Mastering timedatectl on Linux: Set Date, Time, and Timezone

The timedatectl command in Linux is the tool that interacts with the Systemd service manager responsible for configuring the Time Zone.

When executed without any parameters, it shows the Time Zone settings:

 # timedatectl                Local time: Sat 2019-10-19 12:07:48 -03           Universal time: Sat 2019-10-19 15:07:48 UTC                 RTC time: Sat 2019-10-19 15:07:48                Time zone: America/Sao_Paulo (-03, -0300)System clock synchronized: yes              NTP service: active          RTC in local TZ: no

It can also be used to list the available timezones:

# timedatectl list-timezones | grep AmericaAmerica/AdakAmerica/AnchorageAmerica/AnguillaAmerica/Antigua(...)

To change the Time Zone using timedatectl, just use the "set-timezone" option followed by the desired zone name:

# timedatectl set-timezone America/Buenos_Aires

And then restart the Systemd timezone service:

# systemctl restart systemd-timedated

After that, the system date and time will be changed:

# timedatectl                Local time: Sat 2019-10-19 12:13:15 -03           Universal time: Sat 2019-10-19 15:13:15 UTC                 RTC time: Sat 2019-10-19 15:13:15                Time zone: America/Buenos_Aires (-03, -0300)System clock synchronized: yes              NTP service: active          RTC in local TZ: no

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