TIMEDATECTL(1) timedatectl TIMEDATECTL(1)
NAME
timedatectl - Control the system time and date
SYNOPSIS
timedatectl [OPTIONS...] {COMMAND}
DESCRIPTION
timedatectl may be used to query and change the system clock and its
settings.
Use systemd-firstboot(1) to initialize the system time zone for mounted
(but not booted) system images.
timedatectl may be used to show the current status of systemd-
timesyncd.service(8).
OPTIONS
The following options are understood:
--no-ask-password
Do not query the user for authentication for privileged operations.
--adjust-system-clock
If set-local-rtc is invoked and this option is passed, the system
clock is synchronized from the RTC again, taking the new setting
into account. Otherwise, the RTC is synchronized from the system
clock.
--monitor
If timesync-status is invoked and this option is passed, then
timedatectl monitors the status of systemd-timesyncd.service(8) and
updates the outputs. Use Ctrl-C to terminate the monitoring.
-a, -all
When showing properties of systemd-timesyncd.service(8), show all
properties regardless of whether they are set or not.
-p, --property=
When showing properties of systemd-timesyncd.service(8), limit
display to certain properties as specified as argument. If not
specified, all set properties are shown. The argument should be a
property name, such as "ServerName". If specified more than once,
all properties with the specified names are shown.
--value
When printing properties with show-timesync, only print the value,
and skip the property name and "=".
-H, --host=
Execute the operation remotely. Specify a hostname, or a username
and hostname separated by "@", to connect to. The hostname may
optionally be suffixed by a container name, separated by ":", which
connects directly to a specific container on the specified host.
This will use SSH to talk to the remote machine manager instance.
Container names may be enumerated with machinectl -H HOST.
-M, --machine=
Execute operation on a local container. Specify a container name to
connect to.
-h, --help
Print a short help text and exit.
--version
Print a short version string and exit.
--no-pager
Do not pipe output into a pager.
COMMANDS
The following commands are understood:
status
Show current settings of the system clock and RTC, including
whether network time synchronization through
systemd-timesyncd.service is active. Even if it is inactive, a
different service might still synchronize the clock. If no command
is specified, this is the implied default.
show
Show the same information as status, but in machine readable form.
This command is intended to be used whenever computer-parsable
output is required. Use status if you are looking for formatted
human-readable output.
By default, empty properties are suppressed. Use --all to show
those too. To select specific properties to show, use --property=.
set-time [TIME]
Set the system clock to the specified time. This will also update
the RTC time accordingly. The time may be specified in the format
"2012-10-30 18:17:16".
set-timezone [TIMEZONE]
Set the system time zone to the specified value. Available
timezones can be listed with list-timezones. If the RTC is
configured to be in the local time, this will also update the RTC
time. This call will alter the /etc/localtime symlink. See
localtime(5) for more information.
list-timezones
List available time zones, one per line. Entries from the list can
be set as the system timezone with set-timezone.
set-local-rtc [BOOL]
Takes a boolean argument. If "0", the system is configured to
maintain the RTC in universal time. If "1", it will maintain the
RTC in local time instead. Note that maintaining the RTC in the
local timezone is not fully supported and will create various
problems with time zone changes and daylight saving adjustments. If
at all possible, keep the RTC in UTC mode. Note that invoking this
will also synchronize the RTC from the system clock, unless
--adjust-system-clock is passed (see above). This command will
change the 3rd line of /etc/adjtime, as documented in hwclock(8).
set-ntp [BOOL]
Takes a boolean argument. Controls whether network time
synchronization is active and enabled (if available). If the
argument is true, this enables and starts the first existed service
listed in the environment variable $SYSTEMD_TIMEDATED_NTP_SERVICES
of systemd-timedated.service. If the argument is false, then this
disables and stops the all services listed in
$SYSTEMD_TIMEDATED_NTP_SERVICES.
systemd-timesyncd Commands
The following commands are specific to systemd-timesyncd.service(8).
timesync-status
Show current status of systemd-timesyncd.service(8). If --monitor
is specified, then this will monitor the status updates.
show-timesync
Show the same information as timesync-status, but in machine
readable form. This command is intended to be used whenever
computer-parsable output is required. Use timesync-status if you
are looking for formatted human-readable output.
