How to Use tzselect on Linux to Set Your Timezone Interactively

The tzselect command on Linux can be used to choose the time zone and show the correct value for the TZ variable.

Its operation is simple: first you must choose the continent:

# tzselect
Please identify a location so that time zone rules can be set correctly.
Please select a continent, ocean, "coord", or "TZ".
1) Africa            7) Europe
2) Americas          8) Indian Ocean
3) Antarctica        9) Pacific Ocean
4) Asia              10) geographical coordinates
5) Atlantic Ocean    11) TZ
6) Australia

Then you must choose the country:

Please select a country whose clocks agree with yours.
 1) Anguilla        12) Cayman Islands
 2) Antigua         13) Chile
 3) Argentina       14) Colombia
 4) Aruba           15) Costa Rica
 5) Bahamas         16) Cuba
 6) Barbados        17) Curaçao
 7) Belize          18) Dominica
 8) Bolivia         19) Dominican Republic
 9) Brazil          20) Ecuador
 ( ... )

And finally the Time Zone:

Please select one of the following timezones.1) Atlantic islands	2) Pará (east); Amapá3) Brazil (northeast: MA, PI, CE, RN, PB)4) Pernambuco	5) Tocantins		6) Alagoas, Sergipe	7) Bahia	8) Brazil (southeast) 
( ... )

Once the desired Time Zone is selected, tzselect asks you to confirm the settings:

The following information has been given:	Brazil	Brazil (southeast: GO, DF, MG, ES, RJ, SP, PR, SC, RS)Therefore TZ='America/Sao_Paulo' will be used.Selected time is now:	Sat Oct 19 11:56:56 -03 2019.Universal Time is now:	Sat Oct 19 14:56:56 UTC 2019.Is the above information OK?1) Yes2) No

And then it creates the command line for setting the TZ variable and also indicates where it should be saved:

You can make this change permanent for yourself by appending the line	TZ='America/Sao_Paulo'; export TZto the file '.profile' in your home directory; then log out and log in again.

Learn much more about Linux in our online course. You can enroll here. If you already have an account, or want to create one, just log in or create your user here.

Like it? Share