the corner office

Date manipulation:

• Program for checking and setting dates: date
• Date format is a little counter-intuitive: MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]
• TODO: notes on syncing to hardware clocks and back.

Time zones:

• Timezone is stored as text in file /etc/timezone
• The file /etc/localtime will be a link to a timezone file in /usr/share/zoneinfo
• when first installed, the localtime is often a copy of the timezone data file, not a link.
• script to view/change the timezone: tzconfig.
• (Can also use tzselect to set, it's a bit more primitive)
• you need to restart daemons and long-running programs for them to see the new timezone.
• see Debian's TimeZoneChanges wiki page for commands to decipher the content of timezone data files.

Set time from a time server:

ntpdate 0.pool.ntp.org

This connects to a load-balancer at ntp.org. You could also select a time server directly.

Links:

• Debian Admin Manual: Chapter 16 - Time
• Debian Wiki: Time Zone Changes