Make node.js use system timezone

Question

I have a Docker container with 'Debian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie)' and node.js 8. The system timezone (in /etc/timezone) is 'Europe/Moscow' but when I run node and type

new Date();

I get a UTC date, but not a local Moscow date.

How to make node.js use system timezone by default?

@JoseCarlosRamosCarmenates tried `env TZ='Europe/Amsterdam node` but it does not have an effect (but `process.env.TZ` is defined) — Dmitriano, Dec 11 '19 at 18:05
execute: `date` in the command line, show the output, let's see if the system timezone is correct. — Marcos Casagrande, Dec 11 '19 at 18:16
@MarcosCasagrande Yes it is correct, the output is `Wed Dec 11 21:22:20 MSK 2019` where MSK means Moscow — Dmitriano, Dec 11 '19 at 18:22

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 11 '19 at 18:32

Node.js is using your system's timezone, use the following to check:

new Date().toString()

When you do: new Date(), the output you get is in UTC, this differs from the output you get in Chrome's console, where new Date().toString() & new Date() gives the same string format. But that doesn't mean it's not using your system timezone. You're getting your current time, converted to UTC

console.log(new Date())

To confirm set a particular date:

console.log(new Date(2019,11,11,15,31,0).toString())
// Wed Dec 11 2019 15:31:00 {YOUR-TIMEZONE}

Make node.js use system timezone

1 Answers1