How can I display the current time & date setting?

Question

How can I display the current time configuration, like the time zone, in Ubuntu?

What does the CentOS output for `cat /etc/sysconfig/clock` look like ? — belacqua, Feb 22 '11 at 17:25
like this [root@SUPA9611 ~]# cat /etc/sysconfig/clock ZONE="Europe/Amsterdam" UTC=true ARC=false — usef_ksa, Feb 22 '11 at 18:24

score 175 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 22 '11 at 18:47

175

I don't know of a single file, but this may give you the info needed:

cat /etc/timezone
grep UTC /etc/default/rcS
date
# hardware clock
sudo hwclock --show

answered Feb 22 '11 at 18:47

arrange

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I didn't spot the `hwclock` bit at first - but that was actually what I was looking for – icc97 Jan 07 '16 at 20:06

score 120 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 08 '16 at 03:32

120

Best example (IMHO) using timedatectl (in command-line/terminal):

$ timedatectl
      Local time: Thu 2014-07-24 19:51:23 IST
  Universal time: Thu 2014-07-24 14:21:23 UTC
        Timezone: Asia/Kolkata (IST, +0530)
     NTP enabled: no
NTP synchronized: no
 RTC in local TZ: no
      DST active: n/a

Visit the manpage for more settings and further information.

edited Jun 08 '16 at 03:32

muru

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answered Jul 24 '14 at 14:22

Pandya

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If your system is missing `timedatectl`: http://askubuntu.com/q/622721/132098 – Abdull Dec 18 '15 at 11:25
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Additional info that may also be useful: to change time zone do "sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/Los_Angeles" (use your own time zone instead of America/Los_Angeles. Timezones can be found with timedatectl list-timezones) – mberna Dec 14 '21 at 20:03

Hunaphu · Answer 3 · 2023-05-25T01:52:44.080

32

For me, date works:

Fri 22 Nov 2019 04:31:50 PM UTC

edited May 25 '23 at 01:52

answered Nov 22 '19 at 16:32

Hunaphu

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score 10 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 22 '11 at 12:34

10

Check out info date, and for example date +'%z'

answered Feb 22 '11 at 12:34

asoundmove

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did not work! the output is like man date – usef_ksa Feb 22 '11 at 18:25

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 01 '18 at 14:01

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For the time zone, you can use geolocation:

$ curl https://ipapi.co/timezone
America/Chicago

Or:

$ curl http://ip-api.com/line?fields=timezone
America/Chicago

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/time#Time_zone

answered Jul 01 '18 at 14:01

Zombo

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score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Dec 29 '19 at 03:42

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If you need a formatted area and time zone, you can use:

$ grep `date +%Z` /etc/timezone 
  Etc/UTC

edited Dec 29 '19 at 03:42

Peter Mortensen

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answered May 28 '13 at 04:28

Aimon Bustardo

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score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Dec 29 '19 at 03:40

If you have PowerShell installed:

PS> Get-TimeZone

Id                         : Europe/Vilnius
DisplayName                : (UTC+02:00) Eastern European Standard Time
StandardName               : Eastern European Standard Time
DaylightName               : Eastern European Summer Time
BaseUtcOffset              : 02:00:00
SupportsDaylightSavingTime : True

I suspect this won't be popular answer in a Linux community, but I really like the verb-noun convention. It makes it easier for me to remember commands, and it will also work on all distributions with PowerShell installed :)

Documentation for the Get-TimeZone cmdlet

How can I display the current time & date setting?

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