How to change ubuntu's server date and time via command line?

command-line server time date

263,315

Solution 1

You can set the system date with this command:

sudo date --set="2015-09-30 10:05:59.990"

Then when using date, it should be showed correctly.

Now you should also the set hardware clock in the BIOS of the system, that the setting persists over a reboot (dureing the startup the system time is set to the value of the hardware clock). Do that with hwclock:

sudo hwclock --systohc

This gets the system clocks (sys) value and sets the hardware clock (hc). Check it with the hwclock command. Both hwclock and date should now show the same date and time.

To set your timezone, you can use this command:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

BTW: If you use a this machine as a server, I strongly recommend using an NTP-Client to sync the time over network. So you can guarantee that all your servers have the exactly same time set. This will sync the time while the machine runs. If you have applications which are dependent of synced time over server, I recommend the NTP-Daemon. The longer it runs in the background, the more precise is the time.

Solution 2

Search for your timezone

timedatectl list-timezones

Set your timezone

sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/Toronto

Enable timesyncd

sudo timedatectl set-ntp on

With this, time should be set and synchronized.

You can see more on this tutorial : https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-time-synchronization-on-ubuntu-18-04

Solution 3

I dislike setting system time manually. So to fix this issue I had to combine two different answers.
To fix system time you have to use this code:

sudo date -s "$(wget -qSO- --max-redirect=0 google.com 2>&1 | grep Date: | cut -d' ' -f5-8)Z"

as given in this answer
Then you sync the hardware clock with system clock using

sudo hwclock --systohc

as given by @chaos in this thread.

Solution 4

Me helped:

1 - step (preparation)

 timedatectl set-local-rtc 0
 sudo timedatectl set-ntp 1
 sudo hwclock --systohc
 sudo timedatectl set-ntp 0

2 - step (set datetime)

sudo timedatectl set-time "06:24:00"
sudo timedatectl set-time "2020-04-23"
sudo hwclock --systohc

sudo date --set="2020-04-23 06:24:25.990"
sudo hwclock --systohc

3 - step (check datetime)

timedatectl

Solution 5

I'm using Ubuntu-based servers on Amazon AWS. All of the SUDO DATE answers DID NOT WORK for me. SUDO DATE returned the new date as the output, but subsequent DATE invocations still shows the old date. Also, HWCLOCK did nothing but return an error.

The answer for me was:

sudo timedatectl set-ntp false

sudo timedatectl set-time "date-time-string"

View more solutions

263,315

Priska Aprilia

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Priska Aprilia almost 2 years
The Ubuntu server's current date and time is different from the time zone date and time. I have tried using:
```
sudo date "30 Sep 2015 4:43:42"
```
to change it but it did not change the date and time, just printed on terminal the date and time I changed, but when I executed:
```
sudo hwclock --show
```
The date and time is still the old one.

What is the correct way to change date and time of Ubuntu Server?
- Wolfgang over 8 years
  
  you really typed "sudo date newdate" - the word "newdate"?
- Priska Aprilia over 8 years
  
  Nope. I have edited my question. I typed "30 Sept 2015 4:43:42"
Priska Aprilia over 8 years

invalid date range when i tried with "093005082015.15" which stands for 30 Sept 2015, 05:08:15
Priska Aprilia over 8 years

I missed the clock synchronization step. Thank you for your answer, it helped me!
Vladimir Ch over 7 years

3 option helps, it changed etc/timezone =) like php.net/manual/en/timezones.php !!! absolutely identical !!!
PeterM over 7 years

@VladimirCh Fortunatelly time zones names are stadarized, so we don't have to make any adjustments between systems. Oh, wait... there are some Microsoft version too...
vusan over 6 years

sudo date "093005082015.15" working on mine.
Vinod about 5 years

I try to change but its not changing:- $ sudo date --set="2015-09-30 10:05:59.990" Wed Sep 30 10:05:59 +0530 2015 $ date Thu May 23 15:10:37 +0530 2019
Rafael Moni about 5 years

Best way to fix it without manually set hours and minutes! Thanks a lot!
Nick Andriopoulos about 4 years

this should not be the accepted answer since it mentions timezone explicitly
Ryan Arief about 4 years

pls add sudo timedatectl set-ntp 0 to make sure NTP is disable, this one helps me
uptoyou almost 3 years

Thanks man, saved my day !