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How To Set or Change Timezone on Ubuntu 20.04

How to change time zone

Introduction​

In this article you will know How to To Set or Change Timezone on Ubuntu 20.04. For many system-related tasks and processes, it is important to use the right time zone. For example, the cron daemon uses the timezone of the system to run cron jobs, and the timestamps in the log files are also based on the timezone of the system.

On Ubuntu, the time zone is set when the system is installed, but it is easy to change it later.

Prerequisites​

  • A ubuntu server
  • A Super user ( root ) or any normal user with SUDO privileges.

What is current timezone ?​

The command-line programme timedatectl lets you see and change the system's time and date. It can be used on all modern Linux systems that use systemd, such as Ubuntu 20.04.

Run timedatectl with no arguments to see what time zone the system is in:

# timedatectl

Output of timedatectl command

/etc/localtime is linked to a binary timezone identifier in the /usr/share/zoneinfo directory, which sets the system's timezone.
You can also find the file that the symlink points to to see the current system's time zone:

# ls -l /etc/localtime

Output:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 May 10 2020 /etc/localtime -> /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin

In the /etc/timezone file, the timezone of the system is also written:

# cat /etc/timezone

Output:

Europe/Berlin

Changing the time zone using the timedatectl command​

You'll need to know the long name of the time zone you want to use before you can change it. "Region/City" is the format for the time zones.

You can either list the files in the /usr/share/zoneinfo directory or use the timedatectl command with the list-timezones option

# timedatectl list-timezones

Output:

.
.
.

Africa/Windhoek
America/Adak
America/Anchorage
America/Araguaina
America/Argentina/Buenos_Aires
America/Argentina/Catamarca
America/Argentina/Cordoba
America/Argentina/Jujuy
America/Argentina/La_Rioja
America/Argentina/Mendoza
America/Argentina/Rio_Gallegos
America/Argentina/Salta
America/Argentina/San_Juan
America/Argentina/San_Luis
America/Argentina/Tucuman
America/Argentina/Ushuaia
America/Asuncion
America/Atikokan
America/Bahia
America/Bahia_Banderas
America/Barbados
lines 1-40

Once you know the correct time zone for where you are, run the following command as the

# timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Kolkata

Now again run the timedatectl command to ensure the changes.

# timedatectl

Hopefully now you can Set or Change Timezone on Ubuntu 20.04

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