Change the time zone in Linux using the CLI

It is easy to change the time zone of your Linux server from the command line interface (CLI). The following technique should work on all systemd-derived distros including Redhat, Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, etc. 

Check your current time zone 

Check your current time zone with the timedatectl command:

$ timedatectl
               Local time: Thu 2023-05-18 07:36:40 GMT
           Universal time: Thu 2023-05-18 07:36:40 UTC
                 RTC time: Thu 2023-05-18 07:36:40
                Time zone: GMT (GMT, +0000)
System clock synchronized: yes
              NTP service: active
          RTC in local TZ: no

In this instance, the time zone of the server is GMT.

Set a new time zone

Use the timedatectl command again with the set-timezone parameter to set your desired time zone. You will need to use sudo or a root shell:

sudo timedatectl set-timezone Europe/London

Use the timedatectl command again to confirm the change:

$ timedatectl
               Local time: Thu 2023-05-18 08:36:47 GMT
           Universal time: Thu 2023-05-18 07:36:47 UTC
                 RTC time: Thu 2023-05-18 07:36:47
                Time zone: Europe/London (BST, +0100)
System clock synchronized: yes
              NTP service: active
          RTC in local TZ: no

Viewing available time zones

You can use the timedatectlcommand with the list-timezones parameter to list all available time zones:

 $ timedatectl list-timezones

This will help you identify the correct time zone for your location. Be warned, it is rather a long list!