Python module to change system date and time

Question

How can I change System Date, Time, Timezone in Python? Is there any module available for this?

1. I don't want to execute any system commands
2. I want one common solution, which should work on both Unix and Windows.

Answer 1

I have a ds1302 RTC which raspberry pi does not recognize as RTC So i needed to start every session by setting the right time to the system

here is my solution

import subprocess # for calling a program on ystem (sudo...)
import shlex

def SetClock():
    # our clock ds1032 does not work as RTC in here so we set it to the system every time we start
    rtc = pyRPiRTC.DS1302() #https://github.com/sourceperl/rpi.rtc
    dt = rtc.read_datetime()
    print("RTC Time is:", dt)
    st = dt.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
    # mt = time.strptime(st, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') # this is how to convert datetime to time
    s = "sudo date -s '" + st + "'"
    subprocess.call(shlex.split(s))
    print("system time:", time.ctime()) 

Answer 2

This works for me

• Convert automatically to UTC Time
• convert string to datetime
• use date time input
• it is more readable

def _win_set_time(datetime_obj: datetime):  
    import win32api  
    # http://timgolden.me.uk/pywin32-docs/win32api__SetSystemTime_meth.html  
    # win32api.SetSystemTime(year, month , dayOfWeek , day , hour , minute , second , millisecond )  
    utc_datetime = datetime_obj.astimezone().astimezone(timezone.utc).replace(tzinfo=None)
    day_of_week = utc_datetime.isocalendar()[2]
    win32api.SetSystemTime(utc_datetime.year, utc_datetime.month, day_of_week, 
    utc_datetime.day, utc_datetime.hour, utc_datetime.minute, utc_datetime.second,
    int(utc_datetime.microsecond / 1000))
    
real_time_str = "2020 12 24 13 11 10 321"  
real_time = datetime.strptime(real_time_str, '%Y %m %d %H %M %S %f')  
_win_set_time(real_time)  

Answer 3

The tMC's answer seems great. However, it was not working for me properly. I figured out it needed some updates, for both Linux and Windows + python 3. Here is my updated module:

import sys
from _datetime import datetime

time_tuple = (2012,  # Year
              9,  # Month
              6,  # Day
              0,  # Hour
              38,  # Minute
              0,  # Second
              0,  # Millisecond
              )


def _win_set_time(time_tuple):
    import win32api
    dayOfWeek = datetime(*time_tuple).isocalendar()[2]
    t = time_tuple[:2] + (dayOfWeek,) + time_tuple[2:]
    win32api.SetSystemTime(*t)


def _linux_set_time(time_tuple):
    import subprocess
    import shlex

    time_string = datetime(*time_tuple).isoformat()

    subprocess.call(shlex.split("timedatectl set-ntp false"))  # May be necessary
    subprocess.call(shlex.split("sudo date -s '%s'" % time_string))
    subprocess.call(shlex.split("sudo hwclock -w"))


if sys.platform == 'linux2' or sys.platform == 'linux':
    _linux_set_time(time_tuple)

elif sys.platform == 'win32':
    _win_set_time(time_tuple)

For Linux read the following answer: Set the hardware clock in Python?

Answer 4

I had to modify win32 version of tMC's answer little bit:

def _win_set_time(time_tuple):
    import win32api
    dayOfWeek = datetime(*time_tuple).isocalendar()[2]
    t = time_tuple[:2] + (dayOfWeek,) + time_tuple[2:]
    win32api.SetSystemTime(*t)

Eg. when I use it to set time according to old time server (Time protocol, RFC868) I'm doing it aproximately this way:

data = s.recv(4)
remote_time = (ord(data[0])<<24) + (ord(data[1])<<16) + (ord(data[2])<<8) + ord(data[3])
remote_time -= 2208988800
_win_set_time(time.gmtime(remote_time)[0:6] + (0,))

Answer 5

import sys
import datetime

time_tuple = ( 2012, # Year
                  9, # Month
                  6, # Day
                  0, # Hour
                 38, # Minute
                  0, # Second
                  0, # Millisecond
              )

def _win_set_time(time_tuple):
    import pywin32
    # http://timgolden.me.uk/pywin32-docs/win32api__SetSystemTime_meth.html
    # pywin32.SetSystemTime(year, month , dayOfWeek , day , hour , minute , second , millseconds )
    dayOfWeek = datetime.datetime(time_tuple).isocalendar()[2]
    pywin32.SetSystemTime( time_tuple[:2] + (dayOfWeek,) + time_tuple[2:])


def _linux_set_time(time_tuple):
    import ctypes
    import ctypes.util
    import time

    # /usr/include/linux/time.h:
    #
    # define CLOCK_REALTIME                     0
    CLOCK_REALTIME = 0

    # /usr/include/time.h
    #
    # struct timespec
    #  {
    #    __time_t tv_sec;            /* Seconds.  */
    #    long int tv_nsec;           /* Nanoseconds.  */
    #  };
    class timespec(ctypes.Structure):
        _fields_ = [("tv_sec", ctypes.c_long),
                    ("tv_nsec", ctypes.c_long)]

    librt = ctypes.CDLL(ctypes.util.find_library("rt"))

    ts = timespec()
    ts.tv_sec = int( time.mktime( datetime.datetime( *time_tuple[:6]).timetuple() ) )
    ts.tv_nsec = time_tuple[6] * 1000000 # Millisecond to nanosecond

    # http://linux.die.net/man/3/clock_settime
    librt.clock_settime(CLOCK_REALTIME, ctypes.byref(ts))


if sys.platform=='linux2':
    _linux_set_time(time_tuple)

elif  sys.platform=='win32':
    _win_set_time(time_tuple)

I don't have a windows machine so I didn't test it on windows... But you get the idea.

Answer 6

well for now i think this is the best solution

import sys,os
def change(s):
    if s == 1:os.system('date -s "2 OCT 2006 18:00:00"')#don't forget to change it , i've used date command for linux 
    elif s == 2:
        try:
          import pywin32
        except ImportError:
          print 'pywin32 module is missing'
          sys.exit(1)
        pywin32.SetSystemTime(year, month , dayOfWeek , day , hour , minute , second , millseconds )# fill all Parameters with int numbers
    else:print 'wrong param'
def check_os():
    if sys.platform=='linux2':change(1)
    elif  sys.platform=='win32':change(2)
    else:print 'unknown system'

for now it's temporary solution , hopefully it's helpful , aslo take a look

http://timgolden.me.uk/pywin32-docs/win32api__SetSystemTime_meth.html

http://timgolden.me.uk/pywin32-docs/win32api__SetLocalTime_meth.html