By default, empty properties are suppressed. Use --all to show
those too. To select specific properties to show, use --property=.
EXIT STATUS
On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.
ENVIRONMENT
$SYSTEMD_PAGER
Pager to use when --no-pager is not given; overrides $PAGER. If
neither $SYSTEMD_PAGER nor $PAGER are set, a set of well-known
pager implementations are tried in turn, including less(1) and
more(1), until one is found. If no pager implementation is
discovered no pager is invoked. Setting this environment variable
to an empty string or the value "cat" is equivalent to passing
--no-pager.
$SYSTEMD_LESS
Override the options passed to less (by default "FRSXMK").
$SYSTEMD_LESSCHARSET
Override the charset passed to less (by default "utf-8", if the
invoking terminal is determined to be UTF-8 compatible).
$SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE
Takes a boolean argument. When true, the "secure" mode of the pager
is enabled; if false, disabled. If $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set
at all, secure mode is enabled if the effective UID is not the same
as the owner of the login session, see geteuid(2) and
sd_pid_get_owner_uid(3). In secure mode, LESSSECURE=1 will be set
when invoking the pager, and the pager shall disable commands that
open or create new files or start new subprocesses. When
$SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set at all, pagers which are not known
to implement secure mode will not be used. (Currently only less(1)
implements secure mode.)
Note: when commands are invoked with elevated privileges, for
example under sudo(8) or pkexec(1), care must be taken to ensure
that unintended interactive features are not enabled. "Secure" mode
for the pager may be enabled automatically as describe above.
Setting SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE=0 or not removing it from the inherited
environment allows the user to invoke arbitrary commands. Note that
if the $SYSTEMD_PAGER or $PAGER variables are to be honoured,
$SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE must be set too. It might be reasonable to
completly disable the pager using --no-pager instead.
EXAMPLES
Show current settings:
$ timedatectl
Local time: Thu 2017-09-21 16:08:56 CEST
Universal time: Thu 2017-09-21 14:08:56 UTC
RTC time: Thu 2017-09-21 14:08:56
Time zone: Europe/Warsaw (CEST, +0200)
System clock synchronized: yes
NTP service: active
RTC in local TZ: no
Enable network time synchronization:
$ timedatectl set-ntp true
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.freedesktop.timedate1.set-ntp ===
Authentication is required to control whether network time synchronization shall be enabled.
Authenticating as: user
Password: ********
==== AUTHENTICATION COMPLETE ===
$ systemctl status systemd-timesyncd.service
systemd-timesyncd.service - Network Time Synchronization
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-timesyncd.service; enabled)
Active: active (running) since Mo 2015-03-30 14:20:38 CEST; 5s ago
Docs: man:systemd-timesyncd.service(8)
Main PID: 595 (systemd-timesyn)
Status: "Using Time Server 216.239.38.15:123 (time4.google.com)."
CGroup: /system.slice/systemd-timesyncd.service
595 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-timesyncd
...
Show current status of systemd-timesyncd.service(8):
$ timedatectl timesync-status
Server: 216.239.38.15 (time4.google.com)
Poll interval: 1min 4s (min: 32s; max 34min 8s)
Leap: normal
Version: 4
Stratum: 1
Reference: GPS
Precision: 1us (-20)
Root distance: 335us (max: 5s)
Offset: +316us
Delay: 349us
Jitter: 0
Packet count: 1
Frequency: -8.802ppm
SEE ALSO
systemd(1), hwclock(8), date(1), localtime(5), systemctl(1), systemd-
timedated.service(8), systemd-timesyncd.service(8), systemd-
firstboot(1)
systemd 239 TIMEDATECTL(1)