How to Change TimeZone on Debian 11

In this wiki article, we will learn how to change the TimeZone in Debian 11 using the timedatectl command.

Check your current TimeZone

To get detailed information on your Debian date, time, and timezone you use the timedatectl command.

timedatectl

Output:

root@server:~# timedatectl
               Local time: Tue 2021-08-03 23:59:13 IST
           Universal time: Tue 2021-08-03 18:29:13 UTC
                 RTC time: Tue 2021-08-03 18:29:14
                Time zone: Asia/Kolkata (IST, +0530)
System clock synchronized: yes
              NTP service: active
          RTC in local TZ: no

The TimeZone configuration on Debian 11 OS is stored set by the /etc/localtime file. This file is a symbolic link to a timezone file under /usr/share/zoneinfo.

To get a basic view of the timezone you can ls the file to its symbolic link.

ls -l /etc/localtime

Output:

root@server:~# ls -l /etc/localtime 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 32 Aug  3 19:01 /etc/localtime -> /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Kolkata

The system’s timezone is also written to the /etc/timezone file.

cat /etc/timezone

Output:

root@server:~# cat /etc/timezone 
Asia/Kolkata

Listing TimeZones

Using timedatectl command to list TimeZones,

timedatectl list-timezones

Output:

root@server:~# timedatectl list-timezones
Africa/Abidjan
Africa/Accra
Africa/Algiers
Africa/Bissau
Africa/Cairo
Africa/Casablanca
Africa/Ceuta
Africa/El_Aaiun
Africa/Johannesburg
Africa/Juba
Africa/Khartoum
Africa/Lagos
.....

Set your Preferred TimeZone

Once you have the list of timezones, you can set the one you prefer.

timedatectl set-timezone your_time_zone

Example:

root@server:~# timedatectl set-timezone Africa/Abidjan

To confirm your changes were applied by running the timedatactl command.

timedatectl

Output:

root@server:~# timedatectl
               Local time: Tue 2021-08-03 18:32:46 GMT
           Universal time: Tue 2021-08-03 18:32:46 UTC
                 RTC time: Tue 2021-08-03 18:32:47
                Time zone: Africa/Abidjan (GMT, +0000)
System clock synchronized: yes
              NTP service: active
          RTC in local TZ: no