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> -&gt; <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