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Ubuntu-Set Timezone And Date

How to set the timezone and date automatically (10.04)

The first command lets you change the timezone and the second sets the date and time from an external server.

$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

$ sudo /usr/sbin/ntpdate time.nist.gov

I added a cron job to automatically set the date and time. Just enter this command as root, crontab -e, add the following line and save.

0 * * * * /usr/sbin/ntpdate time.nist.gov > /dev/null 2>&1

To view the current date and time, the following command will be enough

$ date

To change time means to set a new time. To set time in Ubuntu (or any Linux), just run the following command

$ sudo date newdatetimestring

where newdatetimestring has to follow the format nnddhhmmyyyy.ss which is described below

nn is a two digit month, between 01 to 12
dd is a two digit day, between 01 and 31, with the regular rules for days according to month and year applying
hh is two digit hour, using the 24-hour period so it is between 00 and 23
mm is two digit minute, between 00 and 59
yyyy is the year; it can be two digit or four digit: your choice. I prefer to use four digit years whenever I can for better clarity and less confusion
ss is two digit seconds. Notice the period �.� before the ss.

Let�s say you want to set your computer�s new time to December 6, 2007, 22:43:55, then you would use:

$ sudo date 120622432007.55

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