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Set timezone using /etc/localtime configuration file [any Linux distro]

Often /etc/localtime is a symlink to the file localtime or to the correct time zone file in the system time zone directory.

Generic procedure to change timezone

Change directory to /etc

# cd /etc

Create a symlink to file localtime:

# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/EST localtime

OR some distro use /usr/share/zoneinfo/dirname/zonefile format (Red hat and friends)

# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/EST localtime

OR if you want to set up it to IST (Asia/Calcutta):

# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Calcutta localtime

Please mote that in above example you need to use directory structure i.e. if you want to set the timezone to Calcutta (India) which is located in the Asia directory you will then have to setup using as above.

Use date command to verify that your timezone is changed:

$ date

Output:

Tue Aug 27 14:46:08 EST 2006

Reference: Howto: Linux server change or setup the timezone