How to set time timezone and synchronize system clock using timedatectl command

Do you know how to set Time, Timezone from Linux Command Line? If not, then the timedatectl command helps you to set time and Timezone and it comes as a part of systemd system and service manager. This article describes “How to Set Time, Timezone and Synchronize System Clock using timedatectl Command”

Find and Set Local Timezone in Linux

To display time and current date on Linux, use the following command –

$ timedatectl status

The sample output should be like this –

      Local time: Fri 2016-03-11 11:23:54 IST
  Universal time: Fri 2016-03-11 05:53:54 UTC
        Timezone: Asia/Kolkata (IST, +0530)
     NTP enabled: yes
NTP synchronized: no
 RTC in local TZ: no
      DST active: n/a

System time is managed through Timezone. To get Timezone of your system, use the following command –

$ timedatectl

The sample output should be like this –

      Local time: Fri 2016-03-11 11:30:12 IST
  Universal time: Fri 2016-03-11 06:00:12 UTC
        Timezone: Asia/Kolkata (IST, +0530)
     NTP enabled: yes
NTP synchronized: no
 RTC in local TZ: no
      DST active: n/a

To get the available timezones, use the following command –

$ timedatectl list-timezones

The sample output should be like this –

Africa/Abidjan
Africa/Accra
Africa/Addis_Ababa
Africa/Algiers
Africa/Asmara
Africa/Bamako
Africa/Bangui
Africa/Banjul
Africa/Bissau
Africa/Blantyre
Africa/Brazzaville
Africa/Bujumbura
Africa/Cairo
Africa/Casablanca
Africa/Ceuta
Africa/Conakry
Africa/Dakar
Africa/Dar_es_Salaam
Africa/Djibouti
Africa/Douala
.....................

To set your local timezone in Linux, use the following command-

$ timedatectl set-timezone “Asia/Kolkata”

To verify the above command result, use the following command –

$ timedatectl

The sample output should be like this –

      Local time: Fri 2016-03-11 11:42:22 IST
  Universal time: Fri 2016-03-11 06:12:22 UTC
        RTC time: Fri 2016-03-11 11:42:29
        Timezone: Asia/Kolkata (IST, +0530)
     NTP enabled: yes
NTP synchronized: no
 RTC in local TZ: no
      DST active: n/a

To set our time zone according to UTF, use the following command –

$ timedatectl set-timezone UTC

To verify above command result, use the following command –

$ timedatectl

The sample output should be like this –

      Local time: Fri 2016-03-11 06:15:58 UTC
  Universal time: Fri 2016-03-11 06:15:58 UTC
        Timezone: UTC (UTC, +0000)
     NTP enabled: yes
NTP synchronized: no
 RTC in local TZ: no
      DST active: n/a

Set Time and Date

To set Time and Date, use the following command –

$ timedatectl set-time 15:58:30

To verify the above command result, use the following command –

$ timedatectl

The sample output should be like this –

      Local time: Fri 2016-03-11 15:58:40 IST
  Universal time: Fri 2016-03-11 10:28:40 UTC
        Timezone: Asia/Kolkata (IST, +0530)
     NTP enabled: yes
NTP synchronized: no
 RTC in local TZ: no
      DST active: n/a

To set date from command line, use the following command –

$ timedatectl set-time 2015-11-20

To verify the above command result, use the following command-

$ timedatectl

The sample output should be like this –

      Local time: Fri 2015-11-20 00:00:06 IST
  Universal time: Thu 2015-11-19 18:30:06 UTC
        Timezone: Asia/Kolkata (IST, +0530)
     NTP enabled: yes
NTP synchronized: no
 RTC in local TZ: no
      DST active: n/a To set both date and time, use the following command-

$ sudo timedatectl set-time "2014-11-08 06:40:00"

To verify the above command result, use the following command –

$ timedatectl

The sample output should be like this –

      Local time: Sat 2014-11-08 06:40:11 IST
  Universal time: Sat 2014-11-08 01:10:11 UTC
        Timezone: Asia/Kolkata (IST, +0530)
     NTP enabled: yes
NTP synchronized: no
 RTC in local TZ: no
      DST active: n/a

Set Hardware Clock in Linux

To Display Hardware Clock Date and Time, use the following command –

# hwclock

The sample output should be like this –

# hwclock
Friday 11 March 2016 12:25:56 PM IST -0.594257 seconds

To copy system time to hardware time, use the following command-

# hwclock --systohc

To verify it, use the following commands-

# hwclock (for hardware date and time)
# date (for system date and time)

The sample output should be like this –

# hwclock
Friday 11 March 2016 01:53:03 PM IST -0.359815 seconds
# date
Fri Mar 11 13:53:05 IST 2016

In the above result, both hardware clock and system clock has the same result.

Synchronizing Linux System Clock with a Remote NTP Server

NTP stands for Network Time Protocol which is an internet protocol is used to synchronize approach clock between computers. The timedatectl utility makes it possible for to routinely sync your Linux system clock with remote servers utilizing NTP. To start automatic time synchronization with remote NTP server, use the following command-

# timedatectl set-ntp true

To disable NTP time synchronization, use the following command –

# timedatectl set-ntp false

Congratulations! Now, you know “How to Set Time, Timezone and Synchronize System Clock Using timedatectl Command”. We’ll learn more about these types of commands in our next Linux post. Keep reading!

Lakshmi Srinivas

Updated on: 18-Oct-2019

2K+ Views

Kickstart Your Career

Get certified by completing the course

Get Started