localtime

systemd
localtime 5
localtime Local timezone configuration file

`/etc/localtime` -> `../usr/share/zoneinfo/…`

## Description

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 timezone data for the configured timezone.

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

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

The timezone may be overridden for individual programs by using the `$TZ` environment variable. See environ 7.

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

## See Also

systemd 1, tzset 3, localtime 3, timedatectl 1, systemd-timedated.service 8, systemd-firstboot 1