Cal, Date, Hwclock, and NTP

TIME WRAP

Article from Issue 81/2007
Author(s):

I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date. For many applications, it is important that your PC has the correct time and time zone. We’ll show you how to keep your PC clock ticking and how to use NTP to synchronize the time with a time server on the Web.

An incorrectly set PC clock can bedisastrous – if your computer loses track of the time, you could end up juggling files from the future or emails from 30 years ago. The time warp could lead to misunderstandings, errors, or even crashes. Almost all Linux distributions set the time and time zone during the installation phase, and desktop environments such as KDE and Gnome display a clock in the panel to give users quick access to tools for configuring the computer clock.

Buy this article as PDF

Download Article PDF now with Express Checkout
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy Linux Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
Print Issues
Digital Issues
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Print Subscriptions
Digital Subscriptions

Related content

  • Command Line: cal and date

    The legacy cal and date tools help users keep track of the time and date. You can even change the system time with a single shell command.

    more »
  • Bootchart

    Bootchart analyzes the boot process and tells you where the system is wasting time.

    more »
  • Reverse Engineering Bluetooth

    What do you do when all your Bluetooth clocks show slightly different times? With some reverse engineering, you can write a Python program to synchronize your clocks.

    more »
  • Perl: DateTime Module

    Because calendar rules are influenced by historical and political decisions, date manipulations are riddled with pitfalls. Perl’s DateTime module knows all the tricks.

    more »
  • Command Line: Calendar Tools

    We take a spin through several personal calendar apps that you can manage from the command line.

    more »
comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News

Tag Cloud

Administration Community Desktop Events Hardware Linux Mobile Programming Security Software Ubuntu Web Development Windows free software open source