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3.1. Using the
Chapter 3. Configuring the Date and Time
Modern operating systems distinguish between the following two types of clocks:
- A real-time clock (RTC), commonly referred to as a hardware clock, (typically an integrated circuit on the system board) that is completely independent of the current state of the operating system and runs even when the computer is shut down.
- A system clock, also known as a software clock, that is maintained by the kernel and its initial value is based on the real-time clock. Once the system is booted and the system clock is initialized, the system clock is completely independent of the real-time clock.
The system time is always kept in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and converted in applications to local time as needed. Local time is the actual time in your current time zone, taking into account daylight saving time (DST). The real-time clock can use either UTC or local time. UTC is recommended.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 offers three command line tools that can be used to configure and display information about the system date and time: the
timedatectl utility, which is new in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and is part of systemd; the traditional date command; and the hwclock utility for accessing the hardware clock.
3.1. Using the timedatectl Command
The timedatectl utility is distributed as part of the
systemd system and service manager and allows you to review and change the configuration of the system clock. You can use this tool to change the current date and time, set the time zone, or enable automatic synchronization of the system clock with a remote server.
For information on how to display the current date and time in a custom format, see also Section 3.2, “Using the date Command”.
3.1.1. Displaying the Current Date and Time
To display the current date and time along with detailed information about the configuration of the system and hardware clock, run the
timedatectl command with no additional command line options:
timedatectl
This displays the local and universal time, the currently used time zone, the status of the Network Time Protocol (
NTP) configuration, and additional information related to DST.
Example 3.1. Displaying the Current Date and Time
The following is an example output of the
timedatectl command on a system that does not use NTP to synchronize the system clock with a remote server:
~]$ timedatectl
Local time: Mon 2016-09-16 19:30:24 CEST
Universal time: Mon 2016-09-16 17:30:24 UTC
Timezone: Europe/Prague (CEST, +0200)
NTP enabled: no
NTP synchronized: no
RTC in local TZ: no
DST active: yes
Last DST change: DST began at
Sun 2016-03-31 01:59:59 CET
Sun 2016-03-31 03:00:00 CEST
Next DST change: DST ends (the clock jumps one hour backwards) at
Sun 2016-10-27 02:59:59 CEST
Sun 2016-10-27 02:00:00 CETImportant
Changes to the status of
chrony or ntpd will not be immediately noticed by timedatectl. If changes to the configuration or status of these tools is made, enter the following command:
~]# systemctl restart systemd-timedated.service
3.1.2. Changing the Current Time
To change the current time, type the following at a shell prompt as
root:
timedatectlset-timeHH:MM:SS
Replace HH with an hour, MM with a minute, and SS with a second, all typed in two-digit form.
This command updates both the system time and the hardware clock. The result it is similar to using both the
date --set and hwclock --systohc commands.
The command will fail if an
NTP service is enabled. See Section 3.1.5, “Synchronizing the System Clock with a Remote Server” to temporally disable the service.
Example 3.2. Changing the Current Time
To change the current time to 11:26 p.m., run the following command as
root:
~]# timedatectl set-time 23:26:00
By default, the system is configured to use UTC. To configure your system to maintain the clock in the local time, run the
timedatectl command with the set-local-rtc option as root:
timedatectlset-local-rtcboolean
To configure your system to maintain the clock in the local time, replace boolean with
yes (or, alternatively, y, true, t, or 1). To configure the system to use UTC, replace boolean with no (or, alternatively, n, false, f, or 0). The default option is no.
3.1.3. Changing the Current Date
To change the current date, type the following at a shell prompt as
root:
timedatectlset-timeYYYY-MM-DD
Replace YYYY with a four-digit year, MM with a two-digit month, and DD with a two-digit day of the month.
Note that changing the date without specifying the current time results in setting the time to 00:00:00.
Example 3.3. Changing the Current Date
To change the current date to 2 June 2017 and keep the current time (11:26 p.m.), run the following command as
root:
~]# timedatectl set-time 2017-06-02 23:26:00 3.1.4. Changing the Time Zone
To list all available time zones, type the following at a shell prompt:
timedatectllist-timezones
To change the currently used time zone, type as
root:
timedatectlset-timezonetime_zone
Replace time_zone with any of the values listed by the
timedatectl list-timezones command.
Example 3.4. Changing the Time Zone
To identify which time zone is closest to your present location, use the
timedatectl command with the list-timezones command line option. For example, to list all available time zones in Europe, type:
~]# timedatectl list-timezones | grep Europe
Europe/Amsterdam
Europe/Andorra
Europe/Athens
Europe/Belgrade
Europe/Berlin
Europe/Bratislava
…
To change the time zone to
Europe/Prague, type as root:
~]# timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Prague3.1.5. Synchronizing the System Clock with a Remote Server
As opposed to the manual adjustments described in the previous sections, the
timedatectl command also allows you to enable automatic synchronization of your system clock with a group of remote servers using the NTP protocol. Enabling NTP enables the chronyd or ntpd service, depending on which of them is installed.
The
NTP service can be enabled and disabled using a command as follows:
timedatectlset-ntpboolean
To enable your system to synchronize the system clock with a remote
NTP server, replace boolean with yes (the default option). To disable this feature, replace boolean with no.
Example 3.5. Synchronizing the System Clock with a Remote Server
To enable automatic synchronization of the system clock with a remote server, type:
~]# timedatectl set-ntp yes
The command will fail if an
NTP service is not installed. See Section 17.3.1, “Installing chrony” for more information.
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