Credit: STILLFX / Getty Images The timedatectl command allows you to both query and change the system clock and its settings on Linux systems. To display the current settings, use the command by itself—with no arguments. You should see something like this: $ timedatectl Local time: Thu 2021-12-16 11:12:31 EST Universal time: Thu 2021-12-16 16:12:31 UTC RTC time: Thu 2021-12-16 16:12:31 The fields shown include the local time, universal time (the same around the globe), RTC (the real-time clock, usually an integrated circuit), and the time zone (America/New York” is the Eastern US time zone). NTP is network time protocol for clock synchronization between computer systems over packet-switched, variable-latency data networks. In this case, the RTC it is not set to the local time zone. Time and date changes are seldom needed since your system generally manages this from the time of installation using NTP. If you move or take your laptop on vacation with you, however, you might want to make some changes to accommodate your new location. To change your settings, you need to use sudo. $ timedatectl set-timezone America/New_York You can change the time zone using sudo, but not the date or the time if your system clock is synchronized. If you want to list the time zones, you can use the list-timezones option. There are 339 of them, so I prefer passing the command’s output to the column command: $ timedatectl list-timezones | wc -l 339 $ timedatectl list-timezones | column Africa/Abidjan America/Paramaribo Asia/Yekaterinburg Africa/Algiers America/Phoenix Asia/Yerevan Africa/Bissau America/Port-au-Prince Atlantic/Azores Africa/Cairo America/Porto_Velho Atlantic/Bermuda Africa/Casablanca America/Puerto_Rico Atlantic/Canary Africa/Ceuta America/Punta_Arenas Atlantic/Cape_Verde Africa/El_Aaiun America/Rainy_River Atlantic/Faroe Africa/Johannesburg America/Rankin_Inlet Atlantic/Madeira Africa/Juba America/Recife Atlantic/Reykjavik Africa/Khartoum America/Regina Atlantic/South_Georgia Africa/Lagos America/Resolute Atlantic/Stanley Africa/Maputo America/Rio_Branco Australia/Adelaide Africa/Monrovia America/Santarem Australia/Brisbane Africa/Nairobi America/Santiago Australia/Broken_Hill Africa/Ndjamena America/Santo_Domingo Australia/Darwin … … … Wrap-Up You can look into additional timedatectl command options by asking for help like this: $ timedatectl -h command. Related content how-to Backgrounding and foregrounding processes in the Linux terminal Running processes in the background can be convenient when you want to use your terminal window for something else while you wait for the first task to complete. By Sandra Henry-Stocker May 24, 2024 5 mins Linux how-to Making a case for case statements on Linux Case statements can allow you to simplify the logic of your scripts. By Sandra Henry-Stocker May 22, 2024 4 mins Linux how-to Compressing files using the zip command on Linux The zip command lets you compress files to preserve them or back them up, and you can require a password to extract the contents of a zip file. By Sandra Henry-Stocker May 13, 2024 4 mins Linux opinion NSA, FBI warn of email spoofing threat Email spoofing is acknowledged by experts as a very credible threat. By Sandra Henry-Stocker May 13, 2024 3 mins Linux PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS NEWSLETTERS Newsletter Promo Module Test Description for newsletter promo module. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe