181

How can I display the current time configuration, like the time zone, in Ubuntu?

2
  • What does the CentOS output for cat /etc/sysconfig/clock look like ?
    – belacqua
    Commented Feb 22, 2011 at 17:25
  • like this [root@SUPA9611 ~]# cat /etc/sysconfig/clock ZONE="Europe/Amsterdam" UTC=true ARC=false
    – usef_ksa
    Commented Feb 22, 2011 at 18:24

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
182

I don't know of a single file, but this may give you the info needed:

cat /etc/timezone
grep UTC /etc/default/rcS
date
# hardware clock
sudo hwclock --show
1
  • I didn't spot the hwclock bit at first - but that was actually what I was looking for
    – icc97
    Commented Jan 7, 2016 at 20:06
125

Best example (IMHO) using timedatectl (in command-line/terminal):

$ timedatectl
      Local time: Thu 2014-07-24 19:51:23 IST
  Universal time: Thu 2014-07-24 14:21:23 UTC
        Timezone: Asia/Kolkata (IST, +0530)
     NTP enabled: no
NTP synchronized: no
 RTC in local TZ: no
      DST active: n/a

Visit the manpage for more settings and further information.

2
  • If your system is missing timedatectl: askubuntu.com/q/622721/132098
    – Abdull
    Commented Dec 18, 2015 at 11:25
  • 1
    Additional info that may also be useful: to change time zone do "sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/Los_Angeles" (use your own time zone instead of America/Los_Angeles. Timezones can be found with timedatectl list-timezones)
    – mberna
    Commented Dec 14, 2021 at 20:03
35

For me, date works:

Fri 22 Nov 2019 04:31:50 PM UTC

10

Check out info date, and for example date +'%z'

1
  • did not work! the output is like man date
    – usef_ksa
    Commented Feb 22, 2011 at 18:25
2

For the time zone, you can use geolocation:

$ curl https://ipapi.co/timezone
America/Chicago

Or:

$ curl http://ip-api.com/line?fields=timezone
America/Chicago

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/time#Time_zone

1

If you need a formatted area and time zone, you can use:

$ grep `date +%Z` /etc/timezone 
  Etc/UTC
0
0

If you have PowerShell installed:

PS> Get-TimeZone

Id                         : Europe/Vilnius
DisplayName                : (UTC+02:00) Eastern European Standard Time
StandardName               : Eastern European Standard Time
DaylightName               : Eastern European Summer Time
BaseUtcOffset              : 02:00:00
SupportsDaylightSavingTime : True

I suspect this won't be popular answer in a Linux community, but I really like the verb-noun convention. It makes it easier for me to remember commands, and it will also work on all distributions with PowerShell installed :)

Documentation for the Get-TimeZone cmdlet

0

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .