Changing Time Zone in Linux

Change Time Zone

1. Logged in as root, check which timezone your machine is currently using by executing `date`. You’ll see something like Mon 17 Jan 2005 12:15:08 PM PST, PST in this case is the current timezone.

2.Change to the directory /usr/share/zoneinfo here you will find a list of time zone regions. Choose the most appropriate region, if you live in Canada or the US this directory is the “America” directory.

3. If you wish, backup the previous timezone configuration by copying it to a different location. Such as
mv /etc/localtime /etc/localtime-old

4. Create a symbolic link from the appropiate timezone to /etc/localtime. Example:
ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Amsterdam /etc/localtime

5. If you have the utility rdate, update the current system time by executing
/usr/bin/rdate -s time.nist.gov

6. Set the ZONE entry in the file /etc/sysconfig/clock file (e.g. “America/Los_Angeles”)

7. Set the hardware clock by executing:
/sbin/hwclock –systohc

How to Change Date and Time

You can change the date and time on linux machine using the date command
Eg: If you want to change the date to July 31, 11:16 pm then type as follows

date 07312316
If you want to change the year as well, you could type
“date 073123161998”

You can also use the following:

date -s “31 JULY 1998 23:16:00″