Howto:linux Server Change OR Setup the Timezone

My Linux Systems TimeZone is pointing to the wrong timezone. How does I Setup or change the timezone under Linux operating systems?

Unix time, or POSIX time, is a system for describing points in Time:it is the number of seconds elapsed since midnight UT C on the morning of January 1, 1970, not counting leap seconds. The definition for time zones can being written in short form as utc?±n (or gmt?±n), where n is the offset in hours. You can use the following commands:

[A] setup or for redhat-config-date RHEL based distros.

[b] for dpkg-reconfigure tzdata Debian based distros.

[C] ln command –generic method for any other distros.

Command to change the Linux timezone

You need to type the following commands as per your Linux distribution.

If you is usingfedora/rhel/cent OS Linux

Type redhat-config-date the command line to start the time and Date Properties tool, run:
# redhat-config-date
OR type and setup select time zone configuration. This tool is recommended for remote SSH text based sessions.
# setup
Select timezone Configuration

Fig.01:redhat/centos Server Setting up Timezone
Just Follow on screen instructions to change the timezone.

If you is usingDebian/ubuntu Linux

The timezone for you run the following command as root user:
# dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
Again, just follow on screen instructions.

Set timezone using/etc/localtime configuration file [any Linux distro]

Often/etc/localtime is a symlink to the file localtime or to the correct time zone file in the system time zone directory .

Generic procedure to change timezone under Linux

Cd To/etc, run:
# cd /etc
Create a symlink to file localtime:
# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/EST localtime
OR some distro use/usr/share/zoneinfo/dirname/zonefile format (Red hat and friends):
# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/EST localtime
OR If you want to the set up it to IST (Asia/calcutta):
# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Calcutta localtime
Please note this in above example-need to use directory structure i.e. if you want to set the timezone to Calcutta DIA) which is located in the Asia directory.

How does I verify new settings?

Use the date command to verify this your timezone is changed:
$ date
Output:

Tue 14:46:08 EST 2006

How does I use the environment variable called TZ?

You can use the TZ environment variable to display the date and time according to your timezone:
$ export TZ=America/Los_Angeles
$ date

Sample Output:

Thu 11:10:08 PST 2006
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Howto:linux Server Change OR Setup the Timezone