timedatectl

Show and set system time, timezone, and NTP status

timedatectl shows current time, timezone, and whether NTP sync is active. timedatectl set-timezone America/New_York changes timezone. A drifting clock breaks TLS cert validation and distributed system coordination.

Example

$ timedatectl status
               Local time: Sat 2024-01-15 14:23:45 UTC
  Universal time: Sat 2024-01-15 14:23:45 UTC
        RTC time: Sat 2024-01-15 14:23:45
       Time zone: UTC (UTC, +0000)
     NTP service: active

Tip: Type it yourself in the terminal below - reading is not the same as doing.