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systemd-timedated.service(8)

SYSTEMD-TIMEDATED.SERVICE(8) systemd-timedated.service SYSTEMD-TIMEDATED.SERVICE(8)


.SH "NAME" systemd-timedated.service, systemd-timedated - Time and date bus mechanism


.SH "SYNOPSIS"


.PP systemd-timedated.service


.PP /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-timedated


.SH "DESCRIPTION"


.PP systemd-timedated.service is a system service that may be used as a mechanism to change the system clock and timezone, as well as to enable/disable network time synchronization. systemd-timedated is automatically activated on request and terminates itself when it is unused.


.PP The tool timedatectl(1) is a command line client to this service.


.PP systemd-timedated currently offers access to the following four settings:

•The system time

•The system timezone

•A boolean controlling whether the system RTC is in local or UTC timezone

•Whether the time synchronization service is enabled/started or disabled/stopped, see next section.


.PP See org.freedesktop.timedate1(5) and org.freedesktop.LogControl1(5) for information about the D-Bus API.


.SH "LIST OF NETWORK TIME SYNCHRONIZATION SERVICES"


.PP systemd-timedated will look for files with a .list extension in ntp-units.d/ directories. Each file is parsed as a list of unit names, one per line. Empty lines and lines with comments (#) are ignored. Files are read from /usr/lib/systemd/ntp-units.d/ and the corresponding directories under /etc/, /run/, /usr/local/lib/. Files in /etc/ override files with the same name in /run/, /usr/local/lib/, and /usr/lib/. Files in /run/ override files with the same name under /usr/. Packages should install their configuration files in /usr/lib/ (distribution packages) or /usr/local/lib/ (local installs).


.PP Example 1. ntp-units.d/ entry for systemd-timesyncd

# /usr/lib/systemd/ntp-units.d/80-systemd-timesync.list
systemd-timesyncd.service


.PP If the environment variable $SYSTEMD_TIMEDATED_NTP_SERVICES is set, systemd-timedated will parse the contents of that variable as a colon-separated list of unit names. When set, this variable overrides the file-based list described above.


.PP Example 2. An override that specifies that chronyd should be used if available

SYSTEMD_TIMEDATED_NTP_SERVICES=chronyd.service:systemd-timesyncd.service


.SH "SEE ALSO"


.PP systemd(1), timedatectl(1), localtime(5), hwclock(8), systemd-timesyncd(8), org.freedesktop.timedate1(5)

systemd 262.2

systemd 262.2-r1 · os · ingested 2026-11-06