How to change system time zone in Linux

A server with the wrong time zone can make local log entries, cron runs, backups, and monitoring alerts look as if they happened at the wrong moment. Changing the system-wide Linux time zone keeps wall-clock output aligned with the place or operations team that reads those records, while UTC remains the reference point for the system clock.

On systemd-based Linux distributions, timedatectl reads and changes the system time settings. The set-timezone command updates /etc/localtime so it points at the selected entry under /usr/share/zoneinfo, and timedatectl status shows both local time and universal time in one summary.

Use the exact Region/City identifier from timedatectl, such as Asia/Tokyo, instead of a short abbreviation unless that abbreviation appears in the system list. Changing the time zone affects local-time schedules and timestamps, so check maintenance windows before changing hosts that run cron jobs, log rotation, or time-sensitive batch work.

1. Check the current time settings.

   $ timedatectl status
                  Local time: Sat 2026-06-13 21:13:18 UTC
              Universal time: Sat 2026-06-13 21:13:18 UTC
                    RTC time: n/a
                   Time zone: Etc/UTC (UTC, +0000)
   System clock synchronized: no
                 NTP service: n/a
             RTC in local TZ: no

   The Time zone line is the field to change. The synchronization lines may show yes, no, active, inactive, or n/a depending on the host and its time-sync service.

2. List the installed time zone identifiers.

   $ timedatectl --no-pager list-timezones
   Africa/Abidjan
   Africa/Accra
   Africa/Addis_Ababa
   Africa/Algiers
   Africa/Asmara
   ##### snipped #####
   Asia/Kuala_Lumpur
   Asia/Kuching
   Asia/Kuwait
   Asia/Macau
   Asia/Magadan
   ##### snipped #####
   Asia/Taipei
   Asia/Tashkent
   Asia/Tbilisi
   Asia/Tehran
   Asia/Tel_Aviv
   Asia/Thimphu
   Asia/Tokyo
   Asia/Tomsk
   Asia/Ulaanbaatar
   ##### snipped #####
   UTC

   The list comes from the installed /usr/share/zoneinfo database. Minimal systems that show only UTC may need their distribution's tzdata package installed.

3. Set the new system time zone.

   $ sudo timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Tokyo

   Choose the intended Region/City value before applying the change. A wrong time zone shifts local timestamps and can move local-time cron jobs to an unexpected wall-clock hour.

4. Confirm the selected time zone.

   $ timedatectl status
                  Local time: Sun 2026-06-14 06:13:18 JST
              Universal time: Sat 2026-06-13 21:13:18 UTC
                    RTC time: n/a
                   Time zone: Asia/Tokyo (JST, +0900)
   System clock synchronized: no
                 NTP service: n/a
             RTC in local TZ: no

   Local time changed to JST while universal time stayed in UTC.

5. Verify the /etc/localtime target.

   $ readlink /etc/localtime
   ../usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Tokyo

   The target should end with the same identifier passed to timedatectl set-timezone. Recent Debian systems may not keep an /etc/timezone file, so /etc/localtime and timedatectl are the stronger checks.

6. Check the local time shown to shell commands.

   $ date
   Sun Jun 14 06:13:18 JST 2026