How can I easily change my time-zone in Arch/Xfce?

Question

Since I move around, I need to be to change time-zones frequently. I'm on Arch/Xfce. How can I do that? I've tried right click on the watch on the top panel -> properties -> time settings -> time zone. It didn't work. When I type a time-zone, it's not auto-completing and not showing suggestions. When I enter it, nonetheless and press Ok, the time doesn't change according to a new time-zone.

What's the proper way to do that?

Answer 1

It's as simple as typing in just one command:

timedatectl set-timezone Zone/SubZone

Where you replace Zone/SubZone with correct data. You can obtain list of all available timezones by typing:

timedatectl list-timezones

If you want to have your RTC (hardware clock) using local time, run the following command:

timedatectl set-local-rtc 1

If you prefer your RTC at UTC, use this one:

timedatectl set-local-rtc 0

Answer 2

I was surprised how non-trivial this was, so I wrote a script:

tz-set Asia/Bangkok

Or, to pick a timezone from a list:

tz-set

---

The following script also updates the timezone in:

• xfce4-panel clock widget
• /etc/timezone (timedatectl set-timezone doesn't update /etc/timezone)

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail
program=${0##*/} # basename $0

usage () {
    >&2 printf 'Usage: %s [Region/City]\n' "$program"
    >&2 printf 'Set the system timezone\n'
    >&2 printf 'Will run tz-select to pick timezone if none given.\n'
}

# Process arguments
if [[ $# -gt 1 ]]; then  # 0 or 1 arguments only
    usage; exit 1
fi
if [[ $# -eq 0 ]]; then  # no timezone given - prompt
    timezone=$(tzselect)
else
    timezone=$1  # in timedatactl verificaiton we trust
fi

sudo timedatectl set-timezone "$timezone"

# `timedatectl set-timezone` doesn't update `/etc/timezone`
# https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/451709/143394
 <<<"$timezone" sudo tee /etc/timezone &> /dev/null

printf '\ntimedatectl says:\n'
timedatectl

# Update xfce4-panel clock
# https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/227405/143394
if property=$(xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel --list | grep timezone); then
    if [[ $(wc -l <<<"$property") -eq 1 ]]; then # only one clock widget
        xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -p "$property" -s "$timezone"
        printf '\nUpdated xfce4-panel clock timezone to: %s\n' "$timezone"
    else
        >&2 printf 'Not changing multiple xfce4-panel properties:\n%s\n' "$property"
    fi
fi

Answer 3

Simplest solution if you do not know your current timezone

timedatectl set-timezone "$(curl --fail https://ipapi.co/timezone)"