Setting the Hardware Clock

This tip shows you how to set the hardware clock on your Linux box with the command hwclock.

Setting the hardware clock is especially useful in case you have clock problems. If you experience a clock that is losing or gaining a lot of time each after a reboot, set hardware clock right, then remove /etc/adjtime.

hwclock is located in /sbin/hwclock and you'll need to be root to use it. Without any options, you'll see your current hardware clock setting. By using the --systohc option, you can set your hardware clock to your system clock.

Code Listing 1: Using hwclock

// Viewing hardware clock 
# hwclock 
// Setting the hardware clock to system time 
# hwclock --systohc

Note: There are many other options available for hwclock, see man hwclock for more information.

From http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20030519-newsletter.xml