changing localtime / timezone on Linux

[$ is root prompt]
Assuming your Linux kernal clock is set to the correct GMT time.
$ date -u
will give you the current UTC time.

$ cd /usr/share/zoneinfo
$ ln -s US/Central localtime
$ ln -s localtime posixrules
$ cp localtime /etc/localtime
$ date

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"date" should show you the timezone changed.
After changing directories into /usr/share/zoneinfo, you can see all the other timezones there, just tab complete to find yours.