1<?xml version='1.0'?> <!--*-nxml-*--> 2<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN" 3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd"> 4<!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later --> 5 6<refentry id="localtime"> 7 <refentryinfo> 8 <title>localtime</title> 9 <productname>systemd</productname> 10 </refentryinfo> 11 12 <refmeta> 13 <refentrytitle>localtime</refentrytitle> 14 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum> 15 </refmeta> 16 17 <refnamediv> 18 <refname>localtime</refname> 19 <refpurpose>Local timezone configuration file</refpurpose> 20 </refnamediv> 21 22 <refsynopsisdiv> 23 <para><filename>/etc/localtime</filename> -> <filename>../usr/share/zoneinfo/…</filename></para> 24 </refsynopsisdiv> 25 26 <refsect1> 27 <title>Description</title> 28 29 <para>The <filename>/etc/localtime</filename> file configures the 30 system-wide timezone of the local system that is used by 31 applications for presentation to the user. It should be an 32 absolute or relative symbolic link pointing to 33 <filename>/usr/share/zoneinfo/</filename>, followed by a timezone 34 identifier such as <literal>Europe/Berlin</literal> or 35 <literal>Etc/UTC</literal>. The resulting link should lead to the 36 corresponding binary 37 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>tzfile</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> 38 timezone data for the configured timezone.</para> 39 40 <para>Because the timezone identifier is extracted from the 41 symlink target name of <filename>/etc/localtime</filename>, this 42 file may not be a normal file or hardlink.</para> 43 44 <para>If <filename>/etc/localtime</filename> is missing, the 45 default <literal>UTC</literal> timezone is used.</para> 46 47 <para>The timezone may be overridden for individual programs by 48 using the <varname>$TZ</varname> environment variable. See 49 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>environ</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para> 50 51 <para>You may use 52 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>timedatectl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> 53 to change the settings of this file from the command line during 54 runtime. Use 55 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-firstboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> 56 to initialize the time zone on mounted (but not booted) system 57 images.</para> 58 </refsect1> 59 60 <refsect1> 61 <title>See Also</title> 62 <para> 63 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, 64 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>tzset</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>, 65 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>localtime</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>, 66 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>timedatectl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, 67 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-timedated.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, 68 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-firstboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> 69 </para> 70 </refsect1> 71 72</refentry> 73