Time zone for displaying and interpreting timestamps.
At a glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Parameter | timezone |
| Category | Client Defaults |
| Default | GMT |
| Value type | boolean / enum / numeric |
| Change scope | Per-session (SET) |
What it does
The session time zone used for timestamptz display and conversions. initdb sets it from the system at cluster creation.
How to apply a change
Can be set per session with SET, per role/database with ALTER ROLE/DATABASE ... SET, or globally in postgresql.conf.
Inspect the current value and source with SHOW timezone; or SELECT name, setting, unit, context, source FROM pg_settings WHERE name = 'timezone';.
Tuning guidance
Standardize on UTC for servers and applications to avoid DST/conversion bugs; convert to local time in the presentation layer.