date command

date

Sat Aug 19 12:49:29 IST 2017

It show your indian time zone ( IST )

Step 4 : Reboot your system for reflecting this time zone in all your applications.

$ sudo reboot

reference:

how to change timezone in Linux