Change Linux timezone

Usually, the only time I make a change to the timezone setting of the operating system is during the installation time. But it may happen that a change to that setting is necessary. Often /etc/localtime is a symlink to the file localtime or to the correct time zone file in the system time zone directory.

# cd /etc

Create a symlink to file localtime:

# 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 note 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: