Linux – Updating system’s “Olson” Timezone Database Version

You should be able to do this with

cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Los_Angeles /etc/localtime

Substitute the appropriate timezone in the above command.

Yes, this is exactly what I did to an RHEL5 box two days ago, and it worked fine (with the difference that I hard-linked the file, not soft-linked, but I don't see there should be much difference).

If there is already a localtime file in place it is perhaps best to move the old one aside and put the new one in place in one operation:

cd /etc; mv localtime localtime.orig; ln /usr/share/zoneinfo/EST localtime