This article, telling you how to find your system’s timezone, is more aimed at server users than desktop users. Desktop users probably know this already.
This command is most useful when you’re dealing with servers across the globe. You may want to schedule things (for one small example) to run at local times and knowing the local time will help with that. Knowing the timezone is pretty important, and the timezone itself is important.
The timezone dictates things like when your clocks change to adjust for Daylight Savings Time. While that may not seem like a big deal, having the proper date and time is a big deal. So, this article will tell you a couple of quick and easy ways to find your Linux system’s timezone.
Find Your Linux System’s Timezone:
This is going to need an open terminal. You probably could have guessed that. You can open a terminal with your keyboard – just press
With your terminal open, you can try one of the following commands (I prefer the first):
1 | cat /etc/timezone |
The second option is easier to remember, but you don’t get the full name of your timezone. It may require a bit more thinking, just to be sure. Try:
1 | date |
And the timezone will be at the end of that string of characters. If you’re still confused, you can type the abbreviation into your favorite search engine and they’ll get you sorted out.
Thee is a third way, but keeping that way crammed into memory isn’t as easy as the date command. It’s just:
1 | timedatectl | grep "Time zone" |