Changing the time zone in the Linux shell

By default, a Linux shell uses the host server’s time zone. If you are in a different time zone, you can override this setting with TZ.

Note

Ruachost servers run on UTC (GMT+0). Times in your shell, file listings and logs are shown in UTC unless you change TZ.

The TZ environment variable affects file and directory timestamps as well as the output of the date command. For example, to set the time zone to Lagos, Nigeria:

export TZ="Africa/Lagos"

To make this change permanent for future logins, add the line above to your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc file.

Tip

To see all available time zones on the server, use the tzselect program. It lets you choose a time zone based on your region and country, and then you can set the corresponding TZ value in your shell profile file.

For a complete list of time zones, visit:
Wikipedia: List of tz database time zones