What do I do if the date command displays the time in the 12-hour format in an Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 operating system? - Alibaba Cloud Linux

The Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 operating system uses the 12-hour format. Other operating systems such as Anolis OS 8 and CentOS 8 use the 24-hour format. The time format inconsistency may cause inconvenience to users. This topic describes why Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 supports the 12-hour format and how to change the 12-hour format to the 24-hour format.

Problem description

In the output of the date command that is run in the Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 operating system, the time is displayed in the 12-hour format, and the time is suffixed with AM or PM.

Cause

In Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 operating systems, the patch (Glibc.git) included in the Glibc code automatically sets the time format in the en_US language to the 12-hour format.

Solutions

You can use one of the following methods to display the time in the 24-hour format:

Solution 1: Run a query command

Query the time.

LC_TIME=C.UTF-8 date

The time is in the 24-hour format, as shown in the following figure.

Scenario 2: Specify the 24-hour format

Open the locale.conf file.
```
sudo vim /etc/locale.conf
```
Press the I key to enter Insert mode and add the following content to the file:
```
LC_TIME=C.UTF-8
```
Press the Esc key, enter :wq, and then press the Enter key to save and close the configuration file.
Restart the system for the configuration to take effect.
```
sudo reboot
```
Query the time.
```
date
```
The time is in the 24-hour format, as shown in the following figure.