September 1, 2009
Set the time zone on a per user basis
Learn how to set a custom time zone for each user in Linux by updating their .bashrc file—ideal for multi-user systems running on UTC.
Continuing on my general rant that all computer systems should use UTC/GMT for their system clocks the question is often posed by users that want to see their own local time when they log into a remote computer.
Procedure – set the time zone on a per user basis
Open user ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile file using vi text editor and set up TZ environment variable. Append or SET TZ as follows:
export TZ=”/usr/share/zoneinfo/{TIMEZONE-DIRECTORY}/{TIMEZONE_FILE}>”
If your username is foo and you would like to set TZ to Asia/Calcutta (INDIA IST) type command:
# vi /home/foo/.bashrc
Append following:
export TZ="/usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Calcutta"
Save and close the file.
(via http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-linux-set-time-zone-per-user-basis/)