How To: 2 Methods To Change TimeZone in Linux
Question: When I installed the Linux OS, I forgot to set the proper timezone. How do I change the timezone on my Linux distribution. I use CentOS (Red Hat Linux). But, can you please explain me how to do this on all Linux distributions with some clear examples.
Answer: Use one of the following methods to change the timezone on your Linux system. One of these methods should work for you depending on the Linux distribution you are using.
Method 1: Change TimeZone Using /etc/localtime File
For this example, assume that your current timezone is UTC as shown below. You would like to change this to Pacific Time.
# date Mon Sep 17 22:59:24 UTC 2010
On some distributions (for example, CentOS), the timezone is controlled by /etc/localtime file.
Delete the current localtime file under /etc/ directory
# cd /etc # rm localtime
All US timezones are located under under the /usr/share/zoneinfo/US directory as shown below.
# ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/ Alaska Arizona Eastern Hawaii Michigan Pacific Aleutian Central East-Indiana Indiana-Starke Mountain Samoa
Note: For other country timezones, browse the /usr/share/zoneinfo directory
Link the Pacific file from the above US directory to the /etc/localtime directory as shown below.
# cd /etc # ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific localtime
Now the timezone on your Linux system is changed to US Pacific time as shown below.
# date Mon Sep 17 23:10:14 PDT 2010
Method 2: Change TimeZone Using /etc/timezone File
On some distributions (for example, Ubuntu), the timezone is controlled by /etc/timezone file.
For example, your current timezone might be US Eastern time (New York) as shown below.
# cat /etc/timezone America/New_York
To change this to US Pacific time (Los Angeles), modify the /etc/timezone file as shown below.
# vim /etc/timezone America/Los_Angeles
Also, set the timezone from the command line using the TZ variable.
# export TZ=America/Los_Angeles
منبع: thegeekstuff.com
