How To Set the Time Zone?

On modern linux systems the easiest way to get the correct time on your OS is to use ntp.  Fedora Core 3 and later uses  system-config-date select the Network Time Protocal tap and select Enable Network Time Protocol.  It ships with a long list of ntp.org servers which it will automagically choose from.  If you want to be a better netizen you should change this list by adding 0.{cd}.pool.ntp.org replacing {cd} us your two leter "country coded domain".  See http://ntp.isc.org/bin/view/Support/SelectingOffsiteNTPServers#Section_5.3.7. for more information on ntp servers.

Change directory to /usr/lib/zoneinfo/. Get the time zone package if you don't have this directory. The source is available in ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/admin/time/.

Then make a symbolic link named localtime pointing to one of the files in this directory (or a subdirectory), and one called posixrules pointing to localtime. For example:

$ ln -sf US/Mountain localtime $ ln -sf localtime posixrules

This change will take effect immediatelytry date.

If the system uses Red Hat-style configuration files, the respective time zone info files are /usr/share/zoneinfo and /etc/localtime.

The manual pages for tzset or tzselect describe setting the time zone. Some programs recognize the TZ environment variable, but this is not POSIX-correct.

You should also make sure that your Linux kernel clock is set to the correct GMT time. Type date -u and check that the correct UTC time is displayed. See Why Does the Computer Have the Wrong Time?.

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