3 ways to get time in Linux

There are a few different ways to check the time on your Linux machine. The first way is to use the date command. This command displays the current date and time in human-readable format.

The second way is to use the timedatectl command. This command allows you to view and change the system time and date settings.

The third way is to use the hwclock command. This command shows or sets hardware clock information on Linux systems.

If you’re new to the world of Linux, you can refer to “Mastering the Linux Command: A Beginner’s Guide.” This in-depth article will be your guiding light, providing you with the foundational knowledge and skills required to navigate and wield the Linux command line interface (CLI) effectively and with assurance.

Table of Contents

Procedure to check time in Linux

The procedure to get time in Linux is as follows:

Open the terminal.
Type date or timedatectl command
Press Enter to run the command.
The command output displays the time in human-readable format.

This article is part of the following series.

Get time with date command in Linux

To get the current time using the date command in Linux, simply open a terminal and enter the following command:

date

Running this command will display the current date and time in the default format.

For example, the output may look like this:

Fri Jun 18 15:30:45 UTC 2023

The date command provides various options to customize the output format. For instance, you can use the %T format specifier to display the time in the HH:MM:SS format.

Here’s an example:

date +%T

Output:

15:30:45

To format the date command’s output, you can use control characters preceded by a + sign.

Format controls begin with the % symbol and are substituted by their current values.

Here, the %Y character is replaced with the current year,%m with month, and %d with the day of the month:

date +"Year: %Y, Month: %m, Day: %d"
Year: 2022, Month: 04, Day: 16

Here are more examples of time format.
Command: $date "+%D" Output: 10/11/30 Command: $date "+%D %T" Output: 10/11/30 16:13:27 Command: $date "+%Y-%m-%d" Output: 2030-10-11 Command: $date "+%Y/%m/%d" Output: 2030/10/11

The following are the date format options.

$date +%[format-option]

Format Option	Description
%D	Display date as mm/dd/yy.
%d	Display the day of the month (01 to 31).
%a	Displays the abbreviated name for weekdays (Sun to Sat).
%A	Displays full weekdays (Sunday to Saturday).
%h	Displays abbreviated month name (Jan to Dec).
%b	Displays abbreviated month name (Jan to Dec).
%B	Displays full month name (January to December).
%m	Displays the month of the year (01 to 12).
%y	Displays last two digits of the year (00 to 99).
%Y	Display four-digit year.
%T	Display the time in 24-hour format as HH:MM:SS.
%H	Display the hour.
%M	Display the minute.
%S	Display the seconds.

Linux course for Beginners

There are many reasons why it is valuable for you to learn Linux. If you are looking for new opportunities in IT, Linux skills are in high demand.

For example, if you are developing applications, it’s likely your application or its runtime is hosted on Linux. If you’re working in the cloud, your cloud instances may be based on Linux, and your private or public cloud environment is also probably based on Linux.

We highly recommend this course on Coursera to Linux beginners. Coursera offers a variety of Linux courses from top universities and organizations. Coursera also offers specializations in Linux and cloud computing.

This course will provide you with a basic introduction to Linux® skills using Red Hat® Enterprise Linux 8. It will show you how a Linux system is organized, and will demonstrate introductory system administration tasks, which you will be able to practice on your own.

What you will learn from this course

Getting Started with Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Accessing the Command Line
Managing Files From the Command Line
Creating, Viewing, and Editing Text Files
Managing Local Linux Users and Groups
Controlling Access to Files with Linux File System Permissions
Monitoring and Managing Linux Processes
Installing and Updating Software Packages
Comprehensive Review

After completing this course, you will have a solid introduction to working with Linux from the command line, using Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 as a model. In applying these skills, you will be able to perform fundamental operational tasks, whether your Linux machine is on your desk or on a remote system across the Internet.

Top reviews

BS Jul 29, 2022

Awesome experience with my first course at Coursera. I really enjoyed the whole course and it was fun to play with the linux commands in AWS EC2. Thank you so much for such great content.

Completed this course and obtained my first certification in Linux. It was very fun and engaging. I would recommend anyone looking at getting into Linux

AV Jun 30, 2021

As someone new to the Linux environment, I have to say this course was excellent. The lessons and documentation were easy to read and understand, the labs were informative and easy to follow.

The presenter was well spoken and easy to understand.At no point in time did I feel overwhelmed or clueless. Definitely one of the best courses I’ve done on this site.

Learn more details about this course and see how it can help you level up your Linux skills

Get time with timedatectl command in Linux

We can also use timedatectl command to get time in Linux. This command allows you to view and change the system time and date settings.

To use the timedatectl command, type “timedatectl” at the command prompt. This will display the current system time and date settings.

$ timedatectl Local time: Sat 2022-04-16 13:06:00 GMT Universal time: Sat 2022-04-16 13:06:00 UTZ RTC time: Sat 2022-04-16 13:02:34 Time zone: GMT (GMT, +0000) System clock synchronized: yes NTP service: active RTC in local TZ: yes

To change the system time, use the set-time option. For example, to set the system time to 12:00pm on January 22nd, 2030, you would type the following command:

timedatectl set-time "2030-01-22 12:00:00"

Find time with hwclock command in Linux

We can also check the time in Linux with the hwclock command. This command shows or sets hardware clock information on Linux systems.

The hardware clock is a clock that is set by the BIOS and is used to keep track of the time when the system is turned off. The system time is the time that is set by the operating system and is used when the system is turned on.

To use the hwclock command, type “hwclock” at the command prompt.

This command will show the current date and time stored in the hardware clock. The output will be in a format like this:

2023-06-18 15:30:45 UTC

To set the system time, use the –set option. For example, to set the system time to 12:00pm on January 22nd, 2019, you would type the following command:

hwclock --set --date "2030-01-22 12:00:00"

Understanding time in Linux

In Linux, time is measured in seconds since the Unix epoch. The Unix epoch is January 1, 1970 UTC. This means that the time on your Linux machine is always relative to this date.

Checking the time on your Linux machine is important for a number of reasons. For example, if you are running a cron job, you will want to make sure that the time is set correctly so that the job will run at the correct time.

Additionally, if you are troubleshooting an issue on your machine, checking the time can be helpful in determining when the issue occurred.