MySQL: setting time_zone in my.cnf options file

Question

In MySQL you can set a session variable called time_zone to change the timezone. This is useful e.g. when looking at timestamps from another country. Here is an example:

mysql> select now();
+---------------------+
| now()               |
+---------------------+
| 2010-12-30 18:59:18 |
+---------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> set time_zone='Brazil/East';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select now();
+---------------------+
| now()               |
+---------------------+
| 2010-12-30 09:59:29 |
+---------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Is it possible to put that in an option file e.g. .my.cnf ?

When I try, it doesn't work. All I get is:

mysql: unknown variable 'time_zone=Brazil/East'

Thievery

What's your operating system? – Penstock

So far the answers work by changing settings the server side. I'm interested in an anwser that allows to change the time_zone for a mysql CLI session by setting something in ~/.my.cnf. – Klehm

Answer 1

it should be

default_time_zone=Brazil/East

details : http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/server-system-variables.html#sysvar_time_zone

Option-File Format = default_time_zone

Mismatch

I am getting mysql: [ERROR] unknown variable 'default_time_zone=Brazil/East' when putting this in my /etc/mysql/conf.d/mysql.cnf under section [mysql]. Version 5.7.20. – Transition

Putting it under [mysqld] results in the server not restarting and exiting with: Job for mysql.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status mysql.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.. – Transition

This answer changes the default on the server. But this doesn't seem to work in ~/.my.cnf for a mysql CLI client. Note that the question explicitely mentions .my.cnf. So I'm voting down. – Klehm

@Klehm - Nonsense. The example can be applied to any *.cnf and I don't even explicitly state is for server conf. – Mismatch

@ajreal. No this doesn't work for mysql CLI: mysql: [ERROR] unknown variable 'default_time_zone=Brazil/East'. And your link points to documentation about server configuration. – Klehm

@Klehm - OP does not ask for CLI solution. Can you please read the question again? Your problem is not the same to OP problem. – Mismatch

@Mismatch Please read the question again: it says Is it possible to put that in an option file e.g. .my.cnf. Note the dot at the beginning of the filename. – Klehm

@Klehm - This configuration is for mysqld instead of mysql. – Mismatch

it should be default-time-zone='Europe/Berlin' with dashes instead of underscores: dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/time-zone-support.html – Hydropic

Answer 2

I'm not certain what has changed in Xampp, but this solution only works if you place this line in the proper place. Trust me I tried many times and had to do a pretty thorough search to find this solution.

default-time-zone = "+00:00"

Example:

read_rnd_buffer_size = 512K
myisam_sort_buffer_size = 8M
default-time-zone = "+00:00" <--- Place here.
log_error = "mysql_error.log"

https://community.apachefriends.org/f/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=47656

Also, you'll want to be sure that you have your database populated with the proper time zone names if you are going to use "America/Los_Angeles". I'd recommend using the offset. I'd actually recommend using UTC as your base then converting your time from that point for users based on their timezone which will save you many headaches later and keep your database nice and uniform. Check out the guide I linked below it explained it very clearly for me and I utilized this system. There are many ways to code it but taking this approach will save you a lot of issues.

http://www.vertabelo.com/blog/technical-articles/the-proper-way-to-handle-multiple-time-zones-in-mysql

Calamanco

Answer 3

In ~/.my.cnf:

[mysql]
init_command="SET time_zone='Brazil/East'"

Klehm

Answer 4

For MAMP, I added default_time_zone=-03:00 under [mysqld] in /Applications/MAMP/conf/my.cnf

I would get the following error for Brazil/East, probably because its deprecated(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones):

[ERROR] Fatal error: Illegal or unknown default time zone 'Brazil/East'

Periosteum

For named time zones to work you have to load special tables. See dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/mysql-tzinfo-to-sql.html – Klehm

Answer 5

A bit late, but this might be helpful nonetheless:

When explicitly setting the timezone, confirm that you are using the correct timezone name, keeping in mind the many have been deprecated. You can use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones to confirm.

In my case, using MySQL 5.7, the deprecated timezone name was not working when adding it below the [mysqld] in my mysqld.cnf file. Using the new timezone name, and restarting the mysql service, worked.

So for user @kev here, using America/Sao_Paulo should work, instead of using Brazil/East.

Labaw

Answer 6

Edit the following:

nano /etc/mysql/conf.d/mysql.cnf && systemctl restart mysql ; systemctl status mysql

MySQL.cnf:

[mysql]
default_time_zone=America/Vancouver

See here for current Time Zone formats --> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones

Kaila

Answer 7

For Windows 10:

Go to C:\ProgramData\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0 folder and open my.ini file as Administrator.

Scroll to the [mysqld]: line.

Add this lines after the [mysqld]:

#default time-zone
default-time-zone = '<your_time_zone>'

Save the file and restart the MySQL80 service from Services window.

You can control changes from

MySQL Workbench -> Local instance -> Server -> 
Status and System Variables -> System Variables -> Filtered -> time_zone

Ligula