LOCALTIME(5) localtime LOCALTIME(5)

.SH "NAME" localtime - Local timezone configuration file

.SH "SYNOPSIS"

.PP /etc/localtime -> ../usr/share/zoneinfo/...

.SH "DESCRIPTION"

.PP The /etc/localtime file configures the system-wide timezone of the local system that is used by applications for presentation to the user. It should be an absolute or relative symbolic link pointing to /usr/share/zoneinfo/, followed by a timezone identifier such as Europe/Berlin or Etc/UTC. The resulting link should lead to the corresponding binary [**tzfile**(5)](/man/os/systemd/tzfile.5) timezone data for the configured timezone.

.PP Because the timezone identifier is extracted from the symlink target name of /etc/localtime, this file may not be a normal file or hardlink.

.PP If /etc/localtime is missing, the default UTC timezone is used.

.PP The timezone may be overridden for individual programs by using the *$TZ* environment variable. See [**environ**(7)](/man/os/systemd/environ.7).

.PP You may use [**timedatectl**(1)](/man/os/systemd/timedatectl.1) to change the settings of this file from the command line during runtime. Use [**systemd-firstboot**(1)](/man/os/systemd/systemd-firstboot.1) to initialize the time zone on mounted (but not booted) system images.

.SH "SEE ALSO"

.PP [**systemd**(1)](/man/os/systemd/systemd.1), [**tzset**(3)](/man/os/systemd/tzset.3), [**localtime**(3)](/man/os/systemd/localtime.3), [**timedatectl**(1)](/man/os/systemd/timedatectl.1), [**systemd-timedated.service**(8)](/man/os/systemd/systemd-timedated.service.8), [**systemd-firstboot**(1)](/man/os/systemd/systemd-firstboot.1)

systemd 262.2

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Document: localtime(5) from systemd 262.2-r1 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/systemd/systemd