[SOLVED] Show date and time in a chosen timezone?

dedec0 · 09-05-2016, 11:26 AM

I have access to a Debian server, but not as root (so the solution I aim for should work for normal users without su or sudo steps).

I have a shell function which eventually prints the date and time with:

Code:

date '+%F %T %:z'
# Result is like: 2016-09-05 18:21:38 +02:00
# I wanted it to be the same, but in my timezone:
# 2016-09-05 13:21:38 -03:00

My shell prompt in Bash also display the clock with seconds: PS1="[...] \t [...]". The prompt is like:

Code:

18:36:16 me@server:~/some/folder/tmp
$

The problem is that me and the server are in different timezones. I want to see its clock, in both cases, in my timezone (so I can easily think about times here and/or there and so on).

The 'date' command does not seem to have an option for this. The shell prompt too?

Is it possible to solve both? What can I do?

michaelk · 09-05-2016, 12:36 PM

You can use the TZ environment variable i.e.

TZ='America/Los_Angeles' date '+%F %T %:z' (Replace America/Los_Angles with the servers real timezone)

You can create a script function etc. to display the servers time easily.

Just as a side note the way the world communicates time is via UTC. Servers should keep there time in UTC...

Habitual · 09-06-2016, 05:37 AM

export TZ in ~/.bashrc for regular TZ display, or in bash (may work in a script locally. May need export. Test)

Code:

TZ='America/Los_Angeles' ; date

dedec0 · 09-06-2016, 07:22 AM

It needed export to work (server is not in LA timezone):

Code:

14:16:44 me@there:~
$ TZ='America/Los_Angeles' ; date
Tue Sep  6 14:16:53 CEST 2016
14:16:53 me@there:~
$ export TZ='America/Los_Angeles' ; date
Tue Sep  6 05:17:20 PDT 2016
05:17:20 me@there:~
$ export TZ='America/Sao_Paulo' ; date
Tue Sep  6 09:17:35 BRT 2016
09:17:35 me@there:~
$ # :D :D :D right there!

I will add added this line to my bashrc:

Code:

# Data e hora vistas no fuso horário correto (meu fuso)
export TZ='America/Sao_Paulo'

Works beautifully. Thank you both! ^,^

Habitual · 09-06-2016, 12:13 PM

Glad it worked out.